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[LilMarcieMouse]

I have a question, How do you get over the "I know If I get ride of it I'll want it tomorrow" feeling?

[GingerJ]

Originally Posted by LilMarcieMouse

I have a question, How do you get over the "I know If I get rid of it I'll want it tomorrow" feeling?

That's the hard part! You can say, if I haven't touched it in 1/2/3 years (whatever time period you're comfortable with), then I don't need it--that's my criteria.

My sister looks at what it costs...if it's under $5, she can afford to replace it if need be (she tosses shirt boxes & tissue paper, but I save those!).

Flylady says ask yourself, does this make me smile? If not, give it away and let it bless someone else.

Or you can say, I'll just keep ONE of these, if it's something that's in multiples.

Find what works for you and causes you the least stress, is my advice.

[LilMarcieMouse]

Originally Posted by GingerJ

That's the hard part! You can say, if I haven't touched it in 1/2/3 years (whatever time period you're comfortable with), then I don't need it--that's my criteria.

My sister looks at what it costs...if it's under $5, she can afford to replace it if need be (she tosses shirt boxes & tissue paper, but I save those!).

Flylady says ask yourself, does this make me smile? If not, give it away and let it bless someone else.

Or you can say, I'll just keep ONE of these, if it's something that's in multiples.

Find what works for you and causes you the least stress, is my advice.

Thanks I just might help.

[*Pixie*Dust*]

On Wednesday I went through 2 boxes full of pictures and chucked 2/3 of them. According to my dh I was brutal, but did I really need blurry shots of my bridal shower or wedding proofs that showed the back of someone's head!
It actually felt good getting rid of even more clutter.
Today I am working from home, so in between calls I will be working on putting the pictures I did save in to frames or albums.

[Poobah7206]

Originally Posted by *Pixie*Dust*

On Wednesday I went through 2 boxes full of pictures and chucked 2/3 of them. According to my dh I was brutal, but did I really need blurry shots of my bridal shower or wedding proofs that showed the back of someone's head!
It actually felt good getting rid of even more clutter.
Today I am working from home, so in between calls I will be working on putting the pictures I did save in to frames or albums.

WTG!! Photos are some of the hardest things to purge.

[Poobah7206]

Originally Posted by LilMarcieMouse

I have a question, How do you get over the "I know If I get ride of it I'll want it tomorrow" feeling?

Think of how many tomorrows have already gone by with out you needing/using it.

[GingerJ]

Did some more purging...I now have four very full big yellow bags of clothes for the Vietnam Vets to pick up when they come Monday! I cannot believe how many clothes that didn't fit I was hanging onto.

I also pulled out all the crafts books I have (you would not believe) and the teacher books. The crafts books--three plastic grocery bags full--along with some more crafts materials I found in my basement, went to the day care my sons attended. The teachers were delighted.

I took all the other books to Half Price Books (love that store!). That earned me $22 in store credit, plus a 10% off coupon. I bought four new-to-me books and paid $1.02. Win-win! The only problem I foresee is spending other store credits when I get rid of more books that are duplicates or that I know I'll never read again.

Okay, one more problem...the floor in my craft room is covered with semi-sorted stuff I have to put away.

[KimmyAnn1147]

Good for you all! There's some good decluttering going on here!

I've been working slowly slowly. Got rid of some clothes, and was brutal with my jewelry back in January. In a good way. I put a lot of it in DS's treasure box, which he loves to sift through and play treasure with. DH and I are in the process of renegotiating storage systems in the house. It created a huge rift between us 18 months ago, and he ended up purging most of his belongings and now still keeps all his stuff on our back porch. Whatever, that's his deal and he seems happy. This place is still not what I would like it to be, but it's getting there.

We have also decided to get rid of our uncomfortable couch and add a 3rd armchair instead. I'm conflicted about it, but I do think it makes sense.

Not sure why I'm posting all theses details, but it's nice to be able to say that we are making progress here.

[GingerJ]

Originally Posted by KimmyAnn1147

Good for you all! There's some good decluttering going on here!

I've been working slowly slowly. Got rid of some clothes, and was brutal with my jewelry back in January. In a good way. I put a lot of it in DS's treasure box, which he loves to sift through and play treasure with. DH and I are in the process of renegotiating storage systems in the house. It created a huge rift between us 18 months ago, and he ended up purging most of his belongings and now still keeps all his stuff on our back porch. Whatever, that's his deal and he seems happy. This place is still not what I would like it to be, but it's getting there.

We have also decided to get rid of our uncomfortable couch and add a 3rd armchair instead. I'm conflicted about it, but I do think it makes sense.

Not sure why I'm posting all theses details, but it's nice to be able to say that we are making progress here.

Wow, working hard! If you get rid of your uncomfortable couch, may I recommend a recliner or recliner couch? We have a recliner couch and it is amazingly comfortable--in fact, one of us falls asleep on it nearly every night!

[jenifermg0]

Good grief!!!

I am sooo behind on trying to declutter!! Went on vacation and then started working on remodeling at Dad's house when I got back so I kinda let my challenge fall by the way side!

HOWEVER...this past weekend, I got a wild hair and decided to clean out/purge my jewelry boxes (and there were several stashes all over the house!!).

Between that and other cleaning I put another dent in my challenge to check off every day of the year. Still need to get caught up - but its a work in progress!!

So I have checked off the following days on my DeClutter Calendar:

Feb 10
Feb 11
Feb 13
Feb 14
Feb 15
Feb 24
Feb 25
Feb 26
Feb 28
Feb 29
Mar 5
Mar 18
Apr 1
Apr 3
Apr 5

This means 226 more individual items out the door!! Most of them were small, but every little bit helps!! I'm up to a total of 882 items gone!!!

But I still have a lot of stuff in my house that I really DON'T need!!!!!!!

[PatV]

Thanks to my Brother P Touch D400 label maker (Christmas present) I have managed to clean, sort and label all the organizing drawers in the garage, closet and studio.

I can now say there is not 1 junk drawer left in my house. And putting labels on drawers has made it all appear "organized". My kitchen drawer had:

old birthday candles - only the pretty ones were kept and in a drawer of their own
twist ties - can believe how many of these I have found around the house. And they are snug in their own labeled drawer
Scissors - 3 pair in one drawer really wasn't helping much
Fresh flower powder - still don't know why they weren't used with whichever fresh flowers I received

This label maker is wonderful. Lots of different colors and sizes available - I bought address label size to use during the holidays.

[GingerJ]

Relatives came to visit tonight (all in bed now) for the weekend, and in getting ready for the visit, I did MAJOR decluttering through nearly the entire house during the past week and a half!

- Cleared the desktop and drawer/shelves of my computer desk, which is in the breakfast area.
-Cleared both end tables in the family room--also had my sons go through all their DS games, which they kept in a box under one end table. They sold them at Game Stop for well over $200!
-Decluttered the kitchen counters (our biggest "hot spot" for clutter)
-Cleared out all three tables in my craft room (and rehung two pictures that had fallen--a Disneyland map & Frozen litho).
-Cleared the clutter and old medicine bottles from my bathroom.
-Cleared the dresser and the top of my bureau in my bedroom (these haven't seen the light of day in quite some time!).
-Cleared out the bookcase in the family room.
-Purged dozens of books from our bookshelves in the basement "library" room, either duplicates or ones I wouldn't read again. Took 'em to Half Price Books, and bought more (but not as many as I'd gotten rid of), so I had to purge more to make room for these!
-Cleaned my car.

Whew, I'm exhausted just reading that list! I need to have company over more often, so it's not such a big job each time.

[Bubbles53]

Where to start. I read this blog when it first started. I was encouraged by all the people taking the plunge. We finally had a 3 day Garage sale( made money for next Disney trip). We donated the rest to the following, women's shelter, men's shelter, seniors home, SPCA and salvation army. 2 loads of boxes and trash to the dump. Belongings sent to appropriate children for their homes. The not quite done benefit, lighter home and much lighter hearts. Thank you to all of you for helping to refocus on what really matters. It is not the stuff that matters but the people in our lives. Happy decluttering all.

[GingerJ]

Congrats, Bubbles, what a lot of work you've done!

[jenifermg0]

We had a bit of a set back in the area of decluttering...

My DH lost a dear friend to lung cancer at the end of June and he left DH all his gold panning equipment and some camping stuff. And his sister and mom as they clean out his room, keeping giving us stuff so it doesn't go to waste. I'm trying to make sure it is stuff we will really use and get it in place to actually be used, but it just means more stuff in my house. So now we have a big box of miscellaneous stuff in the living room that I am trying to figure out what to do with.