2024 Decluttering Thread

[disneysteve]

New year, new thread.

This is the place to share your successes, failures, and challenges as you strive to reduce clutter, rid yourself of unwanted stuff, clean up your space, make things more functional, and generally stop letting your stuff control you rather than you controlling your stuff.

When I sat down at my desk today to do some paperwork, I reached for a highlighter from my overflowing pen/pencil holder. I stopped what I was doing, dumped out the contents, and picked out 6 pens that I never use. Those are now in the Goodwill pile and my pen/pencil holder now has plenty of space for things to go in and out easily.

[disneysteve]

Over the years, what used to be our Disney collection display room gradually became my wife's craft room, except all of the Disney stuff is still in there. A few years ago I made a decent attempt to thin out the collection and did get rid of a couple hundred items, but that barely made a dent.

I'm starting a new effort to take out items that none of us are particularly attached to. My goal is to be able to get rid of one piece of display furniture like one of the shelving units. Either that or to free up enough space on shelving to hold a bunch of items that currently live on the floor and free up floor space that way. We want to find a way to make the room more functional for my wife.

I took my first crack at it before lunch and removed 10 items. It's a good start. Some items will end up on ebay; others will get given away as they aren't really worth much. Either that or I'll pack them up and do a garage sale later in the year. We sold off a bunch of Disney stuff at our sale in September and it sold like crazy (I charged very low prices for everything). I'm sure it would all sell well if I did that again. Even if I only get $1-2 per item, if I sell a couple hundred items that way it's decent money.

[disneysteve]

I took my first crack at it before lunch and removed 10 items. It's a good start. Some items will end up on ebay; others will get given away as they aren't really worth much. Either that or I'll pack them up and do a garage sale later in the year. We sold off a bunch of Disney stuff at our sale in September and it sold like crazy (I charged very low prices for everything). I'm sure it would all sell well if I did that again. Even if I only get $1-2 per item, if I sell a couple hundred items that way it's decent money.

I decided not to wait for a garage sale. I listed 1 of the 10 on ebay last night. I listed 8 on Buy Nothing and 5 have been claimed. I have 1 other item to list.

[disneysteve]

We pulled another 10 items from the Disney room today and already listed 3 of them on ebay. That makes 20 items out of there in 2 days. I don't know if I can maintain 10 items per day but we'll do our best to keep working on it regularly.

[disneysteve]

I've often said that decluttering is a financial topic because you can make money in the process. I've already had $54 in sales from stuff we've pulled out of the Disney room just in a couple of days.

[disneysteve]

I paused the decluttering for a few days as my mom has been in the hospital (she's doing well and going home tomorrow). I left the hospital on the earlier side tonight so just did a sweep through the Disney room. I removed 7 more items. Two items will be listed on ebay. The other 5 will go to our Buy Nothing group.

I also sold a third item I had listed a few days ago for $40 bringing me to $94 in sales so far in under a week.

[crazyliblady]

We had some repairs done to our 40+ year old oven. The repairman actually had to take the oven out and found some old placemats and pot holders that had been under the oven for years. I also found an old silverware container for a countertop dish drainer. I donated them to the Salvation Army.

[disneysteve]

I came up empty at two estate sales this week so haven't had a bunch of new stuff to list on ebay. Instead I worked a bit on my "death pile", the stuff that's been sitting around unlisted. That helps with clutter. I'm also working tonight in my computer room to clean that up and better organize the space. I've picked up a couple of reams of printer paper at sales but never put them where they belong, so I did now. I've also picked up a few partial boxes of ziploc bags which I use to ship items. I combined them all into one box and broke down the other boxes for recycling.

I just listed a tote bag on Marketplace because it isn't worth selling on ebay but it's a very nice brand new bag but only worth about $20. I also listed a pretty ceramic Chinese bowl. I got it at an auction a while ago. It's also not worth selling on ebay. I listed it for $15 on Marketplace.

I cleared a decent patch of floor space in the room which is nice.

[kork13]

I wish I had remembered it in the moment, but Steve's "clearing the floor space" comment reminded me of it.

Around Christmas/New Year's, we drove down to visit DW's family. As you may recall, her mother is a massive hoarder (and deeply in denial about it) -- walking through their house has been almost totally impossible for years now. However, while their parents are serving a 1yr religious mission in the Netherlands, DW's siblings somehow secured a timid approval from their mother to clear out & organize some of what's in the house. So, anytime they all get together & have some spare time, they go over to their parents' house & try to work through some of the chaos. I'll call it a labor of love ...... because the only other terms that come to mind are "deeply masochistic" or "sheer insanity".

Anyway, we spent a full day working at their house. It was dirty, disgusting, and miserable. BUT! I cleared out an "office"/ex-bedroom of decades-old papers/receipts/junk mail, empty pill/supplement bottles, and broken hangers (among many other items) to the point that I could see probably 50% of the floor again. Also, DW & her sister COMPLETELY EMPTIED the dining table, which at one time was piled 4 feet high with clothes & other stuff .... we actually sat everyone at the table to eat dinner -- incredible. Topping off the overall successful day: they cleared & cleaned the kitchen counters. This sounds like a small thing, but in the 10+ years I've known my wife & her family, this was the very first time that I had EVER seen the kitchen counters. Apparently they're a weird mustard-yellow laminate. But seeing (for the literal first time ever) the counters & table not piled & cluttered with the collected detritus of my in-laws' lives made an astounding difference in the kitchen/dining room.

All of that progress was less than 3% of what that poor house needs... But it was a productive day, and it's encouraging that they're able to at least somewhat start processing through the chaos that is their parents' home. I expect MIL may have a mental breakdown when she gets home from The Hague this summer .... But hopefully she handles it okay & manages to see what progress can be made if she'll let it happen.

[disneysteve]

Dealing with a hoarder is difficult. The cleaning up is the easy part. The hard part is addressing why it’s happening. If she isn’t getting intensive psychiatric care chances are the hoard will be back fairly soon once she’s home. Plus coming into a clean orderly house may worsen her condition. I hope she has all of the psych care she needs to get through that. Have you sent her any photos or told her in any detail what’s been done?

[kork13]

Dealing with a hoarder is difficult. The cleaning up is the easy part. The hard part is addressing why it’s happening. If she isn’t getting intensive psychiatric care chances are the hoard will be back fairly soon once she’s home. Plus coming into a clean orderly house may worsen her condition. I hope she has all of the psych care she needs to get through that. Have you sent her any photos or told her in any detail what’s been done?

Frankly, I've mostly come to avoid most of their family's internal dynamics... My approach to problem solving is far more direct than is acceptable in their family. So I don't know exactly to what extent they've shared pictures/descriptions of their progress. But yes, I totally agree with you. Unfortunately, as I said, she does not (world-class denial), and they're all too timid & fearful of confrontation to press her to seek proper help. It's a similar situation with a brother who desperately needs treatment for depression, but nobody is willing to force the issue. He lost his job ~3 yrs ago, and he's approaching shut-in status in the house he shares with his 2 unmarried sisters.

Sorry, I've accidentally taken this all quite far OT ....

[disneysteve]

Frankly, I've mostly come to avoid most of their family's internal dynamics... My approach to problem solving is far more direct than is acceptable in their family. So I don't know exactly to what extent they've shared pictures/descriptions of their progress. But yes, I totally agree with you. Unfortunately, as I said, she does not (world-class denial), and they're all too timid & fearful of confrontation to press her to seek proper help. It's a similar situation with a brother who desperately needs treatment for depression, but nobody is willing to force the issue. He lost his job ~3 yrs ago, and he's approaching shut-in status in the house he shares with his 2 unmarried sisters.

Sorry, I've accidentally taken this all quite far OT ....

No worries. It's my thread .

It's not denial. It's mental illness. Ultimately, the patient needs to be the one to seek help. Nobody else can "fix" them until they are ready and willing to accept the help. It's sad to watch as a concerned bystander.

[disneysteve]

We got home from vacation Sunday night. Going away and spending a week or two in a clean uncluttered space always motivates me to come home and attack the clutter. That motivation never lasts long unfortunately but I try to take advantage of it while I've got it.

This morning I cleaned off my dresser which is a chronic problem area. I removed multiple items that have been there for way too long and never needed to be on my dresser to begin with. I listed 3 things on our Buy Nothing group and 2 are already claimed. I found a couple of things that need to go on ebay. I tossed a few, recycled some paperwork, and then dusted the newly-exposed surface so it looks nice and clean now. The challenge will be to keep it that way.

[disneysteve]

A couple of nights ago I cleaned off the top of the filing cabinet next to my computer. As usual, some things got trashed, some got put where they belong, some got listed on Buy Nothing (and are already gone), some got recycled.

Today I went to Staples and recycled 4 old cell phones and 1 old iPod. I got a $10 coupon for doing so which I'll never use as I never shop at Staples. I just wanted the devices to be properly disposed of and get them off my desk. And yes, I checked if they were worth selling and they were not.

The decluttering motivation has faded since getting home but I'm trying to keep at it. I got some stuff off my desk last night and will work on it more today. The computer desk also needs a clean up.

[disneysteve]

I worked a bit on the computer desk today. Got rid of some random paper notes, listed two items on ebay, one of which sold 7 minutes after listing it. Put away some notepads.

I got a thermal label printer for ebay over a year ago. It came with a big roll of labels and a small flat stack of labels. I started using the roll right away and when it ran out, ordered more rolls, but never touched the flat stack until today. I took off the roll and set in the stack. There are only about a dozen labels there but there's no reason to waste them and this way they won't be sitting around on the desk anymore.