View Full Version : March Purge
Hi Everybody,
My eleven-year-old announced about a year ago she was ready to get rid of her "little kid stuff," meaning, among other things, her dress-up rack, play stove, and toddler art table. Yesterday, we drove them an hour north to pass on to her cousin who is a kindergarten teacher who can use them in her classroom. We also gave her cousin about 12 other items - dress up clothes, pots and pans, a few books.
It was a bittersweet letting go, but frees up a lot of space in our house!
Total for month so far: 15.
Google has been saving the contact of every person I have ever emailed so I am cleaning these up, deleting 100 at a time. Some I keep since that enables the whole email to come up when I type the first few letters.
Good going, EJ. You must feel good passing them to someone who you know will get good use from them.
Jeppy: I've never even looked at my contact list, but I've been trying to do a better job of keeping my inbox clean. Sounds like you're doing well with your electronic clutter.
I hauled away a bag of miscellaneous donatable items for Savers and a bag of recyclables from Mom's house.
I spent a satisfying morning one day last week attacking some of the clutter hubs in my own house. You know, the places where you put things like a screw, a paper clip, all those little things that aren't really worth the trip to put them in their rightful repositories, assuming they have a rightful repository, which is another issue of course. Lots of little bits and pieces got tossed. I bought some attractive baskets at TJ Maxx, and the stuff that was allowed to stay is much neater and more organized.
I decluttered some Spring/Easter decor which was very hard for me considering I am a seasonal decor addict. Even have an Instagram account chronicling my love of seasonal decor. But I bought some new stuff so it was time to get rid of some other stuff.
It sounds like we're all making good progress!
I gave away two more pieces of furniture yesterday on Craigslist.
New total for month: 17.
I got rid of a rusty pocket knife and a wooden jewelry box. And a lot of duplicate pictures and two photo albums that were doing a number on the pictures. I had to switch systems but finally arrived at one that works and does not degrade the photos.
6 bags to St. Vinnies today - mostly clothes and a few knick knacks. A couple of things my dw wanted to "double check" with our dd who lives nearby. I said that time has past, we have asked her numerous times to claim her stuff, she has been married for 18 months, we are no longer her storage locker. One of the spare bedroom walk in closets looks much better - clothes wise, still lots of stuff. Like there is a whole shelf of games. I can assure you, we are not playing any of those again. If on the rare chance we have a game night, it is normally some new game that someone purchased. But that is another day. For the most part dw was really into it and I didn't want to break the momentum - if you get my drift!! :D
Copies of articles I made for Board of Health meetings. Most of the time I had extras. Then there was the meeting when close to a hundred people showed up and more called in via Zoom :)
Emails to people inviting them to attend BOH meetings. Any correspondence with the BOH I must preserve until after the discrimination case is resolved.
Cleaned out the side of the living room husband is using for his home office. Told him he had a week to deal with it and if he didn't I would. Don't think he would appreciate the outcome. Couple of hours and three trash bags later, the area is clean. Books listed on the buy nothing group.
Took 26 books to a used bookstore in my neighborhood that has managed to survive the pandemic. They do buy books from people, but a couple of years ago, I just started donating to them. I never made too much when they bought my books anyway, and it feels good to support a small business.
New total for month: 43.
iris lilies
3-14-22, 9:32am
Real estate purge: We’ve had a second visit from a neighborhood couple who wants to buy our house. So we are actively planning this massive purge —real estate, ha ha. They are renting in the neighborhood, they’ve rented here for several years. They are now ready to buy and they want this exact property because it has two lots with it and they want to build their own structure.
DH had already met them and talked to them and showed them around our house. I’m convinced they really want this exact property. The man of the house is super mechanically inclined and he has major tools that are industrial level and he needs a specialized place to set up his shop, so he wants to build it. What is also super cool is that he’s been working with our code committee, so he is well aware of the building restrictions here and what he can do and cannot do on these vacant lots. They plan to live in our house while they build something new.
While I wasn’t at all worried about selling our house in this hot market, I know that it is grungy and we’re not going to fix it up to the level that our real estate agent would really like us to. This couple is not phased by grime and outdated things.
Their lease is up in July. I want us to be out of here by August, so we may be able to make a deal. It all depends on a price.
happystuff
3-14-22, 9:49am
Nice, IL. Good luck!
Wow, IL, that sounds incredible. I bet it works out!
That literally sounds like a match made in heaven!
rosarugosa
3-14-22, 2:28pm
IL: So they would live in your house and build a new house for themselves on the extra lot? And then either sell yours or rent it out?
iris lilies
3-14-22, 3:34pm
IL: So they would live in your house and build a new house for themselves on the extra lot? And then either sell yours or rent it out?
Yes.
Teacher Terry
3-14-22, 3:42pm
Hoping it works out.
iris lilies
3-14-22, 4:38pm
Hoping it works out.
Even if it doesnt, our house will sell, I am not worried. It is just that this sale may be a little less,hassle than an open market sale.
frugal-one
3-14-22, 5:47pm
Serendipity!
rosarugosa
3-15-22, 6:34pm
I took a walk to the library and dropped off a bag of fabric recycling (textile stuff that wasn't good enough to donate to the thrift stores) and an old pair of eyeglasses in the Lion's Club donation box. Whenever I get a new pair, I save one pair back as backup and donate the pair from before that one.
In the continuing purge of my eleven-year-old's "little kid stuff," my daughter cleaned out her picture book bookshelf and found 10 books to give away which we gave, with the shelf, to an acquaintance on our Buy Nothing group who is a third-grade teacher and can use them in her classroom.
New total for month: 54.
rosarugosa
3-17-22, 10:44am
Good for your daughter, EJ! Tell her the people of the SLF are proud of her!
Good for your daughter, EJ! Tell her the people of the SLF are proud of her!
I did praise her profusely! And I'll pass on this message too. :)
Though I swear she's so much better at decluttering than me, I almost don't want to make a big deal out of it. Whatever's working, I don't want to mess with it. I'm just so happy she doesn't seem to have inherited my issues.
rosarugosa
3-17-22, 2:22pm
EJ: I think there's often a backlash factor, for want of a better word, where the next generation does the opposite of the parent. My sister and I are always organizing and decluttering, and I think that's because Mom has always been so cluttery. I have a couple of friends (brothers) whose mother was an insanely compulsive neat/clean freak, and they are total slobs and packrats.
EJ: I think there's often a backlash factor, for want of a better word, where the next generation does the opposite of the parent. My sister and I are always organizing and decluttering, and I think that's because Mom has always been so cluttery. I have a couple of friends (brothers) whose mother was an insanely compulsive neat/clean freak, and they are total slobs and packrats.
Yes! I see this in my family too. My mom was a packrat, and her mom was good at get ridding of stuff. My sister is better at getting rid of stuff than me, but my mom's clutter issues did hit me. Though I do think cleaning out her house when she died was the beginning of my wake-up call!
I'm hopeful clutter won't be as big an issue for my daughter. She does pretty well.
I gave away one more bookcase on Buy Nothing.
New total for month: 55.
happystuff
3-17-22, 7:37pm
Yes! I see this in my family too. My mom was a packrat, and her mom was good at get ridding of stuff. My sister is better at getting rid of stuff than me, but my mom's clutter issues did hit me. Though I do think cleaning out her house when she died was the beginning of my wake-up call!
I'm hopeful clutter won't be as big an issue for my daughter. She does pretty well.
I have admitted many times that I was somewhat of a packrat - probably still am. However, I'm working on it! Reading all these posts definitely help and are extremely motivating. Again, thanks!
Sold a jacket on Poshmark and dropped it off at the post office at lunch today.
Teacher Terry
3-18-22, 3:42pm
12i items of clothes gone and 10 scarves I made.
happystuff
3-18-22, 5:40pm
A car! Officially sold my car to one of the children who now has own insurance, etc. This reduces our insurance payments for number of drivers and number of vehicles. YAY!!!
Tourist brochures for places more than an hour away. As my greener every year challenge this year I will vacation 55 minutes or closer to home.
A long sleeved top that got so stretched the sleeves were hanging low and getting in my way when I tried to do things. I am wearing my clothes because I don't want to buy more given inflation and economic uncertainty.
rosarugosa
3-23-22, 5:34am
Tourist brochures for places more than an hour away. As my greener every year challenge this year I will vacation 55 minutes or closer to home.
I should go through my brochure collection. I always had a thing for brochures, but so much of this info is online now that I can probably cull a lot of the paper. Thanks for the idea.
Cleaned cupboards and refrigerator of expired packaged food, man we waste a lot of food. Now with it more organized, went shopping and filled in the gaps of food for our pantry.
Organized the fast food sauces like a true OCD'er - and my wife even commented how organized the packets were! :laff:
Sold a hobo bag on Poshmark and shipped it this morning. Gave a couple of my husband's too-small shirts to our son.
Will toss a sweater tonight when I get home which also has the stretched out sleeves and is driving me nuts today.
On the other hand, I bought the biggest size jeans they had (size 16) at the store so they wouldn't push against my stomach at all. My best size is probably 14 but I guess working with guys, some of whom sport the pants falling down look, is rubbing off on me, because it is really comfortable even if I do have to hitch them up occasionally.
Teacher Terry
3-29-22, 1:06pm
Greg, when I was married I would go through the cupboards regularly and donate to soup kitchens food that wasn’t getting eaten a few months before expiration. I hate food waste. My husband would buy crap and then not eat it. Now with just myself and even when my son is here if we buy it we eat it. Nothing gets wasted.
I took 43 items to Goodwill today. New total for month: 97.
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