Decluttering Challenge #4

 

Over the last three weeks, I’ve been sharing some ideas of things you might want to declutter from your house. The great news is that if you’re just about to uproot the house to decorate for Christmas, you can dovetail some of this cleaning/decluttering and accomplish two things at once! I have ten more ideas for you today. Let’s get started!

Do you have a phone graveyard? I confess that we do. I have read that you can donate old (still functional) phones for those in need and unable to afford them – and of course, if your phone is new enough, you could probably sell it! We tend to use ours until they flat out wear out, so recycling them in those traditional ways isn’t an option for us. But we do keep them contained in one spot so we know where to find them if we need something from them. If you just have them littered around in drawers or under beds, this would be a great time to gather them up and either let them go or contain them!

What about all those reward cards? How many times do you go to a coffee shop, get a punch card, and then never go back to that shop? Or do you sign up for keytag style cards at every grocery and gas station, but never remember to add the tags to your key ring? If you have cards strewn about – of paper or plastic varieties, this it the time to gather them and either activate the rewards for which they were intended, or shred them!

Shopping bags multiply like butter tubs. Shopping at Aldi/Amazon has greatly reduced the number of shopping bags that come into this house, for sure! But we do still end up with some leftover shopping bags. And they can quickly get out of hand! Here’s what we do. First of all, I fold them into cute little triangles that don’t take up much space. That’s been a game changer. We keep them in a specific holder, and when the holder gets full, we take a big stash of them to the clothing boutique where we volunteer every month. In the summer, we use them for garage sale shopping bags (when we host a sale). And anytime we travel, I use them to hold our shoes. I can’t stand shoe bottoms touching anything in my suitcase. (We also used to use them for dog waste bags back when we were dog-sitters.) Bottom line? Don’t let the pile of them get out of hand!

Towel collecting isn’t a thing. When Ryan and I were married, we both owned a bunch of towels, so over time, we’ve had to come up with creative solutions for getting rid of what we don’t need. We’ve sold some at garage sales, thrown away the ones not worth keeping, and moved some of the rough ones to the garage tub for messy outdoor projects. Just like my previous story about bed sheets, I have a specific spot where I store towels, and we can only own what fits in that spot. (I do keep a little tub separately for guest towels.) I have read that you can donate towels, sheets, and blankets to animal shelters if you need an outlet for them!

Washcloth collecting isn’t a thing either. This is really an extension of the note above, but I would also add that it’s good to rummage through the drawer of kitchen towels and washcloths to get rid of ones that have seen better days. And while we’re talking about the kitchen – there’s no harm in downsizing the burned-and-tattered potholders, either.

If you’re not still using them, why are you hanging onto school books? Of course if you’re homeschooling (or teaching anywhere) and have a great collection you’re still using, that’s a great reason to keep them. But if you’re just holding onto all the books you purchased (overpriced, of course) from the school bookstore, and you aren’t referencing them for your job, they might just be taking up space. If you do refer to them, they earn their keep.

Do your phone covers fit your phone? Remember all those phones you cleaned out? What about all the covers you bought to keep them safe? I tend to only ever have one cover for a phone and I get rid of it when I get rid of the phone. But I know some people change phone covers to match outfits and hair colors and everything else, so if you have a whole stash of them, free up some space by getting rid of covers that don’t fit your current phone.

How many candles do you really need in a power outage? When we moved this last time, I had a whole drawer stuffed to the brim with candles I hadn’t burned in about five years. They were heavy and taking up a lot of space, so I sold them in a yard sale. If you have candles that you aren’t burning because…you don’t like the scent, you no longer burn candles, or you just lost interest, let them go. If they have life left in them (even if they are partially burned) they will probably sell in a yard sale. I am always amazed by how quickly burned candles sell! But if they’re just done, throw them away.

Every now and then, it’s okay to part with books. I am generally never an advocate for getting rid of books, and I probably don’t need to explain that. But when we lived at WillowBridge, I ruthlessly purged my book collection and got rid of everything I didn’t love and never intended to read. I think I eliminated over 100 books! I donated them to friends who did want them, and everyone won. Now the books I have are dear friends that I love so much. If you didn’t love a book, have no attachment to it, and won’t read it again, it’s okay to sell or donate it!

And finally…unless you’re a nail tech, there’s no need to keep tired nail accessories. We talked about old nail polish in another list, but what about files that no longer file? Gel or acrylic accessories if you no longer use those kinds of nails? Or if you have jumped on the bandwagon of sticker-style polish but you have pieces that don’t fit your nails, why are you keeping them? Much like other categories in our home, I have a basket for my nail supplies. I can’t own more than will fit in that basket.

            That should keep you busy for this week! Happy cleaning!