Our family will be moving at the end of this month. Grandma Deb is coming with us. We have been busy packing for the last month. I can only do so much in a day before my back pain gets in the way. I have asked for help and thankfully people have responded.
Shortly before packing, I saw a tweet that linked to a Goodbye Junk Challenge. It stuck in my head because I’ve been wanting to declutter our house but just haven’t found the time or energy. Moving has provided a perfect opportunity for us to declutter.
With the clutter, we first held a yard sale two weekends in a row in order to raise money to help with the move. Then, we took remaining items to an exchange company and exchange what we no longer needed for stuff we could use. We probably exchange about a dozen or so books and it’s doubtful we’d go the exchange route again. We took in everything listed below plus the few items they accepted. The ratio of offered to accepted was really low and add it that we had to hit two stores (drive time and gas), we really didn’t get a high return on investment.
Today, we will be taking the remaining items and donating them. Here’s what we’ll be taking in to donate:
- 217 paperback books
- 56 hardcover books
- 342 vhs tapes
- 45 dvds
Who knew we had so many items just taking up space, collecting dust, not being used.
We sent out all of the clothes our boys outgrew to a friend in need. The two huge boxes of clothes weighed almost 100 pounds.
It really does feel good to get rid of clutter and help someone in the process. We’ve also trashed a ton of broken toys, games with missing pieces, toys that our cats destroyed, and recycled lots of paper from art projects.
Next up, TOYS! I’ve already sorted what we’re keeping verses donating. And I put myself on a strict policy that what goes (trash or donate) MUST be larger then what stays. So far, so good.
