declutter my house

Just finishing shelf assembly. I can feel already that this will solve part of the clutter problem. Feeling more positive – I’ve found a way forward.

J.

Apparently so – today it was time for me to do my monthly paperwork. So the usual sorting, filing, trashing, writing and mailing was accomplished.

Also I did some of the cleanings around the house that are time-consuming, but at least only necessary from time to time.

Hey-ho,

I’m having yet another attempt. To be fair to myself I’ve been away for practically a month – and you can’t declutter a house when you’re not in it.

I’ve just ordered 4 new shelving units. Kinda feels like cheating, because if I decluttered plenty I wouldn’t need the shelves. But so far, I look around and think “Where the hell am I going to put anything?” So I’m figuring shelve it first, and get tidy. After that I can see about getting rid of more stuff. :-)

Lets hope this works.

J.

I went through all my books and clothes today. I’ve packed about 100 books to be given to an orphanage next week. I just need to load the bag in my car. And I have cleared two garbage bags full of clothes to be given away or recycled. Good progress.

Move out. Take only what you can fit in the new place. Get evaluated for ADHD (we like to pile stuff up), get a prescription for Concerta, then move on with life.

I owe my oldest daughter a world of gratitude for cleaning up my clutter after my departure, although her room and bathroom were the worst in the house her whole life. Cleaning our own clutter (especially ADHD-ers) is next to impossible.

Guess the acorns don’t fall far from the tree. Note: didn’t say “nuts!”

I’m reading Peter Walsh’s “It’s All Too Much”. I haven’t gone very far, but even in the first two chapters, I’ve learnt a few of his advices, and in my opinion, are some of the best I’ve ever heard. I’m inspired, and will follow his F.A.S.T rule when doing my Kick Start on my clothes and books this Saturday.

Today I cleared the floor of my bedroom as much as possible, so that I could run the Scooba. Now I have a clean bedroom floor again :)

Thought I should write about this. While I was clearing up my document box, going through each paper one by one, I came across a letter from the bank at which I have my car loan running with. I believe when I received it, I had just dumped it onto the pile of papers on my home-office desktop. After a while, it got lost in the pile as more letters and other documents and mostly junk piled up, and I had forgotten about it at one point. The letter was actually an offer by the bank to refinance my car loan (something that banks usually don’t do with car loans). Which meant, I would have been incurring a lower monthly repayment, with extra cash to spare in hand for savings or investments. Last weekend, when I read the letter, the first thing that came to my mind was, “what an idiot!” Lesson learnt the hard way. Now all my documents are neatly organized and stored, and I have a fool-proof (at least for me) system to make sure all letters are attended to personally, and appropriate action taken almost immediately.

My house is finally all cleaned and decluttered. This happened last week. Last week, Mama hired a couple to deep clean, clean, and declutter the whole house. They were the janitor of the First Baptist church and his wife. Their names are Joe and Mary Agnes. Joe also contacted someone to come and mow the grass. He came on last Thursday (grass cutter) with his lawn mower and weed eater and he did an excellent job. He did much better than the man I currently have employed. On last Friday, Joe and Mary Agnes came along with another man and they all worked all fron 8:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. except for a short time (30 minutes) beginning at about 9:20 a.m. to about 10:10 a.m. Then they worked until lunch and Mary Agnes went for their lunch and after they ate, they started back to work. They worked until 2:00 p.m. At about 11:30 a.m. or 12:00 noon another man joined them and worked until 2:00 p.m. This was when they all left.

They returned the following morning at 8:10 and I went to the door to let them in. When I opened the door, I saw Mary Agnes, Joe, another man from the day before, and a third man who I had not seen before. Later there was another woman who came and worked also. At one time I counted seven people in the house I believe. There was Joe, Mary Agnes, the other woman whose name was Mary also, and there were three other men so that would be a total of six.

They did excellent work. They even cleaned the stains from the floor. Mary Agnes and Mary worked in the kitchen a lot as did Joe on Friday. Mary Agnes and Mary did the dishes, cleaned the oven, wiped off the counters. cleaned out the refrigerator, did the laundry, and they cleaned out the kitchen drawers. However, when they put the dishes away, somebody put them on shelves that were too high for me to reach easily Friday so on Friday night, I moved the things from the high shelves down to the counter and I was going to put them up late Saturday. I had thought except for the laundry they were through in the kitchen. They were not through and somehow the things found their way back to those shelves and also to the shelves above those. When they were beginning to gather their things, I did peek in the kitchen cabinet just to see if the things were on a high shelf and they were. I told Joe that they should be moved down to the first shelf and they were.

There were also things that the housecleaners did not know where they belonged and they put these things in places that they thought the things would belong. I am locating some of these things as I go.

I have completely reorganized the kitchen except for some few new things that I have not found a home for yet, but there are going to be several things like these so I have decided to leave them until I finish reorganizing each room. By then I can pick new homes for these things.

I am very happy with the quality of the work Joe, Mary Agnes, and the others did.

Cleared out my documents box today.