Thanks, Rosie! I will do that.

I'm spending my time between jobs working on the house. I still have that motivation problem, because the TV gets in my way!

I'm back!! It's been a busy year for me jobwise. The plan was for my daughter to spend the summer perfecting the house while school was out, but I took a job out of state.

She helped me organize anyway. I got the trashbags so that I could throw things away, and she had plastic storage tubs for sorting. She labeled them "yard sale," "give away,", and "keep."

I would go through papers and either throw them away or give them to her to file. She would bring an item to me, and I would tell her if I still needed it or not. I let her choose whether to throw it away, give it away, or yard sale it. Since I have ebay experience I knew which onces to put in that box. It went well when we had the time to get together.

The biggest motivator was the fact that I took a job out of state, and a friend wanted to rent my house. We worked and worked, and then my friend lost her job. Then I lost my job and moved back home.

So now my daughter is back in college and I'm in my clutter. My daughter did an excellent job, and the kitchen is awesome. My adults kids (25 and 35) tend to leave their things here and then complain about my housekeeping. Ugh.

Anyway, I just found this thread again and wanted to let you know I've made progress. Watching hoarding shows on TV really helps motivate me, so I'm watching a few today so I can clean tomorrow.

Janie, keep doing what you are doing, as it is working for you. Take ideas from these boards that also work for you and ignore the rest. I've learned from Dianne and other posters that there is more than one way to the end goals!

Roxie, the keeper boxes have sentimental items, things I'm undecided on, and things I may want to use later. In another post you mentioned "keeping things for the life you want, not the life you live", or something like that. I know what you are saying but I am keeping some items for later. I am living on hope right now, mainly hope that I can complete my clean-up project. I have visions of what I want my bedroom to look like. And there are some items I currently have stored away that work in perfectly with my vision. I feel if I get rid of these things right now it's like saying I will never get to the point where I can use these. I know it's probably not the sensible thing to do right now, but it's what feels right.

Janie, come on over to the "daily chat" threads!

I think your system sounds really good for you, especially the system of putting things on the front porch and allowing relatives to look through them, then setting a specific date and out they go from your house.

Keep up the good work!

Remember for the keeper boxes, if you haven't used it in the past year, or don't intend to use it in the near future, it might be better off going to someone who will. If it has extreme sentimental value at this time, you might contemplate keeping it for the time being, until such time as you are better prepared to let it go. If it has true cash value (and most does NOT) then see if you can sell or trade or barter it, or donate it. My great grandmother's writing desk had no real monetary value but great sentimental value. However, I did not honor it enough and the one drawer got trashed beyond repair. I still have the desk but would definitely contemplate getting rid of it in the future. Meanwhile, it sits in open position (a drop down writing surface) and houses my phone and phone books).

Here is what is working for me. When I am working on clean-up I keep trash bags, two boxes and a laundry basket nearby.

The trash bags are for the obvious - trash. This is anything worthless, broken or stained. Basically anything I don't want that can't be donated. One box is for donation items. One box is for keeper items. The laundry basket is for useful items that need to be put away.

When a trash bag gets filled it gets put in the garage until trash day. I put the donation boxes on my front porch for a month. During this time my children and their friends, or my relatives are free to look through the boxes and take out anything they can use. The rule is they must take it away from my house that day. No excuses. I take what remains to a Salvation Army store at the beginning of each month. The keeper items are boxed back up, labeled and stacked. The laundry basket items are put where they can be used and/or enjoyed.

I know I shouldn't just box up a lot of keeper items. I sometimes have a hard time making decisions and hope this will get better with time. I hope that if I can make an initial pass through each room in my house and get rid of the obvious, then I will be better equipped to make harder decisions when the project is not so overwhelming.

JustMe, I see you posted long ago and got no responses. Well, I'm reading and I am wondering if you are still around now?

I understand about the concept of "this may be useful," and "I may find the other part of this," when keeping things.

At some point one needs to be a bit more ruthless on discarding or donating, though. The items that are kept and not used are taking up space and are not being used by anyone. Perhaps in donating them someone else has the match or has a current use for the thing. Recycle or trash the remainder. You don't need it. Need and want are really two different things.

As far as how to keep house, there are lots of sites on the internet to help with that. FlyLady is one you can check out. Good luck

I was never taught to throw things away that may be usable. For example, normal people might throw away a lid if they can't find the bowl that it fits. I keep it because the bowl may turn up or someone else may be able to use it. I throw away pure trash, but I save a lot of of stuff that most people throw away.

I have a lot of boxes of stuff. I cannot bear to throw away my children's schoolwork. They are now grown and on their own, but looking back at things like that is fun.

My house is clean, but I just have a lot of stuff. People thought I liked cats and used the "I can't find a no kill shelter" to guilt me into taking cats they didn't want. I had 3 cats in the house, and now they are on my mother's farm. So I have made some progress there.

My grown children want to help me organize, but they threw away things while I wasn't home. That did not go over well at all and I made them leave. As I said, I have no problem throwing away trash. But there are some things that are special to me that others may not understand.

We have boxed up some things and have them labeled the boxes "yard sale." I have sold a lot of things on ebay lately and made several hundred dollars. These are things I kept because they weren't trash, but I didn't need or want them. I feel a sense of accomplishment there.

I hate to shop, so shopping is not my problem either. Actually I'm a tightwad.

I have thought about taking one room at a time, but I always start with the cleanest room and am complete in no time. Then I start going through boxes and get stuck.

I have a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home. One of the upstairs bedrooms was my office/computer room before the laptop became prevalent. Now that room is literally a junk room. It resembles what you see on hoarder shows except there is no food or animal crap in it.

My daughter has agreed to help me organize and has promised not to throw away things this time unless I tell her to. The problem now is she is 3 hours away in college, and when she comes home now we don't have time to declutter.

I work a full time job and help take care of my elderly mother after she became very sick last year, so my time is limited. My husband passed away many years ago in case you're wondering about that. I have a good education including a master's degree, so I'm not a total loser.

I get really stressed when I find out someone is coming over. I have to do a quick declutter of the living room, half bath, hall, and kitchen. My home is not an open floor plan, but those are the rooms a visitor may enter. If they saw my room or the upstairs, they would be speechless.

I never really learned much about housework. I grew up on a farm and did mostly farmwork. My husband did the housework while I worked.

I'm always looking for ideas and suggestions on how to get motivated. I waste time watching TV and working match puzzles. I will look for any excuse to not declutter.

Well I guess that's enough. I'm mostly venting and thinking out loud, and I know I need help. I just can't make myself do it. So, what's next?