The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Throw Down the Gauntlet => Topic started by: Scrooge on February 15, 2012, 11:39:55 AM
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Let's have a simple one, which at best brings money on your table, cleans your house and reduces the clutter and at worst just reduces the clutter. Win-win.
So, throw away (or sell or give away) 100 things laying around you. Big or small, if you don't need it or haven't used it for a year, get rid of it. Chances are high that you'll never look back on the item. Once you do this project thoroughly enough and repeat many enough times, you'll notice that you'll have a huge amount of space around you that you didn't have before.
Money on your table, literally
With enouh determinism you'll be able to even downsize your home, which we all know is a huge cost dump. By accomplishing this you'll be at a better position for turbocharging your "stash" building endeavour.
The country I live in has hugely expensive accommodation no matter whether it's rented or bought, so getting that cost down affects A LOT.
I've done this challenge twice now, and altogether made back about 2000 EUR (1700 bucks) from the crap I didn't need anymore. I don't have to mention it's made life simpler too, especially when moving.
I got rid of a shitload of movies, clothes I would never wear, a telescope I never used, games, books, cell phones, decorative stuff etc.
I did it to free space, but also because the stuff we own binds a lot of the money that should in fact be a part of the stash. It is absolutely incredible how much one throws money into the stuff around us. As I'm writing this, within a few squares there's stuff around me in excess of 2000 bucks. Ok, that stuff I actually need, but that's just to prove a point.
Have you decluttered already and how much did you make of it? Or does the stuff still own you despite the mustachian heart beating inside?
So far out the door:
Update on 31.05.2012
1. A pair of shoes I never wore
2. Another pair of shoes I never wore (now I've got left two pairs of about 150 dollar shoes, which I practically only wear coz they're so damn good)
3. Yellowed out office shirt
4. Another yellowed out office shirt
5. a bunch of old socks
6. a bunch of wool socks (I live in the arctic)
7. Extra bike pump (when have you ever needed two?)
8. A shitty chef's knife (I've got one professional knife and that does the trick)
9. Printer
10. endless amount of "small stuff" that defies categorization
11. Four ugliest shot glasses I've ever seen (a gift)
12. Two glass kitchen bowls which have never seen use
13. Three kitchen chairs (gone to my parents).... only to be replaced by two lighter and more stylish ones
14. A horribly ugly TV station (gave to the new tenant in my old place)
15. A horribly ugly kitchen table (gave to the new tenant in my old place)
16 - 20. Donated five books to the library
.... more to come
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This is an interesting one. I probably have 100 items of clothing alone I could get rid of. I am willing to make an effort and be part of this challenge. I might just start this weekend! I don't think I have anything of value, but I can certainly donate a lot of items. We aren't really consumerish anymore as we've been trying to grow our stache'.
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I want to join this challenge! I did a major wipe-out of my home last fall - probably got close to the 100 things challenge. I also drastically reduced purchasing "stuff". My personal challenge in 2012 is not to purchase any books, movies, random unneccessary items, or clothes (okay, there's an exception for my wedding dress!) So far so good.
I think a 100 things challenge will be difficult since I already pared down what I own so much, but it's definitely doable. I love decluttering. Let's do it!
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With three kids, the clutter and stuff multiplies fast in our house. Last year I got rid of almost 4000 items. The year before it was 3000. This year's goal is at least 3000. I'm at over 700 gone for the year so far. :)
I also started to track how many items come into our home. Last year it was about 100 a month(non-consumables).
Our family is making a cross-country move in just a couple months. I don't want to take boxes of "junk" with me when it could be cash in my pocket. Selling items just this last month has netted me almost $400. I'm hoping to get another $1000 before the move. And this is stuff stuff, not furniture or cars or anything big. I'm even selling things I bought at yard sales at a profit. Amazing what people will buy.
To those just starting with clearing out their stuff to sell, I suggest you start with your dvd's and video games. They sell fast and for decent $.
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Just wanted to note that we should refrain from sending this stuff to a landfill.
If you can't sell it, donate it!
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This really does work! I posted something similar on ERE awhile ago, but I had a huge (tremendously huge, thousands and thousands and thousands huge) record collection that was occupying an entire room of my house. I made about 10k over two years selling records, old toys, and musical equipment on eBay and wrote off at least another 10k in the last three years making donations to Goodwill and Salvation army. I'd say my wife and I have given away or sold about 50-60% of our, "stuff," in the last three years and I still feel like we have entirely too much. This year I am hoping to convince her to try a challenge where we get rid of something everyday and make it a habit we can stick to.
I let Fugazi's Merchandise (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNail6JjEiE) be my anthem for downsizing.
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I'd love to join this challenge, only problem is already did this. LOL. When we moved from Va Beach to Florida we did the let's sell everything in our house we don't need and move with nothing but our clothes, books and laptops. Which is pretty much what we've done.
We're now approaching our home with a minimalist and frugal mindset. We still don't have a couch yet. No TV, no dinning room table, lol.
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I've been doing this on and off for the last year, but I decided to be a bit more hardcore in 2012, and so since January I've been selling stuff on eBay in an attempt to get rid of some of my clutter. So far I've made £119 ($186) after P&P, and anything that doesn't get sold goes to charity.
Of course, it's not a sustainable additional income, since eventually I will run out of junk I don't want any more. For now though, it's very satisfying to see space in the cupboards once more!
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I LOVE challenges! This is a great one. We've been getting rid of things pretty extensively over the last 2 years and a few weekends ago, I tackled the basement storage area and gave away all my baby/kid stuff to a mom in need. It felt great to free up the space and to help someone.
I'll see if I can find 100 more things to get rid of...
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We've also given away or sold lots of things in the past couple of years, but I'm sure I could find some more items. I sold the TV last year--even though we rarely watched it, it felt funny to get rid of it at the time. (We don't miss it yet.) I also like how we were able to rearrange the furniture afterward, as there was no longer a 'requirement' for it to face the TV. The living room feels a lot more open now.
We have a fairly active freecycle community in our city--it's pretty good for giving away odds and ends that may not sell so easily on sites like craigslist or kijiji. Since everything is free, you don't have to be home when people come to pick up your items--just leave them outside your door. You can check freecycle.org for a group in your area.
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My wife got into this idea recently. Only it wasn't 100 items, it was 1 item a day (or, to make it easier, so you don't have to remember every day, one weekend get rid of 30 items for the month).
So she went and cleaned out 60 items for all of January/February.
We also added the rule to that of "one item in, one item out" so when we get something new (rare, we don't shop a lot), we have to get rid of one old thing. Food is obviously excluded.
I like the 1 item per day and one in/one out rule. Helps keep down clutter and prevent "stuff" buildup.
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We also added the rule to that of "one item in, one item out" so when we get something new (rare, we don't shop a lot), we have to get rid of one old thing. Food is obviously excluded.
I like the 1 item per day and one in/one out rule. Helps keep down clutter and prevent "stuff" buildup.
We've been trying to do this for awhile, it works very well for us to keep the clutter down. It's funny, I think I can't possibly find more stuff to get rid of but when I sit down and spend some time scouring the house I always seem to come away with a couple of bags of Goodwill or eBay items.
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Great idea. I'm the antithesis of decluttered; heck, I have three failed power supplies upstairs that I still haven't thrown out. I've been very slowly selling off the hundreds of books I own, but it might come to more drastic steps like selling a whole box of Stuff I Don't Need for $1...
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Great idea. I'm the antithesis of decluttered; heck, I have three failed power supplies upstairs that I still haven't thrown out. I've been very slowly selling off the hundreds of books I own, but it might come to more drastic steps like selling a whole box of Stuff I Don't Need for $1...
We've just started Goodwilling everything. Much easier. Less frugal money-wise, way more frugal time-wise.
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I started my 100 things challenge this weekend! It is going to be a challenge, because I did a MAJOR purge of my house this past fall and sold/donated about everything I thought possible. But I'm realizing there's still a lot of "stuff" that's just sitting in my house, serving no purpose other than taking up space. I gathered up about 30 things this weekend to begin my 100 things - thanks for creating this link and giving me the motivation to keep decluttering!!!
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In the middle of painting the interior of my place. The amount of crap I've had to move to clear out a room to paint is pretty ridiculous. I'll be joining this movement as I replace the items in those painted rooms.
Thinking about Ebay for some of the items, though I'm an Ebay noob. Anyone have luck selling on Ebay as a noob? I know sellers ratings are pretty heavily considered in purchases. Other online avenues other than Craigslist to get rid of stuff?
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In the middle of painting the interior of my place. The amount of crap I've had to move to clear out a room to paint is pretty ridiculous. I'll be joining this movement as I replace the items in those painted rooms.
Thinking about Ebay for some of the items, though I'm an Ebay noob. Anyone have luck selling on Ebay as a noob? I know sellers ratings are pretty heavily considered in purchases. Other online avenues other than Craigslist to get rid of stuff?
I have been an eBay member for a long time so even though I don't have mega seller feedback I do have a good bit of buyer feedback from years of being there. I honestly don't let the amount of feedback a seller has bother me when purchasing. Just make your policy for settling disputes equitable and I think you'll do fine. I've had as much (if not more) trouble with people who have a gajillion positive ratings than those with 3.
As far as actual selling goes, we had so much to sell I eventually only bothered eBaying stuff I knew I'd make $10+ for per item because it became such a time that it was costing me money for less than that. Make sure to buy a postage scale before you start and painstakingly track shipping costs. I built a spreadsheet with a cost matrix that shows me my profit per item after all shipping and eBay costs. I also saved tons of boxes and went to local business to pick up boxes for free they were tossing because for some stupid reason it is expensive to buy boxes to ship with. (When all else fails build your own boxes from others if you don't have the right size!) For all of the records I sold I ordered special record boxes from a family box maker who sold them at a great price.
I've sold much less on Craigslist because people are huge flakes. I've had people show up a lot with obviously no intention to buy which is just a tremendous waste of my time/gas to meet them so I stick to pain in the ass stuff to ship like exercise gear or guitars that aren't worth much, etc.
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I've stopped using ebay after I realized their new sellers fee are anti-seller.
I had sold my 15inch MacBook Pro for 1200 plus 20$ shipping. Paypal which ebay pretty much forces you to use, at 8% of that right off the top. So there went the shipping. And now ebay offers free listings (they used to charge for listings) and instead charges you a VALUE fee based on how much you sold your item for. They want a percentage. So instead, I ended up owing them $120.00.
So in reality I paid for shipping and made $984 on my laptop that should of netted me more. But it gets worse cause I sold a 30inch Cinema Display and my wife's MacBook Pro at the same time. Each time getting screwed by eBay/Paypal.
Their new system works much better for people who are volume sellers, but in my opinion is totally useless if you're selling high value items infrequently.
I've had a lot of luck with Craigslist as of late however. And I just decided to sort of take up this challenge. We went thru our house before moving to Florida, but we just started going thru it again last week and realized we held onto things that haven't been unpacked because, we dont' actually care about them as much as we think.
A few of the items are going straight into the trash can. They can't be donated, and no one is going to buy them. And so far I've listed abou 10 things on ebay.
We sold our stupid Elliptical which paid for our new couch in the living room we bought off Craigslist.
I like the idea of rolling things into other things, rather than spend money I find something I can sell for what I need for the other object I want.
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I've had good luck selling things on Amazon. The fees are a bit high - but I'm mostly selling books that I won't be reading again. Amazon makes it so much easier to list and sell products than eBay does; the difference in fees is worth it for me.
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I didn't officially join this challenge but I did purge 100 items this week. Hopefully I will hit 100 or more items each week until we move. 8 weeks to go. :/
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I love this idea! My basement makes me sick, my goal will be 100, but I bet I can beat that number.
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YES, count me in. I am tweaking the challenge a little by only including things I can sell or trade. For some reason this really clicked with me and now I have only 98 items to go. There are quite a few things around the house I can turn to profit, I just need to do it!
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Great idea. I'm the antithesis of decluttered; heck, I have three failed power supplies upstairs that I still haven't thrown out. I've been very slowly selling off the hundreds of books I own, but it might come to more drastic steps like selling a whole box of Stuff I Don't Need for $1...
We've just started Goodwilling everything. Much easier. Less frugal money-wise, way more frugal time-wise.
You could go one step in the middle and take it to a second-hand store. They are usually local small-businesses that support the frugal in the community..in Seattle we have plenty of book/cd/clothing/sporting-goods/bike/furniture second-hand resellers that are more than happy to give you a decent (if not stellar) price on your goods; either trade-in value or cash. You likely won't get rich on it; but it arguably goes to a better cause than corporately-owned Goodwill.
My list is:
1) sell it on craigslist if their's enough value/market (over $100 item that will sell in <1 wk)
2) sell it to a re-seller in batches
3) give it to a local thrift-store..churches, schools, etc.
I haven't looked into freecycle, but I probably should..hard to do if you live in a big condo complex tho..
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I've had good luck selling things on Amazon. The fees are a bit high - but I'm mostly selling books that I won't be reading again. Amazon makes it so much easier to list and sell products than eBay does; the difference in fees is worth it for me.
+1 for Amazon. Amazon is much quicker too - don't have to worry about posting pictures and a description if the item is already being sold by Amazon. Also don't have to worry about payment processing or customer contact for the most part.
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I'm up to over 1000 items gone so far this year. Very close to my 100 items a week goal. ;)
Today I sold a box of cd's to secondspin.com. They don't give you top dollar on everything but some things are very comparable to selling on Half or Ebay so those are the items I send to them. It's extremely easy to type in a keyword or UPC's in bulk and see what they'll pay for your stuff. One box/shipment to get rid of a lot is nice too.
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You could go one step in the middle and take it to a second-hand store. They are usually local small-businesses that support the frugal in the community..in Seattle we have plenty of book/cd/clothing/sporting-goods/bike/furniture second-hand resellers that are more than happy to give you a decent (if not stellar) price on your goods; either trade-in value or cash. You likely won't get rich on it; but it arguably goes to a better cause than corporately-owned Goodwill.
Just a slight quibble about not supporting Goodwill. Yes they are corporately-owned. But they do provide a means to a bit of independence and dignity for mentally-handicapped folks. I have a cousin whose Goodwill job means the world to her.
Back on topic...started the challenge...99 items to go.
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I'm already participating in a similar challenge through another site. However, the goal there is to get rid of 2012 items this year. So far, I'm up to 1377 items. We live in a smallish house (~1700 sq ft home and my sister rents a part of that ~500 sq ft) so I didn't think we owned that much stuff. But I can say after going through some of the stuff in the house I have really come to realize how much we do own. I'm sort of saddened when I realize the money I've spent on these items that are serving no purpose but to collect dust. I am also tracking how many non-food items come in. I want to understand what we buy/bring in as much as what we get declutter/donate.
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I'm already participating in a similar challenge through another site. However, the goal there is to get rid of 2012 items this year. So far, I'm up to 1377 items. We live in a smallish house (~1700 sq ft home and my sister rents a part of that ~500 sq ft) so I didn't think we owned that much stuff. But I can say after going through some of the stuff in the house I have really come to realize how much we do own. I'm sort of saddened when I realize the money I've spent on these items that are serving no purpose but to collect dust. I am also tracking how many non-food items come in. I want to understand what we buy/bring in as much as what we get declutter/donate.
Wow that's nuts. I wish I had tracked but we're about 3/4 of the way through a spring cleaning and have tossed out 4 50 gallon bags of trash, taken 4 50 gallon bags to Goodwill, and have collected a small mountain in the corner of our office to eBay.
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Love it. I am a few months past the challenge but extremely excited. I feel like I stick to projects more heavily when I jot down my goals and progress. At this time, we are selling our home and two cars to live closer to the partner's work (so she can bike) and to have a more gas/environmentally friendly car. The partner has jumped on for the mustachian ways. Looking forward to posting my finds to sell, give away, and/or recycle. 3 down... 97 to go!
Cheers
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Good challenge! My wife and I just finished getting rid of a bunch of stuff, mostly to Goodwill. It was bags and bags of clothes, old electronics, and various housewares, so I am certain is was well more than 100 items. So I'll consider this MISSION - COMPLETE already, even though I did it before I read the challenge. :-)
Of course, we have easily 100 more things we could live without that are taking up space in our house, so maybe I'll do it again...
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This year I decided to declutter one carload/month, but haven't counted the individual items - probably at least 30 items (one a day). I mostly donate them to the Salvation Army second hand family store. I realised I'm very bad at selling things and put it off... Like ARS I finally figured out donating is much more efficient for me. I will probably try to sell a few things of substantial value.
After 5 months: more space in garage, more space is storage places, more organised and quicker to find stuff I am keeping and of course found a few good things I forgot I had.
I intend keeping on going for the whole year, we'll be a whole lot lighter by then. After that reassess...do we need to do more, or just occasionally maintain it...with vastly reduced amounts of stuff coming in, there surely will be an end in sight.
What a waste of time wasting money on stuff is!
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Great idea! I keep my wardrobe, hobby supplies, books and toiletries at minimalist levels. I'm at a dead end though because everything else in the house is out of bounds for decluttering. My partner is a bit of a hoarder and his stuff keeps multiplying, and I'm not allowed to throw or give anything away. (Because what if one day he feels like reading a hundred old computer magazines?) I have nightmares of growing old among piles of dusty newspapers, outdated electronics and cable ties...
Anybody have advice on convincing him to cull the clutter?
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Anybody have advice on convincing him to cull the clutter?
We don't have much clutter at all in our house, but whenever I watch the show Hoarders, I immediately start putting together a bag of things to donate.
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This sounds like such a cool challenge!
I'd like to point out a resource that might help people with this which is the Freecycle Network http://www.freecycle.org/ (http://www.freecycle.org/). This place really is great for people who are looking to get rid of something, don't want the hassle of selling it but also don't want it to end up in a landfill. I've given away tons of stuff on this and I live in Japan! Give it a shot and good luck to everybody on the challenge.
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Nice! Challenge accepted. Aiming for 100 things before the end of the month.
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I'm already participating in a similar challenge through another site. However, the goal there is to get rid of 2012 items this year. So far, I'm up to 1377 items...I am also tracking how many non-food items come in. I want to understand what we buy/bring in as much as what we get declutter/donate.
WTG!
Ditto to this. I'm also in a 2012 items in 2012 challenge. Wonder if it's on the same site? ;) I'm up to 1750 out this year and 350 in.
I haven't done a major session since the move but I did just buy a speed scanner to tackle the totes of paperwork, schoolwork and mementos. Next year I will not be counting replacement items in my in/out totals. I have done that for the last two years but I think it overinflates our appearance of consumerism. I would estimate that over half of the in items are similar item to item replacements where the old item is immediately discarded or donated. The actual new stuff is rare. Like this year we replaced the inflatable kiddie pool. That really shouldn't have been recorded in either category since it was an item to item replacement. But the life vests for swimming in the hotel pools on our move were new new. I'll continue the old way this year since I'm already half into it but it's not giving me a really true picture of our level of consumerism without canceling out the item to item stuff.
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Anybody have advice on convincing him to cull the clutter?
I suspect it has to come from within, unless you can demonstrate some good reason like "we're gonna move soon". My parents are both "keepers" and I'm a "thrower outer". I can't convince them to throw stuff out. I had 2 ex's who both were "keepers" and couldn't convince them either.
Hoarders is useful in that most of the thought processes of hoarders we all share (eg what if I need it, its too good to throw away, and memories/stories attached to items.).. just those in difficulty take it to extreme and struggle with insight or control.
My granma used to say "there's good junk and bad junk and all of mine's good junk!".
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Great challenge idea! I'm starting this now, with a goal of getting rid of 100 things by the end of July. My wife is doing this too, so we'll have 200 things gone total.
I already found almost 20 books and a few other things.
It's all going to charity, which feels good and eventually helps the bottom line at income tax time to the tune of: Total Value of Items * Marginal Tax Rate
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I'm in! My goal is 100 things by the end of August. I'm already pretty minimalist but it'll be interesting to see what I can pass on.
So far I have listed 3 books for sale on Amazon, so that's 97 items left to go :)
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I got rid of just about everything in 2010 when I sold my house. I was down to a shelf 10'x 4'x 3' of my life's possessions in my parents home. I felt I still owned too much, so in the end of 2011 I sold some of items remaining and now down to about 2/3's of that. Still too much for somebody that doesn't live with 10k miles of the stuff.
I've got a rule while travelling, if I don't use it within a week, it's gone. I don't obviously need it.
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I am in, too - this is a timely thread for me! Last week, I told my husband that the next two weeks are going to be devoted to purging every single closet, cabinet, and drawer in the house in preparation for a garage sale at the end of July. Some larger ticket items (a guitar amp, clarinet) will be listed on Craig's List, but everything else goes to the garage sale. Whatever is left over after one day is going to Goodwill.
Yesterday, I went through mine and my husband's collection of CD's that has been twenty years in the making (the vast majority are his - a huge fan of obscure punk, he is). He had the discs in separate CD carriers and the jewel cases in boxes in the garage. So, I matched everything up and uploaded everything I wanted to my iTunes. We're pretty sure he already has everything in iTunes, but I'll make him double-check so I don't have to hear it if we end up getting rid of some random CD that he'll never be able to find again.
So, that's easily over 300 items I've gotten rid of so far! I also cleaned out the closet in our office, picked some books to get rid of, and cleared out some items from the desk drawers. One room down - the garage is going to be the scariest!
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Since I'm moving later this month I am really trying to get rid of a lot of stuff. I've sold a few things on eBay and donated loads of books and clothes to charity shops. I've also taken a few carloads of stuff to the recycling centre. I haven't kept count of the number of things, but it is well over 100.
I have a bit of a problem throwing out things that can't be donated or recycled though. For example, I have several lever arch ring binders that charity shops don't want and nobody will take off my hands. I also have loads of candles for some reason. I feel really bad about throwing things out that might have a use in future, but I have too much stuff. I think I just need to put everything vaguely useful but not donateable outside with a "Free Stuff" sign and see what goes. Anything that isn't taken will just have to get thrown out.
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Yesterday, I went through mine and my husband's collection of CD's that has been twenty years in the making (the vast majority are his - a huge fan of obscure punk, he is). He had the discs in separate CD carriers and the jewel cases in boxes in the garage. So, I matched everything up and uploaded everything I wanted to my iTunes. We're pretty sure he already has everything in iTunes, but I'll make him double-check so I don't have to hear it if we end up getting rid of some random CD that he'll never be able to find again.
I am also a fan of obscure punk/weird stuff. My wife and I ripped everything a few years back and have been slowly unloading our CDs since then. Some of it is worth a good bit because it was such limited run/hard to find. You might check Discogs.com and eBay to see if they are worth selling. If it doesn't look like it will be worth the trouble, you might have better luck with local record stores. I usually sell to a record store in Charlotte, NC, Lunchbox records. It's a hike but I have friends I visit there and the owner (also a good friend) pays better than just about every other store around.
Good luck!
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Here's an update on my progress: I'm half way there!
http://foundryintheforest.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/give-away-100-things-challenge-update/
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Yeah this is awesome. I've been going through boxes of clutter that we brought with us from our apartment when we moved over a year ago (!). I've sold books on Amazon and driven carloads of otherwise usable assorted junk to goodwill. It feels great!
Right now I'm working on downsizing my CD collection. I bought a big 3-ring binder CD case and I'm putting the CDs and inserts into it. That way I get to throw out the cases and take back a bunch of room, while keeping my CDs.
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I don't know what the impetus was, but my wife and I decided to go through the entire house again to find more stuff to get rid of. We mostly hit the kitchen and bedroom closets hard this time and managed 6 50 gallon bags of clothes and junk out of the kitchen I addition to the stuff we got rid of in May. I've got a huge stack growing in the, "to eBay," or, "sell on Discogs," pile now. I am hoping to finish cleaning out the office and music room tonight which should give me all weekend to bike and try to sell stuff online.
Everytime we manage to get rid of 4-5 huge bags of stuff just in donations I wonder where it all came from. At this point I'd say we have probably donated, sold, or given away about 3/4 of our 2008 level stuff.
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I have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts on this topic! A few days ago we weeded out the coffee mug cabinet and the cabinet under the kitchen sink...whew, that one was awful! John has sold an auger and a miter saw on Craigslist. I would like to sell some things too.
93 things to go!
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Oh boy... I get so easily overwhelmed with de-cluttering. I might have slightly less than the average American but I have hoarding tendencies coming in from both sides of the family.
What I'm doing is starting small. I'm going to start this weekend and I will be going through my shoes. I'm ashamed to say that I don't know quite how many pairs I actually own but come Monday, I'll know! After that, I'm going to try to pick a different Clutter Source each weekend that I'm home. That way I won't get discouraged and will still have plenty of time to do other stuff that needs to be done or that I want to do :) Maybe I'll even pick up a few dollars or be able to provide something useful to a friend along the way.
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I've also been trying to pick a different clutter source each time I have a few days off. So far it's working pretty well...today I tackled the file cabinet. (It's one of those small two-drawer units.) I was able to get the whole thing cleaned out except one file! I now have a big pile of paperwork to throw away and another to shred. In addition John sold his plate joiner (biscuit cutter) on Craigslist today.
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You guys are inspiring!
I live alone in an apt that's a little too large for me and it's easy to accidentally accumulate things.
I've already started a pile of shelves, books, DVDs, and clothes. It's only the beginning. I have way too much crap (yet hardly anything when compared to some of my friends... and that's scary!)
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I have been decluttering for a while. My best so far was clearing out a closet full of fabric and yarn. It is nice to see my children can use the closet for their clothes. I need to do more, it is very satisfying to purge. I am also doing my own personal read book, donate it challenge. I don't have a ton of books, but enough sitting on the shelves that I don't need to go to the library for a while.
I like the idea of one item per day.
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I started this earlier this year. We've already given away a ton. We stacked everything up (which filled half of our living room floor to about 4 feet high) and had a local charity come pick everything up. We still have a lot of crap to get rid of and are slowly but surely doing so. I've got quite a few things listed on CL and trying to find buyers for some higher end pieces. It's a lot easier to get rid of a bread machine than it is a painting. But, the decision has been made, so now I just have to wait/find a buyer. But, with everything that leaves the house, the lighter and more in control of my life I feel.
This week were two bicycles the kids outgrew, 4 pair of kid jeans, and 6 dresses my daughter has outgrown. They are off to a consignment sale. If they don't sell, they automatically get donated to a great charity. Regardless I get cash and/or a tax write-off.
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Uncluttering my home and catching up on long neglected tasks was the precursor to me waking up to the state of my finances. I had to clear the clutter to be able to "see" where I was off track in other areas. I've been working on the uncluttering part with the support of another forum, unclutterer.com (I'm PJ over there too - oh, and I should clarify that I'm not the PJ who writes for them, just happen to share the same internet name). We have several ongoing challenge type threads (ATAD - to get rid of A Thing a Day, FATAD - Fix a Thing a Day, and more recently, a "50 by Friday" thread to motivate a big push to clear either things or tasks, etc) as well as people sharing the benefits and struggles of uncluttering, encouraging and motivating each other. Please note that those forums are not face punching territory - we take a much more gentle approach there :-) There are distinct cultures even in internet forums, aren't there? Unclutterer makes no claims to be a minimalist or frugal living type site, although some of the forum participants lean that way. But there is a common theme of people working through to figure out what's important to them. Good luck to anyone else who is decluttering mode!
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Turbo tax's donation accounting system "It's Deductible" has shifted me away from trying to sell items to donating them. For any bag of stuff you donate, there's an average price for each item that you click and it keeps track. We have a few "big" items that we'll try to sell, but I'm no longer tempted to wait around to put stuff on craigslist, ebay, have a garage sale etc. I just do the accounting in "it's deductible" and then sign up for a pick-up of our goods by various donation organizations when they are in our neighborhood or drop it off at the Red Cross or Goodwill store if I'm going to be nearby.
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So far this year we've done 6 carloads to the charity shop and currently have a large pile of junk awaiting council pickup out the front of the house., O and another bag of clothes awaiting drop -off.
We've bought almost nothing in the way of "stuff" this year, so we must be winning....... getting worried that the stuff is now self sufficient and reproducing without our help :)
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happy, you know how single socks often go missing? I think the larvae of the "stuff" feeds on socks, that's why!
I think it's next week that I have a charity coming to pick up stuff. I already have some clothes put aside in a bag but haven't finished going through my wardrobe, so I should try to do that this weekend.
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This has been an evolution for us, over the past 4 years. Before we relocated, we donated and sold a lot. We were living in very small corporate housing for just about a year.. and were told to prepare for a secondary relocation to either Hawaii or overseas. So, I just continued scaling back. Around that time, I started having medical issues, so orders were actually changed from Hawaii and they ended up placing husband here.
We moved into another home, however, we were on the cusp of this whole simplifying, downsizing, frame of mind.. and I wanted to test out renting closer to where we have property to see if it was feasible to move onto family homestead. I found something very inexpensive that was actually, half the square footage. And clearly, we had scaled back our stuff enough that the transition was perfectly fine. Everything had a place, even in 1000 sqft, I still had empty cabinets (and my husband's uniforms and having two children - well, that all does take up quite a bit of space).
Unfortunately, moving outside of our immediate area did not work out. We moved back closer to work and found the best value $ cost wise, which has larger square footage. The rent is cheap. I am blown away at how many cabinets are empty, we even have an entire dresser that really can be donated, because there's nothing in it anymore. And both children could share their one dresser. We have nice 'stuff'.. good quality things (mostly bought secondhand or things that we've had for years). We just don't have a lot of it.
We have a one bedroom cabin that is about 450 square feet, on the family property. If I were to take those contents out and replace with the contents (not actually all furniture, though).. my family of four could fit all of our kitchen stuff, clothing, toys, most decor in that 450 sqft house.
I'll have to post in a separate thread some of the best changes that we've made.
Some may sound ridiculous, because I have been critiqued by relatives that have major stuffitis. However, they don't live in my house nor do they clean it. They are also not in a position where they could be moved with little notice.. and in our case, when husband retires from this job, we still have to be flexible to be moved anywhere in the U.S. or overseas (provided my health improves), because he's in aviation and we're game to live overseas! So with that in mind, it's been important for us - less stress, less money spent, less things to 'manage'.. and most of all, just gives us some comfort that if we had to pack up, I know (and have) done it myself with the two children, if needed with only needing a moving company for the furniture. There's many other ladies that I know have had near heartattacks over the thought of having to pack up their household on short notice. I can actually do it in one day and have frames on the walls, beds made, and dishes in the kitchen by the next evening.
Anyhow, love the idea of 100 things, for those that are starting out with scaling back their stuff!
And yes..definitely check into Craigslist 'free' postings, donating to your Goodwill/Salvation Army, etc. or Habitat for Humanity reStore (which will take home construction type stuff)
:)
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Way to go flyfamily!
We moved 3 years ago, and the couple buying my house wanted to change the settlement date at short notice because the man had to go on a business trip and the wife "couldn't manage it on her own". Hmmm I moved my two children and myself whilst working "on my own". I did do a big declutter prior but I'm not at your level yet!
We have large high built ins up to the ceiling in 4 rooms....great for storing things, but once it goes up there I need a step ladder to get it down and I forget whats up there: so it doesn't get used much anyway. My aim is to declutter sufficiently so that I don't have to use these shelves.
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@FlyFamily - I started decluttering about six months ago. Small steps at first. I've been through multiple rounds with the kids. I'm finding it easier and easier to get rid of the stuff. My closet went from overstuffed, to being half full. I have a built-in dressing table with 7 drawers that are now all empty. I have one antique dresser (the tall kind with very narrow drawers) that has empty space. The Hubs (the biggest stuff offender) - much different story. But, he did actually box up some books to sell, so I'm very proud of him for that.
We currently live in just under 2700 square feet (we downsized about 5 years ago from 3100 sf which was just a ridiculous amount of space), but will be selling it in the next year or two and downsizing again. I have been looking at townhomes/condos in our area and sort of playing the "could we live there" game with myself. Could we live in 2300 sf? No problem. Could we live in 2000 sf? Yes, still comfortable. What about that one that is 1800? I'm ok with that. 1400? Umm, probably. 1200? Ooh, that one I'm not so sure about. It makes me stretch my minimalism muscles, just like MMM makes me stretch my frugality muscles.
I like hearing that you, your husband and two kids are living in 1000 sf. Can I ask how old your kids are?