I realized while donating clothes

[catscharm74]

That all the clothes, accessories and shoes that I have donated have ALL been impulse buys. All of the them...it will make me think before I buy another thing again. How about y'all???

[SomethingAnonymous]

When I am decluttering.. I realize that everything I am getting rid of is coming into my house via my mom. It's probably a good thing though recognizing the source of all the "stuff" so that it can be prevented in the future :)

[marinak1977]

Yes - I have donated many impulse buys that I ended up wearing once (or never ) But I also donated clothes because my body changed postpartum.
I am definitely an impulse shopper and starting to seriously fight clutter made me really reconsider my buying habits. I still have a hard time not browsing through sales.

[broodymama]

Initially a lot of what I donated were impulse buys or gifts.  Now they are more "in between" sizes, as my body changes after kids.  And the occasional thing that I find buried in a box in the garage, left over from when I was working or that I've held on to out of guilt.  I've gotten a lot better about the impulse buys (mainly as we've worked on our budget), but the gifts, ugh.  There's a lovely shawl in my closet now that I still need to donate.  It's nice, it's just not my style and too large to boot, and was a gift from a relative. 

[zebra15]

I have a serious office supply issue.  Hummm... pens, paper, stuff like that...

My son has clothes but nothing excessing.  We have a mild/hot climate here so mostly summer type clothes.

Oh I have a serious book issues.

[e13lorena]

Yeah - I have tons of office supply stuff too. One office job closed and I brought lots of stuff home, another one I recently left, but got lots of stuff to reuse that was going in the trash. The vast majority of the stuff I donate are shirts that I've been hanging on since High school that my belly hangs out of and plastic crap (but still good) toys that I have boxes and boxes of in the attic upstairs for cleaning the girls' rooms.

Usually gifts for well-meaning relatives that aren't familar with my take on crap (or very familiar with it, but not on the same wave lenght.)

~Erin

[OkiMom]

A lot of what I donate tends to be:

1) things that people have given us that I won't/don't use. No matter how many times I tell friends/family things they tend not to listen. For example, my daughters and I all wear skirts with leggings under (if its cold enough or we are doing activities that might show to much) and own maybe 1 pair of pants each for activities that would be dangerous in a skirt. However, I get a lot of pants/shorts etc from friends/family who thinks we don't own pants because we can't afford them , actually getting pants that fit us would be a ton easier/cheaper than skirts/dresses so that's not the reason. Also I seem to be the recipient of a lot of tanks, tube tops, bikinis etc that people want to hand down. We don't wear those items but we are still given them because "you have such a cute figure Heather, you REALLY need to wear this instead of that".. ugh. they mean well but still..

2) gifts, luckily this is a rarity though. I still have like 6 toys that were given to us for our daughters this Christmas that are still in boxes in the closet because we won't use them. I need to either donate or sell them sometime soon.

3) things we got when I was either sick, depressed or otherwise not paying 100% attention to what we were getting.

4) things Ive had/DH has had for years that we kept out of either a sense of responsibility or not really wanting to let that part of our life go. For example, college text books, clothing that no longer fit but "might again one day", souvenirs from places we have been etc.

[e13lorena]

I have guite a few college text books, as well, that I never use that I haven't gotten rid of yet - I did part with one box (donated to World Books). So Sad to think of all the money spent on these - I should have sold them back right after the class was done, why in the world did I think I would need these again. UGH.

[marimara]

I've noticed that everything I end up donating either came as a gift from someone (usually family) or from the thrift store.  I will often buy something from the thrift store even though it's not my preferred color, fit, fabric, etc. only to end up hating it.  The things I've held onto year after year are the ones I've spent lots of time deciding and choosing and unfortunately spent more money on.  Thrift stores aren't really that big of a bargain to me, I've learned. Which sucks, because I love thrifting!!!  But honestly, since the recession started our thrifts have very slim pickings....

[VisionaryMom]

We donated lots of things MIL gives us. DH actually talked to her about it, and she's stopped most of it. She really was trying to help us furnish/decorate our house with things that I think should would have liked when she was in the first years of marriage. They were mostly knickknack type stuff that we just don't want.

We also have lots of office supplies. I have gotten rid of tons of them, but we still have them. Books...too many, and I'm not prepared to part with any of them yet - don't know if I ever will be.

[lunarlady]

W donate a lot of things that don't fit and/or were hand me downs from somebody else. Yet I still have trouble letting things go. So somebody "gave" me this sweater because they didn't like it, yet I feel bad giving it away? Seriously stupid.

[Graceie]

YES ! that was the first layer at our house .then I move out all the cloths that I feel dont respect my body or Im just to old for ( short skirts , tube tops really short shorts ect. ) . then Ive gotten rid of all the cloths that are not in good condtion or I just dont feel good about myself in . now Im stuck on what to move out next the hard part is Im trying to have anotehr baby so I have pant in sizes 0 were I am now through size 8 not that many but a few of eatch . I have noticed that latetly Im spending more on the cloths I do buy but buying way less and actuly wearing them so in all spending less one clothes

[Ellien C]

Tell me about it! They take up 2 whole shelves in the Living Room. And DH and I are BOTH over 20 years out of college. What is world books? I would donate them in a heartbeat!

 

Originally Posted by e13lorena 

I have guite a few college text books, as well, that I never use that I haven't gotten rid of yet - I did part with one box (donated to World Books). So Sad to think of all the money spent on these - I should have sold them back right after the class was done, why in the world did I think I would need these again. UGH.

[accountclosed3]

so, i have very little by way of clothing. and when i was pregnant, i saw a dress that i wanted in a shop. of course, i couldn't try it on because i was pregnant. a year later, i went and looked for the dress in the shop. i made the mistake of going with my mother.

my mother always, always talks me into things that i don't want or need. since i'd purged down to one dress at this point, and i wanted to buy this new dress, i thought i'd have enough dresses if i bought this one.

now, the dress i wanted wasn't in stock (of course not!) but the company still made the dress. so, they would order it for me if i would try on a similar dress for the size. the woman brings me this dress. 

now, this dress, i dn't particularly care for. sure, it looks nice, but it's basically a cocktail dress, and i don't have anywhere to wear cocktail dresses. the dress i wanted is dressy enough to dress up for cocktails or casual enough to dress down for a summer day. it's a good dress in that way.

so i try this dress on, and my mother starts raving about how great i look in it and so on. and then, eventually, talks me into letting her buy it for me, and i order my dress. 

i've had those dresses a year. My dress i've worn counltess times. my mother's dress, i haven't worn once. i brought it to NZ and i *still* haven't worn it. So now, i'm thinking of sending it to her. should she loose the weight she wants to, she can wear it. no need for me to store her dress.