Purge Fever, once you start getting rid of stuff...

[Jerry1]

There are other incentives for multiple tools as well. Because I apparently inherited my mother's bad knees, I now keep an "upstairs" and "downstairs" straight and phillips screwdrivers and pair of needle-nose pliers. I mentioned getting a small tool box for upstairs and and I got the eyeroll from DW.

Well, it seemed like a good idea to me....

I keep a few of these around:

Milwaukee 11-in-1 Multi-Tip Screwdriver with Square Drive Bits-48-22-2114 - The Home Depot

That way you get a few screwdrivers and hex drivers in one tool. That and a pair of needle nose or better yet, linesman plyers, and you can do a lot of small home repairs.

 

[sengsational]

How much household crap would Goodwill really want?

I don't worry about it. They are the "experts" when it comes to if something will sell or not, and also know exactly how/where to recycle stuff if it won't sell. But to the point of your post, the decision process and associated hassle of dispositioning all of the various categories of unwanted items is probably what keeps many people from embarking on the journey.

At the next stage of purge fever you realize that selling most of this stuff is too much of a pain because you have to arrange to meet with the buyer, or mail it. Then you advance to Freecycle or one of the free Facebook groups. The taker contacts you, you put it outside to be picked up by x time. The cycle maybe continues through a few no-shows but what do you care, you don't have to be home. If nobody picks it up, come trash day out it goes.

Talking about "trash day", I'm not sure how they do it, but somehow, my curb trash gets scavenged before the bulk trash guy arrives.

In our fine city, if you want to get rid of anything that won't fit in the 'hurby curby' trash can, you need to fill out a form and tell them what you're putting out, then they give you a date of when they'll next be coming through.

The scavengers must have the route information or something, because anything you can sell by the ton is gone, for sure, the night before. And stuff that is still usable or fixable is gone the night before. I'm real happy that there are people out there that do this...the worst thing would be for it to end-up in the landfill.

 

[misshathaway]

Talking about "trash day", I'm not sure how they do it, but somehow, my curb trash gets scavenged before the bulk trash guy arrives.

My neighborhood too. Anything metal is gone in a flash. They are pretty neat about it too. Sometimes my up-the-street neighbor takes things from my trash. He is a hoarder so they end up in his yard or garage. Still landfill, just delayed.

 

[Katsmeow]

This is something which seems never ending. When we sold our big house (4400 sf + guest house + 2 double garages) we wanted something smaller and we got rid of a lot of stuff. In fact, we had some boxes in the garage that we had never opened since we moved to that house. We opened them and did find a few things (we had known they were there -- they weren't forgotten) but threw out most of it.

Current house is about 2900 SF with a double garage so it was good that we had pared down. But, on a lot of stuff, particularly small stuffs that fit in drawers we had packed it with the idea we would go through it when we got here.

Of course, when we were unpacking here we didn't want to spend the time to go through that and make decisions so it got dumped into drawers.

We have made some progress here. About 3 years ago, I read the book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and started using the method in that book to go through things. I got the master bedroom, closet, master bathroom and kitchen done. And, then got derailed a bit in my office.

Now, I need to go back and redo the closet and bathroom (new stuff has been accumulated). I still to finish my office ...it has most of that stuff in drawers. I have been working on scanning in paper and so that it is much less than it used to be. I am down to a bookcase and a half of physical books (get it on Kindle if I can).

But, I still would like to purge a lot more. It isn't that we don't have room for it. We are at a point now with kids gone that we have plenty of storage space. But, I want to make keeping it clean easier. Make dusting easier. Make finding stuff easier.

DH is a bit of an obstacle on all this. He is of the mindset to keep anything that we might need later. And, at times we have needed stuff like that. It is just that we don't ever end up needing most of it. And, even worse, sometimes I know we do have X...somewhere...but when we need it right then we don't know where it is. So keeping it didn't really help us.

And, the garage...we are going to call 1-800-Got Junk to clear that out.

 

[misshathaway]

the worst thing would be for it to end-up in the landfill.

That was surely how I felt before I started shedding the accumulated stuff of 3 generations. Now I think, landfill is the final destination anyway, it's just a question of how many owners the item goes through beforehand.

 

[googily]

Now I think, landfill is the final destination anyway, it's just a question of how many owners the item goes through beforehand.

I almost wish I hadn't read this deviously perfect formulation.

 

[HadEnuff]

DW left to visit family this morning. When I kissed her good-bye and told her how nice she looked she just kissed me back and said "throw some of your stuff out. Love You!"....

I think I've sold almost everything that's worth the trouble. Just about to go the "Free Stuff" route on Craigslist. Ultimate objective is to sell this house and move into much smaller lake house that is already full of stuff.

 

[gretah]

A friend of mine is 80 and is not doing so well. 2 heart attacks and he gets winded easily. Wife is in better shape but is 75. They have a 4 bedroom house with 2 car garage FULL of stuff.

They keep going to garage sales and bringing home more books and furniture. I am always amazed how they can fit in each new item of furniture.

They are both excited about moving cross country next year into a little cottage at a CCRC where they have friends. I think they will be shocked at the amount of sorting and moving they will "suddenly" have to do.

They scared me into starting my purge a couple of years ago. (I want to move out of state, too.)

4 pieces of furniture will go with me. The remaining few pieces will go to Goodwill. Now I'm down to the little things.

A motto in interior design is that if an item isn't functional or beautiful, out it goes. I'm trying to only keep ones that are both. Kitchen and hardware tools are usually the exception.

With each pretty decorative item I am asking myself "do I really want to dust this for the rest of my life?"

That makes decisions easy!

 

[candrew]

Last year on the cusp of our E.R.'s, DW & I went through our modest home room by room, including the garage and attic to organize and declutter. We emptied each room entirely of its contents and only returned those items that were absolutely necessary or that we loved. This process ended up providing generous donations of DW's discarded clothing to a local women's shelter along with endless car loads of sundry items to other local charities. It was a liberating experience and has made us acutely aware of what we decide to bring into our home and lives when it comes to "stuff" and even relationships.

 

[ls99]

Late DW used to say, you have a lot of stuff. Her daughter recently visiting said the same thing. True. Yet we were always using the three car garage for the cars, +1 truck which lives outside. The basement is another sory though there is an area clear for laundry equipment and folding table plus ironing board, which I use nowadays.

Started on getting rid of stuff. Got rid of the second pickup truck which was parked at the mancave. Some garage primeter filler has gone into the trash.

Discoverd recently that I lost any interest in electronics, hope to find a HAM radio club to donate most of it. Tried to pass off some tektronix scopes and spectrum analyzer to the local college radio club, two months and still no reply.

Begun sorting thorugh metal stuff. Some I'll have dis-assemble to separate ferrous, etc.

SLow process, recent interest in dancing, five nights a week is cutting into the decluttering time.

 

[gayl]

I'm thinking of two things 1) Giving a nice donation to Goodwill/DAV for taking so much stuff off our hands and 2) Going to work there volunteer for a few days to see how they handle all the "stuff" people bring their way. It's really amazing and so helpful, how much stuff they absorb.

I love DAV! They really helped last year when I 'remodeled' 4 bedrooms by clearing out 38 years of 'stuff' 2 years after last kid went off to a college dorm. Kept 1 twin bed + 2 chairs until this August when I deposited that into his 1st place

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I don't worry about it. They are the "experts" when it comes to if something will sell or not, and also know exactly how/where to recycle stuff if it won't sell. But to the point of your post, the decision process and associated hassle of dispositioning all of the various categories of unwanted items is probably what keeps many people from embarking on the journey.



Talking about "trash day", I'm not sure how they do it, but somehow, my curb trash gets scavenged before the bulk trash guy arrives.

In our fine city, if you want to get rid of anything that won't fit in the 'hurby curby' trash can, you need to fill out a form and tell them what you're putting out, then they give you a date of when they'll next be coming through.

The scavengers must have the route information or something, because anything you can sell by the ton is gone, for sure, the night before. And stuff that is still usable or fixable is gone the night before. I'm real happy that there are people out there that do this...the worst thing would be for it to end-up in the landfill.

When we lived in San Antonio, they would do "bulk trash" days twice a year. It was set up that all your bulk stuff (and it could a LOT!) would be set out by day X and within 2 or 3 days, they would come around with grapple trucks and take it away. These dates were public knowledge, it was GREAT for "upcycling" stuff as the hoarder/junk collectors/etc. would come out in droves and you would see pickup trucks PILED high with other people's junk. It was really a great idea...very rarely did the city have to get any of our junk, because it would be scavenged within 4 hours of being put on the curb!

 

[Lawrencewendall]

When we lived in San Antonio, they would do "bulk trash" days twice a year. It was set up that all your bulk stuff (and it could a LOT!) would be set out by day X and within 2 or 3 days, they would come around with grapple trucks and take it away. These dates were public knowledge, it was GREAT for "upcycling" stuff as the hoarder/junk collectors/etc. would come out in droves and you would see pickup trucks PILED high with other people's junk. It was really a great idea...very rarely did the city have to get any of our junk, because it would be scavenged within 4 hours of being put on the curb!

The Germans did this also. It was a godsend for a young couple just starting out. Furnished our entire place with other people's "junk".

 

[gayl]

The Germans did this also. It was a godsend for a young couple just starting out. Furnished our entire place with other people's "junk".

both son & dtr do this. Got kitchen set, 2 sofas. I got that missing chair (matches my dining room set after reupholstering). But I put out my fair share too .... we use nextdoor.Com for trading instead of curbside

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

I'm doing the October cleanout. Day 1 is one item, Day 2 2 items, by Day 30 you have to get rid of 30 items. That's 465 things!

 

[Totoro]

I don't think I actually have 465 things.

 

[ls99]

I don't think I actually have 465 things.

Between various RF connectors, cables, audio and video adapters, resistors and capacitors, I have easily triple that. Then there is all the test instruments and other stuff. Now if I count tools..... eh never mind.

 

[aja8888]

Discoverd recently that I lost any interest in electronics, hope to find a HAM radio club to donate most of it.

This part of is99's post stopped me short. The same phenomenon happened to me a few years ago. I had a part time computer repair and building business that kept my DD and I very busy for about 4 years. One day, I just couldn't face another motherboard or hard drive and gave the business up in its entirity. Passed the customer base a another shop for a few beans and that was it.

What it left me with was hundreds of cables, parts, old computers, printers, you name it. I'm STILL purging that stuff and have totally lost interest in electronics.

Strange things happen when you get older, I guess.

 

[SheitlQueen]

I have recently started doing this. Tired of all the junk in the garage so I hauled two huge truck loads of stuff to the dump, including a few left over shingles from when we had a new roof put on in 1994. Why I kept all this stuff I have no idea.
That got me going to went through the kitchen and took a whole lot of stuff down to the Goodwill. Started in the hall closets, and when the rain sets in I'll finish the upstairs. Then for the real challenge, the basement.

It feels good to get rid of stuff and simplify things. Also when my time comes, no one will have to face the mountains of stuff in the house.

I use the same criteria as mentioned above. If it hasn't been used in a year and holds no monetary or sentimental value, out it goes. If it turns out I do have a need for the item later on, I'll just buy another.

 

[googily]

Turns out we've all been practicing the Swedish art of "death cleaning":

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...8dcf82-aebe-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html

 

[TrvlBug]

Turns out we've all been practicing the Swedish art of "death cleaning":

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...8dcf82-aebe-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html

Yep. After we got back home a few months ago from death cleaning MILs home with full basement (midwest) I threw away more stuff. Mind you, I had been purging for at least a year in preparation for a major remodel and had patted myself on the back for a job well done. With 5 bedrooms, one of them is designated as a 'storage room'.

When we got back home, I told DH, no storage room...if he wanted to keep more stuff, it will go into the garage and his car will be parked in the driveway . We're still negotiating that but I have drawn a line in the sand. He's a packrat and didn't say a word when I threw out a few more things after we got home...in fact, he was as frustrated, disgusted, whatever, as I was in clearing out MILs home for sale.

 

[googily]

It would all be a lot easier if my Major Metropolitan Area weren't so into recycling and sustainability. I'm actually pretty good at designating things to be decluttered--it's the wanting to be a good earthling and not just toss everything in the trash that can then stop me cold.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I sold more than $5000 worth of my Tools and my Compressor in the last 2 week. 1 Nice rolling mechanics toolbox, 500 sockets 250 Wrenches, cordless drills etc. My garage has never looked so uncluttered. No more sports car conversions/renos for me in the near future, and if I do I will just buy the tools as I need them. I certainly do not need that many. And, as I am only interested in foreign sports cars, they will all be metric from now on.

 

[aja8888]

I sold more than $5000 worth of my Tools and my Compressor in the last 2 week. 1 Nice rolling mechanics toolbox, 500 sockets 250 Wrenches, cordless drills etc. My garage has never looked so uncluttered. No more sports car conversions/renos for me in the near future, and if I do I will just buy the tools as I need them. I certainly do not need that many. And, as I am only interested in foreign sports cars, they will all be metric from now on.

OMG!!

I hope my DW doesn't see the above post.

 

[ohyes]

The school where I worked before retirement is having two drives tomorrow: ewaste/anything else.

DH and I have both cars full of stuff to drop off in the morning. While very, very happy about getting rid of it all, there is plenty more to divest.

It is a start.