I used to use a laundry basket for donate things until I took it to Goodwill and forgot to keep it! So now I use a cardboard box.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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For giveaways, our local liquor stores usually have a good supply of extra boxes. They're free, they're clean, and when they're full to the top with books they're still light enough to actually carry out to the car. They also work quite well for other items that aren't suitable for transport in a plastic bag, such as dishes. If necessary the boxes can be folded flat, but they usually don't stay in the house that long.
For permanent storage I like plastic bins, preferably ones that are short enough to fit on a basement shelf. I've gradually been getting rid of large, deep bins because they usually wind up sitting in the middle of a floor somewhere.
Items that need repair: I try to deal with these right away, but it doesn't always happen. I recently gave away a pair of pants that needed hemming; by the time I got around to it, they really didn't fit me all that well. I can tell which items are important to me: They're the ones that *do* get fixed in a timely manner.
Posted 1 year ago # -
keep, most things in this category for me go to a proper home so i temporarily put them in my laundry basket since i will eventually have to use it, therefore I empty it often. Find your keep items a home, doesnt really matter where at this stage. If its home is wrong you'll sort it out eventually.
donate stuff goes in cardboard boxes, old wine boxes from the bottle store work well since they are a consistant enough size to go in the car but whatever works for you.
trash is trash. I tend not to find a whole lot of this anymore but what i do find goes in a trash bag and into the bin.
dilemmas IMO are just another name for "keep" things, albeit often somewhat harder to find a home for. Treat them as keep items, and you'll get to them again once you've cleared the current layer of clutter.
As for repairing things, I generally dont bother unless its something i truly love. Ask yourself first if you are really ever going to repair it and move on from there. If you will, schedule the time to do it now. write it in your todo list or whatever you use, or actually schedule the time if thats your way. If you wont, just bin it.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I agree with not keeping broken things unless they are valuable enough to pay a professional to fix, or you just like tinkering as a hobby. I doubt I've ever even touched 95% of the things I've kept intending to one day fix them.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anita, I understand why you say thinking about this is a way of procrastinating. However, for me, at least, having even my decluttering be an aesthetic experience, to say nothing of having my supplies so ready to go that I can jump in and work whenever the spirit moves me, is important.
I LOVE the dilemma category. I may have to add that. Here's a post I did on a couple of different containers to use.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I keep the top of my small shelf, which is next to my door, clear of permanent items. It is used as a platform of sorts for things I borrowed that must be returned, things to mail, and things to give away. Since it's right by my door I rarely forget to take care of it. This method works great for "maintenance" but probably not for super declutter days because of space restriction.
Goodwill stuff gets put in a cardboard box I get from work which would have otherwise been thrown away. It makes it easy to drop off too because I can just hand over the whole box and don't mind not keeping it.
Trash and recycle stuff gets put in bags and taken care of asap.
I like the dilemma category too!! I don't have one of those. It'd be good to bin up the "unsure" and go through it a few months later and see if I ever "need" something out of it during that time.
Posted 1 year ago # -
if you want to save, try these used packing boxes winnipeg
Posted 3 months ago # -
Interesting spammer we've got here ^^^
Ironically, I live in Winnipeg and I'll only buy boxes as an absolute last resort... For instance, if we have only 48 hours to finish packing up a household and I can't get freebies. I think that happened once, back in 2001.
I only have a "keep" box if it's something that needs to be protected from the elements, such as electronics or power tools that are staying in a damp-ish environment like a garage or basement. Otherwise, I subscribe to "A place for everything, and everything in its place."
For giveaways, dump runs and recycling runs, I use plastic bags for light, soft goods such as clothes and stuffed toys. For heavier items, I raid the local liquor commission store for boxes; they cheerfully give away mass quantities for free, and I've been known to fit a dozen or more into my car. As soon as the box is full, out it goes to the front porch until I get a chance to dispose of it. I usually also have at least one box sitting on the porch at all times so I can drop giveaways into it as I find them.
"Fix" items are left in plain sight on a shelf, on a coathook or on the back of a chair as are "Dilemma" items.
Posted 3 months ago # -
I don't have special bins for each type of item, but rather just try to use what I already have. Trash bags for the trash, plastic grocery bags for give-aways and cleared out boxes for give aways/storage items.
Posted 3 months ago # -
Donation boxes are easy for me - with 4 cats, I go through a lot of cat litter, and my cat litter comes in cardboard boxes that are about the same size as a box you'd get at the liquor store. A bit smaller, but there is a steady and consistent supply of them!
I also have a shelf near the front door where I put one or two items that I have to take to someone, but it's not close enough to the door, or the things sit there too long, so I frequently forget the things even when I'm going to see the person. I'm hoping that as the overall level of clutter in the place gets better, that those things will stand out more, or that I'll have more free time and can arrange specific trips when I have something to give to someone, rather than leaving things sitting for months waiting to go to the friends that I don't get to see very often.
Posted 3 months ago # -
This is one of my favorite tips. I use the paper lawn waste bags. They are tall and hold a lot, can be recycled, reasonably priced, and stand up on their own.
Posted 3 months ago # -
Other than trash and recycling we just have one box for donations. It sits behind a door so it isn't easily seen. The box itself changes because it is used to carry its contents to the donation center. Things to be mended/fixed sit out in the open until they get fixed, otherwise they get forgotten.
Posted 3 months ago # -
The concept of dedicated decluttering supplies is still odd to me. I appreciate the idea of wanting esthetic containers for sorting stuff, but why not use something that can serve multiple purposes?
I have a few nice fabric-covered boxes that fold flat and I use them for any temporary storage needs. Recently I did a closet purge and I used one of the boxes to hold all my clothes mending projects until I got around to dealing with them. After I finished all of them, the box got folded up and put back in the closet. It was very useful as a clothes-to-be-mended box, but I'm not about to label it "clothes to be mended" and make that its permanent purpose. And if next time I use it to sort books to donate, or haul props to a photo shoot, I won't make that its permanent purpose either, since these are all temporary uses. I may even regularly use it for the same purpose; still doesn't mean that purpose requires a permanent solution...
Posted 2 months ago # -
You know, since it would be a local call I'm tempted to phone up the spamming company and give them what-for. :-D
PJ, I forgot about the cat litter boxes! I usually get litter in 20 kg bags, but if they're on sale I'll sometimes pick up a box or two because they're slightly lighter and easier to schlep down the basement stairs. (And for those of us without "thundering furlumps" of our own, there may be friends who accumulate these boxes on a regular basis.)
Posted 2 months ago # -
Astreja, the clumping cat litter I buy comes in either 15 or 18 kg boxes depending on the brand - plenty heavy for schlepping around! I love reducing and reusing as much as I can. The boxes of litter are lined with a plastic bag, which is just the right size for my kitchen garbage can. The large bags of dog food I buy also work well as kitchen garbage bags. I can't remember the last time I *bought* garbage bags. It's about the only cost saving part of having 2 dogs and 4 cats!
On the subject of friends with pets, if you know of anyone with a menagerie like mine, I would bet they would appreciate donations of plastic grocery bags (and bread bags and milk bags) for their pet potty needs.
Posted 2 months ago # -
Part of what I was going through in the Great Purge for donations were multiple Rubbermaid tubs. So the first 6 or 7 of those got filled and dropped off, tub included. The next couple large boxes I unpacked and rehomed the contents of, I used the boxes for donate items. I think I am out of containers for the moment, but currently have the Donate stuff stacked at the front door, on the table I put there. And I get pretty regular deliveries from head office, Amazon, Staples, etc. and keep boxes from them as needed.
Posted 2 months ago # -
We have a small number of grocery bags which we buy (not free with groceries here! ) when we've forgotten to take our own shopping bags with us. I tend to have ketchup days rather than ATAD so I just take a bag and put it at the front door to go out the next time I do. I also have sturdy book bags which fold small for when I'm going to drop off books somewhere.
I have a small rectangular basket on a shelf which holds DVDs and books which have been borrowed from friends and will need to be returned without getting lost in the shuffle of our own books.
We're in a passive decluttering stage though, mostly maintenance with periodic "ketchups".
I do see the sense of setting up a temporary station when one is actively decluttering and could get overwhelmed. It is a way to keep things properly separate until they can leave the house. Otherwise, things can creep back into the other clutter without ever leaving.
If it works for someone to use certain bags or boxes, then great! They might be looking at that choice for the next year as they fill it over and over, so they should like it.Posted 2 months ago # -
Anita, one reason to have a permanent solution (or just a consistent one; in my house, all paper bags full of stuff are donation bags, and all plastic bags are trash bags, and all fabric bags are things that actually need to be unpacked and put away) is that it lets the other people you live with know what's going on. That way if I have a bag of donation stuff, my partner doesn't unpack and put it away, or throw it away, and if we have a tote bag of art supplies I took to Boy Scouts, they don't get donated. Maybe someone who's not me might even unpack and put them away.
Posted 2 months ago #
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