14 Day Clutter Purge

I actually started clearing out the garage on Saturday. That is also the day I reaffirmed that manual labor is not for me. However, since I intend to get the garage converted to a soap studio, I have no choice but to persevere. I'm off from work tomorrow, Thurs and Fri. I was supposed to be off for the rest of the week, but I remembered I have a test scheduled for Weds. Since I'm the one GIVING the test, I thought I better actually show up. I'm going to be really upset if the one person that said he'll be there is a no show and I miss a day off.

I'm in. I've been in the process of decluttering off and on the last couple of months. I have a box of kitchen stuff, a bag of books, and a few articles of clothing to give away already. I've stalled more recently, and this will give me the motivation I need to get rid if more stuff.

earlene said:

one down on the 5/1.

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Today I carried forward the theme of tossing no longer needed 'potential soap molds'. I also began putting together a box of soaps to mail to my DIL.

5/1: 1 item
5/2: 6 items

I'd like to purge my winter butt in fourteen days.

Butt, I will catch up and declutter with you all. So I need to toss 3 items.

dibbles, I'm not In need of the cleaning project just yet, but I had to tell you that "general crappage" is now my most fave expression.

Clutter removal

nsmar4211 said:

I'm already in what I call my "tornado mode"..... so sure, I'll join! Is it one drawer a day or an entire room?

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I'm doing it too, when I moved into my apartment, I left boxes in the closet and in the corners that I never even unpacked. That was 3.5 years ago. Now I'm finally getting rid of them. One had 3 year old toiletries. Another had 5 year old spices.
One thing I've learned from my lotion making- throw out that 5 year old half empty bottle of lotion, no matter how much you paid for it. It is probably rancid and could be filled with icky beasties.

Cleaning

likeablelady said:

How i envy all of you doing your cleanup. I am disabled and soap when I have a good day or a few good hors.Sometimes I cannot get to the cleanup right away. I wish I cold join yo, as I need it BAD, but I will just have to live vicariously through all of you.

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I I am so sorry. I have degenerative disc disease, and cleaning/de cluttering can be pretty painful. I've found it helps to work for 15 minutes, take a break for 15, go back to work etc. I have a "grabber" and that helps a lot to, although the cats hate it.

likeablelady said:

How i envy all of you doing your cleanup. I am disabled and soap when I have a good day or a few good hors.Sometimes I cannot get to the cleanup right away. I wish I cold join yo, as I need it BAD, but I will just have to live vicariously through all of you.

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Just join us in spirit. You should absolutely make soap when you are having a good day, rather than squander it cleaning.

I'm working on decluttering, too. I did my clothing, shoes, etc. and went to several clothing swaps and got less but better IMO stuff. I am continually working on the basement, slowly but surely.

I like UFYH for supportive stuff. Do what you can when you can with no pressure according to your abilities with no judgment is kinda their thing. I love it but what it, That F stands for a word that may offend. un****yourhabitat. com

I am currently working on what was supposed to be my sewing room. I've already gotten rid of a huge garbage bag full of junk. That's my "1" for today. I'm going to go ahead and fill up another bag and start on tomorrow's "2" because I do have to work tomorrow and can't purge much. I did not realize how bad my house stinks until I was holed up in that room. Apparently Shredder had hit every carpet in the house. My carpet cleaner is going to get a major work out Thursday and Friday!

ETA: I just went into the curing room (whose door has been open all morning) to dump some stuff on the floor as a temporary holding place and found a chewed up bar of soap. I do believe Ivy will be farting bubbles later today!! She's my only soap eater in the house at the moment. (Max is at the dog sitter.)

My son visited and helped clean and declutter the laundry where I soap. I had to save embeds, oil containers, plastic cups and cardboard dividers but it was lovely having the help.

I am decluttering one room (slowly) at a time.

Whew...

Linen Closet is done.
Hall closet where I keep cleaning supplies, lightbulbs, Easter Baskets (why, just why?) and so many other things... DONE. I feel like taking a victory lap!

Today I am going to tidy and CLEAR the three horizontal surfaces in my combined kitchen/lounge/dining. Maybe this should be a 14 week Clutter Purge! I need the extra time

earlene said:

5/1: 1 item
5/2: 6 items

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Yesterday, I tossed a bottle of rancid peanut oil I didn't even realize I had, from my cooking cupboards. Also chose more soaps to send to my DIL and started boxing them up. Tossed out more recyclable things. In fact the recycle bin is now overly full. I had to take some stuff out and re-arrange it to get more to fit. The count for 5/3, hmmm. thinking, calculating.

Today I mailed 4 pounds of soap to my DIL, so I am just going to count that as my 4 for today. It doesn't make a huge dent in what I have on hand, but it helps. I think it is something I should do on a monthly basis; mail soap to someone in the family each month on a rotating basis.

5/1: 1 item
5/2: 6 items
5/3: 10 items (probably more, but wasn't really counting)
5/4: 4 pounds (of soap)

My hobby room almost done. I cheated and went vertical- bought the 29.95 plastic shelves from Costco and reorganized, and threw away. Found out I had about 5 lbs of Shea butter, none of it expired. Oops.

Barbsbreakingbath said:

My hobby room almost done. I cheated and went vertical- bought the 29.95 plastic shelves from Costco and reorganized, and threw away. Found out I had about 5 lbs of Shea butter, none of it expired. Oops.

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AWESOME FIND!! That's like pulling your winter stuff out of storage, sticking your hand in your coat pocket and finding money. Oh the stuff you can do with that windfall!!

I have cleaned the kitchen, sealed the granite and cleaned the oven - at the flick of a switch. All hail pyrolitic ovens.

TeresaT said:

AWESOME FIND!! That's like pulling your winter stuff out of storage, sticking your hand in your coat pocket and finding money. Oh the stuff you can do with that windfall!!

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Yep. Body butter, Shea butter soap, and Shea butter everything else for me and the family. The 6 pounds of palm oil will just have to wait. This is why I need inventory records.

Cleaned my soaping cart. That's kind of cheating, because I could not find something, so, of course, I had to remove every last item from there only to discover it already on the counter. You know, of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

Susie said:

You know, of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most.

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Ah, yes. The mind is a terrible thing to lose.

OK. I've nearly finished the "sewing" room. I have not seen this floor in a few years. Yay, me!!

I still have a LOT to do to this room. Painting the walls is top on the list. However, actually getting rid of the tons of junk that was in there was a huge step in the right direction. I originally planned (and still have that idea) to turn the unused closet into a "book nook" to house my myriad collection of books. There are a couple of book cases in there and right now the extraneous junk that I need to put in the storage shed in the yard have been tossed in there. (A heater and a couple of other things.) But there are literally 4 boxes and 6 bags of books crammed on that floor that need to be shelved. I'm going to replace the store bough book shelves with built in shelves. Eventually. I'm just glad that I can see the floor again. Oh my gosh, you should see how many bags of crap I threw out. (No, you really should not!) And I've got a huge plastic bin full of fabric and batting to give to one of my friends the next time she's in town. That's in the closet in the curing room. (Which needs to be sorted next, but is not nearly as bad as this was.)

ETA: Funny story about the paint job. In 2007 or so, I was on TDY in Germany. I left $$ for my mother in case of an "emergency." This room, when my mother lived with me, was the "TV room." When I went to Germany, the walls were white. When I came back, the walls had been painted with the "emergency" money. The kicker? She used lime green MASKING TAPE as the border between the colors. She did not go out and get actual decorative border paper. She used LIME GREEN MASKING TAPE!!! When she moved back to Philadelphia a few years later, the first thing I did when she left was rip that damned tape off the walls! I do have to give mom her props, though. She managed to put that tape on in only three strips and it was perfectly straight. Three strips across the whole room. That was one strip from the window to the door, which covered two full and one partial wall. Then a wall between the door and closet. Then from the closet to the window. I have no idea how she did that! :think: That woman terrifies me.