I started to visit the site about a year ago. But my uncluttering process started three years ago before my first child was born. Now I am purging trough clothes and paper and wathever I feel is not worth my effort and may family's time. This site has been a huge source of encouragement. Thanks for the support. I have, at the current time, cleared entire rooms in my house that were full of clutter. I had papers from college, magazines and posters from my teenage years, and so on and on. But I am clearing up. My concern now is how to manage clothes. I've been looking at sites, but I would like suggestions. Thanks.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Hi, declutterlife. Welcome! One of the ideas that is really working for me right now is that I put the clothes I really, really love and wear into one area. The clothes that I don't like, that don't fit, that I never did wear are in another area...in fact, that sounds like motivation for me to work a little bit today on folding and bagging them for donation to charity.
For me, one of the biggest roadblocks to doing the donation are the phrases in my head: "but I paid good money for these clothes"..."clothes are very expensive"....or my biggest excuse "someday I'm going to lose 40 to 50 pounds so I can wear these really small clothes from years ago". It has taken time, but I am slowly getting rid of the unused clothes.
I hope that the wonderful readers will step up and give you lots of advice and encouragement. I'll be back soon.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@declutterlife - it sounds like you're making great progress! There have been a couple of great threads on dealing with clothing lately; you might want to check them out:
http://unclutterer.com/discuss/topic/i-know-weve-talked-about-organising-wardrobes-before-but
http://unclutterer.com/discuss/topic/ways-and-means-of-purging-a-closet
The first one has a couple of links to other threads, too, in the second post.
I hope these are useful.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I had struggled with getting rid of clothes too, but instead of thinking about the money I spent, I look at it in a different way now. There are many people who are out of work who need clothes and can't afford to pay retail price. If I'm not wearing something, but hesitate getting rid of it, I imagine a woman being happy to have something that I donated. Maybe it looked great on her and it gave her a shot of self-confidence she desperately needed. Maybe it was something she wore to an interview or her first week on a new job. Maybe it was something she wore on a date with the love of her life, Or she had a special occasion and couldn't afford a new outfit. When I think if these things, it's easy to get rid of stuff.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi everyone! Thanks for the advice. Tomorrow being saturday I'll start to clean my closet. There are things I got as gifts and don't look good on me, but I feel I can't pass them on because the person who gave them to me might be offended. They where not new, but she wore them only a couple of times. I known its sily, but sometimes "Justin Case" gets to me. "I'll keep this shirt, even though it looks ugly on me Just in case...", hehehehe. I got the hangers, and I'll step up to the task. I'll keep your ideas in mind JuliaJayne, about other people using the clothes. The thing about loosing weigth is true SunshineR. You hold on to the clothes thinking: but I AM going to loose weight! Not doing that anymore. Thanks for the advice and I'll post my progress.
Posted 1 year ago # -
declutterlife = your friend will not mind at all if you pass/donate these clothes on. After all, why should you wear something that doesn't suit you, especially when your friend had probably decided it didn't suit her either!
that just doesn't make sense. We should wear clothes that look good and make us feel good or at least try:-)In saying that I have more than enough clothes that fit the just in case scenario as well, unfortunately my weight does yo yo so they are needed sometimes:)
Posted 1 year ago # -
One of the things that helps me get rid of clothes that do not work or are too worn or just are not needed is by telling myself that by clearing the space I am making room for something amazing. Not that I am planning on dashing out and filling up all the nooks and crannies, but that if I find something perfect I have plenty of space to store it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I started clearing out my closet about 6 months ago. The first thing I did was remove everything I had never worn or was the wrong size. Then I flipped all the hangers around backwards (the hook of the hanger facing out of the closet instead of into) every time I wore a piece a put it back with the hanger facing the back of the closet. Every month I remove the pieces I have not worn that month and I donate them. I have started doing this every month now and it really has paired my wardrobe down to what I actually wear.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I have a bathroom closet where old nice clothing lives from a period of time in my life long past. I've been looking at it recently but so far have kept the clothing in place. I'll look at it again. I did see one blouse that didn't fit in with the other clothing, don't know how it got there, that I may be willing to part with.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I managed to clear half my wardrobe. Hanged the alikes together and kept only things that I REALLY wear. Have to get to the other half, but it requires a little more courage, because I always keep old (and ugly, and worn out, etc..., lol) stuff to wear at home. Got to part with them. Decided to clean the home office, get an old computer out, but my husband is VERY against giving things away, especially his 11 year old CPU. You read correct people, the thing is 11 years old, doesn't work and he won't part with it. Difficult...
Posted 1 year ago # -
by CPU do you mean an actual computer, like, in a big computer case? The actual CPU itself is the processor part which sits on the motherboard.
If he's concerned about data theft, or there's something on there he wants to keep, you could buy an external hard drive (pretty cheap... actually an 11 year old drive you could prolly fit on a USB stick!) take it to a computer repair shop and have the hard drive contents put onto your drive or stick. Even if the computer is stuffed, if the hard drive will function at all, they can slot it into a drive bay and access it. Then you can have the old drive destroyed with certified data destruction.
Otherwise, get the thing fixed and use it to play retro games!
I totally understand, I have a vintage Blue and White iMac G3 that I can't quite part with. The 300ghz processor is mindbogglingly slow but it's such a beautiful thing.
I'm trying to tweak it with a bare-bones Linux installation so I can use it just for word processing - sort of like a vintage typewriter, but a computer :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
@klutzgrrl, by CPU I mean an actual computer, the big computer case. The data can be taken out any time. It's the fisical part that's on my way. I'll give your idea a try. Thanks. He's not attached to the computer, it's not vintage, it's old and ugly, but he won't part with it "just in case". He rarely uses the word processor, the games he plays he does on our laptop, because...it has more memory! lol So he's keeping the thing only because one day (that will never come) he will fix it. You just helped make my mind up to throwing the thing out. Thanks a lot. It's going tomorrow.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Take the hard drive out first! That's the important bit. When you have some spare $$, you can buy an external hard drive caddy for a few bucks, if there's anything you need to get off it. It's very easy to find - just open up the case and you'll see the hard drive, a sort of rectangular closed-in box in one of the bays (open shelves) near the front.
like in this picture, the black boxes at the bottom with the colored wires are the hard drives.
http://www.bobbiespen.com/computer%20insides.jpgJust be careful not to zap yourself - you should be pretty safe... I tinker with electronic stuff all the time so not sure how much is 'obvious' - you can't really hurt the hard drive, unlike the chips and stuff on the motherboard it's all enclosed so pretty safe.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi @klutzgrrl. Although you did try to show me how to get the hard drive out I am a computer idiot. Definitely don't know how to deal with the thing. However I have a cousin that REALLY deals with hard drives and softwares and etc. I put the thing in the car and took to her house. She's taken the data out for me, and is keeping the phisical case. Great deal! Thanks for your help. One less clutter in my house.
Posted 1 year ago # -
About the clothes...have you read 'Unclutter your life in a week'? It has a great section for getting rid of clothes. So does the 'The Joy of Less'. I need to read for motivation...along with this site. Good luck!
Posted 1 year ago # -
@declutterlife my husband also is very loath to part with things, he keeps old tape decks, pots and pans, it's very frustrating. I sympathize!
Posted 1 year ago # -
It's an ongoing war @luxcat! He says I never throw away/donate/pass on my stuff but do that to his things. And it's not true! The first place I cleared was my office, my papers, and so on. But I guess that's his excuse for not clearing his stuff. Guess I'll keep on giving away the meaningless stuff, like clothes, that old computer lol :)), etc. Just take 1 piece at a time. They don't notice. Or they notice months after. And then they freak out, lol.
Posted 1 year ago # -
my husband is kind of minimalist and the first one to toss the broken or ugly, and then on the other hand, he gets wild crazes on weird things.
or he clings to odd things.....like 2 bottles of aftershave.
the man has worn aftershave on maybe three occasions in the 21 years i have known him. the bottles are full and unused, and taking up room in the tiniest bathroom on the planet.
so, i just work quietly in the background and now and then, like once in eight months, i say to him....shall i give this aftershave to someone?
and he will say no for four years and then SUDDENLY, he says, yes, ok. and he is fine with it.
it is all timing with my husband.Posted 1 year ago # -
@declutterlife, great solution with the computer!
lol@ men and their clutter... mine is superficially minimalist, but on the other hand... but I can't point fingers, I have so many hobbies.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I will happily make room for anything if we USE it. It's the stuff that's unused for years on end that I resent paying rent for. :-)
Posted 1 year ago #
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