Month 3–It’s spring…are you slowing down or speeding up?
Whoopsie, In April–my den clutter got worse!! Ewww!!
For April, my den got worse..Far worse. But I am hopeful… How did well did your efforts go?
In February, over 50 readers of Still Blonde after all these YEARS took the Decluttering Challenge . In March, over 25 more joined the cause. They along with me pledged to throw out, giveaway or donate 365 items in 365 days. Well, a month has passed and it’s time to check in and report.
NEWCOMERS WELCOME!
Interested in joining the challenge, just make a comment below that you are ready to jump in. While you missed your first month’s entry, you still have 10 more months to go…and clean! Will you join us?
THE GIVEAWAY:
I promised that I would award the winner of this contest (chosen from all monthly comments and the end of the 12 month period) a prize that exceeds $100. So here’s the Pile of Prizes:
- $25 Pier One Gift Card (February addition to the Pile of Prizes)
- The $70 Grey Serena William Purse featured in our giveaway (March Addition)
More to be added each month! Won’t you join in for the fun?
One comment=One entry. Only one entry per month. Unless I decide to do a bonus…which I am not going to do this month. Giveaway ends Jan. 25, 2012
HOW DID I DO? HOW DID YOU DO?
For my part, I lost some steam, I did get rid of a bunch of magazines and books. I think spring wiil help motivate me! The den shot MUST improve for next month!
Here’s some input from you guys over the last month (with 77 people now participating, we have some dedicated declutterers!) :
Pamela S. Said: I just threw out about 10 shoe boxes. I was saving them for if my son had a project, but he is getting a little old for those types of projects now that he is in high school. (HAHAHAHA!) .If I see flea market sales in which I can buy a table and sell stuff there, I plan to load up my car as much as possible, and sell stuff.
Sarah Said: I’m at a bit of a standstill in my decluttering efforts as the books and videos mentioned in my last post still have not made it out the door. My next project will be to clean out the pantry off the kitchen that is a repository for dead candles and diffusers, among other things.
R Hicks said: We have accumulated so much stuff over the years. I recently went thru our basement and hauled away 2 truckloads!
Betty C said: My biggest challenge is paper! I recycle all the time and I never seem to get ahead. My daughter-in-law brings me boxes from WalMart and I can fill up 2 or 3 every week for recycling.
Paula Mitchell said: I am soooo taking you up on this challenge although I’m a little late to the game:) I followed a link here from Maple Leaf Mommy and am going to start my daily decluttering exercise right now! I vow that I will trash, sell, donate or recycle one item bigger than my fist worth more than $5 each and every day. I’ll be back next month to let you know how it’s going!! I think I’ll do a series on my blog as well… What a great idea!! I’ll make sure to link to you and give you cudos for your awesome idea. I hope my husband doesn’t find out that I’m getting rid of stuff…he’s definitely a keeper of things!
Cathy H Said: I was going to start tackling the attic, but it has been too cold. But we had a couple of warm days and worked on the shed area. Took many things to the dump and made a lot of free space. Found a huge bee’s nest in there and it was fascinating to look at! I also spent a day organzing my art studio.
Vicki B said: I decluttered a two foot tall pile of boys clothes age newborn-2 years today. I need to do my pile of mail that is buy the front door next there are ads in their back to christmas and before.
365 in 365…I think some of you have some catching up to do….
Those who already in the group get a special newsletter!
If you have a blog, please copy with button to your blog! And get your reader’s decluttering too!
For July, I went through our old VHS cabinet. My goodness, we had over 400 videos in there. I boxed them all up and put them in the storage room that is in the garage. I wrote down the names of the movies that we need to get on DVD that we really wanted to see again. Yes, I know it is a lot of tapes, but we live in an area that doesn’t get television broadcast and we learned to live without it. We did eventually get Dish Network, but after the few years that we did without TV, the commercials drove us nuts. We also noticed that there was more smutty stuff on TV that was laced in the series, the TV movies, and more women wearing next to nothing in some commercials. Just wasn’t our thing.
So for July, I have another cabinet that I can use for something else.
I have certainly come to this late. However, I have been working on attempting to declutter my house seemingly forever. We bought an 1898 house that needed to be gutted and redone. You get used to playing musical rooms and having boxes and things all over the place. We are nearly done with the renovations, but the piles of boxes, etc. live on. We have also acquired the entire contents of 2 three bedroom houses when relatives passed away. We boxed everything and stacked it in with our stuff. Then my boss moved and left me with the job of moving half her stuff from her rental to our house. I am now attempting to sort things which only makes the mess bigger. We have taken over a dozen pickup truck loads of furniture and household goods to our church’s transitional housing warehouse. Several more truck loads of items have been sen to 2 other thrift stores for charities we support. Unfortunately, it seems I have only made a dent in all we have. I am still working on it and hope to really make some progress this summer. Unfortunately, it is too hot to work in our storerooms.
My biggest problem when I do get through all this stuff is my massive book collection. I have managed to get rid of some, but seem to replace them rather rapidly.
Thanks for the nudge.
I have been super duper busy decluttering and down-sizing. I said I would be selling my 4 bedroom/2 bath/2 car garage home (with front and back yards). Which I did on 6/15/2011!!!!
I then moved into a 1 bedroom apartment…which meant that I had a lot of stuff that I needed to get rid of.
I had already emptied out the attic, so I then tackled the 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living area, dining area, kitchen, laundry room and pantry.
I sold my refrigerator, garage freezer, dining table, son’s bedroom furniture, guest bedroom furniture, lawn mower and all other yard equipment and tools, 2 bicycles, high chair, stroller, baby carriage, 2 t.v.’s, huge collection of video tapes, and lots of other household items.
I gave to various charities/freecycle/and friends lots and lots of clothing items, household goods. Probably in the range of 40-50 large garbage bags.
I threw away about 30 large garbage bags worth of trash. I had a lot of paperwork that I went through and shredded…it took me 13 hours of straight solid work (I only stopped for bathroom breaks…I didn’t stop working to eat or leave or anything during that time…yes, I wanted and needed to get it done).
I am currently in my apartment and I have unpacked about 75% of the boxes. There are some boxes that I won’t really be able to unpack, as they contain photos and memorabilia.
Greetings:
As we just moved into a small
cabin in the woods, with not much
space for storing stuff. Your de-clutter giveaway reminds me
that I should start, sorting my bedroom/computer room
I pledge to start with my desk in the computer
room and bookshelf beside it.Will email again
next mo. to post how the cleaning turned out.
Thanks for the motivation. cheers
My June update: a little late-I weeded out a bunch of stuff from the main refrigerator and discarding old medicines.
Well my attic when from too cold to too hot to work in so instead I de-cluttered and painted my spare bedroom. The previous home owner had left 5 large book shelves that were press wood with a printed wood grain, pretty sad looking. Happily, they took paint well and now two are a bright cheerful white. My plan is to make this now pretty room into a part guest room and part sewing room. Plenty of shelf space for my books and supplies.
Got my son in on this & he tossed two bags of *junk* from his room this weekend!
Count me in! There is definitely too much stuff here.
Great! I will be sending out a new email for this month shortly! The Chief Blonde
We had our annual neighborhood clean-up a couple of weeks ago and I got rid of a lot of the larger things that wouldn’t fit in the trash cans.
We’ve been trying to have a yard sale but it has rained almost every weekend. After the yard sale, anything left will be gone either through Freecycle or to a thrift store. I’m always amazed at the brand new unopened things that retail for $50 or more and people don’t want to pay $15 at a yard sale but they will go to a thrift store and pay even more.
I know what you mean…they pretty much want you to give it to them for free at a garage sale. Have you seen some of the items that people sell on ebay?? They are used, garage sale type items and they are selling them like they are new or something. It’s crazy!!!
i have already been working on de-cluttering. it isn’t easy when no one wants to help!
I had that same problem with my son. My ex came in and helped me more than he did AND it was his stuff!!!
We just decluttered our basement. I have before and after pics, how do I post them on here?
Hi Jen,
Send them to me at Stillblondeafteralltheseyears@gmail.com I will put them in this month’s declutter post. I behind on this so I will be adding a big prize! I think I will do a linky of pictures of decluttering for next month, if I can figure out how non-bloggers post. Thanks Jen! Haven’t seen you on Facebook lately?
The Chief Blonde
I m in on ts been needing to start really cleaning and decluttering and what a better opportunity than this to get started? Thanks I will start working on my bedroom, my pets stuff, and front room strting tomorrow
im still in I just decluttered a bunch of stuff today will post a pic soon.
Today, June 9, I went through the closet next to our computer desk. I took three boxes of things up to our big 45′ storage container, and loaded three bags of things that we no longer needed. I did have to leave quite a few of my kids college books in there for their future need for reference, but all-in-all, the closet looks great.
Great idea for decluttering! I should take the pledge…
Good grief I need to declutter, I just bought a new pair of crops and was determined to throw out/get rid of something at home. Such good intentions and the pair I was going to get rid of are still there, yikes. etlinder at aol dot com
I have been doing so well but I have to admit that I am beginning to lose steam. I think the reason is that now I am up to the attic and I think that just about everything I did not know what to do with (and everyone else in the family too) put their things up here until they wanted to get rid of them. It is about 95 degrees in the attic and I am slowly beginning to wind down both from heat and frustration. I am going to tackle it again this week though with a new I can do attitude.
I just found this site today…..How exciting….I started the first of the yr, cleaning closets, so I have many bags & boxes already for the thrift shop…Yesterday I went shopping at the Fresh Produce warehouse sale in Boulder, CO…I bought so many clothes, 2 shorts, 1 capri, 2 sweat shirts, 2 flowing jackets,2 tank tops, 7 dresses, 4 tee shirts & a baby dress……Didn’t have enough hangers, so a lot more clothes went into the bags…15 pairs of jeans plus a bunch of other clothes…..Hope to finish my closet this week….
Welcome Jann! So glad to have you. I see you have discovered that all of our giveaway are over $50 and we constantly have fun and fashion ones that you will love. So glad that you have joined our Decluttering Challenge. Make sure to sign up for out emails (right hand sidebar) and follow us on facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/stillblondeafteralltheseyears)
we need to move at the end of may, so i plan on visiting goodwill with more than just one trip, so wish me luck!
sheri.scarpa@gmail.com