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Ok, I thought I'd start this thread so we can all inspire each other while keeping track of our accomplishments.
I do stuff every day, but it gets discouraging. At the end of the day it seems I haven't made any real progress, and lots of times it ends up looking worse than when I started.
So, I thought to keep a sort of journal of my daily accomplishments, so I can reflect on what's been done. Perhaps others would like to join in, so we can go down this path together!
Today:
Took dd to school, came home, had 2nd cup of coffee, then got started.
I decided to focus on my bedroom. Ok, I've worked on this room before, I'm coming to realize I will never get a whole room done in a day. Just focus on parts of the room.
I spent about 2 hours, going through old books, and one closet. I've done the closet before and had to break off in the middle. Today I find myself looking at bags all over the floor, sorted before, but I can't remember what's what. some are donation, some are garage sale, some are trash, but I have to sort all over again because I left it half done.
Today I came up with a system. I found some old ribbon. I tie a color for a category on each bag---green is Goodwill, red is trash, blue is garage sale, etc. You get the idea. Also, I made a promise to myself to dispose of the days catch every day. don't leave it sitting there or you start getting things mixed up, regardless of how much you try to organize it. Dump the trash in the dumpster, put the donation items in the trunk of my car for a Goodwill run, and I have a designated spot in my garage for that garage sale that will probably never happen.
So, today I have six bags going out, 4 to Goodwill, 2 for trash. Also one giant box of books. As I look back, it doesn't look like I did anything, the bedroom is more of a mess than I began with, but, like I said, lets focus on what we accomplished,not what we still have to do.
And, don't work to the point of getting exhausted. I schedule breaks every 2 hours, get totally away from it, eat something, go surf my boards, take a walk, anything to mentally and physically take a break. I find I can go longer with some scheduled breaks.
So, lets all post what we've done today! Good luck!
Yesterday, I packed up a bathroom, but today our deal seems to be going sour, so I'm sitting around moping not knowing whether we're on or off.
That's a problem, unless you're ready to move, a lot can't be pruned and sorted. You're still iiving there!
The way I see it, anything consumable, such as foodstuffs, bathroom items like shampoo, toothpaste, etc, aren't going anyways. Use them up, then, come packing day, just toss them. Concentrate on the stuff you will take with you.
Right now I'm not packing anything, I'm sorting, pruning, and tossing. So when we are ready to move its a no-brainer---if its still here, it goes with us!
Today I cleaned out one shelf in one bookcase. Yup, that's it. I had other stuff to do but progress is progress. I less than 1/2 shelf of the books I'm keeping, the rest are heading off to the library. Strange, I heard someone say that their library doesn't accept book donations anymore because they don't sell books.
Marylee - absolutely with the breaks. It's not just physically exhausting, it becomes emotionally exhausting to keep on going with no breaks. I'm glad you're doing that.
And I LOVE the colored ribbon. I use boxes, but whatever works is good.
We have a big garage sale scheduled for tomorrow so I have been decrappifying the house. Next I need to get things priced.
I have also started making a list of things I need to schedule:
Carpets shampood & windows and siding power washed
I also have a list with phone numbers and acct numbers for the following:
Power, gas, water, newspaper, etc.
Also - a quick tip: I have found that FedEx boxes (that you can get for free at the FedEx store) are a great place to store important papers. I have one for Tax docs, and one for personal important papers. I keep those with me and they do not go on the moving truck. They are sealed shut and stay that way until if/when I need them.
We're also having a huge garage sale tomorrow. The problem is we live in the mountains, so we have to haul all our stuff to town first thing in the morning. Nobody would drive this mountain road to come to a sale!
So......I started off the day by going to town to put up signs. I came home, and we loaded up a van, 2 SUVs and 2 trailers with most of the stuff (we will need to make a 2nd trip back for more tomorrow). And believe me, whatever doesn't sell is going straight to the dump!
Of the stuff we're keeping, about half of it is already packed. We are moving in 2 1/2 weeks, so it'll be "balls to the wall" come Monday!
I love the idea about FedEx boxes to store papers, etc. You can also get boxes at the post office for free, I used to get them for my kids school projects
Today I cleaned out my bedroom dresser and chest of drawers. Got all the crap out! I will haul it out for a garage sale next Sat. In the meantime, to keep it from filling up again, I taped each drawer shut as I went along with that blue painter's tape. Sounds ridiculous, but it works! Just now I have piles of crap all over the floor. Oh, well....
Then I'm going to Lowe's tomorrow to pick out new carpeting for the bedrooms. I need to get the junk out of the other bedrooms first before they're recarpeted, but I figure if we set a date for new carpet its a goal to works towards.
Also, today hauled off 9 bags of stuff to Goodwill and ten bags went into the dumpster.
This is starting to be fun, as I slowly see results!
This past week has been all about getting rid of my husbands comic book collection. Everyday we each took a couple boxes and made a complete catalog of every comics book he owns. After 7 days, the list is done. 4,269 comic books to sell.
Today, he took pictures of all the boxes, and posted the list a couple places online. He collected for the love, not the collection, so we are selling them for cheap to get rid of them. Lets pray they sell, that will clean out an entire room in our house.
9 days to go. Kitchen is an absolute mess, I'm short on boxes, my closet is atrocious, there is laundry to be done before the clothes can be packed, my bf is nowhere to be found tonight (supposed to come over to help pack), and the little odds and ends that are scattered about seem to multiply each day.
But....
I did reserve my storage unit and I pick up the keys tomorrow a.m. Whew...
Today I picked up 3 tables from a friend for the garage sale in a few weeks, organized a few things out in the garage for that.
I also pulled items off the wall and off various shelves and priced them for the garage sale.
Right now I'm just focusing on what to get rid of, after the sale, then the packing will start....and I have a feeling more purging! We are moving from 2000 square feet to around 750 square feet!
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