2023 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

I did some more in the garage 2 days ago. I listed 3 folding chairs on Buy Nothing and someone came for them. I listed a framed poster and someone picked that up yesterday. I listed a couple of other things but no bites yet. I also threw away and recycled a few things.

I also pulled out my mom's luggage and added that to the pile for the synagogue rummage sale. My mom is 93 and unfortunately her traveling days are behind her. If by some miracle she's actually able to go somewhere in the future, we could always lend her one of ours or pick up an inexpensive suitcase for her. She had 3 good size pieces of luggage taking up a big space in our garage.

The more I clear out of there, the more I'm realizing how much of what remains (and it's a lot) is Disney stuff that has accumulated over the past several decades. I sold a bunch at the yard sale a few weeks ago but there's so much more. Some of it I still want. Some of it is worth listing on ebay. Some of it just needs to be given away or maybe do a smaller less ambitious yard sale. There's likely enough stuff to make a couple hundred dollars or more even selling things for $1 or $2 each, which would be a steal for the customers. I have to start going through the boxes and sort out what I'm keeping, what is for ebay, and what is for give away/yard sale.

I'm not entirely opposed to another yard sale, but I'm never doing another like the one we just had. For that, we were up at 5am to start setting up, which took 3 hours. Then sitting out there for 6 hours. Then packing it all up. I don't think I'd mind one where we go out at 7 to set up and maybe only stay "open" until 12 or 1 and anything that doesn't sell goes straight to Goodwill. Plus if it's mainly the Disney stuff, there likely won't be much left after a few hours based on how it flew off the tables at the last one.

[myrdale]

I am in the middle of a home networking project. What was going to be a modem and switch in the top of the linen closet has expanded to a server rack in a larger closet. This closet had been a catch all for junk and stored a 4-drawer filing cabinet in which I stored old utility bills.

The junk is pulled out, and in the process of being sorted through and tossed, 10 years of bill have been sorted, scanned, and burned. (yeah I am a hoarder of useless information). The filing cabinet will be the next thing to go as I've sized down to a single plastic bin to keep anything truly worth holding on to, paper wise.

[disneysteve]

10 years of bill have been sorted, scanned, and burned. (yeah I am a hoarder of useless information).

My mom's the same way. I keep telling her she doesn't need to save her electric bill once it's been paid and she certainly doesn't need all of her electric bills for the past 20 years. Fortunately most of the backlog is with me and I've been gradually shredding it all. I know that when she passes, I'll have to clear out a bunch of useless paperwork from her apartment. She saves everything that comes from the brokerages and banks, none of which is important and all of which is easily accessible online.

When I cleared out my cousin's house 2 years ago after he died, I had a shredding company come and destroy 10 cartons of paperwork that he had saved for absolutely no reason.

I save everything for the calendar year and then shred it in January. The only stuff that gets saved longer than that is tax forms and relate documents and each year's worth fits in a single file folder in a cabinet.

[myrdale]

My mom's the same way. I keep telling her she doesn't need to save her electric bill once it's been paid and she certainly doesn't need all of her electric bills for the past 20 years. Fortunately most of the backlog is with me and I've been gradually shredding it all. I know that when she passes, I'll have to clear out a bunch of useless paperwork from her apartment. She saves everything that comes from the brokerages and banks, none of which is important and all of which is easily accessible online.

Even the IRS only cares about the previous seven years.

I've got three 5" ring binders which have all of my bank and retirement statements going back to 2005 (I am missing 2007 for some reason that I forget). I'll probably spend a couple of hours scanning that in, then burn it all next.

[disneysteve]

Even the IRS only cares about the previous seven years.

I've got three 5" ring binders which have all of my bank and retirement statements going back to 2005 (I am missing 2007 for some reason that I forget). I'll probably spend a couple of hours scanning that in, then burn it all next.

The one thing I do worry about is figuring out cost basis on mutual funds purchased long before the brokerages were required to track that for us. Plus some of the companies have been sold and merged a couple of times so that info is long gone. If all goes well hopefully we won’t need to touch that money during our lifetime and our daughter will just get it at a stepped up basis.

[disneysteve]

We got new furniture in our sitting room yesterday. In preparation for that, we thoroughly cleaned the room. Then we moved out a bunch of random junk that "lives" there to make room for the delivery crew to do their job. The room looked so much nicer without all the excess crap. Some of those things need to come back but many of them don't. I'm hoping we can permanently reduce the clutter in there.

Today, I've been working in our bedroom. I cleaned the area where we accumulate items to donate - clothing, books, and random stuff. I made one bag to give to our temple rummage sale, one bag for Goodwill, a few items I'm going to list on ebay, a few I'll be putting on our Buy Nothing group momentarily, and several that went into the trash. Even though the donation pile will continue to occupy that space, I intend to keep much more on top of it and not let it build up so much before I donate it.

[ua_guy]

The collection of coffee mugs with vendor logos (they send them to us, we don't want them!) became ridiculous, so we got rid of them. The local donation place doesn't want them, so they get thrown away. A feeling of catharsis ensued, dropping about 12 of them into the bottom of the empty trash bin, where most of them rapidly disassembled. Then, in went the broken crock pot. And the damaged cookware. And our dog's old bed. That was so sad, and we didn't want to look at it, so some old pillows and plastic packaging were put over the top.

I listed some car parts, a bike rack, and a few other things on Craigslist. Next, I need to find the gumption to start making a "donate" pile. The trick is not making the pile; it's hauling it away. That's going to be a big one.

[disneysteve]

Next, I need to find the gumption to start making a "donate" pile. The trick is not making the pile; it's hauling it away. That's going to be a big one.

I definitely let stuff accumulate too much before I take it over to Goodwill. And there's no good reason since the Goodwill drop off is in the same strip center as the post office and I go there a few times a week. I don't to wait until I've got a 30 gallon trash bag full of stuff. I can just take over one or two items. I don't even need to turn off the car. I just pull up and they have bins by the curb.

[disneysteve]

Quite a while ago, our daughter gave me all of her Harry Potter books. She didn't want them anymore. They've been sitting on our bookshelf ever since but last night I finally photographed them and listed them on ebay. I also listed a couple of other little things that have been lying around for too long.

[disneysteve]

I'm still working on some stuff that I inherited from my cousin when he died in 2021. One thing was he belonged to a particular fan club and had every issue of their newsletter dating back a couple of decades. I have previously sold all but the last few years worth. After he died, I continued to receive the newsletter since his membership was paid up. I waited to list the last lot until I was sure I wasn't getting any more. I realized the other day the last one I got was Winter 2022, none in 2023, so his membership finally ended. I listed a lot of 16 issues and they sold today. That's one more pile out of my way.

[disneysteve]

Our friend who runs the temple rummage sale just came by. She took several cartons of stuff and a bag of clothes. We have about a dozen totes of china that she wants for the sale but can't store until then so we're going to keep it until next summer and then she'll take it all. I'll probably move it to the basement to free up the space in the garage. There were also some things she didn't want so I will gather those and take them to Goodwill as soon as I can. All of that will make a nice dent in the garage for us.

[disneysteve]

I just took a car load of stuff to Goodwill. My trunk and half my back seat were full.

Now I need to get in the garage and dig deeper to see what else I can sell, donate, or trash.

[disneysteve]

I got into the garage a bit after lunch. I got rid of one carton of old paperwork from my cousin. Some recycled, some in the shredding pile.

I found a stack of magazines I will put on ebay.

I have 3 cartons of old car magazines that I listed on Buy Nothing. If they don't get claimed, I'll recycle them next week.

[disneysteve]

I also did a little in the basement tonight. I dumped 3 old bottles of liquor that we will never drink (not very good stuff). Found a few old knitting needles that my wife didn't want. Those will get donated. Threw out a couple of things. Found a set of old Happy Meal toys that I brought up and posted on ebay. Sold comps are in the $30-40 range.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I sold 6 items at drop off consignment. I also bought a pair of bogs for kids for $20 not bad.