Rearranging my cabinets

Yesterday, I was baking my son's birthday cake for his party (which was today) so I needed to find ingredients that I don't use very often. That required me to get into an awkward cabinet. It is a cabinet in the corner of the kitchen, but it's not what I consider a corner cabinet. It's door isn't angled. Instead, the cabinet is super deep. It is very hard to get to anything at the back of the cabinet. I'd heard the tip about using a lazy susan in cabinets and gave it a try. It has worked out very well.

Here is what I saw when I opened the cabinet yesterday.Having the lazy susan in the cabinet allows me to see what is in the back without having to take a bunch of stuff out. I don't remember what I was looking for, but I was looking a little more thoroughly than I normally do. (The stuff I use most often is the closest to the door.) I looked a little more closely and this is what I saw:(I had to use the flash to really show what was in there.) If you look closely you can see the top of a box in the very back. That box is not on the lazy susan so I did not know what it was. I pulled everything out and this is what I found:I must have bought the powdered milk for a recipe--which I must not have ever made because the box was unopened. The jar is marked for making your own salad dressing, which I have never done. I would never have looked for the powdered milk back there. So, if I needed it for another recipe, I would have bought more. I would have looked there for the jar but we received it as a wedding or shower gift (11 years ago) and have never used it so I probably would have never even looked for it.

When I put the stuff back there I guess I thought it was the best use of space because it is stuff I hardly ever (or never) use. Now I see that I might as well say good-bye to anything I put behind the lazy susan because I won't see it for a long while. I decided to make a small change to see if I could make it work a little better.

Here is what I did:It is a very small change. I pushed the lazy susan back farther and brought the powdered milk up front.

The lazy susan turned just fine and I was still able to get what I needed off of it so I decided to check the top shelf.

Here is what I saw:Looks pretty good. The lazy susan works great up here.

Here is what I couldn't see:These items were behind the lazy susan. The oil and vinegar thing is another wedding/shower gift that has never been used. I have no idea why the matches were back there. My husband was looking for matches last fall when he was having issues with the grill and we couldn't find any (because I hid them.) Obviously not a good place for them because I would never (and didn't) look back there for them. The box contains cupcake liners, decorative icing, and Wilton icing color. Guess what I bought yesterday morning before I baked the cake?Wilton black icing color. (It worked out because I ended up using what I already had in addition to what I bought, but still.)

So, I moved that lazy susan back also.Not much of a difference as far as how the lazy susan works, but a big difference as far as how effectively the space gets used.

Now that I am looking at the pictures I am not so sure I am going to like having to reach inside the cabinet to get to the items on the lazy susans. I know I tested them yesterday but we will see if I still like it when I am actually in the middle of cooking. Even if I don't like them so far back and decide to move them toward the front, I am still better off not having anything behind them.

I'm linking up to Works for Me Wednesday and Org Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing (for both the using of the lazy susans as well as moving them so far back in this corner.)

April declutter & cleaning update

April was a big month for me for decluttering. A Bowl Full of Lemons recently held a weekly challenge about purging, so that is where it all started. Then, i heart organizing declared April as a month to purge and that kept me going. Here is how I did...

I started in the kitchen and purged (you can also see a post about it here)
salad spinner
seven expired cans of food
two food packets
Foreman grill
chip & dip dish
plastic bowl
mixer
paper plate holders
tea kettle
cookie jar
scent warmer thingy
lots miscellaneous items

From the master bedroom I purged (another post here)
at least...
four pair of pants
three shirts
five sweaters
three pair of shoes

From my daughter's room
two backpacks

From the office
4 Sesame street puzzles
1 Tinkerbell puzzle

From the basement
these two baskets (those were hard, I love baskets)
From the master bathroom (I haven't even written this post yet)
hair bands
yucky, old products
make up bag

Here is what I set out for the donation pick up:

This almost did me in:

Can you see who was peeking out at me? It is Ariel. Ariel was my daughter's favorite princess (and probably still is) but she is kind of over princesses now. It was hard enough to put the backpack in the donate pile as it was. Then, I saw this and almost took her back out.

I still want to get rid of a lot more this summer but I was pretty proud of myself for this much.

Now, to my April jobs.

As I was thinking about writing this post I was fully prepared to say I did none of my April jobs. Then, I looked at my April jobs calendar and saw that early in the month I had done several of the jobs. Also, the ones that are left are no big deal and I will easily be able to add those to May (or June:)

Hall bathroom-
door (yes)
light (yes)
baseboards (yes)

Master bathroom-
door (no)
vanity (no)
lights (no)
baseboards (no)

Lower bathroom-
light (yes)
picture (yes)
mirror (no)

Kids rooms-
headboard and footboard (no)
window (boy-yes, girl-no)
window sill (boy-yes, girl-no)

Ceiling fans-
family room (yes)
kitchen (yes)
dining area (yes)
master bedroom (yes)
office (no)

Not too bad considering I don't feel like I did anything this last week or two. I'm not exactly sure what the deal was. I guess it wasn't any one thing. Just lots of little things together.

I'm linking up to A Slob Comes Clean's April declutter update and i heart organizing.

Still decluttering, now onto purses

I have mentioned before, I love bags. That includes all bags. Totes, gym bags, carry ons, make-up bags (see here for my Clinique free with purchase problem), reusable bags, purses, etc. There is one purse I have always wanted (and will probably always want because it is so expensive.) That is a Louis Vuitton doctor's bag (also known as a speedy.)

I never spend a huge amount of money on a purse (the reason I don't yet have my Louis) but relative to what I spend on other things it is not an insignificant amount. I usually buy one purse a year and since I use it every single day I don't feel too bad about it.

The problem is I have a hard time getting rid of things. That includes my purses. I have had a bin of purses in my laundry/storage room that are just taking up space. I don't think I have ever gotten into that bin and used a purse once I have retired it.

In this bin are the purses that were left after my huge purging last year. That means the ones in the bin mean more to me than the ones I already got rid of. That also means they are going to be harder to part with. Knowing that ahead of time helps put me in the right frame of mind.

I hold on to my purses for the same reasons I hold on to so many things. I spent money on them. There is nothing wrong with them. There is some kind of sentimental attachment to them. I think I could sell them on Craigslist or ebay and get some money for them. (Surely someone would want them, right?)

There are a couple problems to that thinking.

First, I live in a pretty modest sized house. As my kids get older the house seems to be shrinking. We really don't have room to store things we don't need.

Second, I have a lot of things I would like to list on ebay or Craigslist and don't usually do it.

Here are the purses that were in the bin.It doesn't look like a huge amount. I have been reading some of the projects in Org Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organization and A Bowl Full of Lemons One Project at a Time and this is nothing compared to some of the stuff I have read. For me, though, it is too much.

I decided this was it. I was doing something about them.

I began this process when Toni at A Bowl Full of Lemons held her weekly challenge about purging. I wasn't able to complete it at that time but then Jen at i heart organizing gave me more motivation with her March month of purging.

So, first I purged the ones I had no attachment to. There are three I got from my sister. She smokes and I never used any of them for that reason.

Then there was the green one.It has some kind of stain on the bottom. It might be able to be cleaned off but I knew I wouldn't take care of it any time soon.

There was the one from Avon that looked much cuter in the catalog. (It is the black one with the buckle. I had been looking at Butler bags and this was advertised as one. Wasn't crazy about it. I was reminded why I don't usually buy purses from catalogs.)

That was five for the donation pile. Five easy decisions. Then it gets harder.

A couple years ago I was looking to get myself that Louis bag for Christmas. There was no way I could justify full price' so I checked ebay. Even used, the cost was prohibitive for me. Plus, there are a lot of things I will buy off ebay but I didn't think this kind of purse should be one of them. I couldn't be sure the purse was authentic or what kind of condition the purse was really in. If I was spending that kind of money I needed to be sure of those things.

Instead I bought myself several pink Liz Claiborne purses. I like Liz Claiborne purses and I thought I was getting great deals. I ended up spending too much money and wasn't crazy about any of them once I received them. (For the record, I am no longer buying purses from Avon or ebay.) Two of them are in the picture above.

The red purse has a little spot for a picture. I carried that purse when my daughter (my first born) was little so the picture in it is from her first year. I know that one is all about emotion and sentimentality.

I like the shape of the red, blue, brown, and yellow purses. There is nothing wrong with them. Either I just got tired of them or my needs changed. (That may be another reason I will never get my Louis, I get tired of my purse.) I want to think I will come back and use them but I probably won't, so they need to go.

I listed the ones I haven't donated on Craigslist. I thought they were very reasonably priced. I think I have $5 for the non-Liz and $10 for the Liz purses and a price break if more than one is purchases. I told myself that if they weren't gone by the end of the month I was going to donate them. That's today and I am not ready for that.

I see that I have two options. First, I can give myself until the next time I have a donation pick up. (That may not happen because of this.) Second, I can give myself until the end of the summer to list sell them on ebay. (I need until the end of the summer because I don't see myself doing it right now. I haven't listed them because I worry I won't get to the post office in a timely enough manner. Now that I write that it seems ridiculous but I have to remind myself that I do not want to go to the post office with a 10 month old, two year old, and two four year olds. School ends in a month and I won't be watching any kids this summer. I'll be much more able to head to the post office.)

That's it, I've said it and now I have to follow through. I am going to give myself until the end of the summer. If I have a donation pick up before then I will send the brown and yellow bags because I don't see those selling on ebay. The Liz Claiborne purses will be listed on ebay and if they aren't sold by the time school starts they are being donated.

I am linking up to i Heart Organizing.

The camo pants

Not too long ago I wrote about my closet clean out. (See here.) In that I mentioned my camo pants. I knew I needed to get them out of my room quickly or they were going to make it back into my closet.

I didn't get them out quickly enough.

In order to prove to myself that it was a good idea to keep them I decided I should wear them. I put them on intending to wear them for the entire day. I hated them. They were too tight in the rear and my thighs. They are going in my to donate pile.

So, I decided to try the second pair of camo pants in my closet. Hated them, too. Donate.

Finally, there was another pair of pants the same style as my camo pants. I tried them on as well. Hated them, too. Donate.

I think I have found a way to help clean out my closet. If I am trying to decide whether or not to keep an item I am going to require myself to wear it. That way I will know if it fits and if I have anything to wear it with.

My guess is that I am going to be able to eliminate many things from my closet. Had I not tried those pants on I would have kept them even though they didn't fit well.

Kitchen declutter

This month i Heart Organizing is hosting a month of purging. I was so excited to participate because I didn't quite purge as much as I wanted during A Bowl Full of Lemons weekly challenge about purging.

As I have mentioned before I did some major purging last year. That is not to say I no longer need to purge. I feel like the purging I did last year was necessary but was also easy. We had so much junk in our house it was easy to get rid of a lot. Now though, as I purge and declutter the decisions are harder. For example, last year I got rid of several bags of clothes from my closet. That was easy. I had a lot of clothes I hadn't worn in a long time, if ever. I recently took another look at what was in there. I wasn't able to get rid of very much but I felt like the things I got rid of this time was much harder (see here.) Actually, I even put one thing back in (see here.)

One of the rooms Jen worked on was her kitchen. Just like in my closet, I had already purged lots of junk last year. I knew that there were several things that I probably should have included in that purge but I couldn't quite get myself
to let go. This time, I was much more ruthless. Here is what I removed:These things were the first things I removed.

The tea kettle I have never used. I bought it when we got married (11 years ago) because I thought everyone needed one.

I used to use the George Foreman grill to make grilled cheese sandwiches when my daughter was little. I don't know why I started using this in the first place. I think I had some aversion to using the stove (I have written a lot about my issues in the kitchen.) It toasted the grilled cheese nicely but it smashed the sandwich, so I haven't used it in years.

The mixer thing is broken. I think I used it once many years ago and decided to try to use it again recently to make my daughter a smoothie. I took the blade thing off to clean it and couldn't figure out how to get it back on. I guess I thought if I left it in the cabinet long enough it would fix itself.

Those things were pretty easy.

This was not:This is a salad spinner from Pampered Chef. It was not cheap but I bought it thinking I would make more salads if I had it. I didn't. Actually, I have never liked it. It's too big (takes up too much space to store.) It can't go in the dishwasher. Once I spun the lettuce the bowl was too big to use for the size salads I make. I liked the one I had prior to this. You could run the water through the spinner as you were spinning it. So, out this went.

I didn't really go through my drawers but as I was cooking one day I noticed these things: The travel mug whose lid I can't find. (I was hoping I would come across it. My guess is that someone in my family put it away in the wrong spot.)

The sandwich sealer I got from my mom. She used to use it for my little brother and sister. I have never used it because I hate wasting all that bread.

The can tops that are supposed to keep soda from going flat (they don't.)

Several cookie cutters. (I don't think we have ever made cut out cookies here. My kids do that with our aunt. If we make cookies it is chocolate chip, my favorite. Plus, if we do make one day them we have lots, lots more.)

The mixer cup (with the white lid. That is the technical name, by the way. Mixer cup:) I think it is intended for mixing salad dressing. I have never made my own salad dressing so I tried to use it to mix formula. It does not close tightly so formula dripped out. (I've held on to this thing since our wedding--11 years--only to find out it doesn't work. That is an awesome lesson.)

Then there are these things:

These are all things I think I should get rid of but didn't. The smoothie maker takes up too much space and I recently got a smaller one that I like much better. The thing is the handle broke off so if I donate it, they will probably throw it out. I might offer it on freecycle.

There is nothing wrong with the glass bowls and the mixing bowls but I never use them. I have stainless and ceramic mixing bowls I use. I keep thinking these might be useful for some project with the kids. Plus, should you ever get rid of mixing bowls?

I've never used the bundt pan. My guess is I never will but shouldn't I have one?

We were given the pasta bowls as a wedding gift. We have never used them. I know I should let them go but can't. I keep thinking, now that I know they are there I will use them. I haven't.

My guess is all of these things will go in my next purge. Maybe I will offer them to my siblings or cousins. Maybe it would be easier if someone I know would takes them.

I didn't really clean out the pantry but found these things when I was figuring out my grocery list:

Nony at A Slob Comes Clean asks herself a question when decluttering. It is something like, "Where would I look for this item?" I would never have looked for the McDonalds croutons under the can organizer.

The other packet is for icing mix for a no bake stove my daughter has but we can no longer find a place to buy the cake mixes (thank goodness.)

The cans and jar are really embarassing.

They date back to 2006. That is the year my son was born. He is starting kindergarten this year. The artichoke hearts were really gross. There was something black & flaky coming out the bottom. Inside the hearts were dried out and black. It was actually kind of funny. The most recent of the cans was from June 2010.

Here are a couple more random things I decided to part with a few days later.
This is a cookie jar. It's cute enough but it is not something I bought. Actually, it something a friend gave me. This next part is embarrassing. She got it from her neighbors trash. Now, her neighbor was a friend of hers. But still. My friend hates to see perfectly good things in the trash. She offered it to me and I didn't have one so I took it (and cleaned it!) But I don't love it. And the ridges collect dust.

I am going to try to live by the motto, "If I don't love it, it's gone."

I don't love this, so good-bye.

This was given to me by the mother of the artist. Can you see the white dots? They aren't supposed to be there. They are flaws. Yet, I still felt like I needed to keep this and use it.

I'm done. I don't love it, it's gone.

I'm linking up to i Heart Organzing.

Purging clothes

Recently A Bowl Full of Lemons began a new weekly challenge. In that first challenge Toni talked about purging. I linked up my posts on my electronics recycling and my magazine purge. I was hoping to do more purging but didn't have time. Lucky for me, I heart organizing is sponsoring a month of purging challenge. Yae!! That's going to be my incentive to keep going. Next up, clothes.

Last year, I did a big closet clear out. I donated several trash bags of clothes. I'm not talking the white tall kitchen bags. I'm talking about the big, black trash bags we keep in the garage. I was really proud of myself. As you can probably guess, I haven't missed one thing that was in those bags.

When I look in my closet now, there are still many, many pieces that I don't love, that don't fit well, that I haven't worn in a year (probably years). You know, all those questions you are supposed to ask yourself when trying to clear out your closet. So, why not just get them out of my closet and be done with them? There is a big reason I feel like I can't get rid of more.

I'm looking for a teaching job for this fall. For the last seven years I have been home with my kids, watching other kids. At home, I dress very casually. Jeans and a sweater feel like I've dressed up. Before I took my leave, I was a PE teacher. If I go back to teaching PE, I will be able to get rid of more things. What if I have to go back into a classroom? I don't have that many clothes I could wear in that situation. If I get rid of lots of stuff, I really won't have anything to wear. I could go out and shop if I get that kind of job but we don't have the money now for me to go out and buy a bunch of clothes. On the other hand, there are lots of t-shirts and track pants that I could get rid of. But, what if I get a job teaching PE? It would be nice to have plenty of those kinds of clothes, too.

As I was going through this process I realized that when I purged last year the decisions I made were easy. I had too many clothes so I was able to part with a lot. This time, the decisions were harder. I had already cleared out the stuff that I really didn't like. Now, I had to make more difficult decisions.

So, this is what I was able to part with.
It doesn't look like much but I have to remind myself that only a few months ago I did a huge purge. Plus, some of these were really hard to get rid of. For me, that's more important than the number of items.

The shoes were easy. I haven't worn any of them in a long time. I don't think I wore the bottom pair more than twice. (I got them on clearance somewhere. That rarely works out for me.) Some of the middle pile was a little more difficult. There are two sweaters. There is nothing wrong with them, I just didn't wear them. Same with the striped shirt. I still like the green sweater and the striped shirt and really debated keeping them. (I better get them out of the house before they make it back into my closet.) The camo pants I will probably never wear again, my brothers made fun of me enough to last quite a while. There is another pair in my closet anyway. I took them out twice and put them back. One thing I thought was, "What if we go paintballing?" I have never been paintballing (though it has always sounded like fun.)

The pile on the right was difficult but for different reasons. All of those are things my husband bought for me. He has expensive taste. The two sweaters on top are from Abercrombie. The other two pieces were from Banana Republic. (None of the stuff in my piles was from Abercrombie or Banana Republic.) They were hard to part with because my husband got them for me AND they were expensive. Having said that, the black sweater was itchy and the brown turtleneck shrunk. The sweaters are a different story. I've had them both for several years and have hardly worn either of them, though they are in good shape. (I only wore them ever so I wouldn't hurt my husbands feelings.) Abercrombie clothes are not made for me. They are too short and too tight. Especially after I had kids. They are definitely not made for someone who has had two c-sections. (I've told my husband that if the people working in the store don't look like me, that's a good indication you shouldn't be buying my clothes there. If everyone is a teenager the clothes were not made for me.)

Maybe when I know what my job situation will be I can get rid of more.

I'm linking up to A Bowl Full of Lemons One Project At A Time Challenge and i Heart Organizing.

March decluttering

One of my favorite bloggers, Nony at A Slob Comes Clean has begun hosting a monthly decluttering link party. Perfect for someone like me. I know I need to get rid of stuff, lots of stuff. I don't know if it's because I'm a procrastinator (which I am) or because I am worn out (which I also am) but sometimes I need an incentive to get my butt in gear. I need someone (or thing) to be accountable to. That's why this is perfect for me. I know I am going to blog about it and link to the party so I am going to do as much as I can. Here is what I decluttered this month:
baby swing
bouncy seat
baby gym
(All three I acquired last fall because I began watching a baby. It is really hard to bring baby gear back into the house after I purged us of ours because we were are done having babies.)
100+ Girl Scout cookie boxes
From my electronic recycling (see here):
2 DVD players
1 portable DVD player
5 cell phone batteries
1 cell phone
1 CPU
1 computer power cord
1 scanner
(Thank you Best Buy for taking all of that.)
I cancelled the newspaper (I consider that pre-clutter decluttering)
Did not renew many, many magazines (again, pre-clutter decluttering)
(see here to read more about my pre-clutter decluttering)
Hundreds of magazine pages (see here)
My "to file" file (see here)

All of that decluttering in addition to my March jobs:
Clean...
ceiling fans
master bedroom (check)
office (check)
family room (check)
kitchen (check)
dining area (check)

hall bath
door (check)
baseboard (check)
light (check)

master bath
door (check)
baseboard (check)
lights (check)
vanity (sort of, this is where lots of magazines were)

lower bath
light (check)
picture (check)
mirror (check)

kids' rooms
headboards
footboards
window and sills (check)

I considered hurrying up and cleaning the headboards, footboards, and my vanity before I posted this. They would technically have been completed but I chose not to because they weren't completed in March. (That whole being honest in the blog thing again.)

Pre-clutter decluttering

I already found my new phrase. Instead of proactive decluttering, I like pre-clutter decluttering. Gotta fix the previous post.

Proactive decluttering

Last month (March) I made some decisions that I hope to help me keep clutter from even coming into my house.

First, we recently canceled delivery of our papers. We got our local paper on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I got this for the ads and coupons. I have not been very good about keeping up with my coupons (that's another story) and I began to feel like that instead of ads saving me money, they were really costing me money. I would often see something that was on sale and would put it on my list when if it hadn't been in the ad, I would have been fine without it. My husband would get the New York Times daily. While we cancelled that for financial reasons ($67/month) I am so happy to not have those papers all over the house. If he couldn't read the paper each day they would pile up until he could get to them. Good bye.

Second, I decided to not renew any of my magazines (see here for my magazine issue.) That's big for me because I was getting at least nine magazines. I never intended to subscribe to that many magazines. A few of them I got because I received an offer (because I had subscribed to a different magazine) where an entire issue wouldn't cost me much more than what a couple issues would have cost at newsstand price. They were great deals, so I thought, why not? I know that's how I got Redbook and Good Housekeeping. I won't miss most of these magazines and I will be so much better off not having them here. (And I won't let that happen again.)

I consider those decision to be proactive pre-clutter decluttering. (I'm working on a better phrase. I need something that means getting rid of clutter before it happens.) They are really keeping clutter from even entering my house. I need all the help I can get with that.

Great cleaning & organizing advice

One of the best pieces of advice I have heard about cleaning and organizing is

"If it takes less than a minute or two, just do it."

I don't remember where I heard it first but I have heard it several times in a couple different forms. The first time I heard it I believe the advice was "If it takes less than 30 seconds, just do it." Well, I can convince myself that most things that I don't want to do are going to take more than 30 seconds (true or not.) Thirty seconds is only half a minute, that's nothing.

Then I heard the form I agree with, "If it takes less than a minute or two, just do it." While I can talk myself out of doing lots of things because they are going to take more than 30 seconds, most of them can be completed in less than two minutes.

Often, if I do the job right away (instead of putting it off) it will save me time overall. Even if it won't save me time, they are often things that I am glad to just be finished with.

Here are a few examples:

One of my monthly jobs is to vacuum the dust ruffle on my bed. (I have a black dog that likes to rub up against it.) I remember last month realizing I was supposed to vacuum the dust ruffle right after I got finished wrapping up the cord for the vacuum. I really didn't want to unwind the cord and plug it back in, just to vacuum that small piece of fabric. Those words "If it takes less than a minute or two, just do it." popped into my head. So, grudgingly, I did it. When I was finished, I was glad I did.

Another great example is washing plastic bags. Unless absolutely necessary, I try not to throw away plastic storage bags. I like to wash them out and reuse them. Unfortunately, I hate washing them out. So, I let them pile up until they look like this:


and this


Once they get to that stage it takes a lot longer to deal with them than if I would just wash them out as I use them. Last week, I finished cleaning up the dishes and there were two plastic bags sitting on the counter staring at me. I so wanted to walk away and just deal with them later. Again, "If it takes less than a minute or two, just do it." popped into may head. So, I did it (even though I wasn't happy about it.) I know that it took very little time to do then and I didn't have those bags on the counter constantly mocking me, making me feel bad for not dealing with them.

A last example just happened over the weekend. My husband was out of town so as a treat the kids got to sleep on the trundle bed in the office. I made the mistake of looking under the bed before I pushed the trundle back under. This is what I saw


what you can't really see is the extent of the dust. Look at this:


I so wanted to just push the bed back. I hadn't planned on cleaning under there. I didn't want to. I had other things I wanted to do. But, those words just wouldn't let me leave the mess. I timed myself and it took 3:14 to finish it. That is over a minute or two but my son was also in there "helping" me and that could've added time. Even if he didn't add time, 3:14 is still not very much time. While I'm not convinced cleaning under there at that moment saved me any time in the long run (like some other tasks might) it still gave me peace of mind. I felt better knowing I cleaned it up than I would have if I had left it.

So, my advice, if it takes less than a minute or two, just do it (especially if it is something you really don't want to do.)

I'm linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Famiy.

Recycling electronics

I've been collecting broken electronic equipment for a few years. I've kept our last several cell phones and batteries. They are small and didn't take much room. Within the last year we had two dvd players die. Those were bigger than the cell phones but still pretty easy to store. Last year our computer died. Now things were starting to really pile up. I knew I didn't want to throw them in the trash because that meant they were going to a landfill. I knew they could (& should) be recycled but didn't really know where to take them.

They have been sitting in a plastic bin downstairs. I guess I was waiting for them to walk themselves to a recycling center. That never happened. I was tired of seeing them every time I went downstairs. I was tired of moving them to vacuum under them. I was tired of taking out toys that accidentally got dropped in them. I knew Best Buy would take most used electronics and recycle them for free. I found out they would take a CPU but it would cost $25 unless the hard drive was gone. I didn't want to pay $25 if I could avoid it. I knew I could probably take out the hard drive. Last week I looked online and realized the hard drive from our CPU was already gone. That's all I needed. I was going out without the kids and decided that was it, they were going.

I took
1 cell phone
5 cell phone batteries
2 dvd players
1 portable dvd player
1 CPU
1 computer cord
2 cell phone charging cords
1 scanner

They took everything. For free.

Again, relief. (Like when I recycled all those magazine pages.)

It didn't really take that much time to do. It was just deciding that I had had enough. It felt good to get it all out of my house. It felt good to know that none of it was going in the trash. It was one of those things about which I now think, "What took me so long?"

That won't happen again.

Conquering Paper Clutter-magazines

Like most people (I think most is fair to say) paper clutter is an issue for me. I have several areas where paper clutter sometimes get the best of me. One of them is magazines. Here is what I've done recently to overcome that issue.

Within the last few years somehow I subscribed to many, many magazines. I say somehow because it happened gradually and unintentionally. Off the top of my head these are the magazines I had coming here each month: Real Simple (my favorite by the way), Parenting, Parents, Rachel Ray, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Money, Oprah, and Consumer Reports. Nine magazines. That's a lot. I no longer spend time reading magazines. If I have time to read, I want to read a book. I did read magazines while sitting at my vanity while I was drying my hair. I say did because I got an iPad last year as a Mother's Day/birthday gift. Now, I like to sit with that at my vanity and read blogs while drying my hair instead of looking at magazines.

So, the first step I took was to not renew any subscriptions. None. Some have already expired and most should expire in the next several months. It's such a relief to know I won't have all that paper to deal with. When I get a magazine I feel the need to look through the entire magazine. That's only part of the problem. The other part is this:


When I look through magazines, if I find something I like, I tear it out. It could be a recipe, a craft, a product, activities with kids, books to read, money advice, marriage advice, or many other topics. From nine magazines, that's a lot of paper. After I tore them out, I didn't know what to do with them. Once, in the past, I organized all of those papers into file folders. That was many years ago.

For a long time I didn't even pull out the page I liked. I just folded it over. At the end of 2010 I told myself that if I hadn't dealt with the magazines before the end of the year I would recycle them. Just before 2010 ended, I went through all the magazines and pulled out the folded pages. I told myself that was enough. They have been sitting in a bag inside a box inside a basket, waiting to be dealt with. Every time I saw the basket I would stress a little.

Yesterday, I decided I was going to begin organizing them. I started with sorting. Then, I thought, forget this and (inspired by Nony @ A Slob Comes Clean and how she threw away 21 pounds of coupons) decided I was going to recycle them without even looking at them. As I was doing that, I saw something that I really liked and decided I couldn't get rid of them without looking at them.

So, I started sorting again. I was thinking about what I was going to do with them once I had them sorted. I already had folders started with some articles that I had never looked at. I thought about putting them in binders. How would I do that? Put them all in page protectors? That would take a lot of time. I thought about the amount of time it would take to do that and compared it to the amount of time I would probably use them. I haven't looked in the folders I created years ago. I figured it would be unlikely that I would look in them now. Usually, if I need something, I look online. It was going to be more trouble than it would be worth.

I stopped sorting.

I put all of that paper in my recycle basket and immediately walked it out to the recycle bin. Relief.

I went into my bathroom and then under my vanity found this:


Nine more magazines. I walked them right out to the recycle bin.

I feel like a weight has been lifted. That's one thing I can cross of my To Do list that has lived there for a long time. I won't miss one thing in that pile. The only word I can think of to describe how I feel about that pile being gone (I've said it before and I'll say it again) RELIEF.

Now, about that coupon pile.

I'm linking up to Org Junkie's 52 Weeks of Organizing.