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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Sunday, June 10, 2012
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!!
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!!
Friday, June 8, 2012
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?
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.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
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.
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.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Decluttered a little
I feel so good tonight having made a bit of progress today. While working or just going about my business over the last few days, I've been creating a small list of things that I know I don't need and should get rid of one way or another.
The list was put together on one sheet of paper and when I was home today, I attacked it plus some! In total, I was able to pack a paper bag, and two tub things with dots which are actually in this picture here that I had over a year ago! I'm debating on whether or not I should keep the tubs until I'm done decluttering, because they make great totes. I took a picture of what I was donating, but the list of items is as follows:
Repurposed:
The list was put together on one sheet of paper and when I was home today, I attacked it plus some! In total, I was able to pack a paper bag, and two tub things with dots which are actually in this picture here that I had over a year ago! I'm debating on whether or not I should keep the tubs until I'm done decluttering, because they make great totes. I took a picture of what I was donating, but the list of items is as follows:
Repurposed:
- Extending shelf tray (gave to mom for use in kitchen)
To be donated:
- Battle of the Sexes board game (played once - not a fun game)
- Two hand towels in good condition
- Webcam - does anyone use these anymore?
- Mustard yellow hand-me-down sweater (that I never should have accepted!)
- Down pillow (I had 2 brand new ones, gave my mom one in exchange for one of hers that she didn't like, with the condition that I could donate the one she was giving up.) The other pillow will go to my guy. He likes these pillows which didn't work out for me. This decision was tough, I wanted both of them to get the pillows.
- Handmade bracelets and necklace.
- 3 pairs of Cole Haan shoes, 2 prs Merrell shoes and 1 pr Teva sandals.
Giving away one of my nice leather checkbook covers to someone I know desperately needs one.
Here is the picture of most of what is off to be donated The middle one is full of shoes!:
I'll also try listing some items on eBay and taking a few to a consignment shop.
Pretty good if you ask me!
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