DH's college books to go through although I know they'll be going back untouched.

Don't spend any time organizing these--Talk about deliberately frustrating yourself! Does the phrase "self-torture" mean anything to you?

don't touch them any more than you need to. Just move them to the back, under the leak, and be sure the box touches the wall, so any moisture will be wicked into the box (and therefore the books).

OK, OK, you can go through the box to be sure there's nothing in there that ought to be saved.

The boxes: If you know you'll use them within a year, they fall into the category of things you can save, according to how some people divide this up (use it within a year). Are they flattenable? Can you get some packing tape, and tape them into packets of flattened boxes?

But if you'd like to toss them, how easy will they be to get again? Or can you "loft' them? (of course this is a rental, so maybe not; were it a home you own, you could buy some sort of "rafters" storage to go over the cards for light stuff like this.

I'm not a fan of getting rid of other people's things, but if they don't do their part in taking care of those things, then I feel that I can make the decision on what happens. A box of unused and not to be needed again books would fall in that catagory for me. I would throw one book a week in the trash. When it comes time to move again, I'll bet he never even asks about them. Moving boxes of books is expensive. Moving old college textbooks is a waste of money.

I'm seeing lots of churning of items in this list, Marie. Why not just take the kitchen items you don't need directly to the thrift store? Or just box up the garage stuff and take it to the thrift store directly? Why reorganize out in the garage?

As far as the boxes, since you know you are going to move by the end of the year, I would flatten them and stack them against a wall. Bungie cord them together.

Gloria

I went into the garage to get the college book boxes. There was only 1 box in there which I brought into the house for DH to at least look at. The other box was a box of stamps that is literally over 30 years old and was my ex's. There have been times I'd wanted to throw it out but kept wondering if perhaps there was a valuable stamp in there. So, I drag it from place to place.

Honestly, the garage now looks pretty neat and everything is along the walls. But I need to go through all of this stuff and organize it properly.

I need to take in those 2 metal containers of tools and the large box of tools. This is where I know I'm going to run into problems. I organized all the tools in the house into sterlite plastic drawers. And I still have a rubbermaid set of 4 drawers in the garage that I had purchased for the tools in there. But now that I've gotten the tools organized in the house, it doesn't seem to make any sense to do a duplicate organization in the garage. And since I'll be moving and it might end up being to an apartment, I don't want to store everything in the garage. Maybe it's time to get rid of all the extras. After many years of marriage and no organization, we own lots of the same tools. Any advice on how to proceed in this area?

I cleaned out the 2 hand-carry metal tool boxes. One is now empty and the other one holds only attachments to drills, etc. There was just a small pile of itmes to add to the drawers in the house. It was easier to do than I expected, especially since a lot of it was just loose nails or rusted items. And I'm 7 cents richer.

Talking myself through this project, I'm now thinking I'll have to put the items from the tool boxes into the rubbermaid drawers since they're not items I need everyday, like saws, and they're oversized. And I know I'm keeping them just in case we end up buying a house instead of renting.

I'm going out tomorrow all day so this will have to wait a bit.

the other one holds only attachments to drills, etc.

I keep my drill attachments WITH the drill, and with NOTHING else. I used to keep them in a smallish carboard box. Then, I snagged a hard carrying case from the office that was being tossed; it turned out to be exactly the right size. You can sometimes buy tool carrying cases at Home Depot-type places, if you decided you wanted one of those. Since I often carry my drill around to wherever I need to install something, I'm glad of the handle and the "everything together" organization.

Congrats on emptying the tool boxes. (use one for the drill itself? or too big?)

I finished organizing all the tools in the garage. They fit into 2 drawers of the 4-drawer cabinet and 1 metal tool box. I think I hold the record for the most wrenches owned by anyone who is not into doing very much stuff around the house.

The garbage company took the last of my big boxes today. I ended up shredding the filing cabinet papers. I just about finished the tools. DH has one box left of college books to look at.

Next are the kitchen appliances. I need to find them all in the garage and take those from the house I hardly ever use and add them to the garage collection. I'm definitely not ready to throw these out and have a sense of peace knowing they're still around. The next time I visit a kid, I'll give some away but until I can do that, I'll just keep them safe in a box or two in the garage.

I've gotten rid of most of my magazines and cut out the articles that jumped out at me. I think I'll put these into sleeves in binders. Or is keeping them in the organized manila folders good enough? I own about 4 Real Simple issues that I can't seem to part with or cut up and I don't know why I feel this way.

I had given to one of my daughters most of the games we had since DH and I never played them. I still have several left, however. Where do you store your games?

Also, where do you store your luggage? Do you put the smaller ones in the bigger pieces?

It might seem like I've accomplished some things but I've realized that once I get started on something, it doesn't take very much time to finish the project. It's the dreading of doing it that seems to take the most energy.
And I've had to force myself to do anything this week. I'm just feeling so lazy.

"but I've realized that once I get started on something, it doesn't take very much time to finish the project. It's the dreading of doing it that seems to take the most energy."

This is so true! I remember reading in a book a long time ago that one way to reduce procrastination is to think about how long it will really take to do a task.

I let some empty boxes sit in my front hallway for a week. It took me less than 10 seconds to take them to the garage, where I gather them before making a run to the charity recycling center. But it had seemed like a chore ...

I need to take back some items to a store. I've been putting it off. It's a 30-minute outing and will save me money. So why don't I do it?

I need to really think about this. My DH has the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to do something (a 20-minute project is really an hour) and I have the opposite - I think something will be hard and demanding and time-consuming when maybe it really won't be.

He's an eternal optimist - I think of myself as being a realist but probably, I'm a pessimist. I wonder if that plays into our different time perceptions?

I went back into the garage and put all the kitchen items into one area and reorganized the garage by keeping like things with like things. Considering that I had cleaned out the garage a year ago, it wasn't that bad except for those empty boxes which I still have to break down.I'm beginning to think that I have more empty boxes than items in my garage. There are areas in the garage that I must still weed through, though.

Tomorrow, I won't be home so I might not get to continue until next week. At least I'm further along now than before.

At least I'm further along now than before.

and isn't this the goal? Congrats, and thanks for the reminder!