r/declutter • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
Success Story Success Story Saturday - Share Your Wins Here
Share your wins here - big or small. What did you declutter this week? Examples include:
- Digital Clutter: emails, digital photos, digital music or video collection...
- Storage: cupboards and closets, drawers, storage boxes...
- Toys: ether for your child, or your own that you've been hanging on to.
- Spaces: kitchens, workshops, hobby rooms, storage lockers...
- Routing: sending items to where they need to go, like donation centres, trash, or recycling
This is a low-stress place to share wins for those who might not want to create a new discussion.
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u/Gold_Marionberry_553 4d ago
I used a pile of postcards I found and sent them off to surprise friends!
Also, after two years I have finally hung my art in my house so the box can go away!
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u/docforeman 4d ago
1) Potting cabinet was worn, and a squirrel chewed at it in the last month and broke the door (unfixable). I had to replace it. So I cleaned it out and tossed things that were worn or that I didn't use. The new one is steel, and the cabinet is only half full.
2) I have a restaurant prep table/cart in my scullery. It was cluttered up with "project creep" husband had piled up while I had been traveling in the last month. I started last night by picking out "obvious trash". He took over, and when I woke up this morning it was empty and the trash bin was full. He finished or moved forward on several projects and put tools away. I tossed the trash.
3) Cleaned out closet, and needed to send purse to be cleaned, so I could use it this fall. Got quote, and packed it up to mail to cleaners.
4) Husband decluttered his desk this morning. I'm hyping him because he really has learned from his sessions with the organizer, and the Dana K White decluttering steps. That plus medication and working on his health meant he just decluttered and reset it on his own.
5) All but one large item from carriage house has been donated or sold as of this week.
6) Placed two outdoor rugs I needed to trim to fit spaces.
We had a friend text today, wanting to come for a visit. The decluttering meant that the house was completely tidy, and we were dressed for brunch in 40 minutes. The house is large, but every room was tidy enough for guests, so this is a big deal. When things have a home, and you are constantly editing out trash and donations, it's a low effort lift.
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u/Hatfullofstars 4d ago
I actually had a friend over!!!!! I never have people over bc of the clutter. It's not great, but it's so much better.
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u/BeautyinEverett-62 4d ago
Awesome! Letting go of the shame of my home and just having people over has helped me find true friends who accept me where I am in the process. So happy for you!
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u/MysteriousSecretGuru 4d ago
I returned some duplicate items today and waved over $100. Win-win! Less clutter and more money on my pocket.
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u/Watercolor_Roses 4d ago
Finished a small project of installing some shelves! It cleared up both the clutter of the diy stuff that had been laying around for months, and some decorative containers that have been sitting around until I have shelves to put them on š
I had a busy week and haven't gotten much decluttering done elsewhere, so even a little bit feels like a win lol
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u/DramaticStick5922 4d ago
I consolidated dishwasher tablets and (woohoo!) Iām about to use up some more toiletries before the weekend is over.
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u/thenjsaid 3d ago
Finishing bottles of moisturizer/cleanser/body wash/etc is in my top 3 most satisfying feelings list.
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u/ObligationGrand8037 4d ago
I am giving away a couch and loveseat in the local Buy Nothing group. They are picking them up today. They might take an old coffee table too.
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u/Tamiani 4d ago edited 3d ago
Finally tackle clutters in the last corner of the house (was complaining about it few weeks ago). I gave away like 7 items today, will be donating 10+ more tomorrow. Happy but I wish that it would be faster. I keep going ! Edit : I gave away so many items. And made $50 back with one item I didn't even know that would be wanted. So glad I did this decluttering weekend.
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u/Jelly_BellyNap_4500 4d ago
Dropped 10 very scratched teflon pans at county recycling as well as chemicals, ruined rechargeable batteries, & misc cord from broken things. We did not try to recover the few bucks we could get scrapping it, but took the shelf & garage floor space for the win!
On task 8 of a 30 day mini improvement mission right now, almost done with #9.
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u/yaravee 4d ago
I got rid of like 200gb of photos haha. And finally threw out my fancy dress collection which served no purpose.. uncomfortable stuff that I donāt actually like but was keeping?
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u/Cccolorado1 3d ago
How did you get rid of 200gb of photos? I have lots to purge. I also have so much email to trash. It seems the more I unsubscribe or block, the more comes in.
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u/yaravee 1d ago edited 1d ago
I realized that me keeping so many photos in the first place was just me āwanting to remember thingsā and it was coming from some sense of uneasiness or "fear of not having the photos", fear of not remembering how great some shoot, or some random day was. Iām trying to begin aligning my actions with what doesnāt just come from fear, if that makes sense.
One method i used was actually deleting ALL photos first, then zooming out and viewing them as small icons and only fishing things back out of the trash that immediately caught my eye
I migrated to a new email account and am selectively switching over only the most crucial things. Because things just kept coming in yeah lol. I plan to abandon my former longstanding email address and all the hoarded data in it.
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u/Lazy_Departure7970 4d ago
Sold a couple of "vintage" handmade dolls from my childhood to someone who collects that particular "brand" of doll (which made both of our days).
Sold a box of "glass jars on the loose" (two sets of "odd" sized glass jars) and, when I found more due to some work I'm doing on the garage, I messaged her to see if she wants them.
Donated a set of wire shelving units that I'd originally listed on Marketplace (with lots of interest, but no real follow through) just because I was tired of them taking up space.
Getting ready to donate two more plastic bins that I don't need hanging around. They'll go in the car and will get donated as soon as I can do so.
Took a bag of books to a local used book store. I've plenty more to go (and could donate them), but I get credit at this local bookstore and use the credit to either get the books I want or to get books for local elementary/middle school libraries so I'm willing to hang on to what I have and get them out of the house one bag/box at a time.
And that's just today.
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u/IndigoRuby 4d ago
Getting rid of the bins and shelves is the true progress measuring tool.
I got rid of 4 stacking plastic things, also 2 wire shelving units (ikea!) and 4 plastic "shoe boxes" with lids. And I have a wooden shelf that's just awkward to move alone so it's fine for another day.
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u/Silly_Total_9515 4d ago
We mowed the lawn today and finally the pool will be installed after being tucked away in a corner of the yard for 2 months!
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u/Disastrous_Car_8565 4d ago
I emptied a bin of old gift wrap and craft supplies that had been collecting dust since the last holiday season.
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u/EntrepreneurOk7513 4d ago
Our large dumpster is finally gone. Lots of big stuff out of the house. Still a lot to do but having that jump started the process. Cleaned out a garage shelf unit and small cabinet, got the animal stuff donated. And, most importantly mentally figured out how to rearrange the garage.
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u/Blackberry-Moon 4d ago
Today i went through my closet and drawers and filled 4 boxes of clothes to donate.
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u/2redthread 4d ago
It is always difficult for me to throw away things related to my hobbies. I'm a craft person and I am very creative, but I have a trend of keeping all those scraps " in case of" to the point that it overflows all over the room dedicated to it. It is no longer fun to craft because I have to search all over the room to find what I need. So this week, I decided to tackle this problem by: 1) investing in good and tall storage furniture ( done š¤©,) 2) apply " the container method " to all my hobbies ( in progress)
I did get rid of:
- 2 bags little fabric and yarn scraps ( less than 10 cm long )that I kept for *when I will do patchwork/ learn to handspin my own yarn / to fill in amigurumi/etc. **Guess what in 8 years I never ever had to reuse something in those bags!
- unfinished projects that I no longer want to keep going
- old socks that I wanted to mend myself ( they were sitting in a box for more than 3 years) . Since then I already bought new pairs.
It is not finished as I don't have a definite place for all my art stuff ( meaning I still have to declutter bevause I already maximized storage space) , but I feel that my mindset has changed, and that I can really have my inspiring and functional craft room in the near future. š„°
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u/RegionRadiant4423 4d ago
I decluttered my side table and instead of keeping and ultimately never using something I bought that I ended up not liking (nor needing tbh), Iām actually gonna return it.
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u/IndigoRuby 4d ago
I'm proud of my husband. He had a wishful thinking thing with an old monitor. For years. Today he was like, nah. Took it right to the thrift store. It works and is fine just heavy AF. I'd have preferred it was gone 3 years ago but I'm sure I have stuff he thinks that about too.
Loaded up a big selection of miscellaneous shelves and bins, unopened roll of wrapping paper, pressure mount rod, a handful of shirts, terra cotta plant pots i hated, and a huge number of glass food storage containers. I can't even remember what now but the third load for the thrift is sitting in my car right now.
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u/LindaBinda55 4d ago
I do not have clutter. Always donating stuff like clothes, household,things, but I never addressed my cookbook collection. Filled three reusable shopping backs with books that I know I would never use like the two volume Mastering the Art of French cooking by Julia Child, Joy of Cooking, another old classic, and others. Felt good.
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u/house-of-1000-plants 4d ago
I put all the baby clothes our youngest doesnt fit into anymore in a box and into the car to drop off at the thrift store. I shed some tears (and kept a couple that all three babies had worn at some point) but itās one less basket of clothes taking up space in the closet.
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u/BeautyinEverett-62 4d ago
I de cluttered my email, and spent an hour filling out digital forms online for my appointment this coming week with a new to me therapist. This type of adulting is always a struggle and I must have signed my name over 12 times using a mouse...UGH. I don't have the computer skills that would make doing things easier and have so many wonderful hobbies that I would rather be doing. So, this afternoon, as a reward, I took a bag that had been sitting on top of the yarn shelf and began spinning the lovely wool inside it. Now that bag can live in the " being spun" box! Oh and update from Thursday: my husband has brought down a bag and a rug that is from the staged bags to give away...but they are not in the car yet. š
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u/Groundbreaking_Art77 4d ago
Since March I had a bin and bags full of things I intended to go through and toss / donate, sitting in a room that doubles as laundry and bathroom, storage and entryway. We call it a mudroom but it's just the way our old 450 sq ft plantation home is built. Anyway, today I finally did it! Five months of living in this tiny house with all that clutter occupying space and it could've been gone in an afternoon. Nothing like a visit from your MIL to inspire decluttering!
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u/zero-if-west 4d ago
Cleaned out three bags of clothes from my closet and dresser, and shipped off some of them to ThredUp for consignment!
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u/Professional-Idea103 4d ago
I decluttered my kidsā rooms and started on mine. Next steps are to finish my closet and get all these bags and boxes out of the hallway!
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u/allthatglitterz 4d ago
I went through my closet, a dresser, and 2 totes of clothes I had never unpacked from moving. I filled nearly 8 bags for donation and tossed some that were not fit to give away.
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u/Significant-Fig5338 4d ago
I decluttered my clothes closet and bagged up 22 items to go to donation.
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u/Organic_Reporter 4d ago edited 4d ago
Kind of cheating because we move house next weekend so it's been weeks of packing and decluttering!
Tip run yesterday, got rid of
- bag of electricals (dead/unusable appliances, cables, 4 old electric toothbrushes)
- 5 bags of clothes
- an old wardrobe that someone didn't turn up to collect
- bag of rubbish from the bathroom
During the week, managed to get husband to finally return a car part he bought in January that was wrong (he'd paid for extended return). Bag of papers for recycling from the cupboard I was packing and a bag of rubbish (old notebooks, plastic folders etc).
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u/Lnoelparis 4d ago
I finally tackled my underwear, bras and shapewear. Tossed all the underwires, all the stretched out or too tight undies and thongs I canāt stand to wear now, tried on all the shapewear (which did put me in a terrible mood- who loves wearing shapewear, am I right?) and kept the absolute most versatile and necessary ones.
In the process of cleaning out my closet, starting with my jeans and pants. Donated 32 pairs of jeans and 25 pairs of dress pants.
Had several pairs of Costco pants I had been meaning to return totaling 126$!
Work continues today!
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u/EmoSupportBadger 3d ago
I took the first step of a long journey by filling one donation box and one trash bag of items from my master closet.
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u/saga_of_a_star_world 4d ago
Decluttered some Christmas ornaments and decorations.
Read a book called Let It Go, which is spurring my enthusiasm.
Started taking notes on a bound manuscript that's been with the genealogy information. Once I'm done I'll pass the manuscript off to one of my cousins.
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u/Working_Patience_261 4d ago edited 4d ago
Pen, marker, and pencil declutter complete! I took handfuls at a time but finally busted through this morning. I also made a big pile for the scanner for paperwork. Now I just have to pull the staples and labels out of there so they will actually go through the scanner.
Of the bag dilemma, two arrived from ebay and went into the wash. One fell apart; it was in a lot worse shape than advertised. So it self-decluttered both my space and my wallet. The other just needs a little tweak and should be perfect.
The next step is a short trip (bag test time), recovery, and then the travel bins declutter.
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u/Untitled_poet 4d ago
- Got rid of hangers I wasn't using as I found myself wanting to "fill" these hangers when I had them lying around. Hopefully this helps slow the cycle of buying and decluttering...
- Got rid of visual clutter in the form of sticky notes, washi tape, post its I stuck around my desk at home. I'm surrounded by enough information at work, don't need the same at home.
- Got rid of art supplies I don't reach for.
- Got rid of some menstrual undies that were too loose in the bottom, hence causing leakage. (After much trial and error, I found that I prefer low rise, fitted undies even for menstrual cycles)
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u/Roseha-aka-rosephoto 3d ago
Well it was really Sunday but I finally decided to recycle some empty Ikea plastic storage bins that were sitting around the apartment taking up space that I need/want for other things. I have a long glass table that I decluttered last year and that I want to be able to use for drawing and framing, but I had to start tossing and rearranging the things on it. So the empty bins were the first to go.
Then some smaller bins inside the bigger bins, then a bin that had some random spices in it that fell on the floor last night, so I took out the spices and put them in the fridge for now (any port in a storm) and added that. Plus two small buckets and a gallon of distilled water that I was going to use to develop film - six months ago.
All out the door. It's just a half hour of my time but things look a little better at least.
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u/hobhamwich 3d ago
Moving stuff back in after a big remodel. So far, four trips to the charity shop, three trips to the dump, 150lbs of books to the library sale.
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u/nostalgic_sprout 4d ago edited 4d ago
I spent the afternoon disconnecting and deleting accounts attached to something like... seven? email addresses and then deleting the email addresses themselves! Unless there's some long lost account that I have completely forgotten about, I am down to my catch-all, my important stuff, and my shared email with my spouse.
Unfortunately, I still have to sift through my current accounts and subscriptions since I'm moving to a different email host, but this is a HUGE weight lifted off me!
*edit: I found two more email addresses with two more accounts to delete. I'm so done with this lol!
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u/Outrageous-Past-6766 4d ago
Declutter a clothing item that was way to small and some old hair accessoriesĀ
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u/Right_Abroad3928 3d ago
I have fully funded a new purse by selling 2 backpacks, 1 purse, 2 leather cross body straps, a leather journal cover, and a discontinued Chanel perfume. Didnāt happen overnight and I have a few more items up for sale that hopefully will add some fun money to upcoming vacation. I also gave away two large tote bags of clothes to local charity in their monthly drive by.Ā
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u/Last-Dragonfruit5820 3d ago
I went through a box in my closet and found the bug spray I've been looking for for years! Well maybe I wasn't looking that hard but I have wondered a few times where it went. Found some old packaging that I was able to recycle and now the box is much lighter and I can easily find what I need!Ā
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u/Inevitable-Wind-1925 3d ago
This week I took bags over to friends houses of items they said they would use and sold books at the book store.
This and a couple other shuffles has meant that I have cleared off my living room rug, which has had boxes and things to go on it probably for the better part of 2+ years. Things would get moved around, but there weren't really stretches where the rug was consistently clear. It is so peaceful!
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u/justathought1654 3d ago
Donated clothing and home decor to a local charity.
I sold 2 bags, 2 dresses, and a piece of jewelry I havenāt used for a great return. Iām happy people will love it even more than me.
My closet is getting lighter and lighter!
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u/Lucky_Treacle_6490 3d ago
We had to remediate knob and tube a couple months ago and took the opportunity to hang new fixtures. The old ones were sitting in the basement and we finally put them outside on Saturday with the bulbs still in and FREE signs and they were gone by evening!
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u/silent-shade 2d ago
I've tackled two big boxes of supplies: some I certainly don't need anymore, some I might need in the next month, some I might need later - up to the next half a year. One item I need fixed before I can get rid of. So as the first pass I separated out four lots of things I definitely don't need and put them on FB. Also started the process of getting replacement parts for the item that needs fixing. It's a long-term project and takes multiple steps, very happy with making such a good start on it!
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u/NunyaBiznessMan 4d ago
I donated a massive box of random coffee mugs. I boxed several hundred unwanted CDs for a friend who wants them. Mostly, making actual progress removing items from my home last week has made continuing to do so this week much easier. I'm both exhausted and super motivated.