2013 Destash- this is the year!

[emilymad]

Thanks all for the under the sink ideas. Our kitchen has a corner sink with a huge cabinet underneath. It is great but hard to get to stuff. It is where things go to die!

We got rid of most of our plastic containers last year. I got a set of six glass ones with plastic lids. We saved a few plastic ones in case we need to send food home with someone. The six containers have been more than enough and using the glass is actually really nice.

I went through my jewelry box and have a pile of costume jewelry to donate. I have some real stuff I need to figure out where to sell. Even doing something little feels great!

[sskem96]

Well dang it, now you've gone and inspired me. I'm grabbing a garbage bag and heading up to the master bathroom. There are a couple boxes in there from when we moved in 2 years ago that are full of old styling products and stuff that we are never going to use. I think that's a small enough area I can get through it in an hour or so and be ready to start on the bedroom tomorrow.

[jkCT]

Went through all of the books and now have a box and three bags...about 80 books...going to Savers tomorrow. I apparently inspired my 13yo DD as well, since I can see the floor in her room for the first time in 6 months and I have a big bag of her old clothes to take to Savers with the books!

[jenluvs2go2disney]

I cleaned out under the hall bathroom sinks. I got a small bag of trash and nicely organized it. I also cleaned out 2 more of my bedroom drawers. More trash and some stuff to donate.

I plan to finish the last drawer in my dresser and the two in my nightstand this weekend.

[starwood]

A little annoyed. I scheduled a pick-up with the Vietnam Veterans of America for yesterday. Whenever I get a full bag I schedule a pickup to get it out of the house. It sat outside all day yesterday and they never came. I emailed them and they said they will come on Monday. Now I have to let it sit in the house all weekend. Maybe I'll try to fill a second bag before then.

[Gillennj]

Wow, not even 8:00 in the morning and I have already cleared out some junk from our laundry area for the recycling pickup today and have loaded my trunk with stuff for Goodwill, including an old monitor and printer taking up tons of space. Yesterday I took a van full of old boxes to the recycling center.

Can't wait to get rid of more stuff. Going to CL a bunch of stuff today, too.

[mrsklamc]

I think I can finish the kitchen this weekend. Hard to say because every time I think I have every task listed to finish the kitchen I remember a few more.

[C_leen]

Ah Saturday. A day off. I started cleaning the kitchen. I got two cupboards done in 45 minutes. The reason for the slow time is some sort of greasy grime on top of the cupboards. Yuck! Finally took straight up pine sol and that seemed to cut it. I've been eyeing the tops for a while and knew it had to be dusty. Now I know I need to clean up there more often! Three cupboards down in an hour to date. As usual this is going to take more time than I thought.

Everyone keep motivating me by posting!

[StephMK]

My main goal for today is to pack up all of the Christmas stuff so DH can put it in the attic tomorrow. I've been trying to collect the odds and ends into piles so I don't forget anything.

Tonight my goal is to go through a pile of papers that I have not addressed over the holidays. I should be able to throw out most of it but I need to sort through it. *sigh* I hate dealing with papers!

The kids will help me straighten up the basement today so DD's friends can spend the night tonight. We're making progress down there! I now have a goal for the basement. BIL may be visiting in Feb and will stay in the guest room downstairs.

DH mentioned that he plans to go through his closet and get rid of a bunch of things. I told him I'd go donate them tomorrow if he can get it done. He doesn't really have much stuff other than his clothes and tons of CDs. All the CDs are in a big cabinet so I leave those alone.

[mrsklamc]

Our corner kitchen cabinet is a lazy susan. Does anyone have creative ideas for organizing it? The only thing I can think of is to move our canned goods there cause they don't need containers or anything to hold them;

There's not a LOT in there, just a few miscellaneous items I couldn't find a better spot for.

[princess stich]

The kids went through all of their books this week & pulled many to get rid of. I made $43 in books this morning & still have a ton more (not as nice as the ones that already went though). I also sold some baskets and made $15.

I have also 3 bags of donations ready for a fundraiser garage sale.

[mrsklamc]

Originally Posted by C_leen

Ah Saturday. A day off. I started cleaning the kitchen. I got two cupboards done in 45 minutes. The reason for the slow time is some sort of greasy grime on top of the cupboards. Yuck! Finally took straight up pine sol and that seemed to cut it.

I had that same stuff! Krud Kutter worked well too.

Took care of under the kitchen sink this AM. Now off to Goodwill with the results of this week's work!

[Disney Addicted]

I'm not sure I should have read the last half dozen pages to catch up. Now I feel like a lazy slouch.

Originally Posted by BernardandMissBianca

OK so summer is his end date. Make a deal, it's not gone by July 31, you get the right to take it to Goodwill. At least you know in 6 months it will be gone forever. Does he have another space to store them besides the basement?

He says he will store them in the shed, but actually I would rather he put them in the basement. He spent days cleaning out the shed in the summer so it would finally fit the kids' bikes, skateboards, scooters, tobagoons, newspaper cart, etc - like it should! I do not want him to start cluttering that up again over winter.

But if he does not melt them down by summer's end, I think they will just disappear over winter. Heaven knows enough items have disappeared in this house.

Originally Posted by mrsklamc

Involve your kids in the process. That way they learn to deal with the 'stuff' in a healthy way and won't end up where we are! Plus, it can be really devastating if something happens to be 'treasured' and you didn't know it.

I'm saving my kids' rooms until last. One, I'm afraid of going in there and two, hopefully by that point they understand the purpose of destashing and actually work with me instead of trying to hide everything.

Originally Posted by carebee21

Goals Accomplished So Far in 2013:
Decluttering All of the Christmas Decorations
My Closet: 1 bag of trash; 2 large bags of clothing removed so far

Love your accomplished list. Great way to keep motivated by seeing a reminder how much you have done. I just might copy it if you don't mind?

Originally Posted by Trish.Glenn

I have never sold on Craigslist how does it work? Photos? Do you meet in a public place? Thanks for the info!!

I just wanted to add that I have sold & bought on Craigslist & Kijijii (plus donated on freecycle) for years now. I have never felt threatened or unsafe. It's a great way of making some money and getting rid of items. I mostly have buyers come to my house. Sometimes my husband will drop off (or purchase) stuff at someone else's house on his way back from work. Freecyclers come here as well and I just leave the items on the porch for the most part.

Originally Posted by sherry7

Every year, I make the same excuse: I'll put it in a yard sale.

We are having our entire house flooring redone with hardwood,

I'm not a big fan of yard sales. At least from the selling point of view! I finally caved into the kids' demands and had a yard sale one year when my street did. Never again! I found I made at least double by selling everything online. At yard sales people expected to get everything really very very cheap. Of course, I have to admit I go to yard sales with an eye cast the same way, but I do not haggle like buyers did at mine.

On the other hand, I'm guilty of hanging onto certain things for a particular season before selling. Ie, clothing. Sell summer clothes in mid-spring, winter in mid-fall or early winter. Outdoor toys in late spring, etc. Drives my husband nuts but I'll get more money that way then selling them out-of-season.

BTW, that would be so nice having hardwood everywhere! Once it is complete and everything back in order, I'll bet it will look amazing and worth the chaos.

Originally Posted by mrsklamc

Can someone give a brief summary of what day one was? I hate watching videos online- so much prefer to read!

Me too! When I click on a newslink, I will usually quit it if it turns out to be a video. It's quicker for me to read the story than wait for a newscaster to tell it.

Originally Posted by megsoro

Anyone have any ideas on what to do with old books? (Library won't take them) Can I put them in a Goodwill box?

What about freecycle? Our Goodwill will not take a lot of stuff, so I joined a bunch of local freecycle groups. I love posting everything that is junk to me, but someone else is thrilled to find and pick up! Saves so much stuff from being added to the dump.

Originally Posted by Scrap4me

For some odd reason, I thought it would be cool to have a personal library. Many many moves taught me that my back disagrees! I still have about 200 more to go through and I am setting a goal of only keeping 75--the rest go on my Kindle!

But it is cool!!! At least until moving time and a couple of unexpected floods... Ohh the books I use to have. Problem is (well, not really a problem for me) but I love to re-read my favorite stories and once they go out of print and even libaries no longer have them...

And then a year ago my mom gave me a Kobo for my birthday. I was skeptical but discovered I loved the weight advantage! Or should I say no weight advantage. I can now walk & read without having my wrist hurting a bit and no more eye-strain or holding the book close-up as I can increase the font! Course, this only works in the warmer months. During winter I'm back to carrying paperbacks.

And of course storage is no longer a problem. I can download & save thousands of books. The only downside is I need backup drives for my backup drives. I dread if I ever lose my audio/video/ebook collection however. And if the electronic world as we know it ended tomorrow, I would not have my beloved favorite books anymore.

Ok, sorry... enough about books. I could go on for pages. I do intend to weed my collection out, but ONLY as I find electronic copies to replace them. And I have a couple hundred that I do not think I can ever give up their paper form entirely. Gotta have at least one obessive collection, right?

Originally Posted by StephMK

My main goal for today is to pack up all of the Christmas stuff so DH can put it in the attic tomorrow. I've been trying to collect the odds and ends into piles so I don't forget anything.

Tonight my goal is to go through a pile of papers that I have not addressed over the holidays. I should be able to throw out most of it but I need to sort through it. *sigh* I hate dealing with papers!

Christmas stuff! And here I thought I could not destash anything else until the kids went back to school. Ok, that's my goal this afternoon and tomorrow. We need to take down the Christmas decorations and tree. I will go through all the decorations and clear stuff out that we have no intention of using, instead of shoving them into containers until next December.

And papers piles. Sigh... I guess I'm a procrastinator at heart. I could have been working on this bunch by the computer desk that I KNOW I need to go through. Thanks Steph.

[MAJPLO]

Originally Posted by mrsklamc

Our corner kitchen cabinet is a lazy susan. Does anyone have creative ideas for organizing it? The only thing I can think of is to move our canned goods there cause they don't need containers or anything to hold them;

There's not a LOT in there, just a few miscellaneous items I couldn't find a better spot for.

In my two shelf corner lazy Susan I have some thing that are bulky that I use about once or twice a month.... Food processor (regular sized and a mini) crock pot, waffle iron, magic bullet (I miss my regular blender) two stacked displays of "appetizer plates" for when a lot of people are over, my pasta machine, and a small pan we supposedly "need" to poach eggs.

[emilymad]

Originally Posted by mrsklamc

Our corner kitchen cabinet is a lazy susan. Does anyone have creative ideas for organizing it? The only thing I can think of is to move our canned goods there cause they don't need containers or anything to hold them;

There's not a LOT in there, just a few miscellaneous items I couldn't find a better spot for.

My parent"s kitchen has a lazy Susan like that. They use it for their spices. They keep it in alphabetically order. They stuck little stickers on the lazy Susan so you know where things go.


Got almost all the Christmas decorations put away. Next up is organizing a pile of stuff and getting it over to the Goodwill today.