Magazines and Miscellaneous

Have you ever wondered why some people keep magazines for years?  It is because "we" think someone else might want to read it, there are some very good recipes, or the pictures would be nice to cut out and use in a craft project. Or perhaps, it is a trade journal, and we might refer back to it some day.  Right?

Most of these were older than a year, also there is some
mail thrown in (cut up), and some catalogs.
I am counting this pile as 21 for all that I threw away.  
I looked at each, so it took some time.  
Also, there was really more than that.

                       
Funny, when one starts reevaluating what to keep, those very old magazines lose their relevancy.  At least, they did for me.  I went through a stack, and I honestly cannot think why I kept them, except for one yummy looking recipe I won't make.  It was a Thanksgiving recipe, and I have to admit that we are kind of stuck on our traditional dishes.  Bye magazine!

There's a craft project mixed up in these cut up old jeans.
 I'm not going to finish it, so they are going in the trash.
Counts as 1

This decluttering job adds up to 322 items gone in 2013.  To reach my goal I have 
to declutter 30 more items.  Exciting!

All right! I am almost to my goal.

I was tidying up the living room today, and I dealt with one the things I least like to clean:  paper clutter!  The puzzle in the woman's weekly was not done in almost a month;  and, it was never going to get done.  In the trash it went.  All this is going to count as one.  I'm not throwing away my trash basket.

Three kitty bowls are easily replaceable.  Anyway, I am not planning on getting any more kittens.  Hopefully, my lesson is well-learned.

Altogether, this counts as four items.

I have decluttered 300 things;  and, I have 52 to go.  

From One Room to the Next

A Beautiful Planter That Needs to Find Another Home

How many of you think of decluttering and organizing as the same thing?  I assure they are two different operations.  FlyLady Marla Cilley says, "You can't organize clutter...".  Of course, it may seem you are doing it simultaneously, but it is much easier to do truly tidy organization when you have already gotten rid of the things you don't need. 

I look forward to the day I have done the bulk of getting rid of clutter, and it is just a matter of upkeep.  I plan to let you know how that goes.

Now, I try to gradually get rid of the clutter, while I clean or put away items.

This takes less energy, and I am finding it to be a satisfying method of decluttering -- especially since I am actually recording the numbers of things that leave this house.  Moreover, since I have been using this method, it has become automatic.  I look for ways to delete things from this household.

I do not even want to think about
all the germs in this sponge.  It
was in the planter in the bathroom.

Not just a circle, but a grabber I used
to help me turn off a drippy faucet
in the bathroom.  Why did it take me
a month to throw it away?

A T-shirt I wore to bed
when I  weighed less.

A curling iron I had before
I had ever heard of flat irons.

Another Room

296 items have been decluttered, 56 more to go by the end of the year.