Who is destashing in 2010?

[gandycat]

Add me to the list! My van is already packed with stuff to donate to the thrift store. I go thru phases where I am very efficient and then periods where everything builds up again. My goal this year is to be more consistent.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

With the new Wii the kids got for Christmas, they're not bugging me every 10 minutes and I can actually get some stuff done and cleaned out of their rooms w/o them noticing.

 

[Debbie]

I tried this last year with a lot of momentum in January that fizzled by February. I am really in need of trying this again. Maybe going back to a box a day and first name basis with the guy at goodwill! If I could get through even to May I'd be in better shape than I am now--I have so much stuff and most of it isn't being used. I am going to give it a try starting tomorrow.

Me, too. I'm going to commit to at least 15 min today. And, so maybe I can make it....15 a week. May? Get me through to March, and I'll be ecstatic!

I've been destashing for the last year.
Last week, we actually recycled boxes from Christmas after 5 years of use.
But on Thursday, I was upset,
because I had everything cleaned up around the tree and my older kids
came from friends parties, and just dumped all their bags and stuff on my dining room table. I gave them 1/2 hour to clean up what they wanted and put away.
Well, I thought I accidently threw my dd's keys away. She swore up and down they were on the table.


I
had
to
go
look
in the
garbage bags,
on the curb,
which was disgusting
and, some animal tore open a bag
and there was food scattered,
so I had to clean-up that mess-
but I ran into the garage and found
some gloves to wear first.

Finally I remembered that we were going to go to the YMCA on Monday, and she put her keys in her gym bag, because her key card was on her key chain for the YMCA. How I remembered that, who knows.

We never went to the Y, because we had a huge snow storm on Monday, so her bag was in the back seat of my car, in which she had, for work.

She kept texting me and telling me,
they were on the dining room table-
and I was crabby and probably threw them
in the garbage,
when I was decluttering.

That is 2 hours of my life, that I will not get back, because of restashing!!!!!

Oh, dear! Now I am waffling. This is a good reason NOT to declutter!

One year I made the resolution to clean out ONE drawer, cupboard , closet or box once a week. It wasn't so overwhelming and I got my entire kitchen and bedroom down before I lost the motivation. I have started that again and have minimal left to do. I am going to realy work on my garage. I need to go through the tubs and get rid of stuff. My gift to my 81 year Mom this year is to go and clean out her extra bedroom and pantry. I am doing my pantry tomorrow morning. It feels so good. If you need some motivation watch Hoarders on Bravo on Monday night. You will stay up all night and clean!!

This seems reasonable. I am going to put it on my Things to Do list each week. If I write it down, maybe I'll get it done!

Yes I definately am trying, but when you live with 3 packrats it's incredibly hard!

Well, apparently, I am one of those, according to my young adult children. I have stuff for seven people. Me, DH, DD15 in high school, and 4 young adults-2 in university, 1 recent grad, and 1 "finding himself". The last two of those young adults are back in my house. One is intent on me clearing out MY stuff, so HIS stuff doesn't seem quite so crowded. (So he has actually done some of my decluttering as he moved in last week) I know that these two are temporary, but . . .

So, to gather my thoughts together.

1. I'm in
2. I'm going to write one goal a week down
3. if I make it to March break (Mar 13-21), I'm a success
4. Anything beyond that is golden!

 

[mafibisha]

My Dh has told me that when his grandma was put in a seniors home they had to rent a dumpster and take out 3 DUMP TRUCKS worth of stuff from her TWO BEDROOM APARTMENT.
.

Wow, thats an emotional attachment for sure. But why?

I would also love if someone would post a daily "mission!" I always find that to be motivating!!

Me, too! Just reading this thread is motivating!

I'm not counting how much I am losing... I'm counting how much I am able to give! Using this mindset helps motivate me. Whatever works, ya know?

Yes, good point and ITA!

 

[4 Ears]

I have been plugging away as well.
Christmas weekend I shredded about 5 bags of bills and such. Will not have that the end of the is year as I have gone paperless for most everything.
I have another bag of odds and ends I need to take to 2nd hand shop. And I as well have 3 or 4 boxes of Chrsitmas decorations to get rid of. boys are 15 and 18, the spirit is not quite the same anymore
We are moving into a 40foot camper in 3 years so we have major destashing that needs to be done.
Easier to just toss stuff but I find that SO hard to do

Mission for today, how about destash holiday decorations. I say holiday as it can be Christams, Valentines, Easter.....

 

[4 Ears]

Wahoo! DH said I could get rid of a bunch of holiday decorations.

Enjoy your destashing today.

 

[delmar411]

I'm still destashing from 2009. Not doing anything at the moment but on my current list is paper destashing and organizing the filing cabinets. I'm also mid-way through a toy destashing project in the house and in the garage.

Next on the list is tupperware destashing. We have an entire large cabinet full of containers we never use so I really need to just get a bag and go through it as fast as possible and donate everything we don't use. I could probably switch over to a drawer with the amount of containers I really use on a regular basis.

Also looking to figure out a good storage system for the baking items I use only a few times per year but that I do use. Just sitting in the cabinet they get dusty and I have to clean them before using them. I'm thinking some sort of container stored someplace (maybe above the fridge) would keep them dust free and out of the way.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

I am purging my house little by little. We have too much stuff and we don't even need half of it. I am trying to simplify our lives.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

I'm not one to save stuff and I LOVE to organize. However, both DH & DD are packrats. DH is a big book saver and I think DD (12) has every stuffed animal she's ever gotten since birth! She did "destash" her room while she was on Christmas Break and finally was ready to part with several stuffed animals. We are donating them to a local church that runs a program for homeless families. That was DD's one condition - they had to go to children that would appreciate them.

 

[talulabelle]

Yea! I'm in! I go through rounds of this from time to time and do really well and reclaim a garage or a guest room, but I have never kept steam to get through the whole house at the same time.

I find it is a domino effect. Right now, I hate doing laundry. I hate doing it because when I go to put it away, my sons drawers are spilling out and can't be closed. So it is really hard to put it all away. Some of it just gets sat on top of the dresser. Some of it could be gotten rid of, but most of it just needs to be hung in their closet or the out of season items need to be stored in plastic bins in their walkin storage closet....BUT I can't get into the the closet because it is so filled to the top with stuff that it makes it impossible. It all just dominos and spills into something else making all jobs hard. I would like to clean out the drawers and drawers of pictures, but I need work space to do it where my little ones won't be messing with it...last time I worked or pictures, they were constantly going through my sorted ones to look at them and messing it all up...so I decided to set up a folding table in my guest room so that when I'm not working on it-I can close and lock the door to prevent this until the job is done and it is all in albums. Ofcourse, the problem is...there is no space to put the folding table because the corner of the guest room is piled with junk that I don't know what to do with so I throw it in there. Again, it all rolls to mess something else up.

I want to go back to work this year because my youngest is off to Kindergarten and we could use the money...but I don't think I can do it until everything is decluttered and I get my house running like a finely oiled machine. Right now it takes me so much longer to clean and do laundry because of the messes I have to work around. So I have decided to make it my full time job to get the house working right, so that I can eventually - hopefully by fall- go back to work. If everything is finely tuned, then maybe I will be able to keep up on laundry and things at night. If the kids know where to put their laundry and there is space in their drawers, then they can take some of the responsibility for putting things away. If the kitchen cabinets are cleaned out, then my oldest son will be able to unload the dishwasher easier when he gets home from school. If I clear out the cabinet under the kids bathroom sink, there will be room there for a laundry basket, so that they won't just dump their dirty clothes on the floor when they shower.

I too get sick in my stomach watching Hoarders and am more ready to declutter after watching it. I have a hard time getting rid of the kids toys because I attach them to when they were babies or little and I don;t want to lose that time. But then I have to remember I have picture of them playing, so I don't need to keep the toy. I have to remember the memories are in my heart and not in the toy. I have the same issue with baby clothes, etc. I have to remember that I am losing a big part of NOW because I am so busy holding on to THEN. Sometimes I need to start reading flylady.com to get back the moivation to do it...and sometimes I see my MIL's house and don't want to be like her,so I get the motivation to do it.
( if her bathroom cabinet is full of old toiletries she doesn't use, she has another cabinet installed over the toilet to hold more - she would never think to just get rid of the old toiletries. It is the most organized and space robbing mess I have ever seen.)

But here I am ready to go! - I want to get through the whole house this time - I'm starting today at the top of the house in the boys closet, and working down! I'll post back with progress!

 

[MiniGirl]

Add me to the list! My van is already packed with stuff to donate to the thrift store. I go thru phases where I am very efficient and then periods where everything builds up again. My goal this year is to be more consistent.

This is me. I do fairly well, and something will come up or happen and it all starts to pile back up again. I also have my "hot spots" that just never seem to be clean. I hope to work on those this year as well.

My project for today is the closet in my downstairs half bath. I doubt there will be things to donate, but probably some out of date OTC meds to toss.

There is also a decluttering thread on the Community Board if anyone is interested. I know some people are on both.

I have seen Hoarders, but find that show so heartbreaking. I just can't imagine living like that. It really disturbs me. I can watch Clean House though and feel motivated and not as disturbed when it is over.

Totally OT...... Have ya'll ever watched Man vs. Food? That show has been so good for me. I have found it so disgusting that I have lost 15 pounds by watching this guy stuff his face with these massive amounts of food. LOL!!! Okay.... back to our regular thread.

 

[talulabelle]

This is me. I do fairly well, and something will come up or happen and it all starts to pile back up again. I also have my "hot spots" that just never seem to be clean. I hope to work on those this year as well.

My project for today is the closet in my downstairs half bath. I doubt there will be things to donate, but probably some out of date OTC meds to toss.

There is also a decluttering thread on the Community Board if anyone is interested. I know some people are on both.

I have seen Hoarders, but find that show so heartbreaking. I just can't imagine living like that. It really disturbs me. I can watch Clean House though and feel motivated and not as disturbed when it is over.

Totally OT...... Have ya'll ever watched Man vs. Food? That show has been so good for me. I have found it so disgusting that I have lost 15 pounds by watching this guy stuff his face with these massive amounts of food. LOL!!! Okay.... back to our regular thread.

Ha! That make me eat less too! I also started treating my husband much nicer and valuing him more after I started watching reruns of Jon and Kate Plus 8!!! I didn't want to be like her. Funny how watching the extreme can help us in our lives.

 

[StephMK]

Yesterday, after I decluttered some toys in the basement, I was able to bring some shelves up for DS's closet. Then I was able to finish the project I started 2 months ago to organize his room. We put all those tiny lego parts away finally & got all the categories of stuff sorted into bins. We raised his bed so the big stuff can go under it & the other stuff fit the shelves. It looks sooo good!

This motivated DD15 to keep decluttering her room and she got rid of a ton of stuff & lots of trash. DD9 keeps her room neat and we hung some new posters for her. I can see progress & it looks great! It is definitely motivating me to keep going, I don't want the kids living in messy spaces they can't enjoy.

Late last night, I hit the kitchen junk cabinet & the kids' art drawer. Today is finishing the basement, hanging some artwork that's been sitting in the kids' rooms and the art/school supply cabinet. Maybe the garage if I stay motivated.

 

[memphismovin]

Jumping on!

I started yesterday by taking down Christmas and deciding to retire the current tree. Had it 3 years and its beginning to look it, so out it goes. Also threw out old lights and ornaments I'm done with and down-sized the wrapping paper stash.

Today I have plans for the bathroom. So much that we never use and I'm sure expired. Also bought all new towels black friday so its time to get rid of the old un-matching ones.

We'll have to see how this goes

 

[tchrrx]

Just finished the hall closet! All gloves are now either matched together or in the trash. All of the empty boxes that DH insists on keeping (from all electronics ) are now in the attic.

I tried to finish the attic this morning, but it's just too cold. Hopefully I'll get up there this afternoon.

 

[acename]

We've got a new baby coming in February so I've got to get on the ball with this stuff. I've got a my daughter's pink stroller ready to go to the consignment shop plus some clothes of hers to take too. I've also got a bag to go to goodwill on monday.

Today I plan on cleaning out the towel closet. We got some new towels for Christmas and I'm going to get rid of some of the rattier ones and donate them to the animal shelter. I'm also going to go through some of my daughter's toys today and throw away any broken items or things missing pieces.

 

[4 Ears]

talulabelle, what DH and I did was take pictures of items we were having a hard time getting rid of. I still had flowers from our wedding (20 years ago). If we renew our vows I would get new ones, and I am reminded every day when I wake up that I am married.

Hope the idea helps you and others

 

[mrsklamc]

This morning we 'destashed' by paying off a car! OT but getting rid of debt gives me the same good feeling as getting rid of clutter!

Not as much time to declutter today but I did get rid of all coupons that expired 12/31.

Decluttering my closet actually backfired a bit as it turned out there really WASN'T much in there that I loved AND fit well so now I have to go shopping for work clothes! (I don't really like clothes shopping.)

 

[Debbie]

This morning we 'destashed' by paying off a car! OT but getting rid of debt gives me the same good feeling as getting rid of clutter!

Not as much time to declutter today but I did get rid of all coupons that expired 12/31.

Congratulations! You are right. Getting a debt cleared is even better than getting a closet cleaned in my estimation. I did my banking this morning, but I need to pay off DD's 2nd semester tuition/residence/food plan (do this the first year for each of them). Going to school 2000 km away, and science to boot means big bucks.

I have decided to do a 27 fling boogie. And I plan to do it in the 15 minutes that I had allowed myself. 1, 2, 3.....GO!

 

[Whistle]

I'm jumping in on the wagon as well! Last year I had a goal to take more items to Goodwill- I think I made about 6 trips. This year I would like to make it a monthly goal to take at least 1 trip to Goodwill. This will help with my year-end taxes and will also help me to keep the decluttering in the front of my mind.

I also cleaned out one drawer that had contained a bunch of stuff. Now, I will try and hit my linen closet which becomes a disaster in such a short time.