We had a wall crack & leak in our partially finished basement early this summer. That meant we had to pull up old carpeting & take off paneling. We also had to trash some bookcases that got ruined. The repairs affected my pantry area too. So 4 old metal shelving units got trashed. We did need to replace the shelves & bookcases, so not a complete destash. We threw out 2 old recliners but will be getting only 1 new one.
But so far in the process, my DH has donated a few books. I weeded out a lot of stuff & reorganized the new pantry shelves. I threw out a couple of bottles of expired dietary supplements & allergy pills (expired 2010!); toiletries like 2 bottles of conditioner that were at least 7 years old; blades for a razor I don’t even remember having; 2 unopened mascaras I wanted to try several years ago; samples of body wash, shampoos & conditioners; plus novelty soap dispensers & wall flower scent plug ins I got as gifts over the years. When I emptied the old shelves, I also had several cans of expired soups, frostings & boxes of cake mix that got trashed.
I cleaned out 3 kitchen cupboards yesterday. I threw out 2 opened bags of months old nuts; an unopened jar of expired honey; a partial bottle of balsamic vinegar that smelled fermented; stale cookies; a partial bag of hardened confectioners sugar; old chocolate ice cream sprinkles & all the grungy shelf liners.
We purchased a small chest freezer to stock up so I won’t have to shop as often over the winter. When that got delivered, I went thru my kitchen freezer. Trashed several foil packages of meats, burgers & hot dogs that were freezer burned. For my birthday, I got a food saver to shrink wrap meats before freezing. My DH is retiring in a few months & I don’t want to be wasting money throwing out food.
The rest of the house hasn’t gotten as much done lately. But I did trash a couple of old towels, grungy t shirts my DH used for yard work & several pairs of my old flip flops.
I don’t count the items I get rid of, so no total to share. And I guess the last few months have been as much a reorganizing as a destash. But it does feel good to see things improving, a little at a time.
but the title of this thread has me chuckling. There is another DISer whose user name is Clutter. She is here in Maine for the summer so tomorrow she and I are going out to Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park for the day. We don't have any real plans, we are just going to bum around and see the park, do some things... so tomorrow, I really AM going to "Putter with Clutter!"
and had them piled on my closet floor until we could make a trip to my storage unit. (Being in an apartment sucks.) My boyfriend took them over there the other day and underneath was a plastic bag full of clothes to donate. Now that I can walk into my closet again I will be finishing organizing and hopefully filling the bag with further pieces to donate. Then I'll come back here with a count.
. I've trashed, recycled and given away so much stuff already this year but I rarely think to track it. I feel like my husband is counteracting my efforts though!
