Continued: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter! PART 2

[joonifloofeefloo]

Lots of cross-posting above. I hear your point about wanting the nice cookware, Roadrunner. I have that too, as cooking comfortably from scratch (health) is a very high priority for me. But when your stuff is down to just those kinds of things -your highest priorities- it will feel like the timeshare environment. Everyone’s clutter-free space will look different. Mine has cookware, and chairs for guests but pretty much nothing else, lol.

[Roadrunner53]

I am lacking motivation for the most part. I have little projects going right now. Our bathroom one sink small vanity was a sty and partially due to the fact that it is a small bathroom. I bought these hanging toothbrush holders and toothpaste holder and love them. Then my husbands prescription bottles were on the vanity. I bought this small chrome shelf and put up some hangers to hold the shelf. I created this chrome wall shelf for the mouthwash that was on the vanity. Then for the door I bought this over the door organizer with two shelves and hooks to hang damp towels. On another wall I bought this wine rack that also doubles as a rolled up towel rack. Hub painted it white. It came in black. Works really good. So I got the vanity completely cleaned off and love it. This small bathroom drives me nuts! But I am working with what I have. I also bought some more wine/towel racks for another bathroom and want to clean off that vanity. I am combining two racks together but the hub had to cut of parts of the second one and with wire tie them together and paint them too. I have another rack for the back of that door too. I have a chrome drawer organizer that is to go under the sink in that bathroom.

I kind of miss working and using my brain. House work is just not fun or challenging enough. I am always 'inventing' something around the house. My hub goes along with it but half the time he has no clue what it is I am telling him! I have to explain stuff to him a bunch of times then he will do what I ask. He is a great guy but he just can't wrap his head around my creativity. Plus, I think he is totally not interested so he only half listens to me! LOL!

JJ, I used to be an avid list maker and owned a Franklin Planner. It was for work and was pretty great. I think I need a real planner to write in and see what my chores are. Sometimes I watch youtube and people that are organizing or speed cleaning for motivation.

[Bracken_Joy]

I am lacking motivation for the most part. I have little projects going right now. Our bathroom one sink small vanity was a sty and partially due to the fact that it is a small bathroom. I bought these hanging toothbrush holders and toothpaste holder and love them. Then my husbands prescription bottles were on the vanity. I bought this small chrome shelf and put up some hangers to hold the shelf. I created this chrome wall shelf for the mouthwash that was on the vanity. Then for the door I bought this over the door organizer with two shelves and hooks to hang damp towels. On another wall I bought this wine rack that also doubles as a rolled up towel rack. Hub painted it white. It came in black. Works really good. So I got the vanity completely cleaned off and love it. This small bathroom drives me nuts! But I am working with what I have. I also bought some more wine/towel racks for another bathroom and want to clean off that vanity. I am combining two racks together but the hub had to cut of parts of the second one and with wire tie them together and paint them too. I have another rack for the back of that door too. I have a chrome drawer organizer that is to go under the sink in that bathroom.

I kind of miss working and using my brain. House work is just not fun or challenging enough. I am always 'inventing' something around the house. My hub goes along with it but half the time he has no clue what it is I am telling him! I have to explain stuff to him a bunch of times then he will do what I ask. He is a great guy but he just can't wrap his head around my creativity. Plus, I think he is totally not interested so he only half listens to me! LOL!

JJ, I used to be an avid list maker and owned a Franklin Planner. It was for work and was pretty great. I think I need a real planner to write in and see what my chores are. Sometimes I watch youtube and people that are organizing or speed cleaning for motivation.

I adore those speed cleaning motivational videos =) Love Meg and Jessica Tull are a couple of my favorites. Who are your go-tos? There are also some GREAT konmari decluttering videos! Those always inspire me a lot.

Sometimes, organizing and working with your space is totally what's needed, agreed! And sometimes, it's the old adage "don't organize your clutter". It can be hard to tell which is which, lol! I think that's a moving target for all of us. Setting up a home frugally was where a lot of my creativity went for a while. Needing something and trying to get it for free, and then for very cheap. Recently, I had to get really clever on making storage attractive in my pantry for showing the house. It wasn't BAD before, but it certainly made it look hard to organize- which is true, haha. But some baskets and shelves and stuff later, and it looked way better.

[joonifloofeefloo]

[More cross-posting, so feel free to ignore if you just covered an aspect.]

Another method: Identify (write down) your 100 favourite or most-used items, release the rest. (Let the generosity and tastefulness and wealth of your mom and friend now reach hundreds of others, while the items are still in good, usable shape. What a legacy!)

Or, identify a cause very important to you (e.g. womens shelter) and ask a rep to come over and point at what would be most helpful to their clients. Later, bag most of those up and deliver them. (Integrate your mom’s gift of overwhelming generosity.)

Or, think of it as disaster planning. If flood, fire, hurricane reaches your excess before you manage to process it, it’s no good to you or anyone. If you make it available to others now, your moms gifts are assured to support hundreds of people, long-term.

[former player]

@Roadrunner53 - for the vases in particular, I've had success with flower shops accepting back vases (all in excellent condition, washed) for credit. Especially if they are from "Joe's Flowers", and you've received 10 bouquets, I'd call ahead, explain to Joe's Flowers that you have 10 vases you'd like to turn in & see if they would give you a $10 credit or whatever. Next time you need to send flowers, there you are. Vases out of your house, credit towards a future purchase.

That sounds like a good idea.  The other thing you might think about is saying to your friend "I love that you send me flowers, and now I've got so many lovely vases to put them in, it would be great if you could have them sent them as a bouquet without a vase".  You might even get extra flowers that way!

[zygote]

After my latest phone backup, I realized I only had 30 GB free on my computer. WHOOPS.

So last night I deleted 130 GB worth of stuff. Some older phone backup files, junk from the downloads folder, and the recycling bin I never remember to empty. There's still more I could delete, but at least I have >10% of the hard drive free again. Going through the rest of my files will be slower going. There's also some stuff I will only feel okay deleting if it's backed up on an extra external drive, which I am asking for for Christmas.

[Roadrunner53]

Okay, I bagged up the spice jars, the two big ass utensil containers, another sponge type holder and one flower vase! Out of sight, out of mind!

[I'm a red panda]

Got rid of a bag of baby clothes and crib shoes.
What are even the point of crib shoes? We never put any of these on our daughter (hand me downs).

Waiting to find out the sex of baby 2.  We've tried to save all gender neutral clothes, but since we had almost all hand me downs for the first one most of our clothes were pink and frilly; if this one is a boy (and I suspect it is) a lot of the saved clothes is leaving the house ASAP.

[JanetJackson]

Okay, I bagged up the spice jars, the two big ass utensil containers, another sponge type holder and one flower vase! Out of sight, out of mind!

BOOM.  Great work!

[Roadrunner53]

Was procrastinating on getting rid of that crap (actually good stuff) but glad it is bagged and tagged to go!

Thanks JJ!

[SunnyDays]

Was procrastinating on getting rid of that crap (actually good stuff) but glad it is bagged and tagged to go!

Thanks JJ!

Oops, maybe I' too late!  I was going to say that the way I removed labels from jars is to let them soak in a sink/bowl of hot water until the paper part comes off or the glue is soft enough to pull off a plastic label, then use an SOS pad to scrub off the glue.  Works great.

I must say, it sounds like you just have too much of everything.  You could try watching the show "Consumed" to see how little you really can be happy with and the process for getting rid of things.  (Cliff's notes:  keep only bare essentials for a few weeks, while removing everything else.  Once you're used to that level of spareness, go through everything you've put away and see what you want to add back.  Probably a lot less that you think, because finding somewhere to properly put it all is stressful and tiring.  Get rid of all the excess.)  It may not be practical to do this all in one fell swoop, so you can do it by room instead.  Another trick I use is to tell myself I must either use something or display it in order to keep it - I can't just "store" it.  Because really, if I'm not doing either thing with it, then what is it good for?  Another mental trick is "if I had a fire and lost everything, what would I bother to replace?"  I change tactics periodically when I get stalled using any particular one.

[joonifloofeefloo]

Oops, maybe I' too late!  I was going to say that the way I removed labels from jars is to let them soak in a sink/bowl of hot water until the paper part comes off or the glue is soft enough to pull off a plastic label, then use an SOS pad to scrub off the glue.  Works great.

It's no worries, though -the person gifted with them via the thrift shop can do it just as easily :)

Probably best if RR just focuses on moving perfectly good stuff out at this point.

[I'm a red panda]

Three boxes of baby clothes sorted. Sad to be getting rid of all the frilly stuff but we have zero need to hang onto it.

Will take it to once upon a child tomorrow and the rest that they don't take to Goodwill.

[Sibley]

After my latest phone backup, I realized I only had 30 GB free on my computer. WHOOPS.

So last night I deleted 130 GB worth of stuff. Some older phone backup files, junk from the downloads folder, and the recycling bin I never remember to empty. There's still more I could delete, but at least I have >10% of the hard drive free again. Going through the rest of my files will be slower going. There's also some stuff I will only feel okay deleting if it's backed up on an extra external drive, which I am asking for for Christmas.

If you have a windows computer, there's also the Disk Clean Up function (at least there was, no idea about Win10). That can clear a TON of stuff sometimes, and it's windows doing it so it knows not to delete system files.

[zygote]

After my latest phone backup, I realized I only had 30 GB free on my computer. WHOOPS.

So last night I deleted 130 GB worth of stuff. Some older phone backup files, junk from the downloads folder, and the recycling bin I never remember to empty. There's still more I could delete, but at least I have >10% of the hard drive free again. Going through the rest of my files will be slower going. There's also some stuff I will only feel okay deleting if it's backed up on an extra external drive, which I am asking for for Christmas.

If you have a windows computer, there's also the Disk Clean Up function (at least there was, no idea about Win10). That can clear a TON of stuff sometimes, and it's windows doing it so it knows not to delete system files.

Thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't heard of that. I just checked, and it says it can clear a grand total of 400 MB. Wah wah. Either the tool got less useful or I really hoard way too many files on this thing. Probably the latter, though I guess it could be both.

Maybe the tool will help someone else.

[Nederstash]

Tiny future win: my birthday is coming up. Some friends asked me what I wanted to get. I said that I wanted nothing and that I was absolutely positive about that - also, if they do get me anything it'll most probably end up in the donation box during my next declutter. There was some hemming and hawing but I think I'll be okay!

[joonifloofeefloo]

Nice one, Nederstash!!

[Roadrunner53]

Tiny future win: my birthday is coming up. Some friends asked me what I wanted to get. I said that I wanted nothing and that I was absolutely positive about that - also, if they do get me anything it'll most probably end up in the donation box during my next declutter. There was some hemming and hawing but I think I'll be okay!

Why don't you ask for something consumable like movie tickets, a home cooked meal, a gift certificate to Red Lobster, ingredients to a recipe such as 7 can taco soup, a batch of home made chicken noodle soup, a pan of cookies, a bottle of wine or booze, flower bulbs or flower seeds for outdoors, an outdoor plant such as a Hosta, an American Flag to hang outside, a first aid kit for your car, a fire extinguisher. This might sound dumb but a family pack of toilet paper and Kleenex. Useful! Some new spices to replace old ones. Your favorite coffee or tea. A box of chocolates! A weeks worth of Mason Jar salads or refrigerated overnight oats. A pan of lasagna. A weekly planner, a journal or a nice pen you wouldn't buy yourself.

[JanetJackson]

Tiny future win: my birthday is coming up. Some friends asked me what I wanted to get. I said that I wanted nothing and that I was absolutely positive about that - also, if they do get me anything it'll most probably end up in the donation box during my next declutter. There was some hemming and hawing but I think I'll be okay!

Why don't you ask for something consumable like movie tickets, a home cooked meal, a gift certificate to Red Lobster, ingredients to a recipe such as 7 can taco soup, a batch of home made chicken noodle soup, a pan of cookies, a bottle of wine or booze, flower bulbs or flower seeds for outdoors, an outdoor plant such as a Hosta, an American Flag to hang outside, a first aid kit for your car, a fire extinguisher. This might sound dumb but a family pack of toilet paper and Kleenex. Useful! Some new spices to replace old ones. Your favorite coffee or tea. A box of chocolates! A weeks worth of Mason Jar salads or refrigerated overnight oats. A pan of lasagna. A weekly planner, a journal or a nice pen you wouldn't buy yourself.

+1
Every time I have ever requested "No Gifts" I have still received gifts... people can't seem to help it.
Fast forward to now- every single x-mas one of my clients gives me the biggest jumbo one-ply (they know my style) supply of Toilet Paper they can get as Costco. 
It's become sort of a running joke, but I absolutely LOVE IT! 
It lasted me 6 months last year, It lasted me 7.5 months this year!! 
I had a roommate for part of last year, so I am curious to see if the pack can last me the whole year this year. 
It's so big it blocked my view in the passenger seat and I had to put it in my trunk.  YAY!

My parents also had a hard time with this for a while, so I caved and let them mail care packages for birthdays for a few years... eventually they realized that it wasn't cost efficient, so now they usually send me a small gift card ($20 to the dollar store or Amazon or something). 

My best friend makes really beautiful handmade cards every year... I don't know how she does it... she has two kids, she's a practicing midwife and she's very involved in local politics in her area.  But every year, here comes her card in the mail.  I love it.

These are the only gifts that I receive, but I've slowly curated them to be meaningful and useful while keeping everyone happy.

Every now and then I'll get a "typical" gift (a box of chocolate or a gift set of smelly lotions or whatever) from a client or from a vendor at work and I always express gratefulness and then immediately re-gift in some way- one year that meant breaking apart the gift set and giving one lotion/smelly stuff item to each of the women that I see with signs asking for help at the intersections.  I never have cash to give them, but I do know that I used to use smelly stuffs to get through only showering once a week when I lived in a camper (about a decade ago- harder times) and didn't have shower access besides at a gym. 
Another year I took the chocolates to the day job and plopped them down at the front desk. 
They were gone within an hour.
Outdoor plants are a great gift!

[joonifloofeefloo]

I love receiving a certain kind of gifts. But I also find it easy to put them in the thrift after a day, a week, a month, a year -whenever my enjoyment or use of them is complete. The givers know I do this and don’t mind.

[former player]

3 bags and boxes are in the car boot ready for the charity shop.

A spare tent can go to the local church collection for refugees next month.

What is left to go through are 4 boxes of papers, a big box of books, and whatever is piled into the spare bedroom.

[diapasoun]

Local anarchist space is having a "really free market" this weekend -- this seems like a great chance to take clothes, groceries, and some other supplies we have an excess of and get them to folks who could use them. \o/

[Roadrunner53]

Made an appointment with Vietnam Vets to pick up my donations. I have at least 10 bags or more. I made labels that they require to apply to the bags to identify them as donations (VVA). The earliest they will come is 11/9/2018. Yay, a giant pile is ready to go!

[joonifloofeefloo]

Bought a toaster!

We'd never had a toaster before. When we moved into our current place, management gave us one someone had left behind. Veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long toaster, with the markings rubbed off so everything was a guess. I've gotten a kick out of it, but its length only allowed it to be stored in a cupboard my kid can't reach, so it would get left out, filling most of a counter.

Let myself buy a new one today, $12, fits even the smallest cupboard (and only half of it, at that).

Old one is now in the thrift bag with Halloween stuff :)

[Sibley]

After my latest phone backup, I realized I only had 30 GB free on my computer. WHOOPS.

So last night I deleted 130 GB worth of stuff. Some older phone backup files, junk from the downloads folder, and the recycling bin I never remember to empty. There's still more I could delete, but at least I have >10% of the hard drive free again. Going through the rest of my files will be slower going. There's also some stuff I will only feel okay deleting if it's backed up on an extra external drive, which I am asking for for Christmas.

If you have a windows computer, there's also the Disk Clean Up function (at least there was, no idea about Win10). That can clear a TON of stuff sometimes, and it's windows doing it so it knows not to delete system files.

Thanks for the suggestion! I hadn't heard of that. I just checked, and it says it can clear a grand total of 400 MB. Wah wah. Either the tool got less useful or I really hoard way too many files on this thing. Probably the latter, though I guess it could be both.

Maybe the tool will help someone else.

Buried in that screen there is (or was) an option to clean up system files. That clears old windows update files, etc. Try that too. But yes, you're probably a digital hoarder.

[I'm a red panda]

Local anarchist space is having a "really free market" this weekend -- this seems like a great chance to take clothes, groceries, and some other supplies we have an excess of and get them to folks who could use them. \o/

I love events like that.  Our buy nothing group does a free garage sale every year the weekend after city wide garage sales. People are usually in disbelief that the stuff is actually, really free.

The biggest issue is making sure we have enough volunteers to get things to goodwill at the end of the day; but last year we had over 1000 people visit to get or give stuff.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

The clean out continues. I'm more of a "one a day" person, as I find it motivating. Over the past few days, I've added the following to our donation pile: a necklace, a pair of sandals, two pair of good condition socks. And, tomorrow I'll drop off a jacket at the "Dress for Success" donation event happening down the street.

I also cut a pair of jeans to make them capris. They are too long & I never wear them. Not nice enough to have hemmed, and I wear capris a lot here due to the weather.

I also had to buy a new sheet set (old set ripped), so I'm hoping to turn the rest of the ripped sheet into handkerchiefs, if I can figure out how to run the sewing machine.

More progress coming this weekend!

[oneday]

The clean out continues. I'm more of a "one a day" person, as I find it motivating. Over the past few days, I've added the following to our donation pile: a necklace, a pair of sandals, two pair of good condition socks. And, tomorrow I'll drop off a jacket at the "Dress for Success" donation event happening down the street.

I also cut a pair of jeans to make them capris. They are too long & I never wear them. Not nice enough to have hemmed, and I wear capris a lot here due to the weather.

I also had to buy a new sheet set (old set ripped), so I'm hoping to turn the rest of the ripped sheet into handkerchiefs, if I can figure out how to run the sewing machine.

More progress coming this weekend!

Make sure you tension the sewing machine properly.

[Frankies Girl]

Another truck load today. Lots of miscellaneous, but mostly x-mas decor. We had two trees (one fake real, one ridiculous green tinsel). Dumped all the outside decorations including the candy canes, gumdrop lights, oversized lollipops and giant C9 old school multi lights that used to make the house look like a gingerbread cottage (we used to do a candyland theme for x-mas).

I no longer care about x-mas at all. It just hurts to see the stuff. We kept the silly tinsel tree, but that likely will go next year since I never want to put up a tree or even acknowledge the holiday again.

One of the biggest things I've had to deal with during all these purges of stuff is the fact that I was keeping most of it because of things that represented what should have been, but will never be and now just serves as a constant reminder of how naive and downright stupid I was. Realizing that keeping stuff you saved/bought in anticipation of how you thought things would be? Sad and kind of pathetic. Sort of a Miss Haversham but without the cake. But it was stuff imbued with love and dreams for the future and lots and lots of happiness and hope, and letting go of that stuff also means letting go of all of those hopes and dreams. Which hurts so very very much. But I keep telling myself - it's just stuff.

Sorry for the downer. But it has been a pretty bad day/week actually around here.

[diapasoun]

Processing the loss of things we have dearly hoped for hurts. It hurts so.damn.much. And stuff may just be stuff, but it's tied in with so many other parts of our lives, and when letting go of stuff reflects the letting go that you're doing now -- damn. Add in another dollop, or two, or twelve, of pain.

Sending you hugs if you want them, Frankies Girl, and take care of yourself and lean into your support network (IRL, here, and anywhere else) as you process this.

[oneday]

@Frankies Girl I am so sorry for your bad week and the reasons behind it.  FWIW, I don't think you were stupid to buy those things...you were trying in all the ways you knew, to make your dreams come true.

[Fresh Bread]

I'm sorry to hear you are having a painful time Frankie's Girl. I hope getting rid of the things saves on painful reminders in the future.

[mspym]

Hey Frankie's Girl, hope and planning for the future is not naive or stupid. I am so sorry that it didn't work out and hope that clearing out the stuff helps you transition to a new space. Sending all the good thoughts your way.

[joonifloofeefloo]

Yes, you are not stupid, Frankies Girl :(
I'm so sorry you're going through a hard time.
You've made so much great headway in your life over the last several years, and I know you'll continue to do so even if right now sucks.

[joonifloofeefloo]

Ready for a chill time, so:
*dropped off latest batch to thrift
*returned all library books, so now zero signed out
*swept up leaves
*deleted myself from a few threads here that seemed like they were going to live forever vs wrap up
*completed final major banking steps, which means I can file and shred lots tomorrow

[Nancy]

@Frankies Girl I feel for you. Best of luck as you work your way through.

I started reading Decluttering at the Speed of Life, and it has resulted in the decluttering kickstart I've been hoping for. I'm nothing like the author, but I find the book entertaining and helpful all the same. Today, I got rid of some multiple-times-over mended clothes (jeans, sweater, hat). It was hard to let go of them, but it was time. I'm also donating a suitcase that we do not need anymore since we are one-bag travelers.

Update: We cleared out our garden plot (although I guess it's not ours anymore). I feel so much lighter. It's bittersweet to let it go, but mostly sweet because I had a great time there, and I'm looking forward to our new adventures.

I also cleaned out under the sink and found that it was actually in great shape. Score!

[Bracken_Joy]

Moving day/weekend is here! Decluttering as I go, somewhat.

Out:
-Old/ugly christmas swag
-Extra mugs
-Tall glasses we don't like/use.
-Old worn shoes to the trash. (I really should have gotten rid of these a while ago... but didn't want to buy replacements... haha)
-Opted to not move either of the extra beds we had in the house (both freebies, but were great for staging and guests). Offered them to the buyer for free. We'll get something smaller and easier to share with the office for the new place. (Going from a 3br+office to a 2br).
-Most of our tools I'll be taking out to my parent's place. We won't have a garage or yard anymore, so there's lots to shed. While I could have gotten money from these, it would have taken more time and effort, and my parents are happy to have them. Win-win.
-Selling our lovely electric lawnmower to some friends. We gave them our old reel mower when they bought their house, but their experience ended up mirroring ours- in spring in Oregon, the grass grows too fast to reasonably work, have hobbies, and keep up with a reel mower. They're been looking to buy an electric, so we'll give them ours for a really good deal, and it's an easy sale/good karma for us. (Love these friends. They're younger/just starting out, and also frugal sorts. They tend to welcome items we're getting rid of, like our old TV, the reel mower, some curtains, etc. I'm very mindful of what I offer- don't want to just dump stuff on them- so I think it works quite well for all of us!)

Life is changing one heck of a lot!

And @Frankies Girl my heart just hurt reading your post. It resonated. I'm not sure what dreams you've let go of, but this entire move for me is accepting that my life plan just isn't what we had hoped. I am so, so torn as I load baby stuff that I just don't know if we'll ever get to use. Part of me wants to get rid of it along with the house, but I haven't given up hope that entirely yet. I'm not totally at the end of the road with all my options. So it's coming with, for now, and I just... it's weird and hard and surreal. It's amazing how much sway items have, how much meaning.

[joonifloofeefloo]

*processed this week's admin papers (YNABed, stapled, filed or shredded)
*gathered leaves from patio, etc
*deadheaded, pruned back, and tidied garden
*covered garden with the beautiful dry leaves, then added last of manure/compost bag on top
*shredded last items
*took shreds and other recyclables to recycling
*transferred kid's old phone to new, so that tomorrow old can go to PersonWhoWantsIt
*laid out items for new project duotangs, preventing ongoing reprocessing

[Sugaree]

Unpacked another box of stuff.  Threw out most of it.  Listed an old fishing reel I found on eBay.  It sold in 6 hours. 

[mspym]

Three more books out of the house and there is starting to be So Much Space on all the bookshelves!

I think it may be time to go through the socks and remove all the ones I never wear and the tights that don't fit.

[Nederstash]

Tiny future win: my birthday is coming up. Some friends asked me what I wanted to get. I said that I wanted nothing and that I was absolutely positive about that - also, if they do get me anything it'll most probably end up in the donation box during my next declutter. There was some hemming and hawing but I think I'll be okay!

Why don't you ask for something consumable like movie tickets, a home cooked meal, a gift certificate to Red Lobster, ingredients to a recipe such as 7 can taco soup, a batch of home made chicken noodle soup, a pan of cookies, a bottle of wine or booze, flower bulbs or flower seeds for outdoors, an outdoor plant such as a Hosta, an American Flag to hang outside, a first aid kit for your car, a fire extinguisher. This might sound dumb but a family pack of toilet paper and Kleenex. Useful! Some new spices to replace old ones. Your favorite coffee or tea. A box of chocolates! A weeks worth of Mason Jar salads or refrigerated overnight oats. A pan of lasagna. A weekly planner, a journal or a nice pen you wouldn't buy yourself.

One person kept pushing, I managed to direct her to bath bombs. Lord knows I love my bath and that's one of the few things I'll actually use and enjoy. I just don't want people to spend money - or goods to have been produced - simply because I made the trip around the sun. (I do give gifts, though, because people want them. Then I try to stick to experiences or consumables).

[Nederstash]

@Frankies Girl so sorry you're having a bad time, but it sounds like it would've been more toxic to keep that stuff around... you did the right thing!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Frankies Girl - hoping that getting rid of your holiday stuff brings you peace through your transition. It's not foolish or naive. Sometimes we need certain things in our lives, and objects can be a part of that. As we grow & adapt, we may recognize that the objects don't have the power they once did, but maturing & growing doesn't mean that you used to be foolish.

@Bracken_Joy -sending you lots of good thoughts on your move, and the changes happening. May they lead you both in a fabulous new place as a couple.

[oneday]

@joonifloofeefloo , love your lists as always!  Thanks for sharing.

@Nancy I just read that one too!  I liked her methods, I know a couple people it could help if they wanted it/were ready for that.  However, the one sticking point I found for myself, and this could be hard for certain people who hold on to things for emotional reasons, is that the 2 questions will determine the permanant future of an object.  Sometimes I'm just not ready to make that decision and that's why I still have an item.   But if (or when) I/one were ready to clean up, those are excellent questions.  I never thought about it that way, so that was cool and eye-opening to get her take on the subject.

@Bracken_Joy: ABD.  Always Be Decluttering :)  Decluttering while moving/packing helped in my case too.  And I think you'll find when you get into your new space that certain things will & won't work there, so more decluttering is probably in your future.

@Sugaree such a great result to your ebay listing!  Happy for you!

@mspym it's definitely the right time for culling hoisery that you won't use! :)

@Nederstash excellent redirect!


This morning I decided to rearrange my bedroom a bit.  Doing so showed me that I can put the dry erase pens and thumb tacks in my nightstand (now that it's on the same side of the room as the white board & cork board), and I'm almost ready to admit that I have an extra book case.  The only thing on it is my printer, which could go elsewhere (easily found 2 places).  For now, I'll settle into this new arrangement, enjoying the lack of office supplies on bedroom surfaces.

[Nancy]

@oneday Nice work rearranging your space! I see what you mean about the book's decluttering questions. I think the questions are designed to force a decision, especially if you have to get rid of something else to house the item. I could definitely see that being a roadblock.

Today, I got rid of a no-longer waterproof raincoat, a shirt with a ratty collar, and two pairs of pants that don't fit. I couldn't believe I still had those. I also went through all of our gardening stuff and donated/composted it all (minus one growing lamp that I think I'll try and sell). I also found a location to donate one of my bikes.

[MrsTuxedocat]

@Frankies Girl Share away, the easy and difficult. This is a space for that.

Today, I sorted throughout my vitamin/drug stash and got rid of a few bottles.

[FreelanceToFreedom]

I'm in the process of getting rid of 95% of my possessions. It's stressful at times but mostly feels good every time I get rid of something. We're preparing to travel full time for the next year or two, so pretty much selling/donating everything that we don't want to lug around the world, save for a box or two of sentimental stuff.

Also, I learned recently that nobody uses Craigslist any more, at least not in my area. I was trying to sell stuff for weeks on CL with little response. Turns out, everyone uses Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp, etc. I've sold maybe 10 items in the 2 weeks using these platforms, and so far people are a lot less flaky that Craigslisters ever were!

[Raenia]

Dropped off a few things at a Thanksgiving donation drive that I wasn't going to use.

I also recently finished reading Decluttering at the Speed of Life, and while my clutter issue isn't in remotely the same class as what she describes, I did find some things in her approach helpful.  Particularly the advice to always start from the most visible spaces, and that it's ok to grieve when 'decluttering dreams,' as she put it.  It does hurt to give up the image of ourselves doing something we've always thought we would do, and it's ok and necessary to allow space for that grieving process.

[Nancy]

@FreelanceToFreedom Nice work! I hadn't heard of OfferUp. Thanks for the tip. We're also getting rid of our stuff so we can travel for a year or two. Good luck!

Today: Dropped off items to donate. I started a new bag and have put in a few items (2 pashmina scarves), but now I'm getting to the point where all the easy stuff is gone. I know I have to get rid of more stuff because I don't want to end up storing it.  On the bright side, my apartment is looking great!

[JanetJackson]

Everyone is doing such an AWESOME JOB! Inspiring!

I recently deleted my Facebook account (OMG what a weight lifted off my shoulders, such a depressing place) so I don't have the option of FB Marketplace, but I certainly do need to check out OfferUP for resale. 
I have had good luck with Ebay and might try PoshMark soon too.  I kind of hate the name 'PoshMark' which is the dumbest reason to have not tried it before... but it's like nails on a chalkboard.  Posh... :::Shudder:::
LOL.  Will try.

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My personal Declutter Update:

I found the coffee grinder I had been hunting for to give away and I ended up filling up the rest of a box in order to donate more items.  Yay!
I have a brand new box of large well made casters that I was "saving" to upcycle a piece of furniture in the future... but that's a SERIOUSLY VAGUE plan, so they probably need to go. 
I also tossed in a planter I had bought because it was cheap yet I never really liked it, some kitchen stuff, and a few hats and scarves for the incoming cold weather.

I worked on my 'List of Everything That I Own' and it's going well so far.

I found a rectangular Tupperware container (like one of the ones that would hold a meal prep, not the big casserole ones...) of old family photos and got a little frozen. 
I didn't get rid of any, but organized them a little bit neater. 
I also found the old coins that my grandmother would gift to me every year as a child - at some point my dad meticulously labeled them each (she'd just give them to me in a paper envelope for my birthday) and mailed them to me as an adult. 

Someday I'll look up the value of each, sell them, and keep one that I particularly like... or use that cash to buy a memorial type piece of jewelry to remember my grandma (she's still alive) but today was not that day.

I found a little mini photo album of my first childhood dog that my mom had made for me when he passed away (when I was around 13). 
I've kept it all these years and I don't think I plan on getting rid of it.  I might scale it down to my favorite 5 photos or something and then use the rest of the album to move the old family photos (some) into. 
Not there yet though, I still had THE FEELS (light cry) when I looked through it.  He was such a good dog.

My sentimental items take up about one office binder's worth of space, but it still stresses me a little that I have so many. 
The old family photos I may start mailing out to my relatives randomly. 
My dad has 6 sisters, so I have approx. 7,900,000 cousins that I don't even really know. 
A lot of them are sort of deadbeat-ish, but I also don't know them much and shouldn't judge... I'd just hate to mail them a 100 year old photo and have them just throw it away.

I'm big on rituals when getting rid of something sentimental. 

Ideas?