Decluttering, Round 4 - Begin!

Round 1: about 10 years ago, about 40% stuff reduction
Round 2: about 6 years ago, before and after a move. Much stuff removed.
Round 3: About 3 years ago, after another move. About a 30% reduction - my home shrank by 100sf and a 100sf storage area. 
Round 4: A new chapter of my life is beginning

I realized a few days ago I'd love to own about half of what I currently do. I'm not sure how I can do that, but it does give me a goal.

Things I can do to work towards this:

• The spare room needs cleaned up a bit better. It has improved greatly in the past month!
• The older computer tower is ready to be recycled, just needs dropped off. I'm collecting various bits of recyclable electronics together so this can be all in one trip.
• My collection of duffel bags and backpacks needs to be sorted through, and extras donated again.
• The oversize dresser needs to be replaced this summer with smaller one.
• My fabric stash needs to be sewn up and made into things.
• My book collection needs to be resorted, just as an occasional checkup. 
• My SCA kit needs checked over, as I'm doing the sewing. As most of the sewing is for the SCA this will work well.

Goals for the house

In the past month, I've rearranged the living room and balcony, and bought a new shower curtain. That last doesn't sound like much, but it looks like I completely redid the bathroom!

The living room functions better with its changes as well; I just need to hang my swords up, fix the couch cover and put it back out, and get the Singer 66 back together and in the living room. Of which the last two are a fair bit of work. My computer desk is much cleaner, but not perfect, and I still have piles on the kitchen table. And a plant on the kitchen counter, that needs a new home found in the house. The plant stand it was on has been filtered. I could use better organization around the computer, which involves more space on the bookshelf, which is a challenge. I need another bookshelf far more than another sewing machine in the living room! Or give Ester (the electric) back to my mother, since I won't sew on it anyway, and replacing that with shelving of some kind. Maybe.

My bedroom is a bit chaotic. Too much stuff jammed in there, between trying to keep my off-season stuff in the carved chest and all my crafts, all my SCA stuff, and most of my books in the room. Eek, that even looks bad typed! But the storage unit is still full as well. Getting the sewing machine out will help. Getting the '66 sewing machine running, even though it means more money, is actually very conductive to finding it a new home. No one will take it right now, they just tell me how pretty it is. I have finished completely flipping over to summer clothes, and also sorted out my box of 'size 12' clothes and got rid of most of that (I had gotten to size 16, now back at 14 and very slowly getting to 12).

The balcony: I've rearranged the pots, gotten rid of several pots (more going!) and bought a whirlygig and a windchime. Once I get the bikes stored somewhere other than my Sitting Spot, I'll have a place to sit. All but two of the pots have herbs in them - rosemary, mints, lemon balm. If I can find a snowball bush (hydrangea) that will work out there, in a pot, I'm getting it. It looks like Endless Summer^® Blushing Bride Hydrangea may work, I just need to find one.

I've taken a few loads to the thrift store, and a couple more loads to friends that can use what I'm filtering. The living room looks much nicer, and mostly stays clean. Since the the last time I reset the computer desk (a week or two) it's stayed dramatically cleaner with little effort from me.

There is still room for improvement but I think right now I'm going to work on finishing some of the craft projects. Some of those will result in snowball cleaning - when I finish painting my new SCA jewelry box, I can fill that up with stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, then paint the old one and use that to hold A&S tokens. Those two things will clean up stuff that's sitting on my dresser right now, where they don't belong. Then the table will be clear, so I can do the sewing that's sitting on the sewing machine, etc. Snowball cleaning!

And once I've done some of that, the next layer of clutter will be more visible to me, and I can peel that off. Decluttering can be like an onion - you have to peel of one layer before you can deal with the next. Especially when it's your stuff, and you're living life in the middle of it.

Minimizing the Kitchen, Part II

An update on what I've done so far.

I'm doing as much as I can to eat down the food that we have - one week, the grocery bill was a record low of $50 (usual is $150). I have consolidated roommate's food and glasses into on cabinet, and the same with my baking and Japanese food ingredients. I still have lots of extra kitchen stuff, but I now have the majority of the food actually in the kitchen. The pantry has 'doubles', hot chocolate, and the sweets that they want and I don't. It is also now holding a boxed set of china that had been in my clothes closet.I also went through my supplies of canning jars and reduced it to what I actually have room to store. This has been a big help.

Things that I have planned on going to DD when she moves out are being kept. She'll get some nicely seasoned cast iron skillets, probably some Corningware, some glasses, not sure what else. I don't mind keeping in a few extra years, and she'll get set up well from the get-go. Unlike me, using crap skillets because I couldn't afford anything else. There was a good reason I asked for Revere Ware pots for college graduation! I'm still using one that is going on 40 years old and good as new, from my mom's wedding gifts.

When the coffee pot died, I didn't replace it - I am actually fine drinking instant coffee, and no one locally has the kind of coffee machine I want. The additional space in the kitchen helped my organize the front closet, as stuff that was in there but belonged in the kitchen was able to put away correctly. Now that closet isn't overstuffed.

It's been nice to see the minimizing of the kitchen cascade into other areas of the house as well!

Progress Nibbles

I'm calling it 'nibbles' because I know I've gotten something done even if it doesn't look like much! My computer desk is neater, the treadle only has sewing stuff on it, and my room stays neater. I took an under-used, smaller hanging file container and used it as a desk organizer. It now has folders for Incoming Bills, Notes, Notepads, and several for scrapbooking paper for the current project. This is a huge help for my desk! There are also two tins on the desk for holding other office supplies, since I have no drawers and a very small surface area. Each tin is about 2 inches deep, one is 8x10 inches and the other about 3x4 inches, so not large at all.

As usual I have several projects in the works. I did fix a stuffed animal and put her back where she goes. I still have to revamp the two older feather pillows, hem curtains, and finish working on that scrapbook as soon as I buy the supplies I need. I have a bit of clothing repairs to do, as well. Some can be dropped off at the seamstress as long as I remember to do it!

The decluttering has slowed down but not stopped. Partly because I am busier, partly because I think I've gotten through the top layers of easy-to-sort clutter. I am still working on it but it is somewhat delayed till I declutter the garden. I need to get the weeds out so that I can plant more food, before the summer is over! We can double crop some things in this area, and that's now the only way I will get some of this food in. First crop never got planted, second crop needs to go in soon. Hopefully this weekend!

Out:
3 stacks of books
grocer bag of fabric
1 full car trunk to thrift

In:
2 books
linen for a dress

Reassessment

I went and re-assessed the storage unit (about 6x6ft) last night. Prior to the move, it was filled to an average depth of 5-6ft. Now, I have 2 visible shelving units on two walls, the floor has a treadle base, camp chair, punching dummy, and a couple garden items. The treadle needs re-homed.

One shelf is RM's stuff. It's also holding treadle parts and an extra lamp of mine.

One shelf is mine. It is about as decluttered as I can get it: one box each of Yule decor, Other Season decor, fabric, smaller clothes for me (am loosing weight now), Mathom box, and one box of decor I expect I'll use later. And the camping stuff, too.

I'm happy with where it's at.

***

I do still have to declutter the area around my computer desk. Currently, that involves my toolbox, a half-empty filebox, a box of some kind of books (I've forgotten what's in it since I filled it about 2 weeks ago), and a box of cookbooks I want to get recipes out of. And the small paperdrift forming on top of the desk itself.

A lack of organization is hurting me here. Incoming mail? Place on 'puter desk. Note to self? Place on 'puter desk. Keep in mind, said desk is 24" long and about 12" wide. It already holds the monitor & good speakers, which take up 75%+ of the available space.

The filebox I plan to use to hold incoming bills, scrapbooking papers, and another section or two that will depend on what's in the paperdrift. That should help with the chaos. The toolbox needs to find a permanent home and I need to do a general straightening in that area at the same time.

On the brighter side- the living room and kitchen are staying clean, and I now have a lovely view to the balcony. I straightened up out there last night and now instead of a mess there are baskets of nasturtiums and herbs, and the tomato plants that I need to get into the garden. I'll be adding cascading petunias too, and soon it will be a lovely viney wild delight of blooms.

Getting Started

We've managed to put away everything that has a place to go, and most of the artwork has been hung. There is a still a pile in the living room, and a smaller one next to my desk, but it looks much better.

This weekend, I was able to repack my carved chest. It had been used for general storage, so I emptied it out and I have repacked it with winter clothes and extra linens for my bedroom. The total volume of off-season clothes & extra linens that I am allowing myself to keep is what will fit in that chest. One thing that does help with this is that I keep the linens for each bedroom, inside that bedroom.

Some of the linens that didn't fit went to Roommate, who can use them. A full Outbox load came out as well. Doing this emptied one storage bin; unpacking the 'extra' coats emptied out another one. Neither bin will be refilled. I also unpacked my DVDs and CDs and put them away, allowing me to toss the empty box.

Out:

• box of books (library)
• Two empty storage bins (thrift donation)
• 13-gallon trash bag of items (thrift donation)
• broken cookie press (I kept the pattern rounds, though) (tossed)
• two other trips to thrift store, a full car load each time

In:

• new cookie press (thrift store, $5, all pieces there)
• rug for underneath cat food, and the bench where our shoes go.
• Curtain hooks to use at laundry area & one window.

First Impressions

The new place is 1184 sq ft (110 sq. m.) - the largest place I've ever had, and yet still cluttered right from the start! I am applying things I learned from the ApartmentTherapy.com Cure to the layout. Using the Outbox and Landing Strip, specifically. The Outbox is near the front door, and will be emptied every weekend.

The Bedroom

My bedroom shrank by about 20 sq. ft., plus the closet is half the size it was. I'm enjoying it even more than I had expected! Not everything I want in there fits yet, but I'm still working on it . Once we get settled I can do some of my one-off crafts (photo albums for the pics I do have, knit up the kits I bought, etc.) and that will reduce the clutter.

The Library
I read voraciously. My book supply reflects that. I currently have 4 bookshelves full, plus two large plastic bins full. The goal is to have 3 bookshelves, maybe less, plus whatever is on my eReader. My cookbooks will be reduced as well: I found a cookbook program and will enter in the recipes I want to keep. Having to type all of them in is a wonderful disincentive - I'm much less likely to enter in the borderline ones!

Decor
Part of my challenge, when I can reach the boxes in question, is decor. I have enough for two apartments. Anything we don't use when setting up this place needs to go, unless I fight with myself about it leaving. Then it can stay temporarily. Some - Ok, ALL of those items need to be revisited every few months. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to the idea of letting something go, especially when I've had it a long time.

Holiday decorations might also be a challenge. I say might, because last year's Yuletide decor was minimal: one twig wreath and one "let it snow!" sign. The tree was a 2-foot tall tree with a single strand of silver beads, and a silver snowflake 'star.' It was lovely. I am going to go through the big box of decorations I have, and make piles: 'keepsakes,' 'oh pretty,' and 'why do I have this?'