Need Budget Decluttering Ideas!!

[mommytoone]

This is what my main summer goal was. I pretty much accomplished it. I cleared out my bedroom, dd's bedroom, living room, basement and garage. I had a garage sale, NEVER AGAIN, it is soo much work. I also donated about 10 car loads. I swear he people at the Goodwill store knew me by name. I do have some stuff in my house that I am going to try to sell on Ebay or Craigslist, but that is a pain.

I am the person that saved all of DD's baby clothes/stuff, with the hopes of having another child. Well, DH doesn't want another one. I am having a really hard time getting rid of that stuff, so it is in the back of my garage in plastic storage bins. It seems so final.

I agree, start small, it can be so overwhelming. Good luck to us all, and I hope we all live clutter free lives.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

I wish flylady sent fewer emails a day. I subscribed but had to unsubscribe because of the e-clutter! How's that for ironic?

Flylady (and all yahoo groups) can be consolidated into one email. Just subscribe for "Daily Digest" and you will get all the information in one email once per day.

 

[Danemom]

I have to say that I had never heard the sheets tip and think it's GREAT! I always have trouble figuring out which sheets are twin, full, queen. No more confusion on that one! Thanks so much for posting that idea.

Glad it could help someone. I thought it was genius when I learned it. It opened up at least half of my linen closet!

 

[talulabelle]

I wish flylady sent fewer emails a day. I subscribed but had to unsubscribe because of the e-clutter! How's that for ironic?

Boy, I know what ya mean....I love her tips and her philosophy, but the emails! I just want a calandar laid out for me telling what to do for each day of the month. maybe one email here and there reminding you to stay on track. And an easy to navigate website that has "how to" lists like the decluttering one. But there is an awlful lot of dribble. I definately think it is done to brainwash you....or "flywash" you as she says. but I had to make a separate email just to handle it all and what ends up happening is I forget to check that email and then get off track.

Once in a while one of their missions is to delete all of their emails. They say that people with the "perfectionist" attitude will hold on to them fearing that they will need to go back and look something up, but that is holding onto clutter and that you shouldn't look at it like that, you should just hit delete and the same info will come back around eventually. Problem was that it would make me miss my imortant email that were buried in the same days worth.

 

[mousehouselover]

Another easy to manage tip from a friend: "10 things a day for 30 days"... Each day she removes 10 things from her house that she no longer needs. By the end of 30 days that's 300 things that are gone (woot!)... Easy to manage as a busy Mom and a short time period to focus on - for general decluttering.

Oohhhh I like this idea. We're supposed to move in Oct (if we ever get a sales contract and can close on our new house....... long wait for a short sale; 6 wks and counting.......) We have more than enough time to do this and have lots and lots of stuff that we wouldn't have to move.

I used to be a "FLYbaby" too but all the emails were killing me. I'd start to feel guilty that I didn't have time to read them or I hadn't gotten fully dressed or done my mission for the day but I was sitting at the computer. I know my house was lovely and I really enjoyed it a lot more when I was working the program. I may just jump back in and start over.

 

[Forevryoung]

I hate to brag on this thread but as of this time tomorrow, I will be $160 a month richer due to decluttering!

Jan 2008 (yes, 19 months ago) I moved from my spacious 1 bedroom apartment back in with my parents to save money after graduate school. My bedroom at their house has always (for 11 years) been a mess simply because I'm a pack-rat AND I've always felt I never had enough places to put things (8 really small drawers and a closet that is difficult to reach into).

So I took my apt furniture and put it into a storage unit thinking I would be shortly moving into my own place. Clearly the economy tanked, I can't find a job with benefits (paying $$$$ for my healthcare), yadayadayada. I have started clearing my room several times since December 2008 but I never finished. I got 95% of it done as of tonight, 2 laundry bins left to sort through and a few loads of laundry.

I'm selling my furniture from my room and I'm emptying out that storage space tomorrow evening. My fingers are crossed that we can get the couch into the basement or else it's getting squished into my bedroom along with my amazing queen mattress (my current twin size is 22 years old ) I would sell the couch but it's a sleeper sofa that I love and I got it for 1/2 price (damaged in transit).

I'm stressing because we leave for vacation on Saturday morning and I still need to clean out the car (driving) and pack!

 

[MrsPete]

PODS are expensive (looking at close to $200 if we only have it a month - and I feel like I should allow us two months to accomplish this large of a task).

I vote against the POD. I think it's just a way to extend the misery of decluttering. I also agree with those who say you'll do better just to donate your unneeded things rather than trying to sell them. Perhaps you could put aside JUST the things that're likely to go on ebay and donate the rest (you don't lose out financially -- you get a tax write-off, which is just as much as you'll make at a yard sale).

I love those shows, they make me look semi-organized! LOL One thing that I heard that really made sense to me was, if you like something but don't know why you are keeping it, just take a picture of it and get rid of it. The picture takes up a lot less space! I have a broken grandfather clock I need to do that with!

This isn't exactly the same, but it's something that's worked for me: At one point I found that almost half the clothes in my closet were too small. After having two children, I just couldn't get into them anymore, but I was holding on to them because 1) I liked them, 2) the work clothes would've been very useful to me, and 3) I had the idea that I'd get back into those sizes one day. I NEEDED some things, but I wouldn't buy them because "I had plenty in the closet". Finally I packed up all the things that didn't fit, and I put them into boxes on my top closet shelves. I labeled them with a date ONE YEAR AWAY, and I told myself that on that date I had to either give the boxes away UNOPENED or be able to get into those clothes again. They went to Goodwill a year later, but I didn't feel badly about it because it wasn't rational to be sorry to "lose" things that I literally hadn't looked at in a whole year.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I just requested a hold on it at the library. He also has another book out from 2008 "Does this clutter make my butt look big?" I will have to get that one next.

Another book in the same theme is Make the House Clean Itself by Don Anslet (I might not have that title or author just right, but it's close). It includes some brilliant ideas for designing/organizing your house to discourage clutter and keep it neater.

Here's a thought about the baby clothes; I saved all my oldest DS clothes. For years I washed, folded and put away oldest DS' clothes with loving care, but when I pulled his baby clothes out of the basement I ended up discarding most of them because the clothes had discolored wherever he had drooled on them or spit up on them or sucked on them and I just couldn't get the stains out

I wanted to save a few things for my daughters, but it ended up growing into too much very quickly. Also, it might be useless. Who knows if they'll end up having baby girls themselves, and if they do, will they be born in the springtime, or will the sizes of the clothes I saved completely "miss" their children?

So here's what I did: I took a copy paper box from work -- actually two, one for each child -- and I chose enough baby clothes, etc. to fill that one box. For each girl, I kept her coming-home outfit, her first Christmas outfit, and a few other special things: a blanket, a bowl I'd enjoyed using, a baby book, etc. I read up on how to preserve these things: I washed them TWICE, once with detergent, once just with water, and I packed them away in white tissue paper. Once a year, I take them out and wash them again with just water, and I put them back into the paper. My oldest is 15, and the things I"ve saved are good as new. They don't know I have these things, but I intend to give them each their box at their first baby shower. Obviously, I couldn't do this if I was trying to preserve more than just one box; it'd be so big a job that I wouldn't bother.

I I have to say that I had never heard the sheets tip and think it's GREAT! I always have trouble figuring out which sheets are twin, full, queen. No more confusion on that one! Thanks so much for posting that idea.

Here's something related: I have three blow-up beds, one queen and two twins. We used to have a big mess in the linen closet and used to have trouble telling which blow-up was which (yeah, you think it'd be obvious, but I can roll the queen up smaller than anyone else in the house can roll up a twin). I bought three clear plastic storage bins from Walmart, and I put a full bed into each one. Each bin contains one blow up bed, a blanket, and sheets to fit. When we want to use one of the beds, I can pull out one bin, and I have everything in one place.

New topic: My biggest clutter problem is PAPER. We have a spot for the mail, but it piles up because my husband 1) reads something and returns it to that spot because he wants to save it and doesn't have a designated place for it to go, or 2) just doesn't open it, but also goes balistic if I throw it away! Then there's the kids' school papers, etc. Paper is just everywhere. Any ideas?

 

[mrsklamc]

New topic: My biggest clutter problem is PAPER. We have a spot for the mail, but it piles up because my husband 1) reads something and returns it to that spot because he wants to save it and doesn't have a designated place for it to go, or 2) just doesn't open it, but also goes balistic if I throw it away! Then there's the kids' school papers, etc. Paper is just everywhere. Any ideas?

What kind of mail is he saving? We basically just get junk mail and bills. The junk mail goes straight into the trash can, and the bills go to the 'pay' pile for the 15th and 30th.

 

[Imzadi]

Honestly, though...try to decide if the money you'll make from the sale of the clothes is worth what the clutter is doing to your life.

I sell a few things on eBay, but I am MUCH happier putting it all in a bag and dropping it off at Goodwill.

Great point. I was able to unload sooo much stuff and clear out a whole corner when I realized I never did get around to eBaying that whole corner of stuff for years.

Here are a bunch of postings I clipped from another board that closed down a couple years ago. I was able to snip & save some thoughts that really helped me think about whether it's worth it to save to sell my stuff:

I am wondering how many of us would be enjoying a clutter free home if only one thing changed:

If The Notion of Trying to Sell the Clutter Through
Garage Sales, Ebay, Consignments, Etc Were Not a Priority or Even a Consideration?

I have been thinking about the turning point for me that ended a devastating, emotional, stressful, health-damaging 10 years of cluttered, dusty, embarrassing living; What was pivotal for my decluttering success (at last!) was:

1.Remembering the real me: that I feel best with lots of bare space, order, no confusion, no "abundance" when I can't get a sense of it's number and it makes me feel lost. I therefore needed to abandon my "abundant look", "cottage" kind of decorating even though it got me koodos from guests to stroke my ego (They didn't see all the crap in bins a mile high that it took all day to stash before they came, behind closed doors). I knew I needed to go back to a very streamlined modern look I used to have for 30 yrs, even if it meant that people no longer went nuts over my decorating....maybe no one but me would love it. But that was OK now.

2.Similarly, Wise posters here talked of "Too Much Stuff" which I finally realized was my problem, not my inability to find the "perfect" storage solutions.
3.Realizing as a human I was entitled to have made stupid purchases, bad, costly, decorating or clothes decisions, and to have tried and failed at an expensive and very cluttering home business. People screwup and I am a people!

4.******AND HERE IT IS, THIS VERY NOVEL (To Me) IDEA*****: For Once, DH and I decided To NOT try to recoup any money anymore by hoarding everything in the garage for months or a year in order to have a garage sale. Big Monumental Decision. This one thing changed everything the most.

I love instant gratification and by getting the stuff out the door in bags as soon as I filled them, and into the car or trash depending on the bag, I immediately saw the house change.
Also, I never had to look at the stuff still lurking in my house or garage for months or a year waiting to try usually in vain to make money back on the stuff at a garage sale, ebay sale, etc. We just take the itemized deduction now on taxes (We always donate more than 500.00 I think it is, so we itemize the donations to deduct the real amount we donate.)

SO...........

How many of you would already be clutter free,
or at least barrelling down on it full speed ahead,
if you would just let it go and donate instead?


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I'm not sure I would say that the need to sell my clutter is THE big problem, but it is definitely ONE problem I have been dealing with. I have several bags and boxes in my spare room filled with items I've been going to sell on eBay. I haven't gotten to it and those boxes and bags have been in there taking up space for a year and a half!!! Recently, however, I have had a lightbulb moment in this area. I've realized that the money I'd recoup is not worth as much to me as the space. I'd SO MUCH rather just have a spare room free of junk. If I could have earned say $50 selling those items, but donate the boxes and bags instead, I can just consider having "spent" $50 to have my spare room "redecorated". That room will look and "feel" so much nicer!


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I went through this when we moved here from the midwest... I couldn't get rid of things because I wanted to sell them. I ended up selling about $75 worth of stuff (DVD's and VHS tapes, several bookcases, a blood pressure monitor, and Christmas stuff). That's great, except let's not mention the bagillion things that DIDN'T sell (two desks, a sofa, a dresser, a dorm fridge, a huge bakers rack, books, more Christmas stuff, etc.). Of course there were always buyers, but they'd never show up, so I spent SO much time and energy!! (I was placing ads on our local Cheapcycle - like Freecycle but for $$ items as well, kinda like an online garage sale). When we finally moved, I donated the furniture (and some women's and girls' clothes) to the local women's shelter, and it felt so great! I thought, why didn't I do this before!

Fast forward. I have a ton of stuff (a lot I didn't get rid of on the last move). I have a pile of baskets in my kitchen because I don't want them anymore, but *know* someone else would want them, so I should keep them for the garage sale... My mother, my aunt and I were supposed to have a couple of garage sales, but I couldn't even get my stuff together for the first one they had.

I finally put 6 garbage bags of clothes of mine and DH's to be donated into the truck today. A couple of weeks ago, I gave something like 15 grocery bags plus a box of DD9's old clothes (all in great shape, some still with tags) to a friend for her to go through then pass on. I mean, I feel great about donating all this stuff, and the space it makes is wonderful, but I also can't stop thinking, "I could have made $xyz on this!!"


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You've made such a great point. At this point, I'm done. Everything gets donated or freecycled now.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will never do a garage sale again. At the last one I had I remember someone offering 5 cents for a small item that I had priced at 25 cents. I said sure, because I was willing to let it go for free, and then I realized I should have done that in the first place. Why was I sitting in my driveway all day selling things for a nickel???


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, yes, yes! Once I FINALLY convinced DH that it was OK to get rid of things and just say that "I" screwed up....

He was always raving about selling on Ebay (something that he has NEVER done) and the truth is that we have tons of stuff in the basement that someone could have used, if it had not ended up musty and some of it moldy.


Yes, I finally caught on to the "give it away" thing myself last summer. Rather than looking at boxes and bags of things I was saving for "someday" when I'd make millions (ha ha) selling the stuff, I just got rid of it. WOW- what a great relief that was!



I agree wholeheartedly with you all! I know with me for 10 years I couldn't admit to myself that I had wasted our hard earned money on that stuff so I felt obligated to earn back as much as possible.....But after several garage sales that were so hard on me physically that I was useless for 2 days after (not to mention the several days it took to prepare and then the full day of sitting there fighting for a quarter on most items and then getting a profit of maybe 50, or maybe 1-200.00 in good years)...Not to mention storing and seeing all that stuff in the garage waiting for garage sale day in a few months). Forget it


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My problem is the desire to find just the right home for my stuff. For instance, if I know that a charity auction is coming up, I might save some things for it. Or if I know a thrift shop that benefits a family violence shelter, I might give them my nicer things because I know that the shelter residents shop there.

This results in things being stored, so I can make sure they are available for the "right" charities.

But I'm thinking that I need to put a moratorium on this type of "saving to give", at least until I get through the first stage of space-clearing. Right now, I think it's more important to get my home under control.


I decided to just plain forgive myself for items bought and not enjoyed. I love to re-gift these to people who I know will use and love them. I don't need to personally know them!


I gave up playing matchmaker to my unused/unwanted stuff long ago. Too time consuming, too energy consuming!

Plus you never ever REALLY know who ultimately gets it anyways!


Another poster remarked that you don’t always know who ultimately gets your stuff. I agree, and I think you’re most likely to match “need” to the proper recipient by giving it to a centrally shopped organization.

You don’t need to find the perfect outlet for your unused stuff. You just have to make it available. People who need it will find it, not necessarily at your yard sale.

Thank you for the gently-worn suits and blazers that I could wear confidently to work meetings.

Thank you for that great tweed coat I wore for three winters and that always got compliments.

Thank you for the crock-pot that had dinner ready when I worked late.

Thank you for the kitchen utensils, dinnerware, and furniture (that I repainted or recovered) that made my house homey.

Thank you for the gorgeous dress that I wore to an evening function with my husband-to-be.

Thank you for the vases, frames, fabric, etc, that I used to dress sets when I was working for a small community theatre with a miniscule production budget.

For those of you who are fond of holding yard sales, thank you, thank you, for the tea cups and the gardening book and the fish tank. And thank you for putting up with me trying to stretch my “disposable” $20 that weekend by haggling with you for less than your price. If you didn’t sell your Cuisinart food processor, I probably picked up at the thrift store a few weeks later, when I needed it.

Just saying . . . Sometimes yard sale customers are in there for sport, luxury or entertainment—not necessarily for need.

 

[semo233]

New topic: My biggest clutter problem is PAPER. We have a spot for the mail, but it piles up because my husband 1) reads something and returns it to that spot because he wants to save it and doesn't have a designated place for it to go, or 2) just doesn't open it, but also goes balistic if I throw it away! Then there's the kids' school papers, etc. Paper is just everywhere. Any ideas?

The biggest problem is my/your DH! I went out and purchased one of those shoe organizers with a pigeon hole for each pair of shoes, but used it for mail. The four cubbies on top were for DH and included to be paid, paid and then whatever he wanted for the other two. He could keep whatever he wanted, but would need to clean it out when they got full. The second row of four cubbies were mine and the botton three were for my DD.
I wanted it to be a communications center also. If my DD needed something signed for school, she could put it in my "in" cubbie.
NO ONE WOULD FOLLOW MY SYSTEM!! Frustrating!

 

[jessily]

Jan 2008 (yes, 19 months ago) I moved from my spacious 1 bedroom apartment back in with my parents to save money after graduate school. My bedroom at their house has always (for 11 years) been a mess simply because I'm a pack-rat AND I've always felt I never had enough places to put things (8 really small drawers and a closet that is difficult to reach into).

I'm dealing with a similar situation right now. I've lived in dorm rooms or small studio type apartments for the past 7 years. My bedroom at my parents house is pretty much frozen in time from my school years. I'm in the process of moving and will be staying in that bedroom for 3-4 months. So now I have everything I acquired for my first 18 years of life (and I mean everything... ticket stubs, notes passed back and forth at school, day planners, dried prom flowers, etc.) plus everything currently in my apartment. So far I've sorted through and gotten rid of probably 60% of the stuff from my old bedroom, but there's still a long way to go.

I find that I have an emotional connection to "stuff" so I really have to just force myself to put those feelings aside and make an instant decision on whether to keep or get rid of something. I don't buy much, but I save everything (programs, certificates, etc). I have one plastic storage box which I'm allowing myself to fill with mementos from childhood, but that's it. Taking a digital photo is a great idea... I'll definitely keep that in mind! The biggest thing I struggle with is photos. I have dozens of photo albums and boxes of doubles and negatives. I just can't get rid of photos. Thank goodness for digital nowadays!

 

[3boymthr]

New topic: My biggest clutter problem is PAPER. We have a spot for the mail, but it piles up because my husband 1) reads something and returns it to that spot because he wants to save it and doesn't have a designated place for it to go, or 2) just doesn't open it, but also goes balistic if I throw it away! Then there's the kids' school papers, etc. Paper is just everywhere. Any ideas?

I second pp. The mail comes in the house and I stand over the recycle bin with it. Anything that's obviously junk mail goes right into the recycle bin without ever having been opened. Any papers that DH has to deal with go on his nightstand. He has to then deal with them. Also, I've gone paperless on my bills for all that can be paperless (excise tax, etc still comes in the mail). It saves so much paper and a ton of time. All bills go in an old fashioned three tiered bill box I have hanging on the kitchen wall.

Same goes for school papers. The backpacks come home, I take the folders and pull out all papers to read. I then stand next to the recycle bin as I read through them. All worksheets get looked at then put in the recycle bin immediately. Really nice pictures or a really outstanding paper goes on the fridge. If there is an issue with a paper or something I want to ask the teacher about it is dealt with immediately.

Also, talk to your PTO and the school office. They can go green and save money and save you clutter by going paperless. Most of the parents in our school have e-mail so all notices go out as a pdf via e-mail (there is a free program called primo pdf which allows you to print to a pdf file from any program). Only families without e-mail get a paper copy (I think they said that 5 students out of 1,300 get paper copies and only one copy per family). Our school estimated it's saving over $3,000 in paper cost alone nevermind the toner and the secretary's time to make all those copies. I have to say this has really saved me clutter and there's no concern that the kids have lost a notice because everything goes to my in-box. Even classroom specific notices (i.e., please send in egg cartons for our seed project) come via e-mail. The only notices that come home as paper are things that have to be signed like permission slips.

 

[luvmyfam444]

I so feel your pain. We have way too much stuff and it just never seems to go away. I am committing this fall to get rid of junk. It is very difficult because I come from a long line of pack rats.

One of the cleaning shows (don't know which one) did something I always wanted to do, but am afraid that I'd get in the middle of and not be able to get it done. I think they were only doing one room at a time not entire house so that might be the way to do it. They pulled everything out of the room and put it in the yard. They then sorted into three stacks. Something along the lines of Keep, trash and donate/sell. Then you only put back in the room what you are keeping and have a garage sale/donate the rest.

If you decide to go the pod route, check for other vendors. I know in our area there are other companies much cheaper than PODS.

That show is Clean Sweep - we watch it every morning @ 6:30 (the 2nd 1/2 of the show) I keep wanting to apply for the show - but they only do in CA & now I'm not sure they're making new shows anyway since its only coming on during such a weird time

 

[luvmyfam444]

We are in the smae boat as you are there are 5 of us in a little under 1000 sq ft - problem is its been YEARS like this for us & we've even moved & all the stuff still came with is!
I also checked into the Pods - but was too expensive & didn't want to answer the neighbors questioning about moving or not.
Even once hung up a tarp in the carport of the last house so we could take out stuff that way - didn't last long either.
Without the team of people like on the shows its impossible to do in a couple of days.

RIght now I've just started doing 1 project @ a time - not even 1 room - that's too overwhelming - but 1 project - 1 day was dd#1 closest mainly the junk in the floor - another day was her dresser another day was another dd's closer floor & another day was her dresser. I even hung up a towel rack as the project - my dh won't do it so I've taken the role of I don't need a man to do anything for me & I'm tired of waiting around - so I've had a girlfriend or google teach me how to do things (finding the studs in the wall for ex)

One other place to look around online is Flylady.com she is FABULOUS! YOU can have emails sent to you on organization - BUT be warned they may depress you 'cause there are a bunch you may get bogged down trying to read it all. SHe also has a book out called Sink Reflections. AWESOME book. But she reminds you that your home didn't get in a mess overnight & you won't get out of it overnight either. (which BTW I HATE I wish it could be an overnight thing!)

 

[eatatmidnight]

Boy, I know what ya mean....I love her tips and her philosophy, but the emails! I just want a calandar laid out for me telling what to do for each day of the month. maybe one email here and there reminding you to stay on track. And an easy to navigate website that has "how to" lists like the decluttering one. But there is an awlful lot of dribble. I definately think it is done to brainwash you....or "flywash" you as she says. but I had to make a separate email just to handle it all and what ends up happening is I forget to check that email and then get off track.

Once in a while one of their missions is to delete all of their emails. They say that people with the "perfectionist" attitude will hold on to them fearing that they will need to go back and look something up, but that is holding onto clutter and that you shouldn't look at it like that, you should just hit delete and the same info will come back around eventually. Problem was that it would make me miss my imortant email that were buried in the same days worth.

I have tried FlyLady several times and I have the same issue with the e-mail. If she did not send testimonials and advertisements, folks like me would not get overwhelmed and quit. I do use some of her routines and could benefit even more from some of her e-mails. It is just hard to know what to read and what to delete.

Also, I'm with the "don't have a yardsale or e-bay" crowd. I donate a lot each year. I write each item down. Next, I place it in an area and take a picture of what I'm donating before bagging/boxing it up. We use Turbo Tax to do our taxes and it has tables for determining how much is allowed to be deducted for each item. We have saved more on taxes than I would ever have made at a yard sale.

 

[winnapooh]

I'm dealing with a similar situation right now. I've lived in dorm rooms or small studio type apartments for the past 7 years. My bedroom at my parents house is pretty much frozen in time from my school years. I'm in the process of moving and will be staying in that bedroom for 3-4 months. So now I have everything I acquired for my first 18 years of life (and I mean everything... ticket stubs, notes passed back and forth at school, day planners, dried prom flowers, etc.) plus everything currently in my apartment. So far I've sorted through and gotten rid of probably 60% of the stuff from my old bedroom, but there's still a long way to go.

I find that I have an emotional connection to "stuff" so I really have to just force myself to put those feelings aside and make an instant decision on whether to keep or get rid of something. I don't buy much, but I save everything (programs, certificates, etc). I have one plastic storage box which I'm allowing myself to fill with mementos from childhood, but that's it. Taking a digital photo is a great idea... I'll definitely keep that in mind! The biggest thing I struggle with is photos. I have dozens of photo albums and boxes of doubles and negatives. I just can't get rid of photos. Thank goodness for digital nowadays!

I have this issue with sentimental stuff as well...and I've been out of school long enough that it should be long gone by now! But it brings back good memories to occasionally look at it, and I smile at how silly we were as high schoolers.

When we moved this past year, I started scanning all of these papers, notes, stories I had written, etc. that I wanted to keep, and making separate pdf files for each category (for example, all notes went into one big file). I also scanned any design ideas I wanted to keep, recipes that I cut out of magazines, etc. Now I have a neatly organized file folder on my computer (which I really need to back up at some point). If I ever am in that sentimental mood, I just open the file and scroll through. Much easier than going through boxes of stuff, and I actually look at it now! I still have some more stuff to get through, but I got rid of so much stuff before the move that way!

 

[dakcp2001]

This thread is exactly what I need! Since we already have the garage sale planned and stuff put together for one week form Sat I am going to go through with it, but this will be our first and last. It has been SO MUCH work to clean all the dishes & glassware and we have been hanging & ironing the clothing, for what 50 cents? My time is worth more than that.

But I want my space back. We know we are moving out of state in the next 2 years, I need to empty out my house before that happens.

Off to the library for those books! Books are a huge issue for me, I had been buying them ,reading them, then piling them up all over. I love the library now!

 

[semo233]

I was able to download Peter Walsh's book free (doesn't take up any space!) from my local library! Check it out! you can even download it to your ipod or mp3

 

[luvmyfam444]

I didn't know that old socks existed....around here they just disappear or vaporize.

I actually have figured the sock thing out for us - I'm sure it was an idea from some message borad - maybe here....anyway I have a lingerie bag - you know the mesh bad you're supposed to wash your bras in (I DON"T!) well that hangs in a convienent place (our laundry room door) & everyones socks must be put in there as soon as the shoes come off.

Then I toss it in the wash - the socks stay together - matching is a breeze! Best thing I'd ever read.

NOW If I can just decide to go ahead & throw out the laundry basket full of socks that aren't matched...I just can't make myself do it - so we kepe wearing the same few pairs of socks - LOL literally we have 1 of those foldable spring loaded hampers FULL of nonmatched socks & then another bag....jsut keep thinking there's good socks in there if I can only find the matches!

 

[dakcp2001]

I just got back from the library, I had forgotten how much I love it there! Ice cold a/c and lots to look at. Peace and quiet, and nothing begging to be cleaned!

Of course I went for the Peter Walsh books which are all checked out at the moment so I got some other de clutter books to try/