2016 Destash - The more things you own, the more they own you

[comicguy]

Just sorted and recycled over 30 pounds of paper!!

ETA: This was old school papers, practice tests, copied newspaper and Internet articles, and just random other non identifying paperwork

 

[comicguy]

In addition to the stuff that I listed yesterday I also got rid of the following:

Shred/burned 20 lbs. of documents (old bills, bank statements, taxes from 1989-2006)
Trashed 1 shredder (it burned up during use) in all fairness it was over 20 years old
Recycled 6 more magazines

Added to the Yard Sale Pile:

7 books
2 laptop bags (too small for our current laptops)
2 Tri-fold laptop holders (came with our current bags and we don't use them)
6 Empty DVD Cases
10 DVD's
3 Science Fair T-Shirts (different years, got these as the kids' mentor and not my size)

It does not sound like much but it is starting to make a difference!!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I'm currently having to empty every cabinet, cupboard and drawer in my kitchen because painters arrive on tuesday to paint the kitchen.

So far over this weekend - I just dumped to 2 junk drawers into the garbage. Donated 2 boxes of glassware to Goodwill and am in the process of throwing away all expired items in the cupboards.

I will be donating much more when I'm putting it all back in the cupboards. I love a big kitchen but enough is enough - I don't need 32 wine glasses - 46 coffee cups (I don't even drink coffee!) and so much more that is never used. Ugh.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Just a few more things today. I flipped over the hutch from winter to spring stuff, and managed to sort out a few non-used items in the process:

Plastic picnic dishes (4 plates and 4 bowls)
1 snack tray
4 small narrow plastic...Shot glasses? Bud vases? I'm really not sure - into the donation bag.

Plus 2 plastic take-out containers (why??) and a broken popcorn bucket - into the recycle bin.

 

[TI double-GUH ER]

You all inspired me this weekend! I got rid of 2 more expired medicines that somehow missed my last purge, 5 expired sunscreens, 2 empty hair sprays (really - how do I still have things like this?!), got rid of several pairs of sunglasses that the kids outgrew, and also had them try on their shorts from last year to see what fits and what doesn't. So-- there is a full garbage bag of clothes ready to be donated. And - I was able to give my nephew an entire large shopping bag full of toys!! I have a pair of shoes I'm hoping to give to my mil tonight. Making progress!!

 

[PrincessKymm]

My closet floor looks amazing. The shelves...not so much. WAY too many shoes but I can't part with any of them! I love them all! When I'm tired and lazy i wear the same black flats but when I went through my shoes I noticed I wear a lot of them. Some are "fancy" and since I haven't been on a decent date in forever I haven't worn them. *sigh* still holding out hope for Prince Charming I guess. Haha! Got rid of 2 empty boxes tho! I need to purge my purses again. I did set aside 3 items for the consignment shop, 1 for a friend, and I trashed a bunch of shirts that have seen far better days.

DS is ready to have a growth spurt so my kitchen cupboards are a bit lighter. I need to cook out of the freezer so that's my next project.

I also need to buy a shredder. I've been ignoring my mail so it's piling up. I think I'll tackle that next weekend.

I got rid of one very large box so yay for floor space!

I looked at my craft stuff and just walked away. Way too overwhelmed to deal with that right now.

 

[comicguy]

I am going to completely empty out, sort, and organize my shed today. Hope to get rid of some stuff!!!

 

[OhMari]

I am going to completely empty out, sort, and organize my shed today. Hope to get rid of some stuff!!!

Good luck. Tell us what you all found.

 

[toystoryduo]

Well, we finally started the garage. We have a long way to go.

We managed to throw away 2 boxes and 3 bags worth of stuff though. Progress is being made. It's just very slow!

We started listing a few things that we have de-cluttered on eBay. Last week, we had 5 auctions up. Two items sold, one auction is still running until Thursday, and I re-listed those 2 items this morning. I think one of those auctions didn't sell because I misspelled the title of the product incorrectly. Hopefully it sells this time around!

 

[pjlla]

Hey all.... I'm finally making a bit of progress! We are on April school vacation right now and so I helped DS "rake" out his room today! We literally took EVERY ITEM out except his desk and bed and bookcase. We flip flopped the desk and bed and now he is about 1/3 way through sorting EVERY SINGLE ITEM from his room. Unfortunately they all got dumped on my bed.... so he HAS to finish them by 10 pm or I'll be sleeping on the sofa! So far we have taken out two paper grocery bags of paper recycling, one small plastic bag of trash, and a box of stuff to sell or donate.

I am finally hanging up some wall decor that I've been promising for YEARS and REHANGING something that we took down when we rearranged his room to accomodate his new larger desk a year or more ago!

He has a captain's bed with the drawers underneath, but it was a cheapo unit and the drawers haven't worked properly for years. I tried to replace the drawer slides a few years ago, but couldn't find anything that would fit. I am going to buy some large decorative baskets and try using those instead of the drawer unit. But of course, for now, I need to find storage spot for the drawer unit until we decide for sure if we are keeping or ditching it. If I do keep it and put it back under his bed, I will be pulling out the drawer slides all together and putting in some plywood bases and replacing the drawers with baskets. But the unit only fills half of the space under the bed so when we use it, there is literally a HUGE wasted dead space behind it (his bed is against the wall.... his room is really small).

Okay... I've got to go pester him to get sorting through this mess!..............P

 

[comicguy]

Well the shed is finally complete!! Started at 9 am and just finished about 10 mins ago. It was all day except for a 45 min break about 2 pm!!

Anyway, after completely taking everything out and organizing and sorting I can actually find things. Still have to bring the X-Mas decorations out but that can be done in the morning!!

To the curb:
30 pounds of scrap metal

Yard Sale items:
10 parts storage bins
50 books that were in a plastic tote
1 plastic drill case (no longer have the drill)
1 electric saws-all (have a battery powered one)
1 1/2 in electric impact
1 set of deep wall impact sockets
2 heavy duty tire pressure gauges
30 assorted screw drivers (have a nice new high quality set)
15 assorted wrenches (have a nice new high quality set)
200 or so assorted sockets (have a nice new high quality set)
3 new interior door knobs (don't match what we are doing in the house)
250 misc assorted small items
1 rolling metal tool box (medium size)
1 complete 30 socket set in metal box (low quality "extra set" why did I ever think I needed an extra set???)
1 Dremel (never used)
1 Dovetail joint maker (never used)
4 storage totes
3 shoe box totes
1 Hard hat (have not done construction since high school 1988??)
1 Wooden baseball bat
5 flower pots
1 hose wand

Recycled:
5 popcorn buckets

Trash
assorted ones and twos of screws, nuts, bolts, etc (too few to actually deal with keeping)
assorted pieces of wood that really not good for much
broken hammer
assorted pieces of sand paper that are too small for my sander
2 tubes of dried up caulking
1 non functional caulking gun
1 tube of dried up liquid nail
2 broken utility knives
15 used outlets and switches (painted over and pretty old)


Used up
3 cans of old primer and white paint to seal the floor of the shed
3/4 bag of weed and feed
1/2 bag of grass seed (did a quick over seeding)

Found stuff I was looking for, found stuff I really questioned why I had it, and found stuff I forgot I had?!?!?!

I am sure I missed a bunch of items for this list but the job is done!!

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Hey all.... I'm finally making a bit of progress! We are on April school vacation right now and so I helped DS "rake" out his room today! We literally took EVERY ITEM out except his desk and bed and bookcase. We flip flopped the desk and bed and now he is about 1/3 way through sorting EVERY SINGLE ITEM from his room. Unfortunately they all got dumped on my bed.... so he HAS to finish them by 10 pm or I'll be sleeping on the sofa! So far we have taken out two paper grocery bags of paper recycling, one small plastic bag of trash, and a box of stuff to sell or donate.

I am finally hanging up some wall decor that I've been promising for YEARS and REHANGING something that we took down when we rearranged his room to accomodate his new larger desk a year or more ago!

He has a captain's bed with the drawers underneath, but it was a cheapo unit and the drawers haven't worked properly for years. I tried to replace the drawer slides a few years ago, but couldn't find anything that would fit. I am going to buy some large decorative baskets and try using those instead of the drawer unit. But of course, for now, I need to find storage spot for the drawer unit until we decide for sure if we are keeping or ditching it. If I do keep it and put it back under his bed, I will be pulling out the drawer slides all together and putting in some plywood bases and replacing the drawers with baskets. But the unit only fills half of the space under the bed so when we use it, there is literally a HUGE wasted dead space behind it (his bed is against the wall.... his room is really small).

Okay... I've got to go pester him to get sorting through this mess!..............P

How about building wooden boxes and putting casters on them? If there isn't an edge down on the bottom of the bed, the drawers will pull right out.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Yesterday I sorted 3 bags of papers from my MILs stuff. Mostly estate papers from her and her parents. I had a nice pile of shred of some of her last bills and a small pile for recycling. The rest went into a bin that can hold hanging file folders. My mom is going to come over this weekend and help me go through it again, I'm sure there is more I can purge.
DH and I also went through the rafters in the loft. Put up the box from the new welder, took down a box that we don't need, took metal shelf framing down so we can put that up in the building and we added 4 window metal window vents to the rummage sale pile and a small kids chair.

The boys also went through a bin that was in storage of old toys. They purged about 90% of it, so I picked through it and put some in recycling, some in the rummage sale pile and the rest went in the trash. Added another empty bin to the pile!

DD went through her stuff and binned up some older toys she wants to hang on to, got rid of about 20 dolls and my little ponies to rummage sale and had room for all of her American Doll clothes to go in her cabinet. And she added 3 books to the book sale pile.

I think I'm going to need to have someone come get stuff for rummage sale sooner rather than later. I'm running out of room to store stuff.

 

[comicguy]

A quick run through of the cellar stairway shelves (nothing in cellar as it is a dirt floor basement so was never good for storing anything anyway)

Trashed:
4 disgusting old mousetraps
1 container of dried up wood filer
3 empty cans of waterproofing spray (why did we put away empty cans??)
2 partial containers of dried up plasti-dip
1 spray can of glue

Yard Sale:
1 Laser Level

 

[comicguy]

Just got rid of 3 50 gallon bags of bubble wrap, air cushions, and other packing material via Craigslist.

Just a bit out of the house today!!

 

[comicguy]

Cleaned up under the sink and got rid of:

Trashed:
4 nasty sponges
2 carpet samples
1 storage basket
1 metal water refillable container

Recycled:
1 scuzzy glass jar
1 Box

Organized everything else neatly into the 2 storage containers

Other accomplishments this morning:

Returned:
4 3in binders of teacher paperwork back to school that I brought home to work on last summer and never did

1 box 24x24x24 of assorted older Lego sets that were donated last fall, finally brought over to the Robotics Center for display

While cleaning DS brought down a few things to put in the year sale pile:
3 books
8 misc small assorted items

 

[PollyannaMom]

I was in an organizing mood today. I did:

two bins of travel supplies from the linen closet - I mostly just sorted it all by category, but I did bag up a few unopened toiletry samples for the food pantry, and tossed a few expired items.

the shoe-bag-like thing in the hall closet that holds string backpacks, tote bags, etc. - I only tossed three (one hole, one broken zipper, and one torn out grommet) but the others are now sorted by size/type and actually useful!

stuff we took out of DH's old car when he got his new one - I tossed some things, dumped some things into the laundry, returned a few items to where they actually belong, and have a much smaller pile left to put back.

 

[comicguy]

Clean up some more and got rid of the following:

Yard sale pile (kitchen cupboard #1):
1 coffee mug
2 plastic cups
4 glasses

Relocated:
1 computer power cord - to our Robotics Center
1 Mouse - to our Robotics Center

Trashed:
1 Sipper Cup

Since cleaning up the shed the other day, I was able to find and use up:
2 medium sized outlet covers to finish the tile back splash in the kitchen (need to actually buy a switch plate to finish the job)

I also was able to use up the 2 bottles of Bar B Q sauce from the pantry plus the rest of my crushed red pepper to make this evenings dinner Pulled Pork (was able to freeze 4 meals worth afterwards!!)

Again not a lot but every little bit helps!!

 

[comicguy]

Went through Kitchen Cupboards #2-5 and a quick run through of the spare bedroom

Yard Sale:
1 Round Tin
1 Wicker Basket
2 Champagne Glasses
9 DVD's
1 Battery Operated Glider w/ Remote (New still in box)
5 Board/Trivia Games

Donate:
1 Pair of Eye Glasses

Trashed:
1 Dishcloth

Recycled:
4 Empty Prescription Bottles
1 Broken piece of Tupperware
1 Handful of prescription related papers
6 cardboard boxes

Drop Off:
5 Expired Prescriptions - Police Station
6 Tri-fold Poster Boards - Robotics Center for Team Displays at competition
5 Science Experiment Books - Robotics Center Summer Camp

 

[comicguy]

Just a few items today

Trashed:
Scuzzy Plunger - Replaced
Scuzzy Toilet Bowl Brush - Replaced


Used Up:
Tile Cleaner that just did not work well

Recycled:
2 Cardboard boxes
1 Grocery Bag of useless paper

Relocated:
1 Computer Mouse - Robotics Center
1 Bag of Dual lock - Robotics Center

The reason so much stuff is going to Robotics Center is it had been stored at my house during the off season (and the last 4 seasons) because we did not have a permanent home but our host Agency was finally able to provide that this past season and it is amazing how much stuff is still here after moving in and setting up the Robotics Center last fall.