2013 Destash- this is the year!

Finally got rid of the cardboard boxes from food and drink that have been sitting on my treadmill. I found 2 more piles of stuff to shred. Hopefully I can shred tomorrow night or friday.

I need to look for my pilates dvd so I'm sure there will be some items to declutter under my entertainment center.

CL is very slow and no buyers. Hopefully nextweek I'll re price my items just to get rid of it all.

This weekend I hope to list dd's clothes so she can have some $$ toward her school clothes.
 
Joining late but I'm in for the rest of the year. DH cleaned the garage last month getting ready for a graduation party.
I just changed over our winter clothes to summer ones and have a big box waiting to go to Goodwill.
DS is leaving for college in September so my goal that month will be to de-clutter (and fumigate) his room.
I also want to go through all the stuff in our computer room. It's a good thing we don't need the desktop computer because we can't even sit at the desk.

I think I can manage all that by the end of this year. :-)

What is with boys.

I went through my summer clothes again today and sorted clothes that I know I will not wear, since I haven't worn it this summer. I made another huge pile. I usually just give it to Goodwill. I should try EBay.

My 25 yr old DS and 23 yr old dd both graduated college and live with us..Today I thought about them, and they need to move on and move out our house. Is that mean to declutter your kids? our other 2 adult kids come home very frequently too.
 
Last weekend I spring cleaned the MBR. Got rid of a few books, but mostly just evicted dust. This weekend I am working in my office. It is always the last thing I get to, so I saved it for a long weekend. As of now, I am still working on filing. The window is clean. The floor is clean. The curtains are clean and rehung. My desk is clean of dirt so I can now use it to sort and file. We moved our old family computer up here. It is slow, but OK. I am taking a compressed college class starting next Friday, so my goal was to have a clean place to work!
So I have one more load of fiing downstairs to bring upstairs, then one more corner to tackle... I might break the rest of today and work on that in the am after my run.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!!
 
Okay, so how bad is this....I got a head start on the computer room/guest room today. DH had trouble at the DMV (long story & not resolved yet) but I had to find his birth certificate and SS card. I cleaned off the entire desk and only realized about 1/2 way through that the desktop computer I thought was there was gone. :confused3 DH says he put it down cellar a year ago :rotfl2:

Well I guess that is 1/2 a project done.
 

DS18 went through his clothes. We tossed any stained, ripped, fits weird, faded...it's all GONE! Of course, now we need to buy him clothes since he only has about 10 shirts and 3 pairs of pants (jeans, cargo and dress). But he isn't picky about brand names...just make them fit. He's tall with large shoulders so every item has to be tried on.

Following her brother's example, DD15 went through her dresser. Did the same and now she has less clothes, but we can figure out what she truly needs.

DS19 came home from his college conference and he's been going through his items. There are 2 big boxes of his stuff to send to thrift and other boxes that he is shipping to others who want the items.

YAY
 
Ok....... I feel better. thanks group. :grouphug:
BACK TO WORK...... Today the 4th of July stuff is (mostly) being boxed for charity....and it's a lot. :thumbsup2
 
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Hi!

Made it through de cluttering son #2's old bedroom and turning it into a guest room. This process took me months. Also.......... we live in a dangerous town and neighborhood, so I can't safely garage sale and/or craigslist like so many of you lucky ones. I have sent a few things to DH's very visible studio that I put on Craigslist, but he isn't fond of that process. So.............. I either had to ebay the junk, free curb alert Craigslist, or drop it at charity. IT WAS AN ORDEAL. Also........... a ton of it - and I mean a ton.... is in our attic in Rubbermaids that I doubt I will live long enough to get through. Oh boy.
And speaking of boys.......here comes the rant ;)....... we have a college graduate that needs to be de cluttered too. We bought a house next door for my father in law to spend his last few years. That was great - we could watch him - he could smoke cigarettes until he was 99 when he died. Then sons decided to move in. One is now in Chicago (the youngest) and one WON'T LEAVE and doesn't contribute a dime on the dollar. :eek: So........ YES, OH MARI. It's ok to want them to move on. I want to sell the house.
Ok....... I feel better. thanks group. :grouphug:
BACK TO WORK...... Today the 4th of July stuff is (mostly) being boxed for charity....and it's a lot. :thumbsup2

You live in a dangerous neighborhood? That is terrible. If you sell both houses can you move someplace safe?
 
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Today I shipped out 9 things I sold on ebay, have bids on 6 others and listed 5 more things.

So that's a few more things out of my house and into someone elses. :rotfl:

The 2 big things I listed on Craig's List haven't sold so I may pull them off and try again in a couple of weeks. I'll probably even lower the price a few dollars. I think alot of people are out of town right now since school starts around here in 3 weeks.
 
We got rid of a ton yesterday and I am feeling really good about it! We took everything out of one large room, went through ALL of it, and then slowly put everything back in its place, after purging a big chunk of it. We have a lot more room now and I am loving it!
 
Last night I shredded my bill/junk pile. I ended up shredding having to empty the shredder twice.

In the evening I went through some of dd's bags of clothes. I had her with me as I went through it to organize by sizes. She ended up keeping a few things she changed her mind on, which I was ok with.
I told her she just needed to keep her clothes organized like
-a shorts drawer
-tank top drawer
-T-shirt drawer
-pajama drawer
-pants section hanging up in closet
-blouse section hanging up in closet
-hoodies/sweatshirts section

sounds easy right? She has everything all mixed in her drawers. When she was lil I organized each drawer by type of clothing.

The thing is my sis takes her school clothes shopping as a reward for doing excellent in school. I've told my sis she doesnt need to but she insist. I've told dd her room needs to be organized before anymore clothes come in. She has managed to fill up 4 shopping bags, 1 bag of shoes, 1 bag of purses, bag of misc stuff and a bag of old toys.

I know sometimes she feels overwhelmed organizing her room and when I walk in she will follow me and gets anxiety. I've stopped complaining about her room and sat her down today. I told her if she needs help I will help her, she doesnt want the help. I told her sometimes it gets overwhelming and its hard to figure out where to start, she agreed. So I came up with a plan because shes been dying to get rid of all her stuff animals that are on top of her amoire. It been hard for me because some are specialfrom when she was lil :(
so I suggested...

1-We will go through the stuff animals and only keep a few special ones, she was happy. I told her like the ones from her preschool graduation (dog in grad hat) we will keep, cheer doll, her first stuff animal toy puppy dog (she was a couples weeks old and its personalized). I told her she can leave those up or I will store those in a container. She agreed.

2.I asked whats the next thing she feels overwhelmed by. She said all the knick knack gifts she gotten throughout the years that are on her dresser drawer hutch. I told her ok and same thing I will store a few special sentimental items, she agreed.

3. I told her she can get rid of the bookshelf. She wasnt happy but I mentioned she'd have more room. She agreed.

4. I asked her what else does she want to get rid of. She said the lil tv stand /shelf that she uses to store junk. I said ok

5.Then I asked if there was anything else and she said the tubs under her bed. I asked whats in it and she said junk. (I've been trying to get rid of that junk for 3 years-lol!) I told her ok

By the end she was more calm about it all. I think because I was calm and gave suggestions and asked her input instead of getting mad and telling her to clean up her messy room. I also told her that since i've started decluttering with the DIS we have less junk and it feels great sometimes having less things in a room make it easier to breath:)

I also think what helped was I was watching hoarders and she was sitting here on her ipad and when super gross thing were shown , she would just look at me like OMG! Watching a couple episodes of hoaders always puts me in the mood to declutter-lol!
-So I got rid of a gocery bag full of dh's newspapers and a small pile of empty food boxes ready for dh to put int he recycle bin
-cleaned up the den
-wiped off counter tops
-cleared of counter space(my goal is to only have coffee maker and phone on counter) its a hot spot and everything ends up on it :(
-organized all the over the counter meds, vitamins, 1st aid stuff

I'll keep eveyone posted on dd's room
 
Hot Spots. Yep, I clean an area and declutter and it is like it gives permission for everyone to put their stuff down.

I have a old stand in my dining room and I noticed my dd is starting to use it. I see her jewelry, Scentsy products she buys. I asked her to clean it up 2 weeks ago and of course she is gone again this weekend. We bought a tub at Target 2 weeks ago for her to store some things, that is sitting downstairs with a bunch of products she bought at Target. Time to go tackle that.
 
Hot spots drive me crazy.

Dh's favorite spots are the den glass table on top of it and under it(newspapers). Drives me nuts because I can see the mess through the glass. I guess I'm the only that sees it:confused3 and the den entertainment center(mail, bills, receipts, and everything in his pockets). The kitchen counter is just everyones hotspot.

I bought a cute box with a design and saying on it that matches our den and figured it would be great for dh to put his newspapers in it. I bought a decorative box that looks like a book , one for me and one for dh to put each of our mail in. I also bought a nice leather type ottoman bench that the lid is cushion for sitting but the inside is a storage, perfect for dh's newspaper and any junk sitting in den that I need to quickly hide when announced guest show up-lol!

The decorative box under the table didnt work. Newspaper end up on it or next to it.

The box books didnt work. the mail still ends up on the entertainment center.

The ottoman bench only works when I throw stuff in it to hide.

Last night the toaster oven ended up on the counter and dh thinks it would be perfect next to the Keurig coffee maker:rolleyes:

------------------------
I'm just hoping to get dd14 started on this decluttering kick and maybe dh will finally get it-lol!

Next project is to organize the snacks. We are slowly getting into healthy eating so the snacks need to be eaten up.Plus by doing this will free up a shelf section :)
 
This week I've been kind of scattered as far as decluttering goes.

I cleaned one shelf of a closet out and donated a few towels to the local pet shelter. I cleaned out 1 tub of stuff from the attic. 3/4 of it went into the trash and the other 1/4 is in my donate stuff now. You can't tell I took out that one tub - the attic is just such a mess.

I also re-cleaned 3 areas that had gotten full of paperwork again. Most of it was trash. And I've learned that my husband can't seem to just throw paperwork away or even shred stuff since most of those piles of junk was his. So we had a discussion about that. I'm sure it won't help but at least I tried.

And I prepped more items to put up on ebay this week. I think I'll relist a couple of big things on CL too and see if they finally sell since school starts in a little over a week maybe more people are back in town again.

I also went through my Disney travel stuff and tossed some old sports bras that I only wear at Disney that were worn out and prepped my 3-1-1 bag for my upcoming trip in September.
 
We got quite a bit done this week. I cleaned out 3 shelves of my linen closet. Sadly it was so over full that 4 kitchen sized garbage bags out it still appears full. DS dropped 6 bags at the Rescue mission on Friday. DD lost her job this week due to a misunderstanding and took a carload of stuff to her friends garage sale yesterday. She was able to sell some toys and dishes that I have been trying to get rid of. So I was able to get almost to carloads out between the sale and the donations. DD also donated most of the stuff from her sale because much of it had been in the sale I had here in June.

Sadly I do not think that I have made a dent in my decluttering.
 
We have pretty much finished unpacking although the garage is still a mess, it just needs to be organized up and setup to be done.

I already have a large heap of stuff for goodwill which makes me nuts. We had to rent a 2nd trucks at a huge expense to get everything down here so if I end up getting rid of that trucks worth of stuff, I am really going to be mad at myself.

But since I did so much downsizing I was able to fit everything into our new tiny kitchen, something I was highly concerned about.

Also I got rid of so many towels and sheets that we weren't using that I was able to fit what remains into a tall dresser since this house has no linen closet. I guess one less place to clutter up. ;)
 
I have also not made a don't, but I'll keep trying. I flooded our master bathroom last week, which ruined a bunch of things that went to the trash. I took the opportunity to pull everything out and have only returned about half the items. I decided that the trash pail was too small, so I swapped it for one in another part of the house that doesn't get used often. Decided to go through towels and give away the old ones that we don't use often.
 
This is what I got rid of in July!!

July
Trashed 1 Broken Plastic Lawn Chair
Trashed 2 pair of sneakers
Trashed 1 Dish Cloth
Trashed 3 Items from the fridge
Trashed 4 pair of socks
Trashed 1 plastic patio table
Trashed 1 piece of aluminum rain gutter
Trashed 1 piece of plastic rain gutter
Trashed ½ pail of sheetrock compound (no good)
Trashed 12 paint cans of various colors from 06-08 dates
Trashed ½ container of PVC cement (solid, not good)
Trashed 1 bag of cement unused and extremely hard
Trashed 6 expired items from the pantry
Trashed 5 pieces of scrap sheetrock

Donated 1 Car Cell Phone Charger
Donated 5 New Luggage Tags
Donated 2 Bed Risers
Donated 1 Mop/Broom/Dustpan organizer
Donated 60 Books
Donated 1 Multiple Outlet Adapter
Donated 1 set of side curtain holders
Donated 1 Winter Hat (Way too small for anyone here)
Donated 2 mismatched gloves
Donated 2 reusable water bottles
Donated 4 curtain rods
Donated 3 unused window blinds
Donated 2 Magnetic Cupboard Clips (unused)
Donated 2 sets of unused shoe laces
Donated 1 container of cup hooks (unopened)

Recycled 12 magazines
Recycled 2 cardboard boxes
Recycled 2 empty food boxes from the pantry
Recycled 3 used ink cartridges

Used up 2 tubes of clear caulking to finish a bathroom project
Used up 3 New coat hooks (finally hung them, no longer kicking around)
Used Up 3 New Smoke Detectors (finally replaced the old ones, these have been kicking around for several months)
Used up 4 various lengths of scrap 2x4 to make a robot play area
Used up 3 pieces of 6in x 8ft scrap plywood on a project
Used up 1 piece of 3ft x 3ft scrap plywood on a project
Used up 1 extra Kitchen cupboard handle on a project (miscounted by 1 when I originally bought them)
Used Up a 1ft x 2 ft scrap piece of plywood and 2 scrap pieces of 2x6 for bottle rocket launcher base

Combined 2 like shampoos

136 items left 0 replaced
 
Getting DS 18 ready for college. Cleaned out his room...1 barrel of trash, many bottles to recycle and a large tote of clothes to donate. :cool1:

Still a long way to go but feeling good about all that I have gotten done so far. :goodvibes
 
Comicguy

The list maker in me really loves your detailed tracking! :)

As for our house, I have piled up more stuff to take to goodwill but I haven't found it yet so the heap is just growing the garage. Considering it is way to hot in there to work, it may just take up residence until I can convince DH to deal with it all.
 













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