I didn’t start the year with a concrete number for how many items I wanted to declutter.
I was invited to do a few different challenges. The most dramatic one promised to part ways with 1,000 items. I didn’t accept.
Because honestly? It seemed too easy.
For a house that generally abides by the clean countertops rule and has very little visible clutter, it’s downright embarassing to think, Oh, I could easily part with 1,000 things. Especially when I’ve been working on decluttering for so long.
Where does this stuff come from?
Last month, I parted with well over 100 items. So that totally seemed to support my hunch. We were well on our way to surpassing 1,000 without even breaking much of a mental sweat. But this month? It turns out it’s a good thing I didn’t sign up for that challenge for a different reason.
We kind of stalled out.
What I Decluttered This Month
- 2 toddler PJ sets – We got a giant trash bag of summer hand-me-downs for HP. I stumbled across two really cute summertime PJ sets. I washed them, folded them, and then realized we already have at least six pairs. So instead of adding these to the collection, I put them on Freecycle.
A box of manila envelopes – I’ve kept these in case I ever get motivated to start reselling books individually again. Realizing that I am not going back to my Half.com days (RIP), I decided there is no real reason for me to hang onto them. Now, I use sites like Buy Back Express to sell my books instead. It’s faster. There’s less fuss. And I’m not about trying to make it big or break even. I just want my space back. - 7 toddler shirts – File this away as the same logic as the PJs. I realize that I probably could have sold this as “one lot of toddler shirts” on OfferUp or a similar platform, but I really wanted to move these out of our lives with the same spirit that they came in: as a gift to make toddler wrangling just the teeniest bit easier.
- 11 books – I had success selling books to another bulk buying company last month. But after running the ISBNs through Book Scouter, I realized that I didn’t care to keep any of these long enough to meet the sell-back threshold amount. So when we went to pick up HP’s lastest batch of puzzles from the library, we dropped these off for a future book sale.
- 1 backpack – Honestly? This is so clearly a marital decluttering sin, but I’m willing to weather this storm. My husband has been leaving this particular backpack all over our house for literally our entire marriage. (That’s nearly six years in case the previous sentence wasn’t dramatic enough.) I’ve never seen him use it. It isn’t even nice. He got it as a freebie, and he has at least two other backpacks that he actually uses. He put it in the donation box the other week. I don’t know if it was a belated Valentine’s Day gift, a decluttering peace offering, or an accident. And we’ll never know because I didn’t ask. I shut the box and sent it on its way.
- 4 pairs of shoes – While my husband never owned hundreds of pairs of shoes, he probably owned a solid 50 at one point. (He’s a PE teacher. Apparently, different colored Pumas are the spice of life.) He has been making an effort to weed out his collection and is down to less than a dozen. HP and I bought him a new pair a while back, so he decided that he could swap out four (!!!) old ones.
- Another shoe organizer – I don’t know that this was decluttered so much as reunited with its rightful owner. I was going to give it away for free, but then my mom decided she wanted it. It’s only fair that she keep it since I’m pretty sure she was the one who bought it for me a decade ago.
Items decluttered: 27
Money made: $0 (This is a stark contract to the $127 that I made essentially effortlessly last month.)
RELATED POST: What I Decluttered & How I Know I’m Not Done: January 2019
Last month, I made all sorts of noise about how I had two giant diaper boxes full of clothes that I purged but hadn’t yet officially parted with. And it’s still true. Those two boxes are still sitting in our guest room.
Why?
I am a decluttering work in progress. I still wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if I should list everything on eBay. But then I realize, no, this isn’t about money.
Really.
Really.
Really really really.
So I just fired off an email to our community clothing pantry, giving a brief overview of what I had and inquiring if the sizes and items seemed like a good fit. Otherwise, I just got a recommendation from a family friend of a little resale shop that benefits a women and children’s shelter. So my public pledge is to make sure that I have both of those boxes and all of their contents dealt with by the end of the quarter.
I said it, now it must be so.
RELATED POST: Do You Live in a Home or a Storage Unit?
How I Know I’m Not Done Decluttering
In addition to those hundred or a so items that I’m still holding onto for no good only slightly good reasons, I caught myself saying a few things this month that made me realize I’m not done decluttering.
- “Grab that green bag. The new green bag. The new green bag from Sierra Club.” While I have gotten really good at politely declining freebies at conferences, I still have a heap of reusable shopping bags and tote bags in my trunk. Plus, Sierra Club just sent us a fresh set for our last donation. In an attempt to really narrow things down for my husband before an Aldi run, I found myself trying to distinguish between not one, two, or three, but four green bags. There are also blues, reds, blacks, tans, and muticolors. In short, there are too many. It sounds like I need the ChicoBag Zero Waste Program in my life to finally deal with these extra reusable bags.
- “I think we need another bin.” HP is in the middle of a growth spurt (when isn’t he?), so I found myself sorting through his shoes. My instinct was to buy another box to store more of this size shoe. Then, I stopped myself. Buying more is almost never the answer to effective decluttering. So I made it a point to sort through his shoes to see what we can donate instead of packing everything up.
- “Wait. What did we actually get rid of?” It’s almost the end of another month, and I knew I was writing this to hold myself accountable. With a panicked look plastered on my face, I glanced around the room and at my husband. I started the month with the best of intentions, but it was short, it was busy, and I just didn’t declutter much.
RELATED POST: 5 Things I Wish I Knew About Decluttering When I First Started
So Tell Me…Did you do any decluttering? Are you donating or selling? A little of both? Any tips or tricks that I can steal?
Emily
I totally drank the Marie Kondo Kool-Aid. I like how she approaches decluttering with compassion and a sense of humor.
Also, here’s a tip: If you have clothing or other textiles that are too beat up to sell or donate, you can drop them off at any H&M to be recycled!
Penny
Yes! H&M is awesome for doing that. We have a charity organization that comes and collects clothing like that too. I’m not quite sure how the financial component works, but essentially they get money for selling my clothes to turn into rags. LOL Whatever works!
Ms. Mod
27 items is still excellent! However I can relate to the panicked feeling at the end of the month, when you’ve committed to making it a priority. I’ve been cyclical in my decluttering over the last few year, with many months at 0 items (which as you know is not a good sign with two young kids since they are constantly growing out of items).
This year I decided to make it a priority and although I’ve not been tracking every items, January was off to a good start with kids items and office stuff but February was rather slow. Then I finally did a full Marie Kondo (or Cait Flanders since reading “The Year of Less” was my ultimate motivator to do it this way) and went through all my clothing/bags/shoes and got rid of 229 items! So happy, and finally excited to tackle the kids clothes in the same way. Feels like procrastinating on my own stuff was decreasing my motivation to get to the other stuff… like an actual elephant in my closet!
Thanks for sharing these accountability posts, helps me stay accountable to my own decluttering goals for this year! You got this for those 2 full diaper boxes of clothes!
Penny
You will be so proud of me. Josh messaged me with a reminder that the month wasn’t technically over yet, so I actually parted with my two boxes and added a few more things. 99 items on the nose!
Ms. Mod
Way to go Penny!!! This is why I love the PF community ?, always there to help you surpass your goals.
Dave
We do sell some things, but oftentimes it’s just not really worth the effort for a couple of bucks. So we use our local “Buy Nothing” sites on Facebook. Not sure if it’s just a local thing near us or if it’s a national thing, but it’s a great site where you just post something, wait for a response, then leave it outside your door and somebody picks it up. Easy as that, it’s gone. Good luck with the continuous decluttering!!
Penny
Because we live in a weird boundary line area, we don’t qualify for either of the nearby Facebook groups! But Freecycle has been amazing. I also list things for free on OfferUp…and people come RUNNING that way!
Really good reminder for anyone else who sees this and hasn’t given Facebook a shot. Thank you!
The Luxe Strategist
I’m still holding onto work clothes, even though I work in a casual environment. They are taking up half my closet, but it’s hard to rationalize that I won’t need them one day. Or if I need to dress up for a meeting or interview.
One exercise that I saw on another blog that I thought was interesting:
Sit and make a list of everything you own. Set a timer. Then compare the list to the actual inventory. If you couldn’t remember an item, then it probably means you don’t value it that much.
I try to resell if I know there’s value, but there’s definitely an effort to that and don’t begrudge someone for donating instead. The cool thing about living in a city and that you can keep stuff out of the donation bins by leaving things outside of your stoop. It all gets scooped up pretty fast!
We also decluttered a bunch of free reusable bags, and I’ve decided that I’m not gonna take free stuff anymore unless I think I”m gonna use it. I’ve even thought that if I go to FinCon I’m going to bring few swag home, because I don’t need it.
Penny
Last FinCon was so tricky for me, but I declined everything except a Vanguard tote. And Vicki’s husband got HP a football from a vendor to play with at the pool.
The good news is that a handful of vendors seem to have caught on and showed up with food instead. Woohoo!
Kris
We are not the decluttering mode quite yet but the day we buy a home and move out of our place, we’ll definitely declutter many items that’s currently laying around at home. Me and the wife have already discussed what to get rid of and have created a list of the items we will donate, try to sell and simply throw away.
With another baby on the way, we’re storing all of BwC’s old clothes in a few bags and a bin so it will be ready to be used again for the baby #2. No need to buy any clothes and cloth diapers for him!! Hand me downs FTW!!
Penny
I am so pumped that worked out for you with Baby #2. We just realized that we are getting to the point where we need to make a decision with our family. HP will be two over the summer, and if we really think he’s an only child, I think we’re going to go back and donate or sell a lot of what we packed away.
Revanche @ A Gai Shan Life
I ALMOST emptied out my for-sale bin but I both got sidetracked with the notion that maybe I should at least TRY to sell some of my old business pants that hardly got any wear and realized I was almost no longer able to lift the huge sack they send us for donations. I’m giving myself a couple of weeks pondering whether I’m going to spend any time on those pants as a short breather. I’ve also sorted and shredded two piles of old terrible-quality photos. PiC sorted through half of his large bag of clothes to decide whether to donate or sell so we made progress!
But this how I know I’m not done: even after two boxes of books and a huge sack of clothes and odds and ends are gone, it still just feels like a giant clutter room here.
Penny
That’s amazing progress! And it sounds like it would be worth giving those business clothes a try. Go you and go PiC!
Sarah
I just went through our linen closet with a really critical eye and had a stack of stuff that I felt was too beat up to donate to a resale shop but I contacted our Humane Society and they said they would be grateful for the donation 🙂 Pups don’t care if the towels have bleach stains and the seam of a comforter has popped lol It felt good to know that things were going to get a bit more use before hitting the landfill
Penny
This is incredible, Sarah! We’ve donated towels in the past, but I’m definitely going to call about an old (OLD!) comforter that I’ve been hanging onto.
Danielle L Zecher
We’re still working on decluttering. It has never occurred to me to track the number of items we get rid of. Honestly that seems a lot of work! And I’m so NOT a numbers person. I’m kind of judging it by boxes/bags leaving the house, and space opening up in the house. I alternate between thinking we’re making great progress and feeling like it will never end.
Since the last time you posted about decluttering and I commented we took one very large box of clothes to the post office to send to Thred Up, took a large box of books, movies, and CDs to UPS to ship to Decluttr, and took a few big shopping bags of books, movies, and CDs to two different used bookstores. We sold what we could and used the cash toward debt repayment. We also ended up with a little bit of store credit, which we’re saving until we actually need to buy a book. We put everything they wouldn’t take in the free bins outside one of the stores. We probably could have sold a few of the books or movies on Ebay or something, but it just didn’t feel like it was worth the time involved, or keeping them in the house for longer.
I’ve been working on filling another box to send to Thred Up. The goal is to finish up this weekend, and take it to the post office next week. I know you mentioned last month that you haven’t had great luck with them. I don’t really either, but I don’t buy expensive clothes to begin with, so I don’t expect to get much back out of them. The thrift stores here seem to be inundated with clothing, so I don’t think it actually helps to take the clothes I’m getting rid of there. I kind of feel like I at least get something out of sending them to Thred Up, and it’s low effort (which is key for making sure I actually do it). I’d probably feel differently if I bought more expensive clothes or shoes to begin with. I think cosmetics and skincare are to me what clothes and shoes are to you.
I feel kind of dumb asking this, especially since from the comments it seems like I’m the only one who doesn’t know, but what is H&M?
I’ve sold a few things on Ebay, too; mostly cosmetics that came as part of sets, and I only wanted part of it to begin with. Those don’t actually take up much room, so I’m not sure how much it actually helps in the decluttering process.
I’ve also started trying to work on organizing the freezer and chest freezer. I threw away some very sketchy fruit, and some shrimp that had expired (that was really annoying!). I don’t really have a good plan in place for the freezers because they’re really full and not even remotely organized. I’m mostly just kind of pilfering around looking for anything that obviously needs to go, or that looks like it needs to be used soon.
Hubby has been diligently working on decluttering the desk. I really have no idea what he has gotten rid of. He seems to generate about 1,000 pieces of paper for every one I do, so the desk has largely been his domain. I don’t feel bad, since I’m the one dealing with the freezer. We can actually see some desk surface now, so whatever he’s doing seems to be working.
I just got one of Marie Kondo’s books from the library, so I’m hoping that will help us speed the process along.
Tre
I need to declutter TT’s room,.He has outgrown just about everything this year. I had the brilliant idea that it would be a good life lesson to have him sort his own stuff out. Yeah, that was a BRILLIANT idea. Let’s just say my teenager decided to get rid of two old t-shirts on the first try. When he was sent back into his room he decided he would just drop everything except his favorite clothes into the bag.
Kate
If you have a bunch of reusable bags that you don’t use/need, one of the best places I’ve found to take them is a local food pantry. I have one a few blocks from me and started taking some extra food there occasionally (especially peanut butter, oatmeal, and coffee – their top wish list items). The staff would always ask hopefully if I was going to be leaving the reusable bag that I was using to transport the food. They told me that it’s one of the things their customers are always asking for. So now at conferences, I have a habit of picking up the branded reusable bags and dropping them off at the food pantry, where they are always VERY gratefully received.
Ryan @ Free Before friday
I’m working on a little bit of de-cluttering myself. I used to live in a 2400sqft house and moved to a 700 sqft apartment. The house was too much house for two people. I plan to move from coast to coast and I want to be able to move in fell swoop. It’s a challenge, but I am slowly working that way. I’m trying out a new rule, for every 1 new thing, I need to get rid of 2! Keep it up!