2019 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

Watched the next episode of Marie Kondo. Afterwards, DW bagged up all of the clothes she had accumulated to give away. Two full garbage bags plus a few other things. She also went through a bunch of papers.

I save all of my old date books (day planner things). They've just been piled up on the top shelf of a closet. I took them down tonight, used a silver Sharpie to label the spines, and got them all stored neatly in a shoe box. The box went right back into the closet but now they aren't falling all over and I can easily look into the box and find the year I want. I often refer back to them to check when we traveled somewhere or some other info. Marie Kondo is big on organizing things into boxes to both keep things tidy and have them easily accessible. She tries to have everything standing up, rather than piled up, so that you don't have to sort through things to find the item you're looking for.

While in that closet, I also took out an adding machine that we haven't used for years. DW agreed that we didn't need it so into the Goodwill pile it went.

[disneysteve]

We had a part on our dryer stop working, the thermal fuse. Cost $30, but we really did have to tear down the dryer to get to where it needed to go. Worth it in the end, but when you literally take the drum out of your dryer, it's a bit scary!

Not to go too far off on this tangent (and I started another thread) but we fixed the dryer this morning. Took an hour and $8.51! I need to post that to the “wins” thread too.

[creditcardfree]

The one downside is the dryer stopped working today. She has been doing a ton of laundry but I’m sure that didn’t cause it. I’m hoping it’s just the belt. I’m off tomorrow so I’ll be YouTube-ing my way through checking it out.

We had a part on our dryer stop working, the thermal fuse. Cost $30, but we really did have to tear down the dryer to get to where it needed to go. Worth it in the end, but when you literally take the drum out of your dryer, it's a bit scary!

[disneysteve]

DW attacked her clothes today. There is now a large pile for Goodwill, at least one full trash bag and maybe two. She also threw out a stack of hangars and reorganized her drawers now that she freed up a bunch of space.

The one downside is the dryer stopped working today. She has been doing a ton of laundry but I’m sure that didn’t cause it. I’m hoping it’s just the belt. I’m off tomorrow so I’ll be YouTube-ing my way through checking it out.

[rob62521]

I want to watch that Netflix show about Marie Kondo and the decluttering. Maybe that will help me. We did take a bunch of stuff to the thrift shop before Christmas. I used to watch a program called "Clean House" that would often help me want to declutter. It is something I truly struggle with.

[creditcardfree]

Arrived safely in TX. Truck is unloaded. Decided to get rid of the formal living room furniture since we don’t have one. Lots more stuff piling up in the garage to go.

Good luck with the moving in. Despite downsizing and decluttering prior to the move, I always find things to let go of in the unpacking process. I suppose having had mover's pack it is why that happens. If I packed it I may have realized I didn't want or need it.

[corn18]

Arrived safely in TX. Truck is unloaded. Decided to get rid of the formal living room furniture since we don’t have one. Lots more stuff piling up in the garage to go.

[disneysteve]

We watched another episode of Marie Kondo's show. We then worked together on one shelf in our computer room/office. We went through all of our note cards and paper, getting rid of quite a bit of it and condensing what remained. I know that we still kept stuff we'll never use but some of it has sentimental value as well as being potentially practical (stuff like the personalized stationary from our wedding; the fact that we still have some of it 26 years later tells you how often we use it). We also agreed to get rid of 2 books on the shelf. We had done the Marie Kondo thing with our books back when we read her book and had gotten rid of 50-ish books then so what remains is all pretty much stuff we still want to keep.

[scfr]

Pre-move update: We've cleared the contingency hurdles regarding our home sale, signed the lease on an apartment yesterday evening, and are in full pre-move sell-off and downsizing mode. Well, at least I am. DH is off golfing today ... how did that happen? hah! Anyway ...

We will be moving from a too-large house to a too-small apartment with 1,600 sq ft less space.
I've now sold off more than enough to cover the cost of renting the moving truck, which was my goal, and I'm no longer taking the time to track $$ in. (We didn't need to sell things to raise the money for the truck, we had that covered, but it gave me a number to shoot for as a self-motivational tool).

I'm following along with Peter Walsh's 31-day organizational challenge (1 challenge for every day of the month of January) on Facebook. When I find myself having a hard time trying to decide what to do next, I pop on FB, pull up his daily challenge, and do it. It gives me a direction and kind of kick-starts my brain. Plus, most of the challenges can be completed in around 30-min, which gives me a sense of accomplishment, and since they involve things that I'll have to do sooner or later it moves me closer to getting everything done by moving day.

It's also motivational knowing I get to come on here and brag about what I've been doing.

[disneysteve]

We watched another episode of Marie Kondo's show. We then split up and attacked more clutter. DW continued to work on our photo albums. Her stack of pictures to discard is now about 5 inches high. I went into our bedroom. In the closet, I had a shoebox full of extra lightbulbs. It turns out that they were all for fixtures we no longer have, because we replaced 2 fixtures last year so they now use different bulbs. Four sealed packs of bulbs will go to Goodwill. A bunch of loose bulbs went in the trash (all incandescent, not CFL). That shoebox is now empty.

I emptied the bottom drawer of my dresser which holds my shorts and exercise gear along with a few other things. Several items were discarded. The shorts were folded the Marie Kondo way so they are upright and easily seen, rather than piled on top of each other. Some exercise accessories that I don't use regularly but still want went into a different drawer. That left the dresser drawer far more organized.

I also cleaned up some trash from the top of my dresser. I have a bad habit of just sticking receipts and shopping lists and stuff on there when I empty my pockets at night but it's all cleared off now.

I'm thinking about donating a bunch of items that I was planning to sell on ebay. It just isn't that much potential money to be worth the trouble and it helps raise money for a good cause. I go back and forth on that. I hate passing up the money but when I really think about it, I'm talking about a few hundred dollars, not thousands. Rather than spending all of the time and effort to list, pack, and ship a bunch of items to make $300 or $400, I can just pick up one extra 4-hour shift at work and make more than that. It will take me a lot more than 4 hours to sell it all.

We also have a desk in the family room that we just never actually used for the purpose intended when we bought it. I told DW that in the spring, I will sell it on Craigslist. I don't want to bother with it in the winter. That will open up a nice big space in that room. Not sure what we'll do then. DW would love to get rid of our wall unit also and replace it with something smaller but I'm willing to start with the desk.

[disneysteve]

Half dollars are collector's items now. I've tried 3-4 banks trying to get some.

I still have a couple hundred. If you want some and will pay postage, PM me.

[disneysteve]

Half dollars are collector's items now. I've tried 3-4 banks trying to get some.

Not according to any website, ebay, or coin shops. If they aren't silver or mint, they're worth 50 cents each with rare exception.

[MooseBucks]

I also came across something that I've been meaning to deal with for years. When I was younger, like still living with my parents (I left home at 18 and I'm now 54), I used to collect (or perhaps hoard) change. Nothing special or collectible. Just regular every day pocket change. I used to roll it and stack it in a cabinet in my room. I had cashed in all of it years ago except I never cashed in the half dollars. I have a plastic tube about 2 feet long that is a giant stack of half dollars. It's probably about $150 worth of coins. I took out $30 worth and will cash them in at the Coinstar machine tomorrow when I go shopping. I feel strange going there with the whole tube at once but I pass that machine every week so I'll make it a ritual each week until I've cashed them all in. That money will get added to our Amazon account for future purchases.

Half dollars are collector's items now. I've tried 3-4 banks trying to get some.

[disneysteve]

Side note, a result of getting the new bookcase was a total rearranging of both boys' rooms. Although we actually added things to both rooms, they both somehow have more available floor space.

Organizing and decluttering go hand in hand. Sometimes you just need to come up with a better use of your available space and it isn't as much about getting rid of things (though that certainly helps).

[kork13]

Another decent weekend of work toward controlling our clutter. We purchased a used bookcase on the cheap (~$35) for our 3 y/o's bedroom, which allowed us to consolidate some extra toys & books. DW is working through a bunch of our baby equipment (walkers, baby monitors, random other stuff like that) and has made 2 trips this last week to the kid-to-kid resale store to sell stuff. A glider chair in poor repair is in her car waiting to be sold, or else otherwise disposed of. Slowly making progress.

Side note, a result of getting the new bookcase was a total rearranging of both boys' rooms. Although we actually added things to both rooms, they both somehow have more available floor space.

We still need to watch that Netflix show... Not sure when it'll make sense to sit down & do that with DW...