<p>Three bags of clothing went to donation center today, along with 6 bags of junk to the town dump. Feels good!!</p>
<p>not quite a donation, but a trunk load of Dâs stuff from her old room is on itâs way to her apartment with my H :)</p>
<p>Keeping fingers crossed that baby kiddo will clean unneeded stuff out of her room before going to the East Coast to start her graduate studies!</p>
<p>Went through the books I used for home schooling my daughter and have them ready to donate to a home schooling group at church next month. It was difficultâthe books reminded me of such a happy time in my life. Also tossed two wood blinds no longer in use. Felt really good about that!</p>
<p>Three more bins cleared in the garage. Got a pile to donate! Itâs hot but I gotta keep goingâI check in here for inspiration so keep on going!</p>
<p>Does anyone have suggestions for ways to get rid of items that are still quite good, and meaningful to us, but where we just have too much stuff? Aside from the âtake a photo of itâ method?</p>
<p>Suggestion 1: pair it down if there are multiplesâkeep one or two and donate the rest. Keep a memory. Iâd say sell the rest but honestly most people (including me) never get around to itâmake your life easier now rather than later by donatingâŠ
Suggestion 2: Put the picture in your mind of how happy someone else will be to have the item. And that can be because it reminds them of something happy, they need it, or want to sell it to make a buck. YOU will be happier having enjoyed the item and now you will be happier having it not take up space. Nothing is forever. Give everything its time and its due. Pick a charity and DONATE. The charity needs it as well as its patrons.
Suggestion 3: Imagine youâve passed (hate to be a downer) and think what will happen to your possessions.Nobody is keeping your mementos. Make your life happier NOW without the clutter. Everybody will be happier.
Suggestion 4: One more point of view: Things are not people. They do not have memories. You are the one making connections with inanimate objects. Which is why âtake a pictureâ is good advice. The main reason people canât get rid of stuff is emotional attachment. âTake a pictureâ allows you to process a memory and recall things without the object actually thereâand it takes up a lot less room!</p>
<p>Ways to get rid of it? Here is my suggestion. Weed out. Put the treasures in a box with a lidâŠnot see through. In two months, if you donât miss any of itâŠdonate it.</p>
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<p>When we downsized to about a third of the square footage, it was necessary to get rid of many good things that had special meaning to me. The merely good stuff was easy to sell. The stuff that also had meaning was more difficult. I gave it to young friends who couldnât have afforded those items, if they could have afforded the time spent looking for them. Antiques. This made them very happy and made me, in turn, very happy. We furnished one apartment and half of two small houses, at least, before we were done giving it away. I havenât missed any of those things because they went to such very good homes. It is difficult.</p>
<p>I struggle with some things like that. They are family inheritance type items- like the china cups and saucers I got from both of my grandmothers. My momâs Hummels. Although they were hers, she specifically marked each box so my brother, myself and my kids would know which ones she bought âfor usâ. I mean, each one she bought, she bought because it reminded her of one of us. Yes, that is totally emotional attachment and I donât even really like them, but I canât get rid of them. That is one collection my kids will have to deal with when I go because I canât toss them or donate them. </p>
<p>At our charity thrift store, we get a LOT of those âcollectiblesâ you are talking about. Collections of hummels, trip souvenirs, sets of China (we canât give them awayâŠno one wants them), old glassware (wine glasses, small champagne cups, etc), vases, and the like. We know these were cherished by someone at some point. </p>
<p>When my mom died, I had 44 movers boxes of âstuffâ to sort through. I have sworn that I will not leave my kids that type of job.</p>
<p>I had a whole condo packed with stuff to sort through. My kids wonât have that kind of mess. I toss magazines and peanut butter jars. The stuff Iâm talking about is currently in my curio cabinet (which I inherited from Mom too) and on shadowbox type shelving in the kitchen. All packed up, theyâd fit in one largish box. They do get packed up every Christmas to make room for the Christmas stuff that goes up in those spaces. I have one other box of kind of interesting jewelry that was my momâs and grandmaâs. Oh, and my grandmaâs fox stole. What to do with that??? </p>
<p>Perhaps the HS drama department would like the fox stole and maybe jewlery if it is period costume jewlery. </p>
<p>I realized when I wrote that ⊠I should check with my brother to see if his wife wants any of it. When my mom passed, my brother wasnât married so he didnât really take âgirl stuffâ. He may want his wife to have some of the stuff that I really donât want. I should probably find out the value of the fox stole. I believe it is from the 1940s. Fur is so politically incorrect these days but they live in Wyoming and it seems like it would be more acceptable there. </p>
<p>Next up for me is taking a bunch of old family photos out of frames and putting them in an album. We inherited a huge number of photos, mostly in pretty junky frames. Some of the photos are tossers, but lots are nice. (And then there is the family photo of DH as a kid with his mom and dad, mom looking like sheâs just been mesmerized by Dr. Terwilliker. (Which only makes sense if you remember the 5000 Fingers of Doctor T; the strangest Dr. Seuss movie ever made.)</p>
<p>I am a very bad person. </p>
<p>When we were decluttering in preparation for our downsizing, I gave to Goodwill handknit sweaters that my mother had knit for me. And that I never, in 40 years, put on my body. I figured that the love she put into them had through the years seeped into me, and I no longer needed to keep them. </p>
<p>Thanks. I appreciate the suggestions. With vintage toys, it is often the case that if you keep them for 30 years or so, their value goes up by a factor of 10 or so. I have been pretty successful in letting toys go, with the thought that while they could go up to 10 times their value in 30 years, in that same time period they could also be circulated among 10 different children who would really enjoy them, so the value is fully recouped, just not by our family. (Of course, the toy might be broken/trashed by the first person who had it after us, too, but I try not to think about that.)</p>
<p>When it comes to donating old dolls, I have a problem that is insurmountable at the moment: The dolls donât just have names, they have personalities . . . integrated, consistent personalities, over multiple years.</p>
<p>Okay, our family is weird. But anyone tracking my posts knows that already.</p>
<p>You are not at all bad, VeryHappy! </p>
<p>We have on,y a few toys hereâŠbrio train, Legos, American girl doll and her stuff. Everything else in the toy category is GONE. Some of those âvintage toysâ donât meet current safety standards. Most of the young parents we know wonât let their kids play with them. </p>
<p>The toys we have are only here temporarily. If we ever have grandchildren, the toys will need to go to themeâŠor OUT of this house. They are all neatly packed away.</p>
<p>Some old dolls have value, but many simply do not. </p>
<p>Most of the dolls with personalities have zero monetary value (or as close to zero as makes no difference). I canât get rid of them, though. Sorry. They are an exception to my house-clearing.</p>
<p>QMâŠhere is an idea. We have a shelf in one of our kidâs bedrooms that is about 18 inches deep and runs the length of the roomâŠabove the bed. We have a collection of teddy bears up there. How about something like that for your dolls? They would be there, but up and awayâŠin a spot where you could see them, but not really in the way.</p>