Need help with decluttering hand made items

[Molly]

I recently retired and am cleaning house in preparation of downsizing to a home half the size. While I usually don't tend to get attached to stuff, I'm having difficulty letting go of things I've made, even though they have been sitting in a closet or drawer for years.

These items include clothing that is no longer in style or fits, hand knitted items that are worn out and crafts I have no room for. I should really just discard them, but I'm finding it difficult.

Has anyone had a similar experience? How have you handled it?

[herbgeek]

I had difficulty getting rid of craft items. I kept thinking I would get back to them, and use them up, but of course I've moved on and I never did. I found a place to donate the supplies (our local center for retarded citizens in my case) where I know they were needed, would be used, and would make someone happy. Now the handmade items (particularly the ones I spent hours making) I have a harder time getting rid of. I'm hoping that one of my nieces or grand nieces will express an interest someday, but I realize that likelihood is pretty small.

I'm guessing in your case the clothing has some pleasant memories associated with them, which is making it difficult to get rid of. Could you honor those memories in some way, like cutting up the clothing and using the piece in a shadowbox, or in a pieced quilt?

[fidgiegirl]

I wrestled with this with unfinished crafts in particular (I don't finish that much stuff :laff:). I find that I will keep it and keep it and keep it and then have a very clear moment where I am ready to let it go. Like herbgeek said, it's always easier if I know it can be used. I have given things to our school art program or other new programs starting up in our district, to the ArtScraps crafty-reuse store in town, to my friend's mom who likes to bead but doesn't have funds for all the things she'd like for it, etc. Even free on Craigslist would be acceptable to me but I don't throw it in the garbage.

I have always felt lighter and relieved when it's gone and have never regretted it.

Good luck, Molly!!

[iris lily]

That's tough for me to relate because I tend to like the process of creating, but when the thing itself is done, I don't want it around forever.

[Mer05]

A fair number of my craft projects are intended as gifts (I try to choose my victims carefully!). I take pictures of them before giving them away, so I have a record of what I made. Then I started taking pictures of everything I finished. They all go into the same folder, and have become a 'portfolio' of sorts - a record of my accomplishments (and occasional goofs) over the years, and improvements in technique, and so forth.

Once the photos became my way of documenting my crafting, it got easier to part with the items themselves. It wasn't an immediate thing, but at one point I ran across an old embroidery project - that was definitely never going on a wall again - and realized I had enough evidence that it existed, and didn't need the thing itself to sit in a box in my closet forever.

[happystuff]

I agree with taking and then passing the items along to someone else or donating. I do a lot of yarn work and feel this way about my crafting -

1) I do it because I really enjoy doing it - regardless of what I am making.

2) I would rather have something I make used by someone/anyone than to sit around in a closet doing nothing (so to speak).

Good luck with this.

[Tussiemussies]

Someone had posted about taking pictures of the item and I did this in the past and it really helped ...;)