Not quite a horder - decluttering
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We are making some strides, even if they are tiny ones.
The garage clean-out project is temporarily on hold. We are getting some custom storage (cabinets, shelving, desk) in DH's Man Cave. Hopefully, that will eliminate all the piles of stuff on the floor. The designer even left room for his electronic drum set!
When we had the carpet replaced two years ago, everything got boxed up and put in the garage. Now, hopefully, if there is a proper place for things, they can be put away!
We'll see.....0 -
I also have clutter that ends up back on the kitchen counters. It is a never ending challenge...cause because I do not have good storage and also because I somehow tend to clutter things up.
But I am pleased to say that the organizing job I did in my daughter's room for my house guest still looks good. I am determined also to keep doing a little more and hopefully to eventually declutter.
Have a wonderful weekend all.0 -
I am a stockpiler. I have lots of clutter free space and I seem to be very organized....on the surface. I collect too much stuff ...organized or not. I have been clearing out my 6 cans of the same soup and I feel so much better. I am down to 2 boxes of stuffing, cereal, pasta etc.My cupboards look bare to me yet I have plenty of food.0 -
Bunkie, I think I am a stockpiler too. It was interesting to read what you wrote because I'd never thought about it.0 -
No actual food in our house, just spices. An entire cabinet of them. I honestly think we could cook any dish from any nation without going to the store for spices.0 -
Mandy - There are a lot of us. I noticed it when I gave away my dads old icebox in the basement. I used it for storing extra beer and sodas etc. When I gave it away I took all the stuff and put it on the bar. The guy I gave it to was younger and broke and he asked if he could have the drinks too. I gave him most of them but it took several trips to the truck to get everything. After he left I just sat there is shock at how many bottles of soda I had. I do not drink it and I live alone. I do have some friends that come by sometimes but I have a huge new stainless up stairs and do not need the extra storage. That was when I came up stairs and opened my perfectly stacked cupboards. 10 cans of tuna, soups, tomatoes etc. 4 each boxes of rice, pasta etc. 10 boxes of rice a roni. All neatly organized. Like in the movie "Sleeping With The Enemy". I dated a guy once that said I was really too neat. Kinda bothered me. I always liked to have 4 more of what I like and use in case I got snowed in during the winter. Well I never get that snowed in.
Wren - I have 5 jars of black pepper and 4 containers of Mrs. Dash. I am bad there also.0 -
Before we were married, DH used to live in the mountains, and a "quick" trip to the grocery store was over an hour round trip. He was a Costco junkie. Had CASES of stuff like canned olives, chili, and - UGH - canned mushrooms in the pantry.
One day I got in there and cleaned everything out, and I swear there were cans in there that were 20 years old. Out they went!
My problem is going shopping and seeing something and thinking "Oh, I need one of those..." and when I get home, there are three of them already on the shelf.
One of our best investments was a Food Saver - a device that vacuum-seals bags of food. We call it the Food Sucker. We've probably reduced the amount of food we toss out by at least 80 - 90%.
We freeze fresh fruits and veggies, cheese, casseroles, soups, BBQ meats, holiday ham or turkey, leftovers... anything. For a hot meal, just drop the frozen bag into boiling water for ten minutes. Tastes as fresh as the day it was made!0 -
Blessings, do you mean you use the Food Saver to suck the air out of a bag of food, then freeze the bag? Do you have a separate chest freezer or upright? I would love to get an upright, but I don't want to pay full price for a new one, and decent used ones are pretty rare around here.0 -
RunFree - the FoodSaver comes with different sized rolls of a double-layered material... some kind of heavy duty plastic, like you'd find on frozen, vacuum-sucked fish at the store.
You measure off how much you think you need, let's say, for a hunk of cheese. The cheese can be new, in it's original wrapping, or it can be all by itself, unwrapped.
Then you put the edge of the bag in the machine, and it seals one edge (the bottom) with heat. Then you open up your custom-sized bag, throw in the cheese, and stick the top edge in the machine. It sucks out all the air, and when there's no more air to suck out, it heat-seals the top of the bag. When it's all sealed up, you just toss it in either the fridge or the freezer, depending on how long you want it to keep.
We have one of those French Door refrigerators, where the freezer is in a drawer at the bottom. We also have a small refrigerator in the garage with a teensy top freezer. There's just two of us, so we usually don't have all that much in the freezer at any one time.
Sheesh! I should have just given you the website - http://www.foodsaver.com/ :-D
Also, the FoodSaver bags can be used in a pot of boiling water, or in the microwave. Before I FoodSuck soup, though, I freeze it in smaller Tupperware containers overnight, then FoodSuck the frozen chunk.0 -
One of the things I have started doing is making a very careful grocery shopping list and sticking to it. When I impulse shop, I tend to buy something I already have 2 of. Bunkie, I don't think I have enough room to store 10 boxes of anything, but I do keep 3 cases of sparkling water in the garage...when I finish a case, I put sparkling water back on my grocery list (we do drink alot of it); the same for hubby's sodas--he does drink alot of those. But hubby expects to have such a variety of foods that I often tell him, this is not a restaurant...I think he contributes to my stockpiling tendencies by his food expectations. Anyway, I have a trip coming up (a vacation to go to a friend's birthday party in a castle in Italy; she has rented one out for the occasion)!!! When I get home, I think I will grocery sort and see what I can do without --I can donate the rest to a food cupboard--it would be nice to have more room in my pantry. Thanks to all of you for your support as I go through this de-cluttering project--it really is a long term project for me. Hugs.0 -
Thanks Teka! I have to admit that I am excited to stay in a castle. I leave in a week. It is particularly wonderful because this is the birthday of a very close friend--we met at college when I was 17 and have stayed close over these many years although she moved to London after college (I have always had a wonderful place to stay in London and she has even put my daughter up for a whole summer). Of course since the plane ticket is the big item (though I booked mine using frequent flyer miles so not expensive), I am spending some extra time in Rome and then flying to Oslo for a week where I will meet up with another friend of my youth. Hubby couldn't get away from work so I am on my own for this trip.
But back to being on topic...my house-guest really helped me get my act together and now I am getting better about throwing things out and keeping up what I did for the house-guest. I still have a long way to go but I need to at least not fall backwards.0 -
I need to get back on the decluttering. I have some rooms partly done and others getting the junk from those rooms. I think I stupidly volunteered to host New Years party for our Mexican food group. They like to come to our house since we can have fireworks out here. To anyone but a messy 2.5 months would sound like a long time but we know better don't we. (Wink-Wink). It is a lovely rainy day and as soon as DH gets up getting ready for work I must get back to it.
Mandy - your trip sounds wonderful. Wow and in just one week. Your go girl.0 -
Luvmygoats, if your new storage space looks like mine would, maybe you could try a bunch of some of those big plastic bins. Just line a few of them up on whatever horizontal space is available (If you're like me, it's the floor). I get the translucent kind, so I can see inside. The trick is to just drop or stack similar items. Label a regular sheet of 81/2" x 11" with whatever is inside, and slide the sheet into one long side and one short side (in case they wind up stacked with the wrong side hidden. I also make sure to date the labels. For me, this usually looks something like "Summer 2012." Also, for me, as there is usually more than one bin, I put the label in front of each one until there is enough stuff in it to stand it up. The bins stack neatly, and, if you haven't looked in one in a few years, you're free to cart it right to GoodWill.0
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Brookside - I have a deep closet made when we claimed the garage for a den when we bought this house 15 years ago. The walk between the lovely (not) gray storage shelves is lined with bins of Christmas decorations which have migrated to the den when water heater replaced in July. Supposed to be going thru them which I will do now that it is not so hot (though it was 98 out here on Sat). DD's room (she has not lived here in 4 years) has become the dumping ground. It has bins of papers I need to shred or best solution of all to haul them to one of those shred-it some comm. hold. DD says I can trash all of her stuff in her room (she's 26) and claim it all for us. I just can't do it because I think she spent about oh maybe 10 minutes going thru it a couple of visits ago. 'Course she has teeny-tiny apt. so nothing going there besides she has her eye on moving to Pacific NW next year. DH cringes when I bring in more bins and those file-a-crate things.
Clothes - I need to make up my mind I will never be a size 12 again. Creeping up to 16 womens Ugg.
But I have hardly stirred from here except to change out the laundry. Make me get off my hiney NOW.
Happy Monday organizing and decluttering.0 -
My kids (3 boys, well men, as they're all in their 30's) also directed me to toss everything. Can't do it. Would you believe one of them "helped" me declutter. I brought a bin of things he wanted to toss and the dump guy, yes, the dump guy, went through it all and saved half. Some of the things actually belonged not to my dumping kid, but his brother, who eventually showed up and either kept, or suggested I might keep, some of the stuff.0
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Luv, ditch the 12's. If you become a 12 again, buy new clothes that are in style.0 -
My son says he's taking the family photos and dropping a match on the way out. Daughter is thinking of traveling the world with a backpack.0 -
I don't think DD has a sentimental bone in her body. Makes me wonder if they switched babies on me in the hospital.
Wren - I think that is close to what DD is thinking. I think she might move with her personals and maybe a cat; ditch all her furniture. Looking for a job in Seattle or Portland after the new year. She works in logistics for a major corp. but no advancement avail. Degree in supply chain management. I think she could work for about any company except maybe in perishables. Could be an interesting new year. I've never been to WA/OR only to MT/WY as a child camping.0 -
She should be sure she has a job first. Both Seattle and Portland are very nice places to live. We moved here from Houston.0 -
luvmygoats - the only crap I really want accessible is my holiday decorations. Where are they? In the attic over the garage, accessible only by climbing the steep ladder I can't navigate. I WISH they were in the den!
Teka - I know DH and I are dreading clearing out his parents' house. Our kids don't seem to be all that concerned about ours. They just have their eyes on the good stuff :-)
Wren - we've thought the same thing about the in-laws' house. Slowly, we are convincing them to let us keep the valuables in our safe. One of the things my mom did for me about 40 years ago was to start wrapping up family heirlooms and giving them to me as birthday and Christmas presents, along with the story of where each one came from. And yes, Mom passed in 2009, and I still have all her treasures!
Just got an email - the new bedroom furniture will be delivered sometime after the 23rd. Yikes! We get home from vacation tomorrow.... Guess I know what we'll be doing as soon as we unpack! At least we'll be getting some extra storage in the new stuff. All the old stuff will be donated.0 -
My family treasure is a quilt my great grandmother made after her first child died of meningitis and before the second was born. It's about 130 years old now. Made entire by hand out of small scraps. I don't think there's a square inch without stitches. She loved to quilt and made lots of them.0 -
Wren and Teka - I'll bet those old quilts are beautiful!!! It wasn't until I learned how to quilt that I really understood all the love and work than went into my Grandma's hand-sewn quilts.
Well, DH just pulled out of the driveway with three beadboard cabinets in the back of the truck, headed for Goodwill. I LOVED those cabinets, but they were cheap, and purchased for my first little house. There was no room for them here. Now they'll have a new home, and I'm sure someone will be happy to have them.
Only a gazillion more truckloads to go.... :-(0 -
Well today I found another plastic bin full of size 16 clothes. Since I am now a size 10/12 I doubt I will get back to those. I did keep my favorite pair of ripped Ralph Lauren jeans in that size. Just could not part with them. I counted 34 pairs of pants an some tops. My moms friend informed me there is a church give away next month for the needy so I am donating them to that group. I am happy they will have them. Half still have tags. I have noticed a lot of repeats. Like if I find a sweatshirt I love I buy 3. Same size and color. What a waste of money.
When I sell this house I really have stuff to get rid of. I kept my parents old ratty bedroom furniture so I would not have to buy any. That all has to go. The upstairs is easy and the first floor is very organized but that basement has way too much. Even though it is all stired in plastic tubs I have to get rid of some. I have 31 Southwest Cookie Jars displayed in the kitchen but I am sure I have about 10 stored in the basement. I have no idea what to do with all that.0 -
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Teka - That is a good idea. Thanks.0 -
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I'm finally starting to go through all the stuff I just threw higgledy piggledy into boxes a year and a half ago, when I wanted to put my house on the market in a hurry right after my original dx. I don't seem to have many fewer boxes yet, but the stuff is (at least partly) sorted and there's a lot of paper in the recycle bin that wasn't there two days ago, and half a box of books ready to donate to Goodwill or friends of the library. There's another box of other items ready to go too.0 -
Hi I have read back quite a few pages. After bc , I decided to "clean" out. Over the past 7 years, I don't keep anything I will not use. I clean my drawers and closets twice a year. I just can't stand the clutter anymore. I also figure when I die, my kids are just gonna throw it all out anyway..lol.I do have a problem with a friend of mine, I am hoping you all can help me. She is a hoarder. So is her adult daughter who lives with her. You can't even get into the apartment. When you are in, there is no where to walk , nowhere to sit! I went there one day about 4 months ago to try to help her but admitedly, I can't . She doesn't want to throw anything out and there is just so much stuff. At the same time she had thrown out her bed and needed to make room to put in a new one. Well, that was nearly 4 months ago and she has been living at my small 3 room apartment sleeping on my couch. She had asked can she stay with me until she gets the bed in but I didn't think it was gonna take all this time. Before me she was at her cousin's for about 2 months. I have to control the stuff she brings into my apartment. If I let her it would be just as stuffed as hers is. She is also a coworker. She told me she would be out 2 days ago...at least the third time telling me this.
I hope you don't mind me sharing this story with you. I don't know where to turn to at this point. I seem to get good advice and help from my bc sisters no matter what the subject...hugs and prayers to you all.
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