Decluttering my life
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I have been adding to my “go away” pile for weeks now.
Question: And this question is specifically to people who are getting rid of large quantities of stuff like me: Where do you put this stuff until you are ready to haul it all away?!?
I started my decluttering journey with just placing the items that were going away in my walk in closet. Then when I started really understanding that I wanted to give away most of the things that were just taking up space in my house, I upgraded to a large laundry basket (after I destroyed a small one by overstuffing it). Eventually, that laundry basket grew too small and now I pile, quite literally, all this stuff on the large landing off of my living room where my childhood piano sits and never gets played.
You guys. This is seriously screwing with my mental happiness. Most of the time it overflows into my living room, which hinders peaceful interaction with my family. Also, it just makes me want to scream. The whole point of this exercise is to make my home our sanctuary. Where we want to be. Piles of things that have already been deemed “the go away and never come back here again” sitting and staring me in the face isn’t working out.
I already know the answer to the question I asked. It’s always the same answer, I have discovered. Donate this stuff weekly. Put it on my to do list and actually DO IT. This is my problem: I am an excellent planner. I love everything about planning. I love my planner, I love filling in the items that need to be done. But executing them? Yeah……
Let’s see what’s getting a new life outside of my house:
I questioned the kids and wanted to know if they were going to be upset with their sleeping bags from more than a decade ago going to live with some other human: No.
I cleared out one of the linen closets downstairs to make and “extra’s” section in my house for the overflow things we need to keep on hand, like shampoo and conditioner, toilet paper, and hand soap and I found two more shower curtains that I didn’t even remember keeping. Also two king sized shams from a comforter set that I gave away about fifteen years ago. 😯 
More extras that are just taking up space. Do you have a favorite whisk? I obviously do and its not these two.
Have you ever used this laundry detergent before? I used to use Arm and Hammer all the time, but with my new washing machine this stuff will just not get my clothes clean. 
More extras. Those two knives are Chicago cutlery, but you would not believe how many times I have had wet hands and almost slices off a digit with them. Also, my boat motor as Emeril Lagasse calls it. I have had this one for 26 years. I received it as a wedding present. But it doesn’t come apart and I HATE cleaning it. So I found a new one at a yard sale Liv and I were socially distancing at for $2.00 and it makes me very happy that it goes into the dishwasher. It’s the simple things.
More things that were just waiting to leave my house.
The always there pile of magazines that I am slowly reading my way through…..
An “extra” magazine rack, and two food savers that I apparently have as extras. Good grief. There is another one in my kitchen as we speak.
More extras of extras.
Parting with my dishes isn’t as painful as it once was….
Things that have never been used.
This is a perfect example of why I no longer put things in my garage to await donation day: this has been waiting for months.
Self explanatory.
Are you decluttering?
Now that the Christmas stuff is out of the spare room, Liv and I can start assembling her studio, which will free up a LOT of room in her bedroom. Does your house go through transformations like mine does? When one space isn’t working anymore, we just shift and change and make it into what works for us at the time. I wish I could go with the flow in my everyday life, like I do with shifting my furniture around!
I also replaced another light fixture in my downstairs hallway. 
And that’s what I’ve actually gotten accomplished over the last couple of weeks. I have other projects I’m working on right now, and as soon as I get them completed I’ll show you here!
But its done! Yay! Don’t look at the stairs, just don’t. It’s on the list. 
While I had the paint out, I thought to myself, I should get that small bookcase painted. I had bought it ages, and ages ago. I think I may have paid around $3 for it, more than likely because it looked so bad.
Liv wandered through about the time I started to paint and asked, Don’t you need to clean that thing first? And I told her, This has been cleaned! Pitiful little thing. 
I had the perfect spot for it outside my kitchen where I had been piling my number one “to be read” stack of books, a la Martha Stewart style. It always looks so much better at her house, doesn’t it?
It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do.
I’ve had one hook outside my shower for years now. And I constantly put way too many things on it.
I’ve also had these two cute ostrich head hooks floating around my house for a couple of years now with no real purpose. Now they have a purpose…
And my shower hook isn’t overloaded anymore. This project took approximately 49 seconds to accomplish. Sigh.
My dresser. You’ll have to use your imagination and “see” this poor thing piled as high as the sky with clothes, random bits of things that did not even belong in our bedroom, because either I forgot to take a before or I deleted it by accident. It wasn’t pretty.
I have been resisting doing this project, because I knew I needed to take EVERYTHING out and do a major purge of all the things. I hesitate to do things KonMari style because I get so overwhelmed with how much stuff I still have. And probably do NOT need. But I set aside an entire day and worked drawer by drawer.
I LOVE having my t-shirts folded this way. It’s so easy to see what I have and what I don’t. I’m also going to try this with my pajamas too and I’ll let you know how it goes.
I took out everything, and anything that said NO way am I ever putting you on my body again, went into a bag to dealt with another day. Everything else needed a designated drawer or things like swimsuits that I only wear once a year went into a basket to live on the top shelf of my closet. Why in the world I was letting them take up space in my drawers is beyond my comprehension.
It was a long, tedious day, with many, many breaks for my mental health, but at the end of it all my bed was clear and everything was put away where it belongs. Also yes, that IS another “to be read” pile of books! Which is another project to add to my ever expanding list, because this pile drives me bonkers. It was a great idea at the time, but I constantly knock them off and have to pick them up again.
Another project I need to check with my Mama about. I want to change out the pulls on this dresser, but I don’t know which ones are the originals on this piece. It was my Mama’s Mother’s dresser and it has two different styles of pulls. Wooden ones and metal pulls on the bottom drawer.
This laundry basket has to go. It is collapsible which is a fantastic idea, but in reality is a giant pain in the butt to use on a daily basis.
Candle holders and candles for the candle making lady. I am going to finally learn to only buy the couple of candles that I love and stop “trying out” new scents. At my house we love Paris Cafe from Bath and Body Works and maybe a couple of others. That’s it. 
And finally my beloved magazines. They do bring me great joy and now I will send them off to be enjoyed by someone else.
Books that have been devoured and deemed okay to let go of. Also, this cool egg lamp, but no one liked it at my house.
