Good examples, Kswl! "Stuff" is so personal. I do think there's a distinct difference between "stuff" that's well-made and enduring, like many antiques, and "stuff" that's now 50% off in the clearance aisles of Hobby Lobby.

I definitely believe in reusing the bags, but why don’t they just reuse the bags I give them in the next year? Why do they think I want it back? I dread the whole gift card exchange event, both at Xmas and birthdays. I’ve tried putting effort into the presentation, for my own amusement, but now 30+years into it, I can’t muster the energy.

In the beginning, before it devolved into all gift cards in gift bags, my MIL would save the paper to reuse. That’s great. Sometimes she’d say you don’t need to be careful with that gift, we’ve used the paper twice now. Once an uncle ratted me out saying “HHI ripped the paper!” when MIL had stepped out of the room. Narc.

My SIL will still wrap her gifts to my MIL in boxes and paper. As my MIL slowly and carefully opens the paper, my SIL will impatiently say just rip it. OMG, I’ve been in this family 1/3 the time you have and even I know SHE WON’T rip it. How do you not know that?!

For the past 2 Xmas exchanges, they gave each other a gift card to the same supermarket. And then MIL hands the gift card back to SIL because SIL does any grocery shopping MIL needs.

whoops, I’m writing paragraphs. Please excuse me, proceed with ideas and encouragement about organizing.

That is hysterical HH! Feel free to vent here anytime.

Yes, I am not so devout that I take back the bag from the gift I've given. I find we typically return them the following year or occasion and vice versa.

While going through the guest room I discovered a folder of art created by my youngest niece and nephew. They are 18 & 16 now, these were pieces from when they were 2-5 years old. Oh my word the joy it brought me to see the pieces! I immediately shared photos with my sisters and the artists. I can’t dispose of them, they take up so little space and bring me so much happiness. Rediscovering them that way was such a treat, a reward for going through the craft supplies to box up to give away.

So far, I have a large box of items for a thrift store, and a large box of crafting items for an afterschool program (or the like).

Such sweet memories to find.

Hhireno it might be worth trying to look at your in laws from the scholarly standpoint of a visiting anthropologist studying a recently found tribe that was insulated from the rest of society for most of its evolution . Please do not ask me why I can recommend this strategy as a good— if not fool proof— method.

adding… and it’s not just helpful during the holidays!

Hhi, we have bags that have gone back and forth for years. It’s become a joke with my aunt and me, with the light blue bag with a pink bird on it that delivers little gifts all year round! I need to take the bags that people wrote ON or applied a permanent to-from sticker to and return to the givers so they can reuse them.

A friend’s family owned a gift wrapping paper factory. Her mother, who could have gotten wrapping paper by the boxcar-load, still insisted on carefully unwrapping every gift and saving the paper. Frugality and thrift are just bone-deep in some people.

I just re-watched the George Carlin bit about stuff. I had forgotten that the basic premise of the skit was that we only have houses to store our stuff. Be forewarned, the language is a bit rough.

Loved George Carlin! And then there’s the bit about cars and garages, where our cheap stuff is in the garage, and the $30,000 car is outside. We aren’t quite THERE, we have just one car, but I notice that our other ”stuff” is spreading out to take the other bay. DS’ gift to me last year of three light-up deer for the holiday lawn are turning it into a stable!

I have a garage-full of pictures because I knew they would get ruined if I put them in the attic (as if they won’t be ruined in the garage 🙄). When I hired a decorator to “refresh” my house, she rearranged a lot of art. I bought some new. And some got consigned to the garage. I ought to go look at it. Having been in the garage for 5 years, it all probably needs to be consigned to the trash!

Hanging head in shame over holiday decoration purge failure. Went through (Christmas only so far) overload of holiday items and most went into multiple new gasketed containers and into the basement to make more room in my studio closet. The admirable intention was to report success eliminating a number of even just extraneous items. The reality was a delightful reunion with many often decades old, special 'friends' bearing fond memories. (Didn't use 95% this year as reno is still unfinished)....I finally gave up, justifying that at least I reorganized (most) of them. : (

I’d still call that a win, Indigo. You reorganized and you had a trip down memory lane.

You don’t have to get rid of anything. These monthly threads are just reminders to consider your belongings and if they still have a place in your home and heart.

Thanks, hhireno. I have too much stuff - loved seeing that George Carlin video clip again! I want to donate more, but I do tend to super-appreciate and love many items I've selected to include in my life to the point of having difficulty letting things go. I do pass some things along, but get attached to a lot. I make no apologies for having many things in my home that have my heart; something needs to sing to me for me to take it home, but with furniture, antiques and more, once in my life I feel no desire to replace or let it go. But I had hoped to at least move on to eliminating some holiday decor. Maybe next year. Of course, other holidays will be approaching, so we'll see. Maybe I'll just end up organizing again! Sigh. Edited to replace a weird word.

The chart popped up in my feed today!

Autumn is my very favorite time of the year, and I have our home here beautifully decorated, IMO, every year. . . until the Christmas Season starts, that is. This year, though, I really dragged my feet and didn’t get any Christmas decs up until about December 21st! And now that I’ve been enjoying them for these past few weeks, I’m dragging my feet about taking them down!!! I have pared them down somewhat, hoping to pass on many of them to my (someday) grandkids. Boxes of them! But just sitting out here in our quiet living room enjoying the tree lights, the lit fireplace garland, the wreaths, candles and all, makes me want to keep them up to enjoy a bit longer! Luckily, I’ve got no one to please but myself, as DH and our adult son and daughter don’t care. Sooooo, I’m thinking one more week 😉.

The person designated to receive my stuff will see a note in our trust that says I loved my stuff very much. But it was my stuff and not hers. So she can keep anything she wants, but please hire an estate sale company to get rid of all of it. And I have recommendations for who to use.

Does this count? My lighted artificial garland that for probably 15 or 20 years I wrapped around the banister, no longer lights. I think it overheard me say that the faux needles were falling off like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree, and this might be its last year. So it just gave up in post-holiday depession. It’s in the bin to go in the collection heap for its ill at the town dump. (“Compost Center”, but you can take almost anything except regular household trash)

I read something recently, was it here? about clothes, the clothes we keep for sentimental reasons, for ”just in case”, etc. I should take heed.

@bbstx Is there a walk-in closet you can decorate with some of your art? I always have pieces hanging inside closets. The art not hanging on our walls, but I would never sell or donate (at this point in time) are stacked against a wall in my cloffice (which has 7 pieces of art hanging inside).

For you bag lovers, I saw some pretty gift bags marked down at Fresh Market this week. Some could be used for non-holiday gifts.

I just spent 30min watching videos and reading the Cashiers, NC lady's IG page that @Kswl linked.

Thanks for that suggestion, @Allison0704. I have 2 blank walls in a large closet as you come in from the garage. I could hang a ton of stuff in there. I probably ought to go through the pictures in the garage and decide what needs to come in and what is not worth fooling with. Then get rid of the ”not worth fooling with” stuff.

What I really need is a helper to get up on a ladder and start hanging from the top of the wall down. I had a great helper, but he graduated nursing school, got a real job, and got married. For a while, a couple of high school boys had a company where they would come help, but they graduated and went away to college. Helpers are hard to come by!

If any of you are close to Cashiers or just want to go to Cashiers, consider timing a visit to coincide with the Cashiers show house. It attracts some noted designers. I think it is generally in August. https://www.cashiershistory.org/cds-2025

@bbstx, you might recall in our last house, I had a lot of European etchings left after hanging everywhere else. Twenty-two pieces went on a huge gallery wall in our master bathroom.. An antique dealer that came to purchase some items when we were moving said it was "genius." All I knew, as silly as it sounds, was I just loved it more each time I saw it. So, do the unexpected!

Allison, I recall your bathroom gallery--it was beautiful.

I am semi-purging the holiday decor as I pack it up.

I need to do a pen and pencil purge! We probably have 500 pens and pencils, if I go thru the house and collect them all. True confession: I also have a small basket of hotel pens. And a wooden bowl full of hotel key cards. Wait, am I a hoarder?

Also need to do a bathroom cabinet cleanout, get rid of some candles (gah, I was given two more for Christmas), and it is probably time to cull some kitchen stuff as well. I have saved dee’s list below. Fortunately, I do not hold onto dried flowers, holey socks, old bed pillows, toothbrushes or nail polish!

PS we bought two pieces of art in Santa Fe last week so I also need to purge? reorganize? my walls.

Dee, that list is interesting, but I'm confused over a lot of suggestions for getting rid of stuff I wouldn't think anyone would hang onto - who really does not automatically get rid of chipped or cracked dishware, broken or rusty items, expired things, socks with holes (that one doesn't plan to mend), etc.? However, I do have a pile of keys I'm not certain go to something, old holiday decorations I may still want to use, handbags not used in a long time but still intend to. I have 2 stacks of old magazines I still appreciate, I have yet to go through a trunk of old photos, not ready to get rid of my DVD's and CDs, and got rid of a number of random cables but still have some that *may* go with something important....a work in progress. That said, I've never subscribed to the dictum to get rid of things not used in x amount of time. I just used a silicone spatula I haven't used in years, but was happy I still had it when I needed it. I have baking pans and cookie sheets I also haven't used in years, but they came in handy this past weekend when I made cookies and more. I can see I'm justifying holding onto ....stuff!

Sueb, Staples will take pencils, pens, markers, crayons, etc, whether they work or not. Or maybe you know a teacher who can use them in their classroom.

The only thing on Dee's list for me is clothes I haven't worn in a year. But we live at the beach and the clothes I haven't worn might be needed under certain circumstances. It is a very small percentage, and I have culled it down several times since moving. Now, if I could only get DH to donate some coats/jackets.

I agree that a year is probably too aggressive especially if your closet is already pretty organized. I liked the list because some of the suggestions were very specific and presumably less daunting.

I wasn't able to view the image clearly- with the list of helpful tips but I was able to view the holey socks and chipped mugs . I had the same reaction ... I totally understand the spirit of it all, but if you need to be told to get rid of those things, well........ I guess it's a good thing to come across articles like that.

I opened a drawer yesterday (searching for pens to purge) and found about 5 music CD’s. We haven’t owned a CD player in about 7 years. LOL but I was on a different mission so the CDs are still there. 🫣

I offered up a half-full gift bag of pens and pencils to our everything-is-free group. Thanks for the Staples idea, bp. I didn’t know that!

My local newspaper runs a Be an Angel campaign in December, where non-profits can publish a wish list of items they need. The day after I packed 2 boxes of arts and craft supplies, the newspaper ran a list of organizations still in need. Yay! Someone still needs crafting supplies! I’m just back from dropping them off.

I also dropped off 2 bikes at an organization that does youth mentoring and the kids earn a bike. I have rescued and donated 10 bikes since 2020. I can’t believe how many people put functioning bikes in the trash. 😠 If this organization can’t fix them, they use the parts on other bikes. If you ever have a bike to get rid of, I beg you to look for an organization that can use it.

I want my husband to keep focusing on his office. To his credit, multiple boxes of church related papers and shredding left here, to be stored, or shredded, at the church.

I think I will start bringing one of his suits to the dry cleaner every week. When he’s ready to consider which one or two to keep, the rest will be ready for donation. pre-2020, he wore a suit 6 days a week. Now he’s retired, and only needs a wedding & funerals suit. Generally, men don’t need suits as much nowadays, but they can at least use the pants. I’m not sure where I can bring these, but I have weeks to research the best spot.

Great work there HH! I'm just posting this to keep me honest... as I've shared I'm really pretty good with the decluttering ( except my achilles heel- the photos but ....). I 've been avoiding facing the trunk of my car, where I must have about 25 of the "reusable" fabric or plastic coated shopping bags. I was thinking I need to go through them. I realized that quite a few are really pretty pathetic and I would not feel right passing them along so I think my next small goal is to just trash the ones that should have been trashed a while ago.

Does anyone else have a ridiculous supply?

Oh and Sueb mentioned candles. I think they're great gifts but I just don't use them. I regifted or passed along all except one and was happy about that. Now in the past 2 weeks I've received 2 more as gifts...lol

I felt great yesterday with those few accomplishments under my belt. I need to keep up the momentum, so I need to get off my ipad and get moving on that.

I have a medium sized box in my office that I‘m gradually filling with nonsense stuff: anything that is sitting on a shelf that doesn’t have significance (fortunately I don’t have a lot of that; unfortunately a lot of my doodads have meaning to me), a few candles, a few games we haven’t played in years, etc.

I was able to give away a jacket and my bag o’ pens via our town’s ”everything is free” group yesterday. My misc box will go to a local thrift shop that benefits a program for disabled adults.

We have maybe 2-3 original paintings that we just don’t love any more…trying to figure out what to do with those. We do have a local furniture/decor consignment shop that might take them but I have to figure out what a fair price would be. DH wonders if the art galleries would ever buy back art?

After we got home from our family Chanukah gift exchange, my son asked if I wanted to keep the holder one of his gift cards was in. I said, nah it has your name on it. He said yeah but you could just give it to me next year. He knows me well. I was not fond of this particular card holder so told him to put in recycling. Somehow I neglected to purchase nice gift card holders this year and had to use up what I had.

It's time for me to get back to purging. Haven't done anything in a couple of months. I was on a roll when I first retired. Next up is my DD's old room (now the workout room) closet. It holds lots of fabrics and supplies from my brief experiment with sewing. It also holds my DD's wedding dress which she has agreed to take and store at her house.

After that it's onto the basement which is a huge and overwhelming job. I have made several attempts at it and I get my stuff purged/cleaned up, but most of it is DH's and I have a hard time getting him to deal with it. There are boxes with belongings from his childhood home. When he moved out after college into his own apartment in NYC, he boxed belongings. They sat in his apartment piled against the wall. Unopened. When we got married and he moved into my townhouse, there was no storage room for them so we rented a storage unit. When we bought our current home they moved to the basement. They have not been opened in 40-something years. There cannot be anything of importance in them. Throw.Them.Away.

The odd thing is he's not a hoarder (thank goodness because his dad was). But for some reason he won't deal with those boxes.

I have been working on purging, too, and this thread is keeping me motivated. I thought I'd share this tip.....this week I learned that Best Buy will recycle our unused electronics. I was able to take my dad's old ipad in there - just walked in and handed it to a Geek Squad person and walked back out again. No need to give them my name or anything. Hope this helps someone!

Bluebell, good to know! Many municipalities also do electronics recycling.

I talked to our Career Center director the the other day, and they will have their career closet day and headshots on Feb. 5, so this will give me incentive to get any interview/business type of clothes to them before this date.

Does it count to let go but replace? I went through my utensils and donated some large wooden spoons, turners, steel ladle, turner, tongs and more. But I replaced with All-Clad ones; whisk, turner, slotted spoon, tongs, etc. Oops.

It counts! keeping them would be clutter if you don’t use them.

Beware, though: a year or two ago DH decided the wood utensils were clutter and asked me to get rid of them. About amonth ago, he asked for wood utensils for Christmas. I brought the first wood utensils out of storage (no, I just couldn’t get rid of them) and he is happy.

I have to confess that when I packed up the holiday decor I needed an additional box. I didn't buy anything new except for 6 bird ornaments that I found at Longwood Gardens last month and they fit in my ornament box. At least I set aside one box that I will donate to our community center for their holiday bazaar next November.

This is minor but I have winnowed my holiday card list. Personally I have always thought it a little silly to mail a card to friends or neighbors who I see frequently. I do reciprocate if they send them. I still send to old friends who were close but who have moved away just to stay in touch. And to our aunts and uncles who look forward to receiving a card with a hand written note and a photo of the family and grand kids. My own adult kids and my nieces and nephews never did holiday cards and now that so many of our relatives have passed away my annual list is down to 20.

DH continues to purge his clothes as his weight drops. What he still ignores though is his stuff stored in the garage - tools and power tools, lawn and garden equipment, power washer and leaf blowers that he can no longer use, extra coolers and lawn chairs that we don't need. We have a landscaper and handy man we hire when needed. I think he's just not ready to admit that physically he is unable to do those chores.

The kids all had their own places when we moved here 8 years ago so they were able to take their belongings. We don't have a basement for storage so we've been pretty good eliminating extraneous objects. The only places that need purging are the closets in the 2 guest rooms. Unfortunately as long as the door is closed I've been ignoring them - but that's on me. That's where I have the photos, favorite lamps that I'm not using, my sewing machine and supplies, suitcases and extra coats and large file cabinet that is long overdue for a purge.

It would be a good winter project.

@maire_cate My DH is the same with the tools. We gave a lot to our electrician/handyman before and after our last move. DH's tool closets needs organizing (and more given away), and once we have a decent list for our e/h we will have him come for a day or two. He also moved and is a couple of hours away from us, so he will either come over and work a very long day and go home, or stay the night.

Actually, he recently sent us a photo of his "new" kitchen install - the white oak cabinets from our last house which we remodeled. We let him take anything being removed that he wanted for his new house. We were happy to let him have.

Allison- isn't it a nice feeling to see your old cabinets in their new home? When we moved here we gave our old kitchen cabinets to Habitat for Humanity. They wasn't anything wrong with them but we re-configured the kitchen and installed new.

The funny part about DH's tools is that they are organized. We had heavy duty shelves installed and wall grids for the hand stuff. That's why I know we have too many shovels, rakes, brooms and dustpans........But the good news is that one of my sons will be buying a house in a few months and I'm sure DH will be able to outfit him with all the yard tools he'll need.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DTV9DxyFYp6/?igsh=MWZxM2dzdjZlcnc2aA==

😆 @Sueb20 didn’t you find something at your beach house? Sunglasses, maybe?

oh now that is funny Sue! Hmmmm I just read a book, One Woman Show that did have an element of that. It was in the monthly thread for January and in a matter of days I don't recall who recommended it. editing to add, I looked and it was faftris.

:) Thanks for the smile!

For those that found hoards of pens, teachers, schools, after care programs like to receive those. Same as misc crafting supplies as was mentioned above. I hate throwing things out that I think others would find useful.

Yes, I gave a bunch of craft stuff to a teacher a few months ago.

hh, we still have not solved the sunglasses mystery!

That Instagram post 😂 I have baked cakes, cookies, etc. to get rid of plates. Brought over flowers in vases I no longer need. Tied gifts in scarfs as ribbon. Oh! You need gloves cause it’s freezing, take these, you can keep them😂

😂😆the sunglasses

Among the craft items I recently donated were 12 mini wooden caskets that opened. I bought them on clearance after Halloween many years ago. My plan was to hold a Death of Bunco party, since my neighborhood Bunco group had fizzled out after many years. We always had themed nights, so I thought a final theme might be fun. But I never got around to hosting the party, so they were forgotten on my arts and crafts shelves. I debated if I should include them with the other items, but decided they were meant for Halloween decor so why not.

If you don’t know teachers to donate to, see if there is a creative reuse center, arts reuse center, exchange, etc near you. I have donated to teachers, but some things go to our nearby arts supply exchange. They usually have a list of what they are accepting and not accepting at the moment, based on space, but usually sewing supplies, arts tools, paper, paints paints, clean brushes, canvases, knitting and crochet stuff, clay tools. At ours, everything is free to teachers and ”community partners”, for everyone else there is a price list.