Personal clutter demons (long)

[SlowButSteady]

Thanks, everyone, for your input!

This morning I did a quick (15 min) horizontal surface purge--emphasis on books.

I took paper grocery bags--they will stand up and open by themselves and color coded index cards. On each bag I stapled a card with an authors name on it.

Sorted by

TOSS
KEEP
Fiction by Author name (resale on Amazon?) - nice hardbacks, read once
Nonfiction
Cookbooks

I am also using brown paper grocery bags with color-coded index cards to sort clothing for my local Hospice store.

This is my own system invention. Yay for me!

For next weekend, when my SIL and brother come, I have a goal of one specific room. I want to see the top of my dining room table again.

One thing I want to do before they come is maybe get some easy peel off adhesive stickers, again, color coded. Green for GO, Red for STOP (keep)??? I can do a quickie run through and apply stickers so nothing I want to keep gets inadvertantly tossed.

[Trek420]

Books: I go through those, the stuff I've read and will not read again I either take to a local used book store and trade them in which gets me .... yep, more books or drop them off at the local library for their book sale.

Excess sheets, towels I drop off at the Animal Shelter. They always need them for bedding.

If you have excess furniture here's an organization to donate to:
www.furniturebanks.org

This is mostly California but a ton of useful links:
www.stopwaste.org

[roadie gal]

I don't have a HUGE clutter problem, but I do tend to collect some stuff. One way that I've found to make myself get out that stuff to donate is to make an appointment with one of the charities that picks up from your house. Around here it's the Salvation Army or the MS Society. Once I've made a commitment to them I feel like I have to get the items out. I don't end up rethinking and putting them back on the shelves or in the closet.

I'm a terrible bookaholic, but about once a year I go through all of my books and ask myself if I'm honestly going to read that one again. If I can't say yes, then out it goes, either to a charity or the local library.

[Trek420]

The best way to get rid of the junk mail is not to get it in the first place. Disclosure some of these links are Bay Area specific:

www.stopjunkmail.org

[Dogmama]

The best way to get rid of the junk mail is not to get it in the first place. Disclosure some of these links are Bay Area specific:

www.stopjunkmail.org

Thank you!

[Trek420]

Happy to save a tree

[malkin]

I wonder how I missed this; it's the story of my life!


I was watching some mystery/crime show recently and the perp had stashed some evidence in a duct behind a vent. I made me wonder if I could keep anything there. Every other place is full!

The best thing has been to find a local charity shop that:
1. takes donations 7 days a week
2. is an easy walk or bike ride.

We can load up a basket and drop it off before I start pulling stuff out and back into the closet.

Also best if I don't fill the basket up at the shop before returning home!

[shootingstar]

Ongoing challenge for some of us, including moi.

We actually have a large Salvation Army bin within our building..permanently. I think people do drop things down there. Since we live in a high rise building, some people are too lazy to go to the dump offloading some small furniture. Some of it looks decent.

But no we don't need it. In all honesty, I'm not an antique nor consignment nor used furniture person. Except stuff from family. I only value antiques/old for items that genuinely having family/friendship meaning attached to it. The only used thing I ever bought from a non-family member, was a nearly new Braun immersion blender. A real bargain that we needed to replace a well-used one.

I probably sound like a snob...but after growing up in a poor family, I got really tired of stuff looking old/used and siblings got tired of getting hand-me-down clothing from older sibs (like me ). I just live and use my/our own stuff ..for decades.

I mean keeping and using clothing for decades. At least 30% of my clothing is at least 10 yrs. old or older. I keep the stuff in good shape (and myself hopefully, to fit the stuff!). When I used to sew alot, I did completely makeover some clothing into a totally different garment.

But admittedly some clothing needs to be whittled down again.