Who is destashing in 2010?

[mdsouth]

I started decluttering right before Christmas and plan to do some more this weekend.

Like so many that have posted here, I have found myself overwhelmed at times with the task - but know the outcome will be worth the effort!

My DH and I are both packrats and grew up with mothers who are packrats. They still are to this day. We must do better and just get rid of stuff.


I tend to go through cycles, like other posters here. I declutter and sporadically throughout the year. My sister on the other hand is clutter free. What I envy the most is how she keeps her emotional connection to things in check.

I plan to use this thread to check in with from time to time as a motivator and as a way to monitor my own progress.

Thanks!

Happy decluttering everyone!

 

[cannp123165]

I'd like to join in too! I have started already - we just have too much stuff around our house! Have taken a bag to a charity shop today which is a start.

 

[comicguy]

Today's Update:

Got rid of a shoe box of handheld games. (Trivia, Battleship, ect..)

Got rid of a box of Looney Tunes Glasses from the 70's. (9 different) Had these on a shelf in my office but decided I rather have my WDW Potato Heads there instead (and they look nice on that shelf now).

Also, picked a box worth of books off my book shelf to get rid of. Books that I will not use or reread. I was able to get some of the books that I am keeping off the floor and on the shelves now. At least my office floor is looking better now!!

 

[kaywoody]

I started on my closet yesterday. In just my closet I pulled out 6 big trashbags of clothes to donate to charity, and two trashbags of trash! I was amazed and a little disgusted that there was so much stuff there. I can't count how many garments still had tags hanging on them... for when I lost 10 more pounds!

 

[StephMK]

Ok, kids' rooms are done except for vacuuming both DDs. Hung all the artwork and posters they wanted to display & added some shelves to DD's closet. All their things have places now & DD9 even gave up a whole pop-up bin of stuffed animals. They are in great shape & may call the nearby retirement home to see if they want them before I take them to Goodwill.

There is a huge pile of stuff in the upstairs hall that needs to be carried down & either thrown away or donated. Ahhh, this is feeling good~ I made french toast casserole for tomorrow & zucchini bread w/DD to use up some stuff that was going to go bad soon.

I can't finish the basement yet because DS & his buddy are very busy in their Olympic wii events at the moment. I guess I will go hit the garage & see what I can pitch.

I love this feeling while it lasts, I will be lazy again soon enough!

 

[LovableGluttons]

Decluttered the laundry room AND master bedroom so far.

Master bath and kitchen are on the chopping block for tomorrow.

Thanks for the great motivation!

I have a 32 foot Class A motorhome to declutter (just dishes, small appliances, and linens for the beds and bathroom in there).

We wanted to go put it on the For Sale lot.

No more paying for insurance for it nore the $60 a month to store it!

We haven't used it in two years. Time to go!

 

[BuzzPrincessMom]

I want to join too...

Today I got the kiddos to help in the family room and decide on things they didn't play with that will be put away to go to charity if I can find one to take them, so many around here don't take toys anymore.

I also cleaned out my laundry closet, changing shelf paper (13 years old) and everything.

I checked out FlyLady - I used to follow years ago but want to start again...off to my entry and dining room!

 

[kinntj]

You guys are doing great! You're keeping me motivated and DH was impressed with the 2 grocery bags of trash I took out of the master bathroom linen closet. I have one more shelf to do in there. I'm starting in our upstairs and working my way down with the clutter.

I was suppose to do this last night, but didn't get to it. The kids wanted to do another New Years, so we did that.

1/3 - I will work on decluttering the 2 hall linen closets. The kids side needs work. Yikes!

 

[goodmorningbelle]

Look out, I'm coming out of three years of "lurkerdom" on this one! I too want to join in--for me, it's all about destashing paper. I have so many things to shred and recycle--gotten rid of three bags so far!

 

[decaff38]

Who knew that spending 3 hours in your pantry could help you regain your sanity after the holidays!! Two very large black garbage bags of junk. Vacuumed the floor, gathered all the paper products into one area, threw all those 1/2 bags of chips and cereal. Destashed my fridge using all the leftovers for 2 new recipes. Tasted pretty good. Moved all the bugspray,spraypaint, and summer stuff(outside tablecloths, etc...) to the garage in one tub. No need for it now since it was -37 out this morning. Does wonders for inspiring you to stay inside all day. Cleaned out hubby's closet. Work jeans, old sweatshirts, etc.. and his office desk. He is so impressed. He can find his desk, his jeans, and a snack in the pantry. I have started on the guest room that is the catch all. About 1/2 way through that. Need to get some storage bins to finish properly. Tired of the cardboard boxes that have been around for 20 years.
I did start reading FlyLady.com. It helps when you are losing steam. I am also seriously procrastinating from doing the mound of paperwork I need to get through before Monday. I think Sunday is the day for that.
Happy destashing!!!

Tip: I took all my magazines from the last 6 months , used a black marker to mark out my address and took them to the battered women's shelter. They were so happy. I had 2 paper bags full.

 

[Duckyiam71]

I started with my Christmas stuff and have 2 empty Rubbermaids. Then I saw my husband and son had put some of their old clothes in the donate pile. I was super excited...hopefully it will continue! We are on our third day!

 

[LMCT88]

Wow you guys are motivated, (Can you come to my house when your done lol). Ok lets see I did manage to get Christmas stuff down and put in attic and got rid of a few things up there, going to really clean it out in the spring. First room I think I will tackle tomorrow is the dining room, I am seriously going to go through it all and donate what I can and get rid of the other stuff. I will keep you posted. Thank you all for being great motivators!!!! : )

 

[kfeuer]

I've been working on getting rid of stuff for the last few months. DH got laid off in September and it's almost certain we're going to have to sell our current house and seriously downsize, so it's a necessity.

Last month I filled up the back of our CR-V twice with bags of clothes to donate. It feels so good to have all those clothes no one had worn or will wear anytime soon out of here!

I've also been selling the bigger toys my kids don't play with anymore on Craigslist. We made a deal with them that any money we raise will go into a fund to get them each a DS Lite, so they've been really good about letting stuff go. So far we have $225 saved up.

I've been doing really well selling all kinds of things on Craigslist, actually. I've sold smaller household things as well as extra furniture. The only things I didn't have any luck with was some of my designer purses. I'm going to try taking those to a consignment store.

I plan to have a huge garage sale when the weather warms up. I think that will make the biggest difference.

Decluttering has been a ton of work, but I am really loving having less things in the house. Hopefully by the time we have to downsize it won't seem too bad because we won't have too much stuff crammed into a small space.

 

[mrsklamc]

Well I don't feel qualified to make it *the* challenge but *my* challenge for tomorrow is my desk area and the papers lurking on and around it. Time to get ready for tax time!

 

[kfeuer]

I forgot to mention in my earlier post--for those of you who have lots of papers that need shredding, there are shredding businesses where you can have your papers shredded inexpensively. I hate home shredders (every one I've used jams and makes a mess when you empty it, even the expensive ones we had in my old office).

Now I just throw everything that needs shredding in a box, and take the box in when it gets full. Last time it cost me $15 and I had nearly a year's worth of papers (I work from home). It saves me so much time and hassle it's worth every penny!

 

[4 Ears]

When I have lots to shred I put it over a trash can and that seems to help keep it from getting jammed so quickly

 

[mrsklamc]

Funny you should mention that, I was just going to start a new thread saying 'how much do I have to spend to get a decent shredder?'

 

[talulabelle]

Seems like everyone is really rolling!

Well, I spent the entire day in my boy's walk-in closet with my DH. You have to understand - this was the job of all jobs. This has been the place that when we clean any other room, and we end with a box of stuff we don't know what to do with...we would put the box in here. Also, there were still boxes and boxes of paper work, that when we were tired of sorting a desk and got down to the nitty-gritty that we just didn't feel like making decisions about, we would stick it in a box in there. Boxes from our LAST MOVE (6 year ago) UNOPENED because we knew they were just full of crap. It had gotten to to point that you couldn't even get in there. Well, we are about 1/3 through. And we didn't do what we usually do, which is move it to another room, or another closet. We actually went though the stuff, made piles of throw away, give away, put away, and file. We would stop every so often and actually throw away, put away, and file away what we were purging. I'm sad to say there isn't that much in the give away pile, because the closet was SO bad, that there wasn't much in there that even Goodwill would want. But about 4 green trash bags of TRASH have gone out, and two HUGE boxes of things to be put where they truly belong, have been put away. another huge box has been filed.

What was REALLY annoying about the process was...last time we cleaned the toys out in the basement, I finally threw out a ton of games and toys because they were missing a piece. I had been holding these things for the longest time thinking the missing piece would surface. Well, I went and pitched them last time I was in the basement. Well, of course, today I FOUND ALL OF THE MISSING PIECES that were in boxes in this closet. Looked like we had been in an URGENT CLEAN_SOMEONE IS COMING TO THE DOOR situation and we had just scooped things into boxes and stashed them (for years). I sat there all confused going "I know I held on to the rest of this game for years waiting for this to show up, but did I throw it out yet?, should I hold THIS PIECE now, and look for the rest? or should I pitch it?. Well, DH was there to add some sanity and said...if we pitch on both sides of this equation, we will be ok, and we don't really need these games, because no one is looking for them, and we can always just buy another if the need arises" I remembered Flylady and that perfection is what got me into this mess in the first place (trying to keep the games together perfectly, not being able to get rid of one loose piece, not being able to part with things I don't even need) and I pitched.

This closet had gotten to this point because it is humanly impossible to match this many things back together. It was easier to just let it go. If I tried to be perfect again, it would remain the same and I would never finish. I kept my eye on the prize (which is a clean closet that will allow me to orgainize their room better, and then in turn allow me to paint the room and redcorate. It feel good, but we still have the other 1/3 to do. Had dinner, and am heading back at it!

 

[treeface]

Everyone seems to be doing a great job so far on destashing.

We got all of our Christmas items put away and separated everything we no longer want, have two less storage containers to return to the basement.

Then we got to work on this alcove area in our living room that serves no purpose that I can see (we have lived here 9 years and my father owned the house for 14 years prior to that) other than to collect junk. There are tow shelves along the back wall, but that is four feet beyond the main wall and about 4 feet off the ground, so very difficult to clean. There were piles of papers back there, which have been sorted into filing, trash and shredding. The trash and shredding are properly "rehomed", but I still need to get to the filing when I find the filing cabinet in the basement.

The good thing is that DH and DS were both helping in the same area of the house which made it go much quicker.

Tomorrow we will finish the alcove and hopefully our bedroom, then I can tackle DS's room next weekend.

We all have to go back to school and work on Monday (assuming school isn't cancelled due to too much snow), so it will be harder to do much during the week, but a little at a time works, just seems like it takes forever. Next up will be the basement and then the garage when it starts to warm up. I don't do the garage when it's only 12 outside, no thank you.

 

[Whistle]

I wanted to add for those who may not have local thrift stores or places that will accept toys, please consider asking the local schools (or churches?). I am a classroom teacher, and I love having board games to use for days when we have indoor recess, etc. I also imagine local women's shelters would use them.