I took pictures of my daughters bookcase instead of writing titles. Just messaged them to her and she picked what she wanted to keep. I media mailed the books to her (not too bad–yet).
I did provide pictures of the books - but being the super organized person she is, we made a detailed spreadsheet with the titles, authors, etc. for her to mark what to keep and what to donate.
@abasket, I’ll have to move the washing machine, dryer, fully loaded fridge, fully loaded Costco floor-ceiling shelving and a bunch of tools. Gotta think about this.
Sounds like lots of work @CountingDown, but when it’s all done you’ll be able to do the stand and stare with satisfaction thing that was talked about earlier in this thread
“The stand and stare.” I like that. Adding to my “oft was thought but ne’er so well expressed” vocabulary cubby.
Maybe it will take off like the “bend and snap” from Legally Blonde
Yeah but this is “stand and stare with satisfaction”. My “stand and stare” is peeking into a closet packed to the gills and then closing it thinking “LATER”.
These days, if I bend, I’ll definitely snap!
Not at a “stand and stare” moment yet, but an ant invasion prompted a long overdue clean/purge of our large pantry cabinet. A box of grape jello won the award for longest expired (2013). Pretty much done with the purging and am slowly putting things back with thoughtful organization. Many many very expired items tossed.
The outdoor sensor of our weather station has croaked. Mr. disassembled it for fun, poked around with a multimeter and announced the time of death. Then he tossed the guts but saved this :
For those times when a screw of this size can come in handy. I will let this sit on the table for a couple of days, then will send it to the garbage can.
See what I have to deal with?
I’ve spent a fair amount of this winter working through recreation equipment. (No complaints - Lots of time. I’m retired, and there’s no gardening. And this cold/snowy year no running.) Details follow…
My downhill skis situation for declutter is “a wash”. Decided to replace my 25 year old downhill skis. ( I just loved them, and though not shaped they were unusually short for the time. But nobody has been willing to check/adjust bindings in many years, so I decided to bite the bullet.) Demo’d 2 pair of skis from the local shop last April that I could have bought cheap at end of last season…but didn’t love them. Spent a little more this month to buy a new pair of Rossignol all-mountain shaped skis after demo’ing same, Alas, not ready to throw my beloved K2 in the trash. Yet.
Today finally, after many messages with NextDoor and Craigslist responders I got rid of the 1980s XC Skis with old style 3-pin bindings. My old boots had fallen apart, and it was tricky to find somebody with old boots to match. But that too is “a wash” because I had already bought new snowshoes, which are more practical for my local lake trail (did a 3.5 mile trek, all flat, last weekend!) . At least they come with a storage bag, so a bit easier to stash in the garage than the XC skis/poles.
And finally, a victory. Hubby never loved his XC skis, and he didn’t take them out when I did a few times to ski in the street and at the lake. Those I gave away on NextDoor, and no backfill items bought
I’m a bit of a screw hoarder. Yesterday H lost the screws on a fruit picker in dense ivy. I found the perfect match from some project’s leftovers. I inherited this tendency from my dad who could (sometimes creatively) fix anything without hitting a hardware store.
My husband would probably have saved the guts along with the screws because “you never know.” Unfortunately at the very beginning of Covid when no one was going anywhere something in our house broke and he was able to unearth in our “garage” (no room for cars) the screws and whatever needed to fix it. Thereby justifying allllll the other similar things he’d saved
Lol. We have walls of bins with screws and whatnot! Thankfully, the days of saving electronic guts are over. After we made 2 trips to the dump with literally a ton of crap my husband had been saving in our House1… he swore to never keep junk or leftover construction materials… to his huge credit, he has been taking the extras back to HD.
Confession of a semit-hoarder ….
Finally decided to put all our suitcases/bags etc out together. 90% of the time we travel each with carry-on and backpack (ha, one of each not in the photo). Of course normally these things are packed up like Russian dolls,don’t take up too much space.
I’ve kept LOTS of extras in case son needs to take extra stuff back on the plane or sister gets to visit to take home stuff from my mother. I’ll send some of those to the basement. And some to the thrift shop. Will still keep an assortment in the big linen closet for ourselves, but it feels good to sort/purge a bit
So is the pile of all you have - or a pile of what you are donating??
That is A LOT of storage right there! If your sister or son happens to need a duffel or suitcase, they could always go to Goodwill and purchase one for a few dollars.
That’s the full collection (except two we use a lot, being packed). Got lots of space in the unfinished basement (and crawl space), so I don’t mind keeping a duffle bag full of duffle bags down there. But plenty will be given away too.
Our son said his fiancée’ could use a roller carry on. Nothing nice enough in our discards for that. BUT we now have a nice gift idea (gift card or check earmarked for such) to send her next month.
We have these friends who buy a new suitcase nearly every time they go on vacation. The wife always buys lots of gifts to bring back home for friends and family - never enough room in the luggage they took. I wonder how many suitcases/duffles they have now??? I think they sometimes take a spare duffle for her presumed acquisitions, but it’s never enough space. Or she buys things that are breakable and needs something sturdier so they wind up also buying a suitcase.
Friends who just visited recently carried on for their flight to us. However, they packed a spare duffle to fill with what they purchased from Trader Joe’s while here (they don’t have one where they live). Which meant they had to check one of their other bags on their return trip home.
I had never even been to the Trader Joe’s in our area
That’s certainlly a “bag a week”!
Travel bags are difficult though. They do tend to keep getting lighter and the airlines retrictions get tighter requiring a new case to enjoy your trip.
My husband loves to buy suitcases and bags at the thrift store and that’s what my kids used for sports gear, camping trips, etc. When older son got a good job and had to travel he let us know he bought a new suitcase at an actual store. First flight it got a big torn dent in the side.