What did you declutter today? Part II

[frugalgirl]

Went through one kitchen cabinet. Recycled old plastic souvenir cups my kids collected from various amusement parks but we will no longer use.

Threw away expired medicine and all of those plastic dosing cups.

Put a couple non-matching glasses in the donate pile.

[disneysteve]

Went through the rest of the huge pile of papers from our retreats. A great deal of it got recycled. I also found about a dozen new envelopes of various sizes which got put away where they belong.

[snafu]

Way-to-go posters, I hope you take pictures to give yourselves full credit for continuing to release items that no longer serve you and give yourselves a reward.

marvh: before doing all the work of packing up DD1's stuff [apparently not requested/needed/used for more than 12 years [1997]], is the stuff still important? Could you check with DD1 for space/home for all of it? Would it be more practical to recycle/discard some? DD2 items have been your responsibility for more than 10 yrs [1999]. If these items have served no purpose for such an extended time frame...are they still important to her? If she is moving, are those things worth the expense and effort of moving it?

You want to move one of your file cabinets upstairs? Yikes what a lot of work! Is it your plan to rid yourself of no longer needed paperwork? While we all know retrieval is the only point of filing, 80% of papers we keep are never needed again. Excluding contracts and legal documents, what is your experience? What paperwork more than 1 y/o have you needed to locate? Were they easy to retrieve? Could other family members find needed papers if you were away?

Please understand I offer these questions with goodwill due to really bad experiences.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

Each morning, I'm reaching into a closet for handful of papers to properly file or to sort for recycling. This morning, my handful turned out to be a collection of Upper Mississippi River maps. We probably have duplicates. Husband & son canoed the river, so they had a set with them. I guess that set is around here, too. I had a second set at home so that I could mark their progress & where they camped when they called home each night. This is really sentimental to me. Will put these maps back for now, chat w/DH about which one he'd like me to save and hang on the wall in the guest room. That reminds me that there has to be one set of the lower river navigation maps as well. I think I know where those are. I should do the same with it --hang one page and send the rest elsewhere. This should have been done years ago.

[frugalgirl]

Cleaned out our outdoor shed. Got rid of a bunch of things my kids have outgrown - 2 bikes, a big wheel, a scooter, and skateboard.

Tossed a weed eater and old fireplace mantle in the car for the donation center. That weed eater never gets used because it is too hard to start and it is too heavy for me. I kept it because I kept thinking DH would use it. He never uses it and can't get it started either. I'd rather just buy a new one that will actually get used. It is hard to get rid of something that works but, since we don't use it, it really is just worthless to us.

[My English Castle]

We've been collecting a bunch of small items for Operation Christmas Child at our church. Today they went to the collection baskets;a big shopping bag full of things including small soaps, crayons, notebooks, pencils, and lots of things from our "gifts" closet.

[disneysteve]

Cleaned out more stuff from my trunk. Small bag of trash and a bunch of stuff into recycling bin.

I have a 2-drawer file cabinet in our computer room. It isn't really 2 drawers, though. The bottom drawer is normal but the top has a faux drawer front and doesn't pull out. Rather, the top of the cabinet is hinged and lifts up to access the hanging files. Since there is always stuff on top of it, I rarely open it. Honestly, I'd bet it has been at least 2-3 years since I last opened it. Well, I opened it tonight. What junk. I found a file about an inch and a half thick of my residency logs - I finished residency in 1993. Another stuffed folder held manuals, instructions and such for various appliances and furniture and such, most of which we no longer have. Even for the items we still own, who needs the booklet that came with it. Really, I've had my desk for years. I think I know how it works. So all of that got recycled.

The rest of the stuff in that drawer is related to our Disney collectibles. I'm not quite sure if I want to get rid of that stuff yet, but before today, if you had asked me what was in that file, I would have had no idea at all. At least now, I know what is in there, I've removed a great deal of it and know what's left so I can think about what to keep and what to discard.

[minnie1928]

The rest of the stuff in that drawer is related to our Disney collectibles.

Steve, I know how much you want to declutter your home...so how about if I drive to your house and take them off your hands for you?

[disneysteve]

Steve, I know how much you want to declutter your home...so how about if I drive to your house and take them off your hands for you?

Thanks for the offer but I think I'll pass.

The stuff in the drawer isn't collectibles, though, just stuff related to the collection like old catalogs, newsletters and things like that.

After clearing out a bunch of stuff from the file cabinet, I didnt really feel satisfied since that is all "invisible" clutter so I headed to the basement and spent about 30 minutes doing some more work down there. As usual, I got some stuff into the trash, some in recycling and some into the box to give away.

I also just knocked about a dozen e-mails out of my in box.

[My English Castle]

Disney Steve's untouched drawer makes me think about a copper boiler we used to use for fire wood storage. I seem to recall it's full of old magazines. Look for them in my recycling tomorrow!

15 minutes later: I have filled an entire grocery bag with them, but am sorely tempted by some of the food magazines--Gourmet, Bon Appetit, etc. To staunch this strong attraction to this clutter untouched for years, I've listed some of the food magazines on ebay. There seems to be a market there. If they don't sell, I promise they go out after the 5-day listing expires. Was also tempted to freecycle the other magazines--mostly O magazine and others, but am worried they'll sit around too long. Into the recycling with them. The scary thing in that boiler was Christmas catalogs from 2006. Eeek!

[disneysteve]

Squeezed in a little cleaning out of our hall closet, some expired meds and a couple of other things. I have to check with DW. There are 5 bottles of sunscreen in there. Only one is dated so I'm not sure which is the newest. She may not know either. I think I'll suggest trashing them all and buying a new bottle next season.

[marvholly]

Snafu
Some of DD1 stuff is rather private & I do not want to go thru it in order to tell her what it is. Some is books and she is both a reader, rereader, some is crafts she made & forgot about. Almost all is stuff she ‘promised’ to come by & get b/4 she bought her current house in 2004. As for DD2, I will go over the stuff and decide w/her about next actions.
RE file cabinets:
1. I need to go thru & clear out no needs
2. I WANT them next to my desk to hold things I HAVE determined/NEED to keep
3. they are small, light as only 2 drawer.

[disneysteve]

RE file cabinets:
1. I need to go thru & clear out no needs
2. I WANT them next to my desk to hold things I HAVE determined/NEED to keep

I agree. My goal, too, is to clear the clutter out of storage areas like file cabinets, bookshelves, closets, basement and garage so that we can then better organize the stuff that we do need and want to keep. I've already accomplished some of that with the decluttering I've done so far. I've started a couple of new files in my office desk drawer and I've freed up space in my home desk drawers, making it easier to file and retrieve papers that I need to have.

[snafu]

Good going all! You're doing a rattling good job of reducing clutter. It takes discipline and determination to reduce clutter so I hope you're giving yourselves a reward. If you find it difficult to part with an item, ask yourself Why? Then ask yourself "what's the worst thing that could happen if the item was gone". If it's a memory or link to someone special, taking a photo for a memory box is a good alternative.

Great idea to move or re-purpose items so you have what you need, where you need it, when you need it.

[Aleta]

About the most that I could do yesterday was to delete 50 emails from one of my email accounts. Each email account is for specific purposes. I also have my son visiting me and I came back from my trip not feeling very well. It's amazing what lying down on a couch in the office and looking at the wall of shelves does to see a new prospective. I've decided that I definitely have to get rid of or hide some of the items that are exposed.

I also got rid of 71 expired coupons today. I am so encouraged by the ideas that I see here.