2016 Decluttering Thread

[snafu]

One thing led to another...as I refilled my fav spice containers [small tins with a magnet on the back that 'stick' to the side of the fridge, handy to stove], I did a mini de-clutter of the pantry only to realize I'd fallen woefully behind in creating an effective meal plan focussed on using what was at hand. Tomorrow's dinner will be so filling, Corn Chowder with home baked rolls. Soups is a wonderfully efficient way to use up small amounts of ingredients as an enjoyable meal.

[dawnwes]

Update:

On Wed. of last week I needed to go up to my middle son's bathroom and take down wallpaper. I thought it would take about an hour, maybe two.

UGH. I spent almost 2 hours CLEANING first. That bathroom was so gross! His idea of clean is nowhere NEAR what clean really is.

I actually still need to clean the grout.

I ended up with 3 large bags of TRASH. In some fairness, that room used to be a guest room/sewing room/storage room, so I went through the bathroom closet and thew away lots of stuff (shampoo from hotels, old lotions, fabric I am never going to sew, etc...) but a lot of it was HIS.......15 toilet paper rolls he didn't trash, 8 empty shampoo bottles he didn't bother throwing out, etc.....

[dawnwes]

Today most of our activities are cancelled. Still waiting to hear/see if our evening activities will be cancelled due to the storm.

So, today is a perfect day to keep going.

My goals for today?

1. Go through rest of DVD collection. Box up what we want to keep, sell what can sell, and donate the ones that aren't worth selling.

2. Finish emptying wooden hutch and take photo and list.

3. Clean up and box up office. (the office hasn't been touched/cleaned in so long there are cobwebs! ARGH!!!!!!) I will most probably be creating 2-3 large garbage bags full, boxing up things that will go with us but we don't need now, and making sure that all necessary items can fit in the closet.

4. If there is time and if I still have energy, I will start going through clothes of Dh's and mine. I have been wanting to for a long time but DH kept saying he didn't have time to sort. Yesterday he announces that he doesn't understand why I haven't gone through our closest and gotten rid of clothing!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! MEN!

I WILL DO #1-3, and will get to 4 if I have time and/or energy.

[snafu]

Dawnwes, you've done a phenomenal amount of work de-cluttering, listing for sale and donating since the decision to move was made. I hope you can persuade DH to sort his clothes, those he wears, likes and needs emphasizing abundance.

If he is pressed for time, perhaps stack his wardrobe in groups for a daily sort like [day#1] all button shirts, [day#2]blazer/jacket/suits, dress slacks, casual [jeans/khaki], [day#3] underwear, socks, T's, [day#4] sweaters, shoes, accessories, [day#5] outer wear, for example.

[disneysteve]

If he is pressed for time, perhaps stack his wardrobe in groups for a daily sort like [day#1] all button shirts, [day#2]blazer/jacket/suits, dress slacks, casual [jeans/khaki], [day#3] underwear, socks, T's, [day#4] sweaters, shoes, accessories, [day#5] outer wear, for example.

I agree with this. Sorting by category/item is very efficient. I did it with my pants. I did it with my t-shirts. We did it in the house with non-clothing items like books and glassware.

The key is to put everything together in one place so you can really see what you have. I made sure every pair of pants I owned was clean and hanging in the closet at once. Then I went through them and got rid of a bunch. Then I got every t-shirt (all 95 of them) stacked on the bed and went through them, getting rid of 24 in the process.

It's important to get them all together, though, because otherwise it's much harder to decide what to keep and what to toss.

[dawnwes]

Didn't quite get to everything.

But I was going to donate 65 DVDs and decided to list them for sale on a local sales site for $2 each instead. I have over 30 spoken for so far, with pick up tomorrow.

And I got 4 bags to the refugees and 2 bags to Goodwill and 3 trash bags OUT the door!

Will start on the master bedroom later.

[disneysteve]

Didn't quite get to everything.

But I was going to donate 65 DVDs and decided to list them for sale on a local sales site for $2 each instead. I have over 30 spoken for so far, with pick up tomorrow.

And I got 4 bags to the refugees and 2 bags to Goodwill and 3 trash bags OUT the door!

Great progress. And good job selling the DVDs so quickly.

[bjl584]

I just listed a few items on Craigslist. Hoping to make some space in my garage before spring.

[msomnipotent]

I filled up our 90 gallon recycling bin the past 2 weeks. We had boxes we don't need, receipts to things like my daughter's bedroom set that is almost 12 years old, tax forms from 20 years ago, and a metric butt ton of magazines. I spent a solid week just tearing out recipes I wanted from cooking magazines. I hope to finish clearing out our office space before the weekend, and hopefully get to the desk in the kitchen. I'm sure there are all kinds of manuals to appliances we no longer own. Not sure what I should do with all of our daughter's report cards. I still have the daily reports from when she was in day care. They are cute to look at, but do I really need reports of how often she wet her diaper?

I also filled a large box with kid junk for my sister to sell on Facebook. Bookoo has slowed down a lot so I am looking for other outlets. I would like to say that I cleared off the shelves in the family room, but really I just boxed stuff up and put it in the basement. My sisters are supposed to come this weekend to help, but they bailed on me last time. I'm expecting an encore performance.

[snafu]

Good on you for ridding yourself of about 90 gallons of no longer needed paperwork. If you use manuals regularly, storing them in page protectors in a 3 ring binder is efficient. Keep in mind the information is likely available on-line, faster to print off the few pages that is needed, when it's needed than finding the manual.

[msomnipotent]

I cleaned out my laundry room. I gave away 3 Costco-sized bottles of detergent and I think I still have a year supply left. I had to dump 5 gallons of bleach that got old and turned to water. I rarely use bleach and didn't know it could do that. Live and learn. No more buying bleach at Costco! I used to keep buying non-perishables (not counting bleach) until I had a year supply, mainly due to health issues. I couldn't go out and shop whenever I wanted to. I only stocked up when there were great deals, no I'm not out too much money. I'm thinking of just sticking with a few months supply instead of a year.

[disneysteve]

I had to dump 5 gallons of bleach that got old and turned to water. I rarely use bleach and didn't know it could do that.

How about that. Your post made me Google if bleach goes bad and sure enough it does. Over time, it breaks down to basically salt water. Clorox says it's good for about a year but it varies with storage conditions and the intended use. One site said it could be as little as a few months.

Kudos to everyone who is sticking with the decluttering. We've been kind of at a standstill recently as we've just been busy with other things but we definitely want to get back to it as soon as we can.

I did sell a book on half.com the other day. I also went through a stack of old newspapers, but that's more of a maintenance task than true decluttering.

[disneysteve]

I sold a big bag of craft supplies on Craigslist. Got $20 and a nice amount of space on a shelf of the wall unit in our home office.

ETA: I also sold a book on half.com today. I'll ship that out on Monday.

[dawnwes]

I haven't been on for a few days.

We have now gone through both very tall bookshelves in the sunroom. 5 small boxes of books to keep but packed.

4 boxes of books to take to the consignment homeschool store.

3 boxes to trash (workbooks written in, books falling apart, etc....)

3 boxes to donate.

Selling 5 more DVDs today and then off the rest go to be donated.

I have boxed up an additional 7 med. boxes so far to pack up.

The trunk of my SUV is getting full of stuff to donate. Need to make a run today.

On to the basement storage area next.

And Steve, I WILL have one of those storage areas to stage my house.....yes, I will spend some $$ but it is all part of the selling process and must be done. It will not stay there beyond selling and buying another house.

[disneysteve]

And Steve, I WILL have one of those storage areas to stage my house.....yes, I will spend some $$ but it is all part of the selling process and must be done. It will not stay there beyond selling and buying another house.

I totally understand that there are legitimate reasons to rent a storage unit: showing a house, relocating, temporary moves, cleaning out a home after a death, storing business inventory, etc.

Statistics show that there are far, far more units out there than would be realistically needed for those types of purposes. Most of those units are simply filled with people's crap that they just don't need. And lots of people end up spending far more than the stuff is worth in order to store it. I know people that have done this. They move to a smaller place and put a bunch of stuff in storage. They spend a few hundred dollars each month which quickly adds up. Before they know it, they've spent a few thousand dollars to store stuff not worth that much. Plus they rented a truck to move it there and have to rent a truck again to move it back. In the end, it would have been cheaper to sell/trash/donate the stuff and buy it again when they settled in their new place.

Congrats on all of the progress! You've really gotten a lot done.

We really need to get back on track. We haven't really done much the past couple of weeks. I like seeing the progress we've made so far but there is still a lot to be done.