More video games and consoles sold today. Slooowly getting there. 2 days ago

Another 100+ tomes off to be scanned and transformed into pdfs for my iPad. I need to scour the apartment one last time for any books that may be lurking in corners, make one last order, and then by July I should have only 5 or 6 hard copies of books left.
Found a company that does magazine format stuff too, so I might consider doing that.

Friend came over on Wednesday night to pick up a video game console/DVD player. We didn’t ask for any money for it, it seemed like a nice thing to just give it to him.

Today’s decluttering goal: clothes, clothes, clothes… 2 days ago

- prepare bag of books for library
- go through pantry
- take box of random things out of cupboard, go through it

Art supplies are all gathered together; unsure of a box of buttons and assorted accessory parts. Will look around for projects and if I don’t do something with them by this time next month, out they go. 1 week ago

I have already scanned, saved, and discarded all of the paper copies of my notes from nursing school. The pile of notes I had from those 2 years of schooling was large enough to fill a 30 gallon trash bag. Ridiculous. It feels good to not have the piles of notes taking up physical space in my room, One day I’ll get rid of the copies saved on my hard drive, but until then I have peace of mind knowing they’re still around, in case I need them someday (lol). 1 week ago

Next steps:
- file away all documents we need to keep
- scan ephemera and magazine pages
- empty files from old computer to external hard drive
- buy CD folders
- throw out bag of rubbish from small balcony
- place next book scan order
- get hold of a big box to hold things we don’t need/want; find homes for contents of box
- get the bag of clothes in the hallway out of the flat
- post office run 1 week ago

Old sheet cut up into rags / old accessories I don’t like out / old bras thrown away / a few stained clothes thrown out / bed moved into new location / a few books added to the next scanning order box

Pondering a few items, whether or not to let them go.

This goal will take another couple of months to complete I think. 2 weeks ago

On Sunday a toy dealer came and picked up a bunch of collectible Japanese toys my husband had hoarded a few years ago. He got all of his money back, AND had the foresight to hold onto six items that are worth a lot more than what the dealer wanted to pay, so now he can take those ones at leisure to various places and get a better deal. The other 30 odd items are gone, and it’s freed up a massive amount of space.
The dealer also took a couple of portable video game players and games. We also have first generation PSPs and Nintendo DS that simply aren’t worth much at all, so he’ll give them to a friend from work in exchange for lunch. They weren’t worth selling to the dealer.

So. Room that the sofas and toys were removed from (forever! Hooray!) is almost empty except for a bookcase that is slowly being emptied via digitization (paper books to scanned to PDFs, CDs to MP3s, and DVDs to binders), some music gear which is going to be reorganized into a studio/practice corner where our bedroom currently is.

I now need to go through the remaining paperwork and documents and consolidate my husband’s docs with mine, get it reduced to a manageable amount, and get it all in a drawer in a cupboard for easy reference.

More clothes to go out too. 4 weeks ago

Two great big overwhelming leather sofas were just picked up in exchange for a nice wad of cash. :-)

Three packs of playing cards and a selection of books donated.

Time to put the CDs onto the hard drive. Husband has a plan for the CDs themselves; I think he wants to get rid of the cases and house them in CD binders. He doesn’t want to get rid of the CDs themselves, which is fair enough, they are his and I think that they’ll fit into a couple of binders that’ll be easy to file away. Maybe we could do the same with the DVDs… 4 weeks ago

Big stack of paperwork recycled, reference materials to work.
Broken and misshapen coathangers out.

More bits and pieces stacked up and ready to find new homes. Getting things out of the door is the hardest part. 1 month ago

I’ve prepared two more boxes of books for scanning; 120 in total. I’ve still got a few more left that I’m undecided about but my bookcase is basically empty. 1 month ago

- a bag of random tins, toys, and other knick-knacks

To do today:
- FINALLY pack up another box of books for scanning and place the order
- pack up a box of loose-leaf documents and find a company to scan them (the book place only does books) 2 months ago

Its ages since I took part in this goal .. I came to a standstill over six months ago having got rid of loads my next aim was and still is to buy some more drawers for my bedroom. Maybe I’ve got too many clothes and accessories but having sorted through them once already not so long ago I want an incentive to go through them again .. drawers will do it.

In the meantime in other areas the clutter is building up quite nicely, it seems I have too many corners and not enough storage. 3 months ago

My clothing rail broke, which was actually a good opportunity as I was able to be very strict about going through my clothes, as I now only have room for half of those I had before!

So half of my clothes are in a bag ready to be washed and go on Ebay :) One sofa to go on Freecycle too – when the snow stops! 3 months ago

Just sent a friend home with:
-a Zippo lighter
-a bag of toys
-a webcam
all packed together in a cute drawstring bag I won’t use but that was too nice to throw and thus, was clutter.

Took out a bag of assorted broken and bashed up items (tin, night light, mini-chalkboard, threadbare bag, etc.)

More packaging out: empty boxes, big and small. Since I started decluttering, I’ve found that so much space was taken up with empty boxes…

Two bags ready to take to work tomorrow (stationery).

A jacket added to the clothes donation pile. 4 months ago

I think this is going to be an ongoing thing. I had decided that I’d use to determine if I was done with this was to get rid of the stuff that I wanted to get rid of after my last “clean out”. Since then, I’ve got a few other things that have stacked up, so now I need to get rid of that “clutter” as well. 4 months ago

• Some are puzzle pages, so I do the puzzles (which I enjoy) then can recycle the paper.
• Some are magazine pages, I read them and then decide if I want to keep or recycle them.
• Some is paper I’ve written notes on, if I want to keep the information, I can write it all in one place, rather than on several bits of paper.

I’ve been doing a fair bit of this, but if I track it more it might help motivate me.4 months ago

FINALLY. It’ll be good to get rid of all this stuff. 4 months ago

This is going to be epically boring to read, but it helps me to keep tabs on my progress. I usually only do the bare minimum at home—washing up, vacuuming, laundry, and a spot of dusting when I notice it, so it’s nice for me to keep tabs on what I’m doing to take care of my space. 2013 definitely has to be more about balance and not just working and zoning out at the weekends…

- Picked up a box from the grocery store to fill with books for scanning. Going to do my language books this time.

- Sorted through three drawers and toolbox; threw out assorted rubbish, dead batteries and lightbulbs, reorganized each drawer—now half empty as opposed to brimming with junk.

- Went through pens, pencils, and other office supplies; put aside a bunch to take into the office.

- Cleaned out hallway cupboard; vacuumed the dust, got rid of rubbish, transferred suitcases there instead of having them dotted around the apartment.

- Started to rearrange the storage closet in the spare room; ordered a set of four plastic drawers to add in there. Hopefully that will get more things off the floor and random surfaces.

- Finally gathered up unposted mail, ready to go when the post office opens again on Friday.

- Sorted through the kitchen cupboards;

right-hand cupboard: top shelf has extra plates and cups for guests, lower two shelves now just what we need for two people;

middle cupboard: everything rearranged, jars I was holding onto in the recycling, a few broken things in the rubbish, recipe books now in there instead of in the bookcase in another room;

left-hand cupboard: added baskets to each shelf so that I can pull the ingredients out easily;

cupboard under the gas stove: removed all food, now I keep all of my food in the “pantry” (sounds fancy but it’s just a couple of big plastic storage drawers in the spare room) which seems to be much better for keeping tabs on expiry dates and means that I can get everything off the floor—we have a small kitchen and I couldn’t put away the rice cooker, a couple of large pans and some trays;

cupboard under the sink: removed the plastic bags from the grocery store that we use as rubbish bags and moved them into a sturdy bag in the hallway cupboard (they used to spill out and get in the way).

OUT:
- work bag that partially disintegrated when I put it through the washing machine
- two novelty pots for sugar (beluga whale and seal-shaped; I bought them a few years ago when I visited an aquarium, but since then I’ve learnt about how appalling most aquariums are ethically and I just don’t want to be reminded of those poor animals every time I drink coffee in the morning…)
- gathered up old packaging and paper for recycling

NEARLY:
- wardrobe is calling for an extra purge 4 months ago