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

[Dare2Dream]

It's been a good week for decluttering:

- I gave away a big bag of baby clothing to a mom in need
- I sold my rice cooker, because we use the instant now
- I sold my activity play mat

I sometimes struggle with the best home for clutter that might have value to someone else.  My current rules are:

under $10 - good will

$10-$15 - craigslist honor system (i leave the item on my porch for the buyer and they leave the money). Not worth dealing with schedules and such for that price. Not worth crying about it they don't pay.

over $15 - craigslist

anyone have luck with other avenues like consignment shops?

[Frugal Lizard]

I cleared out the corner lower cupboard in the kitchen.  Found a place for the re-used aluminum trays, plates ect.  I gifted some old lunch bags that were stuffed in there.  Also found a place for the clean re-used take away containers in a drawer that was overstuffed with place mats and table clothes.

The table linens are now sitting on the bench to be sorted.  There are so many and piled deep in a drawer, they are not easy to use and get wrinkled when I root through them looking for one.  Not a good system.  I have a cupboard in the dining room - near the table they get used on most often they could move into.  I need to figure out how to fold them so that I can see them and get them out easily, and put them back. 

I still have too many platters and pie plates in the corner cupboard but I can now see them all and there is a logic of where they sit in this giant cupboard.  And the random lids with no container are in the bin.

[Captain FIRE]

Trash: Cat litter box, leftover cat food
Gave away: 2 unopened bags of cat litter, cat water fountain & filters, some toddler items also given to us by our neighbors renovating their house (e.g. handprint molds for kids 2-5)
Sold: Old HiFi speaker for 30-pin ipad for $30

Next up: Go through our bags/duffels/suitcases to finish cleaning out the laundry room and the rest of the pile of stuff from the neighbors in the basement.  I'm hoping to get our basement back in order by the end of the month.  (My husband's cat was peeing around in the basement before she passed so I'm in the midst of trying to treat those marks as well.  It's a big project.  Between toddler storage and the cat pee reek, the basement has been abandoned for a while.)

I'm pleased with the areas I've decluttered (and kept up): Hall closet that now contains space for the toy swaps so our main space is more restful, paper clutter, bathroom cabinets, boxing up and storing baby stuff, kitchen Tupperware, etc.  It's also been useful for being easier to find some things.  That said, progress is slow so I'm getting discouraged and losing steam.  I've got a toddler, so my decluttering efforts are limited to when he's asleep (and I'm not already exhausted).  It's also all on me - my husband has a new job and isn't interested in bothering to declutter.  He's not opposed to me doing it, but doesn't particular feel the need himself.

[Goldielocks]

anyone have luck with other avenues like consignment shops?

Children's consignment, yes.   Lots of yes.
Furniture consignment - friends, yes (I just buy there)... you need current, good quality furniture (not brown goods unless current usually modern style).

Not so much luck with clothing -- I did make some money, but you need to have spent a lot on clothes first.  On line consignment is good.

Ebay for high quality sports stuff that you can ship (bike paniers, high end backpacking gear) works.  I may try our sports consignment for that too.

[Dare2Dream]

anyone have luck with other avenues like consignment shops?

Children's consignment, yes.   Lots of yes.
Furniture consignment - friends, yes (I just buy there)... you need current, good quality furniture (not brown goods unless current usually modern style).

Not so much luck with clothing -- I did make some money, but you need to have spent a lot on clothes first.  On line consignment is good.

Ebay for high quality sports stuff that you can ship (bike paniers, high end backpacking gear) works.  I may try our sports consignment for that too.

Much appreciated.  I might give it a try on my next round of consolidation.

[Shinplaster]

2 more large bags off to Goodwill.  Guy at the donation door said "Back again?".   So I guess I'm starting to be a regular.  And yet we still have so much stuff!

[better late]

2 more large bags off to Goodwill.  Guy at the donation door said "Back again?".   So I guess I'm starting to be a regular.  And yet we still have so much stuff!

Ha! Love this!!

[Rosy]

Finally had my son drop off a box at goodwill. Three months in the making - ugh:)
Donated some books to the library.
Gave away an EZ-up to a friend.

Hopefully, DIL will pick up our practically new loveseat today. That thing just never worked out as intended.
Thrashed a few things as we cleaned up the garden storage area - about a big trash bag full. Fixed up and organized or used the remainder.

De-cluttered and cleaned my spice drawer - now it is a beautiful thing to behold - once again.
Thought I was decluttering the utensil drawer - turns out, I am using everything in there - amazing:), but it got a needed clean up anyway.
Started on a new donation box, three items so far.

De-cluttered and cleared/cleaned the utility room - another big trash bag full.
De-cluttered the carport - one more big trash can - full.
Plumbing problems forced me to clean under the kitchen sink - bakeware ruined and a lot of stuff lost to water damage. One kitchen trash bag full.

Cleared out and cleaned up the big fridge/freezer incl odd storage on top - one full-size contractor bag full of trash. How is it possible to have something with an expiration date of 2017 in my fridge - hiding:)

So much more to go it makes my head spin.

[Roadrunner53]

Still hoeing out old paperwork for the free shred event next week. I now have at least 10 plastic grocery bags full. Some of this stuff went back to 1995. Bank statements, Social Security statements, 401k statements, investments that are no longer in banks where these statements were from. Years and years of this stuff. I threw out one year of Income Tax paperwork so I have 7 years worth still here.

I have one more stash to clean up. It is the current stuff collected during the last year. Not a lot but got to get rid of it. I don't plan to ever collect this much paperwork ever again!

There was a shred event fund raiser last week and if not for this free senior center event, I would have taken my stuff to that but glad I waited for the free event! YAY!

[zygote]

This one's kind of a Mustachian fail even if it's a decluttering win.

We gave away a bulky foam mattress pad on craigslist after we failed to get interest at any price. We bought it a few months ago to try to revive an old mattress. I liked it fine, but my wife's back still hurt so we ended up having to get a new mattress anyway. We tried it on the new mattress too, and it was not a good combination. That time we both woke up in pain. We like the mattress we picked all on its own, anyway.

Big waste of money for something we only used for three nights. But we didn't know it wouldn't work until we tried it, and hopefully the elderly couple who ended up taking it will enjoy it. They seemed very grateful when they picked it up. And it's a big relief to have the space back after a month or two of it sitting on the floor.

[JoJoP]

--threw out all expired allergy meds

It's best to take old meds to the pharmacy for proper disposal, otherwise it can leech into groundwater or end up in bodies of water.  Not good for people or animals.

They found traces of opioids in shellfish.  It does leach into the water. Scary stuff!  I hauled a bunch of horse meds to the local sheriff's office for recycling.  They have a drop bin there, but I've heard all pharmacies will take old meds (human) also.
 
 https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/25/614593382/traces-of-opioids-found-in-seattle-area-mussels

[I'm a red panda]

In some places it can be hard to get rid of meds. Our pharmacies take opiods a few days a year, but never anything else. Our emergency services don't take them.

[Poundwise]

3 bins of children's clothes and random housewares to big church tag sale (not even my own church, I got impatient waiting for ours.)

Went up to attic to find more stuff for the tag sale. Brought it down.  Found a box of books, but tag sale doesn't accept those so brought them to the library book sale. Library rejected them for various reasons (names written in front, too old, etc) so dropped rest off at little free library. Had to take a few because my little daughter Pennywise was with me and begged, but overall, I got rid of 20 big books and acquired only 2 little ones, so that was a win.

House is still messy and car is still full because of stuff that I took down from the attic, but I do have some space up there now and hopefully by tomorrow I will be able to clear out a tub or two more.  It's complicated because Mr. Poundwise and all the kids just chuck stuff in boxes, so I have a few pieces of a game in one tub, then more parts in another box. etc.

[slackmax]

This one's kind of a Mustachian fail even if it's a decluttering win.

We gave away a bulky foam mattress pad on craigslist after we failed to get interest at any price. We bought it a few months ago to try to revive an old mattress. I liked it fine, but my wife's back still hurt so we ended up having to get a new mattress anyway. We tried it on the new mattress too, and it was not a good combination. That time we both woke up in pain. We like the mattress we picked all on its own, anyway.

Big waste of money for something we only used for three nights. But we didn't know it wouldn't work until we tried it, and hopefully the elderly couple who ended up taking it will enjoy it. They seemed very grateful when they picked it up. And it's a big relief to have the space back after a month or two of it sitting on the floor.

Congratulations!  I had a clean, good shape crib mattress on Craigslist for $10 and no takers, so moved it to the FREE
section of CL. Been 2 days, still no responses.   

In other news, I couldn't stand tapping my 25 inch TV so much, to get the flicker to stop, so I have
 replaced it with my non-flickering 20 inch TV. I just have to acclimate to the smaller screen size.
 Future of the flickering 25 inch TV is unknown at this time. Man is it heavy! I haven't moved
anything that heavy for a long time.     

[slackmax]

Minor setback! The church that had just taken my name and phone number last week as registration to be a seller at their yard sale called me back and said sorry, we made a mistake and we were already full, and you can't come.

**** ! 

So now I'm combing thru the internet looking for some other places that will rent you space to sell stuff. Nothing so far! Everything is neighborhood/ no outside vendors type of yard sales. Bollocks.

 

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-I went through all of my sports bras, and pulled out a few that are too tight. I'll see if my sister wants them. If not, into the donation bin they will go
-I have a dress in the same pile, for my sister to check out
-I've been going through my freebie book pile, and either reading a few pages & keeping, or immediately putting in the return pile
-Recycled paperwork & found a few new tax documents that have to be filed

[Poundwise]

My textbooks are 95% free from work days. They allowed me to take them with me when I left. All computer programming stuff.

I keep them for as a reminder of how productive I was in this life. So, sentimentality there, yes. I never read them unless I am thinking of recycling them. Then after a few paragraphs, I say 'I can't discard this priceless stuff. It's the only physical representation I have of my work role in the world'. They are all in one room, and take up only about 20% of the floor space when stacked.

What doesn't help is seeing similar textbooks on Ebay listed for $30 to $40 each. But for some reason, now I can't see if they ever sold or not, and for how much. Has Ebay hidden that information now? I used to be able to see it somewhere, like 'completed auctions', but it has disappeared.

So when I donated them I assumed I was possibly missing out on $30 each! (I know, dreaming). 

I did put an ad on Craigslist for them, and suggested buyer make an offer. Zero responses, sadly.   

I missed this conversation on textbooks. Recently I put up a 17 year old textbook up for sale on Amazon, and to my surprise it was snapped up within a week!  After shipping costs etc were deducted, I made $23 off what probably cost $200-$300, but the outcome was much better than I expected.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Posted two bags of new toiletries and cosmetics to two Australian charities.

Found a bag of fridge magnets for a friend who mentioned she doesn't have enough to hold all her kids' artwork on the fridge.

Still waiting for my eBay items to sell. If they don't, I'll put two things in the donation bag and keep re-listing the others. No pressure.

[Sibley]

A friend's dad has latched onto the fact that I'm a Star Wars fan, and has brought home several books from work (resale, gets donations) and given them to me. None of these are items I want, but this family has pretty much adopted me. Have added these books to my donate pile.

Realistically, I at least will get them out of the house, while he would probably still bring them home but then sit on them for years. I've seen their basement, and I'm not going to make it harder for the mom and my friend to clean it up. I can handle a few books. Also volunteered to take some old paint cans that will need to to go the hazardous drop off. I have to go anyway, won't hurt to add a few more items to that pile.

[slackmax]

My textbooks are 95% free from work days. They allowed me to take them with me when I left. All computer programming stuff.

I keep them for as a reminder of how productive I was in this life. So, sentimentality there, yes. I never read them unless I am thinking of recycling them. Then after a few paragraphs, I say 'I can't discard this priceless stuff. It's the only physical representation I have of my work role in the world'. They are all in one room, and take up only about 20% of the floor space when stacked.

What doesn't help is seeing similar textbooks on Ebay listed for $30 to $40 each. But for some reason, now I can't see if they ever sold or not, and for how much. Has Ebay hidden that information now? I used to be able to see it somewhere, like 'completed auctions', but it has disappeared.

So when I donated them I assumed I was possibly missing out on $30 each! (I know, dreaming). 

I did put an ad on Craigslist for them, and suggested buyer make an offer. Zero responses, sadly.   

I missed this conversation on textbooks. Recently I put up a 17 year old textbook up for sale on Amazon, and to my surprise it was snapped up within a week!  After shipping costs etc were deducted, I made $23 off what probably cost $200-$300, but the outcome was much better than I expected.

Way to go!  You've given me hope. I'm going to browse thru Amazon now and see if I can find any used IT textbook prices.   

[Fresh Bread]

I have been listening to the audiobook 'The Minimalist Home' by Joshua Becker of The Minimalists. It's actually pretty good and has helped me / inspired me to do a bit more.

Eg If keepsakes don't inspire you / make you feel confident about the future, don't keep them. I've never actually tackled my 'memories' box but this will help.

Also, putting the toaster in the cupboard. We don't actually use it daily, so why is it out on the side? I will have to chuck some stuff to fit it in though...

I haven't read a lot on their website so it's possible the book has some repetition from that, I wouldn't know.

I wanted to free up a couple of shelves of the linen cupboard, so I've gone through my bathroom drawer and cleaned out enough stuff that I can store the three spare handtowels and my facecloths. I've made a pile of old towels for vets etc if they want them. There's a bulky heated throw blanket that can go and if I go through my shoes again I might make space in our bedroom for a spare set of sheets. Then if I go through all the stationery I've hoarded eg gift bags given to me, I might make space to move my craft things to the study and keep the spare bed sheets in the spare room. It's like a puzzle.

And then I can try and remember why I wanted these empty cupboard shelves in the first place!!!

[Shinplaster]

Huge coffee table off to Goodwill this morning.  Thankfully we have a hatchback - it barely fit.  Table had been languishing in our finished basement since we moved into this house (20 years ago) because it was too big to fit anywhere else.  Rec room looks so much bigger now without it.

[Frankies Girl]

So.

I'm thinking in the next week of donating something I used to think I'd have til I died... my grandparents had this wacky GIANT round mirror in their house and when they died, I ended up with it. All I know about it is that it was once a barbershop mirror back in the 40s or 50s and my granddad somehow ended up with it (he was not a barber - no idea). It is like 4 foot round, small bevel, nothing to really look at other than the sheer size of it. It has 4 basic clips that are screwed into a heavy wooden frame and the whole thing likely weighs something like 30 pounds and there are a few tiny chips in the edge and it's got some very very minor silvering specks happening. And the clips themselves always look like it's about to slip the frame and fall - I can see the edge of the wood frame back at the top. I got so paranoid for about 6 months it wasn't even on a wall as I wanted to get it looked at and then just said screw it and put it back up, but it give me butterflies still seeing it hanging up and thinking about what a godawful mess it would make and all the cat blood that would result from it crashing down as the only room it can go in is the "cat/craft room" where we keep the litterboxes (we have 5 cats. I am a sucker for a sob story stray).

So no one is going to know if I donate it. It's not like it's an heirloom that someone will rise up from their grave and there's no secret compartment or anything. I think someone that is into modern/clean lines and mirrors would really love it, but I just don't really want to deal with it any more. I keep thinking about the bother and expense of getting it remounted and for all of that, I could go BUY a beautiful, well framed and even antique mirror if I really, really had to have one again.

So can I get rid of it?

So FINALLY took the mirror to the small, church run donation/charity shop. They were lovely and I feel a tiny bit of anxiety but mostly relieved and just sat in the car afterwards and chanted the recovering hoarder's mantra "it's okay to let it go. you didn't need it or want it" for just a few dozen times (I wish I was kidding about doing this).

Only took me 8 months! :D



Took some other bits and pieces with it too - some pretty red heels I can't walk in without risking a fall, fancy wine/champagne glasses I can't remember EVER using, clothes that no longer fit (hooray! I'm not a plus size, so screw keeping any of that stuff any more!), and we even were able to donate our old iphones for them to recycle as they specifically list that they make money off of them and are very grateful for donations of that type.

AND I got rid of two old expired fire extinguishers that could not be reused and 2 gallons of old paint that absolutely would not dry out and we didn't want to waste the time/kitty litter trying to solidify. Turns out there is a FREE COUNTY DROP OFF for household hazardous waste - and it is like 15 minutes from our neighborhood! They accept dropoffs every Wednesday - talk about perfect timing. And they also accept cooking oil and small engine oil (husband does our mower's oil changes and we thought we'd have to pay to dispose of it once the container was full). Sweet!

[slackmax]

I had an old word processor (electric typewriter with a screen)  on Craigslist for cheap, then on the FREE part of Craigslist, but nobody responded.

 So today I took it off to Staples and recycled it. 10 pounds and 2 cubic feet of clutter gone! I will also recycle the paper user manuals it had.     

[Roadrunner53]

Yesterday took around 10 plastic grocery bags full of paperwork to the Senior Center Free shred event! WOO HOO! The hub did give some organization a small donation to help seniors. My one screw up is that I had a small container full of paperwork that I should have gone through but kind of ran out of time. It isn't that big and I will go thru it and bag it up for the free shred event next year. I have cleared up a LOT of paper clutter. I have been going to this event for 3 years now and I can finally say I have cleared out most of the nook and crannies of paperwork. I know there is more paperwork lurking but I really put a dent in it!

[mspym]

Book clubast night and most of the women have kids a few years younger than the boys so very grateful recipients of lots of books that we have grown out of (all the Wimpy kids, 13-story tree house etc). It felt good!

[Roadrunner53]

Just bagged up another bag for Vietnam Vets. I have a second one started. UGH, I just got rid of at least a dozen bags a week ago. Where does this stuff come from?

[Cassie]

RR, if you have kids it will never end as they outgrow clothes/toys. We are older and don’t buy a lot so clued is not such a problem anymore. We have downsized a lot through the last 10 years.

[Roadrunner53]

Cassie, no kids here. We never had any but we have lived in this house for 44 years. We bought a lot of stuff, received a lot of gifts, hub got lots of free stuff from work over the years. We are not hoarders but have a lot of accumulation. We have rented dumpsters, gigantic ones, probably 4, and filled them up. We had 1800 Junk take a truck load away. We throw stuff away, Given at least a hundred giant garbage bags full of household items to Goodwill and now we donate to Vietnam Vets. VV pick up at the house so it is very easy. I gave probably 20 CIA culinary cook books to a local culinary school. We have mad a huge dent in the accumulation. We keep weeding out. I have a whole gigantic suitcase full of mens jeans and nice polo shirts. I had intended to sell them on ebay but never got around to that yet.

It is really nice when I open a closet or drawer and see some room that didn't exist before. I cleaned out my sock drawer and weeded out at least 60+ pairs of sock! Now I probably have 25! Still too many! Insanity.

My attic needs to be hoed out. It mostly has packing materials like bubble wrap and packing peanuts, cardboard boxes. Used for ebay.

[Frankies Girl]

Have a major home improvement fail today, which is resulting in more stuff to donate. NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS.

We have asshole cats. We did not want more pets, but we took care of them and ended up adopting them. They are not real cuddly cats, they are mostly assholes that tolerate petting and only act nice when they are hungry and they have ruined or destroyed many things so far.  And one of them has a food issue so we don't free feed and they have meals at specific times which means we have to hire someone to petsit them or else we can't even be gone for longer than 10 hours. The food issue cat also wants breakfast at least an hour earlier than we do. She decided that the best way to get our attention when we're still in bed is to knock the lamp off the nightstand. She's broken it and I've been able to fix it so far but it's gotten stupid and thought I'd replace it with a wall-mounted lamp. I got a deal on a pair off facebook marketplace. Turns out they both sort of start coming loose if you do the swingarm too much, and needs some sort of adjustment to stay level that we can't figure out, and top it off our wall/anchors won't work for us. I tried 3 different types of anchors and every one of them failed. Something wrong with our drywall or just my luck. So I now feel stupid for buying the lamps, wasted money and time locating lampshades and anchors, and have 4 holes about the size of a quarter after finally getting the failed anchors out of the $#!@$ wall that I repaired, but no longer have matching paint for. So I get to repaint the entire #@$! wall possibly the room... due to these asshole cats.

And goodwill or somebody will get these stupid failed wall mount lamps. Likely someone - anyone - else will be able to use them. :(

[happy]

We have asshole cats.

Off topic I know but we have 1 too. He was my mothers. He is large and scary and only affectionate if he wants something. We are all a bit afraid of him.

I post here every now and then...my decluttering attempt continue...As well as mopping up from a whole of house reno, my parents have now both died, and I have boxes and furniture lining the carport and the wall inside..all waiting to be srted and disposed of. Just when I was getting my own junk somewhat under control. Never mind, the work continues.

[TomTX]

AND I got rid of two old expired fire extinguishers that could not be reused

I use expired fire extinguishers for practice out in the yard. Pull pin and squeeze!

ABC Dry chemical fire extinguishers are typically ammonium phosphate, so effectively fertilizer - spray it around!

[Roadrunner53]

Have a major home improvement fail today, which is resulting in more stuff to donate. NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS.

We have asshole cats. We did not want more pets, but we took care of them and ended up adopting them. They are not real cuddly cats, they are mostly assholes that tolerate petting and only act nice when they are hungry and they have ruined or destroyed many things so far.  And one of them has a food issue so we don't free feed and they have meals at specific times which means we have to hire someone to petsit them or else we can't even be gone for longer than 10 hours. The food issue cat also wants breakfast at least an hour earlier than we do. She decided that the best way to get our attention when we're still in bed is to knock the lamp off the nightstand. She's broken it and I've been able to fix it so far but it's gotten stupid and thought I'd replace it with a wall-mounted lamp. I got a deal on a pair off facebook marketplace. Turns out they both sort of start coming loose if you do the swingarm too much, and needs some sort of adjustment to stay level that we can't figure out, and top it off our wall/anchors won't work for us. I tried 3 different types of anchors and every one of them failed. Something wrong with our drywall or just my luck. So I now feel stupid for buying the lamps, wasted money and time locating lampshades and anchors, and have 4 holes about the size of a quarter after finally getting the failed anchors out of the $#!@$ wall that I repaired, but no longer have matching paint for. So I get to repaint the entire #@$! wall possibly the room... due to these asshole cats.

And goodwill or somebody will get these stupid failed wall mount lamps. Likely someone - anyone - else will be able to use them. :(

Hahahaha, asshole cats! That is funny! I have two dogs, I call them names because they are both annoying at times! One is sick and won't eat dinner most nights. The other is just finicky and has been his whole life. He is 15 lbs and has been that weight his whole life since adulthood. He will eat all of his food one night and two bites the next. He is going on 16 years old but is a maniac at times running around the house. The sick one is around 11 years old. Takes a ton of drugs. Has diarrhea quite often from his pills. UGH! Breaks my heart but asshole cats and kooky dogs are good for the soul.

[Cassie]

We do dog rescue and I appreciate all of you that do cat and dog rescue. 

[mspym]

Two more bags of clothes off to the Vinnies. Two more shirts thrown out as they are too wrecked.

[Bracken_Joy]

Sigh. Two maternity dresses (tunics at best on me, lol), ended up having too short of sleeves =( Yesterday I hosted some pregnant friends, so I have the dresses to someone who is much shorter than I am =) Hopefully they'll get some good use! And now they're out of my home. Downside: I own even less mat clothing than I thought! This is definitely an exercise in living with the reduced wardrobe though. All my 'regular' clothing that I can't wear (most of it) is packed away now. Honestly, a bit more should be but I'm in denial about that. I'm definitely attached to some of my clothes! More than I realized.

[GermanStache]

I cleaned out my sock drawer and weeded out at least 60+ pairs of sock! Now I probably have 25! Still too many! Insanity.

Wow... how can so many socks accumulate? I knit our socks and enjoy that and therefore we have more then we need. But it is maybe 20 pairs each plus 10 pairs of bought cotton ones. We buy new if to many have holes and we run low.
I hope it is okay to say this to you... from my observation from reading your posts you are doing a great job getting grid of things. But you have to watch the accumulation side too. I remember you buying several organizing items online that not all worked out. Maybe first sort through everyting and see if the stuff you are keeping works and THEN purchase new organizing items? I used to work the same way and now have too many boxes and storage solutions that I have to get rid of. It took a long time for me to come to the realization that it really comes down to keeping only what you truly need and love and not organizing what you have with the one or two  things (or in your case multiple bags) that are thrown out during the reorganization.
Love, Katja

[Prairie Gal]

Just listed a whole bunch of décor items on Facebook for cheap. I hope they sell, if not they will get donated.

Today is un!@#k your house day here, so there may be more.

[slackmax]

I paid $15 and drove 20 miles one way to set up some stuff at a library flea market. I only sold $32
 worth of stuff, but it was all worth it to me.  Got rid of 25 different items, most small, but they are
gone!     Biggest thing was a school backpack for $5. Most expensive thing was a working toy
cannon for $8.

But it's tough bringing all the uinsold stuff back in the house. Now it seems more cluttered than
before since I unearthed all the stuff to sell, and it's not going neatly back in.

I'm going to have to start throwing stuff out en masse, or donating en masse if I ever want to finish.
(Sigh....) 

[RetiredAt63]

I'm going to have to start throwing stuff out en masse, or donating en masse if I ever want to finish.
(Sigh....)

I donate en masse.  Find something that accepts donations that support a cause you like, and go for it.  I have 2.  I'm clearing out the house to prep for sale, and have given away 4 carloads in the last 2 weeks.  I plan to radically downsize once  the house sells, so there will be another round of donations then.

[Plina]

I paid $15 and drove 20 miles one way to set up some stuff at a library flea market. I only sold $32
 worth of stuff, but it was all worth it to me.  Got rid of 25 different items, most small, but they are
gone!     Biggest thing was a school backpack for $5. Most expensive thing was a working toy
cannon for $8.

But it's tough bringing all the uinsold stuff back in the house. Now it seems more cluttered than
before since I unearthed all the stuff to sell, and it's not going neatly back in.

I'm going to have to start throwing stuff out en masse, or donating en masse if I ever want to finish.
(Sigh....)

I tried flea markets once and hated it. It was not worth my time. So I donate or sell on our equivalent to eBay. My mother though loves selling on flea markets and see it as her hobby.

[slackmax]

I'm going to have to start throwing stuff out en masse, or donating en masse if I ever want to finish.
(Sigh....)

I donate en masse.  Find something that accepts donations that support a cause you like, and go for it.  I have 2.  I'm clearing out the house to prep for sale, and have given away 4 carloads in the last 2 weeks.  I plan to radically downsize once  the house sells, so there will be another round of donations then.

Well done!  I have donated about 30 bags of various things I don't want or that won't sell for much, to Goodwill.   I had tons of paper clutter that was easy for me to recycle, and that really opened up some good space in my house. But now all the clutter is real things, that I have to sell, throw out, or donate. 

I hear you about the carloads!  I drove about 7 carloads of donations from my parents' downsizing, to Salvation Army. That was easy, since it wasn't my stuff.
But it's harder to donate or throw out my own stuff. 

I'm still going to look for rummage sales. They are hard to find, even with internet.  If I get tired of rummage sales it'll maybe be easier to donate. I don't have a particular cause I can think of that I like that accepts donations, though. Goodwill is good enough, I guess, lol.   

[Roadrunner53]

I cleaned out my sock drawer and weeded out at least 60+ pairs of sock! Now I probably have 25! Still too many! Insanity.

Wow... how can so many socks accumulate? I knit our socks and enjoy that and therefore we have more then we need. But it is maybe 20 pairs each plus 10 pairs of bought cotton ones. We buy new if to many have holes and we run low.
I hope it is okay to say this to you... from my observation from reading your posts you are doing a great job getting grid of things. But you have to watch the accumulation side too. I remember you buying several organizing items online that not all worked out. Maybe first sort through everyting and see if the stuff you are keeping works and THEN purchase new organizing items? I used to work the same way and now have too many boxes and storage solutions that I have to get rid of. It took a long time for me to come to the realization that it really comes down to keeping only what you truly need and love and not organizing what you have with the one or two  things (or in your case multiple bags) that are thrown out during the reorganization.
Love, Katja

The accumulation is years and years worth of accumulation. Have been married almost 46 years. My Mom was over the top generous. She would have a whole Christmas tree loaded up just for the hub and I. We would take a car load home every year. I do mean a packed, full to the top car load. Multiply that times 40 years alone. My hub worked for a company that was constantly throwing out 'good' stuff and people could get scrap passes to take the stuff home. he did that over a 20 year period. It just caught up with us over time. We built our house in 1975 and never moved since. So, no need to make hard choices on what to toss or keep. We have made great strides on getting rid of stuff. Still working on it. It didn't get here overnight and won't leave overnight either. My MIL loved to crochet and made us many afghans. More things to store. I just bagged up a fairly new bedspread, shams and an afghan from the 1970's. I have another bedspread and shams I was on the fence about a few days ago but now I think I will bag it up. I used to work for a research and development company and every Friday we would wash down the stainless steel tables and tiled floors with special detergent. We would put anything away that would be ruined by the water then hosed it all down including the walls. That is my idea of cleaning the house! The floor had a drain in the floor and all the grime went down the drain.

[diapasoun]

Tried to Oxiclean the pit stains out of a t shirt. No go. I now am decluttering said shirt for rags, at least.

[Roadrunner53]

Tried to Oxiclean the pit stains out of a t shirt. No go. I now am decluttering said shirt for rags, at least.

I just bought this stuff called Lysol laundry sanitizer (you use it in the softener cycle) and Out Prowash workwear detergent. Works really good. I have used oxiclean too and doesn't cut the underarm odor.

[diapasoun]

Do you find that it works on yellowing, Roadrunner? Or just smell? (The shirt smells fine, it's definitely the bright yellow discoloration that's the issue.)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

-Gave two like new sports bras & workout tanks to a friend
-Had my sister & friend try on a dress. It didn't work for either, so it went into the donation pile

Five items, out of the house!

[daffodil2001]

Do you find that it works on yellowing, Roadrunner? Or just smell? (The shirt smells fine, it's definitely the bright yellow discoloration that's the issue.)

I found this recipe for treating discoloration elsewhere on the forums a while ago: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/homemade-oxi-clean-for-armpit-stains/

It brightened up some cotton undershirts that were discolored all over but especially bad in the armpits. It didn’t entirely get rid of the staining but I only did it once for each shirt. It might also give better results if the stains are more fresh. The mixture completely removed discoloration from a white dress (polyester blend I think).

[diapasoun]

Yeah... this shirt was pretty old and pretty discolored. (The fabric is decayed a bit where the stains are as well.) I think it is time. :(

[Roadrunner53]

Do you find that it works on yellowing, Roadrunner? Or just smell? (The shirt smells fine, it's definitely the bright yellow discoloration that's the issue.)

Out also makes a fabric whitener. I am currently soaking some whites in it. Don't know if it works good or not yet. The clothes I used the sanitizer in came out smelling good and were all colors.

My hub does a lot of hard work outside and his clothes just get gross! I have also resorted to using Lysol concentrate. That stuff is very concentrated and you only need a tiny capful. Less than a spoonful. It is so strong, I typically use hot water with Lysol and rewash the clothes again to get the strong Lysol smell out. It disinfects the clothes and takes all smells out!