<p>I wish I could get my family to follow these simple guidelines:</p>
<p><a href=“Five Rules For Reducing Clutter In Your Home”>http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/reducing-clutter.html</a></p>
<p>I try all those rules but you STILL have to make a million little decisions to toss!<br>
But I dropped off 3 more bags! Slowing down considerably–the easy stuff is gone, the intermediate mostly gone and now it’s hard stuff. Unless I go to my husband’s side of the closet 
</p>
<p>My best trick on cleaning drawers–empty everything out of drawer and then only put back in what you want. You’ll have a ton left over–now purge ruthlessly. How many wooden spoons does a body need? </p>
<p>Corral coupons in a folder–stuff them in and purge twice a year. Don’t bother sorting–the good ones will be on top.</p>
<p>Don’t want a million storage boxes in your garage? Label your boxes by number and then write on a separate index card what went in the box–just fill them up with whatever. Keep the cards in a file box. That way you don’t have a bunch of half empty boxes and can look at a card (rather than searching various boxes) when you do need something (IF you ever need it again).</p>
<p>Small victory… last night I posted this on Freecycle - "I have a few bags of old scraps… socks (mostly white athletic socks with small holes… maybe good for sock puppets for Brownie troop?), old jeans with tears etc. I was saving all for Ecocycle, but I learned they don’t want the socks. So thought I’d offer the batch. " </p>
<p>Today Freecycler Nancy came and did pickup of 3 bags of stuff that had been in a holding pattern in my laundry closet shelves. Win/Win 
</p>
<p>Freecycle is awesome. I love it.</p>
<p>We have a Freecycle / swap facebook page for our town. I have gotten rid of so much stuff that I would have thrown away. We cleaned the garage out last weekend and they kids agreed I could get rid of all the snow toys. (They said no, however, to their Razor scooters). </p>
<p>I subscribe to our daily local Freecycle emails. If there is a real person with a “Needed” ad for something adding clutter to our house, it’s easy to part with it. I still throw a lot of things into a bag for local charity pickups, but a lot seems to hang in a “maybe” category. </p>
<p>We have not used freecycle much–as soon as one of us is willing to part with whatever, we need to get it out of sight to Salvation Army before either of us changes his/her mind. SA benefits and it moves the decluttering along. I love the concept of freecycle!</p>
<p>Haven’t read the entire thread but it hit home for me this week as we got ready for a yard sale. OMG. We have a lot of junk. The sale was today and we are left with the majority of the household items. I put in a call to the Veteran’s Administration and they will pick up most of the leftovers on Friday next week. I am determined that it NOT come back in the house but I may need to wrestle with H on the front porch. </p>
<p>I also have boxes and boxes of books left over and I don’t think my local library is taking donations because they are renovating. Any suggestions? Most of them are adult books.</p>
<p>Edit: Just noticed abasket’s suggestion for books above.</p>
<p>An advantage of freecycle is that I can be lazy on item cleanup. </p>
<p>Case in point - a few years back I read a “wanted” posting for a single mom looking for a fish tank. She had decided that fish were the only pets she could afford, but she needed to find a free tank setup. We happened to have a 30 gallon tank setup with very nice stand in our kitchen, We never seemed to be in the mood to clean it up enough to donate to charity. The mom was delighted to take us off our hands and use her own elbow grease to make it look like new. </p>
<p>I haven’t kept up with this thread but thought of it this AM. I had a few storage containers under my bed with bulkier sweaters. I haven’t worn any of them since I put them there several years ago. I went through them this morning. 3 bags to donate. Saving just 2 that were handmade. Not two bags but sadly just 2 sweaters. And those boxes have been just accumulating dust under my bed. </p>
<p>They’ll make someone else happy.</p>
<p>Just read about more things to do with old clothing in the latest Sierra magazine-</p>
<p>"To get started on ThredUp, you order a free polka-dot plastic bag, fill it with clothes you’re tired of, and send it back (also for free). ThredUp’s employees sift through your castoffs, post what’s good—you get part of the proceeds when one of your pieces sells—and send the rest to a fabric recycler. Though Reinhart started ThredUp primarily to make money, his burgeoning business has diverted more than 1.5 million pounds of textiles from landfills since 2012. "</p>
<p><a href=“Ready to Re-Wear | Sierra Club”>http://sierraclub.org/sierra/2014-6-november-december/green-biz/ready-re-wear</a></p>
<p>Oh, and made another trip to Goodwill today. :)</p>
<p>After our yard sale this weekend I called the Vietnam Veteran’s Administration and set up a pick-up to remove all of the leftover stuff. I did learn that they will take books and clothes and there is really very little that they Won’t take. Relief is just a phone call away!</p>
<p>Well, I"m really upset with Habitat for Humanity. I completed one of their on-line forms for Restore, their retail store, offering many doors in excellent condition. This was absolutely months ago. I haven’t heard a peep from them, so I will be calling them tomorrow. </p>
<p>If you have a prison nearby, I would contact them regarding books. They even will take older edition of textbooks, which no one else ever wants. There is a huge demand for all sorts of books in prisons - even young adult/early readers, given some inmates are functionally illiterate. </p>
<p>VH - I hope Habitat comes for your doors. Sounds like win/win, if you can get their attention. </p>
<p>A few years ago I sorted through the bulky sweaters. Even if you give away most (or even just some), not all… it’s step in the right direction! </p>
<p>Coats…I have to do that coat closet!! It’s like the bulky sweaters…if I get rid of some, I’ll actually have room in my coat closets!</p>
<p>Anyone want a ranch mink…full length?</p>
<p>Books–moving rooms around and am purging books. H cannot handle this. He has agreed that in 2 years if he has not read the 35 books he insists are important then they go. I did this with 30 years ago with a bunch of book boxes that we had moved from state to state to state. H enever opened them and he now has only one single book.</p>
<p>Why are books, for many of us, the hardest to bag?</p>
<p>Books are the physical manifestation of our education, either real or perceived. And we don’t want our education taken from us or destroyed. </p>