Today I spontaneously decluttering 3 Trader Joe’s paper grocery sacks full of clothes and shoes. One pair of shoes thrown away, along with several clothing items. I need to search for anyone that might recycle any of those things.
Much of this was stuffed in my closet. So I have better access to be able to clean out that closet space (vacuum, mop, etc.)
I also pseudo-organized the things I kept (long sleeved tops together, bottoms, short sleeved tops). Not in a permanent place, but better than piles in the closet.
I don’t think that’s an outrageous number. I don’t carry a purse, and I have two - one fabric, one leather (purple - I should send it to @Dahlia). Every once in awhile I either have no pockets, or have a more formal thing I have to go to.
Today we visited the in laws and I could bitch about a lot of things from that visit, but what I am here to bitch about is the source of so much of my clutter over the years.
Luckily, I have worked my way past obligation and the Dollarama Jenga and Dollarama Codebreaker games that they bought my 11 & 14 year old are headed straight to the thrift store.
The children already own both games, and the children brought chess and backgammon with them to play with the Grandparents.
Cleaned out a closet in our living room that holds towels, camera gear, and a ton of junk.
The following things were listed on Buy Nothing, and picked up.
Also threw away/recycled a lot of boxes, and some broken camera/scuba equipment. As well as rehoming a lot of things.
Monopod
Box One one-player mystery puzzle game
Baby monitor
Weird shears
Toddler shoes
Dog blankets and towels (well one of the ‘dog blankets’ is uncut fleece I never actually sewed)
They came in a multi-pack of craft shears- like 8 different kinds of fabric scissors. They are good for cutting batting and quilt sandwiches too; but I never used them.
Gave away about 10 things on Buy Nothing, feels really good. It’s all in the category of good quality but annoying to sell (eg the Brita water filter we used for 6 months), so it feels good that it has a new home.
What do you guys do with beat-up wood clutter? We have: a cheap room divider that broke after a few months, a junky wood desk that we don’t use, a very beat up outdoor bench, that kind of thing.
My wife keeps saying she wants to go to one of those rage rooms where you beak stuff, might as well save money and break up our stuff for the trash at home
We hired two teenage boys to break up some ancient cabinetry and toss it in the dumpster when we cleaned out my mom’s house and they said it was the most fun they had all summer.
Another declutter pickup this morning, another two boxes and a bag out.
Unfortunately, they didn’t take the card table.
Also, I put a very old high chair out with the garbage on Sunday night, hoping but considering it unlikely that it would be picked up by the garbage collectors on Monday - When I got up in the morning, it was gone, but I still had the tray inside the house. I’ve left the tray leaning against a tree by the curb, in case the person who picked it up walks by again, but honestly, whoever picked it up in the dark probably got it home, looked at it in the light, and put it out at the road again. It was Chuck’s when she was small, and was in pretty poor condition so I didn’t use it for the children. If I was unwilling to use it for her siblings, I can’t see another person using it.
In the realm of tiny complaint then tiny victory, I went online to book my next pick up and it was either further out than I wanted or too soon, so I booked the further out.
Then a different agency phoned and they had a date they will be in the neighbourhood in the sweet spot, so I took that one and revised my other one.
If it’s not painted, stained or varnished? We cut it up to reuse it. We have an old maple table we bought at auction for $5. The top was stripped (had been varnished) and we’ve got pieces of it reused in our bedroom, laundry room, pantry, and kitchen. If it’s odd bits instead of “planks” and unstained, etc. we use it as kindling in the wood stove or add it to the brush pile.
