Not quite a horder - decluttering

I'm also proud that I cleaned my laptop of all the old crap. Yes, it froze all the time and I never used it. Then the big computer went on the blink. We ordered a part, but in the meantime, I still needed a computer. I got the laptop, copied all the photos on it to a thumb drive, then reprogrammed the laptop back to its factory settings. It works soooo much better, no freezing. My husband said, "How'd you do that? I wouldn't know the first thing about doing that." I said, "I googled it!" and it was simple. I pledge not to load the laptop back up with a bunch of crap. I'm keeping it clean as I can so it's easier to use. If and when we get the big computer back to running, I told dh, once that thing goes on the blink again, I'm not putting any more money into it. We don't really need it anymore. Our lifestyle has changed, we are empty nesters. We both use ipads most of the time. We can have a laptop for incidental use and retire the big PC. I told him, "We have evolved."

Hi ladies- I visit one of my consignment stores recently and found some nice credit there. Taking my first load of spring things to the other consignment shop a week from Saturday. Doing a some spring cleaning and purging as the weather is warm here. I am always looking at whether things have a place to be stored, if they work and are functional, can be fixed or need to be tossed, etc. I have a whole new way of looking at at "stuff".

Continuing on my quest to reduce and simplify!

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OncoWarrior, good mantra!

In decluttering, I have realized how spread out my interests have been, no real focus on any one thing and giving a feeling of being diluted.

I finished reading Marie Kindo's second book, Spark Joy. I didn't think it would have much new to offer but I was pleasantly surprised. It sort of refines the process. I learned more reading it and it inspired me once again.

I spent about 20 minutes last night tidying my closet. I do it the way Marie Kondo suggests. It gets messy when Iife gets busy, but I had some down time yesterday and it took no time to organize it again. I really like her system.

Poodles, there's not much you can probably do about your mom's hoarding tendencies now. As for the drawers and cupboards, you could do one at a time or just pull all the stuff out at one time and decide what to keep.

That was the big take away from Kondo's book. It may have been said before, but she says to concentrate on what you want to keep rather than what you want to get rid of.

Hi ladies- I took my first round of spring items to my consignment store yesterday. I made the apt last month and started putting some things together, but then have been SUPER BUSY with work and realized this week, I needed to finish going through some things to have enough to take in. They took most of what I had, no sandals yet, so I will hold on to those. I think I will have more to take in once spring is here (more summer things). More stuff OUT of the house!

Mustlovepoo- how did you get that name? Anyways, welcome to our thread. My parents kept much in their home and it was hard to clean that out when we had to. Is your mom a Depression-era baby? Both my parents were, but my fathers family was the one that was hit hard by it and he would make us stockpile enormous amounts of canned food and other things he thought he might need some day. I remember eating some split pea canned soup one time when home visiting and got food poisoning. I think that soup may have been 20 years old. After that, I never ate anything out of a can in our parents home and one day, we just got in there and threw it all out!

When he moved to a nursing home, my sister and I started doing clean out work every time we were back east visiting our mom. Even with that for a good 10 years, cleaning out an overstuffed house that had been lived in for over 50 years was one of the hardest things I have EVER done! When the time comes for your mom's home, watch out for basements and attics, they can be a nightmare!

Divine- when we were cleaning out our parents house, as mentioned above, we did not have much time to decide what to put together to pack for the movers to take to our homes, and what to do with the rest. I used a golden rule of thumb which was "things we loved" vs. stuff. With time, even some of the things we loved and took have come to be less sentimental value. I think it is hard to make those fast decisions on those sentimental items, but many have to do it.

Poodles, I hang my shirts, too. I don't fold my unders, either. I did stop knotting my socks in a ball, but instead of folding them, I find it works best to just lay them flat out in my drawer. I'm not about to take everything out of my purse every time I come home like she does. Her approach is great but there's plenty of room to adjust the style to our own personal liking.

I loved having folded T shirts, but the position to fold them made my back hurt. Back to hangers. I do fold my underwear and sox. I could get a lot more sox in the drawer once I folded them.

oh Mel,, I bet that was a big change. My Mom has been in the house since 1962,,,,, **cringes***

Going thru a house full of things like that and keeping what you value and discarding the rest stirs up lots of memories. That's not a bad thing. I think it helps you to come to terms with things and move on.

Last year we moved my mother in law from the house she lived in for 67 years to an apartment across the street from us. I was proud of her. She relived lots of good times while going thru her things but at age 87 was able to embrace themove. She'd been holding on to too many things from the past. Her house was like a memorial for days and people gone by. We were able to update some things for her like photos and appliances, so she is living more in the present.

We have a clean up week here in town in May. You can put out just about everything at that time and the garbage men will haul it away. We had so much going on last year we weren't able to take advantage of it, so lots to put out this year, old sink, toilet, dryer, wooden swing, ect. There's nothing quite like the feeling of "aahhhh" after a huge pile of crap like that is carted off. Look forward to it!

They have a clean up day here, too. Anything someone might want is put out to see and junk goes into the dumpster. We got a table there one year to use on the patio.

Woman was commenting that she heard you should hold objects in your hand and if you don't feel love , then pitch them. She said she threw away all her vegetables and the electric bill!

Good start I say.

wren - lol! good one!

funny.

Thought this article in the Washington Post was of interest. I hope I never get that bad. Actually gave an original 45 Elvis record of Hound Dog to my SIL yesterday. It was in pristine condition despite the use it got years ago. She loves the King.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-sci...

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