I got rid of lots of holiday decorations a few years ago. I do not have near as much as I used to. Not outside decorations anymore. Just one string of lights around the front porch. I loved really doing it for the kids on both Halloween & Christmas inside & out. Now we just have one 17 year old left. And at 60 & 62, we just do not care to do that much work!

My next project to tackle and declutter is the master bedroom closet. That will be a challenge!

Claudia, I had good luck on closets by simply emptying EVERYTHING out of it, cleaning and airing out the insides, and then reloading ONLY clothing and shoes that we have actually worn in the last year or so. I got rid of lots of stuff I really did like, but for whatever reason never wore. Now that my available wardrobe is of a manageable size, I am determined to replace only - if something new goes in, something old comes out. This works particularly well for garden clothes, which I tend to wear until they literally fall apart. I've also established a couple seasonal under-bed totes for clothing that is specific to summer and/or winter. I hope to keep it manageable.

My current bugaboo is my office supply closet. I used to run a business out of my home and have tons of stuff I really don't see any future need for, most purchased in bulk. Lots of file folders, copy paper, etc. along with baskets full of clips, rubber bands, labels, etc. The problem is keeping 10 file folders takes up about as much space as 50. I need to tackle that with a ruthless attitude!

Bonehead said:My current bugaboo is my office supply closet. I used to run a business out of my home and have tons of stuff I really don't see any future need for, most purchased in bulk. Lots of file folders, copy paper, etc. along with baskets full of clips, rubber bands, labels, etc. The problem is keeping 10 file folders takes up about as much space as 50. I need to tackle that with a ruthless attitude!

Deb ... I cleared mine by giving most of the stuff to the church ...

I don't know any churches, but good idea. Or any non-profit. My junk is pretty random, mostly organizational stuff.

Bonehead said:I don't know any churches, but good idea. Or any non-profit. My junk is pretty random, mostly organizational stuff.

Most non-profits have offices and need that kind of stuff on an ongoing basis. It's just another way to donate instead of money. They use office supplies.

Bonehead said:Ha ha - I've been working on decluttering all my holiday crap along with the rest of it. I've whittled Xmas down to 3 totes, one is just lights (most of which don't work, need to ditch those), I'm giving ornaments away like crazy (one on every gift), and I'm working on just keeping the Santa guys that I actually like instead of the whole herd. We don't do an indoor tree any more, and I'm really pretty content to just bring in some greenery and tuck some candles and a couple Santas around. Our nuclear family plans to spend the holiday weekend at a cabin on Puget Sound, with very minimal gift giving - food, games, naps, fire, hikes, beachcombing, sauna, food. Looking way forward to a peaceful low-key celebration.

Sounds absolutely heavenly and family centered. Wonderful!

You can bring office supplies to schools... the teachers can use in many projects

Excellent suggestions!

I gave my husband a heads up that our closet is my next project and he will have to participate!

I was watching this thread but had no time to participate.
I suppose all you thread posters have a clean and tidy house by now

Well I have just started
January is my de-clutter month

Do you have a schedule for one room at a time or one area or how do you prioritize and figure where to start

I am taking it one room at a time, along with a general 'spruce up' to the same room - retire tired artwork and accessories, repaint, declutter, deep clean. I look at this as a year-long project, and don't feel bad about interruptions for 'fun' stuff. So far we've done the laundry room and main bath, master bedroom is next.

I started at Christmas with my daughter's old room. We went through drawers and closet and donated clothes. Then she actually took a few knickknack things from her childhood home..
Then we threw out some old Christmas stuff and freed up one of those big storage tubs..
Then as I was putting the clean linens away I decided to get rid of old bed pillows that we didn't need..
So for me it was just looking stuff I was doing and asking if I really needed it..

I domone room at a time...THAT is a big enough mess. I FINISHED the spare room except for one bureau ( three drawers..not anything to toss..all full of things to be donated)

All painted and spiffed with new linens.m
The bath needs a repainted..I moved a hutch in there with a glass front and the plan is to store towels and such in it. Two closed drawers at the bottom will hold the Bon Ami and cleaners for that bathroom.
the living
Room is done..all painted and spiffed. Nothing new. The kitchen is done..all dusted ( things on beams near ceiling..) and the food closet and cano etc decluttered and made neat. Newcoat paint.
Like Deb retired or rearranged things on wall since we painted and spackled nail holes.

I went thru my closets and got rid of clothes...not so hubby who REALLY needs it .

The laundry room/ utility is a wreck of things behind cabinet doors..he uses it as a storage..if it has no home he puts it in there..an empty shelf space..he has to fill it.. the shed is full of his stuff and now he is moving into my laundry room!! . I go behind him and toss...he asks "where is it " and I say.."Huh...wha?? ? I don't know!"

I have cleaned that attic twice in 2016.. time to do again.. our bed and bath done in 2015. And that is neat. So two people one too neat and one too sloppy. One lives spare and one WOULD be a hoarder if allowed. one ADHD/ hyperactive and one L A I D back. 😆😆😆😆. It is 45 years of nuts!

In the process, I set aside my two sons' collections of baseball and football cards to toss. Both adamantly objected, but neither will take them to their own homes. They are convinced the cards have some sort of value; I think it is around zero. My latest thought is to donate them to our local children's hospital (if they will take them) for the kids to mess with.

Yes! And some people set out the best in a frame and seal the top as an art piece for the kids rooms.

Donate to the local school coach as a give away for best player..most improved... team spirit..whatever...maybe you can get a tax deduction!

@gardengus - how nice that you think 'we' all have clean and tidy houses now. of course i can only attest for my part of 'we', but you've just given me a good belly laugh to start the day.
you did prompt me to go back and read through this thread and it does sound like many of the 'we' really have been successful. and i did see where i had actually done some stuff but was also good at crabbing about why and how and this and that.

last fall (fall being hard to define in Texas) i started pulling books off my bookshelves. this really pains me emotionally more than physically but i'm trying to be ruthless. now that it's a new tax year (ok slap me) those books will be gone. donating them to the public library. the library said what they can't use they'll sell at their twice a year book sale. win win.

now if only i could safely walk from the door of my 'office' to my desk . . .

Our library used to do that, but a couple of years ago they put the paperbacks on the "honor" shelf. You take them up to the desk, but just put a tick mark on the honor list. Not checked out formally so no due date etc.. but it's been going for a couple of years now and tons of books are always there.. mostly those popular mystery and romantic books, but sci-fi,western,Etc.

I did 2 bedrooms specifically because they were easy rooms to do. Those kids are gone. Rooms were empty of humans! That made them easy to do in a day for each room. Otherwise it has been a matter of seeing stuff & deciding it can go. Garage is full of stuff to get rid of still!

I worked my way thru the pantry, freezer & fridge. Lots of spices needed to be tossed along with expired stuff in the pantry.

Right now I am taking a break due to other things needing my attention. My big task on the to do list is our master closet. But I will require DH to participate in that undertaking.

My big thing is papers...the more I clean out the more pops up. My my.. we gather a lot of paper that has no purpose.

I'm sure you will agree each time we empty a drawer it is an accomplishment. A little load that gets lifted. I am convinced that humans are meant to travel light and it perplexes me why and how we gather so much STUFF!

I'm getting better at scanning in pieces of paper I may need but don't really need to physically keep. That's a bit of a mind-shift.

Thank you all for the responses
In order to get the process going I have had to for-fit some computer time, but I have a good start
I spent a day trying to find my desk and threw away two large paper bags of papers , and deleted hundreds of bookmarks and email clutter. This will be a great head start when I have to do my books for taxes

Then I tackled the closet I had some really old stuff in there.It is in the car now and will go to town tomorrow.

I am not sure I could do a whole room ? may take a couple months and I do not have that kind of time (spring / gardens )
so I have decided to do the places that I can really see a difference Daily.