October Decluttering

[rosarugosa]

I've got the back of the car filled up with stuff to go to the Salvation Army this week. A couple of bags of clothes, some books, some stuff from the basement. It's sad how many of the clothing items are unworn or hardly worn, but that doesn't justify keeping them if I don't wear them, so somebody will get some good scores at the SA store. Some of these things never fit me in the first place, so the regret is for having ever bought them, not from letting them go. I'm paying really close attention to what I'm buying and bringing into the house now; I think that's the most important thing of all.
I have a goal of having nothing sitting on the floor in the basement. We are prone to getting at least some water down there, so it is foolish to have things on the floor that don't really belong there. This tends to happen when there's not enough room on the storage shelves, which meands too much stuff, which means time to get rid of some of it!
I would also like to have a somewhat smaller collection of clothes, but all things that I love and enjoy wearing. I'll never be a true clothing minimalist and that's OK.

[BayouGirl]

I have been doing some fall decluttering myself. I give the unneeded items to the goodwill or to our local animal shelter which holds a huge rummage sale with all of the stuff that people donate for the event. I think that is such a great idea!

[bunnys]

I'm going to put a box in my closet and just drop stuff in it as I realize it's got to go. I hear this is the easiest way to accomplish this.

[rosarugosa]

bunnys: I often do something similar only it's a shopping bag just outside of my closet. I also keep a "goodbye box" in the cellar. It definitely helps.

[try2bfrugal]

We had a neighborhood garage sale today. We didn't sign up to be in it but decided to use it as an opportunity to get rid of some more stuff. We ended up selling everything we put out. We just kept marking everything down until the flea market reseller types could not pass it up. We made over $100 for a couple of hours work so we were happy. Many of the other neighbors still had most of their stuff left after a couple of hours so we were happy we decided just to price everything to sell and then have the rest of the day free. We also has a big box of stuff marked free, like wrapping paper, clothes and old toys so that stuff all went off to new homes where hopefully it will be put to good use.

It sure made us think twice about buying more stuff after seeing how low we had to mark some stuff down before it sold. A lot of consumer goods are pretty worthless once they leave the store.

Every month I try to come in under budget and then use some of the leftover money to only buy products geared towards simple or frugal living. With the extra money from last month's budget today I bought some new place mats. The ones I had before had to be washed and ironed in order to be cleaned. So I gave those away and got the new mats that could just be wiped clean with a damp cloth.

[Gardenarian]

Took five boxes of dh's stuff to Goodwill on Saturday - he doesn't have the heart to do it himself. I'm glad he's working on his clutter!
I have got a little behind on paper stuff - my desk its a wreck! so that is my focus for the immediate future. I bought a second home in February and still have not figured out a system for keeping the paperwork separate...so I just make piles! Not good.