Well, I contemplated adding this to my 21 day as well, but I've already added 2 others that I think are more doable.  However, you did motivate me to do a few clutter "freeing" of my home.  Hopefully by weeks end I will have a clean closet/bedroom again.  it seems like our bedroom is the most neglected as it is the least visited room of the house.  I tried that one web site out there with the fly.  fly momma?  clean momma?  I cant think of it.  Anyway, it's great BUT it is a commitment...  something I don't feel I can do with two babeis.

Thanks WorkingMama, glad I could nudge someone to do something they felt good about. ^^ And I totally understand about doability--there are plenty of things I considered and eliminated based on that criteria.

SO! Updating this goal for Day 1 of 21!

I eliminated two pieces of clutter as planned, starting off easy:

#1 - Grabbed a gift plate I didn't care about, confirmed that my SO doesn't care about it either, and put it in my To Donate bag.

#2 - Broke down two cardboard boxes out of my almost infinite collection, told myself that as useful as boxes are, I can't use an infinite number of them, and put them out for recycling.

Go! Go! Go!

My husband drives me nuts with all of the empty paper boxes we have just standing in a corner.  I swear we have at least 30.  We used them to move into our house - 2 years ago!  ugh.  they need to go away.

way to go!!!

Thanks WorkingMama! ^_^ You inspired me to keep attacking those darned boxes...

Today's clutter elimination:

#1 - Grabbed a couple of cardboard packing boxes that we do need to keep because they're proof of puchase, but that have been sitting by the door just being "in the way" forever, and put them neatly away in storage in the garage.

#2 - Grabbed the bamboo rack that I've always meant to do something useful with, made a place for it in the laundry room, and used it to organize laundry supply storage... which means I used a piece of my clutter to DE-clutter other clutter! XD

Love it.  Our laundry area may be the only thing organized.  We have a cheapo metal shelf next to it that only has laudry junk on it.  Putting away Christmas has our basement in complete disarray though.  My husband attempted to "fix" it but his idea of organized and my idea are two different things.  I'll make my way down there to do it but only after I do the kitchen floor but before that I have to feed the kids and do the dishes...  maybe next weekend?  haha

Ahaha, I know what you mean about two different "organized"s... sometimes you stare at someone else's "organized" and think, "I don't think that word means what you think it means!"

Okay, today's two items of clutter are dealt with!

#1: Unpacked the two boxes of books I got with Christmas gift cards, put away the books, broke down the boxes, and took them out for recycling.

#2: Following my box succes: We had this packing material explosion as well, since I never throw that stuff away. I just fill a bag up with it and give it to someone who needs it. Except the last bag was full for... a WHILE... and so there was no place to put packing material, so it got put everywhere. ;_; Today I looked at the horrible piles and though, "You know what would solve this problem of stuff not fitting in the bag? ANOTHER LARGE BAG." So now all the overflow packing material is neatly confined in a second bag, AND I've texted a coworker to see if she would like any of it.

I just started a load of laundry, and it brought a smile to my face to see my detergent and stuff all organized! ^_^

Another day conquered! Today's #1 was pretty exciting actually.

#1: Took my To Donate bag (which was full from previous decluttering) to work and was able to distribute half of it to coworkers! Now people I know have new stuff (fuzzy slippers, random wii peripherals, a CD set of works by American writers, extra flour, extra baking powder, and a Halloween plate)--and I have less stuff.

#2: Took a pile of five free DVDs from work off the floor, entered them into DVD Profiler, and put them away on the shelf.

Sadly none of my coworkers appear to need yesterday's packing material, so I'm thinking of Craigstliting it. Craigslist sales can be pretty annoying, but they often do work!

Donating always makes a person feel great!  I had two bags of clothes this year that I donated - ones that even with losing weight wouldn't fit (your hips don't move after child bearing).  I need to organize my CDs.  It makes me nuts that all of my genres of music are smashed together...  they are at least on shelves, which was a start, but now need organized.

Oh, I know what you mean--I hate it when my media is just a jumble! When it's all ordered just the way you want it, it feels like the world is more under control somehow. My CDs and DVDs are good, but my books have gone from awesome to hopeless. :(

Today's decluttering was Christmas present focused:

#1 - Unpacked the two pieces of Swedish glassware my father gave me for Christmas, which had been sitting on the kitchen counter because I had nowhere to put them. Then I found a small cupboard that only held stuff I could move to the pantry, so I cleaned it out and put the glassware in there, then put the boxes in the closet.

#2 - Put away the book my brother gave me for Christmas, which has been living on the floor.

Tomorrow I hope to get rid of the giant bag of plastic bags by taking it to the grocery store to recycle on my way to tutor Japanese!

#1 - Giant bag of plastic bags was successfully recycled!

#2 - Several more boxes of various sizes taken care of.

Baby steps. I'm trying to deliberately NOT do a full-on decluttering blitz, because I can't make a habit out of that.

Got it done early today...

#1 - Catalogued all the Kurosawa movies on DVD that my dad gave me and put them on shelves... which took FOREVER because DVD Profiler kept crashing. Finally realized that it doesn't like having my computer's non-Unicode language set to Japanese. ;_;

#2 - Put away a box of markers that was on the floor.

I actually got a lot done in general this weekend--it's funny how we can do so much and still feel like we're "behind" somehow.

catalogued movies? Wow! 

I finally packed up the nativity scene left over from Christmas decorations, organized some pictures that were laying around and organized both children's rooms.  This isn't even a goal of mine and you have inspired me!!!

Yeah, I started cataloguing them before I got too many and it became unmanageable. It's really helpful because you get a free webpage for your collection, so if somebody asks if you have a movie, you can look it up even if you're not at home!

I think it's AWESOME that you're right along with me on the spirit of this. You have no idea how warm and fuzzy it makes me feel to think that I've inspired someone with what I'm doing. ^^

Did my two items again today:

1. Sorted through a big pile of accumulated mail and recycled, trashed, or filed as applicable. It's amazing what you find--my current car insurance cards! How did I miss grabbing them out when they came?! Gotta stay way more on top of this whole mail thing... This was a big decluttering item that I've been needing/wanting to do for a while, though.

2. Since the mail took forever, for my second trick I picked up a new roll of packing tape that never made it to its home, and put it in the drawer with its brethren.

Two items done again as per plan!

1. Grabbed the secondary mail pile (there were only two piles total, I swear, so this was the last one!). Sorted that little bugger and dealt with as appropriate.

2. Grabbed an industry magazine and my American Translators Association Active Member certificate and brought them to work with me to keep in my office there, where there's actually room for them (and hey, they might impress somebody).

All these changes are small and there's a long way to go yet, but you really can see a difference in what the apartment looks like now. Progress is being made toward my goal!

 Your on a roll!  Keep it going!!

Thank you! ^_^

Okay, yesterday I pretty effectively demonstrated that that industry magazine fit perfectly on my shelf at work, so I steeled myself to go into the Room of Doom. Yes, it kind of stings to admit this, but there is one room in this place that both SO and I are actively afraid of, it is so cluttered. But part of what I'm trying to do with my whole overall decluttering effort is get us to a point where we can realistically do something to improve the Room of Doom. Now, that is the room where I've been tossing most of my industry magazines for a year, so I braved the Doom and fetched all of them out (except the one my article was published in... which is amusingly in a LESS accessible area of the room). And...

#1 - REMOVED all the industry magazines from the Room of Doom and took them to work, where they look all nice on my office shelf!

#2 - Found a worksheet of office stretches in the pile of stuff on the dining room table that I've been intending to take to work for six months, and set it by the door to the garage so that it will come to work with me tomorrow.

I almost felt guilty today thinking that maybe I was just moving my clutter from one place to another, but the thing is, the magazines AREN'T clutter at work. They're not blocking anything, they're not anywhere they shouldn't be. They're sitting in attractively organized piles on the shelf, looking impressive and not being in anybody's way. Heck, now that they're so easy to access I might even read more of them!

Used decluttering to tackle two small projects today that have been on my mental to-do list for a while. ^_^

#1 - Transferred all the birthdays, anniversaries, important dates from my 2010 calendar to my 2011 calendar and recycled the 2010 calendar.

#2 - Got the big padded envelope from Logitech that had been sitting on my kitchen table since September and unpacked it to reveal its teeny-tiny contents: a replacement receiver for my wireless keyboard and mouse. I got rid of clutter by getting rid of the envelope and the packing inside, AND I finally installed and tested the receiver. It works--I'm typing from the wireless keyboard right now.

Hey foley, I know you aren't getting the kind of following that some of the others are getting but I have been inspired by your goal.  Just yesterday I was in our basement trying to find a piece of paper.  My husband is king of "grabbing all non-essential paperwork and whatnot that's laying around the house and throw it in a box" at different points in the year in no magical order.  Of course, I needed to find one of those "non-essential" paperworks to readjust and reinstall a car seat.  I went through 6 boxes of a plethora of bills, bank statements, 401(K) statement, health insurance letters, mixed in with fish food, a 3-hole punch, tax statements, user manuals for small appliances ALL MIXED IN VARYING DEGREES IN DIFFERENT BOXES.  I nearly went insane.  After seeing his difficulty in the matter, I'm going to have to sneek a way to haphazardly "reorganize" the mess (at least put items of similar nature in the same box - all bank stuff together, all 401(K) stuff together, etc.  It's not that hard, is it?).  If he sees me do it, he'll get defensive about his inability to do it so I'll just have to do it behind his back.  It's silly but necessary.

Thank you so much Jamie! Yeah, I guess decluttering isn't very exciting to the world at large, but just wait until someone needs to find something! My SO is just like that: toss everything wherever and then never be able to locate any of it again. That would have driven me CRAZY having all those boxes filled with random stuff like that! I am so impressed that you didn't just flip out. I get what you mean about having to do it on the sly, though. A healthy, loving sneakiness greases the wheels of any relationship. ^^

Well, I'm definitely not perfect, that's for sure. But I think I can get my life feeling a lot more under control if I do this decluttering slow and steady instead of in hours-long bursts every so often like I'm used to. That staves off the chaos but it doesn't make for lasting CHANGE. So, here are the baby steps I took today:

#1 - Unpacked the barcode scanner that's been sitting in its packaging on the dining room table (I flipped out and bought it a while back for a hypothetical future book inventory). Read the instructions, tested it, and scanned a book--it works! So I threw away the packaging, filed the instructions, and put the scanner in the electronics drawer where it belongs. w00t!

#2 - Filed some health records from blood donations, etc.

Here's an awesome thing that's happened as a result of my efforts so far: I've been hesitant for the last six months about calling the apartment manager for maintenance stuff because I've felt like the place was too much of a mess and it would just be horrible of me. So for example, one of the three light fixtures on the ceiling has been on the fritz forever, but I've felt like I couldn't call to have it fixed until the area around it was clear. Well, two days ago the second one's bulb burned out, and I looked around and realized that with the 21-Day Challenge plus the seperate stuff we were doing earlier in the month, that area is clear enough! So I put in my service request, both bulbs got replaced and the messed-up fixture taken care of, and now I've gone from the darkness into the light.

Here I am again. I did some normal cleaning today, and then three pieces of decluttering, because I thought of a good place for a small third thing.

#1 - Realized that some of the Japanese textbooks lying around everywhere are things my current students aren't using, so I put them with all the other textbooks that are "resting."

#2 - Three novels that friends bought us in Japan last month are part of a series, so after some work I found out where the rest of the series was and moved them from the coffee table to the bookshelf with all thier friends.

#3 - A little bag of magnetic poetry stuff that specifically goes with one picture frame (not with rest of the magnetic poetry) has been lying on the floor for a while because I didn't know where it should "live." Today I was like, "Duh, behind that picture frame between the back and the stand, out of sight but near what it goes with." Done.

I was planning/hoping to take a trip to the glorious recycling off and maybe by a dry-cleaners to off spare hangers, but I ran late planning today's tutoring session and it fell by the wayside. :( Sunday is no good for hangers, but I'll try the recycling tomorrow, anyway.

Wow, I don't know why the word "" (as in " off," " by") disappeared from yesterday's post... @_@

Anyway, got my two items decluttered for the day:

#1 - Successfully got rid of the giant bags of packing material! I posted on Craigslist this morning offering them for free, and got several hits. I'm always wary of Craigslisting because I've had a lot of frustration with some of my transactions there, but it HAS done well by me in the past, so I finally screwed my courage to the sticking place and what do you know, I found someone who would come over and pick them up TODAY. And even better, I mentioned I had a box of Styrofoam peanuts courtesy of Santa (which I've been thinking I'd take to FedEx but I keep not having the energy), and he took those too! Now they're out of my life.

#2 - A while back SO's mom bought us two new sheet sets. But somehow I keep laundering just one of them and remaking the bed with it, so the second one's been sitting on the floor in its packaging... today when I stripped the bed, I opened up that second set and put BOTH of them in the washing machine. They're drying now, and when they're finished I'll make the bed with the virgin set and put the other one away in the closet.

I also went to the recycling off that I didn't get to yesterday and recycled a ton of stuff.

It's pretty easy for this goal to seem insurmountable, but I've been making progress every day and I *can* see a difference--I think I'm going to post a list of things I've decluttered during the 21-Day Challenge so far on my blog, and see if that gives me a boost!

 Hey Foley artist, sounds like your still on track with this goal and making good progress. Also finding some buried treasures along the way!

Wow, it was great to read through your progress right now.  I love the way you broke everything down, I gained a few tips and some ideas.  With my new found time (since I am cutting myself off of tv, facebook, and playstation) I feel inspired to do some de cluttering myself!  Thank you!

erikbuckland and NicholesBliss, thank you so much! I've got a smile on my face now thanks to you two. ^_^

Yep, I'm finding all kinds of things that I'd either forgotten I had or never realized how great they were until I finally had space to use them. It's a really good feeling. And NicholesBliss, I'm happy to bounce ideas anytime--glad I could be useful, even a little! And I bet you have some ideas that I'd love, too. ^^ I'll try to dig up my decluttering idea file when I get home and I can send you what I've got. Let me know how things go for you!

As promised, here are some decluttering resources that I've used--I don't subscribe to each piece of each one of them, but there are some good ideas here and at least part of each one has been great for me.

http://zenhabits.net/18-five-minute-decluttering-tips-to-start-conquering-your-mess/

http://simplystated.realsimple.com/simplystated/2011/01/pick-one-place-to-declutter.html

http://zenhabits.net/edit-your-life-part-2-your-rooms/

As for what I did today--

#1 - Broke down the box that until yesterday contained all those Styrofoam peanuts and put it in the garage to recycle on my next run.

#2 - Filed some medical bills that I finally dealt with by calling the insurance company and having them reprocess the original claim that I felt was inappropriately rejected (which they did, and they paid it out!).

I also put the hangers in the car so that hopefully I can d-r-o-p them off at the cleaner's tomorrow. Almost any dry cleaner will take your hangers that you don't want from JC Penney or Target or whatever.

Tired and SORE today--I did something my neck didn't like and it's retaliating by messing with my jaw! Felt so grumpy and worn-out that I didn't even feel like decluttering: too much work. So then I thought, all right, do two really easy little ones today. I saw on the kitchen table a carrying case full of earrings that I'd packed up and brought to work last month to show a coworker who was looking for something to match her Christmas dress. Okay, easy enough to unpack some earrings and put them on the rack. #1 - done! And here's the thing: while I was there by the rack I suddenly felt strong enough to get down and look under the side table. Now, this seems like a little thing, but my apartment was robbed last August, and after the robbery I noticed that one--just ONE--of the earrings from my favorite pair was missing. Surely they wouldn't steal half a pair, I thought. It probably just fell while they were messing with things and it's under the table. But for all these months I couldn't bring myself to look, because what if it wasn't there? Well, today I looked and--THERE IT WAS. So now the pair is whole again, and I never have to worry about that anymore. Talk about a happy ending to a long day!

After that my energy was gone, so I just grabbed the user manual from my computer and tossed it in the drawer of user manuals.

Thanks for all the de-cluttering tips!  I have such a bad habit of getting frustrated with the clutter and just throwing it all away!  I generally keep it clean, but we live in a relatively small downtown apartment so it clutters so easily.  Thank you again for the tips because this will be an ongoing thing.

You're more than welcome. ^_^ Yeah, apartment living in general is a challenge, I think: in an apartment your options for how to arrange things are limited so you have to be a lot more creative and vigilant. That's my situation too. I'd love to hear how it's going for you any time you'd like to share! It's nice to feel like I'm not alone in this challenge.

As for my two things today...

#1 - Filed some more user's manuals and warranties (we have a lot from all the stuff we had to replace after our apartment was robbed).

#2 - Shredded all the loose paper that had been waiting to be shredded. I've gotten better about opening mail when it comes in and recycling what I don't want right away to prevent that clutter from even forming in the first place, but there are some things that really have to be shredded, so those things I put in a "to shred" pile... and they often sit there for months. Today I shredded everything in the pile and put it in a bag to go out for recycling tomorrow morning. I think I need to form a habit of just shredding those things right away too. It seems like a pain in the butt in the moment, but it's so much neater and probably so much less of a pain to shred things as I'm finished with them instead of waiting for a big pile to accumulate. Because who ever feels like shredding a big pile of papers?

 This is an awesome goal.  I briefed your notes really quickly too and it looks like you're making some serious headway with it too.  Keep up the great work.  Once you're all done, you'll feel so much lighter too.  I can say this from experience, lol.  All the best and thanks for checking in on my page.  Congratulations to you.

Thanks Andrea! Yeah, I'm hoping that's exactly how I feel. ^^ Glad to hear confirmation someone else has felt that way!

Today's things:

#1 - Disposed of some liquid medicine we no longer need with coffee grounds to cut it as advised by the pharmacist.

#2 - Took on a small but intimidating task I've been putting off for months: putting together the Gantz ball. To explain, this is an absolutely horrible show that we own on DVD for work reasons and, again for work reasons, had to take out of its packaging for others to look at a while back. And this release of it has the most infernal packaging ever. It's beastly hard to get the discs safely in and out, there are multiple pieces, and it's out of print in this incarnation so I'd feel horribly guilty if anything happened to it even if I don't like it. So I've been a child about it and just refused to deal. But today I bit the bullet, gathered all the pieces, and on only the second try got the blasted thing put back together and stored. Another tiny chapter of my life closed.

Here again! I knew I would have a long, busy day today with work and a party to go to later, so I did one of my two items in advance yesterday:

#1 - I took the last leftover of the little three-compartment clear trays I bought to organize the bathroom closet--which looks fantastic--and used it to organize the medicine bottles that live on the console table. Morning pills in one compartment, then general stuff, then evening pills in the last one. So the tray is no longer clutter and the medicine bottles are also idiot-proofed, which I thought was a good idea since everybody's an idiot sometimes. Especially when sleepy...

And then today I finally achieved this one:

#2 - Took the hangers I didn't want to the dry cleaners! They are gone!

For a bit there I felt too busy and tired and almost didn't get this done, but in the end everything went according to plan. And now, party time!

Wow, you are doing such a great job!!!  I think one of the biggest clutter problems I have are papers, mail, things of that sort.  My boyfriend likes to keep EVERYTHING!  I sometimes have to go behined his back and get rid of stuff.  I don't think till this day he has ever noticed.  Shows how much he really needed to hold on to it lol.

What has really helped me with my very limited space are those plastic file bins.  The stack easy and are very light weight.  I have put them in almost every closet!

Wow, you are doing such a great job!!!  I think one of the biggest clutter problems I have are papers, mail, things of that sort.  My boyfriend likes to keep EVERYTHING!  I sometimes have to go behined his back and get rid of stuff.  I don't think till this day he has ever noticed.  Shows how much he really needed to hold on to it lol.

What has really helped me with my very limited space are those plastic file bins.  The stack easy and are very light weight.  I have put them in almost every closet!

Thank you Nichole! ^_^

Yeah, papers are horrible! I do think I need to get some stackable bins; that's a good idea. What I have now are all slightly different sizes, so they're a pain to deal with, which makes me less motivated to deal. And I feel like I can sympathize with both you and your SO--I always want to get rid of half of it, but I always feel this angst of "What if I need it someday?!", and so at the same time I always want to keep everything. What's helped me break that mental block and shed papers over the years has been to seek out objective takes on how much really needs to be saved, and then let myself adjust those guidelines to my comfort level if I need to. One that I particularly found useful was the Washington State Attorney General's office: http://www.atg.wa.gov/askcolumn.aspx?id=20554 (And I've never even been to Washington!)

Anyway, both of my decluttering items for today were books from my bookshelf: it's hard for me to let go of books even if I know I'll never read them again, but today I found two books on the shelf that I had to admit would just never be a valuable part of my life again ever. In fact, more than likely I'd never even touch them. So I forced myself to take them off the shelf and put them in the To Donate bag. Maybe I'll sell them to a used bookstore later and make a few pennies. ^^

The penultimate day of the challenge, I find myself circling back to one of my first things--boxes.

#1 - Looked at the shoebox I keep thinking I might need to put something in someday, and forced myself to be brutallyl honest: No, no I am NOT going to put something in it someday. Trash!

#2 - Found another escaped user manual (for an Ikea pillow?!) and put it in the appropriate drawer.

I am really glad that you have shared all this information!  Thank you for the link.  Yes, the plastic bins/files have worked really well for me.

Thank you for the comment and video on my goal.  I love Ani!

Thanks so much for all your encouragement and tips Nichole! And CONGRATULATIONS on achieving your goal. You rock!

I feel good about making my commitment and decluttering every day of this challenge. I think it's the accountablility to everybody who's commented on this goal and the structure of MLL that's helped me stay focused, so THANK YOU to all of  you for this chance and your support! Here's to what I hope will be a habit for years into the future.

#1 - Recycled some tutoring papers I realized I didn't need (I have digital copies).

#2 - Took a jacket of SO's that's been hanging off the back of a chair forever and put it in the closet.

Foley, I wanted to let you know that I have been reading your posts...  my bberry doesn't allow for me to respond yet.  I love #2 for the 31st.  I have been letting my husband's coat sit on a couch for about 3 days... I am wondering how much longer it's going to sit there before I have to move it.

Congratulations yourself Foley.  Thank you kindly for the comments you left for me as well.  Wishing you all the very best as you pursue this goal and the others on your Life List.

Hey Foley, just thought I'd let you know that I got the boxes out last weekend in the basement to "help" my husband organize his messes.  He saw what I was doing and I could tell he wasn't happy but he admitted that it was a mess.  Now the problem is just committing a little time each day (or weekend) to get 'er done.

Hey Foley, just thought I'd let you know that I got the boxes out last weekend in the basement to "help" my husband organize his messes.  He saw what I was doing and I could tell he wasn't happy but he admitted that it was a mess.  Now the problem is just committing a little time each day (or weekend) to get 'er done.

Love it, Jamie! I am rooting for you--those boxes were so not cool and they need conquering (at least your husband admitted it!). Maybe some good music and a nice glass of wine (or mug of hot chocolate) are called for if you're doing it in a blitz over the weekend.

I feel a little victorious because SO recently pitched in and helped trash or donate a drawer's worth of clothes from the dresser for some of our "overflow" clothes to go in. Now all we have to do is PUT the overflow clothes there... Uh, one step at a time?

I did some work on the Room of Doom!

I've been culling my book collection, which is one of the hardest things for me to do, because I love books. But there are some things I'm just never going to read again--and some things that I bought thinking I would read them, and I maybe even want to read them, but there will never be enough time to read all the books in the world and I know I will always choose others over those. It look a month and many passes over the collection, but I was able to bring three shelves' worth to the used bookstore. Then I went into the Room of Doom, which contains most of SO's books, and moved some of those books over to the newly empty shelves in the bedroom. Which allowed me to gather some of the stacks of books on every available surface in the Room of Doom--including the floor--and shelve them where the books I'd moved used to be!

What I want is to have enough done in the Room of Doom so that if my sister visits at the end of the month, she can use it as a guest room. Given that I'm working about three jobs right now, I honestly don't know whether that's a realistic goal or not, but it would feel SO GOOD to accomplish. I'm gonna give it a shot!

Okay, time for the post-sister postmortem. First of all, my sister did come, and it was great. :) Before she came, SO and I spent a solid day working on the living room. It didn't seem like the Room of Doom was realistic in the end since we also wanted to do a general cleaning of the kitchen & bathroom, and the living room needed a lot of work. As a team, we sorted and either discarded or put away a TON of SO's collectibles as well as everything in the box of "homeless things" we'd collected during a previous decluttering session but not delt with yet. A few new homes were found and I got a good idea for little "homeless" collectibles like keychains, etc.--I bought a $5 large glass pasta jar at Ikea, which is clear so that you can see the items on display even though they're just tossed in there, tall so you can store stuff, and yet skinny so it doesn't take up much space on the dresser. And I figure if we get sick of it, we can always use the jar to store pasta!

There's still a long way to go, but the decluttering we did felt really rewarding, because instead of feeling horrible having my sister stay in our home amidst the wreckage, I could focus on hanging out.

And in one of those interesting bonuses, while my sister was staying in our nicely clean living room, she actually cleared away a clutter item without me asking or even knowing! I'd bought a new shower curtain about two months ago but hadn't hung it up yet, and I'd actually forgotten about it. My sister happened to see it while she was looking for something else, and she swapped out the old curtain and hung the new one up while I was at work. She was like, "I figured you wanted to put it up, so I just did it." It was this weirdly cool everything-comes-together moment.

I made a huge and awesome step on this: SO and I cleaned out our closet! It was spiralling out of control since we have a relatively small amount of space and it seems like the clothes breed and there are new ones every day that we don't even know where they came from. It had gotten to the point where you literally could not clean the floor in there. So, after months of psychological preparation and a printed-out plan, we took all the clothes out of the closet PLUS all the random "stuff," sorted everything into keep, donate, or move somewhere else, and then neatly put back what we were keeping. We ended up with six bags of clothes to donate to Goodwill, which I did a couple of days later. It was hard work, and trying on things to see if you still fit in them can be demoralizing for both of us, but we pushed through to the point where I was really proud of both of us. And now that floor is EMPTY of randomly strewn clothing that doesn't fit anywhere! It really is refreshing to look inside it now, and I feel lighter with all that stuff gone.

 Wow - six BAGS of clothes to the Goodwill?  That's awesome.  I bet you feel a whole lot better and ready to face a new year.  How many other rooms will you be decluttering?  I'm looking forward to reading your success story on this one Foley.  

Hey Foley, That job is very inspiring. I need to do something similar! It seems like a great way to start the new year. Keep us up with your plans to finish. Perhaps I can accomplish too. Thanks for the kick start.

Thanks guys!

Andrea--yeah, I DO feel a lot better. It was a huge downer to look into the closet before. Just going in there could make me feel hopeless about life. Now going in there is just going into a closet. Nothing more. Which is great in and of itself. It is SHOCKING how many clothes we acquire that we never wear. I knew there were going to be a lot, but I was thinking four bags... and then it was six. My ultimate goal is to declutter every room, a tiny bit at a time. I know it will never be perfect, but it's better than it was before I started all this, which is something.

EP--Yay! If I've inspired you in any way that's a huge boost for me, thank you! :) And of course something that makes me happy for you too. :) You absolutely can do something similar. For the closet, I found it helpful to have a plan going in. This takes some of the emotion out of it--there will always be emotion there of course--and makes the process less overwhelming overall. We didn't follow anybody's plan exactly, but we got ideas from these two Zen Habits posts: http://zenhabits.net/edit-your-life-part-3-closets-and/ and http://zenhabits.net/edit-your-life-part-4-your-wardrobe/

I will keep everyone updated, and EP, if you give it a shot I would love to cheer you on too!

So, I realize this is like a year later from when you originally posted.  How is this?  For this year's 21-Day Challenge, I was thinking of something pretty much exactly the same, and then I ran across this goal.  I'll be checking out your decluttering resources!!!!

Sure, zinful71, just let me know how I can support you! ^_^ (Do you know when the Challenge is starting?) Anyway, yeah, I really like the decluttering goal, and I continue to make progress. I'm definitely the turtle rather than the hare here, though. I can't lie and tell you I've got it all perfect after a year, but plenty of things really are better. There is definitely something to be said for working slow and steady for 21 days: a lot of times one or two pieces of clutter become a mental block that you keep putting off, so doing those as part of the 21-Day Challenge is good because you get immediate success and support if you just bite the bullet and deal with that one thing, even if it's all you can deal with that day. If you do it, I'll be excited to see someone else working on a similar thing to me and I will cheer you on for sure!

I thought it was starting today, but not sure...

Foley, I thought of you Monday night when I darn near killed myself in our labyrinth of a basement.  While my kids ate dinner I tried to reorganize as much as I could.  My husband's packrat problem is a few years away from a hoarding problem.

I'm pretty sure it's starting today.  I think an e-mail is being sent out shortly.  I bet I'm the only one still with their Christmas tree up.  Taking it down keeps getting postponed and getting it down would certainly make the living room a whole lot less cluttered.  Tomorrow for sure.  No more procrastinating.

 Hi Foley artist, are you still working this goal?  I haeven't seen a progress update on it, but have read your earlier posts and you were making some great progress.  Keep at it and in due time, it will get done.  Love the comment of finding the instruction manual for an Ikea pillow!

Thanks Erik! ^^ I'm still working on this goal, but it's definitely a long-term project. It's going to take me at least another year if not more... but you're right, if I keep at it, I will see lots more positive change. Right now I am slowly (sloooowly) gathering things around the apartment that are in new condition that we never use, with the goal of hopefully getting one or two coworkers to do the same thing so that I can make a donation drop of all the collected stuff at a women's shelter.

good luck with the continuation of your goal foley!

Thanks Heather! ^^

I would love to see how you progress with this goal.  It's what inspired me on mine, and in turn, Heather for hers...

And, I do thank you for your support and encouragement and I progress.

Zin, thank you. To hear that I inspired you on your goal honestly makes me feel really proud. I might have to do some work around the apartment today to capitalize on that feeling. ^_^

You're welcome, of course.

so how is the progress coming along Foley...are you make some more dents into the organizing...re...reorganizing?!? Hope it is going well...and remember, it was all put there in one day...so it will take a few to clean and release the stuff you no longer use/need.

Thanks Heather! I am so inspired by everybody tackling their dining/kitchen tables that I am thinking my table has to be next. It is pretty daunting when I look at it, but yeah, if I can let go and "release" it should get better. There is NO WAY I need all the stuff that is on there now.

good luck with the dining table...maybe hosting a dinner party will be a great way to get you motivated...because then you will be wanting to be sure that the dining table is cleaned off for your entertaining!  Just a thought...and happy to see that you like my favourite word "release" :)

 Hi Foileyartis, looks liek you and Heatherclare have VERY similar goals. You are really bouncing allot of ideas off each other and making progress GREAT stuff!  

 One idea for the dining room table is to always keep it set.  It looks much nicer AND avoids getting cluttered becasue it is an empty flat surface.

Hi Foley - just finally getting in to check everyone's progress this week.  Wanted to see how your attempt at your dining room table is going.  Mine looked perfect when I left for Ohio on Monday.  I'm coming home tomorrow night.  Hoping it still looks the same - I laid down the law when I had it done, but then left....   Will my family stick to my "no Drop-Zone" rule????  I guess I'll see...

Zin...that is hilarious...no drop zone! I love that idea though...always a challenge to keep it up.

Foley...looking forward to hearing the success of your dining table.

Zin, I'll be waiting to find out what happens...

Well, I'm kind of ashamed to admit to you two that I haven't made the progress on the table that I wanted to. Or any progress, really. ;_; On the other hand, I did unpack a box of cookware that I had been just not dealing with forever. Oh, and I forgot to report a success before! The area where I keep my papers and records before not only wasn't as organized as it could have been--okay but not great--but it looked really ugly too. I one day got inspired and thought, why not get some colorful (recycled) binders at Target and a few nice magazine files and make this look under control? So I spent some time on that plan and it might not be beautiful, but it looks SO MUCH BETTER. So yes, a small success that I meant to post here and just forgot.

woohoo..gotta love target! (looking forward to it coming to Canada soooonnn!!!)  I hope that the organizing of the work area/papers is going well. U will figure it all out for sure.

so...any success this weekend with the de-cluttering?

Hi Heather! Yep, baby steps, but SO and I did a little cleaning up in the living room and kitchen. Not so much getting rid of stuff as just regular housekeeping maintenance, but we gotta do that too, right? I also took care of some mail that I'd been putting off dealing with. And now that you're asking, I feel like doing the laundry!

wanna come and do my laundry...?!? LOL! congrats on the successes!

A small success is still success.  Every little bit helps!  I wanted to thank you for inspiring me on my decluttering goal!  I know if we continue to share our successes it will help to inspire each other, and others! 

Keep up the great, fantastic work!

Thanks Heather and Zin!!! I agree--keep on updating and we can all nudge each other.

Foley - what are you working on now to declutter?  (nudge-nudge)

The pantry! ^^ Going through and looking at what I haven't used in a long time and what is still usable vs. just taking up space. (I'm taking this task slowly though.) So far I've eaten up one old bag of hot cereal and started on a second.