weekend check-in

[rmc28]

Hello! Today is another weekend where I'm trying to work on decluttering. My theme this weekend is "getting things to leave the house", and I seem to have discovered a side-theme of "timewarp".

First: five bags of my mother's things that I sorted out for giveaway last August and left in the garage awaiting carriage to the nearby charity shop. This morning I finally labelled them, realised I couldn't carry all the bags on foot at once, and loaded them into the cargo bike instead. I got in before the rush at the charity shop, so they are all GONE. That's a huge relief.

Also with them: a bag of books that have been waiting on my "goodbye reads" shelves for probably nine years to reread and decide if I want to keep them or not. Turned out, the answer was "not".

Finally: a cardboard box which I helpfully labelled "FREE: PLEASE TAKE". I think I last put it out when we were last in lockdown, so uh, about two years. It was surprisingly full of things I had forgotten about! (But definitely don't want to keep.) I added a few things that have failed to garner any interest on freecycle in the last few days, and have put it in the usual place at the end of the road. (My house is too tucked away to get passing foot traffic, but the entrance to the road we're on gets a lot, and there's a little spot where I can leave the box without blocking anyone.) Hopefully it will be emptier when I pick it up again this evening.

How are you all getting on? Share your success, failures, aims in the comments.

Comments

Re: ugh, emotions

[rmc28]

Semifinal 1 got me through to the end of the second box, and nearly all the way through the third.

Semi final 2 has got me to the end of the third box and I'm currently taking a breather and contemplating the fourth and last box while watching Romania and Estonia. It will be awesome to have emptied the last box, but I am pretty tired now. Maybe a snack first.

Re: ugh, emotions

[tanaqui]

Awesome work on getting those things out of the house and working through the boxes -- very impressive.

I've always found playing not-too-demanding TV (or listening to a podcast) is a good way to make going through boxes of stuff easier, so it's great you found something fun to use.

This weekend, my focus has been on digital decluttering, working my way through clearing out a couple of inboxes. Not quite done, but feeling less overwhelmed by what's left.

Re: ugh, emotions

[rmc28]

Yeah I took the path of self-care yesterday and had a nap and then watched Eurovision rather than tackle the last box.

I got through the last box in a couple of rounds today, this time watching Smallville episodes on the tablet (my brother's doing a watch-through and I thought it'd be a great idea to join in but have some catching up to do). 3.5 episodes to get through it all. Well, that was the first-pass sort, but it is DONE and a lot of the contents are in the bin or paper recycling, and there's one much smaller box to re-sort, which I brought indoors, and a bag of things to give away, which I left outside. Oh and two bags from yesterday: one for the charity shop, and one for the nearest Little Free Library.