How is the de-cluttering going?

"Just a question for the 'preppers'. How do you strike a balance between preps and clutter?"

That is something to carefully consider. We were "over prepped" for a period of time because most of our children were living in cities and we felt we needed to be prepared for them to join us. Most have moved out of cities now. We have literally lived off our preps for over a year after my husband's accident and have them down to a more reasonable level. My pantry is organized with a system of rotation so things don't get "lost". I don't "prep" items that we don't normally use so there is a constant use and replace system in place.

We do have a storage shed for the handtools etc. that we don't use, but want to have on hand if the need would arise. I don't consider my preps "clutter" but the boxes and boxes of "stuff" that came out of my grandmother's and parent's homes after their death was clutter. Granny's hats went to a local theater group.........I tryed to find homes for the useful stuff and am still sorting and pitching.

I've seen 'preps' get so out of hand it was rediculous. One family I know was collecting so much stuff that they didn't have room for that all the stuff they were saving just turned into a collosal garbage dump! Since then, I have tried to make sure I didn't get caught up in the 'if I toss it, I'm going to need it', mindset.


Anyhow, I got my back in a bit of a snarl yesterday, so I'm doing some other things today that don't pull on my back. But I did make some progress.

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

Today I successfully tossed my late mil's list of 'vanity plates'.

I am slowing hauling all of her 'preppers' to our house and don't anticipate having to do any major grocery shopping for a long, long time.

Which is good because I'm spending most of my time going through her boxes.
I do bless her, though, for stocking up on canned goods. They are sustaining us while we go through her stuff.

Anybody know anyone who wants to buy LIFE magazines from the '50s and 60s?

My message continues to beownsize now, your children will bless you for it!

I feel like I'm not doing as much decluttering as I should be. I just got into the habit of filing things away. We have several remodeling projects going on at once, so i have been getting DH to put all reciepts in a small box on the desk and every Friday I go thru and put them in the appropriate project folder. Doing the same with kids school work. Every day i go thru their things and put it in my folder for them, every Friday i go thru and keep the tests, art work etc and throw the rest away. This helps me so i can find their list of spelling words, which I have lost before! Now I already have a huge folder of art from them, so i think I will have to go thru that about once a month to keep that thinned out. All bills go in a folder too and when I get the chance I pay and file them.

I did clean my kitchen counters yesterday. I got rid of yet more papers on the microwave and rearranged everything to make more room for EMPTY counter space! I didn't tackle the junk drawer tho. That is such a big job, I mean, just where do you keep batteries and screwdrivers and rubberbands? Do you all have a system for the little stuff that accumulates? I would love to figure that one out.

Today it has just been doing laundry but making sure ALL of it gets put away before I start more.

Carla

Preppers!!! I had never heard of that term. Guess it doesn't mean what I thought it did.

I don't get much done during the week, but tomorrow the weekend pile goes to the garbage man.

Would like to know what to do about all those little pieces of stuff also - I thought about some transparent small storage boxes, but it's still stuff and I hardly ever use it. Like 5001 paper clips. ;-) Batteries too - they are all over and still I can never find a replacement and buy more instead!! Maybe that gets sorted through once I get to other stuff.

Bob, I still would take that school bus if I were only a bit closer. I haven't applied de-cluttering to the outdoors yet. Could put some of my pink flamingos around it. :haha:

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Visit my new blog: deberosahomestead.wordpress.com

Anything I haven't worn, read, ate, looked at, played with or touched after a year... leaves the property. That's my de-cluttering standard

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Have a safe day, karen

I didn't get a darned bit of decluttering done today. I DID get my house dusted (in 5 minutes), my sink is shiny, my laundry is done, and, really, the whole house is clean. I even got the storage room mopped, but only because it rained so hard last night that it flooded. Oh, well, clean is clean, eh? LOL

I, also, FINALLY got my schedule written out for cleaning, cooking, homeschooling, bathing, etc. I've been putting that off for some time. Feels good to have it done. Now, if only I can stick to it!

I got a bonus today, too. My husband got home from work, sat down at the table, and proceeded to pile on compliment after compliment about how nice the house looked and how, with 6 kids here all day, I kept a cleaner house than anyone he knew, even those with only one or two kids. He said it was a pleasure to come home! Boy! That sure made it all worthwhile!

I can finally throw away 100's of pages of notes on DH's family... I now have it on the computer (second time--first time my old computer crashed :no: ) and have a dics of both sides of the family!! I want to clean out my closet and throw/give/donate all those things that are just hanging there.. BUT it will have to be when DH is working because he doesn't want to get rid of anything.. Mr. Pack Rat! Maybe this Thrus. AM !! Well that is my goal anyways....

i got two closets cleaned out and packed-up, threw away, about 50 magazines, and 20-30 vcr tapes, we no longer own a vcr, and if i thought they worked i'd of liked to of taken them to the library. today will go through the medicine cabinets and linen closet, and get them packed, i think i'm done after that, only room left to pack is the kitchen, and it will be the very last thing done before the move, oh, maybe jerry can declutter this desk, it is the catch-all for the whole house.

I cleaned of my dresser and beside my bed. It filled a trash bag. I also carried a load from my garage to the dumpster, my dd has rented. I had a man come and look at the 500 golf clubs I have in the garage. He is going to help me get rid of them. Then I can rearrange furniture, put a large antique library table in the garage and place my lady's desk from the living room into the study. I can not get to some of the bookshelves because it its such a tight squeeze. Mainly I need to go through papers and file and fling what is not important. I am keeping only the really special work of the girls current school work.

I have even been throwing away cards :waa: I still keep all letters from my son, the girl's dad. I never know if this will be the most that they will ever have to remember him by. . It is so good to read of you all's progress and to know I have finally got routines and time to get my house in order.

I'm not sure what "prepper" refers to. I understood it to mean an unfinished craft project (or partially completed). If so, what I do is put everything having to do with that project in a container that can be shelved or otherwise stored. The second thing I do is to limit the number of projects. As mentioned elsewhere, I have limited myself to needlepoint and cross-stitch, quilting, and gardening. Each project goes either into a rubbermaid tub or a big 2 gal zip bag whenever I am not working on it. This usually includes, pattern, threads, pieces, etc. In the case of quilting, I often use a smaller zip for each of the squares. Makes it much easier in that I don't have to sort thru everything each time I want to work on it and only have to pull out what I am working on at the time. Needlepoint goes into various sized plastic tubs. Sometimes the actual frame has to go into a pillowslip.

We have just cleaned out the garage in order to prep it for a building project. I got a canopy at Costco, got some shelves for it, and keep all the garden supplies in it. Any of the nursery pots are all grouped together in a sheltered location. I have a small potting bench in the greenhouse and a bigger one outdoors. I have a set of tools for each. On my farm, I had mailboxes attached to fence posts in different areas. I kept pruners, a trowel, a set of gloves, etc. in them so that I was always prepared for when inspiration strikes.

Junk drawers: I went to Office Depot (or Max) and got many little boxes. I have one box for AA batteries, one for 9v. I use one for any kind of fasteners, another for pushpins and thumbtacks. One for twist ties, one for rubberbands----you get the picture.

Sometimes we have a number of things that need to be kept handy such as diapering necessities or scissors, tape, stapler, paperclips pens,etc. (I keep a set of the latter group in every room in the house). If they are all gathered together and put either onto a pretty tray, or into a shallow box (cover a shoe-box lid), they look a lot less cluttery.

This may all seem like way-y-y over organized, but it really does save time, keeps down the clutter and leads to serenity. Also, if each thing has a home, it never gets lost.

I am still paring down. I am part of a group doing studies in Benedictine spirituality. This includes bringing order, discipline, and simplicity to one's life as a means of living in balance. The abovementioned serenity is invaluable. Living in a disordered, cluttered landscape is like putting a blender in one's brain. Having your center at peace makes for a very calm life. I am glad to be getting the chaos under control. I suspect this is an on-going process.

Sandi

A 'prepper' is a person who is prepared. Usually meaning someone who has enough supplies on hand to get him thru whatever 'disaster' he can envision in his future. Obviously there are degrees of prepping. I believe everybody should be prepared for the 'mini disasters' that strike most of us at some point. Whether it is a power outage from something going wrong with the grid, or an ice storm or hurricane or a truckers' strike (to name a few). Some preppers try to get ready for the end of the world as we know it. Not sure I want to go that far or if it is even possible. I do keep a min of 2 wks food and water on hand at all times. Not too difficult with 2 people who are light eaters. Harder if you have a house full of hungry men and teens. When I lived in the hills, far from a store, I kept 3 months supplies at all times and sometimes went that long not able to get to a store.


I do not think most people can get too organized, personally. Some people do go too far and make everyone around them miserable over it. But I think it is more miserable to be constantly in an uproar trying to find things that are misplaced and dealing with too much clutter continuously. That is why I am trying to get better organized. It helps so much that we are all encouraging one another in this endeavor. It is easy to give up and just be overcome by the effort of getting our lives simpler when we are going it alone. Thanks to all who are inspiring me.

__________________
I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

:waa:

I was sooo looking forward to today because today meant the beginning of a four day weekend of me, with not a whole lot of grading meaning I could get myself whooped right back into decluttering mode and even sleep late (part 6 am) one morning.

:waa:

But someone scheduled me to attend a meeting tomorrow 30 miles away from here, and I have to be there first thing in the morning.

:waa:

Which would have been okay except I have to be at another meeting tomorrow night 20 miles away from here in the other direction.


:waa:

Meaning i just lost one full day of my four day weekend and one full day of my exciting decluttering and whooping things back into shape time.

I'm beginning to feel very whiney about the whole thing. I'm really pooped, too. Which is probably why I'm getting downright whiney and annoying.

I think I'm going to go outside and bother the worms for a while. That always makes me feel better.

What is clutter? I've given up on the concept and will henceforth call it "archival material" and "pre-antiques."

To accomodate the treasures I had 12 foot high pallet rack sandblasted and painted. Enough for 960 sq. feet of shelving space. It's ready to pick up. I will start erecting it next week.

I plan to die before that space is used up and leave the treasures for posterity and the antique road show.

:haha: :haha: