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I'll get the ball rolling (there was a reason I was really interested in this forum ;o)
We're getting a new heat pump/gas furnace unit later this week. The project also involves running new ductwork into the ceiling and adding new vents into about 400 square feet of the house that isn't properly serviced by the existing heat/air unit and ductwork.
That's the exciting part!
The challenge for me is that everything in the attic has to be removed so they can run the new ductwork. (The attic just isn't big enough for workmen, heat/air ducts, and all the "stuff" we store up there.)
Currently my formal living and dining is piled with boxes (at least they're somewhat sorted according to what's in them), and my goal/challenge/mission is to:
1) go through each box and sort out the items we truly want/need to keep;
2) repack those items in plastic tubs;
3) label each tub so I know what's what; and
4) get rid of all the things we've carted around for 23 years.
Has anyone else tackled a job like this? I have no doubt it will be well worth it when it's done, but boy oh boy, is it a daunting task when I look at all those boxes. I did have the foresight to have our "bug guy" spray the attic for spiders before we brought everything down. (No sense in inviting brown recluses to join us downstairs!)
I do not envy you one bit! We emptied our attic a few years ago because our son and our daughter were both "missing" stuff. Both had moved out, aquired apartments full of stuff, and then moved back home. The original floored attic at the garage end of the house got full, so we had another door put at the other end of the house. What a job! There were so many unmarked cardboard boxes it was unbelievable-- some were boxes that we had moved from Tulsa in 1985 and never unpacked! We bought the clear plastic tubs for most things, and labelled it all. DS, bless his heart, actually got up in the attic as we put things back and drew a map! It has been a lifesaver. The map is in one of those plastic report sleeves, and is taped to the attic floor right under the light. Things have gotten a little jumbled recently, but DS was up there straightening some as he put some Christmas stuff back. Still have some more holiday stuff to put away - might get it all done by Valentines. LOL
Sharon
Terry, it sounds like you have just described my garage. Except we have only been in our house for 8½ years. There are boxes of stuff out there that I haven't looked in for all those years though.
One thing that was suggested to me was to only go through one or two boxes a day. It might take you longer, but at least you will be getting a little bit done everyday. When you are going through your boxes, have 3 other boxes sitting there labeled, "garbage", "give away", and "keep." Your keep box can never over flow though...that's the rule! LOL When you are done sorting you have to take the give away box to your car immediately and the next time you go to town, you take it to where ever you are going to give it away. The garbage box is supposed to be put into your garbage can immediately also. Then you need to organize the keep stuff.
Hope this helps. Wish I would take the time to actually follow it myself! LOL
Has anyone ever heard of [HYPERLINK@www.flylady.net] ? I used to be a member of that site and it helped me tremendously...don't know why I stopped.
I agree with MGH. Our Big Lots has those huge plastic totes with snap-on lids for five bucks. Make 3 piles.
Keep, Give Away, Throw Away.
I really like the idea about the keep one not being allowed to overflow. GREAT idea.
I so love these kinds of new forums. I have several websites bookmarked for home stuff. Guess I won't have to be looking at them anymore. DG is now your one stop information center! Yay!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the advice. What I'm trying to do (in between checking on our new forums - that's my excuse du jour ;o) is to really REALLY organize my Christmas stuff this year.
The kitchen stuff (mugs, placemats, the kitchen tree and ornaments, paper napkins, etc.) all went in one clearly labled tub.
The living room tree ornaments were carefully packaged up (many of them are fragile) all went into another tub.
The den's "keepsake tree" (I've been collecting Hallmark ornaments for us and each of our kids since I got my first one back in '74) not only went into its own tub, but I took the time to sort out everyone's ornaments and put names on the boxes that hadn't been labeled. Next year, each child can easily find his/her own group of ornaments to hang on the tree, and - since our oldest is getting near the age of moving out - when they're ready to leave the nest it'll be easier to pull out their ornaments and put them in a smaller tub to go to a new home ;o)
That leaves four more tubs - one for my nutcracker collection, one for all the Santa Claus and Father Christmas decorations, one for the angels and snowmen, and one for garlands. Oh, and then a big tub for the outdoor wreaths, and a smaller tub for all the indoor light strands. Plus two tubs for wrapping paper and boxes/bags/bows. (I do recycle the boxes and bags each year, and buy gift wrap and bows on sale the day after Christmas.
Chuckle. Reading that makes me tired. Now y'all see what I'm up against - that's JUST Christmas. Then there's the fall decorations, the spring decorations, my canning supplies and other once-in-a-blue-moon kitchen tools. And I still haven't gotten to the kids' toys and our own childhood mementos.
mgh, I am a flybaby, have been falling off the FLY wagon, and getting back on for about 4 years now :) I need to do better, it was my New Years Resolution, but then hurting my shoulder gave me an excuse not to do anything. I need motivation :((
Well, you know what FlyLady always says, "Start with your kitchen sink." I have been doing that and it has helped a lot. We have been eating out less because I now have a clean kitchen to cook in. The cleaning is starting to spread to the rest of my house...slowly but surely.
About a dozen years ago, my sister and I had the job of cleaning 39 years worth of possessions from our mother's house. If any of you need motivation to sort your stuff out and label it, just think of someone esle having to clean out your stuff.
If it isn't labelled, it becomes garbage. We filled a large dumpster. We also had two large garage sales, gave away a lot to charities and and finally had a house sale of large furniture items. If we had had more time, we might have sorted better, but neither of us lived in town (Rochester, NY). I was 5 hours away by car but with the Canadian border to cross. My sister lives in Alaska. We were severly limited in the amount of time we could spend on this project as well as in the amount of STUFF we could take ourselves.
I still have too much stuff, but nowhere near as much as before.
I used the "keep, give away, garbage" method when I moved out of a house my children and I had lived in for 12 years. The kids grew up there, I was a single mom at that time...well, maybe you get the picture. Huge mess of stuff. Anyway, the only change I made to the 3-box system was that the "give away" box was actually the "garage sale" box. When the garage sale was over, I hauled everything to the Salvation Army. Did I mention my one-day garage sale made over $750 in flower money?
At one point in time, I maintained everyone should move every 3 to 5 years to keep the clutter out of their life. Decades later and several long term homes, we have moved multiple boxes of clutter from home to home without going through them. (See Terry, it is inherited!) I will follow this forum with much interest.
Terry, i have just about decided that I DON"T WANT SEASONAL DECORATIONS!!! WEll, except Christmas LOL I know what you mean.
Here is another tip: after you have put the lid on the GIVE AWAY box, NO PEEKING!!! That way you won't change your mind. If it is osmething that is REALLY hard to give away. Put it in the garage or someplace for six months, with a date for "peeking" on the box. At that time, you can look at it again, tell it goodbye, then give it away.
I feel so much better now about all the stuff i moved here with that is still in boxes in the garage. [four years ago]. I was beginning to think it was hereditary, as my Mom has stuff in the garage, never unpacked since 1981-1982. Yep, took two years to pack our home and move to Texas!
yes, she wants the stuff, but there is so much junk in this house, there is no place for it. So i keep fighting to make space, and keep space, but it still piles up so fast. Will i ever have room to move the garage inside?
sorry, just venting. Mom doesn't understand how hard it will be to go through it after she has passed. she is only coming on to 74 next month, and i sure hope she'll be with us ten more years. but i don't want to spend the next TEN years sorting through more boxes!!!
i don't make resolutions, but i will promise to keep up with this forum. since my garden will be very small this year, i will have more computer time on those HOT HOT dog days of summer...
Terry, good deal.
I am resolved to get to the bottom of the pile on the chaise in my bedroom. It's clothes. It's the ones I wear ... the ones in the closet are my old favorites and some time clothes. And there are four crates full of jeans type pants in the back of the closet.
In defense of such obvious pack rat-ting, I was recently able to outfit a young gangly pre-teen daughter of a friend of mine with several pair of jeans. LOL Two pair were old enuff to have the properly flared bottoms and respectably 'hip' hugged.
Obviously these were in a size I never expect to see again. But during the hunt for the right size I got rid of a full crate of jeans and corduroys. gave those to the local shelter.
Takes a wee tiny bow, as this was only a baby step. ~Blooms
I'm very interested in this. I currently live in Dublin, although my house is in Albany, NY. I've lived two absolutely polar opposite lives in the past two years living with two entirely different people:
1) Packrat boyfriend in Albany, NY - a good and comfortable life
2) Neat-freak roomate in Dublin, Ireland who limited belongings to a few boxes - much more convenient!
Here's what I learned. You can always find something if life is orderly - keys, passport, credit card slip, etc.
My goal - when I move back to the US this year - implement this: Keep, Give, Throw Away method until we're done.
One of the things I am worried about is that my boyfriend spent many years of his adult life very poor, so I think there are emotional issues with keeping things. I, on the other hand, except for my period of going to the blood bank to get enough money for food during college (rather than ask my parents for money), have always been very comfortable. Any ideas or recommendations for how to deal with an emotional packrat while trying to streamline life?
When my DH was in the Army we moved an average of every 18 months. I got really good at packing and unpacking because you are limited to how much you can move by weight based on rank. We lived in fear of the scale report, every extra pound cost us money we didn't have. I learned really quickly to pre-pack as much as I could, label it very precisely, weigh each box on my bathroom scale and then write the box's weight on it's side. And then keep a running total.
Imagine all of your possessions having to weigh less than 6500lbs. Clothes, furniture, all your kitchen stuff, the kids' toys, books, dvds etc.
If a box hadn't been unpacked yet when it came time to make the next move I would take it to my neighbor and let her go thru it. If she thought it was something I really needed, or should save, I let it come back in, if not it went to the thrift shop.
Now that DH is out of the Army I'm beginning to be a bit more of a pack rat, but I refuse to have alot of stuff sitting in boxes. How can I enjoy it if I can't see it? I don't understand the concept of "saving it for special". How would I feel if something I was saving for special got destroyed before I had the chance to enjoy it? To me, that is just a waste.
Now my slippery piles of stuff all over my desk is another matter all together, LMBO!!!
sbarr, one of the things we've talked about on the "Clean Sweep" thread is how that program teaches how to loosen your grip on "stuff". One thing they are faced with a lot is people who are emotional packrats - they lived through very scarce times and hang on to things because it makes them feel secure, or everything has some kind of memory associated with it, or they keep things be someone gave it to them. The guy who walks these people through what to keep, sell, or toss is really good about helping people work through it.
Three main things I've learned:
1) "Things" are not memories, the memories are in our minds (suggest taking pictures of things that remind you of whatever, then let go of the actual thing.)
2) Just because someone gives you something, doesn't mean you have to keep it (especially beyond its usefulness to you.) Did Grandma or whoever really mean to enslave you by giving you that thing? Of course not.
3) Stop and think - especially about those things that evoke an emotion. Does it make you feel good, or bad (melancholy)? If it doesn't bring you joy, get rid of it!
That said, I now know how to let go of things, its just sifting through everything that feels overwhelming. Baby steps, baby steps. I resolve to go through one pile this weekend. After that, we'll see about another resolution.
:-)
I've just had to move most of my garage inside to my living room while we demo and finish redoing our garage after hurricane Rita, I have been (between taping and mudding) going through boxes, tubs and buckets and it's amazing the JUNK we have after only 2 years of living here. My problem is we have several cans (10 or so) of paint that we have to keep since we are still painting walls, molding, doors etc and I hate how they look in the garage. I've looked into having built in cabinets but right now that isn't in the budget until I get several more things done. Guess I should just be happy that maybe by the end of next week I won't have a wet dry vac and a weeder parked next to my sofa.
Maybe that's another way for us to view our stuff. If we had to move everything into the living room, and spend all day every day with it, what would we suddenly realize that we can live without? Perhaps those things that we hadn't seen/used in so long that we even forgot we had them?
sbarr, i am dealing with my own mother on those same issues. she was literally born in a tent, and raised in a nomadic impoverished childhood. it gave her a good work ethic, and a desire for a HUGE house (which we built), and lots of JUNK!
that said, here is one word of advice: R_E_S_P_E_ C_T
but on the other hand, some things just need to get "lost"...
I've lived here in Dublin for 2 years, very limited in belongings and it's been great.
I'm formulating a plan on how to integrate back into the house in NY how I want it while still being sensitive to Doug's feelings. I'm going to start by exerting control over my environment, my office. (We're quite fortunate, only the 2 of us, 4 bedroom house with 2-car garage, we each have an office, there's a guest room, plus even a big sunroom for the dogs).
1) When I return, all of the movers boxes go upstairs to the guest bedroom, except clothes and absolutely necessary paperwork.
2) I am going to throw out everything except absolutely what I want in the ideal office, put all of that in a box and set it aside.
3) I'm going to paint the office to complement a couple of paintings I bought in Prague and Dublin and a rolltop desk I bought on eBay from the UK for only 60 pounds! Then I will gradually start re-introducing my belongings back into the office and if it doesn't fit with my ideal - it goes. I'm hoping that with a clean canvas it will be harder to justify this or that
I'm hoping my enthusiasm and the awesome results will be contagious and we'll go room by room, doing just that. Ultimately, I want the house such that there is nothing on the floor except furniture or rugs (believe me, that's not the case now).
Getting more inspired now - I think I'll do a thread on this when I get back to keep me going. Promise me you won't kick me out when you see my dreadful office that has also become a dumping ground since I moved.
I'm happy to report that I've made progress on the attic stuff!
Five boxes of miscellaneous sewing and craft supplies were culled down to a single mid-sized clear plastic tub, and the other boxes are sitting next to the trash cans outside.
Canning supplies are in two (clearly labeled) tubs, instead of a tub and four boxes.
Easter stuff is in one tub, instead of a tub and a box, and some loose stuff floating around.
Fall decorations are in two tubs, instead of jumbled in with Christmas, Easter and a few other boxes.
The Christmas tubs are (embarassingly) numerous, but they are all items I used this year, and use most years. One tub is iffy - I'll give it until next year and if I don't use anything from it, out it goes to Goodwill or on a yard sale.
I'm down to sorting through mementos and several boxes of the kids' toys, to decide what stays and what gets trashed, donated, or set aside for a yard sale (that WILL take place this spring, Lord willing ;o)
By tomorrow afternoon, the tubs should be up in the attic, the trash hauled off, and my living room will be useable again!
Sandra - sounds like you have a good plan. If you need support in sticking to it, you know where to come.
Amazing, isn't it, how living with less makes you realize how little you really need. I know MANY years ago, we spent a year in Germany. Were extremely limited in what we could take with us. We held a garage sale before we left and packed all sorts of things into storage. Held another garage sale when we returned, started unpacking and wondered why we hadn't sold many more items. LOL
Y'all are embarrissing me LOL I've got cookbooks I need to get rid of. Now that I can get on the net ... there's just no need for them. Don't know why I'm hanging on to them. I keep telling myself I'll have a yard sell one day, but I'd almost rather give them away.
... Elaine
mornin_gayle, what I'm tossing is beyond useable. (I considered doing just that - I think I read it as a suggestion by you or someone else on another post. But trust me, this stuff absolutely needs to be tossed in the trash ;o)
sbarr, something I read a good while back may help your boyfriend if he wants to let go of stuff but is struggling with it. He can pack everything in a box and put it next to the door of the room. If he hasn't had to go looking for something that's in there after a few weeks, move it out of the room, to the hall or someting (once you have to stumble over boxes of stuff a while, the stuff is less appealing.) Another few weeks, and maybe to the garage. Another few weeks, if he still hasn't needed/wanted anything in there, he may have started to let go emotionally (as it started heading out the door.) See if he's ready to let it go to charity, whatever. If not, he just may need more time, but the box should stay out of the room.
Elaine, cookbooks can be tough. I'm not a cook, but I know some. Even with the internet, it will be difficult to replace some of those favorite recipes you've had for years, especially from cookbooks that come from local organizations/churches or something, where the members shared their family recipes. Look through them to see which books or recipes that you love are unlikely to be replaceable with anything on the net, and either keep them or scan/type the recipes into your computer.
Yes, I know. *sigh* I just can't help but think of all the $$ invested in
I *am* resolved! them. LOL ... but still they're not doing anyone any good packed up. :-(
I did a big cleanout this year of house and shed. I had a yard sale, donated stuff to the thrift stores, and gave away other stuff through my local freecycle group. It's still cluttered (houses in Florida rarely have basements or enough storage), but it's a major, major improvement.
I highly recommend joining a Freecycle group. You can find a local group through [HYPERLINK@www.freecycle.org]
I am still reading the posts and now and then I find someone posts wanting something I don't need anymore. This is going to help me keep down the clutter.
I also got most of the cement blocks I used to build a raised bed through someone in the group and almost a whole big bag of vermiculite.
yes, i love freecycle. when i cleaned out a shed to turn into a guinea house, i piled up what was usable, posted on freecycle, and got a response from an organization that helps handicapped people set up housekeeping. they came and loaded everything up!
Every January, I go thru closets and give to friends or chairty. If I haven't worn it in two years, it goes. Many favorites, I have worn for many years and they are the keepers. It is a good tax deduction and helps someone else to get these things. I saw a lady in church wearing an outfit I gave to Goodwill and I was thinking it looked so much nicer on her than it did on me. (I wouldn't dare tell her it had been mine). I have given her many things in the past and thought she had too many.
We did an attic cleanup, reorganizing after taking down the boxes for Christmas things, before putting them away.
My mom died 15 years ago and I brought home boxes of her things that I wanted to keep. They are up there somewhere, never been opened. Last year, my husband found a box of love letters that I had written to him (daily) before we were married. He asked if I was the same person that wrote those sweet letters 38 years ago. It was so much fun reading them. I haven't yet found the ones that he wrote (they must be hiding behind my mothers boxes.)
I cleaned out the closets right after hurricane Katrina so my clothes are thinned out for the most part, I weeded through tons of Christmas stuff this year so overall I don't have tons of clutter but I do have just enough to whisper in my ear it's time to have a fling and toss it all.
I live close to the Navaho Reservation where poverty is rampant. So I donate nice usable clothing stuff to the local women's refuge and the Navaho ladies take home what isn't used in a week's time. Some weeks there's a plenty of ladies there and some not. Last week a friend let me know a young woman with no jacket was there and I sent one that I'd never even worn as it was a bit snuggish on me.
Might be that it would all sell at a yard sale, but then I'd HAFTA have one. Major amount of work, as yet not an attractive alternative. When I get to weeding out my collections, then I might think of a yard sale. maybe. mebbe not.
Blooms, I don't care for yard sales either. I know just what you mean. I just give it away. Rather see someone have it that can use it. LOL And it's *so* much easier that way. ;)
I agree, garage sales are so much work! I'm fighting with myself to work on my house, I don't want to waste the time and energy on a garage sale. Besides, it's just one more thing to start piling stuff up for "one of these days", and then to postpone again and again. I cannot get in the habit again of piling things up!
i had three garaage sales the second spring i had returned to my Mom's. The house was so packed with stuff, there was no room for us! SO i had a carport built, then started moving stuff out there, promising once it was OUT, it would NOT be back! Well, three garage sales later, i still had so much stuff it took a charity several trips to get it all. And i didn't make enough $ to cover the cost of repairing the road damage [it was actually raining here that year lol]
chances are, if its in good shpare, and i don't need it, somebody else does! now if i could just get on the ball with ebay, i could reclaim the space in my basement...
Well, I am happy to report that last night I cleaned out my closet and my side of the dresser. Last week I bought a BUNCH of new clothes and my DH asked me where I planned to put them all. LOL I now have 20 empty hangers!! I can't believe I had that much stuff in there that I don't wear! I even gave up the jean jacket that I wore when I was a freshman in highschool...that was 21 years ago! Needless to say, we are making a trip to Goodwill tomorrow. :-)
Last year, I helped my parents move across the country after 50 years of collecting together. My dad never throws anything out that might be useful someday. He grew up in poverty during the Depression. I have utmost respect for him not caving in to our throw away society. However, there was no way he could bring it all with him, and there were many things that were broken and not fixed since his health began going downhill a number of years ago. I helped them clear out the house, the basement and my dad's store (nothing thrown out there either for 25 years). I could barely walk around in the back room of the shop. With memory problems beginning, he had been stocking things that he had forgotten he already had. It was a monumental job, including midnight forays to the dumpster right before garbage pickup day (so as not to be discovered throwing out moth eaten sweaters, moldy magazines, etc.) In the end, many items found new homes simply by being left in the alley at appropriate times of day. Lots of funiture and books were donated to the Good Will and Salvation Army. They came to pick things up if I boxed and labeled them, which was a big help because I didn't have the use of a vehicle. The most precious time spent going through the basement was discovering momentos like the postcard my grandmother had written to my father when he was at boy scout camp at the age of 14, the baby book she had written, letters from relatives now passed on, and letters I myself had written to my folks many years ago. There is something special being lost in this day of the internet. It was exhausting, but also rewarding.
Then I returned to my own home and realized I am well on my way to following in my dad's footsteps. My own house is a terror of things collected that might be usefiul some day. I also have a classroom (I teach first grade) that has cupboards of potential craft and science projects. Yikes! I am overwhelmed. It was alot easier throwing out somebody else's old stuff. Partly because that was the job I was there for with no garden, job, and family pulling at me, and I could devote all my time at it for a month of nonstop sorting and dealing with the piles. Here at home I ignore the mess and go out in the garden to putter around. I have to deal with it soon though, or we won't be able to sit on the couch let alone invite anybody over. I don't want to leave for my son the job I had to do for my own parents when I become incapable of doing it myself.
Mauryhill...we are right there with you...my father-in-law (God rest his soul) was so bad at the end that he started storing stuff in the trunk of his car. We found 7 cartons of Virginia Slims along with 3 boxes of Valentine Candy in a filing cabinet. We are STILL working at it two years later...we keep finding good mixed in with the junk so have to go through it.
We have had more success with our own clutter. I have been studying the clutter issue for about 3 years and have had some success. We redid the basement last year and had to do the complete de-cluttering. The principles...according to the books by the pros - are pretty straightforward. I followed them on the basement and it worked!
Sort first. Empty ALL of the bins and boxes and resort so that like is with like. All photos in one pile, all clothes in another, tools together, knicknacks together, toys together...etc.
Sort again. After like is with like - put in keep, donate, trash. To keep it means you love it. It doesn't matter if your Aunt Sally spent a lot of money on it...if you don't love it and don't use it...don't keep it. The money's spent and won't be returned. Just because she gave it to you is not good enough (unless she visits once a year and you use that ugly vase when she visits...then it has worth).
If it is broken or so used or out of date that NOBODY would want it - pitch it. If you don't love it or use it and your kids won't want it when they leave home - Donate it. Keep only what you love and want.
Only keep what you need. I have a caveat to this...if my kids will actually need or use it within 5 years...I put it in long term storage. When I did our tools...I discovered 15 hammers in the house. Now we have a tool room with 4 hammers and 6 stored...3 for each boy. I can really justify saving the hammers for them because they are both handy, they are good hammers, and good hammers are a) harder to find than they used to be and b) expensive if they are really good.
We were ruthless on clothes. I may have loved it and looked great in it 5 years ago but haven't worn it in 5 years. What really are the chances I will wear it this year?
We were tough on photos. If we had a lot of the same...we kept only the best.
We were tough on toys and only kept the finest hardwood bingo bench and best blocks and greatest iron-cast tractors and cars. These get saved for grandkids. If it was plastic - we donated it with the exception of one box of big Legos and a couple of trucks for visiting small fry.
The stuffed animals - we tried to donate and couldn't get rid of...we even tried the local rescue squad. We finally pitched them.
We used clear plastic stackable bins for the keep stuff.
We are now tackling the books...and this is hard to do. We can't bring the same ruthlessness to the books. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good method to decide what to keep and what to throw? Has anyone had success selling books on Ebay?
I have sold a few books on Ebay. They very rarely get much money and seem (in my experience) to sell better in small lots than either singly or in large collections. If you have a series of (just for an example) original Hardy Boys books, you will probably do better selling them in sets of 3-6. That way people who are looking for specific books will be willing to bid on your lot and will - hopefully - start a small bidding war and raise the price up. Take very good pictures and be specific about any wear. Book collectors are picky about condition.
Alternatively, if you don't want the hassle, you might consider taking the books to a Half-Price book store. I don't know how much they pay - probably not too much, but they do buy them from you and then help find happy new homes for them. :-)
This is a great forum and hope you don't mind me jumping in. The only additional thing I do is; when my DONATE (give away) box is full, I immediately take it to my car and put it in the front seat, passengers side. Then, the next time I'm in the car I always make a special trip to the Thrift Store to drop the box.
I recently cleared out a lot of books that belonged to my late father.
I donated any that pertained to history, true story, or geography ect. to the new high school here. He had lots of sets from Reader's Digest about the world..
They were very grateful, as they have a large library, but few books as yet.
