2016 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

I kept this super useless collection of T-shirts from Disney trips over the years

I came across this awesome t-shirt quilt idea

We are big Disney fans and have accumulated many Disney shirts over the years and a couple dozen trips. My wife made a quilt out of about 18 shirts that she was no longer wearing. That got them out of her drawer and put them in a form that she can now actually enjoy them and show them off. That quilt also led to several other people hiring her to make t-shirt quilts for them so there was even a financial benefit.

[disneysteve]

Listed 2 more items on half.com.

Found someone interested in 4 of the 19 religious books mentioned earlier. I'll bring those to him on Tuesday when I see him.

[snafu]

Does your synagogue have a library? Would religious books benefit the congregation? Would the donation of books generate a tax credit?

[disneysteve]

Does your synagogue have a library? Would religious books benefit the congregation? Would the donation of books generate a tax credit?

We do have a library, but quite honestly, nobody ever uses it. I'd rather sell them on half.com or donate them elsewhere.

[ua_guy]

We completed a big decluttering mission on New Year's Day.

40lbs of documents (almost half of the paper we keep) -shredded
3 33-gallon bags of clothes to goodwill.
1 33-gallon bag of unused/unwanted "stuff"
2 33-gallon bags of stuff that went to the dump.

The closet that has all our childhood memories, and the garage, still need to be gone through. There isn't much in the garage other than tidying to be done, but I'm sure we'll find a few things.

In an event almost as rare as a blue moon, I also got him to help me do a deep cleaning of the house...lol. Not a bad way to start off the New Year!

[creditcardfree]

Working on keepsakes/memorabilia this month of January. Last night took out a package of photos my mother saved and handed to me years ago. Ended up tossing nearly half...all those multiples of school photos. A few I'm sending to my sister for her birthday since they will be a bit amusing! For now, I'll keep the rest. As they don't take up much space.

[disneysteve]

Working on keepsakes/memorabilia this month of January. Last night took out a package of photos my mother saved and handed to me years ago. Ended up tossing nearly half...all those multiples of school photos. A few I'm sending to my sister for her birthday since they will be a bit amusing! For now, I'll keep the rest. As they don't take up much space.

One day, I'm going to have to deal with photo albums. To be honest, I'm putting it off until my mother is no longer with us. I have all of my family's albums dating back to the 1960s (perhaps 1950s). Almost everyone in most of those pictures is deceased and I don't even know who most of them are.

I've thought about contacting all of my relatives to see if anyone is interested in having any of them. My dad was always the photographer of the group so we have photos of all of my cousins, aunts and uncles, etc. I figure some of them might like to have pictures of their parents and grandparents.

But for now, they live in our garage. I don't think my mom would be open to getting rid of them.

[creditcardfree]

One day, I'm going to have to deal with photo albums. To be honest, I'm putting it off until my mother is no longer with us. I have all of my family's albums dating back to the 1960s (perhaps 1950s). Almost everyone in most of those pictures is deceased and I don't even know who most of them are.

I've thought about contacting all of my relatives to see if anyone is interested in having any of them. My dad was always the photographer of the group so we have photos of all of my cousins, aunts and uncles, etc. I figure some of them might like to have pictures of their parents and grandparents.

But for now, they live in our garage. I don't think my mom would be open to getting rid of them.

Have you considered getting them out to enjoy with your mother while she is still living? There is really isn't much of a point of saving if they aren't enjoyed once in awhile!! She may be able to identify who is in the pictures. This may also help you later determine who may enjoy the albums and I would guess someone would be interested.

[disneysteve]

Have you considered getting them out to enjoy with your mother while she is still living? There is really isn't much of a point of saving if they aren't enjoyed once in awhile!! She may be able to identify who is in the pictures. This may also help you later determine who may enjoy the albums and I would guess someone would be interested.

That's a good idea. I should start sitting down with her periodically and going through them, making notes of who is who.

[disneysteve]

Sold 1 book and 1 DVD on half.com today. One of our rabbis wants 4 of the books we cleared out the other day. I'm bringing them to him tonight.

Continued reading Marie Kondo's book to continue changing my mindset about what I really need to keep and what needs to go.

[FLA]

went through big stack of ripped from magazines book reviews and ordered them from library. the stack was getting big and ugly on my desk and I love getting new books in

[cypher1]

I haven't read that Marie Kondo book yet, but have been following her principles, and was up until 1AM the other night. Went through my clothes one more time to throw out some other items. Got my mementos collection down to one container, and throwing away tons of bday cards, letters, report cards, old school work, and random souvenirs from old trips.

Donated the bag of clothes, VHS, and old books to Salvation Army earlier today. Donated some martial arts equipment to my gym that my roommate left before moving out. My younger brother wants the last of my dvds/cds (I already backed them up).

Also threw out a bunch of old electronic cables, documentation, accessories, random obsolete PC parts, old burned cds/dvds that I never access. Again, got it down to 2 little containers. Recycled a a large stack of magazines I've been meaning to read through. I decided to keep last years issues of Wired in the meantime.

Made a stack of collectible toys, movies, electronics, car parts, I plan on selling on Ebay/Half.com in the near future.

Spent the last 2 hours shredding about 8" inches of bank statements, credit reports/statements, taxes, etc from as far back as 2000. What a pain, as the shredder keeps overheating quickly.

I still have a good 20 hard drives to disassemble and destroy the platters, along with debating when I should de-commission one of my file servers and migrate data off to another system.

Saving my comic book collection to go through last, and debating if I still want to sell all my childhood GI Joe figures collection on Ebay. I guess I'll never grow up, too many good memories.

As the last of computers, drives, and toys are straightened out, I'd say my house will be pretty empty or minimal for quite some time.

[snafu]

One thing I've learned from the KM process has been to label every cable while I still know what they're for! It's a fast, easy task when the item is new, not so great when you're under/behind the desk or console figuring out taped rings of wire, impossible in a rat's nest mess in a box.

[JoeP]

One day, I'm going to have to deal with photo albums. To be honest, I'm putting it off until my mother is no longer with us. I have all of my family's albums dating back to the 1960s (perhaps 1950s). Almost everyone in most of those pictures is deceased and I don't even know who most of them are.

My parents do the same. I'll ask who someone is, and it will be a neighbor who lived 3 houses down the street from my dad when he was 12.

This is a fear I have: that some day, my kids will be faced with a bunch of pictures and have no idea what to do with them. "Dad kept them for some reason, so they must have some importance." I think I'd rather bit the bullet and scan them to a DVD or hard drive and be done with all the clutter.

[JoeP]

I decided to keep last years issues of Wired in the meantime.
...
I still have a good 20 hard drives to disassemble and destroy the platters, along with debating when I should de-commission one of my file servers and migrate data off to another system.

I have a bunch of the first couple years of wired, will have to look up the value.

I also disassembled a bunch of drives and have some good magnets from the experience. What do you do with the platters?