Destash 2019 Time to Trash the Stash!

I took a full load to Goodwill last week. Most of it was clothes - I'm to the point where it doesn't make sense to consign my kids' clothes anymore, and with my sister 10 hours away, it only makes sense to send her the absolute best things. The rest gets donated. I also sent a soft-sided rolling cooler, a basket, and some other random items that we no longer use/need. Every little bit helps!
 
Sooooo I had the kids' old toys strewn all over the living room and was in the painstaking and tedious process of sorting and photographing to put up for sale on eBay... along with probably 75 picture frames (no joke... some were brand new)... and I got into a huge argument with my husband and I had a temper tantrum and threw all the toys back in their bins and loaded up the whole minivan and took it all to Salvation Army.

I cried and cried about the whole situation (the Salvation Army employee asked if I needed a hug, for which I was so grateful), but hopefully everything will sell well (LOTS of Legos and Playmobil) so the money will go to someone who needs it far more than I do.
 


Spent some time organizing the downstairs bathroom and the shed this week and a couple of assorted boxes as well. With all of the construction renovations going on (the entire upstairs 3 bedrooms and a bathroom plus we also did all new water lines and drains throughout the entire house) we had to move almost everything from the upstairs to the downstairs and clean out under the downstairs bathroom sink, and kitchen sink. Now the end is almost insight my guys are doing the taping so things are starting to come together! Hopefully When I get back from NOLA I can start priming and painting the upstairs so things can start to be put back together!!

1 pair of shoe inserts - trashed
1 pair of sneakers - trashed
2 bottles of expired eye wash - dumped/recycled
2 3ft pieces of telephone cord - recycled
1 old toothbrush - trashed
1 broken bottle strap - trashed
1 broken 2 prong to 3 prong electrical adapter - trashed
25 misc items from under the bathroom sink - trashed/recycled
12 cardboard boxes - recycled
1 scroll saw blade- recycled
1 grocery bag of misc papers - recycled
9 Robotics items - sold on ebay
5 misc robotics items - thrown in ebay box as freebies
1 cardboard box - used up for shipping
3 Disney Pins - gave to DIL to trade for next WDW trip (Received these from a colleague as she was cleaning out her work desk)
5lbs of roofing nails - given away
6 cable and telephone cords - given away
2 containers of wire nuts - given away
1 pack of shims - given to DS for a project at his house
4 quick release drill bits - given to DS for a project at his house
2 shelf supports - to DS’s house for his workshop
4 shelf brackets - to DS’s house for his workshop
2 metal “L” Brackets - to robotics center
1 box of assorted radiator hose clamps - to robotics center
1 box of assorted lynch pins - to robotics center
1 bag of plastic gears (various sizes) - to robotics center
2 books - donated
1 wall hanging thermometer - to my classroom
1 travel bar of soap used up

1 bathroom window - installed (1 year on hand)

96 items left the house

960 of 500 or 192% of goal
 
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Not much left the house this week as we were out of town most of the week

4 cardboard boxes - recycled
1 utility knife w/ non retractable blade (have enough w/ retractable blades) - recycled

5 items left the house

965 of 500 or 193% of goal
 
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I got rid of another small tube tv and dvd/vhs player and a 4 slice toaster and misc bottle of old spices. 2 miss matched glass goblets, 2 large wooden puzzles, 2 small butterfly nets, dozen or so hot wheels and plastic animals. And boxes that you put together to make a castle.
I gained a 2 slice toaster.
 
a story to share that might encourage your family members to join in w/ the declutter-

got ds to clean out his closet/desk. he came up with a pile of old video games, some related gaming books and peripheral items (like skylander figures, an old wii guitar/drum set). he knows the prices (resale and retail) at gamestop pretty well and said 'toss them-they won't bring anything, they won't even touch the guitar/drums cuz you can get them for $5 each at goodwill). i said hmmmmmmm, let me look into it-tossed them into the back of the car for a run to costco which is near a couple of independent trade a game type places ds goes to for platforms gamestop never covers figuring what they didn't want-goes to goodwill. ds now has an $85 IN STORE CREDIT :thumbsup2 one of the video games that dd paid less than $5 for years ago at gamestop-amazon is paying for shipping and giving her a $6 gift card (she got about $5 cash for one other game at the shop i went to). biggest single money maker-$49.75 for an old textbook that dd tried to sell back to her university several times to no avail, her university wants it now but their site only offers about $16 while amazon is again providing free shipping and a $49.75 gift card.

my 'kids' see dollar signs and that's all the incentive to declutter they need. i haven't seen rooms/closets this clean since we moved into the place:rotfl::rotfl:
 
While working on the house construction projects this week I was able to get rid of a few things and use up some stuff that I had on hand for a while.

1 ripped t-shirt - trashed
1 ripped shorts - trashed
1 ripped pj pants - trashed
1 ripped pair of socks - trashed
1 cardboard box - used up to ship an item
1 broken flashlight - trashed
1 pair of used shoe inserts - trashed
1 partial notepad - used up
1 partial roll of Sheetrock tape - used up
1 grocery bag of assorted papers - recycled
2 sanding sponges - used up
1 broken caulking gun - recycled
1 roll of insulation (1 year on hand) - used up
1 roll of plastic sheeting (1 year on hand) - used up
1 paint roller - used up
4 paint brushes - used up
1 roll of contractor plastic bags (1 year on hand) - used up
8 pieces of scrap wood (from my shed) - trashed

28 items left the house

993 of 500 or 198.6% of goal
 
I haven't technically gotten rid of anything today, but I FINALLY set up online/paperless account access for four different mutual fund accounts which should prevent a LOT of paper from coming in the house. Also, I went paperless on a lot of recurring monthly bills a couple months ago in an effort to cut down on paper so that's a help. Papers are a huge challenge for me.
 
I haven't technically gotten rid of anything today, but I FINALLY set up online/paperless account access for four different mutual fund accounts which should prevent a LOT of paper from coming in the house. Also, I went paperless on a lot of recurring monthly bills a couple months ago in an effort to cut down on paper so that's a help. Papers are a huge challenge for me.

i just purged a bunch of old paperwork. i still have a ton but it's stuff i can't get rid of so it's in boxes marked for my use but with an indicator to whoever deals w/stuff upon my death that it can get shredded.

one thing i will suggest that anyone keep a hold of if they go paperless on stuff like mutual funds-one single copy of a statement to store away with any will/estate documents. i dealt w/2 family member's estates and the most difficult thing to track down absent physical paperwork was retirement savings and life insurance. even the ones who had gone paperless i could track where the had their everyday checking and savings by looking at routine bills that came in (they would say how the prior payment had been made) but esp. w/not having someone's computer password less alone their email's (if they even kept a folder of the statements) made it a nightmare. i know people who are a decade out from 'settling' an estate but still searching out and discovering old accounts.
 
I haven't technically gotten rid of anything today, but I FINALLY set up online/paperless account access for four different mutual fund accounts which should prevent a LOT of paper from coming in the house. Also, I went paperless on a lot of recurring monthly bills a couple months ago in an effort to cut down on paper so that's a help. Papers are a huge challenge for me.
Aaaaand so what did they do? Send me paper copies of my "account status change." Ah well; hope it'll be the last of it!

I finally was forced to defrost the freezer and in the process, got rid of a lot of stuff that I probably shouldn't have been keeping in the first place, so that's something.

And- I have come to the realization that I am likely NEVER going to actually get any t shirt quilts made out of my own old shirts (I have a lot of "sentimental value" t shirts) so I am thinking that instead, I will take a good photo of the front/backs of them all and then give all the shirts to Salvation Army. Some of them were so "nice," I never even wore them!
 
3 grocery bags of clothes for a friend who needed new to her clothing (fat shaming is not cool)
1 blush sold to a coworker
 
Finishing up a few projects around the house and was able to use up / get rid of a few things :cool1:

3 outlet covers (1 year on hand) - used up
1 switch cover (1 year on hand) - used up
2 disposable rain capes - used up
2 travel washing detergent - used up
1 broken flyswatter - trashed
1 broken straight paint edger - trashed
2 new light fixtures (1 year on hand) - installed
1 thermostat (1 year on hand) - installed

13 items left the house

1006 of 500 or 201.2% of goal
 
I've been slowly decluttering since I downsized nearly three years ago, but, my craft room always seemed to be the one room I avoided, until yesterday.
Tried to be brutal, but, it's harder than I thought, still the local charity shop took a pretty large donation, with more to come. I was thinking of donating all the storage, but, I'm going to sell it instead. I didn't realise how much Disney related craft items I had, so going to be scrapbooking like a crazy person for a while.
I also made cards to donate to local charities to sell. I have two charity shops I trust and are for two causes I support, an animal sanctuary and Cancer care.
Despite all that I could still declutter even more. I'm planning not to add to it by bringing back loads of stuff from my trip, but, can I avoid the Target and Joanns, not to mention the Dollar Tree and Walmart. Fingers crossed.
 
I made this commitment for 2019 too.
We retired at the end of May and we’ve made more than 20 small to medium Goodwill runs with more to go. We are both packrats by nature but we’re making improvements. When the weather cools off ( we live near Atlanta) I am going to go into the attic every Thursday morning and throw out as much as I can ( trash day is Friday) and fill the mini van for Goodwill. We’ve lived in this house 25 years and there are things we put up there on moving day as well as over 25 years and four daughters. The down stairs is MUCH better (all bedrooms are on the 2nd floor they are my 2020 project).
 
So we came back from vacation over a week ago and I haven’t made a lot of progress on anything. I was hoping to make some headway but today the dryer took a crap and we focused on either replacing it or fixing. Since it is from the 70’s we decided to just replace washer/dryer. Maybe next week after the holiday I can make headway.
 
1 broom - trashed
1 ripped check register - trashed
1 pen - trashed
1 cardboard box - recycled
1 book - recycled
14 books - donated

19 items left the house

1025 of 500 or 205% of goal
 

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