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

[horsepoor]

The longer I telework, the more I'm putting work clothes in the donate bag. I still like many of my work clothes, but after all these months, I know I won't be able to tolerate wearing anything even mildly uncomfortable, and will likely only be going back 1-2 days a week, so when I see something I don't feel enthusiastic about wearing again at some point, into the box it goes.

[oneday]

Decluttered two perfectly serviceable mugs because I got two super-fun mugs for Christmas!

Also will be tossing a brand new insulated coffee mug because it's leaky.  It's cheap, plastic and not recyclable :(

[slackmax]

More kitchen decluttering and moving stuff around.

Moved some dry foodstuffs from floor into already decluttered lazy susan. Had been leaving lazy susan empty for months, thinking putting anything new into it would be   "REcluttering". Maybe I was just enjoying having it empty, ha ha. 



 

[MayDay]

We have decided to declutter our stored food.

With Covid we stocked up much more than previous out of concern that cases would be so bad we would choose to stay home completely, or concern that we would all be sick, or concern that we would be unable to get items.

Now that vaccine rollout is starting and curbside pickup is much more robust, we decided to spend Jan (and maybe longer) intentionally decluttering/eating down the pantry and deep freeze. This will correspondingly clean out some cupboards.

So far I made a soup with split peas and thawed a pack of frozen sausage.

I also gave away shoes and two shirts and a bag of small jars on buy nothing.

[YellowCat]

This thread has inspired me - I just consolidated and reorganized all of my yarn and knitting supplies. Things should be easier to find now and I was able to free up a container to be my son’s toy box.

I also went through closets and chucked some stuff that's been sitting around from the previous homeowner since we bought the house (wood mostly). We'd done a major garage clean out last year and dumped tons of wood scraps but there was also some inside. Yay for progress!

I’ve got some new clothes coming and I’m planning to donate at least as many items as I’ll be getting new (I.e. one in, one out). Planning to get everything washed all at once & hit the clothing donation box before returning to work on Monday.

[Sibley]

I dropped off a box, 2 paper bags, 1 big plastic bag (not a good choice) of pantry foods and a small plastic bag of frozen items to the food pantry. some random personal care items in there as well. All perfectly good, I just don't want to eat it right now, or am perfectly capable of buying replacements. There's a lot of hunger in my community right now, and every little bit helps.

[mspym]

I guess throwing out the umbrella that broke while I was using it counts as a bit of a declutter.
More positive steps are not going grocery shopping and deciding to use up the produce we have first.

[better late]

Took the opportunity while the house is decorated for the holidays to de clutter Xmas decorations. I went to our basement and looked through the decorations that are not displayed. Bringing a bag to charity today.

[Sibley]

Took the opportunity while the house is decorated for the holidays to de clutter Xmas decorations. I went to our basement and looked through the decorations that are not displayed. Bringing a bag to charity today.

How much is left in storage that you didn't use this year?

[slackmax]

Donated  4 shirts and 3 knick knacks.   

Started using up a bag and a half of lentils I found while decluttering kitchen. Made lentils and onion yesterday. Pretty good. Will make more today. Will not buy more lentils ever, probably, even though I like them.  Not tasty enough, I guess.     

[NotJen]

I did not get many Christmas presents this year, so only one new item to get rid of - a themed potholder.  It was cute, but realistically I would never use it.  It went on FB Marketplace on the 26th, and left the house the 29th.

I listed a couple other things from around the house this week, but no bites yet.

[better late]

Took the opportunity while the house is decorated for the holidays to de clutter Xmas decorations. I went to our basement and looked through the decorations that are not displayed. Bringing a bag to charity today.

How much is left in storage that you didn't use this year?

About 1/2 as much as was there yesterday :)  which equals out to about 1/2 a large bin. DH is very sentimental about most everything so I could only move along items I knew he wouldn’t care were missing. Baby steps. Also there are a couple of platters that might have been used if we had been able to have friends over and also 4 brand new holiday mugs I think my youngest wants..

[Sibley]

Took the opportunity while the house is decorated for the holidays to de clutter Xmas decorations. I went to our basement and looked through the decorations that are not displayed. Bringing a bag to charity today.

How much is left in storage that you didn't use this year?

About 1/2 as much as was there yesterday :)  which equals out to about 1/2 a large bin. DH is very sentimental about most everything so I could only move along items I knew he wouldn’t care were missing. Baby steps. Also there are a couple of platters that might have been used if we had been able to have friends over and also 4 brand new holiday mugs I think my youngest wants..

not bad. I didn't decorate inside this year, just put some lights up outside. I probably have lights I don't need. However, my parents are moving to the area this year and if they need lights, they can have whatever I don't need.

[Steeze]

Opened a suitcase which had what I thought was blankets in it, gifts from my in-laws which we never opened, because we don't need any more bedding. Turns out I have an Alpaca hide fur rug. Who knew? Fancier than me though, too scared to ruin it to actually use it!

[Loretta]

I saw a Facebook meme to flip closet hangers tonight so as to easily see what's in use and what is not being worn. 

[Weisass]

I saw a Facebook meme to flip closet hangers tonight so as to easily see what's in use and what is not being worn.

I’ve done this in previous years and it is illuminating.

[lazycow]

Love a New Year's Day declutter!

Got rid of 2 fabric tote bags. Filled them with all the stuff I
didn't get a chance to take to the op shop late last year.

Have a pair of worn out jeans that are even too disgusting for gardening, so they will go to the local textile recycling bin along with a pit-stained, no longer black linen top.

The Christmas tree gets dismantled this afternoon and will be stored in the attic crawl space along with 1 big plastic box of decorations. Proud to say that is all that is stored in there so access is a breeze.

[MayDay]

I saw a Facebook meme to flip closet hangers tonight so as to easily see what's in use and what is not being worn.

I’ve done this in previous years and it is illuminating.

Maybe I'm a neurotic wierdo... But all my work clothes are hung in order and I wear the one in front, then hang it in the back. If I re-wear something I flip the hanger so I know to wash it the next time.

I don't do it for most casual clothes because I have a small enough number, but I do for t-shirts- clean t-shirts get put on the bottom of the pile and I always wear the top one. If I find myself skipping a t-shirt, into the bin it goes!

[SotI]

PTF as I am planning to de-clutter lots of things this year.
Just being sick of "stuff" ...
Maybe I will even start this weekend, once all my yearend accounting is done.

[slackmax]

Found 4 small plastic baggies of powdered kelp in the kitchen. Researched powdered kelp on the internet. Possible high heavy metal content, which scared me away from it. Also has high iodine content, and can cause problems with thyroid gland.   

Had thought about using it up slowly by adding it to tea, once a day, but of course don't want heavy metals. So I found an 'excuse' to just throw it away!   

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I finally have buyers for two items I had listed on Nextdoor - ski boots that my 13 year old outgrew, and a cargo mat we discovered for a car we no longer have.

I brought a bunch of stuff back from our vacation house that I'll either give away (no Buy Nothing group in that area), sell or find another way to donate. I need to go through it all today & inventory it.

[horsepoor]

I went through my closet and drawers last night with the premise of only keeping office clothes I might wear if I go in 2x a week and put several items into the donate pile.

This still leaves me with plenty of stuff should to wear to week-long meetings or even if I take a detail at some point, but gets rid of all that stuff that is a little worn, never fits right, only goes with that one other thing, etc.

[oneday]

Diploma case, gift bag and jingle bells into the donation bag today.

Can I share a bit of frustration? I have 6 boxes of old-school paper photographs and jointly purchased a scanner with Mom. She took the first turn with the scanner because she's semi retired and has more time. However, she finds it to be a boring task and has not made much progress. If I'd had the scanner, maybe I wouldn't need to move 6 boxes of photos (I'll be moving end of February). Again. Thanks for listening.

[Raenia]

In the fall when I switched over to my winter wardrobe, I had placed a few of my more worn sweaters aside to see if I missed them.  I haven't, even when I was going into work full time before the holidays, so I moved them to the donate box.

We had a few homemade cordials in the liquor cabinet that we never liked much and don't seem to use.  Decided to dump them - we don't drink much, and if we do want a cocktail, better to reach for something we like rather than trying to use up failed experiments.

Also "decluttered" an open bottle of wine last night ;)

[Roadrunner53]

Diploma case, gift bag and jingle bells into the donation bag today.

Can I share a bit of frustration? I have 6 boxes of old-school paper photographs and jointly purchased a scanner with Mom. She took the first turn with the scanner because she's semi retired and has more time. However, she finds it to be a boring task and has not made much progress. If I'd had the scanner, maybe I wouldn't need to move 6 boxes of photos (I'll be moving end of February). Again. Thanks for listening.

I am with your mom. I tried scanning a ton of pictures and found it to be extremely boring and gave up. Here is another idea to store pictures. I keep thinking about buying this but have not done so yet: https://www.containerstore.com/s/iris-16_case-4%22-x-6%22-photo-and-craft-storage-carrier/d?q=iris&productId=11004246

[Steeze]

Diploma case, gift bag and jingle bells into the donation bag today.

Can I share a bit of frustration? I have 6 boxes of old-school paper photographs and jointly purchased a scanner with Mom. She took the first turn with the scanner because she's semi retired and has more time. However, she finds it to be a boring task and has not made much progress. If I'd had the scanner, maybe I wouldn't need to move 6 boxes of photos (I'll be moving end of February). Again. Thanks for listening.

Takes some time, but you can do this with the notes app on your iPhone pretty easily if you have one

[zygote]

I decided to do a refresh of my stuff in the Konmari order for the new year. I did the full blown Konmari method two-ish years ago, so this is more of a check-in to make sure that what I chose to keep is still applicable. Got through clothes and books already. I only got rid of a few pairs of worn-out underwear and didn't get rid of any books. I have gotten rid of some clothes throughout the year, though, and I don't keep very many books on hand to begin with.

Clothes are a little complicated right now because the pandemic has really affected what I wear. Clothes for work meetings and going out have sat unused for the last year. I still like the items I have and am looking forward to wearing them again, but I don't always know how I feel until I actually use them. Trying them on in front of a mirror at home isn't the same as wearing them out in the world for a specific activity. So I'm leaving a few maybes for now, with the caveat that I will donate them if I don't enjoy wearing them when those activities come back.

Overall, it's nice to feel like I have generally reached the click point of stuff in those categories and am maintaining them okay.

[SunniD]

PTF as I am planning to de-clutter lots of things this year.
Just being sick of "STUFF" ...

100% this (the bold and caps are mine).   

I did some Marie Kondo'ing last year to my kitchen, bathroom and closet and it felt wonderful. But I just stopped before any of those areas were completed and there is SO MUCH MORE to do. I didn't even touch paper. Photos and paperwork is so daunting to me. Hopefully joining/reading this thread will get me moving again. I still like some of my stuff and they do bring me joy but when I look around my place that only represents a very small portion of my masses of stuff. How did I let myself accumulate so much STUFF and why is it so hard for me to get rid of it?

[Steeze]

Had a video game for PS1 I bought a few years ago just to display as memorabilia.

Sold on eBay today for $120.

[Blissful Biker]

The sporadically do a deep declutter area by area but the linen closet has never made it to the top of the list.  Today I pulled it all out and only put a third back.  Phew!

Frustratingly I found good clothes for the kids we had purchased on sale and stored in the linen closet for them to grow into.  Now they are too small!  Argh.  An example of clutter and disorganization costing money.

[oneday]

Diploma case, gift bag and jingle bells into the donation bag today.

Can I share a bit of frustration? I have 6 boxes of old-school paper photographs and jointly purchased a scanner with Mom. She took the first turn with the scanner because she's semi retired and has more time. However, she finds it to be a boring task and has not made much progress. If I'd had the scanner, maybe I wouldn't need to move 6 boxes of photos (I'll be moving end of February). Again. Thanks for listening.

I am with your mom. I tried scanning a ton of pictures and found it to be extremely boring and gave up. Here is another idea to store pictures. I keep thinking about buying this but have not done so yet: https://www.containerstore.com/s/iris-16_case-4%22-x-6%22-photo-and-craft-storage-carrier/d?q=iris&productId=11004246

I agree with you, it is *deadly* boring. I didn't mean that to come across judgy, rather simply as the reason that progress has been slow. And I empathize with that!  At the same time,  I feel the frustration of having to move these boxes once again. Deep breath, oneday. This too shall pass.

Diploma case, gift bag and jingle bells into the donation bag today.

Can I share a bit of frustration? I have 6 boxes of old-school paper photographs and jointly purchased a scanner with Mom. She took the first turn with the scanner because she's semi retired and has more time. However, she finds it to be a boring task and has not made much progress. If I'd had the scanner, maybe I wouldn't need to move 6 boxes of photos (I'll be moving end of February). Again. Thanks for listening.

Takes some time, but you can do this with the notes app on your iPhone pretty easily if you have one

Alas, I am an Android gal.

@SunniD take heart! My best success has been with paper. Went from 7 boxes at the low point to fewer than 7" today. It can be done! But takes time and focus. You are in the right place. A tip I picked up from Marie Kondo is to start with what is easy for you and build up the decluttering muscle before you ta old the hardest stuff. And remember the tortise: slow and stray wins the race!

@zygote how wonderful that you've reached that click point! (What a great way to phrase that).

Zygote makes me wonder: what are everyone's tidying resolutions? One of mine is to deal with the photos, another is to move/merge households with BF and retain both our sanity and good relationship 😊

[Sibley]

Do you actually want to scan all those photos? I have one small box of pictures, but I know there's duplicates in there. If you have multiple boxes - how many duplicates or near duplicates, out of focus, or pictures of random places or people that you don't want are in those boxes? Spending some time to decrease the volume will make the move easier, as well as reducing later scanning time.

[happy]

Zygote makes me wonder: what are everyone's tidying resolutions? One of mine is to deal with the photos, another is to move/merge households with BF and retain both our sanity and good relationship 😊

My main resolution is just to keep at it on a regular basis! I made good progress with the house last year, I think will start off this year with areas outside the house:
- carport...bigtime dumping ground
- collection of plants in pots awaiting planting. I have banned myself from buying anymore. They are just maintenance the way they are...need watering and collect fallen leaves etc.
- cleanup sheds. In particular one that stuff got dumped in when I moved here and hasn't been touched since.

I'm guessing in the second half of the year I'll have another go through the house.

There is the issue of photos. I've been avoiding this since I hit a wall very quickly the last time I tried it. ( and in the grand scheme of things photos were just a few boxes) . I now have a lot of my parent's photos to deal with as well.

These were the issues last time:

- what sort of scanner to buy
- whether to keep negatives or not - does one scan those too?

Finally I never actually look at photos I've taken. The only time I do this is when I am thinking about organising/culling/moving them, or, if on the odd occasion I am looking for something very specific like those occasions when one is requested to produce a baby or embarrassing photo from one's past. I know people agonise over photos, but if I lost them all in a house fire I'm not sure it would bother me that much. So maybe I should do something daring  like an extreme cull?

[Prairie Gal]

Made a little progress with de-cluttering this weekend:
 - gave away and old, tube style TV.
 - took my old printer out to the garage. I need to find out where I can recycle it.
 - gathered up a bunch of decor items that I am not using and I will try to sell them.
 - gave a few kitchen items to DS when he was here.
 - put a couple of books in the donate bag.

[Steeze]

Re: photos

I set mine to rotate on my background photos on my PC, iPhone, and TV. That way I can enjoy them more frequently. Also, after culling a lot of my keepsakes, it is nice to now see photos of that stuff occasionally instead of it being locked in a box for years at a time.

[mspym]

That is an excellent idea @Steeze and one I may yoink.

[MoseyingAlong]

Re: photos

I set mine to rotate on my background photos on my PC, iPhone, and TV. That way I can enjoy them more frequently. Also, after culling a lot of my keepsakes, it is nice to now see photos of that stuff occasionally instead of it being locked in a box for years at a time.

@Steeze Can you give a quick guide on how you did this?
I've been talking about it for years but don't know how to get started.

[oneday]

Do you actually want to scan all those photos? I have one small box of pictures, but I know there's duplicates in there. If you have multiple boxes - how many duplicates or near duplicates, out of focus, or pictures of random places or people that you don't want are in those boxes? Spending some time to decrease the volume will make the move easier, as well as reducing later scanning time.

Oh, it's for sure there are many rolls where duplicates were ordered. It would be silly to scan two of the exact same image, lol! I've done some organization in the past, so know what I'm up against. A good chunk of it is in chronological order, at least. Then there are a lot of the ex's photos (as in, things he photographed that I'm not interested in), and photos from the time period with the ex. I'd rather not open those doors at the moment. It's all tucked safely away until I'm ready to deal with it.

@Sibley what are your decluttering goals for 2021?



@happy  modest but achievable goals! You might be interested in a thread I started a while back on the photo scanning topic: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/who-has-advice-on-photo-scanning/msg2694985/#msg2694985

With your attitude about photos, you might be able to get away with a more radical cull than I would be comfortable with.

[lazycow]

Decluttered a gingerbread house cookie cutter kit. It was an impulse buy a couple of years ago and when I went to use it last week I realised I'd have to make about 3 x the usual amount of gingerbread: it makes a HUGE house! I will stick to my own measurements for making 2 small houses for the kids to decorate, and just use a ruler and a knife to cut out the shapes.

[Plina]

Do you actually want to scan all those photos? I have one small box of pictures, but I know there's duplicates in there. If you have multiple boxes - how many duplicates or near duplicates, out of focus, or pictures of random places or people that you don't want are in those boxes? Spending some time to decrease the volume will make the move easier, as well as reducing later scanning time.

I did this a couple of years ago with years of worth of paper photos. After spending some time of going through the photos I put a significantly smaller of number of photos into albums. There were a lot of duplicates and photos of people I could not even remember. If I can’t even remember the person in the photo why would I keep it. Now I have ten years of digital photos to sort through and make photo books. I prefer albums and photobooks over digital photos.

[Steeze]

Re: photos

I set mine to rotate on my background photos on my PC, iPhone, and TV. That way I can enjoy them more frequently. Also, after culling a lot of my keepsakes, it is nice to now see photos of that stuff occasionally instead of it being locked in a box for years at a time.

@Steeze Can you give a quick guide on how you did this?
I've been talking about it for years but don't know how to get started.

on iPhone, download photos widget (3rd party) in app store. create an album you want to rotate through. set widget to rotate through that album, go to setting, change to 1 minute (lowest) if wanted.

on PC, Settings > Personalization > Background > Slideshow (in drop down) > Browse > Choose folder > Choose Fit > Change picture every 1 minute
on PC, Settings > Personalization > Lock Screen > Screen Saver Settings > Photos > Settings... > Browse > Choose folder

on TV - I have a Google Chrome Cast - Add photos to google photos > add album in Ambient Mode settings

[Sibley]

@Sibley what are your decluttering goals for 2021?

I don't have huge piles of stuff I don't need in the house. Luckily. However, I do have huge piles of rocks outside to dig out and dispose of. Made almost no progress last year. The big declutter challenge however will be my parents. They are planning on selling their house and moving to my area. My mom thinks they're in good shape. My sister and I think they're in better shape than they were a few years ago, but it's still going to be a huge challenge. Including the fact that while mom has decided to get rid of a ton of stuff, it's all sitting in boxes labeled "sell". Combined with them moving and finding a place, normal life/work, etc.... send luck.

[SunnyDays]

If you just take digital pictures with either your phone/tablet or camera, it's way faster than scanning.  Just spread them out on a table and click on each one individually and you have a digital record.  As you do this, get rid of the  ones you don't want to keep paper copies of.  Simple.

[oneday]

@Sibley what are your decluttering goals for 2021?

I don't have huge piles of stuff I don't need in the house. Luckily. However, I do have huge piles of rocks outside to dig out and dispose of. Made almost no progress last year. The big declutter challenge however will be my parents. They are planning on selling their house and moving to my area. My mom thinks they're in good shape. My sister and I think they're in better shape than they were a few years ago, but it's still going to be a huge challenge. Including the fact that while mom has decided to get rid of a ton of stuff, it's all sitting in boxes labeled "sell". Combined with them moving and finding a place, normal life/work, etc.... send luck.

Good luck on both the rocks and your parent's move. My former in-laws, both with hoarding tendencies so they sort of encouraged each other, had a moving truck so big that it wasn't able to fit down the street of their new home. They had to last-minute rent a smaller moving van to actually get their possessions into their new home. Whew! I hope it's not like that for you.

[SunniD]

I cleared 2 small piles yesterday. I'm a piler. Got rid of a bunch of CD/DVD cases and some old clothes (half going to donation).

I have a pair of very expensive and space hogging ski boots I will try to sell. 

 

[NotJen]

I listed an old treadmill on FB Marketplace this morning and immediately got 3 messages - so I obviously priced it too low!  But at least it's out of the house tomorrow.

I also listed a shelving unit that I'm not sure why I still have.  Hopefully this encourages me to take the broken TV to the curb this week, and then all that will be left in my exercise room will be my elliptical (which I still use, though not as much as when I was working), a stool, and some hand weights.

[Shinplaster]

I thought I had thoroughly decluttered in preparation for our move in August.  When I packed up some of our kitchen things, we were still in the process of selling and I didn't know how much room we would have in the new place.    Turns out not so much!   Room for the things I use all the time, no room for things that get used every few years.   The spring pan, bundt pan, double boiler, and multiple cookie sheets are packaged up and waiting for us to come out of lockdown so I can donate them.   

I'm debating about the small food processor I have too - I liked the idea of being the kind of cook that used one, but found out my usual utensils do just fine, and I hate cleaning the thing.  It's not an expensive one, so I'd have no regrets about donating that either.   

[RetiredAt63]

I thought I had thoroughly decluttered in preparation for our move in August.  When I packed up some of our kitchen things, we were still in the process of selling and I didn't know how much room we would have in the new place.    Turns out not so much!   Room for the things I use all the time, no room for things that get used every few years.   The spring pan, bundt pan, double boiler, and multiple cookie sheets are packaged up and waiting for us to come out of lockdown so I can donate them.   

I'm debating about the small food processor I have too - I liked the idea of being the kind of cook that used one, but found out my usual utensils do just fine, and I hate cleaning the thing.  It's not an expensive one, so I'd have no regrets about donating that either.   

I bought the cheapest large food processor I could find, because I only use it when I am making relish.  The rest of the year it doesn't even live in the kitchen!  A good knife is efficient and a lot easier to clean.

[Shinplaster]

A good knife is efficient and a lot easier to clean.

Amen! 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Out of the house so far this week:
-Crystal cake stand (sold on FB marketplace)
-Old ski boots, outgrown by teen (sold on FB marketplace)
-Book (eBay)
-Face mask Christmas gift thing (eBay)
-Returned a few gifts that didn't work out

I need to go through another area & find stuff for my local Buy Nothing group. Things move quickly there.