1. Having finally had the major portion of the bathroom project completed, I now must move on to things like painting the walls, buying new rugs and towels, etc., in order to make it all lovely.
2. I plan to repaint the walls some kind of white; the bedroom is painted in a white called "moonshine" and I think I am going to use the same thing in the bathroom. Right now the walls are a faded pink.
3. The color will come from towels and rugs; I am in search of rose-colored accents now. Hot pink is in, though, so a delicate rose color is difficult to find in my local stores. However, I might change my mind and go with deep red or something ... one never knows.
4. While we had this big project going on indoors, we also are continuing our big project outdoors. The water and fence project has now moved to the other half of the farm. This project involves digging 1.5 miles of water line and installing more than three miles of fencing. To be honest, I am not involved in this at all, except for writing checks to pay for things like fence posts and wire. I'm the supervisor.
5. My other indoor project is to rid the house of clutter. After living here for 27 years, there is stuff in every crook and cranny.
6. Over the years I have tried all sorts of methods to organize and declutter. Few of them work.
7. One of my favorite declutter hints involves using dishwashing tubs, the kind that cost about $1.50. You fill them with stuff and use them in places like the cabinet under the bathroom sink. That way you have all the extra shampoo in one tub, medical supplies in one place, etc. etc. It works well until somebody starts tossing stuff willie-nillie into the cabinet.
8. I bet I have tried every shoe holder known to man. The kind that are just two bars never work; the shoes fall off. My solution has been clothes baskets - I pile shoes in clothes baskets in the floor of the closet. Someone asked me if that wasn't hard on my shoes, but honestly they don't seem to mind.
9. I took six grocery bags full of books to the library as part of my decluttering efforts. They will sell them at their book sale or maybe add them to the stacks. They were mostly novels as I have a harder time getting rid of nonfiction.
10. I cleaned out my plastic containers, too, and sent a 30-gallon trash bag full out to the garage for my husband to go through. He said he needed some small containers to put nuts and bolts and things in. What he doesn't use will be recycled.
11. I understand that people who move around a lot tend to have less stuff. It's probably a good idea to have less stuff. It sure does accumulate. Two years ago I read a book that suggested tossing 50 things; I think I made it up to 22 or so before I gave up.
12. Between doing stuff and having stuff, sometimes I think there isn't enough time to just be. You know. Just be a human being, not a human doing. Or maybe a human having.
13. I will never be one of those people who keep a constantly neat desk. But I sure would like to be.
Thursday Thirteen is played by
lots of people; there is a list here. I've been playing for a
while and this is my 309th time to do a list of 13 on a
Thursday.
13 ha ha
ReplyDeleteI LOVE getting rid of things. There is always one more thing that can go to Goodwill. They say that if you have not used an item within the past year or two that it's time to let it go. I mean, how much STUFF do we as humans need? It makes me feel empowered when I can let things go. Good luck with your decluttering.
ReplyDeleteit's a lot to keep on top of when we used a plastic tub for bathroom clutter, it got toted to the basement. most of it never came up again.
ReplyDeleteWe renovated one of our bathrooms a couple of years ago and what a task that was! I can definitely sympathize with you. This summer I did the whole decluttering thing and I got rid of SO much stuff that we never used. I also threw away a ton of junk. I know our garbage pick-up men were so tired of us by the time I got finished. LOL
ReplyDeleteMy desk is neat right now because I haven't moved into it all the way yet.
ReplyDeleteWhen we refinished the inside of the he house I kept insisting every wall be white. My family griped, but once our stuff went in, you could hardly see the walls anymore anyway, and they all shut up.
Here is the best way to de-clutter. Let him choose which of your items are junk and you do the same for his stuff. I DIDN'T say it was the best way to marital harmony. Just the best way to get rid of things!
ReplyDeleteYour bathroom renovation is beautiful! I love the tile work and the walk-in feature.
ReplyDeleteI like this de-clutter inspiration, too. I'm usually more motivated to organize when the seasons change or after Christmas, for some reason.
When we listed our home, we went through and packed away all the stuff we planned to keep and decided to use the stuff we could part with...well over 16 months later the oth stuff remains in storage and we are getting by with the stuff we didn't plan to keep. But recently we have managed to sell some larger items so there is less stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy half heartened attempts to de-clutter barely make a noticeable dent. I admire those who can pull it off. At least I'm not a hoarder (I try to put it in perspective).
ReplyDeleteI always seem to need to de-clutter my closet. I do it, then before long it needs it again. How does that happen?
ReplyDeleteI use two small bins in my linen closet to hold all the miscellaneous extras. Aside from two boxes of books to donate, I don't have much clutter. I got rid of a ton of stuff before moving last summer--at least three trips to Goodwill before, and then another trip after as I got rid of a bit more while unpacking (mostly stuff that had been in storage--if I hadn't used it in three or four years, I decided I didn't need it). Last weekend I helped a friend clean her garage. Not as big a project as it was last fall, but it never seems to amaze me how much clutter some people amass over a few months time.
ReplyDelete