What is funny about this years clean up is that I didn't bring much in last year. lol.... so all of this stuff was stuff we had decided we were keeping.

Like in my other thread, this year feels different. It feels like I am at another level of decluttering. The level where the things you have left have to be streamlined and compact. The level where you don't have too much, but you still have more than you need. Does any one know what I am talking about?

Anyway... I went through the closets. I took 4 bags of clothes out of our 4 closets and the coat closet (admittedly most of it was mine and Dons), and then went through the toys again. They haven't gotten toys for about a year (we have been getting them one large gift or a set of gifts instead of random toys), so there wasn't much there to get rid of... that I was allowed to get rid of that is. There are about 12 stuffed animals that I would like to see go that are apparently new "favorites". :rolleyes: Sometimes I just want to do it anyway, because they really genuinely DON"T use them. But you can't argue with an irate 5 yr old about the stuffed rat puppet that grandma gave her. There is just no point. lol... After the toys I went through the shelves. We only have 3 sets in the house and they are small, but I got a small paper bag out of them anyway. Books we don't use, a couple broken cd's that just got thrown away, a few movies that went to the Connection (a used Cd and DVD credit place) etc. Dh's old suits we donated to the free store at the food co-op.

It feels much different this time. Like I am on another layer of the clutter. But it feels good to still be on top of it. :D

Val

Yes, clutter is like an onion! (Don't know if you've seen Shrek...LOL!)

I do the same thing with reaching new levels of decluttering.

Before we moved here, I thought I'd decluttered really well (it was like my 4th pass through all our stuff over several years, getting more strict each time).

Then turned out we filled 2/3 of a huge vanliner *just with our stuff* coming out of 2200 sq. ft. The moving company told us that usually they can fit 3-4 2000 sq. ft. households in one vanliner!!! That was a shock (so was the bill and the amount of boxes we had to use....and the fact that it took them a whole day to pack us, when I'd packed more than half myself!)!

There's an old post from Erin and I re-read it and really applied it. It describes how she seriously simplified and decluttered their stuff. The first time I'd read the post a few years ago, I thought she was nuts and it was overly extremely. After all, how would I live without my waffle iron and a cabinet full of cosmetics? How would I survive throwing out so many things with sentimental value? LOL! Re-reading her post after realizing that our clutter's been killing us for years was a breath of fresh air. Since last summer I've purged what would fill a two car garage to the ceiling...twice.

And I'm ready to take on another layer. :D

hey michele- do you know where that post is? I am in the midst of a declutter but I'm a bit stuck... maybe it would help!

~jo

hey michele- do you know where that post is? I am in the midst of a declutter but I'm a bit stuck... maybe it would help!

~jo

here's the one she's talking about.


http://www.amitymama.com/vb/home-stuff/104886-anyone-else-give-away-90-your-worldly-goods-anyone-want.html

There's an old post from Erin and I re-read it and really applied it. It describes how she seriously simplified and decluttered their stuff. The first time I'd read the post a few years ago, I thought she was nuts and it was overly extremely. After all, how would I live without my waffle iron and a cabinet full of cosmetics? How would I survive throwing out so many things with sentimental value? LOL! Re-reading her post after realizing that our clutter's been killing us for years was a breath of fresh air. Since last summer I've purged what would fill a two car garage to the ceiling...twice.



That post from Erin was very inspiring to me too.:)

A few months ago I went through the house and really decluttered (or so I thought!;)) Then yesterday, ds wasn't home so it was a great time for me to go through more stuff and wow, I was able to take a few more bags out of here.

My ds just can't get rid of his stuffed animals either! His bed has a small storage area underneath, so a few months ago I put almost all of them down there (he keeps 2 or 3 out that he sleeps with) and he can pull them out when he wants ~ he rarely gets them out though since they are not in sight he forgets about them.

Honestly, it feels so freeing to get rid of old stuff that has just been sitting around, it is almost addictive for me. :lol: I love living simply.