730/365 Update

#179 One Kid's Wagon

#180-181 Two old kids' bikes

#182: One old motorized scooter.

730/365 Update Day 54

    1 vacuum

    1 Quesadilla maker

    5 Muffy Vander Bears

    3 Playstation (original) games

    3 gingerbread house kits

14 items total. Total to date = 178 items.

More than 3 items per day!

The salvation army is doing a massive pick up today. I will post pictures of my empty room :)

730/365 Update: Day 52

We are getting our new furniture on Thursday, so the Salvation Army is doing a pick up on Tuesday. I found some more little stuff to get rid of:

 

#113-#154: 42 VHS tapes. At one point we were collecting the Disney Movies before we were even married. Now that we know "the Disney Vault" is opened every few years, the rush to buy even the silly ones is just not there. Plus, my kids are now 9 and 11. They don't do cartoons, or at the very most, we will rent the newest kids' movie from Blockbuster and watch it once. The last kids' movie we got was UP, and I think that was a gift.

 

#155-#157: Three Muffy Vander Bears

#158 & #159: Two other bears that are family members of Muffy.

#160-#162: Three Cameras. This is amazing because we got rid of three, and I still have two that I regularly use. The boys each have their own camera as well. One of them was an Advantix camera, with the funny looking rolls of film.

 

#163-#164: Two Camera carrying cases.

So, with 164 items out, and 52 days gone by, we are averaging well over 3 items per day. Ahead of Pace!!!!

I will post pictures, of the bears, cameras and videos, as well as the new furniture after Thursday.

730/365 Update

#88: The table with the corduroy chairs (2 of the 4-saving the other two for impromptu desk charis upstairs)

#89: The Sam's Club kitchen table. I can't wait for this to go.

#90: A nylon bag from sports camp

#91: A journal we received as a gift eons ago. Pages are blank, not lined, really not useful for us.

#92: An old IKEA dresser with terribly skinny drawers.

#93-#108: 16 books

#109-#110: 2 picture frames

#111-#112: Two Color Explosion toys (unopened).

Team Toss-it and the Moving Team!

So for the most part, I've been doing the decluttering on my own. You can't drag someone into a massive project like this unless they are willing, so I have been doing it on my own.

When you are steadily working on decluttering, the people around you will begin to notice. Well, my husband slowly began to notice. Last weekend, I came home and realized he had taken a huge load to Goodwill while I was at a meeting. He had also gone through both of the boys' dressers and purged their closets of the clothes that no longer fit or were too worn out.

Since we were able to declutter, last Monday we finally took the big step of purchasing living room and dining room furniture. We have been in the house for almost 8 years. For the first 4 years, we had no furniture in the large room. When we finally got furniture, it was hand-me downs from my in-laws and easily over 25 years old. It was a table with four chairs, with corduroy cushions. Then in the fall, we inherited a table from my boss: a very nice table, dark wood with blue cushions on the chairs. Underneath the blue material is pristine white cushions still wrapped in plastic.

 

We had been using the same kitchen table that we bought back in 1997, from Sam's Club. Let's just say that the boys have used that table past its lifespan. The backs of the chairs shake, from boys using the chairs like jungle gyms. The table's finish is positively awful and beyond repair.

So we went shopping. We found a new dining room table, and a china cabinet to go with it. We also bought a living room couch and love seat, and a coffee table and two end tables.

We decided we are going to get rid of the Sam's Club Table, and the In-Laws table, along with 6 of the 8 chairs. We will keep two chairs for the boys' desks in their rooms. We will move the Boss' table into the kitchen, and will gain seating for two more people at the kitchen table.

The purchase of this new furniture has created a spiral of a need to organize. The china cabinet will go where there is currently a bookcase, so the bookcase needs to be moved. The options were either the spare bedroom or upstairs in the hallway. If it went in the bedroom, we had to get rid of two different dressers. If it went upstairs, we needed to declutter some more upstairs.

I came home from walking the dog, and my husband had emptied the dresser in the bedroom. Unfortunately he placed everything from the dresser on the bed, which gave me one more thing to do on Saturday.

On Sunday, I came home from running 9 miles, and my husband had moved the keeper table into the kitchen, moved the two tables which are leaving into the front room, moved the treadmill upstairs into the master bedroom, and was in the process of moving the bookcase upstairs. He emptied the bookcase, moved it upstairs and then filled it back up. In the process, he decided to give up 16 books and a journal. He also created a project for me of more stuff to go through.

 

We have made room in the dining room for the table set. Once goodwill picks up the large pieces of furniture, we will have the living room area ready. This week's project is the playroom and the kitchen, although the pantry gets a week all by itself.

 

The pictures as promised

Here are the "before" and "in process" pictures that I took a while ago. I have since covered some more areas of the house. Will post some more "in process" pictures, as nothing is actually finished yet. I'm taking the approach of spending a certain amount of time (one week) on each area of the house. Once the week is over, it's time to move on, I'll hit the same area again in about 6 weeks. J

 

This is my "it's leaving table" . Unfortunately, I had already purged a lot of stuff before I ever picked up the camera. This pile is mostly from the boys' rooms, which they did all on their own. Notice how many board games we are getting rid of.

I wish I got credit for these four. These actually came from my parents' house. I told them I was doing a big donation for community service through the University. They went through their closets and came up with four bags. J

This is my catch all room. A lot of progress has been made as of this picture. When I first started decluttering, I couldn't open the door all the way. This is the room where I found all of the Christmas presents and stocking stuffers that I had forgotten about. The room still needs more work, and I have houseguests who will be staying in it come the beginning of May!

The closet of my dungeon. I don't decorate for any holidays but Christmas, but apparently I have quite the collection of pumpkins. Once again, these pictures are "in progress" and loads better than when I first walked into the room. The old cheerleader uniforms and my wedding dress are in there, not quite ready to part with the yet.

 

From Left to right: the spare bathroom, under the sink. This is an in process picture after I cleaned out a bunch or magazines and containerized the supplies

Dining room table. We had some birthday celebration and the remanants of the celebration were still on the table.

This is the Ottoman of the couch that is my corner. I put my make up on in the morning while watching the morning news. I also have my laptop in my corner where I do lots of work while watching TV.

This is the floor of the family room. Even the dog has her clutter. She pulls out all of her toys and then chews the green fuzz off her tennis balls. I just had to take a picture of her mess. Normally we don't let her keep her mess strewn all over.

The kitchen counter. This is a tough one. It's the landing pad when I come home. I'd like to make the landing pad in the laundry room, but I need to clear off the counter first.

 

There's still SO MUCH TO DO.

A Really good Weekend

#78: Precious moments figure. It was given to my oldest when he was born, as part of a "train" where you get one each year. But he didn't get the first part of the train, and he didn't get any other pieces either. And since my oldest is a boy, he's just not into breakable collectable items.

#79: Muffy Vanderbear with her Birthday dress on.

#80: Muffy's rocking chair that she was sitting in.

#81: A double picture frame that stands up. It holds 2 2"x3" pictures. Since I am a scrapping girl, I'm not very likely to have small pictures like that lying around.

#82-#85: 4 Thomas Guide books for various areas, from the 1996-1998 Era. We now both have GPS including smart phones with real-time GPS. GONE!

#86: One Big huge bag of clothes from boys' rooms.

#87: One big huge bag of toys from boys' rooms.

I decided to not count the huge bag of trash that I was able to fill up with old and broken toys from the boys' rooms. Only stuff that could go to another home is being counted.

We worked on my oldest's room on Sunday, finished my youngest's room on Saturday, and he was quick to point out that it was his brother's turn to have to work. His brother is better about organzing, although apparently he had been storing anything and everything in an old lego box. So when I picked it up the bottom fell out and he now had a huge mountain of junk to go through.

 

So what made it such a great weekend? Considering that we were gone from 2-8pm last night and I was gone from 8-3pm on Saturday, a lot still got done. This is because my darling husband, without any coaching, pushing, or nagging on my part, was the one who decided it was time to go through their closets. He deals with getting them dressed in the morning and he does all the laundry. So he knows firsthand how many extra clothes each of them had and how stuffed the dresser drawers were. He said he had wanted to do it for awhile, but had never gotten around to it. While I was at my meeting on Saturday, not only did they go through the closets and dressers, but they also hauled everything to donation center and dropped it off. And I didn't know any of this until I got home and it was already done!

Now, he has yet to go through his side of the closet, and that would be the only remaining closet in the house, beside the one with all the Christmas decorations in it, that still needs to be purged. I just wish I had more time to work on it. I'm gone from 6am to 5pm Monday through Friday, and this week there are two nights in which I have obligations at night. Throw in my walking/running regimen to still try and do my marathon on March 21^st, and it really only leaves the weekends. I was very unexcited about the SuperBowl party that we went to, because I was really itching to be at home in my jammies organizing in between the big plays and funny commercials! It really did help that hubby and the kids did the closets though!!