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.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-07-10 11:43 am (UTC)"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.
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