Welcome to my declutter series. My goal is to motivate you to declutter along with me!
I have been decluttering my home for the past two years. I have removed heavy furniture and items that no longer bring me joy. We have successfully made our home more light and airy and it feels great.
My goal is to sell some of the larger items. But keep in mind that the money you spent is gone. Removing the items can remove that reminder of the wasted money! If they don’t sell, I plan to donate them. I am getting ready for a huge garage sale on August 26th at Gillie Senior Community Center (2100 Morse Rd, Columbus, OH 43229) from 10 am to 2 pm.
Checklist
I made myself a checklist of items that I use when I scrapbook, make cards, and quilt. Here’s a link to my checklist, but I encourage you to make your list. You can then refer to this list from time to time to remind yourself of what you use.
Pile No. 1
Where to start? Let me start on my Ikea Kallax unit which contains many boxes and drawers of ribbon and ephemera. While we’re at it, let’s go through all my alphabet stickers.
Pile No. 2
Continuing to sort through items in my craftroom. This time I tackled this Ikea Raskog. Not too much on it, but some of it I forgot about.
Love to use the Ikea Raskog to hold crafting items. I started by pulling items out of the different shelves.
- The top level held a ton of ephemera and tags. I love all these but I’m not using them — I kept a few that I think I will use soon.
- The second shelf has my Macramé Santa Gnome from last year. I’ll finish those up this year.
- The bottom shelf had some acrylic paint and watercolors. I had to decide what to sell and what I will use soon.
Decluttering Tips
- Tackle one section at a time
- Do you love the item? Will you use it?
- If keeping, take the item immediately to it’s home
- Have a trash bag or trash can close by
- Use a cardboard box for donations
- Take breaks when you need them
Pile No. 3
Okay, let’s pull out this black shelf that is back in a corner of my craft area. It’s collecting dust and I don’t remember what is on it.
It felt good to go through it all and keep just what I know I will use in the future. Someone else will make use of the items I am no longer storing in the back corner.
Pile No. 4
Let’s keep going. I hope you are playing along!
Today I pulled out my bins of Project Life cards. These are sets of 4×6 and 3×4 patterned paper packs that pop into Project Life’s 3-ring scrapbook binder with photo pockets. I struggle with what to keep and what to pass along. But I remind myself of what I tend to use.
I have decided to let go of my 12×12 3-ring binders along with the plastic pages. I don’t use the Project Life pages, my style is using 12×12 pages where I can add pictures and pretty paper and ephemera to make a beautiful layout with the Project Life look.
Next, I went through my sticker box. It’s good to go through the box from time to time. You will remind yourself of what you have and also can let go of items you no longer will use.
As I am going through piles in my craft room, it’s becoming easier to part with items. There are items that as I pick them up and evaluate them, I know are something that I just won’t use. And I want someone else to get their use out of them.
Pile No. 5
I’d like to clean out the rest of the drawers in the Kallax unit. This stuff is tucked away and I forget what all is in here. Let’s pull it all out and decide what to keep and sell.
Little bits and bobs everywhere. Look at all the little scrapbook notions I squirreled away. A lot of this was old stuff and easy to part with. I made a keep pile and a do-not-want pile. This went pretty quickly. I’m glad I’m doing a little bit each day. It can be overwhelming.
Pile No. 6
I thought I would tackle the baskets that I have in my Kallax unit today. I pulled out each one. I realized that I needed to label the bins so I remembered what I had in them.
I decided to part with envelopes and cards that I would never get around to using. There were also some items such as photo paper and greeting cards that I could donate. Found a couple of items to sell at the garage sale such as a light board and a Heidi Swapp Rolodex (see Swapp video).
Items that I still value I decided to keep. I want to get back into learning how to caricature. And I want to use my Zutter machine (see Zutter video) to make small memory books. Oh, and I kept the Jillibean shaker cards. Want to use those soon too.
Pile No. 7
Okay, today I wanted to tackle my patterned paper. I love using vertical storage for my paper. This open shelf holds my stamps and paper. For card-making, I use 8.5×11 cardstock. For scrapbooking I have solid 12×12 cardstock and patterned paper organized by theme.
It’s always a good idea to go through your paper and whittle out what no longer fits your style. I pulled out each category and only kept the papers I knew I would use for my scrapbook layouts. I truly believe if you simplify your collection, you will enjoy your scrapbooking hobby again.
