Location: enjoying my coffee. i love coffee. did i tell you that i love coffee?
Posts: 2,440
getting discouraged!
ok, this is taking forever. i never have a few hours straight to organize the clutter that i have already cleaned. and i cant come close to getting my list done.
the kids had strep last week, and baseball started.
getting discouraged! the house looks like total crud right now, since i have craft stuff and goodwill bags all over it. blech.
this morning i was seriously considering just forgetting about organizing, and throwing everything in black garbage bags for when we move. talk me out of it.
Location: on the top of a big heap of trash Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!!
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I had a bad week last week and didn't get much of anything done-even when I had the chance. But I figure today is Monday and I am going to start again. Try and keep it going. Can you get the goodwill bags out to car-it always makes me feel like I have accomplished something when I do that
When you are sick (or the kids are) you have to stop everything to nurse them back to health because if you don't it'll last even longer so you have to be patient!
We still need to paint the hallway and the greatroom (and it's 10'8" tall walls!) This week I am taping up all the wood trim and one night each week when my DH gets home (7-8pm) we'll paint a wall at a time.
It's very time consuming but this way it'll gte done versus us waiting until we have a larger chunck of time to paint with!
Just as i commit to declutter, Nora starts getting molars & stops sleeping. I figure that the battle against clutter iw won or lost in a lifetime, not in a week. Just keep pluggin away, and it will get better.
Yes, I agree. You must hit the binders when everyone is sick. Those days just can't count. No one wants to see a grown woman cry.
Start over when everyone is well, then set a goal. For instance, set a target date for a garage sale. Then make a to-do list. List every thing you want to declutter. When you can physically scratch something off the list, it feels like success. To get you going, write down the things you've already decluttered on your list, just so you can cross it off. Really, it'll make you feel better. LOL.
Take care of your kids .... Take care of yourself .... That's what matters ...
Also ... here's my suggestion -- I rarely can keep my sanity for focusing on decluttering for hours on end ... perhaps set the timer and do a 30 minute "power decluttering session" ... when the bell rings ... that's it ! (for now)
Don't give up !!!
Karen
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Babies are All-Natural~Shouldn't Their Skin Care Be?
I agree nothing else counts when the kids are sick.
One of the things that helps me is that I will declutter and clean one room. I take everything out to a storage area (ours is our garage that is either going to be sold (ebay, online, consigned, or garage sale), thrown away or donated. Now my garage my be a pit but as I go the other rooms are livable and I don't feel overwhelmed. So take the bags you have accumulated and put them in a central location so they aren't all over. I think that helps alot.
Don't give up, we didn't accumulate this stuff overnight or the habits that created the problem, they won't go away overnight.
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Robin wife to one awesome guy for 18 years,
mama to four beautiful boys
Location: True health flows from loving relationships, good food, time spent in nature, daily hugs, inner work, meaningful work and breathing thankfully for the richness of this life.-Kate Gilday
Posts: 22,735
Good grief! We have all had serious challenges this week, haven't we.
I am not giving up! Even if it takes me longer than everyone else. This is important!
If it makes anyone feel better I've been decluttering since JANUARY. I've been blessed with many material things!
Also, I try to give stuff away to friends and family, or perhaps try to sell some things tot he consignment shop. This has sloooowwwed me down. I am fighting the urg to dump everything into boxes and hauling them to Goodwill.
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Amy, abuser of quotation marks and parentheses,
Mama to five sprites
See...I do FREQUENTLY toss a bunch of stuff in boxes and bags and take it directly to Goodwill or put it in front of the dumpster (which is our unofficial "free-for-the-taking" spot) for others to take.
And it is very therapeutic. Like ALL the bags of clothes we never unpacked when we moved here, BOOM, gone in three seconds. Craft drawer? BOOM, gone. Baby clothes? BOOM, gone. Shoe rack full of my old work shoes? BOOM, gone. Fabric box? BOOM, gone.
I go by the "Use It or Lose It" rule. And if I haven't used it in 5 months or looked at it, it's GONE. Nothing could be that important to me that I haven't looked at or touched in that long.
I do have a few exceptions...like my yard basket...I love yarn...it makes me happy to have it in the house. I'd display it if it wouldn't drive my husband crazy, but I also cannot buy any more unless I either use some of what I've got or get rid of some.
I used to try to give things away to friends, but they would never come to get it and it'd sit around my house for days and weeks. So, I just quit doing that...completely. Everything goes to the thrift shop, Goodwill or the front of the dumpster...and usually to the dumpster because it's five minutes away and the stuff is always taken before we even leave. Sometimes, we off-load it straight into someone else's car.
Trust me, it's very therapeutic. Just get it gone! The focus is on getting rid of stuff...not figuring out what to keep...which is hard to do and locks me into the same old pattern of wanting to have lots of *stuff* to not feel deprived...when I feel better about having next to nothing.
You can do it, Amity! I'd come and help...but we'd never get anything done.
I second the small chunks of time idea. I have a timer that I will set for 20 or 30 minutes and then I will go into a room and not come out until it buzzes. Doesn't always work, but it helps.
I took 3 giant bags to Goodwill the other day! OK, so two of them were from the L&F at work, but one was from our house!
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