OK, after a hiatus, I’m back! I am donating three dresses, a sweater, and some clothing from SisIL that never really fit anyone. Am also donating a scarf and mittens which I had been wearing in the 1970s. H is donating several itchy wool clothing items. I am also donating an itchy wool sweater which is still in great shape tho I never wore much. Am also donating other clothing items that are in great condition but I honestly do not wear. All of it adds up to two bags.
Am also donating school supplies that I bought from Office Depot at great prices to my friends who are school teachers and teach a lot of Title 1 kids; they’re very grateful.
I just put some VHS tapes in the give-away pile. Now I’m making an effort to get rid of things on a more timely basis, so they will have a better chance of being useful to others. Good idea to sort through DVDs too.
Mr. B got rid of some older power tools! Yay! The dude manning the Goodwill donation collection site set them aside… I suspect the tools will never see the inside of a Goodwill store. A complete collection of Disney animation (through The Lion King) was also donated. The dude took it - apparently, these are still wanted.
I’m SO happy and proud that I have finally heaved all my materials from a job that ended in 2006. It filled nearly our entire huge recycling bin that we put out twice a month! It has freed up some shelf space so we can re-organize some of our other things and make the dining room and house less cluttered. It has also freed up a lot of plastic folders that are perfectly good to use if we wipe them down with white vinegar (tossed the ones with any rust).
We also donated 4 bags of clothing, including an entire bag of nice bras in excellent shape. We also cleaned out the coffee table so it’s no longer overflowing with H’s old magazines that I don’t read and he doesn’t seem to be either. Hopefully, we will inspire D to help declutter her room as well, since she has stuff from early grade school and every year after that! The house is starting to look MUCH better! and gives me incentive and momentum to continue the progress. Purging has also helped me find appropriate places to store things and the exercise equipment now has a space, right below the printer in the room where we exercise so there’s no excuse not to use it.
Found some more stuff to put in the Goodwill pile for this week’s “bag”: folding hampers, picture frames, rolling backpack. All of this stuff has been given to us as gifts and was never used.
I’ve been gone almost a month so no bags for me - maybe next weekend. I treated myself to a roomba. - I think I’ve filled a trash bag with dust and cat hair in the first few days I’ve had it - does that count? Now if I could just find a robot to declutter my house. And clean the toilets.
Gave away a magazine rack that was just gathering dust and inviting clutter. It was donated to a favorite school with some school supplies I just bought them from Office Max. The pens, crayons, notebooks and colored pencils I bought were about 10% of the cost I paid.
I also gave them plastic mini crates for storing “stuff.” Also culled all the 3-ring binders we have that are rusty on one end of the part you open. That filled a large bag!
Donated three bags today–one of tablets and post-it pads, one of 3-ring binders, and one of misc household things. Yippee–feeling lighter and have freed up more space for LIVING! The other day, we donated 3 bags of clothing.
Gave back two boxes of materials to our Dept of Health–we no longer have funding, personnel or energy to distribute their stuff for them. Went through a ton of junk and tossed dozens of business cards from folks who probably don’t remember me and some have died and others switched jobs.
Reorganized my boxes so they are a much smaller profile and mostly out of the living room now. H is amazed and very pleased. ;). As a treat, had lunch with a buddy portabella hamburger–yummy!
Big moment for me: today, I went through boxes and boxes of my son’s Legos. I’ve always liked Legos, and my son had a small fortune’s worth which were put to very, very good use for many years. But he’s 23 now, and not nearly as attached to them as I was. In fact, he doesn’t care about them anymore, while I had this picture in my mind of passing them to HIS child someday. But then a friend in Toronto made an appeal for used Legos - it’s great therapy for her son who suffers from Tourettes. And suddenly, I was ready to let go. With son’s blessing, I packed them up, and will be mailing the Legos to Canada tomorrow. I’m still a bit sad – it was such a big part of my son’s childhood – but I know they will be appreciated by both their future owner, and his mom.
My husband changed to faucets out in our bathroom yesterday, so I took the opportunity to go through 14 years worth of horded lotions, soaps, shampoos, and hair scrunchies. I tossed out a garbage bag of old opened stuff that no one was ever going to use again. Now everything is organized and I might be able to find my nice lotions to use!
Oh also discarded years worth of retainer cases and braces rubber bands now that everyone has pretty teeth
H found some camping gear that takes oil?
He told me to that they could go.
It was a sad minute as we had used them so many time when we were young.
I was proud of him --he seems to be getting “let’s move on”.
They are now at GoodWill.
We’ve just returned from a two week vacation and it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to live with so little. The condo we rented was simply furnished and we lived out of our suitcases.
Yesterday, we spent the morning filling boxes and bags with clothes and shoes. DH went into the attic and brought out unused items - I will go through the Xmas decor. All will be picked up next Tuesday! I’ll be posting a daybed and a few other things on craigslist. So liberating!
How I recently saved $60: ordered 5 shirts, originally between $30-50, from JCPenney catalog for hubby on sale @ about $12 a piece totaling $60. Spent a day later that week organizing hubby’s closet and dresser using some tips from The Magic of Tidying Up. I threw nothing away, as it was hubby’s stuff. Put all tshirts together by color in closet, find out hubby has about 20 dark blue or black ones, then more that are gray, white, ect. Has sleeveless shirts. Polo shirts. Dress shirts. Work shirts. Long sleeved shirts. Steelers shirts.
By organizing hubby’s clothes clutter which before had no rhyme or reason, and putting like items with like items, he could look and see he had a bunch of jeans. At a glance, he knew several pair no longer fit, so in the Goodwill box they went. He had about 7 pair of beige shorts. A couple no longer fit, on to Goodwill. He has plenty of sweat pants, socks and swim trunks, too. I told him no clothes for Christmas gifts for either of us, and no slippers, hats, gloves or scarves. Went thru the hall closet and packed a bunch of coats we no longer wear and sent to Goodwill.
Jumping in on this bandwagon now that I have decluttered my mom’s Hoarding House of Horrors in another state. House is sold and siblings and I are all done with clutter! Since finishing that project, I am much more motivated to get rid of stuff at my own home. Was wrapped up with “must pass on this family item to my children” when in reality my kids don’t want this stuff.
Had a huge moment tonight as I gifted many homeschool books to a friend who I found out today is going to homeschool her grandchild. I had been keeping the books intending to sell them, but you know the guilt that comes with seeing piles of books and knowing you should do something with them but you never do. So I gave away 3 bags full of books tonight and feel so much lighter in my heart.
