2014 Decluttering Thread

[creditcardfree]

MY daughter just sold her Nook and the case this week. I found two t shirts to get rid of after I bought two more. Moving things on we aren't using does feel much, much better!

[disneysteve]

2 of my 4 ebay items have bids so far. I packed them today so they'll be ready to ship when the auctions end.

I have a pile of old newspapers that is just the sections of the paper that I actually read but it still piles up way too much. The past week, I've been making a concerted effort to catch up on reading them, starting from the oldest.

I put all of our suitcases away in the garage today. They were all left out after our recent vacation and a couple got used to move our daughter into college yesterday.

I went through a large pile of papers and reports from the past 2 years when I was President of our synagogue and got about 90% of them into the recycling bin.

[disneysteve]

3 of my 4 ebay auctions now have bids!

I got another big stack of papers into the recycling bag last night.

I had a patient chart at home from a now-distant lawsuit. I returned it to the office this morning to go back into storage there and get it out of my space.

[ua_guy]

We finally got around to painting our home office this week. When we moved in last year, the room was pumpkin-colored, including the ceiling. It was a welcome end to what was otherwise an assault on the eyes everytime I walked into the room, and a great opportunity to pull everything out of the room and go through it. I dumped lots of junk and papers and re-organized it all. Now, the room is a neutral, off-white that matches the rest of the spaces on the ground floor.

[disneysteve]

great opportunity to pull everything out of the room and go through it.

I often think this is really the only effective way to declutter. I'm actually hoping to find a free weekend this fall when I can do this with our garage. I want to empty it out into the driveway and go through everything before I put stuff back in. It will be a monumental job but would make a huge difference in one of our big problem areas.

[disneysteve]

Two ebay auctions ended successfully today for a total of $39.50 in sales - from two items that have literally been sitting on my desk for months (lots of months). I have two other auctions active and one has a bid. I will definitely be listing more.

I went to Staples today and recylced 8 ink cartridges which will get me a $16.00 store credit. While I was there, I used the $20.00 store credit I got from recycling 10 cartridges back in July. All of those cartridges had also been piling up on my desk for ages.

Last night, I read and recycled several more old newspapers that I'd been saving.

[creditcardfree]

Realized I was storing some Glade Plugins that are now obsolete. Refills for them are no longer available. They are in the trash now!

[snafu]

DS, hope you'll link the article that has motivated you to de-clutter again. It really helps to clear the desk. Early this AM I had to pull all the tableware [plates, platters, bowls, glasses and coffee mugs from their cabinet to replace old, ripped, waffle type shelf liner. As each stack/group went back I packed up the promo mugs and replaced glassware with a dozen new [stem] glasses that double for wine. I plan to tackle the 'pantry' tomorrow, whatever is identified as near to expiry will be the focus of meals for the rest of the week. From that point I'll whiz through cabinets, cleaning/replacing shelf lining as needed and look for items no longer used, not needed and better re-gifted, sold or donated - gone.

Right after 1st snowfall the winter tires will need to be loaded into the SUV, our signal to switch out the summer gear to winter needs. Each year we've found it easier to let go of stuff that someone else could use and enjoy. Even DH has let go of 'I may need/want it someday' mindset. The ad for our city's Paint Re-cycle/Disposal program motivated him to check all the paint cans. Anything unusable or not current went to the program. [Useable paint is organized by type and colour and offered at no cost the following week for anyone who wants it.]

Change can be challenging but worthwhile if it makes day-to-day tasks easier

[disneysteve]

Listed another item on ebay last night. Woke up today and discovered that it had already sold at the Buy It Now price. Made money in my sleep.

[creditcardfree]

Listed another item on ebay last night. Woke up today and discovered that it had already sold at the Buy It Now price. Made money in my sleep.

That is the best. I erased the evidence of summer projects in the garage yesterday. Staple gun packaging recycled and item put away. Found items for donation to Habitat for Humanity. Tossed out an old pool noodle, in addition to some test boards (foam) of paint colors. I figured I should take advantage of the nice day and get things cleaned up in preparation for winter.

[disneysteve]

I attacked one shelf of the wall unit in our computer room/office where I keep all of our travel guides. Why I keep all of the travel guides I have no idea since I virtually never use a single one of those travel guides. Time to purge them from the house. I now have a much cleaner shelf and a recycling bag filled with travel guides. All of that info is readily available for free online - and up to date unlike those guides which dated back to 2007 and even earlier. If I plan a trip, I doubt I'm going to do so referring to a 5 or 6 or 7 year old guide book. Plus we are AAA members so we can always stop by the local office and get the current guidebooks for free.

[disneysteve]

This latest attempt on decluttering has been different for me and I think that difference is worth sharing. In the past, when I would attempt to declutter, my focus was typically on putting things away, finding a place for everything. I would get rid of some stuff and recycle some stuff, but it was more about moving things around.

This time, I've been much more willing and ready to toss things out. I'm the type of person who always holds on to things "just in case I need them" or "I can't get rid of this. It's worth something."

Just in the past week or so, I've thrown out, recycled, or sold things that have been sitting around for months or years and that is just beginning to make a noticeable difference.

We're planning to have a yard sale on September 20. One of our neighbors is having one and spread the word down the street if anyone else wanted to join in so we plan to put some stuff out. We probably won't do a full-blown sale like we do when we are planning our own well in advance but I think we're going to put out a lot of the stuff that we just want out of the house. I'm hoping the weather will cooperate this Saturday and I can work in the garage a bit to pile up some stuff to sell also.

[moneybags]

I'm working on decluttering too. We will possibly be selling the house in a year or two and downsizing. Today I cleaned out the board games. We had them in 3 locations. I got it down to 2 locations and have about 10 games to donate or save for a garage sale. Also cleaned out the desk in the kitchen, got rid of lots of old pens and pencils.

[creditcardfree]

This latest attempt on decluttering has been different for me and I think that difference is worth sharing. In the past, when I would attempt to declutter, my focus was typically on putting things away, finding a place for everything. I would get rid of some stuff and recycle some stuff, but it was more about moving things around.

This time, I've been much more willing and ready to toss things out. I'm the type of person who always holds on to things "just in case I need them" or "I can't get rid of this. It's worth something."

Just in the past week or so, I've thrown out, recycled, or sold things that have been sitting around for months or years and that is just beginning to make a noticeable difference.

We're planning to have a yard sale on September 20. One of our neighbors is having one and spread the word down the street if anyone else wanted to join in so we plan to put some stuff out. We probably won't do a full-blown sale like we do when we are planning our own well in advance but I think we're going to put out a lot of the stuff that we just want out of the house. I'm hoping the weather will cooperate this Saturday and I can work in the garage a bit to pile up some stuff to sell also.

I've always thought of decluttering as getting rid of things...clutter. I tidy when I put things away. Good luck with your yard sale, they can be good motivators to get rid of things.

[disneysteve]

Another attack on the home office wall unit tonight. I gathered an embarrasing 17 3-ring binders that have accumulated over the years. On the initial pass, I got 3 into the trash and 5 into the yardsale/give away pile. For the moment, I've held onto 9 of varying sizes and I'm not sure we'll keep all of those but I wanted to double check with my wife before I tossed any more and she isn't home right now. Still, 9 is a lot better than 17. Plus in the process, I got a bunch of old papers into the recycling bag (which goes out tonight), found several sets of dividers, and found a bunch of collector card sleeves that we were looking for recently.

ETA: Listed another item on ebay (that was on the wall unit) and got a bid on an item I listed last night.