You are very organized, @oregon101. We always do a little winter prep in case we get snowed/iced in but nothing along the lines of your earthquake unit! That is a huge commitment - both financial and spacewise but better to be safe than sorry.
The main thing I think about is that we may not want to reenter the house for a few days as after shockes can be worse than the earthquake. This is Oregon so could happen during a lot of rain.
It does not cost much if you do it over time. Nothing needs to be great quality. A few if my friends have done the same but I would say that most people here are not prepared and when it is brought up there are silly jokes about needing a gun. We keep a pair of shoes under the head of our bedsâŠand so on. So not difficult to do.
Hmmmâbut we do not have car keys hidden outsideâinterestingâŠoh, but there will not be any roadsâŠ
YES! Cleaned out the garage and gave away 6 storage units. H took 90% of the junk out from under the house. Stuff like 3 wheelbarrels� and Two old hoses? It is not easy to get to this space as it is doen a steep hill and so I have no idea what he was thinking when he put stuff there.
A trip to Goodwill, a trip to the dump and now a pick pick up by Vietnam Vets tomorrow.
AND our garage was not even that badâŠwhere does it all come from? Why did we own 3 of each item?
Why does H think he would be neater if he had MORE space?
He now has about 1/4 of what he had and I will bet he keeps it more organized.
Feels better.
Took an hour Sunday to organize our movie collection. All DVDs are now alphabetized, and all VCR tapes of Disney animated movies are packed in a box for curbcycling. If no one in our neighborhood has a VCR, then I know just the place for them!
Mr. B helped me in my alphabetizing efforts and commented that he liked the âbad a weekâ strategy of cleanup because it lead to the same result as âblitzkriegâ cleanup - but without the associated stress and pressure to get everything done quickly.
@BunsenBurner, interesting typo.
I think of it as a âgood a week.â
Lol, thanks, VH, the autocorrect works in mysterious ways! 
I was shocked that Mr. B did not object to getting rid of the tapes!
Lupus Foundation pick up tomorrow! Several bags ready to go.
I will never admit this anywhere but here and never to anyone else. I went through the linen closet and the storage room and purged some thingâs that H simply does not even remember were there but, if asked, would want to keep. Or he would tell me that If I want to get rid of it that I could, but he would not.
It is just amazing to me how much stuff I can find when looking. Our house is really not cluttered at all, however when we built I put in huge! closets throughout and a large storage room. So while it all has a home it still is time to let it go.
Gave my brass and crystal and silver plated candlesticks away today. DIL and D are not going to want them and I have not used them in 10 years.
Big pick up tomorrow. H put out a 1/2 bottle of chain saw oil (as he put out the chain saw) and was perplexed when I told him that could not be a give away.
Trip to Goodwill planned for today. Just a few things â a pizza cooking sheet is one of them. I donât know why I own it â Iâve never made pizza in my life.
Reminds me of the old saying" out of sight, out of mind". Helps with decluttering.
Oregon, my house doesnât show signs of clutter, either. As it was built in the 1920s, we added a lot of storage during each remodel of rooms over the years. The house used to be a duplex, and we opened it up to live in the whole house. That gave me one large and one small room to store things in, like an attic. Boy do those rooms get crammed with everything. We had closets built in or enlarged as well as cabinetry added in various rooms, plus most furniture purchased have a drawer or doors in which things can be stored. So, yes, those places hide lots of stuff and can be forgotten!
Case in point: one year, I bought some fishing stuff for dear hubby for Christmas. After the holiday, I tossed the lures, hooks, bobbers, ect, into a Christmas bag and when he never put them in his tackle box, I set the bag in the hall closet. The following November, searching for something, I came across that fishing stuff. I laughed, wrapped it up and gave it all to dear hubby again that next Christmas! A brand new meaning to the word âre giftedâ! Guess what? He didnât know it was from the last Christmas! He thought it was all new stuff! Lol! THATS when I knew, hey, too much stuff, no more fishing gear needed!
Great story Miller514!
I did have a touch of remorse this a.m. and did take a little out of the pile. After my coffee I may put it back in the pile.
I donât think I could part with the good candlesticks. Perhaps time to buy new candles, set them around, and use them
@oregon101 , your secret is safe with us. And If I add something from our basement to your pile, I know you wonât tell anyone.
Church rummage sale was last week. I donated piles of stuff, and then spent $1 for a set of 4 glasses. Pretty good exchange. We had a near meltdown with MILs books that FIL agreed to donate, in that DH and BIL decided to look through them one more time. About 1 box out of 15 was saved, but the rest were donated, so it worked out ok.
Iâm kind of just jumping in here. Iâm trying to get in the mindset of clearing out from âkid houseâ to home of grown ups with teens.
What makes me crazy is the paper. I just feel buried under piles of paper. Junk mail, receipts, bills, years of kids school projects. Does anyone have any tips for tackling this? I feel like I no sooner go through a pile and itâs come back again with even more. And of course, I am the resting place for everyone else in the house to shuffle their paper to!
@movemetoo - I bought one big plastic lidded bin for each of my two kids where I save the best of awards, paintings, art projects, etc.
I hear you on the paperwork. I try to go through the mail over the recycling bin. 90% usually goes right in the trash. Rest goes in an âin boxâ type thingie and gets tackled about twice a month. I donât save receipts past a few weeks or so. I was a late adapter of online billing but have since switched a lot of my bills to online billing which has helped a lot. Other than tax stuff, I purge the rest of the bills/receipts. Canât say Iâve mastered the paperwork issue, but its gotten a lot better.
I took secretarial classes and worked as a secretary for a number of years and try to keep up with the paper stuff.
Iâd start with putting all the kids school projects into one bin or box. No sorting, just toss everything from every kid in there. You might want to put the kidâs name on a project to remember who did it. Any new project that you want to save, put in the box. You can sort it all later, like when they graduate college. (Not kidding). I had a drawer in the living room I put my sons college stuff, tuition bills, schedules,paperwork, and just now went thru it because he graduated.
All receipts from shopping go in a ziplock bag with â2015 receiptsâ written on it. Just stuff them in there. If you need one, it doesnât take long to sort thru there to find it. Next year, start with a new ziplock bag. I keep this bag in a kitchen cupboard next to my desk. All junk mail is thrown into trash immediately, with credit card apps shredded. All bills that come in the mail go in a folder labeled âbills to payâ.
In a desk drawer, I use hanging file folders. In the hanging folders I keep individual folders labeled like âbills to payââ âpay stubsâ âhouseâ and âcar insuranceâ, bank statements, credit card statements. I sit at the desk to pay bills about once a week. If you donât have a drawer, you can use a bankers box.
I like to use colored folders. That way, I know a blue folder on the desk might hold bank stuff, a yellow folder might have insurance stuff and bills to pay are in a red folder. When everything is plain white or manilla, itâs all one big blur; color makes things so much easier to spot.
If other family members give you stuff, assign them a color folder. Put husbands stuff in red, first kid in orange, second one green, or whatever color you pick.
Art projects â take pictures of them so you have a record, then toss. My kids were fine with this. I am much more attached to their old essays and creative writing than they are. I try to touch items as few times as possible. Junk mail goes diredfctly into recycling, Bills go on a shelf in the kitchen, envelope contents directly to recycling. I keep bills for a year, then shred. Credit card statements I keep for four years. Now that my credit card companies are putting the statement pdfs online, I may not keep them as long. Credit card slips stay for a year, at which point I shred, unless itâs something I need for taxeshome sale purposes. Bills/cc receipts go into a folder for each month. I have a manila folder where I throw everything for the yearâs tax return as I go, so I am not digging through 12 months of folders to find charitable contribution receipts next year.
For new paper coming into the house, I try to recycle the junk ASAP. Then bills go to a drawer of a plastic storage thing in the pantry closet. Stuff I want to keep (at least a while) like utility bill goes into a covered basket under the kitchen desk.
Old kiddo paper, art, photos etc is hard to part with. But I try to get rid of some of it.
I have a couple âballot boxesâ in the exercise room by the shredder; all credit card statements and receipts etc. go in one of them. The other waits for its turn. After 6 months, the contents of the other box get shredded, and I rotate boxes. No sorting, no fuss. I figured that if I need a receipt to prove something, I would fish it out of the box. After 6 months, chances are I will never need anything out of that box.