Goal Tracking: Declutter and Cleaning

Lavendersage,

I've been home from a looooong vacation a week now and I still haven't started working on the house. I just can't get motivated and yet I 'want' to have a clutter free house. I do. So why the lack of motivation? I haven't even fully unpacked from the vacation yet, am I bummed to be off the road? Due to health reasons I am restarting my declutter program on Monday or so I plan too. I need a kick in the rear to get myself in gear!!!!

I just spent a while reading on this thread and all your accomplishments are great!! I've been thinking I want to dejunk my bedroom and get rid of my excess clothing and shoes and misc stuff I've just kept hanging around. Maybe also start in the kitchen too with the fridge and cupboards. So much to just paw through organize and donate/get rid of! This post definitely gives me plans to start tomorrow on some small steps on purging.

So much to think about here... Regarding clothes and weight... I found through the years that I lose weight when a significant male dies or leaves (even dogs) and I gained when my mum died. I DID keep the smaller clothes...some new with tags on them...and now I'm back into them (mum died 6 years ago)... after losing 40 lbs and a service dog (male) and my T closing office due to cancer (also male)...

Regarding "getting rid" of clutter... I had to change the wording... and think out of the box on that... see, I received much of my mum's stuff.... lots of memories (I had given her much of it)... <breathe here> .... I released the things to others... gave them to charity so that others could enjoy them, rather then them not being enjoyed and used here but sitting in boxes or on shelving... I sent them on their way to be enjoyed by someone who NEEDED those things... Yeah, my faith had some to do with that too, as I must hope that if I even need something I gave, God will provide me again?

Of the things that held such memories... I took pictures of those. I find the photographs bring the good memories just as much as the tangible items...

I have become a complete and utter slob to the point now we have roaches. My depression and anxiety make any form of self care overwhelming! I realize that I am at a tipping point and my poor habits may get me evicted! I must maje a change but I am so used to failure I have little hope. Tomorrow I hope to work out a plan with my Fiancé. And I will at least get to the Kitty litter boxes today.

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I finally dismantled the day bed frame this morning, so it's ready to be donated. I feel very sad though - it's absence is giving me a clearer view of the chair that was my cat's favourite, which of course, sits empty. She passed away in April. I miss her.

Big, BIG, BIG news. I cleaned the entire apt., did all the laundry, finished multiple small projects that had built up and - most astounding of all - went through, organized, and FILED, 95% of my personal paperwork/mail that's been building up for 2+ years. Furthermore, followed-through on Monday making phone calls about several things that required some more attention beyond just opening it and putting it in a file. Pulled a couple of really, really, really long days (the upside of insomnia) but....there you go.

I feel so free. It's the word that came to my mind when I thought about all I'd done. So free. I never used to live like I have been for the past several years. Oh! that reminds me of the another thing I realized I'm feeling: like how I used to be. More on top of things, more...God, I'm afraid to even use the word!...starts with an "m"...has a "v" in it and ends with an "-ed".

Could the 40mg of Fetzima be a factor? I think so.

Wow! That's fantastic, laverdersage. I'm so pleased for you.

Here's a tip that may or may not help somebody....

When I was plowing through my piles of paperwork and unstarted/-finished projects last week, I was originally going to gather all my "projects" in to one BIG box. Then I decided that would be too, too overwhelming. So each project's supplies and instructions (if they had any), were divided in to smaller individual boxes which I labeled and put in the front closet.

Now, I can just take ONE box ("project") out at a time and it's not overwhelming.

Since doing this I have completed one of the projects: making my own laundry detergent.

And I have more than half-completed another project: turning a clear glass round vase in to a jack o'lantern for Halloween using orange & black spray paints and a tealight candle.

I feel like i am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and for once its NOT a train heading towards me, fingers crossed and double crossed. The maintenance guys are coming next week to convert from ac to heat, we were almost ready this week. We've never even been close to ahead of schedule!

Found this new app called fabulous from another thread on here I think in habits. But its a reminder app to help get habits into place. So far I have a couple and I plan to add my own on to "get 1 chore done today".. Not too much pressure and if I feel like I can do more I plan to. But I think having a reminder each day will set me up to make some progress!

Yesterday my boyfriend and I filled up four huge trash bags with crap from the basement. It's still a mess down there, but there's a lot more room to organize the stuff we do want!

When my new washing machine was delivered it had to go down to the basement. The back yard IS a jungle so couldn't even get it to the sliding doors into the basement so I moved all the stuff I had piled up in the entry hall. They got the washing machine in so I had 2 months of dirty cloths that I had been wearing to clean stalls in & care for the abused stallions the county had rescued. I also am getting even more piles of dirty dog towels & blankets washed.

While laundry was going I washed the wood parquet entry hall floor & the kitchen floor where I wanted the shelving I had just stuck in the entry hall anyway. Right now in the process of waxing the floor so it will be better protected against winter weather.

Washed the walls also to clean off all the cob webs....my house was ready for Halloween otherwise....but it reminded me that the paint job I had done when I moved in here was sooooo bad. I have picked out paint I'm going to get & maybe finally get my house looking ok like it never has since I moved here 8 years ago.

One thing leads to another & DONE never happens. I mess Up another area while cleaning & organizing another.

Have been away for some time. That does not mean that my home has become cleaner. It is the other way around. Coming back because I remember the support. Hope to start at the cleaning tomorrow ...

You are doing an awesome job! One thing I have to remind myself: it ALWAYS looks worse before it looks better. If you can keep plugging, even when you look around and think, "MY God! I'm making it worse!"....once you set everything in place and all is put away....you'll step back and see that, in the end, it all looks so much better.

I just found this thread. hvert's description of the kinds of paperwork saved and reasons for saving it sounded stunningly like a problem I have, myself. I recognize that reference to a "later" that never comes. Also, like hvert says, I feel so much better when I can lessen the accumulation around me. But it's a constant struggle. Maybe I will find some inspiration here from what others do to manage this problem.

I have a saving paperwork problem too. A lot of is sorted and filed, a lot is just piled up on the desk. I have an overflowing "to be shredded" box. I also have a brand new shredder, still in the box, that I bought over a year ago!

How long are you supposed to save paid bills? I have saved all my electricity bills and phone/internet/tv bills since I've lived in this apartment - since 2009. Is that what you're supposed to do, or can we toss them once it's been acknowledged they've been paid? I really don't know what the norm is.

I save bills like that for....way too long. Thank God they're all at least filed now. A google search about this would likely produce some results to give some guidance. I'm curious, too, now!

Boyfriend and I broke down and hired a service for a deep cleaning. Then they will come every two weeks. It's a bit above our budget but I can't do the major housework due to neck and back surgeries with chronic pain. And boyfriend also has bipolar 1, does literally all of the errands etc as I'm agoraphobic. But we are doing our best. Having things really clean felt great although we are still decluttering. Good news is that we don't bring many new things into the house ... we aren't shoppers and both on SSDI so limited money, too. We are whittling it down.

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I'm so pleased for you, rainyday. I think there should be no shame in hiring a cleaning service, especially when you have health problems like you and boyfriend. Well done you for looking after yourselves and getting help, on top of all the work you've been doing yourselves.

Thanks for sharing that.

It would depend on *why* you are saving them. If you have income tax deductions that refer to those bills (home business), you'd want to keep them for seven years (I think).

Otherwise, there's not really any point, is there? If you find out that you were overpaying the whole time, there's probably a limit on how many months they will go back to refund you. I can't think of a reason outside of taxes...

I pay all my bills online and only save electronic copies for tax purposes.

Congrats on the cleaning service!

I've been avoiding this thread. I find it really hard to just stop being disgusted at how chaotic and messy this place is so I try to block out all thoughts relating to that... which doesn't really help the place get any neater. I did clean one room pretty thoroughly this weekend, but it's already messed up again.

I went to a home decorating presentation today that bummed me out. I don't even get how to keep things tidy enough to open the door to guests - decorating seems very far out of reach for me.

Ditto ditto ditto ditto! Hoarders tv show should look into if we have a missing gene - theres a Nobel and pulitzer prize there ready for the plucking!!

Im trying to clean / organize a square yard of floor space at a time. Thats not working either!

Yep. I get this.

My boyfriend is out of town - I thought I'd get the place all cleaned up while he was gone, but instead I'm being even more of a slob than usual.

The decorating presentation: they were talking about changing their colors every season?!!! I don't have any colors to begin with!! And if I did, you wouldn't be able to see them because they would be covered in piles of crap!!