Also,if you have junk jewelry to spare, little girls love to play dress up with old necklaces and bracelets that are safe. Also, community or h.s. theatre companies, particularly if it is vintage looking, accept it as props sometimes.
Overall Rating: 1 vote
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Posted 9 months ago #
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This morning I was assisted to get rid of
about 40 black plastic ice-cream cartons
two blue plastic trays which I have never liked
half a dozen dead plant cuttings
several pieces of very dirty vinyl flooring
one 3x9 floor rug, extremely tired.
plus various bits and bobs of wrapping, packaging etc.The person doing the assisting was a friend who is a professional cleaner with a sideline in organisation. I decided I needed help deep-cleaning and decluttering the house (my partner just isn't interested!) and so far in 3 visits we now have a sparkling entrance hall and the downstairs kitchen is much improved. I can see worktops!
Posted 9 months ago # -
Yay for help, Paul!
Posted 9 months ago # -
The great thing about getting help is that quite apart from sharing the load a bit, it also allows me to concentrate on the decluttering bit. I found it difficult to know where to start, considering I've got quite a demanding fulltime job, several extracurricular involvements plus a very full set of pets to wrangle (3 dogs and a number of cats...). Hilary just picks a spot and goes at it with the hot water and microfibre cloths, moving everything out of the way one section at a time in a disconcertingly fearless manner. Then while she cleans I get to sort the useful stuff from the rubbish. Then what's left gets put away. For every couple of hours she's here I probably spend an hour going through stuff, and then more time later dealing with maintenance jobs noted during each phase. But once first stage decluttering is done and the area is clean, it becomes much easier to maintain that state and declutter further in easy stages. I also find that having some help gives me some energy to do bits on my own more easily - one gains motivation from making visible progress instead of trying to hold back the tide singlehanded!
One of Hilary's favourite quotes is 'Is this item vital to your way of life?' :) I think it's going to be a long haul either way - there are 19 distinct spaces in this house to work through aside from anything else, and stuff has been accumulating for nearly 20 years - but things are moving now.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Paul, that was a great idea to get help. I like Hilary's quote.
Posted 9 months ago # -
One more top. I had a slightly too big shirt I was planning to dart in the back to make it fit. I lost weight - now all kinds of tops either need purging or tailoring. This one was already to big when I was bigger, so it was an obvious OUT for me.
Guess this one just wasn't "vital" enough! I like Hilary's focus, too.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I love that you got help, Paul. I wish I had a similar type of friend! My friends are more likely to talk me OUT of getting rid of something! LOL. I haven't gotten rid of anything except junk mail so far this week, but because I have a demanding job (plus kids and pets), I usually do my purging on the weekends. I'm looking forward to doing more Friday (basement closet and my own drawers [again]). It's definitely a process, but I get such a good feeling from it!
Posted 9 months ago # -
Tossed 4 exercise bands that I had from physio. Two were shredding as I tried to use them. The other 2 were made of similar material so I tossed those too. Just 2 days doing yoga, and my back is already loosening up, so I'm expecting that I don't need the bands.
Posted 9 months ago # -
@JuliaJayne - Yay for Yoga! :) Now if I could only find the time to resurrect my own practice, my back might stop nagging me!
@mskris - I'm in the same boat with you as per weekends. Although I work from home 95% of the time, there's too much to do during evenings (cook food, eat food, walk the dogs, collapse!) and I was finding that more often than not I was running out of weekend before I ran out of things to do in it. Quite often I found I finished the weekend tired and cranky and not really ready for work on Monday, but sometimes with more things on the to-do list than I had at the start of the weekend. That's when I knew for certain I needed help - some weekends I actually felt like I was the cleaner who came in at weekends, which I found incredibly demoralising and depressing as I never felt I had time to rest.
Posted 9 months ago # -
1 800 Got-Junk.com just left! Yippee!
I'm really working hard at my disposaphobia. I moved all sorts of crap to the front of my garage (old TVs, TiVos, footstools, bedclothes, lamps, etc. I made an appointment with 1-800-GOT-JUNK for 8-10am. They came and cleared it all out at $140. They were nice (business-friendly, not creepy). Now I have space to move as I go through clutter. And I plan to call them repeatedly.
I have probably 50 boxes of old papers and mementos. And I have gazillions of storage type boxes which take up too much space and merely help me save stuff that I will never be able to find if I want it. But I want to clear out my house, before I attack all this stuff in the garage. Each thing I throw out gives me a sense of power and freedom.
One step at a time.
Posted 9 months ago # -
@PaulTOO. Maybe once your place starts shaping up you'll feel more like practicing.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Tuesday a charity group will be here to pick up a box full of miscellaneous stuff. I have been keeping the box and adding to it for a while and cannot even remember what is in it. I hope to add more to it before the pickup. This group calls quarterly - it is a charity that provides housing, support, and services to those with intellectual disabilities and I know the woman who founded it in 1970 - and I always respond with a 'yes' when they ask for donations. Gives me a deadline for another clutter swoop through the house.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I hate to admit that the basement closet is STILL on the to do list. I believe I'm procrastinating on that...but I am making progress elsewhere in the house: shredded another month's worth of old bills, junk mail, etc. I got rid of a grungy old pair of potholders and added 1 pr of my daughter's outgrown shoes to the donation pile. I've just started a new exercise program, so I'm hoping to get rid of a few pounds, too!
Posted 9 months ago #
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