Declutter, Clean, and Organize My Life Catch-All

bobbywatson wrote:

Posted my Spider-Man comics today.

Some guy is interested in the "Amazing Spider-Man" issues I have, and asked me to take photos of their spines. I'm thinking: "They are all in plastic sleeves, taking them out and putting them back in will take more than an hour, so no." I did it for a few issues, and that's all he gets. If that's not good enough for him, too bad, I'll wait for the next buyer.

Good! Decluttering wasted time is also important and there will always be other buyers!

Rezzy wrote:

We're staaaalling. The couch is gone. The kids and I watched from the front door while it got chewed up by a garbage truck.
Thus ends the reign of the first piece of furniture I ever bought for my first actual apartment.

We had planned to do another donation run, and then there were thunderstorms. We had planned to do another purge, but then the kids decided we needed other plans. We were going to sift through the office and then work decided that I'm part of phase two of our reopening plan and need to spend time on campus prepping for the dozen or so people that will take them up on the voluntary return. Until it isn't voluntary anymore.

Nice job on getting that couch out of there! Maybe put the box(es) of things you planned to donate into your vehicle so that it's already there and available to be dropped off. Also, if it's annoying to keep in the vehicle, that's doubly good because it's motivation for getting it out of there!

qaraq wrote:

I'm willing to put in the work in the house; what I need is a contractor that'll just show up, take my sorted stuff, and make a good faith effort to donate/recycle everything before taking it to the landfill. Do such contractors exist?

I've only been able to find junk/cleanout people who just trash everything; I hired one of them to clean out my parents' place after taking a lot of stuff to Goodwill, but they still trashed a lot of stuff I'd also have donated if I had more time. (They'd also told me that they load trashy stuff first and stuff they think they can donate last and then stop at goodwill, which I am not super convinced was true.) Or on the other end there's the consultants who'll help you go through the stuff. I don't need that either; I know what I want rid of, I just want to send it away responsibly.

If your landfill is like mine, there are recycling centers all throughout for various types of items and so anyone taking stuff to the landfill is required to put the right things in the right places. Any contractors that do stop at places such as Goodwill are probably very familiar with what Goodwill wants and can sell. Goodwill ends up having to trash/recycle a lot of things too.

If you are drowning in stuff, your main priority is to get it out of your house. If you can easily do that by donating it, great, but otherwise, just get it hauled away and don't worry about it. Then you can act responsibly by being very careful about any new stuff you bring into the house.

bekkilyn wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

Posted my Spider-Man comics today.

Some guy is interested in the "Amazing Spider-Man" issues I have, and asked me to take photos of their spines. I'm thinking: "They are all in plastic sleeves, taking them out and putting them back in will take more than an hour, so no." I did it for a few issues, and that's all he gets. If that's not good enough for him, too bad, I'll wait for the next buyer.

Good! Decluttering wasted time is also important and there will always be other buyers!

And there was! Somebody else just bought a whole bunch today, and already asked me to set aside another bunch for him. Plus I'm meeting someone later so he can buy another series. He did not even try to negotiate on the price. I took $24 off the total to get a round number, which actually ended up being $20 more than I was willing to accept.

bobbywatson wrote:

And there was! Somebody else just bought a whole bunch today, and already asked me to set aside another bunch for him. Plus I'm meeting someone later so he can buy another series. He did not even try to negotiate on the price. I took $24 off the total to get a round number, which actually ended up being $20 more than I was willing to accept.

Hooray! That's wonderful!!

So this week I started a "Daily Goal" of one and only one thing that I will get done for the day. I have a moon journal/planner that keeps up with the phases of the moon, astrological things going on and whatnot, and didn't really know what to do with it, so decided to record my daily goal there. I drew in a checkbox next to the goal that I write each morning and then in the evening, I put a check in the box, so it helps me remain motivated to not have an empty checkbox there.

I keep the goals small. So for example, my first goal was to run the dishwasher and put the things in it away. Note that running the dishwasher is NOT a regular task for me because I typically handwash what I use each day, but every now and then I need to wash various odds and ends that do better there and those have been piling up. Since they weren't dirty with food, they weren't much of a priority but have been causing clutter on my counters. So getting that done was my goal for that day.

Yesterday, my goal was to finish transferring my spices over to the new bottles and spice rack that I bought some time ago and stick the pre-done labels to the tops. Doing this cleared off more space on the counters and I was able to declutter the old bottles and organize the small amount of bottles that had "surplus" spices in them that didn't fit in the new bottles.

Today's goal is to shred and file papers. Note that this is not a huge task for me because I already have a paper filing system set up and have done what I could to not bring so much paper into the house, and I regularly shred and recycle mail that comes in. But the papers that I do need to file have been in a pile on the floor in the "office" room and had gotten kicked around and all over the place, and the same has happened to my small "to be shredded" pile. So that's the goal for today.

(For paper management that has been an issue for years with lots of hoarded things and paper all over the house, it would not be a good candidate for a small daily goal. That's more of an "eating the elephant" type of task where it needs to be broken into multiple daily goals. When I first went through my papers years ago, I had a mountain to sort through and it took a good while of pecking away at it.)

So we'll see how this Daily Goal strategy helps in getting all the half-finished, forgotten, small project sort of things finally done and out of the way. I believe that all these little things add up to a lot of nagging stress, so getting them cleared away can only be helpful, not only physically, but also mentally.

I like the Daily Goal concept. Checking off a checkbox is one of the best feelings.

This past weekend I finally pulled the trigger on some various home things I'd been meaning to buy - like a whiteboard to better organize our household to-do list and storage bins to wrangle the closet. I did successfully transfer things like my fabric from various moving boxes into clear storage bins which stack nicely, allowing me to also move the sewing machine off the floor of the office and into the closet. I also realized that I could put some of the odds and ends kicking around in there (a space heater, a backpack, a collection of other small bags from conferences) into a large storage bin so that they're stackable with the rest. It's funny how getting that better under control makes me feel calmer just in general. And gets rid of the guilt from my partner diving in to dig out things I need from there and restacking the precarious boxes once we found it.

I also grabbed some binders, paper protectors, and dividers and gathered up some random recipe cards that we've been keeping loose in a cabinet. Also went through the first magazine I got from Bon Appetit and tore out the recipes I want to keep so I can organize those and keep from amassing a pile of magazines. Another binder holds knitting patterns now, and I've got a couple extras for the next thing that occurs to me.

Working from home has also made it clear how much having clutter in the kitchen stresses me out. So we've been keeping up better with the dishes, which ultimately makes it easier to keep up with them so it's not piling up. Funny how that works. I've found it to be a nice thinking break from work, or sometimes will knock them out while listening in on a call or training that I'm not speaking on. Yesterday I cleaned the counters and stove as well while listening to a virtual conference presentation. The tea area is also more organized now - we have a lot of loose-leaf and have collected some into jars. Maybe I'll get us some more to keep the cabinet better organized because right now all of our mugs and tea don't quite fit...

Awesome!!! "Craft clutter" can be very stressful if not organized since it seems to breed rapidly, at least in my own experience! Great job sorting all of that stuff out!

I still have some "stress areas" in my kitchen that I need to fix, but little by little it's getting done.

I'm almost done with today's task. Shredding is all done. I just need to label some folders and put everything way and then I can check my box!

bekkilyn wrote:

Today's goal is to shred and file papers. Note that this is not a huge task for me because I already have a paper filing system set up and have done what I could to not bring so much paper into the house, and I regularly shred and recycle mail that comes in. But the papers that I do need to file have been in a pile on the floor in the "office" room and had gotten kicked around and all over the place, and the same has happened to my small "to be shredded" pile. So that's the goal for today.

I went through most of my papers this week as well. I have a nice, 3-inch thick stack of things that need to be shredded. No way I'm going to spend a few hours doing that myself, I'll just go to Staples later today and make use of their shredding service.

Looks like I'll be able to get rid of an entire bookcase soon! Maybe even two!

I wish the library was again accepting book donations now, because I have at least two boxes of them to give away. Oh well, I guess I might have to wait for this COVID thing to pass before that can happen...

One area I would like to declutter is the digital space. I have decades-old backups lying around, on CDs, DVDs (remember those?) and hard drives. I'm thinking it's time for me to organize and consolidate everything in one place, make sure everything is backed up... But I expect this will take way longer than going through all my papers!

I also have a bag full of old electronics that I need to bring to Best Buy's recycle bins.

bobbywatson wrote:

I went through most of my papers this week as well. I have a nice, 3-inch thick stack of things that need to be shredded. No way I'm going to spend a few hours doing that myself, I'll just go to Staples later today and make use of their shredding service.

I used to have a shredder that only took one page at a time and it took forever to shred stuff, but now I have a shredder that I can put in about 20 pages at once and so 3 inch thick stacks would take only moments. It's great! I enjoy shredding things so it's double goodness for me.

Looks like I'll be able to get rid of an entire bookcase soon! Maybe even two!

I wish the library was again accepting book donations now, because I have at least two boxes of them to give away. Oh well, I guess I might have to wait for this COVID thing to pass before that can happen...

Thrift shops often take in books, so you might check to see if you can drop them off there.

One area I would like to declutter is the digital space. I have decades-old backups lying around, on CDs, DVDs (remember those?) and hard drives. I'm thinking it's time for me to organize and consolidate everything in one place, make sure everything is backed up... But I expect this will take way longer than going through all my papers!

My digital space is a disaster that I really need to organize. It usually gets less priority though because it's less visible, and I've already sorted through and organized any CD's and DVD's I still want to keep, so at some point I'm going to need to do something about the digital clutter and mess. Even though it's not so visible, it is still a source of stress.

I also have a bag full of old electronics that I need to bring to Best Buy's recycle bins.

That's satisfying!!

Yesterday's task was to mend a couple of T-shirts that have been sitting around in waiting mode for months. I had to iron a lightweight fusion patch on the back of one (first time I've done it, so I hope it holds up in the wash) and actually hand sew a small hole in the seam of the other in which I'd gotten too enthusiastic about ripping off a tag.

Today I'm planning to pick up a bunch of devotionals and similar booklets that have gotten scattered around the floor and other areas of the house and get all of those put away (or recycled).

bekkilyn wrote:

My digital space is a disaster that I really need to organize. It usually gets less priority though because it's less visible, and I've already sorted through and organized any CD's and DVD's I still want to keep, so at some point I'm going to need to do something about the digital clutter and mess. Even though it's not so visible, it is still a source of stress.

Went through a stack of old burned CDs tonight. I did not find anything worth keeping in there, and everything went to the trash. I have another stack waiting for me, but that's going to be for another day.

Also managed to sell some comics today. The guy who bought them was a cop who showed up in a phantom cop car

We managed a purge of shoes, kid accessories, old diaper bag stuff, binkies, kitchen clutter... A trash bag full of stuff and some cleaning and planning.

Not as much as we'd like, but considering we had to pause to run the carpet-cleaner behind one of our kids I think we kept a decent momentum.

bobbywatson wrote:

Went through a stack of old burned CDs tonight. I did not find anything worth keeping in there, and everything went to the trash. I have another stack waiting for me, but that's going to be for another day.

Also managed to sell some comics today. The guy who bought them was a cop who showed up in a phantom cop car :)

A phantom cop car sounds pretty cool!

Great job on getting rid of that stack of old CDs!

Rezzy wrote:

We managed a purge of shoes, kid accessories, old diaper bag stuff, binkies, kitchen clutter... A trash bag full of stuff and some cleaning and planning.

Not as much as we'd like, but considering we had to pause to run the carpet-cleaner behind one of our kids I think we kept a decent momentum.

That's one trash bag full of stuff that's no longer cluttering the house, so yay!!!

I'm still keeping up with my daily goals. Today's goal was to collect all the scattered craft/office supplies scattered around in various places and put them away and I'm very close to being done, so will be able to check that off later tonight!

Between today and yesterday, I am seeing a big difference in one room.

Another stack of old CDs went to the trash today.

I'm in the process of moving things around in my apartment. When I moved in a year ago, I did not plan for the fact that I'd be living here 24/7, and things were not optimal. I think it's going to be nice when I'm done, but at the moment, the whole place feels like a warzone. I wish I could spend my afternoon putting everything back in order instead of working. (But I'm also grateful that I get to work while so many people do not have the same luxury.)

I know the number of pieces of furniture in my apartment will be reduced by at least two. Maybe three. I will know better once stuff gets back on shelves.

Edit: Wasn't sure what price to put on some old Wii games I have lying around, so I checked eBay. $100 for a copy of No More Heroes 2? Really? I was happy to see this... Pikmin 1 and 2 also fetch some pretty good prices...

bobbywatson wrote:

Another stack of old CDs went to the trash today.

I'm in the process of moving things around in my apartment. When I moved in a year ago, I did not plan for the fact that I'd be living here 24/7, and things were not optimal. I think it's going to be nice when I'm done, but at the moment, the whole place feels like a warzone. I wish I could spend my afternoon putting everything back in order instead of working. (But I'm also grateful that I get to work while so many people do not have the same luxury.)

I know the number of pieces of furniture in my apartment will be reduced by at least two. Maybe three. I will know better once stuff gets back on shelves.

Edit: Wasn't sure what price to put on some old Wii games I have lying around, so I checked eBay. $100 for a copy of No More Heroes 2? Really? I was happy to see this... Pikmin 1 and 2 also fetch some pretty good prices...

That's awesome if you can get a good amount of money for those!

I really understand about the warzone. My house has been a warzone for ages, but I really want to make it into a peaceful sanctum!

Well today's goal was to pick up stuff on the kitchen table and put it away, and not only did I do that, but I gave it a good scrub down! Tomorrow's goal will be to pick up stuff on the side table next to my desk and put all of that stuff away.

Got another surface cleared off today for today's goal...the shoe bench near the front door that had a bunch of stuff stacked on it on one side. Also vacuumed around it, straightened the shoes and made sure they were only shoes that I wore all the time.

Basically for each of the most recent days, I've been choosing one of the many flat surfaces around the house and deciding to clear it for my goal. I still have a few more that need clearing but tomorrow I'm going to clean the fronts of all my cabinets as I get this weekend cleaning goal email from Apartment Therapy each week and that's the task for this weekend, and I've decided to actually start doing them rather than just getting the emails and doing nothing. So cleaning goal tomorrow rather than decluttering, but after tomorrow it will probably go back to picking things up and putting away.

Met a friend today for coffee (outside, and with 6 feet between us) today. I sent him my list of DVDs earlier to see if there was anything in there he was interested it. He did not have time to go through it before the meeting, but he says he will grab everything, keep a few, give me a few bucks for the ones he will keep, and dump the rest at the thrift store, which sounds like a fine arrangement to me (since I was going to dump them all at the thrift store anyway). He will probably stop by in the next few days. He also took the box of books I had in my car. I also stopped by Best Buy to dump a bunch of old useless electronics I had lying around, and by Staples to throw a 6 lbs stack of old papers into their shredding bins. They only charge $1 per lb, so I call that a good deal, since that saved me a few hours of shredding.

Managed to get rid of one bookcase and another small piece of furniture. And put stuff back on shelves, so my place no longer looks like a warzone. I still have a few things to move around, I will take care of that in the next few days.

Fun fact: A few months ago, whenever I turned my UPS on, it would start beeping for some reason. I suspected that this was due to the battery needing replacement. I left it plugged, but switched it off. I turned it on yesterday, and no beeping, and apparently it works fine now. Glad I gave it a try before including it in the pile of electronics I dumped off at recycling today.

The next step in my decluttering quest is to go through my DVDs and select the ones I want to keep. Outside of my Star Trek season sets, I'm not sure I will keep much...

I've been gone all day with church stuff and travel and so my energy is pretty drained, but I did my daily meditation right away when I got home and am determined to get my daily task done which is to clean up and put away items around my couch, so I have been picking away at it. I think tomorrow's task will be to vacuum and wipe down the couch and clean the surrounding floor as there is a lot of spider debris in the vicinity because I've ignored it for so long.

Been working a little on the area around the couch and cleaning the spider webs and debris off of the couple things beneath it. I can't decide whether I want to put them back there after the cleaning or find a new place for them. One is a small folding floor chair and the other a folding music stand in a cloth bag. I'll see what calls to me when the space is clean and shiny!

An Amazon delivery came today and one part of the order was a set of empty 4oz spray bottles. I want to have a little cleaning set in every room rather than having to get things together from somewhere else each and every time. I will test it and see if it works for me.

The other part of the order was a starlight projector that projects a star field and nebula effect on the ceiling and it has a lot of different combinations of effects. It's so pretty and should help with my goal of a beautiful, meditative environment.

Cleaned the humidifier which was gross. After a bit of trial and error water, cleaning vinegar, and backing soda worked great. A toothbrush for the small spaces.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Cleaned the humidifier which was gross. After a bit of trial and error water, cleaning vinegar, and backing soda worked great. A toothbrush for the small spaces.

I bet the experience of a fresh, clean humidifier is wonderful!

I posted an ad on Kijiji about a month ago with a bunch of graphic novels that I wanted to get rid of. Then, for about a month, nothing happens. Suddenly, today, I get two replies for the same graphic novels. If all goes well, most of what I posted will be gone tomorrow!

I wish the French comic books were selling as well. A friend of mine suggested that I post my ads in the Montreal area instead of the Ottawa area, which makes total sense. Once my current listing ends, I'll post a new one and see how it goes.

bobbywatson wrote:

I posted an ad on Kijiji about a month ago with a bunch of graphic novels that I wanted to get rid of. Then, for about a month, nothing happens. Suddenly, today, I get two replies for the same graphic novels. If all goes well, most of what I posted will be gone tomorrow!

I wish the French comic books were selling as well. A friend of mine suggested that I post my ads in the Montreal area instead of the Ottawa area, which makes total sense. Once my current listing ends, I'll post a new one and see how it goes.

Awesome!!!

Somehow I unearthed more paper, so today I dealt with it. I haven't quite decided what my goal for tomorrow will be as I have a few options, but I'll just pick one and go with it.

I'm thinking I need to rearrange some of the furniture in my office.

The big problem I see is that my drawing table is right next to my working desk. I've taken some measurements, and I think I've found an arrangement that would be better. But that means I have to empty took bookcases, move them, put the stuff back on the shelves, unplug four computers, move my desk, move the drawing table, and replug everything. I think it might be worth it though. My current arrangement is far from optimal, and it's been bugging me for a while. I wonder if I can convince my brother to come and help me if I bribe him with pizza...

Edit: I used thai food instead of pizza, but it worked, he'll be here tomorrow

bobbywatson wrote:

I'm thinking I need to rearrange some of the furniture in my office.

The big problem I see is that my drawing table is right next to my working desk. I've taken some measurements, and I think I've found an arrangement that would be better. But that means I have to empty took bookcases, move them, put the stuff back on the shelves, unplug four computers, move my desk, move the drawing table, and replug everything. I think it might be worth it though. My current arrangement is far from optimal, and it's been bugging me for a while. I wonder if I can convince my brother to come and help me if I bribe him with pizza...

Edit: I used thai food instead of pizza, but it worked, he'll be here tomorrow :)

From what you described, it sounds like this effort will be VERY worth it! And you'll get to see your brother and have Thai food in the process.

Today I plan to clean and put away a couple or three things that I currently have on the floor of my "office" room...old keyboard and mouse in particular that I use as backup or swap out when others need cleaning. At some later point I'm going to go through the box I put all this stuff in and really sort through and decide exactly what I need and what I can get rid of, but that won't be for today as my primary goal right now is to get stuff put away and the space cleaned up. Then I will start going through everything in more depth.

Seems like you've been very diligent with your daily goals so far! Congratulations!

bobbywatson wrote:

Seems like you've been very diligent with your daily goals so far! Congratulations!

Thanks! It helps that I'm now at the point of seeing some results, which then gives me more energy and motivation, after which I see more results, and so it becomes a positive cycle!

One good thing about moving furniture around: I'm finding a lot of places where cat hair has accumulated. Vacuuming all that and washing the floor will help greatly. And I think my new arrangement will make it easier for me to vacuum everywhere. After all the pieces are in place, I'm going to have a lot of cleaning and dusting before I can put everything back on shelves and replug everything.

bobbywatson wrote:

One good thing about moving furniture around: I'm finding a lot of places where cat hair has accumulated. Vacuuming all that and washing the floor will help greatly. And I think my new arrangement will make it easier for me to vacuum everywhere. After all the pieces are in place, I'm going to have a lot of cleaning and dusting before I can put everything back on shelves and replug everything.

Minus the cat hair, that was my experience when I cleaned around my couch. It was a huge mess of dust and spider stuff and everything all up underneath and around it. One thing I'm really looking forward to when my space is cleared is that I can finally use the robot vacuum my mom bought for me for Christmas a couple years ago, which should greatly help in keeping things much less of a cleaning disaster.

Can you just move the bookcases on furniture sliders? That is what I do and it works pretty well. Much easier than taking everything off and putting it back on!

LeapingGnome wrote:

Can you just move the bookcases on furniture sliders? That is what I do and it works pretty well. Much easier than taking everything off and putting it back on!

Not really, because I'm replacing them both altogether. I've had those for decades, they've been through several moves, and they're falling apart.

Plus they look like sh*t.

Edit: I'm supposed to pick up the new bookcases in 20 minutes at Ikea, and apparently my order isn't ready for pick up yet. Now I'm worried.

Edit 2: New bookcases have been assembled and... they don't fit where I wanted to put them I measured, but I measured with the old bookcases, not the new ones, so now I have to revise my plans slightly... Oh well.

Unrelated, but now I'm wondering if the reason I enjoy assembling Ikea furniture is the same reason I loved Legos as a kid... Probably.

Edit 3: Not perfect, but much better than before, where both the drawing table and the desk where right next to each other. Trimming the bookshelves is on my to-do list. This is the only part that looks neat though, what's not shown on the right is a real mess I plan to organize later (namely, two bookcases filled with manga I may or may not keep).

Also on the list of things to take care of: the cables! It is hidden by the chair, but there is a power bar on the floor between the desk and the bookcase, and it's not pretty. I was going to buy something they have at Ikea to suspend cables to below the desk, but sadly they're out of stock here in Ottawa. I also plan to screw the power bar under the desk to make the place easier to clean.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/oDwfDCK.jpg)