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

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Gave away two boxes of cake mix & a container of frosting. No idea why I bought them, but we're not going to use them. The food banks don't take food close to expiration here, so Buy Nothing it is.
-Listed a few more Buy Nothing items
-Cleaned up a pair of football cleats that I somehow ended up with. Listed them on eBay. Decided the baseball cleats were beyond repair, and couldn't get any takers on Buy Nothing. Have put them aside for shoe recycling at our local athletic store. My son has a pair of soccer cleats that are beyond saving, so those are also in the shoe recycling pile.
-Donated a laptop bag
-Tossed a bunch of broken crayons

And, in ever so exciting news, I cleaned out our files one of the first weeks of the pandemic. I need a giant shredder, and put the papers aside for my return to the office (in, what I thought would be April of 2020). The papers have been sitting in my closet since then. I'm heading back for a quick office trip in a few weeks, and I will dump the papers in the giant corporate shredder. Hurrah!

[Dutch Comfort]

Sold a bunch of kids clothes through our local FB Marketplace. The lady who bought it thought she had a bargain and I was happy to have the stuff out of the house. Another 20 EUR in the kids' travel savings account (the kids are saving for a trip to China (whenever Covid is allowing us in again)!).

Only 3 more piles (I pile them by size) to go for DD clothes, but I first need to photograph them and put them on FB Marketplace. All clothes from DS are on there as well, but one way or the other boys'  clothes take longer to sell...... If not sold in 2 months, it will go to charity.

Went through my fake-jewelry stash and found 4 necklaces which I did not wear in years. Out they go!

Now I have to go through my own closet and toss any item that I did not wear this summer (because.... why would I wear it next summer......). Here's to hoping this will inspire DH to go through his closet as well....... he likes to keep clothes for garden work / DIY projects, but hey.... how many clothes to you need for this????

[slackmax]

Sold a bunch of kids clothes through our local FB Marketplace. The lady who bought it thought she had a bargain and I was happy to have the stuff out of the house. Another 20 EUR in the kids' travel savings account (the kids are saving for a trip to China (whenever Covid is allowing us in again)!).

Only 3 more piles (I pile them by size) to go for DD clothes, but I first need to photograph them and put them on FB Marketplace. All clothes from DS are on there as well, but one way or the other boys'  clothes take longer to sell...... If not sold in 2 months, it will go to charity.

Went through my fake-jewelry stash and found 4 necklaces which I did not wear in years. Out they go!

Now I have to go through my own closet and toss any item that I did not wear this summer (because.... why would I wear it next summer......). Here's to hoping this will inspire DH to go through his closet as well....... he likes to keep clothes for garden work / DIY projects, but hey.... how many clothes to you need for this????

Made myself devote a half hour to going through the 'sell at flea market' stash. I have been putting it off. Threw out a lot of small stuff, filled up half a bag to donate.

Looked through my boxes of greeting cards for a birthday card. While there, found some costume jewelry and some real sterling. Added the costume jewelry to my bag-o-jewelry for flea market. I can get $1 to $5 each for costume stuff, depending how pretty or interesting it is.  After fish oil, jewelry is the easiest stuff to sell. 

Taking the sterling to some local jewelry stores to get appraised.

 

[slackmax]

While looking through my big stash of paperwork stored in stacked up manila  folders, looking for a specific item of information, I came across some old college paperwork, about 10 pounds of it, all technical stuff.

I had been keeping it for sentimental reasons, but partly out of disgust with all the clutter, I felt good about recycling it. I put it in the recycling bag for next pickup.

One cubic foot less clutter!

[Fresh Bread]

Well done @slackmax !

[Dutch Comfort]

Had the kids go through their pile of board games. About 10 came out and are on FB Marketplace. 7 are about to be sold (I only count them as sold if they are picked up).
Gave away some other toys and board games on the Buy Nothing group. Remaining board games now nicely fit in the cupboard, no more falling out when opening the cupboard! Next thing on the list is the crafts section of the same cupboard, but I was already proud of the kids for decluttering the board games. Next week is half-term break, so they will have time to go through the crafts section and their rooms...... let's see if they can declutter some more......

[midweststache]

Instead of purchasing travel seats to fly to a wedding this weekend, we borrowed travel seats from parents in a social media parenting group. I returned them (with a small gift card as a thank you) earlier this week - two large items out of the house! (And no new items purchased for airplane travel, which I hope to avoid for another few years - traveling with kids is HARD.)

We're getting ready to start the big summer purge of kids clothes for our youngest and pass on what won't fit next summer to others.

I'm tackling our basement storage this weekend, which I've been ignoring since we moved in six months ago and I said "Oh, I'll go through that and organize it soon!"

[nessness]

We just moved, and I donated several bags of things before moving, but as I unpack I'm finding more things to donate - clothes my kids have outgrown, my own clothes that I never wear, etc. I've already filled a box of donations.

Now that my kids' books are all stored in one place, I can see that they have way too many, especially given that they probably read more digital books than physical ones, and we also regularly go to the library. But I find it really hard to get rid of kids books. I think part of it is that I'm attached to my memories of reading certain books to/with them.

[Sibley]

I have 5 bags of stuff to be dropped off in the trunk of the car. Mostly clothes, but a few other random things.

Edit: and dropped off on the way home from work today.

[LaineyAZ]

Got my adult son to go through his closet and he found 5 pair of shoes to give to the homeless shelter.
Apparently the shelter is in dire need of men's clothes, jackets and shoes.   I bought a package of new men's socks to go with it, so I'll be donating all of that today.

[shadesofgreen]

My CU had a e-cycle and shredding event over the weekend. Cars were lined almost around the block for the shredding but I was able to get in and out after dropping of the following electronics --

1 large flat screen TV with remote
1 computer drive
1 old dead flip phone
1 old dial-up box from the phone company which has been cancelled for over a year.

It feels so nice to get them out of the house.

[oneday]

Realized I didn't wear the shorts and t-shirt style pajamas all summer, only nightgowns. Now I have enough things to fill a bag and justify a trip to the charity shop.

The oddest thing going to the shop this time is a grill: a set of fake teeth made of fake gold and diamonds.

[Loretta]

I unsubscribed from a dozen emails and deleted a bunch of crappola. 

[Dutch Comfort]

Kids crafts section of the cupboard got decluttered!!!! YAY!!!!!
Items that they did not want/need anymore were trashed, donated or sold on the same day. All out of the house!

[Serendip]

Sold a hand-pumped portable espresso maker which was a not-used gift (received $150 for it!) .. which inspired more decluttering. I took nine items to a local consignment store and filled up a small box of donations. I just read Goodbye Things..a Japanese book about minimalism (the author is a young single man so his level of extreme minimalism is not desirable to me but it helped remind me to have a looser grip on my ‘stuff’

[Prairie Gal]

One of our cups broke in the dishwasher so I guess that's one less item in the house.

Haha! Great minds and all that. I dropped a cup while unloading the dishwasher and thought, well that's one way to de-clutter the cups.

I have been working from home for most of the pandemic and I am retiring, so a bunch of work related crap went back to the office. I also arranged to give away a table that I had in there for stacking work files on to a family member, but they haven't picked it up yet. Feels so good to de-clutter that room and re-claim it as my own!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

It's finally rainy again, and my son tried on his pants, and has outgrown them. (He's 14, so I suppose this is expected). I listed three pair on Buy Nothing, and had a taker in an hour. I have ordered other pants for him to wear, but at least we will have no more than we started with. The 15 year old is now taller than his dad, so I'm a little afraid for him to try on his pants.

[Dutch Comfort]

Had a good weekend:
Gave away a big box of Play-Doh accessoires that I found while decluttering. Also some other toys were happily taken on the Buy Nothing group.
Stuffed a box full of clothes for donation and trashed old shoes. Decided on some books to go into the little free library. So satisfying to have this done.
Now I wish to keep this decluttering-flow going. Even my SO helped by driving a car load of stuff to recycling.

[midweststache]

- A bag of kids books given away on my Buy Nothing Group.
- A bag of kids clothes given away on my Buy Nothing Group.
- A pile of clothes that are in horrible shape/incredibly worn to go to textile recycling.

Also:
- My work inbox is down to three emails. (THIS IS HUGE!)

[zygote]

Threw away a few boxes of tea that I'd had in my office before covid. They all expired in 2020 and didn't smell right anymore.

[RetiredAt63]

Threw away a few boxes of tea that I'd had in my office before covid. They all expired in 2020 and didn't smell right anymore.

Uh oh, I should go check expiry dates.  I suspect I also have some tea that has aged out.

Not to mention I should probably give all my herbs and spices a sniff test.  It's not so much that they go bad as that they loose flavour.

[mspym]

Only tiny wins this week
- We've been consciously using up some of our Less Favourite Teas and that got rid of 3 boxes worth in our tea cupboard. We are close to having an entirely reasonable stash only containing teas we really enjoy.
- 3 books off to the street library and 1 to a friend.

I'm getting to the point of accepting that there won't be a big council clean-up this year so maybe we put the dead tv etc in the car and take it around the corner to the e-cycling centre. (Like, it's literally diagonally across the block from us.) While this just declutters basement rooms that we never go in, it would be nice to take that off the list.

[slackmax]

Threw away a few boxes of tea that I'd had in my office before covid. They all expired in 2020 and didn't smell right anymore.

Uh oh, I should go check expiry dates.  I suspect I also have some tea that has aged out.

Not to mention I should probably give all my herbs and spices a sniff test.  It's not so much that they go bad as that they loose flavour.

I have a lot of expired boxes of regular and herbal tea. I'll have to start drinking tea more often. I'm actually a coffee person, though. 

[Sibley]

Threw away a few boxes of tea that I'd had in my office before covid. They all expired in 2020 and didn't smell right anymore.

Uh oh, I should go check expiry dates.  I suspect I also have some tea that has aged out.

Not to mention I should probably give all my herbs and spices a sniff test.  It's not so much that they go bad as that they loose flavour.

I have a lot of expired boxes of regular and herbal tea. I'll have to start drinking tea more often. I'm actually a coffee person, though.

If they've gotten moldy - NO. If they're not moldy, don't drink bad tea, that's just being mean to yourself. Compost it. And obviously don't get new tea you won't drink in future.

[shadowmoss]

Ummmm.  Is 3 or 4 years in a closed jar for teabags considered 'old' tea?  Asking for a friend...

[Sibley]

The pool table is finally out of parent's basement. Apparently a lot of people don't know how heavy pool tables are thus don't come prepared. Even when warned that the people in the house are not able to assist in anyway. But it's gone.

Various other things have left their house - the half height window shutters are gone, the bifold door is gone, misc leftover tile is gone. Dad and I returned various things to the store today, including the 4 8ft metal posts that were not needed for the fence. Once the fence is done (tomorrow? was wet today) there will be a few more things to go back probably.

[SunnyDays]

Ummmm.  Is 3 or 4 years in a closed jar for teabags considered 'old' tea?  Asking for a friend...

Mmmmm, probably, but if it’s regular tea, the tannic acid in it has likely kept it from spoiling.  If it smells okay, I would still use it - it just might have lost some of it’s strength, so you might need more.

[slackmax]

I wasn't able to put my recycling out this cycle, so I drove over to the recycling place and dumped 5 pounds of old unsellable technical manuals myself, just to get rid of it.

[Dutch Comfort]

Selling outgrown clothes of the kids on FB marketplace. Money gets donated to the children's travel account. One way or the other, girls clothes sell better than boys clothes.....
Found some baby clothes in a box. Will be donated to a local lady who supports single (teen) mothers.
Have a full box of children's books which have to find their way to the free little libraries in the neighbourhood. A good way to get some exercise! Maybe I can add a few small items to be re-used to those libraries as well (I sometimes see little non-book items in there).

[Dutch Comfort]

Ummmm.  Is 3 or 4 years in a closed jar for teabags considered 'old' tea?  Asking for a friend...

Depending on the tea quality. I'm currently drinking 3 year old loose leaf tea which was in a vacuum until a week ago. Since it was in a vacuum and it is loose leaf tea (not the crushed small pieces), the tea is still good. But tea bags with only crushed small pieces....... I would not drink it (but hey, I'm a tea person.....).

[Roadrunner53]

Just thought I would mention that in my area, Vietnam Veterans organization will come directly to your house and pick up items. They will not take large furniture and some electronics. If you go to their website, you will find a list of what they don't take. I think you can make an appointment for them to pick up your stuff on line or by phone. You need to label your bags Vietnam Veterans of America or VVA. You can just leave the labeled bags in a designated spot like garage door, back door, front door and they will pick them up. I have done this many times and it has worked out perfectly and I didn't have to leave my house! They will take small furniture. It has to be small enough that one person can handle it easily. I don't think they send out two people, only one person to do pick ups.

[JoePublic3.14]

We moved a few months ago and this weekend I implemented a new rule in my slowly getting organized garage. If I trip over it, it falls on me, or otherwise pisses me off, it is gone. Either in donate pile or trash. Several shelf brackets and a dozen small, empty parts bins are no longer with me after they misbehaved while I was putting the bikes away. And an extension ladder is on double secret probation right now.

[Dutch Comfort]

One big box of clothes finally got out of the house to the donation location!
Sold some more clothes and a board game on Craigslist.

Hope to get some more decluttering done later today after work.....

[MaybeBabyMustache]

It's been awhile since I've joined in, which is a sign I haven't made much progress lately. I did add two workout tanks to the donation pile today, as my drawer is getting too cluttered, and these are items I won't wear.

I also organized my "seasonal clothing" drawer, moving the winter stuff to the front, and tucking the bathing suits & shorts towards the back. It looks tidier, and will remind me to use my sweaters.

I'm also making a lot of progress organizing & then "getting rid of" (by eating) our freezer items. The freezer is looking so much more organized!

[Prairie Gal]

Not a lot of progress here lately either. I did donate my old crockpot and "adopted" one from my basement that my Dad had stored there for years. I am also donating an old winter coat to a lady in need. Just need to wash it first.

[slackmax]

My old 25 inch tube TV finally stopped working.

So far I found a place that will take it for 70 cents a pound, no extra fees. It weighs at least 25 pounds, maybe 30. If it's 30 pounds, that would be $21.

A municipal recycling place will take it for $40. Too high, of course.

Going to keep looking.

It is a great candidate for decluttering. Big, unusable, and unsellable. 

[Sibley]

I wish governments would figure out that if you make it hard to get rid of something properly, then people are just going to get rid of it the easy way. Your example is the tv. Mine is the old smoke detectors. Even haz waste wouldn't take them.

[mspym]

We finally took the bag of donations to a charity bin and at the last moment I added a nice black leather backpack that I had bought for work but always used something else. So that's another corner clear.

[lazycow]

A thoroughly well-used trampoline (rusted) so broken down and taken to the tip (they separate out all the sellable parts so not total trash)
2 Wasgij puzzles I completed during lockdowns, 1 book, 1 DVD set, several bamboo placements (bought for a gardening project which never happened) and all my son's Year 12 texts and uniforms (yay! Formal schooling DONE for my family). Unfortunately the schools change their text books every couple of years so I had to recycle them rather than pass them on or sell them. Why they still use paper texts when they have digital copies is beyond me, so wasteful.

[Plina]

I wish governments would figure out that if you make it hard to get rid of something properly, then people are just going to get rid of it the easy way. Your example is the tv. Mine is the old smoke detectors. Even haz waste wouldn't take them.

They have in many countries.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Kids have outgrown their ski gear, so already posted on Buy Nothing, and have folks coming over this morning.
-Have set aside two pair of pants & a puzzle to list in the next few days
-Tossed the items I've listed on Buy Nothing & got no takers for
-Recycled a bunch of old papers

[Frugal Lizard]

It has been a pretty productive decluttering month after three months of buildup.

An huge load went to donation - like entire car load.
A surplus pumpkin/squash harvest got donated. (14 large - to a community food pantry.)
3 - buttercup squash that were starting to go, made into soup.  Yield nine Liters.  I dropped some off at neighbours.

2 boxes of porcelain dishes out of my garage to my brothers.  He might bring them back!
One bag of clothes
A whole box of really old seed - I realized I could just compost / see what comes up in an area of the garden that is weedy so I dumped them on the soil.  (I am pretty good at identifying plants early)
I am working my way through the cold cellar and freezer and pantry already and not worrying about "conserving" the harvest.
Tossed a bunch of old / random / broken trays, pots into recycling.
Been working my way through pantry items from my late friend.  Used up all the soy sauces, plain olive oils, some of the tea, some of the vinegars. I need to go through the rest of my pantry and take some inventory. It has been really comforting to be making pickles and not have enough cider vinegar, dive into the box from her condo and be 'saved' from a grocery store trip' by a former neighbour, who while alive was my go-to for a little whatever.  (I was also her emergency cup-of-sugar/egg/fresh herb person too)

I have started a fitness program and am now using some runners, bands and balls that were just kicking around here.  Balls that no longer inflate, bands that snap in half: tossed!

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Have someone coming today to pick up two pair of pants & two shirts that my husband & kids outgrew. (Husband is shrinking, kids are growing). It will be nice to get them out of the house.

Ski clothes are picked up & in the hands of others. We're trying to wrap up a puzzle before Thanksgiving (we need the table space). Once that happens, I have two puzzles to give away on Buy Nothing.

I've made zero progress on eBay in months. Need to decide if I should post a few things, or pause all of my listings & just give stuff away. Food for thought.

[slackmax]

I wish governments would figure out that if you make it hard to get rid of something properly, then people are just going to get rid of it the easy way. Your example is the tv. Mine is the old smoke detectors. Even haz waste wouldn't take them.

This is somewhat off topic, but on the subject of spending tax money wisely. My city has a beautiful wooded park that I like to walk in often. They are putting in a huge paved asphalt walkway now, about a mile of it, all throughout the place, which in my opinion is ruining the park. It uglifies and citifies it. It was perfect before, and now they are wasting our tax money ruining my park.  There were already nice natural grass or wood chip walkways in the same routes. 

Maybe a lot of residents actually want it. There is no discussion of it at all on social media. Maybe it's just a boondoggle routing money to somebody's brother.

Millions of dollars possibly. How many TV's could have been recycled for a million bucks?   

OK, rant over. Couldn't find a more appropriate thread to rant in.     

[SquashingDebt]

I wish governments would figure out that if you make it hard to get rid of something properly, then people are just going to get rid of it the easy way. Your example is the tv. Mine is the old smoke detectors. Even haz waste wouldn't take them.

This is somewhat off topic, but on the subject of spending tax money wisely. My city has a beautiful wooded park that I like to walk in often. They are putting in a huge paved asphalt walkway now, about a mile of it, all throughout the place, which in my opinion is ruining the park. It uglifies and citifies it. It was perfect before, and now they are wasting our tax money ruining my park.  There were already nice natural grass or wood chip walkways in the same routes. 

Maybe a lot of residents actually want it. There is no discussion of it at all on social media. Maybe it's just a boondoggle routing money to somebody's brother.

Millions of dollars possibly. How many TV's could have been recycled for a million bucks?   

OK, rant over. Couldn't find a more appropriate thread to rant in.   

Sounds like the path upgrade will make the park much more accessible to anyone who is in a wheelchair/has poor balance/has kids in a stroller/etc.

[mspym]

I wish governments would figure out that if you make it hard to get rid of something properly, then people are just going to get rid of it the easy way. Your example is the tv. Mine is the old smoke detectors. Even haz waste wouldn't take them.

This is somewhat off topic, but on the subject of spending tax money wisely. My city has a beautiful wooded park that I like to walk in often. They are putting in a huge paved asphalt walkway now, about a mile of it, all throughout the place, which in my opinion is ruining the park. It uglifies and citifies it. It was perfect before, and now they are wasting our tax money ruining my park.  There were already nice natural grass or wood chip walkways in the same routes. 

Maybe a lot of residents actually want it. There is no discussion of it at all on social media. Maybe it's just a boondoggle routing money to somebody's brother.

Millions of dollars possibly. How many TV's could have been recycled for a million bucks?   

OK, rant over. Couldn't find a more appropriate thread to rant in.   

Sounds like the path upgrade will make the park much more accessible to anyone who is in a wheelchair/has poor balance/has kids in a stroller/etc.

Yeah, I was thinking *accessibility*

[Omy]

I have a bad habit of transferring the important stuff I need into a new purse and leaving the old used purse in a corner of my closet (with random stuff still in it).

I went through all of my discarded purses this weekend and found over $300 worth of unexpired gift cards. And close to $20 in loose change.  Donated half the purses and threw away the ones that were too rough to salvage.

[slackmax]

Yesterday, did some rearranging of stuff on the kitchen. Moved a box of clean empty glass jars to the basement. Consolidated some stuff. More room now. Less cluttered. Threw out a few baggies of old dulse (dried seaweed).     

Focused on the upstairs den for 2 hours today. Identified lots of stuff for selling at the flea market.  Consolidated. Found enough appropriate clothes for one bag of donations and one bag to go to 'textile recycling'.     

[Sugaree]

I wish governments would figure out that if you make it hard to get rid of something properly, then people are just going to get rid of it the easy way. Your example is the tv. Mine is the old smoke detectors. Even haz waste wouldn't take them.

My city has the right idea.  As long as I separate yard debris from household garbage, I can pile it by the curb and the city will (eventually) come get it.  It's always funny to see people who move here from other places whine about it on the local Facebook pages.  "My neighbor keeps piling garbage by the side of the road and the city has to deal with it.  There has to be an ordinance against this."  No.  No there's not.  In fact, it's a service we pay for. 

[Shinplaster]

Donated a garbage bag full of clothing and books today.  I've been driving around with it in my trunk for a couple of weeks, and I'm glad to have the trunk space back again.