2011 Destashing Thread

[MK2thcleaner]

In December I got rid of around 12 bags of my DS clothing as it was all too small/short since he's growing so fast now and is about 6 ft 1. It's a good thing I did, because he got boat loads of new clothes for Christmas and we just filled those hangers right back up. I couldn't believe he had socks and underwear that he must have gotten back in 4th grade and he's in 10th now.

Right now in my living room I have 3 large framed posters and 15-20 bags of books, toys, games, pokemon cards, a stereo, VCR and a karaoke machine that are waiting to be picked up by AMVETS. The only problem is they don't come for more than a week. I may end up dropping by Goodwill before then because the front room is a sea of black plastic!

Today we also disassembled a broken full size bed that was in my son's room and he's in the process of cutting it into small pieces so we can thow it out. We had the most fun tearing apart an old Sauder corner desk that was taking up a lot of room that we never used. We went to work on it with a baseball bat and a lot of shaking and banging and ripping and tearing. My son said it was the most fun he's had in a long time. He's going to cut that into smaller pieces too so it can all go with the trash.

We moved a book shelf upstairs that I'll eventually put into what has unfortunately become the "JUNK" room right now. It's really meant to be my craft room/office, and my goal is to get it back to a place that's happy and can be worked in.

All this has freed up space in a family room downstairs that will now become the "music" room. My son has lots of instruments, since he's a percussionist, and a new GIANT one on the way so this really has been the instigator for getting the area de-cluttered.

I hope to keep it up throughout the house!

 

[bweagle]

I'm in! I discovered FlyLady at the end of November and began destashing then. I've sent over 3 full minivans of trashbags out of the house (some to be donated, other to children's resale shop and the rest to the dump! It's been a great relief to unload so much "stuff" and I haven't missed one thing.

I've cut the amount of stuff in our storage closet under our stairs in half, reclaimed my coat closet, freed two shelves in the linen closet, can now actually find what I'm looking for in the medicine cabinet and under the bathroom sink and so on and so on. I've found myself losing steam over the last two weeks with Christmas and New Years but am jumping back on the bandwagon before I completely lose steam. So far so good!

Jan. 1st: 1 trash bag of VHS tapes to donate
Jan. 2nd: 1 bag if trash out of son's closet

 

[bridget]

One big project is as the stuff I save from my children... Art projects, papers, tests, etc. I need to figure out a good system

 

[disneyofcourse]

I got two bathrooms and two guest rooms done today! I have three storage containers for each bathroom with "must use" products. So no buying new until the four bottles of conditioner are used and the two dozen or so soaps etc. I ended up donating 3 coats to goodwill and blankets.

 

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

Destashed the bathroom today. Emptied out both drawers in the vanity, got rid of a ton of stuff, neatened it up. Then I went through the medicine cabinet and between all that was able to get a lot of random stuff off the top of the vanity so not only are the hidden areas cleaner, there's less stuff OUT which makes me happy.

(I kept my Mickey soaps, though!)

I just did this today while my dd was going her homework (yes, she waited to the last minute for some of it )..I threw away a huge lawn bag full of stuff. The recycle bin is so full too!

 

[kellia]

Woo Hoo!! I got 5 full trash bags of garbage out of my sons' room and their toy area in the basement! Also have 4 boxes of toys and a box of books to give away. Unfortunately, they have a birthday in 2 weeks, so I'm sure that will bring more "junk".

I have some more stuff in the basement to take care of and the kitchen will be done when we start remodeling in there next month.

 

[matthew&haleysmom]

We went through and got rid of a box of Christmas stuff. While we were putting things in the attic, we noticed we had about 40 empty boxes. Why, I do not know. We broke the boxes down and the are being recycled.

 

[bweagle]

Attacked bedroom closet again this afternoon and filled another garbage bag of "stuff" for the garbage.

 

[charming23]

I cleaned out my closet and found two bags full of stuff to go. I have gone down two pants sizes since last winter and had a ton of stuff that was too big. I also got rid of some shoes, purses, hats, and acessories.

 

[comicguy]

Got rid of 2 garbage bags worth of paper/magazines and misc receipts that were no longer needed.

Also, got rid of about 12 books that I won't be rereading.

That was a good start on organizing my home office!!

 

[Iluvthemouse]

Hi All..

This is my new year's resolution actually..

I tackled the Hall closet.. I got rid of so much stuff.. I freecycled lots of it and recycled the rest.. Took the recycling down this morning.. I also tackled our coats.. I need to find a coat drive in my area.. I have a big bad out by the front door ready to go.

Next will be the pantry. I have boxes of food in there stockpiled but expired 2003..

Good luck everyone

 

[bridget]

Today I go to Goodwill. I have so much stuff to drop off, plus I cleaned the linen closet and front closet

 

[mrsklamc]

One big project is as the stuff I save from my children... Art projects, papers, tests, etc. I need to figure out a good system

keep one or two from each year...scan the rest and toss.

 

[angierae]

I went through my closet yesterday. 29 items of clothing gone - anything that was in bad shape was thrown out (some of them were cut down for rags) and anything in decent shape but not my style/didn't fit was washed to drop off at Goodwill.

There was stuff in the back of my closet that had been in there, unworn, since we moved into our house almost five years ago.

I also did the "hang the hangers backwards" trick to see what I actually wear in 2011 to make the 2012 culling easier.

 

[Luvdancink]

I'm in. I did start to tackle this in 2010 but I have a basement full of stuff that I haven't needed since I did this last year so it's time for it to go!

 

[labdogs42]

I did three 15 minute sessions of decluttering today and I'm loving it! I got rid of a whole big black trash bag of junk including school papers, etc. and I found one bag of toys to donate so far. I'm trying not to overwhelm myself, so I'm doing the 15 minute timer thing a la FlyLady. I know she wouldn't approve of so many sessions in one day, but it isn't overwhelming me so far. Now, if I can get myself to do 15 minutes a DAY, I'll be good to go!

 

[talulabelle]

One big project is as the stuff I save from my children... Art projects, papers, tests, etc. I need to figure out a good system

Keep the favorite 2 or three from each year in an acid free art portfolio (sold at places like Michaels) I have 1 for each child. Larger things like paper-mache - let them keep on a shelf for a while (no longer than the end of a school year) and then take a picture of it to add to the portfolio and toss the actual project. I actually wrote a letter to FlyLady about this once and she published it on her site.

I used to save EVERYTHING and with 4 kids - that is a lot. Then one day my MIL came to my house with BOXES and BOXES of stuff from my husbands childhood and school career. Every single project, notebook, everything. It filled an entire corner of our garage. What was I to do with it? He went through the boxes and saved maybe one thing from each year and we tossed the rest. She had lovingly and painstakingly saved and documented all of his school work only for him to throw it out because it was just clutter to us.

That was when I realized, I wanted to save something for each of my children that they could put on a bookshelf when they were adults, not fill their garage with. I went through all of the boxes of my own children's things and made the portfolio's. Now - I am much better about knowing what to get rid of - I just think to myself, "If I had ths from my husbands childhood would I care?" I end up just saving some essays and the nicer artwork each year and thats it. I have regained 2 closets because of it.

 

[elcodfish]

I'm trying to get on the boat but am easily distracted... SQUIRREL!

I think what works best for me is lists so I made a table in Word for each room in my house with what I need to do. Some are general, like bathroom closet, but seeing it all out it doesn't seem so scary and I also made myself a list for the week of what I want to do each day and what is for dinner. I think if I do a harder/more time consuming project and then the next day do something easier/quicker I will feel a little more willing to continue...

I also am not holding onto anything for a garage sale, since that is months away. If it's a bigger item, like camera, its craigslist and everything else is donate.

quick tip: I wanted to clean off my fridge, I knew it was nothing but recipes I wanted to try, old useless grocery store receipts, and expired coupons but it was really overwhelming. My sister came over to help me get ready for new years and I asked her to tackle it, and now I have 10 things in a folder and a clean fridge for the first time in 3 years So when all else fails, pass the buck!

 

[charming23]

Today my plan is to tackle the upstairs closet where we store the Christmas decorations. I am slightly terrified but need to do it. I hope to get it so organized that we can store a bit more in there (it is a huge walk-in).

 

[Ephany]

For some reason I thought my local Goodwill did not take toys anymore, but after reading this thread I checked online and they do! So we've got 2 garbage bags full of clean stuffed animals and some clothes my DH no longer wears. I also have another trash bag full of clothes DD has outgrown to be passed onto a friend and a bunch of cardboard boxes that held these items to be broken down and recycled. I can actually see the back wall in our spare room now!

We also bought 3 large metal storage shelf systems for the garage (it's actually fairly clean in there and I want to keep it that way) at Lowe's for ~50% off. This will be great for storing items we know we want to keep, but don't need often. Target also has plastic shoe boxes for 0.94 cents. We've taken to storing things like DD's fuzzoodles and squinkies, tape and markers etc. in their own container. They're clear so I can see what's in them at a glance but it's keeping things that go together in one place while clearing out my junk drawer. I'm hoping if I can find that sharpie when I need it, I won't keep going out to buy another one. They have different colored lids too, so that's nice because you can assign everyone their own color.