DECLUTTERING

[SCMagnolia]

Dress for Success! That's it!!!! 

That CD organizer looks awesome!  I can still keep the artwork and liner notes (which also contain some of my notes for dance classes) and it looks like I can just pull those sleeves out to take CDs to class with me. 

[siamesecat2965]

Dress for Success! That's it!!!! 

That CD organizer looks awesome!  I can still keep the artwork and liner notes (which also contain some of my notes for dance classes) and it looks like I can just pull those sleeves out to take CDs to class with me.

These are what I got (but larger) , since i can put them out of sight. http://www.amazon.com/Case-Logic-CDE-48-Capacity-Wallet/dp/B00011KM3I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390583360&sr=8-1&keywords=cd+wallet

[Outdoor Girl]

Use your OCD powers to catagorize and alphabetize each CD binder/organizer.   

My brother has a fairly large album collection, stored in milk crates and all alphabetized.  My oldest nephew is quite the DJ - has a great mixing board and these HUGE speakers, including an extra subwoofer.  He was DJing my brother's 50th birthday party, using my brother's albums and other people were grabbing albums and putting them back willy nilly.  Nephew was freaking out because my brother would be freaking out about everything no longer being alphabetized.  Someone made a comment.

I countered with, 'Brother and I have CDO.  It's like OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order, as they should be!'  I love that line.  And my bookshelves are alphabetized by author and then by title, if it isn't a series.  The series' get kept in order but if the author has more than one series, those are alphabatized by the name of each of the series'.

[GlitterIsMyDrug]

Dress for Success! That's it!!!! 

That CD organizer looks awesome!  I can still keep the artwork and liner notes (which also contain some of my notes for dance classes) and it looks like I can just pull those sleeves out to take CDs to class with me.

They have them for DVDs too, which is what I've been looking into because our DVDs are running amock at this point. My CDs are in CD sleeves, ideally with their album artwork (ideally being the key word here), and then sorted by genre into different binders...and then alphabetized in there....I went a little nutty.....

[SCMagnolia]

SiameseCat,  I might like those because they'd keep things dust-free, but are the sleeves big enough to put all the CD art/inserts in with the CD itself, too?

Outdoor Girl, I totally get it! Books, movies....  They're all sorted and in order!!!  And Glitter, I already have my CD's sorted by genre, then by alphabetical order.  At first, it was just easier to find music for my classes that way -- teaching salsa?  All the Latin dance CD's are in one place.  But then....  Even the stuff I've bought just for my own listening over the years is by genre!!! 

Gawd... I need help!!!! 

[jayhawk]

I need help with my decluttering.  We are doing the world's slowest move, which is great for decluttering.  I have a printer paper box stuffed full of pantyhose.  Most of them are still in the original packaging.  I haven't worn pantyhose in the last year.  But they are in the original packaging, and they weren't cheap.  Opinion?

It's hard to get rid of things that we paid a lot of money for, isn't it? But really, the expense is a red herring. It doesn't matter of the item was expensive or not; what matters is if it has value for you. Not always the same thing. Sounds like the pantyhose don't have value for you, but they might for someone else.

I like the idea of donating items to organizations or people I know will use or appreciate them.  On the other hand, if you did spend a lot of money for an item and it still has value, you could always try to sell it to recoup some of your cost. 

The important thing is if you don't use it or love it, you're paying rent to hold on to something useless.  Find a way to let it go.

[siamesecat2965]

SiameseCat,  I might like those because they'd keep things dust-free, but are the sleeves big enough to put all the CD art/inserts in with the CD itself, too?

Outdoor Girl, I totally get it! Books, movies....  They're all sorted and in order!!!  And Glitter, I already have my CD's sorted by genre, then by alphabetical order.  At first, it was just easier to find music for my classes that way -- teaching salsa?  All the Latin dance CD's are in one place.  But then....  Even the stuff I've bought just for my own listening over the years is by genre!!! 

Gawd... I need help!!!!

For the most part, yes. I will confess, and some may cringe, if it were too large, I simply ripped the cover off, and stuck that in. I did find that by doing it the way I did, It meant I couldn't use every sleeve, as there are 4 on each page, both sides. So sometimes if the inserts were larger, it didnt' quite fit, so I ended up alternating, which worked. But...I just wanted them out of sight, and so how they went in wasn't as much of an issue for me as was getting them out of sight.

Regarding DVDs; I got rid of a lot of them, esp if I could stream them through Amazon Prime (or Netflix, if you have that).  I figured why keep them around, if I could simply hit a couple of buttons and voila, watch.

[siamesecat2965]

I need help with my decluttering.  We are doing the world's slowest move, which is great for decluttering.  I have a printer paper box stuffed full of pantyhose.  Most of them are still in the original packaging.  I haven't worn pantyhose in the last year.  But they are in the original packaging, and they weren't cheap.  Opinion?

It's hard to get rid of things that we paid a lot of money for, isn't it? But really, the expense is a red herring. It doesn't matter of the item was expensive or not; what matters is if it has value for you. Not always the same thing. Sounds like the pantyhose don't have value for you, but they might for someone else.

I like the idea of donating items to organizations or people I know will use or appreciate them.  On the other hand, if you did spend a lot of money for an item and it still has value, you could always try to sell it to recoup some of your cost. 

The important thing is if you don't use it or love it, you're paying rent to hold on to something useless.  Find a way to let it go.

I'm kind of the opposite; for me, once its been purchased, cost isn't really an issue, for the most part. I've given things away, and would rather see someone use them, even if they did cost me $$. At Christmas, I gave my cousin in law a leather jacket I'd had sitting in my closet and no longer wore. She kept saying "are you sure, are you sure?" I told her yes, plesae take it, wear it, and enjoy it, esp since it looked so good on her. I've had others ask me "do you want any $$ for this?" but again, if I know someone likes something or can use it, I'm all for giving it to them, so its not cluttering up my house.

The only exception is some of my Vera Bradley collection. I have waaay too much, and my tastes have changes, so I'm contemplating getting rid of some of my bags. But, that being said, while I didn't pay full price, they aren't cheap, so I'd rather try and sell some of them, than give them away. I don't know why I'm like that about these only, and nothing else, but I am.

[KenveeB]

I countered with, 'Brother and I have CDO.  It's like OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order, as they should be!'  I love that line.  And my bookshelves are alphabetized by author and then by title, if it isn't a series.  The series' get kept in order but if the author has more than one series, those are alphabatized by the name of each of the series'.

You say that like it's a bad thing. My bookcases are the same, except they're first sorted categorically. Can't have sci-fi, romance, and nonfiction sharing the same shelf-space! (Oh, and my series are sorted chronologically, not categorically.)

[Sophia]

I countered with, 'Brother and I have CDO.  It's like OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order, as they should be!'  I love that line.  And my bookshelves are alphabetized by author and then by title, if it isn't a series.  The series' get kept in order but if the author has more than one series, those are alphabatized by the name of each of the series'.

You say that like it's a bad thing. My bookcases are the same, except they're first sorted categorically. Can't have sci-fi, romance, and nonfiction sharing the same shelf-space! (Oh, and my series are sorted chronologically, not categorically.)

Much better than my husband's method.  By size.  Between us we have a lot of books, and the ManCave basically became the Library.  The shelves are adjustable, so many of the shelves are adjusted paperbook high.  I can not find anything.  (Sigh)  But I can't complain because I just ask him for it, and he finds it.  But it does mean that my Travel books are on 3 different shelves.  Some of the books are double-depth too. 

[Lynn2000]

For CDs, I ripped them all onto my computer, as that's the only object I use for listening to music these days. Before that, I removed them from the jewel cases and kept them in binders, often with the liner notes in one pocket and the CD in another (essentially taking up two pockets per disc). I did generally keep the jewel cases, though, because the idea was that someday I would have more space and I would put the two back together. However, I could keep the jewel cases in inaccessible places.

For DVDs, I'm trying to do something similar, though I'm not technologically at the point where I can have all my movies be digital. So, I still have a lot of DVDs/Blu-Rays. I'm trying to put them into binders, and then I keep the cases in an inaccessible storage location, because someday I would still like to reunite them and display them on a shelf. I have one DVD tower where I still have DVDs in their cases, and unfortunately it's now become kind of a value judgment... Like, oh, this is one of my favorite movies, I'll keep it in the case on the shelf! But I have so many favorite movies that this doesn't really work.

I have all the Sean Bean Sharpe movies on DVD, for example... That's 14 individual DVD cases, I think. I should just put them in a binder, get those cases off my shelf, and free up some space for the DVDs trickling onto my coffee table.

[Lynn2000]

Oh, on another topic, I've been doing the thing with my closet where after I've worn something, I turn the hanger around when I put it back in the closet, so I can see at a glance what I've already worn. It appeals to my sense of fairness where I want to wear all of my clothes the same number of times. It also makes sure that everything in my closet gets pulled out and worn at least once, so I can see how it's holding up--some I haven't worn in years just because they were stuck at the back and hard to get at.

I've gotten rid of a couple sweaters so far. One, after I wore it for a day, I saw that the sleeve had ripped out at the seam sometime during the day! It would be easy enough to fix, but on the other hand, I am looking for reasons to discard things, so out it goes. Another one, weirdly, was starting to discolor around the cuffs and hem. It was a lavender sweater and the edges were getting kind of yellow--I don't know why, I don't wear lotion or anything that could be staining it. Oh well, guess its time had come...

[violinp]

I've finally decided to get my room clean. It has looked like a pigsty for far too long.

My progress so far:
- I've thrown away a goodly amount of junk - papers from long ago, cheese wrappers, what have you
- I've washed and put away almost all of my clothes, put the out - of - season clothes in my storage box, and decided in part what clothes I'm giving to charity.
- I've cleaned out under my bed for the most part, and my storage boxes fit under there nicely!
- I've pulled my junk out of the closet, and put my dad's storage box (long story short, my parents have to store some stuff in my room) in the closet.

I'm hoping to clean up the floor, move most of my books to backpacks (don't have enough room to put them all on bookshelves), and put my Christmas ornaments in the closet in the next week or so, since I don't work most of the "normal" workweek. Then, I have to decide what I'm going to do about re - arranging my room, because it doesn't really work in the way I need it to right now.

[Tierrainney]

Inspired by the thread on Not Wanting her 30 year old baby clothes, I decided to go through the clothes in the attic. Since the youngest child is now 8 years old, I don't anticipate that I will need them again, and probably won't be wanted when the children are older, either.

So far I have brought down 4 plastic storage bins and condensed it down to just one. I just can't make myself give up any of the clothes with Winnie the Pooh and friends on them. Otherwise it would probably be 1/2 of a bin.

I am only up to 18 month clothes, so I have a few more to go.

[violinp]

I've finally decided to get my room clean. It has looked like a pigsty for far too long.

My progress so far:
- I've thrown away a goodly amount of junk - papers from long ago, cheese wrappers, what have you
- I've washed and put away almost all of my clothes, put the out - of - season clothes in my storage box, and decided in part what clothes I'm giving to charity.
- I've cleaned out under my bed for the most part, and my storage boxes fit under there nicely!
- I've pulled my junk out of the closet, and put my dad's storage box (long story short, my parents have to store some stuff in my room) in the closet.

I'm hoping to clean up the floor, move most of my books to backpacks (don't have enough room to put them all on bookshelves), and put my Christmas ornaments in the closet in the next week or so, since I don't work most of the "normal" workweek. Then, I have to decide what I'm going to do about re - arranging my room, because it doesn't really work in the way I need it to right now.

Very late update on this, but I got it all done! I can see all the floor that doesn't have furniture on it, and everything is clean and/or put away. Yahoo! I ended up filling the trash and recyclable dumpsters with all the junk I had in my room, and that's saying a lot, considering they're almost the same height as I am.

I even ended up finding my dad's novel that he'd tried to get published more than a decade ago (my room used to be my parents' office for several years), so that's been cool reading and connecting in another way with my dad, since I, too, have aspirations to be a writer.