Not quite a horder - decluttering

Yeah.  My kids could clean out my house in a jiffy;  they have no attachment to my stuff.  Eventually, no doubt, that's exactly what will happen.

I like that 1 drawer at a time too. I did my junk drawer in the kitchen. Easy peezy. Tossed a few things and found a plastic bin for the extras. You never have 1 big slotted spoon or butchers knife. I really need to redo the bathroom lotion, soap etc cabinet. Too many half used bottles of stuff that I no linger use. Toss, toss, toss. I also need to take some of the older towels I have been using and add them to my basement towels for my wet areas I get in spring. I have a few bins with new ones and what am I waiting for....minds well use them now.

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Cleaning out bathroom stuff today. I'm amazed at how many bath towels, wash cloths, and beach towels we have for two people.  We don't have a pool and aren't near a lake.  We only have three bathrooms, but I think we have enough stuff to supply camp. 

When my mother went into a nursing home in 1998, I had to rent her house out to raise money for expenses. DH and I went over to the house, and every single item I picked up had a memory attached to it. It was taking me forever, so DH finally asked if I wanted him to pack things up. I gratefully said yes. He went through the house and just swept EVERYTHING into boxes.

Fortunately, we were in the position to be able to afford a mini-storage for her things. Unfortunately, we knew that most of the boxes contained some serious junk: wire coat hangers, old rubber bands, expired coupons, and the general crap that elderly folks seem to accumulate.

In 2005, we moved into our new home with a 3 car garage. DH said there was no need for a mini-storage, so he packed everything up and unloaded it in the garage. We started the process of sorting through Mom's stuff. By then it was easy to toss the garbage. After all, it was taking up valuable real estate in my garage, where MY crap needed to go!

But I'd still get to a box of things that I couldn't get rid of just yet. Every spring we'd go through boxes and I'd sort through and get rid of more.

Finally, she passed in 2009. That year, I went through about 100 boxes and whittled it down to 40. I also let go of a lot of big stuff in an estate sale put on by a local company.

Each spring, we repeat the ritual. Things I thought I couldn't live without have been tossed or donated. Now, the few things I have of Mom's are special and meaningful to me, and don't take up a lot of space.

I was lucky to have the time and the space to allow the letting-go to be a process.

Now it's time for us to start going through OUR boxes of crap.

MIL's passing last week just brought that closer to home. We need to downsize while we're still physically able to do it.

(The good news is that we put a whole bunch of stuff in the travel trailer, so we didn't have to spend any money furnishing it! And I can't wait to see what Turbo Tax has in store for us in the way of deductions.. we donated a TON of crap treasures last year!)

I pulled crumpled up receipts from the past three months out of my purse and entered all the business expenses into my Excel file.  Now I just have to provide totals and I'm ready for the tax lady. Just hoping the income side of the equation is bigger than the expense side!

I have dish towels that are too pretty to use. So they sit.  I hope you get the assistance that you need Bunkie!

Ginger, Or you can change your attitude: I deserve the best and should be surrounded by things I love. You'll appreciate them more than your heirs. Gifts and donations are also good ideas. It's easy to save things that are too good to use, but when does the right time come?

Does anyone have embroidered pillowcases hidden away?

My grandma made them for me for every birthday and Christmas. Not only were they embroidered, they had the prettiest crocheted edging on them!

They are wrapped in acid-free tissue paper in my linen closet. I don't know what I'm waiting for...

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I started using the silver flatware for every day and plan to move the "good china" into my every day dish closet.  There is no need to save them and it is nice to have pretty things. 

Wish you the best of luck!

CCFW