The DeClutter Project Report - Week 1

Here ends four days of decluttering.  Phew! I am exhausted but I'm excited about the progress I made.  I completed five of the tasks on my list in the four days and I took a very full carload of stuff to donate to Value Village today.  It feels really good to get all of that unused stuff out of my apartment and my life and I hope someone else will enjoy using the things that were just taking up space in my home.

I didn't pick my weekend tasks randomly this time around, I had a plan.  I wanted to clean the spaces I use most regularly - the storage closet (where cleaning products, cat supplies - including the litter box - and miscellaneous seasonal items like Xmas decorations are kept) needed to be tidied before my cleaning lady comes back tomorrow and in case I am bringing home a new cat or two in the near future.  I also wanted to do the bedroom closet and dressers, as I use them every day as I get dressed and it was becoming more and more of a challenge to find things.  And the linen closet, just because the mess bothered me every time I opened that door!

I started on Friday with the storage closet. I did it first because I knew I had several suitcases to get rid of that I don't use any more and I wanted to fill them with stuff I was going to be donating, like clothes and sheets.  Here are some before (on the left) and after (on the right) pictures:

As you can see, I now have 2 completely empty shelves as a result of my decluttering, that is pretty exciting!  As I work my way around the apartment in the next few weeks, I'm sure I'll find things to store in those spaces.

The next day, I worked on the linen closet.  I don't actually keep any "linens" in this closet, I use it to store tools and soap and shampoo, stuff like that.  Before, it was a jumbled mess.  Every time I needed something, I had to dig through a bunch of stuff to find it. 

Now, it's tidy and organized and I can tell right away what is there and what isnt'.  I also know that I don't need to buy any body lotion for a while, since somehow I have two big full bottles already!  That is also one of my plans for 2011, to use up what I have on hand before I buy anything new.  For example, I have several half-empty bottles of conditioner for some reason, so I will only need to buy shampoo next time I run out.

On day 3, Sunday, I made a start on my bedroom closet.  But first, I tackled the three dressers I have in my bedroom, one of which I use to store sheets.  I still haven't answered the question of why bottom sheets are so hard to fold and always seem to take up twice as much room as the tidier top sheet, but I did determine that I wasn't using half the sheet sets, duvet covers and pillow shams I had on hand so those unused ones are now gone to a new home and I am left with only my favourites.  Ditto for the pyjamas, underwear, workout clothes, turtlenecks and sweaters that were crowding the rest of my drawer space.  Every drawer (except one, which is a bit of a junk drawer and is now earmarked for a later date) is now tidy and organized and loosely filled, easy to close - no more wrestling to close an overfilled drawer!

Today, the last day, I finished organizing and tidying the bedroom closet and did a general tidy of the rest of the apartment.  The job of tidying the closet turned out to be easier and less time-consuming than expected.  I still have boxes of summer clothes on the shelves above but I plan to sort through them when the weather is warmer.  In the meantime, my walk-in closet has a clear floor, room for 3 laundry baskets to sit until filled and everything is hanging neatly and organized.  (now if I could just figure out what to wear tomorrow when I have to go back to work?!)

I've also made a list of things that need be done at a later date, like the sorting of the summer clothes.  I also want to sort through my several boxes of Christmas decorations but I figure there is no point in doing that now. If I save that for the fall, I can donate what I don't want and someone can use it for the Xmas season.  But the major job is done, the 5 areas I worked on are tidier and cleaner and no longer seem to be weighing me down emotionally with the thought of all that clutter.  That feels good.

As a reward, I'm going to take tonight off and just wind down and relax, probably watch a movie.  I figure I've earned a little time to goof off!  Until next weekend, when I will stick my hand in the job jar and pull out my next assignment.

A New Year's Day Walk

I did go on that walk yesterday, even though it was raining the entire time I was out. I almost turned back when I first walked out the door and saw the rain coming down but then decided I had to at least go across the street to the bank machine, as I needed some cash for the week ahead and the forecast was for colder weather in the next few days so I figured it was best to go while the weather was mild.  It was quite foggy out though.  Here's a picture I took of myself reflected in the bank window:

I was dressed warmly, with a scarf, mitts, a hat and the hood of my coat so the rain didn't bother me.  I decided I would keep going and do at least a half an hour's walk while I was out.  As it happened, I stayed out for an hour and a quarter!  Not surprisingly, I only saw one other person on my travels (other than people driving by in their cars), and she was walking a small long-haired dog who was totally soaked!

I had so much fun. I was taking photos and picking up little bits of (very soggy) paper* to dry out and use for a collage (my friend Heather calls me a "magpie" and it's true, I am always picking up little things on the ground!).  It was such a lovely mild temperature that it didn't matter that it rained steadily the entire time I was out.  I was glad I hadn't brought an umbrella, as it left my hands free to take photos and pick up things. My coat was so wet when I got home, I could hardly lift it onto the hanger - I had to hang it in the bathtub until it dried! Here's what the bottom of my jeans looked like by the end of my walk:

I took 82 photos while I was out (!!), mostly of the rain and various leaves on the sidewalk which, like stones, often look better wet than they do dry.  Here's a couple of examples:

Here's a picture of the collage I made in my daily journal with the various goodies I picked up along the way, as well as two of the above photos:

*Remarkably, one of those bits of paper was a VISA chit which was written for the amount of - get this - $11,000.00!!  I found it in the parking lot near the bank and it was the branch copy of the transaction, complete with the full VISA number and the person's signature.  I brought it home and as soon as it dried, I put it through my shredder.  I certainly wouldn't want any of my personal information to be lying around on the ground like that!

Happy New Year 2011!

Photo courtesy of psdgraphics.com

Here we are, the first day of the first month of 2011 - otherwise known as 1/1/11.  It's kinda cool, seeing all those ones lined up in a row like that, isn't it? 

How will you be spending this day?  I've got a couple of projects I'm working on.  My De-Clutter Project (read about it here) started officially yesterday.  I spent about 1.5 hours cleaning out my storage closet.  Not a lot of time (as I had several other tasks I wanted to accomplish yesterday as well) but it was one of the areas on my list of 25 that need attention in the next few months, so I'm right on schedule. 

Today, I'm taking part in a secret art project organized by Andrew Thornton (here's how I found out about it).  I can't tell you any of the details but there are 100 of us contributing and once the project is completed, I'll be sure to tell you all about it.

I also hope to be going out for a walk some time today, if it stops raining!  Or maybe even if it doesn't.  Toronto is expected to be the warmest city in the whole of Canada today, with a forecasted high of 10 degrees Celsius.  If it's going to be that warm, I definitely want to spend a little time outside before winter finds us again.

Whatever you do today, I hope it is something you enjoy.  With so many ones in today's date, it makes me think we should all spending some time putting ourselves first on the priority list, if only for today!

Farewell to 2010

Once again, I find myself at the end of another calendar year thinking, where did the time go?  It sped by so fast.  So many memories, some happy, some sad.  I had to look back in my calendar and reread my blog postings to remember the early part of the year, it seems so long ago.

In January, I was busy with various creative pursuits - taking photos and art classes, visiting the Royal Ontario Museum and making a Remains of the Day journal for my boss, who was heading to London, England with her daughter. I took this picture of myself on January 1st:

In February, we were all focused on the Olympics in Vancouver.  Here's my friend Heather and her family, having their picture taken with one of the torch bearers as the flame made its way across Canada prior to the Opening Ceremonies:

In March, I was busy finishing this piece for the Toronto Bead Society's Bag of Beads Challenge:

In April, I celebrated my 5th anniversary at my current job, one which I am grateful to be able to say I am still enjoying. I leased a new car, the Cherry Bomb. And I lost my last surviving uncle, Ron, unexpectedly.

May was highlighted by a visit with Kate McKinnon which included a trip to Niagara Falls, staying overnight with Debi Nicholson and a class at her store, Beads of Colour, in Dundas.

In June, I went to see the Eagles in concert with the Dixie Chicks with my good friends Barb and Wayne. 

At the time, I thought it was one of the best concerts I had ever seen, a claim to fame that was to be relinquished as early as July, when I saw Paul McCartney in concert with Heather.  Words still fail me when I try to describe how awesome that experience was!! 

July was a very musical month, come to think of it, because I got to experience the Elvis Festival in Collingwood for the first time as well!

August is a bit of a blur, as I was counting down the days until our trip to France at the end of the month.  What an amazing 17 days that was in the South of France with Gwen, Kate, Doriot, Dawn and Meryl.

I had barely had time to unpack upon arriving home from France in mid-September when a week later, I was rear-ended on Highway 401 and that was the end of the Cherry Bomb.

October brought a new car, Daytona Bluebell, and the experience of Journalfest - what an exciting one it was!  My head is still buzzing from all of the interesting things I learned and I am thrilled to have met so many wonderful new friends there. 

In November, I spent a lot of time finishing my Journalfest journal and celebrated my 49th birthday.  The countdown to 50 is on!

This past December has been overshadowed with much sadness, having said goodbye to my darling Max.

So there have been ups and downs in my life over the past 12 months, times of great happiness and great sorrow and the range of every emotion in between, as there usually are in all our lives each year.  The pages of the calendar continue to flip faster and faster, the seasons come and go, we say goodbye to some we have loved and welcome the joy that new friends bring to our hearts. 

As this year draws to a close, I wish you all the very best for a happy and healthy 2011.  May it be a year filled with love, laughter and new adventures for all of us.

My DeClutter Project 2011

As you may know from my Nov 30th post (read it here), one of my goals for 2011 is to be free of clutter in my home by my 50th birthday on Nov. 28, 2011.  As a result, I have put together a decluttering project for myself.  It goes like this:

I have divided my apartment into 5 zones:

1. Kitchen
2. Hall
3. Bedroom
4. Office
5. Dining Room/Living Room

and made a list of every area within those zones that currently needs to be de-cluttered.  As you may have heard, anyone can eat an elephant, you just have to do it one bite at a time.  Translation: any big job can be accomplished if you break it down into manageable (bite-sized) pieces.

I ended up with a list of 25 areas to be done.  11 of those are bigger jobs that will take more time than the other 14.  Here's what my list looks like:

Then I grabbed the 2011 Recycling Calendar for the City of Toronto (which I thought was an appropriate theme for this project) and counted the number of days and weekends I have available to work on this project between now and when we open the cottage in May, which turned out to be 22 days. 

This weekend, for example, I have the day off on Friday (Dec 31st) and we get Monday Jan 3rd as a holiday so that's 4 full days that can be devoted to this undertaking (which I thought would be a good way to kick off the project).  Most of the following weekends count as one day each, as I figure I will also need to allow myself some fun time as well (all decluttering and no play would leave me a very cranky girl, no matter how much progress I was making!).  Some of my 25 tasks will not take a whole day or weekend to accomplish either, so depending on my mood and energy level, I can do more than one task on some days, thus making my way through the 25 tasks in the 22 days/weekends.

I wrote out all the jobs on small pieces of paper:

folded them up and put them in this tin, which is my equivalent of the "honey do" or job jar:

The blue pieces of paper are the jobs that I expect will take more time, i.e. possibly most of 2 days one weekend.  Depending on my schedule, I can select a task by the colour of the paper (clever, eh?). Such as tidying my bead bookcase, which currently looks like this:

To hold myself accountable and on track, I'll be reporting my progress every Monday here on this blog and showing you before and after photos. 

Hopefully, by mid-May, I shall have a more organized, less cluttered home.  Wish me luck!!

This Is Too Funny

You may have already seen this clip on Kate McKinnon's blog (courtesy of DListed) but it is so cute, I just had to share it! Totally LOL!!

Inspired by The Dixon Chick

My dear friend Stephanie (a.k.a. The Dixon Chick) posted this photo of her cleared off dining room table earlier today on Facebook:

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Dixon

I was so inspired, I decided to see if I could do the same. 

It took me several hours to complete, as I tend to get easily distracted when I clean, especially if I'd rather be doing something else.  I call it "procrastination in motion" - where you start off doing one thing, like clearing off a table (which has been covered with craft and bead supplies for literally MONTHS! as this is my major work space), but then end up doing other things along the way to completing the first task you started.  Such as, I had some loose bits of ribbon on the table which I collected together but then I realized I needed a box to put them in and once I'd found a suitable box, it needed a label, so I went in to my office and while I was pulling out the label maker, I noticed a receipt that I needed to jot down to help balance my chequebook and so on and so on...

Nevertheless, I persevered and eventually, the table was clear.  Yes, Virginia, miracles do happen at Christmas time, as Stephanie and I can attest!

As you can see, the areas behind the table and especially the bookcases are not so tidy but that is a project for another day.  Stay tuned later this week, when I shall tell you my plans for cleaning up these other areas - I've got a special project planned to do just that in 2011 that starts this Friday!

As for the dining room table, as Stephanie herself said, "take a good, long look. You may never see this in your lifetime again." :)