It's a Decluttering Party!!! - Page 4

[kate42]

Today I packed away winter clothes to make room for short sleeves and shorts. I got rid of two big bags of sweaters, sweatpants, etc. I just need to get them to Goodwill.

Monday, when DH is at work, I'm going through all of his clothes. The only way to cull his old clothes is to do it when he's not home. He throws a hissy if I get rid of ANY of his clothes, so I have to keep it on the down low.

[amyamanda]

LOL - I thought I needed to get it all done before the baby arrived, but now that I'm "here" (postpartum) I have more energy and it's getting done now! I have some bags of stuff to consign locally (I've never done that before, but we could really use the $$) and can't wait to move them out of here. Also we decided to sell our crib since it never gets used. And I'm paring down my sling collection - will post soon in the trading forum. Gotta love decluttering!!!! Moving (9 months ago) was the best incentive ever for decluttering, I found. It's so much easier now that the bulk of it is done. Good luck to everyone!

[kathsmom]

ShannonCC,

Thanks for your well wishes for my DS. He has just been so sick, so this week has not gone well for decluttering. In fact, my dryer was on its last legs, so we had to go shopping for a new washer/dryer set. I have been spending my time catching up on laundry!LOL!

As I have washed the children's winter clothes, I have put them aside to donate to Goodwill or Salvation Army. I wanted to hold on to them and consign them when the fall season rolls around, but DH did have a good point about having to find a place to store them, remembering to find out when the consignment shops take the seasonal merchandise, haul them out, wash them, take them to the shop, etc. It's just too much to think about right now!

We are thinking of moving this summer to be closer to a school where my DD might attend. If we do, then we definitely need to get rid of some things around here so that the house shows better. Now, if I could just get the kids to keep it clean while it's on the market!

ShannonCC, that's a great idea about just putting the animals away to see if she misses them, but my DD is going to be 8 years old on Wednesday, and unfortunately, she does remember these things! So, I can't always get away with the "hide it and if she doesn't play with it, out it goes" technique. I could do that when she was a lot younger, but she has wised up to my ways!

I hope to do better this week with decluttering!

[singermom]

Well, thanks to a kick in the rear from DH, I did a little work on our third floor office/storage room today. He wanted to move a second computer and our keyboard up there to make it our "music studio" : . This was not on my list of projects to do right away, but I figured if I didn't get up there and do something about it, he would come through and employ his usual carpet bombing technique of decluttering (which is often effective in a no-turning back sort of way...). So I restacked the boxes that I need to sort through, put my craft supplies in storage (I'm really not doing any crafting to speak of just now) and got the floor cleared for him. It doesn't really count as decluttering, because I didn't throw anything out or get rid of anything, but I did at least arrange the things that I need to sort (hey, I need all the rationalizations I can get...).

Kathsmom, good luck with getting your house ready to sell! And enjoy the new washer/dryer. We had to get a new oven just recently, but it ended up making us see how bad our old one had been! Sometimes, it's the little things in life, right?

Mia

[MamaChel]

Can I join in? We're getting ready to move from the house DH inherited from his dad in 1988!!! He compulsively keeps stuff- he has magazines from before he was born. SO I have been on a massive decluttering binge- we have gotten rid of so far: 2 extra kitchen tables, old textbooks, car muffler, surgical scrub sink, CB radio, old A/C, and 2 dressers to Freecycle. Also, a broken hutch, old mattress set, 2 broken clothes dryers, broken clothes washer, old HWH, fridge, bunk bed, entire garage full of junk, old school papers, etc. Have ready to go- 2 boxes of misc dishes/kitchen stuff, 3 bags of clothes, trunk full of books, living room chair, broken couch, misc computer parts, 2 metal shelving units and an old bike. We still have to get to the basement and attic to get rid of stuff. Some will go to freecycle and some will have to be thrown out.

We're closing on the sale of our house on June 2 so everything has to be done by then. It's a huge task decluttering 15 years worth of stuff while packing at the same time. (Not to mention being 29 weeks pg.)

Most of the baby stuff has been passed to my friend who had her last baby in Dec- I'll get it back when my babe is born and pass it to my sister when her babe comes. I am planning a massive clearing of the toys- DS is not even 2 and his toys can take over the world if I let them. All but his favorites will be passed on to goodwill- he plays with regular household stuff anyway. My family holds to the "you can never have too much stuff" philosophy so I figure he'll get it back in volume before the end of the year.

Whew, I have accomplished a ton in the past month. If I wasn't moving so soon I would have gone much slower- I just don't want to have to move junk. Congrats to everybody who is getting some decluttering done.

[kathsmom]

Mia (singermom),

Thanks so much for the well wishes for selling our home. We haven't quite decided whether to do it or not. The two reasons we want to sell are to get in a neighborhood where there are children and DD might be attending a school 15miles from our current home. There are no children anywhere near us in our neighborhood. It's all empty nesters or people have highschool aged children. Also, I really don't want to spend 2 hours of my life driving 60 miles a day to take her to and from school. This neighborhood that we are interested in is all new construction and it is actually in our price range. The neighbors were so friendly to us as we looked around some of the completed homes.

I love my new washer and dryer! You're right about how you don't realize how bad an appliance is until you replace it. I also bought a mid-priced dishwasher, since we would have had to replace the old one if we sold the house.

So, I guess I did declutter an old washer, dryer, and dishwasher. I have some more clothes to donate to Goodwill, both mine and the kids'.

MamaChel,

Wow, you have done a lot of decluttering! I wish I had your energy! Way to go! I hope that everything goes well with your decluttering and the closing on your home.

Take care!

[WindyMoments04]

Well since leaving my husband and packing to move home with family, I have gotten rid of SO MUCH! I gave away everything in my kitchen! I wont be needing it, so I gave it all away! I took clothes to the Goodwill, and got rid of so much junk doing the 'Have I used it in the last 6 months?' rule!!

I am now down to bare bones! Furniture and some decorations, and thats it...

Whew it feels good!

[Fianna]

Wow! I don't know whether to say congratulations or offer condolences. I'm glad you had such a successful decluttering event, but I'm sorry about the situation that caused it. Wishing you the best!

[SpiralChrissy]

Congratst Windy! You're inspiring me again!!!
Chrissy

[Cranberry]

I need to go through a couple of file cabinets and get rid (shred) old papers that I no longer need. Yuck. I really hate doing that kind of stuff. I'd rather pick up toys or clean out another closet...

[Fianna]

Let's trade! You come to my house and pick up all of the toys and I'll come shred your papers!
I HATE picking up stuff (mainly because I know that 20 minutes later it will be all over the place again) but I really enjoy organizing my work space (not that it stays organized for very long : )

[Cranberry]

Deal!

It's not the shredding that I hate, it's going through the folders, etc. Just boring. I feel more like I have accomplished something and can SEE the accomplishment if I pick up 7,000 toys a day and put them away. I think it's actually the same 1,000 toys 7 different times each day... yikes.

[gurumama]

I want to jump in as well, please. We're moving in 5-6 weeks. Two days ago I took 7 bags of stuff to the Salvation Army. I have another 4 ready to go as well. In fact, I might get off the computer and go deliver them immediately, just to get them OUT of here!

I'll check in on progress. I started some similar threads last fall and they were fun--we had a new one each month!

[sarasprings]

Hi, all. We are going slowly, but we're going to have our first garage sale in 3 weeks. My other major decluttering contribution is being more selective at garage sales I go to.