Who is destashing in 2010?

[DisneyAndRedSox]

I had a good destashing and profitable week!
Sold on craigslist- mini pack and play, bouncy seat a bunch of DD's clothes.
I have a check on the way from US Gold Buyers, enough for a airline ticket (gee, where should I go? LOL)

DH's shed was delivered, not exactly destashing but I will no longer be tripping over the snowblower (I hate snow- so it is the "big red evil machine") in the garage and I can get the big plastic baby pool out of the storage room in my basement! Now I can organize the storage room and find some more things to get rid of! Plus once DH gets all the lawn and painting stuff out of the garage I can organize all of DD's outdoor toys. I bought 3 hampers on clearance at Target back in the fall and now I can have a hamper for balls, bats, sand toys, etc.

A week from Sat our little town has a town wide yard sale. I am in a neighborhood with about 85 houses, so we get a ton of traffic! Hoping to get rid of a 12" bike, my parents are bringing old luggage that is too big to fly with and maybe some more kids clothes!

Might be going to visit some friends this weekend, going to bring some of DD's old Sandra Boynton board books and let them take what they want for their DD.

 

[mickeymaker2003]

We are still working on the garage. We bought a kitchen full of old cabinets from the Habitat ReStore. We figured out where to put them and have room for all of them except four funny shaped ones that will be re-donated or sold. Yesterday, I boxed up everything from the garage that wasn't in shelving along the walls. My DH and I pulled it all out into the yard. With the cabinets in their proposed location, we put the boat and car in to make sure they both fit in the garage (the boat is bigger than our van, so if the boat fit, so will the van). Then we put all the stuff back in the garage in big piles and clamped/glued a cabinet that was falling apart. Since we paid more attention to where things went when we repacked the garage, there is plenty of room for us to work around the stuff and get the cabinets installed. We even found the clamps and glue without too much trauma.

Next up, mounting the upper cabinets on the walls and fixing another base cabinet (we only have enough clamps to fix one at a time). Hopefully Friday we will get the base cabinets screwed together and measured so we can go order the custom countertop. It will just be laminate and will cost about $300 for the L shaped section and 4 foot straight countertop we will need. I am hoping it will make everything look nice and inspire us to keep the garage much neater than it currently is. Once the cabinets are fixed and installed, we can start filling them and organizing the garage. I am sure once we get it all organized there will be downsizing going on. I know we own at least a dozen tape measures, but they are spread all over the place. Once we have a home for everything where we can find it again, we can get rid of some of the duplicates.

Our final cost will be about $845. I've been Craigslisting as we go. So far, I got rid of:
a gazebo for $300
a bike rack for $25
a Little Tikes rocking chair for $15
a Crayola art desk for $15
a toy wagon for $3
a baby gate for $5

I also boxed up three boxes of stuff for a preschool garage sale (proceeds benefit the preschool my daughter might go to next year) and condensed five boxes of stuff I am saving for my own garage sale.

Today's project: Clean the kitchen and work on laundry. Since we've been working in the garage all week, nothing inside has been getting done. Oh well... The kitchen and laundry always need attention anyway, at least the garage changes will be permanent.

 

[OceanAnnie]

I have been doing pretty well donating at least one large bag a day. I set it by the door and on my way out it goes with me. I like getting rid of the clutter. I have been hanging onto a pretty large bin of magazines. The kids do projects from time to time that require magazine cut outs. I could probably pare it down to about 1/3 of it's size and still be fine. I need to do it. It's unsightly.

I am in still in the process of sorting things for consignment. Whenever I come across any items, I put it in the "consignment corner" (which luckily is tucked away from sight). It's growing. I need to put the things in order and have them ready to go.

But I am pleased with the bag a day donation!

 

[comicguy]

Well after doing my trim work painting(to which I found the brushes and rollers yesterday, when I organized the shed), I listed a bunch of my comics for sale again. Within 30 minutes I had sold another 80 dollars worth!!! which goes straight to the WDW fund!!! and of course it clears out a bit more clutter!!

Hopefully I will get a few more orders for my comics between now and Sunday so I can condense the ones I have left so they will take up less room.

 

[comicguy]

Forgot to mention that i took a car load of stuff to the dump (broken tiles, scrap wood, weak cardboard boxes, and a few other things)

Also last night we spent a good two hours cleaning and pricing all of the items (and we are only half way through) that we have been piling in the den for a yard sale next month. It is really amazing how much stuff we have decided that we no longer need. I can't wait until the yard sale and get my den back!!! of course while we a pricing it all we are able to condense the items so they take up much less room.

Now I am off to find more items to get rid of, decluttering is like an addiction (the more you do the more you want to do)

 

[Iott Family]

Ok, DH and I tackled our master bedroom closet. I lost count of the number of 32 gal trash bags we took to Goodwill

I then tackled the craft closet that housed all our odds and end craft supplies. We put together a large tote to take camping for the kids to do and trashed the dried up, broken bits and pieces. I now have a very cl;ean and organized closet that houses our back stock of school supplies and a few random craft supplies like my sewing machine, glue gun, etc.

Today I tackled our youngest DD's closet, drawers etc. I have 6 bags of clothes to drop off at Goodwill later today. No, she wont be walking around naked because she doesnt have a stitch left to wear She still has two clothes baskets of clothes to wear. Now I just need to fold or hang these back into their places.

I am hoping that with all this purging of material clutter I might be able to get rid of personal weight clutter too! We have been doing the gym 3-4 days of week and walking 2 miles on our days off and I emptied all the junk food out of the house. Not one pound lost by me. DH has lost 20 lbs.

 

[mrsklamc]

I cannot lose ANY weight either! I have tried eating healthy, excercise...can't make any progress. If I still haven't lost by June 1st they are putting me on meds. ...I really don't want to do that.

DH would NEVER be a jerk about this but we were watching 'What Not To Wear' and he mentioned in a very kind and loving manner that turtlenecks and capri pants are not the most flattering items of clothing on me, so tonight I'm going to finish purging those.

 

[StephMK]

Hello everyone!


I have tamed the LAUNDRY MONSTER!!!!


Sorry for the incredibly long post, but I was hoping it would inspire and help someone else, and I felt as thought I deserved to brag and celebrate a little.

You definitely deserve to celebrate!! Very inspiring! I painted mine a bright yellow w/striped curtains for the same reason, it needs to be a happy place.

I have not done much de-stashing for several weeks due to schoolwork. Our neighborhood is having a big yard sale at the end of the month so I'm trying to motivate myself to list my ebay & CL pile. What doesn't sell I may put out for the yardsale. I swore I'd never do another one...but I want to earn for our next trip & clear stuff out.

Those of you dumping old wardrobes have inspired me to go through mine. I have a bad tendency of buying sale items then not being able to make outfits w/anything. I am going to get rid of all those misc. pieces I never seem to wear and stuff that doesn't fit.

 

[Figment's Girl]

For those of you in the Indy area that has Electronics to recycle like I do, here is a link that you can use to find out about drop off locations on Earth Day!

http://sustainindy.org/assets/uploads/Earth Day, 4-24-10.pdf

 

[OceanAnnie]

I cannot lose ANY weight either! I have tried eating healthy, excercise...can't make any progress. If I still haven't lost by June 1st they are putting me on meds. ...I really don't want to do that.

DH would NEVER be a jerk about this but we were watching 'What Not To Wear' and he mentioned in a very kind and loving manner that turtlenecks and capri pants are not the most flattering items of clothing on me, so tonight I'm going to finish purging those.

I just wanted to tell you, I was in the same boat. I had a hard time losing weight. I started the, Flat Belly Diet, in March and I am happy with my progress. I wasn't really looking for a diet, per se but a way to change my eating habits. This really works for me. I like the foods and it doesn't feel restrictive. I only bought the small Flat Belly Diet pocket guide. I got it from Amazon, used, but in like new condition. I carry it in my purse. It has grocery lists for the weeks you are on it, meals for throughout the days and weeks, and suggestions for when you eat out. I think it's all pretty reasonable. I haven't followed it to a "t". I have been pulling meals out that I like and I've had success with that.

ETA- I am thinking about buying the Flat Belly Diet cookbook and Family cookbook. I have checked out the first one from the library twice. So I'm thinking it's time.

I just wanted to share that with you. I hope this might help and that you won't have to go on medication.

 

[comicguy]

We finished soting, pricing and cleaning the "stuff" that we are putting in the yard sale next month. It now takes up much less room in my den!!!

We worked on the office today, got rid of some magazines, some paper clutter, and sorted and bagged up the crayons, assorted markers, and colored pencils (taking these to school), the rest will go in the yard sale. Seriously, I do not an entire 4"x8"x6" storage bin full of loose crayons and markers. I will simply replace them with 1 package of each this summer during the back to school sales.

Cleaned out the bathroom cabinets and got rid of a ton of stuff and organized the rest into a useable fashion. Had a grocery bag full of Disney soaps and shampoos from the hotels (We are going to donate them to somplace that can use them).

We accomplished a lot today, but it seems like the more we do the more there is to do!!!

 

[kinntj]

It's taking awhile for me to get back into destashing mode. There's several areas that need attention and I'm just not getting to them.

The laundry room is pretty bad along with our pantry. Once those are done I can move on to the kids room again. I hate that I started in their rooms and they got icky again. My oldest DD is a paper girl and saves everything she gets her hands on. I have to go through her room when she's not here.

 

[mrsklamc]

Ooohhh please don't do that. She needs to learn a healthy way to deal with her clutter, too!

 

[delmar411]

I got caught up here the other day and it lit a fire under me. I've got a bunch of stuff out of the garage over the past couple of days and it's really noticeable the difference! We barely could walk in the garage anymore and now there is enough space to get the unused sideboard in there. I plan on selling it as I no longer have a spot to put it in and when I do eventually get a new house, I'm getting a matching dining room set.

 

[labdogs42]

Hello everyone!

I just dropped in to report on the single most life and family changing accomplishment I have made in my 15 years of marriage and raising a family!!! This accomplishment has lightened my work load, made me happier, made my family more organized, my family happier, and made the house less messy. It has taken one huge mess of a task out of my week so that I can focus on other things now rather than just being faced by the same task week after week.

I have tamed the LAUNDRY MONSTER!!!!

I have to do laundry for 6 people and it was just depressingly overwhelming. I hated it so much, that I would avoid it for days to a week and then be faced with a mountain of grunge work. Often it would be so backed up, my elderly mother would come to help me fold it just so I could catch up. Often things would get washed, but just sit getting wrinkled in baskets. Often the baskets wouldn't even make it upstairs. My husband would just dump a basket on our bed to look for something he needed, and at the end of the day, the laundry would get shoved back into the basket so we could go to bed. It was awlful. It made me sad all the time. Since clothes weren't getting washed in an efficient amount of time, The kids always felt like they needed more clothes. So everyone had too much clothes and I could go a week to 2 weeks without doing wash. Everyones drawers were so full of things they didn't wear, that it was too hard to put folded laundry away, so we all avoided that task at all costs. Socks were never matched. When my mother and I did catch up on the folding, it would be in piles all over the kitchen counters and kitchen table and it would sit for days until I could get it all put away. It was dragging us down! Kids would be late for school looking for clean clothes that matched. It took a ton of time every morning just for everyone to find their things to put an outfit together.

So for years and years I had this dream of the perfect laundry system that would make things easier. As I would sit in the dreary basement laundry room standing on top of a mountain of clothes strewn on the floor, scrubbing stains out of mountains of clothes, I dreamed of a brighter , happier laundry room, that I didn't hate being in so much. But I thought it was never going to happen because I didn't have my husbands cooperation with helping me to organize it. I needed him to build me shelves so that I could separate everyones clothes as I folded them, and there would be a place to put laundry and it wouldn't be all over my kitchen until it was put away. Well, finally, flyladys message, of "don't blame other people, you CAN do it yourself" sunk in! One day, after finally getting all the laundry folded and put away that my mother and I worked on for 2 days, I decided "NO MORE! I am fixing this!, it will never get this out of hand again!" I went to Target and bought a set of wire shelves that fit perfectly in my laundry room for about $40. I bought six matching plastic laundry baskets for $3 a piece. I came home, and guess what? I put the shelved together myself! It was easy!!!! Didn't even require tools. My 11 yr old daughter helped me. After waiting on my husband for 15 yrs, I did it in less than an hour. I used a label maker to label each basket with each of our names and placed them on the shelves. I went to IKEA and bought and inexpensive happy red rug to cover the icky old linoleum floor with. I put a radio in the laundry room to listen to as I fold and treat stains. I cleared the room of all the junk that didn't belong there. I bought a 3 bin laundry sorter on wheels and put in the room (again, I put this together myself). Then I started doing a couple of loads a day. As it comes out of the dryer, I immediately fold it and disperse it to each persons individual basket. I have a seperate basket for linens. Now - this is the BEST part! As someones basket fills, I tell them, and they take their own basket up and put it away themselves, because I cleaned out all of their drawers one person a day for a week. I put the out of season stuff away and took what didn't fit to goodwill. They are then expected to fill their basket with any dirty laundry from their own hamper in their rooms and carry it themselves to the laundry room on their next trip downstairs. I taught each one how to sort their dirty laundry into the bins, darks, lights, brights. Then they place thier empty basket back on the shelf. If I have done any laundry for them in the time their basket was not on the shelf, I just fold and place it directly on the shelf where their basket should be. When they return their empty basket, they place that folded laundry into it. When it is full again, repeat process. All I have to do is keep booting the laundry by emptying the magically filling sorted bins in to the washer, bump to dryer as I immediately fold and place in baskets I do about three loads a day. When I take the folded linens and towels up and place them in the linen closet, I leave that basket under the cabinet of the kids bathroom (that I cleaned out of useless clutter) and that is where they place their dirty clothes as they get in the shower. So bonus - no more dirty clothes on the bathroom floor to be picked up every day! When that basket is full, someone brings it down and it is refilled with towels from the shelf to go back up to the linen closet.

The system is working like a well oiled machine!!!!!! I have had to stay on them a little to make sure they immediately put their laundry in their drawers, rather than just leaving in their room to be routed through and messed up. But they are all getting the hang of it!!!! I no longer have a full laundry basket full of odd socks. As socks come through they folded and placed in their correct basket right away and if there is an odd in the load it is placed in a small basket (like an easter basket sized basket) on the folding table. Next time an odd comes through - I match it up to what is in the odd basket. I am doing a few loads a day and it is heaven, I actually ENJOY doing the laundry now as the system is fun and I tap my toe to the music on the radio as I stand on my fluffy bright carpet. . I like moving the laundry through the room! I can stop in the middle of it at any time, and it is not on my bed, not on the kitchen table or counters, not on the dining room table, it is in the laundry room where it belongs. I can return to it at any time and keep it moving through. This is LAUNDRY HEAVEN I tell you!!!

As the laundry monster is out of the house, I am able to turn my attention to other things like clearing more closets.

Sorry for the incredibly long post, but I was hoping it would inspire and help someone else, and I felt as thought I deserved to brag and celebrate a little.

That is awesome! You should tell FlyLady about your system, too. I bet she would be thrilled. What a wonderfully empowering story. That really sounds like a great system. Good for you!

 

[hickchick]

I swear that getting rid of clutter is great therapy!
I have been deep spring cleaning our house for the past 2 weeks. Last Sunday, we hauled 2 large boxes and 13 paper grocery bags full of STUFF to Goodwill!
Finally went through the baby/toddler clothes that have been stored for years since DD10 outgrew them...got 4 tubs down to 1...rest will go to sister in hopes she has a little girl someday (11 nephews and 1 niece between our two families...so that odds aren't REALLY 50/50...)
Love having a cleaner, more organized house!

 

[mrsklamc]

Thank you for the advice about the FBD, Ocean Annie! I will look into it. Did you do the detox with the sassy water?

I am working on the bathroom today. It just always seems to accumulate more junk!

 

[mafibisha]

Those of you dumping old wardrobes have inspired me to go through mine. I have a bad tendency of buying sale items then not being able to make outfits w/anything. I am going to get rid of all those misc. pieces I never seem to wear and stuff that doesn't fit.

Meeee, too.

And its so frustrating! It'll seem like a great deal but too many times it never goes with anything so it just hangs there. Such a waste of money and space!

This thread is super inspiring!

 

[OceanAnnie]

Thank you for the advice about the FBD, Ocean Annie! I will look into it. Did you do the detox with the sassy water?

I am working on the bathroom today. It just always seems to accumulate more junk!

You're welcome! I hope it works out. It's hard to calculate how much I've lost since Mar. because I did lose some in the beginning of the year and then I stalled for a long while. I wasn't real good with recording my weight. I'm thinking I have lost about 7 pounds since March. I'd love to lose 10-14 pounds more. I'm not in a rush. I'd just like to keep it off.

I did the sassy water for a couple of weeks. It was okay. I didn't mind it. I drink tea, lemonade or water now. I don't sweeten the tea or lemonade until I pour a glass and then I'll use 1 tsp. of Agave. I really like that stuff! It's all natural and a little bit goes a long way. I don't remember if it's mentioned in the FBD book or not, but it's good stuff!

I'm working on clearing out the "consignment corner" today. That is going to be a job!

 

[mafibisha]

I am getting rid of all my antique china collection and my Barbie doll collection. I am selling my 20 year collection of rubber stamps. I have more than 10,000 of them.

So far I listed about 25 Barbies on ebay...only a few sold. I brought my first bin of kids clothes to Kid to Kid.
Lisa

Wow, thats awesome. I too have collections I need to purge. How do you decide what to sell / donate and what to keep when its all so sentimental? Its easy with clothes and household but meaningful collections are tough! I'm taking pics of stuff but still.....

And antique stuff, is there a good source for pricing it?