Decluttering

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

Register Log in
paradox3

paradox3

Peanuts Fan
Pronouns
She/Her/Her
Have you ever tried to declutter your home? Used the Konmari approach? Or another method like Swedish death cleaning?

I have undertaken some serious decluttering since the start of the pandemic. It's not even my first go at it.

I began with all of the photos that we had in this place. It took me three full weeks to get rid of duplicpates, landscapes,.pix of unknown people etc & to organize what was left into albums. My intention is to digitalize all of it but I am not there yet.

Christmas decor items were next. Two full bins went to donation.

I have also sent to donation:
A couple of bins of books (the ones not suitable for donation went in the recycling)
One hallstand
Two oak chairs
Two sewing machines
All the clothes that no longer fit
Two small lamps
A set of heavy drapes (I kept the lighter layer)
3 large pieces of wall art
6 lawn chairs
All the baking equipment (no one here bakes any more)
4 sleeping bags

And more!!!

This is what I decided I needed to buy:

One lamp. :p
 
Dear Goddes, I could do with some help with this. A year of mourning/depression has taken this place from awful to hopeless, and I don't even know where to start.

I have, however, in recent weeks, made some tiny inroads into some small areas, so I guess there's hope. I'm thinking that a dumpster this summer will help with some of the bigger stuff, like my kids' discarded second hand furniture.
 
Discarded second hand furniture sounds like a good place to start @BetteTheRed

Hopefully you will build some momentum as you go.

There are lots of websites with advice on decluttering and minimizing. Most of the ideas are.really just common sense but the encouragement can be helpful. Good luck!
 
I will be done with paying mortgage as of Friday- so decided to spring clean, reorganize and declutter some. Laundry room is done.( it’s tiny- not much bigger than my washer and dryer- so that was easy.).
Kitchen is next. I spend the last long weekend scrubbing the grout in my kitchen/ dining room- first time in 11 years- and now it is white again! Do ‘t think I will do that very often. Maybe every 10 years….
Next will be the kitchen cabinets- cleaning and sorting out. I don’t give me a timeline- or maybe 2022 as a timeline. I also started to look through digital pictures and started on the pile of “ want to read” books.
Not sure how old I have to live to to finish that job.
Do you have some links for good declutter sites?
 
Honestly @Mrs.Anteater I looked at so many different sites it's hard to keep them all straight. I searched decluttering, minimalism and home decor trends.
 
Alas we hate to give up ... anything for that matter until there is nothing further to contest in context! That's conflict in mine ... deep ole thing ...

Then there are those that are best at wasting and eliminating other's stuff ... still a conflict!
 
Luce NDs said:
Alas we hate to give up ... anything for that matter until there is nothing further to contest in context! That's conflict in mine ... deep ole thing ...

Then there are those that are best at wasting and eliminating other's stuff ... still a conflict!
Click to expand...
Ah yes eliminating others' stuff is crossing the line.

When we live with another person, we can only deal with our own accumulations. One author suggests we can lead by example and I have actually found this to be so. At least to some extent.

In the case of children who have moved out of the house though, we don't need to let them use our home as a storage facility on a long term basis.
 
paradox3 said:
Ah yes eliminating others' stuff is crossing the line.

When we live with another person, we can only deal with our own accumulations. One author suggests we can lead by example and I have actually found this to be so. At least to some extent.

In the case of children who have moved out of the house though, we don't need to let them use our home as a storage facility on a long term basis.
Click to expand...

Even folk dead and past have gone overboard there ... we've got so much stuff that doesn't belong! Should have been recycled ... etc. In chaos and contempt expect good stuff to go too! As the mysterious power divides the house ... so ass it goes ... ass in 9! Human trait as a demiurge ...

Union is considered accrued form ... thus eliminated ... generating Passover and High Flight! Goan or Twilight Zone as Ze IONs!
 
I also looked at some posts about curating collections. Kind of helpful to reframe whittling down a collection as "curating" it. :)
 
My colleague has a husband like that. She comes home and he has thrown out a bunch of things.
But- he is teachable. Just recently, it happened again, and when she complained, he said: “ I thought you would complain- that’s why it’s all still in bags in the garage.” And she could get out the things that still mattered to her.
 
Our big move three years ago from a house with four bedrooms, two kitchens, three bathrooms, 2 living rooms , 2 dining rooms , den and large garage for three thousand miles to a two bedroom house with one bedroom already furnished, one kitchen, small garage, dining room, and living room gave us incentive to do a really major decluttering. We did more decluttering in our move of 300 km to our new home here.

It is easier to declutter when making big moves.

Congratulations for all your successes achieved without needing to move.
 
You see, that is my problem. I live in a house continually occupied by many members of the same family for 61 years, when it was built. Now, there have been attempts to remove "accretions", one of them, in the early 2000s, unearthed a homemade roof rack for an original VW Bug; the same purge recycled about half a room's worth of "good boxes". Somewhere in this house (because I have seen it, in memory), there exists a large paper carry bag stuffed to the top with every single greeting card (minus Xmas cards, which she dutifully recycled into gift tags using pinking shears) that my Mother ever received after she moved here...

And I haven't made it better. I have an almost bizarrely large collection of original art, most of it 2-D, thank goddes, but much of it carefully framed, and a little sculpture in the mix. It's all original art (the lithos/prints are "real" prints, properly numbered and signed). Some of the artists are students, but excellent ones, who won awards in their year; some are faculty, some fairly well known on the Canadian art scene, and some are visiting artists (I have a Jack Cassady print). I have an original painting of myself as a young woman, with an odd outfit and a very symbolic background by a faculty member, who was a Jewish guy from New York who painted in a very Paul Peel style. Some are just my artist friends; peculiar pieces for me they've made on a whim. I have an original litho by an artist friend, edition of one, called "single mom in mink stole"... I have a little set of three panels featuring "me", in a sort of caricatured way, oils, all framed, in three memorable Arizona contexts. In the back hall, in a corner that no-one sees but me, I have two of my own paintings, very odd and abstract and primitive, all at once, done under an artist's friend's coaching during two different periods of my life. And somewhere, again with this somewhere, there's there's at least two portfolios with "stuff that might be framed", and one of my Dad's work as well. It's awful. And then there are the books of three generations of bookworms.
 
BetteTheRed said:
You see, that is my problem. I live in a house continually occupied by many members of the same family for 61 years, when it was built. Now, there have been attempts to remove "accretions", one of them, in the early 2000s, unearthed a homemade roof rack for an original VW Bug; the same purge recycled about half a room's worth of "good boxes". Somewhere in this house (because I have seen it, in memory), there exists a large paper carry bag stuffed to the top with every single greeting card (minus Xmas cards, which she dutifully recycled into gift tags using pinking shears) that my Mother ever received after she moved here...

And I haven't made it better. I have an almost bizarrely large collection of original art, most of it 2-D, thank goddes, but much of it carefully framed, and a little sculpture in the mix. It's all original art (the lithos/prints are "real" prints, properly numbered and signed). Some of the artists are students, but excellent ones, who won awards in their year; some are faculty, some fairly well known on the Canadian art scene, and some are visiting artists (I have a Jack Cassady print). I have an original painting of myself as a young woman, with an odd outfit and a very symbolic background by a faculty member, who was a Jewish guy from New York who painted in a very Paul Peel style. Some are just my artist friends; peculiar pieces for me they've made on a whim. I have an original litho by an artist friend, edition of one, called "single mom in mink stole"... I have a little set of three panels featuring "me", in a sort of caricatured way, oils, all framed, in three memorable Arizona contexts. In the back hall, in a corner that no-one sees but me, I have two of my own paintings, very odd and abstract and primitive, all at once, done under an artist's friend's coaching during two different periods of my life. And somewhere, again with this somewhere, there's there's at least two portfolios with "stuff that might be framed", and one of my Dad's work as well. It's awful. And then there are the books of three generations of bookworms.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a very interesting art collection! You would likely be able to display it to advantage if you got rid of the stuff you don't want. Just saying . . . It's definitely a process that takes time.

One blogger talked about "hidden clutter" which is a great concept. It would include all those boxes with contents unknown. Clutter is clutter, she said, and it can weigh you down.

It might actually be fun to go through all the accumulation in your house. Bet you will find some hidden treasures there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top