2014 - destash thread The Year of the Great Purge

[arwood82]

I am in. My boys got so much for Christmas and we just have a lot of stuff in general. We are also hoping to have a baby this year so we really need to get our extra bedroom cleaned out to make it into a nursery. I work retail so my hours have been cut quite a bit for the next 2 months so hopefully I can get a lot done before march.

 

[Cinderelly5507]

Count me in! We live in a 2 bedroom townhouse right now, but purchased land to build a home. I refuse to take the clutter to my new house. My girls have a ton of people who buy for them so they have so many clothes and toys. For that I am truly grateful, but our townhouse is overflowing with things! My first order of business is to organize and donate toys. They don't sell well at yard sales for me. I want to buy some under-the-bed storage for toys too, especially DD's Barbies, Monster High dolls, etc...

 

[MAJPLO]

Ugh. So much to do. I'm in but last year I started out great and then.... Big goal is the garage, smaller goals are to keep up on day to day paperwork and kid papers, clean out old paper work, seasonal cabinets, kids clothing areas, kids playroom. Maybe the shed we have and maybe get a new one that is bigger. And my own (and DH's) dressers and closets. I can smell the motor in my paper shredder burning up already.

 

[msmama]

I'd like to participate.

A flooded basement the day after Xmas has already forced me into action. Just one room flooded so EVERYTHING from the strorage room got moved to the semi useful room. A good time to clean out both, I guess, since I still have a bunch of my 5 1/2 year olds baby toys. I posted 5 things on the local buy and sell Facebook and sold all 5 already! Made $30! Unfortunately, all the other good stuff to sell is behind other stuff that needs to be purged first.

Aside from the basement my other main goal for the year is to do something with my guest room. Right now it's where I toss junk. Not everything needs to go, but it needs to be better organized at least.

 

[Cruiselady]

I am in too. I have about twenty boxes I took out of the basement to go through three weeks ago. I plan on doing one a day. Also I need to deep clean and declutter a room a week and hopefully do a little remodeling with some new items to keep me motived as I go along.

 

[emilyindisney]

Started destashing today! The goal for this year is to cut back on all the childhood toys that have accumulated at my parent's house over the year. Time to find a new home for all of them!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I'd like to participate.

A flooded basement the day after Xmas has already forced me into action. Just one room flooded so EVERYTHING from the strorage room got moved to the semi useful room. A good time to clean out both, I guess, since I still have a bunch of my 5 1/2 year olds baby toys. I posted 5 things on the local buy and sell Facebook and sold all 5 already! Made $30! Unfortunately, all the other good stuff to sell is behind other stuff that needs to be purged first.

Aside from the basement my other main goal for the year is to do something with my guest room. Right now it's where I toss junk. Not everything needs to go, but it needs to be better organized at least.

Been there, done that! We got about 6 inches of water a few years ago from a big rain storm. The day before we left for Disney no less. I had a dumpster delivered that day and tossed tons of stuff. But we have since accumulated all of MILs things since then.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I shared this last year but want to share it again. When the boys destashed their cars I bought shadow boxes at Ikea and did this, one for each of them. They picked my importance then we donated the rest.

 

[delmar411]

I did my garage last month but I need to sort through a few more bins to finish destashing it plus I need to put away Christmas in an orderly fashion.

My YDD's room is a complete disaster area again. I'm not really sure what happened or when but I can't even get into her closet so that needs to be remedied ASAP. The rest of her room needs to be done when she isn't home as she freaks out if anything is touched. So I think I will work on that an hour at a time during the school days in January. This has to be 100% done before mid-Jan when my mom comes to visit.

I need to destash the Disney refillable mugs as well. I use them for my coffee every morning but the cabinets here at this house are very small and can't handle all of them plus with the new chipped mugs, that is an ever growing collection here too.

Our bedroom is another place that needs help. It is the dumping ground for everything and so there is stuff just heaped up everywhere. This will be an on going project though as there is zero storage in this house so I'm struggling to find places for things.

I'm going to make a master list of the stuff I want to get done in another post and try to work off that one for at least the first half of the year.

 

[Debbie]

Peter Walsh: Day 1
Take 10 minutes and declutter one drawer. First 31 day challenge. DONE!

 

[StephMK]

I'd like to participate.

A flooded basement the day after Xmas has already forced me into action. Just one room flooded so EVERYTHING from the strorage room got moved to the semi useful room. A good time to clean out both, I guess, since I still have a bunch of my 5 1/2 year olds baby toys. I posted 5 things on the local buy and sell Facebook and sold all 5 already! Made $30! Unfortunately, all the other good stuff to sell is behind other stuff that needs to be purged first.

Aside from the basement my other main goal for the year is to do something with my guest room. Right now it's where I toss junk. Not everything needs to go, but it needs to be better organized at least.

We had a basement flood last spring. I'm still trying to clean stuff out and put the room back together from that. We also have rolls of carpet in the garage to take to recycling.

I shared this last year but want to share it again. When the boys destashed their cars I bought shadow boxes at Ikea and did this, one for each of them. They picked my importance then we donated the rest.

That is so cute! I should do that for some of my kids' favorites. Thanks for re-posting!

I'm in again. I like the accountability and being able to post progress. The house has stayed ok but it's always a battle to keep it that way.

Yesterday, I went all through my bath vanity & tossed some stuff. It's nice & organized now. Today I went through the family room cabinets. It's been a dumping ground for my school papers. I have a huge pile of papers to recycle and organized everything else in them. Now I have a clear shelf for my work binders when I bring stuff home.

Christmas decorations are almost done and will need to be carried back to the attic. Hopefully today since DH goes back to work tomorrow.

The basement and garage are my two main ongoing projects. It's too cold to tackle the garage so hopefully I can make some progress on the basement before I head back to work on Monday.

Also signed up for the Apartment emails, looks like fun!

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I've kept on top of decluttering, but my issue now is organization. We moved into this house a year and a half ago and I am still trying to get things where they will work for me, without spending a fortune to do it. Right now my biggest issues are the kids' backpacks and my oldest two sons' room.

That car shadowbox would be great for my oldest son, he likes to collect corvette Hot Wheels so I will look for one for him.

I also have some repairs that need to be done. The hooks I hung in the kids' bathroom for their towels fell out of the wall, even with using anchors, so I need to fix that. Our deck needs the hot tub taken out of it and the deck built where that was, I think I will get DH to work on that in Feb. or March. I want to get a lot of the work done around the house before DD's graduation party in June.

 

[MAJPLO]

Yay. DH and the kids took down the tree, ornaments, and outside lights. I got rid of a bunch of packaging trash from online Christmas orders, packed a couple boxes of things to sell and organized the boxes of to be sold stuff at an upcoming bazaar.

 

[MAJPLO]

Peter Walsh: Day 1
Take 10 minutes and declutter one drawer. First 31 day challenge. DONE!

Not sure if I will put this in my list for today or not, but THANK YOU for posting it. I really like the Peter Walsh tips and challenges. They are so simple.

 

[GatorMomInNC]

Count me in! My goal is to pick one small section of my house every day that I don't work (3 days a week). Today's goal is the laundry room.

 

[Pesky]

I'm in! We need to empty out part of the basement in hopes of throwing up some drywall and putting down some carpet. I'm also trying to de-baby the house and have to get rid of our old changing table and a few other left-over baby things. This also means I have to go through all our old stuff under the stairs because anything we can't throw out from the basement like luggage is going there. So it will be a total purge! I'm pretty excited about it. I'm hoping to purge our books too but won't be devastated if that doesn't happen this year. Baby steps.

 

[pigletto]

I am watching this thread with interest. Dh is interviewing for jobs that may require a major move. Due to the cost of living in those particular areas we would also be looking at going from almost 2800 square feet to buying a townhouse, so maybe 1500.
When I look at it in those terms all of a sudden my house feels full of stuff I will need to sell, donate, and purge. Entire rooms of furniture won't be needed. I won't even know until it's time to make a decision and then I will only have a few months to literally cut half of my things out of my life and move far away.
At this point I have no idea if it will happen, but if it does I want to be ready, and I will need to divide it into manageable chunks to get it all done. So I'll be lurking in this thread and will post if the time comes.

 

[4 Ears]

I am sure others will agree. Start off with maybe drawers, entertainment centers, closets. If you don't move you will feel so much better.

 

[C_leen]

I am in this year. Last year wasn't too bad. I feel like I did OK on the kitchen project. This week I have already sorted through DS bureau. The nice thing about a drawer a day is if u feel up to it or the first drawer wasn't too bad u can keep going!

Yesterday I filed/purged 10+ papers too. Trying to keep it slow and steady so I don't burn out. The other day I tossed all my ripped out magazine recipes that I never cook.

Upcoming spots of focus: DS closet shelf, guest bedroom closet shelf, my bureau, continue paper purge 10 pieces a day.

Good luck everyone!

 

[Marshay]

Hey, guys! I'm joining in too. Just posted yesterday on my FB page to make it officially my NY resolution and you all will be a great help, too.

My plan -- 12 rooms in 12 months. Each room is a minimum of 2 bags trash, 2 bags donations (or some combo).

I did the kids' rooms in December with this plan and now want to move on to the rest of the house. That is a big challenge but if I plan one room a month (and break down further like PP above, one drawer a day, etc), that seems very doable.

Thanks already for the great advice -- I like the "if you buy one shirt, get rid of two" and also from the 'No Buy' thread, to set up days that you will not purchase anything. Together I think that will be a healthy plan -- "destash and no buy" will be my new mantra this year!

Yesterday I started on our dining room which also has the kids' bookshelf. I already gathered 3 bags of books to donate and 1 bag of trash.

So we now have 9 bags of donations to be delivered so far for December and January!! Woot!!!