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Old 03-26-2010, 05:42 AM   #181
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I'm getting rid of old baseboard trim by recycling the wood into hockey sticks for toddlers:

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Old 03-26-2010, 07:55 AM   #182
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I'm getting rid of old baseboard trim by recycling the wood into hockey sticks for toddlers:
Those hockey sticks are beautiful, Ronstar.

Great sub-category here, "what old stuff are you re-purposing so you don't have to buy new stuff?" I'm eyeing my old CD holders for use in a new hobby.
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Old 03-26-2010, 10:27 AM   #183
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Tomorrow a hongwangji is having a recycle day, so today I cleaned out the computer closet.

Shell of an old desktop, a dying/dead UPS, two CD-R drives still in their original boxes, a couple of diskette drives, a Packard-Bell (?!?) keyboard, two KVM switches, an old rechargable cordless mouse, an IEEE 1394 repeater... it was like the Island of Misfit Toys in there.

I kept a bunch of miscellaneous cables, connectors, and plugs that take up a small box. I'll probably throw those out in 2012.

I'm looking at our Mac Mini (with its PowerPC CPU) and thinking that it's probably at the end of its road.* But it's probably still a better video-editing machine than an Intel dual-core CPU. Let's see, in the last decade I've edited exactly two videos. Hmmm.

Next project is reformatting the HD of an old Dell Inspiron 505 and figuring out if it has any resale value.

Third on the list is going through my t-shirt drawer and restocking the rag bag. Then I'll do a couple car oil changes and dispose of the old oil with the rag bag instead of using shredded newspaper.

Still looking for suggestions on old LPs...

[* It's helped us decide that our next desktop will probably be a Mac. But our current desktop PC is only six months old, so it'll probably be another five years before we get to a decision point.]
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Old 03-26-2010, 11:40 AM   #184
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Those hockey sticks are beautiful, Ronstar.

Great sub-category here, "what old stuff are you re-purposing so you don't have to buy new stuff?" I'm eyeing my old CD holders for use in a new hobby.
Thanks - I have a real problem throwing some stuff away - so I agree - re-purposing is the way to go
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Old 03-26-2010, 12:38 PM   #185
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We've had family visiting for a week, and I have a busy weekend coming up, so today I took an hour, plugged the kids into the TV (cheap babysitting!) and cleaned out both kids' dressers as well as under our kitchen sink.

got rid of:

1. One paper grocery bag of new disposable diapers (to kids' preschool for their stash)
2. Two kitchen-sized trash bags of outgrown / out of season children's clothing (to local thrift store)
3. One paper grocery bag of disposable swimsuits (freecycled)
4. One paper grocery bag of assorted changing-table supplies (freecycled)
5. One changing pad with cover (freecycled)
6. Two new, empty paint cans without lids (freecycled)
7. Kitchen-sized plastic garbage bag full of clean plastic grocery bags (to the recycling center)
8. 1/2 of a paper grocery bag of assorted dead electronics and batteries (to our hazardous materials / home electronics recycling center).

Yay me!
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Old 03-26-2010, 12:44 PM   #186
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Still looking for suggestions on old LPs...
I left mine beside the big dumpster at my old apartment complex, when I moved into my present house. I am absolutely certain that someone scavenged them to sell, and that is fine with me.

I had been hearing for decades about how valuable they must have been, and how I should sell them on e-bay etc., so I dragged them around with me through countless moves. I don't regret divesting myself of them at all. I would never have gotten around to selling them.

Also, I keep hearing about how I should have digitized them. Frankly, any song that I really wanted to hear has already been digitized and is available for 99 cents on i-tunes (or even free on Youtube). I am sure i-tunes did a much better job of digitizing than I would. So far I haven't downloaded any of them, in either case. Seems they weren't as important to me as I had thought.
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Old 03-26-2010, 01:43 PM   #187
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Emptied out a bunch of bottles from a kitchen cupboard last night and put the empty glass out with the recycle this morning. This included a couple bottles of alcohol that date back to a PBS pledge drive some years ago where the guy had me convinced that they could be mixed up into tonics that would kill weeds and do other wonderful things in the garden. Well, it didn't work!! Also had my recycle bin about half full of papers and other recycle stuff. Good bye to more stuff I don't need to keep anymore.
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Old 03-26-2010, 01:58 PM   #188
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Well I have a great motivator to discard the crap. We are moving at the end of April and as I will be a moving party of one, the more I can get rid of now the better. Might be time to lose some of the crap that DH has been dragging from place to place, tell him it got lost.
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Old 03-26-2010, 04:37 PM   #189
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Well I have a great motivator to discard the crap. We are moving at the end of April and as I will be a moving party of one, the more I can get rid of now the better. Might be time to lose some of the crap that DH has been dragging from place to place, tell him it got lost.
I try to pretend I'm moving but it's nowhere near as motivating as actually moving. Yeah, "tell him it got lost;" reminds me of a former co-worker who developed the fine art of mumbling, "ah, no, don't clean out and defrost the refrigerator, just put it in storage."

I'm on schedule to rid the place of more than seven items this week, continuing the project of decimating the sock and underwear drawers.
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Old 03-26-2010, 07:17 PM   #190
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I sorted the remaining closet clothes into categories - short/long sleeve, casual/dressy/bumming around/getting dirty, and by apparel type.
Conclusions...
- I really do not need 7 button down bummy gardening/painting shirts. Perhaps 2 will do.
- I have enough little black dresses for a lifetime.
- My slacks collection is not lacking.
- I have too many shoes, some of which are too big (heavier days).
- I can slide the hangers left and right easily.
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Old 03-27-2010, 02:21 PM   #191
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...Now I need to go through ONCE MORE and try on the remaining casual clothes to make sure they fit AND I will wear them.
DONE! POINTS!!
2 clothes closets are thinned out and re-sorted. All surviving clothes are in my current size. I have a small pile of sewing, i.e. take in the side seams of some spaghetti strap sundresses and fitted modesty jackets I still like.
dh2b is up next.... He has lost 25 lbs (or more ) and toned up all over from going to the gym 3x per week for the last year or so. His closet needs to lose all the leftover XL shirts and too large dress slacks.
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Old 03-27-2010, 02:30 PM   #192
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Sorted eight boxes (some large) of long unused photography equipment. Listed about 40 cameras on kijiji and filled two fifteen gallon garbage containers with trashy stuff. Probably going to to have to resort to reviving my ebay account to unload the cameras as any bites I have had so far have been lowballers. Went to a local auction today to investigate selling some stuff in a consignment auction. Saw some records I have go for $20 each.
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Old 03-27-2010, 04:00 PM   #193
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I returned some clothing that I bought last week. How many pairs of khaki and black pants do you need? I hope this counts toward Simplifying Saturday.
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Old 03-27-2010, 07:07 PM   #194
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This week I tossed an old felt pen. I'm sure I'd had it since my college days. It wasn't totally dried up but not really useful any more.
I emptied the flotsam and jetsam out of the bottom of my knitting basket and put all the knitting needles and crochet hooks into it. So that was "simplifying because the needles are no longer sitting on the floor in the corner of my bedroom, but maybe I shouldn't count it because I'm going to need to replace the basket—it's starting to crack.
Today, I took all the stuff I put in the back of my car last weekend to the Goodwill. Then I got really ambitious and took another carload of non-working or obsolete computer stuff to the local electronics recyclery. I'm inviting guests for Easter dinner next week and I must get at least the downstairs of my house fit to be seen! The last large item is the box of sewing patterns on the dining room table. Maybe I will tackle them after church tomorrow. After that it's all small stuff.
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Old 03-28-2010, 08:03 AM   #195
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I Like This Thread!

I certainly aspire to simplify. I think it's a great idea to help our planet (although I don't consider myself a tree-hugger), it's cleansing for the soul and of course it keeps your residence looking more organized.

Can I get credit for attic cleaning my wife and I did during the Christmas holidays? Just kidding. However, we did make great strides at cleaning out the attic and it feels great. The physical clutter was cluttering my mind too!

I'll watch this thread and hope to post some of my de-cluttering pictures soon.

Great Idea!
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Old 03-28-2010, 09:51 AM   #196
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This week got a couple of big ones.. An old indoor-outdoor rug from the basement and an ugly set of shelves from the bathroom (needed to toss/recycle old after shave bottles / plastic soap dishes / etc beford taking them down). Also tossed a couple of pennants from my children's high school band competitions (last one was done 8 years ago). They had a lot of sentimental value but out they go !! I really like this thread! It is very motivating.
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Old 03-28-2010, 09:55 AM   #197
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Finally got rid of the old PC and other hardware. (Last attempt was postponed by the tsunami. Really. But that excuse probably only works once or twice in a lifetime.) Added a few more things to the Goodwill closet-- if no one misses them then we'll make a run in the next month or two. Added a few more t-shirts to the rag bag.

The computer recyclers were displaying the "best of" to an admiring crowd of kids. ("Dude, this monitor only shows one color, and it's ORANGE!") Someone turned in an entire Apple IIc. I think a lot of the "recycled" hardware is going to end up on eBay...

Had a good computer conversation on the way home. Our kid was dumbfounded to learn that Steve "Dancing With The Stars" Wozniak knows how to program a computer AND was BFF with Steve Jobs. Then I had to explain to her that hooking a computer up to a TV was something that people were doing in the 1970s, and it had nothing to do with "home theater".

My father probably felt the same way 40 years ago when I discovered that you could build your own radio.

You make a good point about the LPs, W2R. I'd just hate to see my old KISS albums on "Antiques Roadshow" two weeks after I ditch them. I'll probably make sure I have their tracks on my iTunes account, check eBay for prices, and see what our local records store wants.
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Old 03-29-2010, 10:35 AM   #198
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I actually managed to get rid of some things this weekend. I owe for 3 weeks and have the following to report. I donated the following to Goodwill:

15 items of clothing
2 pairs of shoes
1 piece of artwork
9 kitchen items

I almost added 1 DH to the pile as the first argument began over what could be categorised as useless crap and what is worth keeping. He was lucky to fall into the latter category.
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Old 03-31-2010, 03:22 PM   #199
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I found an unlikely home for approx 40 1970s vintage LPs and a newer turntable. I called the public library first, but they didn't want the stuff. I remembered a local used book store down the road and stopped in.
The owner's son was there and offered to give me the phone number of a record collector. Hmmmm...to myself...too much effort.
Just for fun I asked him if HE wanted a free turntable. It turns out his turntable is not w*rking, so he was all for that. I told him the price of the turntable was taking the albums off my hands and calling the record collector himself. DEAL!
I also dropped off two hardcover tree disease reference books (Cornell University authors) to a friend who runs a local garden nursery. Another thrilled recipient.
This is a lot of fun finding the "right" places to give items to versus the garbage can.
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Old 03-31-2010, 03:35 PM   #200
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I gave some nursing books to my SO's daughter in law who is in Nursing school .
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