Junk Out 2010

Let's see, this week I passed on another box of baby boy clothes to my youngest sister, and I came to the realization that the new duvet cover that I finally got onto my bed just wasn't as nice as it looked. It sure looked nice, and it sure was a great deal. That's why I've kept it this long, in my closet...

While cleaning out my closet, there it was. I remembered that shopping day, at Target, at least a year ago (nope, not kidding), maybe more. I wasn't there for a duvet cover. I was there for the usual things like diapers, toilet paper, and socks, because it seems like socks are almost as consumable as those other single-use items around here...

And then I saw it, sitting all nice and pretty on the end cap, clearanced at 75% of it's original price. A set with bed skirt (which doesn't work with out bed frame anyway...), duvet cover, and 2 fabulous and superfluous fancy pillow cases. Deep red with a gold and green paisley pattern. It was luxurious looking, and it was slippery. That was its downfall. It literally kept slipping off to one side or the other, and it sounded rather loud as it did. It was the taffeta backing. I've never really understood satin sheets, but taffeta surely must be worse. I even put a flannel sheet under it, because, well, we live in Minnesnowta and have a closet full of flannel sheets (2 sets). Taffeta still slips off of flannel.

My husband tried to appreciate the look of this beautiful piece. After all, his wife had finally gone to some extra effort to beautify the master bedroom, to make it the sanctuary of our home (that it should be! I need to keep working on that!), and he didn't want to squelch any of that. After a week of trying, he finally took it off the bed the other night and said it just has to go. "It's like sleeping under a windbreaker." You know, those lighweight, but really loud, jackets? I giggled, and agreed. It really was like sleeping under a windbreaker, a really pretty windbreaker, but a windbreaker nonetheless.

I hope somebody else will appreciate it. It's going to the thrift store.

I can't use it, so, to me, it's junk, and I need to get the Junk Out!

What else? It's also time to toss about 50 (ok, I didn't really count them) little girls' turtlenecks that have been worn by 4 girls for the past 5 yrs or so, and really just aren't in any shape to be passed on. They weren't in the best of shape to be worn by girl #4, which is why she ended up with several new shirts making the pile of older shirts even more unnecessary and downright cumbersome as she has this habit of emptying the entire bin of shirts every time she goes to pick out a new one. When the bin is stuffed full of hand-me-downs it makes for a big pile of shirts on the floor... Yeah, time to be done with that.

Baby clothes passed on, a bedding set thrifted, and a pile of overused shirts tossed. That's a good week for me, and I think I'll finish going through our youngest two children's clothes this afternoon...

How did you do?

Junk Out 2010

This week I didn't make the kind of progress I had hoped for. That's ok, I'm becoming a lot more comfortable with releasing things, and that is a huge step in the right direction. Huge. I passed on a ton of baby boy clothes to my youngest sister today without hesitation. I didn't take a picture, but when I say a ton, I mean a ton, or however much 2 very full garbage bags weighs...

It gets easier, I'm seeing that, but I still have a long way to go. I've realized that I am the type of person to develop an emotional attachment to just about anything I've ever touched, owned, or even seen. Ok, that could be a slight exaggeration, but it's not that far off.

I have single coffee cups that I never meant to collect, and that annoy me because there is no uniform-ness in my cup cupboard. Haphazard cups bumping into each other stresses me out, and yet I've kept them, even a few of the chipped ones. "You never know when you might need an extra cup, right?" "That chip isn't that big." Ok, the one that had the crack spread down the side and then started dripping coffee on me... that one went. You see? I'm not hopeless. I just have too much junk.

I have decorative plates that never get used. Some were gifts, and you know how that can go... I've never once been given a guilt trip by anyone (that I can remember) about not hanging onto a gift of some sort, and yet I have guilted myself into not getting rid of things that someone gave me for years and years. I've gotten better at it, but I do still have that Tabasco glass that one of my sisters gave us years ago. It's really cute, actually, but it sits up in a back corner of the cupboard just taking up space, mostly because it's a lone cup, and I have this thing for symmetry and pairs. It held pens for a while, but then I moved up to a bigger and wider pen holder, and back into the cupboard it went. It's a cute cup, but I don't need it and somebody else might get some enjoyment out of it. It's going in the box.

I have fabric I've never cut into, but that I had an idea for some time ago...

I have sewing pattenrs I'm sure I'll never use...

I have knitting books and patterns that I thought about using once upon a time...

I have boxes of papers that either need archiving or shredding...

I have games no one liked to play...

I have tablecloths that don't fit my table...

I have books I meant to read and school books I meant to use, before I changed my mind...

I still have clothes I never wear hanging in my closet, despite several purgings already...

I have pictures I've never hung...

I have small kitchen appliances that seemed like a good idea at the time...

I have unused Tupperware...!?!

I just keep finding things, things I don't need, things I never use, things I don't even like anymore, and a new feeling comes over me- the feeling like I can give, sell, or toss!

I love the decluttered corners that I've reclaimed, the order that has returned to my closet, and knowing that even an organizationally challenged packrat can find freedom from things- things that clutter the mind as much as they clutter the home.

I love getting the Junk Out!!

Junk Out Week 5

This week I needed to tackle my entry, again. I think this area needs to have a quarterly clean-out, if not a monthly one. The up side of having a nice big entry, especially for a large family, is having a nice big space for coats and boots and shoes and stuff. The down side of having a nice big entry is having a nice big space for coats and boots and shoes and stuff. Space in my home is like a vacuum, it sucks in stuff.

We have 2 new puppies, who happen to be growing very quickly. They also happen to still be in training, if you know what I mean. (No, not training to sit still in church...) With puppies and their accidents, I'm taking bleach water to the floor pretty frequently, and it would help if there was not a pile of excess coats or misplaced mittens to work around, or worse, to pick up and run through the washing machine... ick.

I've had a few extraneous things in the entry for a while now, just waiting to be sorted through and tossed or donated, or in the case of the extra curtain rods that have been forgotten in the corner, put with the sewing stuff to be used with the puppet theater, once I pick up some cheap satin and/or velvet remnants at Mill End.

• The big extra air matress needed putting back in the closet. It was on the floor, where it really didn't belong, for far too long...
• A couple extra coats needed passing on the the thrift store,
• same with the unused rain coat.
• The boots needed organizing
• and the shoes needed sorting.
• The extra basket needed a new home under the stairs, for collecting toys waiting to go back upstairs.

And the floor needed to be mopped, again. And naybe again, for good measure.

The entry is the 1st thing people see when they enter our home. I know it should be a priority on the cleaning list and yet it seems so easy for me to let that area become overwhelmed with disorganized clutter. Our extra coat hooks have helped, as there are just too many sweaters, jackets, and coats for our little closet in a family this size. I have yet to find the perfect thing to tackle the shoe situation, but I keep trying! My latest idea is to keep a basket and just let them dig for pairs, as I don't have enough room for enough special shoe racks. I'm not sure how long it will last, bit it's working for now.

What about you? Did you get any Junk Out this week? Remember, the linky is kept open all week, so you can come back and link up any time you get to posting your decluttering progress.

Junk Out Week 4

(Unloved shoes, now bagged and donated!)

I'm finishing my closet today. Yes, decluttering, cleaning, and organizing my closet did end up being a 4 week process, worked in baby steps, and yes, that's okay. If I get to feeling energetic this afternoon (it could happen...) I may start in the youngest children's closet. There are a few things up there that I know just need to find a new home, a home away from this home- as opposed to a new home within this home.

It's time to stop reorganizing and rearranging the clutter, it's
time to remove the clutter!

Back to my closet, so far I've tossed 2 pairs of my shoes and a pair of baby shoes that were just not in shape to be worn again or passed on. I've bagged 5, make that 6, pairs of my almost never worn shoes and a pair of baby girl shoes that someone will be lucky to snatch up from the thrift store in town. I also pulled yet another skirt that I just never wear. I liked it when I bought it, and I actually still like it, but I never wear it, so out it goes. There is no room for things never used or worn, not in my closet, not in my life.

I've sorted my pajamas and long underwear (this is The Frozen Tundra after all, yes, I do own long underwear and, yes, I have been known to wear them) and may have tossed more old unmentionables than I kept. Seems to me like a good excuse for some new unmentionables.

I also pulled out the pile of old baggy boys' jeans that were being saved to make a scrappy denim quilt. They are about to be cut into squares. Today.

If you've got some junk to Junk Out, and you post about it, the linky stays open all week, so feel free to come on over and link up any time you get a chance. Happy decluttering!

Junk Out 2010 Week 3

Sickness is still in the house. I thought it may have been gone- I was wrong. I still plan to get back to the bottom left quarter of my closet today, the part with the old shoe pile, but it may be some hours from now and I wanted to get a post up yet this morning in case anyone is ready to link up. I'll try to get back and edit this post with news of this week's decluttering sometime this afternoon. Until then, here ya go-

Junk Out 2010

I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked to had had this past week, but then I could probably say that just about any week, eh? I did tackle the decluttering the upper shelf in my closet. Oh, the things a person can stash in a closet...

It was time to toss the boxes that my son's and my point and shot cameras came in 2 years ago. Good grief, they've been used and abused, charged and recharged, and are probably well past their warranties- it's not like I was going to need the boxes to return them in, and using them to box a birthday present of some sort just seems like it would be kind of a cruel tease. Old cell phone boxes too, seriously, what is it with me and the boxes I might need someday? Out they went! If I need them next week, well that's just too bad... I'm not worried about it, anymore. (And the boxes from the ball winder I got for Mother's Day a while back, the Danskos I've been wearing for quite some time, and who even knows what else? There were a lot of boxes up there- not anymore!)

There is the issue of the 2 lamp posts pictured in last Saturday's post. I love them. We have these old white nightstands with white lamps by the bed. They don't match the current decor, but I haven't found either new nightstands that would look well or the money to buy them with. I do still plan to remedy that situation, and am seriously considering painting the nightstands an antique-ey black, the kind that's crackled, which would go much better, in my opinion. My point is that I am not decluttering those new lamp posts, but would rather someday soon declutter the current lamps, and find a couple new lamp shades... I looked for some the other day, but the ones I liked the best were the most expensive ones on the shelves, go figure, and I was too cheap to buy them. Soon, though, soon.

I'm a knitter (and a designer), and being such, I have a bit of a stash, and while I'm committed to knitting from my stash, I am not inclined to declutter my stash. Stash is not clutter, it just isn't. If you're a knitter, you probably know what I mean, unless you're one of the unusual kind... My stash my not be destined for the thrift store, like so many things I've been pulling from this closet, but it did need to be tamed, contained, and at least have the appearance of being organized. Getting it out from the monstrous pile that was growing on and beyond the bookcase in my room and onto the shelf up inside my closet, which has so much more room now, is a major improvement.

I have pulled out a few more shirts that haven't been worn in well over a year as well as a couple pairs of my husband's pants which are in great shape, he just doesn't like them. I don't know about the men in your life, but my husband just doesn't wear pants that he doesn't like, hmm, kind of like those shirts of mine... We wear what we like. Things we don't like (and hence, don't wear) really should not be taking up space in our closet, especially if somebody else could get some wear out of them. Off they go to the thrift store, I hope they find a good home, I really do.

As I cull shirts from the closet, one thing I am trying to do, bit by bit because they cost money, is replace our plastic hangers with nice looking wooden ones. I got these at Target. One of the things I LOVE about using wooden hangers is that you can't fit as many clothes in the closet when the hangers take up more space. Seriously, this is a good thing. Fewer shirts means fewer head scratching sessions as I stand there staring blankly into a closet stuffed with too many shirts, that I rarely wear, only to reach for one of my favorites and pull it out all wrinkled from being squished, stretched, and crumpled in among the losers. Tossing and donating a dozen or so tops feels great! Back to the hangers, I've got most of my husband's dress shirts on wooden ones and a random handful of mine. A few more bi-weekly regular shopping trips with another pack of wooden hangers thrown in ought to be good.

More randomness:

• toddler clothes hangers
• the mantel clock I made in 8th grade industrial arts class
• a medieval costume
• breast pump
• nursing pillow
• a bag of old (after Halloween sale) candy I was keeping from my children to bring out on a rainy day sometime that I never brought out and is now quite stale and somewhere towards the bottom of the trash can. Sheesh!

The lower half of my side needs more work this week. That is where I'll be for some time and I'll need to make some decisions on some older pairs of shoes as well as the pile of very random stuff that has grown high enough to reach the bottom of the long skirts and dresses.

How about you? What area are you decluttering this week? Do you have a giveaway box? Have you found anything worth selling? I found 2 never folded/never used Wheaties boxes from when the Twins won the World Series in 1987, cool, huh? I guess I could sell them for $12 a piece, or I could just keep sitting on them until 2037 when they might be worth a few dollars more, hmmm...

2010 The Year to Get the Junk Out!!

This is gonna be my year! I don't even care if that's something everyone and their neighbor says every year, I'm still sayin' it!

My year to what? My year to break free from the bonds of clutter, to climb up and out from under the mountain of stuff that I have managed to accumulate (because 'we need it') and to hang on to it (because 'we may need it someday').

I have taken some babysteps over the past couple years and have seen some progress, but not enough. This year is going to be different, because it just is, and I'm hoping some of you will join me, because there truly is strength in numbers, right?

Saturdays will be The Great Declutter '10 posting day, or at least linking up day. Feel free to do your actual decluttering throughout the week, whenever the mood hits, whatever works for you and your family.

I will be describing what specific area I'm tackling, but please don't feel confined to work in the same area- you declutter where you need it most that day, or the spot that seems easiest to tackle that day/week, depending on your mood and/or energy level.

I have so many areas to tackle, but I have decided to start in my bedroom. One of my goals for the new year is to improve my marriage, to bring it up out of average, ok, even pretty good territory and into some real marital bliss! One of the ways I can begin to impact my life in that area is by transforming our bedroom into the warm and inviting sanctuary it can and should be.

I'll be starting in my closet, then moving on through my husband's closet. Clearing the clutter there should make it easier to put the things away that seem to continually pile up in every corner of our room. It is quite obvious to me that there is simply too much stuff in this room, and not enough organized space to neatly store the stuff that shouldn't be pitched. I have my work cut out for me, but i's important, and I know it will be so worth it!

This post was obviously written up as a before post. Next Saturday, I'll post some progress pics along with a Junk Out 2010 graphic/button (I'm still working on it!) for any and all who'd like to join in the fun. Well, facing our mountains of clutter, both physical and emotional, will not always be fun, but when we start seeing the progress, and start encouraging each other along, the fun will really start flowing (or whatever fun does)!

Another thought- I'm planning on doing my decluttering as early in the day as I can manage, leaving the rest of my Saturday for rest and fun with my family!