Saturday, June 12, 2010

Ruthless Decluttering

Yeah, I'm still here. Most of what I've wanted to blog about involves photos of things I've made, but I lost that wire that connects the camera to the computer. We had carpeting installed (berber in neutrals--I love it) and several rooms were topsy-turvy. I'm still looking for things despite the fact I really tried to keep it all in some kind of order.

It flips me out how much you can accumulate. It doesn't look like all that much when it's in drawers, baskets and closets.

Worse than the wire is that I can't find a paycheck, either. I might have to ask my boss to rewrite it for me, but I'll keep looking.

Having to plow through all this stuff, I got it into my head to up my decluttering. As I've posted before, we'll be downsizing from 11-ish rooms to maybe 5 or 6 within the next year or two, so I have to get rid of things!

I was looking at my shelves of fabric scraps. They are nicely organized by color in bins that generally match--pink in a pink bin, blue in a blue basket. You get the picture. But I've got 25 or so photo albums stored up in the attic that I want to bring down. I need a place to put them.

So here's the ruthless part...I managed to get rid of about 90% of my scraps! Yeah, really! Honestly, if you haven't used it in...uh, five? Seven?...years, you ain't never gonna use it!

So donate it to charity! I have 2 huge bags of nice scraps (and I'm talking decent sized, at least to combine for a quilt or to make doll clothes) to bring to the Salvation Army Store this week.

Not sure yet what I'll do with the empty baskets but they'll find a place or be donated, too.

Oh, and I also got the nutty idea to clean out my crafts closet today. I reorganized, got rid of stuff and put it back in a way that makes it easier to find things. I'm not done yet, but the biggest thing I did (and here's being ruthless again) is that I cut back on my yarn by about 30%. I simply got rid of those half-balls of leftover yarn and yarns I didn't like working with. I don't like baby weight or bulky, fancy yarns. So out they went.

The back of my SUV looks like I live in it. But my office is 75% cleaner. This is more than a one day project, but I got a good start.

BTW: today is my youngest son's 20th birthday! We gave him a digital camera. I also bought a metal bucket at Christmas Tree Shops (cool store) that I filled with treats like Pringles chips and hot fudge sauce and candy. That made him very happy because he wasn't expecting it.

7 comments:

Marlynn said...

OH my dear, thank you so much for your tutorial! I am going to try the dishcloth and I only hope you know how much your email meant to me. You're the only one who has asked about the crochet and NO the book did not tell me not to count the one on the hook. I have not forgotten it, i have a video from Jenny Doh (I bought) on the necklace and at the end of the month I am going/working at a meeting and thought I would take crocheting along. Dishcloth! you rock, just need to get me some cotten yarn! Bless you. You are my crochet angel....

Marlynn said...

And PS - congrats on decluttering. I HAVe to do that soon. I am sitting in chaos at this computer and could not find something to take to my art class yesterday, do tell! LOL Now you're inspiring me to declutter!

Becky said...

I'm impressed! I'll admit I'm sort of a pack rat, so I find decluttering to be hard. Especially decluttering of craft supplies!

Susan @ Blackberry Creek said...

Proud of you for the ruthless decluttering, Clare. I've been ruthless with books and clothes, but haven't got around to my fabric and craft stuff yet.
Hope you find the cord and the paycheck.

Nanci said...

Would you like to come to my house and be ruthless? I need to muster a little internal fortitude and do the same thing here!!!

Anne Lorys said...

Happy Birthday to your son!

And I had to chuckle, not only does the back of my SUV look like I live in it, but it also exposes me as the hoarder that I am! ;-)

Have a wonderful Tuesday!
Anne

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