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Anyone want to join in a purge? - Page 2

post #21 of 73
7/25/10 at 9:46pm
I did a huge amount of moving/sorting books yesterday, think I overdid it actually as my back is hurting today! But at least I weeded out some to get rid of, going to store most of them though in plastic containers under the house. Although that is not helping me purge, it has helped to declutter our bedroom.

I have found out somewhere I might be able to sell some of our 2nd hand toys, to a store that pays 50% cash, 50% credit, for old toys and clothes...so will take them along next week and try my luck, otherwise will donate them to charity.
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post #22 of 73
7/25/10 at 10:46pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by *Lisa* View Post
I've been working on our play room. So far I have five or six boxes ready to go to the church yard sale. All of that's great, but I saw a mouse or something similarly small and furry in there this morning (it ran through too quickly to see much except the movement). Eek!
EEEEEWWWW! How scary!
post #23 of 73
7/29/10 at 2:23pm
How's everyone doing? So far, I've gathered about 70 items to donate.

The saving items to sell thing is really holding me up, and I can't decide what to do about it right now.
post #24 of 73
7/29/10 at 3:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkksmom View Post
How's everyone doing? So far, I've gathered about 70 items to donate.

The saving items to sell thing is really holding me up, and I can't decide what to do about it right now.
Saving items to sell ALWAYS gets me, and for some reason I'm such a procrastinator about selling stuff. I usually just end up donating them anyway.

I'm doing really well! I've been through almost all of my stuff to pare down. I've been through DD's toys, but not her clothes. What do you all do with stained baby clothes? They're not worn out at all, just kind of messy looking. Does Goodwill take those, you think?

DH and SIL are soooo not on board, though. DH asked me if he could go to a movie a few nights ago. I said, "Sure, if you choose 10 books to donate." He decided not to go to the movie. I asked SIL if she wanted to donate any books...Our bookshelves are PACKED with her books, like required reading books from high school, junky paperbacks from the 80s, tons of old magazines, etc. She must have a thousand books--most of it junk, but she only gave me 5 to donate. I'm trying to remember that DH and SIL just have different priorities right now than decluttering.
post #25 of 73
7/29/10 at 3:59pm
I definatley need to purge... 75+ pairs of shoes is just the beginning! We have a "tunnel system" in our house, and I admit it is mostly my crap! Not to mention the baby due date is just a few weeks away...
post #26 of 73
7/31/10 at 1:55am
I'm in on decluttering. Tomorrow, I will go through all of our clothes, wash what needs to be washed, and get rid of what we don't wear (that's still wearable) on Freecycle. Some of the extra clothes for the older 3 kids will go to their dad's house, so he has some decent clothes for them.

Anybody want to take any bets on how many garbage bags of clothes I'll fill?
post #27 of 73
7/31/10 at 9:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkksmom View Post

The saving items to sell thing is really holding me up, and I can't decide what to do about it right now.

That has always been an obstacle for me also. Now I have just one bag of things in which I keep clothes to list on ebay, and I only sell the things that are either new with tags OR are designer brands that I can ask a reasonable amount for. Otherwise bitter experience has taught me the effort is not worth it.

I also found a 2nd hand place that buys toys, so I am taking a heap there this week, and whatever they won't take, I will donate...Thursday can't come fast enough! I am dying to get rid of all these bags of stuff!
post #28 of 73
7/31/10 at 10:24am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by clutterwarrior View Post
That has always been an obstacle for me also. Now I have just one bag of things in which I keep clothes to list on ebay, and I only sell the things that are either new with tags OR are designer brands that I can ask a reasonable amount for. Otherwise bitter experience has taught me the effort is not worth it.

I also found a 2nd hand place that buys toys, so I am taking a heap there this week, and whatever they won't take, I will donate...Thursday can't come fast enough! I am dying to get rid of all these bags of stuff!
I don't have the patience to list things for sale, so mostly everything is going to be donated to Goodwill. But even then, the boxes sit in my house for weeks and weeks before I finally take them.
post #29 of 73
7/31/10 at 7:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by green_momma2007 View Post
I don't have the patience to list things for sale, so mostly everything is going to be donated to Goodwill. But even then, the boxes sit in my house for weeks and weeks before I finally take them.
You are not the only one!

DH gets frustrated with me, because I fill so many bags and boxes to take to the charity store and then it takes me weeks to get around to driving there, so meanwhile we trip over the stuff...
post #30 of 73
7/31/10 at 8:55pm
I'm so in! My ex is officially not living here anymore! Which means I can get rid of the many many things that have been hanging around here that he never wanted to get rid of, along with all his crap! I've spent the entire afternoon on the playroom! I've gotten rid of stacks and stacks of books (so only a first layer of purging, I know I could go back through and get rid of WAY more), got rid of all the kids vhs movies except 5 per kid, and almost all the plastic crappy kitchen playtoys are going to his place. (I kept the plastic food and dishes that were mine when I was a kid and a couple cool ethnic foods that were plastic).

I cleaned out the coat closet this morning as well. There is a giant box ready for ExH, along with a laundry basket full and a tub halffulll. Irritation though, I can't run any laundry because the washer broke while I was out of town and he just handwashed his clothes rather than calling to get it fixed, HUGE piles in the basement waiting for it to get fixed Thursday!

The bad part is that the playroom is still a huge mess of misc junk. I need to steamclean the carpets up there badly, ExH was bad about changing the cat litter and it now smells like cat. GRR
post #31 of 73
7/31/10 at 9:18pm
I'm in!

I did a challenge at the beginning of the year and it felt GREAT! I'm a little bit stressed because DH is leaving for a month and I really feel if I don't purge now and simplify I won't be able to keep up with everything alone while he's away.

I've already started. Tossed a few things into the donation box at Target on my way in, and am working on sorting and decluttering CLOTHING (our biggest problem) and shoes now.

Just reading through this thread inspired me to list my old professional wardrobe on CL (I was in the hotel industry for a while and now I mostly SAH). even if there aren't any takers, I feel like I've been proactive about it and next I'll drag 'em over to the dry cleaners and then perhaps consignment if there are no bites. That would be a huge improvement!

I'm feeling rather ruthless at the moment and am hopeful that this baby will somehow be a boy so I think I can be pretty darn merciless with the children's clothing.

wish me luck! I'll be back to update!
post #32 of 73
7/31/10 at 11:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by echospiritwarrior View Post
I'm in!

I did a challenge at the beginning of the year and it felt GREAT! I'm a little bit stressed because DH is leaving for a month and I really feel if I don't purge now and simplify I won't be able to keep up with everything alone while he's away.

I've already started. Tossed a few things into the donation box at Target on my way in, and am working on sorting and decluttering CLOTHING (our biggest problem) and shoes now.

Just reading through this thread inspired me to list my old professional wardrobe on CL (I was in the hotel industry for a while and now I mostly SAH). even if there aren't any takers, I feel like I've been proactive about it and next I'll drag 'em over to the dry cleaners and then perhaps consignment if there are no bites. That would be a huge improvement!

I'm feeling rather ruthless at the moment and am hopeful that this baby will somehow be a boy so I think I can be pretty darn merciless with the children's clothing.

wish me luck! I'll be back to update!
hugs! My DH is going away for a month too.
post #33 of 73
8/1/10 at 3:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by clutterwarrior View Post
You are not the only one!

DH gets frustrated with me, because I fill so many bags and boxes to take to the charity store and then it takes me weeks to get around to driving there, so meanwhile we trip over the stuff...
OK I felt annoyed with myself after writing this!

So today I drove to the charity store and got rid of heaps of stuff...feels good having the stairwell free of boxes now.
post #34 of 73
8/1/10 at 5:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkksmom View Post
I need to do this. I've been toying with the idea. For right now, I've packed up all of or clothing except what we need for a week to see how it affects our life. I'm one week into it, and I think I like it. I definitely am not going for 100 things. But paring down sounds great.
I'm doing something very similar to this later in the week. I know we'll have to move in two years at the *very latest*, but more likely much much sooner. So I've decided to pack stuff now. I'm so sick of looking at everything. I'm going to clean out the garage (which isn't very bad at all, it's mostly organized) and put boxes of stuff in there until the time comes. When we actually move and get settled I'm going to go through and how much I *really* needed all those things. Probably not very much If I don't need it in one year, will I really every need it again?
post #35 of 73
8/1/10 at 9:14am
This is inspiring! I want to join! I already went through and culled all the 0-3 mo baby clothes (baby is into 6 month clothing now). I'm going to take them to a women's shelter this week... but you all have inspired me to go through my clothes and see what I can purge. Thanks, Mamas!
post #36 of 73
8/1/10 at 10:23am
Forgot to say in my other post, I am looking at a cross country move in a year, maybe two (once the divorce and adoptions are finalized). So another huge motivation for me in decluttering is "Would I want to pay to move this?"

I also ask myself, especially with my clothes "Would I buy this again?" That question seems to work well for me. If it wouldn't fit my criteria for buying it at the thrift store, then why would I keep it in my closet?
post #37 of 73
8/1/10 at 3:28pm
cool idea BT mama! I hope it works for you, everytime I've done something similiar it's worked like a charm!

way to go Cee!

green_mama it is rough... last time he was gone for only 2.5 weeks and it was HORRIBLE I was a weeping broken mess BUT he was out of the country and had no internet access and hardly any phone access (two calls the whole time). I'm figuring that since he'll just be out of state I can manage a LOT better since I imagine I'll be getting semi-regular phone calls.

so to update on where I'm at... I have at least three trash bags sorted WOOHOO! One I'll stick in the donation box before the day is up, the next I'll put out at the curb (children's clothes they ALWAYS get picked up the same day), the next (better quality/shape children's clothing) I'm saving for a couple of friends to look through before donating.
I think I may be in really good shape before my bread is out of the oven!
post #38 of 73
8/1/10 at 5:22pm
OK. I'm officially making a goal for August.

hmmm. What should it be, though? I know: one bag of stuff out every day - I usually use freecycle, that's just the easiest thing for me. But for this goal, it can be trash, recycling, freecycle, or sell.

My ultimate goal is to get the house ready to sell by the fall. We are going to be talking with our realtor in a week or so to make some specific plans, but the best selling time is the spring.

That means EVERYTHING must be decluttered to the max, all the walls need to be painted, and some other random home improvements need to be done. My desire is to have a "pretty house" for the holidays.

Maybe my first goal is to clean up the house enough this week to have the realtor over ... I'm going to follow flylady again starting today, too. Seems like that's a good goal for August. Oh, and I also promised my daughters that they could have a sleepover with their best friend if they help me out a lot this week ...

ok. time to get off the computer and go fill a bag for freecycle.
post #39 of 73
8/1/10 at 8:00pm
yay! One trash bag out and for the first time I'm trying to sell some kids bundles cheap cheap on CL, if nothing happens by next week it's going to get donated! I would love to put some cash toward our midwife's fee!
post #40 of 73
8/1/10 at 8:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by echospiritwarrior View Post
yay! One trash bag out and for the first time I'm trying to sell some kids bundles cheap cheap on CL, if nothing happens by next week it's going to get donated! I would love to put some cash toward our midwife's fee!
what is a "kids bundle" ?

best wishes on the pregnancy