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

[Fresh Bread]

@Sibley What nice parents you have! It's quite satisfying cleaning underneath things that never get moved, especially when you have pets.

I am busy packing up some craft equipment. Not only did I make back the money I wasted on it (never used it), I now have half a cupboard shelf free & clear. I'm very happy! Not sure what will go on the shelf yet. There's a few contenders.

[oneday]

Finally let go of my stash of moving boxes and packing material!

A week later, I have  sold the largest book case languishing in the garage.

Really nice transaction. Buyer was a Craigslist unicorn: patient (second to respond), prompt, coherent emails, didn't negotiate price, offered reasonable delivery fee, paid cash! ❤️

[Frugal Lizard]

 A whole load of stuff was loaded into the car and is now gone from the garage. Whoot whoot

[Freedomin5]

Big bag of masks, medical supplies, and new winter gear is gone from our storage room and hopefully will be on its way to Turkey for earthquake victims soon.

[PMG]

I finally got some outgrown baby gear listed on eBay. I priced it to sell. Fingers crossed it works because I’d really like to have that closet space back.

[midweststache]

Pajama-errand morning! (Errands early-morning on the weekends when people without tiny chaos monsters are still sleeping.) DH and I put on "real clothes", the monsters hop in the car in their PJs, and we get shit done. Today this included:
- a bag of too-small, too-worn-to-give-away clothes to textile recycling.
- two old electronics to the Home Depot electronic recycling.
- dropping off 13 library books and Library C, as we plan to visit Library B later today and we wanted to get the books back to their home library ASAP. (Returning them at Library B would take almost a week to get back, as they are separate library systems with reciprocal borrowing privileges.)

I also pulled a raincoat, a full-zip fleece, and a scarf that were worn exactly ZERO times throughout the past two winter seasons. I'll post them in my BN group to pass along to neighbors who might get some use out of them.

Used up the last of some gross kitchen cleaning wipes from the former owners. They're smelly and awful, but we needed to clean our garbage bin so they got the job done.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

My son's ant habitat has been listed on FB marketplace multiple times over the past few years, and finally sold. Hurrah. It's actually quite a few pieces. I need to package it up & get it mailed out, but thrilled that it's gone (almost).

[Josiecat22222]

small wins this week:

-took a bunch of periodicals to local little library
-boxed up outgrown clothes to bring to familial matriarch to be re-distributed to the cousins (we are the oldest cousin on both sides, and MIL has 9 siblings, each with kids and grandkids, so clothes get redistributed quickly!)
-working through pantry challenge; superbowl snacks tonight will (hopefully) debulk the freezer of junk snacks
-gave away large baskets not being used via BNG

[oneday]

Finally let go of my stash of moving boxes and packing material!

A week later, I have  sold the largest book case languishing in the garage.

Oh, and forgot to report: the day prior I mostly finished my garage reorg. Completed assembly of second set of storage shelves, tossed "keeper" things on the shelves (not totally willy-nilly, but could use a fine tuning). Quick sweep to get the leaves out. Didn't really get rid of anything, but opened up the space to allow access to the things that do need to go (like the pile 'o boxes). This was the culmination of several days of 10-30 minutes. Altogether with finishing touches still to come, about 3-4 hours work. Go me! 👏

[Sibley]

@Sibley What nice parents you have! It's quite satisfying cleaning underneath things that never get moved, especially when you have pets.

Well, yes they're nice, but really mom is a softie. Beren has been trying to get into the utility room, and I wouldn't let her until I'd cleaned it. That was mom's motivation.

The utility room is clean. Moving the washer and dryer was GROSS. OMG, it was bad. I had to let the soapy water soak into the crust for a couple minutes, especially under the dryer. Arwen had peed in there and it had spread underneath, I'd cleaned up what I could and sprayed the enzyme cleaner liberally, but it wasn't the cleanup that was needed.

Donated the adult cat food to the shelter, I massively underestimated how much I had. There were 10 cases, and a bag that was at probably another 2 cases. I checked a few cans, it would be long expired by the time the kittens are ready for it. Also dropped of a bag of misc items at the thrift store, several purses, couple tops, etc, and the boombox. The counter in there is almost empty.

[okisok]

Identified a pair of pants to be donated. They were given to me and I have so many pairs I'm getting rid of the ones with the least-comfortable waistband.

[draco44]

A friend came by for dinner and expressed interest in a new hobby. I had been on the fence about donating a book on that topic, and happily picked it up and gave them the book as a gift.

[Prairie Gal]

I gave away two playpens and some toys to a lady setting up a day home.

[okisok]

A top and a pair of pants, both knit, with tiny holes. Very frustrating.

[midweststache]

We keep two bins of hand-me-downs from our eldest for when our youngest ages into them. Yesterday we went through and did a closet switch, which resulted in: one half-emptied bin, a few items for textile recycling, and a small pile of still-quality items to hand down to the youngest cousin.

We replaced a battery in a handheld vacuum, rather than getting a new vacuum, so the old battery is off to electronic recycling at Home Depot today.

We moved into our house almost two years ago and still haven't hung all our pictures (for some reason that feels very permanent to me?) so DH and I are going to go through pictures and figure out at least what rooms they should go in this weekend; his mom has offered to hang them on our next visit. (She's VERY project-oriented and always wants to do things like this when she visits - she's literally asked for a project or two in advance of their visit - so we don't feel bad about this.) So that'll be a TON of clutter in our basement finally in a spot where it'll live.... PERMANENTLY :)

[Dutch Comfort]

Found a box of unused children-birthday-party-goodies to go into goodie bags. My kids are teens now, so put the whole bunch in 1 go on the Buy Nothing group. Was picked up within 1 hour!

[Weisass]

Said goodbye to a refrigerator and a microwave this week…. The fridge was sitting around not being used, but still had some life in it(which I have guilt about. But there are reasons.) and the microwave was borrowed to use during a home project. Now we don’t need them, so they left to bring joy to someone else!

[Loretta]

Returning two clothing items to Amazon that were too hot and scratchy. 

I attempted to dye a blouse I didn’t care for, the dye didn’t take and instead it’s very raggedy now, so it’s getting decluttered permanently. 

I’m using up some toiletries slowly but surely. 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Sold a platter we brought back from our vacation house, when we sold it. We had the same platter at our house here, but weren't sure if we'd ever have occasion to use two. Nope. Made $25 on FB marketplace, and I think this is the last item from our vacation house (that we plan to get rid of - we have a few things we intend to keep), now gone.

[slackmax]

I have been using a dead coffee maker to make my coffee by boiling water on the stove and pouring it over the coffee grounds in the dead coffee maker. Been doing that for two months. Coffee was OK.

Yesterday, as I was moving stuff around in the basement, came across two, yes two, functioning coffee makers I had completely forgotten about!

Eureka! Now I am using one of them to make my coffee, and threw out the dead one.  (There's the decluttering)

Glad I didn't rush out and buy a new coffee maker. How could I forget I had spares?

This time I made a note in my computer that I still have one backup coffee maker in the basement, lol.   

And the new coffee maker tastes better, too. 

[oneday]

Finally let go of my stash of moving boxes and packing material!

A week later, I have  sold the largest book case languishing in the garage.

Sold the smaller bookcase!

Buyer annoyed me by showing up 10 minutes early, but was basically shoving the cash at me as soon as I walked out the door, furniture still unseen. Very eager.

[imperfect]

Bracken, I just don't get WTF is filling peoples' garages??  All the houses in our neighborhood are large, and actually most people do park in their garages, but I see some that are just chock full of... what, exactly?

Tools, gardening supplies, lumber scraps, PVC pipe, halloween decorations, pool supplies, snow chains, car jack, luggage, and a lot of other stuff I can't even remember.

[imperfect]

Bracken, I just don't get WTF is filling peoples' garages??  All the houses in our neighborhood are large, and actually most people do park in their garages, but I see some that are just chock full of... what, exactly?

Tools, gardening supplies, lumber scraps, PVC pipe, halloween decorations, pool supplies, snow chains, car jack, luggage, and a lot of other stuff I can't even remember.

Tent, wheelbarrow, sleds, power washer, full size freezer, treadmill, squat rack, weight trees, snow shovel, and still lots more other stuff I didn't notice when I was just out there. :)

[mspym]

Minor victory - I saw a copy of a book I just got out of the library in one of the little free libraries and left it there. The motivation to get through it would be gone if I removed the return date deadline.

UPDATE: I am now super pleased I didn’t pick up the book. I am biffing the copy I have back to the library- good writing but did not vibe with me. This makes it one read and two abandoned out of the three books I borrowed.

[oneday]

Bracken, I just don't get WTF is filling peoples' garages??  All the houses in our neighborhood are large, and actually most people do park in their garages, but I see some that are just chock full of... what, exactly?

Tools, gardening supplies, lumber scraps, PVC pipe, halloween decorations, pool supplies, snow chains, car jack, luggage, and a lot of other stuff I can't even remember.

Tent, wheelbarrow, sleds, power washer, full size freezer, treadmill, squat rack, weight trees, snow shovel, and still lots more other stuff I didn't notice when I was just out there. :)

Old/extra furniture
Camping gear
Bicycles
Other sports equipment
All the extra rolls of paper towels from a Costco sized pack
Cat litter tub
Random stuff I mean to get rid of but haven't yet
Fans (in winter)
Christmas decoration

[tygertygertyger]

Donated:

cleaning wipes
toothbrushes/toothpaste
Deodorant that would expire before I ever got around to it
a few other small things...

Also, because my partner's mom has been trying to give me things, I sent her the flyer showing what donations they're currently accepting at our library... the flyer noted "bars of soap" since she has extras that she hoped I'd take.

Hmm I see now that flyer and flier are both acceptable spellings, since I was hesitant over my above sentence.

[Josiecat22222]

brought a stack of cooking magazines to the little library.  I've already copied the recipes I'm actually going to make from there, so they were just taking up space on my shelf.

recycled a stack of T shirts to Marine Layer

have been diligently participating in the "eat all the food in your house" this month and feel like I've made some real progress and it will effect how I shop moving forward.

[slackmax]

I was looking in the junk drawer in the kitchen today, for a pair of needle nose pliers. The somewhat stressful electrical project I am working on calls for one.

I could not believe all the junk in the junk drawer. A perfect time to destress, forget my project for a while, and toss out lots of this stuff. Or at least move into small boxes with labels. 

I found ten pair of big scissors. Ten !  And about a million paper clips, single or in bags or little boxes.       

And a thousand twisties for bread bags.

Not done with it yet. Threw out a lot of twisties and string so far. Moved the scissors into a box. Can sell them at flea market.   

This will be a satisfying decluttering event. 

[mspym]

@slackmax good job on clearing out the junk drawer and I hope you find your pliers soon
@Josiecat23503 I did that with my cookbooks - I've got one book that I fill with the single recipes from various cookbooks and then I let them go to someone else. It's nice to have the kitchen space back.
@tygertygertyger nice one redirecting your partner's mom's donation energy

Sometimes it feels like the only thing we get rid of is books, but then I realise things have been steadily moving from the donation box to other homes. This weekend it was the cast iron grill pan and the dustbuster. I am also abandoning the idea of trying to sell a pair of sandals and I am going to donate them, which is prompting me to prowl around the house looking for other things we can get rid of.

[okisok]

Two spaghettis sauce jars into the recycling. I have plenty of real canning jars and don't need upcycled ones.

A lidded insulated cup and straw into the donation bag with the pants.

I did buy a book this weekend, but the plan is to read it and immediately pass it on to my dad. It's only visiting, not staying.

[Frugal Lizard]

I did two kitchen cupboards today. There was some truly scary food stuffs in there. And we have enough tylenol for years. I composted a bunch of really old tea. The cooking oils and vinegar shelf was beyond disgusting.  It is so spacious and easy to find everything! DD is taking a bunch of tea to the community food pantry.  It is still vacuum sealed and I will never drink all that green tea.

[okisok]

Broke a glass loading the dishwasher and tossed another that was permanently stained.

Two plastic food storage containers in recycling.

One shirt that came from the thrift store has been selected to return to the mother ship.

[Fresh Bread]

Finally threw out a bra that was way way WAY past the point where you'd be mortified if you were in a car crash and they saw it in hospital. That's my benchmark for when undies need to be thrown out. Still have one in a similar condition but don't have a replacement yet.

Have found a charity that accepts used bras in great condition and I've pulled out the ones I have probably grown out of. Just need to do a final try on before I send them but that's a PITA. You can't just go by the labelled size as they can be all over the place.

[slackmax]

Spent another hour on the kitchen junk drawer. The good news is that I got a plastic store bag completely full with crappe like twisties, plastic hanger thingies, cardboard cutout coupons for free pizza, etc. (Actually I recycled the cardboard coupons).

The 'less good' news is that I had to move lots of the useful stuff into two small boxes, and I put the boxes into a storage room, with labels on them so I know what the heck is in them.  So the junk drawer has 'expanded' its clutter to another room!   But is is neat.  And I can sell it when the flea market opens up. Staplers, scissors, staples. 

Now I have a nice clean and almost empty junk drawer.   
 

[Weisass]

Spent another hour on the kitchen junk drawer. The good news is that I got a plastic store bag completely full with crappe like twisties, plastic hanger thingies, cardboard cutout coupons for free pizza, etc. (Actually I recycled the cardboard coupons).

The 'less good' news is that I had to move lots of the useful stuff into two small boxes, and I put the boxes into a storage room, with labels on them so I know what the heck is in them.  So the junk drawer has 'expanded' its clutter to another room!   But is is neat.  And I can sell it when the flea market opens up. Staplers, scissors, staples. 

Now I have a nice clean and almost empty junk drawer.

But, and just hear me out here, if a junk drawer is tidied, is it even a junk drawer anymore?

Best of luck to you in the maintenance of that one. I always love getting things in order... it's keeping them there that is my struggle.

[slackmax]

Spent another hour on the kitchen junk drawer. The good news is that I got a plastic store bag completely full with crappe like twisties, plastic hanger thingies, cardboard cutout coupons for free pizza, etc. (Actually I recycled the cardboard coupons).

The 'less good' news is that I had to move lots of the useful stuff into two small boxes, and I put the boxes into a storage room, with labels on them so I know what the heck is in them.  So the junk drawer has 'expanded' its clutter to another room!   But is is neat.  And I can sell it when the flea market opens up. Staplers, scissors, staples. 

Now I have a nice clean and almost empty junk drawer.

But, and just hear me out here, if a junk drawer is tidied, is it even a junk drawer anymore?

Best of luck to you in the maintenance of that one. I always love getting things in order... it's keeping them there that is my struggle.

Ha Ha, I'm going to continue to think of it as a junk drawer, so I remember what I don't want it to turn into, lol. 

[Weisass]

@slackmax are you a music fan? You could start calling it "the drawer formally known as the junk drawer" and design a flashy symbol for it.

[okisok]

A lidded teapot from IKEA. I searched high and low for the PERFECT TEAPOT for ages until I made a long car trip to the nearest city with an IKEA. I did use it for a while. Then a friend gifted me a lovely vintage Thermos that will keep my hot tea warm for over 6 hours, no cozy required. So the PERFECT TEAPOT that I spend so much mental energy on is now just another thing in my house. Lesson learned.

[Sugaree]

Finally dragged a kitchen table and an elliptical to the curb.  I'd been asking for it to be done for awhile and my late husband wouldn't do it because...reasons.  Also, have dropped two bags of toys off at the thrift store and thrown out a box of old National Geographic magazines.  I'm slowly taking control of my dining room again.

[mspym]

@Sugaree I hope you enjoy the increased space.

[okisok]

Sent a book and some craft supplies to a friend who wanted them. Craft supplies are still a decluttering opportunity.

Found a single sock in the rag basket. Used it to wipe down the bathroom counters and threw it away. All of the rags fit neatly in the basket--they aren't spilling out into the cabinet.

Next up, the weird thin kitchen cabinet where I store random things.

[englishteacheralex]

Can't believe I've never shared here, since I love decluttering.

I had a lot of luck with my 6 and 8 year old on Monday with a new method of decluttering I invented: "The Toy Buy Back". I had a notebook and the kids would bring down stuff from their rooms and I'd tell them how much I'd give them for each item. I kept track in the notebook. They got really excited. Most items were $.5-$.10 but I did give a whole $1 for a couple of huge little kid toys that I've been dying to get rid of for ages.

We got rid of six paper grocery bags worth of outgrown puzzles, games, books, and toys, as well as a couple of bulky items. At the end of the project, it cost me $10 per kid. They have zero regrets and are super excited about the money. I enjoyed watching them mentally go through the same process I do: would I rather have this or the money?

[okisok]

Welcome @englishteacheralex! And what a great idea to buy yourself out of clutter. Getting those big kids toys out must've been a big relief.

Used up some stationery. I ordered some personalized stationery with a gift card so I'm trying to use or purge my current box.

[Fresh Bread]

@englishteacheralex that's genius. Maybe I should try it on my husband, ha!

I made a new "niggly things" list of things that I never get round to. There's 31 and half involve decluttering or cleaning up in some way. I'm going to try to do one a day - some will take 10 mins and some a couple of hours.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Listed items on Buy Nothing: 2 bowling gift certificates (given out as party favors, we won't use them). Ski helmet & goggles, outgrown by teen son. Have interested folks for everything.

Sold a pair of sandals on eBay, and those got mailed off today. I love them, but they are terribly uncomfortable, so no reason to keep them.

I'm continuing to try & declutter my digital life as well, by unsubscribing to one junk email a day.

[Loretta]

IKitchen/fridge clutter: 

I unearthed a couple small jars that had been pushed to the back of my kitchen cabinet.  I threw out some Saltines that were open since 2018.  Also some pepperoni that had gone discolored...

[okisok]

Cleaned out the arts & crafts cart, tossing bits of paper and things that could've been used for art projects but weren't.

Rearranged some kitchen cabinets for better storage. Now the awkward thin cabinet houses the large baking sheets and muffin pan instead of wads of plastic bags.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Cleaned out the drawer where we kept a variety of random kitchen items (candles, takeout sauce, etc) & tossed what we won't use, organized what was left, and added all of the cracked pepper to our spice cabinet (in the correct jar).

Sold the second pair of uncomfortable sandals on eBay.

Gave away 5 base layers (skiing) that my teen has outgrown.

[okisok]

One too-small shirt posted on Marketplace.

Cleaned out the desk drawers and tossed all the notes scribbled on paper bits, etc.

[Loretta]

A sort of retired friend called her recent efforts “preparing the battlefield” and I love this.  I was motivated to list some miscellaneous Stuff in a couple more places for $20.