January 1st- The Great Purge contest
artwork from
eroundlake.com/.../
Purge all the old stuff you no longer want, use, or like and make room for the best of the best. Keep only what you LOVE. Your home and your life will feel so much more in control.
Purge the old stuff to charity, ebay, friends, new college students, or wherever you feel it needs to go that is OUT of your home. Start in the craft room and scrapbook area and work your way around the house. Let's start GATHERING UP STUFF for our great purge for 2007 RIGHT NOW!
Leave me a note here ( in the form of a comment) about what you are purging and YOU could win a $25 dollar value prize!!
This Great Purge Comment Challenge lasts until January 15th.
Rockester
Comments
The next major area that I really need to purge is the den closet. I don't even know what is in there anymore....just know that it's overflowing. Need to go through the games and younger kid videos too. Purge those and then go through old boxes of items that have been waiting to be gone through and put in there "out of sight out of mind".
Those are the first two purge areas that I'll be working on. The scraproom closet and the den closet. Thanks Rock for the challenge!
For myself, I will be starting with our main bathroom, as it is small enough to complete in a day, yet large enough that I will have accomplished something significant by the end of the day :). From there, I will probably head into the kitchen, which is the the second largest room in our home and is packed full of enough stuff to supply two more households!
My Thanks to Angie Pedersen, who shared your challenge in her blog and to you, Rockester, for creating it.
May 2007 be a year of blessings for you and yours!
-- kimB
Good luck to everyone in this challenge!
Today I will be purging our main bath's linen closet, getting rid of pattern sheets that my children have really out grown since two are married and one a senior in high school. LOL
Third purge will be the medicine cabinet. Need to get rid of a bunch of stuff in there.
we're having a big yard sale this summer, so everything will be put in boxes, labled, and put in the basement for the yardsale, and out of my way!
I only have a closet about 40 inches wide so I need to keep on top of things. So, I went thru my Iris carts and found stuff I knew I had but never used. I got rid of stamps, maybe about 15 of them, then I got rid on some templates. I never used them. There were about 7 of these. They are the bigger ones just taking up space. Then I went thru ALL my stickers! That was fun, haha!. I so slimmed my PSB that its not even funny. I feel as though I have lost a ton of weight!
Then were a bunch of other scrapbook related items i got rid of. All of this went to my niece. She is into scrapping and I thought she would like the stuff.
Now on to the basement. I have been trying to get rid of the moving pads we purchased for our move to Milwaukee about 2 years ago. No one wanted them, so today I took them all to the Salvation Army. I will just write it off. What a relief!! Then I even cleaned my closet. Another relief!! I am happy now. Now I have to get rid of some moving boxes. I don't want them anymore!
Well, good luck to all you purgers!! Have fun!
Dorothy
As for my scrapbooking room, I do not have a lot of supplies on hand as I am a use as you go type of person. I have a whole lot of tools but papers, embellishments, and stickers, very limited. I pretty much buy per project and then what ever is left I try to make sure I can use in my other scrapbooks.
Thanks for the challenge Rock!
peace
KIm
I've got a few areas to work on:
~donate the kids' toys that I removed from their rooms before Christmas to make room for the new stuff
~sorting through the girls' clothes and donating some of them, organizing the rest
~re-organize the garage, which shouldn't be too hard because there are just a few things out of place
~and finally...scrap stuff...I haven't scrapped in over two years, and I moved to a new house in that time frame. My stuff is all stored in a closet under the stairs, and I've got to figure out where I can make a "scrap space" in my house and then go through all the stuff! It's going to be the biggest project of all the things I need to do, but I'm looking forward to it...it'll be fun to go through everything again, and I'll purge some stuff and organize the rest so I can start scrapping again! I've decided it'll be better for me to be more of a buy-as-you-go type of scrapper
I've been in nursing school for the last two years and I'm finished now, so I'm looking forward to getting my life back in order and having some time for hobbies again!
Jeanette H.
Big Major Purge in the living room, it is currently empty and being painted and re-carpeted. Only the items we love are going back into that room, the rest is currently in my garage and free to a good home. Anyone need a set of turquoise reclining couches with a matching recliner? Coffee table? End table? Lamp that needs a few small repairs?
Next is the kids rooms..... Muhuhuhahahahahah
My closet will be another area I purge this year, so much in there I don't wear. 2006 was a big turnaround and I MADE myself buy one new thing a month, even if it was just undies or socks, this was a big thing as I hate clothes shopping. This is something I definatly want to continue in 2007. My tastes have changed considerably and its not such a chore anymore. I wouldn't say I enjoy it but its definately not a hate thing anymore.
still working on living more with simplicity.
Next week, I will start going through my scrapbook paper and share some of the paper with my dil. After that, I will work on my closet - which needs lots of reorganization and purging.
Janet
From our bedroom closets all unused clothing went to charity. The living room was completely rearranged and there wasn't really anything in there to purge but the crafting table was taken down and the supplies taken to the craft room. Kitchen and dining room cleaned and stuff much stuff thrown away. I came across a few bolts of material left over from the days of working in a cap factory these I gave to a friend who sews.
Then it was on to the craft room. This was the big one, you see my mother died in Oct. 05 and she was a big crafter. She scrapbooked, sewed, embroideried, made quilts, did hand knitting, crocheting, she also had a few knitting machines. In her spare time she worked on computer graphics for embroidery machine patterns, homemade cards and scrapbooking. Needless to say she had supplies everywhere and one of the biggest rooms ever to work in. I inherited the majority of this as my sister does little to no crafts. At the time of going through this I kept virtually everything as I could not stand to part with anything that had belonged to my mother. We had for several years had weekly craft nights at her house and it seemed everything had meaning to me. Well I have a wonderful husband and a pretty big craft room myself but as you can imagine my space was running over with a lot of stuff I don't even use and never will. This past week has been spent going through and being really tough about what I will and will not use. My mother would not expect me to have a room I can't even use because I have her stuff sitting everywhere. Long story short I through away trash, organized pictures (in which I also inherited when my dad remarried) and gave away a lot of craft stuff to my mom's sister. My room is now managable and I am expecting to actually scrapbook this year even if some will be done through tears of missing that special craft partner, teacher, encourager and friend my mother.
Thanks Rock for inspiring me to push through the paralisis of being overwhelmed with too much stuff.
Lynn Clark
Truly you gal are inspiring ME! Off to clear the junk drawer....
Rockester
working one room a day. My tip: first completely cleansweep each room removing anything that doesn't belong there. I actually looked for excuses to get rid of stuff (which is SO unlike me! LOL) Then, designate a box for each room and put anything that didn't belong in that room in the box to go through. Anything that can be trashed can be done there. DON'T PUT IT IN THE BOX! Yes, my boxes are big, but now I have everything in ONE place, I'm not distracted by anything else in the room, and I'm able to focus on the job at task. Each day, I am going through my boxes--making a rule to only handle an item one time. So far, my plan is working. It may not be the most efficient way, but it's a comforting way for me when I sometimes want to cling to the emotional end of keeping STUFF. I'm really tired of living a life of clutter. A new year and new me is here. I'm welcoming it with open arms. I love this challenge!
I started in the boys room the other day, and took out TEN bags of clothes. the worst about that is that I still have four hampers of laundry in the laundry room, most of which is theirs! How did 3 boys accumulate so much clothing? It's no wonder they can't keep it all put away neatly. I still have some work to do in there, then I will be moving on to my dining room, which is where all my scrapbooking supplies are as well.
In Phoenix we don't have basements and we can't store anything in our attics because of the heat... so that leaves the garage. Guess what? Our cars don't fit in the garage! Soooo, I am determined to do some major purging in the garage and make room for our van!!
Wish me success!
I haven't finished purging through my scrap stuff yet, but I think that's an ongoing thing still. I have been gifting many things to my school, for the craft area and the kinder classes, and stickers and such have been going to the kids for their scrapbooks and art. I still need to go through the stamps and inks, etc. -- need to see what works, what doesn't, what I'll use and what I won't. LOL I did find a box of papers I had been searching for, so that was a pleasant outcome! :) And thanks to a new photosmart all-in-one Christmas present, I have already purged my desktop and surrounding office area! What a difference to see all that usable space!
Thanks again, Rock, for this awesome challenge. I hope to do more in the next few days before returning to work!
MelanieB
I am also planning to purge in the freezer. I hope to make as many of our meals for January as I can with supplies that we already have on hand.
Rock
Rock
I sure do need this challenge! Am working on kitchen cabinets today - just threw out a huge bag of plastic lids (that I have no bowls for, duh!) Scraproom is pretty much done. I have been so inspired by your article about not hoarding scrapping supplies..it has totally changed my focus! I'm taking a challenge to not buy any scrapping supplies until I've scrapped 100 pages with what I already have!
Thanks so much for all your inspiration! And again, I am so happy to find your new blog address!! Hugs!!
While I was indexing some new stamps, I also went through my collection and purged there also. Funny but I found I could create easier after that. I guess I knew what I had and was excited about the beautiful items I kept.
Oh and while putting away this year's holiday decorations - anything I didn't put out is going out the door!
Today I'll work on the piles near the bed.
I got rid of lots of papers and trash.
We get a new bigger trash can on Monday as we're getting ready to move and no matter how much I recycle, I can't get thru the two weeks between pickups here. HOPEFULLY this will help in our cleaning for our move in July.
Thanks for getting the encouragement to get going on our move!
So far, I have gotten rid of FOUR boxes of toys, 3 boxes of books (1 adult, 2 children), 3 garbage bags of childrens clothing, 2 garbage bags of adult clothing, 3 boxes of accessories and misc household items (belts, shoes, knick knacks, frames, etc), 19 packs of Jolie's and Paper bliss, and 24 sheets of stickers.
I donated the scrapbook supplies to a local girlscout troop, and the rest went to Goodwill. My house feels so much less cluttered - it is amazing!
Thanks for the encouragement to purge!
Summer
kids clothes
infant carseat (I recently read that you need to replace them every 4-5 years, so when we need another we'll get another)
infant bedding
stuffed animals (this was such a triumph, as I am the real collector of soft toys around here and it's hard for me to let go of them...)
Things to fling next:
my clothes (four drawers full of what exactly? NO ONE KNOWS)
my scrap stuff (especially paper, I have way more than I need or will use - I'm going to try to sell some cheap on craigslist)
Thanks once again, Rock! Right on target, as usual.
I did manage to clear out 3 small bags of clothes from my kids' closets; I re-organized my scrapbook embellishments and purged the old containers; I sifted through a pile of old magazines pulling out only articles I was confident I would use (and then filing them accordingly) and recycling the rest.
I also tend to hang-on to styling products that I maybe used a couple times and then either changed my hair style or found something I like better. I finally cleared out that bin and now I can use it to store more important things, like the clean sheets that have been sitting in a laundry basket for months because I don't have a linen closet.
Thanks for getting me moving!
And purged some old ornaments that were no longer "loved" as I took the tree down today.
Working on purging old albums and grouping photos for new albums to be made this year.
Don't laugh but I started purging condiments from my refrigerator. Some were long expired (UGH!) and others had no date and who knows how long they've been there! ALL GONE! From now on they will get a date written in permanent marker BEFORE they go on the fridge. Next out with canned goods stashed way back in my kitchen shelves - some long expired also. ALL NEW ones are also going to have the date purchased on them if there are no expiration dates on the can. Extra Sharpies in the kitchen drawers from now on!
Next onto the EMAIL. I had literally thousands of emails saved inbox, folders etc. going back YEARS! Like I was really going to go back and read them! Most were from Yahoo groups which are archived online anyway, what was I thinking!
Next, drawers, closets, toys, and finally the final frontier - the basement! This should keep me busy until next year!!
I tried to add a comment to your blog about the challenge, but Google keeps
kicking me off!
"Theresa Duchene" theresa.duchene@verizon.net
Janet L
With my stash of papercrafts magazines I bit the bullet and made an arbitrary 2-year cut off. I gifted the old ones. They do repeat topics and there's new techniques and new products featured all the time.
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I started my purging my sb stuff old mags, idea books and supplies. now I am working on photos those out of focus ones and doubles (I stopped getting doubles and went digital so I print as I go)I have been SBing more when I am off of work and signed up for 4 CROPS this month to get them out of boxes and into albums (I made power lay-outs(CM) and it as helped me get things done and in albums 2007 I have a rocking 20pgs done got rid of 2 shoe boxes and since I had supplies I guess that was part of a "Purge" too!
I have also did a major purge of clothes and bath stuff (oh my out of date stuff) this past week.
I am starting as weather permits perging in storge unit 1 box at a time (I did ALOT before we moved and had a huge yard sale and donated a lot too)
Our house mates are doing the same and we together are planning on joining in on the community yard sale in March so far we have 8 boxes in the garage. My goal it to make enough for extra spending $ on our summer vac. I have taken books to the used book shop, earning $50; and the VHS, DVDs, CD's ect and earned another $50 plus a credit slip for $25. we decided to rent movies more and only get the ones for reference and specail movies we watch all the time to just relax.
So thank you for all those great ideas Rock and the folks that have blogged
Janet L.
Between you & Flylady I've been on a "Flinging Frenzy". Purged the 12x12 papers, paper scraps and stickers. Grandson's toys & coloring books. On to the kitchen old spices and plastic containers. To the living room purge old magazines. Then into the bathroom for old cosmetics and toiletry items.
That feels GOOD! No regrets. Just call me a flingin' fool!
Between you & Flylady I've been on a "Flinging Frenzy"! Purged my 12x12 papers, paper scraps and stickers. Purged old magazines and files. Onto the kitchen to purge old spices and plastic containers. In the living room, Grandson's toys and coloring books. Into the bathroom purge old cosmetics and toiletries. That feels GOOD! No regrets. Just call me a flingin' fool!
I have also gotten the front porch all sorted out (it's my freecycle holding area and garden stuff storage spot) and put an old freebie dresser into my garden cabinet to hold things.
The bedroom is the next big challenge. We did a big scoop and stuff before the inlaws arrived for Christmas, plus I just retired from the military and had to purchase pretty much a whole new wardrobe, so it's out with the uniforms and the things I'll never wear again. That's the project for this weekend.
My new year's resolution was to stay on top of this year's pictures (at least printing them out and getting kits done for them) and using up or passing on a lot of my stash. I'm trying the DW2007 calendar challenge and it's helping too - I have all the pictures printed out for what we've done so far this year, and I've done 15 pages to donate to www.scrapbooksforsoldiers.org and 7 for my album!
Take care!
Lynne in MD
lynne.snyder@comcast.net
I also went through all the Christmas stuff and got rid off faded lights, old ornaments and yucky garland. This left me with an empty container. Of course, this lead to more organizing, so I went to the basement and sorted all our audio/video and computer cables and connectors. These then went into the newly emptied container. Now I feel better.
I also re did my scrap closet to be more efficient. I am always looking for better ways to do this. Maybe cause its not so big. Anyway, I gave my niece many items I will not use. I even updated photos of my closet. Yippee!!
I get on a roll doing this stuff, so I headed for the kitchen and went through the "junk" drawer and cleaned out my cabinets. I also did the fridge.
Gotta start the year the right way ya know?
Dorothy
Thanks Rock!
Bebecowlover48 (48...... that was a few years back!)
I'm embarrased! and totally veclempt (?) at the thought of what I THOUGHT I could get accomplished? %$#%&#*$&(#$& HOW crazy!
But, my scrapbooking supplies are PRISTINE! My stamps are together, my tools, dies, ink pads, paints, rub-ons, templates, PAPERS... I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF! And it is all succinctly stored away in my beautiful Oak Computer Armoir! The best thing I ever did --even IF I broke a toe in the process (long story...email me if you want to hear it!)
I've given myself 2007 to get rid of ALL the unnecessary STUFF I've been blessed enough to collect...and, get this, I live with a minimalist...so I stay 'checked'... and the scray thing is this... IF it can happen to me, it can happen to ANYONE!!!
I can't WAIT to see what tomorrow, or next week or month brings! Those Goodwill people will love me--the trash guys won't!
Happy Purging everyone!
I'm embarrased! and totally veclempt (?) at the thought of what I THOUGHT I could get accomplished? %$#%&#*$&(#$& HOW crazy!
But, my scrapbooking supplies are PRISTINE! My stamps are together, my tools, dies, ink pads, paints, rub-ons, templates, PAPERS... I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF! And it is all succinctly stored away in my beautiful Oak Computer Armoir! The best thing I ever did --even IF I broke a toe in the process (long story...email me if you want to hear it!)
I've given myself 2007 to get rid of ALL the unnecessary STUFF I've been blessed enough to collect...and, get this, I live with a minimalist...so I stay 'checked'... and the scray thing is this... IF it can happen to me, it can happen to ANYONE!!!
I can't WAIT to see what tomorrow, or next week or month brings! Those Goodwill people will love me--the trash guys won't!
Happy Purging everyone!
Then I'm going through all the stuff I've been stashing places and putting it away in a permanent place. I really need more organization here, so I can find what I KNOW I have!
Dianne
Thanks, I am so glad that I came across your site.
I think whatever profits I make from the cleanout I will put toward a drafting table to work on, it would be much more ergonomic for me especially since I suffered some lasting effects after a car accident last summer & can't sit with my head hung over a table for very long without having neck pain. Who knows, I might even get to scrap a little longer because of it~!
So far I have a big pile for ebay sales, crop swaps/donations and then one for the elementary school art teacher.
I started with my stamps and got rid of several sets that I'll never use. I also got rid of a lot of samples from old convention swaps, then stickers, totes, journaling templates and so much other stuff that I haven't touched or used. I also got rid of old paints, that have gone bad,etc.
Then I started to organize my embellishments ... then sprained my ankle DOH!!! so I'll have to finish that later. But I have, as Rock suggested, layed out a spot for all the themes and seperated my supplies into those piles. I emptied my PSB of all the stickers I'll never use, and will now start putting all the themed stuff into those pages.
Lots to go, but a lot has been done. Yay me!!
I love the site...keeps me motivated.
I am so pleased to report that for the past two days, I haven't been on the computer. I really missed reading all the Scrapper's Challenge post but I wanted to purge some things. It took me two days but I went through my files and tossed old materials everything from bank statements,and receipts, to instructions for items I don't even own anymore. I even shredded all the paper. While this may not sound like a big deal, I have a newborn son and am just so excited that I actually completed a task. Thanks for the inspiration.
I've filled two big moving boxes with paper to go to the recycle center. Numerous plastic bags with other recycles. And a couple of bags of just trash. I'm still not a lot further really than when I started up here in my loft, but I am lighter...
AND as I told my DH it was like Christmas this week when I discovered all these overdyed cross stitch threads! I don't have to order too many of those for awhile. :D I even found $10 in my son's 3rd bday card... from 2004. (YIKES!) At least it was a bill and not a check!
Today is a day to attack the entry way and chip away at the craft room some more. If I'm going to get that schrank to fit my household goods without busting weight limit, I still have to purge purge purge! Again, you're great inspiration!