View Full Version : Any tips on clearing stuff out from an apartment?
readaholic713
1-7-13, 8:41pm
Hey guys and gals. I'm interested in detaching myself from some stuff. I live with my girlfriend in an apartment and she's good at getting rid of things regularly...while I'm not so much. Any tips or ideas on places to clear out that one might not immediately think of? I'm pretty open to ditching a lot of stuff except my books. I'm a teacher and a writer and I need/love my library.
Hey guys and gals. I'm interested in detaching myself from some stuff. I live with my girlfriend in an apartment and she's good at getting rid of things regularly...while I'm not so much. Any tips or ideas on places to clear out that one might not immediately think of? I'm pretty open to ditching a lot of stuff except my books. I'm a teacher and a writer and I need/love my library.
Decluttering books is The Final Frontier of decluttering. That is an absolute fact, something I've gleaned from being on this website for 12 years.
I deal with it by 1) being a generalist reader in fiction, arts, and popular culture stuff and 2) expecting my public Library to store my library. I pay them to do it, they had better do it! haha.
I do have about 300 books that are children's picture books. That's my art collection. I buy very very few books. I keep a handful of fairly obscure favorite novels that I don't trust the Library to keep, but otherwise my library is the one I share with citizens in my city.
But I am not encouraging you to declutter your books. You may well need them. Work on the other stuff first. Start with the kitchen. Because we have a lot of cabinets we had too much stuff. When those cabinets were painted two years ago I had to haul each ad every thing out of there to sit in our living room. That's when I got rid of 1/4 of that stuff. I could easily get rid of another 1/4, but it's that damned luxury of lotsa storage.
Having gone through the very painful process of divesting myself of an extensive academic book collection in the context of an international relocation just about a decade ago, I feel your pain about the books! I would not start there. Start with something that you don't have much emotional attachment to. Like maybe the medicine cabinet (I cleaned mine out this weekend) or your sock drawer (unless you have a strong attachment to your socks!). Start with "chunking" it as we have discussed in another thread recently -- means take it slow and start small so you don't get overwhelmed. Focus on one drawer, or one section of a cabinet, or a corner or shelf of a closet. Deal with everything there. What have you not used in the past year? Can you think of a good reason to keep it? If not, get rid of it.
Good luck and join us on the decluttering threads for inspiration and moral support!
lhamo
Books... my achilles heel as well when it comes to simplifying and reducing. The best we seem to do in the long haul is to maintain at a quantity our home can comfortably support. We are all book lovers here, and use the library frequently... most of the books that DH and I have are specialized reference books that we can't count on finding at the local library.
To get rid of clothes, hanging: turn all the hangers around the other way. After a set period of time, say a month or a year--give away any clothing that hasn't been worn.
clothes, in drawers: empty entire dresser onto flat surface like a bed. Group by type: dress socks, work out socks, underwear, sweaters, etc. Figure out how many items you need between doing laundry. If you do not have a washer in your apartment (or building) and go to a laundry mat every 2 weeks, then keep 2 weeks worth, plus one or two and give away the rest. It should go without saying that if you have a item of clothing that you never wear, get rid of it. If you keep it for sentimental reasons you can 1) take a photo of it before you get rid of it or 2) store it with sentimetal items, not the clothes.
dishes: If you wash by hand, keep one bowl/plate/mug/placesetting for each person in the house OR one of each for as many chairs as you have at your table. If you enetertain, or use the dishwasher you will need a different strategy.
cookware: Empty everything out onto a flat surface (table/bed) group like things together: wooden spoons, knives. Select a number to keep, say three and get rid of the rest. Big, specialty tools--food processor, cherry pitter, stand mixer, expresso machine, etc--ask yourself how many times you have used the item since you got it. Would you rather have the space? Would you rather have the money? Does the item fit with the kind of food you eat?
your personal hisory: the trophies from your little league days, the first 5 drafts of your first novel, the collection of shot glasses you stole, (er...lifted) while on spring break in college. Pick your favorite one. Put it on your desk, window sill or someplace where you will see it everyday and smile-get rid of the rest. OR take a photo of the entire collection and get rid of all of them.
Entire books have been written on how to declutter, including a nice one by our own Miss Minimalist-Francine Jay. But the above should at leas give you something to do this week.
I give you permission to keep all your books, until you decide you don't want to anymore.
I am in a major decluttering effort, and am finding that donating books to my local library, even if they sell them at the annual library sale, helps me feel better about it all. And, you get a tax deductible receipt! Just have to remind myself to not go to the annual sale they hold... :)
Shipping stuff to my adult children has been so fabulous! It's an ongoing thing, and now that my DSD has her own apartment, and will be in grad school for another 2 1/2 years, she's able to receive stuff I send out. Once my DSS gets settled, he too will be receiving boxes of miscellany that he left behind. Oh the nearly empty nest!
My next hurdle is shredding all my MA stuff. It's 12-16 years old, for goodness sakes... and taking up space. I finally got rid of the laptop I did all my work on... that was hard, but good & necessary. I've also been giving furniture away by posting pics on facebook. Now, if I really want to visit that cute rocker, I know where it lives!
My biggest hurdle will be my vintage dishes collection. When the day comes, there's a local merchant who is a power seller on Ebay, and I can simply call him to come take it away & hand me a check. He's younger than I am, so I trust he'll be around for awhile... Luckily, I have stopped bringing more dishes in, and am focusing on rotating the ones I have for use, so I get to appreciate them all.
My biggest hurdle will be my vintage dishes collection.....
Dishes--the Second-to-Final Frontier. Ask me, I know.
Iris Lily, dinnerware addict
Honestly, I think the best tip is just to get started.
Getting started is the hardest part, so make it easy on yourself by decluttering a specific area for 5 minutes. Or, tell yourself to declutter 12 items today. Once you start doing that, it gets easier. Post a checklist somewhere where you will see it with the note "Declutter something today." A little decluttering every day over time will do wonders.....and one of these days the mood will strike to REALLY declutter like a madman, and then you go for it in a big way. :)
Thinking about it, or over-thinking about it, just makes the task seem bigger, imo. So, declutter your thinking and just toss something out today and build from there.
Good luck.
Tussiemussies
1-8-13, 12:21pm
hi read, what other areas where you live do you feel you have things the need to be decluttered? christine
Dishes--the Second-to-Final Frontier. Ask me, I know.
Iris Lily, dinnerware addict
LOL! Maybe we need to start a 12 step group... Or at least exchange photos. Vicarious thrills, ya know! What do you collect?
readaholic713
1-8-13, 2:02pm
hi read, what other areas where you live do you feel you have things the need to be decluttered? christine
Certainly the desk/bookcase area. There is a certain amount of stuff I can't get rid of, like drafts of poems, books, etc. But I have all kinds of random stuff from teaching I need to go through like free stuff from conferences, books I may no longer need, that kind of stuff.
Tussiemussies
1-8-13, 2:10pm
Certainly the desk/bookcase area. There is a certain amount of stuff I can't get rid of, like drafts of poems, books, etc. But I have all kinds of random stuff from teaching I need to go through like free stuff from conferences, books I may no longer need, that kind of stuff.
Maybe you could slowly start with your desk and then set up a filing system for the papers you are going to keep. If you live near an Ikea they might have a fairly cheap filing system... Ikea may also have some cheap bookshelves for books you are going to keep. IMO it is good to have a nice place that is organized to keep what you want and to have it at your fingertips...:)
One thing I have done with small items is take them to work and put them out in a common area with a note that says "Free to a good home." You have to be good about coming back in a couple of days to collect and dispose of anything that doesn't go, but that has never happened to me! Even with larger items, you could always put a note on the bulletin board, etc.
decemberlov
1-9-13, 10:31am
Maybe you could scan and save some of these things digitally such as brochures, poem drafts etc. and toss the originals?
HomemadeChange
1-9-13, 1:08pm
I would begin by taking inventory of them items that are not as near and dear to your heart as your library. By identifying these items, you will surely be able to sell, donate, etc items which will clear space for your books. If you sell items, you can then purchase a storage option for the items (in this case books) you would like to keep. Also, there are many ideas of how to store books in creative ways--- "illusionary" shelving on the wall, on the inside of a closet door, under the bed...
After you purge other items, take a look at your book inventory-- are there a few that you could part with? If so, keep the momentum going and sell or donate those. Do a little at a time, taking small steps and you will reap big rewards!
I agree....start with clothes and other items first! I stopped buying books when hubby got me the Nook last year for Christmas. That has helped quite a bit. I also moved three times in the last 4 years and was able to part with a lot of them by donating them to the library. I have half a bookshelf now and I think it is time to let them go as well to a good cause.
readaholic713
1-9-13, 6:49pm
When it comes to my work, I'm a paper-in-hand kind of guy. I even use a typewriter during much of the writing process, partially because I distrust the computer to always work perfectly, but partially because writing by hand or on a typewriter just puts you closer to the work. I may be able to consolidate and destroy some older drafts, but it'd be a hell of a long process.
LOL! Maybe we need to start a 12 step group... Or at least exchange photos. Vicarious thrills, ya know! What do you collect?
Victorian china and dinner accoutrements. I'll start a thread one of these days about collections.
Redfox, I think it's so cool you're sending boxes of your kids' stuff to them. I always hate to see people's rooms or parts of rooms still devoted to kids' stuff when the kids left years ago, as in not good for kid or parent--like mold growing on the walls.
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