Aaaaahhhhhh.
This week’s report is going to be a short one.
Let me go into great detail describing exactly what I did to get an entire truck full of STUFF out of my house this week.
1. I picked up my phone.
2. I looked for a certain saved contact.
3. I touched the screen one lil’ ‘ol time and it called that number.
4. I listened to the message and left my name and number after the beep.
5. I answered the phone five minutes later when the man called me back.
6. I said a few, “uh-huh”s and “Sure”s and “Okay”s.
7. I put the phone down.
8. I answered the door at 9 a.m. the next morning.
9. I met the taker away-er in the alley.
10. I pointed.
And after all those (not exhausting in the least) steps, my garage looked like this:
Not park-in-able, but oh-so-close.
There were boxes and non-clutter garage items that had been lumped in with the pile that now have to be dealt with, but at least they’re finally visible to me.
Oh my word. WHY do I put off calling that lovely number?
But I’m so glad I have it on speed dial.
And yes. Cleaning out the garage (again) will be on the agenda this spring.
What did you declutter this week? I’d love to hear about your own decluttering efforts/adventures in the comments! If you have a blog, you can link up to a post that shows a specific decluttering project.
--Nony
WOWZERS! What a difference that made. Great job!
I love it, I need to find a taker awayer of clutter in my area! *hush auto correct it sounds good when I say it outloud*
Yeah for making progress!!
I’ve been asking my girls if they like each item I’m folding while doin laundry. The no pile is growing! We get tons of hand me downs, which is wonderful, but I mean lawn and leaf bags full of clothes from a family with 3 girls! I save what I can but pass on the rest to a charity that picks up.
It’s not NEAR to that scale, but I did get the Yule Village put away and tucked into the Room Of Which We Do Not Speak (the library where everything gets shoved).
That’s the next project… I think I still have Yule cards to send from last year somewhere in there…
I haven’t decluttered anything that I’ve wanted to, mainly because of time. BUT my husband and I did clean out our room (minus the closet). I need to get rid of some stuff in our living room and my daughter’s bedroom, but don’t have the time to get it done. 🙁
With both boys back to college and my high school senior daughter back on school schedule, I realized how much I let go over break. Yikes! My husband was out of town this week for work and I hit it hard (totally unlike me!). Cleaned out kitchen cabinets, washed, purged and rearranged the contents; same with the pantry; deep cleaned craft room, master bedroom and closet , both baths, organized/bagged/labelled all craft projects, and now all I have left is my hall/linen closet today! The boys cleared out their closet over break, and I have six big brown lawn garbage bags of just their stuff to donate, along with assorted doo dads from around the house. Can’t wait to wake up to a sparking house tomorrow!
Wow!!! So impressive! Congrats on such a great job 🙂
The play room! I threw away FOUR bags of stuff and felt fantastic!!
kudos to all! I have been tackling the closets in the hall, we have 3. They are done. I purged my room and closet two weeks ago. Today, I have begun to paint the room. My plans are to purge, clean, and paint each room in the house, along with any minor repairs. Then the carpets will be steamed as well and laundering the curtains. I would love to have this all done by Easter. I am trying to give myself a deadline to stick too.
In NJ it is still too cold to go into the attic, which is unheated, nor the garage. That will come after the clean up and paint projects!
I have to wait for nice weather, too. I’m almost done decluttering inside my home, but its too cold to tackle any other parts of the house. Great job 🙂
I did a very small job of going around looking for items we no longer use that are sitting around and might fetch a few bucks on swap shop. The last several cell phones along with all of their paraphernalia that might be useful to someone, and some kitchen aid accessories I have not used in so long they sit in the back of a kitchen cabinet year after year gathering dust. Someone might as well get a reasonable deal on those since they are 10 years old but practically new from lack of use. Most things (clothes, toys, pots and pans, etc.) get donated to friends who need them or the local thrift store but there are a few things I might as well recoup a little money from. Happy decluttering!!
I’m beginning to think no decluttering job is small. Anything we can get out of the way makes a difference 🙂 Good luck with your sales! 🙂
I started sorting a huge pile of clothes in my walk in. Now I can actually walk into it and put folded clothes in the dresser.
Yay! Go you!
Wow. I am currently in the process of moving a couple hours away from my own flat back into my parents house (1 room) and have to get rid of 75% of my stuff as we don’t have and cannot afford storage. I have a LOT of clothes and need to get rid of loads but find myself unable to a lot of the time .. fingers crossed that this time, I can be harsh with myself and get rid of enough ..!!
Yay! It’s so amazingly hard to get things the rest of the way out the door. It’s my project for next week, when my husband starts coming home with the car at 3 instead of 5:30
This week I removed two trash bags of stuff from my teeeeny tiny bathroom. I couldn’t belive how stuffed it was! I decided that if there were towels that hadn’t seen daylight since we moved in a year ago they had to go. I know they hadn’t been used because there were still some picture frames wrapped up in them. I wondered where those had gotten to >.<
Haha!
It’s great you got rid of the extra towels. I would have left them thinking I would use them, even though I wouldn’t. There is still lots of this type of clutter in my home even after declutering these last few months.. I really need to send it on its way next time around.
I can relate to the towel thing….I still have some that are at least 20 years old that we don’t use….sigh
Wow! What a difference! I don’t even dare take pictures of my garage at this point.
Wow! I can imagine how great it felt to get all of that out of there! 🙂 My husband and I worked on getting all our Christmas decorations put away and decluttering the living room. It looks so much better and even bigger! 😀 I also tackled two more kitchen drawers which were a lot better than what I thought. 🙂
I left my link to my post about working on the living room. Thank you! Hope everyone has a great week 4!
WOOT! WOOT! Love the before and after pics! good for you! I’m finishing up my post so I can link up this week. All the comments and posts shared have been really motivating, thanks everyone!
I’m reading backwards & am still in 2011, but I saw on Facebook that you had a decluttering party happening. This week, I’ve decluttered my study (well, STARTED decluttering might be more accurate) and also my bathroom benches. (no before photo – suffice to say that I don’t think my 10 year old remembered that we had a laundry sink in there!)
Nice job on the garage! And I’m still jealous that you have a place in your area that will actually come to you for donations. Part of the reason I still have too much clutter is because I hate hauling to the Hospice store. The other two resale shops in my area don’t do pickups either. :/
I want you to know that I love this blog. Reading through all of the comments, I felt guilty and finally bagged up a bunch of stuff in my office that I’ve been wanting to get rid of. And after I post this, I’m hoping to get two more areas sorted through and dealt with tonight. Give away or throw away, I don’t even care anymore. I want my office to be nothing but an office. The storage room is closed! 😀
At least its Walk-in-able!!
Thanks so much for the link-up party! I just moved from blogger to wordpress, and the traffic will certainly help since I’m half starting over.
All I decluttered this week was three pounds of water weight from being off my feet. Maybe by next week they’ll be a baby to show for it.
Thanks, Tabitha Fletcher
P.S. For slightly less confusion, last week I linked up Only 3 Chores and How Far We’ve Come: Looking Back. Switching blogs is a huge decluttering project all its own.
It is!!! Congrats on the switch. It will definitely be for the best in the long run!
Thanks, Dana! I sure hope so. -Tabitha Fletcher
It looks great! Did you call a certain service to do this, or did you call a friend? Just wondering how to find options like that in my area. Part of my procrastination is loading it and the kids up to haul it away. #lazy
That is totally overwhelming, I know! We do have a local service that I just discovered about a year ago. But even with them on speed dial, I’d been putting it off for TOO long!
My bathroom got a HUGE overhaul. The counter had too much stuff on it that I used). I had 4 drawers, all full of stuff and a linen closet. (A few months back I cleaned out the other closet in there, a coat closet lol). I came out with 2 kitchen trash bags full of stuff I no longer used, junk or expired OTC meds. My linen closet has nearly a full cleaned off shelf. I should go thru my top and the floor baskets lol. My other shelves have hand towels and bath towels on them. I have 4 clean drawers that now house my tooth paste, new toothbrushes, deodorant/perfume and a drawer for my hair brushes, combs and hair ties. One cabinet under my sink houses cleaning supplies, toilet brush and. Under my other sink my newly gone thru make up, hair dyer and flat iron!! Only thing on my counter is a 4 oz glass that hold our toothbrushes, hand soap dispensers, and my facial wash. Oh and an alarm clock.
Next….!!!
Oh and then I deep cleaned the bathroom and put up a new shower curtain… One of those that is hookless! I’m waiting on my kohls gft cardS (plural yes, do NOT order online at kohl’s!!!!!!!!!!! They screw up your order, ex…I ordered a SET of 8 bowls, I received ONE bowl. I should have received 8 bowls. Also in that order (shipped separately from another warehouse) I was to receive TWO cookie sheets. Got the box, ONE cookie sheet. Packing slip said, orderd 2, shipped 2. Two different people at kohls can’t count past 1.
I’m getting 3 gift cars, I ordered rugs with a gift cards, but they went out of stock before it shipped. I should have cancel my order then.
I did alot of decluttering, and posted it on my blog 🙂
I have been decluttering since before Christmas ! Next I really need to purge clothing (my kids have grown a lot in the last few months) nd with birthdays and Christmas they also got many new outfits. Luckily there is a charity in my area that picks up clothing. They give you a date, you put it outside, when you come home from work its gone 🙂 The deadline of – the truck will be here on __ really helps me too
Your blog is exactly what I needed. I love when you say the cleaned room/counter looks weird- that is exactly how I feel! But your blog has encouraged me to decal utter anyway. I got rid of over 100 books that we do not need any longer and two garbage bags of clothes. Now if they can actually get OUT of my house.
How do you deal with wanting to sell vs. give away?
It has been a process. I sold for years, but then (because I fully understood the time and hassle involved) decided my time was worth more than I was getting. I’m a fan of selling if you’ll actually do it. The idea of selling sometimes keeps the house cluttered, though.
So I can give up the thought of losing money? Granted, you cannot always get a lot for things, but being careful with money, I always think that maybe I am losing money. I tend to have ideas of selling, but never get around to it. (Except for kids items-finally getting rid of baby things 7 years later)
That is the key. Being realistic about whether you really will do it. I say go for it. But go for it today. Or tomorrow. If you’re putting it off indefinitely, that’s the problem.
Are you sure this isn’t a picture of my Garage? Seriously, who let you in?
One thing about living where it snows, it sure is motivation to keep the garage clear.