What did you declutter today? Part II

[marvholly]

Finally finished my basement stockpile rearranging.
As I notice stuff nearby I tossed 7 items and moved 5 to current use.

I have noticed a lot of clothing I have not worn in the past year in my closet. I will NOT be donating these items as they are all suits, skirt outfits and/or go to a wedding type clothes that I seldom have the need to wear.

Snafu
My Dad has most of the items you are suggesting. Some are already built in at the apartment & I gave him the bath chair several years ago.

[snafu]

marvholly: how wonderful to have completed your basement re-arranging. We all have special occasion stuff and there is no reason to offer it to others unless it no longer fits, feels unflattering, holds bad memories or hopelessly ugly. Hope your dad will soon be able to return to his apt. Wonderful that you could help as aids for daily living are breathtakingly expensive.

[marvholly]

Dad is returning to his apt next Friday but will have to have an aide, probably for quite a while at a significant added cost which he will go nuts about. He will also get 6 weeks more physical therapy.

The basement rearranging is NOT complete, only a small section is done. Late DH was a PRIME candidate for Hoarders.

[snafu]

marvholly, I hope you'll post about having to cope with excess [nearly hoarder] you have been coping with; the work and stress it can cause and how to work through it. When DM passed, it took DSIL and I more than three months to clear out personal belongings and retained paper work when it came time to sell the house. We were upset and stressed by her passing but none of us could carry on paying property tax, utilities, yard care and incidentals for a protracted time. I believe mom thought her stuff was valuable but she would have been upset by how little $$$ was offered at auction. Going through items with gia-normous sentimental value is extremely painful. It is so sad to create that type of distress to loved ones.

[disneysteve]

Yesterday, I cleared away a few items that have been lingering in the upstairs hall for quite some time.

Today, I spent about 25 minutes in the garage. I broke down a number of boxes and got them into recycling. I also combined 3 different containers of rock salt into one big container. That eliminated one large bag and one large container, both of which got recycled.

I continue to do various little things throughout the day so these aren't the only things I've accomplished, just the more significant ones.

[marvholly]

Not a declutter but.........

I knew my baking powder & baking soda had been around quite a LONG time so I replaced them last week and tossed the old ones. Turns out the soda had an expire of 2003 and the powder......I will NOT admit how expired that was. I have marked the new ones on top so I see it but suffice to say minimum is now 1.5 years.

[marvholly]

Again not really a declutter but…………..
I pretty much finished changing over my closet from summer weight to winter weight clothes. I moved the clean, light weight pants & shirts to the 2nd bedroom closet and the heavier, velour pants & tops to the master bedroom closet. All the pants and shirts are organized on multi hangers by color group. I find it hard to determine dark blue from black so I keep all the black & grey on one multi hanger and the blue, brown, red on another.

[My English Castle]

DD's Closet

Are all eight-year-olds little squirrel-y hoarders? Mine is. Last night in a frantic search for her brand new winter jacket purchased last year at the end of the season I found more than her usual hoard of junk--a big bag of licorice, bits of paper, dried up markers, outgrown ballet clothes, parts of games long since thrown out. I made a big bag of junk to go and then sorted papers from my long fought-over kitchen counter.

[creditcardfree]

Are all eight-year-olds little squirrel-y hoarders? Mine is. Last night in a frantic search for her brand new winter jacket purchased last year at the end of the season I found more than her usual hoard of junk--a big bag of licorice, bits of paper, dried up markers, outgrown ballet clothes, parts of games long since thrown out. I made a big bag of junk to go and then sorted papers from my long fought-over kitchen counter.

Mine were and the youngest (10) still is. My young teen daughter is getting better. But really, gum wrappers and foil candy wrappers because they are pretty? Ugh! Great job on your child's room.

[disneysteve]

My 15-year-old daughter definitely inherited my penchant for clutter and saving stuff. We're all working on it though.

And I most certainly got it from my father who was worse than I am.

[My English Castle]

I suspect it's some sort of family thing.
I'm not so bad--I do have my father's penchant for saving things in case you "need" them.
When we cleaned out my parents' garage, there were old coffee cans dating to the 1940s, I suspect.

Now DH! Eeek, his father is a paper keeper as well.

[marvholly]

DS/English
I was looking at my spices earlier this week. I still have 2 in the old type metal cans - 1 mine, 1 inherited from my mom.

I have called around to every resale/consignment shop in a reasonable travel distance from me. I have a TON of my late DH clothing I wanted to consign. NONE are taking anything but “designer or trendy (???)’ men’s stuff. I have decided it is best just to donate and I MUST do it this year while I have a real income to offset. Unemployment + my EF in 2011 is likely to keep me in the no tax bracket. However, I am using different charities to donate. Been a bunch to Salvation Army this year already, no Goodwill near me so doing ORT this time.

I may even make a special trip there today (a non-drive day) as:
they are in the opposite direction from which I usually travel
I NEED to smpty my trunk in case I have to help move my Dad's stuff Friday

Also, I need an ingredient for my dinner plan tonight & I will be passing 2 grocery stores. I could change the plan but ..........

[LaVicky]

I finally sold a HUGE piece of furniture on craigslist, Ive been listing it for sometime over and over, get a lot of interest in it but nothing comes of it, its an item that takes like 3 strong guys to move and I knew Im not going to take it with me when I leave here one day, and it took up a lot of room in the living room. So Ive just been at it for sometime and as of last nite its GONE out of my house! And I got some cash too!

I have so much stuff to declutter its not even funny. I basically inherited about 8 truck loads of stuff from an old employer he gave me for free, to resell. Its time consuming and bulky but its worth money and Ive made about $5000 I believe at this point off this stuff. But its very time consuming. Had a yard sale, a lot of items werent worth my time trying to sell online as I may get $10 or less for them, so at the end of the yard sale I posted on freecycle.com and a woman came and cleaned up almost ALL Of my yard sale leftovers instead of me lugging them back in or donating them, I gave the rest away for free. So its been a good week, also sold another piece of furniture on Craigslist about 2 weeks ago. Slowly Im moving along.

Oh and I dumped out some old spices myself, had them forever, not worth cooking with, dumped them and threw the containers in the recycle bin.

So its been productive, its addicting getting rid of stuff too!

[LaVicky]

Oh and someone mentioned getting rid of baking soda. Not sure if you just threw it out, but you can use it at as cleanser, its abrasive to clean with, and you can also sprinkle it in the bottom of your trash can or on the carpet before you vacuum. You can get a little more use out of it. I use it typically for cleanser, good for cleaning scuff marks off toys and vinyl items by the way or crayon/marks on walls.

[snafu]

In our affluent, acquisitive lifestyle, there are so many benefits to reap from de-cluttering but these are often low on the family's 'radar.' It's important that everyone in the household is aware of space limitations and their family RULZ for stuff. Goal: Have what you need, where you need it, when you need it. Most important: Find what you want, where you want it, when you want it.

With holidays approaching, it helps to have at least public rooms de-cluttered and 'company ready.' It avoids the stress of those frantic clean-ups, shove stuff anywhere temporarily out of sight before the guests arrive. That effort creates difficulties in the long run as drawers, shelves and cupboards are hiding the stuff you likely need. Some people suffer a sinking feeling when the doorbell rings with neighbors or unexpected visitors on the doorstep.

At season change, it helps to have a routine so that you have What You Need, Where You Need It, When You Need It. For example, it's draining to know you have warm gloves but rush out to buy new ones when you can't find them. If you can't find your stash of gifts you will be shopping in Black Friday's mob which is exhausting! Being unable to find a needed tool in the middle of a repair turns an easy task, difficult. Missing documentation at tax time is expensive. DS's joy at having card stock at hand when needing name cards for an event, painted a picture not easily forgotten.

I suggest implementing a 9 PM, 15 minute, Pick it Up, Put it Away [PUPA] family event. It's shocking how much can be done in a 'beat the clock' race night after night after night. It hits a lot of awareness buttons + family works together.

New in - old out, ancient gem that really does keep money in your wallet & controls volume of stuff. How much is enough? Very personal for everyone with potential for the biggest changes and relates to space ratio [12 hangers per foot of closet rod] Cognizant of change: today's newspaper is to be read, yesterday's paper goes to re cycle, current catalogue interesting, previous catalogue now out of date.

Use it, love it or lose it! If everything has sentimental value, it's time to re-evaluate. How do you respect/display it's meaning? Collections easily turn into clutter if not culled annually and displayed on rotation. [ie. jewel colors fall/winter, pastels spring/summer]
Foods expire! check the dates, you're throwing away dollars if you don't use the food in your pantry, cupboard, fridge, freezer. Corral 'Like' items together so you know what's at hand

ok, off my soapbox. Good work all.