(no subject)

[puzzlement]

I was going to post in yvi's post on home moving tips, but realised that perhaps a second thread would be generally applicable.

De-cluttering tips.

Now, I am not the prime de-clutterer in the world, so please see comments too. Guilt about landfill is my biggest problem with decluttering, so most of mine are about what to do with stuff other than put it in the bin.

My tips:

If you haven't used it in a year, you don't need it. Some people declutter post-move by simply seeing which boxes they don't unpack.

Auction sites (Ebay etc) are generally better for small things, especially DVDs, computer games, and electronic devices. Large things like furniture tend to make so little money that sometimes you may as well freecycle once you consider the hassle of making the listing in the first place. (Enough pieces of furniture will add up.) Charities with thrift stores will sometimes take furniture, in Australia though due to health regulations it must be stain and rip-free.

I know opinions vary a lot on this (if you disagree, just ignore me), but consider whether you are one of those people who really needs a library. I've given up keeping books around because I feel like I should read or re-read them, and keep only the ones I want to read or re-read. It's hard enough finding time to get around to the latter. Books are easy to tidy, but they are a pain in the neck to move and they end up taking a lot of room. I find books don't get their due on Ebay, so I freecycle or drop them off at secondhand stores (the latter can be rather picky).

We are constantly surprised at the stuff our council (local area government) includes in their recycling program. The latest thing we're allowed to put out for recycling is pots and pans. There are special days for e-waste and chemical waste (like car batteries), unfortunately these rather rely on having a car to do the drop-off.

There's stuff I'm still struggling with. I have a seeming inability to get rid of stationary, even if I have 20 $2 notebooks I seem to try and keep them all rather than waste paper. Old cassettes and videocassettes are sitting around because likelihood is they're for the bin. Stuff for my baby, because what if I have another baby? And generally I tend to cling to anything that I desperately wanted as a child but that my parents couldn't afford to buy me. Which is why I now have a pile of stuffed toys, despite rarely looking at them and not really liking most of them. Bags (as in, travelling bags), because, again, they seem vaguely useful and I don't want to toss 'useful' things, even if I have 15 of them.

Your tips? (Not just on my problem areas!)

Comments

[beatrice_otter]

For larger stuff you're trying to get rid of, put it on craigslist. (At least, that will work for Americans; I don't know about other continents.) Craigslist is like the classified section of the paper, except it's searchable; whether you're trying to sell or give away larger stuff like furniture, it's the place to put it. Since you can search by area, chances are whoever wants it will be local enough they can come pick it up.

(Also, if you need to buy furniture or something like that, Craigslist is a good place to find it.)

[holyschist]

I've had good luck with Craigslist and furniture (most notably, a desk the size of a small cabin, which turned out not to be moveable to my room because of the hallways, and which was an absolute nightmare to get into the house. I sold it on CL for the same price I paid for it, AND the person picked up the damned thing, which probably weighed a few hundred pounds). But I'm also in the U.S.

[ironed_orchid]

There's a Craigslist in Australia with separate listings for the major cities. Not sure how much it's used.

http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/au

[samantilles]

Stuffed animals and books will find a loving home in orphanages and battered womens' shelters, along with womens' and childrens' clothes. They are also always in need of those notebooks and miscellaneous office supplies, like those two hundred pens you found while cleaning.

I do keep a library myself, but I mainly hold on to books i've used for research even if back in college, and I have a weakness for leather bounds.

[martyna]

When it comes to books you can always combine Bookcrossing with it, especially if you are curious about who might read them and where they might travel! http://www.bookcrossing.com or bookcrossing

[gretel]

I find the easiest tip is to really think before buying something. Sounds silly but with me and my partner both being kinda stingey, especially about games its really helped. We did have a lot of second hand gear (house was inherited from his hoarding grandmother) though to start with. Buying lots of crap all the time is a habit a lot of my family has and it drives me batty as half the time its not needed or used.

Unfortunately this lead to my current wisdom of reducing things I 'want' by buying them second hand. My discovery of second hand book stores was a little too successful. However we are both very avid readers so there are probably worse decorations we could have. :)

I find bulk collections really good for decluttering in australia. The best bit (in my area at least, with lots of students mixed with very well off people) is people are fairly blatent about wandering the streets to pick up gear. So pretty much anything in half-decent nick is taken before the stuff is actually picked up. And if you really don't want to see it head to a landfill you can always move it back in after the weekend. :P

Alternatively my mothers method of decluttering has basically been to keep her normal spending habits but give the stuff away, especially to my little sister and me. Which is... not so good for me keeping things decluttered. I don't really have a need or a use for a silverware collection (but she loves buying the stuff). A more friendly, hey guys this is my stuff who wants/needs it type thing would be more useful.

[littlebutfierce]

Could you donate all the notebooks to a school or after-school program or something?

Re: cassettes & videocassettes--is there any recycling program that you could mail them to? I used to do this frequently in the US (I now live in the UK & haven't yet gotten around to finding a place to recycle, say, old CDs, but I know I'll have to eventually) but I don't know about availability elsewhere. I had to pay to ship them & have them recycled, but I was able to afford that & it wasn't that much, in the end. If your council is running e-waste days, do they have any suggestions for your slightly older e-waste?

[puzzlement]

There's not much of a charity culture in giving to schools that I'm aware of. I can't be sure without trying, but I'm imagining getting a reaction along the lines of the one I'd get if I popped into a random office building and offered them my spare notepads. I suppose a smaller childcare organisation might have a use for them, but I'm just not sure of the etiquette: they're businesses usually and I don't know how they take it if someone turns up and tries to give them things.

[hivesofactivity]

I think one of the key things to do when sorting out and decluttering is to work out how you use things. Some time ago I worked out that if I put something in a drawer, it will never, ever come out again. I then got rid of my filing cabinets, and got shelves and binders and so on. If I can see what I already have, then I am a) much less likely to buy another of the same item because I can't find the first, and b) realise that I never use (and never will use) something and give it away. Other people might really find filing cabinets, files and drawers work much better for them than shelves - the important thing is to work out what kind of person you are. Also, sometimes buying things - shelves, in my case - actually helps a great deal with the clutter by getting it off the floor and tables.

The other big tip is not to try and do everything at once. I am constantly amazed by just how much paper is in my house, since although I work from home I also do most of my work by phone and email. If I look at the giant mess that is my desk and workspace (in a corner of my not-so-huge bedroom), then I despair. If I just take one stack of papers to deal with, then it is doable. I sit in front of the telly sorting out the stack, and resolve to put nothing back in the stack - file it or put it to be recycled - and end up feeling that I have done one decluttering thing well, rather than ten things half-assed and unfinished.

[jeshyr]

Definitely with you on the not-all-at-once. My self-rule is that if I notice any particular spot (a cupboard, a set of drawers, under the kitchen bench, etc.) has turned into a bombsite then I declutter it while I'm cleaning it. Since the cleaning entails pulling everything out anyway, it doesn't take up too much space.

As an addendum to the OP's "haven't used it in a year" rule, I have heard that for people who find decluttering hard [NB: this is not me] if you aren't sure about keeping things that store them in boxes marked with the place you'd need to take them to dispose of them (2nd hand store, landfill, charity X, etc.) and the date the box is packed, then seal the box. If the box is still unopened in 6 months then drop it off at the place indicated on the box without opening it. It sounds like a good rule to me!

r

[miome]

I found it helped to make a rule for myself - I can't bring something in to the house without first getting rid of something else. Getting rid of one thing usually turns into several things, so it's good for a long-term trend of clearing out.

[jeshyr]

I'm mostly an anti-packrat, except in a few areas of my life - books are a weakness, as are stationary and craft supplies! But generally I get rid of stuff I don't have a reason to keep.

"Reason to keep" is defined, for me, as:
1. I use it
2. I need it
3. I love it
Pretty much everything that I find I want to keep comes into one of those categories, and anything in category "2" usually overlaps with either 1 or 3 so it's probably mostly redundant.

So even when I'm too sick to read books or play guitar for 10 years solid I kept both because I love them and just seeing them makes me happy. But the clothes I hadn't worn for a year get tossed pretty quickly unless they're special - handmade stuff, for example, which I adore, or irreplacable stuff I know I'll want later (that comes under "I love it").

In getting rid of stuff I have found charities that collect almost anything you can imagine, and recycling companies for almost all of the rest. No hints for your audio/video casettes unfortunately, I think landfill might be the only answer for those. I've given soft toys away to a charity that collects them, washes them, and gives them to shelters, police stations (for when kids have to come in), and foster carers. Shelters are also grateful for unused toiletries of any kind and almost any stuff to keep kids amused (Puzzlement: I'd try these for your paper notebooks). As well as craigslist there's gumnut which is big in Australia and some other countries, and ebay is pretty much global now.

If I'm not sure if a certain place will accept donated goods I just ring and ask, "Hi, I'm a local resident and I have spare notebooks I'm looking to give away, would you have a use for them?". Often even if they aren't interested they'll point you at another organisation who might be interested - you can also often do the enquiring by email if you are phone-aversive and live in a sufficiently developed country, but this can be more prone to failure in my Aussie experience.

r