Not quite a horder - decluttering

MinusTwo

Jazz: Great list. I too will print.

Wren: I agree. It wasn't until my Mother died I finally felt free to get rid of some things that she prized and I absolutely hated. On the other hand, she put stickers on the bottom or the back of EVERYTHING about which child was to have this. So it was all sitting there after her death, and what a nightmare I had trying to fulfill her wishes. It would have been nice if she'd given us that special "xxx" along the way.

I sorted all my Christmas ornaments several years ago and am giving some to my son & nieces & nephews each year for the holidays.

Jazzygirl

I found #6 to be so useful when cleaning out the closets. Sometimes I would have shoes that were basically the same type of shoe, maybe just a different style of a same color. So those went to the consignment stores! One only needs so many leopard print shoes and boots, right?

glennie19

Oh Wren, me too!! Mom gave all her silver to little brother's first wife. (they are long divorced now!) cuz she knew that I didn't want it since I always hated polishing it. Glad I don't have it.

Dee2010

I also love the list, and have seen similar lists in the past. I'm really struggling with number 3, keeping things out of obligation. I was the only one in a house when my mother died and my father sold the house, and so was asked to keep family items like two pictures of my grandfathers. They're huge oval pictures (about 2.5 feet high by 1.5 feet wide), they're in their army uniforms from WWI, so they really set the tone of a room when I do display them. I don't right now, but I don't want to get rid of them either...

Wren44

Dee, That's the kind of thing a history museum might be interested in. Do you have people to pass it down to?

Jazzygirl

I have a daily reading book called "Your Daily Rock- A Daybook of Touchstones for Busy Lives". Today's reading is about consumerism and asks the question, why do we buy so much?

I have had several thoughts about this during the year and with my de-cluttering process. The first is that our society/culture is very consumerism focused and most of our economy is based on us buying the goods and services here. We no longer make the widgets we used to here in the US, but we are expected to purchase good and services for our own purposes to keep things going.

My other thought is sometimes we buy things to fill a void vs. buying something that we truely love, will use or enjoy, etc. At least I do. I think this is where mindful questions come into to play. Do we love it? Do we already have something similar? Do I love it? Is is a nice momento of an experience, like a vacation? Am I buying this because I had a bad day at work and it will cheer me up (aka retail therapy)?

The book also talks about the value of having more experiences vs. stuff. Stuff that owns us, takes too much of our time, etc. Experiences don't do that, do they? We have them and then we go. We don't have to manage where to put them, how to keep them serviced, etc. A nice dinner with friends, a vacation with loved ones, a spa day. That is what I hope to be doing more of of going forward.

Wren44

A friend who loves to travel says she's done shopping. She goes for the sights, the people, and especially the food. She recently built a small cottage in her back yard. She lives in it and rents out her large house to people with children. There's also a basement apartment in the big house that she's reserving for visitors. It's booked for a wedding in the spring.

Dee2010

I've developed a habit of (a) identifying a goal that costs money - right now, it's a trip with my sister in Oct 2016 and (b) before buying something, asking myself if in a year I would be more pleased to have the item or the money for the goal (trip). It works really well for me!

Wren44

Sounds like the diet I had after being told my blood sugar was too high (not yet to diabetes). When I was tempted, I asked myself if it would be worth an insulin shot later on. Amazing how often it wasn't.

Jazzygirl

Wren- same thing happened for me with blood sugar going high. About six months after I finished treatment in 2013. I immediately stopped eating sugar. I thought about my mother who had lived with diabetes the last 18 years of her life. I have turned things around by changing my eating habits. This time of the year is challenging because of all the goodies around, but I find sugar free substitutes where I can.

I like your idea about applying some of the same logic around the whole blood sugar thing to shopping. Maybe think down the road a bit about what I am creating for myself?

DivineMrsM

Jazzy, I definitely shopped to fill a void. It's not that I was a shopaholic. But, when I worked, I would get so tired and felt under appreciated at the job, so I would treat myself to a new piece of clothing or jewelry or distract myself by buying something for the house. It was a way to relieve the stress of the work place. The void was that I did not feel like my efforts at work were being noticed.

It's been a year since I stopped working, and my shopping habits have changed. I've bought very little clothing through the year as I really have more than I need. I don't have to compete with young women at work whose main hobby and passion was the sport of shopping. When it comes to the house, I have time to look around and see if something I already own can be used for a new purpose or if I can do without it altogether. Instead of feeling deprived, I feel much more creative.

Wren, interesting choices by your friend. I, too, have switched to having more experiences in the past several years, traveling, seeing concerts and shows rather than accumulating stuff. It makes for a much more interesting life

Mandy1313

Wishing you all a 2016 of health, happiness and peace.

hugs

mandy1313

Jazzygirl

Happy New Year to all my de-cluttering friends! May you have good health and less stuff in the new year!

mel147

Thanks Jazzy! Happy New Year to everyone too! I am definitely looking forward to having less clutter in 2016

DivineMrsM

Decluttering has been on my mind this month. I was so happy that a day or two after Christmas, there were no gifts left under the tree. We were already using everything we'd been gifted or already had a place for it. I don't mind getting stuff as long as it's not frivolous or more of what I already own.

I realized I sometimes get rid of junky stuff and replace it with something of better quality and it just feels so much better. I am donating big, cheap wineglasses that I'd got for free after my niece's wedding shower where they were used for decoration because I've decided to buy a set of nicer wine glasses. It doesn't feel cluttery because they are better quality and I can appreciate that. I'm donating four old folding chairs that we no longer need because I have nicer, painted occasional chairs I can easily round up for extra seating when necessary. My son got me a pair of beautiful chef's knives for Christmas. I never had knives that nice, and I put some old, ugly knives I'll no longer use in the donation box. My kitchen just feels like a nicer, cleaner place.

glennie19

Going thru my books again on this long weekend. Have a big pile to donate. I am doing the method of touching every single one, dusting as I go, to decide if the book brings me joy, good memories, and if I really want to have shelf space for it. Some books that I loved, but knew I wouldn't read again, I said good-bye to. Keeping only the best ones.

Been reading archived blog posts on Becoming Minimalist. Here's a link if you want to check it out.

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/

Jazzygirl

Happy New Year friends! I am going to begin this new year by getting some home org done this weekend. One of the local charities is coming through next weekend for any items to pick up and have a couple bags from the recent closet clean out that will go to the curb, but going to look for other things too!

One of my new years goals is to have more experiences and less stuff!

DivineMrsM

glennie, that sounds like a wonderful way to begin the new year...touch each book as you decide what to keep and what to donate. I get emails of articles from the becoming minimalist site and they are a nice way to be reminded of being mindful of accumulating less.

More experiences is a terrific goal and one that I've put in practice much more since the bc diagnosis. Not just elaborate ones, but fun day trips to places within an hour or two drive that I might not have ever taken the time to go and see and do. Also, trying new foods, new recipes, new routes to places I've already been, concerts and shows, tours of a winery and so on.

I'm also happy that the list of questions to ask when decluttjng that you posted, Jazzy, was easily saved as an image and il be sharing it on my FB page.

Hey, happy 2016 to everyone!

glennie19

Agree on the new experiences, MrsM! My friend took me to Dance of Universal Peace last night for New Years Eve. It is Sufi dancing. Wow! Talk about energetic! We chant and dance in circles. Kind of like folk dancing. It was great.

Looking around on the BecomingMinimalist site, he has guest blog posts frequently, and there are a lot of people blogging about it. I liked the 365less one,,, she tosses one item a day and at the end of the year, 365 items have left the premises. Seems pretty easy, no?

I'm going to post a book count when I start bagging them up. I just wanna see how many.

Teka

^..^

mel147

I also agree on the topic of experiences. I've also been thinking I'd like to enjoy more experiences. I feel like decluttering is going to help me do that because I will have to spend less time organizing my stuff and more time living my life! Although, I must admit...I actually do enjoy decluttering...it is kind of fun, too!

We have already done some shredding of old papers and today I organized all my medical papers. I had kind of been trying to keep them together already, but had gotten in the habit of just sticking them in one place rather than putting them in folders. Now all is neat and organized and I am ready to move last years' stuff out of the way so I can keep track of everything for 2016. It was good because I finally went through the folders of all my stuff from my diagnosis and surgery in 2014. I was able to throw away a lot of things and the things I felt like I should keep are all organized and tucked away in the file cabinet. It will be nice not to see them in my room anymore. I had a container that holds hanging file folders with all my breast cancer stuff in my room. Not sure why I hadn't gone through it to move it before...only thing I can think of is after all that time of appointments and insurance stuff, I just didn't want to think about it anymore, so I just left it there and ignored it. Now I will find another use for the container - maybe it will now store something more fun!

I'm going to check out that minimalist site tomorrow. Glennie - good luck with the books! Can't wait to hear what your book count is! I've been thinking of trying to sell some of ours. We have soooooo many!

Good night, all!

glennie19

I'm up to 103 books. I think that's the final count. And yes, there are still plenty more!

Teka

^..^

Jazzygirl

Go Glennie go!

Mel- I enjoy decluttering too. Something satisfying about purging?

MinusTwo

Oh boy, am I in trouble. Decided to see how many books were involved in Glennie's 103 count. I have 115 books on only 3 shelves of one bookcase. I have between 54 - 60 shelves on my various bookcases. The math makes me dizzy - something over 2000 books. Ninety-five % of these I've already gone back through & individually picked up & dusted and either read again or set aside to read a 2nd or 3rd time. That's not even counting the 4 HUGE bags of books I picked up before my used book store closed their doors that I haven't opened yet. On top of which I live alone so I can't even argue that some belong to a spouse. Can I get a break because of the quantity of children's book? maybe count them only half a book? And I got $150 credit for Christmas gifts for new books. I really do pass on at least 4 books every week. I have three full bags in the garage to go to the library. Oh oh oh, I need to get off line and back to the book I'm reading today!!

Teka

^..^

glennie19

MinusTwo: I would LOVE to see your collection!! That is only part of my collection,, LOL,,, I also have one set of bookcases that only contain "unread" books!! Didn't touch that one, but I'm going to make a effort to start reading those. Some have sat there for years, after being purchases at used book stores, or the Friends of the Library sale. I'm working on finding the entire Dortmunder series by Donald Westlake,,, but I want to FIND them,,, not buy on AbeBooks, etc. Then I'll read all 16 (?) of them in order, cuz I'm really OCD that way. They are really popular books and not easy to find.

Just noticed that I have some VHS tapes left in the cabinet, so they are going to go too.

Then it's on to purge 2015 papers, organize as needed for taxes, and start new files for 2016.

DivineMrsM

MinusTwo, that is lot of books! Just chip away at them one book at a time.

Tho I'm a book lover, I buy few books because the local library is a block from my home. I'm able to find almost any book I want to read on their website and if it's at another library in the consortium it is sent to my library where I can pick it up.

I like decluttering, too. There is a big clean up week here in town every May where we are able to set out big items to be hauled away. Last May was so hectic here since my son graduated college, we moved him off campus to an apartment and then took vacation. We weren't able to take advantage of clean up week. Now that the New Year's begun, dh and I look forward to it to get rid of an old dryer, furnace parts, kitchen drawers and old wood lying in the basement as well as a broken wooden swing out back. We enjoyed our vacation but learned that May is too hectic a month in the spring to go away and will plan vacation for another time of year.t

Beatmon

I gave away all of my books a few years ago, before I even knew I had breast cancer. I took them to different hospitals where I knew the volunteers took a reading cart around for the patients to choose a book. Also, the owner of a used book store where I frequented took loads to different nursing homes. I only have about 10 books in my house now. Use my kindle and still read continually. Miss the book store and holding books, but nothing beats buying a book at 2 am.

Today I am cleaning out my gift wrapping closet. It is a big mess. Overwhelming. Lots will go to charity box

Wren44

Beatmon, Carry on! Our gift wrap became ridiculous a few years ago and we haven't bought any for almost 3 years. Still have enough for another year. We did have to buy birthday paper for the Jan 8 boy.