I'm in! Just the motivation i need to pare down my collection. What collection you ask? Why EVERYTHING! that wanders, floats around, clutters flat surfaces and collects dust. Hmmm, perhaps i should declare my target room. .. that way I'll be on the line for it.

Thanks for being a superfluous stuff sifter sponsor in this twelve step program for shedding $#&t.

I see your challenge, and raise it. My wife just landed a job in SC, so we've got about one month to get our FL house ready to sell, pack everything, and haul it all to SC!

Don't get me wrong; this is a good problem. For those that are following my progress, we've been a split household for two years, with my wife working in FL while I build our place in SC. The 600+ mile commute is getting old!

An interesting plot twist is that the new house is NOT ready, so our worldly possessions will be stored in the barn while we camp out in the basement. 'Organization' will not be the operative word.

I have been thinking about doing something in my basement.
This will be a good challenge for me and just he motivation that I need.

Okay, I'm in.

Recently, I came to the realization that not one single room in my house is finished. And I've been living here two years. Every single room has either clutter, or is missing finishing details, like curtains or artwork or something.

I blame a military childhood, where we moved all the time and couldn't hang pictures on the walls of government provided housing or paint or otherwise really decorate. But that's no excuse 30 years later.

I've been working on my bedroom off and on over the summer. I'll take up the challenge to finish the bedroom before the end of the month.

That means:

Find shoe storage.
Deal with the pile o' clutter in the corner.
Hang the curtains.
Make the curtains.
Go through summer and winter clothes and donate those things I don't wear.
Switch out summer and winter clothes.
Find a place to store the iron that isn't the top of my dresser.
Hang the twinkle lights.
Hang the other roller shade. (Got one up and lost steam.)
Make the rug. (Found a lovely crochet pattern for a rug; just have to make it now.)
Clean from top to bottom.

Goodness, I'm getting the vapors just looking at the list.

And the funny thing is, once the bed is made, the room doesn't look bad. It's just that I know all these little projects are hanging over my head.

I'm in. Here is my goal list:
Garage: Put up shelves. Organize boxes.
Master: Find furniture (not delivered, just PICK OUT)
Living: Order custom bookcases (not completed, just ORDER)
Paperwork: File, file, file and more filing

FLgargoyle - the good thing is that you will sift through your things and think about, "Do I want to pay to store this?" Good luck.

Camlan - awwww, now I've got to make my list

Finallyhome - isn't it amazing, with the advent of computers we should have LESS paper.....

Alright. I'll focus on my bedroom:

Go through closet and things I haven't worn in a couple of years donate.
ditto drawers
ditto holiday decorations: things I haven't used and won't "hand down" to children, donate or list on ebay
Take donations to GW
move trunk to other side of room
clear dresser top, file stuff or throw stuff away
touch up paint on chair rail (I don't want to do a whole paint job)
Get DH to install clutch on window shade

One thing a day ought to do it.

Okay, tackled the Pile O'Clutter a bit this weekend. It wasn't as bad as I'd imagined. Several months ago, I'd tried to bring a little order to the mess. So I had two bags of stuff ready for Goodwill, a pile of bins and baskets to use while organizing (insert eye roll here), a stack of stuff that needs to be sent/given to other people, a pile of art work and then a bunch of unsorted junk.

Bags to GoodWill.
Mailed a box of stuff to my brother. (It's stuff he wants, not just junk.)
Sent belated birthday gift to nephew.
Wrapped up a DVD as a surprise gift to my other nephews and niece for their long car ride back home today, after they and their parents drove 500 miles to see my other brother just back from Afghanistan.
Half the art work is hung on my bedroom walls.
Packed up and mailed a catalog return.

Sunday: 50% of filing done. Yea.
Rearranged guest bedroom (i.e. moved boxes of books in a more orderly fashion.)

I'm working on a 15-year-old 'honey-do' list while my wife goes through all of the stuff and makes executive decisions. It's amazing how many little repair projects there are, plus things such as replacing two ceiling fans which are too valuable to leave behind.

We won't be paying to store anything; it all goes with us or out. We once had a storage unit, and realized that after a year, we had spent more than the contents were worth. Never again!

Sigh.

The Pile O' Clutter is now larger by one Afghanistan prayer rug, two marble goblets and a shawl.

On the plus side, my brother got back from 18 months in Afghanistan safely.

This sounds like the challenge I need to get moving! My house is a cluttered mess. We have made good progress everywhere, but there remains a basic "sheen" of junk and dust everywhere. For instance, we have located the top of our dressers and organized what will stay there. We have been working on the piles of laundry, too, but have never caught up and gotten everything washed and put away. That has to happen before I can vacuum and move or discard things that do not belong in the bedroom.

Same in my craft/exercise room - furniture is all in place, but the clean unsorted bits of laundry are all over my exercise/PT mat table and I need to return a bunch of catalog purchases or donate them and get them out of that room, then clean off the bookshelves so I can organize and put away my lymphedema supplies there and that will get some boxes out of my sauna room, which can then be organized.

Meanwhile, back in the main living area, the dog shed is almost over and I need to vacuum up the large amounts of underfur that are underfur everywhere! Then I need to declutter the island so I can have a workspace for working with the fairy/dinosaur gardens and get them delivered to the kiddos up in the Thumb of Michigan before it gets cold again. I can do my own Gnome Garden, which is how all of this started a year ago! That frees up my kitchen space so it looks like a kitchen again. That will inspire me to sand and stain the last few bits for the kitchen remodel from three years ago so I can get final pictures up for you folks and call that project done.

Then, back at the front area, I can hang the few remaining pictures in the library/music room and get pictures of that room posted for you, too. Then I have woodwork in the foyer, halls, kitchen, and family room to paint, ceilings in halls and family room and hall walls to hire painted.

By then it will be time to gut the big bathroom.

Jay, we've done the same thing, and the sad thing is that some of our furniture ruined while in storage.

camlam, that's wonderful news. Is he home for good?

nancy, I can relate to that sheen of dust and junk.

Six large black garbage bags at the curb today. My husband even got into the act and started tossing as well.
THe basement looks better but I still have many more shelves to go.
I still couldn't part with some of my books. i did fill two shopping bags to donate though.
Cam, thank goodness.

Some might not think this is a big deal, but my coffee table is clean! It has been piled high with papers for filing, receipts, paid bills, old mail, etc., for weeks.

A small step, but a step.

Woo hoo finallyhome. And what a lovely rug under your coffee table.

I love a clean and non cluttered home. It takes work to keep it that way. When I was traveling back and forth to the hospital I thought I would leave the house tidy so I did not have to come home to a mess tired. All I wanted to do then was take care of the animals shower and fall into bed. I would wake up the next morning and for some reason it would look like a bomb went off. I have no clue how that kept happening. LOL

For once I will get to sit back and watch all of your progress. The new vinyl in the two bedrooms hall and closets forced me to weed out and de-clutter those rooms. While i was at it I did my studio. I already did the pantry and kitchen a few months ago when I did another re-arrange.

Depending on how it all goes with Joe I might get some more time to work on the tile base boards. Course that means all the dang furniture needs to be moved again. ARGHHHHH For now I am taking a break and just trying to keep up with all that needs to be done each day.

Chris

Very nice finallyhome! It is a big deal. I don't have a coffee table but I have a tiny end table piled with so much stuff that a touch causes an avalanche.

Oh, yes! Yes, I'm right here with you, surrounded in excess.

houseofsticks - "surrounded in excess" is an excellent description of my situtation. Excess papers, excess Dollar Store purchases (ok, call it what it is "junk"), excess unmatching socks, excess 1 earring. 30 year + of excess purchases. You get idea.

Trying to unsurround myself with the help of this challenge.

Oh, I've been a procrastinator!!! Not done one thing on my list. The a/c being out is partial excuse. Couldn't do anything as I cooled off in the pool multiple times/day and night.

Finallyhome your coffee table looks very nice. Clear and enjoyable.

Alright. One thing this morning: move the trunk.

I'm off.....

Our moving preparations are going well, although it seems that there is still a mountain ahead of us. Last weekend we had a yard sale and did very well. We tried to donate some large items to the Salvation Army, but they have gotten rather fussy and just cherry-picked what they wanted. I filled my big van to the roof and made a dump run.

I'm chipping away at repairs while my wife has most of the packing done, and is now helping me with painting touch-ups.

Jay (flgargoyle)

Wow! Everyone is doing such a wonderful job! I think we need one more weekend, so let's move the 'tea' to Monday, September 30th at 4pm ET, on the Conversations side.

I don't know about the rest of you...but there is no way I'll be done by Thursday! LOL

Finally home- Your table looks beautiful...and so clean!

Every step is important, so let's all keep cleaning, sorting, organizing and donating!!! It makes such a difference, not only to ourselves, but all those who benefit from the donations. Ten days left...we can do it!!! :)

I am done with my basement! I moved on to closets. My oldest daughter was home this afternoon and I had her go through all of the clothing that she leaves here at home. We have two giant bags to give away.

I then went into another closet where my husband has at least ten pairs of old worn out jeans. Threw those in a bag and they are going to be donated as well.

Lavender, can you put a reminder on this side to go over to conversation side?

Great job!!!

Absolutely, I'll put a reminder next weekend :)

It's been over 3 years. Did anybody actually complete their whole list?

Wow- A lot has transpired since this thread! We got it done- finished getting the house ready, sold it, packed everything in a single 26' truck, and hauled it to SC. The house here got finished, and we've moved in.

Now for the next problem- we still have tons of stuff! We like the open, uncluttered feel of our house, with a lot less stuff than we used in our old house. Sooo- we've got to start chipping away at it- again. It's going to be a slow process, as we still have two areas to finish and furnish, a basement guest bedroom, and a great room in the barn.

Wow, that is very exciting! I hope you are enjoying the process. Sounds wonderful to me!!

Well since Hubby passed away and I re-arranged the whole house I did get a lof done but also brought in several more things I always wanted in the house I had been storing in my loft. Now the loft is nicely decluttered and the house is filled up. HA this moves like a wave. some in some out then more out then slowly is rolls back in. I give UP!!!

I feel I am making progress in my life. I saw a gorgeous small table, inlaid wood, great condition, really good price and I could not for the life of me find a place I could put it, so I passed on it. For me, that is real progress!! LOL

Wow, nice to see my friends from Smaller Homes here! I am sorry to hear of the loss of your Joe, Chris. I don't think I heard that before. I knew he was ill. Hope you are doing well on your own.

Steph, we have been thinning out books, too. My text books have to go, as do my professional ones. DH needs more room on the bookshelves as he is now reading everything in hard cover! I have moved to Kindle because my hands won't hold books anymore. I have been in his office/library/music room a few times and have tried to declutter a bit. It is a challenge!

We are buried under clutter most of the time. Just a thin layer, covering all surfaces, one layer deep! DH drops anything where he uses it, including any packaging it came in. So some mornings as I feed the dog, I go through the kitchen and toss garbage and recycle-ables into the correct bins. Then there are the things that do not have a good place to live, so they just sit out. I have worked at finding homes for things. I have three boxes of things to build sitting against walls - a shoe organizer, a CD shelf, and now a golf organizer for the garage.

Meanwhile, I am back making final purchases for the always-in-the-future bathroom gut and remodel. We have both gone through closets and thinned our unworn clothes out, and I have moved a chest of drawers to where I can use it for our sheets, blankets, pillowcases, and stuff for packing for trips. DH is taking occasional business trips. I also organized all shoe-shine equipment into a hand-made shoe-shine box I bought at a garage sale 15 years ago! I had help one day in the basement and built two shelving units we had down there and started going through boxes and organizing things down there.

I also got a great deal on a big steel cabinet with shallow drawers that was designed to hold microfiche cards. It has 12 drawers that are 18" front-to-back and 3 or 4 ft wide. It is very heavy-duty and perfect for holding stones. If we could move it, we could get it in the house and I could fill it with all the stone and glass and metal beads I have for jewelry-making. I could easily see what I have then! The only problem is that once it is in place, it will be too heavy to move and the place it will have to go does not have a floor down, just a sub-floor. We pulled up the yucky carpet in that bedroom after Dad died. So I think I have to wait until the bathroom remodel is done, since that is going to steal 6 inches or so from this room, and it does not make sense to lay a cork floor down before we tear out the bathroom wall and rebuild it.

Last year, though, we did get new gutters and gutter guards and covered the soffitts and fascia with aluminum and vinyl trim and we replaced the last 4 windows!

The bathroom project is down to choosing the bathroom flooring material, the shower pan, and buying the swanstone walls for the shower. I also have to finalize the toilet choice - ie: do I need to get one with the tank in the wall to give the shower doors more room to open, or is a regular toilet okay? So I am at the point where I need to call Jim, my contractor, and get his input and get scheduled. I have a new bath fan/heater fixture to buy, a new door to get, and just a few other really minor things. I am zeroing in on a color for the vanity. As soon as the weather warms, I can paint it. I have it all filled and sanded, sitting in the garage, waiting for the warm weather.

I think that one of the problems, at my age, anyhow, is that getting rid of certain things means 'the end' of part of my life. For example, I used to play brass instruments, mostly trumpet. I've slowly run out of opportunities to play, and found that I've really lost my confidence. The last few times I played in public, I was a nervous wreck! It requires daily practice to remain proficient, and it's just not worth my time any more. But actually selling off the horns is a MAJOR step, knowing that at my age, I won't be going back.

The same goes for many of my books. I only hold on to reference-type books, mostly about building stuff. I probably have 30 books on boat building, for example. Selling them would mean I'm not going to build any more boats, again, a major part of my life. Then again, they're not worth much, they don't cost anything to keep, and they are a nice touchstone on a rainy day.

I could go on and on about closing chapters of my life, but you get my point. How do I move on?

Nancy so good to see you here again. I am doing well considering this brutal winter we have been having. Trying not to morn the loss of Joe but to celebrate the wonderful 31 years we had together. Lots of good memories.

EEEKKK Jay kind of scary thoughts to be willing to close those chapters. I actually bought a new fiddle because now I might have time to play and enjoy it. Except mother Nature had other ideas for me this winter. BUT I am not giving up on this thought yet.

I already purged so many of my books even craft ones. Like you I will hang onto the reference books for crafts. They are already paid for and I have made room for them to have a home on their own shelf. So why not keep them. Otherwise I too have moved totally to my kindles for reading pleasure.It is painful to hold books in my hands too.

Good job Steph for getting all your laundry caught up. I know you have mentioned it many times.

I'm not giving up music, even though hearing loss is starting to be an issue. I sing in the church choir, but sometimes can't hear what's coming out of my own mouth!

Plans are to buy a decent guitar from the proceeds of selling the horns. Guitar is great because I can sit on the porch and play for my own enjoyment, and more appropriate in our small country church. I used to play a bit, so I should be able to get back in shape without too much trouble.

Right a guitar is much more forgiving than a fiddle. If my body was still not so sore from all the snow I would go play on my fiddle right now. Well maybe I will just give it a try and see how it feels!!

"buy a decent guitar from the proceeds of selling the horns"

yes, I think at this age we need to make some serious choices. I know I've been doing that. while I know I'll never make clothes again (I haven't for the last 30 some yrs!) I will most likely do some repairs, patches etc. I keep most of my craft /sewing books in case I do need to look something up.

I know I won't ever make a huge meal again for a number of people and I do plan to get rid of a lot of my cookbooks. I will keep a few main ones like BC and BHAG. nor will I probably try many new recipes (other that how to do in AF or one pot cooker). Fiction books won't be part of my life anymore. I used to read 4-5 a wk (often while growing up). they are going and gone.

Since I haven't really 'cooked' in several decades I find I've forgotten things and sometimes need to look things up in those cookbooks. recently I had to look up chili recipes. my old chili (that'd been making since the 70s) no longer gets along with my system, so I've had to change that.

I also find that I'm so much slower now (and in pain and napping) that I can't fit so many of my previous activities into my daily life. Nor do I do a lot of multitasking anymore. I often struggle with 'single tasking' - lol!

the realization has come that I just need to accept what is now and not try to do or be what was.

I'm going out to do 2 errands. pick up 2 items at HD and 2 or 3 at the grocery. in the past that'd take about an hour. these days, I'd better give it 2 hours...followed by exhaustion and a nap.

A nap sounds good about now for me too Steph.

I cleared out enough from my kitchen to be able to store a winter supply of cat food in three lower base cabinets. It has been so nice to know it is here and it was delivered and no worry about having to get more before March or even April. When you have 7 cats that is a lot of food and litter. The litter I did keep on the front porch in my little storage area there=under the table.

I only kept enough to be able to cook a nice meal if I have friends over for dinner. Being this might have happened a few times in the last 20 years I probably could have removed all cooking items. LOL A person tends to think what if but I am no longer living by what if. If I have not done it by now forget it.

I am still feeling pretty good about the too much stuff state of my house I have been through it so many times now I really have narrowed things down. Like any one else I have a couple hot spots I am not thrilled with. I think this is always an issue.

'hearing loss is starting to be an issue'

for me too! I got a different phone a few months back and that really helped in that area. I also got a new TV and I'm hoping one of these new ones with stereo will help with the hearing. I've noticed lately that I'm moving the volume up, up, up. And sometimes what is being said on it seems very mumbled.

my really old tv (humongous old type) doesn't even have a place that I could plug in another speaker and run it over by me. I'm sure the new one has that.

the old one doesn't have a place to connect a dvd either, so I'm looking forward to having one again. And the space and weight. I won't need to have it on a table / cabinet of some kind and that will take away the problem of moving it to dust/clean under it also!

I know I say 'huh?' a lot... if I catch myself saying it while talking to myself, I'll know it is really serious!

the body has long been gone... now the ears and eyes are rushing to follow it!