2018 Decluttering Thread

[creditcardfree]

Donated four lamps, two throw pillows, three uniform pants and blouse, a picture frame, cordless phone set, a shadow box and a floral decoration to Goodwill today. Tomorrow I hope to sell a chair for $40.

[disneysteve]

I shipped a large carton of items today that we are donating to a charity auction. I also sold an item on ebay. I haven't listed anything lately but still have some things on.

[disneysteve]

I sold another item on ebay last night and just got it packed up to ship.

I'm not going to list anything else at this point because we're going out of town in 2 weeks. In fact, I'm going to have to take down several fixed price listings I have active before we go away.

[Thrif-t]

My DD is home from college this weekend so we went through her closet and got rid of everything that is too small or she doesn't like and passed them down to a couple of neighbor girls. Now I can put my summer clothes in her closet instead of having to pack them up.

On Thursday I had went through my son's clothes and donated everything that he outgrew!!

[creditcardfree]

Sold the chair mentioned previously, as well as a desk and office chair. We also donated our mower and trimmer to Habitat Restore today. Yesterday we took a load there that included a chair, two dressers, two large rugs, garden items, tools and more (it was enough to fill the back half of our van. We are giving away our leaf blower to a neighbor tomorrow.

[MooseBucks]

Filled up the SUV with 6 boxes and a huge toddler toy car to donate. Need to find some more time to get back on track but we’re in a much better place than we were 2 months ago. Hopefully Thursday or Friday DW and I will be able to work on the closets for a couple hours.

[disneysteve]

I was in a funky mood last night, the kind where you just can't decide what you want to do with yourself. I tried to clean a bit in our computer room, then in the basement, then on my dresser, and I got a few things taken care of here and there. But I think I really came to the conclusion that I'm ready to really start purging, not just decluttering. I want to talk with my wife and make sure we're both on the same page as I will need her help to go through a lot of the stuff. We've gotten rid of literally several dozen cartons of stuff over the past 2 years but so much remains it feels like it's never ending.

I find myself looking at everything now and asking myself, "Why do we even have that?" For example, we have a VCR next to our bedroom TV. It is in perfect working order, however it has probably been 10 years since we actually used it to watch a VHS tape. We don't even keep the clock on it set so I can't even pretend that we keep it there for that purpose. It needs to go. Or over my desk, I have hung my race bibs (the things with your registration number) from every 5K I've run. It was kind of cool when I started, but now that I've done so many of them, it's just visual clutter. It's time to take them down and toss them. I actually feel energized about starting to attack things like that and ridding ourselves of even more stuff that we just don't need or want anymore.

[james.hendrickson]

Out with the old, in with the new. Great thing about decluttering is that it opens up room for new places/experiences/things in your life.

[MooseBucks]

Or over my desk, I have hung my race bibs (the things with your registration number) from every 5K I've run. It was kind of cool when I started, but now that I've done so many of them, it's just visual clutter. It's time to take them down and toss them. I actually feel energized about starting to attack things like that and ridding ourselves of even more stuff that we just don't need or want anymore.

I have something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Gone-Run-BibFOLIO-Display-Mounted/dp/B00NWPD890/ref=asc_df_B00NWPD890/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167136030666&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13959385975849789507&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1024638&hvtargid=pla-313093295020&psc=1

[disneysteve]

I have something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Gone-Run-BibFOLIO-Display-Mounted/dp/B00NWPD890/ref=asc_df_B00NWPD890/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167136030666&hvpos=1o3&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13959385975849789507&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1024638&hvtargid=pla-313093295020&psc=1

That’s neat, but I honestly don’t think I want to save them. Maybe my first and a couple of special ones but not every one.

[disneysteve]

So far today:

My wife and I cleaned off a number of items from the spare desk in our family room.
I removed the race bibs from the wall over my desk and trashed them.
I removed 2 small framed prints from that wall and will give them away.
I removed several pictures hanging near our computer and trashed them.
I took 4 large collectible guidebooks off the shelf and will give them away.
I packed an item I sold on ebay yesterday and will mail it tomorrow.

I'm not done yet.

ETA: I got rid of the VCR in the bedroom. I also tossed a DVD player remote for a machine we no longer have.

When I asked my wife if she was okay with me getting rid of the VCR, she asked if I was planning to die. She was wondering if I was doing all of this so that she wouldn't have to deal with it after I was gone.

[disneysteve]

We've always had a variety of knick-knacks on the window frame over our kitchen sink. I came home yesterday to find that she had decluttered that area. She didn't get rid of everything, which is fine, but she took off numerous items that just aren't that meaningful to either of us. That was a nice little surprise.

[snafu]

disneysteve, following your de-clutter lists and comments, leads me to wonder if you've missed any of the items gifted, sold or donated? We' ve released about 30% of stuff when our lifestyle changed. We are considering downsizing once again from townhouse to apartment style condo so I'm looking at space requirements for what's used and enjoyed regularly. The research suggests matching quantity to number of people we regularly care for. I wonder if Mrs. Steve and her friends have talked about the new Swedish Death Cleaning book. I've not had a chance to read it yet but understand it's very positive; horrid title results from translation to English.

[disneysteve]

disneysteve, following your de-clutter lists and comments, leads me to wonder if you've missed any of the items gifted, sold or donated?

Great question. No, I can't think of anything that we regret getting rid of. In the decluttering process, if there was anything that we weren't completely okay to part with, we held onto it. Sometimes, that just led to us getting rid of it in a later round of cleaning when we had made up our minds and were ready to dig deeper. Other times, we've decided to keep the item in question. I think that's really one of the keys to the whole process. Get rid of the stuff that you don't want or care about so that you have more space to store and display and enjoy the things that you do care about.

I wonder if Mrs. Steve and her friends have talked about the new Swedish Death Cleaning book. I've not had a chance to read it yet but understand it's very positive; horrid title results from translation to English.

No. I've heard about it but we haven't read it yet. We did do the Marie Kondo thing a while ago and applied her method fully to a few specific areas (glassware, t-shirts) and I still generally keep her way of thinking in mind when I'm going through stuff even if I'm not actually doing the full routine.

[disneysteve]

I spent a little time in the garage last night going through a box of old papers that I'm storing for my mother. You need to understand that my mom (and my late father when he was alive) holds on to EVERY piece of paper. So she has things like paystubs going back 20+ years, household bills (utilities, lawn care, etc.) even though she sold her house 12 years ago, bank and investment statements dating back to the mid 1990s, etc. I was able to put almost everything I went through in the shredding pile as the box I was in last night was all stuff that is well past the time period where any audit could possibly need it. I didn't finish going through that box so maybe I'll get to that later today.