Congratulations Tatoulia on letting go of some old items and shreading notebooks!
Congratulations Tillie on getting rid of the metal lawn furniture! Im.in southern Arizona, but one of the most wonderful times in.my life was a Rainbow Gathering in Northern.Nevada in July 89! It was when rainbow meant hippie, not gay.
Today it rained so i couldnt collect the last of the mesquite bean harvest, and i talked on the phone all afternoon to my friend back east. In an indirect way its helped motivate me and feel.better about myself! In some ways, at least for me, thats more important that a tiny chunk of clearing and cleaning! Ive got a goid plan for quite a bit out back, so.im excited about that! The decisions are the biggest part for me!

WAY TO GO!!!! Tatoulia! 😀

Hi Anonymoniker 🙂
I grew up in Tucson Arizona then migrated up here for work. 😀
These areas are a lot alike except Nevada doesn't have many cactus.

WAY TO GO!!!! Tatoulia! 😀

Hi Anonymoniker 🙂
I grew up in Tucson Arizona then migrated up here for work. 😀
These areas are a lot alike except Nevada doesn't have many cactus.

Thanks for the encouragement, Tillie and Anon! Greatly appreciated. Glad you have good support in your friend back East (I am on the East coast myself) Anon!

Take care, all. I need to keep it up. Wishing you all a good evening, thank you for everything!

Thinking of Diane, Bitsy, LR, Roxie, Oodles, CM, and everyone else.

Thanks for the encouragement, Tillie and Anon! Greatly appreciated. Glad you have good support in your friend back East (I am on the East coast myself) Anon!

Take care, all. I need to keep it up. Wishing you all a good evening, thank you for everything!

Thinking of Diane, Bitsy, LR, Roxie, Oodles, CM, and everyone else.

Congratulations on the upcoming sale, Tillie! I'm so happy for you! Sounds like you have a good decision-making process!

Hello to all. Cleaning and vacuuming carpet this AM.

Congratulations on the upcoming sale, Tillie! I'm so happy for you! Sounds like you have a good decision-making process!

Hello to all. Cleaning and vacuuming carpet this AM.

Does this item make me happy?? No?! In the bag. This is working for me today.

Got rid of some old holdouts today. In the bag for goodwill. Also shredded two notebooks of stuff I previously couldn't let go.

Take care, everyone.

Does this item make me happy?? No?! In the bag. This is working for me today.

Got rid of some old holdouts today. In the bag for goodwill. Also shredded two notebooks of stuff I previously couldn't let go.

Take care, everyone.

CriticalMass, yesterday.i had to retype(and remember!) my.post.3 times cuz it didnt post! Today that almost happened again, but i backed upto it and it let me tey to repost the same text.
I have started on.my screen.porch project yet cuz my good friend from.the east coast called and she always gives me inspiration.and motivation and i feel like its a valuable thing to 'procrastinate' for! I need to reassure her on her recent new healthy endeavors that id help.her to get going on, and shes doing great with it, so it was mutually positive! ...she doesnt know the extent of my mess...ive told her its bad, but i know she could never even.imagine it...but she stills gives me confidence and inspiration!
Tillue i hope youve found a good project for the day, or maybe just spend the day having fun taking a break from
it all! ...ooops? Sorry for the typo of your name...and all the typos?!!
Happy cleaning and clearing to all!!! 😀

...i was cruising along, getting lots done, on a roll, when.i went inside to grab a scrubby from.the sink.to clean and a BIG spider was under it!!! I did manage to kill it, but im still shaken.up! ...im havinga small glass of wine...(sigh)...im going back to finish what ive decided on...theres still plenty of time to complete my goal for the day...dang, the spider and rattlesnake season.can.definitely make one jumpy...

...i was cruising along, getting lots done, on a roll, when.i went inside to grab a scrubby from.the sink.to clean and a BIG spider was under it!!! I did manage to kill it, but im still shaken.up! ...im havinga small glass of wine...(sigh)...im going back to finish what ive decided on...theres still plenty of time to complete my goal for the day...dang, the spider and rattlesnake season.can.definitely make one jumpy...

Good Morning Everyone 🙂

Hi CriticalMass 🙂
I learned that hard lesson posting here
always copy posts!
It is so frustrating to have our posts disappear after we have worked hard to put our thoughts into print.
WAY TO GO!!! using a "staging area" to sort!
Good luck finding your minions. 🙂

Hi Anonymoniker 🙂
WAY TO GO!!! getting back to your project even after having to do battle with the spooky spider!
I killed a huge black widow just yesterday. 🙁
I can truly sympathize with you about the creepy crawlies, I have snakes here too, LOTS of snakes here in the desert of northern Nevada.
Don't stress about typos, we all make them too. 🙂

Yesterday the neighbor friend dropped by and said that this Friday/Saturday we will have the yard sale.
All my small stuff is ready and priced.
There is big stuff like metal yard stuff that I need to clean up to get ready to sell.
Since I am not a hoarder or gatherer there really isn't much for me to let go of. This is why my friend and I double up to have the sale, to make the sale bigger to get more customers.
I am selling all my metal yard furniture because for decades now I have not been able to use it, it is always piled high and buried deep with all of his assorted collections.
This has been very frustrating for me so I have decided to sell it and then I will not keep getting depressed seeing it like that and never being able to enjoy using it.
This was a very hard decision to make but I feel so much happier and freer now that I have made up my mind to let these things go.
I am also selling an antique chest of drawers from my room. It has no sentimental emotions like the two dressers I am keeping in there and I don't really need it.
My two sentimental dressers that I will never part with are heirlooms from Grandmas, one was even my Great Grandma's. 😀
So, today I have a plan and a deadline to work towards.
Hate having yard sales and don't like going to them either but it will feel so nice once this is over with.
P.S. all leftovers will be donated to MS. They send a big truck to pick up stuff and our other neighbor has MS. Win, win.
Any bedding type items always go to the local animal shelter for animal beds.

Wishing you all the best with whatever plans you have for today. 🙂

Good Morning Everyone 🙂

Hi CriticalMass 🙂
I learned that hard lesson posting here
always copy posts!
It is so frustrating to have our posts disappear after we have worked hard to put our thoughts into print.
WAY TO GO!!! using a "staging area" to sort!
Good luck finding your minions. 🙂

Hi Anonymoniker 🙂
WAY TO GO!!! getting back to your project even after having to do battle with the spooky spider!
I killed a huge black widow just yesterday. 🙁
I can truly sympathize with you about the creepy crawlies, I have snakes here too, LOTS of snakes here in the desert of northern Nevada.
Don't stress about typos, we all make them too. 🙂

Yesterday the neighbor friend dropped by and said that this Friday/Saturday we will have the yard sale.
All my small stuff is ready and priced.
There is big stuff like metal yard stuff that I need to clean up to get ready to sell.
Since I am not a hoarder or gatherer there really isn't much for me to let go of. This is why my friend and I double up to have the sale, to make the sale bigger to get more customers.
I am selling all my metal yard furniture because for decades now I have not been able to use it, it is always piled high and buried deep with all of his assorted collections.
This has been very frustrating for me so I have decided to sell it and then I will not keep getting depressed seeing it like that and never being able to enjoy using it.
This was a very hard decision to make but I feel so much happier and freer now that I have made up my mind to let these things go.
I am also selling an antique chest of drawers from my room. It has no sentimental emotions like the two dressers I am keeping in there and I don't really need it.
My two sentimental dressers that I will never part with are heirlooms from Grandmas, one was even my Great Grandma's. 😀
So, today I have a plan and a deadline to work towards.
Hate having yard sales and don't like going to them either but it will feel so nice once this is over with.
P.S. all leftovers will be donated to MS. They send a big truck to pick up stuff and our other neighbor has MS. Win, win.
Any bedding type items always go to the local animal shelter for animal beds.

Wishing you all the best with whatever plans you have for today. 🙂

Good day all . . .

NOTE - I'm irritated at the moment because my post I just tried to make got eaten; this is a reconstruction of it as best as I can remember. I had typed in the Captcha and everything seemed OK, but the screen went sort of blank in an unusual way and then my post never showed up. So take my advice, and do a "Copy" before you post to be on the safe side. Now to the post I had intended to make, or a reasonable facsimile thereof:

I can certainly relate to the "Where do I start?!" dilemma. I guess it's a byproduct of our indecision which breeds hoarding, hoarding then breeds clutter and clutter breeds more indecison when we go back to start dealing with it. I don't have any great pearls of wisdom since I'm suffering from the same indecision but here are a couple of strategies I've used.

One thing that has helped me is to have a "staging area." A blank place to put the stuff to be decided on. But only while you're doing the deciding, mind. A card table works well for this with indoor sorting of papers and knickknacks and items of that size range. Then you fold up and put away the card table at the end of the session so it doesn't become another clutter surface.

When doing the van yesterday the driveway functioned as my staging area. We're blessed here with a nice long driveway and the back part of it is out of sight of the neighbors, so I just backed up the van and used that back of the driveway to set things so I could go through them. It worked well.

While I was doing this van project, it became apparent that I really do need to proceed on to my storage unit for my next project. For that, I could really use some MINIONS. I'm going to have to pull out a bunch of stuff in order to be able to get the shelving in place, and get as much junky clutter out quickly and (ideally) make a staging area within the unit, or at least a wide enough path to make further decluttering go more smoothly. When I'm trying to do this all myself, given that things are stacked precariously every which way, its hard not to fall on my butt or have an avalanche of stuff falling and making a worse mess. It's also more emotionally stressful with all the stuff spread out on the parking lot and wondering if I'll be able to get it all where it should go before the day's end, whether that's back in the unit neatly, to the dumpster, to the thrift shop, wherever.

So my current mission is to beg, borrow, kidnap, or whatever, to get myself some minions! And of course they have to be patient, nonjudgmental minions. Wish me luck!

P.S. - re internet time - it's been harder than usual not to sucked into the internet because of going on Facebook in the mornings to see how my friend is doing in her recovery. I guess I'm going to have to be more aware to stay focused on only that and not get to looking at everything else till later. My sleep rhythm has also been way off, due to early morning awakenings last week from a storm and other things, so I'm awakening much later than I'd wish and moving like a turtle in the mornings, which doesn't help much.

Good day all . . .

NOTE - I'm irritated at the moment because my post I just tried to make got eaten; this is a reconstruction of it as best as I can remember. I had typed in the Captcha and everything seemed OK, but the screen went sort of blank in an unusual way and then my post never showed up. So take my advice, and do a "Copy" before you post to be on the safe side. Now to the post I had intended to make, or a reasonable facsimile thereof:

I can certainly relate to the "Where do I start?!" dilemma. I guess it's a byproduct of our indecision which breeds hoarding, hoarding then breeds clutter and clutter breeds more indecison when we go back to start dealing with it. I don't have any great pearls of wisdom since I'm suffering from the same indecision but here are a couple of strategies I've used.

One thing that has helped me is to have a "staging area." A blank place to put the stuff to be decided on. But only while you're doing the deciding, mind. A card table works well for this with indoor sorting of papers and knickknacks and items of that size range. Then you fold up and put away the card table at the end of the session so it doesn't become another clutter surface.

When doing the van yesterday the driveway functioned as my staging area. We're blessed here with a nice long driveway and the back part of it is out of sight of the neighbors, so I just backed up the van and used that back of the driveway to set things so I could go through them. It worked well.

While I was doing this van project, it became apparent that I really do need to proceed on to my storage unit for my next project. For that, I could really use some MINIONS. I'm going to have to pull out a bunch of stuff in order to be able to get the shelving in place, and get as much junky clutter out quickly and (ideally) make a staging area within the unit, or at least a wide enough path to make further decluttering go more smoothly. When I'm trying to do this all myself, given that things are stacked precariously every which way, its hard not to fall on my butt or have an avalanche of stuff falling and making a worse mess. It's also more emotionally stressful with all the stuff spread out on the parking lot and wondering if I'll be able to get it all where it should go before the day's end, whether that's back in the unit neatly, to the dumpster, to the thrift shop, wherever.

So my current mission is to beg, borrow, kidnap, or whatever, to get myself some minions! And of course they have to be patient, nonjudgmental minions. Wish me luck!

P.S. - re internet time - it's been harder than usual not to sucked into the internet because of going on Facebook in the mornings to see how my friend is doing in her recovery. I guess I'm going to have to be more aware to stay focused on only that and not get to looking at everything else till later. My sleep rhythm has also been way off, due to early morning awakenings last week from a storm and other things, so I'm awakening much later than I'd wish and moving like a turtle in the mornings, which doesn't help much.

CriticalMass, yesterday.i had to retype(and remember!) my.post.3 times cuz it didnt post! Today that almost happened again, but i backed upto it and it let me tey to repost the same text.
I have started on.my screen.porch project yet cuz my good friend from.the east coast called and she always gives me inspiration.and motivation and i feel like its a valuable thing to 'procrastinate' for! I need to reassure her on her recent new healthy endeavors that id help.her to get going on, and shes doing great with it, so it was mutually positive! ...she doesnt know the extent of my mess...ive told her its bad, but i know she could never even.imagine it...but she stills gives me confidence and inspiration!
Tillue i hope youve found a good project for the day, or maybe just spend the day having fun taking a break from
it all! ...ooops? Sorry for the typo of your name...and all the typos?!!
Happy cleaning and clearing to all!!! 😀

CriticalMass, yesterday.i had to retype(and remember!) my.post.3 times cuz it didnt post! Today that almost happened again, but i backed upto it and it let me tey to repost the same text.
I have started on.my screen.porch project yet cuz my good friend from.the east coast called and she always gives me inspiration.and motivation and i feel like its a valuable thing to 'procrastinate' for! I need to reassure her on her recent new healthy endeavors that id help.her to get going on, and shes doing great with it, so it was mutually positive! ...she doesnt know the extent of my mess...ive told her its bad, but i know she could never even.imagine it...but she stills gives me confidence and inspiration!
Tillue i hope youve found a good project for the day, or maybe just spend the day having fun taking a break from
it all! ...ooops? Sorry for the typo of your name...and all the typos?!!
Happy cleaning and clearing to all!!! 😀

CriticalMass, yesterday.i had to retype(and remember!) my.post.3 times cuz it didnt post! Today that almost happened again, but i backed upto it and it let me tey to repost the same text.
I have started on.my screen.porch project yet cuz my good friend from.the east coast called and she always gives me inspiration.and motivation and i feel like its a valuable thing to 'procrastinate' for! I need to reassure her on her recent new healthy endeavors that id help.her to get going on, and shes doing great with it, so it was mutually positive! ...she doesnt know the extent of my mess...ive told her its bad, but i know she could never even.imagine it...but she stills gives me confidence and inspiration!
Tillue i hope youve found a good project for the day, or maybe just spend the day having fun taking a break from
it all! ...ooops? Sorry for the typo of your name...and all the typos?!!
Happy cleaning and clearing to all!!! 😀

Congratulations on the van, CriticalMass!
Tillie, thank you for that reminder that i use to use the internet as (bait) a reward for tasks completed or worked on. I need to go back to that!
Today its cool and cloudy, so im gonna work on the screen.porch. if i can get the tools cleaned and put away, then.the table & chairs put back, ill have my space back outback for another pile for taking to the dump! That will be my goal for today!
Happy accomplishments to all, today!!! 😀

Congratulations on the van, CriticalMass!
Tillie, thank you for that reminder that i use to use the internet as (bait) a reward for tasks completed or worked on. I need to go back to that!
Today its cool and cloudy, so im gonna work on the screen.porch. if i can get the tools cleaned and put away, then.the table & chairs put back, ill have my space back outback for another pile for taking to the dump! That will be my goal for today!
Happy accomplishments to all, today!!! 😀

Good morning 🙂

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
WTG! FANTASTIC! Keeping up with maintenance and also finding more to donate. 😀
YEA!! for only food purchases. You are off to a great start.

Hi Anonymoniker 🙂
Good luck with your plan for today! 😀

9:00am here now.
Have no idea what I will do today.
There are too many things that I could be doing.
I need to find some motivation, some reason or desire.
Sometimes I just feel "why bother?" when I look around at all the clutter surrounding my little clean and tidy spot.
Before I sign off I will send another email to Diane.

Everybody, try to make this a GREAT day! 😀

Good morning 🙂

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
WTG! FANTASTIC! Keeping up with maintenance and also finding more to donate. 😀
YEA!! for only food purchases. You are off to a great start.

Hi Anonymoniker 🙂
Good luck with your plan for today! 😀

9:00am here now.
Have no idea what I will do today.
There are too many things that I could be doing.
I need to find some motivation, some reason or desire.
Sometimes I just feel "why bother?" when I look around at all the clutter surrounding my little clean and tidy spot.
Before I sign off I will send another email to Diane.

Everybody, try to make this a GREAT day! 😀

Hello Tillie! Thanks for the good internet advice. So far, have only purchased food items! Also washed an old sheet and put it in the donate bag. Keeping kitchen clean since friend's visit! Am back to emptying dishwasher as soon as it is finished.

I got garbage out, litter box cleaned and recyclables out. Time to finish evening chores and get to bed.

You are a great support, Tillie. Next time you are in touch with Diane could you tell her I say Hello?!!??

Hello Tillie! Thanks for the good internet advice. So far, have only purchased food items! Also washed an old sheet and put it in the donate bag. Keeping kitchen clean since friend's visit! Am back to emptying dishwasher as soon as it is finished.

I got garbage out, litter box cleaned and recyclables out. Time to finish evening chores and get to bed.

You are a great support, Tillie. Next time you are in touch with Diane could you tell her I say Hello?!!??

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
WAY TO GO!!! with the book sorting 🙂

How's it going with the no shopping?
I know it's hard breaking the habit.
Remember that even if you fall off the wagon you can just climb back on and start again.
(((HUGS)))

Hi Tatoulia 🙂
WAY TO GO!!! with the book sorting 🙂

How's it going with the no shopping?
I know it's hard breaking the habit.
Remember that even if you fall off the wagon you can just climb back on and start again.
(((HUGS)))

Well, somebody must've prayed for me, because I went out anyway and got going on the van! I managed to go through stuff, get a big black trashbag about 3/4 full. Now a fair amount of stuff is still going to have to "live" in the van for awhile as it's projects I just can't bring indoors due to small space where I'm staying. But it's neat and labeled and manageable.

Some will go to my storage garage when I get the shelves all up and lots more dejunking done there. But all in all, I did get this particular task accomplished to the point it needs to be right now. It gave me a chance to inspect stuff and make sure there was no damage from moisture, shifting around, etc. - particularly to a nice painting I did, and which I need to repack more securely.

It's all a work in progress - the van and the storage and my quarters here. But this is what I've been waiting 3-4 months to tackle, so that feels great!

Well, somebody must've prayed for me, because I went out anyway and got going on the van! I managed to go through stuff, get a big black trashbag about 3/4 full. Now a fair amount of stuff is still going to have to "live" in the van for awhile as it's projects I just can't bring indoors due to small space where I'm staying. But it's neat and labeled and manageable.

Some will go to my storage garage when I get the shelves all up and lots more dejunking done there. But all in all, I did get this particular task accomplished to the point it needs to be right now. It gave me a chance to inspect stuff and make sure there was no damage from moisture, shifting around, etc. - particularly to a nice painting I did, and which I need to repack more securely.

It's all a work in progress - the van and the storage and my quarters here. But this is what I've been waiting 3-4 months to tackle, so that feels great!

When I wa in grad school, one of my professors said, TV is a thief. If you turn it on, you will watch it for at least half an hour. The Internet is now the thief in my life.

THANK YOU for helping me see that today! Greatly appreciated. Hello to all!