100 things...

So, reorganizing closets and painting is fine and good, but this is the Year of Less (YOL), so I need to step it up and actually get rid of some stuff.  It can be a bit daunting to do.


I think the key for me is to break decluttering up into smaller, more manageable jobs.  I decided that I had one hour to find 100 things to get rid of.   I would have three categories, to throw away, to donate to charity, and to reuse in some way.   I decided to start with clothing since I have lost some weight and a few things are too big for me now anyway.


I thought, there is no WAY that my husband and I have 100 pieces of clothing to get rid of, but maybe we could get 40 or so from clothing and I could find the other 60 somewhere else in the house.  I am not a clotheshorse--I only own 4 pairs of jeans.  My drawers are stuffed full or overflowing on any given day, but that is only because I don't have any storage for seasonal stuff, right?


Oh, and I cheated a little bit.  Mr. YOL had come up with 18 clothing items the night before that he was ready to get rid of.


They included: 11 men's shirts and 7 pairs of men's pants.


So I was starting at +18 on my total.


Anyway, I started the timer at 60 minutes.  I could do this.  No problem.   I took a deep breath, and started on mine...




I did try clothing on at times to see if I should keep it.  If it was unflattering in the least, I got rid of it.  I was surprised at how many things I had that either still had the tags or that I had never worn.


After one hour I had:


6 items for the trash, an incredible 65 items to donate to charity, and 15 items to reuse!


86 items total!  All clothing!   I couldn't believe it.  I was so close to the 100 items...could I make it to 100 items on just clothing? I gave myself another 10 minutes.  Trying so many of these on was taking quite a bit of time.


After nine minutes, I was so close.  I had a minute left and I still needed 6 items....where could I look?.....


 AH HA!  The bra and sock drawer!!  Why didn't I think of this before?


I got rid of two bras and 4 pairs of socks.


And I was at 100 items with 15 seconds to spare.  Success!  Whew!


I packaged the stuff to be donated in old diaper boxes.  Here is a picture of it all:

Not pictured are the 16 items that I am going reuse by cutting them up for rags and the 5 shirts and a pair of underwear in the trash (silky fabrics so no good for rags).


Each box is about 2 cubic feet (1x2x1).  So, 10 cubic feet of clutter gone, and now I have room in my drawers for everything.


I didn't think that I was even close to having 100 items of clothing to get rid of, but I sure did.  It makes me wonder what else I have way too much of...

Why I hate Target...

Note:  I don't really hate Target.


I hate my behavior when I'm IN Target.  You know the joke about the kid in the candy store?  Well, I'm that way at Target.


I went in today to get a new dustpan and broom set.  That's all.  They sell them at the dollar spot for $1.




I walked out of the demon store $22.78 lighter.  Yep, I fell for their clever floor plan and nifty aisle end-caps.


Most of my purchases were food, cleaning supplies, or toiletries (not included in the Year of Less tally), but  I did manage to bring 5 new things into the house.


Here are the offending 5 items:

All cleaning oriented (this year, I am including Less Filth as one of my things to strive for), but they are still items that count towards my total.




So, as penance I had to find six things around the house to get rid of.




Here they are:

Sayonara suckers!


In addition, I am sending four (of my 28 rocks glasses) and a dinosaur sandwich cutter to my sister.  







She needs the glasses and her kids love sandwiches and dinosaurs and my son is ambivalent about both.  Of course, I need to find some packing tape as the open but packed box has been sitting on my kitchen table for the last week...


someday I will get it together I swear. 

Less pink. AKA the great kitchen redo.

Have you ever just had it with something?  I hit my breaking point last Thursday with my kitchen walls.


They were pink.  Pepto-Bismol pink.  Part of the pink was covered in maroon sponge painting.  It was hideous.


Here is what it looked like before:

Painting the kitchen is one of those things that we have always been meaning to do but could never get up the energy.  Well guess what, I found the energy!


Did I mention that the valances on the windows were green gingham with vines and berries?  Totally not matching the Pepto, BTW.


Here's a close up of the sponge painting if you were still on the fence about it:

Very 1989.


So I went to town painting over the Pepto pink.  Here is the same view with the new color:

It's amazing what a little paint can do.  I used to hate the counter tops, but now I realize that the pink was unfairly coloring my opinion of them (pun intended).  I kind of like them now.


I got rid of the three valances as well.  I mentioned to my son's teacher that I was going to repaint the kitchen and she said she was also painting her kitchen this weekend.  She was painting it green to match a wallpaper border that was green gingham and vines with berries on it and she just needed to find some valances.  If that wasn't a sign from God, I don't know what is.  I brought the valances to her when I picked up my son and she was thrilled that they would match what she was already planning to do.  Win-win!


The best part is how cheap it was. I went to Home Depot and was surprised to find the perfect color in their clearance/mixed wrong paint section for $12, regularly $25.  Add $8 worth of painting supplies and masking tape and this was a $20 redo.


AND, it was such a small job (two backsplashes and one small wall) that we have enough to paint our master bath the same color as well.  It is currently a turd brown color.  I will post again when that project is done.


Dont get me started on the vomit orange that the hall bath was painted.  We fixed that three years ago thank goodness.  The people before us must have had a lot of stomach issues, that's all I'm saying...


On a side note, the countertops looked so good without all of the stuff on it that we also decluttered most of the kitchen.


We got rid of 34 pieces of rubbermaid storage containers with and without lids, 3 ice cube trays, a pitcher and 6 glasses, empty jars that we were saving for no reason, dull knife sets, old tongs, old baskets, old spatulas, gadgets and gizmos that we never use, and bunches of expired food and spices.


It looks awesome and it feels great!

Mesozoic era medicine cabinet...

I just went through my medicine cabinets and all of these medications and supplements were expired.  The worst offender expired over 5 years ago.

Do yourself a favor and dispose of your expired vitamins and medications.  Even if they won't kill you (which some of them can), do you really want to be chewing on 4-year-old Rolaids?

Five things.

I needed a quick way to breathe a little easier today.  I was in the mother of all cluttered rooms (computer room/exercise room/music room/craft room/AKA junk catch-all room ) feeling a little claustrophobic

Here were my rules:

1. They had to be within my sight-I could not go through drawers looking for things.

2. Paper items (other than books) didn't count.

3. Once identified, I could give them away, donate them to charity, throw them away, recycle them, whatever.  They just need to be out of my house by the end of the day.

Here are the five things that I chose:

Clockwise from top left:

A brand new scrapbook.  I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am just not the scrapbooking type.

A puzzle that I got for Christmas 5 years ago in a gift swap.  Never been opened.

A metal bucket with floral design.  Given to me by a coworker at my old office.

A collapsible dog bowl.  Got for free with something.  I don't have a dog.

Never-been opened set of four martini glasses.  Again, a gift.  Tried unsuccessfully to sell them on Craigslist, which is why they are in the office in the first place.

Five things gone and donated to charity!  I can breathe a little easier.

Are you feeling claustrophobic in any of your rooms?  Find your five items.

Now do that again every day for a week.  You'll feel a difference, I promise!

Less junk.

So, I have a confession:


I am a bit of a clutterbug.  Ok, more than just a bit.  But I'm not a hoarder.  Not like an A&E Hoarder. I can see my floors most of the time--although the same can't be said for my kitchen counters.  I have actually had people over to my house for a dinner party, and I am capable of getting the house clean enough for houseguests with adequate notice, preferably 2-3 weeks.


Over the years, I have probably read two dozen books on cleaning and decluttering, most of them from the library, but occasionally I buy one if it has a splashy cover. In fact, my favorite book on conquering clutter, It's All Too Much by Peter Walsh, is missing right now, probably because it is under a pile of clutter somewhere.  Or elves have stolen it.  They seem to steal a lot of stuff around here.


Borrowing from Peter Walsh, my clutter takes on many forms.  Lazy clutter, like the two catalogs that are on my coffee table right now that I have no intention of ordering from.  And the drinking glass from last night that is on top of them.  Sentimental clutter, like my great-grandmother's drop-leaf table that is too big for my space and has water marks all over the top.  Project clutter like my Bedazzler and associated gemstones, my chenille yarn for all those scarves that I have been meaning to knit for gifts, the box of frames that I have been meaning to spray paint gold and turn into beautiful wall art.  


Then there is "I might need this some day" clutter like the empty 3-ring binders that I used in graduate school.  At least I had enough sense to throw their contents away during shredder day at my bank last year.  Inherited clutter, where family members have discarded their rejects and Aunt Mary's art project on me and I was too nice to say thanks but no thanks and so I get to become keeper of the heirloom.


In reality, I need to get this under control.  I have too much stuff.  I think that this epiphany occurred since I started working from home last year.  Before, when I had my regular office job, I was too tired to think about doing anything about it after I got home, and I just wanted to spend time with my family.  Cleaning?  Forget about it!  But now that I am staring at this stuff all the time, the walls feel like they are closing in on me.  I mean, do I really need 28 rocks/whisky glasses ? (yes, you read that right, 28!!)   I had to look up what these glasses were even called.   It's not like this is Madmen and we host 2 cocktail parties a week.  They look like this:

Some of them are leaded crystal, or have fancy etchings on them. We got almost all of them as wedding presents.   Apparently the people who came to our wedding thought we were alcoholics.


So, during this Year of Less (YOL), I am going to keep a tally of everything that comes into and goes out of my house.  By the end of the year, I hope that more has gone out than come in, a whole lot more.  But, I am going to set some ground rules about it so it doesn't get too crazy.


Things that will not count towards my tally:


Food and Cleaning products that can be used up
This includes groceries, take out, etc.---but if for some stupid reason I keep the takeout container, I will count it.


Health and Beauty products that can be used up
I will not count things like soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc., but if I buy a new hairbrush or curling iron, I will count that.


Mail
Yeah, yeah, I know, I mentioned up above that the catalogs are clutter, but you will just have to take my word for it that I am getting better at tossing them out.  I am not going to list every piece of mail I get or throw out because it is boring and less is more, especially when it comes to blogs.


Things that will count:


Anything not listed above. 


I reserve the right to change the rules, but as of right now, these are the rules.