2014 - destash thread The Year of the Great Purge

I have been reading this thread (although not the entire thing) and am feeling inspired. I'm also compelled to share my progress...I think this is the place where people will understand what a big deal it is!

I moved oldest ds (who just moved in with us again after college) in dd's room (who is now away at college and not home much). DD was moved into the den, where ds's stuff has been. This meant going through every single item in both rooms and decluttering items, clothes and TRASH/JUNK (why is trash kept??)

I found a sofa chair at IKEA, which is like a futon for a single bed. It can go in the den, so we can use it when dd is gone, but she has a place when she is home.

I also cleaned out the garage, recycling items, sending stuff to Goodwill and to the trash. Youngest ds vacuumed the garage for me, so it wasn't so yucky to work in. I went through cabinets and threw away expired food and found space for the items I needed to purchase for the party I threw for my parents 55th anniversary for 75 people.

I discovered the space bags by ziplock-they really work. I put dd's winter clothes into 2 of them and it is great. Best thing is its obvious what it is (clear bags) so will be easy to find when needed. I did the same for many of her dresses-she doesn't want to get ride of them, but there is a space bag that is like a dress bag that works great.

The week before it was youngest ds's room that was successfully organized (again, lots of stuff just gone now)

I still have a long way to go, but hope to make alot of progress in the next three days, before I leave for our family reunion (and then I go back to work.:sad:)

Julia
 
I have been trying to declutter this summer. I donated a ton of clothes ( mine and the kids). This week I have been going through old papers. It is just hard for me to let go of the kids writing and drawings from when they were little. And the books! I need to get off the DIS and get back to it

I keep one art master piece per school year. The rest I make my daughter hold in front of her and take a picture of it. Then right in the trash.
 
Bit of a Disney one here. Bought a giant, but, gorgeous pin board from Costco last year with the intent of putting all my favourite pins on it, spent the weekend doing that and at the same time found quite a few pins that I really don't want to keep, so into the car boot stash, found a load of other stuff in the cupboard too, my house (apart from the room with all the car boot stuff in it) is starting to look a lot less cluttered, a lot of Disney T shirts are going too, bought when DD was younger. Will be pricing everything to go as I don't want to have to bring it home, I hope the tightwads who frequent local carboots won't offer silly money again, bargain price yes, give it away no!
 
So, I was feeling pretty dumb when it came to a "car boot", so I googled it :surfweb:

For those that may not know what it is, it is what we would consider a flea market but selling right out of your vehicle (trunk) or beside your vehicle. :moped:

Now you know or if you already did, now I know :rotfl:
 

So, I was feeling pretty dumb when it came to a "car boot", so I googled it :surfweb:

For those that may not know what it is, it is what we would consider a flea market but selling right out of your vehicle (trunk) or beside your vehicle. :moped:

Now you know or if you already did, now I know :rotfl:

I knew, but I don't know why I knew..... but it is totally NOT an American thing, so I understand why most of us wouldn't know! Thanks for looking it up for us!

*************

Seems like many of us are making some good progress on decluttering and destashing our lives! I am running out of time to get this done for now.... very, very busy two weeks ahead. But I will definitely jump back into the declutter wagon after my vacation! And as I spend the next few days packing for vacation (clothes, bedding, etc) I will be looking for opportunities to pull out an item or two that I can do without!

DD has been moving her stuff home (from her summer on-campus apartment) and so I did a bit of cleaning/straightening in the playroom to make a spot for her stuff to go.... especially since most of it will be going STRAIGHT BACK TO SCHOOL in a few weeks! But meanwhile I am noticing that the playroom declutter has stalled.... so that will be on the list of rooms to go through this fall (when it gets a bit cooler.... that room tends to be super hot in the summer without the a/c).

TTYL.........................P
 
I have been reading this thread (although not the entire thing) and am feeling inspired. I'm also compelled to share my progress...I think this is the place where people will understand what a big deal it is!

I moved oldest ds (who just moved in with us again after college) in dd's room (who is now away at college and not home much). DD was moved into the den, where ds's stuff has been. This meant going through every single item in both rooms and decluttering items, clothes and TRASH/JUNK (why is trash kept??)

I found a sofa chair at IKEA, which is like a futon for a single bed. It can go in the den, so we can use it when dd is gone, but she has a place when she is home.

I also cleaned out the garage, recycling items, sending stuff to Goodwill and to the trash. Youngest ds vacuumed the garage for me, so it wasn't so yucky to work in. I went through cabinets and threw away expired food and found space for the items I needed to purchase for the party I threw for my parents 55th anniversary for 75 people.

I discovered the space bags by ziplock-they really work. I put dd's winter clothes into 2 of them and it is great. Best thing is its obvious what it is (clear bags) so will be easy to find when needed. I did the same for many of her dresses-she doesn't want to get ride of them, but there is a space bag that is like a dress bag that works great.

The week before it was youngest ds's room that was successfully organized (again, lots of stuff just gone now)

I still have a long way to go, but hope to make alot of progress in the next three days, before I leave for our family reunion (and then I go back to work.:sad:)

Julia
You made great stride. I just bought a box of those big zip lock bags. My son is living in NYC for a job and I have an amour full of clothes of his to go through.m I. Told him I am cleaning it out. We took 9 trophies and goggles to the storage unit too last night. I told my son he is going to pay part f the fee since his 4wheeler quad race bike, the clothes and now all his trophies are in there. Plus his Harley is sitting in my garage. His answer to me was, "I can't help it you want to move." What a little snot, he is lucky I don't put it out on my lawn and put a sign on it and sell it.

Our 4-sale sign went up this weekend. We texted all our kids the picture, and everyone said they all felt their hearts drop a little. I had a hard time sleeping this weekend, but we need to move on.
 
We are headed back to Maine soon to visit and see new grandson. New grandson has lots of things we are taking him, his older brother not so much. While DH was packing tools for the trip he came across a football, minigolf balls and a kickball. Guess who is getting all those? Why on Earth we have them I am not sure...

So a total of 16 balls destashed from here :lmao:

Ooops, I miscounted, a total of 17. Must be accurate when it comes to destashing ya know :)
 
Quote:
Waaaaiiitt... hold the phone. PLEASE tell me WHY you didn't like the steam mop. I am literally looking for a good deal on one right now because I decided it would be a great way to keep the kitchen floor clean without dealing with a big mop and bucket. Quote

Well, for one thing, it took FOREVER to heat up, and then it would say it was running low on water, but when I refilled it, it would have only used a couple ounces instead of the 12 ounces it was supposed to hold. It didn't work nearly as well as I had hoped on sticky messes, and I ended up scrubbing stubborn (and even not-so-stubborn) stains off by hand, anyway. Then the floor took quite awhile to dry afterward, just like when I used a normal mop. So I am back to using my Rubbermaid Reveal mop (kind of like a wet swiffer) and I fill it with my homemade orange vinegar solution for natural cleaning without the wait for it to heat up. I can throw the pad in the wash after I use it, and I don't have to mess with the bucket of water.
 
I am taking a few days off. My dh just got back from China lat night and then he is leaving for Calif. on wed. so after that I will have more time to work on the clothes and papers.

I just got a free bag in the mail today. Not only do they pick it up, they send you a free bag to put the stuff in. I just donate it to whoever is coming next and this time its Lupus on Aug. 12th I think. So I have 3 bags of theirs and I am def. planning on filling them up.

My oldest ds is getting laid off his job, so he will have time to work on decluttering his room too, but he told me he doesnt have anything to donate, yeah right.

One giant job on the horizon is taking down their old playset in the back yard. That will be a massive decluttering, more like demolition!
 
Sunday night I got rid of 3 large black garbage bags of stuff from my spare room
-old blouses (10)
-trash
-packages
-plastic container wrap
-old socks
-junk stuff

I have some papers to shred. I have a potential buyer for some of dd's shorts. Dh is going to hit a corner or the garage tomorrow. I'm going to hit the corner of our dining area. We have cabinet that is a hotspot. Hopefully Starting Friday I can hit a few more sport and upload some more stuff to sell on FB. It just amazes me some of the stuff people will buy. I got rid of some of dd's toddlers (shes's a teen now)clothes I had in container and those items sold fast! The things I think will sell don't sell right away and things I think wont sell, sell right away-lol!
 
Purged the gift bags and wrapping paper. It's everything but Christmas, that's in the loft. Was able to put it in a bin 1/2 the size.
I also got the kids file bins up on the shelf instead of on the floor.

Today I am working on the kitchen a bit and I will sort another bin.
 
The basement is finished! :banana: DH carried out a bookcase that got damaged, 2 rolls of carpet remnants, piece of shelf the repair guys had to remove and the trash bag. Thankful that he is my muscle. :laughing:

I stacked all of my picture, kid, and scrapbook totes in the same closet so they are at least in one place. I need to go through 3 shelves in the closets but everything else has been put away and it looks soo much better! I would like DS to go through his video games because I think he has a ton that he doesn't play. Right now they are all stored in an old toy bin organizer so at least they are in one place.

We have one empty closet because that is where the water was coming in. I'm afraid to use it until we get a big rain and can be sure the repairs fixed all the problems.

On Sunday, I also cleared off a major hot spot in the kitchen at the desk area. It looks so much better but it seems to get cluttered so quickly.

My next project is figuring out how to store less on our kitchen counters. Even when clean, they seem cluttered. We have a big fruit bowl, another bowl with random granola bars, and a 3 bowl with mints, leftover snacks, etc. Plus 2 big containers of pretzels. I wish I had a pantry!!
 
Today I cleaned out DS14s closet! 5 paper bags of clothes ready to go to Goodwill! I would have taken it today, but it's pouring rain! 3 white trash bags full of trash! Everything else hung up and folded. One load of laundry to dry and hang, and then it's finished!

Two weeks ago DH and I finished clearing out the upstairs living room. Reorganized, donated, hauled out lots of trash!

Still much to do...but Hooray for progress!
 
I organized a bunch of stuff to get rid of. I've been selling on FB and have sold 28 items and made $96 this summer :yay:

Sometimes I just want to load up everything and take it to goodwill but making some extra money will help out for our food budget on our Dec trip.

Going through the boxes I found my DD's15 retainer-BUMMER!!! because last week of June she had to pay $220 for a new one. I was going to pay half but since she hasn't been responsible I made her pay it. I know I'm such a mean mom! lol!

I go back to work nextweek but plan on continuing to sell on FB.

One thing I'm not happy about is I had to install that stupid new Facebook messenger:rolleyes2 on my phone and what don't like is when I have to use it to communicate to buyers on my phone through FB message. I happened to click on a message a buyer sent me and it showed a map of her location. Then I clicked on a few of her messages and it showed different maps of where she sent it from.
The reason I clicked on all of them was because she was late for our meet up and I didn't know if she was lying or what but she was 30 min late and I finally messaged her and said I wasn't waiting anymore :( Does anyone know how I can turn that off. I don't want buyers to know my location. I just want to trun it off on facebookmobile message but I need location on my phone for shopkicks and for my fitbit.

Is that new phone facebook messenger mandatory? I don't like it or want it. I prefer the old one
 
I got 1 1/2 bags of clothes sorted which ended up with 1 huge bag to donate.

Also went through 2 bags of papers yesterday. Its a never ending process but its progress nonetheless.

This week end I will have dh look through some of his clothes and hopefully we will have another bag to donate. The pickup truck is coming tues.

Everyone is doing great! I amazed at how much everyone does. Its just takes me a lot longer to do it I guess. I feel like the turtle..slow and steady wins the race etc.
 
Today was an unplanned destashing. - the pantry.

Youngest ds has 2 friends who were asked to leave their parents house immediately. The mom is bipolar, so they are going to live with an older brother but they are only making minimum wage in retail, dont have a car etc.

So we went to our church food pantry, got them some food from there and added some from our own pantry. We also got to throw away all our expired food etc. So this will be a blessing to them.

We asked if they would accept it and they said - thanks so much, we are Desperate!!! They have pawned their own musical instruments just to buy a shower curtain, hygiene items etc.

I am glad we can help them and I think it helps my ds to realize just how blessed they are too.
 
That's so great you could help! I have a bunch of food and household items I'm about to donate, but I'm guessing you aren't nearby, I'm in MD.
 
Does anyone know of a used furniture buyer/store in the South Jersey area?

Someone here had mentioned a place and I can't remember the name of it.
 
Just got back from visiting the grandkids in Maine and while unpacking I tossed a small piece of luggage. Didn't realize it til now that it had a rip in it. Out it has gone.

What have you destashed over the last 2 weekends?
 











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