Ta Da!

Well, about a week before Christmas, I finally got my spare room in order! I had the motivation to get it done because we were hosting Christmas Eve dinner for the family and one of our granddaughters and our grandson and his girlfriend had not seen our bedroom/bath remodel and the girlfriend had never seen our place so I knew a house tour was in order.  There are still a few things that need to find a home, but it is so much better.  It has been a constant struggle because it is the only room I have for all of my projects.

I had to break away from decluttering the room to decorate for Christmas and to Christmas shop and wrap presents.  That set me back because the spare room was the storage place for the presents and the wrapping.  However, once the tree was up, I could wrap and put presents under the tree.  It felt so good when I could put the wrapping away!

I have attached pictures of the room, but my decluttering still continues in this room and others.  Today I tackled several cabinets in the kitchen and am donating a lot of dishes and pots and pans, etc.  I was just sick and tired of having to sit on the floor by a cabinet and pull everything out to get to a pan or dish that I needed.  I am on a roll!

Sunday, November 27,2011

It may not look like it yet, but I am finally making some significant headway! I have finally realized that it is just not about the clutter. It is much deeper than that.  It is about my procrastination and why I cannot come to terms with why I feel the need to have so much stuff.  I have had two big cloth bags of stuff for 2 years that I finally tackled. Whenever company comes and I have to clear the kitchen counter as well as the stuff in this room, I dump it all into bags.  I finally sat down and went through them and I had stuff from 2009! Fortunately, it was nothing that would get me into trouble but it was very disturbing to face the fact that I should have either dealt with the stuff or thrown it away! I also overbuy all of the time.  I have too many greeting cards, too much wrapping paper, too much scrapbooking material, etc.  There have been times when I have just bought compulsively! 

I took a big leap yesterday and finally donated all of my video VCR tapes. I finally admitted to myself that because I have a DVD player, the likelihood of my hooking up my old VCR and watching any of these tapes is nil.  I feel so ashamed and embarrased at the number of movies I had that weren't even taken out of the plastic wrap. I don't know why I felt the need to have these movies, even though most were classics, because I am not one to watch a movie twice and I can't even keep up with what is currently on tv!  That was a big step for me to admit this and actually donate them to Goodwill.

I still have clutter but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is still taking me a long time to find a home for everything. Things are going slowly because I look at every piece of paper and ponder what to do with it! I would drive Peter Walsh crazy!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

For the past two days I have been going through a huge stack of catalogs that have been accumulating for months.  Most had dog-eared pages where I had indicated things I wanted to order. I am now trying to whittle that down to things I definitely plan to order for Christmas. It has been quite a task but I am almost through.  This is another part of the purging process that is necessary to get this room in order. I am trying to promise myself now to let that get so out of hand. I need to curtail my spending so why do I save all of these catalogs?  I think in most cases it was just a way to get the catalogs off of the kitchen counter. In going through this process, I found so many duplicates. If I had routinely purged, just once a month, this would not have happened. I am finallly beginning to face my faults. The next step is to change my patterns.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

I have not done much these past few days to reduce the clutter. I have been spending time organizing my pictures on the computer and getting them printed.

I have realized that my room has been such a mess that it has rendered me frozen as far as getting any real scrapbooking done. The room is not conducive for working on my projects because the mess is so distracting and upsetting. I now realize that I can no longer work in such disarrary. There was a time when I could do so.  This is a breakthrough for me, because once the room is in order, I think I will be able  to keep it that way. I just wish that I truly had a good place for everything.  I am constantly looking around for a place to store things as I sort through my mess. I have done quite a lot of purging but I obviously have to do a lot more.

I bought new drapes for the room which are lighter and brighter in color. I hope that it makes it a little cheerier.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

The past few weekends I have beeen totally busy and didn't have time to spend hours on decluttering.  However, I did make some progress the past two days.  I am a great one for tearing out articles from magazines and then not doing anything with them.  Yesterday I spent hours going through a lot of scraps of paper trying to figure out why I saved them.  I made a lot of headway.  If they concerned books to read, I logged the titles into goodreads.com.  If they were recipes, they went in the kitchen recipe drawer.  If they were websites, I checked them out and bookmarked the important ones.  If they were travel ariticles, I put them in the necessary folders.   I still am having a problem of finding a logical place for everything, but I am working on it!

I am almost at the point where my scrapbooking supplies are put away in the right place.  I haven't spent much time on scrapbooking at home because my work space has been in total disarray and a real dumping ground.  I am getting close to getting that work area cleaned up so I can start working again.  Once I start that, I can reduce a lot of scrapbooking projects waiting to be done.

I know now I am not going to reach my goal of being done before Thanksgiving but it should not be much longer!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

I didn't accomplish as much as I wanted yesterday so this morning I worked for a couple of hours before I went to my pilates class.  I was amazed as to how efficiently I worked!  Normally, I am not a morning person and I would get a lot more done in the evening, but that was not the case today.  I have noticed that in the evening I slow down and turn on the television while I am sorting.  That has caused me to become very distracted.  This morning I just put on the radio and listened to NPR while I worked.  It went so much better.  Unfortunately because I work out in the mornings most days, I have work on my clutter in the afternoon or evening.  I just have to work on staying focused.

Anyway, between yesterday and today I did a lot of sorting and I think I have a handle on my scrapbooking materials. I believe I know now what I have and where it is.  That is a huge accomplilshment.  However, I still have a lot of extraneous paper floating all over the room.  If you were to look at it now, you would wonder if I have accomplished anything at all. But my files are straightened out and my containers are sorted. I am getting there!

Our new dresser is due to arrive next week so I will have to return to sorting out some stuff that was in the bedroom.  I have pictures and things that are in limbo because I am not sure what to put on the dresser and what to put on the walls around the dresser.  I will be so glad when that is done.  Right now there is a lot of junk in the living room which is normally very clean and organized.  I seem to be going back and forth between the living room and the spare room. I think all will be done by the end of the month. Yeah!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Yesterday I skipped my pilates class and walking so I could spend all day cleaning off the kitchen counters and, believe me, it took all day! I am the type that examines each and every bit of paper and then decides where it has to go! I also had a stack of newspapers that I read through before I could throw them away. I felt good that the counters were finally all clean and shiny but bummed that I missed my exericise.

Today I went to pilates and then spent the rest of the day in my spare room.  If someone were to look at it now, he/she would think I had not made any progress at all,  but I have! I spent the whole day purging scrapbooking supplies.  I just can't believe how much stuff I have. There is no way I could possibly use it all. I managed to get rid of a lot of stuff today.

I also took time out to watch a 20 minute video by Peter Walsh, my clutter guru. Once again, he asked us to visualize a room that is cluttered and imagine the vision for the room.  He asked everyone to say what words they would use to describe what they wanted for the room.  I finally came up with my word - FUNCTIONAL! That is what I want this room to be! I want to be able to come in and do my scrapbooking and know where everything is.  That is a breakthrough for me.  I am continuing to work towards that goal.

I found a really neat six-drawer cabinet that I may want to purchase for the room, but I am going to wait until I have everything sorted to see if I really need it. I am very guilty of constantly buying organizational materials and furniture only to realize later that it is not working.

Sunday, October 30,2011

We had brunch today with good friends and then I went with Bob to the fairgrounds so he could pick up his entry in a woodworking show and see if he won anything. His chess set was voted 1st place and he won a Bosch product. He chose a special radio that is fully equipped to play MP3s and hooks up to a computer and has the capability to recharge all rechargeable items. Pretty neat and I was very proud of him and he was really tickled. Because he won 1st place, his entry goes on to national in Houston for judging.

Today was not a good day for my conquering clutter. In fact, it was pretty depressing.I worked on all the clutter on the kitchen counter and barely put a dent in it. Then I decided I needed to pay some bills and realized how my bills were in total disarray. During this past year I picked up a suggestion for keeping bills in order and off the counter. I bought a small organizer like a basket with pockets and the idea was to put all important mail and bills in this container. When I went to pay some bills, I found many old ones that had been paid still in the container and only one current one.  The rest were buried in a heap on the kitchen counter! So tomorrow, instead of tackling my spare room, I need to get the kitchen counter and my bills in order. I think what I need to do is bring the basket to the kitchen counter as I sort the mail and immediately put things in the basket. What I have been doing is putting them aside on  the counter planning to put them in the basket (which I keep in the spare room) later and often later never comes! Right now I am very discouraged and disgusted with myself.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Today was a busy day. I had brunch with some friends and then had a lot of errands to run.  I didn't accoplish that much in the room today. I did a little more sorting of some vacation mementos and that's about it.  I hope tomorrow is a better day although we are meeting some friends for brunch.

I may have to tackle the kitchen counter tomorrow as it is completely out of hand. That counter seems to grow clutter! I have got to learn to deal with it on a daily basis!

Friday, October 28, 2011

It is amazing how purging clutter in one room affects other rooms.  I have an ottoman with a storage compartment in my spare room and one in the living room.  I decided that all of my travel articles should go in the ottoman in the living room.  That meant that I had to purge stuff from the living room ottoman.  I looked at some framed pictures and decided I wanted to save them, which meant that I had to make room in a cabinet in the garage.  So today I cleaned out several cabinets in the garage to make room for some pictures. Then I spent all afternoon and evening sorting out my travel articles and putting them in folders.  I finally finished tonight at 10:30 p.m. and I easily fit them in my living room ottoman with plenty of room to spare! That made room in my spare room ottoman for my scrapbooking pages and plastic page covers.

I felt that I accomplished a goal today but I still have so much more sorting to do! Next I have to tackle two file drawers on my Hobby Hideaway that are way too stuffed.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

I am back from my two trips and raring to go! Our trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to visit with my college girlfriends and hubbies was wonderful. Stayed in a lovely house right on the beach and the weather was perfect. It was just what I needed to relieve the stress of our bedroom and bath remodel.  I no sooner got back from that trip when I had to turn around and pack for my scrapbooking retreat.  That trip, too, was lovely.  I spent quality time with my sister, stepdaughter, and good friends at a lovely B & B. I got a lot of scrapbooking done but I am still two years behind!

Before I left for NC, I had made significant headway on de-cluttering my spare room.  However, I made a complete mess preparing for my scrapbooking retreat. I was pulling out everything in site and hidden to put my materials together for the retreat. I came home from the retreat to a disastrous mess. I became determined more than ever to get this under control.

So far I have worked for two days to declutter some more. I got rid of a lot of paper and was able to stack several boxes of trip memorabilia (needed for future scrapping) on some cleaned off shelves.  I am in a real pitching out mood so I hope I can keep up the momentum.  I was almost ready to call in a professional organizer for a few hours but I am not ready yet.  If I only have them for two hours, they will make me start pitching stuff and I can't do that under pressure.  I have to evaluate everything and decide whether or not I need it.  Once I decide what I truly need and will use, then perhaps I can get someone to help me decided how to store.

I also got a handle on my packs of pictures and got them all labelled and put in my sort boxes.  Then I filed my picture CDs in the proper file box.  I am beginning to wonder how long I should keep these CDs.  There will be a time, probably by next year, when I will have run out of space for my CDs.

Well, that's all for now because I have to continue purging.

Day 6, Thursday, October 6, 2011

By now it has become obvious that this blog is not just about my spare room clutter, but it is a therapy session for me. You see,  I have always been able to figure things out about myself, if I just focus and listen. Once I begin to see what the problem is, I have to voice it out loud and acknowledge it. Once I do that, I am evenutally able to solve the problem. So this blog is my way of voicing the problem. It is has never been a quick and easy process for me, but it works.

As blessed as I am, and believe me I know that, good things have never just fallen in my lap. I have always had to work for them and, along the way, falter and make many mistakes. However, I have always learned from my mistakes and that has made me stronger. I am also a late bloomer. What others have attained rather easily, I have had to work and wait for. This whole clutter syndrome has been with me a long time, but I have never really tried to work through it until now. I know I will eventually get there.

I did not work on my spare room today because I had another lengthy project to work on. However, I have had some time to try to visualize how to make the room work for me. It still hasn't come to me yet, but I am getting closer. I am determined to make this work!

Day 5, Wednesday, October 5, 2011

If a friend calls me and asks what am I doing, there is a 75% chance that I am cleaning out my spare room.  I cannot begin to tell you how much time and energy I have put into this room. I honestly don't know what is wrong with me. My sister constantly says, "didn't you just do that a few weeks ago?" and she is probably right! Oh woe is me! I just cannot die any time soon because I would hate for someone to come in and have to clean up this mess. Why does she have so many cards? Did she every use these stamps? Aren't these ink pads dried out! Does Kodak even develop these film cartrides any more? My brain is screaming "Enough! Get rid of it!", but my body seems paralyzed with indecsion.

I worked a little more today on sorting and throwing things away. I am partially through with my computer work space. I have so much memorabilia that is for my scrapbooking but I really haven't done much scrapbooking because the mess is not conducive for working. A few years ago I was caught up on my yearly scrapbooks and now I am two years behind! Get with the program, Marie, and stop procrastination. Turn off the boob tube and the computer and get to work!

Day 4, Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Not a whole lot of progress today but I think I have most of my scrapbooking materials filed. Still looking for that vision of how the room should be. Tomorrow I need to conquer my computer desk.

I realized today why I spend so much time in that room - it's the warmest room in the house and I am always cold. The weather is getting cooler! Because I spend so much time in there, I have so many more opportunities to create clutter.

Some things I know for sure: 1) I must find a logical and convenient place for the materials I frequently use and 2) I must put things away when I am finished for the day!

Here is another confession (that's good for the soul, right?): I am a chronic procrastinator. Have been so long as I can remember. However, I know that I can conquer that because I turned over a new leaf when I got to college and forced myself not to procrastinate so I know it can be done.

When I was reading books on clutter, I had to analyze how I dealt with paperwork and I realized that I am the type that has to have everything out so I can see it. That made for a very messy desk! I don't really think that is a bad thing if only I would put away at the end of the day. I was always afraid to do so because for me "out of sight is out of mind." I know there has to be a compromise in there somewhere.

I only have a few more days to work on this room before we leave for the east coast. Then when I return, I have two days to get ready for my scrapbooking retreat.  There is no way I can be ready unless I have a place to work and I have all of my materials ready. The pressure is on!

Day Three, Monday, October 3, 2011

I made a little progress today. I can actually see part of the floor! However, I have SO much more to do!  I have only been able to work on this room a few hours each day. I would love to have one whole day to work on it but I have other obligations.

All of the articles and books on organizing and de-cluttering say to handle a piece of paper only once. That is a concept that I have such difficulty with particularly when I am not sure what to do with it! I am constantly tearing pages out of magazines and then I have this stack that I am not sure what to do with! I am getting a little better at that but not much. Most days I must move the same piece of paper around at least five or six times! It seems like I know all (or most anyway) of the strategies but have great difficulty implementing them.

I am beginning to realize that the tone of this blog is very negative and defeatist. I don't mean for it to be that way because I am normally a very upbeat and positive person. However, I am struggling to understand myself so I may pinpoint what is causing me to be this way. I know this room will get done, but I do not want to go through this again in another month or two.  The key is finding a place for everything so that everything has a place!  We just finished redoing our bedroom and bath and I am confident I can keep the bedroom neat because we added more storage and I now have a place for everything!

I am trying to find a vision for this room but it hasn't come to me yet. I think I need to concentrate more and continue with my meditation (which I have been neglecting). That has been so helpful to me in the past.

Day Two, October 2, 2011

The de-cluttering process continues. Today I sorted out everything in the bags from the table top of my scrapbooking table. I also sorted out packs of unopened scrapbooking paper and put them in the appropriate files. I have a long way to go to get out of this mess!

I am very much trying to understand myself and how I manage to let things get so out of control. This is certainly not the first time.  One of my problems is that I allow this room to be a dumping ground. Whenever I am cleaning out clutter from the kitchen counter, everything gets dumped in this room. 

I cannot begin to tell you how many books on conquering clutter I have read over the years. One key thing I have learned is that everything must have a place.  Therein lies a big problem - I really don't have a place for everything. I guess a trip to the container store is in order, but then again, I don't have room for any more containers. I really need help!

When I retired I kept saying that one of my first goals was to simplify my life and start purging things. The first thing I did was empty out a closet in our spare room and we put in a desk for my computer and shelves. That really has not seemed to help all that much. Now my desk as well as my scrapbooking area are filled with clutter!

When my mother started having signs of dementia, my sister and I would roll up our sleeves and start to de-clutter her house. We coudn't believe the things she saved! I promised myself that I would not let that happen to me because I certainly don't want to burden anyone with my "stuff" after I am gone.  The older I get the more I am able to let go of things because now I ask myself, "would anyone want this after I am gone?". However, this small room holds so much stuff.  My photos, scrapbooking supplies, my books, my bills, and so much more!  I've got to work on a "vision" ( as de-clutterer guru Peter Walsh says) for this room.  Right now it is hard to visualize anything.

Day One, October 1, 2011

Well, today marked the beginning of my attempt to de-clutterer my spare room. I started with my Hobby Hideaway, which is where I am supposed to scrapbook. This is going to be a very long process. In order for me to de-clutter, I usually empty everything out of the room and then sort somewhere else and only put back that which I need and put it in its proper place.  However, the last time I attempted to do that, I put everything in bags and boxes and took it out of the room.  I was slowly but surely working on it, but my darling husband moved everything back in the room and to this day I still have  bags of stuff I have not sorted.  Now I am trying a new tactic. I took everything off of my table in my Hobby Hideaway and will sort through that first. This is a very slow process for me because I have to examine every item and decide what to do with it. I used to do this at work and it worked much better because I worked at a high school and I would come in to my office when school was out and I had no disturbances or distractions.  Here at home it is harder because I have so many distractions. But at least I am on my way!

I Need Help!

I am a hopeless clutterer. I have been my whole life. As a child, my room was always a mess. I would spend the whole weekend cleaning up and it would be in shambles in another week or two. As a teenager who had my own room, things got even worse. My parents were always threatening me and I would dutifully clean up, only to have it return to a worse state. Things were just as bad at work (I am now retired). I am not proud of this and, believe me, I am not proud of this picture, which describes my current spare room, but I thought maybe by posting some pictures and keeping this blog, I could shame myself into doing something about it. I think I need a 12-step program. The first step is to admit one's problem. So- Hello, my name is Marie and I am a clutterer. I have read every book imaginable on clutter and have vowed to be better, but it just doesn't seem to last. Mind you, I am not a hoarder like those on tv and I freely throw things away, but then I just seem to buy more stuff!

Our spare room is really my room to do with what I want. My husband is afraid to come in the room. It started out solely as a guest room, but we live in a 2-bedroom condo and I began to need space for my projects ( I am an avid scrapbooker). So the bed was replaced with a sofa bed and I added a beautiful Hobby Hideway which is where I am supposed to scrapbook and keep my materials, but right now I can't even find the top! I just have too much stuff for such a small room and when I work on a project, I have stuff strewn everywhere.

So for the next month or two ( I have to take a break for almost 2 week because of a trip), I plan to tackle one area at a time and record my progress in my blog. Wish me luck!