Purging Clutter...AGAIN! - Page 5

Susan Louise · ‎03-14-2010

@Carmie wrote:
@Susan Louise Do you think you could,come to this house to help unclutter?

No, it is not my house. My DH and I were looking for a summer home and came across this place. The kitchen was the worst room, but I lost the pictures. The home was not dirty, but they sure had a ton of stuff.

@Carmie Looks more like a local family-owned antique store!

I would have a ball organizing/decorating the space...LOVE the hutch on the left!!!

Carmie · ‎10-25-2010

@Susan Louise They had some really beautiful antique glass items in the kitchen, mostly in blue and green but it was way too much.

It does kinda look like an antique store, but people really were living here. I’d hate to have to pack all that stuff up to move.

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@GCR18 wrote:
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.

@GCR18 @Susan Louise I understand that we all have different items that fit into our spaces but our goals are the same, to reduce the overload. It was such a hassle for me to decide what to use to decorate this year so I have stuff everywhere, what I used and what I unpacked but didn't have need for. So now it's almost time to pack up and I'm determined it won't all go back into storage. It's way colder than it should be so hard to work in the unheated garage this week but hoping to next week. I do hope we can be better this year than last in the buying vein, me anyway, for sure.

@GCR18, I love those square pedestals too but I have those, round ones, plain ones, sets of three all in several colors, plus ones from other places. I have several sets of clear glass pedestals from other stores, numerous other types of pedestals. I have to ask myself how many does one woman need. I've lost my mind with pedestals. I recently got Jill's Hobnail pedestals, H215228, in cream to use with the cream Magnolias and the Bronze ones too. So, I have to part with some of them but not my Valerie square ones.

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@Susan Louise That is an amazing seed starter and growing area. I can see how it would be great working there. Almost time to start the new plants and we'll be closer to spring which makes me happy.

mousiegirl · ‎03-09-2010

@Mominohio Valerie's older gold mercury glass pedestals are a different color gold than now, a bit of an orange hue so they look marvelous in my Fall decor, the chocolate also. I use the red at Christmas, the silver and champagne in Spring, silver in a silver Christmas display, and green on my baker's rack all year that holds mostly green Murano glass ducks/geese. As a rule, I don't light them, but the few that are lit, accidentally, look great.

@Susan Louise Believe it or not, I have a space issue also. All rooms in this house have one wall of glass, windows and/or sliders, so I don't have much surface area, even if it weren't already all filled, it still isn't a lot, so am working on ideas to rectify that a bit.

The only items I donate are clothes, books, DVDs, shoes and bags, candles, etc.though I do have too many baking and other types of dishes, but am hoping one day DD will want them, if not, she can do what she will with them.

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@jeanlake wrote:
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.

@jeanlake I want to be you but I am a hoarder and trying to break out of that mold. If I died today my family would hate me due to all the baggage to unload before they could sell the house. I'm going to work hard at clearing out the house to a managable amount of seasonal decor in the next couple of months. Thanks for the inspiration.

lucymo · ‎12-13-2010

@Snoopp wrote:
I am doing one drawer at a time. I find the sorting and purging exhausting.

@Snoopp Me too, mentally and physically. But, it's time for me to get it done.

mousiegirl · ‎03-09-2010

@Susan Louise wrote:
@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 This looks great! I have a very tall growing lights unit. Do you grow in the tubs without individual pots? I have been using the flats holding the little pots for good drainage. I havn't used mine for years as I usually just put the seeds in the individual pots outside that they will mature in, but want to get an earlier start this year, so DH had better get that rec room finished soon, then I have to get someone to lay the floor, then I can get to seeding.