2021 Decluttering Thread

[kork13]

With DW doing a hybrid doctoral PT program (mostly online + periodic on-campus & local hands-on work), we decided to get her a walking desk treadmill thing to help her still stay more active while she's doing 8-9 hours of classwork every day. Problem is, it takes up alot of space in our living room, so we decided to sell our elliptical that's currently in a small exercise room in our garage. She rarely uses it, I use it a few times a month during bad weather, so we're okay with selling it to make space for the standing desk in the garage. Added bonus, it'll give her some physical separation from what's going on in the house, and hopefully help her to focus better on her work.

Aaaannyyywaaayyy..... Listed the elliptical online last week for a fair but higher-than-average price, and was about to drop the price on it for pack of interest... But yesterday we got a promising-looking bite from someone an hour out of town! She's been looking for this exact model, so she's going to drive our way on Sunday & hopefully take it away. Happy result for all of us, if this goes through!

[disneysteve]

Shipped the 84 magazines sold the other day.

The woman who bought them messaged me yesterday to let me know they arrived safely and to ask if I have more. I had just listed 96 more, which she saw. She said she'd be interested in buying all of those plus whatever else I may have. I'll get into the garage tomorrow and take inventory and send her a list. Sounds like I will hopefully be clearing out a few cartons of stuff shortly if she follows through.

I sold one item on ebay yesterday that will ship tomorrow.

I just saw that I got a bid on another item that ends tomorrow.

[disneysteve]

Cleaned off my dresser, a constant source of clutter for me. Recent travels had resulted in various things getting dumped there so I cleaned that all up.

[disneysteve]

I returned from my deployment less than a week ago. They gave me a couple weeks off, so I'm slowly working my way through the house room by room, ridding us of excess papers, cheap/worthless/unused toys, and generally just re-organizing the clutter (chaos) that developed while I was gone. Today's foray into the pantry was shockingly productive. I can almost get into my half of the closet again! (It became a second pantry/storage area while I was gone.... Lol). The going is slow, but progress is being made -- our recycle bin is nearly full. I've also "decluttered" (shut down) a couple of subscription services that weren't doing us any good, freeing up over $100/mo.

Not blaming DW at all, because I left her in a 3-on-1 game with 4&6 y/o boys and an infant, while she struggled to keep up in an accelerated DPT hybrid program. While I was gone, my default response to her needing help with something was to throw money at the problem... Cleaning service, lawn service, mail-order meal prep (one of the ones I stopped), random home/car repairs, childcare, etc. The benefit of living frugally is that we can turn it off on demand & spend money as required to make life work when things get stressful.

Welcome home. Certainly DW had her hands full. Keeping the pantry tidy wasn't a priority. And it is great that you were able to offload some stuff from her with some hired help. It's equally nice that you can now cut that stuff out and free up the money again.

[kork13]

I returned from my deployment less than a week ago. They gave me a couple weeks off, so I'm slowly working my way through the house room by room, ridding us of excess papers, cheap/worthless/unused toys, and generally just re-organizing the clutter (chaos) that developed while I was gone. Today's foray into the pantry was shockingly productive. I can almost get into my half of the closet again! (It became a second pantry/storage area while I was gone.... Lol). The going is slow, but progress is being made -- our recycle bin is nearly full. I've also "decluttered" (shut down) a couple of subscription services that weren't doing us any good, freeing up over $100/mo.

Not blaming DW at all, because I left her in a 3-on-1 game with 4&6 y/o boys and an infant, while she struggled to keep up in an accelerated DPT hybrid program. While I was gone, my default response to her needing help with something was to throw money at the problem... Cleaning service, lawn service, mail-order meal prep (one of the ones I stopped), random home/car repairs, childcare, etc. The benefit of living frugally is that we can turn it off on demand & spend money as required to make life work when things get stressful.

[disneysteve]

Shipped the 84 magazines sold the other day.

Just sold another item on ebay. Awaiting payment and will get that shipped out. It's packed and ready.

I haven't listed anything more for a few days. I need to do that.

[disneysteve]

7 ebay auctions just ended, each one for 12 issues of a particular magazine.
All 7 auctions sold to the same buyer.
So that's 84 issues of the magazine that will be going out once payment is made.
That's a nice bit of space that will be cleared out.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Got ride of a box of kid books that were too young for my kids. About 100+. Plus donated 3 bags of clothes

[bjl584]

Big declutter day the other day.
I took an entire truckload of junk to the dump.
We also re-boxed and organized a bunch of other "stuff" and made a large of pile of things that will be donated

[scfr]

Today was another tiring and productive day of decluttering at my mom's. As Forest Gump said, "That's all I have to say about that."

[disneysteve]

As much as I hate to admit it, with 2 kids in flux with respect to their housing, and a lake property that is being rebuilt, we ended up renting a storage unit.

I think a storage unit makes sense in that scenario, when you're between houses or having to clear out space for renovations.

What boggles my mind is how many pack junk away in storage units never to look at it again. I love watching Storage Wars and seeing the tons of crap people have been paying to store. Most people, before renting a storage unit, need to do a serious decluttering. They may find they don't need a storage unit at all, or at least need a much smaller one than they think. And once you do have one, you should make it a point to visit it every few months and browse through what's there to see if you still need it all. If you can live without things for months or even years, you probably don't need to own them and pay to store them.

[JoeP]

As much as I hate to admit it, with 2 kids in flux with respect to their housing, and a lake property that is being rebuilt, we ended up renting a storage unit. So we made probably 8 trips there to drop off: couch, couple chairs, coffee table, end table, about 15 bins with all kinds of stuff in them, entertainment center, washer and dryer, a couple window AC units.

Sold a boat + trailer.

Also gave away some PVC sewer pipe and an office chair.

Consolidation is helpful. Instead of having a bunch of odd sized cardboard boxes in varying degrees of fullness, we went with those black plastic bins with yellow lids. They stack well and are easy to carry, and take up a lot less space.

[disneysteve]

Sold 4 more magazines on ebay
Sold 1 other item on ebay
Have a bid on another item on ebay
Listed another item on ebay

Gave away one of the Buy Nothing items I listed yesterday

[ua_guy]

It's been a year since we moved. Always a great opportunity to get rid of stuff, although, we were in a hurry, so it all came with us and landed in weird spots.

Today I tackled the kitchen, which has a dedicated "junk" drawer, which had become stuffed, as well as a storage closet that became a dumping ground for miscellany. Both are clean--and roomy, now. Free logo bags, old holiday cookie tins, multiple old lunch boxes, spare parts for appliances we no longer own, dead batteries, change (to the change jar!), wine bags for wine bags. It's crazy how that stuff just accumulates.

Nothing was really worth donating, so it went in the trash. However, and even despite my best attempts to corral, use, or transfer gift cards, DH threw one in the junk drawer that had $25 on it, but the card had expired. So I called and had it re-issued, to me!! When it comes in the mail, I will promptly apply it to an amazon gift card so we use the balance on our next order.

[disneysteve]

I spent the morning working in the garage. I got a few things into the trash and a few into the recycling bin.

I listed 2 things on our Buy Nothing Group. One already has a bunch of replies.
I listed 2 things on Marketplace and just sold one of them, an old radio, for $35.
I took in 2 things that I will list on ebay.
I got a few things added to the Goodwill pile. I'll take them over this weekend.