This week I was decidedly less energetic than last week. I just felt like I was dragging. Combine that with a frustrating bout of insomnia, and you have kind of a slack decluttering. I tried.
The disastrous before shots:
My living room had turned into the equivalent of a multipurpose catch all zone. I opened mail there, ate dinner there, read there, blogged there, sewed there, you name it. On occasion I’ve even fallen asleep there when I just didn’t have the energy to walk up stairs to my (still tidy!) bedroom.
This is after:
Clutter, misc papers, and sewing stuff gone. Well, except for one Lululemon shopping bag which holds some small crafts by the couch. The short book case is actually empty now, and it’s going to be moved into the kitchen to hold cookbooks and small appliances. The only reason it hasn’t been moved yet is because my roommate is sick.
The large bookcase is the one I really wanted to work on:
It’s been a catch all for miscellaneous crap since I moved into my house, and despite my attempts to organize it before it always fell short. I’m satisfied with it for now. There are some shoe boxes at the bottom that I’d like to replace with decorative boxes, but that will have to wait until I have money.
Speaking of money, this is how it went this week:
February 8 – *No Spend*
February 9 -$0.00 – coffee on SBux card, already paid from prior pay check.
February 10 – *No Spend*
February 11 – *No Spend*
February 12 – *No Spend*
February 13 – *No Spend*
February 14 – *Pending*
Discretionary money balance: -$0.00
I’d say it was a fairly successful week money wise. My car was full of fuel, so I haven’t had to fill up again yet. I do need eggs, milk, dried beans and salt, I just haven’t made it to the grocery store for them yet. I have to pay for my veggie box still, which might show up on today’s spending, otherwise I’ll pay for it tomorrow. I posted a bunch of stuff on kijiji and I got 3 bites worth a total of about $60. Unfortunately 2 of them just sort of vanished, and when I tried to meet up with the 3rd today we spent 1/2 an hour both not seeing each other, both going home frustrated, only to find out yes we were both at the same location *facepalm* Fingers crossed that one will go through on Thursday.
Going through the living room I managed to throw out 11 items, put aside 6 items for donation, and put 49 items in the recycling (mostly magazines). I also gave 5 Engineering study guides to The Boy’s younger brother, because he’s currently at the university doing his first year there. So, that’s 71 items this week, bringing my total this month to 167.
I made the mistake of adding up the purchase price of the magazines I put in the recycling this week. $167.68 plus taxes. That sucked; though to be honest I was expecting it to be much worse.
How did your challenges go this week? Next week’s productivity challenge for me is going to be tackling my office/filing cabinet. What’s yours?
Recommended Reading: Your Money Is Yours.
