2016 in 2016

It’s not about the “Number”

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It’s really not about the final number, but about how we feel after reaching a particular number or looking around our home.

The average home (2014) has about 300,000 items (LA Times article link here).  Since our house is 1300 sq ft, we probably average about 230 items per square foot.  How scary is that?!?!  This is just for a “typical” house.  What about those of us who really need to declutter??

Decluttering isn’t about the number of items leaving the house.  But counting allows us to have a concrete goal.  Vague goals prevent follow through.  Decluttering is something we need to ensure we stay on top of.  Counting the items leaving our home has definitely kept us on track.  When we first started decluttering, we didn’t count and it was hard to see the progress.  Knowing a certain number of items left was encouraging when the progress was less obvious.  Even today, counting reminds us that stuff (really us) has a habit of becoming clutter.

Since we began seriously decluttering in the fall of 2014, we have removed 14,013 items from our home.  How does it make us feel??

  • We have more time for other activities now that we aren’t moving the stuff all around to get to other stuff.
  • We have a sense of accomplishment when we reach our number goal.
  • We are more relaxed in our own home.
  • Household chores take less time!  We joked the other day that the house is decluttered enough to get a housekeeper (but we aren’t – we can manage it now ourselves!)
  • We don’t worry about someone dropping by on the “wrong” day.
  • We feel more welcoming!
  • We have a sense of contentment.

How about you?  What have you noticed?

December 2016 Update

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We woke this morning needing to remove 39 items from our home to reach our goal of 2016 items gone in 2016.  So what did we do??  We decided to go through the magazine holders that have been stacked in the kitchen and removed 37 magazines, 1 magazine holder, and 1 pair of thermal undies – I know the undies seem odd in the dead of winter.  They have been in the drawer for years and not worn.

Can you tell we subscribed to this magazine for years?  Some were from 2007!   John and kiddo #2 have Celiac Disease, diagnosis was in 2003.  It was a challenge at the beginning with limited resources available so we subscribed to many magazines over the years.  We went through these looking for any special recipes that we just had to keep.  15 recipes made the cut.  Most can probably be found online now.  The amount of information on the web is mind-boggling!

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With the removal of these magazines, WE REACHED OUR GOAL OF 2016 IN 2016!!

Here is a breakdown of the numbers for the year:

  • January = 603 items
  • February = 121 items
  • March = 100 items
  • April = 172 items
  • May = 103 items
  • June and July = 39 items
  • August = 19 items
  • September = 147 items
  • October = 30 items
  • November = 424 items
  • December 258 items

Our beautiful chart!

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Lights

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We are finally getting around to putting out the Christmas stuff.  We have so much excess!  It is kind of weird looking at it with our new outlook of living with less stuff.

Why do we have so many UNOPENED boxes of lights?  I’m sure we had a grand plan years ago!  The box is full of used lights for the outside.  How long would it take to untangle them?

Less lights on the house:

  1. less lights to store the other 50 weeks of the year – deluttering win
  2. less electricity used during these 2 weeks – environmental win
  3. less time prepping/decorating for the holiday – less stress win

These all sound like a win-win-win situation for us. Off to the donation center!

 

It Brings Him Joy!

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We were decluttering some of the Christmas stuff yesterday.  Barb decluttered these Santa salt and pepper shakers.  When John saw them in the donation box, he made a sad face and exclaimed “These bring me joy!  They stay!”

After he said this, we all had a good laugh – he does occasionally listen to Barb!  Kiddo #2 had a friend say a similar thing to her recently.  Guess it’s the season for Joy!!

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Decluttering Update -November 2016

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I can’t believe another month has passed!  We have been crazy busy!  We won’t bore you with those work related details.

Kiddo #2 is home for several weeks (sort of).  She is interviewing for residency programs and many of her interviews are closer to our house than to her apartment.   She decided to use us as her home base.  She is here a few days, gone a few, back here a few, etc for about 6 weeks.  It’s nice to have her popping in!  It’s also nice that she was able to go through some more of her boxes!

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  We hosted it this year.  A few items had to be purchased but several more left as we cleared space for the new things.  Tablecloths, napkins, etc.

Our decluttering total for November is 424 items (most of these from kiddo #2)  We figure these count since they NEVER left our house when she moved out 5 years ago.

Our total so far this year is . . . 1758 items left our house!!  258 more items to reach our goal of 2016 items in 2016!!

We are about to start decorating for the holiday season.  Maybe the 258 items will come from this!

 

October 2016 monthly update

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This month has been a busy one for us, but not in the decluttering department!

We decluttered 30 items this month and our yearly total is now 1334.

To reach our goal of 2016 items in 2016 we need to remove 682 items in 2 months!  That amounts to an average of 11 items per day.  WE CAN DO THAT (I think).

Guess we really need to work on the garage.  The weather is finally cooling off so we can’t use that as an excuse.

Just when you think you are done . . .

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering ,

Just when you think you are done decluttering, you open the entry closet and see a box on the shelf.

It had a pair of drumsticks, ink pad refill ink (8 different colors), foam sheet for kids art projects, piano lesson books, 2 opened skeins of yarn, 1 cedar block (not one package, just one 2 x 2 block), one Christmas stamp, 5 embossing powders, and 2 ink pens!

Drumsticks and foam sheets to Barb’s work, yarn to John’s work, piano books put with the keyboard, Christmas stamp with all the remaining stamps (granted, I’ve not stamped in about 10 years but that is another post!), 2 of the ink pad refills to John’s work, the other 6 ink pad refills donated along with the embossing powders – never even opened 😦

Cleaned the cedar block and put it back on the shelf – maybe it will keep something away.

Both of the ink pens didn’t work – anyone surprised?!?!?

Total number of items leaving the house – 20!!!

Here’s the shelf today – please don’t ask about the 5 umbrellas!!

The green bag has the reusable grocery bags.  The blue bag is our cemetery bag.

And please notice – YOU CAN SEE THE FLOOR!!

 

September 2016 Decluttering Update

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering

We can’t believe another month has passed!  September was a unique month for us.  We took a bereavement trip to help John’s Mom decide was to do with property in Hawaii.  (Yeah, tough life – a week-long trip to Hawaii.  If any of you are teachers, you know that a week out of your classroom is tough!)  It did involve several meetings over 2 days.  Kiddo #2 was able to join us – it was nice spending time with her!

Our week-long trip cost us wayyy more than we expected.  We actually dipped into savings – I know, it’s something we shouldn’t have done!  We also realized that we could travel the country for about 4 weeks during the summer for the same amount we spent for the one week, not including air fare or hotel.  It was a little sobering!

Now to the decluttering – since we had the trip, we cut short our 21-day decluttering challenge to 14 (sort of 16) days.  This allowed 147 items to leave our house!!

So far this year:  1304 items gone!  We have a ways to go to hit 2016.

We are hoping to declutter the Christmas stuff in the garage soon.  Better to get that stuff donated before the holiday!  We tend to wait until the last couple of days before we break out the decorations.

Happy October!!

 

Last Day of the Current Decluttering Challenge.

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I wish to thank Anne at MinimalistSometimes.com for this challenge.  I modified this from 21 days to 14 days, did 2 extra counting of items to make up for 2 of the missing days, started counting from the highest number of items at the beginning of the challenge down to 1 item on the last day.

Today is the last day of the challenge.  We might do those extra 5 days when we return from our trip next week.  So the last item is from John’s travel stuff.  He was packing his bag and found this empty container of travel sized shaving cream.  He might replace it when we get to our destination, but I’m counting it!

Total items gone with this 2 week challenge = 146!!  Feeling very accomplished!!!

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Decluttering the Car

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My car is pretty clean on the inside.  John’s car – well that’s a different story!  Here are the things for today that I decluttered from my car.  John will do his when we return from our trip.  I think he will have a few more items than this!

  • Old AAA LA Freeway map dated July 2001.  When was the last time we used an actual map??
  • a master lock with an unknown combination.  Wonder how long that was in the glovebox??  Who does it belong to??
  • random wrappers and 1 business card

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3 + 5 = 8

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering , , ,

Here’s today’s 3 items plus the 5 from the house I missed a couple of days ago.  I know I decluttered something from my work desk, but it seems like “cheating”.

Isn’t it weird how our brains work on something like this???  We have completely changed up the rules for this decluttering challenge initiated by Anne at MinimalistSometimes and yet I feel I should have the items leave the house.  I suppose they could have even come from the car.

Who’s up for a declutter the car event??  That’s what I’m doing tomorrow!!

So the 8 items for today are an external USB DVD player, 2 software cds, a user’s manual, 2 sound cords for the computer speakers, an ethernet cable, and a printer cable.  These were in a box under John’s desk.  I have no idea why we kept them after the flood but I know we haven’t used or needed them in the last year.  Out they go!!

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Nothing

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering, Uncategorized

Nothing left our house today except kiddo #2. She has her step 2 exam in the morning (she’s almost done with medical school!)

We wanted to maximize our dinner enjoyment with her before she drove off in our car.  Her exam is only given in a few places in the country and she figured since she had to travel, she might as well visit us at the same time. 

We’ll make up for missing our 5 item day soon!

New SofaSleeper means more Decluttering!

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering , ,

We finally purchased a new sofa sleeper for the room previously occupied by Kiddo #1.  It’s been a year since her wedding and a year since we moved back into the house after the Great Flood of 2015.  We are pretty confident that she will not be returning to live with us.  She and her husband have great jobs in the Bay Area.  So sad for us!  Great for them!

Ikea is awesome!  Not a paid endorsement!  This sofa sleeper is different than any we’ve seen.  It is deeper than a traditional sofa which we like since we all tend to sit with our feet up on the sofa under us.  The sleeper part is that the front bottom part pulls out and the cushion flips open.  The 2 sofa sectionals together makes a queen sized bed!  Kiddo #2 went with us and sampled each of the sofas and sofa sleepers.

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So to put the sofa into the extra bedroom, we got to declutter some more stuff!!

26 items less in our home!!

So our “official” 6 items for the day are 3 jars of jelly that are looking weird, a salad dressing mixing container, an unopened expired box of pain reliever, and a jar of soy lecithin mixed with citric acid that John mixed about 10 years ago when he was on a bread making kick.

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To make up for the week we are going to miss, here are the 20 items: 2 lamps, 2 light bulbs, 4 hangers, 1 set of kidney stone x-rays, unopened package of pads, 1 down jacket, 1 pair of shoes, another camera case, 2 sweatshirts, 1 tshirt, 1 sleep pants, 2 compression stockings, 1 wallet.

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Thank you Anne at MinimalistSometimes for suggesting a challenge for the month of September!!

Kiddo #2 helps with Decluttering the Stuff!

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering , ,

So here we are – a Saturday decluttering spree!  Kiddo #2 flew in last night and this afternoon went through a small section of her former closet!  7 more items gone!!  On top of these 7 items, 21 extra hangers are leaving the house!  Guess I’ll start working on the week I’ll be missing in reverse this week along with the scheduled days.

3 dresses, 3 shirts, 1 deflated exercise ball and the 21 hangers!

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1 deflated exercise ball, 3 dresses, 3 shirts
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21 extra hangers
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Thank you MinimalistSometimes.com fo the challenge!

 

8 more items gone!

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It’s amazing what you can find in 15 minutes to get rid of.

John found 2 magazines on his dresser last night.  He was also willing to part with his ground coffee container.  He just puts it back into the bag he brought the beans home in now. Barb found 3 old school related books on the shelf.  These books were 3 textbook adoptions ago and are copyrighted 1993 before she started working at that school.  An old camera case with no camera but an ink pen inside. And the pen that wouldn’t work when we went to add the camera case to the donation list.

Very productive 15 minutes!

I would like to add that doing a reverse count down on the days has been so much easier.  When I’ve done this type of challenge before, by the end of the month I’ve removed so much more than the required items I scramble to find items.  So glad I tried it this way.  Thank you Anne at Minimalist Sometimes for the challenge!

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And why does it keep rotating the picture???

More Decluttered!!

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No that we are doing this 21 14 day decluttering challenge, clutter seems to be popping out everywhere!  I opened the jewelry drawer to look for a necklace and just had to remove  the required number of items for the day!  10 items gone!!

A watch that I’m sure I haven’t worn in years, 5 watch batteries (why???), 3 lone earrings, and a necklace pendant I also haven’t worn in years.

Thank you Anne at Minimalist Sometimes for kicking us into gear!  Here’s the link to her site

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Folder Anyone?

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering , ,

Why do we have 11 of these report covers in the desk?  Oh yeah, we had kids who had to do reports and we made them reuse them.  Since the kiddos are now 27 and 29, one in her last year of medical school, the other done with her PhD, I don’t think they will need the parentals to get them a report cover!

And a broken stapler.  12 more items gone!  Thank you Anne for the challenge!  (See the challenge post here at Minimalist Sometimes)

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August 2016 Decluttering Update

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We have had a slow decluttering month.  Both of us went back to work after 9 weeks of time off.  We really hate to refer to it as “vacation” time since it is unpaid.  Most people assume when you say vacation it means paid time off.

Barb is learning a new Digital Learning System and that is taking all of her extra time.  John sponsors an after school engineering club and is having 20-30 students staying multiple days a week to work on projects.  We are both glad our students are engaged but it takes a toll on our free time at the beginning of a new school year.

Back to decluttering – August saw us remove on 19 items from the house. So far in 2016:

Our Annual Grand Total = 1157 items.  We are sure hopeful that we hit 2016 in 2016!

Happy Decluttering Everyone!

 

Joining a New Declutter Challenge

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering ,

We are joining Anne at Minimalist Sometimes in her 21 day challenge – Decluttering this Time.

We are only going to do 14 days since we have a trip scheduled and will be gone for days 15-21.  We are also doing the count from 14 items the first day to 1 item on the 14th day since that will be the day before we leave.  We are also starting today while she is starting on Monday!  Let the decluttering begin!!

A unique find in Barb’s desk:  a word search puzzle book dated August 1998.  I guess if it hasn’t been used in 18 years, it can leave the desk!

Here are the first 14 items.

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puzzle books never used – super word-find publish date is August 1998.  Sudoku is April 2008.
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4 cup coffee pot that was in the RV.
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How many mesh travel laundry bags do we really need??

 

 

June and July Update

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering, LiveWithLess

June and July flew by!  In preparing for our trip, traveling, and getting things put away upon our return, we decluttered 38 items in these 2 months.  It doesn’t seem like much, but having decluttered so much last year, things are starting to slow down in decluttering the inside of house.  Now we really need to focus more energy on the garage.  Boy, we can’t wait!  (do you sense the sarcasm there?!?)

Yearly total:  1138 items removed!

Our daughter gave us a new suitcase set (to “pay” us for providing her cell phone) and we removed 3 suitcases.  We counted this as only 1 item removed since they were replacements.

Sure hope we can reach our goal of 2016 items removed!!

 

It’s Nice to be Home!

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering, Living Small in RV

We are home!  It was so nice unpacking the RV this year.  Everything was put away within one day – including all the laundry.  Having less stuff around the house sure did make it easier!  We packed just the amount of clothing we needed.  This year we made a concerted effort to minimize the amount we packed.  We even minimized the extra food items since our cupboards run closer to bare these days.

Only 11 items officially left the RV.  In the couple of days we’ve been home, we’ve removed about a dozen items.  The donation box is filling up and needs to be counted!  Of all the kitchen cupboards to get into, John delved into the one we haven’t decluttered this morning.  He was getting out a sheet to make biscuits and ran across these heat vacuum sealing films.  We decluttered the machine a while ago!

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John goes back to work tomorrow and Barb leaves today for a conference.  So sad to be returning to “normal”.

Here’s a map of our travels this year.  Not sure how many miles we traveled but the 7 weeks flew by.

Just can’t get rid of it!

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Do you see that silver “key” pointing to the left in the picture above??  It was on the key ring when we purchased our motorhome 10 years ago.  We asked the dealer what it went to.  His response “I don’t know.  You’ll eventually figure it out.”  So we’ve kept this stupid thing on the key ring for 10 years!

Yesterday, we had a discussion about removing it – yes a full out discussion!  John said he just can’t do it.  Why??  We might eventually figure out what it opens.  Now Barb is of the mindset that we haven’t figured it out in 10 years, the likelihood of figuring it out is ZERO!

So here it is – still on the key ring!

Anyone else have something like this that really should be decluttered but just can’t do it?

RV decluttering too! update 1

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How many of you keep old car registration papers in the glove box for years??  If you do, you are not alone!  One driving day, the glove box was tackled!  5 years worth of registration and insurance papers (not including the current ones sitting at home on the desk). Sure hope we don’t need them!

On another evening, we looked through the tow car glove box. Not as bad – only one extra!

And then there are these 6 plastic baskets we found in the cupboard. WHY did we buy them??  We’ve never used them in the 10 years we’ve had this RV.

May 2016 Update

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We have had 1099 random items leave our home this year, 103 during the month of May.  It amazes us that we are able to find more things to declutter!

We will be traveling for the next 7 weeks.  While we are gone, we will be decluttering the RV and adding it to our annual count.  We figure if the garage can be decluttered, our home away from home can be too!  It will be interesting to see what kind of stuff we have hidden away in the RV and don’t use/need.

Happy Summer everyone!!

 

Decluttering the First Aid kit

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering , ,

Thankfully, we rarely have to use the first aid kit.  This morning it was staring at us, just as it has been for the last 25 years!  It normally sits outside the master bath in the corner, easily accessible and every one knows where it is.

Here is one of many items that I think is well beyond use!

Go declutter and update that first aid kit!!

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April Decluttering Update

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering ,

We did a financial review this weekend and are very pleased with the results.  Read about it here.

Now onto decluttering the stuff update!

We removed 172 items this month giving us a grand total of 996 items to leave our home!  12 items short of half our goal of 2016.  

Kiddo #2 was home for spring break and was able to remove 2 boxes from her FREE storage facility (aka the bedroom closet).  That was about half of the 172 items!  Way to go Kiddo!  We found a box in the garage with Kiddo #1 undergraduate college notes – since she is finished with grad school, we felt it was safe to discard them.

We are debating whether items removed from the RV as we prepare for our summer adventure should count.  What do you think??  While we are traveling, should we streamline the things we have in the RV and count those as well?

We made one donation trip.  Total this year so far is 5.  IRS won’t be questioning our donations this year!  (Hopefully they don’t question 2015 donations either!)

Overall, a great month.  Some decluttering took place and we enjoyed having kiddo #2 home.  Now onto May!

 

 

March 2016 Update

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering , ,

March has been a slow decluttering the stuff month for us.  You would think with both of us having a full week off more would have been cleared!  Too bad we weren’t off at the same time.  We both enjoyed our spring break with plenty of relaxation!

We removed exactly 100 items from the house.  We made one donation trip to Goodwill this month as well.

Our grand totals in 2016 are:

  • 824 items gone
  • 5 donation trips

Here is a pic of the bedroom – finally feeling decluttered!  Closet doors might be put back up this weekend!!  The bottom track arrived this week.  Amazing how difficult it is ordering for a 16 foot closet.

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February Update

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering , , ,

February has been a slow decluttering the stuff month for us.

We removed 121 items from the house – mostly from kitchen cupboards.  We made one donation trip to Goodwill this month as well.

Our grand totals are:

  • 724 items gone
  • 4 donation trip

This cupboard pictured below was cleaned out again.  The empty spot on the middle shelf holds a mixing bowl.  We also placed 6 place settings of our china and crystal goblets in this cupboard instead of boxed in the hall closet.  Now they can be used!!

Kiddo #2 needs to be asked if we can get rid of her color-changing oatmeal bowl – she ate and saved instant packets to “buy” it and I just can’t seem to remove it yet.  John thinks that after living away from here for the last 8 years gives us the “right” to eliminate it – yet she ate oatmeal out of it (not instant anymore) when she was home at Christmas.

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Here is the “mystery” item of the month – iodine.  Why did we have a small bottle of iodine (which expired in 2001) mixed in with these really old extracts??  We extracted the extracts from a cupboard as well.  John knows the chocolate extract has been with us since 1989 – he used it to make chocolate liqueur soon after kiddo#2 was born.  Good buy extracts!

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We have completed our taxes for 2015.  Donations last year gave us a tax credit of over $18,000!  Here’s a pic before I finished entering all our donations.  Our big fear is that we will be audited!

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January Challenge Update #4

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering, LiveWithLess, minimalism , , ,

So this month’s challenge was . . . challenging!  Not only keeping track of the number of items each day, but documenting with pictures was more effort than we thought.  We had the counting down – both of us counting “trash” and “recycling” stuff as we worked, donation stuff in a box to be tallied when the tax list was prepared.  Easy system for us!

Then we added the number of items to equal the date challenge.   This aspect was strange for us.  We were used to just working until we felt finished for the day.  Trying to maintain the daily removal, especially as the month’s end was looming, was more difficult than we ever expected.  Stopping at a specific number each day took more restraint than we are used to!  

The positive is how easy decluttering the stuff can be if you take it one day at a time – each day has a specific goal whether it is a number, location, type of items, etc.  Just set a goal!

Barb had “fun” playing with a new app to make a collage of the pictures – each day being put into a single collage.  It was more effort than she is willing to continue!  Our numbers updates may occasionally include pictures in the future but we are done with the pics of everything leaving the house and which items should “count”.

January did see 601 items leave the house.  It also saw the addition of a new high efficiency washing machine – more on that soon.

 

days 24-27 for blogPhototasticCollage-2016-01-31-16-59-58

 

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January Challenge update #3

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So here we are – January 23!  We have been decluttering fools!  We find it hard to believe we are still finding stuff to declutter.

Grand total so far in 2016 – 563 items!

Here are the pictures for the items decluttered for the Decluttering Challenge to remove the number of items corresponding to the date.

The tile for day 16 doesn’t exist in the house any longer – why keep it??  We are also finally to the point we can clear out the excess from the garage after the Great Flood of 2015.  Boxes that weren’t picked up by others are being cut to be recycled.

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days 16 and 18: Misc from garage.  Try not to judge!  We should do a before/after pic!  day 17: stuff from around the house.  day 19:  John cleaned his desktop!

 

for blog days 20-23 PhototasticCollage-2016-01-23-17-53-27
day 20: Liqueur John made in 1989!  days 21 and 22: flatware mostly from the RV.  How many people were we thinking would stay in RV with us???  day 23: 23 cd’s from kiddo #2 bedroom.

January Challenge Update #2

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One January challenge is to rid our home/garage of items each day equal to the date.  So far we have kept it up!  Barb loves the Phototastic Collage App for Windows 10!  Can you guess Barb’s favorite color??

Total Items removed so far:  419 of our goal – 2016 items in 2016!

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Day 8:  old washcloth, backpack and the trash found in it   Day 9: Curtains and polygrip for the crown that fell off   Day 10:  4 hangers, boot box, 5 burned cd’s    Day 11:  6 tights, 4 watch batteries, sunglass case
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Day 12:  2 purses, 2 directions on using fondant, 2 craft kits, 6 unworn undies   Day 13:  13 whiteboard markers taken back to work   Day 14: 14 random things from the desk   Day 15: 15 undies worn only once and not liked

Decluttering Challenges for 2016

declutteringthestuff 2016 in 2016, decluttering, LiveWithLess, minimalism , ,

We are participating in 2 different challenges this year:

  1. Remove 2016 items during 2016
  2. For January, remove the number of items which corresponds to the date (e.g. Jan 14 will be 14 items) found at Embracing Homemaking

We are pretty confident we can reach 2016 items.  We are organizing and documenting the decluttered items for the January challenge set up at Embracing Homemaking.  Documenting the items is already “a challenge” and it is only day 7!  Here is some of the stuff we have decluttered.

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Day 1: Keep in mind kiddo #1 has her PhD and kiddo #2 is in 3rd year of medical school.  Day 2: Bags from when they both were in high school, one with tag 😦  Day 3: leggings.  Day 4: Jeans, hard to see pair 4 at bottom of pic.

 

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Day 5: Camisole type shirts.  Day 6: Fabric, pattern, etc and receipt dated 2008 for a dress never made.  Day 7: Uncomfortable bras.