Declutter, Clean, and Organize My Life Catch-All

Sunday is usually my laundry day so I'll be laundering with you in spirit!

bekkilyn wrote:

That's the thing...when we clear out the things that don't matter, we can uncover the things that do matter very much! (Though we have to also be careful we don't let sentiment also become clutter...we don't have to keep *everything*!)

Well said. I doubt I'll find something as emotionally charged again, but Friday I cleaned out the cook book drawer, threw out half of them but did find one with healthy 30 minute recipes.

Yesterday I tackled the tupperware drawer, and mercilessly threw everything out that wasn't part of a compatible series.

On sentiment becoming clutter: I do not attach to physical objects very often. I'm doing this to get that little 'task accomplished' dopamine shot, something very absent from work lately. I love seeing the before/after, not like at work were I maybe see my figures inching a little closer to that quarter's target, but a real physical difference

I would love to hear about your motivations!

dejanzie wrote:

Well said. I doubt I'll find something as emotionally charged again, but Friday I cleaned out the cook book drawer, threw out half of them but did find one with healthy 30 minute recipes.

Yesterday I tackled the tupperware drawer, and mercilessly threw everything out that wasn't part of a compatible series.

On sentiment becoming clutter: I do not attach to physical objects very often. I'm doing this to get that little 'task accomplished' dopamine shot, something very absent from work lately. I love seeing the before/after, not like at work were I maybe see my figures inching a little closer to that quarter's target, but a real physical difference

I would love to hear about your motivations!

One of my motivations is also in seeing the "after" in that real progress has been visibly made. Another motivation is that I can feel the difference in energy, both my own and in my surroundings. When things are cluttered and dirty, there is muggy, heaviness to it that weighs on me and creates stress and anxiety. The more I clean and clear, the better I feel, the more motivated and energized I become. I personally view a clean and uncluttered environment as a spiritual experience as well as a physical or mental one. There is precedent in this view as Zen monks spend a good amount of time each day cleaning. It's a very noticeable thing for me.

But even though I know and have experienced the above, it hasn't always been enough to get me started. When things weigh so heavily, it's difficult to get started and so during my worst of times, I didn't clean or declutter anything even though the lethargy made things worse and I would know it intellectually. But doing a minimum of one small task each day and checking it off keeps the momentum for me and slowly over time it creates much larger changes and oftentimes I end up doing more than that minimum. But that minimum is a baseline for me, small as it may be just looking at it from the perspective of that one day.

But now having gone through many days, the changes have been great, not only for my cleaner and more organized environment, but also for my physical, mental, and spiritual health!

And of course just like that physical law, once the momentum is going, it's so much easier for it to remain in motion! (Which is motivating in and of itself!)

Thanks for sharing! All very recognizable to be honest, especially how much it helps momentum if you do even the minimum.

That I'm stealth decluttering is not only for funsies, but also to keep focused on the fact that I'm doing it for me. I'm irrationally sensitive to feeling pressured with chores like this.

Today I discarded some older boxes, of the Switch and my graphics card. I usually keep them until the guarantee has expired, but with the 2 year minimum on electronics (over here in the EU) they often get forgotten afterwards and take up a lot of space.

dejanzie wrote:

Thanks for sharing! All very recognizable to be honest, especially how much it helps momentum if you do even the minimum.

That I'm stealth decluttering is not only for funsies, but also to keep focused on the fact that I'm doing it for me. I'm irrationally sensitive to feeling pressured with chores like this.

Today I discarded some older boxes, of the Switch and my graphics card. I usually keep them until the guarantee has expired, but with the 2 year minimum on electronics (over here in the EU) they often get forgotten afterwards and take up a lot of space.

It might be about time for me to think about getting rid of my Switch box!

There are times I keep work I'm doing for myself to myself, especially if it's a new effort that is just getting started, because I sometimes experience that once I "go public" with something, it works very opposite to what the concept of "accountability" is supposed to achieve. Once I feel too pressured to do something and making it into a big "formal" thing, then it ends up going to the wayside when I would have been perfectly fine just going on with it in my own way.

So there really is something to be said about stealth decluttering (and other worthwhile things) and how it can have a motivation all on its own!

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/X8pK33o.jpg)

Still a work in progress, but the garage has been keeping me busy while I'm between jobs. We've lived in this house for over a year, and that was pretty much the dumping ground for whatever we couldn't fit somewhere from the start. Garage projects are one of my happy things, so that hasn't been sitting right.

Kayc and I have spent a bunch of time clearing things out, cleaning up, and finding places for everything. The local buy nothing group has people coming by all the time to pick things up they want. On Saturday I put up the framework for this pegboard. Hung the pegboard itself on Sunday. Yesterday I got in a bunch of the hooks and started putting things up. The picture is close to where it currently stands. I'm getting there bit by bit! Soon the bench will be clear and I'll start on a bike rack - for the garage.

Nice!!!!

That pegboard is AWESOME!!! Love it!!

Today has been a very low energy day for me so I made myself a small goal for today that can be done in just a few minutes.

Today: Too lazy to even do laundry. I did go for a 3 mile walk and a 1 mile run though. Go figure.

LouZiffer wrote:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/X8pK33o.jpg)

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/dANm7WjeWZi00/giphy.gif)

Wednesday I threw away some more PC component boxes (motherboard, CPU, ...), today I cleaned the oven windows - took them out one by one. Looks sparkly clean again

dejanzie wrote:

Wednesday I threw away some more PC component boxes (motherboard, CPU, ...), today I cleaned the oven windows - took them out one by one. Looks sparkly clean again :-)

Sparkly oven windows! Now that's an accomplishment!

My oven doesn't have a window (unless you count my toaster oven that also needs cleaning) but I did just today pull out the drawer beneath the oven and clean all underneath it and cleaned it and I have everything that was in it in the dishwasher right now getting a good wash. I'd already decluttered it some time ago, so I'm not sure that there is anything I want to get rid of, though thinking about it, I probably don't need the large saucepan anymore since I do everything in cast iron now. Maybe I can get rid of something!

Frustrations in decluttering:

About two weeks ago, I ordered some cable management items for my home office from Ikea, and I picked to option to collect the items in store at a specific time. My appointed time came and went without any confirmation email.

Today, I tried to call them, and then stayed on hold for hours. I tried both the French and the English lines (I guess that's one advantage of being bilingual - sometimes one line goes faster than the other). It's like they have one person to answer the phone for the entire country or something. I then realized that I could try to cancel my order through the website. Well, about an hour later, I get an email saying the cancellation failed due to a system error, and the email asked me to call them.

In short: no progress. I'll have to try again tomorrow. Which sucks, because I was hoping to install the cable holders this weekend.

One thing I discovered today: They actually have shelf separators, which is exactly what I need. Once I can get my order cancelled (and refunded, because the payment went through two weeks ago), looks like I'll have one more item to order.

Edit: After waiting for 55 minutes this morning, I was able to talk to somebody and have my order cancelled. Still waiting on the refund to redo it again.

bobbywatson wrote:

Frustrations in decluttering:

About two weeks ago, I ordered some cable management items for my home office from Ikea, and I picked to option to collect the items in store at a specific time. My appointed time came and went without any confirmation email.

Today, I tried to call them, and then stayed on hold for hours. I tried both the French and the English lines (I guess that's one advantage of being bilingual - sometimes one line goes faster than the other). It's like they have one person to answer the phone for the entire country or something. I then realized that I could try to cancel my order through the website. Well, about an hour later, I get an email saying the cancellation failed due to a system error, and the email asked me to call them.

In short: no progress. I'll have to try again tomorrow. Which sucks, because I was hoping to install the cable holders this weekend.

One thing I discovered today: They actually have shelf separators, which is exactly what I need. Once I can get my order cancelled (and refunded, because the payment went through two weeks ago), looks like I'll have one more item to order.

Edit: After waiting for 55 minutes this morning, I was able to talk to somebody and have my order cancelled. Still waiting on the refund to redo it again.

With the shelf separators, it sounds like it will all work out well in the end! Glad you are finally able to get it sorted out!

I need to figure out something to do with my office area. I've got no drawers on my desk, but lots of things that should go in drawers. I have three storage bins in the corner that are 1/4 things I use semi regularly, 1/4 things I only need super occasionally, 1/4 stuff I could totally get rid of, and 1/4 DS, PSP and other game cases with no games in them. I also keep thinking about either making or buying myself a new desk, with visions of built in cable management and other small things that'd make it more useful. But realistically, if I could just figure out some better storage, it'd be great. I should probably just go shopping for some drawer and shelf units.

A desk with no drawers sounds tricky because desk stuff still needs to go somewhere. It does seem like some sort of storage cabinet would be very useful unless you do just go ahead and get a new desk that works out better.

I got a super late start today and still haven't gotten my daily goal accomplished, which is to clean out all of the rotting fruit in the refrigerator. I may just let that one carry over to tomorrow so I really have time to not only clear out the stuff, but also really get in there and clean.

Past weekend, I threw some more cardboard boxes out, re-organized the cookie drawer (and found way too many cookies past due date because they fell behind other calorie bombs :oops:) and cleaned up the 'miscellaneous' drawer (junk drawer is the correct term I believe). I'm always amazed at the amount of debris (mostly crumbs) I always find in there. I mean, these drawers are closed 99% of the time, how does that get in there?!

I've been procrastinating on this for a few weeks, but this week I want to post at least one ad on Kijiji for my French-language comic books. This is by far the biggest and most demanding task of my decluttering process, and I need to get it going ASAP.

dejanzie wrote:

Past weekend, I threw some more cardboard boxes out, re-organized the cookie drawer (and found way too many cookies past due date because they fell behind other calorie bombs :oops:) and cleaned up the 'miscellaneous' drawer (junk drawer is the correct term I believe). I'm always amazed at the amount of debris (mostly crumbs) I always find in there. I mean, these drawers are closed 99% of the time, how does that get in there?!

Sometimes I think crumbs just grow legs and walk to various places and have the strength to be able to squeeze themselves into the smallest places to get to where they want to go. But yay for the progress! (And junk drawers can be some of the worst to sort out because who knows where all that stuff is supposed to really go!)

bobbywatson wrote:

I've been procrastinating on this for a few weeks, but this week I want to post at least one ad on Kijiji for my French-language comic books. This is by far the biggest and most demanding task of my decluttering process, and I need to get it going ASAP.

Good luck! Just getting started is a big step!

I've had a super-busy weekend, part of which I was out of town, so am a bit behind in my goals, so I think my goal for today is to catch up on those and then a fresh new one for tomorrow! I still managed to do a couple things that I hadn't technically made into goals, so still a bit of progress there. Things just seem a lot easier to keep up now that I've put a big dent in the overall clutter/cleaning problem.

Had my sons clean out/organize the garage, while I took care of some pressure washing and helping my wife detail the Mazda.

Looks much better in and around the garage now.

I'm trying to figure out what to do about organizing the area next to my office. I think cube storage units would be the best option, because I have a mix of things I'd want in bins, and stuff like books and games that would go on the shelves.

Has anyone seen anything like an insert that turns one 13" cube into two 6" drawers or something? I'd like to do that for some smaller stuff, but I can't seem to find anything like that. I could try and find a small drawer unit to go with the cube units, but I really don't have all that much that needs to go in drawers, so I'd rather not have the extra expense.

Chaz wrote:

I'm trying to figure out what to do about organizing the area next to my office. I think cube storage units would be the best option, because I have a mix of things I'd want in bins, and stuff like books and games that would go on the shelves.

Has anyone seen anything like an insert that turns one 13" cube into two 6" drawers or something? I'd like to do that for some smaller stuff, but I can't seem to find anything like that. I could try and find a small drawer unit to go with the cube units, but I really don't have all that much that needs to go in drawers, so I'd rather not have the extra expense.

I've seen something like this at Ikea. Searching "Kallax" on Ikea Canada's website brought several options for inserts. I just measured with my bookshelves, and the Kallax shelf size is 33.5 CM (a hair above 13"). I was not able to find it easily on the website, but I know they have various kinds of bins and inserts with drawers and inner shelves.

Container store has some stuff like that too.

Today's goal was to clean behind and beneath the refrigerator, so I vacuumed and took a scrub brush to it and then went over it with a couple of paper towels after it was already "clean" and the paper towels were filthy as well, but I think it's pretty clean back there now.

The sad thing is that it's not really all that difficult to move the refrigerator to clean back there, but I just never do it, so there was loads and loads of spider "droppings" and who knows what else.

In any case, daily goal complete!

Weekend was super-busy and draining and I ended up sleeping in until a bit after noon and enjoyed it! Nonetheless, it was still a pretty productive day. Got a good bit of work stuff done and also cleaned most of the refrigerator and didn't put back anything that I wasn't using.

Ah the fridge... It sometimes feel like it turns into a cradle of filth the second I turn my back, spunge and cleaning spray still in hand.

The past few days, I went through our home office shelves again with a more critical eye and threw more stuff out, cleaned up the garage junk drawer, a kitchen drawer and some smaller stuff.

I must say, it's nice to work from home in a tidy(ish) environment. Now if only I could get the missus to go through our kid's old clothes...

Ha! Speaking of kids old clothes we went through our daughters close and got rid of four big totes of clothes and another half dozen pair of shoes. At least half of her wardrobe. It is nice to not have clothes spilling out everywhere now.

dejanzie wrote:

I must say, it's nice to work from home in a tidy(ish) environment.

This may be what I'm loving the most! I can really feel a huge difference in energy between the before and now, even though I still have a ways to go.

Cleared stuff off of the kitchen table today and wiped everything down. I had mostly cleared it up before when I started doing kitchen cleaning, but things ended up getting put there as an interim resting place, so today I decided to get it put away in their more permanent locations. I also polished my stainless steel whistling tea kettle with goo gone oven cleaner to see if it worked on the thing (it did!) and also polished (NOT with the goo gone) my glass kerosene lamp I use as a centerpiece, so it's really sparkly now, yay!

Right now I have some supplies laid out on the table to make a couple more candles from the candle kit, and also organized the candlemaking stuff into one of the cupboards so that it all has a place to go!

Still on the bandwagon, even if I'm not posting daily Decluttered one of our daughter's closets, another kitchen shelf, and the liquor cabinet.