Tag: stuff

This is the space that I am devoting to documenting my decluttering journey.  You can find all of the other posts here.

I’m back into the groove of getting all of the things that we don’t love and want to surround us out of the house.  It’s been quite a while and the donation pile has grown substantially.  Like, its turned into Marjory the trash heap on Fraggle Rock and its taking over my bedroom.  No worries!  It’s almost FALL and I’m in a decluttering mood again, so it will all find a new home soon.

Let’s see what’s going to live with someone else:

As always, we have too.many.things.  Such as coffee mugs.  And a standing rib roaster that I’ve never in the seven years I’ve owned it used.  My poor digital crock pot.  I broke the sleeve in it, but there is nothing wrong with the crock pot.  I asked them before I donated it, and they said no problem.  Someone will pay a couple of dollars for it.  And wouldn’t you know it, two days later I found a sleeve at a yard sale.  Oh well.  It’s a good thing I already had a backup. 🙄. No, I didn’t buy the sleeve as another backup, but I had to force myself to leave it there.  Yes, I know I have a problem….

I’ve been going through my cookbooks again.  I told my Mama, if I haven’t picked it up in the last year and I know that they have it at one of my local libraries it is going to go live with someone else.  I’ve also been burning through my magazine collection.

Another spare colander and more candles for the candle making lady….

More extras:  a vase, a diffuser that only works as a nightlight now, and an extra digital photo frame.

Even more candles, bowls, and knick knacks.  I bought this tuna squisher because it looked more useful than the one I’ve had for the past 24 years and it wouldn’t go into the tuna can!  Can you believe that.  So maybe it’s not a tuna drainer.  Any ideas what it was actually for?  ( I looked it up and apparently you are supposed to cover the top of the can with this type of drainer.  With mine I can set it inside the tuna can to squish the heck out of the tuna like I like to do.  Life is all about preference, isn’t it?  Hahaha.)

More extra bowls, saucers, and baking pans.  I’m trying my best to cull everything down to what I need and want…..

Two MORE lamp shades, I swear they are multiplying in my hidey holes.  A knife block that I hate having on my counter.  I use one of these in my kitchen drawer and I LOVE it.  I also have discovered that I am a knife hoarder.  The things you discover about yourself as you are decluttering….  More candles, corn on the cob holders that no one uses but me and Hayden because Denton and Liva cut theirs off the cob – oh and I have another set of 24.  Just in case we have 12 people over to eat corn.

And last but never least, MORE CANDLES and jars.

That’s it for our donations last week.

What have you hauled away recently?  Do tell.

This is the space that I am devoting to documenting my decluttering journey.  You can find all of the other posts here.

I completely forgot to post this, so everything you see here was donated, oh about a month ago.  I hope that you didn’t want to come to my house and get any of this stuff…….

Denton and I have started in the garage.  I don’t even know where this school desk came from!  I think it must have been stuffed in the back by the previous owners.  Yes, we have owned our house for over eleven years.  Why do you ask?  Also, I convinced Denton to part with ONE of his three weight benches.

More randomness from the garage.  Headphones that no one in my house will wear.  And bookbags……

Shoes that Liv says are too small, a Roku that hasn’t been used in I don’t even know how long, and other things that do not need to live at my house any longer.

The ever revolving stack of magazines.  I am still culling my cookbooks.  It is painful you guys…. But necessary.  I am going to go through them all again later this summer.

We ended up with two copies of Inception with our last movie haul, so someone else can enjoy this copy.  I am still replacing the doorknobs in our house.  More candles for the candle making lady.  A hamburger press – I found another one that I LOVE.  How do I describe this thing???  It has a spring type thing that allows you to pop the burger out of it after you form the patty.  It works like a dream.  So this patty maker can go live with someone else.  And they can bang it around and mutter while trying to get the perfectly round or square patties out of it.

Also, I am donating some of our multitude of dog supplies.  This harness I bought was laughable when it came to size.  No way it would fit Oreo.  The aqua colored leash has a matching collar and it’s pretty cool.  It lights up.  But I figured that I didn’t need to attrack more attention to myself and Oreo at night when he does his business at the edge of the Little Woods as we call them.  There are ….. things ….. in there that I don’t want to come out at night.  Blinking and flashing lights might just be too much temptation. 

More of my beloved cookbooks.  That I haven’t opened in many, many moons.  They can go live with someone else now.

Extras.  I always seem to have extras of everything.  I don’t need them.  I don’t need them.  I don’t need them.  Maybe if I tell myself that over and over I will stop buying all the extras.  I had to force myself to walk away from a very lovely crock pot the other day…..

Clothes,

More clothes….

And dishes.  I still have too many of everything as you can see.

That was everything that went to my local Salvation Army, sometime in May.  The donations have slowed down tremendously at my house, even though it doesn’t look like it from everything above.

I am gearing myself up for another task later this summer, now that I feel like I have my house under control – somewhat.  Do you have to do that?  Gear yourself up for things?  I am a planner; flying by the seat of my pants is not my preference in any situation.  Especially ones that need to happen a lot.  Anyway, that’s another conversation for another day.

What have you hauled away recently?  Do tell.

This is the space that I am devoting to documenting my decluttering journey.  You can find all of the other posts here.

Note:  This post may contain affiliate links.  Check out what that means to you here.

I got a phone call from one of my sweetheart’s earlier this morning.  He calls me regularly and tells me he loves me every time we start to hang up the phone.  I’m going to call him Bob and he is somewhere in the vicinity of 90 years old.  He is an amazing man.  The little snippets of his life that I am privy to are unbelievable.  Example:  When we first moved here to our tiny town, he and I were having a conversation one day and he asked me where I was originally from.  When I told him the name of my tiny hometown he said “How about that!”  He was in a foxhole in Korea in 1951 with a man from my hometown.  What are the odds?

We talk about everything and anything.  Today’s topic was decluttering.  Bob is doing what sounds like Swedish death cleaning to me.  He isn’t dying.  He is hale and hearty, and seriously could live another twenty years.  He’s active; he golf’s two or three times a week, drives to see one of his remaining sister-in-laws in Detroit almost every year and cleans his own home every single week from top to bottom.

But he said he’s tired of being surrounded by THINGS.  Things he has to dust and clean every week.  Things his family have already told him they don’t want.  And when he finally does go home to heaven to be with his beloved wife, who’s been gone for over a decade, he doesn’t want to leave his family with all of this stuff.

This entire conversation was prompted by him questioning whether or not our local Salvation Army would take the crystal he was tired of dusting each week in his china cabinet or if he should just chunk it into the garbage!  I assured him that they would definitely take it and that he needed to get one of his grandkids to come over and check to see what it was worth first.  He still has his mother’s china.  Which thankfully is going to one of his great-granddaughters who actually wants it.

All of that to say – our conversation renewed my zeal to get ALL THE THINGS out of my house that we don’t love.

Let’s see what’s going to live with someone else this week:

I told my brother that things are getting serious now.  I’ve started in on my Christmas stuff.  Also, Denton has joined Hayden’s bandwagon of only wanting black socks.  I have no idea whose is whose now.

I also sat down and made a huge dent in my travel books.  I think I only have five left now.

Note to self:  Don’t buy the book until you hear back from Daddy.  He texted me after Hayden and I had already checked out and said “Yes, I have this one.  You bought it for me.  I love you.”  Hahahaha.  So don’t be surprised when you see this in my latest book haul.  Never fear, it can now go to live with someone who doesn’t already own a copy of it.

More extras of things that we don’t need…..

Even more extras…..

And the clothes……

I have started making myself reach for things that I haven’t worn in years.  If I don’t want to put it on my body, it goes straight into the wicker go-away basket.  If I do want to try it and then decide after wearing it for the day that I don’t like it, it didn’t fit well, or it just isn’t my style anymore – same thing, straight into the wicker go-away basket.

My goal this year is to completely pare my wardrobe down to only the actual things that I love and I know fit me well.  That might turn out to be only 14 items, but I’d seriously rather only have those 14 items in my closet than a bunch of stuff that I have to shove past to get to the things I actually want to wear.

Woohoo!  My wicker go-away basket is empty!  It may only stay that way for a day or two, but I haven’t seen the bottom of it in a while.  I am loving this get it all out of the house every week thing. It’s working out very, very well.  Everything has been bagged up, and put into the Pilot to be carted away tomorrow morning.

What have you hauled away recently?  Do tell.

This is the space that I am devoting to documenting my decluttering journey.  You can find all of the other posts here.

Note:  This post may contain affiliate links.  Check out what that means to you here.

Another week down and I actually dropped off everything once again at my local Salvation Army TODAY.  Progress is getting it done, people.   It was completed late according to the schedule I have running inside my head, but it’s a task that I can still check off in my planner.  I cleared another load of stuff that wasn’t being loved out of our house and someone will gain a new treasure this week.

Let’s see what’s going to live with someone else today:

Another lamp.  A bunch of photo frames and come calendars that I found…..

A door snowman and more candle supplies for the candle lady.  A bottle of Axe that Hayden will never, ever use.

OH look – another brand new bottle of Axe, a nightlight, my old wallet, pants hangers, bicycle helmets that won’t fit anyone in my house anymore and a whirly-whistle thing.  That thing is actually pretty cool, but no one plays with it sadly.

Posters, wall pieces, and photo frames we no longer need….

A throw pillow that I don’t want on my bed anymore, another lamp shade, miscellaneous towel holders from the bathroom, and two flower pots.

Another stack of magazines…..

Two shelves, a curtain rod I found in the garage, two wall plaques, some leftover yard sale stickers and a random pot with it’s own shelf….

One of the light fixtures from the garage and my beloved Nuwave.  I LOVED this appliance you guys.  I even took it on vacation – twice!  I used it outside to sear our steaks.  That was its purpose in my life.  To keep smoke out of my kitchen and to keep my fire alarms quiet.  Searing steaks is a serious business at my house.  I’ve perfected our steaks now.  Turn the heat up to screaming hot, put the steaks on (half frozen) for three minutes – flip and in another minute and a half they are ready to come off and rest.  But this process makes a LOT of smoke in my house.

Enter my Nuwave.  Problem – my Nuwave only works on Low, Medium and High now.  Every time I put it on the sear setting it glitches out.  I’m sorry Nuwave, you’ll have to go live with someone who doesn’t need you to sear a steak.

Random shoes from Hayden’s closet…..

Clothes….

More clothes….

And last but not least, more clothes……

Aaaaaand that’s it for this week.  It’s all been bagged up, and hauled away this afternoon.  What have you hauled away recently?  Do tell.