De-Cluttering is Harder than you think

Another week of de-cluttering is almost complete and another blog is about to be written about it. 

I'm almost done with this month, and yet I don't feel like I've made any progress on de-cluttering.  I know I've only done it for 4 weeks, but I guess I wish I saw more results. However, I will continue to work on this in the hopes that I will begin to see progress.

This week was harder to do than any other week has been.  Monday I had to finish a project I had started so I finished cleaning the kitchen.  Tuesday was to find a place for something I constantly am looking for.  This was easy.  Wednesday was to stay and finish a project before moving on to something else.  Still sounds easy, right????

Thursday-Saturday was probably one of the biggest de-cluttering projects I have had to do and the hardest so far.  I had to tackle my email, which I am sad to say I'm still working on.  I don't know why, but I just can't get rid of emails.  I have 2 email accounts, my school address and my gmail address.  Combined I had over 1600 emails in  my inbox's.  Gmail had approximately 950, and my school email had about 850.  Glad I had 3 days to tackle this task, however I still can't seem to delete my emails.  Something must be wrong with me.  I was able to reduce my gmail inbox down to 330, but my school email still has about 800.  I just don't like deleting things that I may need to refer back to later and I've decided not to waste paper and print them out like I used to.  Email has gotten so much better that now I can type a few words into the search field and find the email that I'm needing to refer to.  My gmail account can have many different folders and I should clarify that my inbox was 950 and is now down to 330, but I have about 5 folders that still have over 200 emails in them that I've never read.  And, out of the 330 emails still in my inbox 144 are new emails never been opened. 

Does anyone else have this problem?

I'm really bad about looking at my email, if you really need to email me my school email is where you should try first.  I read them, but then I forget to delete them.  If I delete them and need to refer back to them what do I do.  Needless to say, I'm still working on this.  Hoping by the end of the day I can get all my gmail inbox and a couple folders down to 0 new emails.  Plus I plan to go through my school email and delete emails that are over a few months old.  I can do this, I know I can, just need to get over my need to keep things.

Next week is going to be a scary week as I tackle my hobby room... my sewing/office.  Cleaned it last summer and now you can't even walk into it.  The primary cause is all the magazines that I have.  Well look for next weeks blog and see how I manage this coming week.  

More De-Cluttering

Almost the end of the month and I'm still working on decluttering.  Staying on track with my calendar and feeling good about getting things done around the house.  This week was cleaning out my closet which I actually did when I changed all my clothes for the winter back in December, so not much to declutter at this time.  However, I looked through to see which clothes I haven't worn since I put them in my closet and  I had 2 sweaters that I pulled out.  I also pulled out 5 shirts that are short sleeve and shouldn't have been in there, so they will be moving to my spring and summer closet.  Along with cleaning out my closet I also cleaned out my dresser and armoire.  Too many clothes, but I really hate wearing the same thing within a 2 week period and I hate doing laundry.  So, yes I'll admit I have a lot of clothes, but in my defense I wear them all.

Not only am I decluttering this year, I have some major projects that I want to work on as well.  Really struggling with trying to find storage pieces for some of my projects.  I'm still trying to find shelving for under my sink in the kitchen.  I know that I can build my own if I want, but then that's one more project that I have to add to my list which is already pretty long.  Also need to change my filing system.  Thought that I was doing pretty well with my current filing system, however I haven't been staying on top of it and now it's a giant mess.  My biggest project is my laundry room and that is something I will have to build.  I would like to make a bench slash storage unit for my laundry room that I can put my toolbox under, have storage above that, then a bench and then a back with hooks and more storage cubies above that.  Pinterest is awesome and I've already found plans for 2 that I really like, but it's finding the time and money to get started on this project.  However, I know that this is something that needs to happen fairly fast and it's too bad that I didn't get materials and things for this weekend since I have tomorrow off.  Just wasn't thinking ahead, plus it's so cold out that I wouldn't have wanted to park my car outside so that I could build in the garage.  What to do, what to do???

Those are the thoughts going through my head right now.  Just proud that I have completed a week of decluttering and hoping that I can continue.  If I can get Dalton involved he will keep me on track in remembering to do it, however he struggles with keeping his room clean so no guarantee that he will help me complete the tasks on my list!!!

The beginning of the Declutter Calendar

So last year I found this really nice website www.simplerlife.com and signed up for their weekly emails.  This woman had also created a declutter calendar and unfortunately I didn't sign up for it at the beginning of the year but in April, so yes I did get the calendar, but I had a hard time starting it.  This year it may be day 12, but I've already completed the first 12 days of the calendar and my goal is to stick with it.  It feels so good to check off what I've completed and the results are awesome.  Some examples was to create a plan for what I want my kitchen to look like, clean out refrigerator shelves and clear everything on the outside of the furniture and reorganize what I want on it.

So......

Today I printed out the 2013 calendar and got to work.  I hate my kitchen, I don't like to be in it, but I like to cook.  My kitchen is super super tiny!!!! My plan for my kitchen is really just to make it work better and be more efficient.  I have so much stuff crammed in there, but it's not organized and it drives me nuts.  The extension of my kitchen is my dining room table that I inherited from my great grandma and I love the table even though we don't actually sit at it.  Hopefully this year I can re-stain it and keep it from being so cluttered.  So January 7th-11th dealt with my kitchen.  First on the 7th was to make a plan, then on the 8th and 9th I was to clean out two shelves, on the 10th clean out my condiment shelves and then yesterday I was to clear everything off the outside, wipe it down and put less back on.  Long story short, I did all of those this morning.  And for good measure I also cleaned out my freezer.  Found a lot that I don't eat and a lot that I use that I didn't know I had.  The results are phenomenal.  Almost makes me want to finish the rest of my kitchen, but I know that I need to pace myself because I'm really bad about thinking I should keep going when I really need to stop and take a breath.

Here are a few photos of the before and after.  Struggling with finding good software for putting pictures together and this one I found wouldn't let me type anything.

 My clean refrigerator, sorry didn't take before photos, it was just too embarrassing.  Had a lot of things I use but didn't know I had, so can't wait to cook tonight!!!

 

My clean freezer.  The pictures on the left are the before.  It may not look like a huge difference, but there was a lot of stuff crammed onto those shelves that you really can't see.  Now everything has a spot and I threw away a ton of stuff I've had in there since 2008.  Oops!!!

More Decluttering to come!!!

2012 Resolution Recap

This was my goal list from 2012.   12/20 tasks completed which is pretty good although it would have been nice to complete them all.  Hoping that 2013 helps me finish these and the new ones I will start for 2013!

1. Build Fire Pit in Backyard
2. Buy new car
3. Clean out gutters
4. Lose 5 lbs
5. Lose 10 lbs
6. Lose 20 lbs
7. Lose 40 lbs
8. Lose 50 lbs
9. Redo bathroom
10. Redo front porch
11. Re-organize basement
12. Re-organize Dalton's room
13. Re-organize garage
14. Re-organize kitchen
15. Re-organize living room
16. Re-organize my bedroom
17. Re-organize my office
18. Re-stain kitchen table
19. Start teacher website/blog
20. Trim tree in backyard