View Full Version : June purge
iris lilies
6-6-18, 9:35am
Our annual Park Conservancy organization’s sale has come and gone, and we rid ourselves of a few items in that sale. One thing was a cute iron chair, shabby in its paint, that DH rescued from the alley years ago. I sat on it for some years at our gardens property, but since we are getting ready to sell that, we do not need extra furniture there.
i was glad that a woman bought it right away, seeing its charm.
We also emptied half of our garage of stuff we stored for the sale, donations from other people.
For the second year in a row
I painted up an iron planter with the intent to donate it to the sale, but when the time came, I could not let it go.
That is unusual for me, I can usually pitch stuff
I do not use. But since this one is still “speaking to me” (aka “sparking joy”) I cannot see it leave.
DH and I were gone for the second day of the sale, so I dont know how it actually did in profit. It appeared to me that people were not buying. The woman who runs the sale has inflated ideas of the “worth” of things. But, since she is willing to store the same crap in her garage from year to year, I guess she can decide against selling stuff for pennies.
I stopped working at the sale because I find it so difficult to ask ridiculous prices. They want customers to bargain. Too many AMericans do not like doing that, it is not part of our culture. Just put a price on it lady!
Teacher Terry
6-6-18, 10:58am
I agree IL that some $ is better than none. If items are not cheap people will go elsewhere. The whole point of going to sales are to get it cheap.
Must feel good to empty out half a garage!
I got rid of a pair of shoes (no I don't want to wear those 3 inch heels again) and some papers and other small items.
iris lilies
6-6-18, 5:43pm
Must feel good to empty out half a garage!
Oh it was, but all of that stuff was there for only a short time. We dont normally store much stuff for this sale, but our friend moved and had lots of items to donate.
I will say that we visited the garage of the permenant storage place and wow! They cleaned it out! They donated items that did not sell to the local church. They were left with only a nice sofa that a customer cheated us on. She signed an “x” on her paypal charge that apparently makes the sale invalid.
Paint from March 2010 that was solidified, 4 DVD's that are my ex's taste not mine, an out of date medical book, 2 belts (I never wear belts but kept 1), and all remaining items in clothes purgatory. Now that it's summer the trash starts to smell more quickly and if the bag is not full I scour the house for junk to fill it up.
iris lilies
6-14-18, 8:39am
I cleaned off an entire shelf, a long shelf high in a bedroom closet. Tossed two wide brimmed hats, elf shoes that had disintigrated, and a shawl. This is our closet for costumes.
If I need new elf shoes I will have to buy them, I guess. I didn't want to mess with repairing these existing elf shoes.
Bought two pair of silver earrings at a second-hand shop, so culled two pair of earrings and a necklace for the next donation run. 2 in - 3 out.
Teacher Terry
6-14-18, 2:28pm
So my step son brings over 2 boxes of stuff for me to donate with instructions for the stuff to go to 2 different thrift stores. I will take it all to the one closest to my house. He is leaving for 2 years for officer candidate school and then a bunch of training to be a navigator. I don’t mind taking it but telling me where to bring it was a little over the top.
Excess Tupperware lids. A teapot whose lid fell and cracked when I reached for it on the top shelf. I am now contemplating whether to keep the rest of the tea set.
iris lilies
6-14-18, 5:59pm
So my step son brings over 2 boxes of stuff for me to donate with instructions for the stuff to go to 2 different thrift stores. I will take it all to the one closest to my house. He is leaving for 2 years for officer candidate school and then a bunch of training to be a navigator. I don’t mind taking it but telling me where to bring it was a little over the top.
Oh, no. No no no.
No one to dictate to me how to get rid of their escess stuff unless I have already offered to go to both thrift store.
Teacher Terry
6-14-18, 6:18pm
IL, he is a great kid but at 28 still does some stuff that I shake my head at. I just said okay and now will do what I want. Your response made me laugh.
shadowmoss
6-17-18, 2:32pm
All my old make-up brushes, and all my old make-up. I don't have new make-up as I stopped wearing it when I retired. Most of this stuff is 10-20 years old. Into the trash! Also a very few books. Some have been put aside to give to a friend, the rest to donate.
IL, he is a great kid but at 28 still does some stuff that I shake my head at. I just said okay and now will do what I want. Your response made me laugh.
You sound like a very wise stepmom. It may well be that 30 years from now he flashes back to bringing you that stuff and thinks, "I can't believe I did that." It takes some of us a long, long time to grow up. :)
My daughter and I gave away seven of her summer dresses that no longer fit. That might be it for me this month since we leave on vacation in a couple of days.
Shadowmoss, congrats on getting rid of your makeup! That must have felt SO liberating!
Enjoy your vacation EJ. I got rid of the Magic Bullet, which I had not used in years as it never worked that well. This cleared up a lot of space in the cupboard because it came with so many blades, cups, and lids. Also tossed a couple of matching dolls. One had its outfit messed up. I think a mouse chewed on it when it was in the basement to get nesting material. I am trying to keep mementos out now where I see and enjoy them. And I ditched a pair of earrings that I noticed in a recent photo make my face look fat.
Another little project I am working on is consolidating so I don't have things on the top shelf of the kitchen where I can't reach them without standing on something.
happystuff
6-20-18, 7:34am
Finally have some movement - although very small - a donation pickup today. Getting rid of a box of miscellaneous items and a medium size bag of clothes. It's something!
While rehabbing my knee (aka, sitting in a recliner with leg up and ice machine running), I've been going through quilting magazines again. Although I've never had more than 4 magazine holders full, I've tossed a bunch. Out of 3 holders, I'm down to 1 full. I'll get through that 4th one today.
A side note: my oldest sister is here (we've lived here 27y and she's been here many many times). She was putting dishes away earlier this week: "I didn't realize till now how little cupboard space you have". When I asked her why she thought that: "well you have to stack everything". Me "you stack your plates, your bowls, your small plates etc just like I do". "Well ya but you have to put those containers on top of that stack of plates".
I have 2 meal containers that I keep on top of the small plate stack. "Well, if I didn't stack it would be wasted space in the cupboard so it makes sense to me".
My kitchen has a dropped ceiling and I can reach the items on my top shelves. Her kitchen has cupboards that go to the tall ceiling. All her top shelves hold all of her Christmas dishes.
Her perception is so interesting to me. And we were definitely at an impass. She has not commented on the empty space I have.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled program:cool:
sweetana3
6-20-18, 10:49am
I went thru all my magazines and kept only the patterns I enjoyed or maybe an idea page. What is left is in a file cabinet sorted by category. You know what? I have not missed the rest of the magazine. Now I need to decide on the books. Do they have info or multiple patterns that I want to keep or do they only have one idea or are simply old.
My daughter is home from college this month. We decided to replace her desk (never used as such) with a book shelf. She's used this time to reorganize and purge. She took a bunch of stuff to a thrift shop earlier this week and I dropped more at the local rescue mission distribution center today. We had to cut her desk into two pieces to get it out of her room (I assembled it in her room at the time). I glued and taped it back together and am using it for my craft desk, which meant I could move the folding table I was using to the garage. Which meant we could FINALLY get rid of the 40 year old gnarly heavy folding table in the garage. YAY. I've hated that thing. I also donated a folding DVD shelf I was using in my craft area.
Teacher Terry
6-22-18, 11:20pm
Thanks echase. Thankfully I had a break between raising my 3 boys and us taking custody of him at 13. He and I are close and I really love him.
I decluttered on vacation. Anything that might spoil in the refrigerator I packed in Tupperware type containers I did not like and brought with me in a cooler. Then I threw out the containers after I ate the food in them.
For the first time in a few years I went to swim and both my bathing suits just hung off me so out they went. Part is good weight loss and part is aging as IL noted in a previous discussion "I used to have a cute little butt".
And dragging the non-ergonomic cooler in and out of places broke its zipper, and a piece of ancient luggage and some other clothes also hit the end of the road with more busted zippers.
Yppej, I have declutttered on vacation too--take clothes I am done with and just throw them away as I go.
I decluttered a bathing suit yesterday as it was so darned uncomfortable, and bought a new one at meijers and then changed into the new one in the bathroom and threw out the old one. Why even take it home to throw it away?
Teacher Terry
7-1-18, 10:28am
We are visiting many people on this trip and I realized now that I have decluttered how much stuff other people have. I never used to notice.
It makes me uncomfortable to sit cluttered home. All I can think about is how I would clean it up
I have noticed this at other people's homes also, but the spartan nature of hotel rooms inspires me to come home and do better.
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