I can’t quantify what I got rid of today, but it was quite a bit
A whole big box of books. I thought they were my husband’s and he was saving them, but he said they weren’t so I took advantage of that and trashed them. I almost never trash books, but these were old/icky/not in good shape.
An old Ethan Allen table that I inherited and my son used in college. It’s gone to another young person.
A bunch of stuff to decorate a kids room - some went to donate and some to trash.
A bunch of random stuff I had in boxes and was now willing to trash.
A big “garment mover” that’s cardboard and has been sitting in our basement since we moved. Most of the contents donated, but a couple of things kept.
AND, my throwing a bunch of stuff away has inspired my husband. He has way more “stuff” that’s questionable than I have. He still has his HS trophies, stuff from his mom that he thinks might be valuable (think many random china plates of unknown brand or value), several things that hung on his mom’s walls that he had reframed bc in our last house we had a flood and they were messed up (he/insurance paid over 2K to have them all reframed, and not one is anything I’d put up in our house). Thanks for allowing me to rant
Follow up: I put a bunch of Christmas decorations out on the curb today and posted in my BN group as well as another FB group in the adjacent neighborhood. When I got back from my walk early this afternoon only one wreath had been taken. I then went to D and SIL’s house. I got back after dinner and was shocked ( in a good way !) to see that everything except one item was gone! That was an easy way to clean out. I’ll post the item that didn’t get taken on BN , if no one takes I will donate.
I love getting rid of things when I don’t care if I get any money for them. It’s easy – Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill, curb pickup, Buy Nothing – so many different ways!!
Went through a bunch of stuff yesterday and trashed some more. I can’t manage to get rid of all of my kid’s stuffed animals, but I did throw away several.
I also got rid of some clothes. Fortunately, as I was carrying an old shirt to the donate pile my mom’s stainless and gold watch fell out of the pocket. OOPS!
15ish Cashmere sweaters - ready to go/gone. Plus one that wasn’t cashmere, but a mohair blend. I ruthlessly purged the drawers I had them stored in. I did it several years ago, but was less ruthless.
Opinions - if a cashmere sweaters has a hole or two, but not “bad” ones, is it a donate or a throw away?
My friend’s daughter had an etsy business where she made things out of cashmere sweaters she got from the thrift stores in LA (she had a deal where they would save them for her). Many had large holes and she’d cut them into squares and join them for scarves, blankets, hats, baby blankets. If the holes weren’t bad, she had moth appliques to cover the holes - very cute.
Thanks for the opinions. I try to be careful not to offload stuff I wouldn’t want - for example, nobody needs my worn out white tee-shirts after a season or two, but these were expensive sweaters. I did throw away a couple that had multiple holes/just looked bad to me.
There is an entire cottage industry that hunts for castoff wool and cashmere sweaters to unravel into luxury yarns for knitting into new items. (For example)
Don’t be afraid to donate regardless of condition. Holes are no problem for salvaging yarn.
Just went through the “suitcase pile” in our basement -
Getting rid of a Samsonite carry on, a brand new North Face backpack/waterproof 70 liter thing, a like new LL Bean computer bag/backpack/briefcase kind of thing, some Eagle Creek fanny packs, and several other random bags. My husband said he wouldn’t be part of it, but then he came down and took a look, so I could got confirmation and kept moving.
One bite at a time…
Full disclosure, my husband kept several “exercise stuff” bags he will likely never use again, and I kept a “very nice” Polo by Ralph Lauren black leather tote bag I bought before I retired (in 2021). I hope to find a home for it, but the kids don’t want it and it’s pretty heavy.
I culled luggage a bit last year. But I kept a good variety in the linen closet (I have a big, wide linen closet in upstairs hallway). And I demoted some to basement. I have a few reasons to keep them. 1) They can perhaps someday help family members fly home with some of my mom’s old stuff. 2) I helped friends put stuff in storage for a few months between houses. They had photos and stuff packed in rollerbags… seemed clever to me. 3)In the past I’ve donated luggage for church groups bringing books and soccer balls (deflated) to Africa.
I also found that the canvas bags (of all kinds - suitcases, duffels, etc.) that had sat unused in my basement for many years - smelled bad. Our basement was dry, so it was not mildew, they just had gotten funky sitting around for so long.
Today’s project is going through Christmas ornaments. I have tons, even though I got rid of half of them when we moved a few years ago. MIL loved shopping, decorating for holidays and collecting stuff. Instead of buying us an ornament every year, she bought us 5 or 6 each year. ( not counting the ones she bought for the kids). So over the course of 35 years or so that’s a lot of ornaments! ( she stopped the buying in the last few years). TBH I found it annoying. Most of the ornaments were not to my taste and I had stuff I had actually bought that I wanted on my tree.
So I’m separating the ones to keep and the ones to get rid of. My kid can look at the discard box if there are any that they want.
Ornaments are one of those things that I think people feel bad to get rid of especially if they were a gift.
Here’s your permission to get rid of them anyway! Someone will probably take them who hasn’t had 35 years of gifted ones yet to collect. And it’s silly to just store them and not even hang them year after year.
I have been trying to do the same each year when we are packing up the Christmas tree. I look and see what ones didn’t make the cut to be hung and try to widdle down the selection. (Often some of them are also broken in some way - WHY am I hanging onto them?!)
And it’s silly to just store them and not even hang them year after year.