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Post by Script on Jul 23, 2010 7:41:40 GMT -5
*we had a junque room for 25 years in our basement. stash and dash and rubbish and old books and 25 years of dust and un-usable sheet music and and and. *When I joined Squalor Survivors and FlyLady [Oct'04] I began round ONE of decluttering this room. I continue with more Round Next's...... *I have continued to get rid of more and more, especially books. I posted recently about putting out a dozen great English ghost story books: 'free'---- all gone. *In July'09, Richard and Cameron did a new floor for this room. The old one was about 40 years old, ripping and dangerous. A cheap reno project. *Before I would let them put any furniture back, I worked out a plan with DearHubby, and we turned this space into The Craft Room. No purchases, just re-purposing furniture we already had [some hand-me-downs from Mom]. *Our neighbour Mrs Flirt comes over all the time. Her daughter Baby Flirt likes to play in the Craft Room, making cards, doing scrapbook pages. Mrs Flirt is always impressed by the neatness and order  *The Flirt Home is truly lovely, much more 'renovated' with high-end-appliances and furniture than ours. It is slightly smaller in area, but has exactly the same number of rooms, over three floors plus completely finished basement. The main floor is exquisite, not a crumb on the floor, a grain of dirt on a window, an atom of dust on the furniture. *BUT THE BASEMENT and upper stories are another story! They have perfected Stash and Dash completely! *The Flirts don't know about charity pick-ups. They have never been to a GoodWill . Mr Flirt works very long hours and does nothing in the house. Mrs Flirt doesn't fully understand the complex garbage-recycling rules here. She buys a lot of stuff, he receives a lot of freebies from work, they have a lot of disposable income. As a result: the basement is packed floor to ceiling! With? Packaging materials; styrofoam; kids' books [read once]; old but good stuff; and so on....
*Mrs Flirt really likes the idea of the charity pick-ups. EASY! She added three bags of children's clothes to my pick-up in June. I told her about my pick up today. She doesn't want to get on the lists for her home phone [long story] but wants to piggy-back onto our pick-ups. Ok by me!
This is what my DearHubby and I did to help her this week:
*we explained the recycling rules: she could put out extra stuff
in clear bags etc [yesterday was recycling day]
*we told her she could add extra recycling to our bin
*we reminded her that a neighbour is on holidays, therefore their bin was virtually empty, and she could use that bin too [we are all friends together]
*we gave her all our clear bags 
*we loaned her a box cutter
*we made the labels for the charity pick-up-bags
*my DH picked up all her bags this morning IN THE RAIN, so she wouldn't have to do anything
I just saw her with an umbrella adding ANOTHER bag to the pile on our front walk near the city sidewalk. Yesterday her whole front sidewalk was FULL of recycling [cut up boxes, styrofoam in our clear bags etc]. YES!
HURRAH for my triumph which has in turn inspired HER triumphs! |
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Post by StuffNoMore on Jul 23, 2010 8:00:24 GMT -5
You're a wonderful neighbor and friend!!! The Flirts are very lucky to have you in their life!  SNM |
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Post by dtesposito on Jul 23, 2010 9:08:16 GMT -5
You are wonderful to share your decluttering techniques with others!
I'm helping my sister do this too, and I feel so good using everything I've learned to help her do the same. It's also fascinating to see the same type of "excuses" I've used coming from my sister--like "I'll use this some day", "but this was expensive", and "but one of my students made that for me 10 years ago, I can't throw it away". It helps me see my own excuses for what they are, because of course, it's easy to look at someone else's stuff and see it for what it is--you have no emotional attachment.
I'm also learning to be patient because when I'm doing my own decluttering I know it's not helpful for someone to come in and tell me "but that's just a piece of junk!", even though it IS! It's going really well, I make suggestions but she makes the decisions.
It also just goes to show that those of us intimidated by our cleanie neighbors are not always seeing their basements and other closed door rooms!
Diane
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Post by eagle on Jul 23, 2010 9:13:55 GMT -5
Hooray for you. Script. I see your triumph extending to your attitude about Mrs. Flirt. I seem to remember you didn't like her much and that she used to annoy you greatly. Apparently that has changed quite a bit and you are now mentoring her. Triumph, indeed.
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Post by butterflygirl on Jul 23, 2010 9:27:18 GMT -5
How wonderful Script!
I like your names for the people in your life.
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Post by bigtimetroubles on Jul 23, 2010 9:59:00 GMT -5
just from the title MINES NEXT MINES NEXT....  btt waiting in line saying MINES NEXT..... hugs btt |
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Post by sunshineshouse on Jul 23, 2010 11:20:55 GMT -5
I love it! Thanks for sharing that story - it's a goodie.
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Post by yearning4order on Jul 24, 2010 0:36:58 GMT -5
Wow, very amazing and gracious of you and your hub!
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