Destash 2021 Don't Fear to Clear

[comicguy]

October was a big project finish month (still have to tile the upstairs bathroom shower). Had to move almost everything out of the upstair for new floors, heaters, and trimwork. Now that is all done, maybe November will be a big declutter month as we both agree there is no way we want all of that stuff back in the upstairs rooms

1 pair of socks - trashed
1 pair of sneakers - trashed
1 button up shirt - trashed
1 t-shirt - trashed

1 button up shirt - donated
1 vest - donated

3 button up shirts - went DS house (belonged to DS)
1 Tie - went to DS house (belonged to DS)

1 bag of misc papers - shredded and recycled
6 cardboard boxes - recycled
1 electric word processor - recycled
10 calendars - recycled

5 book lot - sold ebay
2 lego ball and casters - sold ebay
2 lego ball and casters - sold ebay
5 DVD lot - sold ebay
4 cardboard boxes - used up to ship ebay items


32 piece of door/window trim - installed
18 pieces of baseboard trim - installed
15 boxes of flooring - installed
3 electric heaters - installed
3 thermostats - installed

November total 119 items

1646 items of 500 goal or 329.2% of goal

 

[twinklebug]

Destashing here involves 3 houses: Mine, which I may not get to and the two my mom and dad (rip) own. Mom is ill, headed to an assisted living facility. The pressure is on to clear out her houses and dad was a magazine/book/paperwork hoarder. It was all stored nicely, but it's hell to dig through.

My totals are best measured by the ton. I'm near that 1 ton mark I'm sure. The recycling company has put me on notice. (Okay, not really, but I fear they will.)

Unfortunate side effect of cleaning out relatives' homes is that we inevitably bring home some of the items. Old 16mm projector, a wooden trunk of home movies and pics dating back over 100 years, tea sets... everything that has meaning.

 

[Pooh2]

Attempted to clean a closet last weekend. Brought a guitar up the the music store to sell it. But.... traded it for an Irish Tenor Banjo... So that closet is not much more spacious.. Guess I need to reread this thread!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

This month I haven’t done much
3 books to a friend
2 bags of papers

 

[focusondisney]

Finally did a few things again. Bag of clothes including several shirts from DH & myself, a ceramic nativity set & an outdoor Santa blow up went to Goodwill. Plus a dozen pair of socks, a couple of cloth masks & a few holiday decorations trashed.

Still spending much of my time caring for family member whose health continues to decline. But I will be retiring at the end of March, so hopefully I’ll get a lot more done in 2022.

 

[Skywalker3]

Been a long time since working on clutter, but we're finally getting to it! I got rid of about 15 books from our library/sitting room shelves. Barely made a dent, but there are less books sideways now....
about 9 bags of other assorted things: kids' clothes, shoes, glassware,kitchen things, all to Goodwill.
I have prepared a bag of boy's clothes, and books, for the neighbor, if they would like that. and will have more, if they'd like.
Cleaned out my daughter's room, most just trash, very few donations, but thew out 2 large garbage bags of trash, junk, bags, etc. not finished yet!
finally cleaned out my parents' old dresser. had a lot of memories, old coins, jewelry, my dad's pocket knives, etc. all of that we kept, but did get rid of other items, that weren't really keepsakes. was very nice to finally clean that out. It's hard to go through stuff like that if not in the right 'zone. '
have about 5 more weeks of furlough/off work, and hope to get lots more done. Resolving to clean out storage unit before the new year! Husband is finally on board/in the zone too.

 

[comicguy]

November: another good month at getting rid of things! Slow and steady will win the race

7 stained youth T-shirts trashed
2 lumpy old pillows - trashed
1 polo - trashed
1 bag of misc garbage from organizing - trashed
1 dead pen - trashed
1 dead marker - trashed

1 bag of misc items from organizing - recycled

25 Youth T-Shirts (sent DS’s house)
1 suit (belongs to DS) (sent to DS’s house)
1 10 tray organizing cart (sent to DS’s house)

1 men’s suit jacket - donated
2 women’s suit jacket - donated
5 sweaters - donated
15 women’s shirts - donated
2 rolls of yarn - donated
5 large stuffed animals - donated
12 small stuffed animals - donted

1 still packaged picture frame - used up for as part of a gift

1 parts bin organizing stand - sold

November total: 83 items

1729 items of 500 goal or 345.8% of goal

 

[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.

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.

Looks like I’m not great at updating this year. Did kids‘ closets today, and got rid another two boxes of clothing items, plus two bags of old papers, 5 pairs of worn out or outgrown shoes, and 7 hats. There were at least 50 clothing items per box, so I’m going to count myself for 114, total 312 that I’ve counted for the year. Forgot to count summer. I have gotten better at using up what I have for projects and decorating, and not buying new holiday decorations is still holding strong.

 

[comicguy]

December was a slow month for decluttering

7 cardboard box - recycled
1 grocery bag of papers - recycled
2 grocery bag of papers shredded and recycled

1 partial notepad - used up

3 t-shirts - trashed
1 expired pantry item - trashed/recycled
1 broken picture frame - trashed

December total 16 items

1745 items of 500 goal or 349% of goal

 

[crazylady]

I just took the last load of stuff to the car for 2021. I had 0 items for Oct and 100 items for Nov/Dec for a total of 827/1000. I'm happy with that. More importantly, I stuck to my goal of not buying things that we didnt really need. I call that a win.

 

[kathy884]

My 26 year old son just moved out of our home January 5th and into an apartment with his boyfriend. They are just 20 minutes away. DS has been a joy to have around, but I am super happy to have him in a great relationship and them getting their own place. The apartment is only 973 square feet (although really well laid out with two walk in closest, storage locker on balcony, etc. nice built in linen closet and pantry, laundry closet). At home he had his bedroom, another bedroom as a photography conversion room, and 600 square foot mancave space in our finished basement just for his use on top of access to other areas in our house.

My husband and I are minimalists, but my son has tons of hobbies, has photography conversion equipment (has converted movies and photos that have been in our family dating back to 1921 thru current times -- 120 movies (at least four different formats) and 3000+ photos are all digital now, loves antiques and has some smaller items from grandparents that don't fit in his apartment (a few things went over), has tons of holiday decorations (goes all out for every one, etc. ). DS is in no way a minimalist. He has all the old family cameras, etc. -- loves this stuff. 75% of the items in our attic (very nice attic room off of our master bedroom) are his decorations and old cases of movies, camera equipment, photos, all converted (even though they are all digital now he doesn't want to get rid of these since we have the room). Since we have the room we will be his additional storage, as I want him to have a darling little apartment without a lot of clutter.

But my goal and I started on that last weekend is to have his stuff that we would never access or use out of closets, drawers, bookshelves, etc. that we use (have all of these super neat and tidy). I am putting a lot of DS's stuff that he did not take into extremely well labeled storage containers for possible easy disposal or easy access. I bought some storage containers last weekend and started this (got a great start) and am buying four more this weekend. I also got rid of things I know he wouldn't miss (some throw out items, some Goodwill donations - eight bags last weekend to Goodwill (some were stuff of ours as when we are going thru his stuff we are going thru ours too - -we keep our stuff pretty pared down though). We have a Goodwill place that I just discovered less than two miles from our home with drive thru hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Part of that 600 square foot finished basement space in our house will have storage containers, etc. along one wall wall and various antique items along the wall. The area where this is, is sort of separate (A large Victrola and large stand with a huge model DS made in a case kind of separates this area from the sectional / gathering area so the living area still looks really nice. Also, it's an area that DH and I will never use.

So I and I really don't mind, am stuck with a lot of stuff, but it is going to be organized and not in the main areas of our home. I absolutely loved having DS living with us (He's such a joy), but OMG boy does our home seem neat and tidy now.

 

[DisneyHardin]

But my goal and I started on that last weekend is to have his stuff that we would never access or use out of closets, drawers, bookshelves,

In Spring of 2020 when schools shut down, our district just closed for 3 weeks (2 weeks plus spring break) to get ourselves organized for Virtual Learning. I used that 3 weeks go through every drawer, nook, cranny and cabinet in our house. I cleaned out so much stuff (and found things I didn't even know we had) - it was an amazing feeling. I boxed it all up with plans to have a yard sale that summer, but didn't feel safe in summer of 2020 having one, so I just kept cleaning and finally had a HUGE blowout yard sale last summer. Our house felt so much lighter and we had a good chunk of change for our vacation budget.