2020 Decluttering Thread

[scfr]

DH ordered a new golf driver that arrived on Wednesday (he likes to upgrade every couple years), so today he took his old one in to a sporting goods store where they took it for a store credit that he immediately used on golf balls. He used to let his "old" clubs accumulate but learned that the longer he held on to them the more they depreciated in value. So he now knows to do trade-ins as soon as he upgrades! He's also learned to use the store credits immediately rather than risk losing them.

I got the wheelchair that was in my mom's storage unit out and arranged a pickup by a medical non-profit; they will put it in their "equipment closet" and it will go to someone who needs it. That was the feel good moment for the week. Also hauled 2 more boxes of papers back to my place for sorting, and delivered 4 boxes plus a bag of stuff to Mom's for her to do the same. I'll be so glad when this project is done.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Got rid of a kids bike without gears $20. Gave away a queen mattress since we are redoing the girls rooms. Selling/donating crib/dresser that is convertible in garage. This weekend purged girls clothes to fit in dresser and once we finish moving them in this week then we will be a good place. Also new desk coming so a lot of declutering occurring this next two weeks.

We are in the process of building a shed for DH's office space. I think we may not have time until then to do the desk and office space. But at the same time we are eating out of the freezer and purging more and more.

[disneysteve]

A week or two ago, we got a carton of small bottles from our Buy Nothing group. We want to use them for the limoncello we make. There were 50+ bottles. However, 20-some didn't have lids so we can't use them. I messaged a friend who does a lot of artsy stuff and asked if she could use the lid-less bottles and she said yes. I work with her wife so I boxed them up and brought them in today.

[scfr]

Mom's storage unit: 5 more boxes hauled back to my place yesterday; got 1 sorted, 4 more to go. I found one item of some value that is going to be her gift to one of my siblings for Christmas.

Took 2 small bags full of things that Mom had sorted through to Goodwill.

Ran in to a little hitch. I had contacted a consignment place that was willing to take a kids' table & chairs set, but when I got there I found the shop closed with a handwritten sign with "new temporary hours" and a note that they aren't taking any more consignments for the rest of the month. In the interest of keeping things moving forward, I suggested to Mom that, instead of holding on to it, we put it out on the street in front of her house with a sign that said "free" and she agreed. It was claimed immediately by neighbors and Mom is thrilled knowing that the neighbor kids are going to get some good use out of it.

I think Mom is starting to get in to the decluttering mood a little bit.

[disneysteve]

I think Mom is starting to get in to the decluttering mood a little bit.

There is definitely a mindset to it. I have found that the more I do it, the more I want to keep doing it. It becomes kind of addictive in the good way.

Is there a Buy Nothing Facebook group in the area? It's a great way to give stuff away to people who can use it. Of course, there's also Facebook Marketplace for anything you want to sell. But for stuff like that furniture, listing it to the group is much more effective than just putting it out on the curb, although it's great that that worked so well for you.

[comicguy]

We were ordered to remove all personal items from our classrooms that would not fit on or in our teacher desks because of needed space for COVID in person teaching. I had so much stuff that was purchased over the last 12 years. We backed 3 cars (2 corollas and a forester) up to the window in my classroom and I passed out boxes and boxes of stuff that filled all 3 vehicles with just enough room for the driver of each! Now all that stuff is sitting in my den waiting to be sorted and dealt with. While packing up the classroom I was able to trash and or recycled 7 garbage bags of assorted useless material that has just been stored and not dealt with. When everything has been sorted I will have about 4 boxes or so that will eventually go back to school for my and studnet use. But until then I have my work cut out for me sorting. I have been lucky that some of the items are sellable and have started to earn some money back on them, which is good!

The poor custodians at school have been so busy dealing with all the trash/recycling from manadatory teacher cleanouts not to mention the moving of storage cabinets, book shelfs, student desks/chairs, excess textbooks, plus general summer cleaning/repairs to get things ready to bring students back.

[disneysteve]

Am I the only one for whom the weather influences my motivation to declutter? I did very little all summer. Way too hot to work in the garage and certainly not the attic. And even doing much inside was low on my list partly because it invariably leads to taking things into the garage.

Now that the summer heat is breaking, I'm getting back into it.

I cleaned off my dresser this morning and tidied up a few things that have been sitting around the house for too long. We're not at "clean the garage" weather quite yet but it'll be here soon. I'm actually looking forward to diving back into it. I've accomplished so much in there the last couple of seasons and want to dig deeper.

[Thrif-t]

Am I the only one for whom the weather influences my motivation to declutter?

Nope, I'm like that too. I usually do my decluttering in the winter, in the summer I want to be outside not cooped up in the house, I have all winter for that.

[kork13]

As we've unpacked our house from the move from Alaska to Idaho by way of Arizona (isn't the military a blast?), we've slowly built a stockpile of stuff to sell/dispose of. Collectibles inherited from my mother (not interested), kids stuff our boys have outgrown, and other nick-nacks mostly. We've spent yesterday/today doing a yard sale. For being a small rural town, we've had decent activity, and have made ~$150-$200, and planning to keep going for another couple hours. Much of what doesn't sell will likely be donated to my unit's spouses group for their upcoming fundraiser yard sale. From there, I expect it be donated to the thrift shop on base.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I'm trying to make our house work better. Did the kids rooms finally painted and new beds and now organizing. Got rid of a big ugly shelving and used it for toys and i'm trying to downsize my stuff. Truth is that a lot of our house is ineffienciently used so we need to buy and do things to make it work better then we can make our lives easier. Right now we are about to do the shed. Once that is done DH will help with the garage. Reality is that I need help with it but we are on a time crunch and need the shed office to be finished before the rainy winter comes.

1. My desk - need a better system for keeping our stuff. Need to organize the kids electronics
2. garage - need to build another shed and move our paints outside. DH keeps literally everything. We need a different storage area than the garage for every can of paint to cross into the house. I want to get rid of the 5 gallon buckets the previous owners used for the house.
3. entry way new coat hooks and mirror
4. kids bathroom needs storage
5. pantry - kitchen doesn't have much counter space and we need to better utilize the few cabinets we have perhaps reorganizing the kitchen

[QuarterMillionMan]

Relating to decluttering how many emails are in your inbox right now? In Gmail I have 2 semi-important emails but I should create a new file and move them. In Yahoo I have 5 and should move it too. Hard to keep it it at zero constantly.

[kork13]

Relating to decluttering how many emails are in your inbox right now? In Gmail I have 2 semi-important emails but I should create a new file and move them. In Yahoo I have 5 and should move it too. Hard to keep it it at zero constantly.

Lol this is a hilarious question to ask people. I believe it's very indicative of the way that people think. Personally, I have zero unread emails, and about 50 total emails in my inbox. Some for follow-up later, others that I simply haven't filed away into a folder yet.

My wife's email generally has at least 400-500 emails completely ignored (mostly junk ad emails from companies she's signed up with at some point in the past but never unsubscribes). I think she must periodically purge hundreds of emails at a time, because the number never seems to go above 1,000.

At work, I share an office with a gal who I noticed recently has over 2.5k emails just sitting in her inbox. Admittedly we get alot of emails every day (I took 2 days off this week & came back to ~70 emails), but I can't stomach having my inbox so cluttered with email that I can't find the ones I'm looking for. Especially at work, every couple weeks I'll sort through my inbox and trash or file away into dozens of folders all of the various emails. I'm generally successful in keeping my work email's inbox in the range of 30-50 active emails.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I forgot about work Kork and glad you brought it up. I keep my work inbox at zero daily.

[Thrif-t]

I read my emails and either file them or delete them. I hate hundreds upon hundreds of emails in my inbox. I get on my kids because they never delete their emails. I tell them that someday they won't get anymore cause their mailbox will be full. I have no clue if that is correct or not, but I tell them that anyway.

I think having all those emails is a sign of an unorganized person. Read it and decide what to do with it. Sometimes I do have emails sitting in my inbox that I have to wait for whatever reason to handle, so not always is my inbox at zero. But I always unsubscribe or code the junk as spam.

[disneysteve]

How full my email in box is varies a bit based on how busy my week has been. It may be as low as single digits or may get up into the 40s or 50s but that's about it. And if the latter is true, as soon as I have the time, I'll sit down and go through them. Just this morning I got down from 53 I think to 25 at the moment.

I use email as a way to personally remind myself to do things, so some of those emails are from me and are basically my To Do list. They stay there as a constant reminder until I complete the task, so that may be a little different than how most people's in boxes are.

For example, of the 25 messages right now, 5 are ones I sent myself.