Decluttering on a whim . . . must. continue. on.

[strider]

Tonight, I went up to my attic and felt that familiar surge of helpless-overwhelmed-failure feelings. It's such a horrific mess up there!!!

But then I channeled the energy from those negative feelings into conquering. I opened a closet door and started to sort.

I have cleared one large, walk-in closet. I have a million miles left to go on this awful, awful attic and I pray I have the strength to continue RUTHLESSLY sorting and donating in the days to come.

[Plaid Dad]

Go, strider, go! You can do it! :D

[Mamagistra]

Tonight, I went up to my attic and felt that familiar surge of helpless-overwhelmed-failure feelings.

*sigh* I get that same wave of emotion from a nearby closet! :( Perhaps you will inspire me to get after it.

Dee-aitch said he'd put in special shelves for all my schoolin' goodies, so why am I waiting? :confused:

[Denise in IN]

I ran across this quote on somebody's blog the other day and I love it:

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

Carry on!

[Tutor]

Go, go, go!

Take before and after pics of one small area to help motivate you as you move on to the rest of the attic.

[WTMindy]

I love a good decluttering!

[Tammy in Germany]

Joy of all joy...I get this job this weekend. :rolleyes: We have another military move coming and I have an attic, basement and 2 garage areas to sort. I'm working on the weekends so I don't have to do it on Easter break. :D

Good luck with your decluttering!:D

[Lizzie in Ma]

BTDT for sure. A week ago I began to look at my bookshelves and 2 days later I was still standing in stacks I couldn't find room for! The heck of it is, they all fit before I took them off the shelves!:eek:
OK, the point is, it did, eventually, get done and I love it. Your attic is going to be great when you are done.

[strider]

Thanks for your encouragement. I am going to do my darndest at pressing on after school today.

[DIY-DY]

I like to grab a cup of my fav-O-rite beverage, crank some Los Lobos, and really just submerge myself in it. When I'm done, it feels SO, SO good!

Sing it with me...

Hey, baby, que paso?

Mmm, nothing like a good decluttering to bring your home back to being a home. Nobody wants to live in a warehouse, right? You can do it!!! Go! Go! Go!

Dy :D

[Laura Corin]

Well done. My history of decluttering is not great: I would go after it with much gusto, then burn out and ignore the whole issue for six months.

With the enthusiasm of a new convert, I have to tell you about how I do it now: I follow FlyLady's suggestion to tidy in 15 minute bursts each day. Then any area that has been decluttered gets put on my evening routine, so it stays clutter-free. I've been doing this for about two weeks now, and suddenly I have a tidy house. It's extraordinary!

Best wishes

Laura

[Ellie]

In my case it was the garage (most homes in Calif don't have real attics). I started buying those boxes that are packed flat and you put them together, and library card pockets, thinking I would just start at the garage door and work my way around (I think that's what S.H.E. recommends).

So dh was working out of town--had been for several months--and was coming home for good on Labor Day. I started in the garage, and then went across the street to ask my neighbor about something. His wife was at their vacation home cleaning (and BTW, this woman's home was always spotless; all she did was clean.) and he was putzing around the yard. I stayed and helped him in the yard a little, then he came over to help me with what I had asked him in the first place...and he stayed and helped me clean the whole garage. I forget how many bags of trash we put out, but by the end of the day, we could park two cars in that garage, and everything that was left, except dh's tools, was in boxes all the same size, with library card pockets glued to the outside of each box and a 3x5 card in each pocket listing the contents. Amazing. When dh arrived home on Monday, he drove up hot and tired from the long drive, and I made some lame request for him to open the garage door, and totally enjoyed the look on his face when he saw that big empty room:D

That Christmas I did the same thing with all my Christmas decorations.:)

[BizyPenguin]

I'm determinded to declutter my home this year too! Just keep plugging away at it! As Flylady would say, take "babysteps!". Everything you do blesses your home. All the best!

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

Well done. My history of decluttering is not great: I would go after it with much gusto, then burn out and ignore the whole issue for six months.

With the enthusiasm of a new convert, I have to tell you about how I do it now: I follow FlyLady's suggestion to tidy in 15 minute bursts each day. Then any area that has been decluttered gets put on my evening routine, so it stays clutter-free. I've been doing this for about two weeks now, and suddenly I have a tidy house. It's extraordinary!

Best wishes

Laura

Wow, Laura. That's fantastic!

[OnTheBrink]

I ran across this quote on somebody's blog the other day and I love it:

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful."

Carry on!

I think Edith Schaeffer said that. I could be wrong, though. I recently read one of her books on home making and that quote sounds familiar.

Anyway, I did a big declutter of my bedroom and have one more closet to clean out before I feel content with it. LOL Good luck! You can do it!

[j.griff]

ITU, and I can totally relate to those feelings and the situation. We don't have an attic indoors, it is in our detached garage- I can climb up there even :o So DH has to hand the boxes down to me and I have to make piles of what I don't want to hang onto any longer. I tell you, at this point in my life I really am beginning to LOATHE "things" and "stuff". Grrrrrrrr. And I feel like such a big failure when I see all this "stuff" we've bought, acquired, held onto, not used, etc. I am hoping that by the time we move our load will be half the weight it is now, and that we won't have to waste ANY time sorthing through "junk" when we receive our goods on the other end.
Keep on keeping on, and don't look back!!!!!!!!!!!
(I can hear Mel *from Braveheart* shouting FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when we are done, LOL)

[Just a Jen in Mississippi]

I'm right there with you! I'm sick of the clutter, the mess, and not being able to find things. I started this weekend in my son's room. We installed a closet organizer and got to work. That lead to my closet and my girls' closets. We took at two whole bags of decent clothes to Salvation Army, clothes that I will sale at our local spring clothing consignment, and 2-3 bags of things I just threw away. I tend to hold on to things thinking I may one day need them or in case we have a garage sale. But I hate having garage sales. So, the crap is going. So I'm with you. I'm not stopping until all the junk holes are sorted.

"Everything has a place and everything in it's place" is my new goal!

Good luck!

[Laura Corin]

Wow, Laura. That's fantastic!

I'm still gobsmacked (how's that for a Britishism) at this tidy house. Today I tackle my desk - wish me luck.

Laura

[HeatherH]

Our lives are up in the air right now - might stay, might move. We're treating it as if we're going to move - fresh paint, repairs, yard work. . .and. . . . .

DECLUTTERING!!!!!

I'm actually excited. Good bye, anything I wouldn't want to move across country! I'll keep y'all posted.

[Janna]

Though I attribute mine to "nesting". ;)

I cleaned out/pitched, you name it, the master bedroom medicine closet. It had become a "catch all" and since the baby will be staying in our room, that closet needed to be cleaned out to house additional stuff (diapers, wipes etc)

Then, in the middle of doing that, I became bored with it (ever do that? Right smack in the middle of it, stuff everywhere...and you move on to something different?) so I decided to start cleaning out my closet. This too had become a catch all of stuff other than my clothes and shoes. And that's where I became overwhelmed by the size of the project. Mainly because I was thinking about where stuff could go, what stuff I didn't need anymore, and then oh my word, my dh's closet might as well get cleaned out too and that's gonna be a chore, followed by thoughts of the storage closet upstairs, then the lack of organization in the garage (which I actually had dh go through 3 drawers out in the garage that were full of nails and screws and bolts etc...so that they were all together in the same place. He and dc worked on that today, which I'm so grateful for. The kids acquired their own "toolbox" which thrilled them greatly). I wanted to give up then and there. But I carried on and just finished the bathroom closet and then a general cleaning of the bathroom about 20 minutes ago. My closet still is not done, but I got a start on it.

We can get this done, Strider! :)