WhiskeyBent

Hows it going fellow collectors?

I have broken down my next projects: Books. Paper. Kitchen.

Books are hard. Lots of sentimental attachment to them. But the shelves are out of control. I need to give these books to someone else to read.

Paper: I keep every scrap I get. I need to shred some bills. How many years back do I need? Time to shred it up my filing cabinet is busting at the seems.

Kitchen: This one will be hard. Not sure where to start. I just know that it needs t be started. No one needs 30 coffee mugs. And I use the same one every morning!!!

Be well.

HelenofTroy

Flylady's plan for February is decluttering. Just saying.

Spacegoat

Haven't made much progress since. Too stressful. Also had no data for a few days to check in.

Was on the move a lot also. My life is a groundhog week!

But I've decided that I have all year to do this, so I am working on finding some inspiration first.

I'm only beginning to settle in here also and it wasn't the easiest few months really.

On one hand, I should have left all this crap where it was but on the other I'm trying to go no contact with my FOO (wtf, still) so therein lies the difficulty.

Anyway, I would do better to reap some spiritual value from these tasks. So I'm not going to stress over it.

I am gonna invite kid down here on the weekend so that would be one motivating factor, for sure.

Good to see all the progress in the thread though.

PS: I got rid of 2 books (that leaves only 2k) but have acquired 3!

Well got the loan of 3, but they are very specific to what I'm interested in and I do plan to study those and have joined another forum to that affect. Peace!

teatreeoil007

One of my anti-clutter goals today:

Sort through books and donate many of them.

I'm going to donate them to a rehab center.

Many of them are in like new condition as I bought them and they've only been read once. I can 'live' with someone else getting some use out of them.

(smile)

teatreeoil007

Is this sort of like>>>> "Rock, Paper, Scissors"?<<<<<

jk.

On a more serious note, last year my daughter was a great help in going through stuff that had been stored away for eons and not even looked at or used or anything....like old Christmas stuff that had become obsolete basically. She helped me 'let go' of some stuff that I was hanging on to for no real good reason. We got rid of a lot . Donated it all....it felt *oh*so*good*. It was 'cleansing'. I felt lighter. The space that had been taken up with that 'stuff' was transformed...and that in turn was sort of 'transforming'. I am grateful for my daughter's help. I needed it!!

Ariesagain

I say this as someone who just spent twelve twelve-hour days clearing out the home my parents lived in for 43 years...

GET RID OF IT!!!

They were too overwhelmed to deal with it and they knew they needed to and it greatly reduced the quality of life the last ten years.

Their stuff became their prison.

Don't do that.

2ndhandrose

I sure agree on the "oh so good" feeling, tea!

I have been working on a clothing purge, have donated 2 big bags, so far this year.

The trick is not to replace it all

Maudcat

I know! Every drawer in my mother's house is stuffed with junk. An old address keeper with the lid that pops up when you press a catch, dried out rubber bands, worn out emery boards, old magnets.
Sometimes I stealth raid through them and toss out the more egregious articles. But there is a lot!
Plus a broken sewing machine, stereo, little tables that seem to mate and multiply overnight. I have never caught them, but I know they do.
Adding to this is my mental alcohol addicted sib, who cannot leave discards on the street. The garage is full of his c**p.
There is a big dumpster in my future. I can feel it.

Ariesagain

For those who keep every scrap of paper...so did my dad. He'd pay a bill, make a xerox of the bill and the check and then keep everything.

Over the years keeping everything ended up meaning he could find nothing. We found his 1978 tax return in the basement, complete with the checkstubs from my sister's waitressing job she had the summer she was 16. He still had my first glasses prescription from the year I was 11. He had coursework from the graduate classes he took in 1956.

I came home and slept for two days.

Do NOT do this to yourself...or your family!

Maudcat

Omg, Aries, you poor thing! Had to be hard. Alas, that is what I have to look forward to as well. But how can you get them to let go? My mother and mil, both in their 90's, are like cats. Move anything around and they freak out! I have found it best to just let things be, as much as I hate to contemplate what is in store.

Grymt

Thanks for this topic. I just got off me arse and threw away about 100 books. Only 56,000 to go (I have a bookshop). Admittedly there was a bit of a flood and there are maybe 400 more to throw out but this topic has highlighted for me what seems a not unusual thing. I hoard. Damn it, I have tons of things to decide whether I really need to have or not. They're like a security blanket.

Maudcat

A moldy security blanket, Grymt.
Blecchh.
Good for you for getting rid of some. It's hard, I know.

Grymt

Hopefully admitting it will help. I think it will.

WhiskeyBent

LOl. I wish it could be that easy. More like "Look, Pick, Toss!"

I managed four coffee cups. Gone. I did organize about 300 records. Im going to try to make some money on these. Lets see if the local record shop will take it.

Keep up the good work out there. We can take back our shelves!