declutter my house

I watched a couple of movies, one DVD which was borrowed and is now on its way out the door to be returned to its owner and a video that will be donated to the library. Both have been sitting for longer than I care to think about. Sounds funny, but imagine my relief to have that little load off my shoulders!

Also I reorganized the remaining videos and plan to watch them one by one (there may be a total of 10 left now?) before donating them to the library as well.

I found a book on my bookshelf to definitely donate and am looking at the rest more deliberately. I don’t keep that many books, but every item I get rid of is one less I may one day have to move. If I don’t love it and/or don’t use it (and in the case of books, am not planning to read it or have already read it and am not planning to read it again), why keep it? It’s just more unnecessary stuff to overwhelm me.

Today I rearranged the CDs I carry in my car, so I have all I want there and also in a way I can find them.

And totally unrelated, later in the day I cleaned the stove top and other areas in the kitchen.

My cousin/friend and her husband and son (my godson) came to visit yesterday. H is almost exactly 4 years younger than E. I was able to give away a ton of stuff to them—boxes and bags of clothes and toys that I’d been setting aside. I don’t care if they only end up keeping a fraction of it when they get it home and sort through it; if there’s anything they can use that pleases me, and it makes it so much easier for E to part with things if he’s giving them to someone he knows.

And they didn’t want two ride-on toys we had, so out by the road they went this morning, with a “free” sign on them. They were gone within the hour.

Yay!

Except for the stove. That was really ugly. It looks way better, though. I was trying to pick up 100 things, but ran out at around 80, so I started spot cleaning the floor and wiping surfaces and counting those as well. It’s all progress, right?

I actually managed to sell most of the CDs to a coworker who now owes me money for them. The others will be no trouble to sell, as they are rare.
The house is mostly done, and the parts left are not my stuff, so there is little I can do there. But the porches are another story. I think those should be tackled today, or at least this week. Garden clutter is an insidious thing.

I cleaned for about an hour or so today, and it made a huge difference. It’s amazing how quickly things can look good when most of what is there is already in the proper place.

Today I’ve cleared the space of packages and letters and such little things that had accumulated during the week.

my house is full of clutter and disorganization.
I buy stuff and dont have a good system to put it away. I dont have a good system to get rid of clothes we are no longer using. I dont have a good system to get rid of things we dont need any longer. NOr to organize the things we are using. books are a big problem as well as paper information. toys are all over the floor, dog toys, kid toys. towels, clothers.

I brought 4 bags of household items and 1 bag of clothes to goodwill tonight. The guy that helped was very appreciative of my donation and took time to answer of few of my questions.

I felt really good afterwards. Not because I have less stuff, but because I’m also helping others. Nice feeling. Will have to do it more often.

I actually found 2 that I can drop of stuff at. One only takes donations late on Thursdays but I don’t want to wait that long. I need this stuff gone!

The Goodwill Thrift Store nearby will take stuff any day and they’re open til 6:30. When I get home tonight, I’ll pull some stuff together, load the car and head over. If I have to make another trip, I’ll go Weds. If there’s anything left, I’ll go to the other place on Thursday. Share the wealth!

It would be great if I can get rid of everything by the weekend! Then I can clearly see what I still need to do to prep for painting (clear the walls, move the bookcases). I’ll also go thru the house again to purge.

One of the things in that book I read about “it’s too much stuff” said to regularly go thru your home looking for things to donate. As you bring something new into the home, something old must leave.

It’s good for the home and good for the soul too. I’m looking forward to putting that into practice.

Unbelievable how soon it was time again for my main monthly paperwork… It took me a while to get started, but then I was able to stay with it and get it over soon enough.