2012 in 2012 - Page 8

[Mom31]

30 childrens books

98/2014

[stephanie95]

This thread is busy! Yay for everyone. I have to say that I am feeling really positive about what I have been able to achieve this week.

I gave away 2 large bags of maternity clothes to a group that was happy to have them. I find that makes parting with things so much easier.

I also gave 2 large bags of miscellaneous adult and kids clothing.

I removed 36 bath tub toys, one toy baby stroller, a crib music box, and about 5 misc baby toys.

I sold a Graco stroller. That was very difficult. I hadn't used it in a long time. When I brought it into the house to clean it, I fell in love with it again. But I persevered against myself and sold it for $75.

I also cleaned out my kitchen junk drawer and threw away every pen that did not write! I didn't count everything as I tossed it. I'm going to count it as 50 because now I have lots of room in the drawer and before I couldn't open it without stuff falling out. So I know I threw out lots but some of it was trash my kids left behind etc.

So my official tally is: 73 maternity items + 150 other clothing items + 43 toy items + 1 stroller + 50 junk drawer items = 317

317/2012

$75

[stephanie95]

Originally Posted by cristeen 

So my DH challenged me last night... if I get halfway to goal by the end of January (that's 1006 items), he'll hire a babysitter and take me out to a fancy dinner. 

The trouble I'm running into is what to do with all of this stuff.  I have 2 bins of kids stuff already, 1 clothes and 1 toys, but I can only find 1 kids consignment shop (in a Metro area!), and last time I was in there their clothes racks were so packed I didn't even want to try looking through them.  For the adult clothes, the consignment stores want the stuff pressed and on hangers and even the good causes that take donations (that help people with clothes for job interviews) wants them pressed and on hangers when donated... do people seriously have all these extra hangers lying about they can donate all their clothes on them?  It's looking like everything's just going to have to go to Goodwill or Salvation Army, which kinda sucks.  I could hang onto the kids clothes for the big consignment sale in April, but I'm due in May - and I don't want this stuff lying around for the next 4 months. 

I need to look into shelters and the like for the stuffies and the toiletries, since I know no one else will take those. 

So where do you ladies donate all this clutter?

I wanted to give the maternity clothes to someone who needed them rather than a general clothing donation so I called around to the pregnancy support organizations in my area. I finally found a social worker from a health unit who works with high risk moms. She was thrilled to have them so that made me feel really good. She also works with several other groups so she took all of my clothing and toys. She is also interested in other baby stuff I am planning to purge.

I found a teen mom who just had a baby boy so I am going to channel my boy stuff to her. I have loads since my last 2 babies were boys. However there is some stuff I will put for sale.

For my girl stuff, my friend's sister in law loved my last batch of hand-me-downs so I will just channel stuff to her as my daughter grows.

I love the "personal" connection with the recipient. It is motivating to me.

For partially used toiletries, I have found that nursing homes are open to using them. I have given loads to the facility my mother in law is in. They say they love it.

Stuffies are trickier because a lot of organizations won't accept used ones. So those I generally give to Goodwill who takes nearly anything. Or I drop them into the clothing bin.

I live in the country and found with things like clothes etc people just aren't willing to come get them and I don't want to drive all over and meet - up to sell a $5 item. I haven't even had luck with giving away on freecycle. So for me if I can find someone who wants/likes/needs them, I figure then I'm paying it forward. I also like the donation bin in the parking lot. You don't have to worry about rejection and you can go anytime it is convenient for you. I try not to abuse them either. I just pick one for the cause I like.
 

[clutterwarrior]

3 more sales of scrapbooking items

kids T shirt donating

4 pencils

felt pen

dress

skirt

36/2012

$56.45

Edited by clutterwarrior - 1/5/12 at 1:50am

[zebra15]

2011 calendar

pile of papers

NEW TOTAL

17/2012

$17.47

[LoveOurBabies]

I've slacked off for the last few days as we had house guests.. My tally is still at 149 / 2012.

I'm finding it a bit hard to be motivated right now after the few days of slacking off. 29 weeks pregnant and very tired. I had an idea today that I thought I'd share - I call it reverse decluttering. Whilst I'm still feeling too tired to do a physical and drawn out purge, I'm going to write a list of all the items I *only* want to see in our home and then go along and get rid of (donate, sell, recycle, trash) everything that's not on that list. Included will only be the important and can't-live-without, would definitely replace if lost/destroyed items. Thought it might help someone who wants to get into the decluttering but is not 100% up to it physically. It might be good motivation to see all the items that are staying on one list.

Everyone is doing so well by the way!!

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by frugalmama 

+

1 bag of trash from DD's room

2 bookshelves reclaimed from DD's room - one will go to the kitchen for pots & pans, the other to the pantry

1 jar pasta sauce that went bad tossed

7/2012

Haven't started plain decluttering yet - working on getting it clean first. We're having a yard sale in a month, so I want a lot of things sorted out for that. Also working on a few thredup boxes - I don't count those items until they actually get picked in a box, so my numbers will go up then. 

+

about 25 coupon inserts from back in May / June

1 tub of recycle

stack of 50+ inserts put away in file cabinet instead of sitting on the table for months

83/2012

And I listed 2 new boxes on thredup, I will count those items as soon as they are picked there. 

ETA: 1 box just went on thredup - 

4 sweaters - and I got a $5 credit for them that I'll use for things we need. 

88/2012

Edited by frugalmama - 1/5/12 at 11:53am

[IsaFrench]

was at 75/2012

am now at 98/2012

upset that it's not all done yet (spent about 10 hours so far, am SO slow at it .... )

but at least am tackling it ....

and knowing that I have all year to complete the goal .... makes me less upset that the flat doesn't look good yet !

anyway, am glad that I've started doing it instead of reading/talking about it ...

off to vaccum quickly before children are back from school .....

[green_momma2007]

I got rid of two bags of kitchen/bedroom/kids stuff. I didn't count it all but I'll guesstimate at 125.

So total right now is 179/2012.

[pixiemammy]

rushing by.... adding today's total: 15 things (mostly rubbish)

193+15=208/2012

[PoetryLover]

2 Books

3 expired coupons

2 Broken Refrigerator Magnets

51 + 7 = 58/2012

[mrsmischief]

I tackled my desk this week and managed to declutter 57 items and a large amount of paperwork as well. Next up: the homeschool room

57/2012

[lavatea]

Found this thread yesterday, and I'm going to try to use it as motivation to declutter at least 30 min. per day.

I'm currently on maternity leave, but usually work 3 days each week and stay at home with my kiddos the other 4 days.

Yesterday's decluttering:
25 toys
1 box of toys that had already been "decluttered" yet were sitting in my room for some reason
1 TOMS sticker (what is the point of those?)
4 items of clothing to the trash (stained or ripped)
70 items of clothing to be consigned
1 group of hair ties that don't work for me
1 pair of ripped sun shades from the car (DH cleaned out one of our cars and brought EVERYTHING in and put it in our living room)
1 group of leaflets from the car
1 part off of DS1's old carseat which was trashed this summer

105/2012

[esg]

I'm also doing the pantry challenge so I started cleaning out my cabinets last night.

I've added one large bag of trash and two cans to the pile from one half.

Total is now 13/2012

Slowly but surely!

[augustmom]

hello there! I love this! We just added a room to make room for baby number 3 so I purged a lot of crap over the summer, but I'm a real purger, so I plan to do more in the next few weeks, except I need to do so behind my husband's back--he like to hold onto things

I don't purge valuable things, but if it's just odds and ends, I get rid of it. Can't stand looking at crap lying around the house. Drives me nuts! With 3 kids the odds and ends add up (gift bag stuff, etc). Looking for ideas. thx

[namaste_mom]

1 baby snow outfit

1 T-shirt

1 broke lid to storage container

80/2012

It is harder during the week because of working but I will continue to declutter on the weekends.

[cristeen]

Do I get to count it as decluttering when I go through the liquor cabinet and tell my DH this or that is your next drink so I can throw away the almost empty bottle? 

[parsley]

2 sticker books

2 napkin rings

1 craft item

5 kid toys

2 kid books

12 expired/unappealing food items cluttering up the freezer

1 (Thanksgiving) holiday decoration

13 personal toiletry items and sentimental things (card from kid, positive pregnancy tests, expired condoms, etc... :) )

32 + 38 = 70/2012

ETA: As for the rules conversation.  I'm not counting regular stuff we clean away.  So, no recycling or composting credit.  The food items and garbage that I'll count are those that could have hung around FOREVER.

Edited by parsley - 1/6/12 at 1:58pm

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by frugalmama 

+

about 25 coupon inserts from back in May / June

1 tub of recycle

stack of 50+ inserts put away in file cabinet instead of sitting on the table for months

83/2012

And I listed 2 new boxes on thredup, I will count those items as soon as they are picked there. 

ETA: 1 box just went on thredup - 

4 sweaters - and I got a $5 credit for them that I'll use for things we need. 

88/2012

+

14 bottles of expired salad dressing - normally I'm okay with expired, but these were from 2009!

102/2012

$5 earnings

[Rainey Daye]

Out with the recycling: 

6 bags of shredded papers and paper trash

After clear out from under sink:

7 random things into trash

New Total: 

288/2012

$27.75

Can you tell that today was spent sorting paper piles and cleaning the kitchen?