<p>I just picked some up last night. I’m getting ready to use them here in a bit…Great Minds…</p>
<p>What I have seen from the space saver bags is that clothes usually come out very wrinkled. Wrinkled you can fix, but a comforter that won’t fluff anymore… I don’t think so.</p>
<p>Whoo Hoo. Just loaded up 3 boxes of old HS textbooks AND got rid of the oh-so-precious notes from HS classes. D is a bit of a pack rat, but when she didn’t need to see them, just got the titles, it seemed to free her up to hit delete.</p>
<p>What the used book store doesn’t take, the library will. And yay for paper recycling for the notes! (she had already taken useful notes to school with her as did DS).</p>
<p>aloha</p>
<p>Re: Space Saver bags- cotton clothing tends to come out a bit wrinkled, in my experience. However, comforters, towels, throw pillows, sheets all come out fine. </p>
<p>I have found that the trick to the bags is to fill them “just right”. Not less than they can hold and certainly not more. </p>
<p>The wrinkled clothing happened, I think because I put less in than capacity. When things are “just right” (follow the lines on the bag)- they come out fine for me.</p>
<p>Just an FYI…we recently bought a new synthetic filled sleeping bag. It came with a mesh bag for hanging it when NOT in use. The did not recommend storing it in the stuff sack.</p>
<p>Hope these aren’t repeats, I tried to scan all the posts!
1.) Clothes. Yes theater departments love them.<br>
2.) I also agree that broken items, etc - please don’t donate, they just have to pay to have the items disposed of. But - Goodwill does take clothes. What they can’t sell in their shops, they can often sell to by the pound to other countries (stained t shirts can be a treasure to someone without a shirt) …or they scrap them for rags, OR they even make dog clothes out of them, to sell in the stores.
3.) Books - try your local boys and girls clubs, children homes, etc … I can’t imagine they would not take those books!
4.) Freecycle - learn the rules. They don’t like first come first served … wastes gas, etc. I’ve used several times, picked someone, gave them 24 hours to pick up - just put on my porch. Gave a way a lot of stuff when we remodeled our home, old lights, old toilet, even an old mattress.</p>
<p>If you thought you’d be moving again and saved packing boxes, theatre departments/dance companies are also happy to have the wardrobe packing boxes (with the hanging bar) for costume storage.</p>
<p>Between Freecycle and curbsite charity pickup (I do ARC)… my house is less cluttered than it would otherwise be. But we’ve still got a long way to go. In the meantime, my goal is severely limit the amount of incoming stuff.</p>
<p>Sock Sanity…</p>
<p>Here’s what we do for my husband’s socks. He owns 2 kinds - gold toe crew socks in black and white. “Sorting” is easy - the black ones go in one of his small dresser drawers, the white ones in another. </p>
<p>It took some time to phase into this, many years ago. But it has been such a time saver! A good time to start this is when you see a good sale at JCP or Kohl’s. </p>
<p>I used to do similar for the kids. Each had only 1 kind of sock athletic sock type/size, unique to them. As they got more independent and picked their own, sorting is way more complicated. Luckily they usually do their own wash.</p>
<p>I have done theater costuming. PLEASE before you schlep your stuff to the local high school, give them a call. I know the ONLY things were were interested in having were very old period clothes that we KNEW we could use. We were NOT interested in Dad’s old suits or mom’s old dresses. The reality is that most high schools do NOT have large storage facilities for costumes (sets, props or anything else) and this is all subject to fire marshall approval. Every year several folks “donate” bags of old clothes and props to our high school drama department. MOST of it goes into the dumpster or WE schlep it to Goodwill. </p>
<p>SO…before you assume your high school drama club is dying to have your cast offs, please call them.</p>
<p>thumper & 1moremor - Good advice on donating wardrobe boxes (side bar - they are often requested on Freecyle) and the call-ahead to theater groups. '</p>
<p>Last night I was at a local dinner theater and realized that they too probably have to deal with clutter control.</p>
<p>OK…today I took two large black garbage bags of old clothes to Goodwill. Also a basket full of “stuff” (candles, knicknacks, etc). DH (don’t know what got into him} took ALL of the old boxes from old electronics (many we don’t even OWN anymore) out of the attic. </p>
<p>I’m attacking the linen closets next…all old towels and sheets will go to my dog groomer who really appreciates having them.</p>
<p>After our estate sales are over we often have lot’s of old bedding and towels left over. Still usable yet not saleable or donateable so we give them to this lady (there are several in our area) who make beds and shelters for stray dogs and cats. Then they place them in areas around the city which have been identified as heavy on strays.</p>
<p>Just finished cleaning out a cabinet that was FULL of empty CD cases - filled a trash bag full of them.</p>
<p>What our high school theater group asked for were men’s hats (fedoras, top hats, porkpie hats,…,) women’s hats (dressy from the 50’s and earlier), canes and walking sticks of the wooden variety, monocles, lorgnettes, and pipes. I gather that other costuming/props were easier to come by and not worth storing. </p>
<p>On the weird stuff to get rid of: D has several packets of monthly contact lenses that are no longer of use to her (they’re unopened) – any ideas as to who might take them? It seems a waste to toss them. I’ve also found a whole stash of Pendaflex folders that H had up in the attic – more than we will need this lifetime.</p>
<p>The Lyons Clubs have collected old eye glasses for years - and redistributed to the poor. I wonder if they would take the contacts as well? Might try them.</p>
<p>I would imagine the contact lenses are probably of no use. May ask at the optometrist’s office and see what they say…</p>
<p>Here’s a tip: have your furnace break down, then you have to go clean out the storage area in the basement so that the workers can get down there to work.</p>
<p>(guess what I did today 
)</p>
<p>If you buy your contacts from 1800contacts and they are unexpired, they will take them back and give you a credit. This happened to us when one family member’s RX changed and we still had quite a bit from the old RX.</p>
<p>teriwtt - Darn, sorry to hear about the furnace break down. </p>
<p>I was heard a speaker talk about a book titled something like “burning down the house”, about somebody that got liberated from clutter the unintentional and drastic way. </p>
<p>"all old towels and sheets will go to my dog groomer who really appreciates having them. " - Our local Humane society is delighted to get worn linens.</p>