Not quite a horder - decluttering

Progress report to date:

• 3 bags of linens including sets of sheets, towels and 3 comforter to the shelter that helps women and children who have had to leave abusive living situations. They told me they had three women moving into apts the following week, and it made me feel good to know they would all have things for the bed and bathroom, including a comforter for each woman.
• 1 old laptop to the computer store for recycle
• 20 items to the consignment store for resale
• 3 suitcases and 2 backpacks to the other women's shelter

Spent another week going through things and getting more out of the house:

1) Took some pictures and some other cool, fun house hold decor items to a nice home consignment shop. She only took 4 things, but now that I know more about what works and doesn't in her shop, I will know what to bring more of next time.

2) Took three more bags to one of the shelters I brought the luggage to last week, including women's clothing, shoes and purses. I heard a nice story today about my luggage too. Apparently one of the women there who is trying to make a living selling pottery uses one of the bags to wheel around her pottery to different areas where might be able to sell them.

3) Took a box of costume jewelry to my clothing consignment store, along with some purses for resale.

4) Invited a friend over to take a few things I wanted her to have, including a beautiful framed picture for a new home she plans to buy soon.

I am getting down to the last of what I need to do with this clean out! Ready to be done with it so I can just enjoy the house!

Bunkie- take your robes to a local women's shelter. They will go to help the women there who leave their homes sometimes with their clothing on their backs. I find that if I am having a hard time letting go of something, finding a place that needs it more than me helps me to feel better about passing it along. Those women can really use our help!

I took a load of rug materials and a ceiling light to the Habitat Restore today. That has been in the back of my car for weeks!

Next is to find someone to help me move a big TV set out of the house to get to the curb for donation to Big Bros/Big Sisters.

My purging continues, just not as hard and fast as it had been. Got a ton out of here and a bit more to go......

Wren- when I did my recent renovation of the spare bedrooms, including one I converted to a space to read, do yoga, etc. (called it a Wellness Room), I visualized it for years before I finally did it. I cannot tell you how happy I am with it now too. Sometimes dreams and visions help us to create the better space.

Here is a pic of my wellness room:

Someone said to me when they saw it "oh you painted it breast cancer pink!" Well, that was never the intention, as the room always had a lot of pink in it before. But I thought the room would be nice with pink and when I sit in there, I feel so good, soothed, etc. So it does the trick! I am heading to the wellness room shortly for a bit of morning meditation, reading, etc.

Been working on the garage storage to have better space out there to integrate things from house that need to be stored. Pics to come soon!

Hi Jazzy..... Yes, we have been taking everything to the "Treasure Trunk"... that's where women, and their children can go and pick out what they need, and it is given to them. Women can also go in there and purchase the items... It is run by the Family Tree... an organization that also houses kids taken out of their homes. When I worked for Coors, we collected a lot of things to donate, and took to this big house where these "kids" lived...

They were well taken care of, but just breaks your heart to see them all living together... trying to hold onto the little that they have...

It's better to donate, instead of giving this "stuff" to someone for a yard sale.... Ha! I love your Wellness Room.! I have my "favorite things" kind of all over the house.... But I keep that one whole area in the Dining Room for "his stuff".... Ha! AND the upstairs little bedroom! It holds everything we don't use downstairs...

That's NEXT... as soon as I finish the rest of the house... I just gotta go up there, and put things that I don't want along one wall, and then have DD and DH get it down-stairs! I'll take those comforters and blankets to the Treasure Trunk though...

Bunkie- glad the recommendation helped! Those ladies would love those robes!

I have been working on some final de-cluttering. I finally donated my big old TV to Big Bros and Big Sisters last week and that is gone. Going to do another pass of spring things to the consignment shop and other things to the shelter. It's all a process......

Go, Bunkie, go!

I stopped by my consignment store yesterday with some scarves to add to my spring consignment. Came away with some really nice designer stuff at a fraction of the price, some never worn! This is what I love about this consignment store, we are totally into a recycling of things that no longer work for me with being a smaller size, and I am able to get some new things on credit and for a fraction of the price. The goal is to come away with far less than you took there! I bet I have taken about 100 items there this spring, between clothing, costume jewelry, and scarves. I am now getting into my shoes and will take those in April.....

Bunkie, if your shoes are in good shape, you might want to take them to your local consignment store. I always have things that are good for there, others that are much more appropriate for donation.

I also got into my paperwork purge this week (the final frontier) and went through three container so far. What I found was that about 1/3 of it could go into regular paper recycling, 1/3 could go for shredding, and the final third needs to be retained/stored. I took a container of shredding to Staples yesterday (this is a great place to take larger volumes your home shredder can't handle) and also got a better storage container to put my biz items I need to store in all one place together.

Now to find room in the garage for that new biz storage container. Still trying to avoid getting an offsite storage bin.....

Bunkie- yes, I had to keep paperwork from the stuff associated with the sale of my mothers home, her healthcare, etc. for years. Since we are down the road on that, I could get rid of it. I found old tax returns from long ago too that I shredded. I keep personal records back for 7 years.

This weekend I went through some old client project paperwork from some contracts I did awhile back. I have to retain some of that info for awhile, but am past the three years with some of those requirements too. I still have most of it electronically with respect to the things that matter. Mostly notes and things I could get rid of now.

I took another 12 lb recycle container to shred at Staples today! Whoot whoot!

Teka- yay for donations. Glad your legs are feeling better too.

I am still working on paperwork stuff.......

^..^

That's a good idea to send mementos to those involved. I've tended to write only when extremely depressed. I think I've found all those and shredded them. It took a long time.

Hi folks- got back to containers/paper purging/shredding activities after putting them on hold last week with some work things going on. I told myself this week I MUST finish going through everything that need to be look at in the remaining storage containers. I got through a bunch between yesterday and today, and think I have effectively gone through all the containers that have loose paper/files/storage now. I literally filled my recycling dumpster to the brim. I have another bucket to take to shredding too. I went into way old containers all the way back to the 1980s, and even found some fun things from childhood.

Here are some highlights as I took a trip down memory lane:

1) Used to raise rabbits and had all these great rabbit pictures I have not been able to locate. Today I found them!

2) I found an old journal from high school days (I started doing a diary/journal around age 15). This one was from 1976, and it is fun to read about the things that are bothersome to a teenage girl.

3) I used to write down my weight in my journal. I weighed 139 lbs in high school. Back when I thought I was fat then.....

4) I found an old Seventeen magazine from 1978. I am NEVER getting rid of that.

5) I used to have a scientific career and was quite a prolific publisher in my day. I am keeping all my papers and proceedings from the conferences I presented at.

6) As I looked through the boxes this afternoon, I found myself gasping in delight and smiling at some of the things I found today. I have had a good and interesting life so far.....

I also put a couple bags to the curb last week for pick up by one of the local charities that does a pass through once a month and does pick up. I had a skirt of my mothers that she bought here last visit to see me before she became ill. I tried that skirt on, said I would never wear it, and told myself to donate as there would be some woman here that would love it. But then I couldn't get myself to donate that bag, that skirt weighed heavily on me. I realized I really need to just keep that skirt, at least for now. I removed it and was able to easily donate the rest. Interesting experience. Don't let one sentimental item keep you from getting rid of the rest!

Took a bag of better books to my local store that sells books, movies, CDS, etc. and they took most of the books and came away with some store credit. The rest of the books I will donate. I already got rid of some of the ones I knew would not be good for re-sale.