It seems as though many of you are decluttering many areas of your home at once.

Please feel free to use this thread to share with us any decluttering successes you are having in areas of your home that we are not currently working on in the NYNH Challenge!

For example, two days ago I freecycled away a box of toys and today someone is coming to pick up a metal storage drawer system that was taking up space in my basement, but not being used. Yeah me!

Today I took down the decorations and sorted the ones that were still boxed.
Every year DH and DS mumbles something about how they hate taking down 10 heavy boxes of decorations when I only pilfer through a few.
So, this year DH bought 10 rubbermaid bins ($3/10 at HD).
I marked each bin individually so that all I have to do is decide what I want to decorate with this year.

Each year is something different- that's why I pilfer through and pick out certain things.

I have themes- blue and white, red and green, red and gold, silver and gold, country classic, red and white, green and white, red, white and blue and the list can go on.

So I sorted each ornament and decoration according to it's color or purpose and marked the bin. They are ready to go to the attic when DS gets home from work.

There's one bin that contains things I'd use every year- such as window candles, extension cords etc. It's marked- Take Me Down Every Year!

The great part, is the bins are not too large or heavy so I won't be getting mumbles next Thanksgiving. And- I only need to decide the color combinations I want and the minimum number of bins are coming down.

DH and DS are VERY happy with this.

My next organization project I'll have to do before and after photos.

Since joining FV I realized that my kitchen is not running efficiently. When you see the pics you'll know what I mean.

I am always jumping up on the counters searching for basic ingredients. My cabinets are overstuffed with -God knows what!
I simply can't keep track of it.

So, I will be organizing my cabinets and pantry. I'll inventory what I have and what basic ingredients I'll need. Then Ill research frugal recipes so I'll know if I have at least those ingredients. I saw a great thread on FV with some great ideas.

I'll keep you posted. But you'll have to promise me you won't laugh at my cabinets when I show you the disorganized mess in there! LOL

No one will be laughing! We'll be proud of you for getting it under control. :hugz:

I have a table in the basement where I keep all my frames and mats, etc. I love to frame my own prints and reframe, etc. I have done a few paid projects as well. Anyway, I had a mess down there, stacks of frames, everything out of order, etc. There was all kinds of other junk piled up on the table to.

I went down there yesterday and got it all straightened up. I can take a picture if you wanta see :D . I separated my frames, mats and cardboard. Got out the stuff that has pictures in them in a different pile. And now ONLY framing stuff is on the table. I am going to go through them again when we clean the basement and put some in the yard sale pile. It was just a little project but it makes me feel good to get it done.

I've been getting rid of paper, filing, etc... I filled up one bag today. I'm working on getting rid of the mail the minute it touches my hands. I've always tossed the junk mail right away. Now, I'm going one step further, throwing out catalogs I don't need, etc... right away.

My dh unfortunately got on the declutter bandwagon while I was out returning things yesterday. I came home to a broken armoire. He decided to rearrange the office, but didn't want the armoire in the office. It's very heavy and part of it went crashing down the basement stairs. I was sooo mad at him. Then, he brought another piece of furniture into the house, but I decided that it didn't coordinate with the room. In the meantime, all the stuff inside the armoire was scattered all over the floor in the office and the basement. After calming down, I started to pick up the mess and sort it. This was not a project I was planning on doing. I was in the middle of another declutter project. We ended up bringing up a couch from the basement and putting it in the office. This was really tough as the legs and the back of the couch are curved which makes it about impossible to make it through our narrow doorways. So, after a long time, we made it to the office. I rearranged it, but not before I gashed the corner of my face on one of the pieces of furniture. Oh, and we wrecked the light and the light bulb in the basement stairway. I did mention to my dh that I though we should remove the light, but of course, he didn't think that was necessary. The office looks great except for the desk. That totally needs to be decluttered, but that will be for another day.

I conquered all the clean laundry. It's been piling up in the basement waiting for me to put it away. So, that is one large pile gone, and a whole lot of socks found their mates.

Tonight, I'm going to finish working on the kitchen. We enter our house through the kitchen since we use the back door so this is where a lot of stuff gets dropped.

Oh, and I have a hook on the back of one of my doors in the kitchen-it leads down to the basement. This is where I put my coat when I'm too lazy to walk through the living room to the front hall closet.

My main decluttering project besides the paper are my clothes. There are just too many not being worn so I'm really trying to part with them. I've got a donate bag started.

The rest of the week will be spent working on the basement. I'm reorganizing it and decluttering at the same time. The decluttering project is making slow, but steady progress:)

Great work Cornelia and Shannon! So exciting! (Sorry about all the damage, though, Shannon!)

I'd love to see pictures!

O.K. Amy, here is the photo. 4 bags of trash and a kitchen floor that needs to be cleaned. The junk is all stuff that I found around the house.  Good thing tomorrow is trash day.

http://www.ssb4.net/users/11464/trash.jpg

Dh finally had time to fix a large computor desk which was given to us. It needed a piece to be reglued. We removed the two smaller desks from Ds roomand replaced them with the one large one, which fits much better. Unfortunately the two smaller ones only moved to the crawlspace because we have no way of transpoting them to the thrift store (we have two small hondas)...so they will have to live there for awhile.

I got rid of a bunch of magazines. I also threw away about a dozen or so useless boxes taking up space.

This may sound sill, but I de-cluttered my kitchen window ledges. I had a collection of cobalt blue glass bottles that just collected dust- I'm trying to get out of "collection mode" so I recycled them all. Recycle man took them away this morning. Some of them were vintage, but I've decided that just means really old garbage.

I also put the teapot from that window ledge collection on Ebay, and it's bid up to $13 right now. When the buyer pays I'll be sending that money off to my debts.

Good for you, MissMolly! Those are some of the hard decisions that we need to make if we truly want decluttered homes! I'm proud of you!

Oh my, I did this with my ds help. We live in a house with no real attic. The kids closets are the biggest and have held many diff things including the many games and things they played over the years, many with missing pieces. Well the other day he got a new desk and was wanting to get rid of all the unused stuff in his room especially that closet but waited til late afternoon to do it but he was unrelenting. It was just what I needed to just get the job done. 3 large garbage bags to trash and one big burn pile later he has a closet with major empty shelves. I threw sentimentality to the wind and just got it out. Some leftovers will be going to family and friends tho.
Dd's clost is next.;)

Sounds like you guys have been busy and doing a great job. My main focus on decluttering is paperwork right now. Since we will be moving hopefully in about a month, most of our stuff is boxed up. We really pared down when we moved back in the fall, so we're in decent shape other than the neverending mountains of paperwork. :eek:

I was doing a Fly Lady 27 fling boogie thing yesterday. I cleaned out the kitchen cabinet under my phone. Every time I opened it everything fell out:toothy: So threw out a bag full of JUNK. and
4 old phone books. I dont know why I kept them in the first place!

Yeah! I can't even tell you how satisfying it is to me to hear all of this junk/trash/clutter is making it's way out of your house! Great job, ladies!

Oops, I just listed one of my declutters in the wrong forum so here goes:
I decluttered my over stuffed kitchen "junk" drawer. I found 2 nite-light bulbs ....needed these for a lamp.
I found some buttons and measuring tape that belonged in my sewing box.
Found some important insurance papers & bank statements that needed to be filed.


For Christmas I recieved another set of dishes so I reorganized my cabinets to make them fit in. MIL gave me another set of the same dishes a few days ago (she didnt want the set she got for Christmas) so I will need to wash those & put away still.
At the same time, I reorganized my spice cabinet & got rid of all the past due spices. Also reorganized my recipe cabinet as well...I can find things a lot easier now! :D

Took a grocery paper bag of magazines to the recycling center.

I got all my christmas stuff organized in keepers and put away.

Wow you are all working so hard! Whilst I am just having a good
old read - and if you could see the state of my desk where I am
sitting! I don't know where all this junk has come from it was so
tidy before Christmas :angel2: I shall try to follow your examples!! later today.

I do like all these smilies :band: be warned I not know what they mean :toothy: just like the characters:angel2: :angel2: :angel2:

Keep going, ladies! You're doing great!

Not sure if this counts, but when I had to do my pantry stockpile menu I managed to reorganize & clean out my pantry. I got rid of all the empty boxes (major pet peeve of mine), married together the 2 boxes of the same item into one, made sure the older food was in the front and on the bottom, put the goodies/desserts up high so I really have to stop & think do I really want it bad enough to climb up the step ladder (top shelves are 9ft off the floor) lol.
While I was at it I went through my plastic bowls and got rid of the excessive cool whip, sour cream, cottage cheese, butter tubs that I seem to collect like dustbunnies. My cupboard doors close now and I don't fear an avalanche every time I open the doors :D

I am again working on my upstairs and I have promised myself and my dh that this time it would get all done and not recluttered....anyway here's what I've got done so far....


Gone out:
2 bags of papers to recycling bin
2 cardboard drawer thingies (put on curb, gone in an hour)
2 bags of trash
I also have the ebay stuff that I had on consignment that didn't sell boxed up and ready to take back.


The back room is done and I am starting on the front one as soon as I get off this computer...lol...

This has really been a sore spot for me and for my dh and it feels so good to finally be getting somewhere with it....I don't know why I have such a problem with clutter....and that upstairs was a BIG problem...

I have a wooden table up there and around it I organzied my boxes and packing area (for ebay and mailing), got me a craft/sewing area, organized a scrapbooking area, sorted and organized my cards, photos, gift giving stuff. There is also a chest of drawers and a bed in there that I straightened and cleaned up. We only have two small closets down stairs so upstairs is where all my clothes/shoes are. There is a cedar built in closet and I got it all cleaned up and organized. I am going to go through my clothes again when I am done and see what I can purge (I will take pictures of the room and get them on later.)

Whew...back to work now...

You go Corneilia... You have been extemely busy... Good for you.

Since I'm late in starting the challenge, and haven't done any of the actual posted ones, I guess I'll start here!

This past week, I went through the toy boxes (one in the basement, and one in both kid's rooms). I took out 1 1/2 garbage bags to be thrown out, and 1 garbage bag full, to either sell at a garage sale if we have one, or donate if we don't. I also took out a laundry basket full of clothes from DD's room, also to be sold.

Sorted and Recycled 42 magazines :yikes: Finally took the time to read and take out the articles/recipes/craft ideas I liked.

FYI:
42 magazines= 1000000 pounds
;)

I just (with the help of my 4 children) cleaned the entire upstairs. We got rid of 7 grocery bags full of trash & broken toys. Can someone explain to me why my kids feel the need to save every paper & box that a toy comes in? UGH!
Everything is put in it's place, swept, mopped, vacuumed, & scrubbed. It is CLEAN!! up there!! Woot! That's 4 bedrooms, 1 toy room, 2 bathrooms, 2 hallways, and one computer/tv/book area at the top of the stairs (it's not really a room, but large at 9x12ft). I even vacuumed the stairs.
:curtain:

Tomorrow we tackle the downstairs...1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, living room, office, dining room, kitchen, mudroom, foyer & hallway.

WOW! Everyone has been BUSY! It's so wonderful to read all of your successes!!!

YankeeMom, when you figure out why the kids save all that stuff, please let me know!! My kids do the exact same thing! :laugh:

I just found this post, I'm so glad. I did clean out the bottom of my entry closet, still need to hit the top shelf. I have been decluttering sort of all over the place around here. I cleaned the living room,vaccumed and dusted. Dh helped me paint it. My df helped me put up border, although we ran out. So I'm on the hunt for more. (I think it might be discontinued!) I have thrown out two kitchen bags full of paper and magazines. I also found a $40.00 check from 2001. That will teach me to just throw all my papers in a pile..:bang: I also have donated a hugh bag to Goodwill. All in all I'm learning Less is More.

Oops! I meant we painted the dining room.

Dh & I just cleaned the office & our bedroom. OMGosh! I have a desk top again! It was, literally, almost 2 feet high on my side of the desk :blush:
In my defense, it's because I don't sit over there everyone (myself included) thinks it's a good spot to just set things :rolleyes:
We tossed 2 grocery bags & 1 large Kohls bag full of garbage, plus a huge box of recyclables.

This isn't really a decluttering thing, but yesterday afternoon, I went through all the kid's old clothes I had packed away. I sorted them according to size and item. When I was done, I had 1 big bin of DS's clothes, sizes 8-12; 1 big one of DD's pants, long sleeve shirts and winter dresses, size 5-6x; 1 big one of DD's pants, long sleeve shirts size 4-5, plus all her PJ's; a smaller box with DD's summer clothes (shorts, t-shirts & sundresses), sizes 4-6x; and a misc. box with shoes, snowsuits and Halloween costumes. They are stacked up against the wall in the basement, out of the way.
Next, I am going to go to the store on base, and put an ad on their 'for sale' wall, to see if I can sell some of this stuff.