2019 Decluttering Thread

[Thrif-t]

I got my carpets cleaned in my bedroom. We took all our furniture out of our bedroom and I picked up everything off the closet floor, and I PURGED! I can't believe how big my closet is without all the crap on the floor (we have a walk in closet, so it was easy to throw things in there). I have some under the bed bins that I have to go through and see what I can part with, I've been putting that off. I have 2 bins of memento's from my childhood and college years, I think I'll probably keep them. But the wedding dress that was cleaned and boxed and has spent the last 28 years under the bed, well it will probably go back under there; although I should pitch it, but I just can't.

I also have a couple of under the bed bins of my kids school stuff. Now I have no problem pitching it, but then I'll have to hear how I kept my stuff but not theirs.ha I guess the thing to do would be to give it to them but none of them really have room yet for that stuff, so that will probably go back under the bed too. Oh well, at least it's all organized.

I did throw out a picture I painted of a lake scene in 9th grade that was under there, lol.

[MooseBucks]

I think this might be the first time posting on this thread in 2019...I did pretty well at the end of 2018 and I'm going to get back to it for 2019. Goal is to find 365 (or more) items to donate/sell.

[disneysteve]

I just spent a short time in the garage before I lost interest. I did manage to pack 2 boxes for Goodwill along with a few loose items. I didn't feel like taking them over today but I'll try to get them there this weekend.

I really need to do a full on cleaning session out there, not start at 3pm. Maybe on Sunday. It might rain here which makes it a little harder as I like to be able to haul stuff out onto the driveway to make room to work but I'll see what happens.

[disneysteve]

I spent about an hour in the garage today. I basically worked in one direction and tried to address as many items as I came across along the way. I got the usual assortment of trash, recycling, giveaway/sell stuff. I cleared off a couple of shelves on one shelving unit, broke down one photo album, tossing most of the photos. I also found a bunch of old camp photos from 73 or 74. I'll scan those in and post them to the camp alumni Facebook group I'm in. People will get a kick out of those.

Lots more work to be done but I love even making a little progress. Everything that goes into the trash or to Goodwill is another thing out of our space.

[Thrif-t]

Well since all posts since April got lost when the site crashed, I thought I'd bump this thread up..

I wondered what happened! Kept getting page cannot load. That's too bad :-(.

Our oldest graduated college and moved 3 1/2 hours away. She wants some Christmas decorations, so I gotta get in my basement and see what I can find to give her. I did get rid of a lot of stuff last year, of course!, but I think I still have plenty I don't use that I get her started with.

[disneysteve]

Well since all posts since April got lost when the site crashed, I thought I'd bump this thread up.

I did sell 2 items on ebay this week that I shipped this morning. Another auction ended unsuccessfully today and got relisted. I'll probably go in and lower the price but haven't had a chance yet.

[msomnipotent]

msomnipotent - sorry about the flood damage and losses. Great job on the decluttering efforts. And I have to ask why you had 50 lbs of salt. 20lbs of flour makes sense if you do much baking but that's an awful lot of salt.

Thank you. I buy good sea salt in bulk once every year or two and they ship in 50 lb boxes. I use it for scrubs, cleaning, and brine a lot of meats. I don't use table salt at all. The flour was for the Christmas cookie baking the kids were supposed to do but never did.

[disneysteve]

msomnipotent - sorry about the flood damage and losses. Great job on the decluttering efforts. And I have to ask why you had 50 lbs of salt. 20lbs of flour makes sense if you do much baking but that's an awful lot of salt.

[msomnipotent]

My daughter's school is having a contest where the school with the most donations to Goodwill gets a visit from a Blackhawks player. I'm in it to win it. So far we have 3 large boxes and a garbage bag full of clothes put together, and that is just scratching the surface. I wouldn't be surprised to have 10 boxes and few bags of clothes/linens. My in-laws are coming today to pick up our old plasma tv that escaped the flooding in the basement. I will miss her, but we don't need a 55" tv just sitting in the basement.

We are still cleaning up from the flood. Our city limits recycling to the one container we have, even though it is giant, and we get a complaint letter when we throw away a lot of garbage at once. We have had to toss things bit by bit. I'm hoping the solar lights we bought for the yard still work as they got a bit wet. I'm happy that I don't have to replace the shelves that got wet, but I have had to throw away about 50 lbs of sea salt, 20 lbs of flour, a lot of our freeze-dried camping food that I no longer trust to be safe, and I don't even know how many rolls of toilet paper. I'm estatic to report that my husband has recycled several of his boxes on his own. I think the Blackhawks contest frenzy has rubbed off on him and he finally wants to declutter.

[disneysteve]

Spent some time in our collectibles room today. 3 more items removed. A couple of things relocated from the floor to shelving. One framed item hung on the wall.

[Thrif-t]

Last Saturday I finally got around to decluttering my jewelry box.ha I took 2 quart size zip lock baggies to our donation store.

I have a graduating high school senior and a graduating college senior, so I'm in the midst of end of school things and planning parties (at a park) so probably no more decluttering happening around here for a while.

[creditcardfree]

Just today I listed two items on eBay, if they don't sell in the first week...they will be donated. I also listed a soundbar and subwoofer for sale on a local area FB site. I think I'll set a goal to do a donation drop off at the end of April. I don't think we will have a lot, but it's a good time of year to evaluate clothes as we change seasons.

[disneysteve]

This thread has been quiet.

We are starting to get ready to host Passover dinnersat our house on April 19 and 20 so the cleaning and decluttering is back in gear. Our living room/Disney display room/DW's sewing room is where we actually have dinner so we are focusing our initial attention in there.

I removed 6 more items from our personal collection today bringing the total items removed to at least 147.

I packed an 18x18 inch carton box of items that will be donated to a charity auction this summer and got that into the garage.

I worked on rearranging some of the collectibles with the goal of getting some items that have resided on the floor onto shelves. I managed to get one big item off the floor and several smaller items. Still work to be done but definitely making progress.

What has everyone else been up to? It's getting to be spring cleaning season so keep that decluttering going and share your progress (and challenges) here.

[disneysteve]

Sold 1 item on ebay for $29 plus shipping. It still had the original price tag on it. I think it was $7.95. It's been sitting in our collection for years so not a bad return. And now it's out of the house (well it will be once I get paid and ship it) and I made a few bucks in the process.

[disneysteve]

Thankfully, the antiques that got wet were sterling so no real harm was done to them

Glad to hear there was no damage.