2016 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

Not a whole lot of cleaning today. A friend died this week. He was a client of my husband's but also a friend. He will be greatly missed. We have boxes and boxes of his files here and the family has asked that DH stay on to manage his residual checks and estate.

Very sorry for your loss.

[disneysteve]

I'm always amazed at how I can still find things!!

I think that arises out of a change in your mindset over time. I know that I have recently gotten rid of many things that I purposefully kept on previous rounds of decluttering. This time through, I'm more focused and determined. Also, there are those items that I held onto thinking I'd use them and now realize I just never did.

[dawnwes]

Today I have purposely said NO to some social events and kids activities so that I can stay home and get some decluttering and purging done.

Here is my list for the day:

1. Books! This one is HUGE. As a 10 year veteran homeschooler, we have bookshelves of them. I am selling what I can but will box up everything I haven't sold or don't think I can, and will take them Monday to our local HS consignment store.

2. DVDs/video games not used.

3. Scrapbooking supplies, oy!

[disneysteve]

Today I have purposely said NO to some social events and kids activities so that I can stay home and get some decluttering and purging done.

Here is my list for the day:

1. Books!

2. DVDs/video games

Both of these sell well online. If you haven't already, check half.com. Do a quick search for each item to see if it is worth selling. If you have a smartphone, download their app and then you can just scan the UPC code rather than having to type in any info.

[msomnipotent]

I'm putting our house on the market soon, and the decluttering is going slow. I managed to sell a bunch of Beanie Babies and a few toys today, and recycle a large stack of half used coloring books. I have 3 bags of clothes and 3 boxes of assorted what-nots packed up so far, but I have yet to choose a charity to call.

My daughter's birthday is in Feb, so she gets overwhelmed with gifts from Christmas and her birthday every year. I'm trying to decide if I should put some of the unopened gifts on ebay or just try to sell locally. The local Once Upon a Child is super picky and pays next to nothing.

[disneysteve]

I'm trying to decide if I should put some of the unopened gifts on ebay or just try to sell locally.

Could you return any of them to the stores?

[msomnipotent]

Could you return any of them to the stores?

Most of them are several years old. I sold the old Legos on Ebay. I'm trying to sell the NIB Little People from 2006 on bookoo, and I'm not sure what I will do with the NIB TJ Bearytales and all the books that came with it. It is going to cost a small fortune to ship. And then there are about 100 DVDs that have scratches all over but I'm pretty sure still work. I'm not looking forward to wasting hundreds of hours watching them for skips.

[creditcardfree]

And then there are about 100 DVDs that have scratches all over but I'm pretty sure still work. I'm not looking forward to wasting hundreds of hours watching them for skips.

I would figure out which DVDs would fetch the highest price and only check those. The rest I would donate or take to a one stop shop that would pay you cash on the spot.

The money you earn is probably not worth your time, particularly with a pending move, to watch every DVD.

[disneysteve]

I would figure out which DVDs would fetch the highest price and only check those.

I agree. Scan through them with the half.com app to see which are worth selling. Then either sell the rest as a lot on craigslist or just donate them to Goodwill and take the deduction.

[snafu]

msomnipotent, I hope you are considering your priorities. If the point is to prepare the house for listing to generate the best price in a reasonable period of time, it's more important to touch items and decide what you want to keep. Everything else needs to go as efficiently as possible. The money is gone, no matter how long you keep items no longer used, no longer needed, the money will not come back. Worse yet, packing up and moving is a huge task and expensive. It's not money-wise to pay to move items you don't use, don't need don't love and needs to be re-settled.

Used items have very little monetary value to millenniums. They are accustomed to discarding technologies at an unbelievable rate. Book stores are disappearing, products from 2006 are a decade old! Archival to young mothers. The research says CDs are nearly on the list of obsolete and DVDs will follow like VHS tapes.

If you have a women's shelter, I hope you'll consider they and their children have escaped abusive relationships with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Homeless shelters care for families. Check with your church for recommendations. Google Thrift Shops or Charity re-sellers in your area. You might like those that pick up.

Example, when we downsized a number of years ago, I happily released half the stuff. I only kept items we used and 'needed,' measured to ensure they would fit in the condo. After a year, I re-gifted, sold or donated anything we hadn't used and insisted the family reduce wardrobes. I was being overtaken by Mount Washmore! Since then we have a protocol that demands anything new coming in requires something similar to go.

Like others at SA, I too actively seek items to go. If it doesn't 'spark joy' or serve a need, I'm happy to release it to bless someone else.

[disneysteve]

I keep a running tally during the year of what has been donated so I have it at tax time.

Some numbers from 2015:
Shirts: 69
Pants: 15
Sweaters: 9
Shoes: 11
Backpack/Tote Bag: 9
Books: 33

And that's just a partial list. The fact that we were able to give away 69 shirts and still have plenty to wear is disturbing And that's on top of what was given away in 2014 or 2013.... And I know I got rid of 24 shirts last month when I went through my t-shirts.

We just own a stupid amount of stuff, but we're making great progress on correcting that.

[creditcardfree]

21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually Own

[disneysteve]

21 Surprising Statistics That Reveal How Much Stuff We Actually Own

Great article. The explosion of personal storage sites has always amused and baffled us. What the heck is everyone storing that has made the huge growth of these places possible? And they aren't cheap at all. People spend thousands of dollars each year for their storage units to keep crap that they clearly never use or else it wouldn't be in storage.

[snafu]

Disney Steve, kudos for the amount of stuff you've relinquished since you initially started this thread. Since 2016 re-start, it's already a 9 pager and a huge motivator to identify clutter and take action on delayed decisions. I really like making choices from a positive viewpoint and keeping only the stuff that I use, need and enjoy.

[msomnipotent]

msomnipotent, I hope you are considering your priorities. If the point is to prepare the house for listing to generate the best price in a reasonable period of time, it's more important to touch items and decide what you want to keep. Everything else needs to go as efficiently as possible. The money is gone, no matter how long you keep items no longer used, no longer needed, the money will not come back. Worse yet, packing up and moving is a huge task and expensive. It's not money-wise to pay to move items you don't use, don't need don't love and needs to be re-settled.


Like others at SA, I too actively seek items to go. If it doesn't 'spark joy' or serve a need, I'm happy to release it to bless someone else.

You do have a point. I don't value my time at all because I'm a housewife. If I wasn't doing this, I would just be doing something else. Plus, most of the movies were gifts, I bought them used, or got them on clearance. I feel we got our money's worth out of them all so I should just donate them. I would feel bad if a little kid got excited over one and it didn't work, though. But then how would I know? I was just giving the money to our daughter since they were hers, and she is saving up for a larger aquarium. She won a few goldfish from a carnival 3 years ago and now a 55 gal aquarium is too small. Never would have guessed! Which reminds me that there are 3 smaller aquariums in the basement I need to deal with.

I started another box for the donation pile. I feel kind of bad because a lot of gifts from our exchange students are being donated. I just don't have a need for a rugby ball for a team I never heard of, or a porcelain statue of a landmark that I will never travel to, etc. I also filled a huge box with things to go to Once Upon a Child. We are drowning in barely used shoes. My daughter went from a child's size 3 in October to a woman's 8 last month. And of course we had to have dress shoes for 3 different formal occasions, boots, indoor gym shoes and outdoor shoes, etc. It seemed like I was buying a new pair every time she tried to put her foot in a shoe. I'm sure I will only get a dollar or two per pair, but I don't care at this point. I'm still finding clothes with the tags still on in her closet from her growth spurt this year. If she doesn't stop growing soon, I'm going to assume she has some sort of glandular problem!