Decluttering Challenge Update - Week Six

This week started out slowly. I wasn't going to do any decluttering, but knowing that the rules I set for myself only required 35 items a week, I decided to go ahead and go through some of the kids' toys. I got rid of 24 items that way:

Then, later in the week I tried to give my 5 month old daughter a bath in her baby tub. Her head reached the top, and with all of her joyful kicking, well, the floor got more of a bath than she did! Clearly she has outgrown the tub. She also never takes a bottle, so I got rid of some of her bottle paraphanalia and a kitchen tool I don't like. That got rid of 6 more items.

This weekend turned sharply colder, so I spent several hours weeding through clothes that no longer fit the baby or that we just don't like. (Many were given to us as hand me downs.) It was a little sad to pack up the baby onesies because my husband and I always wanted four kids, and to know that we won't be able to have the 4th one is a little bit sad. I am of course, very blessed with the three we have, but there is still that little tinge when packing up the baby items. We got rid of 122 pieces of clothes!

All items this week went into our garage sale pile for next summer. This week I got rid of 153 items, for a total of 406 items since the decluttering challenge began.

Have you been doing any decluttering? If so, feel free to link up!

The Declutter Challenge - Week 5

This week I got rid of 58 clothing items. 24 items went to the garage sale pile:

34 items were listed on eBay:

I have now listed almost 83 items on eBay and have sold 27, making $295 so far. That is averaging out to almost $11 an item. (Of course, it will be less than that after I deduct eBay fees.) I will keep you posted on how much I make overall.

In the 5 weeks since I started this project, I have now gotten rid of 253 items. Almost all of these items have been clothing, and I still have many more clothes to go. Yikes. I knew I had a lot of clothes to get rid of, but not this much!

Have you been decluttering? Let us know how you are doing. Link up or leave a comment.

The Declutter Challenge - Week 4

This week I got rid of 29 clothing items. 16 items (the two piles stacked together) went to the garage sale pile and 13 items (the single stack) were listed on eBay.

I have now listed almost 60 items on eBay and have made $220 so far. Not bad for decluttering! I will keep you posted on how much I make overall.

In the 4 weeks since I started this project, I have now gotten rid of 195 items.

Have you been decluttering? Let us know how you are doing. Link up or leave a comment.

A Look Back In Time - Life Without Clutter

My husband brought up our very old computer and has been using it at home to run data reports. When I am working, I often look at the screen saver pictures; we stopped using this computer roughly four years ago, so the pictures are a snap shot of our life during that time.

The first few times I looked at the rotation of pictures, I marveled at how small my son was (the pictures are from his birth to about 18 months, and he is now 6), and how much my son and baby daughter look alike.

But then I started noticing something else—how empty our house was. The hall way from the study to the dining room/living room was completely empty! Now there is only a narrow path because there is a standing book shelf filled with kid’s board games and my eBay shipping supplies, and a chest that holds all of our blankets. Resting on the chest are clothes I haven’t listed on eBay.

In the pictures our living room is also sparsely furnished with only a couch, tv and tv stand and kitchen table. My son had the entire area to play with. Now, there is a standing toy box, another large book shelf, a small book shelf, the playpen, a big bouncy seat, a couch, a kitchen table, and end table, a tv stand and tv.

So, what happened? Six years ago we were just starting to dig ourselves out of credit card debt from my graduate school education. We did not have a lot of money, and we did not have a lot of STUFF. But life was much more enjoyable.

Now we are overrun with STUFF. Part of it is from having three kids in the apartment, a large part of it is from my eBay business and, more importantly, a lot of it is from just buying too much. Too much that we don’t need and don’t use. Too much that I am now trying to cull for the decluttering challenge.

We bought STUFF thinking we needed it or because we wanted it, but all it did was clutter our home and our lives. STUFF has affected us in many ways:

- Maintaining the home is difficult when I am always having to move piles of stuff. Our home is not nearly as attractive as it used to be.

- Having STUFF can begin to feel oppressive; it makes me feel trapped sometimes

-Having too much STUFF makes me feel out of control

I started the decluttering challenge 3 weeks ago and have gotten rid of over 160 items. There is so much still to do, but I find inspiration looking at those old photos and seeing how sparse our home was. It can look that way again. I’ll make sure of that.

Decluttering Challenge Update - Week Three

I had another busy week decluttering. I am starting to appreciate how massive this project will be. I have gotten rid of quite a few items already, and it seems I have not made a dent yet!

This week I weeded through clothing I did not like or that was outgrown but with out much resale value. These 54 items made their way into the garage sale pile:













Then, I put 32 pieces of my son's clothing up for auction on eBay. With his clothing and my maternity clothing I got rid of during weeks one and two, I have listed 54 items on eBay. So far 11 have sold, and I have made $100. I will keep you posted on how much I make and how many items I sell this week.

In the three weeks since starting this challenge, I have gotten rid of 166 items.

Are you decluttering your house? If so, leave a comment or link up to let us know your achievements!

Decluttering Challenge Update - Week Two

Last week I started the Declutter Challenge—I am going to get rid of 5 items a day for as long as it takes to declutter my house.

This week I got rid of:

-25 items of clothing
The clothing includes many of my maternity shirts and tops (my side of the closet is nearly bare now!) and some of my son’s clothes. All the items in the picture have been listed on eBay. (Read how I make money selling my kids’ clothes on eBay.) I am about half way through a big tub of clothes I had to list on eBay.

I was feeling pretty good about this accomplishment until I remembered that I have two more tubs to list. Lots of decluttering still to come. I have saved all of my son’s clothing since he was two just in case we had another boy. Now it is time to sell it all.

-Endless paper trash from my kids’ room
My son loves to keep ALL of his schoolwork. His bedroom was getting seriously messy, so we put a huge diaper box full of papers in the recycling. I kept some of his special art work for a binder I am going to make for him. (More on that when it actually gets done. It has been on the backburner for about a year now.)

I’ll count the box of papers as one item, so I am free of 26 items this week, 80 items since the challenge began.

How did you do this week? Link up or leave us a comment on your progress!

Declutter Challenge Update, 8/22/10

Last week I started the Declutter Challenge—I am going to get rid of 5 items a day for as long as it takes to declutter my house.

This week I got rid of:

35 food items that either contained dairy, which I can no longer eat, or were not good for us (the Kool-Aid, which makes my son Wired!)















4 pairs of maternity undies (no more pregnancies for me!)
1 maternity under garment
2 maternity shirts
8 small diaper covers that no longer fit Delaney













1 pair of maternity pants
1 pair of boy’s jeans my son outgrew
1 homemade window valance, and
a frame to a child’s game (but we don’t have the game. Go figure!)

That makes 54 items I got rid of this week. What did I do with them all?

-The food items were donated to a local food bank
-The maternity clothes and diaper covers went on eBay to sell
-The maternity underwear & garment went in the trash
-The frame to the game went in recycling
-And the other items went in our garage sale pile

How did you do this week? Link up or leave us a comment on your progress!

The Declutter Challenge

We have been in our apartment building for 10 years now, in the specific apartment we are living in for 7 years. During those 7 years, we have had three children and I started a home based business. We have ALOT of clutter. Baby boy clothes from my son who is now 6, baby girl clothes from my first daughter that I am saving for my second daughter, baby gear and big kids' toys, maternity clothes and clothes in several different sizes for me. . . It all adds up.

I am really tired of all of this junk around the house. I am by no means a minimalist, but I would like to have a decluttered house. I think I would feel better and it would be so much easier to maintain our house.

I don't have a ton of time to devote to decluttering, so I have decided to challenge myself to get rid of 5 items a day--35 items a week until this house looks more like a normal house and not, well, not like it looks right now. I'll be reporting back each Wednesday. Care to join me?