I have finally caught up on this loooooong thread...just in time to post some progress myself! We've had this bunk bed we planned to sell for several months. There was a post on facebook last week about a refugee family that needed a bunk bed, so I reached out to the community organizer. They sent a truck out Saturday and in addition to the bunk bed I was able to donate the following (all brand new or barely used): pretty kid's step stool, bike, two scooters, baby doll with stroller, dump truck, Lincoln Logs set. The family includes a newly widowed mother with 4 young children. They could use the bed much more than I need the money I could have gotten for it, and I was glad to pass along the other items as well.
This got me motivated to do some more decluttering this weekend. Like you, Roadrunner53, I donate to VVA all the time because it is so convenient. I keep an itemized list in a notebook and enter everything in It'sDeductible at tax time. Last year it really helped (although taxes were still SO BAD). Actually, it helped so much that my "save everything just in case" husband is now much more open to donating things to get the write off! We've been thinking about downsizing to a smaller house, although it may be a few more years. It will definitely happen eventually, but we always figured it would be when the little kids are older (kids are 7, 9, and 18...going off to college in August). I suggested we start going through everything now as opposed to waiting until we actually move, and he's on board.
This past weekend I decluttered a bunch of stuff: tons of old stuff from my bathroom that will clearly never get used, clothes, 120 hangers (seriously, it doesn't even look like I made a dent in unused hangers in our giant closet...), jewelry, 2 jewelry boxes, an old backpack, about a dozen old children's books. My 7 year old daughter got in on the action and identified about a dozen stuffed animals and 10-20 pieces of clothes, most of which were hand me downs from our neighbor previously. I also got my shred pile caught up again. A few months ago I finally finished shredding the last of boxes and boxes of stuff. There is still a lot of paper to sort through in the office, but I worked on that too, caught up the junk mail and decluttered a box of stuff that has been sitting under my desk for a couple years.
I'm going to try and read and post in this thread a little more because I want the motivation and accountability!