2018 Decluttering Thread

[Gailete]

Today's progress:



ETA: I also just did a round of shredding. Included in today's destruction was all of our expired passports, which I realized recently were still in our lock box. The oldest expired over 20 years ago!

I got my passport in 1976. It was a bicentennial passport issued from the US embassy in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I got it when I went to Colombia as a college student. As I went to college in Canada, I was able to use it to get back and forth over the border although not necessary. I can't bring myself to destroy it. It is one of my few remaining 'souvenirs' of that trip. I completely missed the bicentennial hurrah here, I came back to the states to wonder who in the world Jimmy Carter was, etc. I should get rid of it I suppose along with my slides of the trip. It was a most amazing time for me.

I did spend 3 hours Sunday night sorting all my buttons by color in prep for making up the goodie bags that I want to make and sell. I'm hoping to sell my 'clutter' instead of giving it away.

Recouping from my Remicade today, so not doing much of anything. Not the IV itself but the time involved takes the starch out of me.

[disneysteve]

I'm hoping to sell my 'clutter' instead of giving it away

We've sold a lot of our clutter at two very successful yard sales the past 2 years. I've also sold some stuff on ebay, a couple of items on craigslist, and a bunch of books on half.com and Amazon. We've also donated a bunch of stuff to some charity auctions and raffles that we were involved with.

At this point, we've gotten rid of much of the salable stuff. We're also at the point where we don't even care about monetizing most of it. We just want to get rid of it. Although as we dig deeper, we certainly may do another yard sale if we have enough stuff to make it worth it. One place I literally haven't even touched for several years is our attic. I'm not even sure what's up there. I know it's mostly storage for empty boxes from collectible items but there's probably some other stuff up there too.

[snafu]

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[Gailete]

I say this only half-jokingly: Moving has its advantages! No better way to have a really good "clean out" than a long-distance move (even with the clothes hubby held on to for 25+ years that we moved even though we didn't need to).

Maybe that is my problem! I haven't moved foor over 10 years now. This is officially the longest I have ever lived anywhere at one time!

As I run into them, I am sending stuff to the thrift store pile. With our weather since Christmas, it is hard to take stuff out to the car even, but at least when it is in one spot, it is easier to see and get rid of when the weather is better.

[disneysteve]

Maybe that is my problem! I haven't moved foor over 10 years now.

We've been in our house for 24 years as of May. That's a lot of years of accumulating clutter.

[comicguy]

1/18 1 small plush animal - donated, 1 freezer burned bag of strawberries - trashed (2 items)

1/21 1 Can of Easy Off - used up (1 item)

1/27 4 freezer burned packages of fruit (4 items)

1/28 2 plastic grocery bags of plastic grocery bags - recycled, 1 CD case - recycled (3 items)

1/30 1 book donated, 1 notepad - used up (2 item)

1/31 1 DVD - donated. (1 item)

Slow couple of weeks but things have been busy, hope to get more done this month!

[Gailete]

@Comicguy - Every little bit helps! Your having to toss food reminds me of what I run into as when many times I can't cooks hubby rounds up food for me and salad stuff and whatnot can go bad so quickly. The other day I got a FoodSaver system to try and review for Amazon. I'm hoping it can maybe help combat that problems as we really can't afford to be pitching food.

[GrimJack]

Today's progress:



ETA: I also just did a round of shredding. Included in today's destruction was all of our expired passports, which I realized recently were still in our lock box. The oldest expired over 20 years ago!

A friend of mine grew up in a diplomatic family - her only record of all the places she lived and visited is in her passports. The last time I was in Europe, it was difficult to get my passport stamped - they don't want to bother any more. (I am such a tourist).

[disneysteve]

A friend of mine grew up in a diplomatic family - her only record of all the places she lived and visited is in her passports. The last time I was in Europe, it was difficult to get my passport stamped - they don't want to bother any more. (I am such a tourist).

I only had a couple of stamps in mine. Not enough that I would keep them as souvenirs. I suppose I could have just torn out the stamped pages. I didn't think of that. Too late now. Not that I needed them either in the grand scheme of things.

[comicguy]

A few more items out of the house

2/3 2 DVD’s - donated
2/4 1 binder - used up

2/7 1 Frayed Lead Cord - Trashed
3 books - donated
2 trophies to Robotics Center

Total of 9 more items are gone from the house!!

[Thrif-t]

Shhh, don't tell on me, but I cleaned out some files of old bills, receipts etc and took them to work in a duffle bag and threw away a little here and there in different shredding bins around the office. I usually wait till my town has a free shredding day, but I just wanted it out! I spred it between 6 bins and they are real big locked trash bins so not like I took up space and work stuff can't be put in there. Feels good to be rid of that!

[disneysteve]

I just went through my file of college stuff for our daughter and got a bunch of it into the recycling and shredding bins. The only things I'm holding onto at this point are all of the bills and payment receipts. Once she's done, I'd like to sit down and add up what it all actually cost us. I have a pretty good ballpark idea but I'd like an actual number.

[Gailete]

Shhh, don't tell on me, but I cleaned out some files of old bills, receipts etc and took them to work in a duffle bag and threw away a little here and there in different shredding bins around the office. I usually wait till my town has a free shredding day, but I just wanted it out! I spred it between 6 bins and they are real big locked trash bins so not like I took up space and work stuff can't be put in there. Feels good to be rid of that!

Shredders aren't that expensive. I would feel nervous about someone else doing my shredding. At this point we burn our trash, or at least we do when we don't have piles of snow everywhere and can't get to the burn spot.

[msomnipotent]

I have decided to bring up at least one piece of junk every time I go downstairs. I cleared about a 5ft section right before I got sick. I cleaned out a linen closet and tore out the shelving so I can't just throw it all back in. The new shelving will be free since we got a $50 gift card when we bought our washer and dryer. And things won't fall over after it is installed, so double bonus. I went to grab a shovel yesterday and realized that my husband has 8 of them for some reason, so it looks like I will be trying to sell extra shovels this week. No one needs 8 snow shovels and a snow blower.

I have had absolutely no luck for months trying to sell things, so I'm just boxing it up and going to call a charity again. It felt good getting rid of so much stuff at once last time, and the time spent isn't worth the extra money anymore.

[disneysteve]

I'm going in to work for a few hours today but I had some time this morning so I started cleaning in our bedroom. I cleared out everything under my half of the bed. Some went in the trash. Some went in the recycling bin. Some went in the Goodwill pile. And just a couple of books went on the bookshelf in the computer room. There is now nothing under there (on my half at least) and I vacuumed the carpet.