Declutter 2021: What have you purged today? - Page 13

Sweet Caroline 1 · ‎12-12-2017

@Tinkrbl44, And all, I stumbled upon this thread as well and am planning to let it help me a lot with purging. I get overwhelmed easily so I will take it slow so I wont "just forget it". Little bits at a time will get it done .

SouthernBee · ‎09-16-2010

Good Morning: I have a small house with limited storage. I turned the middle bedroom into my office, my exercise , my general storage area and pantry about 6 years ago. I purchased two large commercial shelving . One for general household items and Christmas decorations. The other as a pantry.The closet contains baking pans, cake plates and related items. Last week started on the two shelves. Completed a lot of purging and reorganization but still feel it looks like a hoarders room but it necessary items. Took all day yesterday on the closet. Looks a lot better and items don't fall out when I open the closet door😀- but I think it needs more help. I had mix filling about using any baskets or bins but some necessary for container lids or other items to keep contain - so without spending money used various size zip lock containers that no longer had the lids. I had in the very small closet - a plastic four shelving unit. Very top shelf necessary items that are only use twice a year. Very bottom shelf the necessary but big cake plates, cupcakes and other related items.Anyone else dealing with the same issues and have any better suggestions? Now have several boxes that need to be donated.

rnmom · ‎03-11-2010

@queendiva wrote:
Wow. Had to run back here and post. Besides the obvious benefit of less (or no) clutter, sometimes purging yields a good surprise or two.

Completed the kitchen junk drawer purge and moved on the the 3 small shelves in my closet. Looking disorganized, for sure. One of the first things I did with this house and my previous house was to have a local family-owned company come in and install custom closets in an effort to keep that area neat and organized. Apparently I have not gone through those shelves since moving in September, 2018. The things I found amid the chaos in boxes included several pieces of gold jewelry that I was planning to sell, several really nice candles- new and unopened,a small diamond necklace I searched all over to give to my Goddaughter for her Sweet 16 (she will get it for 17!) and the mother lode: my favorite $$$ perfume that DS bought me for Christmas two years ago! It is hard to find, harder to find at discount- I looked online while Christmas shopping.

Made my day! Pulled out a few things to drop at Restore tomorrow and two items to donate to another charity shop this week. Found info that the buyer of my previous home was looking for. I did not retain his number in my new phone, so I will pop it in the mail to him rather than text the info.

Continued to feed the trash and recycling. This was probably the only area in my house that has not been touched since moving in. I guess I thought it was not so bad? Or that it was inside the mostly neat closet?

I wonder what other surprises await. Certainly have renewed motivation to continue the purge!

@queendiva - That is indeed a wonderful surprise! How nice for you! I never find cool things like that when I'm decluttering.

rnmom · ‎03-11-2010

@ALRATIBA wrote:
Just counted 15 desk draws that need to be gone through.

Then the bottom shelves on three bookcases.

Then - the "linen" closet which contains very little linen, but lots of other stuff.

I expect to be busy until early March!

(and that's not even counting kitchen under-the-counter cabinets!)

@ALRATIBA - It really is amazing to discover how much we have when we actually start going thru it all drawer by drawer huh?

I have a friend who is moving and wanted to donate some items but can't find anywhere near her who will accept donations so yesterday I met with her and picked up some things because there is a resale shop near me that is taking donations.

She gave me 2 huge bags of clothes to donate and some blankets for the animal shelter. I told her I'd look thru the clothes first to see if there is any I want to keep and I'd donate the rest.

There is a ton crammed into those 2 bags, it will take me a while just to sort thru those. But I want to do it sooner rather than later b ecause I have 3 large black trash bags full now sitting here. She also gave me some luggage which I will keep for right now.

rnmom · ‎03-11-2010

@Tinkrbl44 wrote:
@rnmom wrote:
Happy New Year to all of my fellow purgers!

I am so happy to be able to share this declutter journey with all of you!

I believe this is the fourth year that we've had this thread. While I don't have a lot of big purging to do at this stage of my life, it is always an ongoing journey, whether you have small kids, teenagers, or are empty nesters. Our needs will always change as our stage of life changes, therefore there is always a need to declutter!

For those of you who might be new to this thread, here we post our progress towards decluttering our homes and making them functional places that we love to be in.

All purges count, whether big or small, post them here! Whether it's donated, given to a family member or trashed, if it leaves your house, it counts! Posting is a great way to inspire and motivate each other and give us ideas where we can maybe streamline our own spaces.

Here's to a lighter new year for everyone!

@rnmom

WOW .... I came across this thread accidentally .... what a great idea!

I'll be back ......... to be part of the process. What a great idea.

@Tinkrbl44 - Welcome! I'm so glad you found us! We look forward to hearing from you lots! I love this thread!

rnmom · ‎03-11-2010

@KBEANS wrote:
Good Evening Fellow Purgers,

For the last 2 days my husband and I have been clearing the shelves of our entertainment center of little odds and ends that were making it look unsightly. Cards, Knick knacks, eyeglass cases etc. My husband had 3 cases piled up. I wanted to can at least 2, but we compromised and 1 went out.
Been trying to scale down all these little things we've accumulated. I really want to dig deeper, but I'm satisfied with surface right now. Next week, maintenance is coming to do some plaster work in the kitchen and I was told to remove everything from my upper cabinets. It's a small area but I do have stuff I'm not wanting to deal with, but I will. I was organizing my junk draw today and got rid of extra pens, clips and other annoying items that make it hard to close the draw. I took out all the batteries I had and put them in a battery case. I now need to find a new spot to put the case. 😝 A never ending battle.

@KBEANS - I'm not actually doing a lot of actual decluttering right now, but like you, I am surface decluttering and trying to organize so that things are easier to find and work with. I want items to at least be put away and out of sight if possible.

But for example, rather than sort thru all of my Christmas totes and handle and decide on every little item I'm just making sure that they are labeled and organized in my basement and out of the way. I figure I can go back and sort out the tiny things later if I'm so inclined.

Roscoe the Rascal · ‎04-19-2016

Today on my list to purge and organize is the cabinet in my washroom that holds extra appliances long forgotten. I found a place that said they could use those items. So my project for today.

My sister recently passed away and my family has to do the clean out. Been working on that as time allows. No easy task and she was a big saver. This has been a difficult task but also has given me the incentive to organize and move stuff out so my daughter will have an easier time with our house. Wow lots of stuff. 3 bedroom ranch style home with a full downstairs, attached two stall garage.

I have to say I am pretty organized compared to what I have been dealing with. I have two sisters. I was always the clean freak, my other sister 2 nd in line and the one who passed well let's say not on the top of her list. God love her.

Happy purging.

rnmom · ‎03-11-2010

@RedTop wrote:
I am content with my level of stuff, but had a talk with both daughters recently about the amount of stuff they continue to bring into this house, and store for the time being.

My talk did prompt trucker daughter to purge the garage refrigerator and freezer, of outdated items. She has a bad habit of buying tasty food and drink items that soon fall out of favor with her, but she's "sure" she will pick them back up "soon". Only she doesn't, and they take up valuable space and I'm paying to keep them cold or frozen for a long time.

I am not a wasteful person; not of time, food, nor money, and imagining the cost of what she tossed in today's garbage hasn't set well with me. I chewed on her a bit, and hopefully there will be a change in her buying habits.

@RedTop - I hate wasting too, especially food. I feel like I'm just throwing money straight into the trash when that happens, and I work way too hard to do that.

Other than the occasional spoiled produce or meat scraps, etc, very little goes into the trash around here. That is, as long as I can keep my boys from throwing things out. I try to keep that to a minimum if I can too. We have 4 dogs who will gladly take anything that we don't want and now we also have 5 chickens that love produce that isn't quite prime anymore. So that makes me happy to know that some critter is getting some value out of it.

rnmom · ‎03-11-2010

@mistriTsquirrel wrote:
I'm doing a declutter challenge this month. It's supposed to go like this: you declutter 1 thing January 1st, 2 things January 2nd, etc.

I'm doing it differently. I wrote numbers 1-31 down. Each day I declutter whatever I can, then I cross out the number I was able to declutter. So far I've decluttered 118 items.

Today my mother brought over some things of mine from her house... 😄

I think I may be doing something similar next month. But maybe just 5-10 things a day. Not sure yet. I don't want to make it feel overwhelming, but want to keep some sort of pace going.

@mistriTsquirrel - That's great, it sounds like you are already off to a fantastic start! Way to go!

rnmom · ‎03-11-2010

@Sweet Caroline 1 wrote:
Hello all! I'm just beginning my purging. At first, it is easy to see it part with it and so on. But I have a lot of things of mine and things that belonged to my mother that are going to be hard to decide yes or no.

There are things that would sell but not having a yard sale. Then I think, just donate it and be free of it. How do you make sure your making the right decisions with the things you're giving up? Do you all have a ... i need to think about it pile?

@Sweet Caroline 1 - If you're not sure about something I'd definitely make an "need to think about it" pile. Sometimes you just don't know.

One of the things I've read is to box it up and put it away for 6 months. Depending on whether or not you've used the items or even thought about them for 6 months might help you decide whether or not you want to keep them.

You don't always know if you're making the right decisions and there have been one or two things that I have decluttered over the years that I wish that I had kept, but for the most part I don't regret 99% of it.