Not quite a horder - decluttering
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On my chair - springs were tied down and MANY inches of hard foam were added above & below the springs - before the final upholstry.
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I really wish I’d taken a photo of the disorganized, helter skelter tools on the pegboard over dh’s workbench in the garage before I rearranged it because there’s a world of difference. But I found a before photo of this set of shelves where dh keeps stuff like oil. Why do you need all that, I asked. Well, he said, there are two cars, a fishing boat, lawn mower and weed eater. Okay, but still. He did manage to get rid of some of it. Not sure why we need three spare lightbulbs for the garage door opener. My big pet peeve is how he leaves stuff in paper and plastic grocery bags. It clutters up the space and you never remember what’s in the bags.
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Still chugging along on the clear out but it is such a slow process. I got a bit down after spending a full day sorting through a couple of boxes of stuff, listing items for sale. I quickly sold two items but thought whoa…. At this rate I will never get through everything. However, I also started posting on FB Marketplace which has proven to be a pleasant surprise. The couple of pieces I initially posted (furniture) weren’t showing any action but when I posted some more unique antiques and collectibles - bam. Sold two items within minutes at full asking price. They even e-transferred the funds immediately to hold the items! Things may be looking up! Several of the other items have been tagged as saved so I’m hopeful an offer will come.
As long as I can whittle it down, I can send box lots of the stuff that’s harder to move to the auction or offer the lot to dealers. At least I think (hope) my mom is starting to get it….. tick, tock, tick, tock….
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That sounds rather exciting, Sadie! My husband’s had great success on FB Marketplace, too. One thing that’s nice is you can sell locally, making it easier for people to come and get it. If it’s nicer items, like your antiques, people often are willing to travel a bit for them. At the apartments where he works, dh happened on a motorized mobility chair. A woman put it out for the garbage and was getting another from her brother. The chair originally cost several thousand dollars.Other than a mechanical issue dh was able to fix, the chair was in like new condition. Since dh got it free, he sold it for $300 to a man whose wife needed it when they traveled. The man drove an hour and a half to pick it up but he got a fantastic bargain. He had a mechanical background and had already looked up the chair’s manual and knew all about it.
It’s been five years since our big garage sale which was fun but so much work. With FB Marketplace, dh was able to sell the more useful items which eliminated all that effort.
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It is exciting. Of course, it’s always difficult to know how serious people really are (someone reached out last night but now no response) but if I can just shift a thing more quickly I will be thrilled. 😊 I’m pleasantly surprised at how many people look at items. We have another local buy and sell site that I think your items drop down the list quickly so often very few see it. FB seems to have a way of making sure items appear in multiple categories. Fingers crossed that I can empty a corner by June
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I dropped the ball this week. Ugh. My neighborhood Buy Nothing group is doing a massive "driveway free sale" with something like fifty people coordinating to all put out their stuff on one day, with maps and everything! But I just couldn't summon up the energy to collect stuff, much less haul it to a neighbor who was going to let me add mine to hers since I don't have all that much.
Oh well. Maybe next weekend for Buy Nothing Driveway Giveaway Round 2!0 -
parakeet, don’t be hard on yourself! Pretty much all of us have to be in a certain frame of mind to go about the decluttering process. It’s hard to get motivated otherwise. Do you have a spot in your house where you could put stuff as you come across it that you want to get rid of? That’s a strategy that’s worked for me. One year beginning around Thanksgiving, any time I cleaned out a closet or a drawer or container with items I didn’t want to keep, I put them in a pile in a spare room, and instructed dh to do the same. We did this until the following May, so it was a very casual (i.e. lazy) thing that transpired over half a year (haha, how’s that for lack of motivation!). Then we had a garage sale. If you tried something like this, you’d have a ready made pile for the next buy nothing giveaway.
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Red letter day today! Sold a chandelier that has been cluttering up the basement for years. It was hanging in our sitting room when we moved in - we tried to get the previous owner of the house to take it as it was his mother’s but no luck. My mother described it as coming from a house of I’ll repute. Ha! It was a steal as it is actually a good quality crystal fixture (but was damaged) but I wanted someone to be motivated. It worked! 🥳 Happy dance!
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How does it feel to have it sold and gone, sadie?
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Still to be picked up but paid for. Tomorrow I’ll see some space!
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I've got my mother's house to get rid of. And it's FULL of her stuff from almost 60 years of collecting. I'm trying to go through everything to see what I want (I'm an only child, so nobody to share the stuff/work with).
I'm also taking clutter from my house there in anticipation of hiring an estate sale company to come in.
It's overwhelming and taking WAY too long. Years!
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zogo - Oh my - I hear ya. My parents had lived in the same house for 60 years also. Mother saved every drawing we ever made in grade school and all of our baby teeth. Dad saved every check register from 1940 & every Income tax file. I had one brother, but he was useless. And I was trying to do this in another state while I was still working. So I have been spending the last 5 years trying to get rid of my stuff - since I don't want my only son to face this.
Not sure where you are located, but in Houston the Salvation Army will still pick up regularly in Houston. When I had to clean out my BFF's house after she died, I left boxes & bags & furniture on the front porch every weekend.
Good luck with the Estate Sale.
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Thanks, minustwo, its exhausing, as you probably know. Both physically and mentally. Finding old letters and photos. I end up crying too.
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Zogo - what a challenging job you have with your mom's house. Plus you have to do it alone. Are there any other relatives who can help you with any of the tasks, simple ones or the harder ones?
minustwo - I can't imagine having to deal with your parent's house/possessions while living in another state and working. I don't know how you did it!
I have 3 siblings and we all get along. So when my mother passed away it made the process of going through the house/possessions easy. Plus my mother didn't like clutter and she had already gone through her things when she had moved several years before. While it's hard emotionally to empty another person's things, we were lucky that Mom made it easy for us.
Dh's aunt died a few years ago. She didn't have children so everything was left to dh and his brother. She was 97 and lived in a mobile home. 4 for us were put to task to clear out the trailer. I couldn't believe how much stuff she had stored. The trailer always was neat and clean but the closets, dressers, chests, etc. were packed full. We threw so much out. Some things went to Salvation Army and some to Habitat Restore. Some furniture is in my basement. She grew up during the Depression on a farm where you saved everything bc you might need it. But I don't think you need to save an old, disintegrating bath mat. I think that as she aged she just didn't want to or just couldn't deal with her things.
Decluttering/purging is an ongoing process for me. Currently I'm dealing with my photos. I took out all my heavy photo album books that cover many decades and purged through them. Got rid of 4 inches of photos. Then I emptied the album books, got rid of the books, and sent over 900 photos to Legacybox for bulk scanning/digitizing. I received the link last week with the photos that I can download (they also send the photos back). Next step will be to make photo albums using Mixbook or Shutterfly - whichever has the best deal. It will be a long process but I have the time and desire to do it.
I also removed some of my framed pictures displayed on shelves (most are of my children). Thought there were too many of them and looked cluttered. What does my bil and sil give us for Christmas? A framed picture of them! I thanked them for the picture and put it on a shelf. And that is how I keep getting things into my house that one day I'll have to decide what to do with them!
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My Husband and I have done continued serious downsizing, clearing clutter, before our move to NC last fall. We are also determined not to leave the tasks you all are describing to nieces and nephew's (since we have no kids). It actually makes me feel better in my home , with each small or large victory.
I like the photo album ideas.
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