Not quite a horder - decluttering
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Here's the link to the Bra's 101 thread. Not very active, but some great information in the header about favorite bra companies. I think I read through the whole thing during the 7 months between my original mastectomy and the reconstruction.
https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/44/topics...
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Back from vacation. Brought home two boogie boards, four hats, two tshirts and a bucket of shells. Also some ornaments for Christmas.
I love the lands end scoop neck tanks. They have wide straps that cover my port. I also wear a rash guard when swimming outside. Have a high neck suit for the indoor pool. I wear boat neck shirts to the oncologist so they can access my port.
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I have a bit of OCD so I'm forever purging/organizing. Drives my kids nuts. I try to stay out of their rooms or there would be nothing left. When I catch an episode of hoarders that pushes me over the edge and I'm color coordinating my closet etc....Nutty right? lol
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Beach2beach- you just discribed me!
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I’ve been going through boxes of my children’s books. DH doesn’t like how long it has been taking me. However, there are some treasures in those boxes, favorite read to me books.
I’ve been donating most of them to our elementary school where my 3 children went K through 8 and I now work there as a substitute teacher.
I brought these two boxes in on a recent work day.
There was less than one box left when I was leaving. The Magic Treehouse, Geronimo Stilton, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series were taken by the second grade teacher.
By my next working day, the other box was gone!
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Wow, Mominator. You just made somebody's day!
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Mominator- good job on the books. Must feel good to pass on some treasured books to teachers who will use them with their students! I always feel great about passing things on when I find the right place to do it!
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children's books are my weakness. Oldest reading 800 page novels. Still waiting on youngest to get the reading bug. Good for you for sharing!
Sold the pink plastic Barbie house. DD is sad but she didn't need two and the wooden bookcase style is more practical. Said she didn't like the color. Me neither so we're going to paint it. Pink and purple! What else?
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The kids brought home some painted wooden picture frames with shells and ribbon glued on from VBS tonight.Very cute. Think I just found a great idea for those shells that made it home.
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Mominator--that was a great way to give books a second life!
Zills--what a fun project, painting a Barbie house!Good for you two!
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Went to the dentist today and found I have two very small cavities that need attention. Not a surprise, he mentioned things were changing last year and this year, X-rays said it is time. We like to get these things done early before they get too expensive and painful.
How does this relate to de-cluttering? As you know, I have been taking a lot of too big clothing to consignment from the weight loss last year. I did a number of trips this spring and dropped off some shoes today that no longer work with my changing feet. I had more than enough money in my account to cover the cost of the baby fillings and cashed that out to pay for my dental care. Getting the fillings taken care of next week!
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Jazzy--now THAT is a
motivating story to hear!!0 -
Poodles, first, my condolences on the loss of you mom last year. What a sad story about her and her house. It is puzzling when someone is like that why theycan't see the error of their ways. What an ordeal for you and your siblings. You're right, we don't want to do that to our children!
Zills, you bring up the vacation souvenier shopping, and its something I've made progress on. It used to be I would insist dh and ds get a tshirt from places we'd visit. I wouldn’t get them because I don't look good in tshirts. But when I was young and had the occasional good fortune to visit some place new, I never had enough money for souveniers and seemed to envy those who bought the “Myrtle Beach" and “Disney World" clothes. I realized I was trying to make up for some lack in my childhood after seeing the ridiculous amount of tshirts dh had in his closet a few years ago. I stopped pushing the tshirt purchases. Honestly, dh and ds were never big on the clothes but were only trying to keep me happy.
Earlier this month, dh and I took a bus tour to Mackinac Island and area in Michigan near Lake Huron & Lake Michigan. I bought a refrigerator magnet souvenier, and any other purchase was consumable—cherry salsa, cranberry wine, chocolate covered peanuts. Dh and I silently got a chuckle seeing all the countless bags of souveneir shopping others would haul back on the bus...at every stop along the way!
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DivineMrsM- I always say the best gifts are the ones that go away!! Nothing to dust or move around for years!
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Mominator, nice job organizing those book series! I know you felt good boxing them up so they could be enjoyed by the kids at school. Reading has always been one of my most favorite delicious pleasures, which started in elementary school when my mom would give me a dime or quarter to order books from the little several page paper catalog my teacher would hand out to us a few times a year. It was great fun pouring over what was offered and deciding what to buy.
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Varga, I hate to dust, so your words ring so true!!!
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I don't often comment here but I love reading about your ideas and successes in decluttering. Now that DH & I are retired, I definitely believe that less is more!
I so agree with you, Varga & DivineMrsM, about gifts. We have begun giving experiences to our kids & grandkids & we love that. (I'm taking my ten year old granddaughter to a pottery making class in July. She's so excited about using a wheel that she's been watching Youtube videos about it!)
MrsM, do you still have those vacation t-shirts? I've had quilts made from t-shirts (there are several companies that will do this) & it is a wonderfully useful way to keep those memories.
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It's easy to make pillows and shopping bags out of old T-shirts. Since they've banned plastic bags here, the cloth ones are needed. They're easy to wash, too.
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This month dh and I spent time cleaning out his mother's apartment. At age 90, in declining health, she moved in with her daughter. She downsized 3 years ago from the family home to this place across from us. While not a hoarder, she still had plenty of STUFF. Junky stuff. Lots of it with a thin layer of grime. Many things broken, like an angel figurine with broken wing, cat coaster with broken ear, wall clock with crack....
A few things here and there were picked over. Then dh and his other sister spent a long day going thru it all. I usually give them space to deal with their mom's matters together, but I dropped in the first hour and a half. Not to get stuff but to make sure dh didn't stockpile crap to bring home. I watched as they both went down the melancholy lane of emotional attachment to their mom's things, and they had a hard time making decisions what to do with what. I didn't interfere. The littlest things tripped them up. Like an index card mil had written the numbers to a combination lock and where it was located, taped on all four sides to the inside of a wardrobe door. Sister in law asked dh, "do you want that index card?" Say what?
She took a huge carload of things home and came back one more afternoon for another load. Then Dh and I went in one more time together. Tossed more stuff. We kept very little overall for ourselves. Glad of that!
Once everyone had what they valued, I went back myself for a couple hours and went through the rest. Filled ten large trash bags of junk, plus several boxes and containers and rolled up a couple large area rugs to pitch. Heaped items on the sofa to go out Monday to Goodwill.
Mil had numerous cabinets, kitchen table and chairs, 3 piece bedroom furniture, mattress/box springs, sofa, other misc furniture pieces, refrigerator, dryer (sil took washer) and small appliances. Mercifully, the landlord said he'd keep that stuff as he owns rentals and knows people who can use it. Saves us from having to schedule someone to come in an haul it away.
It was all one more mess in my mil’s life she left us to clean up. It is simply unnecessary for a person of that age to have all that stuff!
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JKL and wren, thats a cool idea to create a quilts, pillows and bags out of vacation tshirts!
JKL, I love that you are taking granddaughter to a pottery class. I read that hobbies started at her age are often ones we keep the rest of our lives.
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Just jumping in with a little report: my husband, who is prone to neglecting his side of the bedroom, went through his closet and bedside table and the shoes-under-the-bed collection yesterday. He did such a great job of pulling out stuff to throw out, and stuff to store elsewhere. He vac'd, dusted and ended up with a completely renewed space that now calls for me to do the same. I am so inspired by his efforts! Not sure what posessed him, whether it was competition or just plain readiness, but whatever, it worked to bump us both ahead with our decluttering plan.
My goal for today is to match his efforts and bring the rest of the bedroom into the new era. Will report back as soon as its done. 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻0 -
WOW, what a great story of motivation and progress!
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DivineMrsM, i can so identify with your post. My mother lamented that she had not downsized her stuff in her 60s, when she still had the physical and emotional energy to do it. At 81-82, she simply got overwhelmed by the hoard and couldn't deal with it. She would occasionally visit her hoard and move things from room to room. Picking and plucking. But she could not give anything away, even things that she had promised to various people.
I hope i have taken a lesson from her. I'm not the saver that she was. I've already gone through our stuff and eliminated about 75% of our previous belongings. Our kids hardly wanted anything. I believe they will appreciate our efforts when the time comes to close out our estate.
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My experience dealing with parents of the Depression era is this- letting go of things is difficult. Because so many families experienced such hardship during those times, they lived with a fear of letting things go they may need some day. I think I picked up some of that from my father, whose family was very poor (rural PA) and their lives became even harder during the Great Depression. My mother on the other hand, came from a comfortable family and they seemed to weather that era fine.
Once my father was gone, we were able to get rid of a lot of things at my our parents home through time and visits. Things my dad would not let go of ever (her stuff, his stuff, their stuff). We now live in a time of TMS (too much stuff) where material items are easily available and relatively cheap compared to back in those days. My heart goes out to anyone going through the difficulties with parents of this generation or after they are gone.
I think the baby boomers and generations that are coming up behind us won't have as much of that behavior, but time will tell.....
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When Mom was in hospice, she asked me what I wanted. I wanted the plate she served meat on. It's cream with a gold and blue flower design on the border. The other momento I wanted was a cup and saucer with violets on it. She had a collection of these. After I got it home and really looked at it, I think it's the one I brought her from London. I have her bedroom furniture in my spare room. The rest of the family took what they wanted and an auctioneer sold the rest. She had lived during the depression and didn't throw much away. Under her bed, I found a net heart with the bows from my wedding shower 23 years before!
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Wren, I can believe that. My mom had a cedar chest filled with ribbons, crocheted blankets that someone gave her, old Halloween decorations that I recognized from my childhood, and her beautiful lace wedding dress. Her mother made it for her and her sister. As a result of being stuffed in teh cedar chest for all those many years, unprotected, the dress absorbed the oils from the chest, turning it a shade of Dijon mustard. It was completely ruined, not even useful as a dress-up for a child. It broke my heart to toss it, but into the can it went. There was no salvaging it and no reason to hold on to it.
My kids are typical millennials. They travel light and do not collect stuff. My DD25 just bought herself a small motorhome to live in. She has no place to put anything but the essentials. DS32 is on the move--he only wants whatever will fit into his small car. Honestly, there is so little that I want/need to keep. I have all our stuff in a 10' x 10' storage unit and I could probably let some of that go, too. I'm just holding onto it for now. I think I could let go of nearly everything except my rice bed. But it won't fit in an RV, LOL.
The
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My DD's wish is to live out of a backpack while she travels. I don't think she could really do it, but she definitely doesn't want to hold on to stuff. Her DH is the hoarder, especially electronic stuff. He helped the boys refurbish computers when they were younger (my older GS could choose screensavers in his high chair and is now a programmer). I don't care if anyone wants my stuff or doesn't. Furniture could go to people getting their first housing after being homeless.
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My mother and father used to belong to a country club and she has all these gowns for these balls they went to. I remember going shopping with her for those dresses and some were so cool and wished I had maybe kept just one of them, but gave them to a friend who had a vintage business and she sold them to these folks in NYC who bought them for 1970's era plays on and off Broadway. I have to say I loved the 70's era fashion in all it's variations.
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Just wanted to wish all my US de-cluttering friends here a happy fourth! Be safe and stay cool!
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Jazzy. That's us! Family of procrastinators.
Kids got into trouble. Chores all week and no electronics. Folded a piece of paper into 9 squares with each room listed. Upstairs complete. Basement complete. All toys and his books sorted. Everything has a home.
Didn't get to garage and outside. Way too hot. 115° with heat index. Still in the 100s at 8 and 9 pm.
The sun room wasn't touched much either. That's my domain and I don't want their help. Need to paint but not this humid.
Punishment and bribery (friends and ice cream) worked wonders. They had the 4th off.
I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing but only have one bag to go to goodwill.
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