The last one of our kids finally moved out for good ( boomerangs happen) so now we go on a major purge. A bag a week won’t do it 
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My husband went through all our movie DVDs and music CDs and has a huge box he is hoping to sell to a used CD store (if they don’t sell I will donate them to a local rummage sale)
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two bags today or the original home movie video tapes (we have already copied them) and some other electronic miscellany. Plus two boxes of dvd and cd ready to take to the place that buys them
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A few more things left the house yesterday thanks to the Buy Nothing group. Also, H and I dropped 2 bicycles off at a local thrift shop.
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in-laws moved out of their house after 53 years. It was full of items. but surprisingly well maintained and organized. Kudos to them!
however, it did inspire us to this summer get one of those huge dumpster bins. And we filled it. Purged! but still have more to go - mostly clothing from the kids, and TONS of kids stuff.
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My 4 bedrooms (well, office, study, guest room) are having floors replaced. everything on the floors had to be moved out, quite quickly. My goal is to be careful when returning items. I will need to part with some furniture, books, pictures. There is simply no point to keep things I don’t use. (I say hopefully.)
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I forgot to mention that we met with a realtor on Thursday, plans are to put the house on the market next March. This is definitely providing a further incentive to get rid of stuff!
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Congrats on a plan in place!
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My mom, God rest her soul, used to say it is always good to have plan to follow. Trying to follow a spider web of maybe-plans can be exhausting.
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Hauled about five garbage bags to the curb. Thank heavens for the technology that uses them from 1995. One entire bag of floppy disks. Yes, organized in file flip cabinets of about 50 each.
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D2 moved to an apt last weekend after finishing her senior year at home and gap year working for me and lifeguarding. She managed to get rid of one bag of clothes, several bags of pure junk, and a box of books. My house is back to fewer trails of her possessions.
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went through all our glassware today and weeded out about half
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H hauled away two truck loads of donations in the past week in preparation for the house sale. He also filled the large trash cart each week for a month, along with two big contractor bags. He’s exhausted. My sympathy is lessened by the fact that I’d been asking him to deal with his stuff for a few years. We nearly had another wreck while driving back to the old house last month, after which I told him the rest was up to him.
I arranged for several people to pick up furniture we can’t use in the next house. The buyers will get a few freebies, but I preferred to find new homes for as much as possible.
We’re not yet done since H admits he packed more than he should have. There’s cookware we can’t use on an induction cooktop that will be donated, bed linens that aren’t the right size and old clothes, too. At least I can sort through it an hour or so at a time and won’t be rushed.
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There is a sustainability advocacy group in the next town over from me. Every fall, they have a big recycling day. Local groups set up drop off stations in a big state park (Lions club, domestic violence shelter, a community farm, and others) and each group publishes a list of items they take (old glasses, old cell phones and chargers, gardening supplies, bicycles). You drive through the park with your items and stop at the appropriate locations to drop items off. The final stop is an electronics and scrap metal recycling company.
The big day is Saturday and I already have a pile ready to go. I reminded my mom that the event was this weekend and she is bringing stuff over tomorrow to put in my car. The only thing better than cleaning out my old stuff is reminding her she needs to clean out hers so I don’t have to do it!
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@helpingmom40 - that’s really great! One stop dropping off and it goes to groups that really want the stuff. Win-win!
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I have been cleaning out my office since the beginning of the semester in anticipation of retirement next year. I’ve emptied several file drawers and it’s fun to do it at my leisure as I have found some funny things that I kept and forgot. I have found myself laughing in my office as I read through copies of some really bad old papers (one generated the comment from me that it was just a 4 page paragraph!).
I’m continuing to weed out at home and a few days ago I disassembled an old wheelbarrow that had a flat tire that has only held air for an hour or so over the last few years. It was pretty yucky and I got parts of it into the trash rollout last Tuesday and have the rest of it in the rollout for next Tuesday. I am guessing that maybe a few of you will identify with the satisfaction of getting rid of it. I continue to think about how the first part of my life was focused on acquisition and now it’s focused on getting rid of stuff!
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Getting ready to review/dispose of a box with a few plastic shopping bags of old statements, checkbooks etc that my mother had marked “get rid of when gone” . Her estate has been closed out for almost a year, and here 2020 taxes were filed (low income, zero tax). I will keep the old checkbook registers.
Here other more recent, key statements etc are filed. She was always super organized, so when I had only room in our den for her china cabinet or the three 2-drawer file cabinets that she had long ago ordered from Yankee Workshop and stained herself … I kept the filing cabinets.
I also found a box of holiday decorations and old cards from Mom that I’ll mail to my sister as her birthday gift from “mom and sis”
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Error post!
Correct post!
I’ve been dropping off a box or more each week at Goodwill for the past several weeks. Each time they just have you pull up and set your stuff inside the door and off you go.
Today I had a box of assorted stuff - clothes, shoes, books, picture frames, kitchen items….a worker met me at the door and asked what was in the box ( I said assorted stuff) then she rummaged through the box kind of roughly took a few things out and threw them in a bin and then handed my mostly full box back to me and said they couldn’t take the other stuff.
I was surprised, never had that happen before! It wasn’t junk - some of the clothes were name brand athletic wear in good shape, TOMS shoes/sandals, etc
Do they usually rummage through your stuff when you drop off at goodwill?! It was so discouraging to be handed back my box I was anxious to depart of! (Not that this is about me…)
DH just had some stuff refused at Salvation Army drop off. They were office supplies in new condition. That was a first for us.