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Our church and school held a Goodwill drive, and I took advantage of the situation to clean out some more unused items in the guestroom closet, the home office, and the garage. Making drop offs at Goodwill is something I don’t do often enough, and I’m making a mental note to add it to my calendar that doesn’t exist. I’m sure we can all agree this is an awesome plan that is sure to happen.
A lot of you like those weekly pick ups that frequently happen in neighborhoods, but I stopped doing those years ago when the police told us people were holding fake ones and then selling the goods on ebay and craigslist. Sigh. You need one heck of a black heart to come up with that scheme.
In the end, I donated (got out of my house once and for all)
- 7 black garbage bags of clothes
- 2 black garbage bags of toys
- 2 black garbage bags of linens
- 1 black garbage bag of clothes hangers
- 10 files boxes of books
- 3 XL professionally framed prints
- 1 magnetized menu board thing–home decor item
- 1 matted limited edition print of something or other
- 1 lamp
- 1 nightstand
I told the Mister that this might be the most uncluttered our house has ever been. He agreed. And yet, it still looks like a bit of a mess. Oh, well. I’m not going to try to figure everything out at once.
Hat’s off to you! I am trying to follow the suggestion of having a designated Goodwill box in a certain spot that gets delivered once it gets full. I’m notorious for relocating my goodwill piles around rather than actually donating them.
That’s a lot of stuff! Dosen’t it feel great to drop it off? I’m kind of addicted to that feeling…
You know ARC comes by around once a month and it seems like I always have things to leave out. What in the world? Because I really don’t feel like I buy that much . . . or receive that much for gifts. My donations suggest otherwise.
On the flip side, doesn’t it feel lovely?
Tremendous! I want you to know you’re inspiring me to actually get rid of the boxes of stuff which have been cleared from their shelves/closets/floors, rather than save them for the mythical garage sale or eBay auction. (The things I’ll do for the dream of collecting four sweet dollars.) It’s a process — you’re making huge strides!
Hey Jules- decluttering is a process. Often that means making many passes through the same spaces over time. Once you really start, though, I think it changes something inside of you, as you might be experiencing! As you re-evaluate what things in your home really are important., you might be willing to part with items that seemed to special or important to part with initially.
I have a really hard time with books!! My Achilles heel!
Love your blog space and the good things you write.
Grammar alert: meant too, not “to”; don’t want to horrify the good sisters who taught me well!
Wait…did you say you got rid of BOOKS?! TEN boxes?! Wow, you are serious;)
This really, really helps me because you were able to part with some really nice and expensive things. I’ve had a pile in my basement of good stuff that I’ve been saving for “someday” because they were expensive – some of the things I’ve had for the nine years we’ve lived in this house. I was raised by my grandparents who kept everything (like washed out cottage cheese containers, souvenir glasses from Burger King, etc.), so that may be why I’m reluctant to part with perfectly useable stuff. I think this is the day for me to finally let them go…thank you for the spark that I needed!
Oh, and I can totally relate with being indecisive!
Wow, that is a great haul. I couldn’t fill a black bag with clothes since I don’t have more that 30 items total. ( not including socks etc). Now my son could easily , but since he’s 19 I can’t do much about that.
Great job. I love the drop off feeling too.
Good for you! I always think the house feels “lighter” somehow after doing that. (Not to mention that the stuff usually rides around in my car for weeks, so my car feels so uncluttered after that.)
WOW. Good job. I’m inspired. I’ve been looking at the kids toys for WEEKS saying I need to clear house, but it’s the big stuff (the pretend kitchen, the cardboard Melissa & Doug blocks) that doesn’t fit into bags so I keep postponing it. Time to get cracking.
The way to a neat house is easy as 1,2,3.
1.Having less stuff than you have space for.
2. Having a place for everything that is logical and easy to replace.
3. Living with people who are willing to put things away properly.
After working so hard on 1 & 2, I hit a wall on 3. lol
Hope you have better luck. Happy decluttering, Jules. =)
Fake donation pickup scams? That is just sad. I would never even think to question them! I have three big bags and a box waiting to go out, and I was just wishing I’d get one of those pick-up offers. Guess we’d better just schlep them over.
That’s amazing. I need to do that.
P.S. I love your glasses.
That has got to feel good!
Great job! Any progress is good progress!
I was thinking about this project this weekend. We moved on Halloween to a house that is almost exactly twice the size of the old one and has a closet in every room. Our old house had one closet. But I don’t want to fill the closets with stuff. Add to the fact there are still boxes to be unpacked–I want to William Morris our new house. It is time I get serious! Thanks for the inspiration.