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Get rid of it all 2019


Murphy101
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49 minutes ago, Murphy101 said:

 

Take it to one of those consignment stores. Drop off bags of it. They keep what they want to sell and pay you for it.  Anything they don’t want, take to charity drop off. 

I cant fathom 30 pairs of pants for one person at one time. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever had more than 4 pants at one time. 

But I hate shopping and I’m very hard on clothing. Seems like I always have stained or torn up clothes within weeks of buying something. 

same. I currently have two pairs of jeans, one blue one black, and a pair of black pants. I do, however, have at least half a dozen pairs of shorts, but thats because I live in Florida and I get messy a lot, lol. So I might start the day in one pair and then get muddy at the park and change. Or not 🙂 But at least they take up less room than long pants. 

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12 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

We took all of 2014 and most of 2015 to do our big purge.  I still do a twice a a year sweep through the house.  We just finished quieting the house after Christmas and I'm taking a load to Salvation Army today. We have two bags of trash to work into our trash cans as room allows. It does complicate things to have to "wait" on trash, but dump fees are expensive.  When we moved in to this house earlier this year and had to make a dump run (thanks, previous owners), it was $150....

WOW that is high.  Around here I can sit anything on the curb and whatever "junkers" don't pick up the city will come pick up for free.  And because I live in the city, if I have take a load to the dump it is free.  Free being relative, I pay both city and county taxes (so higher taxes).  Also if my can is full I can leave can open and sit bag on top or can sit bags next to can and they pick it up (normally, sometimes I get a different driver that won't get out and put it in the empty can after dumping and dump again)

 

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12 hours ago, soror said:

Sigh, going through papers MIL sent down for us. Christmas cards from a random guy that went to dh's grandparents church(from 1979-82)  that they only attended on Christmas with $1 bills and happy grandmother cards she was given when our kids were born- seriously- WHY!!!! 

 

Some people just keep EVERYTHING!

I had a great-aunt who was a hoarder (not the rat infested type of hoarder but just so much stuff that you couldn't sit down without her moving stuff around, but clean- hoarder).  Everyone loved her, she had a heart of gold, but when she passed away, my dad's siblings went through her house and they found stacks and stacks of church bulletins, in order, for every Sunday since the 1940s.  She had kept them ALL!  

They also found boxes and boxes of empty film containers.  She had planned to donate them to our mission hospital, they used them for collecting urine and fecal samples, etc.....but she never sent them.  

When they had finished cleaning out the kitchen, several of them exclaimed, "Wow!  I didn't know she had yellow countertops!"  🤣  And they had visited several times through the years. That is how cluttered her house was.

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7 hours ago, Judyan said:

To be honest, I hate being controlled by the Internet. It seems that without it we can't live. In 2019, I will spend more time with my family, travel, and gardening. Everything will get better and better.

 

?????  I am not following you.  We are discussing getting rid of material possessions and you are bringing up internet control.  

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20 minutes ago, DawnM said:

 

Some people just keep EVERYTHING!

I had a great-aunt who was a hoarder (not the rat infested type of hoarder but just so much stuff that you couldn't sit down without her moving stuff around, but clean- hoarder).  Everyone loved her, she had a heart of gold, but when she passed away, my dad's siblings went through her house and they found stacks and stacks of church bulletins, in order, for every Sunday since the 1940s.  She had kept them ALL!  

They also found boxes and boxes of empty film containers.  She had planned to donate them to our mission hospital, they used them for collecting urine and fecal samples, etc.....but she never sent them.  

When they had finished cleaning out the kitchen, several of them exclaimed, "Wow!  I didn't know she had yellow countertops!"  🤣  And they had visited several times through the years. That is how cluttered her house was.

LOL, she is not THAT bad, her main living areas are neat and clean but it's pretty full everywhere else and she keeps building storage. Re; the cards- she told dh that he couldn't spend the money, he had to keep it, LOL, $4 from 1970s-80s from a guy he doesn't even remember- not special bills in anyway- random $1. He put them in his wallet and threw the cards away. 

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We are moving and yes.... we have waaaaaay too much carp. We’ve only moved across the subdivision to a bigger house, so i’m Just kind of going back and forth and I’m about to just hire a dumpster and a scoop shovel for the rest of it. I am very proud that I condensed my homeschooling stuff from three storage places to just one large IKEA unit in the office. That feels good.

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I have finished cleaning out 3 of 5 closets that needed it.  Only 2 left.  Already there is a large box ready to be parceled out to the various charities at our town dump: clothes, shoes, books all have collection bins kept from the elements.  The rest will go to the thrift store downtown.

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15 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

 

Take it to one of those consignment stores. Drop off bags of it. They keep what they want to sell and pay you for it.  Anything they don’t want, take to charity drop off. 

I cant fathom 30 pairs of pants for one person at one time. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever had more than 4 pants at one time. 

But I hate shopping and I’m very hard on clothing. Seems like I always have stained or torn up clothes within weeks of buying something. 

 

Yes it is nuts.  I would have never bought that much. Yeah you don't need that many if you can do laundry everyday. 

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4 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

 

Yes it is nuts.  I would have never bought that much. Yeah you don't need that many if you can do laundry everyday. 

This is my in-laws. They were constantly talking about all of thier purging and downsizing as they made three moves in five years. They finally moved here as their age in place hopefully final home. They “needed” over 1800 square feet, and as I helped them bring in some of thier last loads of stuff, I understood why. Thier walk-in closet was hung with clothes packed in tightly. I had to force some sections open to be able to hang the piles of dresses, shirts and slacks we’d unloaded from the car, there was simply no more room! I truly believe they have more clothes in thier house than we do in ours.  Perhaps it’s weight fluctuations? But they have money to deal with that. 🤔

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I cleaned out my underwear/sock bin in the closet this morning because I have had to toss through it recently trying to find things. I found 8 socks without mates, 2 packs of dress socks (that I bought because I didn't know I already had them) and a $50 ITunes gift card that I thought I lost. The bin looks pretty now. I plan to sell the gift card, and I'm donating the dress socks (all but 2 pair - one navy and one black). Mateless socks are in living room currently since I think one of my DD's have the mate in their drawer; I need to nag her to look so I can throw the unmatched ones away. 

I made Youngest try on her jeans this morning since she has just had a growth spurt. She outgrew 3 pairs of jeans, so those are in the donate pile now. I found 1 pair that currently fit her in the hand-me-down bin. Maybe I can make a trip to the thrift store today and get rid of the donation pile in the bedroom. I do have a pair of leggings coming for her from a LulaRoe going out of business sale since she prefers leggings over jeans. 

 

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The giveaway thing was instant relief. I purged this past summer. I thought of it as gladly trading the $200 I could have made selling stuff for HOURS of free time for ME. I felt I deserved it being the only person in the house willing and motivated to get rid of things. 

Dh has boxes he hasn’t opened in 20 years, but they are now neatly stacked on a single shelf in the basement and I can live with that. 

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31 minutes ago, beckyjo said:

I cleaned out my underwear/sock bin in the closet this morning because I have had to toss through it recently trying to find things. I found 8 socks without mates, 2 packs of dress socks (that I bought because I didn't know I already had them) and a $50 ITunes gift card that I thought I lost. The bin looks pretty now. I plan to sell the gift card, and I'm donating the dress socks (all but 2 pair - one navy and one black). Mateless socks are in living room currently since I think one of my DD's have the mate in their drawer; I need to nag her to look so I can throw the unmatched ones away. 

I made Youngest try on her jeans this morning since she has just had a growth spurt. She outgrew 3 pairs of jeans, so those are in the donate pile now. I found 1 pair that currently fit her in the hand-me-down bin. Maybe I can make a trip to the thrift store today and get rid of the donation pile in the bedroom. I do have a pair of leggings coming for her from a LulaRoe going out of business sale since she prefers leggings over jeans. 

 

 

Score!!

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Yesterday I went through the mugs. I have 1 daily tea drinker, 2 occasional tea drinkers and 3 very occasional hot chocolate drinkers. So, I do not need 10 coffee mugs; down to 6 now - 2 that match my dishes, 1 picture mug, 1 psych TV show mug, 1 Fantastic Beasts mug, and 1 college mug.

Took a garden garbage bag to Goodwill - most of the stuff had just been sitting by the back door. 

Took garbage out of the master closet - there were 3 empty boxes and loads of computer cords in there. DH is going to go through the cord pile, and I threw out the boxes.

Today, I need to take the 2 Christmas items that got missed out to the garage. I also want to do the tupperware cupboard - it's starting to attack when the door is opened. 

My house looks better since I've been halfway doing Motivated Moms. So far, for decluttering, I've been focusing on areas that bother me, and they may not be noticeable, but it makes my life easier. 

Edited by beckyjo
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I get inspired by organization experts. One was casually talking on camera and was asked what is the secret to being organized. Her response? "Get rid of 2/3 of your belongings." I don't think she was kidding and it struck a chord with me. 

On a somewhat related note, the Kindle version of two books by Dana K. White aka A Slob Comes Clean are $2.99 on the 'Zon right now. (Not an affiliate link)

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Yesterday I was able to attack the tupperware cupboard. I ended up with 10 unmatched lids - where did all the containers go?? Anyway, I'm keeping them through a week to see if the containers show up. I got the missed Christmas decorations into the tubs in the garage. Finally, I dumped old, expired spices while I was in the kitchen cooking last night. Oldest expired in 2013! 

I've decided to send some clothes to ThredUp, so I just ordered a shipping label. I'd also like to work in the linen closet today. I may have to clear out another area first to move the crafts out of there - they've kind of taken over too much space in the linen closet. 

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4 closets done.  Only one left.
I also watched the first episode of Tidying Up, which inspired me to clean out my dresser.  I only made it through the first two drawers 😄 but I figure that will be my project for the week.  On Friday I'll watch another episode and pick another focus for a new week.  I didn't think I had a lot of stuff, but, oh, man!  There was a large pile on the bed when I got done of things I never wear, stockings with runs in them, belts that are too small..it was so much nicer to open those drawers this morning and not have to hunt through a mess.

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On 1/2/2019 at 9:12 PM, Baseball mom said:

WOW that is high.  Around here I can sit anything on the curb and whatever "junkers" don't pick up the city will come pick up for free.  And because I live in the city, if I have take a load to the dump it is free.  Free being relative, I pay both city and county taxes (so higher taxes).  Also if my can is full I can leave can open and sit bag on top or can sit bags next to can and they pick it up (normally, sometimes I get a different driver that won't get out and put it in the empty can after dumping and dump again)

 

It is high. It's also $4 an additional bag if my lid doesn't completely shut or if I have to put an extra bag of trash out.

We have just two extra bags of trash in the garage to fit in this next week---one is of shredded paper and the other is old pillows that we replaced.

I made a salvation army drop-off yesterday.  Our winter holiday tidy is done.  I just have one more stack of papers to shred from tidying up papers at the end of the year in preparation for tax season.

Target is running a $15 off $50 or more purchase in cleaning and household supplies. I tidied our cleaning closet and bought refills for all of the stuff we were close to running out of. I do a big stock-up yearly, so hopefully I am good to go for the year.

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On 1/4/2019 at 10:32 AM, Angie in VA said:

I get inspired by organization experts. One was casually talking on camera and was asked what is the secret to being organized. Her response? "Get rid of 2/3 of your belongings." I don't think she was kidding and it struck a chord with me. 

On a somewhat related note, the Kindle version of two books by Dana K. White aka A Slob Comes Clean are $2.99 on the 'Zon right now. (Not an affiliate link)

I don’t think she was kidding either. People have asked me for a decade or more how I manage a these kids, especially when I had so many title ones.  Honestly being poor paid off for us parenting-wise. All that stuff being marketed to new parents? We had almost none of it. We simply didn’t have the money or the square footage or the time for it all. By the time we had those things, we’d learned to do without them and that’s just always been our normal.

I still don’t understand all the baby paraphernalia phenomenon. The way most moms I see pack diaper bags is how I pack for a week away. lol

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10 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

I don’t think she was kidding either. People have asked me for a decade or more how I manage a these kids, especially when I had so many title ones.  Honestly being poor paid off for us parenting-wise. All that stuff being marketed to new parents? We had almost none of it. We simply didn’t have the money or the square footage or the time for it all. By the time we had those things, we’d learned to do without them and that’s just always been our normal.

I still don’t understand all the baby paraphernalia phenomenon. The way most moms I see pack diaper bags is how I pack for a week away. lol

I think part of the diaper bag thing is personality. My sister tends to just throw two diapers and some wipes in her purse, doesn't even own a diaper bag. I'm the one with diapers, wipes, diaper ointment, maybe a small bottle of infant ibuprofen, a backup pacifier, sippy cup, at least one outfit change (my kids spill a lot), crayons and a small coloring book or two for the bigger kids, sting wipe things for mosquito bites, a travel size deodorant for me because sometimes I forget to apply and we live in Florida, barrette for the oldest kid who often loses hers, pen, bandaids, etc. But her kids know Aunt Katie comes prepared, so I'm the one they come to if they need something while we are out, be that something to color or a spare pair of undies for a potty training kid. 

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10 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

I don’t think she was kidding either. People have asked me for a decade or more how I manage a these kids, especially when I had so many title ones.  Honestly being poor paid off for us parenting-wise. All that stuff being marketed to new parents? We had almost none of it. We simply didn’t have the money or the square footage or the time for it all. By the time we had those things, we’d learned to do without them and that’s just always been our normal.

I still don’t understand all the baby paraphernalia phenomenon. The way most moms I see pack diaper bags is how I pack for a week away. lol

 

I was probably one of those moms!  But as soon as I went minimal, I needed something I normally carried in the bag!  Extra clothing was a must as my kids would inevitably have accidents the day I didn't take extra clothing.  

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One thing I have found difficult is getting rid of nice things that “don’t bring me joy” and I never use,  but end up storing and/or dragging with me when I move. Example: wedding presents. We got married 16+ years ago. I have a rather large and beautiful crystal bowl in the bottom of my China hutch. I have never used it. It is too heavy to pass around the table with food in it,and  it is not exactly something to put flowers in, or use as a fruit bowl. I have other serving bowls I like. And yet, here it is. I am not a “seller” type person, so I’m not going to list it on eBay or whatever else people do these days.

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Yesterday, I boxed up kids' coats and dresses for ThredUp. I made DH drop it off at the Post Office on his way to the gym last night. Yay, they're out of the house. I went through the linen closet, got rid of some kids' pillowcases and extra sheets for the master bedroom bed - we had 4 sets and 2 extra top sheets. Extra top sheets gone and down to 3 sets; probably could've gone to two sets, but inevitably, when I do that one set pops a hole. I started on some "spare" cupboards that are in the foyer - they form a little counter in there, but I don't really need to store stuff in the foyer so they've been a catch all for when I need to stash stuff because people are coming over. I will try to finish cleaning those out today, and probably move all of the craft stuff in there so it's all in one spot. Finally, I listed the ITunes card I found the other day on ebay.

This morning, while my DD showered (she needs me in there for safety, but doesn't need help), I cleaned out most of the vanity. Donating some pet pads we used for our 19 year old cat who passed away last year and used the last toilet cleaning drop that was in there. Got rid of some makeup that was who knows how old and some extra contacts that had an expire date from 2017 (not going to put those in my eyes!) Also, since I've been doing Walmart pickup for groceries for the last few months, we were drowning in plastic bags which I store in the bathroom. I use them for the cat box, so I grabbed a small garbage can, stuffed it full, and called us stocked up. I will take the others back to Walmart for recycling. 

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This thread got me up off the couch this morning to throw some stuff away, and also to put a bunch of things I do want - but have scattered around the house - into their rightful places. Phew! I also started thinking about stuff I wouldn't normally consider tossing, like those blankets that I keep piled on the spare room bed, but don't actually like... someone else will hopefully get them at Goodwill and enjoy them 🙂 

 

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I actually bought “The Minimalist Home” and downloaded it into my Kindle app. Honestly, I’m not at all a pack rat, and when I started reading the recommendations for the living room/family room, I looked around and thought there would be nothing I could do to make it more minimal, and, in that room, there really wasn’t.

However, I do find I have a couple closets where I’ve been hanging onto things. They aren’t really in my way because we have a 5 bedroom house and never use the upstairs closets, so having some crafty stuff hanging around isn’t affecting me. I just really don’t WANT to have stuff around I’ll likely never use. Also, I would LOVE to downsize, but my husband loves our location/property, and he just really won’t hear of it.

Anyway, I got rid of nearly 2 garbage bags of clothes from what many would consider a pretty minimal wardrobe. I’ve gotten rid of quite a few little random items, and I’m gonna go through that upstairs “craft” closet, and unload!

I think the main thing the book has done is helped me to realize how freeing this lifestyle can be, so I’m beginning to embrace it more and more!

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4 hours ago, Ktgrok said:

I think part of the diaper bag thing is personality. My sister tends to just throw two diapers and some wipes in her purse, doesn't even own a diaper bag. I'm the one with diapers, wipes, diaper ointment, maybe a small bottle of infant ibuprofen, a backup pacifier, sippy cup, at least one outfit change (my kids spill a lot), crayons and a small coloring book or two for the bigger kids, sting wipe things for mosquito bites, a travel size deodorant for me because sometimes I forget to apply and we live in Florida, barrette for the oldest kid who often loses hers, pen, bandaids, etc. But her kids know Aunt Katie comes prepared, so I'm the one they come to if they need something while we are out, be that something to color or a spare pair of undies for a potty training kid. 

I kept a small bag in the van full of “oh crap the van broke down in the snow” stuff. Change of clothes, spare blanket, diapers, wipes, granola bars, bottled water, first aid...

The baby has a tiny backpack that she carries everywhere we go of travel wipes and diaper and pants, sippy and snack and a couple quiet toys. 

Eta: mostly I was thinking of playpens and other baby holder stuff tho. 

Edited by Murphy101
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3 hours ago, KrissiK said:

One thing I have found difficult is getting rid of nice things that “don’t bring me joy” and I never use,  but end up storing and/or dragging with me when I move. Example: wedding presents. We got married 16+ years ago. I have a rather large and beautiful crystal bowl in the bottom of my China hutch. I have never used it. It is too heavy to pass around the table with food in it,and  it is not exactly something to put flowers in, or use as a fruit bowl. I have other serving bowls I like. And yet, here it is. I am not a “seller” type person, so I’m not going to list it on eBay or whatever else people do these days.

I’d find a use for it or give it away. 

Napkin holder

seasonal table decor

Betta fish bowl (yes indeed I have done that.)

put in a bedroom or bathroom to hold hair ties and clips or wash clothes or toothbrushes

kitchen counter for sponges and scrubbers. 

So what if it’s crystal. It’s still just a decorative dish. 

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That sounds like you're doing great Murphy. I've been gradually getting rid of stuff because we're getting closer to our target time for selling the house and moving. There's no way we can stage it with all of our clutter. I held on to a lot of things because I thought I could sell them and it would be nice to have the extra money. A few months ago I decided it's not worth it. It's not like I'll make a killing on our unwanted stuff. I'm going to try and sell a few things that I know will get a decent price but I've packed up most of it and am donating it.

The frustrating thing for me is I feel like I'm doing it all myself. I feel like that because I am doing it all. I've had dh or ds put bags and boxes in the car for me, and a few times I was able to get one of them to drop it off at the thrift shop but for the most part it's all me. 😠

We have our own stuff, stuff from my mother and grandparents, and stuff from dh's parents and grandparents. There's no reason to keep it all. I too have furniture I don't want to take with us to the next house but most of it came from dh's family and I'm going to have to work on him to get him to let go. We also have a pool table. That's one thing I will try to sell, but if I can't find a buyer in a reasonable amount of time after listing it, dss is going to check with his fire chief to see if his or another fire station would like it (donated of course).

Edited by Lady Florida.
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2 hours ago, Murphy101 said:

I’d find a use for it or give it away. 

Napkin holder

seasonal table decor

Betta fish bowl (yes indeed I have done that.)

put in a bedroom or bathroom to hold hair ties and clips or wash clothes or toothbrushes

kitchen counter for sponges and scrubbers. 

So what if it’s crystal. It’s still just a decorative dish. 

I have to agree.

I've used "nice" crystal bowls that I wasn't using for anything else as pet water bowls.

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This coming week:

Linen closet (thanks Katie for the reminder!) Need to borrow a label maker for this. 

Playroom at my mom's - this is a huge mess, way overdue for culling. It will yield some toys for consignment. 

 

Staying tuned for possible days to do the shed. If we get two sunny, warmish, dry days in a row, I will totally drop school for a day to get it done.
I will do Wild Thing's room a week from Friday. Gotta cull when he's not here! 

 

 

 

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Yesterday, I got out to Walmart - returned an oven mitt that still had tags (95 cents back - I'M RICH!!! hahaha) and dropped off the extra plastic bags. I took some duplicate condiments I had in the pantry to my brother - no one needs that much soy sauce and Parmesan cheese. Also, finished the foyer cabinet clean out. There were some weird things in there; mostly trash. I did find all of the homemade games I made for co-op years ago; as my kids have outgrown them, I put them in the donation area. Hopefully, someone will love them when they find them at Salvation Army.

This morning, I couldn't sleep so I got a head start while watching a TV show at 4:30 am. Cleaned out the cupboard we keep printer paper in. I posted on a local FB homeschool page a large roll of paper and 4 reams of legal paper that doesn't fit in our printer, and a lady is coming later today to pick up. I will drop off the donations when I go out later this evening. The Itunes card sold last night - woohoo! I don't know if I'll have time to do more today or if I'll have to wait until tomorrow. 

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Speaking of wedding gifts, I have a tiffany vase I never use, I should get that down and see if I actually like it as DH does get me flowers regularly. And Silver candlesticks that my Aunt gave me for our wedding 10 years ago that have never been out of the box. 

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Speaking of sentimental items/gifts, that’s my struggle at the moment. I have a gorgeous, crocheted quilt that my ex’s ex-aunt (as if that’s not already weird) made us when we got married. It is absolutely gorgeous, but doesn’t match a thing in my house, and I have zero clue what to do with it.

I also have a lot of random things from my parents’ funerals, old paperwork, family photo albums with a lot of pics of people I don’t know, etc. We have managed to weed through most of the photos/albums between us siblings, but I just don’t know that I want to hold on to a lot of that other stuff, and I don’t want to be a horrible person and just throw it out either. There are tons of letters from my dad to my mom from when he worked overseas (and I was in jr high/high school). My mom read some of those every day from the time my dad passed until she could no longer remember to read them, so they were important to her. And although I’d love to sit and read them too, I feel, in a way, like it would almost be an invasion of their privacy. That may sound strange, but I just don’t know how I feel about it.

Anyway, what do you do with stuff like this? Those are the only things that seem to hold me back. I, personally, am not sentimental, but I almost feel obligated to hang onto these kinds of things.

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When we moved last year we got rid of probably 95% of our stuff. And in the new place I was determined not to let anything in that wasn't either really needed or really loved. Well, here we are, and it looks like I failed at that, lol. 3 bags of trash, maybe 10 boxes of random stuff and toys and books, and at least 2 huge boxes of kids clothes, and we're not done yet. Kids clothes I understand, they grow and I replace but don't take out the things that are still on the border of being worn. But the rest of it, how did it get past the threshold??

It'll be done today, one way or another, I can't live in this war zone of half full boxes and piles of paraphernalia!

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You are allowed to donate wedding gifts.  Crystal bowls and candlesticks you never use?  Just think how excited someone else will be to find something so nice at Goodwill!

(Truly sentimental items, like the handmade blanket are obviously harder, but gifts that were just expensive?  Donate!!!)

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1 hour ago, StaceyinLA said:

Speaking of sentimental items/gifts, that’s my struggle at the moment. I have a gorgeous, crocheted quilt that my ex’s ex-aunt (as if that’s not already weird) made us when we got married. It is absolutely gorgeous, but doesn’t match a thing in my house, and I have zero clue what to do with it.

Donate it to charity.  Someone who needs it could use it.

I also have a lot of random things from my parents’ funerals, old paperwork, family photo albums with a lot of pics of people I don’t know, etc. We have managed to weed through most of the photos/albums between us siblings, but I just don’t know that I want to hold on to a lot of that other stuff, and I don’t want to be a horrible person and just throw it out either.

I can't think of anything from a funeral someone would need to keep.  Maybe someone else could chime in if I'm being clueless.

There are guidelines as to what kinds of paperwork someone actually needs to keep, and there are paperless options for keeping those that you do need. 

For family pics, can you host an extended family event and explain to people that you have those pics available for everyone to go through and take what they want, and when the event is over anything left will be thrown away?  I did that for my granddad when his surviving siblings came for a visit.  It was fun.  People told stories, laughed and puzzled over them, and took some of them.  What was left were unwanted pics, not sacred, holy relics or horcruxes imbued with parts of anyone's soul. We threw them away and haven't regretted it at all.  How could anyone possibly regret not holding on to that pic of that stranger? It's not horrible to throw away unwanted pics.  Pics were very valuable many many decades ago when they were extremely rare-they are no longer rare. Even if your extended relatives can't make it you can still throw them away if you don't want them.  Anyone who really cared about them would've asked around by now for them.


  There are tons of letters from my dad to my mom from when he worked overseas (and I was in jr high/high school). My mom read some of those every day from the time my dad passed until she could no longer remember to read them, so they were important to her. And although I’d love to sit and read them too, I feel, in a way, like it would almost be an invasion of their privacy. That may sound strange, but I just don’t know how I feel about it.

I get it.  You're not obligated to read them if you feel uncomfortable about it. If you've decided to not read them you can throw them away because it was between them and they're gone now. 

Anyway, what do you do with stuff like this? Those are the only things that seem to hold me back. I, personally, am not sentimental, but I almost feel obligated to hang onto these kinds of things.

 

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I went through the already pretty minimalist kitchen and found a few things to give away and donate. The kids’ rooms (also pretty minimal) yielded a couple grocery bags of trash. 

I’m looking forward to getting my closet and a couple other areas that have been the dumping ground for “I don’t know where that goes (after the last move)” decluttered in 2019.

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I've decided to take the plunge and have started typing up all of the 'living books' and recommended reading books I so carefully collected, mostly from bookmooch and 2nd hand shops, over the last 12years.  There are probably about 1000 in all.  They won't be read again by my kids and it was a good hobby at the time.  I'll sell them on our local homeschool group so that I know they're going to families that really want them.

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5 hours ago, StaceyinLA said:

There are tons of letters from my dad to my mom from when he worked overseas (and I was in jr high/high school). My mom read some of those every day from the time my dad passed until she could no longer remember to read them, so they were important to her. And although I’d love to sit and read them too, I feel, in a way, like it would almost be an invasion of their privacy. That may sound strange, but I just don’t know how I feel about it.

When we were helping my mother clean out her house, we found perhaps sixty or seventy letters my grandfather had written to my grandmother when they were first married and he was working far from home.  Many of them were pages and pages long.  I didn't feel comfortable reading them either for the same reason you mention -- neither had my parents.

Though my siblings and I felt a little conflicted about it, we finally decided to shred them all.  (If the letters had been mine, I would prefer them to be destroyed.)

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I am a minimalist moving more minimal. Marie Kondo really helped move me in that direction. I love having only things I enjoy or need. My family appreciates having things grouped together in one location - all batteries together, etc.

Today, I thought I'd just rearrange the pantry. I found a bag of items to donate including a panini press and waffle maker we never use, and a bag of garbage. Yay!

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I have got 3 kitchen trash bags ready to go to Goodwill, and I have my eye on the Nerf-type toys, they are played with much less recently and I think could be cut down without being missed.  I also have my eye on some books that my daughter has outgrown, and that aren’t worth keeping. 

I am very inspired from reading this thread!

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I've been konmari-ing in preparation for a move. I've lost count of the number of trips to Goodwill and the dumpster. I have 2 friends who've been through house fires recently, so a bunch has been delivered to them, in addition to the other drops. I'm so so so so so glad it's going. I had a little stress at the beginning but the further I get in the more momentum I gain. The idea of being surrounded and USING the things I love is so motivating. I've also started a spending ban... I'm almost 8 weeks in. It's been awesome. Food, gifts for others (specific, not junk), consumables, specific house needs (we're building)... Otherwise I haven't spent much of anything. 

 

If anyone is interested, "A Year of Less" and "The Magic Art of Tidying" have been super encouraging. The Tidying show on Netflix is great, too!

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