Organizing and decluttering the homestead

[tortoise]

How's the dog working with the training? Still in a positive mode? She's a lovely animal.

She was running around puppy zoomies in the yard yesterday with kids and gashed her shoulder. Had to get her stitched up. She can't wear her harness for a couple weeks. She's becoming more and more responsive to pain body language/limping, etc, and she hangs around close for bracing those days. She is pretty good with directional cues for counter balance - at least at home. And has some wheelchair pulling skills now. I am still hesitating on training her for public access (going in stores, etc). Mostly because people are so annoying and intrusive and my kids are already a handful and it just feels overwhelming.

I will feel better once I have the "extra" hobby supplies gone and I don't feel obligated to use them. I need to think of it like reserving physical ability to do the things I care about most. Just like purging objects leave space in my house for what I want to remain.

@Mini Horses , how are you selling your items? I worry about hassle, but some income is always good!!

 

[Mini Horses]

Lucky for me, these were old pieces of jewelry that I would NEVER wear, use, etc. Easy -- went to a know, excellent shop. Primarily metals. I was thrilled with the outcome -- even well surprised.

Other things -- not quite there yet. Looking at some Spring "yard sale" events at local churches, etc. Just rent a spot. I mean, how many sets of dishes can I use? Household items -- mixers, toasters, etc. Just clearing out.

Many things I am donating for abuse shelters, etc. Never worn Avon jewelry, decorative, collectables and so on. Mom apparently loved Avon lady AND TV sales stuff. Just unreal new things. Plus hospital bed, wheelchairs, walkers, bed tables, etc.

This will never be a "come see" issue.

 

[Beekissed]

So, still doing winter time cleaning, decluttering, sprucing, organizing..moving from one end of the house to the other. Today I worked on the small hall closet, used for the past 20+ years for storing spare pillows, blankets, linens, throws, etc.

It only had one narrow shelf up high, so all these items were just stacked in the floor of the closet, with the linens being folded and tossed up onto the shelf, where they would promptly fall into the pile of bedding on the floor. Accessing certain blankets or pillows often had us pawing through this massive pile or having to pull the entire thing out onto the hall floor to find things. Enough is enough of that!!!

So, an 8 ft. x 16 in shelf board was turned into four 16in. x 22 in. shelves in that closet. All that crap was taken out, the closet washed down, shelves installed, all the blankets, pillows, etc. were sorted, eliminated, mended, washed, folded and replaced neatly. Fitted sheets were placed neatly in a basket so they wouldn't spring open at the slightest touch and roll off the shelf...can't stand storing fitted sheets, so the basket was a good option.

Then I had two shelf boards I got at the Rehab store for $1 and for $.50 that fit into two different kitchen cupboards that were crying out for an additional shelf, so I installed them.

Feels good to be creating more storage capabilities and making things look better, while making them easier to access the items.

Have been making new curtains for the living room out of a table cloth purchased at GW, throw pillow covers out of corduroy jackets bought at GW, and washing down the living room walls. Also installed a shelf(more of that cheap shelf board from RH)behind my desk to hold my printer, my laptop, my speakers and all my wires.

Next will be the kitchen...all the walls and cupboards to be washed, touched up paint, cleaned out and organized.

 

[sumi]

Bee, I wish I had your organising skills, or should I say (admit) desire to be more organised lol My bed linen is spread about the bedroom cupboards, in wherever space I could find to squeeze it in at the time.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I wish I had your organising skills, or should I say (admit) desire to be more organised lol My bed linen is spread about the bedroom cupboards, in wherever space I could find to squeeze it in at the time.

Sumi, it feels so good to be able to open a door and access an item that has been neatly stored on a shelf. It seems to renew one's spirit to have things in order like that.

That's one reason I make that a priority around here, working at it all year long. Persistence is the key to getting and staying organized, so not much skill involved really. Just plugging away at it, changing things around if at first they don't provide the type of access you wanted, and constantly reconfiguring things to suit the changes in your life, your work patterns and how you like to be in your home.

Winter is a great time to organize clutter, as the weather often prevents too much outside activity.

 

[Beekissed]

The decluttering of winter months continues. Started on kitchen cupboards today and it's quite the revelation....heretofore my mother has always cleaned those out, but I've discovered she doesn't actually clean anything OUT...she just cleans under the clutter and puts it all back in there.

I've found so many lids without a container or pot, odds and ends of things I haven't seen for years nor have we used for many years either.

I've spent most of the day just on one set of cupboards! I've got a laundry basket full of stuff to go to Good Will, and the trashcans filled with stuff that doesn't match anything and is so old it's brittle.

I've designed some makeshift things in the cupboards for the holding of cookie sheets and cake pan lids, as well as soup pot lids, but I'm going to make one for the cupboard door for the storage container lids as I can't find anything like that suitable online that will fit our cupboards.

The clean out of the house continues.....

 

[Chic Rustler]

We did a little of this last weekend. I hauled off all the scrap metal beside my shed and mowed.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

It needs to be done both inside and outside!

 

[Beekissed]

Here it definitely does! This winter, with so many projects of mine going on at once, the outside of the place has become quite disorderly and disheveled. Then, add Eli's mess up in the shed and we have a massive clean up to do this spring.

But, I don't mind too much, as each time we clean up and clean out, more clutter gets moved out of here and I get ever more organized. I love that.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We took 2 loads of old windows, screens and doors to the transfer station for their Spring Clean-up event. We donated a table and 4 chairs to their fundraiser yard sale also.
We moved my dads old lazy-boy recliner to the barn so I have a chair to sit on to snuggle with the barn cat, lol. She loves her pets! and now that she has kittens somewhere, I am sure the chair will be well used with kitty playing.