yes, my LR/DR area looks like a huge storage unit - filled. I'm going thru every old box of anything that's been packed away to decide what stays (even for the kids) and what goes. hopefully, more will go. especially since I don't really have the space for all of this stuff - nor do I want to. And I don't want it left for my kids to be faced with one day. (we never know when it might be sooner than later).

Flylady convert here I declutter all the time. I have been working my way through every cabinet and closet in the house...I am on the second pass. Somehow it is easier to get rid of stuff on the second pass.

We don't really have any cleaning/organizing to do in the house (a benefit of having just moved in), but I've been working out in the barn. When we moved from FL, we simply put everything in the barn, as the house was two years from completion. We moved in a hurry, so a life-time of stuff isn't particularly organized. We THOUGHT we purged before moving, but there is still tons of stuff to be disposed of. As we decorated the house, we liked the open feel and lack of clutter, so we reached capacity rather quickly. Coupled with the relative lack of wall space, we barely made a dent in the pile. Now, I'd like to get my barn back, as I'm planning a workshop, and a separate finished great room on the back end.

All of this has a sense of urgency, as I am scheduled for surgery April 5, only two weeks away. That will be followed by two months of light duty, so I'm trying to get as much done as I can. Most of what is in the barn does have value, though, so once I get it organized, I'll get busy selling what we no longer want or need.

I am not a garage sale person, but give to good will and resourse york instead. I had two, Yes two truck loads of thing picked up by resource york. So ow what I thought was trash was stuff that they wanted anyway.

The things donated to goodwill amounted to 10 loads in my suv. It was not difficult to g through and get rid of things. I was brutal when deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. I have things to still go through as most of the things already given were from the kitchen and my closets. My son's have to go through their things. They are adults and still have things from childhood.

Both boys are sentimental and do have trouble getting rid of things. I have things from y grandmother and mother that I have l attachment to but don't need but my boys want me to keep. I am not going to be stuck with things for the memories. Clutter is clutter and I would rather let someone get use out of things instead of having them take up space. I will still have the memories, I just won't have the clutter.

Who need four sets of china of three sets of flatware that only comes out for company?

We are not fancy, fussy people and when we entertain, it is casual, so getting rid of t=some of the extra stuff allows me to free up space and feel as if I am also showing my sons that it is better to have the memories than clutter. I encouraged them to choose whether they wanted some of the stuff or not. If they wanted a set of china, they had to find space for it out of my house.

We are trying to downsize. That means making choices and although tough, I imagine how I would use things in a 1 bedroom apartment. If it something I don't think I would use, it goes.

I just very quickly went through some clothing and household stuff and dropped it off last week. On Sunday I began moving things from the "bedroom" in the basement into the furnace room. I put a bunch of stuff in the garbage and some in a donation bag. One dresser from my childhood is beyond repair so that is on my patio waiting for me to put it in the van today to take it to the dump. I took the handles off and will donate them. I also took apart the desk downstairs, which was almost falling apart and am taking that as well. I took the hard drive out of the computer and donated the tower, monitor, speakers and a bunch of random wires to computers for kids, a local non profit that refurbishes electronics and re-purposes them.

I know there is stuff I moved to the furnace room that I will not be keeping, but I wanted to empty the space ASAP so I can get going on the new lighting. My friends husband does renos for a living, so he's going to work on my basement. He should be coming over later this week to take measurements and give me an estimate. The boys and I will do the demo, painting and such, so that will be cheaper. I still need to take the ceiling tiles down. Unfortunately they are stapled to each other and are ripping apart. I'm not terribly upset because they are hideously ugly and there would be huge holes due to the fluorescent fixtures currently in there. I have some errands to run this morning, so this afternoon I will be tackling the ceiling.

I suppose it is spring cleaning of a sort; cleaning out the basement for a nice new clean space! :)

Take pictures of the items left to you that you do not use. Create a beautiful photo book of the pictures but move the items to a charity where someone else will hopefully use them.

I have started my cleaning and thinning now that the weather is warm enough to crack the windows! I have two piles started: one for donation to SA/VOA/Habitat; one for our city's "precycle" day next month (where everyone puts possibly reusable or even like new but just unwanted items on the curb for others to help themselves). For precycle I tend to put things that aren't saleable/wanted by the charities: jar candles that I have warmed for the scent but not burned for example, or a stack of magazines, or a scrap of insulation. It is amazing what gets adopted.

I'm also starting on my yearly closet thinning -- perhaps this will be the year that I give up my favorite 1980's dress (LOL) or at least the business clothes that I haven't worn since I left my research job.

Kudos to all of you that send things to the charities. I get so saddened when every week I see perfectly good things sitting waiting for the trash pickup -- things that could be useful to someone else if the owner just made a little effort, even just to post on craigslist.

I have quite a few sets of china and glassware, and pieces of silverplate that were my mother's. She wanted her grandchildren to have the dishes and glassware, but so far none are interested. She valued these pretty and nice things sooo much (a reflection of the times she grew up in) but I guess it is a real generational shift now, not even my siblings want them if they are not of monetary value. I myself would be so happy to have just one item that belonged to either my great-grandmothers (I did have a necklace but it was stolen one of the 8 times my house was burglarized in San Diego).

Our church has a rummage sale every spring, and a storage room for donated items, so I can get rid of stuff all year - it's wonderful!

I recently organized my son's closet. He's off at college, and it's a big closet, so I've always used part of it for camping and ski equipment. Recently I put my gun safe in there, and put hooks near the ceiling for hanging down sleeping bags. I didn't get rid of too much, but everything is easier to find!

It won't be spring here yet for a while; when it does arrive, I need to tackle the garage. I haven't done a major purge out there for years.

What are these "Week X" threads? Where is Week 1? (I've searched and can't seem to find it.)

What's the history here?

Ah! Thank you! Now I can see I have a lot of catching up to do!

Spring cleaning around here takes me straight into the yard to get as much done as possible before dreadful heat/humidity arrive. I (unfortunately) made a new acquaintance in my lawn this season: kyllinga -- booooooooo!!!!!! :/

Turtle you won't accomplish much if you read almost two years worth of threads! Though it is something to brag about that you completed! LOL Just jump in! :)

It's tough I tell ya. I just - I mean JUST put the boots and snow pants away and started getting the spring bug and the weather man pulled out the winter storm watch for tomorrow. GRRRR! It looks like it will hit north of us but I am OVER it.

I do try to go through things and weed them out but I sometimes have a hard time with shoes and clothes. I am not much of a shopper so I keep things for way too long. :O I might wear them again or need an old pair or... you know how that whole thought process goes. I have 2 old pair of shoes that are wore out but not really ratty that I have replaced and they made it from the mud room to the garage and then back inside to the closet - just in case. I think I need to just pitch them and be done with it already!

I don't do garage sales either but prefer to donate to Good Will or another local organization.

For the first time ever, I have an excuse for not doing much spring cleaning: we're moving all our stuff home a week from tomorrow after ten months in storage. We donated and tossed a ton of stuff last spring since we had to empty the house.

Unfortunately, my recent visits to the storage units (yes, there are two of them) make it clear we could go farther. We managed to unload the seven broken vacuums we found in our attic (I thought DH was getting rid of them as they died. He wasn't. And my parents dumped a couple up there I didn't remember). But we still have half a dozen old Macs, from SEs though the candy colored ones and beyond, because we haven't figured out how to remove the hard drives. Who knows what else. I've managed to put it out of my mind during the remodel.

Part of our reno contract includes having a cleaning service go through the house. That will be next Monday. So many places I've lived have been so completely filthy when I moved in that I find this exciting. I'm not going to be scraping spilled grease out of thirty-year-old shag carpet! No mold or mildew anywhere! No running bleach-soaked q-tips through the tracks in shower doors! It's a given these cleaners won't do as good a job as I would, but hopefully, it will only take me a day or two to clean up after them since everything is new. That kind of spring cleaning I can embrace.

I have spring cleaned! Last week we had new hardwood floor installed in the living and dining rooms, and then the entire first floor was sanded and poly'd (kitchen, hall, entry, powder room, plus living and dining rooms). We emptied the entire first floor into the basement and garage - I mean pictures off the walls, stuff off the counters. If it wasn't INSIDE a cabinet, it was moved to the basement or garage. The stuff that had to be moved (china cabinet, buffet, curio cabinet and grandfather clock) that had stuff inside had to be emptied before we could move it. It was a big undertaking. After 3 nights of sleeping at DD's, we came home to wash walls, windows and all cabinets. Then move everything back in (which included cleaning the undersides of furniture while we had it laying on its side to place protectors on the feet). A lot of work and I was tired after 2 days of cleaning and moving back in, but everything is sparkling and looks so nice (chandelier too!) that I'm enjoying taking it all in. I did clear out quite a bit while we were at it. I'm amazed that I have so much storage space left in the china cabinet and buffet now. They have been packed full and crowded for years.

"How do you wash walls," she fearfully whispered? "And why do I need to worry that I've never done that...?"

I have two words to sing to you: "Craaaaaaiggggg'ssssss Liiiiiiiiiistttttt!" (I picture that sounding more like a scary ghost than a sing-song happy song.)

Anyway, I have sold anything and everything I can figure out how to sell. I've decluttered lots and lots of construction materials too good to throw away. I've sold furniture. I've picked up and immediately resold antique doors and French doors. This venture has netted me almost $10K over the last year.

I also took some family things back to MI to my sister's basement. She bought our mom's house from us and has the basement. My mother was the antithesis of a hoarder, so there's lots of space.

This spring/summer I have a lot of installation stuff planned. That's actually the way I most successfully clean. My options to get rid of crap, in this order are:

1) install it
2) build it
3) Craig's List it
4) move it around for awhile
5) Freecycle it
6) H4H or Community Forklift it.

I have
8 casement windows to install
2 sliders to replace with some antique, exterior doors
a back slider to replace with singe-pane French doors
a single back door to replace with a single-pane French door
5 antique doors I've refinished to hang in their pockets
and then, about 20, single-panel French doors to install as glass on my back porch,
and a ton of reclaimed fencing to attach to the ceiling back there.

Can you imagine how much room I'll have!?

The moral of the story? Please donate.
Broke, crazy people such as I can actually make homes with stuff you might throw out. I curse that demo fascination HGTV has created....

I'm going to have 3 perfectly good toilets to donate in a couple weeks. Anybody in MI need them? (Seriously - replacing them with new ones I like better - gosh that sounds kind of bratty doesn't it? I don't mean to!)