Such great ideas re: looking through videos for highlights on home computer first. I’m not that techy though - knowing my limits, just dumping them in an iMemories box (then editing later) is probably the more likely route for me to actually accomplish it.
I need to make this a priority as - who knows- stuff may have disintegrated. And I have zero videos of my son as a baby/toddler in the early 90s. This thread is great motivation!
We were pleasantly surprised that all the videos were in fine condition - despite the tapes being mostly 25 years old or older.
We used LegacyBox about 10 years ago? All of our tapes are now on CD’s, but I see they offer memory cards and thumb drives now. It was a little scary putting everything into the box (pre-paid) and sending it off, but it worked out.
Alas Google AI tells me that Costco just discontinued this service. There are companies in Brooklyn that do it–drop off tapes which can be mailed back. That’s what I would do today.
@rphcfb This is a great retirement project. Even if not planning to downsize/move there are so many good reasons to declutter. Especially when you are still able to and you can do it over the course of time.
I had three boxes of “ stuff” left untaken from the neighborhood free sale, so I dropped it off at a thrift store this morning.
Thank you. Yes, I’d rather get it done (or close to done) before we will be physically less able to.
It needs a lot of convincing to have hubby part with many (I really mean many) of his beloved, but unused, stuff.
He does not want to have a yard sale. He said he could not stand it if a shopper offered him a dollar for his brand new cast iron pan, say, priced at $10 for sale (the actual price is $50). He’d rather give it away to a friend and we did. The friend appreciated our generosity very much.
We don’t have any social media, no FaceBook Market Place. Even if we had, we don’t know if we want to sell things on line. We are aware of Buy Nothing. The idea of scheduling people to pick up stuff, that they may or may not show up, is not appealing to us, either.
Somehow, we have managed to give away and donate those items. We are happy and relieved.
The next important step is to encourage husband to go through many boxes of his electronic gadgets. Some may need to be saved. Others should be thrown away or recycled.
I cannot touched them as I would throw them all away. My marriage needs to be saved so I leave those alone (for now).
I know it’s not much, but I just trashed 3-4 pairs of the exact same pickleball shoes, plus some other odds and ends.
I too have boxes of old electronics, along with cables and cords, that we have carted along throughout our moves bc I’m not allowed to throw them out. Was thinking we could open a small tech museum in our garage one day…
We have so much of this! I sorted through and dropped off a big box of old phones, old cords etc at Best Buy. There’s still way more though - H always says " keep it, you never know when you’ll need it". Argh.
When we moved we did a big purge of cables and adaptors. If we didn’t know what it belonged to, out it went.
I’ve sometimes thrown a bunch of orphan cables and such into a jumbo ziplock, labelled with that day’s date. (not as good certainly as the good times where I actually labelled the item with date/use. but it allows me to throw them into purgatory, til the next declutter effort)
Last year a friend an I went to a $5 electronics donation day. I gathered all the old phones in a shoebox, as many little electronics (radios, chargers, cords) as I could find, computers, 7 laptops, etc.
And came home and the next day found ANOTHER phone.
If I think they have a use, I take them to the thrift store. People seem to love old CD players, VCRs, radios, cords cords and more cords.
Sort your cords. Save 1-2 of the same type. Put in a ziploc and mark the type of cord or what it was used for (if you know). Toss any other duplicates!
Although my husband suffers from a rather severe case of “(keep it) Just in case….”, he has been able to let go a lot of his stuff during my decluttering mission.
Thus, I respectfully am waiting for him to sort through his many electronic gadgets including old computers, several iPads, old cell phones, etc. He wants to make sure data is deleted/wiped cleanly before they go out. I cannot figure those many cables, cords, wires,@ out. They are in various sizes and length. He needs to go through them and sort them out himself. The bad part……decluttering is not his priority.
We have a filing cabinet in the corner of our garage that H has been going through this week. We have not really used it for years. He found files and files of old receipts, mortgage payments, credit card payments, etc. going back to when we moved into our home in 1988.
Since I am still working I brought in 2 bags full of this stuff to my office today to put into the shred bin.
I’m happy he is getting this done now since I still have a way to dispose of it. What do you do with things that have account numbers or SS numbers on them if you don’t have access to a shredder?
Some people tear of the top part of the page. Recycle the non-identified portion. If just a few, tear by hand. But I hear you could just throw a bigger batch in a bucket of water. There is also some kind of stamper you can use to throw ink over the identifying info.
I have done the tear off method and then put that part in my garbage with my dirty smelly leftovers. Back in the day everything was based on your SS#, and so much printed material had it printed in full.
There are often places that will do shredding events to raise money. They hire a big shredding truck and charge you by the bag/box. You actually watch the truck take your stuff and shred it. I have seen this done for pet charities and libraries. My local bank does it for free for the community once a year.
Beware! Our friends gave us one as a gift. I tried it and tested the ink under running water. The black ink came off right away to reveal what was under it.
I have a home shredder that I periodically use. It was not that expensive and does a great job pulverizing up to 10 sheets at a time. I mix the shredded paper with cat litter and garbage in the garbage bin (alas, that can not be recycled because it clogs recycling equipment).
We used to have one of those shredders, but I don’t really want to get another one to take up space. Once I am done working next February I will look for events in our city that offer shredding or ask our bank if they do this.
You can pay for shredding at places like the UPS store or Staples - but they don’t do it in front of you.