OGRES! (original) (raw)

Any thoughts on getting rid of sentimental but useless objects? Do you store them away, get rid of them, or Other?

So, I have been doing some decluttering lately (yay me!), and I have a few boxes of old clothes that are out of style but otherwise wearable, a pile of gently loved books, and some other miscellaneous stuff set aside.

I had been pretty gung ho for a yard/moving sale, until I hopped in the shower tonight. Somewhere between shampoo and conditioner, I started thinking that this was going to be a lot of work, and a lot of it probably wouldn't sell anyway.

So, my question(s) to the group are 1-think I'd get much of a market for old clothes? 2-is it worth the time & effort to get a little extra cash flow @ this point, or 3-is it better to take it all to charitable organization of choice and get the tax write-off later?

Mom, who is a genius on all things mom-related but not sisterfish125-related, said that the write-off isn't that grand, but with my other deductions, it could make a good difference in about April.

Thoughts?

I went into Bed Bath and Beyond today in order to get a replacement oven mitt for one I had set on fire by leaving it on an active burner. Oops.

Anyway, I went in and had to pass by about fifteen displays of some "Seen on TV" gadget or other to get to where the oven mitts were. Now, kitchen gadgets are great. I've been wanting a KitchenAid standing mixer for I don't know how long. But the difference between a KitchenAid standing mixer and most of the stuff I saw today was that the mixer can be used for many many things whereas most of the gadgets I saw had one use and only one use.

For example, there was this plastic pasta bucket that you put in the microwave for "perfect pasta every time!" (Personally, I have never had a problem making "perfect pasta" in a pot, but that's just me.) Or you could spend 10onalittlesiliconecupthatyoufloatinhotwaterandpoacheggsin.Oryoucangetanavocadoslicerfor10 on a little silicone cup that you float in hot water and poach eggs in. Or you can get an avocado slicer for 10onalittlesiliconecupthatyoufloatinhotwaterandpoacheggsin.Oryoucangetanavocadoslicerfor20. Oh, and the Debbie Meyer bags that don't work at $12.00 a pop.

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't shop at Bed Bath and Beyond because they carry crap like this. Obviously someone is buying it or it wouldn't be there for sale. What I am saying is that when you go to a kitchen store, remember that any gadget you buy will have to have space to live in once you get it home. What would you prefer? One appliance that can do many things and takes up a little space, or ten gadgets that do one thing each and that takes up most of a cabinet? And really, is slicing an avocado so difficult that you need a gadget to just do that?

On Saturday, I de-junked the master bedroom closet with the help of my husband, Greg. We were able to consolidate several loose travel items into the one big suitcase we have, we pitched a lot of old clothing that either is worn out or that we hate (anything salvagable went to Goodwill), and the upper shelf can now hold all of my boardgames in a single line without haphazardly stacking stuff. Bliss.

Now, during this digging out of stuff, I found a cloth shopping bag made by my friend roobug that was given to me at a Christmas party a few years ago. It's funny because I was just wishing I had a nice cloth shopping bag because a few of the flimsy nylon ones I have develop holes too fast and become unusable. I was even going to log onto Etsy later that day, but instead I found this way cool green plaid cloth shopping bag in my closet!

What's not to love here? Now I just need to play these damned boardgames or else they go, too.

OK.
I didn't think I'd be to this point quite yet...but I find myself needing to have a super clean house in a super-soon timeline.

HELP!!!
I need some new ideas about ways to declutter in a massive fashion.
I can't afford to move all this stuff, and I have things that I can't even get freecycler's to pick up...and no way to haul off.

Last week, I suggested you fill a bag with stuff, and throw it out. Get rid of it quickly so that the pain of its removal will not be felt as harshly.

So, how'd you do? Did you get rid of anything? If so, how much? How hard was it for you to do?

To give you an idea of how much purging I've done over the last year, I originally had about four tall bookcases worth of books, double-packed and squeezed into every conceivable space in and on top of the cases.

I'm now down to less than two. Was it hard. Hell, yes! I hate getting rid of books, but I refuse to move them again when many I have were books I intended to read but lost interest in. So, a box full of paperbacks went to Goodwill. Many that were in sad shape I just tossed.

In the last week I got rid of a crapload of magazines. That was my Band-Aid moment. Lots of craft magazines, Japanese puzzle magazines, and cooking magazines. I figure if I haven't cracked the magazine in a while, it's safe to get rid of.

Comment and update the group on your Band-Aid moments.

Hey, folks, one of the moderators here.

I recently did one of my regular purges and after getting a pile of stuff together that I didn't want anymore, I tossed it all in the garbage. Over the next few weeks, I want you to do the same.

Yes, I know it's hard. It's counterintuitive to just throw perfectly good things away when someone else could use them. But I've found that if you put them somewhere to be taken to Goodwill at some point in the future, that point will never come and the stuff will sit there.

So, rather than try to find new homes for your stuff, we're going to tear off the Band-Aid quickly and get it over with: This weekend, find a grocery bag or small box and fill it with crap you don't need anymore. Then, go to the garbage can and throw it out. Do not look back. Do not go back and bring some of it back in.

If you can't do this and insist you must go to charity, then at 12 noon on Saturday, you have an appointment with the donation site. You have Saturday morning to purge and fill a box. Fill the box, put it in your car, get in the car, and donate your items. Don't waste time sitting about what you could do with the stuff, who might want it or how much it could be worth.

The point is: You don't want it anymore. It's cluttering up your home, and the easiest way to get rid of it is quickly so that the pain is as short as possible. Trust me, once you've done this and you see less crap in your home, you will feel thirty pounds lighter.

I am feeling overwhelmed by STUFF so I have challenged myself to get rid of one thing a day for the whole year. Once a month, I will take a box with 28-31 items in it to donate.

Wish me luck!!!

Is anyone else trying something like this?

G. and I just loaded up the CR-V with a lot of stuff to take to Eastside Baby Corner. I've been collecting it in the extra bedroom for months, and it's great finally to get it out of there. We could have just taken it to our local Goodwill, which is much closer and less hassle (Baby Corner only accepts donations on certain days at certain times), but for kids' stuff, I prefer donating it to someone who's going to pass it directly on to the people who need it.

Now I just have to get G. to list all the old game console stuff on Freecycle and see if it moves. If it doesn't, then off it goes to Goodwill and frees up the other side of the extra bedroom.

Currently, I've been reading two books about decluttering: When Organizing Isn't Enough by Julie Morgenstern and Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? by Peter Walsh. Each goes into the how to declutter your life, but they are doing it from two radically different perspectives.

In Morgenstern's book, she uses the acronym SHED to create a system where you get rid of clutter in order to make room for the next phase of your life. If whatever item is part of the past, and no longer useful to you, it should go. Then, once you've gotten rid of all the crap which is "no longer you", then you're able to dig down deep and find your true self. That makes it sound more touchy-feely self-helpish than it really is.

Peter Walsh's book suggests that perhaps the reason people are so fat is that they have too much stuff cluttering up their lives. At first, one would think, "Bwuh?" as did I, but he makes some sense. He does say up front he is not a doctor, and that his book should not be considered as medical advice, merely his experience in helping people declutter. Mostly, he says he keeps seeing that the triggers that make people eat are the same reasons that make them hang onto clutter, and so therefore if you declutter, some of the triggers will be gone, making it easier for you to slim down.

Maybe decluttering has become big business in the self-help world as more books on the subject keep popping up from time to time. Personally, I'd like to see a decluttering book that also tackles entitlement.

As for the big question of do they work? Well, not yet, at least not for me. I'm slowly getting through stuff and tossing where I can. However, Peter Walsh's book has given me the push I needed to re-design how I use my kitchen and where everything goes so that cooking is easier, quicker, and more enjoyable, and that's a huge deal for me.