2018 Decluttering Thread

[creditcardfree]

I also believe that the Boxtops of Education thingies are reproducing on their own.

Lol. Sounds like it's time to get those sent to school. Or you can sell them on eBay!

[Gailete]

I save those for a teacher that works in Alaska and teaches at a 'native' school, which apparently doesn't get much in the way of funding for extra stuff. My son usually send them or passes them off to her parents if she is coming home or they are going to visit. Knowing they are going to a school that needs them, makes me feel good about it. I'm not in contact with anyone with kids left in school in our area to turn them in to them. I think we send them away 1-2 tiems a year. And nicest thing. I sent a batch that she got last week and she immediately posted us a thank you note on Facebook. One year she had her class of special ed students write us a thank you note including addressing the envelope!

I always wonder about 'thank you' notes that you get 5-6 months or more after the fact as it makes you wonder how thankful a person really is.

[creditcardfree]

Decluttering this week was old mortgage papers. We currently rent and haven't owned a home since 2015. The most important documents, warranty deeds are filed with each county. I scanned some documents from the latest house sale, already had a lot digitized, but everything else was shredded. I have no physical mortgage papers! That amounted to 177 pieces of paper!!

Yesterday, my husband made a spreadsheet to document all vehicle maintenance we have done on our two vehicles (2007s). I can now let go of all those receipts. Not sure the count on those papers yet.

I'm following Marie Kondo's advice on paper, thus the amount of paper decluttering lately!

[msomnipotent]

Decluttering this week was old mortgage papers. We currently rent and haven't owned a home since 2015. The most important documents, warranty deeds are filed with each county. I scanned some documents from the latest house sale, already had a lot digitized, but everything else was shredded. I have no physical mortgage papers! That amounted to 177 pieces of paper!!

Yesterday, my husband made a spreadsheet to document all vehicle maintenance we have done on our two vehicles (2007s). I can now let go of all those receipts. Not sure the count on those papers yet.

I'm following Marie Kondo's advice on paper, thus the amount of paper decluttering lately!

Mortgage papers probably take up the majority of space in the file cabinets. My husband won't get rid of them for some reason. He still has them from his first home 30 years ago. We have moved 4 times and refinanced probably 4 or 5 times, plus the paperwork for the cottage we share, so it adds up. I have recently convinced him to get rid of the spare pamphlets the realtors printed up when we sold our houses. I can see keeping one of each for the memories, but he kept THEM ALL. So we had 15 of one house, 10 of another, and so on. The computer rooms are the two rooms that need decluttering the most, and I just can't bring myself to start because they are so messy. And the file cabinets in the rooms are even messier.

I have decided to work on the entertainment center today. I'm removing all the knickknacks the realtor suggested and putting our pictures back up. I'm also deep cleaning the family room and washing the walls and such. Time for spring cleaning!

[creditcardfree]

Mortgage papers probably take up the majority of space in the file cabinets. My husband won't get rid of them for some reason. He still has them from his first home 30 years ago. We have moved 4 times and refinanced probably 4 or 5 times, plus the paperwork for the cottage we share, so it adds up. I have recently convinced him to get rid of the spare pamphlets the realtors printed up when we sold our houses. I can see keeping one of each for the memories, but he kept THEM ALL.

Yikes that is a lot. We put some importance on them because they are our biggest asset/liability in most cases. I do like looking at the HUD papers because I like numbers and like to see the amount we brought to closing, purchase price and so forth. So those are all scanned. Likely never to be needed.

I have decided to work on the entertainment center today. I'm removing all the knickknacks the realtor suggested and putting our pictures back up. I'm also deep cleaning the family room and washing the walls and such. Time for spring cleaning![/QUOTE]

Oh you are putting your home on the market? Yes, less things in a home help the buyer see the home and imagine their things there. Clutter is distracting to most people shopping for homes. I took down all pictures of ourselves when we had homes on the market for the same reason, distracting! Good luck with your decluttering and spring cleaning.

[disneysteve]

I started 2 ebay auctions for old Game Boy Color and Advance game cartridges. There's been a small box of them sitting near my computer desk for ages. Hopefully I'll get rid of them and make a few bucks.

One of the two auctions already has a bid so at least those will sell. I'll get them boxed up and ready to go this weekend. Hopefully there will be other bidders and the other auction will attract some attention too.

Both auctions now have bids so as long as the buyers don't back out somehow (it happens) all of that stuff should be out of here within the week. The auctions end on Wednesday.

[creditcardfree]

Thanks for the reminder Steve! I had eight books sell (as a lot) yesterday. I'm going to add those to my count for this year's decluttering!

[snafu]

msomnipotent, should you consider following the Marie Kondo, 'The Life-Changing*Magic of Tidying Up' for your computer/home office rooms, you might begin by gathering all the smallware supplies from through out the house to assess the quantity: pencils/leads, pens, erasers, white-out, markers, tape, stickers, labels, tacks, binder clips, paper clips, rubber bands, staplers/staples, hole punches, scissors. Finally, journals, notebooks, planners, binders, clipboards, calendars, mailing boxes, bubble wrap, envelopes. Dispose of items that no longer work, no longer used/not needed, or viewed as 'excessive.' *

[disneysteve]

msomnipotent, should you consider following the Marie Kondo, 'The Life-Changing*Magic of Tidying Up' for your computer/home office rooms, you might begin by gathering all the smallware supplies from through out the house to assess the quantity: pencils/leads, pens, erasers, white-out, markers, tape, stickers, labels, tacks, binder clips, paper clips, rubber bands, staplers/staples, hole punches, scissors. Finally, journals, notebooks, planners, binders, clipboards, calendars, mailing boxes, bubble wrap, envelopes. Dispose of items that no longer work, no longer used/not needed, or viewed as 'excessive.' *

When you really make the effort to gather all like items in one place, it can be overwhelming how much excess you have.

We did the Marie Kondo thing with drinking glasses a while ago and ended up getting rid of something like 85 or 90 glasses. I was shocked how many we had once we gathered them from all over the house and spread them out together. I did it with t-shirts, too, and was able to get rid of 25 of them.

[Gailete]

I read the reviews about the book on getting rid of clutter and had no interest in telling my socks thank you! If I tell anyone thank you, I would say thank you to Amazon for giving me three pairs of the best support knee high socks that are comfortable and look like real socks. If I tried to pull everything out all at once, I would be in big trouble! It would take me forever to get them sorted.

In the last couple of days, I have filled a box with DVDs/VHS tapes, that we have no interest in watching again. I also have been clearing stuff out of my side of the office, including books on selling on eBay that are so old, eBay is a completely different place currently! Plus, other books that don't relate to what I sell now. I've also been picking things up as I see them and put them in the thrift store pile, and a like new electric calculator went into the CL pile.

I am generating a lot of dust though but getting some of this stuff out of the way is going to be helpful especially in the office as I tend to have stacks of inventory ready to be list, and those stacks side track me.

[cypher1]

Roommate moved out the other week and I had to donate over a bunch of his older paintings/canvases (over 100) to friends to re-use. Gave his old desk to another friend. Got my garage back as empty again.

Also cleaned out the fridge/freezer for left over/expired food, cleared duplicate cookware items as well.

[disneysteve]

I read the reviews about the book on getting rid of clutter and had no interest in telling my socks thank you!

LOL. You don't have to take it quite that far for the method to work.

With my t-shirts, for example, I made sure every t-shirt I owned was clean at the same time and stacked them all on our bed. I went through them one by one to make sure they weren't worn out and were ones that I still used regularly. Having them all in the same place at the same time highlighted how many I had and made it much easier to thin the herd and get rid of a couple dozen of them.

I didn't thank any of them.

[disneysteve]

Both auctions now have bids so as long as the buyers don't back out somehow (it happens) all of that stuff should be out of here within the week. The auctions end on Wednesday.

Auctions ended today. Items (2 lots of old video games) sold for $48 and $35 which I am very happy with. After expenses, my net is $68.67. That's a lot more than I was expecting, and the main reason I was selling was to get rid fo them, not necessarily to make much money. The packages will go to the post office tomorrow.

Now to find some other things to sell. I'm off tomorrow. Maybe I can get a couple more items listed.

[cypher1]

LOL. You don't have to take it quite that far for the method to work.

I agree. While I've never read Marie Kondo's books, the message is pretty clear for decluttering, IMO. I don't actually experience "sparking joy" from each individual items, or literally say "Thank you" to each one. But I think it's easy to determine if you really need it, use it, or just want it for sentimental purposes.

My example is toys. I grew up in the 80's and collect certain Transformers and GI Joes for nostalgic purposes. I used keep everything boxed up in a closet. I went through the items and sold what I didnt care for. I just bought glass display cabinets from Ikea to show off the remaining ones. My point is, if I didn't display those collector items, I didn't see a need to really keep. Obviously you can't really apply that to clothes, tools, kitchenware, etc. Sorry to get off topic in a declutter thread.

[disneysteve]

I agree. While I've never read Marie Kondo's books, the message is pretty clear for decluttering, IMO.

Sorry to get off topic in a declutter thread.

I don't think this is off topic at all. It is perfectly on topic for decluttering. Marie Kondo's book has inspired many to finally tackle their clutter.