Backroads Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 So I've been attempting some deep cleaning and organizing whilst being on break. Some stuff has been thrown out, other stuff donated to thrift stores, and other stuff put up for sale on ksl.com. We've made enough money from the last to purchase an actual projector screen, an upgrade from our redneck bedsheet. I'm also attempting the challenge of getting rid of one thing a day for a year. Bini, applepansy, Palerider and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 I'm also attempting the challenge of getting rid of one thing a day for a year. Goodness. Your comment reminded me of a "Dear Abby" column where a teen-aged girl asked Abby, "What's the best way to get rid of my virginity?" (One assumes she wasn't LDS.) You are getting rid of nobler things, I'm sure. I don't have a clutter problem, because my neighbor will accept almost any unwanted items I give him. He's taken books, empty boxes, broken appliances, uneaten food, used gift wrap and ribbons, bits of wire and litmus paper, and even photographs of people he doesn't know. He eats Popsicles and then washes the stick and paper and files them away for possible future use. I'm with you, a neat and clean house is the road to happiness. Backroads 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 Goodness. Your comment reminded me of a "Dear Abby" column where a teen-aged girl asked Abby, "What's the best way to get rid of my virginity?" (One assumes she wasn't LDS.) You are getting rid of nobler things, I'm sure. A perfect illustration of why I abhor Dear Abby. There is little if anything nobler than one's chastity, so there is little chance Backroads is getting rid of anything nobler than what the foolish teenage girl seeks to destroy. Backroads and pam 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 A perfect illustration of why I abhor Dear Abby. There is little if anything nobler than one's chastity, so there is little chance Backroads is getting rid of anything nobler than what the foolish teenage girl seeks to destroy. Agreed, of course. I only remember that letter (I read it decades ago!) because I was so utterly shocked that someone would ask such a question, much less phrase it so bluntly and send it in to an advice column. Even worse, I seem to recall that the girl was asking this question because of peer pressure. O tempora! O mores! Vort 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 Let's return to the original topic, I'm sorry to have steered us off into that other thing, yikes. I'm not kidding, I really feel a huge mental boost when my house is clean. I divided my house up into 90 little zones that can be radically cleaned in 5-20 minutes. I have them in a spreadsheet. I clean one zone a day, and my house is regularly praised on its cleanliness by visitors. (Not so much on the decor, which a friend once described as "Early Kmart." But I've been working on that, too.) Backroads 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
applepansy Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 Clutter.... oh my. I've been hauling boxes of old clutter and junk out of my house for 5 years. Somebody must be hauling stuff back in because it doesn't look like I've made a dent. Palerider, classylady, notquiteperfect and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classylady Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 I wish I liked to get rid of "stuff". I hang onto it for no good reason, except for the excuse "I might need it some day". My mother instilled in me a fear that in the last days even a rag will be scarce. She grew up during the depression, and had a hard time throwing anything away. Is this an inherited trait? lol applepansy and Vort 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palerider Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 We still have stuff in house that belongs to our kids. They all said after getting married and leaving home....I want those things. There still here. They have been put on the clock to come get them or the stuff is gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahone Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) I wish I liked to get rid of "stuff". I hang onto it for no good reason, except for the excuse "I might need it some day". My mother instilled in me a fear that in the last days even a rag will be scarce. She grew up during the depression, and had a hard time throwing anything away. Is this an inherited trait? lolMy grandmother grew up in the immediate aftermath of WWII, so her family were poor. As an adult, she made a small fortune through business and is now pretty wealthy. Yet she still re-purposes almost everything. For example, old towels that are worn get cut up into cloths for the dishes. Very few things ever get thrown out.Her habits have passed down to me for the most part, but I've moved house/location enough times recently that I've not been able to keep anything but the necessites. Edited January 3, 2015 by Mahone classylady 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 Very few things ever get thrown out. Restaurants seem to have learned this trick, too. A local television station did an exposé on restaurants in the area. They quietly interviewed employees to find out whether restaurants really were clean. They were, for the most part, but a few Tex-Mex restaurants did not discard uneaten chips when the customers left. The chips were tossed back into a big container and redistributed with fresh salsa to new customers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelMarvel Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 This past month I started a big clean up too. I was going to donate everything to DI...but thought just for the heck of it I would put stuff up on FB yard sales I belong to. I was shocked when things started selling a minute after I posted them. I ended up selling about $250 worth of stuff... clothes that were to big for me (Yeah ME lost weight), a couple of old keyboards, a little under the counter tv/radio/dvd...just stuff like that... nothing big. Sorry DI ... Palerider, Backroads, Jane_Doe and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palerider Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 Not having DI where we live all stuff gets donated to either Goodwill or Salvation Army. Backroads 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted January 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 We have a Big Brothers Big Sisters - run thrift store much closer than the DI, so a lot of stuff goes to them, but they also are quite limited in what they take. So DI trips happen if we're out that way. I also put stuff on Freecycle, but it's not nearly as busy as the Logan community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted January 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 This past month I started a big clean up too. I was going to donate everything to DI...but thought just for the heck of it I would put stuff up on FB yard sales I belong to. I was shocked when things started selling a minute after I posted them. I ended up selling about $250 worth of stuff... clothes that were to big for me (Yeah ME lost weight), a couple of old keyboards, a little under the counter tv/radio/dvd...just stuff like that... nothing big. Sorry DI ...It's amazing how little things add up Most of the time if I'm selling something online I mostly want to get rid of it and perhaps make some change. So I'm not asking for much at all. But those little incomes add up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane_Doe Posted January 3, 2015 Report Share Posted January 3, 2015 I believe in repurposing, so I don't throw much out, but instead focus on not letting much more junk come into my house in the first place. Backroads 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 It's amazing what can be sold in garage sales and yard sales. My neighbor (Monsieur Packrat) once had a garage sale and asked if I had anything to donate. I had an old 7-foot cat tree that my cat had torn to shreds. I was certain nobody would buy it, but my neighbor pressed me to bring it to his garage sale anyway, perhaps to add some extra charm to his merchandise. I got a friend to help me carry the cat tree down the stairs out into the street. He went out the door first and dropped it, and I tipped it upright and swung it up and over and out the door. Instantly I heard the sound of screeching brakes. A pickup truck had stopped in front of my house, and a passenger rolled the window down and asked "How much?" I timidly suggested ten bucks. I saw the driver nod vigorously, so we dropped it into the back of the truck, took the $10, and the truck roared off. The entire transaction could not have taken more than sixty seconds. And this cat tree was simply awful. It was less useful than a hundred pounds of dryer lint. Of course, my house is in a very densely packed city where the front doors are six feet from the street, so these types of sales are very easy. YMMV. Backroads and Jane_Doe 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Backroads Posted January 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 I believe in repurposing, so I don't throw much out, but instead focus on not letting much more junk come into my house in the first place.I'm definitely getting into less stuff accumulation. I like the notion of more repurposing but I dislike clutter while I hate to repurpose. Trying to find the balance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane_Doe Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) I'm definitely getting into less stuff accumulation. I like the notion of more repurposing but I dislike clutter while I hate to repurpose. Trying to find the balance. In my mind re-purpose = it has another use now (or at least in the next 6 months). Re-purpose does *not* mean "oh, but it might useful someday in some magical unknown way". If I held onto things which might be useful someday then I'd be buried in junk! Edited January 4, 2015 by Jane_Doe Backroads 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palerider Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 My wife will have a Yard sale or Garage sale once in awhile and she will have it on a day when I am gone. She says I gripe and complain too much. Lol!! mordorbund 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PolarVortex Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 My wife will have a Yard sale or Garage sale once in awhile and she will have it on a day when I am gone. She says I gripe and complain too much. Lol!! Funniest story I ever heard about a yard sale... probably from Reader's Digest, but I forget. (I remember howling with laughter at the stories from "Life in These United States.") A women was having all the carpets in her house cleaned. The carpet cleaners arrived and saw that it was a warm, calm day with zero chance of rain, so they moved all the furniture out onto the front yard and started cleaning the carpets of the now-empty house. The woman was in the kitchen looking out the window to make sure her furniture and belongings were okay, and suddenly she sees a man on her yard walking through her furniture and picking things up and examining them as a buyer would. She rushed out to tell him her things weren't for sale, but before she could speak the man said, "Nice yard sale, lady. Too bad all the good stuff has already been sold." Palerider, notquiteperfect and Backroads 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Palerider Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 Funniest story I ever heard about a yard sale... probably from Reader's Digest, but I forget. (I remember howling with laughter at the stories from "Life in These United States.") A women was having all the carpets in her house cleaned. The carpet cleaners arrived and saw that it was a warm, calm day with zero chance of rain, so they moved all the furniture out onto the front yard and started cleaning the carpets of the now-empty house. The woman was in the kitchen looking out the window to make sure her furniture and belongings were okay, and suddenly she sees a man on her yard walking through her furniture and picking things up and examining them as a buyer would. She rushed out to tell him her things weren't for sale, but before she could speak the man said, "Nice yard sale, lady. Too bad all the good stuff has already been sold."That is very funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bini Posted January 4, 2015 Report Share Posted January 4, 2015 So I've been attempting some deep cleaning and organizing whilst being on break. Some stuff has been thrown out, other stuff donated to thrift stores, and other stuff put up for sale on ksl.com. We've made enough money from the last to purchase an actual projector screen, an upgrade from our redneck bedsheet.I'm also attempting the challenge of getting rid of one thing a day for a year.I love getting rid of clutter or useless stuff, as well. I am a major minimalist, I hate excess of anything, and feel better with just the right amount of certain things. Having a child has challenged this, however, and I'm finding that the house keeps a lot more "stuff" around than it had pre-child days. Still, my daughter knows that mummy has her limit, and if something is not attended to or maintained after x amount of time, it is gone, and forever. Backroads 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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