Cleaning

When is Your Best Time to Declutter?

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(When is your best time to declutter/clean?)

I am finding right now it is hard for me to start my next decluttering project.  I am realizing that I do my best decluttering when I have time off and when I am alone.

Right now I do not have much time off and my husband works from home most of the week.  So, when do I find time to declutter?  I am a former morning person, though have turned to a kind of nighttime person.  I say kind of because I can stay up till 11- midnight, though I am super tired and can’t get anything done.  So, again when can I fit in decluttering without disturbing the household?

I have a friend that goes on late night cleaning/decluttering sprees because it is quiet in the house and she can concentrate.  It is a time she doesn’t need to entertain the children or stop to help anyone.  She is not getting phone calls at 2am.  If I could stay up and not be a zombie the next day it may work if my husband wasn’t a night owl.

As I am typing this I know that it is just an excuse.  I just don’t want to declutter.  I haven’t gone though my mail for about 3 weeks.  To help with the clutter of the mail piling up on the table, printer, my side table about 3 months ago I started to put all my mail in a Sterilite 15 quart container.  The family knows that all my mail needs to go in there.  This has helped a lot, though out of sight… out of mind.

I am glad I blogged this because I will now be going through my mail.  Thanks all for watching me and making me accountable.

Give me ideas how and when you get decluttering and cleaning done.

When is your best time to declutter/clean?

 

Day Number Four 4/2/2017

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(What did you accomplish today?)

Today is Sunday and it is what I call chore day.  It is the day I make sure all the cat boxes are thoroughly clean.   I take out the bathroom and kitchen garbage.  I also take out any recycling and yard waste that I haven’t taken out during the week.

Now usually I stall and don’t get this done till right before bedtime and even sometimes I get it ready, but don’t take it out till the next morning right before going to work.  Today I had it done before noon.   WOOHOO!!!

I was going to declutter an area in the kitchen.  This small area ends up as a dumping ground.  I got started by collecting the cloth grocery bags and taking them to my car.  I know that if I didn’t do it right away I would just lay them somewhere else.

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Where I live, my city doesn’t give plastic bags when you go shopping.  Some stores have paper bags that you can buy.  To not buy bags and to help the environment most people here carry cloth bags in their car for when they go shopping.  The problem for me is that I bring them into my house full of items, though once empty they don’t seem to get back out to my van.

I knew I had to take them out right away.  When I got to my van I remembered that I wanted to clean out the back seat.  All the items behind the back seat got put into the back seat when I got a flat at Christmas.  (Yes, it has been like that for 3 months).  The weather was nice so I decided to do this clean up job right away.

20170402_112456 Backseat full      20170402_113952  Empty

I did a couple more things with the kitchen pile, though found that some of it wasn’t mine and was not sure where to put it.

This is how my life goes…. I start on one project, but then get distracted and start working on another.  The good thing this time is I didn’t make anything messier.  You know how you start to declutter and the area looks worse before it starts looking better?  I just didn’t finish the kitchen.

Proud of myself:     Van backseat is cleared out
Chores got done earlier
Decluttered a tiny bit of the pile in the kitchen
I actually decided on wordpress for my blog
I signed up and am slowly learning how to use my page.

So hopefully in a few days these blogs will go live so all can read.   YEA!!

What did you accomplish today?

Day Number Two 3/31/2017

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(Disclaimer…  I published Day Three before Day Two   OOPS!)

Did you do anything today that you are proud of??
I did not declutter today, though while decluttering I don’t want to forget about my regular chores.
I have to admit that I don’t do regular chores much because  I have been relying on my awesome husband to do chores.  Though when that happens I live in guilt and don’t feel very good about myself.  I do work outside the house, though it is my husband’s salary that is our main income.  Then he comes home and have to clean?    Did I mention he was awesome.  (not perfect, but awesome)

Well, I am proud of myself today because when I got home from work I did the dishes, took out 2 bags of recycling, and the yard waste to the bins next to my house.
Later in the evening I fed, watered and spent a little time with my daughters reptiles.  I love feeding them from time to time.

I am also researching how to blog so I can get this live and get some accountability.  (Done)

Today was not a waste.  If I can go though the day and either declutter or clean I will be very pleased with myself.

Did you do anything today that you are proud of??

Day Number Three 4/1/2017

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I have decided to quit blogging.   April Fools.

I know you will read this past April 1st because I haven’t decided where to put my blog yet.  I now know how I want it to function, though not sure whether to buy my own website or go to a free blogging system which will give me less freedom.
I am still investigating.

I worked today and Saturday afternoons is for my family, though again today I washed dishes.  I can’t tell you how good it feels to just do that.  I also washed out our coffee pot which had coffee stains on the inside.  It is so pretty.

That is it for today.  Have a good night.

Day Number One- (my first project) 3/30/2017

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Day One….  My first Project              3/30/2017

(What small project can you declutter?  Come along my journey with me so you can help me stay motivated and maybe get motivated yourself.)

     I have read that you should start fast and big, so you can get as much done before you lose your desire.  Though most of the articles I have read and/or  watched say start slow.  Getting even a small project done will help.  It will help you get started, help you have success, help you feel good and help you get that little section of your house decluttered and maybe even organized.

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I have decided to start with a basket in my bathroom full of toiletries.  Each one of my family members have one.  We are a little family of three.  I will tackle my basket on the right.

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I believe it was in the book, ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing’, she talks about putting your items in the middle of the floor and then decide where to put the items.

I  thought that would be a great idea for this project.  After doing that I decided what is really suppose to belong in my basket and what was not.

I kept about 1/2 the contents, 1/4 was in the wrong place, 1/4 garbage and one item I decided to give away.

20170330_123854Items that were in the wrong place

20170330_123820Garbage items (I reused 2 of the ziplocks)

I am very proud of my basket.  It was just one little drop of water in my big cluttered bucket, but I got that drop taken care of and am very proud of myself.

What small project can you declutter?  Come along my journey with me so you can help me stay motivated and maybe get motivated yourself.