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Archive for the ‘De-cluttering’ Category

Summer De-cluttering Challenge (May, June, July)

Posted in De-cluttering on August 22, 2011| 6 Comments »

O.K. I’m flaking out on you. Again. I’m barely functioning over here, so deal with it. šŸ˜‰

We host youth groups all summer, spend a week in Oklahoma at Camp Zenith, entertain/hang out with our interns, do our regular outreach and Saturday night meals. All of that on top of wearing my wife, mom, writer, reader, Words with Friends challenger hats. I spell “busy” with lots of exclamation marks after it. So a monthly challenge was a little beyond my abilities.

Never fear! I did what Flylady calls the “27 Fling Boogie” on a regular basis. I also donated several boxes of clothes, trinkets, dishes, a desk, 3 chairs, a twin size mattress, and some other odds and ends to 3 different fundraising yard sales friends were hosting. Flylady would be proud of me.

My blogging accountability partners will call me a cheater for this post, but I have a question for them (and you)…

What did YOU de-clutter this summer?

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March/April De-cluttering Challenge: Paper

Posted in De-cluttering, Works for me on April 30, 2011| 5 Comments »

11 pounds. Thatā€™s how much paper was in the box labeled, ā€œTo Be Shredded.ā€ That didnā€™t include the 2 kitchen size trash bags (13 gallons each) full of old papers I threw away. Do you know whatā€™s better than Office Depot shredding paper for you at 99 cents per pound? Your city doing it for FREE. Did you know that several cities around the country host free shredding days in April to coincide with Tax Day? Google it and save yourself some money! Lucky me, ours happened during my March/April de-cluttering challenge. Sure, I could buy a shredder, but Iā€™ve gone through 2 of them so far and they always break on me. I also donā€™t want to store the darn thing. For me, itā€™s worth it to spend a few bucks 2 times a year to shred the important stuff at the store. The rest can be recycled or tossed.

Benny used to ask me where something was by saying, ā€œwhich Wal-Mart sack is it in?ā€ He was only half-joking. Paper in all forms is my downfall. Iā€™ve been recovering for quite some time, but went from shoving it in sacks to piling it in stacks. Sadly, Iā€™m still a piler determined to be a filer. šŸ˜‰ Embracing my ā€œI donā€™t need to keep everythingā€ attitude for 2011 is helping. There are rules like saving tax returns for 7 years, and receipts and warranty information for the life of your appliances, etc., but do I really need the receipt telling me how much is left on my Starbucks card? Or 5 copies of a magazine article I meant to mail to some friends but never did? I wonā€™t even talk about the big stack of Christmas cards weā€™ve received over the past 18 years. I had no sane reason for saving that stuff, so before my family could nominate me for that hoarder show on TLC, I challenged myself to cut the paper clutter. This is how I did it:

I borrowed some tips from Peter Walsh and the 15 minute rule from FlyLady and got to work. (BTW, I used her 27-Fling Boogie to de-clutter my knick knacks back in February.) I started with the pile on my desk then moved on to a big box of papers I had set aside for a rainy day. Finally, I dove into my 2 filing cabinets. File by file, I was a purging queen. As new paper entered my home, I sorted and tossed the best I could. Iā€™m proud to tell you that I didnā€™t stop after finishing the purge. I set up a filing system for bills, receipts, and other papers that I need to keep, got my calendar in order, and found the perfect spot for my trash can and recycling bin. And it only took me 2 months. šŸ˜‰

Iā€™m now 1/3 of the way through my 2011 challenge and Iā€™ve de-cluttered some weird stuff:

  • The hospital brochures from my first childā€™s birthā€¦almost 12 years ago.
  • A 3-inch thick file of magazine articles I had saved to read someday; some dating back to 1996-still unread.
  • A few notes from a high school boyfriend. Yes, really. They were buried in a file marked, ā€œpersonalā€. Whatever.
  • A book about breastfeeding. My youngest is 7 years old.
  • An ink cartridge from 2 printers ago.

What are you holding on to that should be recycled, tossed, or passed on to someone else? I challenge you to find something weirder than the things Iā€™ve listed here. šŸ˜‰ Now who can I re-gift this to? (Peter would be so proud.)

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February’s De-cluttering Challenge – Knickknacks

Posted in De-cluttering, Give Aways on February 28, 2011| 8 Comments »

Baubles. Doodads. Tchotchkes. Trinkets. Whatever you call them, I’ve cleaned them out of my house. I actually completed this challenge 3 weeks ago, but I’ve been devoting my online attention to co-creating our new SEVENS website with my husband. Here it is the last day of February and I’m rushing to get this posted. Sheesh. That’s SO “Niki.”

This was an easy one for me. I have finally grasped the difference between hanging on to good memories and relationships instead of hanging on to the STUFF that accumulates from them. I’ve slowly whittled away at my belongings for the last 5 years, so the knickknacks I had left were pieces that I loved and brought me joy. BUT, the quest towards minimalism has made me a bit ruthless; especially with my Willow Tree collection.

(This is not an actual picture of my collection.)

I couldn’t bring myself to just drop them off at the thrift store, so I chose to gift them to friends and donate the rest to our Speech & Debate team for their fund-raising garage sale. I did the same with my teapot collection a few years ago, and I haven’t missed them at all. My collecting days are behind me and I now own a total of 7 knickknacks.

I hate dusting, so completingĀ  this month’s challenge was a VERY good thing. 2 months down, 10 to go. I’ve got this!

Remember this is MY journey, not me telling you to get rid of all your sentimental ornaments. You probably have your own list of the things you’d like to de-clutter. Go for it! You’ll be amazed at how good it feels.

In the spirit of de-cluttering *ahem* giving , I’d like to offer the chance to win this “Angel of Courage”. Leave a comment on this post and I’ll draw a winner on Friday, March 4th. Good Luck with the give away and on your own de-cluttering journey!

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January’s De-cluttering Challenge – Books

Posted in De-cluttering, Free to be me, Random, Works for me on January 29, 2011| 5 Comments »

2011 is my de-cluttering year. While I face a new challenge each month, I’ll be working on body clutter all year-long. This month I shed about 200 lbs. It was all books and movies that were taking up space in my house. A few weeks ago I was slowly spinning in my office chair, taking in my surroundings and feeling stifled by my space when it hit me.

I have WAY too many books.

Books are my thing. They have always been my thing, so my epiphany came as quite a shock. Like any good book hoarder in denial, I mentally listed the reasons I keep shelves and shelves and shelves of books, most of which I have already read and will probably never read again. The shortness of the list was equally shocking.

1.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  I love books. I blogged about it here.

2.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  They were quite literally my friends through a tough childhood.

3.Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Umā€¦

Yes, thatā€™s it. 2 reasons. Time for epiphany #2…

I donā€™t NEED books like I used to.

I realized that I was using books as a buffer, a protective layer of sorts. They were a security blanket, a built-in escape, and something to call my own. There are worse things to collect, right? Well, I tend to have one of those all or nothing personalities, so in my state of dazed awareness regarding my book hoarding, I made a decision. Everything goes. Thankfully, my family and I were on the same page. A little book humor for you. šŸ˜‰

Being the proud owner of library cards in 4 different districts in the Denver Metro area probably makes me an overachiever, but I can find what I want. I can borrow from my book hoarding friends. I have several of those. I am still a member of paperbackswap.com for those out of print books that I canā€™t seem to find anywhere else. What more could I need? Oh yeah, a little monetary gain for my sacrifice.

I spent a day making an excel spreadsheet of all of the books and movies we own and then put the word out that I was holding a sale. (Hooray for Facebook) The money would benefit SEVENS and help us cover some of our monthly expenses, which it did. I promised the kids they could have the money for any of their items sold, and they had it mentally spent even before bringing me their arm loads of stuff. Apparently they take after me.

Over a 2 week period, I sold 400+ books and movies to people in 5 states. I delivered boxes and bags of books all over Denver and Boulder, and at the end of the sale, donated everything that was left (about 200 books) to our school and my favorite library for their bi-annual book sale. One of my friends bought all of my empty bookcases and hauled them away.

I have one small, 3-shelf bookcase left with the titles that would be hard for me to find again, some of my very favorites, and my writing reference books. Thatā€™s it. It was my biggest de-cluttering challenge to date, and I did it. I am victorious. I feel FREE!

Iā€™m once again sitting in my now spacious and mostly de-cluttered office/school room, wondering what should go next, and daydreaming about owning one of these…

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