View Full Version : February Purge
I took 55 items to Goodwill today. Felt so good.
Teacher Terry
2-3-20, 12:25am
That’s great. I have to stay home tomorrow for a repairman so I intend to look around to see what else I can add to the box for the thrift store.
Feb 03
I am still going with 3 items a day. I have got to the point where
there is not a lot hanging around but, I still find stuff when I look in
areas I think are good.
---1 more pencil...not sure the last time I used a regular pencil
(I like and have mechanical ones)
--1 scarf in the garbage (used for dusting first....lol)
It was wool and had a bunch of holes but, it was like 40 years old.
It was pretty and I loved it but, of course would not have worn it,
so why was I keeping it.
--4 scarves to Dd , colours and styles she will wear.
--1---roll of plastic that went with a Food Saver, not sure why I have kept it. Donate
That is all for now
You are right ejchase it does fell good!
Total to date 7 Items.
I found yet another flower vase to put in the thrift store box. (5 now).
I went through my wallet and took out all the little pieces of paper that have been there for years collecting names of books to read. I put every book available via library on my want-to-read list. I put 1 in my Amazon cart (a used copy for 18% of the new price). Some simply won't be read as I won't buy more than the one. All papers now in the recycle bin.
Every tiny declutter matters:cool: when you're done with the big stuff! Never stop :-)
Got rid of a bag of clothes and miscellany. Got three email inboxes empty. I like to keep them empty, but things had been creeping in as I did not deal with everything on that day, and got behind. Now they are clear.
I have been working on pulling all of the paperwork together. This is data for websites, cleaning plans,articles, parts of a novel. And 100s of clippings. I started this last week. It will take me a while yet. Our paper bin has been full the last 2 weeks...
Other ideas: we decided to limit our dump runs to once a week, unless it’s absolutely necessary! I found I was thinking of going to the dump as culling things, and it isn’t, unless you’re culling things! This has the added benefit of less wear and tear on the cars too.
Made myself go through the house and find 15 items to purge because I bought 3 last weekend.
DH and I came up with a plan to move forward re the clutter.
We have many boxes of books, no surprise. The cooking, gardening, computer, romance, and photo books have homes, but that’s it. Considering I sold genre fiction for a living, now edit it, that’s not much... the plan has always been to line a hall with floor to ceiling bookcases.
We decided that we’d buy cheap bookcase, we were looking at some at an auction we didn’t buy, put them up, fill them, and then I could cull the overage. That’s a new idea, I’ve been shuffling books around in boxes for a long, long time!
It’s impossible to decide to keep copy 1 or copy 2 if you don’t know there’s 2 copies. It’s difficult to decide to keep book a but not b, if you don’t know book a’s condition is far better than b’s. In our Florida home, I had floor to ceiling bookcases which ran along the two side walls of our great room. Worked. We have nothing like that here, space wise. There’s more square footage to the house, but it’s not built the same way...
I just keep wandering around our home thinking "why is that here?" and answering the question. This exercise keeps adding little things to the thrift store box.
I'm enjoying this exercise!
Teacher Terry
2-4-20, 1:19pm
I went through my big entertaining serving dishes and now the most we have over is 15 people versus 30 I found 6 more large pieces can go. Plus last year I only had a large group over twice versus 6x’s a year and as we age it will probably keep declining.
Here is progress of shed storage-- this is rake and some shovel/fork storage plus hoe storage:
31153116
Teacher Terry
2-4-20, 1:33pm
Looks great and the dog is beautiful!
Thank you--she is the one thwarting me on the exercise bike. She needs sheep.
Gardnr, me too! It’s amazing how stuff accumulates without being used or noticed!
Tybee, thanks for the inspiration! I need that, going out to build now!
Like others here, I plug along, mostly discarding worn out things to trash and recycling these days.
Then I have to resist the urge to fill up the space again. I found myself a bit distressed the other day when I realized I “only” have 3 pr jeans, 2 khakis, 2 slacks... and numerous crop pants. LOL. I had discarded 3 pairs of jeans and a pair of slacks- suddenly, I could hear my mother’s voice saying that I “Needed” to go clothes shopping!
Teacher Terry
2-4-20, 6:35pm
That’s plenty of pants. I don’t have more than that.
I just went though my pants this afernoon! Funny. 3 pairs jeans, 3 pairs sweat/yoga pants, 3 pairs light drapy pants for summer, 1 pair cropped jeans, 2 pair cotton pants for summer, 3 pr linen pants for dressing up, 1 pair winter black dressy pants.
Feb05/20
---One really old decrepit black sweater in the garbage
of course buttons off first and one more use as a duster....lol
My very large collections of buttons needs to looked at someday...lol
Cleaned out the drawer I have samples etc to use when I travel.
I am only traveling 3-4 times a year for 4-5 days so really these will
go bad before I could possibly use them.
Still have 2 of everything I need in travel bag!
--2 shampoo/conditioners, 4 conditioners, 2 toothpaste, 4 small dental floss
and put in a basket in bathroom to use up first!
Total to date 18 items
Thank you for reminding me!
Had been down to 2 pairs of jeans for some time. One of them got too ripped and was tossed last week. I do need more than 1 pair. I use leggings and yoga pants in good weather. Use them under the jeans when it’s cold.
My very large collections of buttons needs to looked at someday...lol
Consider taking the bin of buttons to a shelter or counselor that works with abused kids. I learned from a friend that they are used in conversation and therapeutic art. She didn't explain how but she was asking our whole team for any available buttons.
i just went into our bedroom to make the bed (I'm Dutch, we air bed linens every day). I was looking at what is on the walls. Small "decoupage plaques" that were from a long past GF and have been hanging there likely since we moved here in 1991. 2 are in the thrift store box I emptied/delivered yesterday. 1 space will remain empty. The other? I moved a ceramic musical note there that was on a wall with the base and treble cleft ceramic items. These were 3 things on my Christmas list decades ago and I still love them.
MINUS 2! :cool:
4 coats and a two scarves taken to Goodwill, along with 2 small boxes of miscellany. Best was getting them all gone at once.
Coat area looks much better, too.
We are packing up things for the first flea market in April. DH agreed with me, we have too many hammers & tape measures, amongst other things. Normally, this is his baliwick and I keep my nose outta it. But we want to raise $ to pay down the debt and we have a lot of both!
i just went into our bedroom to make the bed (I'm Dutch, we air bed linens every day). I was looking at what is on the walls. Small "decoupage plaques" that were from a long past GF and have been hanging there likely since we moved here in 1991. 2 are in the thrift store box I emptied/delivered yesterday. 1 space will remain empty. The other? I moved a ceramic musical note there that was on a wall with the base and treble cleft ceramic items. These were 3 things on my Christmas list decades ago and I still love them.
MINUS 2! :cool:
Gardnr: I am intrigued by this. What do you mean by "I'm Dutch, we air bed linens every day?" Do you air them outside? I am 25% Dutch descent, so I need to know, lol.
Still sick so confining myself inside. While the items haven't left the house yet, I feel like I need to have accomplished "something". LOL. I've culled about 10 books from my bookcase. Went through my bead craft bins and culled out stuff I will never use into a huge ziplock bag, emptying two small bins totally. The donation corner is filling up again so will try to call this week for a pickup date and get an exact count. Will pull the two different sprouting kits from the pantry for the yard sale pile, as I'm using canning jars instead of the plastic. Might be able to slip one or two more unused coffee mugs out of the cabinet as well. ;)
Gardnr: I am intrigued by this. What do you mean by "I'm Dutch, we air bed linens every day?" Do you air them outside? I am 25% Dutch descent, so I need to know, lol.
When we still lived there, Mom said "every morning the windows opened and the linen stack was literally thrown over the sill to air out.
In the US we lived in hot SoCal. So bed linens are thrown back over the foot to air out for at least an hour. In my case, until I return to our room which sometimes isn't until evening!
I was hanging hubby's clothes last night in my "home wanderings" aka, couldn't sit still:~)
Found some super dusty shoes/slippers on the floor behind hubster's pants. 2 slipper pair, cleaned and in the thrift store box. 1 pair trashed shoes (beyond repair), into the garbage can.
There were also 4 canvas bags from past education seminars he attended in DC. I didn't ask about those, but I will today. He has never used them, but the dude is a keeper of stuff so I must tread lightly.
I chopped up a piece of very crappy fabric and put it in the "doggie bed bag" for my friend. I'm lucky, no fiber goes into garbage since I found her!
Attention RNs: Why is it, I have retained text books from school? Why are they difficult to get rid of? I got rid of more than half years ago. But: med/surg, Peds, Nsg Research.........
Trash? Recycle bin with covers removed? I retired after 39y so they are not exactly current?
Apparently I need permission? Or pushing? Or a therapy session?:0!
Plastic bags up from the supermarket. Although I am now using reusable bags I still have a lot of these.
rosarugosa
2-9-20, 11:35am
Thanks, Gardnr. I am of the "beds must be made every day" school of thought. I had read that it is good to fold the covers back to air the bed out before making it, so that is what we do and I make the bed after coffee and showering. :)
ApatheticNoMore
2-9-20, 11:45am
Thanks, Gardnr. I am of the "beds must be made every day" school of thought. I had read that it is good to fold the covers back to air the bed out before making it, so that is what we do and I make the bed after coffee and showering. :)
I've read it's best to not make it, gets more air that way, and less dust mites. Be lazy, it's good for you :) (well it's good for you in this case, some housework was just created to keep women busy I think) You can make it when you go to bed.
I kept my nursing texts until I passed the NCLEX and worked for about a year. Then I realized that I never used them and they were quickly becoming outdated. So I made one last trip to the college bookstore to sell them.
After only one year, about half of them had zero resale value. So I sold half, and donated the other half to a program that supported nursing school students who couldn’t afford new books.
I kept my nursing texts until I passed the NCLEX and worked for about a year. Then I realized that I never used them and they were quickly becoming outdated. So I made one last trip to the college bookstore to sell them.
After only one year, about half of them had zero resale value. So I sold half, and donated the other half to a program that supported nursing school students who couldn’t afford new books.
I sold back what they would take after NCLEX as well. Sadly, Nsg school wanted the newest book every dang year! It sucked because, as you know, there was no more expensive text at the time than Nsg and we were both in school FT so $ was super tight!
Sigh...............
Attention RNs: Why is it, I have retained text books from school? Why are they difficult to get rid of? I got rid of more than half years ago. But: med/surg, Peds, Nsg Research.........
Trash? Recycle bin with covers removed? I retired after 39y so they are not exactly current?
Apparently I need permission? Or pushing? Or a therapy session?:0!
I still have an Italian text circa 1965...I'm pretty attached to it, and it's small...
Teacher Terry
2-9-20, 1:27pm
I must be Dutch because I air the bed and never make it:)). I threw away all my textbooks a few years before retiring.
Feb 06 to Feb9th
--large piece of fabric made into a jumper for Dd
win, win I use to sew all her clothes and when she wants
something she can't find she knows I will make it.
And, she took me out to lunch
--a bathroom scale in the charity box...why would I need two
I don't like what either of them tell me...lol
--a can of aerosol spray that doesn't work, I don't buy these
anymore and not even sure when I bought this one.
--2 odd pieces/parts in a kitchen drawer not even sure what they
came from.
--4 containers of spices that had no scent left.
To date 27 items
Wohoo! Hubster just put 4 crossbody bags (from conferences), into the thrift store box! Let me tell you, this is a HUGE step for him! I told him that had I known he had them at his office, I could have prevented the last 2 bags I bought to use for work briefcases. Dang. In the morning, I'll see if one of these may suit me better for laptop travel trips as opposed to the larger one I bought for work where I was a pack animal for meetings: laptop, power cord, purse, water bottle, lunch or snacks.....that sucker is big!
I've read it's best to not make it, gets more air that way, and less dust mites. Be lazy, it's good for you :) (well it's good for you in this case, some housework was just created to keep women busy I think) You can make it when you go to bed.
I am sorry, but this just is not possible for me. :treadmill:
--a bathroom scale in the charity box...why would I need two
I don't like what either of them tell me...lol
Danna, this is hilarious!
I've read it's best to not make it, gets more air that way, and less dust mites. Be lazy, it's good for you :) (well it's good for you in this case, some housework was just created to keep women busy I think) You can make it when you go to bed.
I'm with you. I just arrange the bedclothes over myself every night. I can make the bed if I ever offer the place for sale...
I think most housework was invented to keep women--or household help--busy.
We're shut up for winter, so no point airing anything. I really feel better if the beds are made in the morning. Not that I've done it yet, haha.
rosarugosa
2-11-20, 6:36am
You guys motivated me to stop storing stuff in my inbox. Every e-mail has been archived or deleted except 3 items. Now will have to go through those archive folders someday!
Rosa, that's great! Going through archives is a fun activity when you have 5-10 spare minutes.
rosarugosa
2-11-20, 3:09pm
Tybee: My sister would say you have a strange concept of fun, but don't feel bad, she says that about me too, lol.
Today I had one of those guys who buys and sells stuff come to the house and take a look at stuff that me and sis wanted to get rid of. I made $350 and she made $160 - and we got rid of a bunch of stuff! I would say he got quite a lot for his money, but we are happy to have a bit less stuff and a bit more money. :)
Teacher Terry
2-11-20, 6:18pm
Rosa, a great way to make money.
Got rid of an old horse shampoo bottle and wound care bottle, both frozen solid. Also a giant plastic tub and two books.
Need to get rid of 5 more books as that is what I have brought into house in last two weeks.
Plus a moldy bridle.
iris lilies
2-12-20, 2:59pm
This instapot I’ve been fighting is going into the garbage. Last night I had to wrestle with it to get the lid off. Again.
I pick ped it up from the thrift store and now I see why it was at the thrift store. It’s not going back to the thrift store because no one should have to wrestle with this stupid thing.
Meanwhile, this morning I cooked rice in the rice cooker DH found in our attic. It is beautifully simple. It is elegant. Love it.
7 more things OFF the refrigerator. I'm down to very small successes:cool:
I continue to go through bookmarks on my laptop when I feel like just sitting. Likely another 50 gone today! E-clutter be gone :)
Four plastic rulers, 1 photograph, 2 small puzzles, 1 card outta here! There's more, but I can't remember it...
a notebook for one thing. I am finally organizing all my magazine clippings!
I have historically retained the most recent 12 issues of magazines, going through the oldest when a new one arrives. Well, I dropped the 2 magazines I still subscribed to for 2019.
Today, I went through them all. I tore out perhaps 10 pages-recipes to try. The remains went into the recycle bin. Magazines that were fully intact have been added to the thrift store box.
I have retained 4 magazines for now. All were single purchases and still current information.
A pair of reading glasses that were starting to wear out and felt uncomfortably loose. I push them up on top of my head, then down on my nose depending what I am doing and over time this breaks them down.
An orange juice juicer and eight books.
I have three closet racks full of clothes and want to reduce them to 2. I'm piling the "let go" stack on the guest bed. My goal is to photograph and list the best stuff on Poshmark. I may get lazy and just donate it all to a second-hand shop that funds a local hospice. I'll see where I am at the end of the month.
Feb15
---10 items of food to a Food Drive, I really need to stop buying
food I don't eat. Good food and good prices but, still money gone.
Total to date 37
A sled load full of leaf bags and old cardboard that my husband was storing in the barn to build new garden bed, moldy and frozen. Another big cardboard box that former printer came in,
Up to Feb 18th
--12 Items of Fabric Sold on Kijiji
--6 Styrofoam balls from about 4 years ago when I was into
making Christmas Ornaments from old sweaters. Donate Box
--2 Sweaters that had been cut up and partially used for said Xmas Ornaments
--3 Pair of PJ Bottoms that don't fit right like new...donate Box
--2 Sweaters...have wore in forever Donate Box
--1 pair of pants that never fit right Donate Box
--1 blouse sold on Ebay
64 items todate Yeah!
Teacher Terry
2-18-20, 1:30pm
More clothes and kitchen items.
Hubster has a pile beside his side of the sofa. I found 2 old magazines. Tore out 1 recipe and the rest is now residing in the recycle bin.
Listed 4 items on Poshmark yesterday afternoon. Just got a notification that one sold. I'm pricing stuff low to move it. All proceeds go to pay down debt. Will try to list 2-3 items a day.
What kind of things sell on Poshmark, and how difficult is it to sell there?
41 documents from my paper files.
rosarugosa
2-19-20, 6:50am
Sister & I dropped off 2 boxes and a shopping bag of stuff to Saver's. We did go inside, but I just bought 2 movies on DVD, one for Mom and one that was recommended by you guys that I've never seen, "The Princess Bride."
iris lilies
2-19-20, 10:10am
Princess Bride is a cult classic. I’m not sure that I love it, but most of the world does
sweetana3
2-19-20, 12:43pm
Our bathroom is being gutted and remodeled so everything needs to be removed. Today I tackled the sink cabinet drawers. Found a battery operated toothbrush where the batteries were corroded. Darn hubby just tossed it in the drawer. So I threw it out. Corralled all the other things into bags and tossed old outdated medicine and such. Found my shoehorn, four medicine weekly holders, dirty containers and a mess of small carriers for traveling with stuff. All distributed or thrown away. Now to tackle the lawyers cabinet full of stuff. Then on to the linen closet. Just how many old towels do we need anyway. Will donate oldest set.
Gave away 16 sets of hats/scarves/mittens to a friend who collects them needy families. Glad my knitted stuff can find good homes.
What kind of things sell on Poshmark, and how difficult is it to sell there?
Clothes for women, men & children, purses, shoes, household stuff. i've had the best luck with purses. Poshmark takes 20%, buyer pays for shipping, unless you offer a discount. It's not difficult - try to post good pictures and provide a lot of detail. Poshmark provides the printing label - print it out and attach it to a (free) priority mail box or envelope.
Feb 28th
--2 Kilts sold on ebay
--3 small pieces of fabric made into headbands
--2 toothbrushes and 2 gum type ones too old to use
--2 t-shirts into rag bag
--2 bag of paper/envelopes etc into recycling
about 10 small items into trash but, already don't remember.
That is funny how that happens makes you really think why was
this still in my house?
Total todate 87....That was my goal for Feb.
Time to start thinking about March .....LOL
What worked for me this month because I really don't seem to have
that much extra in my house (except for clothes and I need to lose weight
to deal with those, whole other post) is to look at one type of item at a time.
e.g. box with nail care, box with fabric and every time I look I
find more to get rid of and at the same time more to just use instead of buying.
Great feeling.
As a prolific quilter and lover of triangles, I am often the recipient of mailed envelopes filled with others "waste" triangles. If I don't sew them up right away, into a project box they go. Well, Wednesday was their day. I opened 1 project box that had lots of already sewn/pressed/trimmed pairs. The bottom however, had a ton of patiently waiting triangles. So I sewed/pressed/trimmed for hours. Thursday I finished them off. Then I got another project box. Same song-2nd verse. I didn't know this box had more. I commenced to sew/press/trim for hours again. Today I will finish them!
They are sorted by size and bagged together. Great fodder ready for future quilting projects.
Yes, to me this is a purge!
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