2014 Decluttering Thread

[jeffrey]

A post inspired by this ongoing thread and my decluttering challenge for this year

http://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2014/01/09/1020146_the-52-week-declutter-challenge.html

[PauletteGoddard]

Taking on the Long Past Due Decluttering

I have lots of these Avery labels for file folders, plus now a metadata organizing schema. I thought perhaps I had run out of file folders, but would check at home before begging on Freecycle. No, lots of those file folders are in heavy cartons. So I've got some declutter mixes from 8tracks.com going, pulling out file folder hangers and discarding ephemera as I find them, and lo! My late mother's apple pie recipe. Which is getting scanned. She gave it to me in e-mail but that was 1998, and I saved it on one of those 3.5" disks that I can't use anymore, but her surviving sister gave me the recipe in e-mail and I printed it. Cloud storage, safe deposit storage, any kind of storage for a food so good my father-in-law still talks about it!

Oh yes oh yes it is so true mother's apple pie is the best.
I wonder what other joys I will unearth. Update: How about a Lydia Pinkham recipe booklet from 1929?

[disneysteve]

Most areas of our house have a tolerable level of clutter but there are two areas that are really disasters: the basement and the garage. Being the middle of January, it is certainly not the time to even think about doing anything with the garage. The basement, however, is fair game. I run on the treadmill several times each week and that is located in one corner of the basement so when I'm running, I am looking out on much of the clutter, which normally doesn't even register, but it did the other night for some reason. When I finished my run, I spent a little time down there and cleaned up a few things. I got rid of the box from our vacuum cleaner that had been cut to transport DD's spaghetti bridge project last year. I also broke down a box of fluorescent bulbs and stored the bulbs in the rafters (it's an unfinished basement). I got numerous really old items off of the food shelves, stuff that we would definitely not eat at this point. I'm not glad that we wasted the money but I'm glad to be rid of those things.

I'm going to try and make a point of taking care of a few things each time after I get off of the treadmill. Even if I eliminate or organize just 1 or 2 items each time, that would have an impact.

[disneysteve]

Last night, I did a couple of things in our home office/computer room.

Cleared a couple of things off my desk.

Listed an item on ebay that has been sitting on the floor for ages. It is something that my wife or daughter had bought on Amazon a while ago, didn't like when it came, but never bothered to return.

I organized several boxes of envelopes and donation cards from the synagogue from our annual pledge drive. The drive is over and I can now return all of that stuff to the office and get it out of my space. I'll take it over tomorrow night when we go to services.

[snafu]

Clear the Desk - Get ready for Tax Refund

Time to clear out your desk and the 80% of files and paper work that will never be needed or looked at again. Get rid of those dried out pens and white-out. While you're at it, donate office supplies you don't need, haven't used in more than two years. Free yourself from old, no longer used or functional gadgets and electronics. Ditch that muddle of cables from equipment you no longer own!

If you have plastic tubs without lids, you could staple or glue a few together to create an efficient holder for small supplies you use like paper clips, binder clips, elastics, erasers, mechanical pencil leads, thumb drives, liquid & tape correction, post-its, push pins, tags, paper reinforcements, fasteners, paper punch etc. to corral small items and find easily in a desk drawer.

Save yourself frustration by designating a sturdy, bright coloured envelop for tax slips you'll be getting shortly and commit to using it without letting tax receipts wander!

[FrugalFish]

I'm going to try and make a point of taking care of a few things each time after I get off of the treadmill. Even if I eliminate or organize just 1 or 2 items each time, that would have an impact.

Great approach- not just to decluttering, but lots of things in life. Kind of the old adage about "How do you eat an elephant?"

I find it much easier to donate smaller amounts at any given time. For some reason, donating 2 or 3 smaller bags is psychologically much easier for me than a large donation- having done both. Though I'm having luck culling things out, I'm not really feeling motivated. Think I'll go ahead and schedule a pick up, then work toward having a couple bags ready to go on that date.

[ua_guy]

We brought a lot of home improvement supplies from continual remodeling with us to our new place and they weren't very organized and were scattered about in various boxes in the garage as things got jumbled in the move from the old place to the new place. Most of it was unneeded for the new place. Some of the stuff was unused, so in sorting all that out, we ended up with a pile of stuff that was eligible for return to Home Depot. All in all I think we recovered about $150, thanks to HD's liberal return window.

[breathemusic]

Since I just bought a few pairs of new shoes for work and got a new shoe rack for my birthday, I went through all my shoes and tossed ones that were worn and donated a few pairs that I bought but never wore (I hate it when shoes are comfy for the first 2 minutes when trying them on in the store but then give me blisters when I wear them for any extended period of time. What a waste!). I also tossed a few worn articles of clothing.

[Goldy1]

Steve, we are decluttering too! I was considering putting our house up on the market in the Spring. Even though it would be feasible, we decided to stay. However, we are decluttering room by room. It's making me feel much happier.

I keep my house very clean and neat, but we have way too much stuff in closets and basements.

It's not my stuff. My husband doesn't like to throw away anything. And we have one child and we are on the fence about another so his baby stuff is still here almost five years after I had him!!

We threw away a huge box that was full of old paperwork including hundreds of old roth ira paper statements. We tossed tons of old dated computer parts. I just sold a futon I literally had used in college as my couch that was taking up half my home office. (thank you Craigslist)

More to go this weekend!!!

[disneysteve]

Listed an item on ebay that has been sitting on the floor for ages. It is something that my wife or daughter had bought on Amazon a while ago, didn't like when it came, but never bothered to return.

I organized several boxes of envelopes and donation cards from the synagogue from our annual pledge drive. The drive is over and I can now return all of that stuff to the office and get it out of my space. I'll take it over tomorrow night when we go to services.

The eBay listing sold for $16.50 and I did take the cards and envelopes back so both of those are now gone.

[snafu]

Goldy, terrific plan to de-clutter room by room. Should the plan to sell return, you'll be ready to sign the documents and show the house to all qualified buyers. I'm about to review the linen cabinet. Sheets that are thin, old, extra pillow cases and worn out towels have already been folded into a sturdy shopping bag to go to the dog shelter whose volunteers appreciate all donations.

How much bedding is sufficient for each bed? We've concluded that 3 sheet sets works well, one set on each bed, one set in the laundry and one set in the cabinet...just in case. In this region we use flannel flat sheets to add warmth if needed. My project this week is to de-clutter all the rest. If not used and enjoyed seasonally the blankets, quilts, duvets, duvet covers themed cushion covers, throws and shawls will be purged. I'd rather someone else gets to use and enjoy bedding we no longer need.

[Goldy1]

CLutter bothers me. I hate it. I don't really collect anything either. I mean, I collected cat figurines as a kid. Nothing since. I own two guitars. I sell one if I buy another. My hubbie collects Detroit Tigers stuff, Elvis stuff etc. Argh.
Clutter doesn't bother him. It does me. I guess we are all different.

Good thing is he's on the program to clean out stuff.

We don't argue over money etc. Our biggest contention is actually clutter. (our house isn't bad. a realtor came over and said it was good to go if we list it as is, and said it's very neat) We just have stuff stacked in closets and in corners of the basement, and in drawers etc. out of view.

[gambler2075]

Good article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-adults-possessions-idUSBREA2520F20140306

[ua_guy]

This last weekend I nuked my half of the closet. Four thirty-gallon sacks worth of clothes went to Goodwill, and one more sack of stuff that was no good made it into the trash.

I'm left with a tidy closet with only clothes that fit well, are comfortable, are in good shape, and that I actually wear and like.

What prompted it was a renewed focus on my health this year; I bought a few new items of clothing as kind of a pick-up of my own image as I start to eat better and get more exercise. Felt good!

[creditcardfree]

On Pinterest there is a big 40 Bags in 40 Days Decluttering challenge for Lent, which began March 5 and goes through April 19. Just an idea if anyone want to dig deep in the challenge!