My intention (not saying resolution) for the New Year is to clean out my garage–it’s a 3 car garage and I can only put 1 car in it beause of all the stuff. Started with the three record cabinets. Turns out they are good examples of mid-century modern furniture and a local auction house is willing to take them and sell at their next mid-century auction (in the spring). The cabinets fit in my SUV and I took them over last week. Felt great to get rid of them. Now on to the other junk. I’m motivated!
Anyone know the best way to destroy the old 3.5" computer disks? Hammer or burning or something else?
I hate baby equipment. I hated baby equipment when my kids were little–so big, bulky, and they don’t use it long. Turns out I still hate baby equipment in grandma mode.
Grandkid 1 is 2.5–baby stuff in garage attic. Grandkid 2 due in June. I babysit often. It would be stupid to get rid of this while they are having kids, but still…it’s tempting 
Decided to clean out my closet. I had Kon-Mari’ed about 18 months ago, but somehow my clothes have reproduced and I now have more than I ever had. Trying to be brutal, but it’s so tough, even though I know that I haven’t worn some of these items in over a year.
Update on the old raisins - the outdoor animals (squirrels, birds, chipmunks) ate them all up. Then we put out more stuff, like Grits Bits that neither H or I wanted to eat; week old green grapes. All eaten. I put fresh water in the bird bath so they all have drinking water and the birds also use to bathe on warm days. We love looking at outdoor animals taking advantage of our trees/woods/bird bath.
Made me laugh about the dog who would eat it all too…
@SOSConcern, please pray that you don’t attract raccoons! If there were food in my yard, raccoons would return and eat it. A few years ago, a raccoon got into my car through an open window, ate some cookies from an open package, and cleaned its paws using a plastic cup of water in the cup holder.
Raccoons are a mess if they are ‘trapped’, that is for sure. Sounds like you learned not to keep car windows open, and more caution with anything to attract them into the car.
We have seen dead possums near our neighborhood and dead Armadillos. Occasional skunk (a few neighbor homes w/o barrier for crawl space had the horror of getting a skunk out from under their house). Our crawl space is secure!
There are area coyotes that do keep some wildlife down and also sometimes try to snatch a dog or cat (they are not regularly seen on our city streets, but come out from nearby wooded areas).
A raccoon fell into sister’s fireplace and tore up their house (in WI). They needed to have a screen in place in their chimney (which they did get installed).
Too bad I couldn’t figure out a way to get the raccoons to join my bag-a-week club.
I threw out dozens of spice jars yesterday. When I realized the newer jars had expiration dates on them, it made my decisions a little easier. Some had “Best if used before 2000” and other ancient deadlines. A few have not been used in the last 20 to 30 years. I’ll have to restock the spice tray soon.
I imagine a lot of us could pay some attention to our spice area!
The weekend netted a few bags - at least one a day - to the trash, a bag of clothes for donation and several items posted or to be posted on Ebay. H who is newly retired was given a short list of “honey please do” items to continue the clean out effort.
I think he was VERY glad to have me go back to work yesterday!
I really needed before and after pix to prove what’s happening. Fourth day of garage clean out.
Not sure what finally clicked inside me to just “let go”. But it’s going!
If you need a kickstart to get decluttering, watch this episode of Hoarders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNwXYnfwOqI
It works for me every time X_X
Wow! Scary show! Never saw Hoarders before but the music teacher S went to for a few years was definitely a hoarder. It was tougher and tougher to find a place to sit while S had his music lesson.
Cleaned another storage area out this weekend. Got rid of all the old decorative flags I used to hang outside (I had oodles - each season, holiday, month, college teams, etc. ). Son’s old game systems (that don’t work) and games from Gamecube to Playstation 2. An electric fryer I never use. Banged up crock pot. Putting on ebay an electric fondue pot used maybe twice. Thinned out the family board games. Tossed a bunch of old boxes from small appliances etc. I meant to save for a year.
When I get to the attic and do some work there (will need it to be more mild temperature wise) life will REALLY get good!
Just a note to be careful when you go up in the attic when temps get mild-I’ve found more than a few hornet’s nests up there in my house @-)
I’ve introduced my sister to the bag a week club. She texted me this AM that she has 4 bags ready for the donation center. Her H is not a hoarder but close to it. He will pull stuff out of the trash if she isn’t quick.
My big decluttering impetus was guests coming for the Women’s March. Three bags out the door.
Company is always a great incentive.
Dumped a bunch of Christmas lights and decorations we no longer used! Cleared some old stuff out of the master closet. More baby steps.
BB more master closet space! Yah! Can find things faster too, and make it look pretty organized!
I am seized by the desire to organize the filing cabinet. This is obviously procrastination manifesting in a big way-I’m just trying to decide if I should do it and then have to deal with the consequences of not doing my homework until late at night, because the filing cabinet has been driving me crazy for years.