View Full Version : January purge
Just posted on Buy Nothing group:
2 steel mixing bowls
Glass storage container
Glass casserole
2 small lanterns (for power outages/camping)
Yankee candle I was given last year and never used
Put the Christmas tree and stuff away, but several ornaments and cloth gift bags went into the donation box.
Posted more stuff:
2 more mixing bowls
Assorted baking items/utensils
2 more lanterns (set of 4)
Wooden tray
Got rid of all of last year's bills except December's.
A plunger that I can't tell you how long we've had. Finally got a new one that is actually made for toilets. Other one was for sinks but used on toilets.
Got rid of two of my son's windbreakers.
Watched a decluttering video on YouTube and caught the bug so I did a quick sweep around the house.
One sleeping bag
Two cloth napkins
One dish towel
Two of my shirts
Four of my husband's shirts
One cat toy husband bought that the cats have zero interest in using. This one will be an Amazon return.
Got a new phone and Otterbox case that came with an accessory so you can carry your phone on your belt. Will never use that so it's going.
Mailed this week: books, puzzles, and family photos. The books are more store stock, yes, I'm still purging that, although almost done now... But the puzzles and family photos are new. I am determined not to hit my next birthday with boxes of misc. stuff here!
Last month I reduced all the Christmas "stuff" to 1 one foot cube box. I sold some, donated some, and tossed some -- but I started with like 5 boxes of stuff?
2 cups
3 key chains
2 old keys
2 belts
1 undershirt
3 pairs of socks
1 hoodie
4 pairs of pants
1 pet food container
rosarugosa
1-18-25, 6:39am
Welcome back, NewGig!
There's a woman at the pottery studio who has a donation box for unloved pieces . Apparently she brings them to a charity thrift shop in NY. I don't know her, but she is my hero for giving us an outlet for mediocre pottery! We are trying to be more intentional about what we bring home in the first place. Do we want it? Do we think we can sell it? If no and no, into the box you go!
iris lilies
1-18-25, 11:27am
Mailed this week: books, puzzles, and family photos. The books are more store stock, yes, I'm still purging that, although almost done now... But the puzzles and family photos are new. I am determined not to hit my next birthday with boxes of misc. stuff here!
Last month I reduced all the Christmas "stuff" to 1 one foot cube box. I sold some, donated some, and tossed some -- but I started with like 5 boxes of stuff?
wow that is a big reduction of your Christmas decor!
happystuff
1-19-25, 9:54am
Three pairs of sneakers that are starting to hurt my feet into the donation box.
Posted on Buy Nothing group:
Bunch of clothes
Bathroom (way too long for me)
Collapsible silicone kettle (used to use for traveling)
Bunch of storage tubs
Unused rock tape
Posted on personal FB page and taken by two diving friends:
Dive parka
Fleece vest for under drysuit
DD's bicycle (gone & married 5 years ago), wooden Christmas tree DD said she wanted - 3 years ago, sleeping bag, artifical Christmas tree (we have 3 pencil trees + new full sized tree). DW agreed we probably would not need 4 trees in our 1150 sq foot home. My work said they would be happy to add it to their decorations. Misc items I cleaned out of my DW's car when she got her new car 15 months ago. Box of my DD's high school year books (sent them home with her). Bathrobe, winter jacket, ladies new puffy vest, new in the box cell phone screen protector I was too OCD to install - since upgraded phone and had clerk put on the screen saver. Misc books DD said she wanted to keep but never takes home. DW keeps saying we better check with our youngest DD before we toss anything, I am so pass that stage. Middle DD who lives across the country gave me permission to toss a bunch of her stuff. Even though it was just a fraction of what needs to go...it feels really good. Then I went to my elderly parent's house and my dad says as he open's the door on ONE of the sheds - anything in here you want? NOOOOOOOO!
Great job, Greg. How many sheds at your parents’ home?
rosarugosa
1-20-25, 8:44am
A young woman in my town was looking for a small desk because she is starting college classes next week. I had a nice little wooden desk in my mom's garage that I couldn't quite bring myself to get rid of when I "upgraded" a few years ago. I was able to give it away under these circumstances because it felt like I had found it a good home. We even delivered it to her (she doesn't have a car).
Mom's garage will be going on the project list for this coming spring or summer. Sister and I have been using it as a repository for our excess crap, in addition to stuff Mom has out there that she will never use again.
iris lilies
1-20-25, 1:00pm
Tryin’ to get rid of a Prince Charlie jacket DH has out grown. I contacted our local Scottish Heritage Society, but I’ve not heard back from them.
I would like someone from that group to raise their hand and say “ sure, I’ll take it and see that it gets into the hands of someone who can wear
it” and I am happy to put it in the mail to them, paying the mailing costs.
Spent an hour yesterday going through old health files and got rid of some things. Going to try to do an hour a day until I get through all the different categories. It's not a lot, but I figure if I go through these once a year, I'll be able to keep it pared down.
Also worked on retirement account files.
Today we will probably do the house files.
How long do you have to keep files relating to IRA's? I thought I remember someone, Bae maybe, saying he kept that stuff forever? Help, anyone?
I’ve been reading Marie Kondo’s first book again and it’s giving me the motivation to really get the crap out.
Iris, I had to look up what a Prince Charley jacket is and boy, that's stunning.
iris lilies
1-21-25, 11:17am
Iris, I had to look up what a Prince Charley jacket is and boy, that's stunning.They are expensive! That’s why I want it to go to a Scottish Society where someone will wear it.
One place to look would be forums for various clan groups--I am a member of the Scott clan group, for example.
iris lilies
1-21-25, 3:03pm
One place to look would be forums for various clan groups--I am a member of the Scott clan group, for example.
oh, I already did that for his kilt. I went to the McMillan clan group to give away his kilt and they were happy to host a message to their group. But soon after I learned about belt extenders, and so we were able to add a couple of inches easily, so no need to get rid of the kilt. He wears it about once a year.
This Prince Charlie jacket is generic so that is why I would like to see it stay in the St. Louis area.
I was thinking maybe you could find the nearest Scottish Games and donate it to them and they could raffle it off!
iris lilies
1-21-25, 3:25pm
I was thinking maybe you could find the nearest Scottish Games and donate it to them and they could raffle it off!
I wanna make it easy on myself. Our local Scottish games happens during Iris season so I’m not going to do that. During May I don’t do anything other than iris. I will either find my way to a St. Andrews Society meeting in a easy-to-access place OR I’ll drop this jacket off at a vintage clothing store when I have donated other stuff.
Went through my files and consolidated a few. Instead of having a folder for each person's medical stuff, I put everything in one. My husband goes a lot more than anyone else in the house so it is primarily all his stuff with a couple for each son.
A packet of cat scratching deterrent sheets. They are thick and look horrible on the furniture. Found a better solution.
A box of Feliway refills. Don't use the diffusers anymore so don't need the refills.
Went through my recipe binder and got rid of the ones I never make.
Vacuum manual
rosarugosa
1-25-25, 7:20am
Klunick: please tell us more about the better solution.
I am trying once more to gently persuade DH to clean up his closet clutter. Top to bottom boxes of camera gear he has not used in years. It is easy to say it's his space and leave it alone but it is I or someone else who gets to deal with it someday.
As far as other stuff, I like to keep an open box in the guest room corner to throw give-aways in. Success - it has one camera bag in it.
Finished the shared files yesterday. I did hours on them and DH helped a little which pleased me since we could process some stuff together.
My goal is to do these once a year so that I keep getting rid of things and we don't add more paper to the total.
I am down to two boxes of my parents' paper files, and I'll keep poking away at those until estate has finished. I found in my dad's papers stuff from his mother and dad's estates and it was very interesting to see what they were living on and how they generated their income. I did a ledger book (well, up to three now) for my mom's estate like the one he did for his dad, so it's satisfying to compare them.
Klunick: please tell us more about the better solution.
Chewy sells something that looks like packing tape. Apply it to the furniture and you can barely see it.
Two organization bins. Was taking up too much room under the sink. Just putting the stuff in the cabinet without the bin provided so much more room.
rosarugosa
1-27-25, 7:18am
Chewy sells something that looks like packing tape. Apply it to the furniture and you can barely see it.
Thanks. It's too late for our current chairs, but maybe the next pieces of furniture would stand a chance.
Thanks. It's too late for our current chairs, but maybe the next pieces of furniture would stand a chance.
Same but at least with this stuff on it, they won't get worse.
Three sheds and they are all pretty full. My parents house is FULL, garage is FULL and now they are past the age of doing much
about it. Dad will be 90 this year and Mom will be 89. I have only one sibling and they are not in good health to help. My mom has
lots of collections. Everything is very neat and tasteful, but nothing I care to have in our little house. It is all a bit overwhelming to
think about it.
Three sheds and they are all pretty full. My parents house is FULL, garage is FULL and now they are past the age of doing much
about it. Dad will be 90 this year and Mom will be 89. I have only one sibling and they are not in good health to help. My mom has
lots of collections. Everything is very neat and tasteful, but nothing I care to have in our little house. It is all a bit overwhelming to
think about it.
Ugh. That would have me hiring a dumpster and people to clean it out when they were gone.
rosarugosa
1-28-25, 8:25am
Ugh. That would have me hiring a dumpster and people to clean it out when they were gone.
But it is so much more satisfying (and environmentally responsible) to be able to put things that are perfectly good into the hands of people who could use them. It is also a lot more work though, so that's why sister and I are trying to be proactive in rehoming some of Mom's stuff that she will never use again.
But it is so much more satisfying (and environmentally responsible) to be able to put things that are perfectly good into the hands of people who could use them. It is also a lot more work though, so that's why sister and I are trying to be proactive in rehoming some of Mom's stuff that she will never use again.
That's so great, Rosa. I admit that I get a lot of pleasure out of doing that, moving things along so that they belong to the next generations if heirlooms, or getting things to people who need them now.
I wish I were one of those people who were ready to stop collecting, but that doesn't seem to be me yet. For now, I am working on getting rid of things I don't use and getting them to someone who will. I want to try to get rid of two things for every new thing I bring in.
iris lilies
1-28-25, 9:54am
We picked up a carload of iris show supplies from a member who has dropped out. Now I am shopping them around to iris people and fortunately have a lead on the bulk of them. I would not have taken them except it is the dead of winter and I have time to deal with them.
happystuff
1-28-25, 10:11am
Three sheds and they are all pretty full. My parents house is FULL, garage is FULL and now they are past the age of doing much
about it. Dad will be 90 this year and Mom will be 89. I have only one sibling and they are not in good health to help. My mom has
lots of collections. Everything is very neat and tasteful, but nothing I care to have in our little house. It is all a bit overwhelming to
think about it.
That does seem like such a daunting task, Greg! I'm sorry you seem to be the one left to deal with it all. I do agree with the posts about re-homing as much as possible. If you wanted to make money off of any of it, of course a yard sale would work. Otherwise, if just trying to find a home for all/some of it, what about advertising a "free for the taking - open shed" event? As we all know, people love free stuff and I'm sure you would be able to free yourself of some of the stuff.
Whatever you do, wishing you the best of luck with it all.
Three sheds and they are all pretty full. My parents house is FULL, garage is FULL and now they are past the age of doing much
about it. Dad will be 90 this year and Mom will be 89. I have only one sibling and they are not in good health to help. My mom has
lots of collections. Everything is very neat and tasteful, but nothing I care to have in our little house. It is all a bit overwhelming to
think about it.
When ever there could be a good time to deal with all this, there are auction houses that will come out to evaluate things of re-sale value to be auctioned in online auctions. And there are charities that sometimes will [ick up things. It does take the work out of sorting, but you may not have to everything. At least that's how I dealt with a similar situation where I lived out of town without any reasonable abilities to deal with such things. Just a thought.
iris lilies
1-28-25, 12:16pm
Three sheds and they are all pretty full. My parents house is FULL, garage is FULL and now they are past the age of doing much
about it. Dad will be 90 this year and Mom will be 89. I have only one sibling and they are not in good health to help. My mom has
lots of collections. Everything is very neat and tasteful, but nothing I care to have in our little house. It is all a bit overwhelming to
think about it.
Wait for mom and dad to die to avoid their pleas of “oh, don’t YOU want that? Save for our grandhildren! These things are VALUABLE!”
when they are gone, get an auctioneer in to take the stuff he will sell, donate the rest. You really do not have to touch and decide on each piece. Really. Unless they have world class onjects which I doubt, the stuff is worth what you can bet at auction and that is not much.
edited to add: I see
roger suggested the same. Do not let it stress you.
Wait for mom and dad to die to avoid their pleas of “oh, don’t YOU want that? Save for our grandhildren! These things are VALUABLE!”
when they are gone, get an auctioneer in to take the stuff he will sell, donate the rest. You really do not have to touch and decide on each piece. Really. Unless they have world class onjects which I doubt, the stuff is worth what you can bet at auction and that is not much.
edited to add: I see
roger suggested the same. Do not let it stress you.
If you have sisters or brothers, please check with them before doing this. My brother did this and I don't think I will be ever able to forgive him.
Not everyone feels this way. In my case, approximately 20000 of tools were sold for pennies to a junker--and that was just the outside buildings- and family photos and papers were destroyed.
Not everyone will find the "throw it all out, get a junker to take it away" an acceptable solution. But maybe you don't care. My brother did not care what hurt he caused me.
iris lilies
1-28-25, 1:44pm
If you have sisters or brothers, please check with them before doing this. My brother did this and I don't think I will be ever able to forgive him.
Not everyone feels this way. In my case, approximately 20000 of tools were sold for pennies to a junker--and that was just the outside buildings- and family photos and papers were destroyed.
Not everyone will find the "throw it all out, get a junker to take it away" an acceptable solution. But maybe you don't care. My brother did not care what hurt he caused me.
That is all fine if family members come to haul it all away by a deadline. With my brother, I gave him the ok to do whatever he wished to do with our mom’s stuff after I picked it over. He set out to sell some of it on ebay and I told him that was fine with me, keep all the money. My time on earth is not worth fussing with all of that stuff.
Gregg seems to think he will be the one to have to deal with the stuff and if that’s the case, if he is responsible, then he gets to decide where it goes. But sure, check with family first, but all too, often people express interest but don’t actually come to take stuff. That happens all too often with me and Buy Nothing on Facebook which is why I no longer participate.
I actually have a cool sorry about coincidence and Buy Nothing Facebook. DH found a deer skull in the woods. I thought some weirdo might want the skull so I put it out on FB. Two people responded immediately. First one never came to get it. I contacted the second one…same thing, never came. 8 months later one of them contacted me to see if I still had it and I did, but I told her No because I didn’t want to go thru the rigamarole of setting it out yet again for her to maybe not show up. But here’s the crazy thing: her message reminded me to think about the skull I had set aside and forgotten. It had teeth. One of my friends makes jewelry and had recently told me to send any teeth her way! I don’t know what she does with the teeth but it was great to fulfill her ask.
The making sure things get donated and into the “right” hands goes out the window when you’re short on time. A friend in the Chicago area recently lost her mom who lived on the east coast. Friend has her own family and full time job. She had a week after the funeral to get important stuff out of the house. She ended up selling it to one of the flipping companies that will take a house as is. Friend is an only child and hadn’t lived near her family for 30+ years. House had been long paid off but needed a lot of repairs and updating as often happens when seniors have been in their house for a long time, 40+ years in this case.
My guess that after one passes, we can have an estate sale, sell the home to help pay for their care. Both are not in good health. Mom has dementia and my father's memory seems
to be slipping as well. Simple tasks are becoming confusing to him - like password on his phone, handing me the remote to answer the land line, etc.
rosarugosa
1-29-25, 7:47am
The making sure things get donated and into the “right” hands goes out the window when you’re short on time. A friend in the Chicago area recently lost her mom who lived on the east coast. Friend has her own family and full time job. She had a week after the funeral to get important stuff out of the house. She ended up selling it to one of the flipping companies that will take a house as is. Friend is an only child and hadn’t lived near her family for 30+ years. House had been long paid off but needed a lot of repairs and updating as often happens when seniors have been in their house for a long time, 40+ years in this case.
That's true, and that's why we are getting rid of some stuff now when we aren't in a hurry. Mom can barely make it to the bathroom from her bedroom many days, so she certainly isn't going to be going out to the garage or working on projects in the cellar. We are being careful to keep things that give her pleasure or have meaning to her.
rosarugosa
1-29-25, 7:50am
I went through our boxes of pottery last night, and I have pulled out quite a bit for the donation box at Clay School.
Did some more consolidation of my files. Pretty much macro-organized everything instead of micro-organized. Everyone's medical stuff in one file, all the car stuff in one file, all the tax stuff in one file, etc. Made more room in the file organizer and have a small stack of unused file folders off to the side for replacements as needed.
I don’t write long letters anymore as it hurts my hand. I offered up my very nice letter paper to a group I’m part of (not But Nothibg) and someone who writes many letters is taking it. It will have to be mailed to her, but she’s splitting postage with me. I don’t usually care where stuff goes, but this is 100% cotton Crane paper, which is very nice.
iris lilies
1-30-25, 3:20pm
I don’t write long letters anymore as it hurts my hand. I offered up my very nice letter paper to a group I’m part of (not But Nothibg) and someone who writes many letters is taking it. It will have to be mailed to her, but she’s splitting postage with me. I don’t usually care where stuff goes, but this is 100% cotton Crane paper, which is very nice.
I like stationary and note cards a lot, and I’ve gotten some nice boxes of heavy writing paper from Goodwill (not Crane, tho.) And then I buy note cards from organizations to support their sales because the other stuff they sell —T-shirts and baseball caps and koozies—I will not use.
but one thing I’m becoming leery of is sending smaller note cards through the mail because the mail service is so bad. Unreliable. Just awful. I had someone the other day tell me she was hesitant to send a check in the mail. I do know of one check that was sent to me. It was lost for weeks.
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