Weekend "do it" challenge

[mrs.jacinthe]

I'll do it.

[mrsemilys]

I will definitely do it! DH and I are going to clean out our closet tomorrow so I will be taking a lot to Goodwill.

[pitterwoo]

I've never done this before. It's anything that you decide to let go of- trash or donate right? I'll sign on and take pictures!

[aweilba]

Haha does it count if I did this yesterday?

[alf17]

I am in.

[heygrey]

I'm in! I bet I can do it in a half hour.

[emoflamingo]

I'll try but I have to unpack some stuff before I can toss some lol.

[sailorgray]

I'm in!!

Guys, I have sooo much to get rid of. We told our 3 year old that after Christmas we'd turn part of the basement into a playroom for him and his little brother. Well, it's after Christmas and he hasn't forgotten...

[heygrey]

Done. Probably half trash, but I eliminated a whole box of bedding - 3 throw pillows and a matching quilt/shams. All nice things, just not my style anymore. Pulled a few clothes from my closet, need to wash a couple and then consign, the others will just go to work as donations.

The best though - I finished cleaning out my section of these huge ikea shelves we have that we want to get rid of. We have three sections, so were keeping one for now and putting the other two in landlords' garage for their storage needs. Eventually we'll build something better for ourselves and get rid of the last one too. Yay!

[tempewick]

Does it count if it's part of the January challenge? Because I'll definitely get 27 pieces to trash/donate out of my craft room/office/spare bedroom.

[pitterwoo]

Jan 4, 2013 14:40:11 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Done. Probably half trash, but I eliminated a whole box of bedding - 3 throw pillows and a matching quilt/shams. All nice things, just not my style anymore. Pulled a few clothes from my closet, need to wash a couple and then consign, the others will just go to work as donations.

The best though - I finished cleaning out my section of these huge ikea shelves we have that we want to get rid of. We have three sections, so were keeping one for now and putting the other two in landlords' garage for their storage needs. Eventually we'll build something better for ourselves and get rid of the last one too. Yay!

How do you do this so fast? You sound like you already have things pretty pared down. Are you just ruthless? Not sentimental? Other tips?

I have like 5 things so far and I'm counting a pair of jeans I'm returning as one of them.

[heygrey]

Jan 4, 2013 19:10:12 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

Jan 4, 2013 14:40:11 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Done. Probably half trash, but I eliminated a whole box of bedding - 3 throw pillows and a matching quilt/shams. All nice things, just not my style anymore. Pulled a few clothes from my closet, need to wash a couple and then consign, the others will just go to work as donations.

The best though - I finished cleaning out my section of these huge ikea shelves we have that we want to get rid of. We have three sections, so were keeping one for now and putting the other two in landlords' garage for their storage needs. Eventually we'll build something better for ourselves and get rid of the last one too. Yay!

How do you do this so fast? You sound like you already have things pretty pared down. Are you just ruthless? Not sentimental? Other tips?

I have like 5 things so far and I'm counting a pair of jeans I'm returning as one of them.

Practice, and all of the above. We keep things pretty minimal just for lack of space, but I've just gotten really good at knowing when its time to let things go. Go for the easy stuff first, things that don't take any decision - receipts, scraps of paper, things that are broken or stained. Once you get the honest to goodness garbage out of your house its easier to sort through items that have some value.

And remember, stuff is just stuff and money is just money. If you get rid of something and miss it later, find a replacement. Don't fill your house because you *might* need something and it *might* save you money someday.

[hulley]

I'm in.

[TBM]

I'm in!

I need to do something to give me a jump start on our daunting cleaning/purging/moving task, and this is a good way to just do something quick and easy. Maybe DH and I will turn it into a competition....see who can get rid of 27 (or maybe 50) things first.

[jhawks482]

I'm done too.
I went through our laundry/ mudroom cabinet, and got rid of microfiber rags that were old/crusty/paint splattered. I also threw away random crap that was just thrown in there- old, scratched sunglasses, used lightbulbs (why do we keep those?), keys that don't belong to anything. I also went through the kids toy baskets, and THAT was easy. I just threw away broken, missing pieces to things, cheap crap toys from chuck e cheese, etc. And finally, I went through my cooking utensils drawer and tossed about 5 rusty spatulas and knives that I no longer use. Feels good!

[Rachael070707]

I'm in! This should be a great weekend for me to do it too - we're working on finishing up the creation of our laundry room.

[emoflamingo]

I have a box of stuff to get rid of (either sell or donate) including the throw pillows I had for the living room, 4 burgundy mugs, some cookware I have never used, plus tossed some plastic cups that were gross but we kept because we didn't want to use real cups. I have unpacked 4 more boxes too! Thank goodness for my sister, she came out as baby back up.

[pitterwoo]

Jan 5, 2013 1:31:18 GMT -5 heygrey said:

Jan 4, 2013 19:10:12 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

How do you do this so fast? You sound like you already have things pretty pared down. Are you just ruthless? Not sentimental? Other tips?

I have like 5 things so far and I'm counting a pair of jeans I'm returning as one of them.

Practice, and all of the above. We keep things pretty minimal just for lack of space, but I've just gotten really good at knowing when its time to let things go. Go for the easy stuff first, things that don't take any decision - receipts, scraps of paper, things that are broken or stained. Once you get the honest to goodness garbage out of your house its easier to sort through items that have some value.

And remember, stuff is just stuff and money is just money. If you get rid of something and miss it later, find a replacement. Don't fill your house because you *might* need something and it *might* save you money someday.

This was very helpful and yes, as callmefia said I was looking too much at big things or not counting things individually.

I did get rid of several substantial things as well as miscellaneous papers and pantry stuff. I did great! ;D

[heygrey]

:Y: pitterbull

[alf17]

I cleaned out my chest freezer...my pantry...I had Chrystal Light from 20007 (hanging my head in shame)..who knew that stuff expired. I also filled a bag with clothes and took it to Goodwill.

[mrsemilys]

We cleaned out our closet and whole bedroom. I can't tell you how much stuff we have to donate. It feels good!

[thewop]

I cleaned out one of our kitchen cabinets and my toiletry basket. I tossed SO much. I didn't count how many items (I did take pics though for the end of the month AW post!), but it was a lot. Probably 60% of my toiletry basket got tossed. I only kept things I remembered using in the last few months. SO much junk! DH and I are both in total purge mode. It feels so good.

[sailorgray]

I threw out at least 27 Christmas balls while taking Christmas dec down. Counts, right? My H cleaned our storage shed.

[Rachael070707]

I have a box of books, dvds and new lotions to take to Gooodwill. I think there are 17 DVDs alone. I cleaned out our kitchen "pill" cabinet. There was plenty of expired meds and a big bulk thing of Big Red gum. Don't know how we got that because we hardly ever chew gum...

[TBM]

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I cleaned/purged/organized two of the four drawers in the little dresser in our powder room. I couldn't believe how much I got rid of just from that, and it wasn't even stuff like expired meds.

Today I will finish the other two drawers and some baskets of weird stuff collected from the upstairs bathrooms. I would imagine that I will be glad that today was trash day and our can will be empty....I think I am ready to be ruthless.

[emoflamingo]

Well, my dirty thinking cap was missing. Still is.

[peach]

Oh, I "Did it" this weekend. And I got rid of two bags of trash too...