Tag: declutter

Life Style

Decluttering 7 Things for 7 Days

bookishluna2 Comments

Hello and welcome to a decluttering post, I have done some cleaning and decluttering things in the past. I have not made a post on the topic in a while, but I wanted to get back to it for a few reasons. The first and main reason is that I felt that a lot more clutter has found its way back into my life. Now, my living situation has changed in the last year so it could be because I have less room so everything seems more cluttered, but either way I notice it and I am not particularly happy with that. The second reason is that I really would like to just keep things around me that I use or need to operate the things in my life.

So, I was scrolling around YouTube with this in mind and I came across a video by The After Work Channel where she did a 7 day declutter challenge where she got rid of 7 items per day for an entire week. I enjoyed her video and it inspired me a bit because I thought I was going to have to tackle something like I had in the past, but this idea was a bit more accessible for me time wise and with the space I have. I can easily find 7 things that I am no longer using for a week. So, I did it and here are the things I ended up getting rid of and to hopefully move back towards a more minimalist space that I had.

Day 1

  • 5 skeins of dk yarn I am not going to use
  • 1 ruler where it has a wonky edge
  • 1 pencil holder I don’t really need since I have a pen container in my desk.

Day 2

  • 13 socks, did a little extra and got rid of all my socks without a match

Day 3

  • 2 boxes of razor heads, there was only one in each box anyway
  • 1 comb, don’t use it really ever.
  • 1 spray deodorant, does not work well.
  • 1 pill organizer, don’t need it.
  • 1 hand sanitizer, was leaking everywhere!
  • 1 glasses plate, I don’t keep my glasses on there anyway.

Day 4

  • 1 heel cream, don’t like the smell.
  • 1 pack of makeup sponges, I apply my makeup with a brush.
  • 1 bottle of toner, toner breaks me out every time.
  • 1 peach makeup pouch, I don’t need it. I was using a different pouch to hold everything anyway.
  • 1 shaver, never opened or used.
  • 1 bar of soap, I don’t like bar soaps.

Day 5

  • 8 bottle of nail polish, they were all colors that dried out.

Day 6

  • 1 broken thumb brace
  • 5 pack of money pouches, from my cash wallet days when I was learning to budget
  • 1 eyeshadow pallet, I never reach for it and I always use my single shade anyway,
  • 1 coin purse, I thought I had lost it, turned out it fell behind my night stand.
  • 1 pack of emery boards, I use a glass file now.
  • 2 pairs of eyebrow scissors, they were starting to rust and I am not using anything rusty.
  • 2 nail files, I use a glass file and do not really like the metal ones personally.
  • 1 perfume sample, I didn’t love the scent and I have one I love that I use daily.
  • 1 pack of post-it tabs, not really large enough to be of use to me.

Day 7

  • 1 apple watch box, I need to stop keeping boxes forever.
  • 1 apple watch strap box, I really need to stop keeping boxes for years and years.
  • 1 pair of broken head phones, these were over 10 years old.
  • 4 packs of alternate ear buds, why did I keep all of the options of they didn’t work for my ears?
  • 1 old iPad cover, kept to make sure a newer one worked before tossing it. It’s time has now come.
  • 1 budget notebook, the layout didn’t work for my current needs.

Outcome

Did I meet my goal of getting rid of 49 things? After looking back at everything, yes I did! I ended up getting rid of a total of 65 things, that means I got rid of an extra 16 unused items. I realized pretty early on in this week long challenge that doing a certain area of the house or room was more helpful than just walking around the house picking 7 things. It led me to really take a look at what I had in that category and get rid of everything I was not going to be using. This led me to get rid of more than 7 things on a lot of the days, because I didn’t just stop after the 7 items were found, but continued to work through that area.

Sign Off 2020

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Hauls & Unboxings

Book Unhaul | November 2019

bookishluna18 Comments

declutter

Hello and welcome to my book unhaul. So, with the end of the year coming I really like to take the time to go through my owned TBR and read pile and decide if I really am going to read some of these books in the new year or reread them in the future.

If you are unfamiliar, I have a challenge of sorts when it comes to my owned tbr to help keep it in check and from getting completely out of hand again. My TBR used to be over 100 and now I sit around 35 most of the time. I do this by saying to myself if I don’t read it within a year of buying it, I need to unhaul it. At this time I actually read all the books I bought before January 2019, so I am doing very well with this. On the other hand my owned and read shelf is a little over the top and I am running out of room quick. So, I would like this time to reevaluate my shelves so I can donate books during the holiday season to libraries and other charities.

If you want to see my most up to date owned TBR list you can check that out here:Bookish Luna’s Owned TBR Shelf 

-Books I Unhauled-

All of the books in this pile I read and honestly some of these were not easy to unhaul such as A Very Large Expanse of Sea and the Teddy Roosevelt trilogy. But, if I am being honest with myself, I wont ever reread these. I do have one negative memory with Carry On, when it came out I was in the hospital for a decent chunk of time and I read it there, and quite honestly I can’t bring myself to reread it.

Here are a few classics that I read and enjoyed as well. Pet Sematary is going because I don’t like the edition and I want a better one. The others I wont ever reread personally and A Little Princess also has a bad association with it, so I don’t really want the reminder around.

I really enjoyed the books in this pile apart from A Delusion of Satan, I got it on vacation a few years ago when I went to Salem, LOVEE Salem would go again, but it was just awfully written. Also, same is true of the Salem’s Witch House. Once again it was hard to get rid of the Teddy books and also the Eleanor Roosevelt books because I have had them for so long. Washington Black, Stalin’s Daughter, and The Underground Railroad are only going because a good friend wants them. If they were not wanted, they would be staying with me.

So, the top is the original serialized edition of The Green Mile, which is a wonderful story.  I am only getting rid of them because they are falling apart and I would not be able to reread them. Doctor Who Fairy Tales were cute to read, but I have not reached for them for years. All of the books in this pile were once again really good, but I just wont reread them if I am honest with myself.

The same is true for this pile, apart from three book. a majority of these were read and loved, but I am not going to reread. The three books I just unhauled without reading were Wicked Saints, His Perfect Wife, and The Flight Portfolio because I never saw myself really wanted to read them even though they sound awesome.

61 books Unhauled!

Would you have kept any of these books?

What is the last book you unhauled?

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Knitting, Crochet, Crafting, Art & More

DECLUTTERING | Make Up, Hair, and Self Care

bookishluna7 Comments

declutter

I don’t know about you, but over the years I have subscribed to beauty boxes over the years and have so many samples hidden in my bathroom and in my bedroom. I have often found myself using a product not because I liked it or really wanted to try it, but because I paid for it and I want to get moneys worth of it. Now while reading through Marie Kondo’s book she sights this a large reason why people keep things. She says people feel like they are being wasteful or feel guilty. I fall into the first category, especially when it comes to the hair and makeup categories.

Now before I went though this drawer I wanted to get down to the reason why I felt guilt getting rid of things I don’t like or don’t use. When you think about it is sounds silly. “I feel horrible about getting rid of this thing I don’t like”. If someone said that to me I would be confused. The more I thought about it I realized I hate being wasteful of the product and of money. I feel guilty not using a product because someone else could have used it or needed it. I also feel guilty because I spent money I worked for on something I wasn’t using.

At this point I decided I needed to stop just buying skincare, makeup, hair care, and other beauty and self care product without researching. Also, I needed to stop getting samples to random products and only get samples of products I am very much interested in. I do not wear mascara so why did I need 4 samples of them? So I decided to cancel the my beauty box subscription to avid this problem again.

Before

After

As you can see, I cleared out a lot of this drawer. My massive amount of samples and unused hair products have been removed, I can actually see the bottom of the drawer. I placed all of my skin care and makeup in the galaxy bag to the right and all my hair styling goodies I use everyday or every other day in the middle. It is nice to know exactly where all my things are and not have to dig through a bunch of stuff. Since taking the After picture I put the my clear little hair ties and bobby pins in a small box so they do not spill all over the place. Yay for functional organization and only needing to organize the things you actually use!

What are your can’t live without hair or skin care products and/or makeup products?

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Hauls & Unboxings

Decluttering | My Books

bookishluna7 Comments

declutter

So this time around I did not take pictures of my declutter for two reasons, I had way to may books to fit in a single picture and the second was, I did not want to look back on some of my unread books and get mad at myself.

Now in the KonMari method you are instructed to get rid of all your unread books and only keep books you have read and spark joy. You are not allowed to read descriptions and you cannot open the book. You can only look at the cover and hold it in your hands. Now as a book worm running a bookblog I obviously love books. I love surrounding my self with them and often buy new ones even though I have some unread ones waiting for me at my house. This category was very difficult for me.

I decided to break this category down into two groups read and unread. I decided to tackle the read ones first then the unread ones, more on that later. I think the longest part was taking all the books off of my shelf. I counted all of my beloved books and it was nearly 200 books. Even though I am a book lover, for some reason this just felt like to much. I knew deep down I was never going to reread 200 books. I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me.

When I finally conquered my read books I took all the unread books off of my shelf and placed them on the floor in front of me. Now, I broke a rule. I kept some of my unread books for a few reasons. The first was I just went on a short vacation with my mom and I bought a few books that I have already started to read so I knew I was going to read them and they filled me with joy. The second reason was even though they were unread they filled me with joy. Now the whole purpose of this method is to surround yourself with things that spark joy, well just because something is unread doesn’t mean it does not spark joy. Even though I broke this rule, I did end up admitting to myself that I was not going to read all the books on my TBR, so they went into the donation bin.

When I finished going through all of my books I went from nearly 200 down to 119. I donated nearly 80 books. Even though I have already done this and all the books have found a new home at my local library I cannot believe I had that many books. I am currently sitting looking at the books I have left and I cannot imagine where those 80 books fit.

Even though I removed 80 books from my collection I am very happy. All the books I have are sitting properly so their binding will not be damaged. I can see each book I own. All the books I have make me happy. As a bookworm it is like a dream come true. My books reflect me, they are well taken care of, and they aren’t crowded or hidden away.

Now that the hard category is finished, on to an easier one!

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Knitting, Crochet, Crafting, Art & More

Decluttering | Daily Clothing

bookishluna3 Comments

declutter

I have to say over the years I have collected a lot of clothing that at times seems all over the place. I have dress clothes and high heels as well as having t-shirts with skulls and lace up boots covered in studs. I think the main reason for this is because over the last 10 years or so of my life and style has changed considerably. At this point in my life I can no longer wear the clothes I wore 10, 7, or 5 years ago on a daily basis to work. So i have essentially two different wardrobes in my closet. I have work clothes and weekend clothes, but this makes it hard to find clothes to wear. I would like to streamline my clothing and have pieces that work well together.

Now, in no way am I going to give up my leather jackets or my studded boots, but I need to find a balance between these and my work clothing. Now through some research I have come across katberries post on capsule wardrobes and loved the graphic that she

posted. It shows a variety of colors that work together and can be mixed and matched. I used this for a guide while sorting through my clothing. Now, I am not aiming to have a capsule wardrobe, but I want my clothes to work together.

I did not discard clothes if the color was not on this palette but I did discard them if I was iffy and they were not on this palette. Since I am aiming to mesh my personal style and my work clothes together I though it was most important to remove things I was iffy about and did not help me in this venture.

I will say that I do have some clothing in storage that I cannot get to at this point in time, but I am going to sort through it as soon as I can get access to them. Trust me, if I could go through them I would have. Anyway, I will stop my rambling and get to showing you my before and after for my closet.

Before

After


I stunned myself with this process. In the first picture you can see my closet is jammed packed with clothes, shoes, and other odds and ends. I hated opening my closet, I usually had  trouble finding things and when I went to take a shirt out a few more usually came with it. I ended up getting rid of 5 bags worth of clothing and shoes. All of which I donated right away since 99% of it was in good condition. Plus a lot of it was work clothing I did not really enjoy anymore and I know work or professional clothing is much needed.

My closet is now more open at the bottom, I can actually see the back wall! Plus, my clothes aren’t as jam packed. Also, my shoes now all fit in my vertical shoe organizer and I was able to get rid of my floor one, which never did much good for me honestly. I am very happy with this outcome. I cannot wait to do the next category, although I am a bit worried because it is books. Ekk!

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