Purging Clutter...AGAIN! - Page 3

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@RedTop wrote:
I started purging this house nearly 6 years ago, and continue to let go of my accumulated items easily. I’m retired and go out only when I have to, so I have right-sized myself as far as all clothing, shoes and handbags. I hate spending money on clothing, and have gotten rid of many, many things since I retired. If I died today, my daughters could pack every single item of clothing I own (except my 3 coats) into one 18 gallon plastic tote.

2 large items left here this week, and I have 2 pieces of furniture to burn as soon as we have safe burning conditions. My 2018 goal is to move more and more stuff to the curb.

For the last year, my husband has talked about buying a storage building for items currently filling our garage. Every time this comes up, my response is clean the garage, and get rid of items that are not being used. I am not in favor of spending $3000 for more storage space, when this house has enough space—-we just have too much stuff.

Just today, I made the comment to my husband, and sent texts to my girls, that in another week or so, I will be able to start working in the basement, and I intend to get everything off the floor and on a shelf, ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!

@RedTop Good for you. We'll have to have a support system here in the forum for us hard hoarders of everything. I've been donating but bring in more than I took out so I've accomplished nothing in the way of cleaning out the house. It is just crazy.

roeroe1005 · ‎03-13-2010

I am doing the same thing! I have a small room at the top of the stairs that is very easy to just throw stuff in. Well, when I took my Christmas things out, I said "that's it. I'm clearing out this room." So today I am going thru everything in there.

I still have VCR tapes! Do I have a VCR?? Not for a long time. Do you think it will come back?? No. So out went the tapes/movies I have collected. Hurt to do it but needs to be done. I found my Halloween decorations ... 2 months 2 late.

I actually have room on my shelves to move that other stuff off the floor.

I'm getting there ...

CAcableGirl2 · ‎06-03-2010

Purging some of my excess possessions is one of my 2018 goals. I'm going to finish the last half of the garage this weekend (since it will be 75 degrees on Saturday). I am resolving to go through one room and purge whatever I no longer need, use or want each month and by the middle of the year, my home should be done.

Going to start with the bathrooms for January, and I've already donated all the extra Bath and Body hand lotions that I had to have when they were buy 3, get 3. The local shelter can certainly use them more then I seem to need them. Towels are going to the local animal shelter along with the extra blankets and throws.

My sister downsized from a packed 4 bedroom house to a one bedroom condo a few years ago and after she got rid of all her extra stuff, she said it was so liberating to not be tied down with all those items. I think she is right.

Donate, garage sale, recycle, or trash....one way or another, I'm going to clear this house of all the extra clutter - I figure that I'm not getting any younger and when I sell this house, I want the move to be as easy as possible.

......You look like I need a drink.....

GCR18 · ‎07-03-2013

Good job Susan. You have to get into the mindset and you are half way there. My taste in decor changed over the last year. I bought a handful of new items this year that made me take stock of what I have. Storage space isn't a problem, but I don't want to have more than can fit in the designated area. My winter goal is to cut back the decor by 1/4. I want to be able to see everything at a glance.

Can't part with my valerie square mg pedestals, love them. I use the brown and champagne often. The round ones with the mirror on top can go.

jeanlake · ‎03-10-2010

De-cluttering feels so good, but when you leave the house material stuff slowly multiplies. It's a plot against humans!

I function best in a clean, simple, uncluttered, yet stylish environment. However, I'm not paired with someone who shares my preferences -- I have to remember we can now get both cars in the garage and he's let go of many non-essentials. Managing our stuff is certainly a process.

"I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees." Henry David Thoreau

mousiegirl · ‎03-09-2010

@roeroe1005 wrote:
I am doing the same thing! I have a small room at the top of the stairs that is very easy to just throw stuff in. Well, when I took my Christmas things out, I said "that's it. I'm clearing out this room." So today I am going thru everything in there.

I still have VCR tapes! Do I have a VCR?? Not for a long time. Do you think it will come back?? No. So out went the tapes/movies I have collected. Hurt to do it but needs to be done. I found my Halloween decorations ... 2 months 2 late.

I actually have room on my shelves to move that other stuff off the floor.

I'm getting there ...

@roeroe1005 I have a VCR/DVD machine in five rooms, so they are in the market place, and tons of VHS tapes from years ago, and I do watch them.

Mominohio · ‎08-08-2010

In reading this thread, I had a couple of revelations and things to say.

Many of you know that I have said for several years now, that I will be able to take back control of my home once my son moves out. Well, he did that in October, got himself a rental small duplex, but what is great is that for a 21 year old's first place, it has a basement and a garage!

I sent over half of his clothes (older home, so he has very small closets) at least 6 big tubs of kitchen wares (truly was able to outifit his kitchen totally for like a family), linens and bathroom items.

Over the last couple of months, I'm gathering some of his other things, and taking him a laundry basket full about every three weeks or so, as I don't want to overwhelm him, and his space is limited.

Gave him a sofa, end table, lamps, bench, lawn chairs and some other bigger things, so that kind of stuff is out of my hair. But there is still a lot of things of his that I'd like to see out of here, I just know it would over burden him for the small space he has. But it really had made a difference in my outlook and in the space I have in some areas now, as I've gone through three closets since Christmas day, and a big desk that is in his room and he wouldn't deal with, as well as the dresser in his room.

@Susan Louise

When you described having several shelves of dishes, I have to say I envied you. I have five very big shelving units (ceiling to floor and very wide) in the basement with extra dishes/bakeware/serveware (and those shelves are stacked full) in addition to a packed kitchen, and an extra hutch in the laundry room full. It is so far out of control (even though it is all organized by pattern and color and season, clean and easy to grab, and most used at least once a year) that I simply bypass it every year when purging as I don't even know where to begin.

I don't have many clothes, shoes or handbags, no makeup or beauty products, so I guess my excess comes in the form of dishes/bakeware, and home decor! I just keep thinking 100 tubes of lipstick or 25 blouses would store in much less space than the same amout of dishes! LOL

I re organized and purged what I call my blanket closet yesterday. I should have taken before pictures, as everything was in those plastic bags that you suck the air out of (Space Bags), and while I like the fact that things are kept out of the dust and moisture, accessing your things in those, when stacked six or seven high, is simply trecherous! So I bought the newer (but on clearance) extra large Kano boxes and put my quilts and blankets and throws and extra throw rugs in them. Now I should be able to unzip the front to pull out just what I need, and not have to dig and move things, or give up and not use things because the are too hard to get to!

My constant goal is to get all areas of my house, and the things stored in them accessable and easy to use. I hate to open a cupboard, drawer or closet and have to fight and dig and scratch to get something out, then spend half a day to put it all back once I find what I need/want.

I want to open up the storage space, and have easy access for obtaining or returning the items I need. Every year it gets a little more like that in more areas!

mousiegirl · ‎03-09-2010

@Susan Louise I have decided it is a neverending job to declutter. I donated tons last year, and can't see any difference, lol, so am back at it again. I had DD go through her room this past week while she was here for a visit, and wash whatever clothes she didn't want and put them into a bag for donation.

I have to say, I still love my mercury glass so I cringed when I read that you donated so much, lol.

So, I will be spending January and February sorting, organizing, donating, and putting Christmas away.

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

@Mominohio wrote:
In reading this thread, I had a couple of revelations and things to say.

Many of you know that I have said for several years now, that I will be able to take back control of my home once my son moves out. Well, he did that in October, got himself a rental small duplex, but what is great is that for a 21 year old's first place, it has a basement and a garage!

I sent over half of his clothes (older home, so he has very small closets) at least 6 big tubs of kitchen wares (truly was able to outifit his kitchen totally for like a family), linens and bathroom items.

Over the last couple of months, I'm gathering some of his other things, and taking him a laundry basket full about every three weeks or so, as I don't want to overwhelm him, and his space is limited.

Gave him a sofa, end table, lamps, bench, lawn chairs and some other bigger things, so that kind of stuff is out of my hair. But there is still a lot of things of his that I'd like to see out of here, I just know it would over burden him for the small space he has. But it really had made a difference in my outlook and in the space I have in some areas now, as I've gone through three closets since Christmas day, and a big desk that is in his room and he wouldn't deal with, as well as the dresser in his room.

@Susan Louise

When you described having several shelves of dishes, I have to say I envied you. I have five very big shelving units (ceiling to floor and very wide) in the basement with extra dishes/bakeware/serveware (and those shelves are stacked full) in addition to a packed kitchen, and an extra hutch in the laundry room full. It is so far out of control (even though it is all organized by pattern and color and season, clean and easy to grab, and most used at least once a year) that I simply bypass it every year when purging as I don't even know where to begin.

I don't have many clothes, shoes or handbags, no makeup or beauty products, so I guess my excess comes in the form of dishes/bakeware, and home decor! I just keep thinking 100 tubes of lipstick or 25 blouses would store in much less space than the same amout of dishes! LOL

I re organized and purged what I call my blanket closet yesterday. I should have taken before pictures, as everything was in those plastic bags that you suck the air out of (Space Bags), and while I like the fact that things are kept out of the dust and moisture, accessing your things in those, when stacked six or seven high, is simply trecherous! So I bought the newer (but on clearance) extra large Kano boxes and put my quilts and blankets and throws and extra throw rugs in them. Now I should be able to unzip the front to pull out just what I need, and not have to dig and move things, or give up and not use things because the are too hard to get to!

My constant goal is to get all areas of my house, and the things stored in them accessable and easy to use. I hate to open a cupboard, drawer or closet and have to fight and dig and scratch to get something out, then spend half a day to put it all back once I find what I need/want.

I want to open up the storage space, and have easy access for obtaining or returning the items I need. Every year it gets a little more like that in more areas!

@Mominohio Wow! That is quite a lot of dishes/bakeware/serveware! The number of storage areas you mention between the 5 wide shelving units, spare hutch, etc alone sounds like it would probably fill up our entire basement.

I think it's all relative to space used and the sq ft in one's home/apt/etc.

For me, 2 full shelves with high piles of dishes/bowls/serving pieces in our small home feels about the same as your large storage areas in your much larger home. What is the sq ft of your home? Our upstairs living area is just 875 sq ft.

All I know is that just before Christmas I knew I just couldn't stand it anymore. Having the extra 'stuff' makes it so much more difficult for us to set up our tables for growing seedlings/plants for our gardens which I will be starting at the end of next month. DH and I have to move so much stuff as it is from 2 tables we use most of the yr for other things. I use one table for additional food supplies since we have such a small pantry in our kitchen. DH uses the other table for projects he works on in his tiny machine room that is just 4' x 6'. Underneath the table with the food supplies I keep are all the gardening/sowing seeds supplies. Under the other table is all our wild birding & hummingbird feeder supplies.

All of that has to be moved to the other side of our basement. It really is a nightmare to do this when there is just too much stuff. The 'greenhouse' in our basement starts getting set up toward the end of January and stays that way til the last week of April. I'm not able to get the basement 'back to normal' til about June since it takes me about 4-5 weeks to get all the plants hardened off and then planted which takes up most of my time in May.

Here's a pic of what the 'greenhouse' in our basement looked like last Spring on 4/10/2017...a couple of weeks before I put the plants outside before hardening off...

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

@mousiegirl wrote:
@Susan Louise I have decided it is a neverending job to declutter. I donated tons last year, and can't see any difference, lol, so am back at it again. I had DD go through her room this past week while she was here for a visit, and wash whatever clothes she didn't want and put them into a bag for donation.

I have to say, I still love my mercury glass so I cringed when I read that you donated so much, lol.

So, I will be spending January and February sorting, organizing, donating, and putting Christmas away.

@mousiegirl I still enjoy MG pieces, but don't have a need to use quite as much all the time. I find the new pedestals I got recently blend in and work better in the vignettes I assemble. I still love all the sets of MG spheres.

I got rid of the large square MG pedestals because I found that the areas I have to make vignettes, they are all relatively small and those pedestals take up a pretty large footprint. However, for those that have larger homes/spaces like you and @lucymo...with say a diningroom table, mantel or sideboard, they would look great. Here in our home, proportionally...not so much. Unfortunately, by the time I realized this, it was too late for me to return the 2 sets I had...silver and chocolate.

With the large round MG pedestals with inserts, (I have 3 sets...chocolate, gold and silver) they will be more versatile for me because of the inserts and wouldn't look quite as awkward in a small vignette or on top of our wall unit.

As for the 6 smaller sets of 3 MG pedestals, I just don't see myself missing them. For example, even when I will be placing spheres back out in late January when I get decor set up for Spring again, the plain pedestals with the MG spheres on top actually look better to me than the MG spheres on top of MG pedestals. Although the set up on top of our wall unit I will incorporate both types of pedestals, they will work well together.

I'm not trying to sell you my viewpoint, it's just that this is how I am paring down on decor...having a smaller stash and having/keeping the pieces that not only look great, but are much more versatile. With most of the MG pedestals I felt more restricted in how I used them. However, using the more natural looking sets I can use them in a wider variety of ways...but that is jmo

I think we can all take a vaca from purging if we can stop acquiring. I'm going to at least give it my all in 2018 to buy nothing except absolute essentials...no clothing, no accessories, no dinnerware, no decor, etc. I really hope I can get through a full year...and hopefully longer!