<p>Tossed a bunch of old test prep books that I somehow missed! Went through one pile of Mr B’s papers and filled the small recycling box that I put the office eons ago and that was sitting unused. </p>
<p>Finally, S and DIL are putting stickies on things in his closet that he wants and we will store until we can’t. It was like pulling teeth to get him down there.</p>
<p>Where can good kids’ toys be donated? Our thrift store and AmVets don’t accept them. And, I guess we should just trash all the stuffed animals. </p>
<p>There is a movement building that makes cloth diapers for Haiti out of old t shirts. Google it and you will find patterns, an facebook page, and groups that may accept your t shirts in order to make the diapers. Our church has a group of men and women that make the diapers. The nicer shirts are used for the outside of the diapers and the older, holey, stained shirts are used for stuffing the inside of the diapers. All sizes of shirts are needed in order to make different sizes of diaper.</p>
<p>Anyway, just a thought for places to donate old t-shirts. </p>
<p>Moving in less than 2 weeks and going through D3’s drawers - I found 1 traffic ticket, 1 warning and 1 parking ticket, ready to expire! I had known about the traffic ticket and when I tried to pay the parking ticket online I found that it had been already taken care of. Phew. Glad she’s at college now and without a car. I also emptied her piggy bank (she told me to). Haven’t counted it yet but it looks immense. Mostly quarters and dimes. </p>
<p>Got a pair of old jeans in your closet? Until September 30, you can bring them to J Crew and get $20 off a new pair:</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.jcrew.com/womens_feature/DenimDrive.jsp”>https://www.jcrew.com/womens_feature/DenimDrive.jsp</a></p>
<p>Gone: Three years of old phone books (remember those?) & the cushions, pillows, and throw off a trashed couch. At least it’s a start. — Taking the actual couch out will require removing the couch feet and moving it from the back porch to the front door, which has just|enough space to squeeze it out. That, for another day.</p>
<p>Took a full trash bag out of S’s room today. I am going through that room little by little.</p>
<p>We had some visitors from a different country and they were willing to take t-shirts to distribute to the less fortunate there. H went up to the attic and brought down his suitcase and one big bag that had old t-shirts. He kept some “sentimental” shirts, but gave away close to 30 t-shirts and 3 jackets! Also gave them a roll-on backpack to take the stuff! YESS!</p>
<p>@Greenwitch: you might want to see if a store near you has a coin counting machine that provides GCs for Amazon and other retailers. The ones in the grocery stores near us will give full value for GCs but discount the amount if you take a voucher for the store to redeem in cash. </p>
<p>One bag of cookbooks, and one bag of clothes…taking them tomorrow!</p>
<p>Next up…winter jackets and coats. I have way too many!!</p>
<p>Another big box of books went ot the library sale. Almost down to one layer on all of the shelves (we used to have a front row of books and a back row on most shelves). </p>
<p>Started a whole other purge cycle. DH and I worked in the tool/misc household clutter area in the garage and made excellent progress in a couple hours. Totally freeing up a counter that is 6 feet long. </p>
<p>I’ve decided to once again be ruthless in my closet. I really only want to keep things I really like. Like “A” list stuff. Whether it is my best tie dye or a great dress, things I love to wear. </p>
<p>@dyiu13: In our area there are lots of fundraising sales for churches, charities and various organizations in September and October, and many of them feature children’s items from clothes to toys to furniture. In some cases, the sellers pay a fee ($25 is typical) to the group and then they keep 100% of their sales proceeds. The turn out is vastly greater than I’ve ever seen at a garage sale. </p>
<p>Some neighborhoods hold multi-family sales in the fall; usually a dozen or more residents participate and the concentration of sellers in one area draws more buyers. A friend ran a big annual sale for folks from her gated neighborhood that did not allow garage sales; she arranged for the use of a parking lot on the street leading to the neighborhood. I lived nearby and used to sell our kids’ outgrown toys there each fall and had one buyer who came early each year in order to be at my table as soon as we opened. She said her kids’ “Santa” gifts were never wrapped so they wouldn’t realize that some weren’t brand new.</p>
<p>Both kids were home for the long weekend and took another pass at their stuff resulting in one more trip to Goodwill. One week out from closing I have probably reached the point that I need to just start boxing things up. I do feel like I’ve “been through” most of our stuff. :)</p>
<p>I had put together a big box of Halloween costumes (many unique and nicely hand made) last spring, but the local consignment shop would not accept it until this September. So it was sitting on the rug in our guest room. Today I took it to the shop and told them anything they did not want or could not sell, to just pass on to the Goodwill shop a few doors down. I feel so much lighter! </p>
<p>It will be a decade before I have grand kids who could use this stuff, and though many of the costumes had sentimental value for me, there was no point in holding on to them for a decade unused. (We have pictures.) A lesson I hope to apply to piles of other stuff.</p>
<p>I also made another trip to Goodwill today. Let go of another 40 cookbooks and dropped of all the stuff my kids were ready to part with. :)</p>
<p>In our climate, mold and mildew will likely grow on anything we try to save unless special efforts are made to prevent that. It makes saving fabrics very ill advised, so SHOULD help more with the idea of donating or discarding. :)</p>
<p>Mr B dropped off a bunch of stuff that I boxed over the weekend at the local Goodwill collection place. He was so excited! I think it will motivate him to get rid of unneeded things! :)</p>
<p>I have a large bag of clothes in my trunk ready for Goodwill. My younger S is growing like a weed and is proportioned very differently from his older brother, so will require a whole new wardrobe from here on out. Therefore, I am getting rid of all of S1’s remaining hand-me-downs and many pairs of shorts that are now “too short.”</p>