2013 Destash- this is the year!

[Ephany]

Well, I'm in. We're 99% sure we'll be moving this summer and since we'll have to do it ourselves - declutter, declutter, declutter! So far I have bought DD an organizer for her Legos and we have a large stack of books to donate to her former teacher when the holidays are over. Need to buy some more plastic shoeboxes, they're great for storing a bunch of small related craft projects inside the larger craft totes.

I think I'm going to start listing more stuff for sale on Craigslist and Facebook. I'd really like to purchase annual passes within the next year, hopefully if we sell some items, it will get us there sooner.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

How does this work? There is SO much stuff I want to get rid of!

Start small, start big. However you want. Personally I recommend starting small so you don't get overwhelmed. A drawer in the kitchen or dresser, a closet, a shelf in the bathroom.
When you remove it from the house come here and tell us what you purged, it's very liberating sharing it with others.

 

[Katy Belle]

I need this! We moved here 2 1/2 years ago and I still have BOXES! Hoping this will be the inspiration I need!

 

[MommaB]

Early on I was following in the 2012 thread and while I didn't post I did manage to be inspired all year long! Here's too 2013!

 

[cheshireqt]

I am in and grateful to see this thread!

When I get in "that" mood my DH calls it my "OFF WITH ITS HEAD" mood. Guess I get a bit gung ho as I point out the things that will no longer be with us.

Sure hope I get in that QoH mode today! I usually do destash/spring clean every year but did not do it this past year and feel a bit overwhelmed right now, so made a starter list and will hopefully get first item checked off using time off today and this weekend:
--I picked an area where sundry items got temporarily stored when I cleaned up/pseudo decluttered (without actually getting rid of squat) around the first floor prior to a Christmas party and also where I stored things I moved in order to display Christmas items. Great starting point for me to evaluate each item as either get rid of or move back to new spot.
--My closet, then DDs and DSs. Have a lot of clothes that need to be sorted through.
--Kitchen and bedroom drawers are all making me crazy.
--Would love to figure out how to sell on ebay, have some nice dishes that just sit in a top cabinet in my kitchen.

I am sure I will have many more projects so hope to stay motivated to see it through! Will come back and post when I check off first item. Can't wait!!!!

 

[littlezar]

Count me in!

We will be moving this year - not sure exactly when DH's report date will be, but I'm not moving for sure until our oldest graduates in June!

My goal for this week is to go through all the Christmas decor as it gets boxed back up, including the stuff that I didn't pull out to use this year. Plan to get rid of some and label the totes with whatever is in them.

I would also like to start going through my boys' books. The elementary school is doing a "recycle book store" at the end of the month where the kids donate their books they no longer want and can buy books for either 25 or 50 cents. Need to find out if they'll take any books (ex: cookbooks, high school age chapter books, etc) or just elementary school reading level books.

 

[hpfan100]

I'm in!!!!

Hoping to do some garage selling and major de-cluttering this year!

 

[mjantz]

Since I want to watch the games today I'm working in the living room today. There's a charity coming by Monday & I hope to have a huge load for them.

 

[mrssmith06]

Count me in! We have too much stuff!
I already started purging after Christmas, took many things to donation!!!
Still a lot to do, especially in our basement!!!

Let's do this!!!!!!!!

 

[emilymad]

I'm in! I started last year but then got off track. I have a huge pile in the basement to get to the Goodwill. I usually try to write down exact what I donated for tax purposes. Does everyone else do this? It seems that is where I get stuck in the process.

Next up is my office. I have a ton of craft supplies to go through. It is hard to figure out what to keep and get rid of in that area. I used to scrapbook but haven't in years. Last year I donated lots of my lesser quality stuff. A year later and I still haven't touched any of the "good" stuff. Time to reevaluate I think!

 

[Gillennj]

DW and I keep telling ourselves "this is the year", but we say that every year. I actually cleared some stuff out right before Christmas on Craigslist, and that is such a rush. I LOVE that feeling of turning old junk into someone else's treasure and getting some (even minor) cash in the process is outstanding.

The hard part is to stick to selling or giving away on CL and not shopping . Otherwise, we're not getting anywhere.

 

[carebee21]

I'm in. We're moving in about 6 months and using moving cubes. I really, really need to go through everything and think carefully about everything we keep. I started to declutter during the summer, but since then we've had my son's birthday and Christmas, so I don't feel like I've made so much progress. It's time to really start cracking down.

Our plan for the day is to go through all of our Christmas decorations. I figure we may as well do it as we take down all of our decorations. I really want to only keep the decorations and ornaments that are important or mean something to us. It just isn't worth the cost to move yard inflatables or ten strands of Christmas lights. So we'll see how it goes. I'm sure I'll get some resistance to my DH who hates to get rid of stuff.

 

[itutorfortravel]

Boy do I need to join this thread! We have so much stuff it's crazy. I feel like the house is never totally clean and organized because we just keep moving stuff around! DH and I are currently working on shredding lots of documents. We have held on to every bill I think we've gotten in the past 16 years of marriage, and some from even earlier! We also don't like to toss mailings of any kind that have our names on it. So we have a lot to accomplish in this area. We have spent at least 5 hours over the past three days going through boxes, choosing what can be recylced and then shredding the rest. And we've only scratched the surface. So this is where we are starting, but believe me our entire house could use an overhaul!

 

[comicguy]

I am in again!! I tend to start off pretty good but then comes spring and I stop until summer when I am off from work then I do some more until we always leave for WDW then it is right back to work in Sept and nothing gtes done (for the most part) until the start of January!!

I really want to keep the stuff constantly flowing out of the house this year!!!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Boy do I need to join this thread! We have so much stuff it's crazy. I feel like the house is never totally clean and organized because we just keep moving stuff around! DH and I are currently working on shredding lots of documents. We have held on to every bill I think we've gotten in the past 16 years of marriage, and some from even earlier! We also don't like to toss mailings of any kind that have our names on it. So we have a lot to accomplish in this area. We have spent at least 5 hours over the past three days going through boxes, choosing what can be recylced and then shredding the rest. And we've only scratched the surface. So this is where we are starting, but believe me our entire house could use an overhaul!

Check with your bank or your town hall. Our credit union has a shred day a few times a year. I think you can bring in like 3 boxes full as a max. They hire one of those huge shred trucks and they do it for us free of charge.

Starting today, you should sort your incoming mail near your shredder, that way when credit applications etc come in, they can go right into the shredder. I have a paper bag for recycling and the shredder right near my mail catcher. I open everything then toss, shred and file.

I also can't recommend Freedom Filer enough.
http://www.freedomfiler.com/
It was recommended on another message board I'm on and I love it!! My mom ended up buying one for my brother and herself too.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

My son's girlfriend told me last night that the Key Club at school is having a book drive and the person who brings in the most gets to go with them to deliver the books to a children's home (like an orphanage) and she really wants to go so I told her I would donate some. We have accumulated a lot of books and it's really time to weed some out so that's where I'm starting.

 

[Robbi]

My husband and I converted our old master bedroom into a large closet. Great huh? Except it's another place for junk to accumulate. On Friday, I threw away 2 garbage bags of stuff just from my part of the closet! That wasn't clothes. It was shoe boxes, receipts, just junk. I was shocked. He and I, starting tomorrow are taking apart every closet, cabinet, and drawer in the house and cabana, pitching stuff, and putting it back together again. We're starting with our closet because we're having work done in there in a couple of weeks to better organize it.

 

[tlh0726]

This will be the year for our house as well!
Not only decluttering but going to finish all the projects that have been started and never finished.
Once those are done, then we are going to start working on the things that we just keep putting off.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I am in and grateful to see this thread!

When I get in "that" mood my DH calls it my "OFF WITH ITS HEAD" mood. Guess I get a bit gung ho as I point out the things that will no longer be with us.

LOL DH gets that way too.
I love it when he does!! I hope he goes all QoH's on the garage soon!

I'm in! I started last year but then got off track. I have a huge pile in the basement to get to the Goodwill. I usually try to write down exact what I donated for tax purposes. Does everyone else do this? It seems that is where I get stuck in the process.

Next up is my office. I have a ton of craft supplies to go through. It is hard to figure out what to keep and get rid of in that area. I used to scrapbook but haven't in years. Last year I donated lots of my lesser quality stuff. A year later and I still haven't touched any of the "good" stuff. Time to reevaluate I think!

I get stuck there too sometimes because we write it all off on the taxes. Something that might help on all things but clothes it to take photos of what you donate, just to get it out of the house. Spread out like 10 - 20 items snap a pic, put it in the box and get rid of it. You can create a file for those photos to go through when you start working on your taxes.
The only reason I don't do clothes is because we have so many because there are 6 of us. I just keep a notebook with categories and slash marks or numbers. So column A is mens sweaters, I'll just add a 5 if I get rid of 5 sweaters.
My tax guy gave me this valuation guide to help speed up the process and to not undercut myself, I was giving myself to little monetary value for most items.

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/0/D477340FFA28755C8525743D0049D1EF?Opendocument


As for craft supplies, oh man do I hear you!!! I'm a scrapper too and I have tons of stuff that I'm hoarding for "just the right page". I'm reevaluating too. I'm probably (reluctantly) switching to digital because I lack storage space for the paper albums when they are done. Right now I am purging 90% of the patterned paper because I use so little of it and it can get outdated very quickly. I'm keeping the solid cardstock for pages of current projects and for the kids school projects.
Embellishments are getting purged too.

Check with places like Girl Scouts, school art classrooms, senior complexes, and daycares. They will take that stuff and you can write it off. I also donate to an organization that takes care of people with intellectual disabilities. They took a group to Disney a few years ago and then one of the ladies helped them make scrapbooks of their trip.

 

[delmar411]

In again for this year!