My Messy House

Registration is Open

Jenne — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 06:54:08 +0000

Registration for the forums is now open! Note that once you are registered, you will need to post an introduction to be fully activated!

Registration will not stay open indefinitely. I will probably cap it at about 20 people, then let those people settle in before opening it again. The forum is NOT for solicitations for TV shows, nor is it for cleanies to complain about living with messies! (Cleanies are welcome, as long as you recognize that our minds work differently and things that are easy for you are difficult for us. Think twice before posting any tip that starts with “just”, such as “just put your mind to it.” If we could “just,” we would be cleanies!)

The main forum has a strong Christian bent, but there is a private group for atheist/ areligious check-ins. PM me (Jenne) if you want to be added to that group. The atheist group is for atheists only. No proselytizing in either direction, please! (Expressions of faith are appropriate on the main board.)

Moving

Jenne — Mon, 24 May 2010 07:17:06 +0000

I’m adding a new category that I’m surprised I didn’t have on here before. I’m adding a category for moving. I moved twice, from Germany to Texas and then from Texas to Missouri, after starting the first version of My Messy House. Now, after ten years in the same house, we’re getting ready to move back to Texas at the end of July (or so.) I’ll have this next week, plus three weeks in June, to really concentrate on decluttering and to start packing. I’m using a combination of Flylady’s 27-Fling Boogie and David Allen’s Getting Things Done management technique to get things going. I’ll be trying to add new content to this site nightly as I find tips and motivation for decluttering.

Some of our challenges on this move is that we are doing the packing, loading, unloading, and unpacking ourselves. We plan to give away all of our pressboard furniture when we move, but we do have several big wood furniture pieces, along with a fridge, a washer, and a dryer, a waterbed, dining set, rocking chair, mattress, and bookcases to move. What’s really frightening, though, is all the small stuff. I hope to document the process in pictures over the next few months. I’m looking at this move as a chance to declutter and try to minimize our stuff as much as possible.

This is one of the books I’m rereading for inspiration.

Forum Update

Jenne — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:35:29 +0000

Hello! A few people have mentioned wanting to register for the forums. If you are interested, please email me at mmh @ mymessyhouse.com with your desired username. Unfortunately, I was getting too many spam registrations and it took too long to try to figure out who the real people were! I’m afraid I might have rejected some real people on accident.

UPDATE: It’s .com, not .org. I’m so sorry for the confusion. If you want to join, please email me at mmh @ mymessyhouse dot com. I will try to get you added as quickly as possible. If you’re not added within a week, email me again, please.

Forum Registration is Now Open

Jenne — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:40:42 +0000

The registration is now open at the new forum software.

Forum Link

If you are a current active member who cannot post, go ahead and re-register. Then I’ll merge your old account and your new one.

Learning How to Clean for Allergies

Jenne — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 03:24:40 +0000

I have recently joined the exciting world of people with asthma and allergies. I discovered I was doing everything wrong in my bedroom, with the books, the stuffed animals, the various dust-collectors… Today, I spent most of the day either cleaning the bedroom or converting more of my plants to hydroculture (which is supposed to be allergy-free.) My headboard, nightstand, and the top of my bookcase are now clean and uncluttered.

It will take a lot more work, though, because I committed the common mistake of using the bedroom as a bit of a storage area. (And I have no excuse– we do have a basement!) The stuffed animals and Barbie dolls are in clear plastic boxes. At some point, I will likely decide to give some away, since I can’t really display them and they won’t do anyone any good in boxes.

I also covered our pillows with allergy covers.

While I was surfing around looking for information about how to clean for allergies, I found yet another reminder to stop hoarding old clothes. If you’re not using them and laundering them, then they’re just sitting around gathering allergens. Time for another Goodwill run.

Registrations are Closed

Jenne — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:02:55 +0000

Forum registrations are closed again for now. We’ll let the new folks get settled in before opening registrations again. I expect to open registration during the first week of December. If I forget, email me at mymessyhouse@hotmail.com. Remember, there are active discussions on several pages here, so if you can’t get into the forum, you can still find kindred spirits here!

Forum Registration is Open

Jenne — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:17:41 +0000

Forum registration is now open for a limited time. We have a very special community on the forum, so it’s important to ease new people in slowly. I’ll probably close the registration after we get about ten registrations, but I plan to re-open registration next month. As always, you should be able to communicate with each other on the comments on these posts!

Messy Site

Jenne — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:55:41 +0000

Things are still messy around here. I finally upgraded some of the software, but I still have to work on the forums. Sigh. I wish I could just snap my fingers and make it happen. The categories are broken right now… it will take me some time to fix them.

March Update

Jenne — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:05:31 +0000

The board update has to wait until my semester is over (a little less than a month.) The board has thousands of posts, and I don’t want to lose any of them, so I need to make sure this goes smoothly.

I’m still decluttering. This week, I’m working on the linen closet, which has become a catch-all. I’m going to write an article about the linen closet once I’m done, and even post pictures!

I’ve gotten a lot of old paper, cardboard, magazines, and clothes out of the house. I have a long way to go, but I can see the progress when I look around. The house is currently “messy” (thanks to the linen closet project), but not suffocating. The emptier spaces around the mess help show that the mess is temporary.

Board Progress

Jenne — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:52:31 +0000

Hi again! If you got an email from the My Messy House forums, but cannot log in, take heart! I’m still working on upgrading the boards (target is this weekend.) Once the new boards are up and the moderators are comfortable, we will open registration. If you have not been active in the past year, your account might not exist any more, but you are welcome to re-register! I’ll post a heads up when the new boards are up.

Today, I gained some organizing stuff (folders and folding storage boxes) and got rid of two boxes of magazines (recycling) and a bag of clothes (Goodwill.) I also worked more on my corner of the living room. I’m trying to spend less than an hour a day on decluttering (so I can make it a daily habit) and about half an hour on declutter/maintenance. I’ve started washing down the bathroom after I’m done getting ready in the morning. With the counters all clear (except for the clock, handsoap, and electric toothbrush), it’s really easy to clean up. I also cleared the edge of the tub so all that’s on there is my current shampoo (I can tend to be a product junkie, but that’s another habit I’m decluttering), DH’s shampoo, and my bodywash. That makes it really easy to clean. Sadly, the bathroom is not done… I still have to do under the sink, but that’s two days’ worth of work and right now I’m just skimming the surface and grabbing the easy stuff.

A really inspiring site I have found is Zen Habits. I spent a while this weekend reading a lot of the archives and I’ve added it to my daily reads for inspiration.