October purge

[Klunick]

Decorated the inside for Halloween and got a small declutter pile. Set of orange lights that don't work. A small pumpkin that wasn't used in Fall or Halloween decorating. Part of a tiered tray decor stand that broke when I was trying to separate it.

[happystuff]

I'm declaring the yard sale yesterday a success! Got rid of more than I thought I would, made a little bit of money and have about 5 items out of the Magic Sidewalk that I just don't want back in the house! Hopefully they will be gone by the end of the day.

Edited to add: End of day and everything has been taken from the Magic Sidewalk!

[SiouzQ.]

Going to drop off in the Free Box:

Old slippers - I got new ones with the birthday money my Mom gave me
Old Black Leggings - still fairly decent if one wears a shirt that hangs below the bottom, as they are a little thin-looking in the seat area. I replaced them with new ones using the rest of my birthday money
More little glass jars - someone around here likes them because they are always gone when I stop by the Free Box
New bar of Dial Anti-Bacterial Soap - I don't like the smell at all but had to buy a package of three to use before a surgery. Why can't you just buy one bar anymore?
Oxo Sink Strainer - I like these but they somehow "wear-out" after a while and if you hit the little twisty handle wrong while doing the dishes, it lets all the suds and water drain out which is very annoying when you live in the desert and water is a precious resource.

Such is the excitment of my day, a walk down the road to the Free Box. I'm still very much still in the healing process and am not doing a whole helluva a lot these days. Heavy yard work is still not possible, I can only clean maybe one room at a time and I certainly can't silversmith or play guitar...

[iris lilies]

Our town stopped holding twice a year bulk pick up. Now they expect you to haul your stuff to a designated site twice a year.. They had to make that change because apparently people from out of town were taking advantage and dumping stuff all over town.

that is one service I miss in the city of St. Louis – the garbage system was great. I could put anything I wanted into the alley. The big stuff was picked up once a month. But sometimes pickers would come and get it before the garbageman picked it up. And then, our big garbage bins were emptied once a week and you could fit quite a lot in there.

[pinkytoe]

I live in a very large city that still has private trash service. Stupid. Multiple trucks going up and down the alleys followed by separate trucks for optional recycling. There is no large item or yard waste pickup unless one can stuff it into a bin. More than once, we have seen neighbors cut up pieces of furniture or junk to fit in the can and that can take several weeks to get rid of it all. The only other option with larger items is to take it to the town dump which is quite expensive.

[Klunick]

Did a quick declutter today which netted a few items.

Six Feliway cat diffusers.
Three file folders
Three and a half tiered tray stands
Four paper bags
And some random trash

[nswef]

I've been working on getting rid of paper...I have gotten my writing sorted better and will soon be ready to pitch all the first,second, third to hundredth drafts of manuscripts and only keeping the most recent.

[Tradd]

Gave away two big stainless steel travel mugs on Buy Nothing group. They were both given to me, one at work, the other by a friend.

Posted a set of popular books. Just waiting for a day or two before I pick someone up

[Tradd]

I'm declaring the yard sale yesterday a success! Got rid of more than I thought I would, made a little bit of money and have about 5 items out of the Magic Sidewalk that I just don't want back in the house! Hopefully they will be gone by the end of the day.

Edited to add: End of day and everything has been taken from the Magic Sidewalk!

How much did you get rid of? Furniture? Lots of household stuff? Clothes? Books?

[Tradd]

SiouxQ - at least you’re getting out of the house and going for a walk.

[rosarugosa]

I cleaned the closet yesterday and did the seasonal clothing rotation. I purged a dress, two pairs of shoes and two shirts. I don't really like the shirts, and I have so many that it's silly to keep ones I don't like. The other three items just haven't been worn in a very long time, and I'm not too crazy about them either.

I realized that I have a stash of dressier clothing that I hold onto, while carefully managing my life to avoid all dressy occasions, lol. I guess I'm a doomsday prepper where the doomsday in question is being forced to dress up! Meanwhile, I happily live my life in my LL Bean Vista Camp Pants.

[happystuff]

How much did you get rid of? Furniture? Lots of household stuff? Clothes? Books?

No clothes or books. Miscellaneous household stuff, a little bit of jewelry, some toys, some purses - a mish-mash of things. The Magic Sidewalk took care of a big piece of workout equipment, two old car bike racks and a box of plastic food storage containers.

I do have one piece of bigger furniture back in the house. I may try Marketplace for that, but not right away.

Thanks for asking!

[iris lilies]

I now have a 4 prong approach to getting rid of items and it probably is not serving me well. They are:

1. Goodwill for stuff that is in decent shape, including small pieces of furniture
2. Garden club’s fund raiser sale (vintage, antique, collectible)
3. Auction house—for things that are not quite right for Goodwill but not nice enough for garden club sale, and that have some size
4. landfill

so like right now I have a brand new-in-the-box large bathroom mirror. It could go to Goodwill. It could go to the auction house. Ideally, I would take it to Habitat for Humanity warehouse but that is in the city 85 miles away. So, I guess it will go to Goodwill. But it is surprising what crap we have been able to sell at the auction house.

Raise your hand if you think I have too many choices which interfere with getting rid of the stuff!

[rosarugosa]

I think it's good to have options, IL.

[happystuff]

I agree with rr. I don't think there are ever too many options.

[Tradd]

My choices are Buy Nothing group or the trash. I have no inclination to haul stuff to the thrift store.

[Rogar]

I'm working on a closet purge and started with shirts that were getting pretty thin, had frayed collars or cuffs, or some odd fit what I thought I might get used to but never did. I have skin issues related to sun exposure and only have button down long sleeved shirts. I may get rid of a couple of more, but am down to 20, excluding base layers, undershirts, and cycling jerseys. A couple of dress shirts, two or three flannels, work shirts, and casuals for different seasons. I don't know if that makes me the Imelda Marcos of shirts as I have nothing to compare it with, but have gotten by with less historically.

[iris lilies]

My choices are Buy Nothing group or the trash. I have no inclination to haul stuff to the thrift store.
oh, I would love to put things on my front porch and have people come and get them, but 50% of the time and I’ve actually measured they do not ever come to get the stuff. Done with that method of disposal because it doesn’t work.

[Tradd]

oh, I would love to put things on my front porch and have people come and get them, but 50% of the time and I’ve actually measured they do not ever come to get the stuff. Done with that method of disposal because it doesn’t work.

Living in an apartment is not conducive to porch pickup. I actually go out to meet the people (always women). I hand the item over and we chat a bit. Had a nice talk about books with the woman who picked up the books for her daughter this evening.

I had some feminine hygiene items left over after my surgery. Passed those along to someone, too.

[rosarugosa]

Rogar: I don't think that's excessive, but that's coming from me, who owns about a hundred shirts, so take it for what it's worth!

IL: I have had excellent luck with people picking things up from my front porch. I've had some instances of people not coming when they originally said, so the item goes in and out a couple of times, but I've only had a couple of instances out of dozens of successes where people totally flaked on me. I've also been giving away some things from my mother's house via this method.

Tradd: I do like it when I get to chat a bit with people who stop by to pick something up, but I usually go for the ease of just putting something outside. I did get to meet a really nice woman last Sunday who came by (when she said she would) to pick up butterfly weed seeds. We were out in the rain talking plants for a good 15 minutes or so, because we plant people can be a bit obsessive about our grand passion.