The paper coupons never expire–at least not at my store–I have asked. Have no idea about the cell phone ones.
Also, if you return an item and had used one and ask they will give you a coupon (looks different) back.
Yes, they do have expiration dates but they do not honor them.
Go bookworm!
Wow, I know what you mean about the “family heirlooms,” colorado_mom.
I do not anticipate ever having a need for lace doilies, but it is hard to get rid of them! They are such nice doilies! What if doilies came back into fashion in home decor . . . or we started a history museum . . . or a [purely hypothetical] grandchild needed one for a school project? Inexplicably, there seems to be a limit to the number of doilies that other family members will accept. 
I am gaining a bit of perspective as I write this, and yet I am not quite ready to give up the doilies!
I have thought about putting a storage shed in our yard–but then I envisioned the entire yard dotted with storage sheds, and realized that I would need to join the “Storage Shed a Year” Club, rather than the Bag a Week group.
HaHa, Quant Mech - Storage Shed a Year Club, hypothetical gr’children needing doilies, etc!
In terms of the doilies, if they were hand-crocheted by a relative, keeping one or a very small number of the best of them and having them mounted and framed can be quite pretty. lable on the back so descendants know who made them and approximately when.
I have a lace tablecloth that was my greatgrandmother’s and is well over 100 years now. It has stains that will not come out and I would not use it anyway, though I did for years on Easter. I keep thinking that an artist or designer could take it apart and use pieces in their work.
You may want to see if freecycle has someone who wants the lace tablecloth or perhaps your local community theater? They might be able to use the lace in some of their costumes or maybe make the tablecloth smaller and use it on set or even dye it to hide the stains…
I have about 20 damask tablecloths, plus napkins, that were my grandmothers’ and mother’s. I have no idea what to do with them. They are beautiful, but if I use them I need to have them professionally cleaned – the crispness that they have when they’re done professionally cannot be duplicated by little old me with my little old iron. Consequently I don’t use them at all, since the professionals charge around $100 for a large tablecloth and a dozen napkins. I tried to sell them at a tag sale once and was only able to get rid of eight napkins. Right now they’re all hanging in a spare closet while I determine what to do with them.
Putting in another plug for “The January Cure” - a strategy for cleaning up your home in January - you receive one email each weekday in January with an assignment that will help to get your home clean and organized by the end of the month. You can sign up for the “cure” on the Apartment Therapy (not just about apartments!) blog:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/collection/january-cure-2015-468
Seriously, it is VERY interesting to read the assignments. I have not been able to keep up with them all in order (I work outside the home) but am still planning on doing them all if it takes me till March! One was focussed on cleaning ALL floors in the house. Today’s is GREAT - creating an “outbox” area of your home - could be an actual box, but doesn’t have to be - here’s the logic:
The Outbox is not garbage, nor does it need to be an actual box; it is a halfway house where things sit while their fate is being decided. You should never be afraid to put something in the Outbox.
Once an item has sat in the Outbox for some time, it releases its hold over the owner and becomes just an ordinary object that one can easily decide what to do with. One client compared it to the phenomenon children experience when they fall in love with a rock that is wet or under water. Later, when the rock has dried off and is no longer shiny, it becomes just a plain old rock again and the child’s attachment to is suddenly lessens.
As simple as it is, the Outbox has proven to be extremely successful in allowing people to clear out and heal their homes efficiently on a regular basis.
OUTBOX RULES
SIgn up for the “cure” bag a weekers!!!
I threw away some old Christmas decorations that I no longer wanted and it felt good. Also got rid of a few sweaters that had seen better days. I’ve really been working at cleaning out the house for the last year and I think there has been some improvement. Once I clean up from Christmas, my focus will shift to preparing the house for the graduation party. That will light a fire under me to paint the entryway and do a few other projects I’ve avoided. I have quite a list to keep me busy on the cold, snowy weekends!
I read the assignment about cleaning all the floors and quit on the spot. You have no idea how much work would be involved to even start cleaning floors at my house…
Counting Down, I’ll give you that - same for me, but also a job that needs to be done! For me, that means it’s going on my list but is NOT going to get done speedy quick or even in January. I DID take time this weekend to use the vaccuum attachment over all my floors (wood floors) - I still need to steam them but that can happen later.
That one was a time intensive one - others are not. Don’t quit! - after all, floors DO need to be done at some point, right?
@VeryHappy it broke my heart to basically toss Grandma’s big tableclothes. and little tableclothes. Fine linen. She labeled when and where she got them and had drawers full. She used to host card parties and had 38 card table sized sets, complete with napkins. I kept too many because I have NO use for them whatsoever, but they ARE hard to let go. Most went out in the estate sale for 25¢ .
I watch this thread, have been doing some, not a bag a week though. This week (month?) I am deep into box of old old photos and handwritter poetry by Great Grandma. Scanning them in and do not want to keep the paper. But wrestling with sending it to next generation or not. Why would they want the clutter? But it is …something special… to see the writing and feel the actual thin paper. No one will know it exists if I toss it. Really hard to do though.
Lol I’m such a rules person I’ve never submitted an expired coupon. Lesson learned. I just tried to pull up an expired text coupon and the link doesn’t work.
Lol, had the tablecloth discussion with my gym buddy. She’d use fancy ones, covered with the thin plastic cover. We both tend to use our wash and wear ones. We spoke of giving them to a HS drama department, or finding someone who sews.
I don’t think I can part with mine yet.
If I had GM’s letters, I might make a book. Come to think of it, I could make a book with all the favorite, saved letters. Anything for organization.
My daughter is determined to encourage me to weed out things although she is 300 miles away.
She has great ideas for changing up the house, but to do that, we have over 30 years of stuff to get out of the way.
Which I am fine with, although I don’t quite think it’s fair that my H expects me to manage all the childhood stuff, while he brings home more stuff from his relatives & our neighbors… Why?..
So every week I am putting out an extra bag of garbage, ( from broken toys & misc, that I had been hanging onto for some unknown reason),
listing ten books on Amazon for resale, or taking a bag of books to a local used bookstore for sale, ( anyone interested in hardback mysteries, some signed?) 
Donating a bag of books,
Donating bag of clothes,
Taking bag of clothes ( or at least a few items) to a consignment store.
Mending pieces of clothing or other items so they can be donated or used again.
Also- Im contacting my friends who have young kids, so as I am sorting through, I can put aside clothes, books or toys that they might be interested in.
I’m doing pretty good so far, but we only got back from our trip a week ago, so I still have momentum.
I vote for keeping old letters/poems etc in archival storage. Donate to local library, historic association if you don’t have space. Lots of folks are really valuing this sort of record, especially from women.
Table cloths: I don’t know if this will work for anyone else. I gave up on having the linens professionally laundered. Now I wash them on gentle with bleach, tumble in dryer just long enough to get the wrinkles out, and hang in my laundry area to dry. The really long ones, I sort of double hang: all four corners have a pin. I have parallel lines. They definitely don’t turn out crisp, but they aren’t too wrinkled and “good enough” for me. I do napkins the same way. I don’t iron.
Since I last posted here, we have added two very small out-buildings to our on-going period farm recreation. For Christmas, I asked my husband for another. I fear we may be on our way to storage building a month. This was supposed to be a very small square footage project. It’s getting away from me.
Re the next generation - I sat down with 27 year old DS over the holidays and went through several files of his old memorabilia (from toddler cards through college applications). Most of it (about three bags) went into the trash/recycling. We did have a nice time going through everything but he said that he didn’t know I had any of it, didn’t remember most of it, and didn’t want to keep most of it either. Much of what I kept was for my sake, not his. We had several instances of “either we throw it out now or you throw it out eventually”. “Now” won nearly all the time!
Part of the issue is that we are moving out of this house and I don’t want to pack and pay to move stuff that no one will ever look at again. DH, on the other hand, is already aware he might end up with an off site storage locker!
That outbox idea–my whole garage tends to be my outbox. I just throw stuff in totes and out the door down to the garage. Every few months I clean out the garage and pitch stuff. Feels good. For some reason it’s easier once it hits the garage rather than from my closets or drawers.
Old linens - either napkins or round or rectangular tablecloths made adorable window treatments - for casual rooms or vacation homes/cottages:
http://amyjdelightful.blogspot.com/search/label/How-To?updated-max=2011-06-23T16:31:00-05:00&max-results=20&start=6&by-date=false
I am trying not to get sucked into thinking that I need to organize my clutter (as opposed to just get rid of this stuff already) but photos and letters are one thing I do think are worth keeping for the next generation. My kids might not want their middle school yearbooks but their (eventual) kids might.
I had old “tatting” (whatever that really means) from one grandmother, and some lace table cloths from the other. I used the tatting as is, and cut pieces out of the tablecloths into star and snowflakes shapes. Then I made Christmas stockings for our kids. When our S got married, I made a stocking for his wife. I have extras, just waiting for some future son-in-law, and hopefully some new members of the family one day. I threw the rest of the tablecloths away.