Week #3 Wrap up of 40 in 40

Here we are at the end of week #3 in my yearly Lenten project with Ann Marie over at White House Black Shutters . During this week, in our support group (YES! We have a FB support group. It's amazing and very needed) we took a lot of time discussing WHY we save clutter and how to work through the emotional ties that bind us to "stuff". It is my hope that once I complete this project and my basement is livable again that I will never go back to my hoarding ways. Something that has helped me is to imagine the basement as part of my house and not a black hole to throw stuff. If it's not acceptable to "live" with the stuff, it's not acceptable to throw it in the basement for later. I am also trying to have only what I love, keep only what I actually use (not what I "might" use in 2034) and to give myself limits on what I can keep. For example: I can keep the amount of clothing that fits into my drawers. Otherwise I need to make choices and pare down until it DOES fit into the drawers. Same goes with every space in the house and basement.  It was enlightening and helpful. I'm officially half way through the basement cluster and my "living" part of the house is about 80% finished! I also got a very special reward this week (You will see at the end). 

So....Basement progress. Again, not a lot of pretty pictures of fancy things, but here is the before and after. Note I did put away the holiday decorations from both Halloween and Christmas. :) 

Before:

After:

From the Laundry area view:

That pile resting in that corner is my next week's project. Hopefully this entire half of the basement will be completed by next week. I made a trip to Thrift King this week and a TON more trash to the curb. I also cleaned out my car to prepare for our weekend getaway which surprisingly only yielded a half a bag! (Don't worry I filled it up inside the house!)

My reward for completing so much.....An amazing new bed set and matching 1600 thread count Egyptian Cotton Sheets. I also purchased a memory foam mattress topper. It is AMAZING! Completely transformed my ancient mattress into a nice and comfortable bed for sleeping. 

I cleared out 11 bags/boxes to the trash and took 6 bags/boxes to Thrift King. Taking my Total for the Challenge to:

24 Bags of Trash

35 Bags Donated

That's 59 Total Bags for the Challenge so far. I'm pretty impressed with the amount of clutter gone. *Note the Bags are either Garbage Bags or Boxes of items for donation. 

To all my decluttering friends out there: Keep up the good work!!

Week #1 Wrap of 40 in 40

Well the end of week #1 is here! 40 Bags in 40 Days project started on Ash Wed. (Feb. 13th) and if you aren't familiar it's a way of "Giving up for Lent" (Clutter!) and a way to refocus on Simple Living, Organizing and reducing the clutter in your home. This is my 3rd year hooking up with Ann Marie at White House Black Shutters and the first two years collectively I purged over 100 bags of clutter from our home. 

That might leave you to think that I have a handle on this. Right?! Well, WRONG! I realized this year that I have not tackled the madness and really have barely touched the surface. I have a huge basement that is over-flowing and even worse...Still parts of my home that contains items that are not usable, not loved, and basically....Trash! 

So this year I'm hitting hard. Not holding anything back and purging it. Once and for all. We have a small home. 2 bedrooms....3 kids. You get the idea. Simple Living seems to elude me in the piles of stuff. My disorganization costs me time (LOTS of time searching for that ONE thing I want) and money (Just buying it because I can't find it). And I also realized this year that I don't "love" my home. Mostly because my entire home is decorated with "other people's things". things that people have given me, passed down, and collected through the years. 

So...I have finally decided to break those emotional ties that bind me and work towards "My home". Before the 40n40 project started though, I confess I started early. I began at the beginning of the year and while I didn't count bags or donate things (YET! They were moved to the basement) I started redoing some problem areas. 

Kitchen:

 Pretty new Fiesta Ware (Which I LOVE and are Lead Free, the main reason for the replacement!!!!) Replaced all the items that were crammed in the same cabinet. Crazy!

(These are technically still in my home in the basement...but it's progress)

I cleared off my buffet that seemed to ALWAYS collect junk and now it's a usable space for storage of my dry goods. I found these awesome glass jars at Thrift King for $2.00 a piece!

And now Wednesday I started cleaning out the clutter!!!

In the bathroom I found an entire box full of old vitamins and prescriptions. Some expired in 1998! Seriously people...I moved them 3 times. That is madness!

 "Bag" #1 down!

 Baby Baer's drawers were tackled. I found about 30 pair of infant booties. And umm...She's 2! 

these bags aren't "counted" yet because they technically have not left my home either. This is an important part of it for me. While I have cleared it from our living space it still sits in waiting....In the basement. Once it is MOVED from my home then it will be counted. 

I tackled under the bathroom sink! And then...under the kitchen sink

 And then I also "started" the basement. Which means there are no pictures of progress because all I did was walk through and gather trash. 

Total Count for the first (short) week is 8 Bags of Trash! GONE! 

Next Week I'm tackling more of the basement. The Linen Closet, My dresser, and hopefully Papa Baer's dresser as well. 

40 days of Giving up Clutter!!

Well, here we are on the last day of Lent for 2012!

During the past 40 days I've been giving up clutter. And it's been amazing! My friend over at www.whitehouseblackshutters.com Ann Marie heads up the project every year for us and I've been following along and sharing my progress each week.

First, I'm going to recap this last week. I didn't exactly get done what I was going to get done...or what my plan was. BUT....I still managed to rid 9 bags of of here this week!

I put together this toy cubby and went through the toys in the living room (That's it though...blah) I threw out 1 bag of trash. And I have 1 bag of baby toys for a friend.

Of course I had a "problem" on this project. (You would think I could manage to follow simple directions) I put it all together right...then nailed the back boards onto the front. *OIY*

Stupid...Stupid....Stupid

So....I bought some white duct tape (Who knew they sold white duct tape) and taped the edges carefully and Viola!

Looks perfect. LOL

Then I worked on clearing out some more basement items. I rounded up 3 bags to take to Thrift King and sent them on their way with Papa Baer. These bags were mostly Stuffed animals, old Easter baskets, and extra stuff I didn't need.

Thursday I worked outside almsot all day in my flower beds and planting herbs....But I started clearing out the shed....What a disaster that is.

Then Friday morning I decided the garbage had to go. So as the garbage truck was on the street above me I was loading up 4 more bags of trash to get out before they made it to me! Old junk, cardboard, and stuff that I have no idea was even saved.

All together this week I cleared out 9 bags. It wasn't in the areas that I wanted to work on. But, I'm still thrilled to have it gone. I can't believe today is the 40th day and this project is wrapped up for the year.

All together I have cleared out 54 bags (Trash bags people!!!) of Clutter from my home. I have half of a basement that is now functionable space. (The other half will get there) And my house is so much less cluttered. I have space...Space to enjoy. (Not junk back up)

I still have a long way to go, and I'm really hoping that my 40 days has given me a great head start. A few things I learned this year was really honestly evaluating if I needed "something" or not. I got rid of a lot of things I had been hoarding (LOL) for no real reason other than I could. And the clutter and junk was weighing me down. My closets are cleaner and my mind is focused!

So....Here's the final breakdown:

30 bags donated to Thrift King

8 bags given to friends/freecycle

3 bags sold

13 bags of trash

54 Bags! Seriously? How awesome is that?

Linkin it up:

WOOHOO!!! It's Finally Friday! I've been working on the 40 bags in 40 days project with my blogger friend Ann Marie over at www.whitehouseblackshutters.com And every Friday we link up all our awesome progress for the week!

The idea really stems from Giving up "Stuff" for Lent. To Spring Clean and purge all the stuff that weighs us down. Giving us a chance to live a simplier, more free life! Clutter around here never seems to end. And this week was really no exception. I seemed to be taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back this week.

It seemed that I brought more into the house then I purged. I did clean out my car! Cleared out all the winter junk that accumulated...hats, gloves, toys, on and on....So cleared out my car...but brought 3 bags of stuff INTO the house. *sigh* It's really not supposed to work that way. LOL But Everything that came in found a home, so that's a plus I suppose. and I did get one bag of trash!

Then I gave away Baby Baer's infant seat with 2 bases. YAY!!!! That counts as one. right? I surely don't need it anymore and it was taking up space. Then I gave away a bag of dresses of baby baer's to a friend...WOOT WOOT...that's 3!

Then came the migration. Winter clothes out and summer clothes in. Here is what I cleared out of Baby Baer's drawers and closet:

Nice Clean and empty drawers to fill up with cute summer stuff (I did save a few outfits out just in case Mother Nature decides to stop taking her meds.) Seriously...Summer clothes out and being used in March? In Pittsburgh? AMAZING!

and her other drawer:

Then I rid the boys drawers out. All together I got 4 bags of clothing from winter gone. I passed along the 3 bags from the boys to two of my friends for their kids. And got 1 bag back! LOL So...3 given away, 1 given back.

I still have Baby Baer's bag of clothing. Hoping to find a home for them with a friend. If not they will go to Thrift King. (My pile is bigger now! 7 bags ready to take to Thrift King)

I then gained a bag of Summer clothes for Baby Baer for next year...So again....3 bags gone, 2 bags in. *Round and Round* I do have to say I'm super thrilled that I have a circle of awesome moms and our kids can trade clothes every year. It saves us all tons of money so I can't complain about getting bags back in. And I suppose I'm losing stuff I can't use and gaining stuff I can. That helps right?

All in all this week I purged 4 bags through it all. (purged 6 and got 2 back) and then I got over 40 bags of stuff IN! Seriously....I collected 2 different donation drives this week that were on going to Mended Little Hearts of SWPA - A Non profit that I run from my house) One from a local hospital:

And another from Brother Baer's Cub Scout Troop. Here are the boys all proud of their donations they gathered! (The stuff is all hidden behind the cute boys. LOL)

So, I've been spending a lot of my week putting away the bags. So, I haven't had a lot of time to purge my stuff this week. Oh well. I'm doing well and that's all that matters.

I'm officially at 40 bags as of this week!!

27 bags donated

5 bags passed along to friends

3 bags sold

5 bags of trash

So, all in all I'm doing well even though I haven't got to a lot of the important spaces I wanted to. I really need to clear my kitchen cupboards and I'm going to try hard to make that my priority next week. I also have spaces in the basement that still need decluttered.

For now though I'm off to enjoy this sunshine!! Happy Spring all!