Not quite a horder - decluttering

hotandcold

Suzwes: Thanks for starting this thread and for your latest post. I too can relate to health issues derailing us.  That's whate happened in October thru March.

Bunkie10: Glad to hear your felt good and inspired a friend. Way to go.

So, I spent more time in the garage this weekend.  Now I'm down to things I feel like I need to sell on e-bay or craigs list.  Still not able to pull 2nd car in.  I have a box of vintage linen tablecloths.  I have some vintaqge bookends, silverplated trays and silverware and more.  How do I get motivated to sell on ebay or should I just donate all this stuff?

Gingerbrew

HotandCold,  If you itemize, donating can be good for your tax returns. Be sure to look at what the average deductions are for your specific items. I undervalued our donations for years.   

I also would like to sell some things on ebay but don't know if I will ever get it done. 

Good luck

GInger

Teka

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suzwes

Bunkie and hotandcold:  Hope your health issues are resolving or at least under control! And yay for continuing to declutter. 

Gingerbrew: Great reminder about itemizing the donations on taxes, we've undervalued ours for years too and I need to keep better track.

Teka: Woo Hoo a new bed spread.  Love that Bed, Bath and Beyond store!  I have a 20% off coupon burning a hole in my purse!

I did about an hour of decluttering this weekend - in the kitchen.  It's so overwhelming that I have to keep telling myself baby steps!

Good luck sisters!

luvmygoats

Been decluttering out old hospice papers for storage.  I think I need to keep them 5 years for documentation.  Also stacks of old newspapers.  I never met a newpaper I didn 't like.  But recycling all but family/obit. sections.  DH took large nylon leaf thingie like you put yard debris in to the school paper dump.

Our county had dump day 2 weeks ago.  Got rid of lots of junk from garage area.  County took in lots of boats.

Have to clean out living area.  AC on the fritz and repairman coming tomorrow.  89 degress here yesterday and about the same today.  We are the worst at maintenance.  I am getting a journal and documenting everything we do to house/vehicles.  And though DH does not so much I believe in preseason checks of AC/heat and that will restart NOW.

Teka

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Wren44

I noticed a pair of brown jeans in my drawer. I only wear them to the animal shelter. But I wear other things there also, so these need to go to the round file. They are too tattered to donate.

BUNKIE10

I had a bad water problem in my basement with all the rains. Never before. Thank God all my stuff was either in plastic bins or up off the floor. My old rec room is basically a big storage unit. Time to get on that. Bins of towels, sheets etc. Lots of ceramics I thought I would use. Lots of pictures and not expensive art work.

My walls in the furnace room really leaked and I now need to get a sump pump installed. Costly and messy work. There are also asbestos ceiling tiles that have not been touched and need to be removed.

I gave some thought to this and decided what I keep will go into a storage unit. The basement needs a lot of work done over the next year so I can sell the house. No need for my handyman to move stuff around trying to do the work. When my boyfriend gets here in June we will start going through stuff and what I keep will go into storage. That will clear out the basement.

ptdreamers

Bunkie, Good plan but do not touch the asbestos tiles. They need to be removed professionally. Nephew's neighbors did it themselves and were both diagnosed with lung cancer two years later. The masks you get  at home stores aren't sufficient.

Wren44

In fact, the law may require asbestos tiles to be removed by professionals. You don't want to do anything to mess up your future home sale.

BUNKIE10

I won't even be in the house when they remove those tiles. I will be gone for 2 months. I thought they were just regular tiles. My contractor schooled me.

Meece

I donated several boxes of stuff to my son for his yard sale.  That got some stuff out of the garage.

We are now back from a two week stint at DS's to greet our new granddaughter.  

DH bought me three new outfits to wear to work/interviews.  He made some comment about "One in One out"  so I went to my closet and found six items I haven't worn in forever and put them in a bag.  They will go to DSs next yard sale.  I really need to thin out more!

Teka

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BUNKIE10

Ok May it is. Just tossed the last of my past due canned goods into this weeks trash for pick up. I can actually see in my cupboards now. I am not using as much canned stuff now days.

Time to start on my cook books again. I took some time off after going down from about 160 to 80 but still need more. If I could get a diagnosis on my wheat sensitivity I would toss almost all of them.

luvmygoats

My decluttering has fallen off the last 2 weeks and I plead NO excuses. Well, maybe more surfing on net and BCO reading. Think DH is pi**ed with me and I need to get up off my a**. Thanks for the kick in the pants Bunkie and Teka. I wish we would have a lovely rainy couple of days and I might make some progress. Though I have been cleaning out old mags. The past couple of years I have not read hardly any and take wayyyy to many. BUT I do use them as entertainment value as we go out very little. Once DH gets home and he works every other weekend, he will not budge so even on his weekends off we stay home.

DD has given me permission to clean out her old room but she only had an hour or two to go through it. I think I will start lightly and work my way into stuff she might actually want. Clincher is it would have to stay here. She has teeny apt with one closet. My DM kept some of my things for years and love that she did. And we moved often every year or 2. So we are planted here so what would it hurt me to keep her stuff. She is a great DD, college grad, paid off student loans, good job, making car payments. Can you tell I'm proud?

Happy Wednesday to everyone. Are we having a May challenge?

BUNKIE10

luvmygoats - Do you remember my magazine hoarding? I had about 6 years of Paula Dean, Taste of The South and several other southern cooking magazines hidden under my beds and in plastic bins. I would get them in and thumb through them and stash them. This past winter I forced myself to go through every one and tear out a recipe I had to have maybe and I donated them all. I have very few back issues of any thing now. When I got done I had about 30 recipis and that was it. It was so freeing.

Meece

Wow, Bunkie, I am proud of you.  I feel that the longer I keep a magazine, the harder time I have trying to let loose of it.  Since it isn't new, I will procrastinate even opening it to see why I saved it.  After all, I can always thumb through it tomorrow.

BUNKIE10

Meece - Thanks for the support. It was hard to do but necessary. If I am going to get down to basics in this house and get ready to sell in the next couple years...out they go. I ended up with a plastic shoebox full of recipes from all that stuff. When I moved from California in 04 I paid so much to bring all this syuff here and I have NEVER used half of it. Noit the clothes, furniture and junk. My basement flood helped me decide to clean up all of it. They need to work in my basement this fall and winter...sump pump, remove ceiling tiles and my stuff needs to be gone. Thinking about a small storage unit till they get done or a POD.

Mandy1313

My place always had alot of stuff, but there was something about my dx that made me just keep everything--I couldn't even get rid of mail.  I've been de-cluttering, slowly but surely for the past few months.   At first it felt as if nothing was happening.I could take bags of stuff out, but the place looked the same.  Finally it is beginning to show (slowly, slowly).    I have given enough books away that the book cases are starting to have room in them.  Right now I have 8 bags of clothing to take to a thrift shop.  My goal is for things to look better by October and to get three or four bags of stuff out each week. I hope that is realistic. 

Thanks to you gals for giving me an incentive to keep going.

Gingerbrew

Mandy that sounds totally doable!   How about calling a charitable org locally and have them pick up those bags. Lots of organizations will come out to pick up.    

Good for you that you have begun doing this. I have finally, after months gone back up to my beloved sewing room. My Onc told me it is not unusual to have lots of symptoms ;like this AFTER treatment. Who would have thought that. I expected to be out clicking my heels together and instead I have become an old toad sitting on the sofa.  

I am happy to hear you are moving ahead to get your space to what you want it to be.   I have a vision for my sewing room. Two houses ago my sewing room was small, about 12 x 12  but it was just right. I had everything just where I wanted it. I would like to get back to something approaching that state.  

Love Ginger 

Teka

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Mandy1313

Gingerbrew, it sounds as if your sewing room has been a haven for you in the past.  I know that you will really love getting your sewing room back to the way you like it.  Imagining it is the first step. 

I don't have any imagination about what to do--I am just literally going through stuff (old kids clothing; excessive baking pans, you name it, I probably have it) and when I find something I don't need, I bag it. If it is a remarkable item, I try to send it to someone I know who will enjoy it--for example, I had some fabulous children's books that I sent to a friend for her children.   Otherwise, I just take it to a local charity thrift shop.    Perhaps it is not the best but I had to begin someway. 

Thanks for your kind words. 

Mandy

curveball

I just contacted a Commodore computer user group about donating three Commodore computers, with some peripheral devices, software and hobbyist magazines. I couldn't find contact info for anyone in the local User Group, so I sent an email to the club in Portland OR asking them to put me in touch with the club up here, or forward my email. But if I can't get in touch with the club in Seattle, Portland isn't all that far away. I'd rather drive there and have the computers go to people who will enjoy them than just throw them away or send for recycling.

Teka

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Mandy1313

Still working on the de-cluttering but feeling a bit overwhelmed.  Just before my diagnosis, my dear sister died and left me all of her possessions.  Although I gave away two small moving vans of furniture and household goods (about 14 foot trucks) to Habitat for Humanity, and gave 35 bags of more stuff to Goodwill as well as gave to people who helped,  I ended up with much too much---family heirlooms and things I want for my kids.   So I am trying not to be too hard on myself and to take things one step at a time. But today is one of those days when it just seems to be standing still.  I have an acquaintance from Bermuda coming to visit in the fall, who has never been to my house, and I am petrified that I won't be ready for her---thanks for listening.

Teka

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Mandy1313

Thanks for your thoughts Teka. I got rid of the junk when my sister first died...the stuff I have is actually valuable--a jade statue, my great grandmother's tea set. I don't mean that they are worth millions but maybe a few thousand which for me is real money.  The problem is that I have to get rid of all of my "junk" to either display this stuff for my own pleasure or to have a dealer come over to see the pieces I'd like to sell. E-bay is not an option for me.  That is why I am going through stuff and working on getting rid of the stuff that I don't mind just donating to the Salvation Army--to make room for the stuff I want, which is packed up in my basement.

I don't know how not to put this woman up in my home. She is traveling  to my home town to do the Komen Three Day Walk which she views as helping her breast cancer friends, ie, me.  She basically invited herself and at the time it seemed ok.  I also had a young woman helping me one day a week with my decluttering but she has decided to move to Costa Rica and soon--leaving June 7--which I think is part of why I am not sure I can get things ready enough.  I guess I need to stop worrying and  see where I am in August--I can write to my Bermuda friend and  explain about the clutter--I am doing well in making inroads,  but I had become a pack rat and it will take a long time to have a pristine environment. I had too much stuff but during chemo, I really got messed up in the house and I am still trying to organize.  I am hopeful that I eventually will find a place for the antiques and get rid of my junk.

I really appreciate the support of this board.

Mandy

BUNKIE10

When my mom passed away I thought she had so much antique stuff. As I looked at her priceless vases, pictures and furniture it was a surprise. The vases had all chipped and she glued them, the pictures were copies and the furniture she had painted etc so it was no longer of value. At least that is what they told me. I donated some to friends of hers and still have some but not sure if I love it or hate it.

My issue now is getting through probate and trying to sell this run down home that is bleeding me dry for repairs. If housing values would come back up I would not be in such a hurry but at this rate I am loosing 4,000 a year and putting 8,000 into it. I am not looking forward to renting again but the simplicity of it all sounds good. When the basement flooded I looked at my stuff still in plastic bins and have to wonder when I will ever use it. Guess I need to start donating again.

Teka

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sciencegal

Thanks for all the tips girls. I am doing spring cleaning this weekend, it is good to know I am not alone! So far I have three bags of clothing for goodwill, and some nice suits for WEAVE, that don't fit me any longer but will be good for someone else to enjoy. I have accepted that I will never be a size six again!
It is so much easier to see what is in my closets now - Almost like going shopping, since I found things I had not seen for awhile, at least before my diagnosis last year. I havent done much serious cleaning since then.