extreme decluttering!

we came to the conclusion that our VCR was dying :-( the power button was broken, as was the stop/eject one, and 70% of the remote too. And it had taken to turning itself off every 15-30 minutes as well.

so it has been replaced by...
ohhh yes!
which means the dvd player is on the out too! so we've reduced our lounge appliances by one, and an added bonus is that the old ones were both silver, this is black so matches our stereo, much tidier looking!

and it also means that our generous video collection will be reduced to-

and also no more blank tapes getting scattered all over the floor!

woohoo!! :-D

and it was only $299, so not too painful, thanks again dad!

#3 done - #4..

mission three done!
not for the first time, i've gone through my clothes & tossed out a bunch more stuff! there are still a few good-intentions & 'just in case's clinging on in there, but if i do get invited to a wedding or something i can't afford to rush out & get something new! and besides, i'm picky ;-)
nonetheless..
- 1 big box to give away
1/2 supermarket bag to give to friends
1/2 supermarket bag to sell
1/2 supermarket bag in the rubbish!

ahhh feels good! (though slightly naked!)

i also did an extra cull in eli's drawers :-)

mission four
sort through the mystery boxes in front of the wardrobe..

#2 done - #3..

mission two complete!
i won't post a pic, cos it's not exactly enthralling looking ;-) the stuff remaining is a bit of a jumble until a declutter elsewhere & consolidate..

soo.. remaining is 1/4 of the original
1/2 to give away (1/2 a small box)
1/4 in the rubbish! (1/3 of a supermarket bag)


mission three!
go through my clothes & underwear again, and toss out old shoes..
always a fun & easy one :-)

mission 1 update & mission 2..

mission one all done! :-D

1 small pile each to wear now
1 small pile each to grow into
1 supermarket bag to be stored for 'next time' (??!)
2 supermarket bags to give away!

so the little kids clothes have been reduced by 2/5ths! and the remainder are all tidy & sorted

edited to add - eli's clothes now fit in one drawer, but i'm going to reduce it further (how many onesies does one kid need!?) & alexis' in two.. their 'to grow into' clothes now fit in one & 0.5 drawers respectively :-)

mission two for todaysort out my 'toiletries' drawer, since i don't use pretty much any of this stuff!

mission one

for tonight.. this is the box i have just filled with clothes belonging to the two littler kids that i need to decide whether they're still in use, to grow into, to be stored, or given away... doesn't include the ones i know we use all the time..

harry potter & the goblet of fire is there as a size reference ;-)

edited to add - this is just the stuff in our room, doesn't include the old things of alexis' that are in the roof.. they need sorting too

problems..

naturally there are a few problems with this mission..

1- how to sort through all this stuff with a toddler & a new-ish-born?

1A - the toddler is guaranteed to spread it all around (more) if she gets near it..
answer- i'm taking over kadyn's room, so i can shut her out!

1B - time!?!
answer- i'll have to do what i can in the evenings when paul is home, and on the weekends when we're not traveling. Apart from that i am mostly limited to quick throwing-out sprees! Might be a long haul though..

2- short of boxes & rubbish bags
answer- will have to raid pak'n'save next time we go..

those are the problems that i can see at the outset, and luckily i seem to have solutions for these ones! no doubt there will be new issues as i progress ;-)

Action plan!

Sooo.. how am i actually going to go about this?!

well i'm planning to focus on one room at a time, starting with our bedroom, using the 3 pile system... except because i am awkward i'm expanding it to more piles, and not piles, but boxes! they will be-
- love &/or use (hopefully both!)
- things that belong elsewhere in the house
- sell
- give away
- rubbish
- recycle

and also planning to do as many 27-fling-boogies and 5-minute-room-rescues as i can fit in...

and most importantly, stopping anything that we really don't want from coming into the house!!!


and what am I going to do with all of it?!

well the rubbish & recycling is pretty obvious, big stuff i will sell on trade me, small stuff i will include in a massive online garage sale, things to give away will go to the sallies, west auckland hospice, and an organisation that a friend works with helping set up latin families new to nz.

And for something special, i will be selling my mum's giant teddy bear collection (those i can bear to part with, no pun intended) with the proceeds going to the NZ Child Cancer Foundation, since it has just gone 5 years since my mum died unexpectedly from lung cancer.

So hopefully that should do it! And of course I plan to track my journey on this blog!

the sword of damocles..

this is what is hanging over my head.. and yes there is even a sword in there!

boxes, boxes, boxes

in them are toys, dolls, teddy bears by the hundred, books, videos, kitchen stuff, clothes, computers, a lot of stuff that we have supposedly decluttered, and more boxes of who-knows-what.north-easteastsouth-eastsouthsouth-eastwestnorth-west

and of course, as seems to be a theme here, you can't see all of it in these pics.

the shed of certain doom

need i say more?

well, i will say one thing- you can't see roughly half of it in these pics. *sigh*

the lounge

our lounge is mostly dominated by localised messes on every flat surface.. the problem being that we have a certain toddler who delights in shoving everything off those surfaces & onto the floor.

and the problem is compounded by the fact that if i don't quickly get that stuff off the floor & back onto the tables etc, then new stuff grows in it's place, and thus we are left with stuff on all the surfaces and the floor..

unfortunately the lounge is home to my sewing table & fabric (spot the sewing machine & overlocker!?), the table being unusable the majority of the time.. also is where our computer lives.

and our 'entertainment' unit (yes it's an old computer desk) also holds nappies, & paul's uni stuff, and just looks so busy.

we've also taken the unusual stand of keeping all the kid's toys in the lounge, i just wish we had some better way of storing them & being able to use them without them being strewn all over the floor.. and yep, we have a castle! I put some books & cushions in there, so it's our cozy reading den :-)
and our videos/kid's craft cupboard.. i need to evict the videos, and find a better way of holding the paper so they don't just pull it all out all the time. also need a handy home for their aprons.

many mixed messes

aka the hallway cupboards, bathroom & laundry.

hall cupboard #1 contains such features as my wool stash, my fabric scrap collection, the iron & slightly unusable ironing board, some binoculars, some platters & bowls, and i don't know what else but it takes up a lot of space!
hall cupboard #2 holds our sheets & towels, plus spare blankets & quilts, torn cushions, toilet paper & a severely neglected beginning of an emergency kit.
the bathroom cupboard.. well it's pretty obvious what that would hold, but there is too much of it! and it's overgrown the wee baskets i bought to keep it tidy.
same with the shelf in the laundry, we really don't need all of this..
and who doesn't have a plastic bag cupboard? i envy you if you don't! it even overflowed when i opened it. the kids swimming inflatable things are also stashed in the depths..

kadyn's room

now this one isn't too bad...except the wardrobe is filled with most, but of course not all, of my collection of kids books, plus the inevitable bit of misc. stuff...

and the chest of drawers. well... this contains lots of stuff that we have supposedly decluttered, and my old lego collection, plus more stuff heaped on top.
example...

this room is going to become my base of operations since it's usual occupant is MIA for a while..

getting the worst over with..

the study..

this room houses most, but not all, of our books, cds & videos, and most, but not all, of everything else we own it seems!

including.. 2 guitars, a stack of old D&D books, a mass of LPs, a bop bag, pan pipes, 2 ornamental samurai swords, photo albums, and masses of 'banned' toys!

and of course the wardrobe...paper work, art supplies, spare paper, & stuff..more books , wrapping paper & stuff...a suitcase, guitar amp, jewelery, ancient 'computer' (a Sinclair Spectrum ZX, for those in the know), and more stuff...

and of course lots of other stuff too for good measure.

*sigh*

let the shaming begin...

with our bedroom...

our wardrobe.. books & nappy fabrics on the top shelf, paul's clothes on the left, baby blankets, wraps & nappies in the middle, my clothes on the right, a green bowl full of kids hats, booties & socks.. the drawers hold alexis & eli's next size up clothes, me & paul's occasional use clothes (like togs), toiletry stuff like moisturisers, makeup etc, and a zillion candles & candle holders.. the heaps & boxes in front are made up of all sorts of stuff...we've already done a few purges of mine & paul's clothes, but i reckon i could get rid of a few more + some of the old shoes that are crammed in there.

the kids drawers... filled with clothes & nappies, and surrounded by clothes & nappies. I really just need to sort out what they grown out of & remove or store them!

Freeing my home..

from clutter!

I've had enough of the clutter in our home, i have been fighting it off & on for an age now.. but i have decided to take a stronger stand ;-) which means..

public humiliation.

our house is a mess, and all because we broke the cardinal rule-
we have too much stuff!
and because we have too much stuff, most of the stuff doesn't have a place to live,
and thus we don't put the stuff away properly, even if it *does* have a home!
*sigh*

so my cunning plan is to completely humiliate myself by posting photos of our worst spots, and then attack them one by one & post progress pics!

and don't worry, i'm blogging whilst feeding the baby, thus not wasting precious decluttering time ;)

a recent success has been our kitchen & pantry!we've cleared out all (i hope) of the unnecessary bits n bobs from our kitchen, and rebuilt the top shelves in the pantry to make them more functional.. we still have a few things to use up or give away, but then that is one whole room cleared! woohoo! :-D

now there is just 2 bedrooms, the 'study', lounge, bathroom, hallway cupboards, ceiling cavity, and the shed-of-certain-doom to go!

oh yeah, our house is approximately 80 square metres, and we've already got rid of approximately 15 big rubbish sacks of stuff to various recipients..

wish me luck! ;-)