Still de-cluttering - Photos, Magazines and Recipes

Been quite busy around here of late. Since giving up 99% of sugar, and all low fat foods, my energy is still high. It's the best I have felt in years. As a result, I have been really busy. Damian brought me home a trailer load full of rocks last weekend, so I have put those around for garden edging, I will still probably need another 2-3 trailer loads to finish off all of the edging, but it is getting there now, then just need to re-mulch everything and do some pruning,  and the gardens will be done for now. I am looking at going up to the property over the weekend, and if I do I will tow the trailer back up with me, and bring back another trailer load with me when I come back so I can keep going on that.  I am still working on the last bit of de-cluttering in the shed, and I did a big clean up in Kasey's room yesterday, and threw out 2 garbage bags full of rubbish - drawings, papers and clutter, and also donated 2 boxes of outgrown clothes and toys to the op shop. When de-cluttering the shed, I came across the start of the boxes of photos we have accumulated over the years. These just sit in boxes, never being looked at, taking up room. We aren't going to have the room in the cabin while building the new house, and I just want to clear everything out and just be able to concentrate on what needs doing each day, instead of storing and looking at stuff we don't need. So I went and purchased a good quality photo scanner, which scans photos and negatives, and I have started to scan the hundreds of photos that we have. So far I am up to 900, and I am afraid that is just the tip of the iceberg! Being just a photo scanner though, it is really quick, and is saving all the photos to an SD card. I am keeping any interesting and outstanding photos for scrap booking, and the rest are being tossed, and will only be kept in digital format. If we need a photo for something, we can get it printed from the memory card, or we can view the photos on the computer or tv. Looking back on the photos is a real memory tripper, and it is amazing looking at the changes that have taken place in our lives over the years, from when the kids were little, to building the house/s and the decor changes inside over the years, and occasions we had forgotten about, but that's what photos are for isn't it. I am going to make a couple of backup copies of the sd cards once fully completed, and will ask a couple of family members to keep a copy for us, just in case ours goes missing or is destroyed. By scanning the photos, I am also able to retouch any that are damaged in photoshop. I have also  been scanning my gardening magazines, as I want to keep them in a digital format only as well. Magazines take up such a lot of room, but I want to keep all of the information, just not the clutter. Scanning the magazines is taking a lot longer though, so it is going to take a loooonnnggg time to do, mainly because I am giving each scan a relevant name so I can archive them easily and be able to cross reference everything. Once that is done, I will publish the entire document as a PDF book on my ipad and computer which I can refer to whenever I like. I also need to do the same thing with all of my recipes that I have printed out on bits and pieces of paper, and toss any recipe books that I never use. Toni has asked me to make her up a recipe book with our family recipes in it for when she is living out of home so she can make her favourites that she has grown up with. I will probably do something up in Scrapbook Max for this, as there are a few great recipe book and card kits available that will do the job well and quickly.

Some serious decluttering...

I was working on the bedrooms last week, doing a focused clean up on them, cleaning windows, skirtings, cobwebs etc. Part of this task was also to sort out the clothing, so I set to work on Kasey's room first, and got rid of a box of things, as well as 3 garbage bags full of outgrown clothes. Then I set to work on our room...ughh...The walk in robe was in serious need of some sorting out. It's funny how you can look at something every day and totally ignore the state of it...well it's been about 10 years since I have cleaned it out, I have done wardrobe declutters in that time, but that has been getting rid of unworn clothes, not touching the shelves as well.  Soooo....here are the before shots:

 

This is the pile of clothes and things being donated to Lifeline:

And here is the finished product..the wardrobe is still quite full...where did it all go before!

Also on the floor in our bedroom were my pile of craft magazines that I read before going to sleep.  So I decided now was as good a time as any to get stuck in to those as well.  I have to stop buying magazines...there is over $2000 worth of mags here...that is a few years worth though, but still....look at them all!!

 

These are the only remaining ones now, my collection of Handmade mags, Grass roots, fruit and veg and organic gardening mags, and my warm earth magazines.  This box was choc a block full before, as well as 2 piles in our bedroom.

15 minutes in the focus zone turned in to a whole afternoon, but it is worth it now. There were 21 bags of clothing out of our walk in robe, plus a box of unused items, bags, shoes, etc.  To say I was stuffed after this was an understatement! Damian and Kasey helped me load it all in to the car....the back of the car was jam packed full, and I dropped it all off on my way to the markets on Sunday morning. This week is the lounge room and office....I cleaned the windows in the loungeroom today, the office will be tomorrow, and then on to dusting and cleaning them over the rest of the week.

Declutter challenge day 2

Well, I am still on track.  The 2nd load of clutter from the end of the garage was taken down to Lifeline yesterday afternoon, so now that is all gone.  I also managed to get my clutter plan done up and posted on my blog.  Rebekkah's boyfriend came by this afternoon and picked up the old fridge/freezer from the shed now that I have replaced it with the chest freezer, so that is gone as well.  I have a busy few days coming up, so I probably won't get to day 3 of my challenge until next week, which can only be in the early part of the week, so I will pick something small on my list to keep up the momentum. If I can find something on my declutter plan that will only take a 1/2 hour or so, then I will do it tomorrow or Friday, but I'll just wait and see how I feel.  I went to Kingaroy today with Toni and Kasey for Mum's birthday, and took her out to lunch at a chinese restaurant, which was nice. We also went out last night to Hog's breath for dinner, and then went and saw Despicable Me at the movies, so had a nice evening out, as I was feeling pretty down during the day and even when I got up this morning, but I am feeling much better tonight.

Declutter challenge day 1

I am setting myself a challenge to do some serious decluttering before the end of the year...today was day 1, and loaded up in the back of the car is 2 very large boxes of stuff from the garage that has been taking up room in there for the last 6 months, and prior to that, it was taking up room in the lockup area of the shed for about 2 years....waiting for me to have a garage sale....as well as some small trikes, 2 beanbags, a pram and a stroller and a few other bits and pieces....these WILL be dropped off at Lifeline in the morning on my way to coffee with Tammy.  When I get home I will be loading up the other half of the garage clutter, and that will go down on Wednesday morning on my way up to Mum's.  This will be 2 large 4WD loads of  clutter gone...I have kept a sand kingdom outside sand and water play table and will give this to Tammy in the morning for her little boy, and the rest of the stuff is really good quality baby and toddler toys, so hopefully someone who really needs it will get more use out of it than we are by it sitting in our garage.  I have also loaded up the Little Tikes playgym that is toddler sized, as well as the large rocker/seesaw thing for Tammy's little boy as well.

Day 2's challenge - get the 2nd load of clutter in to car ready to drop off Wed morning
                                 - Work out what will be on day 3 of this challenge's agenda


I have decided that the day's may not necessarily follow each other each day, but it may end up being 1 or 2 day's each week, followed by more or less the following week, depending on my schedule for that week and how I am feeling.  As October is quite busy for me work wise, I don't want to take on too much, but I don't want to lose the momentum of decluttering either, I have also come up with a decluttering plan that I can follow and mark off, with the idea being to have it done by the end of the year, I have this as a separate page here on the blog, so it is now written down, and I will mark each one off as I do it....here goes....