DD1 got married Saturday, and we dropped off some bags of her stuff at her new apt. DD2 will be home for a week and she is a great organizer - taking time off work for us to go through my mom’s stuff in the garage (ashamed to say how long it has sat there!) and hopefully consolidate things to one side of the garage. Have 2 or 3 days of upstairs HVAC work going on soon - improving some of the duct/return air vent/getting heat unit in attic space and gaining a closet!/2nd air duct in room that needs better temp control. Baby steps!
Cleaned out storage room and garage and went to Goodwill and the dump.
Only had one argument with H so we did very well!
And sure enough the very next day the contractor called to say they would start at
8 am to fix the drywall in the garage. We were so glad we had cleaned it out.
Also purged our earthquake supplies and tossed suspicious canned goods and 10 year
old MRI kits. I have not decided what to replace that stuff with yet.
I now had another large bag started/
I’m almost done cleaning out the garage. I had planned to make a run to the dump but apparently DH thought that wasn’t very gallant of him, so he has offered to do it tomorrow. He’ll have to make two runs, I think, and then all of the junk will be gone. Well, except for what I’m free-cycling, which is a lot.
I put a little cocktail table that I bought for $99 about 30 years ago from The Bombay Company by the curb, with a sign that said “FREE.” It was gone in about three hours. I also free-cycled the extra-long twin mattress pad and three extra-long fitted sheets. I’m so happy to take something I don’t need or want and give it away for free!
One day soon, we will put our cars in the garage. That will be an exciting day.
VeryHappy–still got a few items from Bombay from 30 years ago–I kept them…
yesterday I dropped off at least 20 paperback books, a duffle bag full of clothes of mine that are unlikely to ever fit again, and two paper bags full of household items. Today I rounded up a printer, a broken toaster, and some other things that can go to the e-waste collective tomorrow. But what I really think deserves some sort of prize for the oddest thing being discarded this week–I am putting out in the trash 3 mannequins I made years ago for a 4th of July float. They are very cute, 3 foot tall Benjamin Franklins, made out of paper mache and wire and old clothes. I guess I thought I might need them for some other patriotic parade some day, but they are old and falling apart now and I need the storage space in the attic for…a bunch of other crap.
^^^^Creepy!!!
Hint for those of you cleaning out your basements and donating things. Nobody needs that frying pan with the nonstick coating in shreds. Nobody needs the torn and stained shirts. And really, nobody needs the electric heating element you plug in to defrost your freezer. Everyone else got rid of that kind of freezer decades ago too.
(It’s the annual church rummage sale. I love that we help people clean out their basements. I love that we find new homes for stuff that doesn’t need to go to the landfill yet. I love that we raise money for local charities. I love working with these ladies all week. But really, some of the things that get donated!)
With regard to the torn and stained shirts, our local Salvation Army told my United Way Community Investment Panel during a tour that they take those and sell to recyclers for rag content. I would check to confirm on local policies though before dumping them into the charity stream since they are otherwise useless as @MomofJandL indicates.
I like old cotton shirts, which I can debone and use for quilts!
Yay!! DH made the two required dump runs, I have several items to get rid of on Freecycle, and then we can put cars in the garage. We’re getting close!!
Thank you for that PSA. I personally would never put a chipped dish or a stained shirt in a donation pile. There is a garbage can for that! Speaking of fabric items, our local pet shelter takes old pillowcases, ratty towels, blankies, etc. - the pets do not care if the stuff they pee on is stained or torn! 
My town recently contracted with a recycler that collects old clothes and other fabrics that can’t be donated. The point is to keep all that out of the landfills. I haven’t used it yet, but when we clean out the linen closet and old shirts, I’m sure it’ll be useful.
Two Ss are home for the summer. Today they went through all their clothes, swapped a few, and made three giant bags to donate. I went through another hall closet and added another bag to donate. If I can only figure out how to trick them into going into the basement next…
I’m feeling very satisfied today after donating an old printer, some old phones, and a big bag of cords and adapters to a non-profit t e-waste recycling place. They also took a big box of packing peanuts–my personal pet peeve, not just because of the way they escape all over the place, but because they remind me of all the boxes of stuff that has made its way into my home from mom and mother-in-law’s house. I try not to accept too much but the rest of the family is more sentimental.
Now I just have to recycle the boxes the printer and the packing peanuts were in. The e-waste place took the stuff out and gave me back the boxes. Luckily I can put out quite a bit of cardboard in our regular pickup.
Got rid of a twin bed quilt via Freecycle.
Just posted a cute shelf from Ethan Allen on Freecycle and already got two interested parties. It will be gone by dinnertime tomorrow, when the first person picks it up by my mailbox.
Have another small shelf unit and then a big Weber grill still to go. And a CD stand.
Then DH needs to move a few big pieces to the basement, and then we can park the cars in the garage!! I never thought I’d see the day.
I have a free day and I’ve tackled the linen closet. 1 bag from there plus a bunch of other stuff that I moved to a different location. It’s probably stuff that should go but I’m not ready.
Next up was the closet and dresser of my youngest. She no longer lives here yet you wouldn’t know it from her room. I mostly organized and put stuff back in the drawers that she wears when she is here. Cleaned out her swimsuit drawer and tossed everything with elastic that was shot. Tossed unmatched socks. I put all her horse riding stuff in one part of her closet. I think I counted 12 pairs of riding pants that no longer fit her or are high waisted which is out of favor. I don’t think she is ready to part with them. I hope to get her to go through it next time she is here. I did take all the old denim jeans and put them in a bag for the thrift store.
So several loans of trash
3 bags for the thrift store and it’s not even 1 pm.
The crazy thing is that I’ve gotten rid of so much yet we still have so much.
Took a truckload of empty pots to Flower World. So happy that there is a nursery that recycles/reuses this stuff!
DH is almost ready to begin getting rid of his entire closet filled with clothes that haven’t fit him in years. We had to go to a funeral on Friday and he couldn’t find a dress shirt that he could button at the neck! I told him that once he goes through all the stuff and gets rid of it, we can go buy him some new duds.
Sold our giant couch last night. Woot!
Made great progress at home in the last week. Miles to go…but I’ve started walking a whole lot faster…and it is so good to see I’m making a dent. For me, it has become easier to be ruthless in culling as I get deeper into the project.
I sorted, by specific rental and my home-interior & exterior all the paint that is current and have the rest for recycling center. Labeled so it’s easy to find the right match at a glance. Pitched a bunch of stuff like Roof Repair caulk (if I really need 20 tubes, I’m pretty sure I need a roofer!)
Had a big pile of old lumber to burn and I just kept chucking in tons of stuff that wasn’t Goodwill or recycling worthy. My main floor is good, but oh…the full basement 
Hope I can keep up this momentum, at least for awhile.