Not quite a horder - decluttering
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Linda, sometimes Antique stores, dealers will take items on consignment, even if it is not a genuine antique. They will charge commission, of course. Another way to get rid of things is to donate them and take the tax write off - usual amount is 1/4 of the original cost. And be sure to get a receipt from the place you donated and if a large item, take photo and attach to the receipt.
I also did not want anyone knowing what all I had as one would know if they came to look at an item advertised. And they can get real sneaky asking if you work, live alone, etc --- burglary scouting. Can't be too cautious these days.
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Today's NY Times reports on children of hoarders and interviews Jessie Scholl, author of Dirty Secrets, about her life as a child of a hoarder. Also included in the article is an excerpt of her book. A few pages back on this thread I recommended her book. It was a truly amazing book, written by a couragous woman. Here's the link for the article...not sure if it works. If it doesn't you could always do a search on the NY Times website:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/garden/children-of-hoarders-on-leaving-the-cluttered-nest.html
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Suzwes.... nope, the stuff is still riding around in the back of my SUV.
I've driven by the donation building a couple of times but haven't had time to do a drive thru.... now if it was Wendy's I make the effort! 0 -
Wendy's chili for lunch today -- thanks for the suggestion...
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Another day and the stuff is still riding around with me.... is it because I'm not motivated or is it because I'm trying to find the "best" place for this stuff.I thought I did good getting rid of the two chairs... this is getting ridiculous!
I love Wendy's chili and their iced tea is the best. I order 1/2 1/2 that is 1/2 sugar and 1/2 without so it's not so sweet. I usually drink my iced tea without sugar so this is a treat!
What I'm really anting is the chocolate ice-cream, that doesn't suck up in the straw.... I never could figure that one out!0 -
Well, that's a thought.... but wouldn't it cost me?
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We have a drive through Salvation Army drop off, open 10-4 Mon thru Sat and it is great to just pull in and a couple of men will unload your car and give you a donation receipt.
Since I am allergic to chocolate, I found individual Bear Claws with almonds at the local 7/11 and that is today's "breakfast" before I go off to the Legion flea market to sell soda and water. It is cool and cloudy, so I should not sweat my @$$ off.... Then bingo tonight. Enjoy, Hugs, Nancy
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Today, I'm going to go to my DD and help her declutter her house... me with the stuff still riding around in the back of the SUV... I'll probably add to it with her "stuff" just so the kids don't want to snatch up the toys going to GW. This should be fun!
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Just checking in to see if anyone has a list to do this weekend.... I'm hoping to get a receipt for the stuff still riding around in my car. Really getting quite a load, found more to add to the lot. The charity box will be filled!
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Things have been so busy since I started back to work, that I am doing good to just get te house dussted and vacuumed. I know I want to do more around the house just got to make time for it.
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Our first flea market at the American Legion was cancelled due to rain, but I did get the stuff unloaded from my car and into a storage closet over there. Not a lot, odd and ends of kitchen stuff, bowls, cups and 2 chairs I rescued from the apartment dumpster. It all will go towards the roof repair project.
Other than that, I schredded a bunch of papers and weeded thru my filing cabinet a bit.
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This apartment building has a trash chute at the end of each floor, but does not recycle. I do by putting paper in one bag, glass and metal in another , then the rest of the trash in another. At least it is separated when it goes down the chute. There is a large dumpster for furniture and large items - where I got the 2 discarded chairs.
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Samsu, thanks for being a taskmaster this week! I needed the nudge to commit:
Planning on cleaning bathroom and cleaning out one closet on Saturday.
Still have bags accumulating "give-aways" in my utility room and should make a date to take them to our local charity Graceworks.
Have discussed what to do with quilting frame from my great-grandmother - about 89-100 years old - and will look for senior center or living museum to donate. Time frame is next 1-2 weeks to make contact for that.
Plan to clean out planters in garage this weekend, and either USE them or LOSE them!
Linda
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My plan is to shred old file papers...I even got some lubricating sheets made for my shredder so it doesn't bet bogged down. I guess they're supposed to keep the "teeth" sharp. We'll see!
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I had never heard of lubricating sheets, that sounds like a good idea. I wonder if shredding aluminum foil would help sharpen the blades? We used to cut foil with our scissors to clean them up.
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I have worn out close to a dozen shredders over the years and never heard of lubricating sheets. After buying a rather expensive shredder the first time around, I refuse to pay more than $29 for one and just throw it out when it stops shredding. One thing I found is if the top part starts to get warm, it slows down a lot. Let it cool off and it is back to shredding like before. If it has a reverse setting, run that every dozen or so times and it helps clear the blades.
Heat is on the way with the next few days at least 80 degrees. Somehow Spring never got here except for a couple of days. Cool right into Hot - none of that nice weather where a sweater or sweatshirt is the outfit for the day.
I could use a couple of pots for my balcony, but will make do for now. IF I ever get over and get a couple of plants to put in the window box....
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I've been buying the "native" plants for my containers and flower beds. I have a couple of geraniums that have lasted thru last summer. True, it doesn't freeze here but the native weeds look great in my yard! There is one that looks like a daisy, another is lacy with tiny white flowers. They're doing OK for me. I bought them at a native plant show last spring.
I bought the shredder lubricant sheets at Office Depot.
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So my Pastor gave the okay for me to organize a yard sale at the church. It will be in July so I should be able to get rid of lots of stuff, small stuff, hanging around and will donate all my proceeds to one of the church ministries, youth, missions, school - something. I'm a happy camper!
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Great idea, patoo.
Today, I gave away two shelves of vhs tapes along with the video player/recorder. Yesterday, I made my sister take away her art supplies from my basement. She had forgotten about it and was happy to be reminded of them.
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Hi! I really appreciate your tips...My hubby and I are planning to relocate in October to another province, and I am slowly going through our stuff. Sometimes I'll open a box I haven't looked in, in years, and will "ooooh" and "awwww" over some of it's contents. "oooooh, this is soooo cute!" But then I'll tell myself that it can't mean that much to me, if I forgot I had it. lol This decluttering is so much work, but I don't want to pack stuff I don't need. I plan to donate all my baby girl stuff, she's 2 now, and my oncologist thinks having another child would be a bad idea for my health. I wanted to donate all her stuff to the victims of Slave Lake, here in Alberta. (1/2 their community burned down in a forest fire) but they have 3 warehouses full of stuff that people donated, and aren't taking anymore. So instead, I'll donate it to young mothers in need, I think it's called Bent Arrow, here in Edmonton. Anyways, thanks again for your tips!
Cheers!
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I have a housecleaner/organizer scheduled to help me the week of June 6! I had to admit I cannot do this on my own by myself, so have hired someone to help. She will also take things out of the house to our local charity, so that takes one more barrier away from me!
Wish I had the energy to do a yard sale, but mostly I just want to get some order back into my environment.
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Linda,
Good for you for hiring someone to help you! It can be just too overwhelming sometimes to do this. Good luck! Keep up posted on your success.
Wonderland
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This weekend, DH and I went through all the closets in the house and now have a large trailer full of clutter that is going to the Salvation Army soon. Great feeling.
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Just wanted to stop by and let you know that I finally got the stuff in my car to the GW drop off site. I'm thinking I'm getting better gas mileage because there isn't so much weight in my car!
Aren't you proud of me???? I only got a small amount of the shredding done... still lots more papers that have to be "gone". Does anyone besides me keep the electric, phone and water bills for three years? I'm trying to figure why I need them so long if at all.... 0 -
I have put my bills (name) and date due on a spreadsheet and the date paid, check # and amount paid. Then I shred the actual bill. The eliminates a ton of papers. Any tax receipts are needed - like past 3 years of home, property tax receipts when one sells a house or property (did that 4 yrs ago). Once upon a time I had 3 full file cabinets of papers. It is down to one 3 drawer cabinet.
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Help! My home office is a nightmare. For some reason I can keep the house organized but not my home business. There are piles of papers and sticky notes everywhere. Please don't say a file cabinet because that isn't working for my current business projects--which I need to be able to see.
Are there any articles just on organizing a home office? I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
When I had an office outside my house it was not this awful.
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I ended up with a mountain of useless stuff after my mom passed away ... electric bills going back to 1946! Why??? They were almost historical curiosities, but since I'm not a curator, out they went. A notebook my grandfather took class notes in - I haven't saved my own, why should I save his? out they went.
So far so good, but then I married a man who definitely has a keeping problem. Not quite hoarding - but way too much stuff. All of it has some sort of sentimental attachment, so going through it is hard, but we're plugging away. Meanwhile, we are paying fees, mortgage and taxes on a second condo that is not generating rent nor anywhere close to market-ready. For going on two years now. Burns me up!
When my grandmother was going through a big steamer trunk shortly before her death, there was a big bunch of cotton, well browned with age. Rather than toss it, she said "It could come in handy some day." I bet you that cotton was 60 years old if it was a day.
My personal goal is not to leave a lot of junk behind me when I die, because I have seen how it can be a burden to those left behind. I tell all my relatives no gifts, ever - my goal is to own less clutter with each year. So that's another way to look at it all.
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Something that helped me keep clutter in its place:
Shelving.
A home office should have shelving. A storage room or basement or garage should have shelving. Sounds simple but it wasn't till my brother suggested it that I realized that's what I needed for all the stuff we had.
Shelving can be inexpensive plastic, or metal, or you can build your own with wood.
We built shallow shelves(one foot deep) in the garage to store bottles and cans like windshield fluid and bug spray. If the shelves are too deep for stuff like that it gets lost. We have two-foot-deep shelves to store ice coolers, sleeping bags, ect.
We keep inexpensive plastic shelving in the basement. During rainy season, it gets damp down there, so the plastic is perfect.
For the storage room, I bought inexpensive but pretty cardboard boxes at IKEA to toss stuff in like Christmas decorations, kids toys I wanted to keep, and other miscellaneous stuff. And marked on the outside of the box what it was.
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Patty Groves, consider using color to coordinate stuff. I don't know what type business you have. But you could keep all bills in a red folder, all banking info could go in a blue folder, all tax information could go in yellow, receipts could go in purple, ect. That way, even if you have a bunch of folders on a desk, you have an idea of what's what, and it's not just a big blur of manilla and white colored papers.
When you toss papers into a folder, the oldest dated ones should be in the back. Every time you file something new, put it in the front of the folder so they go from newest to oldest.
You can also use bankers boxes to toss stuff in and color coordinate that with your colored files. Just cut the colored file in half, tape it to the front of the box and write what's in it. For example, paid bills can go in a box with a red folder taped to the front of it saying "paid bills". You don't have to have everything neatly in the box. If you need something you will at least know where to start looking. I have a bankers box with warranties thrown in it, we are always digging thru it to find something. No, it's not neat, but it's in one place so we know where to look.
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DivineMrs.
This is a really good idea. The shelves will avoid the scattered files on tables/floor problem and the color-links will help me see at a glance where things are. This makes such good sense that I feel embarrassed for not thinking of it. The rooms that are organized in my house all have shelves. I never noticed that was the problem with my office.
Thank you for rescuing me. Before I saw your message, I was sitting on my office floor, tearing my hair out. I will now scour the internet for shelving!
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