I got my daughter to agree to donate her junior prom dress - she won’t part with her senior prom dress (but I still consider this a victory)
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I know it should not matter, but I tried our local “buy nothing” site for awhile, and kept seeing the same few people asking or taking things. I began to wonder if they were really in that much need, or had a vintage store somewhere on the side. Ultimately if you’re just trying to downsize, it doesn’t matter, but I’m now trying to donate directly to organizations. I know of one that distributes items directly when possible (instead of selling), so try them first.
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I did advertise a bike trailer in a place at work, but I didn’t include a price. When a young family came to look at it, and said they’d take it - how much was it, I said “you can have it, as long as you take all this other stuff with it…” They were thrilled - they got some really “good stuff” for their one year old, and I was happy to get rid of stuff.
I did something similar when I got rid of a 25 YO Nordic Track machine. I put Best Offer, but when someone called and was really interested, I said free to good home. Getting stuff out is a nice reward.
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I agree the best situation is getting clutter out of the house and to people in need. Next best is getting porch pickup by somebody that might sell the item.
The very worst kind of situation is what we did years ago, trying to do a good deed. We went to pick up a freecycle bike for a car-less local family in need that I had befriended…. then had na no-show giver… then later after other errands forgot about the empty trailer hitch bike rack on back of the minivan. Ack, that mistake cost us $1000 for a new garage door. (The automatic garage door opener should have reversed when it hit the bike rack. But hubby heard the noise and instinctively and pulled forward and somehow goofing things). Thankfully hubby knew my heart had been in the right place and didn’t give me a hard time.
Ouch. Not fair when a good deed winds up costing you money and being a hassle.
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Still working on getting rid of craft supplies. I have a big bag of pencils (colored and regular) I am bringing to the library tomorrow. They take all of the craft supplies I get rid of.
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Got rid of a small suitcase, 2 mirrors and a globe on Buy Nothing today! Putting an IKEA shelf unit out tomorrow and I expect hot competition for that.
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Girl, you need to put that shelf up for auction to the highest bidder - just for fun!!! 
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Pokemon cards can be worth big bucks. Especially the early ones. Don’t discard them willy nilly without letting a comic book store person go through them (or a gamer who loves them). Give them to your kids. Regular ebay market for them. Old cards with pokemon on them (So not necessarily the power cards) in decent condition are worth saving. They don’t take much room so it’s not a big space saver to get rid of them. Similar to the $10K baseball card stash my aunt threw out.
Same with early Star Wars or Harry Potter stuff.
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I realized I SHOULD have saved them once I trashed them and then they became a “thing” again.
Oh well - my kids don’t seem interested in all the gaming systems we have or the magic cards, so I assume they wouldn’t care much about Pokémon either.
My son will be cat sitting for 2 weeks next month. Maybe he will finally go through some of this stuff!
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My daughter is moving to CA once the school year is out. Her husband already moved but she told her principal she would stay through the end of the school year. She has been making a t shirt quilt out of her old invader Zim t shirts. She called last week to ask if I wanted to get together and go through old shirts and do t shirt quilts together. I had a couple of drawers full of shirts I knew I would never wear but could not part with - from cruises with my mum, a girl scout trip to Europe with my daughter, various other memorable times. We started last Sunday and plan to get together every other weekend. It was fun and it made me go through a lot of t-shirts, decide what to keep and cut them apart to keep the front and get rid of the rest. I was pleasantly surprised how much brighter some slightly faded shirts looked once I ironed on backing. So I got rid of stuff, will end up with the memory quilt, and, best of all, will get to spend some precious time with my daughter before she moves 1600 miles away.
Total big black bags out of the house - one to trash (lots of “stuff” plus some old clothes), one bag of her old shirts to her house for her to go through for t-shirt quilts (swim team, girl scouts etc - we spent a lot of money on t-shirts it appears). Numerous shirts cut down into squares/rectangles for the quilt. I’m going through more before our next get together.
Tax season just started and I’ve been working long hours but need to try and spend at least an hour or so filling a bag this weekend. And tax season and boss’s demands regardless, I will be carving out time to spend time with my daughter while I can.
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My mom did that for a lot of my running race t-Shirts. My grandmother helped do some of the stitching. (I have zero sewing skills.) It turned out awesome, and it is one of our most used blankets. But sometimes now, it’s a shock thinking how old those races were - late 80s through early 00s!
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As predicted the IKEA shelf unit was a “hot item”. Ended up gifted to a woman who is setting up a new Montessori school here (she also got the globe). Also gifted some random felt (not sure why I had that, I don’t craft), another storage cabinet and a charcoal grill. I’m done on Buy Nothing until after we sell the house. We will have several pieces of furniture to get rid of then.
Lupus is scheduled for a pickup at my house this coming Monday.
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Lupus is coming to your house? Oh my.
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I shredded all of our old 529 info. today. Last kid graduated college in 2018 - hopefully we didn’t need it any longer.
Shredded a bunch of other stuff too. Trying to decide if I should shred many old bank statements or keep them around. I did get rid of some years several months ago.
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Lupus Association. They do pickup in my zip code once/week very easy to schedule on line.
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Does anyone have any suggestions for how to unload old (1970’s) Tonka trucks and Matchbox/Hot Wheels? I have looked locally for vintage toy shops and antique stores but haven’t really found the right place. I’m also not sure how to go about determining their value, if they even have any. Any suggestions are welcome!
Probably not worth much - I would donate to a local rummage sale
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I will ask my car expert friend and get back here.
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Have listed our freestanding basketball hoop (the kind with the big black plastic weight that you fill with water) for months on FB groups and can’t get a taker.
It is missing a net. But otherwise it’s fine. Everyone up here is slothful, apparently.