AmazinglyBlessed

Decluttering

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11:22 AM, Sunday, March 19, 2006 .. Posted by glenda

I have been there where you are right now.. Honestly it is the best thing we ever did.. And we keep on doing what you are doing every day.. It not only feels better to clean out the house but I feel like we have more stuff in some way... I know that sounds funny but when you get rid of all the "junk" stuff just taking up space you end up with the things in your home that you really love to look at.. Plus there is a wonderful side to this.. LESS junk to clean.. hee hee..

The hard part is when people come to your home and see that you dont have MUCH.. I love that one.. They want to give you more stuff.. So we have learned to explain what we have done and what we are doing. Then if they still want to give us something we take it with love and thankfulness.. Go over every peice. If it something that we need we keep it. If it is something that can replace something we all ready have we get rid of the first one and replace it with a newer one. Right now we have a full truck load of stuff to take to the local thrift store... Good stuff just stuff we do not need and honestly someone else might.. So we will give it to our local homeless thrift store..
Our material is done the same way. WE went over every piece and put them in stacks. One is for dresses or clothes, one for rugs and quilts. the other is for the thrift store..We did this with paterns and well honestly everything we had...
As far as clothes we only have five outfits each.. We figure that if we wash every couple days we will be fine. Now we do have more personal items than that...
Have fun cleaning out.. It is a great thing to do.. Just remember to give away to the local thrift stores or someone you know the things you do not need that are still in good condition...
glenda

I have done this...

03:10 PM, Sunday, March 19, 2006 .. Posted by mominpa

The first and real time that it "hurt" was when we were moving from a nice size home (3 bedroom, unfinished basment, small garage etc) to a SUPER small 2 bedroom townhouse for a year.....(with no storage!!). So my mom came and helped me and did we EVER downsize....WOW!! It was good though.

I am now very good at this..in that when I do my weekly cleaning and notice something that doesn't really need to be, or something not in use for a while it is gone, either donated, trashed or otherwise.

This drives my mil CRAZY as she keeps EVERYTHING always saying "you never know when you'll need it" and that is true to a point. I might add that when she finds out I need to purchase another pressure cooker because she sacred the craziness out of me with the dangers so I gave up ' recreational canning' and sold it at our yardsale, however now 3 years later we are 'living the life' and I will REALLY need one with our hopeful garden, I am SURE she will say " see, you should really hold on to things" ;) Oh well!!

Sorry to go on and on, the point was that I did it once very painfully and now it is a weekly thing to declutter and now every month we take a trip to the place we make our donations. I love the NO clutter look!!

decluttering

04:17 PM, Monday, March 27, 2006 .. Posted by FoggyMountainFarm

We did a major decluttering in the Spring of 2004. I literally took mounds of clothing, outgrown toys, books, and more to the Good Samaritan (a thrift store). It was like a huge relief to be rid of all that excess "stuff". I do keep totes of good clothing for my children to grow into. Those are stored into the closets of the children )in the boys' room, some in girls' room). I have them labeled according to size with 2 sizes in the totes. This eleviates the excess clothing in drawers but still allows me to have clothing on hand for growth spurts thus saving my family money.

I pared down my kitchen storage bowls, and other items as well as just "knick knacks" that we really didn't need.

We purged books that we no longer felt were appropriate or just really didn't need. There's a used bookstore we go to sometimes that gives us either cash or store credit (sometimes both) for books so the big haul we took them provided store credit as well as a little cash to get books we had been wanting such as reference books, a few homeschool books, etc.

We still go through the rooms ever so often and find things that can go.

I hope you will find peace in decluttering as we did. It has really made a difference.

Blessings to you and yours,
Laura

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12:29 PM, Friday, July 7, 2006 .. Posted by BuzyMumof3sons

How has your decluttering gone? I've been decluttering this spring and summer as well! I pray the decluttering has been a blessing in your home! :)

How the decluttering went

08:23 PM, Tuesday, December 5, 2006 .. Posted by blessedmama

It went pretty good but it's that time again. We don't have that much but living in a small house with four children, it's easy to feel cramped. I'm taking the next few weeks to get rid of more useless stuff, hoping that we can breeze through chores and I can dedicate more time to teach sewing to the daughters age 7 and 10.

Christina

introduction

04:46 PM, Monday, December 11, 2006 .. Posted by Pam in Colorado

Hello Christina, I found you via the Basically Bluedorn group. We just moved and I have more stuff than space. I started decluttering my old house a year ago. I did get rid of a lot. Now, I find I did not get rid of near enough. Our new home is 1000 sq. feet smaller than the last. It is still a good sized home, but we do not have the storage (which I believe is a blessing).

I wish you were here with me right now. I need a seasoned declutterer to stand with me as I sort through our books and other items. I have a hard time with the books especially. It is now very obvious!!

I often think I would be better in a Plain, Mennonite or Amish community. I must admit I would have a hard time not wearing my shorts (which a wear year round) as I am most comfortable in them. Other than that, I know I would be much more productive and all if I lived with others who would rather have time for God and family instead of the many options and opportunities that the world presents.

I am currently unpacking and sorting since we just moved this past week. I am overwhelmed and procrastinating right now. Too much stuff!!! HELP!