The Art of Decluttering and Organizing

I just finished listening to this book:

"The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo

And put the words into action.

The author recommended to start decluttering process with clothes and do ALL clothes around the house at once, but I decided to start with school supplies and all papers around the house. I actually declutter my closet regularly, but all papers and supplies were really annoying and it was a project I was putting aside for a while.

I like the idea of this book not to clean by areas but declutter by subject, like clothes, books, etc. So I walked around my entire house and collected all school supplies, pen and pencils, etc. and decided what to keep, donate or discard. I have to tell you - I had lots of papers in recycling bin and a bunch of trash.

Then an interesting event happened. After I cleaned all supplies and papers from my son's room, he came to me and asked to help him to declutter his closet. It was a huge surprise to me because usually he does not do this. So we cleaned his closet too. 

Then I moved to books. I have lots and lots of books. I still have problems to get apart with some but I feel some kind of relief to let go of some old books, which actually just were taking space and collecting dust. Eventually I plan to keep only books I really like or plan to look for references in.

I don't think I will be following book exactly but I gained some ideas and mostly inspiration to start decluttering again.

According to Feng shui cleaning and decluttering bring new opportunities into people's lives.

 I still have lots of areas in my house for tidying up but I already started feeling a surge of energy and a wind of good changes.

Would you join me with your decluttering project? 

Thank you for reading and please share your ideas on decluttering.

  

Yesterday my decluttering project reached $1000.00!

Yesterday my decluttering project reached $1000.00!

I would say we started this project in November. 

I used to donate most of items, but this time I had a problem. I had bunch of big items, which I needed to get rid of. 


So we held a garage sale. Unfortunately people didn't buy big stuff I really wanted to get rid of. Also it rained half of the time, so it was not a very successful garage sale, but it was a start. 





My mom suggested me to keep track of all my sales. It was a really good idea, because it is very stimulating to watch how each little item adds up to a bigger total. 


My next step was posting my big items on craiglist. It actually worked pretty good. We sold most of my son's bikes, old couch, grill and outdoor furniture we didn't use.

Then I discovered www.varagesale.com. This site is like an ongoing garage sale for your items in your area. You log in with your facebook account and find a group close to where you live. Then you post pics and description of items you want to sell. If someone is interested they will contact you. It's very fast, simple and free of charges. I sold some old furniture, household items, outdoor and gardening stuff, kids clothings and sport gears there. Usually I let people do porch pick up or meet somewhere close by.


I used to sell on ebay, so I posted some items there. I only sold one item and it was too much hassles plus all fees. So I am not going to sell on ebay again.

I drop my current magazines at local half price book store.


I bring my clothes, which I don't like anymore to a local consigner store.

If I found hardware items we bought but never used, I try to return for a store credit to Lowes or Home Depot.

I still donate some items to Goodwill. Items, which are still good but I don't want to resell. 

Now I catch myself walking through my house and wondering what is going to be sold next.

We still have a long way to go to get rid of all unnecessary stuff we accumulated through years.

Now days even if I am very careful what we are buying, somehow we still accumulate stuff, which we don't like, outgrow or just don't need anymore. So this is an ongoing project.

Thanks for reading and I hope this post will encourage you to start your own decluttering project. :)