I am attempting to declutter. Any suggestion on what to do w/ ARC books (that I can't afford to mail right now)? I definitely don't want to toss...but really need to declutter. Help!

Also have some coin wrappers. What to do with these?

Coin wrappers?  There's probably a teacher somewhere that can use them

If the ARCs are wishlisted there's a forum for that where you can post them but as for not mailing....hmmm....the only thing I could think of is leaving them at the laundromat or local coffee shop with a free book note....libraries won't take ARCs and I dont know about USBs

Thanks for your suggestions, Melissa. I appreciate it! :)

I completely redid my home office this weekend and threw out 7 bags of garbage!  I can actually see the floor!  Now to just put away the overflow from the living room.  And to deal with my filing.....does anyone have any ideas for easy filing systems?  I have a cabinet but papers just never seem to make it there.  I've tried the stacking trays too but same thing.

Its been years but found this in my saved posts.  Is anyone still interested in clutter support?

It has been a while!

Got the notification when you posted.

Would be happy to get back at it if there is a group out here.

Now, I've followed to see your blog.  I know why we both jumped to find about uncluttering...the scrapbook fairies that spread our stuff over the house....

The scrapbook and book fairies have taken over my apt and brought their friends the CD fairies, magazine fairies, clothes fairies and DVD fairies with them.  Getting ready for a move so been trying to declutter, clean, trash and ebay.  This weekend is the final push for the kitchen & living room.  Goal is 2/29 for these rooms

My plan is

• Purge & organize magazines & Catalogs
• Finish organizing CDs & store extra CD cases till I get to craft supplies
• Sort the pile of stuff boyfriend has in the corner
• Find new home for items on end table & Frog chair
• ebay wafflemaker & extra coffeemaker
• Get all the gifts in the mail
• Get all the donation bags to the shelter
• Get the Dvds onto the shelves
• Get Extra cards to Operation Write Home
• Get toilet paper rolls out of kitchen n into craft room (dont ask)
• Get school books/articles either on packed away or neatly stored
• Sort coupons & mail expired ones
• Sweep & Mop

Lets see how much actually gets done

I've bought a device that will take my slides and put them on a memory stick.  THAT is my big declutter coming up.  I think I have 12 - 15 boxes of slides, most of them won't be kept but they all need to be looked at first.

Coz,

that does sound like a challenge.  Old photos are tough for me.  I know most don't need to be kept, but once you get into them you get nostalgic even if the people who were so important at the time are really no longer a part of your life.  I wish you luck!

Melissa,

How do you do when you list on ebay?  I've sold a few things, but I've not yet felt like I've done well enough to cover the ebay fees and paypal fees and still be worth the time.  (Plus, I've really underestimated shipping once or twice and the listing ended up costing me money!)  Any plan that works for you?

I'm just jumping into this thread for the first time & I'm all for helping give decluttering tips but mostly getting tips from everyone!  I need to declutter a lot, especially my closet. It's crammed full of clothes/books/boxes/etc.

I've been trying to donate old things to a local thrift store but I need to continue doing so until I clear a lot more room out!

I'll be off work a bit next week so my goals for those days are:

• Go through clothes & decide what to keep/donate
• Decide what books I can post on here/donate
• Go through some old magazines & throw some out
• MAYBE reinstall my old laptop & put it up for sale....this is a maybe!

Those aren't very many things but small steps first!!

Good Luck!

When you look at your clothes, if you didn't wear it in the last season (summer clothes, did you wear last summer? etc.) it is time to let it go.  We may have a sentimental reason to hold on to it, but let it go.  You had three or four months to wear it and you didn't.  If it doesn't fit, let it go.  If it is too big, let it go as a sign of having shed the weight permanently.  If it is too small, let it go knowing that you will reward yourself with new items when you get smaller.  (The weight fluctuation might not be an issue for you in filling up the closet, but it was for me.  Once I got rid of everything that didn't fit one way or the other, I didn't have much left!)

For the other clutter items, I'm at a loss and can take help!

Rose,

 A local shelter would love to have your books.   And, think about it, if you had no place to go, you'd enjoy a book for some comfort.  It isn't clothes, food or shelter that you offer, but some escape.

Melissa,

How's your weekend go?

Thank you, Dena! That is a good thing for me to keep in mind with my clothes!  I have a bad habit of holding onto clothes even if I don't wear them for a long time.  So throwing out things I haven't worn for awhile will definitely cut down on a lot of things that are just shoved in my closet.

How long do you folks out there hold magazines that you mean to get around to reading/donating one day? How long before I should let them go? As in "even though I'm keeping it to get to those few interesting articles, if I haven't gotten around to reading them by now..."

I don't have any magazine subscriptions because I never read them.  If I do buy any magazines, it's from the shelf and it's specifically for an article.  And I'll read it as soon as I get home, so it's not money wasted.

When I had subscriptions for magazines given to me by relatives, I'd look through it as soon as I got it, read the interesting articles, and put them directly in the donation box.

If you do actually want to read the articles, take a day to go through them and use sticky tabs or dog ear the pages to mark the ones you want to read.  Make it a point to read one of those articles a day and put it in the donation box when you are done.

If you don't make some kind of effort, it is unlikely you will ever read them.  How long have you had the magazines?  If it's longer than a year, just throw them out.  You haven't read them by now, so it's highly unlikely you're going to now.

I have found that I don't go back and look through them.

What is working for me now though is that when I am reading a magazine and see somehting I want to keep, I tear the page out right then.  Then, I use that as my "book mark" until I am through the magazine.  When I'm done, I usually have four or four pages.  Most are recipes, so I do my best to get them to my recipe stack.  It is true that I may still never do something with those pages I pulled out, but you are looking at a file folder of paper versus a years worth of subscriptions.  Works for me.

Coz,

How's it going converting the slides?