These are bags ready to be donated! (Several years worth of professional work attire that needs new homes.)
Anyone who is following along (you, the ONE) knows that I am trying to save money AND doing a massive declutter around my house. My goal was to declutter our entire home before Christmas. That may have been a lofty goal, and while I may miss that mark a little, I have indeed made tremendous progress.
Spaces I have decluttered:
- Linen closet
- Office/guest bedroom
- Guest bathroom
- Master bathroom
- Living room
- Dining room
- Master bedroom
- Master closet
- The kitchen pantry and 3 kitchen drawers
- The screened porch
- My personal pile in the attic
- The laundry closet
- The Christmas/Holiday stash
One could argue that the biggest part of the declutter is yet to come with the attic, garage, and kitchen still waiting for their turn. I am choosing not to think of it like this, though. I may do the kitchen one-cabinet-per-week if that is what it takes to get it done.
The process has been delightful, frustrating, difficult, long, huge, gratifying, and lots of other adjectives. I am starting to feel that a weight has been lifted.
In the meantime, nearly everything that is still useful or nice has been donated and I have been saving my receipts. So far, $2,837 has been documented and donated just since I started this declutter. That is a staggering number if you ask me because it is not as if you can record the value as anywhere near what you paid for an item.
All of those items, some of them quite cherished, will go on to either be resold at a thrift store that benefits homeless animals or to a shelter for domestic abuse victims.
The thing about this declutter is that in almost every way it is a win. I get a decluttered home, someone who needs it gets my stuff. The only downside is the work and the deciding to part with items that I may still enjoy. (But not really, or they would not have been stashed away for so long.)
