Decluttering Challenge Anyone?

[Siana]

With the reduced space in my home as a result of renos., I'm going batty with the lack of space, and all the extra stuff we have. I'm getting geared up for lots of decluttering and organization before the new year (and hopefully we'll have enough space for the Christmas gifts! :dizzy). I know it'll make me feel happier and better the energy (flow) in our home as well.

Anyone want to join me?

Some guidelines of how to motivate ourselves and each other through this:
* Post your de-cluttering goals -- whether it is number of items gone, number of bags, rooms, whatever works for you
* Post your progress as you work towards your goal -- it's inspiring to see how far you've come in your effort towards a more simplified home!

[Siana]

Oops! Posted it in the wrong forum! Oh well...

[Madie&Logan's Mom]

Mmmm move? lol.

My house is one big clutter of chaos. *sigh*

[Ginny]

I cleared out quite a bit today from our bedroom. I hated the feeling of clutter in my room, I felt that each night when I went to bed, I was immersed in clutter and stress. Today it helped clear my mind to gut the bedroom a bit. Of course, the motivation of a busy weekend (including a holiday party at our house) helped, too. I also cleaned out the girls rooms and put a bunch of the toys from the living room into my daughter's room so the downstairs is slowly getting cleared out.

But the big achievement today was the 2.5 garbage bags from my bedroom and the rubbermaid with items for goodwill.

[AnnasMom]

I am forever re-organizing and de-cluttering. CP just called today to arrange a pick up for December 21, so now I have a deadline to work towards!

[csl2063]

Great idea. I've been trying to de-clutter for ages. I've always been a hoarder and I have an embarrassing amount of 'stuff'.

Here's a link to the things I'm trying to get rid of on Kijiji:

http://london.kijiji.ca/c-PostersOth...UserIdZ1143913

[lhastie]

I need to as well. Found some toys we need to find new homes for (already, she's 11 months!!) before Christmas.... The things we've got are small, but not necessarily the items from my parents

I'm working on a bag of clothes too. If I'm never going to wear it or put Katarina in it, it needs to go.

We're also working on the Kijiji route My husband had some suits/dress jackets that don't fit any more and he decided to part with them... though that kind of stuff doesn't seem to sell ....

[sittingpretty]

I did DD's room yesterday easiest way of doing it do it while she is not home take garbage bags fill and repeat. I save nothing unless its considered "special" she currently now owns about 6-10 "special" toys and no more mind you she has never had alot of toys to start with.

clothing is done for her every 4 months she trys everything on in front of me, is donated downstairs in the bin if it doesnt fit or i havent seen her wear it in 3 months. turned to rags if stained.

[Siana]

Madie&Logan's Mom, we need to de-clutter before we move - this place wouldn't sell as is :lol

Geomamma, looks like you've been busy!

AnnasMom, I'd love to have my donations picked up by someone!

csl2063, hehe we're kind of pack rats as well. I've become pretty good at elimating things we don't need, especially if they're not mine

lhastie, Kijiji can be okay for something things, but I too think clothing, especially adults, doesn't seem to sell fast there. I typically give away adult clothing, or donate it to Goodwill or a womans shelter (depending on if it's mens or womens clothing of course (: )

sittingpretty, good system. Our kids stuff is relatively under control since they only have one major area - their dresser - for most if it. Coats and Jackets go in the hall closet. I do need to weed out some clothing however because I think if I had everything washed and put away, there might be some (though not a lot of) overflow.

[gogomom]

I'll join in with this challenge - there are a still few things that I haven't touched since we moved into our house and that was 8 years ago!!!! We are in the middle of remodeling the kitchen so I finally sorted through the cupboards last night tossing all the food way past expiry and sippy cups, baby food jars (I had a box with several dozen on the top shelf) etc.... After I moved it all downstairs onto shelves I sorted through the spices (you know spices are only good for about 6-10 months after opening them) and put all the rest into Tupperware modular mates with labels. Now I won't have to anything else with the kitchen until the new cabinets arrive and are installed.....
Next I need to sort through the kids closets (DS#3 has grown several inches since September and now barely half the clothes in his closet fit him properly) and get rid of the toys and videos for babies...
I have three giant hinged rubbermaid containers filled in the basement already that I keep swearing I will sort and sell on the Classifieds. I won't do this until after Christmas as I think the classifieds slow down this time of year as everyone is buying new for Christmas....
So.... next on the block is the giant pile of Christmas stuff - I'm going to sort through it tonight and toss all the broken stuff, label or display the rest and purchase a shelving unit specifically for Christmas stuff so I will be able to easily find, use and put away anything Christmas....

[Hame]

I will join is as well. I just got two and a half bags of recycling out and a bag of garbage...most of that was from DH's office....

[lilabelle]

I'm totally in this mode too, so I'd be in. In a previous post (about how you keep your house organized) I talked about my "dirty little secret" which is my spare room. It is like one giant closet, and as long as the rest of the house is fairly tidy, I don't care how crammed this room gets...well...turns out this room won't be a spare for long . I would like to get my basement decluttered as well, as it hasn't really been touched since we moved here three years ago!!! I'll be watching for details on how this goes. Hmmmm, I also have clothes in my closet that have not been worn in years....oh boy I REALLY do need this challenge! Yikes. Get me motivated!

[Siana]

A couple months ago I finally got around to doing a major cleaning out of our kitchen that's about 8' x 10' (tiny). Here's what I weeded out!:



The vast majority were plastic containers that we didn't use and one box had appliances we didn't touch! Sadly, they're not out of our home yet, because when I put something in the spare room (as I did with these), DP just stacks it up on other boxes. To find those boxes is going to be some chore, but it's on my list of things to do before the new year!

[OHMama]

I am forever trying to declutter and i know that i've heard from quite a few people challenged with keeping up with housework while staying home with the wee ones....so i thought that i'd share a REALLY helpful website with you....www.flylady.net
It's a system of breaking your cleaning down into zones for the month, and that 15 mins at a time is all you need so stop burning yourself out!...etc....it's based on 2 old books(that i have and are awesome!)....Hope that you check it out and enjoy!

[Becks]

I wuld like to join in as well but could someone give me just the break down of what the challenge is actually all about