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Post by desposito on Mar 31, 2024 17:58:48 GMT -5
Hopefully April showers will bring lots of decluttering and spring cleaning, as well as May flowers! Make some achievable goals for the month, make a plan of how to do them, and start spring off feeling happy about your home!
Then come back and let us know how you're doing.
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Post by def6 on Apr 1, 2024 12:14:28 GMT -5
Thank you Diane for starting us off for the month of April. Just a quick recap of my year ...I've been working on my house since the very first day of 2024. Mostly my house gets jumbled, chaotic and strewn ( down here in lower Alabama we say "strowed" ) very easily , therefore my best plan is to reduce items. Today, I went through my kitchen gadget cabinet and finished with my kitchen junk drawer. Hoorah!
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Post by Ally on Apr 1, 2024 14:07:47 GMT -5
Thank you Diane! Goals for April: - 2 bags of trash out each Thursday, preferably large bags, but I'm getting to the harder stuff now, so one large black bag and one kitchen bag will be acceptable.
- Continue to shred paper, filling shredder 3-4 times per week. (I have been doing this for about 2 months, and then I compost the paper.)
- Bag or box up stuff for donations or book/electronics recycling. Make at least one trip out to recycle books, electronics, or a delivery of stuff to the thrift store.
- Maintain kitchen as clutter-free zone. (I haven't been perfect at this, but I've been doing better.
- Declutter Entryway (It was BAD)
- Declutter Bathrooms
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Post by phoenixcat on Apr 2, 2024 13:07:38 GMT -5
Thanks Diane for the April thread! Hoping all our decluttering and cleaning showers bring flowers into the May thread We had to cancel our trip so that gives me another 2 weeks or so to work on efforts at the house before we are hosting a mini family reunion at the end of the month. BUT 1) I lost a few weeks of productively both at home and work in March due to this blasted cold I've been fighting and 2) family members are coming in a few days earlier than expected. . Three weeks to do quite a bit of prepping. 1) Group coming are all tremendous foodies and some are actually professional chefs so things I use rarely will be getting work out - need to be clean and accessible including an outside grill, etc. 2) Need two guest rooms/bathrooms fully available and likelihood of an air mattress in our office. 3) Some purchasing of various items - have to finish this week because I need time to get it delivered. 4) Hire some workers for various tasks. 5) Get out a bunch of things that go to donation or speciality recycling. This is all complicated because DH has my terrible cold so he isn't very helpful and probably won't be for at least one week. And, I do need to care for him a bit. Also, my work was all delayed due to not being well so I have lots of catching up to do in that regard. I'm not going to list all the small tasks "to do" - helpfully will come back and list them as "to done". PC
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txteach
New Member
Joined: June 2019
Posts: 70
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Post by txteach on Apr 2, 2024 21:42:53 GMT -5
Hi everyone! This is Tx. Teach or just Teach from Reclaiming Dignity of a long time ago. So Glad to see this April Chsllenge. I sure need this. I am off next week and hope to get some desqualoring done.
Goals: Desqualor refrigerator. Find kitchen floor. Declutter kitchen counter tops. Wash dishes. Continue working on one small area at a time. (Usually a 3'x3' space) It gets too overwhelming for me to think about doing a whole room at a time.
Drifting off to sleep. See y'all next week for more. Good night
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Post by desposito on Apr 3, 2024 17:10:24 GMT -5
Greetings! Glad to see you folks here, def and ally, you guys have been steadily working--I know you've been on the site for a while, but it seems like you've come to the point where you mean business and are determined to get your homes uncluttered. That is inspiring!
Phoenixcat, that sounds like a horrible cold you guys have, such a long time to be sick. Good luck getting ready for your guests.
Txteach, this is an excellent idea:
working on one small area at a time. (Usually a 3'x3' space)
Smaller steps are the way to go!
Find kitchen floor.
I have made just a few changes to my last month's goals, because I have some new ones that are more important than the old ones. I MUST get my fridge under control, I know I have spoiled things in there and I can't find the good things when I want them. I have to reorganize the small bookcase that I use for bird supplies and move it upstairs, because the birds are staying upstairs. And, since summer is coming, I have to get a few new items of clothing, so it will soon be the dreaded "altering clothing" time. But for this month, I'm just making myself look at what I have and see what I will need--that's it. Talk about baby steps.
I'm taking out the crockpot dish idea because much as I would like to make one, and soon, before it gets hot outside, it's low priority right now. So is filing, because even though the filing basket is still half full, I have pulled out all the important stuff and what's left is the time consuming miscellanea that I have to decide if I really want to keep, and where to put it. That can wait too.
So:
1-Get back to baseline every day 2-Keep working on the second book box
3-Ruthlessly purge old food
4-Clean fridge
5-Reorganize, clean, and move bird supply shelves
6-Basement - 30 minutes
7-Book data entry - 60 minutes
8-Old paper - 60 minutes
9-Password project - 60 minutes 10-Plant goal (total of 4 plants) 11-Plant seeds and repot seedlings
12-Decide on changes to revise will
13-Look at clothing
Diane
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Post by Ally on Apr 4, 2024 15:10:37 GMT -5
desposito, Thank you. I have days where I feel quite pleased with my progress, and days where it just feels too hard. One thing that helped, is that back in December of January, I watched a few episodes of one of the hoarding shows that can be found online. When I watch those people make excuses for saving stuff that they plan to fix some day, or sell/donate one day or they might need some day, I realized how unrealistic their thought processes were. Even though I don't have nearly as much stuff as the people in these shows, I can see some of these dysfunctional thought processes in myself. Over the past 20 years I have also read several books about recovering from cluttering. I'm trying to change my attitude. Little by little. I've been struggling the past few days, but plan to keep trying. I have joined a clutterers anonymous step study group recently. In step 3 we learn that cluttering is a progressive disease. It tends to get worse over time unless we do something different, changing our attitudes, thought processes, and actions. I realized in the meeting last night, that I have been focussing my efforts on decluttering (but not always succeeding) but I need to balance that with planned fun, pleasurable, creative activities. I came here to post about this just now. In the CLA booklet, "declutter your mind", it says we need a strong, encouraging support system, we need to participate in self nurture, relaxing, creative and/or, fun activities. The list goes on but I was awakened to the fact that I shouldn't feel guilty for working on a quilt for an afternoon. I need to be kind to myself and not beat myself up if I don't reach all of my decluttering goals. So in addition to my previous list of goals for April, I will work on one of the quilts that I started a couple years ago and/or a sweater that I started knitting in December.. Today I took some bags of trash out. Not quite as much as I was getting out last month, but progress, not perfection. I also emptied the full shredder again.
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Post by desposito on Apr 8, 2024 14:51:59 GMT -5
When I watch those people make excuses for saving stuff
Yes, things make sense when we say them to ourselves but hearing someone else say it seems to click, we hear that it sounds unrealistic. When I was dog walking and helped my senior client I had already improved with my hoarding but wow, seeing an extreme example of hoarding helped me a lot--it was painful to hear some of the things she said because I used to say them myself. Like when she wouldn't throw away the cheap plastic comb missing many teeth that had been pooped on by a cat..."no, I can wash that--a poor person would be happy to have that comb." Well, okay, I never said anything like that, but it certainly was on the spectrum of hoarding justification that we are all familiar with.
Today is my first report day for April, and other than half an hour cleaning the fridge (nowhere near done yet) all of my time has been spent on seedlings. I stopped keeping track of time, but today I did count how many seedlings I have moved from peat pellets to pots so far, and that's 44--although it would be more like 50 since some have already been repotted twice.
I'm still not back to baseline although I have made big progress towards it.
Diane
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Post by Ally on Apr 8, 2024 16:38:18 GMT -5
Yesterday I donated 3 shirts that my daughter had worn to a school she attended back before 2011. Saturday I put a bunch of pieces of clothing and a couple bags into a box designated for the thrift store. I made a pile of old clothing suitable for rags.
This morning I took a large bag of stuff out to be recycled.
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Post by joyinvirginia on Apr 10, 2024 8:51:48 GMT -5
Hi everyone, is inspiring to read about everyone's goals and activity. My goals: get some nursery plants for veggie garden, tomatoes, peppers, and maybe basil. And a few annuals for the flower bed. Sun room is where I have sewing machine and too many boxes of fabric. And a bunch of bosses with papers, letters, cook books, miscellaneous stuff that needs to be sorted and donated or thrown out. I will try to do a little each day, and hopefully have a more organized and less cluttered , functional space to do some sewing projects.
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Post by catcats on Apr 10, 2024 10:52:45 GMT -5
Since Tim died, I have been struggling a bit to get things done each day, so I don't want to do too much challenge work this month. I will try to do some yard clean-up. Have to try some grooming of Mocha and Latte. I did work on Mocha this morning, but he needs much more. The basement floor needs a clean-up again. More to be done because of my son's death.
catcats
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Post by goldenthreads on Apr 10, 2024 22:28:02 GMT -5
I'm going to make a shorter, more achievable list this month. 1. Finish taxes. 2. Back up my computer on external hard drive. 3. Get my computer's battery replaced (appt has been made). 4. Do some bit of groundskeeping every day. 5. Get rid of the boxes of donations. Destinations include Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, Best Buy, Little Free Library, church's used book sale inventory, and Goodwill. I'd love to keep it simple and send it all to one place, but each place has only certain sorts of things they accept. Today's work on these: 1. Reviewed last year's tax return to remind myself what I need to have at hand. 3. Made the battery replacement appointment and put an alert in my phone for that day. 4. Chopped up and broke branches to put in yard waste bin.
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Post by Ally on Apr 11, 2024 9:40:01 GMT -5
catcats, I'm so sorry to hear of the loss of your son. My brother lost his son about a year and a half ago. Sometimes I wonder how their family keeps going. Be kind to your self, and take some time to grieve and heal. I feel like my cleaning out has slowed down and nearly come to a stop, but yesterday I did fill up a bag with trash and I put that out this morning. I have to keep doing this regularly. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. some days it's just hard to get started!
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Post by goldenthreads on Apr 11, 2024 22:11:59 GMT -5
I did no groundskeeping today, but I finished my tax returns and filed them.
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Post by mylittlescholar on Apr 13, 2024 14:14:44 GMT -5
This month I am going to try a different approach, in part inspired by Diane--focusing on creating structure in how I spend my time.
In other words, I want to add more things to my daily and weekly routine.
CURRENT ROUTINES I feel confident about: take meds 2x a day
update food/activities log (started it to monitor histamine reactions 18 months ago) review upcoming bills (started a couple of months ago) review online balances (started several years ago) review email (current project is to get inbox to zero) review calendars and sync with DVD update the big whiteboard calendar every month
post gratitudes daily follow up on appointments follow up on prescription refills use CPAP every night go to art class weekly coach art teacher weekly
stay in touch with friends near and far see DPs and DMIL weekly keeping up with laundry keeping up with grocery shopping watering seven plants in pots as needed (drought tolerant, fortunately)
WHAT I AM ADDING: - plan dinner (10 to 30 minutes) three to five times a week
- do physical therapy exercises (30 minutes) four to six times a week (home and gym)
- go to the gym (one hour) two to three times a week
- draw (ten minutes) five to seven time a week
- do art homework (one hour) three to five times a week
- do paper processing (one hour) two to three times a week
- sew (30 minutes) two to three times a week
- ?
okay I think I need a chart!
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