Monday, June 27, 2022

Downsizing... giving it away

HALLIE EPHRON: My husband was a collector. He couldn't throw away a pencil that had a few inches of lead left in it, and teabags had to be used at least twice. Stamps... uncancelled? I found caches of them that he'd soaked off envelopes stashed in mugs throughout the house.

Of course there were thousands of books picked up cheaply at yard sales and library book sales and even off the street.

Since he died, I've been slowly and lovingly working through his collections. Exhaling as I downsize.

Books first: I found an antiquarian bookseller (Ken Gloss who's on Antique's Roadshow!) who was interested in taking the books. AND carting them away. WITHOUT ME paying HIM. Win, win!

Here's *ONE OF MY* before and after bookcases.

BEFORE



AFTER (saved photo albums and bird books... the below cabinets are empty, too!)
For the rest, in the time of Covid, yard sales have pretty much dried up. My neighbors have taken to posting photos in a local Facebook group of whatever they're getting rid of, piling it on their front steps, and labeling it: FREE.

Jerry would have loved it... not for giving his treasures away, of course, but stopping every few blocks to see what he NEEDED that was being tossed. He would not have been onboard with my giving away 6 bookcases but I was thrilled to see them depart the premises.

Now I’m an old hand at giving things away on Facebook. In my travels, this posting cracked me up.


So in these unusual times, are you acquiring or downsizing? I do hope you're not dumping your giveaways on your neighbor's steps...  And how's it working out for you?

RHYS BOWEN: I would love to downsize and get rid of clutter but John is like Jerry, he clings onto STUFF! in the belief that it might come in useful done day.

A few years ago daughter Anne came to help purge the garage. It looked wonderful but now is back to nightmare.

I’ve done my own purging and got rid of so many books and clothes but John has 5 pairs of white tennis shoes he doesn’t wear but won’t toss! Uggghhh

This is why I enjoy our house in Arizona. We started from scratch. All new furniture and no clutter. The garage is pristine. Two cars. That’s it. I sent a picture to my son in law who replied,”Who are you and what have you done with my in-laws?”

HALLIE: I'm tempted to send you a picture of my garage but it's too horrifying. It's on my to-do list.

JENN McKINLAY: Declutter is my middle name! Okay, technically it’s Dee but so much more accurate if you add “clutter”, as in Deeclutter. LOL.

My parents were keepers, which is why I think I’m a pitcher. I remember their mail taking up our whole counter and spending an afternoon sorting it for them because it drove me batty.

My home aesthetic is “let’s make it look as if no one lives here”. My favorite hobby is loading up my truck and dropping off gently used things to the local thrift shop.

The problem - Hub is a collector. His weakness – books and guitars. Hard to argue with either of those.

Save me!!!

LUCY BURDETTE: I would say I fall in the middle, a little closer to hoarding than decluttering perhaps. If I was being honest!

When we arrive in Connecticut, I’m often on a tear. And this year we did take several boxes of books to the Scranton library friends donation box. I also tore through my closet and loaded up a huge bag of clothes that I felt certain I wouldn’t wear again.

That encouraged John to rip through his belongings too. But we still have too much stuff.

Probably as it gets closer to time to head south, I will go through the same drill. The problem is, if you have one experience in which you threw something out and you needed it later, that discourages you from clearing things out. For example, if I had gotten rid of this heavy bright sequined top, what in the world would I wear to the Motown party we are going to in July??

JULIA: Lucy, if you can replace something for $25, out it goes. Pretty sure you can get something Motown from Goodwill for a fiver.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  Let's put it this way. If you find something, and you didn't even know it was there, how are you going to miss it? Old games with missing pieces, instructions to appliances you don't have any more. Do I need a breadmaker? Gone gone gone. It is so much fun. And there are things we have that don't seem like things, but they take up space. For instance, we just recycled one million brown paper bags. I kept 20. How many can anyone possibly need?

I think it was Hallie's wonderful pal (and now, mine, too) organizer Kathy Vines who showed me the way. She held up a brown handbag, one of maybe five brown handbags.Would you ever use this, she asked? Maybe, I said. Sure.  She then asked: Would it be your first choice? Hmm, I thought. Nope, not my first choice. She held it up again, and said--if you donated it, it would be someone's first choice. It would be a gift to them. 

I stopped in my tracks.TAKE ALL OF THEM, I said. I'd love to make people happy.  

I just gave a box of costume jewelry to a shelter, and they were thrilled. And I donated a lot clothes. And listen to this. A shelter volunteer called me to say one of her clients had a job interview, wearing clothes I donated, and got the job, and now says she's sure it was the suit.

Talk about donation incentive!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Hank, I love that. "It would be someone's first choice." That helped me get rid of SO many of Ross's books - I'm never going to read the 600 page history of one ship of the line in the Napleonic wars - but somewhere out there is a man who will be THRILLED with this book. 

Right now, I'm - not downsizing, but repacking Youngest's stuff to make more space in "her" room - and I'm about to start the shoveling-out-the-remains part of the program for the Maine Millennial's room, now she's taken what she wants. Let's face it, when it's your stuff, it's potentially valuable treasure. When it's someone else's, it's junk.

Soon to be a guest/sewing room!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I did a huge clearing out of books in the spring. The shelves in my office are still full, but at least books aren't quadruple stacked now! I tackled clothes, too, but I still only wear a fraction of the stuff that's left. (Of course, barely leaving the house for two and a half years has something to do with that...)

I do like getting rid of stuff--a good thing, since Rick is a "saver." Most of his treasures are electronics and tools, and I have to admit that they do sometimes come in very handy. I needed an o-ring and some silicone grease yesterday for a fountain pen project. Did he have the exact thing? You bet. 

HANK: And lately I've also been thinking: if I die, someone is going to look at all this stuff and say--whoa. She was such a pack rat. That is so distressing, it makes me toss SO much stuff.  

Lucy, as for needing it later. Hmm. I wonder how much that REALLY happens? What do you all think?

HALLIE: An excellent question! And doesn't it seem that the minute you throw something away is just before you're going to need it?

How are things going in your household? Are you giving it away, selling it to the highest bidder, or hanging onto your lifetime's accumulation while someone else tries to loosen your grip?

93 comments:

  1. No yard sales here, either, and no dumping stuff on someone else's steps. We're good with giving away things that aren’t books, but we’ll never be minimalists . . . .

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    1. No minimalist here either. My house is full of things that have stories behind them - places or events or friends. It's not the thing, it's the story behind it that I covet.

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  2. We did some serious culling when we moved from Connecticut to Portugal. I gave away probably fifteen boxes of books (all the miscellaneous stuff to a local used bookstore and the extra boxes of my own books went to my old elementary school in Ohio) but somehow we still managed to bring 27 boxes with us!

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    1. You BROUGHT 27 boxes of books to PORTUGAL! Oh my.

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    2. Hi Hallie -- it's Mike Beil . . . and yup, 27 boxes. If I had it to do over again, I would have ditched some of the furniture and brought a few more books. : )

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  3. I like to see space, so when things get cluttered, I'm a tosser. Good luck on your decluttering.

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    1. Thx Dru! I know that airy feeling. I crave it, too. Knowing there's clutter that I can't see day to day also bothers me.

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    2. Dru, what do you do with ALL the books you must have??

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  4. Garage sales are occurring at a normal rate here in hot, sunny California. People sell on Facebook marketplace and Craigslist too.
    I regularly declutter, my husband is the collector.
    I am a runner and love buying new running shoes, but at least I use my addiction.
    I gave away half my books several years ago. New books are on my kindle. Once in awhile I buy a signed hardback book, but only once or twice a year.

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    1. Funny how often you hear: "I regularly declutter, my husband is the collector." Is it the old "opposites attract"?

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  5. I have been trying to declutter for years. Alas, my "stuff" has a life (and I assume a sex life at the rate it multiplies) of its own.
    The Great Move (from a house to a very small senior apartment) five years ago was traumatic. But the remodel while in place (not of my choosing-- the building was sold at the start of the 2020 lockdown, and the new landlords tore everything apart without advance notice all that year) was more so, and I am still recovering.

    Important things were lost-- a favorite photo, my dad's Parker pen, my 1940's glass refrigerator dishes. But beloved people and dear pets have been lost over the past five years and more important, my mobility, which has resulted in a change of lifestyle. I'm still adjusting to what to keep in the kitchen now that reaching the shelves has become a major issue. (And no, a stepstool is not the answer, since I am the kind of person who can fall off a line painted on the sidewalk).

    I think winnowing is a perpetual process, and then you die. And that's just the way life goes. At least, given the internet and search engines, I don't need most of my reference works anymore.

    I love print matter. I create print matter. Both of my careers have centered on the retention of print matter. But I think it's either the books and magazines and manuscripts or me in this apartment, and regretfully. I think the choice has to be me.

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    1. I love your post.. funny and sad and evocative. My stuff also has a sex life.

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    2. Ellen, I join you in mourning your mobility. That makes such a difference in quality of life.

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    3. Celia - winnowing- what a lovely word to choose. I think I could do better in the throw area if I thought of it as winnowing. Tossing the chaff keep only the most important. Many thanks Ellen.

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  6. My partner was a collector…or maybe more a hoarder! He would even collect the seals off new coffee cans, just in case he needed it. Let me just say if you needed rubber bands we had them! I would go behind him and slowly throw out. After he passed I didn’t ever think I would finish cleaning out his hidden treasures, but eventually I did. I now live in another part of Texas, and my own little space where I collect nothing! Sometimes just getting rid of stuff will free your mind.

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    1. "Sometimes just getting rid of stuff will free your mind." Agreed. Even if it's just a little at a time.

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  7. I don't like this topic. Mostly because I have corners of stuff that I never deal with. Deep sigh. I did divest of three boxes of books last month, which felt great. And some clothes.

    I don't bother Hugh about his stuff. Like Deb's Rick, he always, always has a screw or a tool in the basement that fits the job. His den cluttered with books and artifacts found in the walls of building projects is his den.

    Right now I really need to clear out and reorganize my garden shed. THAT might actually happen on some not-too-hot afternoon!

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  8. Oooh, those "books and artifacts found in the walls of building projects..." Wouldn't that make a great starting point for a mystery??

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    1. I've used a few in a book or two! (Two pink baby moccasins. A single elegant woman's shoe from the forties. And so on...)

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    2. There's a newish book called "The Letter" or something that starts with that...

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    3. The only interesting thing we've found in the walls of our 85-year-old house was a mummified possum between the old iron bathtub and the outside wall.

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  9. No yard sales here the past 2+ years but we have a FB Buy Nothing group for our local neighbourhood. So I have been able to give away so many unwanted items from my apartment: dishes, unused cosmetics/beauty items, clothes that no longer fit me. In return, I have received dozens of small & large items for free, including floor lamps, planters, vacuum cleaner, food etc.

    FYI, this Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan idea started in Washington State in 2013 and is now a global movement. I am the current custodian of our FB group's copy of the book.
    The Buy Nothing, Get Everything Plan: Discover the Joy of Spending Less, Sharing More, and Living Generously
    https://www.amazon.com/Buy-Nothing-Get-Everything-Plan/dp/1982113790

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    1. Thanks for that link, Grace, and the background - fascinating! We used to have a giveaways corner of the town dump, but using Facebook to alert folks is one of the BEST uses for social media. Win win win.

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    2. Yes, definitely WIN WIN WIN! Also it has been very freeing and satisfying that my unwanted items are being used. And the free items I picked up did not end up in the garbage/landfill.

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  10. Omg, Julia, I would definitely read that book about the ship!

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  11. I have so much clutter. We have tall bookcases in every room but the kitchen and bathrooms and these bookcases are all jammed with books. Also, in the last fifteen years I've had so many building projects and those have left extra rolls of this or that, piles of shingles, bags of concrete, boxes of nails, short ends of lumber, etc. So my garage is also a nightmare. I dread dying and leaving all of it for my children to pitch in a dumpster. I try to discipline myself to work on it methodically.

    "Artifacts found in the walls..." I am guilty of this. I surely do NOT need to keep the 1920s license plates nor the horseshoes and rusty bits of 19th century iron implements I have spaded up on my land.

    However, I DID read of silver being found in the walls of the home of one of my historical characters when it was torn down in the 1820s, and I have worked out who must have hidden it and not been able to retrieve it after the Revolution... so now I am going to dream up something of silver to be given to this person by the historical character and lost "forever." A tiny Easter Egg just for me and likely one that will land on the cutting room floor, but still fun to think about when I can't sleep!

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    1. I love noodling around with plot ideas in the middle of the night, too...

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  12. You are all so encouraging! It sounds like it can be done. Let's put it like this: we moved into this house on our 2nd daughter's first birthday. And she now has school age children of her own. So that's a lot of stashing...everything. I'm a librarian. Naturally I lean toward organization and order...but sometimes I don't want to spend days sorting my mother's photos. And my husband is sure he will re-read all those books, complete paperback sets from 30 years ago. Plus he is a lawyer, so the rule about tossing business/financial documents is: never. But help is at hand. We know we will move in the foreseeable future, and step one to selling the house is decluttering. Start with the basement and work our way up

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  13. I emptied my closet in April and vacuumed it out before re-hanging a carefully curated selection of clothes I'll wear on trips and to events in Cincinnati. I found three pairs of flat tan sandals and three black pairs plus a pair of black patent kitten heels I swear I've never seen before. Maybe the closet fairy at work?

    Now that the library is accepting donations, I've started the book purge. Every trip to the library includes a Trader Joe's shopping bag of books. Win win, because I can make a dent in our paper bag collection.

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    1. Sounds like an excellent strategy. It is weird when something just shows up in your closet unannounced...

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  14. My husband and I have identified methodically purging accumulated "stuff" from the home we've lived in for the past 27 years as our #1 priority as we begin retirement. A friend of ours shared what I thought was sage wisdom. He said that he and his wife did a thorough pass through their house, purging junk. Then six months to a year later, they did the same thing, and were amazed how much they still found to purge. Then a year or so later, they finally decided to downsize into the senior condo, and found they still needed to do one MORE serious purge to get down to what was actually a reasonable amount of "stuff" to move into their lovely, 3-bedroom condo.

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    1. I do think it's good to do in stages. I know too many who've left it to their kids to sort... Hope I get to it before it comes to that.

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  15. A few weeks back, my church announced a "summer reading book exchange." I was very excited but restrained myself to bringing one fairly small bag of books I thought people might like. After the service, I headed up to the Nativity Hall and walked slowly through the tables carefully placing a book here and a book there and pretending to peruse the wares. A few minutes later I ran out the door with my empty bag, free as a bird and feeling slightly guilty.

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    1. Like Johnny Appleseed! This winter I was in Key West where Lucy is on the committee that supports the public library - and from book sales during the year they make a donation to the library is many tens of thousands of dollars.

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  16. I think I've mentioned that I have hoarding genes on both sides of my family. It is a very real disease that can only be cured by mental toughness and a desire to stay married to the guy I love. He has the "toss it" gene, especially when it comes to my stuff!

    The lovely woman who comes to my house to vacuum, scrub and polish is an immigrant from Brazil. She owns her cleaning business and her husband owns a painting business. She will gladly accept clothing, magazines, toys, cards from charitable organizations, etc. We have not offered books other than children's books, but we could. She belongs to a church where everyone contributes things they cannot use to others. My husband was astonished when she took 50 Martha Stewart magazines one visit. My only wish is that I could speak Portuguese so I could understand her better and hear the story of her life. But that is a topic for another blog!

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    1. I gave the wonderful woman who cleans for me her pick of the empty bookcases. It's very satisfying to see something you don't need put to good use.

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  17. Instead of buying plastic trash bags, why not use those paper grocery bags, instead? They're free, and they break down easily in the landfill. We've always used the paper bags, which fit perfectly in our pullout kitchen trash containers.

    Steve is the clutterbug of our family. Remember the Peanuts character Pigpen, depicted with a swirl of chaos around him? That's Steve, minus the smudges on his person. Everywhere he sits or works or travels there are stacks and piles, including all over the floor. The biggest challenge of melding our home and his workspace is hiding his mess so it doesn't drive me berserk.

    There is a lovely local charity called New Life Furniture that takes gently used home items and helps formerly homeless individuals and families reclaim dignity. Having an actual bed to sleep on, and a chair to sit in instead of the floor, makes such a difference to those used to having nothing. I'm about to give them a call and have them take some furniture I've been saving for a basement upgrade Steve doesn't want to do. It's just in the way, and they will also take our extra dishes and glassware we no longer need, along with table linens that no longer fit any of my tables. In one fell swoop I hope to have some clear space.

    And I really need to follow Margaret's example and purge the big closet. Just before the pandemic a friend gave me her mother-in-law's beautiful designer suits after she passed away. Sadly, they fit a lifestyle that is pretty much over for most of us. So I need to figure out how to donate them to Dress For Success, along with lots of other items.

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    1. PIGPEN! I used to accuse Jerry of having the PIGPEN gene (he said I must have been related to LUCY) - there were *piles* everywhere he tended to roost.

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  18. For those of you with lots of books, may I make a suggestion? If there's a Little Free Library nearby, why not donate some of the books to the LFL? Especially if they are fiction. I've pulled donated textbooks out of mine, and out of other LFLs and replaced them with more readable books.

    I haven't done this in awhile, but sometimes I keep a box of books in my trunk and when I pass a LFL that is thin on stock I'll add mine. My overflow LFL stock is huge, mostly with thriller series (like WEB Griffith and Clive Cussler, et al). I could keep every LFL in town full.

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    1. I am loving my neighbourhood's LFL. As I go on bike rides, I investigate my favourite ones to leave and/or take a book. Once read, I return the reading-treasure I enjoyed.

      Karen: What do you do with those dreaded textbooks?

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    2. I've been hanging onto them, waiting for the library donations to start again, which Margaret referenced. They sell them and raise money for the library system here.

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    3. We have 6 LFL in our Byward Market/Lowertown neighbourhood. I have been dropping off books since last year.

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    4. Thanks, Karen. I'll see if my local 'big' library will take them.

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    5. Another suggestion for text books: Art Classes — schools, libraries, art programs at crafty places or the Y. The high school in my “old CT town” used to “sculpt” old books into a variety of thought provoking objects. Elisabeth

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    6. Oh, that's a GREAT idea to put LFL-ready books in the trunk! But distributing them would take..years...:-)

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    7. I'm a recently retired librarian. The public library system I worked for had a donation policy which clearly specified what types of books were accepted. Textbooks were not, because frankly, they don't sell. (Which didn't prevent the dreaded anonymous textbooks "donation" via book drop.)

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    8. As a former college bookstore manager, I have to add that old textbooks in most subjects are nearly useless and should, sadly, go to the landfill. So many students would tell me they're keeping their books for later and not reselling at the end of the semester. Later almost never happened. I kept a few of my favorite art books but have barely opened them in 45 years.

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  19. I'd say we are in the middle. Every spring and fall is a wardrobe declutter. Didn't wear it this season? It goes to the St. Vincent de Paul box behind the church. Because our house is not big, we try to follow the "bring something in, take something out" mentality. It...sometimes works.

    I'm the one who hates clutter. Why do we have a month's worth of old church bulletins? I'm even cutting down on the number of bills we keep (I think Hank had this point before - if it's all online, why save it) and I've gone to paperless billing for as many as I can. The Hubby still has shelves of junk downstairs. His toolroom is, well, let's just say I keep the door closed.

    We are in the process of buying a vacation house in the Laurel Highlands and it's only 828 sq feet. I don't want Nordic minimalist, but I'll be fighting to keep it only to the stuff we use. (Side note: so many houses we toured were packed with crap. The house we bought at 3 refrigerators - a big one and two minis. Why?)

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    1. I looked at a house the other day that had two stoves! apparently the seller had a huge family and she had the 2nd stove (in the basement) for Thanksgiving. I don't know where eveyrone sat since the dining room and table was teensy.

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    2. A vacation house with 3 refrigerators = "party house" or "everyone in the family shows up on Sunday" house.

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    3. Or that vacation house is in too remote an area for any kind of pickup of used and not working reliably stuff. Elisabeth

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    4. The previous owner was using it as a primary home. We are intending to use it as a vacation house (and no, we won't keep the two little fridges).

      And it's very convenient to the village and a grocer store - and the regular fridge was giant - so I'm not sure what was up and I don't think I want to know. LOL

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  20. As Susan says above, clearing out and decluttering is an ongoing process. I know the theory but haven't yet applied it well in our basement, where it's really needed. As for books, I keep my 'friends' (ones I re-read happily); contemplate getting rid of my 'acquaintances' in the next round (those books I like but haven't re-read and, likely, won't); and happily pass along the 'strangers' that, somehow, I have either never read or don't remember reading. Those books certainly have no right to space on my shelf!

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    1. Knowing so many authors has created a conundrum. All those series I want to keep!

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    2. Yeah, Karen, and thanks to JRW & FCF it is just getting worse;>)

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  21. In March, I decided to sell my small condo. To create a minimalist, spacious look for photos and showings, I packed about 40 boxes of books, art, clothes, under-used appliances, etc., then stored them with the mover who would eventually move me into my new place. Except I didn't move, I bought a summer cottage instead, deciding to furnish it with new stuff. You've probably guessed the punchline: When I moved those 40 boxes back into my original condo, it felt like putting on high school jeans: too tight, no breathing room, no lycra. Ugh. I am tossing/donating like mad and loving the idea of my things becoming someone's first choice.

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    1. Judith, "putting on your high school jeans" is a great visual metaphor!

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    2. uh oh... I think I still have those jeans

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  22. I'm a tosser. If I haven't used it, can't see a use for it, or have a bunch of something, out it goes - well, when I say out, I typically mean donate, but you get the picture. It's lucky I'm the way I am - hubs is a collector and keeper. In fact, I can barely make it into our furnace room except sideways it's packed so full. The man has always been this way. I should have been warned when he pulled out his leather carving tools - from his days in Boy Scouts! Oy!

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    1. Kait, is there some immutable law of attraction that makes it so every tosser marries a keeper? Ross and I were certainly that way, and it seems like a LOT of the commentors here are paired up with their opposite!

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    2. And I thought I'd avoided the "mixed marriage " issue when I married a guy who roots for the same baseball team. (It can get ugly here in CT.)

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  23. Hallie, the picture of the Free Market made me laugh. It took me months to reduce my amount of books. Last week, my brother came home with three fat bags of books for me. I said Noooooo.
    He had good intentions. His neighbour had to move rapidly and offered him his books. My brother doesn’t read but he thought: my sister does. As he couldn’t bring them back, he left it to me saying I would certainly like some and donate the others.
    Our public library didn’t start to accept books to resell again but there is a little free library in a city’s park where I can place some occasionally.

    As for the rest, I keep fewer and fewer things and I download most of my books
    Danielle

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    1. Danielle, someone once told me when you buy a Kindle (or some other e-reader,) you're not buying books, you're buying a bookshelf. That makes a lot of sense to me.

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    2. Relatives can be so UNhelpful...

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  24. We moved cross country last August. We expected to move into a smaller home. Our friends told us their move from CA to the Midwest cost $25,000. Our only child is not likely to live in the US again. All of that inspired a massive clean out! We met a young man whose side hustle was buying junky furniture and redoing it. The woman who took in donations at the thrift store started calling US to see what else we had left. Paying for bulk trash pickup was a waste, as people “shopped” the curb on trash day. The only problem? We bought a bigger house, and supply chain issues meant we practically camped out for a few months. And all those books I gave away? I have room now. Literally, A room. Yes, I bought the house for the library. Luckily there are lots of bookstores around!

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  25. Mary, if there's one thing I know, it's that no matter how many books you get rid of, more will come in the house to replace them.

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  26. I probably fall somewhere in the middle- things do tend to accumulate but every once in a while I hoe out, which is what my friend always called it. After my mother died my sister and brother, both west coasters, flew back to help me clear out so we could sell the house. My sister is the type of person that heaves everything into the dumpster; luckily my son managed to salvage a perfectly good vacuum cleaner. My brother "helped" by choosing things he would like to have and then packing them up to ship back to his place. After that he spent the next few days sitting at the card table going through all of the mostly loose photos that my mother and dad had, choosing the ones he wanted and leaving the rest for us to go through. Whether they were truly helpful or not, I was still glad that they came and "pitched in."

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  27. Hallie, you touch on a tender spot. My hubby and I live on an acreage and recently decided the property was getting too much to manage, so are planning a move later in the summer. After 25 years in this house, our basement has accumulated an horrendous number of boxes (many of books but also assorted detritus). There are so many family heritage items which are hard to part with, but aren't of interest to anyone else. We're pushing ourselves to get rid of things mainly because we don't want to burden our children with all of it later on. But it's a painful process.

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    1. My kids have been super helpful sorting... and knowing this massive pile contains not a single thing either of them wants is freeing.

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  28. Hank, that is the best story ever. I am absolutely going to donate my next jewelry/clothing clean out to a shelter! Thank you for the idea!

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    1. Yes--it is so inspirational! Now I cannot stop doing it. I imagine all the stories, how our clothes change lives. ooh.

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  29. The Friends group at our town public library is collecting books for their upcoming sale, so I have an incentive to purge my overflowing shelves. It's been a few years since I did that and, even with a well-used Kindle, I've managed to accumulate quite a few new items. Then, if I'm smart, I'll keep the "purging" going on after I'm done with the bookshelves!

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  30. Hubs is the packrat in the family. We still have "stuff" in the basement from 3 moves and 25 years ago! He thinks like Lucy. "But what if I need it sometime?"

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    1. He won't! And if he does, get a new one that works. :-)

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  31. I need to do more purging. It just sounds like so much work and it sounds like it requires making decisions, something I'm very bad at. So stuff just keeps collecting. And I have a condo, so I don't have very much room either.

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  32. Downsizing. Just sold my mother's place, and the buyer wanted a very quick closing, 90+ years of accumulated stuff had to go. I gave away almost all of the furniture, kitchen goods, etc., but the things I can't part with are now covering the entirety of my living room and dining room. Anyone need 17 pairs of kid gloves?

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    1. My mother in law had a collection of gloves like that! And a collection of embroidered handkerchiefs. My daughter used the handkerchiefs underneath the jars of flowers at the tables at her wedding. So sweet to have a little of Grandma Freda there. She'd have loved it. Do I still have the handkerchiefs and gloves? I'm afraid to find out.

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    2. ((I have my Gramma Rose's white gloves. About five pairs. In plastic, I am keeping them.))

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    3. I'm keeping five pairs, too, Hank—the ones that hold special memories—which leaves a dozen up for adoption.Next, I'll call the local wedding dress donation place to see if they want the white ones. I have a wedding dress for them, too.

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  33. This is such a timely discussion! Ever since I retired four years ago, I’ve been slowly (TOO slowly) getting rid of things. Besides my procrastination, my progress has been slowed down by the need for a couple of major surgeries. Right now my condo looks like a hoarder lives here. There are boxes stacked up in one corner of the living room, containing items that will be donated. My library doesn’t want the books that I’m willing to part with; they’re too old. The books are going elsewhere. Last fall I brought a bunch of items to the city dump, with the help of one of my sisters. There are still piles of things that I pulled out that I need to go through and make decisions about. I frequently need to take breaks for weeks at a time because of some orthopedic issues. About once a week I tell myself to just dump it all out. I have nothing of value, anyway, just things that I’ll probably have a use for a couple of weeks after they’re gone!

    I have some free time this afternoon, so maybe I should get up and go through more things…

    DebRo

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    1. Happy tossing, Deb! There are more and more junk removal companies that, for a fee, will cart of whatever you don't want... I'm planning to call one to have what's in my garage, basement, and attic removed. Really I am. Soon.

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  34. My apartment is being renovated so I had to temporarily move. As I packed I filled boxes to donate. I have kept family treasures from grandmothers and my mom. In my lifetime I have donated boxes of books at least 10 times. This time 6 boxes of books were donated. My bookcase was still full but only one row per shelf. And I’m already adding more! Books are a huge part of my life; I have read every day of my life since I was a young girl and I’m 71 years young!

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  35. You're all encouraging me to do some desperately needed decluttering. The problem is only my stuff goes. Hubby is one of the "I might need it someday" crowd.

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  36. After the nightmare of cleaning out my in-law’s home my husband and I vowed we wouldn’t do that to our kids. So began the ongoing downsizing of the house we’ve lived in for 42 years. We did the bedrooms in 2004 and did a once through in the basement then. It’s time to seriously tackle the basement for round two! It hasn’t been easy to donate locally during pandemic but my DIL taught me about Facebook Marketplace and putting things at the curb prior to trash/recycle day works quite well! Emily Dame

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  37. Yes! One of the best days of my life (maybe I'm exaggerating a little..) as when I called the junk guy. I took about a half hour survey of the garage, saved a couple of things, and then said: take it all. it was AMAZING. I never looked back, and have NEVER thought about or longed for or missed one item.

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  38. Oh, gosh... I did not expect to click on this link today and see MY NAME mentioned as being a helpful resource! Love that our conversations stuck with you, Hank, and that they've continued to be part of your stuff-shedding journey! :-) It's contagious!!

    Hallie, I'm so glad you not only have help, but that it truly sounds like the *right kind* of help. <3 And your before-and-after is {chef's kiss}!

    I work with clients virtually all over the country who have been using this time to deal with their stuff and systems from before COVID as well as the shopping habits that came as a result of it. Impulse buys, entertainment, assorted distractions, food/supply hoards, new clothes for a new pandemic lifestyle (read: no more hard pants, plus the covid-15 weight gain). But for so many, it's putting some action behind their clarity of what they want their life and their home to feel like, having gotten through these last 2+ years.

    This blog post is Clever Girl Organizing approved!

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  39. I love this thread and all the comments. I'll never be a minimalist, but I also appreciate the value of clearing out stuff we will not need again. Whichever of us survives the other shouldn't have too much difficulty dealing with clutter. Never had much success with yard sales, so we give away what's good, sometimes a "curb alert" posted on Next Door, often to our favorite local charities. This Spring we realized a long-time plan of renting a dumpster & having it parked in the driveway underneath the attic window. So freeing to just THROW stuff out -- literally! The attic is now almost empty, as is the basement.
    Years ago, we helped an elderly neighbor clear out her TV-quality hoarder house and I will always have that memory as incentive to do better.

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