Purge 2015 August Declutter 100 Items

[Float On]

Another month. Too hot and humid to work outside so working on the inside.

1-20 DS #1 did another run through of his clothes and got rid of 20 more items. We've started packing for his NM college.
21-30 I went through my pants and skirts. Passing along 10 items I haven't worn this summer.
31-34 4 pair of sandals I haven't worn this summer.

[lessisbest]

Made a stab at clearing out the DVDs yesterday (movies, TV shows, BBC stuff, etc.) and eliminated 37 (many were multi-disc). We also got rid of one Coleman water jug. Total: 38

[mschrisgo2]

Donated a bunch of things to the church sale:
1- bookcase
1- backpack
4- pictures frames and mats
2 -pr pants
6- tops
10- blank books
6- bunches of artificial flowers
8- desk top accessories/holders
2- more picture frames
subtotal: 40

10- brushes, bowls, leash to dog rescue

12 spiral notebooks
12 pencils
12 pens
all to grandsons for school

New subtotal: 86

[Float On]

I've been a bit slow this month but I expect good things in decluttering next week. Move son#2 into his dorm next Thursday and son#1 the following Tuesday. They'll be going through their rooms this coming Monday and Tuesday.

[SiouzQ.]

This is what happens: I see a random sign for an estate sale and I go check it out - 50 years of accumulated mostly junk, furniture and dishes not my style at all. Bought a few weird random things; a corkscrew (I can finally open that bottle of wine that's been sitting in the fridge since X-mas), a handful of silk scarves, another handful of wooden rulers (think DIY art project here) and some rocks (for jewelry display purposes). I spent the grand sum of $3. So this is what happens next: I drag the stuff home and realize how cluttered MY house looks and that my decorative object collection needs winnowing and refreshing. I spend several hours rearranging objects, reconsidering objects, and then realizing some of them I can just plain finally let go of. I now have a small pile of stuff to take to the thrift store and my little makeover makes the rooms looks slightly different.

It also made me realize that after 19 years my place really, really needs some wall repair to fill in the nail holes from moving pictures around and a new paint job. It's pretty dingy. I sure like the idea of painting way better in theory than in practice...I'm am in no hurry to do it any time soon.

[lessisbest]

We had clean-up yesterday after the water heater mess this week. Before the plumber got here, I moved six 5-gallon jugs of emergency drinking water and the two stands they are stored on out of the storage area. I rolled two large storage racks out as well. Lucky we decided to put those stands on rollers since there were a total of fourteen 5-gallon jugs of water and three 3-gallon jugs I would have had to move by hand (my weight-lifting exercise for the day).

Displaced items like that make you realize just how much "stuff" you have and need to get rid of. So, after the floor was cleaned and had a chance to dry, we had time to assess the "stuff" displaced by the mini-disaster, and it got us in gear to reduce the number of items. I'm not sure how many items (total) we hauled to the Goodwill (but a LOT)! I reduced the number of FoodSaver Canisters I have by 8 (I use more canning jars than I do the plastic canisters), got rid of some clothing (both hubby and I have slowly been losing weight this summer), and we took 10 items to the household recycling center.

[mschrisgo2]

Previous subtotal: 86

Out today: (I love when someone calls and asks, "do you have...")
7 jigsaw puzzles
4 decorative "shoeboxes"

New subtotal: 97

[SiouzQ.]

Perhaps it is the notion of the impending new room mate move-in, but the estate sale I went to over the weekend has really kicked up the urge to de-clutter and rearrange. It's not like I have a lot of useless stuff hanging around, but in reality, I do. It's the uncovering of yet another almost invisible layer to the journey of stripping away. For instance, yesterday I started looking at all the jewelry I have accumulated. I come from a family of jewelry lovers and fabricators; my grandmother was a silversmith, my great-aunt collected A LOT of really fine, fancy jewelry (a lot of which I inherited) and I followed in grandma's footsteps and got a degree in metal smithing and jewelry design.

So I am looking at all this stuff that I don't wear much because I can't wear it at work in a commercial kitchen, and I don't go out much anyway, and decided to play the "what if I could only keep half this stuff" game, and then started sorting things according to their emotional value to me. There is a good portion of things I will keep because I simply really like it style-wise and it has emotional value to me (grandma made it), and then there is stuff I am just keeping because I inherited it and that is what I am supposed to do, but in all liklihood am not going to wear because it is not my style and never has been...well, these are things I am going to separate out and think about for a bit. Things is, I need to purchase so many more tools for my metal studio; if I sold this stuff it's kind of like the gift that keeps on giving. I am turning a commodity (jewelery) into a vehicle/tool that I can use to purchase what I need for the right here and now. Then I could say "Great Aunt Flo helped me get my studio set up." Or actually, in my mind I have decided that some of the really good estate jewelry I have inherited CAN ONLY be used for a purchase of, for instance, some land in New Mexico or someplace when I decide to retire.

So this is the sort of metal (ha! Pun not really intended, just a mistype) process I use when I go through family things so I don't get caught in the trap of sentimentality for its own sake. It doesn't do ANYBODY any good just sitting boxed up in a drawer, never seeing the light of day. There are definitely layers to the cloak of sentimentality, and it is interesting to unwrap each layer and extract the meaning and value of it...

[ejchase]

We got rid of some mostly big items today: A Pack and Play, stroller, music stand, a backpack for carrying a baby while hiking, and a little toddler scooter. Sigh. Our little baby is growing up. Total so far this month: 5.

[Ultralight]

These purge threads are great! I wish I had been on here to read them when I was going through my big purges. haha

I think I'd have moved a little faster and more efficiently...