four days (and forty pounds lighter)

Don't think for a moment that since I haven't been posting about it, I haven't been throwing stuff away, decluttering to beat the band!  Oh, but I have.  I have indeed.

On Saturday (Father's Day) David came home with a banana box in his hand and a competitive twinkle in his eye.  "I'm going to get into this decluttering business, too" he said.  And then he promptly filled the box with books to drop off at the library's booksale fundraiser.

Not to be outdone, I cleaned another cupboard out and filled half a huge garbage bag with clothes.  Over the next day we added to both the box and the bag, especially the bag, which was filled to overflowing with old sheets that don't fit any mattresses we own, clothes from every family member, shoes and coats.  And to prevent the 'let's rethink these decisions' syndrome, we got that bag out of the house first thing Monday morning.  We missed our chance to donate those books to the library, though, and so the box is sitting in our storage room at the moment, but tomorrow it will also find it's way out to somewhere.  Competition and my husband cleaning the livingroom shirtless...are you sure it isn't Mother's Day?

So that was Saturday.  Sunday I kept going in the kitchen and cleaned most of another shelf.  I feel like I may need to go over it again.  I'm still holding on to things that, when I revisit the same shelf, I realize I don't really need.  Also I'm falling back on the emotional attachment card way too often.  I can't keep everything, just because it once belonged to someone who has passed away or someone gave it to me or it reminds me of an event.  David and I also discussed which of our two large strollers to pass along to a new home.

Monday I discovered the world of 3M hanging strips and promptly cleared the area around the sink/toilet of training seats, cat litter scoops and other stuff by hanging them low on the wall.  It looks so much neater.  I'm not going to post a picture of my toilet, but trust me, it looks neater.  I also found someone who would be willing to take a stack of cleaning supplies I don't use, emptied out all those 80% finished bottles of shower products, and starting consolidating pantry supplies (more on that later).

Today I cleaned out Sam's desk drawer of stuff.  I emptied out my cutlery drawer and threw mismatched cutlery into the 'donate' box.  David made a run to Walmart and bought me a new laundry basket and I threw away our two old ones, which had torn in the way that Rubbermaid stuff tends to do.  And I cleaned, at least partially, the furnace room of a broken fan, a bag of rags, a large plastic bucket that I used as a diaper pail back when I needed a diaper pail, and an old bicycle lock.  When we put out our garbage today it looked like we were moving.

How's your decluttering week going?