# It's Gone!



## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Yes, 3 big black trash bags and 1 white kitchen bag of clutter and trash are now GONE from my kitchen! DH hauled them in this morning on our way to work and helped me get them in the dumpster. One was pretty heavy! He asked what the heck was in that one, and I said, "I don't remember, but it's all trash. I cleaned out the kitchen cupboards!" He's alway afraid I'm getting rid of one of his "treasures"! 

DD also agreed to haul off the 5 boxes of donations tomorrow on her way through town to my mom's house. I've had 3 boxes in the upstairs hallway for, well, we won't say how long , but she mentioned those too, as she has since added to the pile. So they might go, too! :happy: Really depends on how much she can fit in her little car.

I know there are a LOT more bags and boxes in my very near future, this is just the tip of the iceberg. But it feels so good to have these out of my kitchen and mudroom, so I can start fresh again! Now I'm really looking forward to the weekend! :dance:


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

YAY!!!! Do that little happy dance !!! Doesn't it feel great to see all that stuff leave? I felt so much lighter after it was gone. Clutter really does carry physical weight to it. All those years and we never knew! Have fun ths weekend. You deserve it!


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## Cindy in NY (May 10, 2002)

I got to do a small happy dance too! I took three bags of clothes to Salvation Army. I threw out a travel liquor case that we had hoped to sell on ebay but we could not get rid of the mildew smell. EWW!! (I did keep the inside parts, just in case!) DH and I cleaned out a closet and I got rid of a pair of shoes that did not fit and an old pillow that I had made from two really old, smushed up pillows! Why do I keep things like that?!


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Cindy, I am finding so many of "why am I keeping this" items! I think sometimes I thought I was just being clever and making "old, useless" stuff "useful" again. I, too, have a very flat pillow that I had rolled up and covered with fabric from an old bathrobe. It's been falling apart for a long time. Why am I still hanging on to it? Sometimes it's because I think I may need it someday. But now I realize even if I did, I wouldn't be able to find it when I did! And some of it is because of who gave it to me. But now I think about it, and those people have no clue whether I use it or not, and odds are they don't even remember giving it to me in most instances! (I sure don't remember everything I've given everyone!) If I deem this the case, it is easier to get rid of it if I don't use it.

So now, because I've changed my way of thinking of these things, it is easier to get rid of a lot of it. I still have my share of "skeletons", but I'm hoping they will be easier to deal with the next time around. :nana:


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## draggahaus (Feb 3, 2008)

I have found that I hord magazines...thinking there are things in them that I will want to do later...
I am 35 years old and had some from when I was in High school...I even moved them with me when I was in the Military...how crazy. So I sat one day and went through all them and pulled out pic of things that I liked put them into a book, and tossed out the rest. I kid you not 16 boxes..and boy did it feel good to get them out of my house.


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## moongirl (May 19, 2006)

I love my magazines too! But........I find that the older I get the easier it is to part with them.


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## Sumer (May 24, 2003)

:goodjob:
Whoooo that is great. I know what you mean when you dont remember what you have to pitch. I try to forget being once it is in the bag it has to go out. That way I wont pull it badk out and keep it.


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## moongirl (May 19, 2006)

on my way to work today I am dropping off 6 bags of clothes and stuff, along with 3 boxes of books and a box of kid's shoes!! Everything I have gotten rid of for the last couple of weeks. My kids' closet looks great. Of course it looks like we haven't cleaned anything else! LOL
At least now there is somewhere to put some of the other stuff.


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## Cindy in NY (May 10, 2002)

DH and I are doing what he likes to call the "house blitz". We go into a room and look at everything and decide if it should stay or go. We've done the two spare rooms and yesterday did the dining room.

We decided to sell the silver plate gravy boat and warmer that was a wedding gift but has never been used (17 years now). I went through a stack of envelopes that have been sitting on the buffet for a long time and found an expired credit card (cut it up) and a couple of PIN numbers that should be in the lock box upstairs. Found some photos from about 7 years ago that we had made copies of and never sent them out. One copy was supposed to go to my sister but since her now ex is in it, I don't think she'll want it! Also emptied out the basket that holds all our catalogs and left only the few current ones. Why did we keep catalogs from 2000?


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Cindy, I wish my DH was that on board! He won't admit it, but he is very much a packrat. I tried cleaning out the closet several years ago, thinking that it was safe to get rid of some of his old shirts (he still had some from when he was in highschool, and this was 20 years later!) I figured if it had hung there for 20 years, and I had never seen him wear it, it was a candidate for pitching. Unfortunately, he came in and saw the pile of shirts, and proceeded putting them all back in, after all those were good shirts! After that many of them found their way out of the closet one by one and made it to the burn barrel when he wasn't looking. He hasn't once looked for any of them. And I only did this with things I knew he would never wear, and nothing that had any sentimental value.

Funny thing is, this week he put on an older shirt that is now too tight (DH quit smoking 3 years ago, and with that got a little bit of a "ponch"!) He brings it to me and said, "I know I haven't gained THAT much weight! Some of these old shirt have just been washed too many times and they've finally shrunk enough I can't wear them!" :rotfl: I added the shirt to my donation box.


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## Cindy in NY (May 10, 2002)

lickcreek - DH is very much on board for getting rid of "stuff" in the "public" areas. He would like most of the house to look like a museum, instead of a home (a little OCD I think).

However - we have two finished rooms in the attic. In mine I have all my sewing and craft things and it is pretty organized. It's a bit of a mess now because we are overwintering begonias and geraniums on the sewing table! His side has yet to be cleaned, organized, or straightened and we have been here 8 years! He has a problem getting rid of his "memories". His idea of cleaning is to take a bunch of stuff, put it in a box, and put it in the attic storage area. So now attic storage is packed! He keeps things like college papers (17 years ago), Camel souvenirs that he thinks will be worth something, and beer glasses. So much junk!! There is still so much stuff laying around that you can't walk through the room!


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Oh, yes, I understand. He's a "saver" too!

I would be happy if DH had his own space to store everything in, and we could keep the living spaces clutter free. Then there would be a "limit", you know, when you run out of room it's time to make some decisions. As it is, my whole house has become his "storage space". And we ARE reaching the limit!!!


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

I have actually decided to build an addition off the bedroom just to house Mark's Earnhardt memorabilia. It has taken over the entire bedroom and the overflow has hit the hallway. You can't even tell a woman lives in that room. It seriously looks like it belongs to a teenage boy!!! I am hoping to get the display area tacked on to an exterior wall, then redecorate in there. I can't wait to get all his collectibles out and organized. Having that stuff stacked all over the room is driving me insane!


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## lickcreek (Apr 7, 2006)

Ninn, I know how you feel. Only mine is with hunting gear! He has bows, guns of all kinds, paintball equipment, etc. He is into "mountain man" era camping, so we have all that too. Started out in a nook in the hallway, then a cabinet and nook in the hall. Then we got the huge gunsafe and put it in the "office" area (end of livingroom, divided off with free-standing shelves), so of course, all the extra stuff got piled in there too. Some of the camping gear is in the utility room. He's terrible about putting things away, and if I do it, I always do something wrong. So, I set it in there for him to deal with, which he doesn't. Thus the mess. 

My computer is on a corner desk, and I have 2 file cabinets, and it's all I can do to get to it sometimes!

He told me we needed to get rid of those shelves because all we do is pile junk behind them! I had to remind him it was 99% his "junk"!


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## Christine in OK (May 10, 2002)

Lickcreek, my husband actually told me awhile back that he could probably stand not to have about half his t-shirts (he had about 30, and that was just work-quality, not barbeque, running or wear-to-the-store quality!). But he couldn't stand to throw them out, so if they just slowly disappeared one or two at a time...

He has about 12 now!


Cindy, my husband is a little like yours. He thinks the house should be absolutely spotless, absolutely all the time!! I periodically remind him that I am not his mother - she'll fuss about what a mess the house is, and all I can see is a little pile of papers someone was reading, or a speck on the floors. Of course, she also buys things like dishes and nice clothes and then never wears them or uses them. Gets upset when there's mud on her entryway rugs, etc. (I thought that's what they were for!)

Then he remembers how he hates to go over there because he's not comfortable, and how everyone in his family loves to come to our house because it's set up for easy gatherings and people don't worry about messing up our things. 

But he still wishes everything was inspection clean!


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