2020 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

Had another Buy Nothing item picked up today. I worked 12 hours yesterday so didn't list anything new. I'm off for the next 2 weeks except for a 4-hour shift on Friday. I plan to spend some extra time on the clutter.

[disneysteve]

Beautiful weekend here. I spent some time in the garage and listed a number of items on our Buy Nothing group. Several have been claimed.

I also had the guy who runs our bourbon group pick up all of the boxes of free promo items I got recently. He's going to make up goody bags to give out to the folks in the group.

[cypher1]

Just sold my Snap-on tool box to a friend. It's a great box but reorganizing tools and sticking with a tool cart for portability.

[disneysteve]

Too cold for the garage today so I spent some time in the basement this evening.

I listed 3 items on the Buy Nothing group, 2 of which are already claimed.

I put 2 items on a pile of stuff to give to Goodwill.

And I decided that after the new year, I'm going to get back onto ebay. So far, I set aside 13 items that I'm going to list. I did a search for each and all have had recent sales. I put a post-it on each item with the range of recent sale prices so I know where to start my auctions. I'll list them once, and maybe relist a second time. If they don't sell, I'll give them away. It's time to clear out all of that stuff.

[Graham1989]

I had a great day today, I finally reorganized all of my kitchen cabinets and cleaned out the inside of shelves. It took a couple of hours but it feels good to have organized cabinets.

[cypher1]

Gave my mom my CRV as I had been planning to do for some time now. In order to replace her old 20+ yr old Buick she wouldn't let go of for sentimental reasons. Also gave away another pair of shoes I had gotten but never worn due to too snug.

[disneysteve]

I had a great day today, I finally reorganized all of my kitchen cabinets and cleaned out the inside of shelves. It took a couple of hours but it feels good to have organized cabinets.

This seems to be one of those jobs that just has to keep being done periodically. We have yet to find a way to keep things organized as the contents of the cabinets is ever-changing. It's fine where the plates and glasses are, but the ones that hold food items are always different.

I have done more in the basement, finding more things to give away, more things for Buy Nothing, and more things for ebay.

I'm not entirely sure how things will go with ebay. I tend to get all motivated to do it and then once I start, realize how time consuming it is for a relatively small return and I end up just giving the stuff away. The main problem with ebay is that it is just as much work to sell a $50 item as it is to sell a $5 item so the effort doesn't match the outcome. Most of the things I have to sell are low end price wise so realistically probably not worth my time.

[disneysteve]

It's a bit premature but I started clearing out the financial statements and bills for 2020. I can't totally do it until the year-end statements come in for some things but there were some things that could go.

[Thrif-t]

So habitat for humanity is coming to my house tomorrow to pick up an old couch, a kitchen island that we've been storing in our garage, and our kids' 3 in 1 gaming table. The Gaming table was in the basement, so yay, now I have more room down there, whoop, whoop!!

[disneysteve]

More organizing than decluttering but I gathered several boxes from collectible items that were sitting around and put them all together in one large box in the garage.

I noticed the box from DW and DD's hair straightener, which they haven't used for years. I asked them if they still want/need it. They both said no so I listed it on Marketplace. If it doesn't sell in a week or two, I'll give it away.

[disneysteve]

I didn't think of this in terms of clutter, but cypher1 pointed it out to me.

I combined two financial accounts, moving our holdings at Heartland Funds into our Vanguard brokerage account. I didn't buy or sell anything. I just did an in kind transfer.

I'm old school and prefer paper statements, so this means I will no longer get separate statements from Heartland as that fund info will now be a part of our Vanguard account.

We've done some more work on the financial decluttering. We have submitted the paperwork to rollover over both DW's old 403(b) and her old 401(k) into her existing Vanguard rollover IRA. Once those transactions are complete, that will be two more statements that stop coming. And, of course, it will also simplify the withdrawal process down the road.

[Graham1989]

I also started getting rid of old items (junk). I actually have so much old stuff stored in my basement AND attic that I thought about trying to give it away or sell them. I collected all my stuff and organized them into categories:

• used, brand new (like a food dehydrator I found collecting dust in the attic - never even opened the box) ,
• vintage (stuff my parents/grand parents passed on to me that I will never use)
• trash (broken or unfix-able items).

I made a small garage sale out in my yard, but with the covid 19 and bad winter weather I quickly realized that it was a bad idea.

[disneysteve]

My wife was going through some of her old scrapbooking supplies and found a few packs of photos. I went through them and was able to toss out more than half of them. One envelope was from when we used to get double prints, so one set went right in the trash. One roll was from some sculpture garden visit years ago. I saved the few that had us in pictures and tossed the ones that just showed the sculptures. I used to take a lot of "thing" pictures. I now realize that I really don't care about most of that. A few as memories, but not dozens or hundreds of them. Besides, with the internet, with just a few clicks, I can quickly find a photo of pretty much anything in the world. Unless a picture I took was particularly good or somehow meaningful, we just don't need it taking up space.

[disneysteve]

I sold 2 things on Facebook this weekend. $40 cash in my pocket and a little less clutter in the house.

Almost time to start the 2021 thread.

[disneysteve]

I am looking to declutter at least 500 items this year!

I'm curious if you met your goal.