2014 - destash thread The Year of the Great Purge

[dpswift]

We had our garage sale and we were able to get rid of quite a bit. For once we were able to avoid buying more tan we sold. DD wanted to buy a bike and I wanted a cedar chest but we both resisted!!!!!!!!!!

We only brought a few thing back in that DD is going to list on CL.

Somehow by dragging stuff out the house always looks worse to begin with. I have to be at work at 8 am, but get out at 1 so hopefully I can be somewhat productive.

 

[sarahk0204]

I just decluttered another kitchen cupboard with all my spices. 2 shelves of spices. Does anyone have any good idea, how to keep spices more organized? When you purchase spices, do you dump them out to different containers? Please help with my delimma.

I have a revolving spice rack on the kitchen counter that I fill the bottles. I also have a shelf in my cabinet that has 3 levels to it so I can put bottles of different sizes. Sort of like stadium seating for spices.

How does everyone store their table linens? I've been keeping mine in a couple of extra drawers in another room, but we are getting rid of that storage unit and I need to come up with another storage method. I have about 6 tablecloths, about 2 dozen cloth napkins for formal dining and a couple sets of placemats. Not a ton of stuff, but it does take up some space when everything is folded.

thebeesknees,

Have you tried "space bags" to store your linens in? You can find them near the vacuum cleaners or in with coat hangers...

We LOVE them, out of season clothes are stored in them, our extra bedding... and they shrink down really small. Saves a huge amount of space.

Good luck with what ever you choose

We store ours in the linen closet. I like the space bags idea. We use them for blankets, but I never thought about them for table linens. Cool!

I gave 6 bags of girls' clothing to my friend with 2 girls younger than DD 10. Yay!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Destashed 3 pairs of shoes.
I'm going through my books today. Since getting the kindle I haven't touched the paperbacks and I doubt I will even buy them on kindle so no point in keeping them.

 

[4 Ears]

Good luck Bernard!

 

[dpswift]

Destashed 3 pairs of shoes.
I'm going through my books today. Since getting the kindle I haven't touched the paperbacks and I doubt I will even buy them on kindle so no point in keeping them.

Agree I kept buying hardcovers from our library sales and never read them. I have learned that just because I enjoyed a book once does not mean that I will ever read it again. Funny because I like watching the same television episodes over and over.

 

[pjlla]

Evening all! Thanks to the robotics team yard sale, I managed to declutter at least FOUR CAR LOADS of stuff from my home this weekend! Gone are 2 boxes of boys size 14-16 clothes, a Cardio-glide, two BIG television sets, a HUGE pile of board games (DS LOOOOOVED board games when he was younger and we bought all kinds of stupid ones... "Capt. Bones Gold", "Piranha Panic", etc), books, a computer monitor, a big box of electronic cords and chargers that went to ???, outgrown clothes from DH (he still hadn't completely purged his closet after losing 80+ pounds), old Christmas decor/lights, a spare kitty litter pan, flat basketballs, craft supplies, and even a mower that DS got for free last year and got working again (made $15 for the team on that one!)..... so much stuff!

IT FEELS SO GOOD!! It was hard work for 24 hours, but it felt great to earn some money for the team and have a great reason to clean out the house! I'm kind of hoping that we do it again this summer!! I've still got PLENTY of junk!

Hope you all are enjoying a bit of "declutter freedom"! It is liberating!.........P

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

WOOHOO P!!!
Great work! You are rocking the destash!


I destashed 7 books, gave 3 to the schools librarian for the middle schoolers, tossed 2 because they were in bad shape and put 2 in the Goodwill hamper.
Thursday all of the class night decorations will be out of the house too!

 

[QVCshopper]

Sooooo, remember how I said we bought my in-law's house and they left a lot of stuff that I've been slowly trying to go through? Well, while cleaning out the attic tonight I found a jar of mushed beef baby food that expired -- get this -- in June 1980. That's right! My mother-in-law saved a jar of food that is well over 30 years old. I don't know if I should be sad or laugh. But since I am the one stuck getting rid of it, I'm kinda going with sad.

Anyway, we have mostly finished up the garage and the shed (don't get me started on the opened bags of grass seed they left for all of their mouse friends). We are now moving onto the attics. I'm saving a few sentimental or cool things I found, but most I am just throwing it out without telling my in-laws. If they didn't care about bringing it with them, then it can't be that important.

On that note, be prepared for a lot of work if you buy a house from a family member. We are slowly getting through it--a lot is so incredibly old or got yucked by mice it is actually kinda easy throwing out a huge garbage can or more each week.

 

[Alexle2007]

We've been busy working on cleaning out the garage so we can finally fit the 3rd car in it. The 2nd car finally fits back in the garage and we just need to finish the 1st bay but that requires trash day arriving since most of the clutter is garage from cleaning it out. Although DH isn't helping since he is just throwing things on the new storage racks and organizing things so more work for me to go back through.

And I am very upset with Purple Heart! I scheduled a pickup for last Thurs. I had 12 bags on my front porch ready to go and they never showed up so I had to drag it all back in the house.

And why am I doing laundry at 3 in the morning and cleaning the house???

 

[mrsabbott]

Since I am off for the summer, my goal is to do some serious decluttering at my house! I have done a bit here and there.. But I am ready to do some serious downsizing of our stuff! Clothes are a big one.. I am certain that there are things in the kitchen that we really don't need. Bookshelves and knick knacks.. Under the bed.. It all needs to GO!!

The kids' bedrooms need a good decluttering but I am going to wait until they are spending a week with Granny.

I also have several photo album and memory book projects to complete so I can get those piles of stuff out of the way.

 

[tikitorie]

Kids are off for the summer, so my decluttering is going to have to consist of small jobs. Would also love to do my spice cabinet! Going to take some thinking...It's only 8 inches wide but very deep. Big pain trying to find what I need, doesn't help that I have to climb up on the counter to see 2 of the 3 selves in it! I grow and dry a lot of my own herbs, and make my own vanilla extract so my container are bigger than average store bought spices. I'm going to make this my new mission!

 

[4 Ears]

Just went through our papers, shredded or tossed a grocery shopping bag full. My previous job we had quarterly testing, would print it off and save for next round. Resigned from there several months ago so out that stuff went. Also expired car insurance info... stuff you want to have in case you need it but now has expired.

Thinking next on my list is Resume info. Up date resume and throw away all the little scraps of dates/names/phone numbers.

 

[4 Ears]

Resume clean up? Check

Made sure I had all dates, names, phone numbers... and trashed all but 1. Saved on laptop, only gotta save to flash drive and onto next project. Next project is prob laundry though

Feeling pretty good this evening

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Pulled the air conditioners out of the loft today. DS17 and I were venting about the amount of stuff up there. OMG, it is ridiculous!! Especially DH's stuff, there are boxes up there that haven't been touched since we moved in 12 years ago. I feel like I've told this story before. LOL

I told DS that after next week we start cleaning, purging and dumping. We have 1 month til the school/church rummage sale and I plan on having a boat load of stuff for them.

 

[pjlla]

Unexpected day at home, so I will be doing a bit of cleaning/purging after catching up on some regular housework. I'll report my progress later........P

 

[OhMari]

We had a brick walkway for 20 years and last year we took it out and grass seeded the whole area behind the garage. Looks a lot better since flowers never really grew decent, and the bricks were pushed apart with weeds and grass. We put the old bricks around my garden, and I do not like how it looks. Last night I convinced my husband to take them to a clean landfill and we stacked them on our trailer and they are gone today. Now I need to find our rabbit trap, there are rabbits everywhere. I saw one yesterday in my garden bigger than my dog.

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

DS lost his retainer this week. Spent the morning cleaning every square inch of his room to find it or spend $200. Found it when I took the mattress out of his room. (I was desperate so I moved everything) Needless to say I took a 1/2 barrel of junk out of his room. Some seen and I have to confess some hidden. He is almost 17 and his room is bursting at the seams with junk/toys he has not touched since he was 10. There were dust bunnies the size of small dogs.

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

DS lost his retainer this week. Spent the morning cleaning every square inch of his room to find it or spend $200. Found it when I took the mattress out of his room. (I was desperate so I moved everything) Needless to say I took a 1/2 barrel of junk out of his room. Some seen and I have to confess some hidden. He is almost 17 and his room is bursting at the seams with junk/toys he has not touched since he was 10. There were dust bunnies the size of small dogs.

Mine us the same way. Won't throw out a thing even if it hasn't been played with in years!

 

[Alexle2007]

Finally can fit all 3 cars in the garage! Still need to do some organizing of all of the stuff but at least we accomplished what we were trying to do. I now have extra storage in the pantry too so that is the next area to tackle. I need to get some coat rails so I can hang and label all of the bags that we keep ready so they have a proper home and are easier to locate. Plenty of work left in the shed and basement and few other rooms but at least all of the cars now have a home.

 

[sherry7]

Subscribing...

I have a LOT of stuff to get rid of. My basement still has 30-35 boxes of packed up things from when we bought this house 11 years ago. That's not to mention the clutter in the main part of the house and garage. Up until now, I've been deficient on the time to do it because I have such a long commute to work. I just accepted an early retirement buyout from work though, so in just a few short days, I'll be a SAHM with more time to get things done around the house.

Today, I've been working on a huge laundry basket of paperwork in between doing laundry, and it's spread all over the kitchen table at the moment. I've been tossing out, shredding, and filing. So far, I filled up the kitchen garbage can, and shredded at least 150 sheets of paper. I'm making a promise to myself that after next week (when I'm no longer working), I will take care of the mail on a DAILY basis, and not allow it to reach this proportion again. Thank goodness all of my bills are on auto pay, or I would really have a serious problem.