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Post by calgaryscrapper on Aug 21, 2023 0:33:34 GMT
Gypsygirl, maybe a local teacher can use fabric etc in a classroom.
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Post by calgaryscrapper on Aug 21, 2023 0:39:37 GMT
We had new furniture delivered last week. Ds took our old couch to his place. We gave away two recliner chairs to people that immigrated here from the Philippines three weeks ago. Also put together a list of places for them to visit and shop in our area. I went through 1/4 of our hall closet today. I am thinking about re-locating some items downstairs. It sure is freeing to do this. Putting together a box of donations for the Meow foundation this time. They take housewares etc.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Aug 21, 2023 15:52:37 GMT
Gypsygirl, maybe a local teacher can use fabric etc in a classroom. I typically donate all my excess cotton fabric to the quilt guild for charity quilts. During the pandemic I donated about 50 yards for charity quilts. We support a program that gives kids aging out of foster care a quilt, as well as Project Linus. This time it's my specialty fabrics that I'm wanting to thin out, including some vintage (30's-50's), finer garment fabrics and decorator fabrics, so I thought I'd try to sell some of it this time. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 23, 2023 2:58:32 GMT
I really like the idea of use it or lose it. That would work great if I had a particular project I was working on and had a bunch of stash for that theme to burn up.
I made a couple gifts for a friend visiting from out of town, I had an extra apron that I customized with her logo and a fun t-shirt that I was originally going to keep for myself but I knew she would love it too so I sent it out the door with her. I can always make myself another one.
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Chinagirl828
Drama Llama
Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 6,688
Jun 28, 2014 6:28:53 GMT
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Post by Chinagirl828 on Aug 23, 2023 8:50:32 GMT
I really like the idea of use it or lose it. I find it helpful, but I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of reaching my deadline but not getting rid of whatever hasn't been used. I have some alphas that I added to my use it or lose it pile in April and I haven't yet used them. I haven't really scrapped in the last probably 3 months, so I haven't really had them in front of me, but four months is definitely too long for them to have sat there. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 23, 2023 14:16:21 GMT
I really like the idea of use it or lose it. I find it helpful, but I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of reaching my deadline but not getting rid of whatever hasn't been used. I have some alphas that I added to my use it or lose it pile in April and I haven't yet used them. I haven't really scrapped in the last probably 3 months, so I haven't really had them in front of me, but four months is definitely too long for them to have sat there. I would only be able to set a deadline like that if I was actively working on something. If I don’t have the time to actually work on anything it would be hard for me to wholesale purge stuff that I probably would use once I had time to work on that project. I would feel differently if I was working on stuff but just passing on that thing over and over. I was just as guilty as anyone of buying something just because it was cute or a great color, without any thought whatsoever of what I would eventually use it on. I mentioned before that I hauled home a literal crapton of random useful stuff from my BFF’s mom’s craft stash a couple years ago. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been so thankful to have it since then because I ended up not having to make a mad dash to JoAnn’s or Michael’s to get something to finish a project because I had something that came from that stash. I’ve used the acrylic quilting rulers I got from her over and over plus the wooden stand to store them. I’ve found the perfect color of matching thread dozens of times. Used 100% cotton batting to make microwave safe bowl cozies for my family and for gifts. Punches to cut labels. ArtBin storage totes. Dies to make cards. Adhesives. Fat quarters to make cloth napkins. Hand sewing needles. Scissors and rotary cutters. So many things. |
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Post by Scrapper100 on Aug 23, 2023 18:06:07 GMT
I have pulled out a bunch of DVDs that I need to take to the library store. I need to purge more and I need to go through my books.
My son has been organizing stuff in the garage. Part of it is good and other times not so good. He doesn’t always know why I grouped things the way I have. Overall it’s been great but I’m afraid of his last bit of organizing. We have been encouraging him but I need to to go through his last bit. I think there will be things he moved onto high shelves that I will want to purge.
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Post by calgaryscrapper on Aug 24, 2023 0:54:18 GMT
Went through another 1/4 of our hall closet yesterday. Found a few things we don’t need and our new friends that took the chairs will take some of them. Have a donation box also on the go.
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Post by jeremysgirl on Aug 24, 2023 1:00:34 GMT
In the spirit of not bringing things into my home, I will say that a good friend told me Stylecraft (one of my favs) has out a new Christmas yarn. I went to the website, decided what I wanted, put it in my basket and walked away. I decided tonight I didn't love it that much and I didn't need it. I thought I wouldn't be eager to use it.
Clutter not brought into my house.
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Post by mikklynn on Aug 24, 2023 13:25:35 GMT
My brother and I unpacked mom's moving boxes in her assisted living apartment. I brought home 2 boxes of crap. I know my sisters chose not to argue with her, which I support. But, I really don't think mom is going to miss anything we got rid of. If she does, I'll replace it!
Now I get to find time to toss or donate. I swear by all that is holy, I am NOT doing this to my kids.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Aug 24, 2023 13:26:36 GMT
Clutter not brought into my house. For me, this is one of the very best ways to minimize clutter. Just not bringing it in. |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Aug 24, 2023 13:27:41 GMT
I swear by all that is holy, I am NOT doing this to my kids. Same, friend, same. |
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Post by mikklynn on Aug 24, 2023 13:32:38 GMT
I swear by all that is holy, I am NOT doing this to my kids. Same, friend, same. I remember you dealing with your mom's stuff. It's hard! I love all your organizing posts. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 24, 2023 13:54:49 GMT
My brother and I unpacked mom's moving boxes in her assisted living apartment. I brought home 2 boxes of crap. I know my sisters chose not to argue with her, which I support. But, I really don't think mom is going to miss anything we got rid of. If she does, I'll replace it! Now I get to find time to toss or donate. I swear by all that is holy, I am NOT doing this to my kids. DH’s mom went through the same thing. She cleaned out 50+ years of stuff out of her parent’s house and vowed to go through her own stuff (DH’s dad had already passed away). The problem we had with it was that she was pretty selective about the things she asked if the kids were interested in keeping. She got rid of a lot of really old heirloom family photographs and other things both kids said later they wish she would have asked them about. I mean, she had super old, probably 18”x24” portrait photos of her great, great grandparents that were in antique frames that had hung in DH’s childhood home for decades. DH asked her about those framed photos after the fact and she said she CUT THE PHOTOS OUT, threw them away and sold the frames 😱😱😱. He said he wished she would have asked because he kind of wanted to keep those. My sister had been doing some work for her to prep the house for selling, and she retrieved the big family Bible out of MIL’s trash, the one with everyone’s dates of births, baptisms, marriages and deaths hand written in it by DH’s grandma, that MIL tossed. We did get that back. I guess my point with all this is, please ask your kids to have a quick look through before getting rid of things they may have even a remote interest in keeping. Some of the things MIL threw out or sold were irreplaceable and she never even asked if we wanted any of it, while a lot of the stuff she kept was just plain crap. We could have filled half a dumpster with the ratty worn out furniture, 1960’s moth and mouse chewed junk up in the rafters at the lake cabin, piles of cheap “gifts” from the “charity” places she donated to, etc.  |
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Post by Linda on Aug 24, 2023 17:55:55 GMT
Clutter not brought into my house Well done - that is an important step Now I get to find time to toss or donate. I swear by all that is holy, I am NOT doing this to my kids. same here - I'm STILL dealing with photos etc...from my mum's house |
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Aug 24, 2023 20:33:10 GMT
Clutter not brought into my house. This is as equally important as decluttering/purging is. It doesn't matter how much you get rid of if you don't reduce how much stuff you continue to bring in. I have been buying very little fabric in the past 2 years in an effort to reduce my stash by using it up and/or donating. The only fabrics I've bought this year have been for quilt backings. In both cases I truly had nothing in my stash that worked. Now I get to find time to toss or donate. I swear by all that is holy, I am NOT doing this to my kids. Most everyone I know who has dealt with dismantling a parent's home/estate says this. All four of our parents have passed and I feel like the past 10 years has been nothing but purging and decluttering - both their stuff and our own. Today I stopped by the library to donate 2 dozen books to their Friends of the Library sale. Since they have limited space they will only take one bag of books per day, so today the got the bag with the most books. I'll keep the other two in the SUV and drop them off when I'm in that area. My cousin let me know he will come for the 2 leather chairs and ottoman on Sept 3. We are also giving him the Moon Pod because there are so many young kids in the family would could use it. Now DH is wandering around trying to figure out what else he can put in the trailer!  He has come a long way from refusing to part with anything just a few years ago! The huge stack of DH's magazines (specialty sports) is ready to be donated, but we are waiting for a call back from the local VA home. We are also hoping they will accept some of our DVD's. We have just over 100 and are getting rid of them all as we only stream now. |
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Post by calgaryscrapper on Aug 24, 2023 21:06:43 GMT
Gypsygirl, check with your local library. Some of our local larger libraries here loan out DVD’s
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 25, 2023 3:47:55 GMT
Gypsygirl, check with your local library. Some of our local larger libraries here loan out DVD’s Ours does. They have a whole wall of DVDs that people can check out. |
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Post by mikklynn on Aug 25, 2023 14:07:11 GMT
crazy4scraps All the grandchildren and children have taken what they want. Lots of what I have thrown away/recycled are things like plastic trays from deli orders, disposable aluminum pie plates that mom washed and saved, Dairy Queen blizzard cups and lids... Seriously, bags and bags of stuff no one wants!
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 25, 2023 22:24:42 GMT
crazy4scraps All the grandchildren and children have taken what they want. Lots of what I have thrown away/recycled are things like plastic trays from deli orders, disposable aluminum pie plates that mom washed and saved, Dairy Queen blizzard cups and lids... Seriously, bags and bags of stuff no one wants! LOL sounds like my mom’s former house! 🤪 |
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Aug 25, 2023 23:31:21 GMT
Well, it didn't pan out to donate the magazines and even my backup plan failed. So DH helped me load them all into the recycling bin that will be picked up tomorrow. Will deal with the DVDs later. The public library will take them for their annual book sale to support the library (they don't take them to be checked out) so that's where they will go. Progress is always a good feeling!
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Post by lg on Aug 26, 2023 12:27:47 GMT
Six bags of toys etc out of the house and off to the church markets. Listing of dd papers I want to use but won’t (cream instead of white, I’ll never use them no matter how much I love all the rest of it!) uploaded to eBay. Contemplating upcoming craft purchases and after shopping my stash have reevaluated what I was going to get versus what I actually need (short answer is that I need nothing 😆)
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Aug 26, 2023 12:39:43 GMT
Yesterday I worked on decluttering the dining room hutch. It's a major catchall in the house.
I tossed a lot if junk that had just been shoved in to get it out of eyesight a long while ago.
I put away medical stuff and toiletries that just get put in out of convenience.
I still have a third of the top half to declutter, but I made considerable progress.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Aug 26, 2023 21:01:21 GMT
Just watched the funniest video on YouTube and thought others might enjoy it as well! Matt is one of the regulars on SEC Shorts (which is a must follow if you like college football!) but has his own channel as well. If Your Junk Drawer Could Talk |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Aug 27, 2023 11:48:32 GMT
Yesterday I repurposed a three drawer Sterilite container.
I took out the school supplies (they have two other homes in the house, and having a third option wasn't as helpful or convenient as I thought it would be originally), and moved the drawers to the pantry to use for school lunch supplies. One drawer for prepackaged snacks, one drawer for baggies, spoons, napkins, etc, one drawer for beverages.
I'm hoping having all the supplies at hand will make it easier to assemble lunches night before/early morning. Hopefully it will end the snacks being eaten by family members claiming to not know that the items were for school lunches specifically.
This weekend I also received the list of required school supplies for each class my kids are in (I bought the regular supplies during sales already, going from past experience as to what they usually ask for), so this week I need to pull their needed supplies from the Office Depot box still sitting in my living room, plus the bin of supplies in the basement. Then I need to put away all the leftovers into the basement. The teachers always request the kids to send more in halfway through the year as supplies are used up, so it's good to have it on hand.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 27, 2023 14:37:02 GMT
This weekend I also received the list of required school supplies for each class my kids are in (I bought the regular supplies during sales already, going from past experience as to what they usually ask for), so this week I need to pull their needed supplies from the Office Depot box still sitting in my living room, plus the bin of supplies in the basement. Then I need to put away all the leftovers into the basement. The teachers always request the kids to send more in halfway through the year as supplies are used up, so it's good to have it on hand. Oy. We had our list weeks ago only to find out last Tuesday at the meet the teachers night that our kid needs a $100 graphing calculator for math class.  Would have been good to know back when I bought the rest of the stuff that needed replacing from her supply stash, and would have been REALLY nice to know when we bought her the $40 non graphing calculator it’s replacing.  |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Aug 27, 2023 14:44:16 GMT
This weekend I also received the list of required school supplies for each class my kids are in (I bought the regular supplies during sales already, going from past experience as to what they usually ask for), so this week I need to pull their needed supplies from the Office Depot box still sitting in my living room, plus the bin of supplies in the basement. Then I need to put away all the leftovers into the basement. The teachers always request the kids to send more in halfway through the year as supplies are used up, so it's good to have it on hand. Oy. We had our list weeks ago only to find out last Tuesday at the meet the teachers night that our kid needs a $100 graphing calculator for math class.  Would have been good to know back when I bought the rest of the stuff that needed replacing from her supply stash, and would have been REALLY nice to know when we bought her the $40 non graphing calculator it’s replacing. Oh, that's terrible.
That's a big purchase for a lot of families.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Aug 27, 2023 15:49:18 GMT
Yesterday I repurposed a three drawer Sterilite container. One thing I never purge are good storage containers because storage needs can (and do) change over time. It's nice having some on hand when the urge/need to change a space comes up. Just this past week I reorganized the top drawer of the pantry. DH came in with a new type of snack and they needed a home. That drawer (just under the coffee/tea bar) holds coffee pods, loose teas and chocolates/snacks he likes with his espresso. While I was there I decanted some chocolate squares, tossed some old teas (2020 so no longer fresh) and donated some unopened teas we'll never use (gifts). It was so nice to just grab a few drawer organizers and reset that side of the drawer! The whole project took me about 10 minutes. that our kid needs a $100 graphing calculator for math class. Yikes! I remember those days. The only good thing is that they do resell easily when she no longer needs it. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 27, 2023 20:33:32 GMT
that our kid needs a $100 graphing calculator for math class. Yikes! I remember those days. The only good thing is that they do resell easily when she no longer needs it. Seeing as how she’s going to be taking 10th grade math in 8th grade, I’m pretty sure she’ll be able to use it for a long time (I hope). 😳 |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 27, 2023 20:41:27 GMT
Yesterday I repurposed a three drawer Sterilite container. One thing I never purge are good storage containers because storage needs can (and do) change over time. It's nice having some on hand when the urge/need to change a space comes up. Just this past week I reorganized the top drawer of the pantry. DH came in with a new type of snack and they needed a home. That drawer (just under the coffee/tea bar) holds coffee pods, loose teas and chocolates/snacks he likes with his espresso. While I was there I decanted some chocolate squares, tossed some old teas (2020 so no longer fresh) and donated some unopened teas we'll never use (gifts). It was so nice to just grab a few drawer organizers and reset that side of the drawer! The whole project took me about 10 minutes. Should have just quoted your whole post, LOL. I totally agree. I have the hardest time purging storage containers. When my friend was clearing out her mom’s craft stash, she took home all of the clear scrapbook paper ArtBins (my guess at least 25-30) and gave me all the weird color ones which I was fine with, I don’t care that they’re not clear. At least 15 of them came to my house full of stuff and easily another 20 empty ones. The stack of the empties from the floor was taller than I am (just over 5’)! Since then, I’ve put close to half of them to use. I still need to reorganize and collate the stuff from the full ones that I brought home in with the stuff from my own stash. I also brought home a pile of big empty latch top bins that I have in my basement, just in case. I’ve used a few of those already too. I will admit that I should thin out my empty shoebox hoard though. Does a person really NEED 50-75 empty shoeboxes? Probably not. 🤪 |
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He has come a long way from refusing to part with anything just a few years ago! 
Would have been good to know back when I bought the rest of the stuff that needed replacing from her supply stash, and would have been REALLY nice to know when we bought her the $40 non graphing calculator it’s replacing. 
Would have been good to know back when I bought the rest of the stuff that needed replacing from her supply stash, and would have been REALLY nice to know when we bought her the $40 non graphing calculator it’s replacing.