2014 - destash thread The Year of the Great Purge

[dpswift]

Well I finished my 1st Food cabinet and have gotten rid of or moved over a few items from my second. They are both tall and narrow, however the second cabinet is harder because it does not have pull out shelves. I cleaned out 2 shelves in my bathroom closet.

I have done several loads of wash and it is sorted by person to go through. I am sure we will have at least 3 bags to get rid of when they are done. I will know better about my progress tomarrow as tonight is trash night. I know that I have maxed out my weekly alotment.

I am only working a half day today and have tomarrow off.

 

[dpswift]

Well I took the trash to the curb. I had my 2 pails full 2 kitchen sized trash bags, a small overnight bag and a box of cardboard to take out in the morning.

I could find more but last week I threw out a chair and I do not want to get marked as constantly going over the limit.

 

[vaDisneyGuy]

I am in I have been going through the garage and selling stuff on craigslist. Of course the money is going in the disney fund.

 

[pjlla]

I have been getting some work done with the kids gone although not as much as I would have liked. I keep checking Facebook to see if they have posted new pictures.

I have cleaned out 2 1/2 shelves in my food cupboard. I tossed all open snack foods and cereal thinking that they will go stale by the time they get back. I found a few things from 2012 and 2013 so they went out as well.

I put aside a handmade picture frame and a handmade photo album that we received at our wedding 24 years ago for goodwill. I feel guilty doing it but I do not like them.

I have been washing all the special care clothes that have been building up. I will sort them by person and I as sure several will end up in the goodwill bag.

Regarding the picture frame and album... NO GUILT! I'm sure the GIVER never intended you to keep them forever or to feel OBLIGATED. My parents and I recently had this conversation. I told them NO GUILT.... they can get rid of ANYTHING I have EVER given them (other than my love and the grandkids!)... guilt free! And I am going to try to start feeling the same! THINGS aren't LOVE. If it is something decorative or special, take a picture of it, write up a quick description of who gave it to who, when, and for what and why it was special for xxx years.... and then toss/donate the item. Same for things like kids artwork from school and the like.

Next time you are cleaning out crackers and cereal, think about putting the outside for the birds and squirrels. Sometimes I save things like that in a bag in the freezer and then I have plenty to put out in the winter. Sometimes I mix crumbs and stale cereal with peanut butter or other fats and put it out for birds in the winter.

I got rid of another 7 items and made $20 on Fb selling page. I might sell a couple pairs of pants tomorrow.

I went through a few boxes in the garage and got rid of a few old pieces of clothes that were old and dingy.

Now with the weather getting cooler I'll be able to go through stuff in the garage.

I'm hoping to get rid of more stuff so that money can go towards our vacation in Dec. Plus dd get 1/2 the $$ of clothes she sells. Since I do all the work taking pictures and listing I get the other 50% , oh and it only on clothing she bought herself. She cleaned out her room and told me she had two more medium bags of clothes :/

I wish my DD could bite the bullet and get rid of some clothes. She hangs on to stuff FOREVER. And that is great that you are making some $$ on FB. My sales have been NONEXISTENT lately! Time to ramp it up for Christmas!

Well I finished my 1st Food cabinet and have gotten rid of or moved over a few items from my second. They are both tall and narrow, however the second cabinet is harder because it does not have pull out shelves. I cleaned out 2 shelves in my bathroom closet.

I will often use shallow bins/baskets on deep shelves that don't pull out. That way I can just pull out the basket. I've done this under the bathroom sinks. I've also bought plastic drawer units to fit under sinks and in the bathroom closet. It works almost as well as having built-in drawers if you can find just the right size to fit around the pipes and such!

I have done several loads of wash and it is sorted by person to go through. I am sure we will have at least 3 bags to get rid of when they are done. I will know better about my progress tomarrow as tonight is trash night. I know that I have maxed out my weekly alotment.

I am only working a half day today and have tomarrow off.

I'd LOVE to get rid of three full bags! That is great.

Well I took the trash to the curb. I had my 2 pails full 2 kitchen sized trash bags, a small overnight bag and a box of cardboard to take out in the morning.

I could find more but last week I threw out a chair and I do not want to get marked as constantly going over the limit.

I assume you have town trash pick up, since you are talking about limits. I don't think I've ever lived anywhere with town pick-up, so I wasn't aware of the fact that there are limits. But good for you for getting rid of so much lately!

I am in I have been going through the garage and selling stuff on craigslist. Of course the money is going in the disney fund.

Of COURSE! That is where we would ALL like our "found money" to go! And sometimes it does!

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

Little progress here lately.... just call me a slacker! I have a winter coat to donate to the food pantry or maybe send to the high school nurse. I'm sure she'll find a high school girl in need. Also one pair of DS's pants.... the others that he outgrew were gone a few weeks ago.

I also need to start re-thinking some of my kitchen storage. I'm not complaining.... I have an obscene amount of storage in my kitchen.... about 12 upper cabinets of different sizes and 7 lower cabinets of varying sizes AND one tall pantry (about 5 feet with 4 large pull-out drawers), plus a 3 large drawers, 4 more narrow (but deep) drawers, a separate buffet and a closet. But I am guilty of storing stuff I don't use often and stuff I probably don't need. Since I recently got a new range, I lost that "under range" drawer that I stored my muffin tins, pie pans, and roaster in. I moved all of that stuff to the basement and figured I'd give it time to see what I actually retrieved and what I didn't use. And so far I've used most of it! So now I need to find storage for all of it. Time to RETHINK a lot of my kitchen storage! And I think that will mean freeing up a few shelves in the basement for those "rarely-used-but-need-to-keep" things like large roasters and lasagna pans. Maybe next time I have a free weekend??

Anyhow.... I broke my own new rule about "one in/one out" in regards to my closet. Found a GREAT new shirt (Gap white button-down boyfriend fit) at the thrift store yesterday and it followed me home! But now time to bite the bullet and get rid of something from my closet....oh the pain of it! But honestly, my closet rod is STUFFED (organized, but stuffed).... there has to be something there I can donate without any pain or guilt.

Off to be productive!.....................P

 

[dpswift]

pjlla,

That for your advice and encouragement. When we were between dogs I used to dump cereal off my back deck. Now I try to dump it out front. I will do it next time now that the weather is getting colder. I had never thought of mixing it with peanut butter.

I like your bin idea for shelves it would work with most of mine. DD already put dried beans and rice in a bin.

Today I filled a donation bag and 2 garbage bags. I cannot believe that I am this motivated now that my alone time is almost over. I am going to get back to work now and make the most of my last few hours alone.

Yes we do pay our town for pick up. We are allowed 3 pails a week. We can get away with 2 pails and one bulky item but I do not want to push it.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Cleaned out the pantry last week. Trying to get rid of stuff we won't use and trying to eat up some of the processed stuff and not replenishing it. I will probably have a big bag of stuff for the food drive at school too. We try to have a drive for the local pantry and Haiti every month.

I also started on the linen closet. There is so much stuff in there that we don't use, it's ridiculous. Knock on wood, my kids aren't sick very much so we never finish OTC meds before they expire so I need to go through those as well. I'd like to get rid of the drawer unit that sits on the floor so the vacuum will fit better. That keeps getting pushed back into the boys room to get at the drawers.

Also attempting to tackle my clothes this week. I need to get rid of some stuff and then shift summer stuff out. I really wanted to get ally clothes in the wardrobe but it's not working out. My sweaters are stacked under the hanging stuff and it's a mess. And I don't have enough room for winter PJs. Those are also with the sweaters.

 

[pjlla]

Cleaned out the pantry last week. Trying to get rid of stuff we won't use and trying to eat up some of the processed stuff and not replenishing it. I will probably have a big bag of stuff for the food drive at school too. We try to have a drive for the local pantry and Haiti every month.

I also started on the linen closet. There is so much stuff in there that we don't use, it's ridiculous. Knock on wood, my kids aren't sick very much so we never finish OTC meds before they expire so I need to go through those as well. I'd like to get rid of the drawer unit that sits on the floor so the vacuum will fit better. That keeps getting pushed back into the boys room to get at the drawers.

Also attempting to tackle my clothes this week. I need to get rid of some stuff and then shift summer stuff out. I really wanted to get ally clothes in the wardrobe but it's not working out. My sweaters are stacked under the hanging stuff and it's a mess. And I don't have enough room for winter PJs. Those are also with the sweaters.

Sounds like you've got plenty to keep you busy! Sweaters drive me nuts too because I want to fold them, but no room in my dresser.... so I took over the shelves in the back of the master bedroom closet for my sweaters.... but it seems like a crazy amount of space to take up JUST for sweaters! I think I need an intervention in my closet!

Off to declutter the cookbook cupboard!!.....................P

 

[pjlla]

So my cookbook cupboard is DONE..... along with 3 other cupboards PLUS my kitchen island!! I filled three boxes and a paperbag with stuff that is GOING! I am very stoked! I got rid of my recipe box (finally.... been contemplating it for a while), and got my loose recipes organized into their proper binder. Baking dishes, casseroles, etc got reorganized and a few got re-homed into another space. Shelves got wiped and washed. It all feels great!

I took pictures of the cookbook cupboard (before and after) but got on such a roll I forgot to take more pictures. oh well! I even took the time to go through pretty much every single cookbook I wanted to part with to make SURE there was no reason to keep it.... and they all made it into the "donation station" box!

I'll share pictures later if I get a minute! Off to pick up DS at Driver's Ed and then dinner!..................P

 

[pjlla]

So I realized yesterday that I never took "after" photos of the cookbook cupboard. Ooops! I'll do that today.

I challenged myself to another "5 minute" declutter challenge yesterday. I do that sometimes when it feels like I've made no progress or just haven't bothered to work any decluttering time into my schedule. I ended up hauling a BUNCH of cardboard boxes out of the basement to recycle. I kept saving boxes "just in case" and they were really piling up! And that is ridiculous. We get deliveries here at home at LEAST once a week (either from Amazon or from my work with Weight Watchers), so we ALWAYS have boxes coming in if I needed one! I'll get the in the car shortly and make a trip to the transfer station after I drop DS at school this morning.

I also spent a bunch of time listing stuff on my local FB yard sale pages. I haven't had much luck with the stuff I do have listed, so I gave them all a bump and will consider reducing the price today or removing the listing and taking the item to consignment.

Off to make breakfast and lunch for DS! TTYL..........................P

 

[4 Ears]

Just destashed 2 Disney watches to our oldest grandson

That's it, that's all I've got for today

Anyone doing better?

 

[4 Ears]

Well, 12 if you count the covers LOL

We froze several water bottles when we took our last road trip with tap water. We didn't need as many as I had prepared but had just left them in the freezer.
I just took them out and have them in my plants. No need to just dump the water down the drain.

Maybe more later, don't know what to do with myself today...

 

[4 Ears]

Uhh, just tossed a pair of DH's sneakers. Yes, with his permission.

Yesterday while folding laundry I was able to destash a pair of his unmentionables

He has more shoes than I do!! Getting him to toss any article of clothing is difficult.

 

[delmar411]

Just destashed 2 Disney watches to our oldest grandson That's it, that's all I've got for today Anyone doing better?

Months ago I joined a group called 40bags in 40 days on facebook so I have been plugging along. We had a massive yard sale this summer and got rid of tons of stuff. And yet the house doesn't feel any better! I have been filling a black yard bag with stuff as I come across it or clear it out and the bag is overflowing already.

My goal for this week is the teeny tiny coat closet. It is the only closet we have in the house outside of the bedroom closets. Plus I have this gigantic space bag (like 3 ft tall and 2ft across) filled with reusable bags and other assorted bags. It is ridiculous and needs to be downsized and things culled out. Hopefully I can get to that this week as well.

 

[dpswift]

Months ago I joined a group called 40bags in 40 days on facebook so I have been plugging along. We had a massive yard sale this summer and got rid of tons of stuff. And yet the house doesn't feel any better! I have been filling a black yard bag with stuff as I come across it or clear it out and the bag is overflowing already.

My goal for this week is the teeny tiny coat closet. It is the only closet we have in the house outside of the bedroom closets. Plus I have this gigantic space bag (like 3 ft tall and 2ft across) filled with reusable bags and other assorted bags. It is ridiculous and needs to be downsized and things culled out. Hopefully I can get to that this week as well.

Yes I know that I have gotten rid of tons of stuff and it does not seem at all better. I think with us it is that we have too many people in a small house 6 people and 2 dogs and alot of junk does not give you much place too sort.

I had hoped to get another yard sale in but it is doubtful since it is so late in the season. I do have 3 bags and an old plastic storage unit ready to go to goodwill.

I got rid of a bunch of small things in my utensil drawer and in a plastic bin that I have been storing overflow.

 

[4 Ears]

are 4 sheets of left over letters from the Christmas ornaments I made and 2can "coolzies". Not really sure why we have these as we don't tend to drink out of cans?

 

[OhMari]

We still do not have our house sold.
We dropped the price $10,000 and had 2 showings last week, plus an open house on Sunday. As of today, no offers, but it did trump up some more interest.

I convinced my dh to let me paint the front porch floor. We fixed the ceiling under the over hang of the roof on the porch, so it doesn't look like it is falling down. $500. I walked in my front door and noticed the light outside is rusted over, new rust is forming on top of the old rust. I have no idea, how I missed it. We went to Home Depot during our open house and bought a new outside lamp light $35. I called the realitor when we got home and said she may have a prospect-I'm not holding my breath. I asked her if anyone made any comments and she said, a few said the upstairs steps and basement steps are really narrow. My house is 125 years old. If we redid steps, I bet it would cost almost $5,000.
I got the realitor to move our 4-Sale Sign to the front of the house and not on the lot adjacent to the house. We dug up poor St. Joseph and we buried him together and said our prayers.

This week, I packed up all my summer clothes and went to the storage unit and got my winter clothes. I sorted both summer and winter and got rid of everything I never wore this summer and got rid of winter clothes that I just don't like. The bag is in my car. I also got rid of 3 pair of shoes, our church is having a shoe collection, I plan to go over the rest of my shoes and get rid of some more.

That is my de-stashing story for the week-Oh, I de-stashed 8 lbs. 35 more to go.

 

[StephMK]

I took pictures of the cookbook cupboard (before and after) but got on such a roll I forgot to take more pictures. oh well! I even took the time to go through pretty much every single cookbook I wanted to part with to make SURE there was no reason to keep it.... and they all made it into the "donation station" box!

I'll share pictures later if I get a minute! Off to pick up DS at Driver's Ed and then dinner!..................P

I would love to see before/after pics! It's very motivating to see how others organize things.

We still do not have our house sold.
We dropped the price $10,000 and had 2 showings last week, plus an open house on Sunday. As of today, no offers, but it did trump up some more interest.

I convinced my dh to let me paint the front porch floor. We fixed the ceiling under the over hang of the roof on the porch, so it doesn't look like it is falling down. $500. I walked in my front door and noticed the light outside is rusted over, new rust is forming on top of the old rust. I have no idea, how I missed it. We went to Home Depot during our open house and bought a new outside lamp light $35. I called the realitor when we got home and said she may have a prospect-I'm not holding my breath. I asked her if anyone made any comments and she said, a few said the upstairs steps and basement steps are really narrow. My house is 125 years old. If we redid steps, I bet it would cost almost $5,000.
I got the realitor to move our 4-Sale Sign to the front of the house and not on the lot adjacent to the house. We dug up poor St. Joseph and we buried him together and said our prayers.

This week, I packed up all my summer clothes and went to the storage unit and got my winter clothes. I sorted both summer and winter and got rid of everything I never wore this summer and got rid of winter clothes that I just don't like. The bag is in my car. I also got rid of 3 pair of shoes, our church is having a shoe collection, I plan to go over the rest of my shoes and get rid of some more.

That is my de-stashing story for the week-Oh, I de-stashed 8 lbs. 35 more to go.

Fingers crossed that you get an offer soon! I know how stressful it is to have a house on the market. Hope those changes (&burial) will help. We buried St. Joseph too.

I took a bag of DD's old clothes to the consignment shop and they bought all except 5 pieces. The jackets will go to school and the shirts are already in the donate pile in my trunk. I'm dropping off a box of clothes, bag of shoes, and small bag of misc. kid stuff to Goodwill today.

I went through the paper drawer and recycled a bunch of old papers. I am trying to keep on top of the filing so I don't end up with a huge pile again.

Even though the basement is technically done - everything has been sorted, I still need to get some bags out of the basement. Some are going to school, some need to be loaded into my trunk. When I finished the basement, I never had DH carry everything to the garage. As long as that's done by Christmas, I'll be happy.

My goal for the weekend is to tackle the garage. It is full of empty boxes and piles of miscellaneous stuff. The boxes will be easy to break down & I need to make some decisions on the other stuff. I'm in the mood to pitch stuff so it should be a good time to tackle some projects!

What is everyone else hoping to accomplish before the holidays?

 

[pjlla]

We still do not have our house sold.
We dropped the price $10,000 and had 2 showings last week, plus an open house on Sunday. As of today, no offers, but it did trump up some more interest.

I convinced my dh to let me paint the front porch floor. We fixed the ceiling under the over hang of the roof on the porch, so it doesn't look like it is falling down. $500. I walked in my front door and noticed the light outside is rusted over, new rust is forming on top of the old rust. I have no idea, how I missed it. We went to Home Depot during our open house and bought a new outside lamp light $35. I called the realitor when we got home and said she may have a prospect-I'm not holding my breath. I asked her if anyone made any comments and she said, a few said the upstairs steps and basement steps are really narrow. My house is 125 years old. If we redid steps, I bet it would cost almost $5,000.
I got the realitor to move our 4-Sale Sign to the front of the house and not on the lot adjacent to the house. We dug up poor St. Joseph and we buried him together and said our prayers.

This week, I packed up all my summer clothes and went to the storage unit and got my winter clothes. I sorted both summer and winter and got rid of everything I never wore this summer and got rid of winter clothes that I just don't like. The bag is in my car. I also got rid of 3 pair of shoes, our church is having a shoe collection, I plan to go over the rest of my shoes and get rid of some more.

That is my de-stashing story for the week-Oh, I de-stashed 8 lbs. 35 more to go.

First of all GREAT JOB on the 8 pounds!! That's terrific!!

Next... good work getting the seasonal clothing sorted. And best of luck and prayers coming that the house sells soon!

I would love to see before/after pics! It's very motivating to see how others organize things.

I'll try to do it tonight!!


Fingers crossed that you get an offer soon! I know how stressful it is to have a house on the market. Hope those changes (&burial) will help. We buried St. Joseph too.

I took a bag of DD's old clothes to the consignment shop and they bought all except 5 pieces. The jackets will go to school and the shirts are already in the donate pile in my trunk. I'm dropping off a box of clothes, bag of shoes, and small bag of misc. kid stuff to Goodwill today.

I went through the paper drawer and recycled a bunch of old papers. I am trying to keep on top of the filing so I don't end up with a huge pile again.

Even though the basement is technically done - everything has been sorted, I still need to get some bags out of the basement. Some are going to school, some need to be loaded into my trunk. When I finished the basement, I never had DH carry everything to the garage. As long as that's done by Christmas, I'll be happy.

My goal for the weekend is to tackle the garage. It is full of empty boxes and piles of miscellaneous stuff. The boxes will be easy to break down & I need to make some decisions on the other stuff. I'm in the mood to pitch stuff so it should be a good time to tackle some projects!

What is everyone else hoping to accomplish before the holidays?

My biggest goal right now is to get the garage done before it gets too cold! I have so many busy weekends coming up, not sure when that will happen! I think with a little bit of help, I could probably do it in one (looong) day. But DD is coming home for this upcoming holiday weekend, I have a work meeting for my WW job next weekend, and the weekend after that is Parents' Weekend at my DD's school. And that brings us FIRMLY into November!! I can park on my side, but it isn't too pretty. And DH cannot get his car into his side, but that is his own doing. He left tools and wood, etc from EVERY SINGLE PROJECT he did this year sitting on his side of the garage. But it has to be cleaned up before the snow flies. And he doesn't want to just "put the stuff away".... he wants to actually FINISH the projects... which is GREAT, but right now he has about 3 weekends worth of projects to finish and he will probably need some of his weekends to help his DBIL (who is currently undergoing chemo and radiation for colon cancer) with stuff at HIS house and with rides to treatment.

Anyhow.... that is a LOOOOOOONG rambly answer for the question of what's on the schedule next!!

I'm at school, so I've gotta dash... break is over!..............P

 

[4 Ears]

Yuck on the house. Way to go on the weight loss.

Before the holidays- she just needs a good cleaning.

I decided to work on some ornaments for both us and others. While seeing how much room I had I was able to get rid of an ornament that went to the oldest grandson...

 

[dsneprincess]

I am running out of destashed gas! I keep destashing and I swear it is getting worse not better! Maybe I am just not seeing much difference.

One big difference I made was taking these center wood inserts out of the windows that made the big glass pane look like 4 little glass panes. The difference in light coming in is AMAZING!! I love the look & the light. I also cleaned every window and the woodwork, but am now storing the inserts, so not sure this was a big win, but I am very happy with the brightness in the house. That should really help answer hit the gray days of December, January & February.

I also bought flights for President's Week, so that should keep me motivated----at least, I hope it will!