2025 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

Yesterday was my mom's birthday (95!). We had her and my cousin over for lunch and we got a bunch of balloons to decorate. Last night after everyone was gone, I listed the balloons on our Buy Nothing group and someone picked them up today for her daughter's birthday (18). They were only very temporary clutter but I got them out quickly so they're not in our way and someone else can enjoy them before they end up in the trash.

Today I sold a bookcase on Marketplace. It had been in my daughter's dorm room. She graduated in 2018 and it's been in our garage ever since. It actually came in handy while the kitchen was being remodeled. We used it as our pantry in the living room, but we're back in the kitchen now and no longer need it so out it went.

While I was in the garage waiting for the bookcase to get picked up, I loaded 4 boxes of stuff into my trunk to take to Goodwill tomorrow.

[disneysteve]

I worked a bit in the basement today. I focused on one shelf where I keep tools and hardware. I emptied the entire shelf and then went through the items one by one, deciding what to keep and what to toss, before putting everything that was staying back on the shelf in a more orderly fashion. A few items also got relocated to a spot that made more sense, like putting drill accessories on the shelf with the drill. It's not perfect but it's much better and quite a few items went in the trash.

[disneysteve]

Decluttering is so hard. Our brains are wired to hoard things. Yesterday when I cleaned off that hardware shelf, there was a stereo headphone cable. I decided I'd move it upstairs where I keep other cables. It's also where my electric keyboard is which is the only place I'm likely to ever use that cable.

Today I realized that the cable has been on that basement shelf for many years. I've clearly lived just fine without it all of this time. I tossed it.

[disneysteve]

I was working at my desk today and went to put something in the file drawer and realized it was getting kind of stuffed so I decided to thin it out. First I tossed a bunch of bills that I no longer needed. Then I decided to move some investment account statements to a different filing cabinet because I still want those but don't need them at my fingertips. When I got into the other filing cabinet, I realized there was a bunch of stuff in there that I no longer need. There were policies and related paperwork for 3 insurance policies that we no longer have. There was another folder with all of the service records and paperwork for my last car which I sold in 2020. The end result was a nice pile of trash and a stack of stuff to shred. And more space in both file drawers.

[jenn_jenn]

We’re preparing for a big move and so I’ve been selling items around the house on FB marketplace that I don’t intend to move with us. All I keep thinking is why didn’t I do this sooner? Cash in my pocket and less clutter. It’s a win-win!

I’m honestly surprised at some of the things I’ve been able to sell. For example, I had a glass card box from our wedding 4 years ago, I didn’t notice until I went to sell it that it had a small crack in it. Still sold for $15. A set of 4 copper Moscow mule mugs that are at least ten years old I listed for $10 and the guy gave me $20 and wouldn’t accept any change.

Can’t wait to keep decluttering!

[Stump1000]

Honestly, I’ve been trying to tackle one small spot at a time - like a drawer or a shelf - so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. Feels good to actually see a difference without burning out in one day.

[disneysteve]

Quote is broken so...

jenn_jenn, that's great! And yes, it can be surprising what people will buy. That's why I'm always so blown away by how much stuff people just throw away or give away for free when they could quite easily be getting money for it. Of course, being a reseller, I'm quite happy to take their stuff for free and turn around and sell it. I can't lose when my cost of goods is zero.

Stump1000, that's definitely the way to go. One bite at a time. One shelf. One drawer. One box. Whatever. It can also be helpful to set a time. Work on it for 30 minutes and then move on. But get in the habit of doing it regularly. One drawer per day and your dresser is cleaned out in a week. One box a day and your garage might be cleaned out in a month. Every little bit helps and it is a great feeling when you can start seeing visible progress.

[disneysteve]

I still have plenty to do in the garage but it's been too warm here to work out there so I've started turning my attention to the basement. We made progress down there when we were prepping for the kitchen remodel but barely scratched the surface of the overall stuff that needs to be addressed.

I spent a bit of time down there tonight. I realized that I have a ton of old Priority Mail boxes that I got when I was selling on ebay back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I haven't used them in years. They can still be used but I almost never ship with Priority Mail and they are the old designs with no barcodes for scanning. They need to go. I gathered all of the loose ones as well as 3 more bundles of them and got them into the recycling bin. I brought up a big carton of them too and will get those recycled next week. There are 3 more smaller boxes remaining and I'll get those next time I'm down there.

Just what I took up tonight cleared off the entire top shelf of one shelving unit which is great. That now gives me all of that space to store other items. It also cleared the space where the loose ones were piled.

[disneysteve]

We recently canceled our land line phone finally. I unplugged and removed the phones from our kitchen, bedroom, and computer room. I just need to get the phone and answering machine in the family room but I need to move the sofa to get to the plugs so I didn't do that yet. Getting rid of the phones has given us more space on our kitchen counter, my bedside table, the file cabinet next to the computer, and once I remove it, the end table in the family room.

[cypher1]

I've been more proactive decluttering at my parent's place (eventually they'll have to go to assisted living). End of the summer I threw out so much garbage or duplicate items, or broken tools in their garage. Pulled a lot of items off top shelves to go through since they can't reach or access at their age, or they just forgot about. Along with getting permission to toss out old xmas lights that sat in containers for years. Opened up the garage to store their one car in and left the other side open for misc items to sort through. Anything left on those shelves is easily identifiable or personal stuff for them to go through at a later date.

For the last week I've gone over almost every night for 60 minutes each time to go through their basement. They don't go down there anymore with both having bad knees. I've just been collecting their trash or dated items to bag and dump. While sorting through memos/photos/letters/artwork to be in a separate pile for them to keep. Same idea of pulling seasonal items or collectibles store in cabinets and putting on a table to go through and see what they want to keep. I moved cleaning products, toiletries, light bulbs, that accumulated throughout the years to sort through upstairs later on. While breaking down old book bookshelves, office chair, rug, and old luggage I was able to clear out and open space to move around. There is still some season items they need to go through. But the last big items to haul is to give-away a pool table which someone is already planning to take, an old work bench I plan to take apart to move next weekend, and then break down an old wooden desk.

My first phase was to clear out most of the garage and all of the basement since they should not need to store down there as they keep forgetting what they have. Next is going through their kitchen, bathroom, and living room to just open up some space to navigate through. My parent's and sister's bedrooms will be last phase, or even if they allow me to go through. My goal would be to get through most of those areas by the end of this year.

I should probably open a new thread just talking about decluttering struggles with elderly parents and mindset or connections we share with items.

[disneysteve]

I haven't posted to this thread for a while. I guess I've been focused on some other things.

We're enjoying some nice fall weather so I got into the garage for an hour tonight. I mostly did "routine maintenance" sort of stuff, breaking down boxes, organizing shipping supplies, getting rid of some accumulated trash, and packing 2 boxes for Goodwill. I didn't feel like diving any deeper than that today but it all helps clean up the space.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

goal this week is to dump stuff at goodwill. I will update when I get ride of a ton fo stuff

[disneysteve]

goal this week is to dump stuff at goodwill. I will update when I get ride of a ton fo stuff

I took two boxes over Saturday morning when I went to the post office which is in the same center.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Okay got rid of about 6 bags of stuff and tomorrow swinging by a consignment and then dumping more

[disneysteve]

I saw a short video reel on Facebook today talking about how we shouldn't leave behind a mess of papers when we die. We know what is important and what is just sentimental or complete trash that we've just hung on to. It's far better for us to deal with it while we're still here and just leave the important stuff, and tell our loved ones what it is.

After dinner, I took that message to heart and started going through my files. There is so much that I've saved that I truly don't need. I've already put quite a bit in the recycling bin and I'm still working on it and will continue to do so in the coming days. If nothing else, it will free up space in my file drawers.

Also, in the course of doing this, I found some silver coins in my drawer that the jeweler didn't buy when we sold our gold and other coins months ago so I listed those on ebay.