Too small, need more space

I decide against the 300 sq. ft. apartment.  It was cute, I went to look at it and really liked it.  The fact that it had windows on the south and west walls was awesome!  Unfortunately, it just seemed like it wouldn't be enough room for me...and my stuff.  

My mom mentioned that when I move out, she'll need the extra room I'm using to be emptied to rent it out.  That means I need to find a place that is much larger.  A few days ago I looked at a basement apartment that was approximately 600 sq. ft. and even that seemed small!  Maybe it would be possible, but it would be tight.

I'm thinking I need something more along the lines of 800-900 sq. ft. so I can run my eBay business out of it.  Either that or work really hard at selling the massive amount of stuff I have now so I don't have so much to move.  That would probably be best.  Unfortunately, by doing that, I will be living here longer, but on the upside, I won't have so much stuff!

School starts soon and I'll have less time to do these things.  *Sigh*

Progress

It has been a slow process, but there is progress. I has to temporarily give up on cleaning my stuff out of the basement and have been focusing on my bedroom.  The house in which I live is a bad environment for me.  I know I'm long overdue of moving out, and I'm actively searching for my own place.  Since I won't have as much extra space for storage, what I own needs to become less. 

I don't think anyone reads my nearly abandoned blog, but I still wonder how many square feet people live in.  My bedroom with closet is approximately 168 sq ft. My bathroom is small, but attached to the room. Yes, I have taken over a separate room for my workshop, and this will stay there. Unless I find an 800-900 sq ft place, I won't have room.  If I take the cute 300 sq ft place from a local ad, I have lots more work to do!!

Things have been given away to friends, donated, thrown in the trash, and listed for sale on eBay.  Surprisingly, some of these items have even sold!  I'm not making tons of money, that's ok though, the space is more important.  I've been working on letting go of the price I paid for things, otherwise I will hold on to them forever. 

The key is to have what you love, and love what you have.  I'm working on it. 

I did it!

About one month ago I listed my extra car for sale. It had been sitting for a very long time, in hopes that I would one day, yes, one day get it fixed and get it running. That day never came, and I changed my mind on the car. My emotional attachment to it has somewhat diminished, and I had grown tired of looking at the car, although I really did love it. It was time to let it go.

The car has been listed as mentioned for about one month, and it I'm not joking, it got 1,618 views online locally. Today I got a phone call from someone once again who came to look in the car. I let him take it for a test drive and he came back and said, "What's the lowest you'll go?" My response was, "What do you offer?" I told him $200 less than my asking price. We agreed in the middle which means I got $100 more than I thought I could get realistically.

So it's Friday late afternoon when this was happening and he said we could go to the bank and get the money. Now, you need to understand that most people didn't have all the cash, so I agreed. We went to the bank he got a Cashier's Check and deposit it into my bank account and I gave him the title. We did all the other fine detail paperwork and he was happy to have the car.

He's happy, I'm happy, and there's an extra space in the driveway and I don't have to dread looking at the car every single day. That clutter is gone. What a relief! I started thinking that I was never going to get rid of it.

Dust = sneezing, or does it?

One of the reasons I shouldn't collect clutter is because clutter collects dust.  Dust makes me ill.  All day yesterday and today I've been sneezing so much and my nose won't stop running.  The truth is, I don't know if it is the dust, or if I've been wearing myself out and I have a slight cold.

The good news is that I made so much progress in my inventory room that I feel a lot better about it.  I found items I didn't know I had, that will hopefully be profitable.  On the other hand, I have to throw some things out because they are past their dates and I can no longer sell them.

I plan to spend some time working on getting items listed on eBay and Amazon so I can clear some space.  Well, I've already cleared enough space so I can actually SIT in my office/inventory room, and that's not all, there are A FEW PLACES where I can sit!  Now that's progress!

I won't be working on this room tonight because I have plans to be with my lovely BF.  Is it bad that I almost like him to work more so I have time to get things done?

Inventory

My room exploded!!  In a good way though.  Not my bedroom, but the room I use for my ecommerce inventory.

Being that it is a new year, I have to know where my inventory stands for tax purposes.  Let's be honest here, my inventory room is out of order, cluttered, and shared with my mother's belongings.  Therefore, if you can imagine, it's quite full and I'm not able to take a proper inventory, let alone walk!

The last two nights after work, I have spent several hours working on emptying the room so that I can start almost from scratch.  Although this sounded like a good idea, I ran out of room a short while after starting.  The hallway was overflowing with product, my bedroom is hardly walkable, and I had to climb over things and try not to knock things off the shelves!

What I decided to do was to empty one bookcase I use for shelves, clean it, and start putting things back on it.  What have I learned the hard way?  Liquids on the bottom!  When I restocked the shelves, all light and non liquid items are on the top shelves.  They aren't organized by category, but at least they are on the shelves grouped together.

Still...I don't have enough room!  What was the solution?  Remove many of my mother's belongings from the room to free up the space.  She wasn't too keen on this because that means more work for her to try and figure out where to put this extra stuff that she hasn't seen in several years.  Where did she put it?  Right by all the stuff I was trying to organize and get rid of in the basement!  Ugh!!  I told her that she is causing more work this way, but, what to do?

Last night I worked about 5 hours, and got quite a bit done, actually I'm pretty close to being finished, at least with the organization part of it.  So many of my mother's things were taken out and this gave me more room to organize and see what I have so I can sell it!

After this tiring project, I will have to go in and type out what I have and figure the cost of it all.  Not fun, but it's the cost of doing business and running it alone.

Clutter, clutter...oh how you make me shudder!

Bike be gone!

I realize it has been a while since I posted, but honestly, I haven't done much decluttering.  I've been very busy with many things and trying to enjoy the summer.

Recently, a cousin of mine posted a need on Facebook for a bike because she wanted to start riding and getting in shape.  She asked where she could find a good bike or if anyone had one they didn't want.  Well guess what??  I had one that was going to be donated (I have another one which I use), I just hadn't gotten around to it.  It's an older bike that needs a bit of work, minor work such as new inner tubes and oiling the chain or buying a new one and a good washing.

I sent her a picture of what I had and she liked it.  Along with the bike, I sent her the flashing red light under the seat and a slime inner tube I had but never put in.

I haven't spoken to her since she picked it up almost a month ago, but I sure hope it has gone to good use and that she's enjoying it.

Besides getting rid of the bike, I worked on my online business and got rid of a big chunk of inventory and hope to arrange my workspace a bit better.

The little things I've discarded were old makeup that I no longer use.

Picture Frames

I used to make craft things with picture frames...and I would still like to, BUT...

1. I don't have the time.
2. What will I do with the things I make?
3. Where will I store the supplies?

Therefore, while going through items, I decided to get rid of 15 picture frames.  Ten of them can be used as is for pictures, 5 of them are straight from the craft store and ready for a project.

I probably won't use them anytime soon, if ever, and I would rather have the space right now.  While going through them I thought of FlyLady when she says that if an item can be easily replaced at a later time when you need it, get rid of it.  So, that's what I did.  I didn't need them, use them or love them; they are in my car ready to be dropped off today.  That makes me feel good :)

Here they are!

Boxes on Stairs

A few days ago I went through some of the items that were on the stairs and was able to throw away and give away some of the things.  I took a bag for donations that contained:

• two new car seat covers
• stuffed animals
• shower clock radio
• alarm clock

These were the main items along with some smaller things, but I was glad to get a bag dropped of at my local donation center.

What I threw away was a bunch of expired toiletries and other items such as:

• heating patches
• eyeliners
• lipliners
• lipsticks
• old cosmetic bags not donation worthy
• dried up markers

Again, there were other things, but I just can't remember what they were.

I did pull out a couple good things, band-aids and new in package tweezers.  Both of these will go to use.  In addition, I am giving a good 8" saucepan with lid and new cutting board to a friend of my mom's...I just hope I don't see it in the house for another week!  My mom told me her friend needs pans.

The rest of the things were books, learn to play the guitar DVD's, small enameled picture frames and my pans and a couple small kitchen gadgets.

Where in the world am I going to put the things I will use when I move out?  Maybe I'll re-box them in plastic containers and keep them in the basement as "KEEP" items.

...and it keeps emerging!

The clutter keeps coming out from hiding!  I just found more boxes and bags of things I must do something with.

It started with the mini fridge I took out of my bedroom (more on that in a bit) and wanted to put it back where I found it in the basement.  Well, while things were pulled out of the way so I could access the spot where the fridge needed to go, I found more of my stuff.  Sigh.  Boxes of books, pans, gadgets, we'll see what else!

It will take me time to go through them, but I will eventually.  Currently, they are sitting on the steps between the basement and main level of the house.  My mom was helping me as I pulled my boxes out and I didn't notice until afterwards that she had been putting them there.  She thought I was taking them upstairs.

The reason I had a mini fridge in my room was because when the fridge in the kitchen broke down, I didn't want to have to replace my cold items and needed a place to keep them.  Although there were other items in the fridge, I don't see this as selfish because I was the one who purchased the fridge a few years ago...the first time the kitchen fridge broke down.  At the time this was a favor to my mom, but it was hardly used, then put to the side.  Therefore, it is mine so I can do as I please. :)

By the way...the old fridge is STILL IN THE KITCHEN and freezer being used!

Sold!

I was so happy today when I showed a set of car rims to a man after having my local listing up for less than a day, and he bought them!  The price was right, and they were (in his eyes) in great condition...so he paid me $150 for the set!  On the phone I told him I wanted $120, but after we went our separate ways, I noticed he paid me $150 :)

These were car rims which I bought used for I think $150, used for one or two summers, and they've been sitting for a long time in the backyard collecting dirt, cobwebs, and who knows what else.  Yesterday I paid my brother $10 to wash them since I knew I had a potential buyer.

I'm just so happy to have gotten rid of that clutter...and that man is happy to have rims!

GOAL: Clean and clutter-free car

It's quite obvious that I have a goal of becoming clutter-free by getting rid of what I don't use or love, that's why I have this blog.  Another goal I have, which is ongoing, is to keep a clutter-free car.  I've been working on this for about five weeks or so, I didn't pay attention to when I started this goal.

There are different reasons I want to do this.  Some are:

• I don't like seeing "stuff" around my car, it's stressful.
• A clean and clutter-free car feels so nice, and I drive a lot!
• I'm tired of being embarrassed when someone suddenly has to ride with me and I need to excuse my clutter and move things around for them.
• I use it for work at least three times a week and sometimes unexpectedly! (see above)
• There will be less for a person to steal, if they happen to target my car (personal experience).

As if the reasons above weren't good enough, one of the main reasons I started this goal was because I really want to get a new (used) car, and the one I wanted was a luxury car.  You NEVER see messy or cluttered luxury cars, which means I would have to change my ways.  The reason I said "wanted" above is because I've been leaning towards a different make of car which isn't luxury...but the goal remains, regardless.

To top that off, a couple of weeks ago I was searching YouTube for a video on female car essentials and found one done by Maria Menunous (click to watch it).  She mentions in this video that someone who interviewed her wanted to look in her car, reason being, "...because a messy car means a messy life..."  It's true, and I don't want to come off as having a messy life.

Can I reach this goal?  I think so, been doing pretty well since I focused on it.  Yesterday I vacuumed it and even lightly Bisselled the dark colored carpets and seats for the first time since I bought the car in 2007!

Entryway Clutter Video

Although I felt real unmotivated yesterday after work, I had a sudden urge to pull my belongings out of the entry way closet to sort through them.  I can't believe I took over this closet after moving back home a few years ago.  Guess I had too many shoes and nowhere to store them.  The final count of shoes is unknown as I haven't actually done anything with them yet, I took so long in cleaning the closet, couldn't breathe anymore and was tired...will have to do them later.

Anyhow, it took me a few hours, and I wasn't planning on organizing like I did...it just happened.  The only way I could make sure I got all that was mine from there was to empty it out.  Again, there were bags of bags, tons of candles, board games we never play, except Scrabble and just lots of odds and ends.

Glad it's done, today I'm feeling accomplished.

No fun being a clutter bug!

Here's the video:

Ramblings

I don't believe I've decluttered anything since my last post, just been so dang busy with school, homework, and trying to have somewhat of a little social life.

Also, my bf has started teaching me how to play tennis, which is fun and great exercise, I love it!  All I had to purchase was a tennis racquet and balls.  Years ago I had a new one with the intention of learning, but it was stolen from my car :(

I must get back to decluttering though, if I ever want to leave my mom's house!  SO much to do!

Bandana

I didn't have much to write, so thought I would update the bandana situation.  I gave four of them away, kept two for myself.  Now, I own three...is that too many?

Stash o' Bandanas

People who save things for "someday" are not always able to find them.  This holds true for me sometimes, although I don't think I'm that bad.  Of course, NOT me!!  :)

Recently I bought another bandana, after leaving one on my snorkel vest while on vacation.  I [hardly] used the new one once about a week and a half ago, when I just found my stash!  Yes, I had I believe six bandanas in many colors nicely folded up in a container in the basement.  They almost got donated to the place where I've taken all the other goods, but I thought of a person who would like a couple.


Point is, it does no good to HAVE things, if you don't know WHERE they are!  -  A place for everything, and everything in its place.

Video and today's progress

I have just posted my first video on YouTube which I took a few days ago, you can see it here.  Today I went through more items in this basement room and got rid of the following:

Round one.  In the back are donations, the pile more in the center is recyclable trash, and the bags on the right are trash.

Round two.  The bags in the back are more donations, the black bag is full of recyclable materials, and the pile on the right is regular trash.

This little creeper was in the lid of a full box of paper!!  I wan't so keen on continuing after seeing this one, but knew I had to.  :(

I also came across, and threw away, 124 bottles of L'Oreal nail polish which was originally purchased (incredibly inexpensive) to sell.  Although some of the colors were pretty cute, they had all separated and looked gross.

I worked for hours and it just seems like I made a bigger mess.  One thing I'm happy for is that I was able to separate my mom's and my containers so I can get to mine easier and sort through them a bit more when I have the free time.

I found some good, useable items and brought them upstairs.

In the end, the recycle can is full (overflowing actually), the trash is full (I also used my bf's trash can for round 1's trash), and my trunk is full of donations to be dropped off tomorrow!

If anyone is reading this, thank you, and I would love to hear your comments!!

Dust, clutter, dust, clutter....

I had a free night last night, so decided that I would try to tackle some things in the basement.  Mind you, these are not MY things that completely clutter the basement they are mostly my mom's.  Unfortunately, in order to reach my belongings and have room to sort them, I have to wiggle and climb my way through hers.

It's not very well lit in the basement, I suppose due to cluttered windows, missing bulbs and things stacked underneath the lights.  Therefore, I worked for a few hours with a headlamp.  I felt like a miner looking for precious goods!  No precious goods to be found, just a lot to throw out.

There was so much dust down there that by the time I was done, I had a headache and my nose was running like mad.  If I had a mask, I would have used it.  Better yet, if I knew where my package of masks was purchased to pour resin, I would have pulled one out and used it!  When I woke up, I felt as though I had been crying all night, due to the plugged up sinuses.  All day my nose has been running.

At least I can say I did get a very small bit accomplished, although probably not enough to make a noticeable difference.  I kept going up and down the stairs to get things out.  The difficult part was that today was garbage day, and our can is so small that I knew there was NO way it would all fit in there.  The can was full before I started cleaning!

This morning the second I woke up and felt the way I did, physically, I remembered what I had done the night before and almost jumped out of bed to see if the trash had picked up yet.  They hadn't!  Yes!!  This meant I could run outside and fill the neighbors' cans with the remaining bags of trash before my mom had time to secretly go through them and see what I had gotten rid of!

I'm happy to report that all was put in the cans and nothing I had taken out of the house remained on the property.  The recycle can was also full to the max.

The trash is besides all the things I decided could be donated.  I filled up my car with donations after taking care of the trash and dropped those off on my way to work this morning.

I took a picture of what was removed, but there was actually still I think two or three more bags that didn't make it into the picture.


This first one is of the recyclable goods that I overfilled the can with.  See that clear Cascade container sitting at the top of the paper bag?  My mom tried to bring that one back in the house claiming that her friend wants them.  Yes, I know her friend likes them to store things in, but it was in the corner of the basement never to be seen again to it could be given away.  I said, "It doesn't even have a lid, you can't give that to her!"  She gave in and tossed it.

All of the bags and box closest in the picture were things I threw in the trash.  These are what I was most worried about my mom going through because there were things that I could definitely see her keeping, but also completely useless items.

A little bit of history.  I used to be very into coupons and found many wonderful deals.  Sometimes it was for things we couldn't or wouldn't use, but we would keep them to give away.  The giving only happened some of the time, and one can only have so many garage sales.  Therefore, in these bags was a total of about 50, yes, FIFTY boxes of Electrasol dishwashing tablets that went bad after so many years of sitting.  We don't have a dishwasher, but I tried them in a friend's washer and they left a bad film.  Therefore, they ALL went in the trash!  What a shame.

When I realized that my couponing was causing a problem, I stopped.  It was very time consuming and took up SO much space!

In the basement I found boxes of boxes, boxes of bags, and many bags full of bags.  There are boxes down there that are empty and just taking up space.  There were a couple of spider carcasses that really freaked me out!  However, at least I did not come across even ONE live spider :)

I took a short video that I've thought about putting on YouTube, what do you think?

Old Fridge and New Fridge?

Yes, both refrigerators still remain in the kitchen.  Is there room?  No.  Apparently it seems the new freezer is not as large as the old, or something, because the old still has items in it, thus the reason it hasn't been unplugged and removed.  Ugh.

Fridge pic and purging

After work yesterday when I arrived home, I noticed the front door area had been cleared.  That surely sent my brain through a loop!  Anyhow, I soon learned that it was cleared because a new refrigerator was delivered and there was no way it would have made it through that clutter.

Below is a picture of what the old fridge looked like inside.  I'll add that the only reason it looks a bit bare and somewhat "clean"(at least compared to what it was before), is because a lot was cleared out when it quit refrigerating and things had to be tossed.  Ice blocks were put in the fridge daily to keep things cool.  There is absolutely NO organization going on here.

The two bags of strawberries in the freezer are mine.  They both were put in a separate freezer that unbeknownst to me it didn't work.  This resulted in a lump of strawberries which I've been chipping away at.  Not to mention I had to replace berries I purchased for my BF when I went to Costco since he paid me for good, frozen berries.

On a sidenote, I almost bought a container to keep my berries, but couldn't find the dimensions I wanted at the time.  I probably wouldn't find room to put them anyway!

So, here is the old fridge:

After work yesterday I dedicated my time to putting things away that had been sitting around since Sunday.  Clutter.  Once that was taken care of I sort of stood there looking around thinking to myself, "What can I get rid of now?"

I ended up tossing approximately 15 magazines, ironically, two of them had articles on clutter!  Ha!

I also decluttered this adorable Betty Boop doll.  She's adorable, but what will I ever do with her?  Out the door, Betty!

There were other things, a pair of UGG shoes, three scarves and other small random things.

I  would love to hear if any of you have thoughts on what you read/see here.

Last night I went through the hall closet (linen closet) I've used as locking storage for many years and pulled things out to make room for my linens.  I filled the top shelf with a down comforter, a down throw, a blanket, two duvet covers, a set of sheets, pillow cases, curtains, and towels.  I'm not so sure if I like these things there, but am going to try it out.  At least it gets these things out of my bedroom!

In the process of looking through this closet, I threw out two rods that have been in this closet for at least 10 years!  They weren't mine, but obviously they weren't missed either.  They are those old, heavy, hanging things (not sure what they are called) that are used in old houses as weights inside the window frame to bring the windows up and pull them down.  Who knows why they were there.  Some more paper clutter was tossed as well as some pictures from a boyfriend from 1993ish.

In the closet was a picture frame that will be donated.

Now, besides my work last night, on my way out the door this morning I stopped and took a picture of what you see as you walk out of the house.  This is it:

What we have here is clutter that belongs to my mom, and most of it has been here either going on one summer or two, not sure.  We have a lamp and rug (new additions to the clutter), oranges and jicama (obviously not two years old), a suitcase on top of some wrapped up armoir things, possibly tables, a picture frame, black trash bags full of who knows what, and I think that thing on the left is either a dresser or a chest, I see a drawer to a small filing cabinet and a desk that was just given to her.  Oh, wait, do you see the flower pot?

I hate doing this (posting this picture),  but it may help people understand what I don't want to become and what I live in that is infuriating and embarrassing.  Do I ever invite people over?  NO!  NEVER!

What do you think of when you see this?

What would you think of the person who lives in a house with this on the walkway to the front door?

Sadly, this is what I live in, and even worse, it is what my mom has done to herself.  She doesn't see it or feel the need to do anything about it.  If there is an empty space, it gets filled with something else.  It hurts me that she does this.

I don't want to end up this way.