Marsha Ingrao – Always Write

Relaxing – Organizing and Cleaning the Junk Room

Everyone has a little clutter. Today is cleaning day.  Working together makes the job so much easier.  I don’t want to throw away his trash.  to him it’s not trash.  He would love to throw mine away – to me it’s not trash.  So it sits.  And more piles in.  I moved my office home…

Marsha
1 minute
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Everyone has a little clutter.

http://lifeafter50.com/news/2011/jun/10/challenging-chaos-clutter/

Today is cleaning day.  Working together makes the job so much easier.  I don’t want to throw away his trash.  to him it’s not trash.  He would love to throw mine away – to me it’s not trash.  So it sits.  And more piles in.  I moved my office home a year ago.  The books went in the office along with the new furniture.  The old office furniture and whatever else we didn’t want out in the public eye went in the weight room – now junk room.  Today we found the perfect solution.  Move most of it to the garage.  I wonder how long it will be there?  The house looks better, though!  🙂  Better yet, no fights over throwing out Great-grandpa’s best fingernail clipper that he gave me to remember him. (Seriously, I have Grandpa’s pocket knife still.)  What kind of junk lurks in your junk spaces?

67 responses to “Relaxing – Organizing and Cleaning the Junk Room”

  1. mhdriver Avatar
    mhdriver

    We have a motto, if you haven’t used in a year get rid of it. It hasn’t worked yet

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      That’s a great motto. It sounds like we won’t be watching you on that hoarders show! That show is disgusting! 🙂

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  2. Miss Lou Avatar
    Miss Lou

    Oh My Goodness.. we recently did our garage and it was a nightmare! We’d brought new furniture and of course the old furniture all being perfectly fine went out in the garage as I didn’t want to throw it away!.. then the books.. OH the books.. and the toys.. and and…

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      I hear you! I come from a long line of “I can’t throw THAT away! That’s my NEW…” That’s a line from a conversation between my Grandmother and mother when Grandma was moving out of her house of 30 years. The item was a 40 year-old teapot! 🙂

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      1. Miss Lou Avatar
        Miss Lou

        LOL!!

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  3. smilingtoad Avatar
    smilingtoad

    Ah! Sounds relaxing!

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Sooooo relaxing – – – after it’s done! 🙂

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      1. smilingtoad Avatar
        smilingtoad

        Ah…nothing better, I say incessantly, than slinging bins of books and boxes of mementos, all over the place to spin a room into order. Very therapeutic. Not to Sir though. He doesn’t seem to find crawling in ceilings, whirling through cyclones of paper and stampeding items to the Salvation Army as all that fun, oddly…

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        1. tchistorygal Avatar
          tchistorygal

          No? Send him to the attic where all his lost love letters are stored! I guarantee you he will love cleaning! 🙂 I went through all my mom’s cards from friends and relatives yesterday. I ended up throwing most of them away, but not before I had one last chance to read some of the more meaningful ones. 🙂 Vince was gazing on, and the weather was inching towards 108, so I didn’t dilly dally as much as I might have otherwise! 🙂

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  4. Jody Avatar
    Jody

    Let’s see… where to start?! Boxes (empty) – after all we may have to return something, a bazillion photos to put on dvds (Who knows why! Seriously, we haven’t looked at them in years.), Christmas decorations, suitcases (empty 😦 ), and perhaps an old BETA player. Hopefully there are no 8-tracks out there!

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      hahha Sounds like you have a little work cut out for you!! 🙂 I don’t have any 8 tracks, but I may still have some tapes. I definitely have suitcases. 🙂

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  5. Amy Avatar
    Amy

    I don’t keep “junks” more than three months, they are taken to the Goodwell, etc…

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Wow! I’m impressed. How do you even know it’s junk in just three months??? What about stuff that people give you – 20 30 years ago?? 🙂

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      1. Amy Avatar
        Amy

        Like cloth that I haven’t wore for a while, stuff in the drawer, old files, etc. Stuff that people give me, it depends… 🙂

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        1. tchistorygal Avatar
          tchistorygal

          I want to be on your give away list. Three months in your closet, then ship it to Marsha 🙂 hahaha

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  6. Marcella Rousseau Avatar
    Marcella Rousseau

    If it isn’t the weeds multiplying in the yard, it’s the clutter multiplying in the house!

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Oops another project! Yes, they are both accumulating with the speed of internet connectivity. Yikes. With every post, more clutter and more weeds. What a thought! 🙂 Why am I smiling??? 😦

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      1. Marcella Rousseau Avatar
        Marcella Rousseau

        I spent an hour today picking up dead branches left over from the storm yesterday; cutting them up to fit into a garbage bag. If nothing else, it’s a good way to use up calories ; – )

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        1. tchistorygal Avatar
          tchistorygal

          You bet. Like a regular calorie eating Pac-Man. Each bending over a branch is worth 2 points! 🙂 If you accumulate 6,000 points every day, you’ll lose a pound! JK I cleaned house HARD for about two hours yesterday. I did lose a pound! YAY! 🙂

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  7. benzeknees Avatar
    benzeknees

    Hubby has all our old cell phones, laptops, printers & other electronic devices. He thinks he can sell them but they are so out of date they are just boat anchors now.

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      hahaha boat anchors hahaha We have a few anchors ourselves. That’s what the garage is for. Vince is so energized that now he is ready to start on the garage. We are disposing of 12 years of paint on Saturday. That should clear up about half the garage! 🙂

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  8. Daniela Avatar
    Daniela

    Love the photo -:)! But sorry … no junk here; I travel light!

    Take Care,
    Daniela

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      It wasn’t my photo, fortunately. I travel lighter than that, too. It was just for effect! 🙂

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  9. Jilanne Hoffmann Avatar
    Jilanne Hoffmann

    Oh my. You’ve just inspired me to clean my office. I think you need to call Goodwill…or close the door. :o)

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      There you go – a great solution – besides the garage! 🙂

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  10. Denise Hisey Avatar
    Denise Hisey

    Sigh. I can relate too well. ;-(

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Sorry! 🙂

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  11. stuffitellmysister Avatar
    stuffitellmysister

    I have been in a “getting rid of” frame of mind for a few weeks. Yesterday hubby said to me…”I would really like to keep….., so please don’t get rid of it when I’m not home.” Smile…. duly noted! Good for you….it feels so much better after!

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Yes, and folks who throw without asking may never be forgiven. I talked to a friend who said his x-wife had thrown away something his mother gave him. He was bitterly annoyed some 10-15 years later. Another man’s junk syndrome I think. Vince and I certainly have our differences on what is and isn’t junk, and the garage is full of it! 🙂

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      1. stuffitellmysister Avatar
        stuffitellmysister

        You are so right!!!

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  12. Leanne Cole Avatar
    Leanne Cole

    We have to do the same thing in our house. We have a heap of junk under our house.

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      I don’t know anyone who doesn’t really. It’s a matter of where you keep it all! 🙂

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  13. cyclingrandma Avatar
    cyclingrandma

    True that one person’s junk is another’s treasure. Seems like you made a good start. I”m about to do some decluttering for a large turnover sale held at a local church. So much stuff.

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      I have done that one more than once! Best wishes for lots of sales and success! 🙂

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  14. Sunshine Avatar
    Sunshine

    it’s hard…things get to the junk drawer that overflows into rooms and soon one has to pray for that one day where the tolerant level reaches: enough!! Gotta go attend to my junks now…

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      How true!! 😄

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      1. Sunshine Avatar
        Sunshine

        🙂

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    2. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      hahahaha I should finish up today, and I should read blogs, and I should… 🙂

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      1. Sunshine Avatar
        Sunshine

        ha ha 😆

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  15. Shandra Avatar
    Shandra

    Love this! Having lived in the same house for 12 years I’ve done this many times . Now eager to downsize (and not willing to move stuff to the garage anymore or rearrange storage tubs out there ) 🙂 we’ve been selling, packing and hauling to Good Will all week. Where did all this stuff come from? 😉

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      I know! What’s up with that? Did I really spend all that money accumulating all this stuff – only to store it in the garage?!!! 🙂 Thanks for the comment! 🙂

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  16. Sally Avatar
    Sally

    You house always look clean and clutter free so I can’t let you into our house because every surface is full of clutter- i.e. treasures.

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Haha! Vince moved most stuff to the garage! How clean is that????

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  17. the eternal traveller Avatar
    the eternal traveller

    The secret is to marry a serviceman and then move on a new posting every two years. That’s what I did. We became very good at not building up clutter and even though he left the army 16 years ago we still don’t have lots of extra stuff. Except in my sewing/writing room and that doesn’t count.

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      I did marry a serviceman, but he got out after his first term. He’s as big of a clutterer as I am, but that room was mostly mine.

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  18. El Guapo Avatar
    El Guapo

    I have no idea what’s in the junk room. And can’t see it because it’s all covered in…well…junk.

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Hahaha. Too funny Guap.

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  19. Alastair Avatar
    Alastair

    Kids … hahhaa

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    1. tchistorygal Avatar
      tchistorygal

      Now that’s a big difference. We do our messing our own. When the kids lived with us!!! Yikes!

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      1. Alastair Avatar
        Alastair

        Haha 😀 Trying to get my daughter to fix her room, that’s a miracle in it’s self hehe

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        1. tchistorygal Avatar
          tchistorygal

          I can imagine. My dad used to condemn me to my room until it was done. I got lost in the stuff! 🙂

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          1. Alastair Avatar
            Alastair

            I tried that. I have to take out her laptop, iPod, mobile, satellite TV until it’s done. She’s grounded this week, so that’s what she will be doing 🙂

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          2. tchistorygal Avatar
            tchistorygal

            Just to update you on how I turned out. My closet gets cleaned every so often. In between times it’s navigable. Same with drawers. Things get picked up daily, including the rest of the house. So it did work, I guess. I’m not a fanatic! 🙂

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          3. Alastair Avatar
            Alastair

            I’m not. My front room is a bomb site today. I’ll be sorting that tomorrow. 🙂

            She’ll use that against me haha

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          4. tchistorygal Avatar
            tchistorygal

            I’ll never for get when Mom got sick and had to be hospitalized for about a week. I was 10. Dad decided to give the whole house a thorough cleaning, using child labor. He when too far when he soaked the dresser pulls in commet cleanser and ruined them. By the end of the week I needed a vacation. I was so glad Mom was home. 🙂

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          5. Alastair Avatar
            Alastair

            LOL I remember when I was a kid, I decided to do the ironing for my parents. So I put the iron on, picked up the first thing and started. Well, I didn’t know the effect an iron would have on silk 😆 Made a mess of the red blouse and the iron. I took it off and hid it in the pile and denied I had even touched it. Well, I was a kid and knew I would get a hiding for it.

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          6. tchistorygal Avatar
            tchistorygal

            hahaha that’s hilarious – NOW! Someone had to be unhappy. My first husband didn’t do the laundry very often. I had a beautiful white silk blouse that Ihad cost me $60 back in the 1980s when I made $3.25 an hour. washed by hand, but for some reason I had it in the laundry basket, and he washed and dried it. Not only did it shrink, but it turned pink. That might have been the last time I allowed him to do the laundry!

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          7. Alastair Avatar
            Alastair

            Lol that’s why he did it 😉 there was a method to his madness 😄

            I remember once – 21-22 years ago. I turned socks, pants, jeans, shirts pink by washing a bright red t-shirt with them. I never did wash that t-shirt again.

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          8. tchistorygal Avatar
            tchistorygal

            hahaha And did you wear everything pink?

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          9. Alastair Avatar
            Alastair

            I did. No-one was going to see the pants (briefs – underwear – not trousers) and the jeans were generally blue with pink tinges 🙂

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          10. tchistorygal Avatar
            tchistorygal

            haha that works 🙂

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      2. sirfelion Avatar
        sirfelion

        When Mom came around to the bedroom, the junk was under the bed! Got busted tho. I find it hard to throw out things that are way out of use and taking up space. Better at it than years ago.

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        1. tchistorygal Avatar
          tchistorygal

          I know, me too. My closet floor used to be my punishment once a month or so. It would take me all day to get it organized. I would empty the whole closet, then try to sort through it all. It took all day. Even then my organization didn’t last long! 🙂

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          1. sirfelion Avatar
            sirfelion

            Those punishment days seemed to last forever, didn’t they? It took me a day to clean up the mess, tons of bells, buzzers, tape recorders, radios, wires, timers, on and on. Soon it was back the same way. At least I took all that electronical stuff and made a career out of it!! Loved to take things apart and put back together, but such a messy hobby.

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          2. tchistorygal Avatar
            tchistorygal

            I was just messy. Mine was a combination of clothes, dolls, books, and papers. Not so interesting, but there weren’t so many electronics when I was growing up. I’m not THAT much older than you are!!!!

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  20. Enchanted Seashells, Confessions of a Tugboat Captain's Wife Avatar
    Enchanted Seashells, Confessions of a Tugboat Captain’s Wife

    I love to save stuff, you never know when you might want it! Hubs is the same way, but we are very organized with our “stuff” so there’s a lot but it’s boxed and labeled.

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  21. utesmile Avatar
    utesmile

    The thing is the bigger the house or space you have the more you keep. As I live in a flat and only have a small attic, things need to go. I am happy as I think we put junk away and in 5 years we see it again and still want to keep it. Why ? we haven;’t used it for the last 5 years what are the chances that we use it now. So I am good with throwing out….. even my sister admires me. ( then again she has a house) . Things from grandads or grandmas, I would keep too, but I haven’t got much they are all still in my mum’s house to be sorted one day! I do like giving to charity shops and I do feel we always I have too much. I was sorting today too and have a whole bag for charity toys my children grew out of. It is fun though to see what we can find in all the junk. Hope you had a fun day. Did Manny help????

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