If there are any visible holes or places where mice could be entering, plug them with steel wool. Mice can’t chew through it. Worked well for us.
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This is exactly what the exterminator did for us. He was able to get to many places that we couldn’t - small areas where the siding met the foundation, etc. He knew where to look and what to look for (we didn’t).
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We are getting the opportunity for a big ‘pare down’ of kitchen stuff. Our interminable kitchen reno is almost finished. In May I emptied all the kitchen cabinets of pots, pans, mugs, etc. Everything but the essentials which I kept on a small table.
Now that we have stove back and new cabinets set up - I’m realizing if I haven’t used something since May - I really don’t need it.
Have a really big pile of stuff in basement ready to go to trash or (if good condition) on FaceBook market/Goodwill. It pains me a little to throw away commemorative Masonic mugs from my dad (
) or Harry Potter mugs from when the kids were little. But not enough to keep all that stuff.
I can wait for it all to be gone and to travel lightly with just the essentials.
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When we had a problem with flying squirrels getting into our attic in a previous home, a pest control guy recommended using copper mesh in any openings before sealing with Great Stuff foam (there’s a pest block version now.) The copper mesh doesn’t rust like steel wool can and critters do not like it. Critters can chew through Great Stuff foam so it’s not enough by itself. I’d imagine that the same would work in a basement.
In addition to using peppermint oil spray, I’ve also sprinkled cloves around the perimeter of our detached garage and storage sheds. Citrus peels help, too. When we were trying to make sure that the flying squirrels were all gone before we sealed up the attic, I played a radio at low volume up there. There’s no telling if the strong smells from the cloves and peppermint did the trick or if the radio scared off the critters, but I was willing to try anything.
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You might look for an organization called, “Play it Forward,” which takes used musical instruments and gets them in the hands of students who need them.
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As @hoggirl said, there are places that would love to have it. We donated my daughter’s violin to the school (middle school) she was in and the teacher was grateful. He had instruments to lend to students for the day or for the year. There is an instrument drive every year citywide, in the fall, but I think they’d take instruments thru the year.
Also, you could sell on FB marketplace or on next door.
For my personal brag, I spent New Years day cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, but other than some canned goods that can go to a food drive, all those old spices went into the trash. I did also clean out some of the ‘junk cabinets’ and other than some old cell phones and some old glasses that can be recycled/donated to the Lions Club, most was old papers that were trashed. My mother was a hoarder of stuff like cards and notebooks and prayer books that people send in the mail.
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Well, my grandfather’s violin is around 200 years old, and I had it appraised by Sotheby’s around 25 years ago – at that time it was ~$1,000. So I’m not going to donate it to a school – at least not until I’ve done my due diligence.
So the basement is looking good, but now I have all these things I need to follow up on!!
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We have a violin repair and sales shop near me. They’d buy a violin (or take one in exchange), but of course they need to make a profit. I bet they’d offer about 50% of the resale price.
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I got my sons to go through some of their “stuff” over the holiday. One spent way too long going through the collection of Pokemon cards and then started playing a nostalgia game of it with his brother. He was hoping for $$$ cards but they were mostly worth ¢¢¢. But they did leave me a bag of video games and other games that I may try to sell to a re-sale place and miscellaneous toys as well as sports coats and a suit that I’ll donate.
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Don’t be surprised if the video games don’t net you much. We sold a bunch of old video games when we downsized and were disappointed in what we got for them. In a few cases they wouldn’t even take them.
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Not filling any bags but I did a “deep clean” of my fridge yesterday and backed up my laptop and deleted a whole bunch of files today. It’s a January thing.
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Man, the refrigerator job. A job I hate doing. One I’m sure I should do more often. How often do people do a complete clean out??
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What prompted ours was that someone (not going to rat him out) put some meat in the fridge to thaw and while it was in a freezer bag, he did not put a plate under it. “Stuff” seeped under the glass shelf. So I do a “deep clean” whenever that happens which is once or twice a year.
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We have an inherited Subzero. I have to do an annual vacuuming of the compressor compartment because I want this thing to last for as long as it can keep my food cold! In between, I periodically do a quick sweep of stuff and clean the shelves here and there.
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Twice a year, when we switch between house and cabin. Pantry, too. We live very food-lean in between.
(A completely empty, clean fridge soothes my CDO soul.)
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Complete clean out the fridge? Honestly, almost never (except for when we get a new one, which happened a few months ago - got rid of a lot of stuff… partly due to lack of cooler space). I tend to just do one shelf or drawer/bin at a time, when it looks like it could use a washing. I do proactively watch the inventory, toss stuff that has been around too long.
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We do our main shopping trip on Sundays. Sunday morning our refrig is pretty bare. Before we go, I check to see what we need, and also toss what is old. It helps that Sunday night we take the trash to the street. I wipe down the main shelves almost weekly because I hate that milk crud that gets on them. The side shelves a few times a year.
I defrost our stand alone freezer maybe once a year? I weirdly love this task. It’s really easy. There not much in our side by side freezer. It’s never needed defrosting.
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I didn’t actually get rid of anything but reorganized the shelf in the mudroom closet this week. I had hats/scarves/gloves overflowing a shallow basket on one side of the shelf and stuff heaped up on the other side. Bought 2 wicker cube baskets and put everything into those. Looks much better and now I know what I have there.
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I think this totally counts! Still going through an area and reevaluating and apparently you did a good job at one point not having too
Many of those items!
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Mini steps. Took 3 boxes of stuff to the thrift store today and only bought a few things.
This week is ‘large item pick up’, the time when the city trash will pick up 10 extra boxes of trash, yard waste, etc. (otherwise, we’re limited to our trash/recycle/compost bins). I’m trying to clean out the storage sheds in the yard. Any one need 30 chairs, an extra table or umbrella stand, a birdbath, a cracked Halloween decoration? My mother liked ‘yard decorations’ but I’m not as into those so off they go. I have to admit that I have some Christmas decorations stored out in those sheds, and may have to send some on to the thrift store for Christmas in July. The other shed has stuff like a drafting table my brother used in HS, and he’s almost 59, some decorations that haven’t been used in 25 years, boxes of whoknowswhat. I think it will be nice to have those cleaned out to use for, OMG, yard tools.
Deadline is next Wednesday, or I’ll have to wait another 9 weeks for the next large item pickup.
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