Declutter by recycling/selling all the things I don't need/want

Naturally, being a girl, I have a multitude of stuffed animals. They’re so hard to get rid of since goodwill stores don’t want them. I had some that I had been given recently (mostly Carebears since that’s my nickname) and were still in like-new condition so I gave them to the toy drive. I feel really good about it. I hate to see things go to waste. I’m sure some kind can enjoy them.

I also think there’s somewhere you can send stuffed animals to be recycled, but I’d rather give them to kids :-)

In the past 2 weeks I have moved from my dad’s apartment, back to my mom’s house and then finally into the dorm. Packing all your stuff up makes you realize that there are a lot of things you don’t need. I had already gone through my clothes, but I still found things that I haven’t worn this summer. I put a bunch of clothes in the Sal Val bin before I left for school along with some junk my mother insists on stashing in my room when I’m not there. She’ll never know they’re missing :-)

Last night and today I went through all of my clothes, shoes, and bags. Anything I can’t remember wearing or that didn’t fit….or was just plain ugly went to the Salvation army. The inventory included 10 sweatshirts, 5 sweaters, 5 belts, 9 bottoms (pants, shorts, skirts), 12 long sleeved shirts, 2 dresses (including one I wore to my 7th grade homecoming dance), 26 short-sleeved shirts, 8 pairs of shoes, and 6 bags.

It was a great feeling. My closet looks great, and I no longer feel weighed down by all of that junk.

I still have some more stuff I want to get rid of. Mainly old electronics I can recycle along with old CDs.

I’m also planning on taking a bunch of my old cross country t-shirts that I don’t wear and making them into a quilt (see my goals). I’m excited about that project. I should be pretty interesting.

I went through my room today, packing up anything I didn’t want/need and am dropping it off at Good Will tomorrow!

I donated all of my unwanted books to a book drive for African children. There’s so much more room on my shelves!

So while being home on winter break I started going through everything in my room saying to myself: do I really need this? or: When was the last time I used this? So far I’ve sold some old books online, I plan on donating the rest of my books to a book drive. I found a place to recycle old electronics and CDs. I’ve got a stack of old magazines to recycle. Next up: modeling and sorting through old clothes.