<p>colorado_mom,
If I got through a drawer a day, I’d be thrilled…but I have high hopes once the guys head back to school and DH returns to his 60+hr/wk insanity. Mostly I clean up the same 100 square feet every day because all the guys in my house are total slobs. They do chores when asked, but good grief, cleaning up after oneself is just not in their capacity.</p>
<p>I just noticed that my DH will be gone 3 of the next 6 weekends. Great opportunity to declutter ahead. I will be using lots if your ideas.</p>
<p>I switch out my closet every 6 months based on the season. If I did not wear it, I give it away. Clean and simple - no excuses. If it is worn and I should never again wear it, I give away/throw away. This keeps me from accumulating too much.</p>
<p>I’ve been avoiding reading this thread…now I have to clean out something…</p>
<p>Pouring more junk into the world isn’t the solution either. I see nothing wrong with just recycling or throwing away. Not everything “needs” a new home. Some stuff just needs to be tossed.</p>
<p>^^ “… now I have to clean out something …”</p>
<p>Come to my house!</p>
<p>Rom828, if I were home and not on vacation, I’d feel the need to clean, too!</p>
<p>I have to agree with freecycle as a great resource. We finished our basement this past summer and I had to empty/get rid of all the toys that had accumulated over the years. It was great to find new homes for these toys - most of them were in great condition - a train table with drawers, hordes of train tracks/trains, tons of board games etc. Of course, now that the basement is finished, we are slowly but surely accumulating other stuff - a table tennis table was one of the first things we got. Now, H is talking about a projector…</p>
<p>For yarn, when my mother moved she had boxes and boxes of yarn. I found two places that were thrilled to have it. One was a church where their senior group uses yarn for all kinds of craft projects. The other was the Senior Citizens community organization.</p>
<p>One thing that has helped me somewhat on my closet was a tip I read a long time ago. It suggests that the first of January you turn all the hangers around backward. When you wear something it gets hung back up the “right” way. At the end of the year, get rid of everything still turned around backward. At least it helps on the hanging clothes!</p>
<p>(didn’t read the whole thread…sorry if this is a repeat)</p>
<p>I do costumes for several plays each year at Jr. High/High School. I saw a post earlier that said “if it is out of date, no one wants it”…NOT TRUE!!</p>
<p>Please consider letting your high school drama director look through your donations before you give them away. Or pack up a couple of bags and donate them to the school. You can still write them off, and if they don’t want or need them, they can donate to a local resale shop. This goes for clothing, as well as hats, wigs, and furniture and other props. </p>
<p>I am “queen of goodwill” but getting them for free is…priceless!! :D</p>
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<p>An interesting idea… I like it!</p>
<p>Great reminder, nicksmtmom! The theater department people in my folks’ hometown were thrilled to get my dad’s navy uniforms when he and my mom were downsizing. No doubt they will be in a South Pacific performance someday.</p>
<p>“Some stuff just needs to be tossed.” - Yep, hard to do it but true. I like Freecucle because it allows me to keep things out of the landfill that still have good use, just no good use in our house. Some of them I would not have even been sure whether worthwhile for charity. (I went to a recycling-ish center on the first Earth Day ever, I think in 1970 at age 8. It had a lasting impression on me). </p>
<p>The hanger trick is interesting. I try to do similar, just by clothing section position. When I return a long sleeve shirt, it goes to the “front”/left of that section. That way I know the long sleeved shirts at the other end have not been used… and I give some away.</p>
<p>There is a group at church, the Faith Sewers, who make lovely banners with fabric. I think much of their fabric comes from people diligently de-cluttering. </p>
<p>One of my criteria when weighing merits of which things to keep vs discard (example - Christmas decorations)… the things that are smaller, lighter, and flatter get preference. I don’t plan to move for a long time, but it still seems a good rule of thumb.</p>
<p>I am totally inspired by this thread. CA resident here, so no basement or attic. Today I cleaned out the linen closet, and also removed two boxes of books from shelves in office. I put the books on DH’s garage workbench, and told him he could either find his own space for them, or I was bringing them to the library for donation. He can’t stand stuff on the workbench, so I’m betting they will be in my car tomorrow.</p>
<p>I love this thread. It’s giving me hope (and I now know that my husband was separated from his octuplet brothers at birth:) ) . </p>
<p>Tonight I threw out two tupperware salad spoons. I’m on my way!!</p>
<p>I tossed two bags full of old gift wrap (Power Rangers, Little Mermaid, etc. - come on, who uses this stuff anymore?) and a stack of old washcloths that I found in the same closet. It is a good start!</p>
<p>And old things with wires and transistors are *always *on my hit list. 
H knows better and tries to hide that crap from me, but once he made a huge mistake - I found a box in the garage labeled “electrical crap”. Jackpot!!!</p>
<p>I could easily live as a minimalist; DH, on the other hand, likes “stuff”. I don’t allow us to keep anything in the (upper) attic because, IMO, that’s permission to keep stuff we don’t need. We have a side attic where we keep the Christmas decorations, a few pieces of unused furniture, gift wrap/bags, luggage and a file cabinet. There are also three or four boxes of “memorabilia” that belong to DD. I often tell DH and DD that I don’t want DD (only child) to have to go through a bunch of “stuff” when we’re dead and gone, and it’s easier to get rid of it when we’re alive than when there is a sentimental attachment to it. When DD graduated college in May, she moved back to this area and rented a house with three friends. She still has LOTS of stuff here that she doesn’t particularly want, so we’re having a garage sale in the spring (originally a fall project, but FIL passed away and much time spent with MIL). Toss, toss, toss is my mantra. Goodwill loves to see me coming. I have occasionally watched that show, “Hoarders” and it makes me super-anxious to see people living in that condition … so sad.</p>
<p>I am incapable of organizing physical things (my mind is pretty organized). I start to clean up and pick something up and read it or think about it and this gives me an idea and I put it down and start something else and one my own, nothing really ever gets neat. At the office, I have to hire executive assistants who are a little bit anal-compulsive and take care of my home office as well. [They need to combine the organizational compulsion with charm or it doesn’t work]. At home, my wife is very, very creative and not organized either. Our kids make us look neat. So, for a number of years, we had a woman who worked for us about once a week, just organizing things. Unfortunately, she had some bad events in her life and had to stop working with us. We have a largish house with a full basement and attic and storage sheds and without her, they are pretty scary.</p>
<p>Yard sales didn’t really work. We tried craigslist. So so. Sold a couple of big things in the WantAdvertiser (organized by our organizer). But, we give stuff away. But, probably the easiest way to get my house neater would be to get rid of the people.</p>
<p>“Yard sales didn’t really work.” - I never even tried. Ha, the stuff we don’t want is not worth enough $ to justify the work. </p>
<p>I am on the call list for ARC charity pickup. They called again this week, so I know it’s a good time to pack stuff into the giveaway bags to get ready for next Monday (they will call with a Sunday night reminder). Sometimes I do drop-off donation at local thrift shops - Habitat for Humanity & Humane Society. </p>
<p>I’ll also admit to a bit of shopping at the those thrift shops. This month that yielded us a lovely buffet for an empty wall in the kitchen. We hadn’t found the perfect solution new, even for $600+. This one is not perfect either, but it was only $36. To the person who donated it, I’m sure it probably just extra clutter.</p>
<p>One little trick, maybe already mentioned, is to go digital where you can. </p>
<p>One way is to take pictures of things. I found it made it much easier to give away stuff like old artwork, papers with instructions on them, newspaper clippings, if we had a decent photo of it (using an iphone works just fine). Get the photo, toss the original. </p>
<p>You can also scan and toss. My packrat husband has done a very good job this year of gradually cleaning his office of paper by scanning it. He scans, and shreds, scans and shreds. As he points out, much easier to find things on his computer than as a hardcopy on his desk. His office still has a lot of paper but he’s come a very long ways. </p>
<p>We have a hand-me-down chest of drawers at our front door, and beside that a waste basket. When the mail arrives, I open and separate it right away, tossing most of it in the waste basket. I read that somewhere once, and it works. </p>
<p>One other tip I get from hubby, who used to work in pharma: go in your cupboards and check the expiration dates on anything you bought once in a drugstore. This is a quick and easy way to start cleaning out stuff. Most of us have tons of old stuff from the drug store that really belongs in the garbage now. Takes about 10 minutes but makes you feel like you did something.</p>
<p>Bookmarking this thread!</p>