Destash 2021 Don't Fear to Clear

[pblack]

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.

Would you mind telling me how porch pick up works? I've been interested in posting items for sale on FB, but I dont know how porch pick up works and how you ensure you get paid.

 

[ski_mom]

Would you mind telling me how porch pick up works? I've been interested in posting items for sale on FB, but I dont know how porch pick up works and how you ensure you get paid.

I usually just PM the person my address and ask them to tell me when they'll be coming by so I can have it out. I work from 7-4, but usually come home for lunch, so I either set it out before I leave or when I'm home for lunch depending on when they want to pick up.

I then tell them to just leave the money under the rug on the porch. That being said, most of my items are small. I think I've done up to them owing me $20 this way. I've never had a problem and have always been paid, but if it were much more than $20, I'd probably arrange to meet them somewhere because there's always the chance they will not leave the money. I've also had a few people venmo the money to me, but that's a bit of a risk on their end I guess, since I could then never leave the item out.

Also, wanted to say, that I live in a small-ish town and my house is in a subdivision, so depending on circumstances, I could see why some people wouldn't be comfortable giving their address or buyers wouldn't be comfortable going to someone's house, but for now, it's worked for me pretty well.

 

[pblack]

I usually just PM the person my address and ask them to tell me when they'll be coming by so I can have it out. I work from 7-4, but usually come home for lunch, so I either set it out before I leave or when I'm home for lunch depending on when they want to pick up.

I then tell them to just leave the money under the rug on the porch. That being said, most of my items are small. I think I've done up to them owing me $20 this way. I've never had a problem and have always been paid, but if it were much more than $20, I'd probably arrange to meet them somewhere because there's always the chance they will not leave the money. I've also had a few people venmo the money to me, but that's a bit of a risk on their end I guess, since I could then never leave the item out.

Also, wanted to say, that I live in a small-ish town and my house is in a subdivision, so depending on circumstances, I could see why some people wouldn't be comfortable giving their address or buyers wouldn't be comfortable going to someone's house, but for now, it's worked for me pretty well.

Thanks for the info! I appreciate it.

 

[DharmaLou]

We made a dent. We just took a ton of cardboard boxes to a cardboard recycle. Trying to remind myself (and my cats) that not every box is the best box ever lol

 

[StephMK]

Thats great how it adds up ski mom!

I put together our wire shelves and organized the garage stuff. Now I can recycle more boxes and the garage is cleaner. DS moved more boxes of books to the attic for me.

I need the kids to look through a few boxes and tell me if they still want that stuff. We can get one car back in there and the second side is close. I need to go through the last batch of boxes that don't have a place yet.

DH has plans to finally hang a dartboard and wants to put his old stereo out there.

Happy I haven't found too much to donate. I cleaned out so much before we moved that it's pretty much pared down to mostly keepers.

 

[crazylady]

I'm back for 2021. Last year I exceeded my.goals by a pretty good amount and I wasn't great about counting. This year I plan to up my count to 1000 and be better about actually counting things.

For 2021:

• I follow a cleaning/organizing guru who gives short(less than 15.min) projects per day and I plan to continue/redo/finish those projects again this year.
• We're planning a new garage floor in the spring which should mean a major garage clean out and purge. It's got to be hard to put it all back when it's all new and pretty, right?
• I'd like to clean out the attic before our annual "big trash pick up day"
• I also want to continue try to be better about not buying things unless we're really.going to use them and following a one in, one out policy.

As a side note, I purged and organized my parent's storage room when putting away the Christmas stuff this year. I didn't think they had too much extra junk but ended up taking a whole car load of stuff for donation. It was so satisfying and it looks great.

 

[ski_mom]

I've followed these threads for a few years, but rarely post. I'm going to try to post more this year for accountability. DH and I are building a house this year, so I have to ramp up my purging so I don't have to move it all! I also follow a cleaning/organizing guru with the 15 minute projects like @crazylady, but usually just delete from my inbox. This year I'm going to try to do them, or if the task doesn't apply to me, do something else. I need to make my own list of things to accomplish each day and work on that when her items don't apply.

 

[crazylady]

I've followed these threads for a few years, but rarely post. I'm going to try to post more this year for accountability. DH and I are building a house this year, so I have to ramp up my purging so I don't have to move it all! I also follow a cleaning/organizing guru with the 15 minute projects like @crazylady, but usually just delete from my inbox. This year I'm going to try to do them, or if the task doesn't apply to me, do something else. I need to make my own list of things to accomplish each day and work on that when her items don't apply.

My lady's emails were just too much clutter so I unsubscribed l, but I did print out her calenders and follow the FB page.

 

[focusondisney]

Only a couple of things this week. Opened a trash bag from the basement storage area. Had 4 shirts & 2 pairs of leg warmers (that bag was down there a long time lol!). All trashed. Also got rid of a duffel bag that was down there, a metal dvd rack along with an old vhs tape & an exercise dvd I never used.

 

[crazylady]

I just took in my first load of donations, and I was able to get rid of 131 items for the month of January. I think my goal of 1000 items for the year might be high but I'm going to try. I'm finished purging about 70% of the kitchen, all of one kids clothes, a little bit of my closet and some other random stuff.

• 10 purses
• 46 clothing etc
• 2 cans spray paint
• 3 bags recycled packing supplies
• 3 old rx
• 1 box of craft stuff from the car
• 1 stack of lids with no bottoms
• 2 chipped bowls
• 10 food items trashed or donated
• 50 mugs, cups, bowls, utensils
• 3 kid car games

 

[TarraLee]

My goal is 500, and I’m at 198 plus about 15 pounds of office paper Shredded or recycled. Dropped 5 boxes off to goodwill yesterday.

 

[Skywalker3]

I am new to this thread, but want to make a real commitment to decluttering this year. We actually have a storage unit, and have paid on it for WAY too long, and it really needs to be tackled. But first must tackle the stuff stored in all the storage areas in the house, because there is stuff in the storage unit that I do want to keep/have at home, but had too much already here taking up space. A lot of things have been hard to get rid of , family mementos I inherited from my parents, who had LOTS of stuff. I probably only kept 5% of what they had in their houses, but it's still a lot....plus DH, kids, and I are both collectors. I keep saying I'm going to try and sell some things like unopened Lego sets in the neighborhood sites, and then I never do. But will quit procrastinating and give it a go. I appreciate the inspiration in this thread! and making my goal to have the storage unit gone by year's end. For now, I'm tacking the bathroom drawers and hall closets. Thanks for the motivation!

 

[yeahdisney]

I follow this thread each year. I like to read everyone’s success. And it helps to motivate me.

DD had her art roommate make a huge mural for junior college year apartment, that didn’t happen, she is online; in another state. Anyway I picked up the mural yesterday and today I rearranged DDs room to hang that picture. And condensed many items to give her room more open space.

DS is back and we will get the basement back into cleanse state today. His online starts tomorrow.

I believe I will look thru clothes in my closet again. And be ruthless!

 

[dpswift]

I filled 4 garbage bags from the basement and put it outside to move to the curb later. Not much but it is out of the house

 

[Eastern]

Trying to remind myself (and my cats) that not every box is the best box ever lol

I find this difficult: so many good boxes. I don't even like to cut the tape to flatten the ones I keep.

 

[StephMK]

I emptied another box out of the garage and DS's car is now inside. DH wants to set up his old stereo in the garage and we have an old side table to put it on. That will free up space in the attic and get rid of a big box.

The other night, I deleted several pictures off my phone and I'm slowly working on unsubscribing from emails.

I decluttered 2.5 lbs off myself. I didn't get rid of my smaller clothes but hoping to get them out of storage in a few months.

 

[focusondisney]

Continuing my do at least something every week policy. Grabbed more out of the basement storage area. Opened & tossed the contents of 2 more bags. Those were my son’s old clothes from high school or college... he’s gonna be 40 in March. Guess it was time for those to go.


I looked through 2 other boxes that I am ready to trash. One has some decor items & a few ceramic pieces the kids made in school. The other is son’s old baby toys. I’m sure I saved those for future grandkids of which I have none. And even if I did, I wouldn’t let them have those dirty old toys anyway.

I want to check with the kids if they want their old ceramics or want to see any of those old toys before I trash those boxes. I’m glad to be getting rid of some of this stuff but what I have thrown out the last few weeks is low hanging fruit. Not anything I had to debate on keep or discard. And not stuff taking up room in our living areas. I really need to get back to the bedroom closets & our file cabinets. DH is going to semi retire next week so I’m hopeful we can tackle stuff together after that.

 

[dpswift]

I find this difficult: so many good boxes. I don't even like to cut the tape to flatten the ones I keep.

Does anyone remember back when stores actually gave out great boxes? I remember them well from my childhood. My grandma would save them and use them each year. They were solid (did not fold) and had the stores name on them

 

[dpswift]

focus on Disney. I tried to quote your post but it did not come out right. Don’t feel bad that the items you were getting rid of were things that were stuffed away in the basement. It is still taking up place in your house. It is still an accomplishment. Also by getting rid of the easy stuff it puts you in a mindset to get rid of the more difficult things. The kids ceramic pieces are hard but it will be easier when they tell you that they can go. I had a friend who took a picture of all that stuff before she threw it away.

 

[dpswift]

I got rid of 2 bags of old clutter today. A few odds and ends, a cheap blender that was missing a top and an old pair of my son’s boots. I came across many more items that will go in a garage sale as soon as the weather is nice enough