De-Cluttering Tips - from Last Meeting

Notes from last meeting (10/4):

Our homework assignment from the previous meeting was to bring a tip for de-cluttering or organizing. Here were our ideas:

Tips:

. Turn hangers backwards in closet for clothes you haven’t worn in past 6 months. In 6 months, if you wear those closes, turn hanger back around, if in 6 months the hanger is still backwards – this discard or giveaway clothing.

. Throw something away in each weekly trash pickup.

. Have a garage sale and do not bring anything back into the house. Leave on the curb and call Goodwill or just let scavengers have it.

. Create work/activity “stations” with the items used in that activity located close to where you perform the activity.

. Handle incoming mail (and other papers) only once. These are the options for decisions/actions that must be done:

- Keep (file/store for future reference – or scan/take photo to file and throw away original)

- Act on (bills to pay or other follow-up needed)

- Throw it away (or shred and throw away)

Accomplishments:

. I finally put-up the spaghetti dishes up, that my mom got me for Christmas

. I have a lot of stuff in bags, so I am cleaning out at least one bag to make the weekly trash schedule

. I had a garage sale – and did not bring anything that did not sell back into the house

. I am sorting my tools and creating a tool “center” that will be located close to where they are used. For me, I use them in multiple places (van to customer site, van to shop, storage shed and in the house) so will be locating the center near the side door for easy access to all of these places.

. I am (well mostly my husband is) keeping my counters relatively clear in the kitchen – and am trying to do the one-touch for paper items thing.

New Additions to Personal Goals:

. Look on Ebay to see the value of Grandmother’s crystal (for possible sale)

. Need to create a bill-paying “center” at home

Next Meeting Assignment:

. get rid of duplicates of clothing items – like if you have three blue shirts that are extremely similar, get rid of two of them. You get the idea. If you don’t have duplicates, get rid of some other un-needed clothing item(s). (baby steps)

…also, we will be viewing the “Help! I’m a Hoarder” video at next meeting. If you can’t make it to the meeting, the video is available (in pieces) on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Help!+I%27m+a+hoarder%22&search_type=

Afterwards, we will discuss.