Author Topic: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!  (Read 1850028 times)

Moomingirl

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #300 on: January 16, 2014, 02:50:06 PM »
I've made more than $100 selling stuff on TradeMe in the last few weeks. It constantly amazes me what people will buy, until I remember that I bought the same stuff myself. :D

Dropping two bags off at the charity shop today, and then I will start another sweep of stuff to get rid of.

tariskat

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #301 on: January 16, 2014, 03:07:24 PM »
I just listed some television series I STILL haven't watched (and therefore are still in their wrapper) and I keep on top of my book pricing for text books.  Hopefully with new semesters starting all over the US, someone wants a good deal from me.  I also stripped half a dozen shirts from my closet and put them in my Donation bag.  Will probably do more of that tonight as I clean my office and shuffle things!  I'd like to get my movie collection to just one shelf (from 3), nuke about half my closet, and sell or donate about half the books I have now - some are getting sold and some are listed on Paperbackswap.

tariskat

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #302 on: January 17, 2014, 10:31:55 AM »
Listed 16 books today on Amazon.  Some of them are too cheap to make selling worthwhile so they'll likely end up going to Half-price, but now I have them on a dedicated shelf.

Edit - ended up listing 24 items; mailed a book for PaperbackSwap, too!
« Last Edit: January 17, 2014, 02:52:51 PM by tariskat »

horsepoor

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #303 on: January 17, 2014, 02:50:52 PM »
I've been on this mission since before Christmas, and I think it's partly why I stumbled upon MMM, got hooked and have been reading avidly for the last few weeks.

So in the last month I have:

Convinced my husband to donate his non-running motorcycle, and followed through on that.
Sold several larger items on Craigslist
Sold lots of books, shoes and other items on Ebay and Amazon (got $55 for an old text book just today!)
Donated a Subaru Outback load of stuff to the thrift store including too-large clothes (I've lost 50# over the last few years), cookbooks, dishes, kitchen equipment, a printer, glasses and who knows what else.
Taken nicer clothes to the consignment store
Gone through files and burned old, unneeded documents
Thrown out or recycled bunches of stuff that no longer had value
Organized my iTunes library (another form of clutter!)
Reorganized the shop and removed any trash - still a work in progress, but much better!

Doing all of this forced me to handle lots of belongings I'd forgotten about, found ways to repurpose existing items, edit my wardrobe and really be happy with what I have, instead of thinking about what I don't have.  The reduction in clutter is already making my life easier and more streamlined (and it wasn't bad before, compared to lots of Americans), and I'm already happier with less.  I realized it was madness when I was thinking about spending money to buy more storage items for crap I wasn't using.  Now I have more than enough storage and can find just about anything easily.

Still left to do:

Finish organizing and sorting the shop tools & materials
Organize filing cabinet & label files
Reduce unused foodstuffs in the kitchen & freezer, probably by slowly and systematically feeding stuff we won't eat to the chickens so they can turn them into delicious eggs
Sell a few extra pieces of horse equipment

tariskat

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #304 on: January 19, 2014, 07:43:04 PM »
I've sold 2 books, sent 1 CD off on SwapaCd, sent 2 books off on PaperbackSwap.  My inventory on Amazon is up to 43 (from 11 a week ago); I have 3 shelves dedicated to stuff leaving one way or another, and I organized my office and recycled a big back of magazines and other paperwork.  I think 2 shirts / 1 sweater made it into the Thrift bag, too.

horsepoor, great job on the iTunes / music declutter.  I go on binges of deleting every once in a while but have many hours left.

Let's keep it up, Mustachians!

horsepoor

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #305 on: January 19, 2014, 09:54:07 PM »
Sold a $45 book on Amazon today, and then sold a bike rack on Craigslist tonight.  Nice to see the wad of cash in my change jar growing as the clutter shrinks.  Eyeballing the big fancy coffee table that's relegated to the basement and wondering how much someone might pay for it...

FunkyStickman

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #306 on: January 22, 2014, 07:59:36 AM »
My wife had a mini-meltdown last night. She's an OCD introverted neat freak, and me and my 4 kids are all ADHD extroverted creative types. Needless to say, she feels overwhelmed most days, and we had a long discussion about the unsustainable amount of clutter our kids have strewn everywhere. Our youngest kid is borderline Aspberger's, and oftentimes she brings the entire household to a screeching halt over the stupidest things. She's very possessive over things like empty plastic toy packaging... like, seriously.

We've been talking about it for a while, and have taken steps to minimize already... but it's never enough. We're coming out of the Christmas season with piles of just useless stuff everywhere, and it's just too much. Getting rid of a few bags of clothes isn't going to even make a dent in our mess (because we have done so, several times, in the last few weeks). I even threw away two recliner chairs and removed our kitchen island, because we just didn't have room to store everything. I just unbolted that sucker form the floor, moved the AC outlet to the floor, and put it to the curb.

So basically, I'm going to have to do more than give minimizing some lip service. It's crunch time, and I'm gonna have to step up my game.

As a side note, do you collective "peoplez of teh interwebz" think minimizing kids' stuff is best done with, or without their knowledge? If they haven't touched something in 6 months, do you make it disappear? With #4 (our problem child) she generally takes change very badly... with her, it's better to put it away, and hope she doesn't notice it's gone. So far, that's worked pretty well. if I tell her "We're going to throw away this empty package" she freaks out, but if it just vanishes, she's like "Where's the package? It's gone? But I wanted to keep it!" and we just say "Sorry, it's gone." She just moves on, living in the moment like she always does.

CommonCents

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #307 on: January 22, 2014, 08:34:17 AM »
Continuing the decluttering post move, particularly as we sort where things will go.  Unpacking the kitchen, we found (so far): 4 holiday christmas mugs and 6 different mugs.  A small start.  After much kicking and screaming, I've also agreed to go through the box of wires and stop holding onto wires "just in case" they go to something important.

(Didn't Mark Twain say, "if I had more time, I would have written a shorter novel"?  If we had more time when packing, we would have moved less stuff, particularly boxes with stuff from my old workplace.)

aglassman

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #308 on: January 22, 2014, 08:50:58 AM »
I came up with a great system for cord management.  I put similar cords in freezer bags, and labeld them with a Sharpie.  So, USB gets one bag.  All those random sets of ear buds get put in a sandwich bag, then into a freezer bag.  All power cords go into a bag.  All RCA cords go into a bag.  All audio adapters go into a bag.... ect...

Then, I put all those bags into one large shoe box.  Now I don't feel bad about the box since I know I'll be able to find a cord if I ever need one. If I find a straggler, it just goes in the appropriate bag! 

EK

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #309 on: January 22, 2014, 09:04:08 AM »
I just finished moving into our new house (a house half the size of the one we moved out of) and did some very successful decluttering along the way!! I was able to pass some good items onto the friends & family who showed up to help with the move, and I was able to donate tons more stuff to goodwill.  I don't even know where it all came from.

One big thing that helped remove temptation to keep junk was this rule: if a box was still packed from when we moved before, I didn't even open it.  It just went straight in the donation pile.

Because we were able to get rid of so much junk, I've now got space for all the art and craft supplies I thought I was going to have to get rid of because I thought there would be no room!  To have created space to do what I love just by giving away junk we don't need feels amazing!

ace1224

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #310 on: January 23, 2014, 06:54:57 AM »
 i re-did all the closets in the house and i took 3 bags of clothes and shoes to the domestic violence shelter.  i now only have the clothes i wear hanging in the closet and finally got rid of all my college t shirts.  i took a bunch of my son's stuff as well

CommonCents

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #311 on: January 23, 2014, 08:45:02 AM »
Moving is shaming I think.

I moved in with my (now) husband at the end of 2010.  A bunch of my work materials got packed up and put in storage (I was temporarily unemployed).  Apparently, along with them were also some books I boxed up when I moved in and got put in the basement unwittingly with the work materials.  Discovered this unpacking (we moved to a house) last night.  On the positive side, I'm thrilled I found some items (music, cross-stitch books/patterns) I'd looked for unsucessfully a few times.  On the negative side, motivation to really keep decluttering - I never even noticed the other (academic) books were gone.  Clearly, I don't need them.  My husband and I also argued over two books that we both swear aren't ours, so they are going out the door too.  (But I'm really right.  At least he's *taken* an engineering class at some point in his life.)

horsepoor

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #312 on: January 26, 2014, 01:57:12 PM »
I organized and decluttered my craft/sewing cabinet today.  It's been a total wreck really ever since I built the cabinet and threw everything in it.  The mess was causing me to never do any projects, because I knew it would take an hour just to sort through and find what I needed.  Now I have the upper drawer all divided with drawer organizers, and labeled the Altoids tins that I keep miscellaneous crap in, so I know what is in each one.  Art supplies in one place, fabric all in one place and so on, and I put just my current projects in the most accessible spots, so I can easily grab one and work on it for a few minutes at a time without a big production.  This will help me avoid buying new supplies as well, since I can go in and see exactly what I have and try to figure out a way to use it.  I've actually impressed myself with how tidy it all is now!

Insanity

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #313 on: January 26, 2014, 08:03:01 PM »
So I was downstairs with our kids, when my wife comes running down -- mind you this is right before dinner and after dinner we were going over to a friend's house whose father-in-law just passed away..  She comes down saying: "We have another major problem"…  She shows me a pair of pants and says: these have a wet stain (took every ounce of energy not to be sarcastic). She proceeds to tell me all of the clothes she had sitting in plastic bags in the corner of our bedroom (by two outside walls with little to no insulation) are wet and some have a strong mildew odor.  These are clothes she has had for at least two years sitting there (she has another pile out of a bag on the other side of her dresser and more clothes under our bed).  She proceeds to tell me the carpet is wet.

I go up, and I do the test on the drywall -- no water at all (solid -- so either the water has frozen the drywall or the drywall is still stable -- I'm not about to put a hole in it to find out :) ).  Feel the cable wires that are in the corner.. Still dry.  Rug..  Dry. 

Only explanation I can come up with is that the plastic bags had moisture in them from the recent changes in temperature or something with the humidity in the house.  And they held it.   But, she has gone through the bags and is washing a few pairs that now fit and getting rid of the rest.  This is why I tell her holding on to things is a waste.  We wind up having to shift things and buy storage bins for everything which costs just as much as replacing the clothes *if* you have to.

Dr.Vibrissae

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #314 on: January 27, 2014, 06:45:10 AM »
We're rearranging a lot of things in the house at the moment, and the Mr. has finally given up the majority of his old rec league trophies, more clothing, some kitchen extras, the guest bed and has agreed to pare down the books again.  It's been a major accomplishment, because he hates to let go of anything.  He realizes though, that once stuff is gone he doesn't miss it, which has led to his instructions that If I decide to get rid of something 'just don't tell me about it.' (Not that I would get rid of his things without asking, but he can be rather attached to some of my things too :)

Michread

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #315 on: January 27, 2014, 07:15:50 AM »
My dh pays the bills.  I wanted to track our yearly expenses and WOW was I shocked to find 20 yrs of credit card statements, home owners statements and other such nonsense paperwork stuffed in the basement filing cabinet!  My dh insisted that he was NOT going to deal with it,  Well I pulled it all out and we did deal with it.  We found his birth certificate & our marriage license too (good thing we didn't just toss the whole thing)!

He did the same thing to me last year when I asked him to clean his side of the garage - I'm not going to deal with it.  I pulled it all outside and told him he WILL help me or I will toss whatever I think needs to go.  Yup, he did it with me.

I consider myself a well organized person too. Yikes, look what happens when you're not looking (20 yrs in the same home)!

CommonCents

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #316 on: January 27, 2014, 10:11:32 AM »
My dh pays the bills.  I wanted to track our yearly expenses and WOW was I shocked to find 20 yrs of credit card statements, home owners statements and other such nonsense paperwork stuffed in the basement filing cabinet!  My dh insisted that he was NOT going to deal with it,  Well I pulled it all out and we did deal with it.  We found his birth certificate & our marriage license too (good thing we didn't just toss the whole thing)!

He did the same thing to me last year when I asked him to clean his side of the garage - I'm not going to deal with it.  I pulled it all outside and told him he WILL help me or I will toss whatever I think needs to go.  Yup, he did it with me.

I consider myself a well organized person too. Yikes, look what happens when you're not looking (20 yrs in the same home)!

Errhhm.  We just moved and I packed up pretty much everything in the house, 90% of things.  I asked DH to take care of his clothes, the tool closet and his papers.  Saturday, a week after the move, we had to go back to the apartment for 5 hours to pack up everything he hadn't touched, which included a pile of papers 10 years old from when he first moved in.  When I moved in with him 3 years prior I asked him to go through them, and finally just left it on his side of the room, where they sat for years.  At least he finally was motivated to sort through it and trashed/shredded several bags of papers, but I don't know how to stop him from packrating this way in the new house.  He also has an old file cabinet stuffed with very old papers that he won't go through, so it's useless to store papers we actively need filed/managed.

happy

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #317 on: January 27, 2014, 02:29:46 PM »
Well I 've started decluttering again. It must be a New Year thing. Bags of clothes, a few boxes of miscellaneous household items...and finally have started on my study:  oh dear....paper nightmare. But now I'm started its gonna get better.

FI@2022Jem

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #318 on: January 28, 2014, 01:30:58 PM »
Hi!
I'm hoping to join this thread for on-going inspiration and accountability.  We am in the process of a major organizing/consolidating/clearing of clutter as I am pregnant with our first child.  The catch all room for closet, office, guest room, junk room will now become mostly nursery (and part guest room/office).  So far we have:
-donated a love seat and chair
-consolidated half the closet with my husband's closet and left half for baby
-Donated about 3 bags of clothing and brought a bag for consignment
-reduced my hoarded college and grad school textbooks by about 80% through amazon, donation and recycling
-brought a busted air mattress ('guest bed') for return (under warranty!) and replaced it with a slightly smaller and easier to store model (I am most proud of this because old me would have just tossed it out and had to shell out another $70 for a new one!)

We still need to work on paperwork, actual nursery storage and set-up, clearing out at least half the dresser for baby, etc.  Plus the whole rest of the house continues to need some improvement.  Thanks for letting me join!  My baby-imposed deadline is early April!  Continued good luck to everyone!

limeandpepper

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #319 on: January 29, 2014, 07:38:45 PM »
My boyfriend is moving, and unsurprisingly, over the years I've accumulated quite a few things at his place, which are now coming back home to my apartment. So just when I think I've done alright getting rid of a few bags of stuff, I have to work hard again just to get back to where I was! Today I donated another bag of clothes, so that's something.

CommonCents

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #320 on: January 30, 2014, 10:39:43 AM »
Went through a box that had been stored in the basement.  Had old college notebooks.  A very sad sign that I wanted to just toss without going through everything!  But I perserved and found a few papers I want to keep, but mostly it's getting recycled.  The sad part is that I've been carrying that box around for 13 years now.  At least it is one more down...

Cassie

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #321 on: January 30, 2014, 04:06:30 PM »
Funkystickman, I used to declutter my kids room when they were at school. They never even really noticed.  I had 3 kids and the stuff gets overwhelming if you do not cull it.

Dr.Vibrissae

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #322 on: January 30, 2014, 04:18:17 PM »
As a side note, do you collective "peoplez of teh interwebz" think minimizing kids' stuff is best done with, or without their knowledge? If they haven't touched something in 6 months, do you make it disappear? With #4 (our problem child) she generally takes change very badly... with her, it's better to put it away, and hope she doesn't notice it's gone. So far, that's worked pretty well. if I tell her "We're going to throw away this empty package" she freaks out, but if it just vanishes, she's like "Where's the package? It's gone? But I wanted to keep it!" and we just say "Sorry, it's gone." She just moves on, living in the moment like she always does.
I have read several minimalist/organizing/decluttering blogs, and it seems people are pretty evenly split on the best course of action.  So, I'm led to believe that it probably depends on the individual family/children involved.  Seems like if asking causes trauma and grief for your daughter, while doing does not, then you should do what's working best for you.  The Mr. is this way about things.  If I get rid of an item from the house, he rarely notices/cares.  If I ask him about getting rid of an item from the house, he worries we might use it again and suddenly is very sentimentally attached to it.  So he prefers I just not tell him, and it works out pretty well. 

*Disclaimer* I do not currently have any children in my house.

FunkyStickman

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #323 on: January 30, 2014, 06:37:23 PM »
We've held off a bit on the severe minimizing, but we did put about 3 trash bags worth of stuff to go to Salvation Army. My wife loves to rearrange furniture, and we usually clean out the dressers "to make them easier to move..." and end up putting a lot less back in them. :)

Still, things are happening slowly. My wife, just today, asked me about doubling up house payments, because our house is depreciating... I've been telling her this for 6 months, but I waited until she was ready to think about it.

But yeah, the kids' stuff, that's going to get cleaned out in a big way, and soon.

CG

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #324 on: February 02, 2014, 08:00:50 PM »
oh dear....paper nightmare

So much of my paper nightmare (mostly stored under my bed) is financial stuff: bank statements and share transaction records etc. too old to need to be kept any longer for tax purposes, but as I still use the same bank account and broker, I feel I should shred this stuff rather than just chuck it in the recycling bin.

I noticed a "hand shredder" (1 page at a time, that would be very tedious, I think) for $99 and an "up to 50 sheets" at a time one for $159 at OfficeWorks this morning when I went in to do photocopying. It was the size as much as the cost that put me off: wherever would I store that monster? It wouldn't fit under the bed and would certainly take up more space than even a very large stack of papers.

Do other people here bother to shred such stuff?

aj_yooper

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #325 on: February 02, 2014, 08:06:35 PM »
oh dear....paper nightmare

So much of my paper nightmare (mostly stored under my bed) is financial stuff: bank statements and share transaction records etc. too old to need to be kept any longer for tax purposes, but as I still use the same bank account and broker, I feel I should shred this stuff rather than just chuck it in the recycling bin.

I noticed a "hand shredder" (1 page at a time, that would be very tedious, I think) for $99 and an "up to 50 sheets" at a time one for $159 at OfficeWorks this morning when I went in to do photocopying. It was the size as much as the cost that put me off: wherever would I store that monster? It wouldn't fit under the bed and would certainly take up more space than even a very large stack of papers.

Do other people here bother to shred such stuff?

Look for a paper shredding event by a bank or village.  They bring in industrial size shredders.  We had two boxes done last year.  Felt great!

tariskat

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #326 on: February 02, 2014, 08:30:03 PM »
I have a small shredder, Embassy brand, that's probably 5 years old, and the only problem I've had is the tab broke off that lets it turn on (because if the tab is triggered it must be sitting in the basket).  So I've put cardboard and duct tape on it and it works great for papers and plastic cards.

Amazon has similar ones for 50$ or less.  I keep mine under my desk in my home office; when I'm feeling lazy, I put Netflix on for a few hours and sit on the floor and grab the fattest files and just shred paper.  It only eats 3-5 pages at a time and I need to let it cool every 20 minutes or so - so I make a day of it.  Taking out the vast majority of my bank statements, especially banks I no longer used, reduced many pounds and inches from my filing systems.

Insanity

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #327 on: February 02, 2014, 09:10:17 PM »
Shredding is a VERY important detail if there is any potential that accounts or PII data remains on the documents.  It is also important to use a cross-cut shredder.  Also, I know this goes against what is wanted.   Do not recycle those papers.  I actually use mine as kindle for fires :)

 

CG

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #328 on: February 03, 2014, 04:10:29 AM »
Helpful replies here, but I've never seen a shredding event advertised anywhere here in Melbourne, Australia. I don't drive and my own bank is accessible only by tram and then a walk at the far end. Papers are far too heavy to take far in any worthwhile quantity. Other banks will do nothing for you if you are not a customer - not even change coins for notes.

I did borrow a small shredder once from someone at church but it was very heavy to get it home and then return it, and anyway  it kept jamming, probably because I was over-feeding it, so I went off the idea. I don't know what PII data is, but everything has my name and address on it, and some kind of account number.

This is such a tiny flat that I honestly don't know where I'd store the shredder. No space under the desk: there's already a suitcase and a heater there. Wardrobe floor has more luggage and backpacks. And the idea of spending the best part of a day shredding is truly ghastly. A bonfire would be great: but in the parking area of a block of flats - I don't think so. 

Maybe I'll see what my accountant suggests the next time I have occasion to talk to him.

ace1224

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #329 on: February 03, 2014, 05:38:15 AM »
completely disgusted with myself and my family.  i cleaned my son's closet this weekend, and threw out four (FOUR!!!!) bags of BROKEN toys and things.  and then mailed one box of nicer things to my nephew. 
i had a serious talk with his dad we have got to stop the madness.  while we thought we didn't buy him that much stuff anymore, obviously we were wrong.  the grandparents have got to stop too.
i counted over 150 dollars worth of Predator toys alone! (i included Aliens as well since he likes to play Predator vs. Alien) the only good thing i guess he is his obsessed with those and plays with them constantly.  good, because he's not getting anymore.

i took some more stuffed animals and books to the domestic violence shelter.

EK

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #330 on: February 03, 2014, 06:15:40 AM »
We took the last big load of donation items to goodwill over the weekend.  I didn't even count how many carfuls of stuff went.  It makes me embarrassed and pretty confused!  Our living spaces have always been organized and not cluttered... Yet we had SO MUCH STUFF.  Moving really makes you aware of how much junk you have crammed in those closets and nooks and cubbies.  It's finally gone though and I'm very happy to feel comfortable in our new small house.

There are only 2 big areas left to tackle now, and I will face them later.  The storage shed (which is currently housing a lot of things my sister wants to take next time she visits), and the holiday decorations in the attic.  I'll deal with the holiday things when I pull them out next holiday season.

CommonCents

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #331 on: February 03, 2014, 08:11:54 AM »
We took the last big load of donation items to goodwill over the weekend.  I didn't even count how many carfuls of stuff went.  It makes me embarrassed and pretty confused!  Our living spaces have always been organized and not cluttered... Yet we had SO MUCH STUFF.  Moving really makes you aware of how much junk you have crammed in those closets and nooks and cubbies.  It's finally gone though and I'm very happy to feel comfortable in our new small house.

Oh yes!  +100!
Have another box of papers to go to the dump/feed a fire one night.  My goal in this unpacking is to not keep items that aren't:
1) Regularly used
2) Highly sentimental and very limited in number (e.g. my deceased grandmother's tea set, yes, but not my childhood papers)
3) Beautiful, decorative and again, very limited in number (e.g. time to cull the ~10 vases!)

horsepoor

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #332 on: February 06, 2014, 06:52:28 AM »
I thought I'd pruned my wardrobe pretty ruthlessly, but as I was going through my summer stuff to pack for a trip to FL, I realized that I am still hanging on to some XL shirts, even though I've shrunk down to a medium.  Making another pass-through and getting that stuff to the consignment shop is going on my hit list as soon as I return.  I think I might dump all my Christmas decorations too.  Up until this year I'd been decorating for Christmas, but suddenly I'm OVER IT and want most of that shit out of my life.

I'm not sure how to go about pruning DH's book collection.  It's not much, but it's cluttering the book shelves, and he hasn't opened any of them in years.  Maybe I'll just box them up and stuff them in the basement for a few months and see if he notices...

FunkyStickman

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #333 on: February 06, 2014, 07:20:11 AM »
Books are kind of a weird thing.. they're part decoration, part reference, part comfort, and occasionally for reading.

But yeah, they can get out of hand.

tariskat

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #334 on: February 06, 2014, 07:32:40 AM »
I brought some big reference books to Half Price, and have nearly filled a paper sack of clothes to donate or consign.  I recently dumped 2 television shows that I had all the seasons for.  My books are still getting out of hand, even though I haven't bought any new for quite a while.  I need to start writing down the name of the books I want to read, rather than just getting the stupid book.  My queue is at least 20 long.

CommonCents

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #335 on: February 06, 2014, 11:04:29 AM »
Yesterday, I had a snow day from work.  I continued unpacking items from the move and the donation pile grew by a round tin and 9 wine glasses collected from visiting wineries.  Slow and steady wins the race...to a happier, less stressful and more relaxed home environment.

4alpacas

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #336 on: February 06, 2014, 11:19:40 AM »
I donated 4 boxes of clothes and housewares to the Salvation Army this week.  It felt good! 

Now I need to tackle our storage areas. 

FI@2022Jem

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #337 on: February 07, 2014, 01:47:42 PM »
I started on the paperwork and moved it from the unsightly corner of the extra room (soon to be nursery) to the floor of a hall closet!  This was made possible by cleaning out the hall closet!  Cleared out that closet by getting rid of several extra sets of cheap sheets (really, how many extra sets does one need?!), and putting the bulky extra blanket and rarely used items on the top, previously unused shelf (I am not so lazy as to avoid using a step stool a couple times a year).  I also consolidated the closet in the nursery so that baby will get over half for baby clothes and storage needs. 

Still to do:
-finish clearing all the items on the floor to the bare minimum to install new carpet upstairs (we redid the downstairs floors ourselves when we moved in years ago, upstairs carpet are conservatively 20 years old and it shows). 
-Continue to unclutter kitchen counters (trying to convince ourselves to get rid of the microwave!) and put another shelf in the "junk cabinet" so that it is more of a pantry area then a junk storage.
+lots of other to be determined projects

happy

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #338 on: February 12, 2014, 05:09:44 PM »
Well I'm at it again. 4 garbage  bags of clothes out. 3 from daughter who finally agreed to relinquish things that needed to go ages ago. 3 boxes  of stuff to the family store  yesterday.  And oh my goodness I've started on my paper clutter, which I've been avoiding for years.  Payslips  and bills back to the 90s. Think its going to look worse before it looks better. So far 3 garbage bags of paper shreddings.....1 bag in the compost. 2 on standby for fire lighting when the weather cools down. I don't normally get this way with clutter, but I have to confess I feel completely overwhelmed by the  paper clutter. Baby steps, have faith,  breathe, it will get better...

limeandpepper

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #339 on: February 12, 2014, 05:25:41 PM »
Good luck happy, paper clutter is the worst. I have to clear out mine as well. It's the most difficult area for me because I feel paranoid that I'm throwing out important information that I may need again one day in the future.

nikki

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #340 on: February 12, 2014, 05:57:36 PM »
I'm moving to a new one-room apartment in a little over a week, and I haven't seen it. I'm really worried that it's significantly smaller than my already tiny place. I don't have a lot of excess, but I do have some. So here's what I hope to purge this week:

  • toaster oven that's seen better days
  • some supplies from school (Harry Potter wands, brown poster paint, hot glue gun, raffia ribbon
  • some smoke deodorizer spray from previous teacher (I don't even smoke!!!)
  • 2 automatic air freshener spray things
  • maybe some books, although I haven't read most of them--I trade them at a book swap
  • carafe-less coffee maker .___.
  • some paperwork (old bills, documents from conferences, random nonsense

I'm struggling with the best way to get rid of these items. They aren't particularly valuable, aren't even worth donating, but I feel very bad about throwing things in the dump. I'll post them on Facebook groups for free, but I don't think anyone will want any of this stuff. Siiiigh!

I left three of my six coffee mugs at work, and I'm making good progress toward eating everything in my pantry. But I'm actually acquiring more kitchen appliances and left over ingredients from someone before I move :-/

I really, really, really hope my things fit comfortably in my new apartment! So worried...

grantmeaname

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #341 on: February 12, 2014, 06:08:29 PM »
They aren't particularly valuable, aren't even worth donating
Useful but inexpensive items are definitely worth donating. The paperwork, maybe not, but everything else could be nice to donate.

happy

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #342 on: February 12, 2014, 06:18:34 PM »
Quote
I feel paranoid that I'm throwing out important information that I may need again one day in the future.

Yes deep down I have this irrational fear that I will need some particular informationfrom 2 decades ago to prove something some day to some one without knowing now what that might be.  What the?


Good luck  with the new apartment Nikki.

CG

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #343 on: February 12, 2014, 07:09:24 PM »
Quote
I feel paranoid that I'm throwing out important information that I may need again one day in the future.

Yes deep down I have this irrational fear that I will need some particular informationfrom 2 decades ago to prove something some day to some one without knowing now what that might be.

I don't really want to encourage people to keep old paperwork, but I did have this happen when I applied for an age pension. Although I'm now an Australian citizen, I had to document precisely when I arrived in Australia [in 1975!], on what visa, and how long I have spent outside Australia since then. I also needed tax assessment notices for the last 10 years, and it would have been pay-slips too except that I was self-employed.

So at the very least keep all cancelled passports, and also tax assessment notices for far longer than the ATO website says. I did wonder what would have happened had I been unfortunate enough to lose everything in a bush-fire.

happy

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #344 on: February 12, 2014, 07:14:30 PM »
Thanks CG, maybe I can stick all those shredded bits back together!
Seriously though, this sort of ridiculous expectation, is what bothers me.

FunkyStickman

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #345 on: February 12, 2014, 07:52:42 PM »
You know, I remember a few years ago reading a blog (my efforts at googling it have failed) where the writer basically said the easiest way she could get out of the clutter in her life was to get rid of everything, including the sentimental stuff. And years later, if at some point she thought "What did I ever do with that such-and-such?" she'd just think "Oh yeah, we lost that in the house fire" and move on with life. It was a way to mentally separate those things from herself as a person... they weren't her identity... and she was able to deeply minimize and move on with life with no regrets.

Sometimes (quite often) I think about getting rid of everything I have and just starting over after an "imaginary house fire." I probably won't ever do it, but it makes me realize what a stronghold material possessions can take in your life.

happy

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #346 on: February 12, 2014, 07:59:10 PM »
Yes good point, I was just thinking, what would CG have done if she'd lost those documents in a house fire? I think I'll use it more deliberately myself to get going.

FunkyStickman

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #347 on: February 13, 2014, 05:12:56 PM »
Adding a little fuel to the fire (pun intended):

Finally going through the huge stack of bills and invoices and insurance papers we got after my bad accident 2.5 years ago. Scanning everything into Evernote. Wish me luck... probably going to hit the upload limit, but it resets in 5 days. Can do the rest next weekend.

Yay, paperwork!

Anatidae V

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #348 on: February 14, 2014, 11:10:52 PM »
Biked a bag of clothes to the donation bin and letters to RTS into the post box (rentals are fun like that, always surprised when they haven't let their bank know they've moved!).

Put all my winter clothes AWAY (took until over halfway through summer... I did it once, then we had to use our suitcases, and I didn't put them back in!). Then reorganised our laundry so I can actually reach the sheets. The poisonous cleaners we're working our way through are now well out of reach, and we have 2 small shelves to go before we can get rid of a set of shelving and replace with a chest/small upright freezer. Did that bit while it was 30degrees C outside without the aircon on! Then turned it on and lay under it. Oops. But so worth it.

mm1970

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Re: Getting rid of stuff / Clearing out clutter!
« Reply #349 on: February 16, 2014, 09:58:48 AM »
So I started with the "declutter in 15 minutes a day" calendar (see thread below), but I couldn't keep up with it.  Never expected to.  Anyway, I'm still working on the kitchen.

Here's what we've been working on:
Books - donated a bunch to the library

Rummage sale: The school is having one next weekend to raise money for the 6th grade trip.  We are gathering stuff
Kids toys - especially the big ones.
Kids and adults clothing and shoes
Baby backpack

Other news:
My husband has been working on the hall closet.  When we bought the place, it was a little indentation where the prior owner kept her cat box.  It had no shelves, an old pipe on the side from the old heater that was under the house (to vent it), and a very badly done "arch". (A lot of homes in my town were built in the 20's with arches.  This house was built in the 40's and someone tried to give it 20's character by putting in three arches.)

Anyway, he started the project a long time ago (pulling out the pipe, putting in electrical), but stalled because of full time job/ two kids. He took a day off this week (no school for the big boy), when the little guy was still in daycare. Made all of the shelves and started sanding/ staining.  We are hoping to finish by end of March (after shelves will need doors).  Having shelves will make this very useful, but right now it's just a place where we dump stuff behind a baby gate.

In the kitchen, I decluttered the spice drawer, and took the dried spices (that we once fresh from the farm and sat on the counter till they dried) and put them into containers.  I also decluttered the vinegar/ spice/ oil shelf.

I seem to accumulate frozen bananas, so I defrosted 3 (out of probably 10) and have banana bread in the oven.  My goal is to have the kitchen completely decluttered by the time my mother in law visits at the end of March.

I also reorganized my fabric and yarn.

On a body front, I've lost 11 lbs.  I'm really trying to not rebound (it's happened twice before).  My goal is to get to my pre-pregnancy weight (or close) so I can get rid of the big clothes and figure out which of the small clothes still fit.  So I can declutter the closet.  That's still 20-25 lbs from now.  Probably take at least a year.