Waiting until I was 31 to get married had its perks. I purchased a house. Got my Master's degree. Traveled. Filled said house with memories, photos, and items.
And then I met Dan, and it all fell in to place. We made this house our home. Traveled. Combined our entire lives. Filled said house with a LOT of duplicates of items.
And thus, here we are, three years after he's moved in, and a lot of that stuff remains. We've had two semi-successful garage sales in the past few years, but we've been left with items each time. And thinking we would sell them at the next garage sale, we've held on to them.
But now, we've acquired a baby, and all of the baby things and OHMYGOSH they have a lot of THINGS. So we're at that critical point where we NEED to get rid of the old to make room for the new.
So what's the plan?
Donate.
We've literally held on to an old crock pot, toaster, and phone for years thinking we would eventually sell them at a garage sale. We haven't. Is it worth it to me to hold on to it for another year to see if we can sell them for a dollar or two each? It's not. I would so much rather donate those items to someone who can really use them. So we called St. Vincent DePaul. Why that organization? Because they're coming to our home to collect it all. I don't have to load up the car with our baby child and all of our belongings and schlep it somewhere. It'll be gone right from our home, and that makes me hap, hap, happy!
Resell.
There are a few items that we'd really like to sell because they're in great shape (think, an entertainment unit we're no longer using and a CD tower that we don't need). But, we don't want to wait until we have another garage sale. So, we're utilizing a local Facebook selling group to post these items! This way, I can get rid of some of our bigger ticket items and make a little in the process.
Don't let the clutter in.
I'm notorious for having organized clutter. We acquire something and I stack or shove it somewhere so that it looks organized. This year, I'm trying really hard not to do that. If we get something new, it's going to find it's permanent home immediately. No more artfully stacked piles on the kitchen table or bedroom dresser. We put it in its forever home, or it doesn't stay!
Follow the Declutter 365 Facebook group.
I love, love, love this group, because the organizer has broken everything down in to tasks that can be accomplished in 15 minutes a day. Today's task? Go through your kitchen utensils and purge the ones you don't need. So, like, those 18 wooden spoons we have on the counter? Today's goal is to work that down to, oh, I don't know, 10 (because really, will we EVER need more than 10 wooden spoons at any one time?!). This is something I can easily do once Henry is in bed for the night, and after 15 minutes, I get to stop and relax for the evening. Wins for all of us!
What are your best tips for purging the junk? How do you get rid of it when it seems like there's just. So. Much?
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