Today’s bag was a load of pants that my daughter has been holding on to for like 10 years. They no longer fit and are out of style.
6 Likes
This probably falls under the category of “miracle” rather than “Bag A Week,” but DH sold the last of his AZ shop items that he no longer needs here because he has duplicates in his new shop (garage) in ME. The miracle is that he pulled the cars out to the street yesterday and removed to the foot of the driveway every.single.thing remaining on the floor and power-washed the entire garage! Not a leaf, cobweb, or nail in sight! Then, he put up various types of hooks to affix the items in the driveway pile neatly to the wall! The only things on our garage floor now are two sets of car tires! In my house, this is wife porn. My heart is still fluttering. Who is this man?
19 Likes
That’s is every bit as good as some “bags” out of the garage! Is it time to head east soon???
3 Likes
Inspired by this thread getting bumped up again, I finally took the initiative this morning to clean out my jeans/casual pants drawer. Yes, I like to roll them and put in a drawer. Three pairs of jeans that I haven’t worn in forever in the donation box and one pair renewed in my mind as a “hey, these are great jeans”!
6 Likes
Yep, we’re in the process of shutting down the house, leaving Tuesday. Can’t wait to get back to the peace and quiet of the Maine woods.
9 Likes
Wave 
at the Midwest as you drive or fly by!!!
5 Likes
I did my cool weather / warm weather clothes swap out. I have limited closet space upstairs so the off season goes in the basement. Culled out three pairs of pants, two blouses and two sweaters for the thrift store. And found a well washed $11 in the pocket of a pair of lightweight jeans I’d put away last Fall!
7 Likes
Made progress on Shed #1 today. Found a dog poop/scoop rake and shovel thing (looks new), some christmas lights that I tried and the first string lit up but the next didn’t so out went 4 strings, (I’m trying to be brutal) loaded some wood window blinds into the car for the thrift store (they are nice and were probably expensive, but we have replaced those windows), a plastic bin full of towels…why are there so many towels in this house?!?
Didn’t do as well on the weeds in the yard, but those should be easier to pull after the 2 days of rain we are supposed to get. Looked in the other shed and it is mostly yard chairs, so I’ll get my brother to take them to the thrift store in his truck. Can’t wait until it is just a lawn mower!
6 Likes
I used to do that seasonal clothing swap between closet and basement. After the kids left, I started using daughter’s closet for overflow. Now that I am retired without need for work clothes, I’ve been able to thin my main closet. Daughter’s closet now just has a few things, mostly formal and sentimental.
4 Likes
We cleaned up the garage a bit today, and Mr. tossed a few metal rods and odds and ends of his wiring projects so hallelujah! 
We also rearranged the leftover crap so Fed can fit in the garage a bit better! I no longer have to climb over the bed to get to the stuff on the shelf on that side of the garage!’
7 Likes
Large Item pickup today and they took the things I put on the curb. Not as much as I wish I’d been able to get out there, but ‘Layer #1’. I still have a lot of extra patio chairs, but those can go to Goodwill along with their friends, the patio umbrellas and stands.
Two trips to the donation place this week, and now I’m really sore. However, I don’t want to lose momentum so hope to do more.
7 Likes
Cleaned the donation corner of the garage. More work than it should be because H puts things in the donate bin that really should be in the trash. I’ve told him MANY times we’re donating to resell shops, and his socks with holes and worn out shoes are just making more work for them. He has a hard time throwing anything away. (I also have to look at the recycling bin because he thinks anything plastic qualifies, and puts non-washed food containers in there.)
Then went through my folding clothes closet, very over due. Have pants between size 6 and 16. I will never be a size 6 and hopefully never again a 16. Kept what fits and I liked. Three 39 gallon garden waste bags filled.
The hanging clothes closets are next up. Since the kids moved out I’ve slowly taken up space in their bedroom closets. So much can go!
10 Likes
I’ve been doing okay. Still getting stuck in the sorting, thinking “Awe, the girls had these things on their shelves when they were little” and then I put them away and the next time I do that bin or box I think “Why did I save this stuff?” Now slated for the thrift store.
I also get distracted with old photos and news articles. I found a brief case (very small one) with papers that my grandfather (died 1980) thought were important. Some old insurance policies, the bill for my grandmother’s funeral in 1966. One I thought was funny was MY great grandmother went to the hospital in 1942 for wound care and they itemized $0.50 for insulin and $0.25 for a phone call. I think the whole bill was $11 and she may have stayed overnight.
Also in there was the deed to the cemetery plot, which my parent were buried in 2018 and 2022. There is still room for more! The plot belonged to my grandmother’s family but my mother’s cousin (different family) worked for the town for 40+ years and he arranged for the burials and didn’t need the deed.
Did I re-store the brief case? Oh no, sent it home with my sister! Counts as my “bag-a-week” My sister loves this stuff and it gets it out of my house. I have ‘gifted’ her the letters she wrote home to my mother when sister was on Study abroad in Germany for a year - all the blue air mail letters, I think from 1975? Family wedding pics, pictures that were never put in albums, stuff from vacations (brochures, ticket stubs, post cards). Again, gets them out of my house and while they are fun to look at once, I don’t need to save them.
7 Likes
I’ve been getting rid of way more than a bag a week. Between Buy Nothing, a pick up
by the Disabled Vets, 1-800 Got Junk and dropping off at a local charity I have gotten rid of about 25 bags of clothes/shoes, 4 suitcases, 2 duffel bags, 2 large backpacks, a non working treadmill, a bunch of medical supplies, a wheelchair, a walker, small exercise equipment, etc.
Some of this is due to my husband’s recent passing. I loved him immensely but he had some packrat genes…I did keep a lot of sentimental stuff including some clothes.
Some of it was my stuff that I just need to clear out.
21 Likes
Someone else will likely need and appreciate all those things.
8 Likes
As you all know, I’ve been getting rid of stuff. My sister asked my why I was so obsessed with it. Huh? There is so much of it! She lives in a big house with 10 million books, all her kids’ childhood things (although she admits that she recently cleaned out their childhood clothing). Then in the next sentence she states she wants a dumpster.
My friend retired and set about de-cluttering her house. Her husband is protesting ("I NEED those Rubbermaid containers without lids:). It was his grandparents’ house, then his house for about 20 years (with wife #1 and his son, who hates my friend and won’t enter the house ever again, but still has ‘his’ room), then their house (after a major remodeling about 20 years ago). Yet they still have a hefty collection of National Geographics in the basement. And her 102 year old MIL lives next door in the house she’s lived in for 78 years, so there is a second house full of treasures. Not.
Good job @FallGirl
6 Likes
@twoinanddone -78 years worth of stuff. That sounds like a nightmare to me.
3 Likes
OMG - I think I have the lids to those containers 
. I ended up with about 6 lids that did not fit any of our containers, even the ones without lids. It’s like socks. They must teleport to other people’s houses.
7 Likes
The MIL is sweet, but her house is like a thrift shop without the price tags on every Early American piece of furniture, knickknack, collector plate, gnome, vase, or doily. She’s 102 and starts every day by turning the little bear calendar that is a bear (duh) with blocks that show the month and day. Every day. The only good thing is that the house is tiny so no room for even more things.
3 Likes
I wasn’t aware that you had lost your husband recently. Please accept my condolences - sending kind thoughts. 
2 Likes