UPDATE: 2012 Items to Declutter in 2012: Moving Right Along

Just wanted to give you a brief update of the my 2012 items to declutter in 2012 challenge. You can find the first two posts here. And you can join in on the original thread on Mothering.com right here.

I hit a little bit of a slow patch in the last month. It has nothing to do with me not wanting to declutter. We have been so super busy lately with fun events and Easter things, so I haven't had time to really devote myself to purging stuff from this house. In addition, I briefly died of a horrid stomach virus and spent a day in the hospital and a couple of days recovering. Can I just tell you the enormity of mess that occurs in my house when I am out of commission? Oh my Gawd.

I'm doing well with getting rid of things that I have a sentimental attachment to. We cut down our collection of my husband's grandmother's plates. We were never going to use them. They are not entirely valuable so they weren't something we would sell. I got rid of a broken up old dusty purple vacuum. It was our first vacuum when we moved in together. We bought it in 2004 at Sears, during a tornado. You see, I was picking my husband up from the mall that day. He told me to meet him at Sears. There were some thunderstorms brewing that got intense as I was driving over. According to the weather reports on the radio, everything was hunky dory. The sky turned that magical green and I could feel the updraft and smell the scary changes in the air. I watched the clouds get lower and lower until a wall cloud started to form. I ended up doing 90mph down a local road. Good thing - I wouldn't have made it in the store otherwise. I also had my cat, Duncan, with me. He was about 5 weeks old at the time. We were going to head to my parent's house after I picked him up from the mall, so I had brought Duncan along in his little blue carrier as we couldn't leave the little bad kitten home alone for too long. I barely made it out of the car - in fact I parked right up at the door - before things got serious outside. The updraft was insane, the rain made visibility impossible and there was quite a bit of hail. I ran into Sears, cat in hand, and told a girl at the register that I wasn't leaving my sweet baby kitten out there in that weather. She put him behind her register. They put the store on lock down, not allowing anyone in or out, because there was finally an official tornado warning. We had to go down to the first floor of Sears for shelter from the storm. The tornado never hit ground, it stayed a funnel cloud, but those few minutes were pretty darn scary. While down on the first floor, I wandered around the vacuum section. I spotted a purple Hoover that was on sale for about 50% off. Sweet! We needed a vacuum, it was on sale and it was PURPLE. Once the weather calmed and they ended the lock down in the story, we bought our vacuum, collected Duncan from his shelter under the register desk and went on our merry way. And that was my long story about a vacuum. Haha. Anyway, it broke two years ago. It has had it's issues over the years, but I was always able to repair it, but this time was for good. It sat in a closet for two years simply because it was sentimental. I finally let it go. Ahhhh...

Now, my next sentimental mountain to be moved is a box of medical equipment from when our cat, Abigael, was alive. It's tough to get rid of anything associated with her.

I've done good. I've been getting rid of lots of clothes and even some toys. There were lots of little small toys (prizes from game rooms, party favors, etc) that just get lost in the bottom of the toy box. I also just donated a ton of gift wrapping supplies. Lots of boxes, bows, wrapping paper, tissue paper. I had way more than I'll ever need, so I let it go.

It feels get to move this stuff out and get a little more organized. It's definitely a work in progress and we still have far to go, but we're moving right along and doing well.

Grand total so far:

768 out of 2012

UPDATE: 2012 Items to Declutter in 2012. Part 2 - I Think I Can, I think I can

In January, I posted a challenge to myself - to declutter our home. Specifically, the plan is to declutter 2012 items in 2012. In the original post, I gave a little background information as to why I tend to hold onto so much stuff. I also noted that I'd post updates as I go along, which I have done on my Facebook page. I've had some computer issues in the past month that have left me without a real computer and relying on my phone. Hence, the lack of brilliant posts from myself in the past month.

So, where am I? So far, I have decluttered my home of 425 items since January. Awesomeness, right? I will not lie, I feel pretty darn proud. I should note, that the amount I posted here is actually conservative. I have actually decluttered a little more. As I mentioned, my computer had some issues. It's currently being worked on by a friend. I had kept a running list of items on my computer and one of my final tech screw ups before the machine rebelled was not saving the list. Sigh. So, there was one set of items sent out for donation that didn't get listed and are not part of the tally. I can't remember every exact thing that I donated that day.

Most items have been going to Purple Heart. They have been coming out once a week to pick things up from my front step. I also purged my kitchen cabinets of both food and kitchenware. The food is shameful. I hate wasting food, but I had a few expired items in my cabinets. We also got rid of a lot of my husband's grandmother's dishes. They are pretty and they are old, but they have been stashed away for over 5 years. We will never use them because I am unsure of the lead content of the dishes. We already have our set of dishes that we use on a daily basis. Hubby was fine with donating them. We kept a few pieces and I plan to get those plate hangers and hang them up on a wall. I also got rid of various glasses and mugs that never see the light of day. I cleared up so much space in my cabinets. Now things can be stored properly and are more easily accessible. Bonus: I am more likely to cook if my kitchen is looking purdy. I have a mental block about working in the kitchen when it's cluttered and messy.

Emotionally, I have been doing well. I have to admit, I do wish I could wave a magic wand and have everything fall into place and look perfect. There are times when I feel overwhelmed and wonder if I'm ever going to reach my goal. These thoughts happen the most while I'm doing laundry. My laundry breeds. A lot. I have purged so much in the way of clothes. I got rid of 60 clothing items in a single night, with more leaving the house on other donation days. Yet, it still feels like we have too much. Other than those occasional feelings, I have been handling the whole challenge well. I feel like I'm able to let go a little bit easier. I have moments where I'll want to keep something because of it's associated memory, but those moments are getting less frequent.

So, keep checking back to see my progress. I update the totals on my Facebook page, which also feeds into my Twitter. If you can find me on Mothering.com, where the thread orginated, you will see my detailed lists of items donated. I may start adding the lists to my blog. Until then, let's keep on keeping on by not keeping things we don't need to keep. Yeah, I said that.

Pictured: My linen rack. It's a cheapie wire cube rack I got at Target many moons ago. The picture in the beginning is what it looked like before I started a decluttering blitz. Boo! The pic at the end is the way I intend to keep it. I donated a few sheet sets and a chair cover.

2012 Items to Declutter in 2012 - Can I do it?

 In November, I wrote a post called Accountability, in which I noted my desire to remove clutter and take back my home. I detailed some of the things that allowed all of this clutter to happen. I failed to mention that my mind helps me hold onto clutter. I am an extremely sentimental person and I hold on to things because they remind me of happy times or people I love. Part of it stems from my childhood. As I mentioned in my post about rage issues  , I was bullied a lot in school. I would hold on to items that I friend gave me because it reminded me that someone did like me or that someone was actually nice to me. Obviously, I have some things to work out there. I'm really trying. I'm learning how to let go. I'm learning that the stuff isn't as valuable as the memory.

 I got side-tracked in November and December due to everything surrounding the treatment for my daughter's hemangiomas. I wasn't able to complete the goal I had set for myself in November. We were able to start getting the ball rolling towards the end of December. I told my husband that Santa was not welcome unless we got rid of a few things first. We did pretty good. We cleared out a lot of things from our spare bedroom. I was proud of myself for being able to let go. One of the things I do that helps me is take pictures of all the items I donate. It serves a few purposes. It helps me remember exactly what I donated. This is good for tax reasons if you like to deduct your donations. It also helps me preserve memories. Do I need to keep a shirt that doesn't fit just because I wore it on some happy day? No, not really. It could serve someone else. So, I take a picture. If I miss it that bad I can always look at the picture. It's been a really helpful and simple method to allow me to let go.

There was a moment where our decluttering fervor backfired. In December, we went through a lot of stuff and purged a good deal of junk. There was one night where the hubby and I worked in the spare room while the kiddies slept. I emptied and consolidated boxes/bins. I put all of the boxes into our hallway and our living room for hubby to take outside and leave on the front step for Purple Heart to pick up. I managed to get about 7 boxes into one big storage bin and one small cardboard box that night. There is still a way to go, but it's a start. I put a lot of sentimental things that are important into one small cardboard box - my wedding album, pictures of my husbands family dating back to the early 1900's (my husband's parents, grandparents and most family members are dead - he only has about 5 living relatives), cards from when my hubby was born, an Israel Tree Memorial thing from his father's death, pictures of my sweet, sweet kitty, Abigael, who is in Heaven, the little bracelets that my son wore in the hospital when he was born. Things like that. I put that box aside from the other boxes and went to bed. The next day, I walked into the room to appreciate the work we had done the night before. I noticed the box was gone. I looked all over for it. Gone. Purple heart had picked up our stuff about 8 hours earlier. I frantically called my husband who frantically called Purple Heart. The lady on the line was sad to hear our story and said she would try to help, but it's over a month later and they pretty much told us to give up hope. I'm devastated, but trying to move on. That brings us to the here and now.

My son is 5 and says he wants his own room. He told me he needs privacy. I respect that. We are a co-sleeping family and he has been in our room since birth. Our apartment is small and we planned to milk the co-sleeping thing until at least 5 so we could avoid space issues. Our spare bedroom is the catch-all for our crap. It's where I keep my computer desk. The plan is to keep getting rid of the clutter and to get a new desk. My desk is huge and takes up a lot of space. It's not necessary to have such a big desk. My parents need to replace a desk in their basement, so I'm thinking of giving them this one and getting a much smaller and simpler one for myself at Ikea. It'll free up space in the room. We're going to get the Little Dude a bed and do up the room like a regular kids room.

 That bedroom is one of our goals. I would like to have it completed by the middle of this year. There is still a lot to be done around the house. I'm not proud of my home at all. I hate it, really. I hate what it's become and it feels so overwhelming. I never invite people over because I'm embarrassed with this place. After I had the baby, I didn't invite people to see her because I didn't want to show off my clutter. It was okay because most people who had made a fuss when I was pregnant forgot about me the day after my baby was born, so I never pushed the issue. Still, I want to be proud of my apartment. I want it to feel like a home. Right now, it feels like a place that I have to put up with. Just a place to sleep at night. It's not homey or personal. It's not comfortable to me. My son is a little on the hyper side and needs structure and focus. I know that I am doing damage to his sweet little mind with all the chaos of clutter around him. A cluttered home leads to a cluttered mind.

 So, I told my husband that my goal is to get rid of 2012 items in 2012. I am throwing myself into it and committing. There is a forum on Mothering.com that is devoted to de-cluttering and organizing your home. There is a thread specifically for people who want to get rid of 2012 items in 2012. I joined that thread for the support, motivation and the accountability. I also downloaded two apps to help things along - Cozi and Chore Checklist Lite. They are both free. They aren't specific to decluttering, but you can customize them to make lists of things you want to accomplish. I like to check things off of lists. For me, it's highly motivating. I also found a website called My Simpler Life. She has a calendar that lists daily tasks for getting your home simplified, organized and decluttered. The point is to do small things each day and not try to overwhelm yourself with a complete overhaul of your home in one day. I find the calendar to be helpful in guiding me along. Honestly - it's another thing I can check off and say, "I did it!"

 Anyone with me? I'll post along with updates every few days. Join me in simplifying your home, your life and your spirit. You'll find that you are happier for it!

Eggs are a symbol of resurrection and rebirth, which is why I chose that picture. Also, because it's pretty. They were our breakfast this morning. 

Note: You can find an update on my challenge HERE.