winter purges

[Zoe Girl]

I don't do much spring cleaning/purging. I am usually ready to get outside and think about the garden or hiking. So fall going into winter is my time to get ready to spend a lot of time indoors and I want to purge it out. Right now it is the food stores, do you know how many hamburgers and bags of lentils I have? We will be eating those for awhile so I got food to cook with them. Also the pre-holiday closet and storage clean out. I was about ready to give old bedding to goodwill when my daughter said she wanted it, but my mom is buying her new bedding so I should wait and not give it away.

Anyone else clean out this time of year?

[lessisbest]

I like fall/winter cleaning/purging as well because I function best when it's cold and have lots of energy. Hot weather zaps my energy. I just went through my kitchen pantry this morning while I was doing my Monday morning baking. Then I attacked my refrigerator and wiped it out. Got into the dishes and decided several things could go to Goodwill we just don't use anymore. We've been looking at small townhouses and the more stuff we reduce now, the better it will be when we find a place to retire to.

I keep a running inventory in my Price Book (http://organizedhome.com/kitchen-tips/make-price-book-save-money) so I can keep track of what I have on hand. This is particularly important when you practice home food storage and have large amounts of food that need rotated. About 70-80% of my food budget is used to restock things in storage. I was shopping at Aldi last week and was going to add a couple bottle of molasses to my cart because it's a seasonal thing they carry at a good price. I checked my Price Book first and decided I had more than enough on hand so I could use that money to stock-up on something else.

[Zoe Girl]

almost forgot about the baking. I have lots of brown sugar, white sugar goes faster in my tea. Plus I keep on buying cream of tartar and that is for snickerdoodles. I could make a LOT of those

[Packy]

We had our November cold snap last week, which was longer than average. But, while I was indoors, I went through the dresser drawers, reorganized & located some high-value bike apparel that had gone astray. Plus, sorted through the other stuff. It was a project that I had in mind for a bad weather day.

[Zoe Girl]

I just got into the fabric bin of my daughter. It has a lot of old clothes we are going to totally upcycle. I have worked on some of those projects but there is soooo much more. Too bad my daughter works retail or we could have more time to do this together. There are a couple chunky sweaters that should be skirts to wear with fun swedish tights.

[mschrisgo2]

"upcycle" - ok, so this is a new word for me, and I'm not sure I understand what it means?

[Zoe Girl]

fir$t apologie for being on my bad computer, up cycle i$ like recycle really, I u$e the vvord mo$tly for clothing but it can be applied to many thing$, one item vva$ a 50'$ vvool $vveater that I cut, added ribbon edging, crocheted flovver$ for and added hidden hook and eye clo$ure, changing and repurpo$ing item$,

[lessisbest]

I wasn't sure what "upcycle" was either, so thanks for the example. Happily, it's been a life-long practice with a new name. It's the old do over in "make do, do over, or do without".

My first memory of upcycling was using a berry basket (back when they were a basket) for a bassinet for my doll, using hankies for blankets, and this was when I was 2-years old. I unravel sweaters and reuse the yarn. Back when I was very poor, and needed to be well-dressed for the job, I purchased men's suits at thrift stores and remade them into jackets, vests, slacks and skirts for myself using instructions out of a Women's Day magazine and thanks to a great Home Economics teacher. Take a plain dress and change the cuffs, collar, belt for a new look. Altering sweatshirts was really popular a few decades ago as a fun and sometimes artistic upcycle. Build a piece of furniture out of wood palettes. Recycled 55-gallon plastic barrels made into rain barrels....

[rodeosweetheart]

I was jealous of how neat my husband's closet was--so I went through mine a few days ago and took out all the summer clothes and put them in a suitcase. Actually ironed about 8 shirts--it was a lovely afternoon, ironing and listening to podcasts. There is nothing more luxurious than having a spray starched shirt to wear, which I was able to do on Sunday when we went to church.

Closet looks so much better, all orderly.

[Zoe Girl]

Back when I was very poor, and needed to be well-dressed for the job, I purchased men's suits at thrift stores and remade them into jackets, vests, slacks and skirts for myself using instructions out of a Women's Day magazine and thanks to a great Home Economics teacher. Take a plain dress and change the cuffs, collar, belt for a new look. .

I am doing more of the clothing thing right novv, my mom i$ bringing me more than I could u$e

[early morning]

I don't have many clothes to purge, but I just went through our VCR tapes. I FINALLY got DH to agree to getting rid of some of them. There are FOUR huge bags in the car, headed for GW (at least 150 tapes) and three smaller bags of things we had taped. Those are headed for the trash, sadly. No one will recycle them around here. The cases, yes, the cassettes, no. We still have a box of tapes he would not part with until he has a DVD of them. Not that he has watched them in years, or that they can't be gotten from the library or purchased from Amazon if he really wants to see them (he had THREE copies of Blazing Saddles. THREE. In case one broke). Still, baby steps. He was having a middling day, which accounts for the box that stayed, I'm sure, but he has so few GOOD days that I don't want to take them up with crap like organizing or purging....Still, I am HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY with our progress! And yesterday, we sold a massage chair that he could no longer use. He promised to sell it in August, when he bought another one, but hey, the end of November is close enough I guess! (I will stop my passive-aggressive whine now :|(, thanks for listening!)

[nswef]

Early morning...feel free to talk here and keep joy in the household. Impressive purges, slow is better than not at all.

[TxZen]

I do a once over 3x a year. I like to do mine right after Halloween because you have that window before jumping into the Holidays and nothing beats a neat, clean home for me.

[Teacher Terry]

I do it a few times a year. Usually once in winter & once in spring.

[JaneV2.0]

I'm working on paper right now. I have bags and bags to recycle. Little by little. I feel the stirrings of a sense of accomplishment...

[Polliwog]

I am purging as we speak, cleaning out the linen closet which is full of things that aren't linens. Sort of a catch-all. I tend to save all kinds of things, just in case... I cannot seem to discard right away, but I'm trying to get better.

[kib]

almost forgot about the baking. I have lots of brown sugar, white sugar goes faster in my tea. Plus I keep on buying cream of tartar and that is for snickerdoodles. I could make a LOT of those Just a little :0! ... I found out last week that my local health food store stocks cream of tartar as a bulk item, along with a lot of other more expensive things like turmeric, mustard powder and ginger powder. I've basically gotten rid of those $5 jars of things that sit forever. The COT is about 85% cheaper than buying those little McCormick jars, and I don't think it loses its efficacy. Not sure what your options are as far as co-op or health food store bulk buys, but I was amazed at the difference.

[Gardenarian]

I usually do get rid of a lot of junk this time of year, partly because we tend to have lots of people over and partly because I'm haunted by those 'ghosts of Christmas past' - the tattered decorations we made, the gifts that didn't work out.
Of course, this year I'm moving, so we've had a massive reduction in clutter and stuff that is ongoing. I think when the day comes for the actual move (less than 3 weeks!!) there will be lots more that we decide is just not worth packing up.

[mschrisgo2]

Funny how I can overlook things... since it's finally raining, I reached for boots to wear to work today, and found the old, very worn out pair that I replaced 2 years ago- hm, didn't throw out the old ones because the new ones weren't very comfortable- as if keeping the old ones would change that!?!

Also found a strange pair of shoes tonight, that I bought very inexpensively for like $8, canvas slides-type shoes that I thought might be good to wear in the house in the winter. Ha!! Nearly broke my neck in them! Stepped into the kitchen and slid on the linoleum floor. Now I remember why I haven't worn them... put those in the Goodwill bag and the boots in the trash.

And yes, I've passed over these every time I've done the run through declutter of x number of items.

[Float On]

I don't think we did a 100 items challenge in Nov or Dec but I'm still finding things. Husband and I went through our laundry room closet - there are several empty shelves in there now! And we went through the front hall closet. Got to pass along several winter coats that no one in the family claimed. The closet rod has room on it now too! Also got the guys to go through a big basket of shoes. Men's shoes (size 11, 13, and 14) take up so much room. Ended up with a laundry basket full to go through again deciding which ones to take to good will (6 pair) and which ones weren't fit to wear (4 pair).

I'm also still doing the antique/flea market booth at $55 a month because I'm still making money there. Took 20 items there yesterday to add to the booth. Kind of looking forward to pulling out the Christmas boxes this weekend and go through those.

[kib]

Funny how I can overlook things... since it's finally raining, I reached for boots to wear to work today, and found the old, very worn out pair that I replaced 2 years ago- hm, didn't throw out the old ones because the new ones weren't very comfortable- as if keeping the old ones would change that!?!
That's so funny ... and so true. I definitely find that a lot of my clutter is due to the old one not being quite what I wanted, and the new one not being quite what I wanted either. So why is Either of these things still here!

[iris lilies]

I purged two mattress covers and multiple pieces of clothing. It occurred to me that if I'm not wearing work jackets this winter, I won't need them ever again. Ever. Purged!

I pulled some old pillow covers out of the linen closet, the kind that are decorative, and will be using those for dog beds. They are washable and slightly padded, and the little doggies will love to burrow down in them for winter. I should have dragged out the sewing machine, cut up the mattress pads into small dog sized beds and sewn around edges to keep from fraying to fully utilize these mattress pad. The dog bedding is washed daily.

But I have other things to do, like type on this computer. haha.

[Packy]

I had some old Merc-O-ree parts--lots of them, even several truck loads of "stuff", just for really old Cougars., in fact. But, they were cluttering up the place. Messy, messy. So, I hauled it all to the landfill, just to tidy everything up. I feel sooo much better, now.

[JaneV2.0]

The paper is nearly gone--shredded and sorted and recycled, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the bulky office chair. It has about fifty bolts which so far I've been unable to match to any of my tools. My beloved suggested I use vise grips (why have we no rolling on the floor smiley?) An example of the snow ball theory of home repairs....Unfortunately, it's blocking the closet door that contains Christmas wrapping paper and a pattern I need to make a gift. I guess I should have started worrying earlier...:|(