Getting ‘rid’ of STUFF! (?)

Keesha

Keesha

🐟
Location
Canada 🇨🇦
Do any of you wonder ‘How did we get so much STUFF?’

Did you donate some of it?

Did you sell it on kijiji or Craig’s list ?

Did you give it away to friends or family?

Did you have a garage sale?

Did you take stuff to a consignment shop?

Did you do all the above ?


How did you manage this or did you?

It might seem like a trivial question but I wonder how people downsize with this problem in question(!)(?)
 

This is a hard one for me. I’ve been through it so many times. I have a very hard time releasing anything that came from a family member. It’s taken me 20 years to come to the realization that you just can’t keep it all. I find it easier to donate it, rather than just throw it away. However my husband is all about throwing it away. A few years back we cleaned out our barn and I have to say that it was very satisfying to stand from the loft and throw things to the ground and watch them explode into pieces…Now I have the treasured items boxed and labeled in my shack.
 
Seeker said:
This is a hard one for me. I’ve been through it so many times. I have a very hard time releasing anything that came from a family member. It’s taken me 20 years to come to the realization that you just can’t keep it all. I find it easier to donate it, rather than just throw it away. However my husband is all about throwing it away. A few years back we cleaned out our barn and I have to say that it was very satisfying to stand from the loft and throw things to the ground and watch them explode into pieces…Now I have the treasured items boxed and labeled in my shack.
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My husband has an easier time getting rid of stuff too. He can throw things out easily but he isn’t as attached to stuff as I am. For a while I collected every card people gave me but after a while it becomes more of a fire hazzard than anything.
We’ve taken a bunch of stuff to the town dump and burned some things like feather pillows and duvas.
We have organized it all and have one average room full of stuff. This summer I’m going to commit to having a huge garage sale. The weird thing is that I don’t miss what I don’t know I have and I can’t miss it if I don’t know it’s there. Not sure if that was understandable but someone will ‘get it.’

Thanks Seeker ( my lifestyle sister lol )
 

The garage sale out here was a big no go....spent 2 days preparing, signs everywhere but still disappointed. Will not try it again. Had more pleasure out of donating to our local flea market lady.

I get it..until I wonder where I put that one thing I remember.
 
Oh, it's hard, it's hard. When I sold my house eight years ago, I had a giant garage sale and 99% of that stuff I had been dragging around on my back from state to state and house to house went home with someone. Why I thought I needed three punchbowl sets will forever puzzle me (I used one of them ONCE....)

Hopefully, somebody else is happy with my junk now.
 
jujube said:
Oh, it's hard, it's hard. When I sold my house eight years ago, I had a giant garage sale and 99% of that stuff I had been dragging around on my back from state to state and house to house went home with someone. Why I thought I needed three punchbowl sets will forever puzzle me (I used one of them ONCE....)

Hopefully, somebody else is happy with my junk now.
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LOL at the punch bowl..I think mine was still in the box when i got rid of it.......
 
The Salvation Army will pu at your house. I got rid of a lot of stuff by scheduling a pu with them. Gave away things on free cycle. The kids came and got quite a bit they wanted. Dropped off clothes at Goodwill. Only keeping things that I love and want around me. Informed everybody not to buy me anything that has to be dusted. Just give me MC and Visa gift cards for holidays as I can buy groceries etc to help me financially. So far that's what I get and its nice to splurge on a special treat sometimes!! I donated some of my books to the Library for their annual sale. Still a lot to go but I would like to move to a one bedroom condo so I am only taking what I need to live a simple life.
 
The vast amount of stuff I have is overwhelming ! I'm a craft addict ,so when I saw craft supplies anywhere - cheap-I stocked up ! My thinking at the time was if one doo dad costs $1 .... and if I can get 50 for $40 .....I'm SAVING $10 !!!!!! I was so proud of myself for saving all that money ! LOL
I also liked to do "trash to treasure" projects . Then I realized I have too much trash that never got turned into treasures :p I've been donating alot of stuff to the senior center .(They have a resale store ) but there's still alot of things that are too good to give away . I don't have a plan yet on how to downsize ,but I know it's going to take a long time to do it.
 
I'll be going through this soon. I'm getting rid of what I don't want, period! My husband's stuff in the garage, it's going to Goodwill. Foolish, yes it is, but I'll be moving to a new home/new life and don't need any of this stuff.
Kids don't want it, my husband's family is so large and always bitching, it's easier to just get rid of it then try to be kind.
 
Seeker said:
The garage sale out here was a big no go....spent 2 days preparing, signs everywhere but still disappointed. Will not try it again. Had more pleasure out of donating to our local flea market lady.

I get it..until I wonder where I put that one thing I remember.
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Thanks seeker. That’s good to know. Living in a rural area we don’t have many people around and I don’t want to go through all that work for nothing. I’m going to try consignment stores cause there’s quite a few around
Seeker said:
LOL at the punch bowl..I think mine was still in the box when i got rid of it.......
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:lol: @ the set of punch bowl only used ONCE!!
I have a bunch of regular sized casserole dishes that I need to get rid of ;
Other day bought a cute, colourful set of 6 Stoneware ‘mini’ casserole dishes. :rofl:
 
Toomuchstuff said:
The vast amount of stuff I have is overwhelming ! I'm a craft addict ,so when I saw craft supplies anywhere - cheap-I stocked up ! My thinking at the time was if one doo dad costs $1 .... and if I can get 50 for $40 .....I'm SAVING $10 !!!!!! I was so proud of myself for saving all that money ! LOL
I also liked to do "trash to treasure" projects . Then I realized I have too much trash that never got turned into treasures :p I've been donating alot of stuff to the senior center .(They have a resale store ) but there's still alot of things that are too good to give away . I don't have a plan yet on how to downsize ,but I know it's going to take a long time to do it.
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Oh your name is quite suiting then?
ME TOO! I’m a crafter also and have a lot of crafts. When I do get into a hobby, I jump in passionately with both feet. I’ve got plastic bins full of fabrics, sewing machines, sergers, beads, stones, different types of wood, paints ( acrylics & watercolours )canvases, fiction / non fiction books, reference books etc...
Its overwhelming figuring out what to do with it and then when I go to try and get rid of it I think of 101 more reasons to hang onto it. Perhaps maybe some hoarder qualities seaping in. Lol.
 
Am bookmarking this thread, for inspiration to get rid of stuff. Same me, once a crafter, now no longer, have to get rid of stuff. Wish now I had all that money that I wasted on 'stuff'.
 
RadishRose said:
Consignment shops are tough, at least around here. They only want the best; a tiny spot or a pulled thread, they refuse it. Thrifts store will take anything.
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Ill try a few things and see how it goes . I’ve donated paperback books to the library, gave away old bird feeders and stuff.

I’m going to start organizing stuff into sections. Stuff to get throw out. Stuff to donate. Stuff to sell. Stuff to give away but I can get lost looking at all this STUFF!
 
One of the problems with getting rid of stuff that are "treasured family heirlooms" is that often you're the only one who "treasures" them. My daughter and granddaughter made it very clear early in the game that they didn't want the stuff. I tell them that maybe they don't want it now but someday they may wish they had taken them. Oh, well.... I've offered them to other young'uns (and old'uns) in other branches of the family with the same results.

I have coerced my granddaughter into taking some stuff to store away for her daughter, like the teeny, tiny little chair that my great-grandfather made for my teeny tiny little grandmother to sit in on her first birthday (she only weighed 3 pounds at birth in 1900). And the china doll that sat in that chair after that. A quilt made by another great-grandmother. If they want to discard that stuff after I am gone, so be it, but I can't do it.
 
jujube = " "treasured family heirlooms" is that often you're the only one who "treasures" them"
That's very true and it's a shame. But, like the saying goes, "One man's treasure is another man's junk". My daughter will probably appreciate my ''treasures'', but she'll probably not take as good care of them as I do. They will be junk in no time. Good thing I won't know about it and won't see it.
 
Sorry, just had to post George Carlin's stuff routine....Warning: Language. I usually give my stuff away to goodwill type charities, or salvation army...they have picked up some furniture from my driveway in the past. Some things I'll put out with a free sign, and they'll be gone in a few hours. Junky stuff I just throw out in the trash. I have sold a few things on craigslist years ago, teak CD cases, good down winter parkas, and my car, all smooth cash transactions. My mother in law gave me a fur jacket that I never wore, I did sell that in a consignment shop.

 
jujube said:
One of the problems with getting rid of stuff that are "treasured family heirlooms" is that often you're the only one who "treasures" them. My daughter and granddaughter made it very clear early in the game that they didn't want the stuff.
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With that attitude, I'd be tempted to tell them... okay, fine... since you are not interested in my treasure hoard,
I will be happy to bequeath it to someone else who will appreciate it. And that is exactly what I would do...
beginning with all my money... and I would explain it exactly that way in my will.

.
 


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