For years I’ve kept a “give away” bag in one of the front closets. It’s ready whenever the ARC charity truck call to do neighborhood pickups. Recently I switched to a medium size collapsible net hamper (diverted from giveaway). It does a nice job holding things. I’m forcing myself to add “maybe” items, knowing I could change my mind before pickup.
Last week I had a great win-win story. We got a free queen sized bed for and needed to get rid of DD’s old twin bed to make that room a guest room. The twin mattress was really in bad shape, and I was really honest about that in the Freecycle ad. I offered delivery and had a taker right away. The family is new to town, and I think their kid had been sleeping on the floor. The other option was to pay $30 for a recycle place, and we still would have had to haul it there.
I saw Pamela Druckerman’s article in the New York Times today, linked by VeryHappy. Druckerman claims that the joys of decluttering are as ephemeral as the joys of acquisition. I haven’t reached that stage in decluttering yet. It still makes me pretty happy.
I saw a post this morning and thought this thread. I haven’t read the thread (Goodness know I need to though!) so if someone already posted this, sorry for the duplicate.
I’ve slowed down again. I have no energy to get it done right now. It is so cold and there is so much snow on the curb it is really difficult just to get the usual trash out there.
I am doing the 40 bags in 40 days. Got rid of 2 today. On a whim I pulled together a bag of excess water bottles and travel coffee mugs. Love our local Facebook swap group - posted them free and it was a food fight. Also had someone pickup an item I posted last week. 2 down for day 1. Already have some clothes pulled out for the rest of the week. If I’m desperate, I will count taking out the garbage!
Looking at the list of areas to work on is exhausting. Lots of nodding, yes, yes, yes, and yes, all of the above areas need revisiting. If only I was the only one who touched things in the house! Then everything would be where it belongs.
During our oven demolition, I discovered that the cupboard above the oven was full of stuff I would never use! It was a “junkyard” for gifts, such as fondue pots, champaigne buckets, etc. All gone now!
I’ve got a junk cabinet like that myself. Sigh. Everything in it is something that I’ve been told “Oh no! You can’t get rid of that!” But how I’d love to!
I was a regular poster on this thread last year as we were selling our house and getting ready to downsize. Because I knew there was going to be a lot of stuff I kept good records. First I checked out Goodwill’s prices, keeping a photographic record of their pricing for garments, in particular. As I gathered things I made lists and photographed everything. I always dropped stuff off when someone was there who could provide a receipt and I tossed the receipts in a folder. Yesterday DH did our taxes. Contributions to Goodwill totaled over $6000. That deduction was a big help to our tax bill.
Yesterday I sold some of the antique china and glass, also 2 beaded purses, to a dealer. He came and took everything for $100. If I had the inclination I suppose I could have gotten more selling it piece by piece on eBay, but it is gone now. I have a little pang about the purses but really, I have to remind myself these things were sitting in drawers unused for years, and it is because they were too old and delicate to actually use. I did save one purse that was in better shape that I do sometimes use on a fancy night out.
It’s cold and icy out, so I am attacking the boxes where I threw the kids’ school work years ago. No, don’t need that. I have to do it when DH is not home, because he would save most of it.
DD will graduate from college in May. Many things in the basement that are being stored “in case the kids need them some day” need to be evaluated. If neither kid needs them by next summer, they are out of here. We have an annual rummage sale at church, so anything that has been sitting in a cabinet for years either goes in the rummage sale pile or the trash.
This thread continues to be my special helper. Someone posts, and I remember that there is more I could be doing.
I’ve just spent the better part of two days on a cleaning/organizing odyssey–a friend gave me a copy of Marie Kondo,–The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I read the book and decided to try her method. While the book hasn’t changed my life because I declutter fairly often, I still was able to get rid of 3 large trash bags of clothes and items like sheets, pillow cases, and towels. It’s amazing how much space I’ve gained since I’ve gone through closets and drawers and discarded what I really didn’t want (the author says–get rid of items that don’t give you joy). Not sure that socks gave me “joy” but at least I got rid of all those socks that were sitting in the drawer in case the match miraculously appeared. I only tackled bedrooms this week. Here’s clip of the author’s folding methods for socks and under ware.
Cleaning out this afternoon. It’s gone. This is it. Or TRYing to be it. Everybody’s moved on and can’t use it! I’ve saved it way too long. But time for ME to move on! Thinking how great the final result will be!
Did rid myself of a fairly large table but now ridding myself of everything that was ON TOP of the table. LOL.
Feels good!
Just reporting in…I’m catching up. I took four bags in to donate this week. Will do more over the weekend.
Good news…DD is moving to an apartment of her own…this will get rid of a lot of the “extra” stuff we have been saving. And anything she doesn’t want…will go. But this doesn’t happen until August.
