September Decluttering P*rn....Bring it!

September is here.
That means Fall is in the air.
And what's that other thing in the air?
Can't you smell it?!
It's the smell of Decluttering....ok, if decluttering had a smell, it would be the cool breezes of Fall.
Work with me here people!

Here's what I culled last week and am sending off to charity this coming week.

2 Cherished Teddies figurines
1 Coleman ceramic trinket box
1 Garfield the cat necklace
2 Johnny Lightning die-cast cars
1 Hot Wheels car
1 Yahoo baseball cap
1 Curious George keychain
1 Kinder Egg toy
1 Monster stamp pin

12 Matchbox cars
1 camera w/camera case
2 Hallmark ornaments
3 Cherished Teddies ornaments
1 T-shirt
1 Emeril Cookbook
1 Lost in Space book
1 Boyds Bears pin
1 set of Cat Stationary
1 snail Flower Pot spike
1 vintage silver Serving Dish(it's collapsible, too cool, but I don't want to polish it)

5 Cherished Teddies
3 packs of Gift Wrap
2 R2-D2 Pez dispenser Toys
1 Got Beer? baseball cap
1 Dr. Seuss watch
1 set Wilton Halloween Cookie cutters
66  vintage Micheal Jackson pins(in the white bag)

Yes, I possess a big bag of vintage MJ pins from the "Thriller" album era.....back from when he had a nose. Check out the 4th pin for the nose.  Ok, so it isn't his 'original' nose but it's a pretty fine looking nose.

I bought them for a low price and have sold them on eBay now and again over the years.
I am tired of trying to unload these 4 at a time so I am letting them go to Salvation Army.

116 Items leaving the building...woot!
And I already have another load started.....more clutter busting coming up later this week.
Stay tuned.....

Sluggy

It's Monday Again!

It's already noon and I am just now getting my keester in gear.
Mondays.......

The last 2 days here have been brutally hot.....say like 90 degrees hot!
We went from March to mid August in terms of the weather and frankly my dear, it SUCKS donkeyass!!

No, if you haven't guessed by now, I am NOT a big fan of hot humid weather.
If we actually had central a/c I might be less of a hot hater.
Needless to say we got nothing done in the yard or garden over the weekend.   I grilled out steaks one night and refused to cook on the other night.  Sunday was spent moving around as little as possible...
Ugh!  The rainstorms passed mostly south of us(like by a mere 5 miles!)so we got no cooling relief.  I am hoping the skies will actually open up here today so I can feel human again.

Speaking of coupons......was I?lol....neither our area or Philly got the $4/1 Nivea coupons in the Sunday inserts so I just gave in and bought some whole inserts(with those coupons)on eBay.
Bleh.
Why did I give in and do that??
I need more body wash like a hole in the head!
I guess this week will see me hiking up to Rite-Aid once the inserts get here.  Hey, it gives me an excuse to go to Rite-Aid so it's not a totally bad thing. ;-)

I've got a couple of boxes to ship today, motel reservations to make for July, fundraiser candles to pick-up later, bread to buy at the Entenmann's Outlet, the end of April Savings Challenge post to write, eBay photos and listings to complete, a stack of papers and coupon inserts to file, and I am sure I am forgetting some other pressing thing on my "to do" list that my CRS brain can't recall.
Oh yeah, I don't have a meal plan for this week planned yet either.....which I run Sunday to Sunday....and it's Monday already.

Later this week, we've got the nephew's birthday, I've got organizing to do in the garage, stuff in the living room/dining room(aka eBay Central) to deal with and #1 son comes home this Saturday so we will be more cramped for space than usual.
The following weekend I am doing the local flea market(if the weather is good)and then we have a week-long visit from a relative so I may be disappearing from online for a few days.

So what is everyone else doing this week?  I hope you are going to have more fun them I am!lol

Sluggy

Decluttering and Organizing Your Life....Start Small

In the past week, while surfing around in Blogland, I've noticed quite a few bloggers are talking about and/or holding "DeCluttering your Home" Events this month or throughout 2010. Organizing Junkie is holding a February Decluttering Challenge HERE and there is this Full Year Declutter Project HERE.
Just google "Declutter Blog" and you'll find enough organizing angst writing to fill your day.

Clutter and decluttering seem to be HOT this year among the mommy &/or frugal blogs.

Clutter is bad.....that we can all agree upon.
Clutter gets in the way of you being your "authentic self".....geez, did I just say that?
So decluttering is always a good idea.
I doubt there are few among us who couldn't use a little decluttering and organizing.
Some of us, on the other hand, could use a FLEET of 1-800 Got Junk? Trucks!

In between racing off to grab another load of Catalina deal-ed goodies at Price Chopper or picking up more almost free stuff at Rite-Aid, I decided to take an hour out this week and declutter/organize something in my house.
But what?......what could I finish in less than an hour??

And then it hit me.....well,literally.....it's on wheels you see and the dog can push it if he jumps up on it's side looking for food.
My junk drawer in the kitchen island!
Small and an overflowing pig sty...perfect!!

First I had to clear the island's top....ugh.....the scope of this job is expanding....

Step One....I dumped it out....

 

Did all that actually fit in that little drawer?

Then I took the drawer out and wiped it down.
Here it is all cleaned up.
Can't I just leave it like this?lol

Next I made 3 piles....a "Will Live in this Drawer" Pile, a "Has to Live Somewhere Else" Pile and a Trash Pile.
Every item was touched once....if I touched it I had to make a decision and put it in one of the piles immediately.  No putting it back and dealing with it later on.
After about 15 minutes I had 3 separate piles and was ready to move on to Step Two.


Step Two involved....
1. Putting the trash pile in the trash.   Gee, that was complicated....lol
2. Putting the stuff that was going back in that Drawer back into the drawer, but NEATLY this time.  I had 2 organizing bins in there already but this time I USED them to organize.
Imagine that....
3. Putting the "Needs to Live Somewhere Else" Pile into a bag so I could walk around the house and relocate each item to it's proper location--the canning jar lids in the garage with the canning supplies, the magnifying glass into my desk drawer, the coupons in the coupon box, etc.

And here is what the Junk Drawer looks like now....ain't it pretty?

February 4th and this is the extent of the organizing I have done for 2010.  I have done some decluttering but organizing?.....this be it.

I'll put more organizing and decluttering on my list after I get the taxes finished.
If you've been putting D & O(that's organizing and decluttering) off, you probably have a BIG job ahead of you.
Take my advice.....start small.  Find some area that is small or break a larger area it down into zones to work on instead of trying to tackle a whole room.  Breaking it down into small jobs gives you more of a sense of accomplishment as you can complete something.  When you have a success behind you, you will feel more positive about moving on to another zone to clean.

How about you?  What have you done in the way of decluttering this year?
Let us know in the comments section.

Sluggy