Destash 2021 Don't Fear to Clear

[comicguy]

With 2021 just a few hours away I thought I would go ahead and post the next destash thread!

I am looking at getting rid of a minimum of 500 items again this year (last year I almost was double that)!

Looking forward to seeing what everyone will accomplish! Please go ahead and post your goals and come back often to update them so we can all keep each other motivated.


0 of 500 - 0 %of goal

 

[delmar411]

I have been decluttering for years, started off following the 40 bags in 40days program, and just kind of kept at it, little by little. Last year I started back on 40 in 40 and got rid of over 120 bags of stuff. We also had a massive yard sale right before everything locked down in March.
I have kept a yard sale pile in a corner of the garage all year long and we did try to do another yard sale back in Nov but the weather was not in our favor so scrapped that after 1 day.

I tried to finish out the year by getting rid of random things, like 99% empty body spray bottles, etc. Just little mish-mash of stuff as I came across it.

We are in quarantine due to having COVID so not much of anything is happening now as we are pretty sick still without any energy to move.
But I can sit and plan out my goals for 2021.

De-stash Goals for 2021

Oldest son's bedroom closet - it seems to be a huge catchall of stuff. I want to clear out all the clothes he doesn't wear. Sort out the old random toys in there and get rid of whatever isn't something he wants to keep for later on. Also I want to box up all the legos. There are 8 underbed drawers in there full of legos that my grandson keeps getting into and making huge messes with. My grandson isn't old enough to put together legos yet so I want to put them up for a few years. All the instructions are in huge binders in his closet too so those will need to be boxed up as well. The closet should be mostly empty when I'm done.
End goal date: 3/2021

Younger son/Grandson's bedroom - My younger son moved into my grandson's room 'with' him in the fall. My grandson hasn't slept in there all year anyway so it was mostly a toy room. It was a quick move in so I never got to deal with the toys. So this room needs a major toy overhaul. At least half the toys need to go. The rest need to be stored in accessible bins in the closet, where DGS's dresser is. I also need to make space for another bed in there as DGS has to get back to sleeping in there. He may do better in my older son's room though so we will see.
End goal date: 1/2021

Kitchenware - I need to replace my sheet trays and downsize even more random kitchen items. We have a tiny kitchen so every single space has to serve a purpose. I did really well with this last year but I'm finding things that I just haven't and won't use, so time for them to go.
End goal date: ??

Garage - so much to do in here....sort and downsize xmas decorations to what we use. Sort out other holiday items/decorations. Downsize out kids books and mail off box to granddaughter. Downsize board games. I love games but we really have way too many. I got rid of a ton last year but there are too many still. Sort out craft bins and get rid of things I will never use. Store items that we are keeping properly. Fix 1 set of shelves as it collapsed this fall and I never finished fixing it. Defrost freezer, this is a priority as the frost is getting to be too much. Hubby needs to deal with all the fishing stuff, he cannot need all of it. Call garbage company and get cans replaced as the lids are broken on both. Probably more in here but that's what I can think of for now.
End goal date: ??

This is a good start for now for destashing. I have other project goals for the year but they are in other areas.

 

[StephMK]

I'm in! We moved last year and the yearly threads really helped me get ready. Somehow, the end of the move was still a huge, stressful process and I threw out or donated tons of stuff.

We downsized, which feels great, but there are still things we could let go. This may be our last house so trying to keep in mind that things I store or don't deal with now, will just be more work down the road.

My parents have been in the same house for 41 years with the piles of stuff to show for it so it is in my mind.

My main project areas are the following

garage- we still have moving boxes in there and its becoming a catch-all again.

upstairs-same issue plus DS18 is living up there

my closet-need to finish organizing and setting aside things that don't fit at the moment

Smaller projects- extra kitchen stuff that was just stuck in upper cabinets, junk drawer

 

[DisneyHardin]

When things shut down back in March, I really hit cleaning out the house pretty hard. I boxed up quite a bit of stuff for a summer yard sale that we ended up never having. I really thought I had gone through everything, but I am still finding nooks/crannies that I didn't clean out. We filled up another whole box of yard sale stuff just when we were putting up the Christmas decorations. Surely by this summer it will be safe to have a yard sale. Before then, I need to:

Make DH clean out his closet and get rid of some of the clothes he hasn't worn the entire 12 years we have been married.
Clean out the board games/wrapping paper/other assorted junk closet under the basement stairs.
Go through Christmas decorations one more time as we are packing them up next week.
The biggest thing is be very conscious of what I buy so that I'm not bringing a bunch of unnecessary things into the house.

 

[TarraLee]

I’m in for 500 items again this year. Last year, I hit 500 mid Summer and quit counting after that.

I feel like I’m always decluttering. Finally getting better about not bringing stuff in— holiday decorations I added little to none this year, and got rid of some that I hadn’t used in a few years. Only added specific clothes (hiking shoes and water sandals for outdoors type things), everything else was one in and one out for me and the kids.

My goal for 2021 is get rid of 500 more things, and bring in less than goes out by using up what we have and not buying new things.

 

[dpswift]

I am in again. We maybe moving in a year so I really need to get going. We got rid of a good amount of stuff last year but need to do a lot more. I got a Ninja cooker for Christmas so I am hoping to get rid of a few old appliances.

 

[focusondisney]

I‘m happy with the start I made last year & am motivated to continue into 2021. First I plan to work on the basement storage area. Today was trash pick up, so I got started right away. There are a couple of trash bags that have probably been down there for about 15 years; no idea what’s in them. First bag had my some of my son’s clothes from high school. So, 3 pairs of pants, 3 sweatshirts & 2 sweaters trashed. Also, 4 boxes from Christmas deliveries went into recycling. I spent absolutely no time on it, but wanted to get something out. I was really inconsistent last year. I’d like to try & get something out every week, even if it’s just a few things.

 

[dpswift]

My husband and I went to Disney last week so I have spent the last couple of days in quarantine. I pulled out several small kitchen appliances to sell. Only sold one so far but did not try hard yet. Pulled out 3 bags of trash and put a bunch of cups aside for Goodwill. Hopefully get more done today

 

[piccolopat]

I love this thread as it gives me lots of ideas for things to let go. We've been in this house for 27 years and there's lots of stuff that can go, especially in the attic, garage and crawlspace. My goal this year is to at least start to get those areas under control as well as all of the paperwork that I didn't get to finish organizing last year. I also want to start to go through decades of photos (many double prints) and slides that are in photo boxes now, discard what we don't want and organize the the rest. I'm looking into creating a few albums and digitizing the rest. I haven't worked out a plan of action yet, but hope to break this down into monthly goals so I can get this going.

 

[focusondisney]

Garbage day again, so threw out 4 more sweaters & 1 sweatshirt. These have been sitting in a trash bag in the basement storage area for over 15 years, so I did not donate.

Gave away an unopened package of blank DVDs (50 count) plus about 15 loose ones along with about 30 empty DVD cases. A family member is copying my late father‘s family video tapes onto DVDs so she was happy to get them.

Not much, but at least it’s something. And I told DH as he puts Christmas boxes back in the storage area he needs to move some boxes out where I can get to them so I can go thru them.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

ME !!! ME !!!!! MMMEEE!!!!!!

I wanna join again this year!!!

I want a major purge this year and want to make our home more functional to serve us better. We have lived in this house for 3 years now and I have no idea how we overlooked some of the functional aspects when we looked at buying it.

For example: this house is in serious need of some closets. I know that doesn't sound huge, but after 3 years of dealing with no coat closet, no linen closet near the kids bathroom and no linen closet for the master bath, some installations are going up this year. With a family of 5, there is nowhere to put the piles of coats, backpacks, rain boots, etc, so we need a coat closet near the front door. There is no linen closet, so everything is piled up on some shelves we have outside the kids bathroom. It's so silly, there is a 3x6 niche right outside the bathroom where a nice large linen closet should be.

Over last summer DH and I completely removed everything from our closet, all clothes, all shelves, etc. I purchased a large bundle of shelves off FB Marketplace. DH painted our closet and we totally reorganized the shelf set up and it's so much more functional! In the process purged 4 lawn bags of clothes.
We got a new mattress when we moved in, and for some reason the delivery company would not take the old one (even tho we paid the $25 removal fee) so the prior mattress has been leaning up again the wall in the master bedroom sitting area for 3 y e a r s...... I started dragging it out of our room and down the hall, DH jumped up and helped me get it loaded in the truck and we dropped it off at the recycle dump in less than 20 minutes, all that waiting 3 years for 25 mins worth of work, lol lol lol

 

[DisneyHardin]

I finally took down my Christmas decorations this weekend and when I was boxing stuff up, I filled a whole box of things to put in the yard sale. I can't believe we are still finding things for the yard sale - I feel like I have gone through every single nook and cranny of this house since March.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

We moved abroad a few years ago and rented our old place out, furnished. Where we live we don't have access to Amazon or any other online shopping, and we're five hours from the capital city, so we pretty much only have the things we brought down with us. Right before the pandemic started, our tenant's lease ended, so we pulled everything out that we had hastily thrown into storage before we left. It was pretty shocking. Maybe it was just the sharp contrast with our lives here, where we don't have a lot (but still manage to make a mess) but I couldn't help but feel that we were hoarders all those years. I set out to get rid of as much as possible, throwing out 11 large garbage bags of clothes and toiletries that weren't even in decent enough shape to be donated (my husband destroys his clothes like a teenage boy, I swear). I told myself I would really make a dent when we came back in February. Well. That didn't happen.

In a way, I feel like we cheated. We're living a relatively clutter-free existence without having dealt with the clutter. But I do know I can never go back to living that way. Someday, we'll get to go home, and I'll finally get rid of the beat up stroller and carseat that lasted through 2 kids, the baby clothes I kept "just in case" a friend had a baby boy, the broken toys, and that's just the kids' stuff! There's also piles of old mail, obsolete electronics, and a few genuinely useful things that I might be able to donate or sell. If this pandemic has taught me anything, it's this: all the holding onto things for a rainy day? Well, the rainy day happened, and I didn't need any of it.

 

[DharmaLou]

I am in. My depression really holds me back in so many ways when it comes to cleaning/decluttering. The goal for this year is to get a roll off dumpster and just go for it. The house isn't by any means bad, but we just have too much stuff and our basement is a dumping ground for stuff we don't use. I always say I'm going to donate or try to sell, but the energy needed to do that stuff escapes me most of the time.

While not religious, I have always used Lent time to do a bag a day.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

I know that grip all too well. I follow DomesticBlisters on Tic-Toc and omg, she has some really good videos. I'm really leaning into making our space serve us.

 

[dpswift]

I am in. My depression really holds me back in so many ways when it comes to cleaning/decluttering. The goal for this year is to get a roll off dumpster and just go for it. The house isn't by any means bad, but we just have too much stuff and our basement is a dumping ground for stuff we don't use. I always say I'm going to donate or try to sell, but the energy needed to do that stuff escapes me most of the time.

While not religious, I have always used Lent time to do a bag a day.

I understand. There are days when I can really get a lot done and days when I am lucky to get rid of one item. I am at the point where we will likely move in the next couple of years so I need to keep going. Even a small section or shelf can feel overwhelming

 

[dpswift]

I got some done today. Worked on cleaning off the bathroom counter. Threw away a couple boxes that I was holding onto in case something did not work right. Put a few more odds and ends into the get rid of box and filled a garbage bag.q

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

I'm in!

A few years ago before we moved I started with Marie Kondo, moved on to the 40 bags in 40 days challenge, began reading/listening to The Minimalists but haven't been keeping up as well as I would have liked since we moved to our new house almost 3 years ago. My goal this year is at least 1200 items.

0-100 reached by finally getting rid of binders that held paperwork from 2 car accidents a few years ago (was a court case so had to hold on to all hospital, doctor's and occupational therapy visits - there were over 300 of those! very cathartic to get rid of those). Gave away snowgear that was too small, several toys, scooters and games my kids outgrew in our local buy nothing group as well as a complete train set for under the Christmas tree since we somehow wound up with 2 over the years. I also went through 1 bathroom cabinet and got rid of anything expired, gave away any hair products that were barey used.

100-200 found a bag of old schoolwork, workbooks, etc in the basement from when my daughter was in 2nd grade (she is now in 4th). Got rid of all but 1 paper. Went through my closet and got rid of any clothes that just aren't my style anymore. Emptied my 3 nightstand drawers and decluttered what was there.

I have bags of my daughters clothes and Christmas decorations we no longer need sitting in the back of my car. Our local St. Vincent's donation center is currently closed due to a covid outbreak and I need to find another place to give my donations. I'm not counting those items as gone until they are out of my car!

My destashing goals for the rest of January: find a new place to donate if my local St. Vincent's doesn't reopen soon (closed for a Covid outbreak), go through 1 more bathroom cabinet and destash all Christmas decorations we no longer need.

 

[ski_mom]

I love reading along / purging myself! DH and I are moving this fall and I need to get rid of a lot before we do. Last year I had good luck selling on our local facebook group, so I need to get going on that again. I used to always meet people at walgreens or walmart in our town, but started just doing porch pickup due to the pandemic. I love it and will continue only doing that even after the covid issues are over. You don't have to worry about people not showing up, etc. It's just so much easier.

Edited to add, I just added up all my facebook sales - I sold 154 items for $1,023. There was one big item (DS's old xbox), but otherwise it was lots of $5 items.

 

[dpswift]

Well I did not get too much done this week. I had high hopes for today but ended up watching Schitts Creek with my daughter. I did pull 2 pairs of my daughter’s old barely worn shoes out of the donation bag to see if I can wear them for work. My shoes for both my jobs are basically worn out.

My husband did tell me today that we could probably get rid of most of the things in the storage room including an old trunk he bought for a scout activity. This is huge he never wants to get rid of anything