Minimize existing clutter and excess possessions

This has been a constantly ongoing effort for me, for about the past five or six years. I just keep paring down and don’t reach equilibrium. Part of it is that acquiring things for my hobbies (reading, yarn for knitting/crochet, etc) just sort of keeps happening, though that I don’t mind because it’s stuff that is going to be used and loved. Part of it is also that things appear in my house that I don’t really want (xmas gifts from folks who don’t know I already have enough pairs of winter gloves). And part of it is just that I find things I no longer feel that I need and I want to get rid of the weight of having them. Mostly I just find that I sort of want less and less stuff. Having discovered the beauty of an uncovered counter or shelf, I want to maintain it!

It’s about time for a spring de-cluttering around the house. I’ve got one bag of stuff by the door ready to go. Maybe this weekend I’ll sort through books and find more, and make a donation run. I could use a little lessening of stuff to sort of lighten up the house and perk me back up.

Seems like every time I get rid of a bunch of stuff and think, there, I’ve finally gotten rid of the stuff I don’t need anymore.. then I just go around and spot more things I don’t think I need anymore. I wish I could stop doing that because now I am annoyed that there is always a bag of stuff to donate cluttering up my front hallway. :-)

Sold a wooden towel rack on Craigslist last weekend for $5. I felt torn about selling it… my mom bought it at KMart for probably $15 in 1991 or so, so it was old, but it was solid pine and still in great condition… I wanted to keep it just because it was so inexpensive but still so great. But I didn’t have a use for it… or the space for it… and so I finally resigned myself to sending it on to its new home. And although I hope it continues to have a long and useful life, I don’t miss it now that it’s gone. :)

I finally managed to get rid of my leftover packing stuff from moving (styrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap, mostly) giving it away to someone moving into her first apartment. It’s all gone! Gone! I have a floor! I’m giddy with delight!

I have donated like two whole carloads of stuff lately. I have NO IDEA where it all came from. I’m sure it all accounts for thousands of dollars of the credit card debt I paid off after fighting it for years, though… Ugh!

One thing I did do that I liked was – my old apartment had no A/C, but a friend had given me his A/C units when he moved out of his no-A/C apartment to a A/C-having place. So since I moved into a place with A/C, I sold those on Craigslist and used the proceeds to buy a donation from Heifer International, which is that friend’s favorite charity. That was sort of fun to get to do.

My new apartment is much less cluttered, but it still needs work. I honestly think that once you start to de-clutter, it gets to be sort of an addiction… I see things I don’t need everywhere! And even things I know are not a bad idea to keep (like my vacuum—I now have hard wood floors, but the vacuum is still good for nooks and crannies, and vacuuming cat fur off furniture) are so tempting to give away. I keep eyeing things and gauging how worthy it is of taking up closet space. :) Although I’m kind of tired of driving off to make donations all the time now. Maybe I’ll just start a new to-give-away pile near the front door…

Oh, finally, finally, finally, finally all my old tech books are off to their new home. Seriously, I have been posting to Craigslist for like 3 months, off and on. But now they’re gone! I have, like, half my entryway back! (...for a week and a half. Until I move. Oh well.) Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy!</Kermit>

So, I’m moving into a new place. And I have this kitchen table. The new place doesn’t really have room for the table. But it was such a pain to find the table (which you’d really think it wouldn’t have been, since all I wanted was a used, formica table for under $50—it took me ages to find one, all I could find was wood). I don’t want to get rid of it, because after all that fuss to get it I’ve had it only about a year. Plus, if I have people over for dinner, I won’t have anywhere for them to sit. But I’m not sure it makes sense to take it along only to keep it in pieces in the closet all the time. I can’t decide whether or not it should go. :(

As a follow-up to my previous entry, the bedroom was larger than I had remembered it being, so I decided to keep the wardrobe. It’ll let me keep my sweaters better organized, if nothing else, and I can always get rid of it later if I change my mind.

Have also gotten rid of some more stuff on Craigslist, with more yet to go—several boxes of books, and a whole bunch of books/clothes which are to go to Goodwill.

Well, if nothing else, moving is a great opportunity to pick out things to get rid of.

Last September, I decided to try the GTD trick of turning hangers around on all my clothes—the idea is to turn everything backwards, then put them back normally after you do laundry, and after a year, the things that are still hanging backwards are things you can get rid of. Well, I’m still about 4 months shy of a one year anniversary on that, but I’m just going to get rid of some of the things already. I’ve already packed one trash bag of clothes to go donate, and I probably have at least one or two more I can shift.

I’m also going to Freecycle some stuff, like desk stationery and some craft supplies. Hopefully that will be this weekend.

I haven’t decided yet if I will get rid of my Ikea wardrobe. I pick up my new keys this week, so I will probably go take some measurements and think more about that this week. I really like the wardrobe, but if I don’t need it for storage and it makes the bedroom crowded, I don’t see a good reason to keep it around.

I want to have much less stuff to move, both so my move goes faster (and, honestly, more cheaply), but so my new apartment starts out cleaner. I think I can clean out two carloads-to-Goodwill worth of stuff. So that’s my goal.

I think I’m moving along pretty steadily to getting a trunkful of stuff out of my house this weekend. I went through my office closet, yesterday, and culled my tech books pretty hard—I’ve got a large collection, only I hardly ever refer to any of them, and most of them are old. So I pulled out of all of them except for about two, and posted to Craigslist about the rest, trying to sell them all as a lot. I also pulled out a bunch of Buffy memorabilia, also posted to CL.

As for donations, I have two bags of clothing, an old backpack and an old messenger bag, some old lunchbags in good shape (but seriously, I don’t need 3), a whole pile of picture frames and art supplies, and a stack of about two dozen CDs I never listen to, plus an exercise mat and my spare yoga mat, which I never use. Oh, and I threw in a couple old pairs of gloves I never wear, and two folding camp chairs I never use. So I got started carrying one load of stuff out to the car yesterday, and hopefully I’ll get the rest this morning, then drop it off on my way to run errands. (Though, naturally, today is rainy and cold, therefore the perfect weather for carrying boxes of donateables down the block from where you managed to find parking… oh well.)

My office closet is much nicer, now. I got rid of one empty filing box (now full of tech books to be given away) and had shelf space to put the other two on—all three of them had been sitting on the floor of the closet, so I had to pull them all out of the way before I could go get anything else. And now there’s space to have my books better laid out, so I was able to move my soap books in there and then spread out my knitting books, so now those are all accessible and not leaning on things and shoved into tight spots. My zine collection is all standing up straight, not flopping over, and mostly in plastic magazine boxes (through I need to get some more, to support the remaining zines). And I have empty space still!

I don’t really do Christmas, per se, so I get a four-day weekend for just sort of generalized messing around this weekend. I think I’m going to go crazy and pick out lots of stuff to get rid of, and maybe rearrange. My goal is to have a whole trunkful of stuff in my car to go donate… and I have a big trunk!

I’m selling some yarn on ravelry, and some other stuff I have around the house on Craigslist, now, so I’ll be glad when that’s out of the way.

I have two bar stools I have from an old apartment where I had a breakfast bar… I haven’t been able to bring myself to get rid of them, so I’m using one for a plant stand and the other’s stashed behind the tv. Maybe it’s time to make the call, on those. (Except I don’t know where I’d put my peace lily, then… :-)