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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 7, 2024 16:07:20 GMT
With that said, is there any free little libraries that could take the books? We did that when we had a ton of books to donate. Some around here are just for kids.
I'm not having a lot of luck on that front.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 7, 2024 16:12:14 GMT
I just went through my email inbox.
There were just under 400 in there.
Moved about 20 to the appropriate folders.
Deleted the rest.
I will make an effort to unsubscribe from emails as they come in this month.
My email goal for the year is to try to keep on top of the inbox.
(I still did better last year than the year before. The year before I have several thousand emails to deal with. 400 was managable this year)
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Post by peano on Jan 7, 2024 16:51:13 GMT
I was all set to get in there and get something done yesterday, and then DH wanted to go to breakfast, and then the grocery store, and then DS and his GF stopped by unexpectedly...sigh. So for accountability, I vow to work at least an hour on clothes.
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Post by alsomsknit on Jan 7, 2024 17:18:06 GMT
Cleaned the papers off the side of the fridge because puppy likes to shred paper. A fair amount of it went in the trash.
Yesterday, I went through some canned goods from the pantry while cooking ahead.
Leaves me questioning how people do the zero waste thing. The little baggie of stuff. How? Do they not eat at home? Cooking creates trash. My chili alone saw 6 cans go in the trash. And the paper towels used to drain the grease. That isn’t even counting the jars from the seasonings when those are emptied. Onion waste, too. Though I guess that could go into a compost pile, which we don’t have.
A dog bed left the house because Nico destroyed it. It lasted a month. 😆
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Nanner
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,987 
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Post by Nanner on Jan 7, 2024 17:44:23 GMT
I went through one closet today and packed away one large bag of clothes to donate. DH did the same. It's a start
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Post by katlady on Jan 7, 2024 17:49:07 GMT
That’s one thing I don’t like about photos on the iCloud, you can’t move everything into a folder and have a clear library. So I’m never sure if something has been added or not until I go check. I prefer the windows method of moving things to that space and removing them from the catch all file. I want to be able to organize/move everything and see a blank slate. That way I know anything there still needs to be organized. In Photos, you can create a Smart Album. Choose File - New Smart Album. Set the criteria to Album - Is Not - Any. It is funny that I know how to do these things, but I don't do it. Like I said before, I am terrible at digital organization.  Leaves me questioning how people do the zero waste thing. The little baggie of stuff. How? Do they not eat at home? Cooking creates trash. My chili alone saw 6 cans go in the trash. And the paper towels used to drain the grease. That isn’t even counting the jars from the seasonings when those are emptied. Onion waste, too. Though I guess that could go into a compost pile, which we don’t have. The goal is to not send anything to a landfill. In your example, in my area, the cans and jars go into the recycling bin. The paper towels and onion waste go into the green waste bin. We have three different bins from our waste management company - regular trash, recyclables, green waste. Recycling the food waste is new for us in 2024. There were a lot of grumbling about it on NextDoor. |
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 7, 2024 17:50:57 GMT
Cleaned the papers off the side of the fridge because puppy likes to shred paper. A fair amount of it went in the trash. Yesterday, I went through some canned goods from the pantry while cooking ahead. Leaves me questioning how people do the zero waste thing. The little baggie of stuff. How? Do they not eat at home? Cooking creates trash. My chili alone saw 6 cans go in the trash. And the paper towels used to drain the grease. That isn’t even counting the jars from the seasonings when those are emptied. Onion waste, too. Though I guess that could go into a compost pile, which we don’t have. A dog bed left the house because Nico destroyed it. It lasted a month. 😆 Nico sounds like he is doing his part to help with decluttering!  As for the zero waste thing - absolutely no clue! While my trash and recycling have decreased a smidge (due to eating more fresh food and less bottled water) it's no where near the results some of these people get! |
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 7, 2024 17:53:07 GMT
The goal is to not send anything to a landfill. In your example, in my area, the cans and jars go into the recycling bin. The paper towels and onion waste go into the green waste bin. We have three different bins from our waste management company - regular trash, recyclables, green waste. Recycling the food waste is new for us in 2024. There were a lot of grumbling about it on NextDoor. We don't have the green waste option. I just send as much as possible down the garbage disposal as possible and the rest goes in the trash. Composting is not an option for us. |
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Post by katlady on Jan 7, 2024 17:57:28 GMT
The goal is to not send anything to a landfill. In your example, in my area, the cans and jars go into the recycling bin. The paper towels and onion waste go into the green waste bin. We have three different bins from our waste management company - regular trash, recyclables, green waste. Recycling the food waste is new for us in 2024. There were a lot of grumbling about it on NextDoor. We don't have the green waste option. I just send as much as possible down the garbage disposal as possible and the rest goes in the trash. Composting is not an option for us. It became a law in California in 2022 that food waste had to be recycled. I guess our city was late in implementing it because they were still in the middle of a current contract with the waste management company. But, we have it now and it is not too bad. We can use those biodegradable bags to contain the food waste, so there is little smell or mess. |
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Post by alsomsknit on Jan 7, 2024 18:11:08 GMT
That’s one thing I don’t like about photos on the iCloud, you can’t move everything into a folder and have a clear library. So I’m never sure if something has been added or not until I go check. I prefer the windows method of moving things to that space and removing them from the catch all file. I want to be able to organize/move everything and see a blank slate. That way I know anything there still needs to be organized. In Photos, you can create a Smart Album. Choose File - New Smart Album. Set the criteria to Album - Is Not - Any. It is funny that I know how to do these things, but I don't do it. Like I said before, I am terrible at digital organization. Leaves me questioning how people do the zero waste thing. The little baggie of stuff. How? Do they not eat at home? Cooking creates trash. My chili alone saw 6 cans go in the trash. And the paper towels used to drain the grease. That isn’t even counting the jars from the seasonings when those are emptied. Onion waste, too. Though I guess that could go into a compost pile, which we don’t have. The goal is to not send anything to a landfill. In your example, in my area, the cans and jars go into the recycling bin. The paper towels and onion waste go into the green waste bin. We have three different bins from our waste management company - regular trash, recyclables, green waste. Recycling the food waste is new for us in 2024. There were a lot of grumbling about it on NextDoor. The recycling in our area is pathetic and practically non-existent. We have to haul the cardboard 40 minutes away because there is nothing local. Haven’t seen bins for cans or glass in years. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jan 7, 2024 18:11:59 GMT
Leaves me questioning how people do the zero waste thing. The little baggie of stuff. How? Do they not eat at home? Cooking creates trash. My chili alone saw 6 cans go in the trash. And the paper towels used to drain the grease. That isn’t even counting the jars from the seasonings when those are emptied. Onion waste, too. Though I guess that could go into a compost pile, which we don’t have. The goal is to not send anything to a landfill. In your example, in my area, the cans and jars go into the recycling bin. The paper towels and onion waste go into the green waste bin. We have three different bins from our waste management company - regular trash, recyclables, green waste. Recycling the food waste is new for us in 2024. There were a lot of grumbling about it on NextDoor. 100% this. Our area started having green waste collection bins in various locations but they aren’t all that convenient. Any household that wanted to opt in could go pick up a little collection bin and a starter pack of compostable bags for it. When you go drop off your full bag you can pick up additional compostable bags at the compost site. I was kind of surprised by everything that could go in those bags, including paper towels and tissues, meat scraps and bones, fruit and vegetable scraps, basically anything you might scrape off your plate after a meal or to prep a meal could go in the bags. Also in the summer, the bin would start to stink after about day 2 or 3, and we didn’t fill it up fast enough to need to replace the bag before that. And then what do you do with the bag of slimy, stinky, moldy stuff until you have a chance to take it to the drop off place? So it didn’t really work for us, but if they started a weekly curbside collection I’d be more likely to participate. I didn’t know until recently that stores like Target will take plastic sheeting for recycling, like the shrink wrap that is around flats of canned goods, bottled water, packs of toilet paper, etc. along with the thin plastic bags many places take. My issue is remembering to take the bags of bags in when I hit the overload level that I can realistically reuse in my bathroom wastebaskets. |
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Post by katlady on Jan 7, 2024 18:30:49 GMT
I didn’t know until recently that stores like Target will take plastic sheeting for recycling, like the shrink wrap that is around flats of canned goods, bottled water, packs of toilet paper, etc. along with the thin plastic bags many places take. My issue is remembering to take the bags of bags in when I hit the overload level that I can realistically reuse in my bathroom wastebaskets. The store I used to take my plastic wrappings and bags to took the bins away because people were using the bins as a trash can. Some people ruin things for everyone! Other stores here take them too, but I forget to bring them with me when I go to those stores. I have a nice collection growing in my garage. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jan 7, 2024 18:35:38 GMT
I didn’t know until recently that stores like Target will take plastic sheeting for recycling, like the shrink wrap that is around flats of canned goods, bottled water, packs of toilet paper, etc. along with the thin plastic bags many places take. My issue is remembering to take the bags of bags in when I hit the overload level that I can realistically reuse in my bathroom wastebaskets. The store I used to take my plastic wrappings and bags to took the bins away because people were using the bins as a trash can. Some people ruin things for everyone! Other stores here take them too, but I forget to bring them with me when I go to those stores. I have a nice collection growing in my garage. That’s so sad! In my area, more and more of the stores are adding them so people must be doing it right. It used to just be grocery stores but now Target has big bins for the plastic / wrap recycling too. I just need to be better about collecting that stuff up and taking it in. We gat SO much plastic air bubbles and stuff in deliveries because DH orders a lot of his work parts and things online so I really need to come up with a better way to handle that stuff. |
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Post by natscraps on Jan 7, 2024 19:09:37 GMT
I really wanted to get active in this thread again this year but Covid has kept me from doing much of anything the past 3 weeks. We actually added to clutter problem at the beginning of December. My mom passed away 6 years ago but after some issues with my stepdad we were forced to quickly move all of my and my moms things into our home. I only grabbed the important to me stuff. My mom was a bit of a hoarder so i tried to be selective. Some of things in the boxes I’d like to take a picture of and then I’m okay letting the items go.
My mom took lots of photos and often printed them in triplicate. She had them all organized and with their negatives but just SO MANY PHOTOS! I’ve been gradually going through them and tossing duplicates, blurries, and photos that you don’t even know what it is. Last night I managed to get 3 photo boxes down to 1.
Meanwhile the house has just gone to crud because I have no energy. My goal right now is just get the house back to functioning and 30 minutes a week total on decluttering. I know I can do this.
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Post by dewryce on Jan 7, 2024 19:46:06 GMT
That’s one thing I don’t like about photos on the iCloud, you can’t move everything into a folder and have a clear library. So I’m never sure if something has been added or not until I go check. I prefer the windows method of moving things to that space and removing them from the catch all file. I want to be able to organize/move everything and see a blank slate. That way I know anything there still needs to be organized. In Photos, you can create a Smart Album. Choose File - New Smart Album. Set the criteria to Album - Is Not - Any. It is funny that I know how to do these things, but I don't do it. Like I said before, I am terrible at digital organization. Thank you, I’d not heard of this. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show smart albums on iCloud, just regular albums. It would drive me insane not to have everything match up across my devices. And I see that you can create smart albums on an iPad, but I don’t seem to have that setting. Perhaps it’s for a newer model. |
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Post by dewryce on Jan 7, 2024 20:00:46 GMT
I went through one closet today and packed away one large bag of clothes to donate. DH did the same. It's a start A great start! For a year or so I took photos of the back of our vehicle every time we took stuff to donate, give to family members, etc. and I used trash bags solely for decluttering and kept a tally of those. While taking 1 or 2 bags to donate might not feel huge, once you start looking at everything that leaves your house over time, it really, really adds up quickly. Loved opening up that folder to remind myself just how much we got rid I really wanted to get active in this thread again this year but Covid has kept me from doing much of anything the past 3 weeks. We actually added to clutter problem at the beginning of December. My mom passed away 6 years ago but after some issues with my stepdad we were forced to quickly move all of my and my moms things into our home. I only grabbed the important to me stuff. My mom was a bit of a hoarder so i tried to be selective. Some of things in the boxes I’d like to take a picture of and then I’m okay letting the items go. My mom took lots of photos and often printed them in triplicate. She had them all organized and with their negatives but just SO MANY PHOTOS! I’ve been gradually going through them and tossing duplicates, blurries, and photos that you don’t even know what it is. Last night I managed to get 3 photo boxes down to 1. Meanwhile the house has just gone to crud because I have no energy. My goal right now is just get the house back to functioning and 30 minutes a week total on decluttering. I know I can do this. I’m sure it’s hard going through your mom’s things, I think photos of important items are a great idea. Something Peter Walsh said that resonated with me is basically why are we keeping these sentimental items if we’re not honoring them? Displaying them in a place of importance? That really stuck with me. You absolutely can do this! The 30 minutes will make a big impact over time. Even bigger if you also get rid of items as you come across them in your everyday life. Try on a shirt and don’t like it? Put it into the declutter box immediately. Have to keep moving a kitchen item you never use out of the way to reach items you do? I to the donation box. You’ve got this! |
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 7, 2024 20:12:07 GMT
Thank you, I’d not heard of this. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show smart albums on iCloud, just regular albums. It would drive me insane not to have everything match up across my devices. And I see that you can create smart albums on an iPad, but I don’t seem to have that setting. Perhaps it’s for a newer model. If you are running iOS16 you should be able to see smart albums on your iPad. |
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mich5481
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,751
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Post by mich5481 on Jan 7, 2024 20:44:47 GMT
Somewhat decluttering- I finished my third book of the year today, and I've set it aside with the other two to donate. I saw a cool picture on Instagram or Facebook where someone stacked up all the books they read in 2023 to see if it was taller than them. While that's a cool visual, I don't want to hang on to so many books for the chance to take the picture! 🤣
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Post by cecilia on Jan 7, 2024 21:01:50 GMT
Got 3 things listed on eBay. Hope they sell.
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Post by calgaryscrapper on Jan 7, 2024 23:53:13 GMT
Put all of the Christmas items away. Kept a small box aside of items to re-visit if we want to keep them in November. Sold a couple of things in Facebook Marketplace over the holidays with money from them going to charity  |
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Post by Scrapper100 on Jan 8, 2024 0:21:20 GMT
I have put away two trees snd most of the odds and ends of Christmas. We still have the village and the main tree to do. We are going to probably purge some ornaments when we put them away. We got rid of quite a bit of other Christmas stuff already this year including two trees, a huge trolly car thing we hadn’t used in years. The scary thing is even with as much as we purged you can’t really tell - well the trees were in an outside shed but the rest was in the garage.
I want to do a few kitchen cabinets including spices. I bought a few clear boxes for my shelves and hope to get more organized. I also need to work on the master closet, my scraproom and the garages this year. We have already taken one truckload to goodwill. We have a long ways to go.
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theshyone
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,436
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Post by theshyone on Jan 8, 2024 1:19:44 GMT
I’m interested in the digital decluttering, especially cleaning up photos and stuff. Help iss appreciated
I hit unsubscribe on so so many emails.
Unfollowed so many fb pages, groups, and complained about ads being irrelevant
How does one clean up Instagram and Pinterest.
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jan 8, 2024 1:40:36 GMT
I didn't get a lot done this weekend, but I did give two bins of clothes to my friend to look through and took some bags of kids stuff to Goodwill that had been sitting in the garage. My friend also is trying out our elliptical to see if she wants it, so I got started on organizing that room. I think that needs to be my focus for the next few weeks. It is a multipurpose room that has my scrapbooking stuff, the computer/printer/desk/office stuff, exercise equipment, etc. It is also the catch-all spot in the house and I really want to stop doing that. I'm going to work on it one section at a time.
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jan 8, 2024 2:37:02 GMT
I am going through the pens, markers, crayons, etc and I have way too many pencils, crayons, markers and colored pencils. Is it worth trying to donate them somewhere or just toss?
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Post by katlady on Jan 8, 2024 2:49:30 GMT
I am going through the pens, markers, crayons, etc and I have way too many pencils, crayons, markers and colored pencils. Is it worth trying to donate them somewhere or just toss? Staples will recycle pencils (wood and mechanical), markers, pens, and crayons. Check to see if your local Staples has this service available. |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jan 8, 2024 2:56:04 GMT
I am going through the pens, markers, crayons, etc and I have way too many pencils, crayons, markers and colored pencils. Is it worth trying to donate them somewhere or just toss? Staples will recycle pencils (wood and mechanical), markers, pens, and crayons. Check to see if your local Staples has this service available. There is no Staples nearby. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jan 8, 2024 3:10:45 GMT
I am going through the pens, markers, crayons, etc and I have way too many pencils, crayons, markers and colored pencils. Is it worth trying to donate them somewhere or just toss? If they’re in good shape, try posting on Buy Nothing. I’ve seen them come up on ours and teachers will snap them up. |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jan 8, 2024 3:28:57 GMT
I am going through the pens, markers, crayons, etc and I have way too many pencils, crayons, markers and colored pencils. Is it worth trying to donate them somewhere or just toss? If they’re in good shape, try posting on Buy Nothing. I’ve seen them come up on ours and teachers will snap them up. Good idea. I’ll just make a bag and keep adding to it. And why do I have so many sticky notes?? I hardly even use them! |
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Post by lg on Jan 8, 2024 6:52:50 GMT
Declutter task of the day from My Simpler Life Declutter Calendar: Declutter top of kitchen cabinets and dust.I’ve read the suggestion of putting wax paper on top of your cabinets so they’re easier to clean. Has anyone tried this? If so, what were your results? It seems to me some dusting would still be needed around the edges and in the crevices on the outer edges of your cabinets unless you cut the paper to fit exactly. Which seems like a lot compared to dusting. Thoughts? My solution to this was having the cupboards raised a little and having the cornice basically butt up to the top of the cabinets 😂 no matter how much paper etc I put up there, the grease from cooking combined with dust was gross no matter how much I cleaned! Only thing I have to dust is the top of the fridge and I have a long enjo dusting wand I use to do that. |
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Post by dewryce on Jan 8, 2024 7:00:32 GMT
Thank you, I’d not heard of this. Unfortunately, it doesn’t show smart albums on iCloud, just regular albums. It would drive me insane not to have everything match up across my devices. And I see that you can create smart albums on an iPad, but I don’t seem to have that setting. Perhaps it’s for a newer model. If you are running iOS16 you should be able to see smart albums on your iPad. I just checked 17.1.1. But I don’t have that option. It’s okay, I keep all of mine on the iCloud anyway and it said they didn’t show up there. Something I’ll keep in mind though. Thanks! |
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As for the zero waste thing - absolutely no clue! While my trash and recycling have decreased a smidge (due to eating more fresh food and less bottled water) it's no where near the results some of these people get! 
