I'm sick of having too much stuff everywhere. So yesterday I started work on a new resolution. I want to Freecycle thirty items/groups of items in thirty weekdays (six weeks.) If an item has no takers, I'll give it away somewhere else (like Goodwill) or toss it. I need to declutter, but it feels overwhelming. I'm hoping by doing just a bit each day I'll slowly but surely chip away at all the stuff! There's a good chance I'll extend this past thirty days; we'll see.
I'll keep you up to date here. Most days I'll just put an addendum at the end of my posts listing the item(s) I'm getting rid of.
1. COOKBOOKS--I Freecycled a bunch of cookbooks that I don't use. I use the Internet for most of my recipes. I kept my Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook and a few others, but had plenty of responses for the rest. They're on my porch awaiting pickup. Don't tell anyone, but I did buy another cookbook online yesterday. I do, however, think it's one I'll use almost daily--more on that later!
1. COOKBOOKS--I Freecycled a bunch of cookbooks that I don't use. I use the Internet for most of my recipes. I kept my Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook and a few others, but had plenty of responses for the rest. They're on my porch awaiting pickup. Don't tell anyone, but I did buy another cookbook online yesterday. I do, however, think it's one I'll use almost daily--more on that later!
16 comments:
Wow, go you! We've used Freecycle a time or two. It's amazing what people will take off your hands. Our biggest problem is that I'm paranoid about people coming to our house when my husband isn't around and his work schedule is the pits. As in, there is no schedule. Still, it's worthwhile.
Good for you Beth! Coming from someone who relatively recently accomplished what I like to refer to as the big purge, you won't miss any of it once it's gone. :-)
That's a great idea! I just joined my local freecycle group! hopefully I can unload of some stuff!
Cookbooks?!? Golly, it makes me wanna drive by your house to take a look.
You go, girl! That's an awesome goal. Please let us know how it goes.
How terrific! I started gradually letting go of the stuff that had followed us from move to move. It's nice how freeing it is to be rid of it, how you can better honor and enjoy what you choose to keep, and how you have space now for new things that better suit your needs. Good for you!
I totally understand how you feel! We only live in 1040sq ft, so space is a premium. I go to the thrift store about every 6-8wks to drop off stuff. I did buy a new cookbook, though, too. I needed more salad ideas:-) Wish we lived closer to you to swap stuff!
I need to do the same thing! We have waaay too much stuff.
What a great idea!
Merry Christmas!
Last week the we picked out quite a few toys to get rid of (the messy room was getting out of hand). The girls were actually fine about it, so I was relieved. I posted them for free on craiglist, and they were gone within an hour. Posting them also put me in touch with several people collecting toys for charity, and it motivated me to spend the next day collecting more toys and old clothes to give to them. It felt GREAT! Love your resolution, I should do that too.
Beat you to it! I was so ashamed of the mess that would face my daughter over Christmas that I freecycled a load of stuff at the start of December. To see the pleasure on the faces of folk who picked up our 'junk' made it doubly worthwhile. I'm only up to nine items and I doubt I'll reach anyhting like your target but it's sure been satisfying.
Beth -- What do they say -- Great minds work alike? I am in the process of decluttering right now too -- I'm specifically getting rid of old files. One ambitious day this week I filled the shredder three times (and it's a big shredder)! Good luck with your de-cluttering too. It is so liberating, isn't it?
Glad to hear you're giving FreeCycle a whirl. It's amazing that we all use to have community and family to give\pass along things to, and since most of us don't anymore FreeCycle gives us a chance. Plus it keeps stuff out of the landfills and helps others out too. Enjoy your decluttering and happy holidays to you and yours :)
Call Me Cate--Yeah, I like to just to front porch pickup so I don't have to go to the door, for safety (and convenience) purposes.
Laurel--Yes, you did purge! And very well!
Anna--Hope you like Freecycle as much as I have!
Isdihara--Wish I could have passed along some cookbooks to you!
Janice--I hope that's the case--that we enjoy what we have more since there's less clutter!
Hillary--Swapping stuff would be great! We need to just start a new "Blogville" city where we can all move and be real-life friends. :)
Becky--Yeah, how do we end up at this point, with STUFF everywhere?!
Sasha--Merry Christmas to you too!
Janell--Good for you! Glad you were able to help an individual and charities.
Scriptor--I didn't know Freecycle was in the UK too! That's great!
Sandra--Oh, files...I definitely need to get to those. :)
Anonymous--Freecycle is wonderful!
Great idea! I think everyone needs to do that...maybe I'll start freecycling.
I love Freecycle...I've used it many times to try to declutter as well! People will take just about anything!! One man's trash is another man's treasure!
So glad you are decluttering. Assuming you read my blog, you know that I have purged my entire house of everything we don't use & won't use (which is 1/2 of everything we owned).
It is very freeing & weight-lifting.
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