10-25% success in actual disposal

[msilverstar]

I'm glad to have a community for this!

Our kitchen will be demolished April 2-3, and we have to get everything out (also part of the dining room) by then. We have not moved in 30 years. So it's Significant Enforced Unluttering. So many things remind me of who I was as a teenager, as a student, as a daughter, as a mother: it's hard to get rid of them. I even hate trashing expired (very very expired) food, old notes, rusty cupcake tins. Sigh.

But for the usable stuff I'm trying to find targets recipients. I have help from a young person who works in a bookstore, (therefor deeply underpaid) and she took some, and I'm going to put some down on the street, but it's weird, people don't take perfectly nice stuff like a fleece blanket. I found a great local resource in Berkeley, Urban Ore which is basically a 3-acre garage sale! I feel better sending stuff to them than just trashing it or pushing to a thrift store.

Whew. That vent felt good!

Comments

[tanaqui]

Oh, gosh, that's quite a project! Well done for what you've achieved so far, good luck with the rest and I hope you can find new homes for the things that are in good condition.

[msilverstar]

Thanks! I did less today but still see a light at the end

[lenine]

Good progress so far. It helps to have a drop-dead date, I'm sure.

[msilverstar]

No choice but I hope this inspires some progress in the other rooms too. Later. After this one is well over.

[vysila]

Enforced uncluttering can be tough, but ooh, getting a new kitchen is going to be wonderful! It is definitely tough to do - I had to deal with that a few years for a big remodel. Memories can really slow down the decision process.

Your Urban Ore place sounds like a great resource for uncluttering. It is SO frustrating when people/places won't take perfectly acceptable items and you end up trashing things.

[msilverstar]

If the floor tiles weren't cracking we'd have done a smaller update, but I'm pretty sure there's some rot down there too

[vysila]

Sometimes we just don't get the option we'd prefer, do we? But definitely best to get the whole project done properly the first time around rather than having to tear things up a second or third time. Good luck, I have a good idea just how stressful this is for you.

[msilverstar]

Thanks! And JWTS I love your icon

[vysila]

Oh thank you!

[the_broken_tower]

Yay on decluttering progress. :) You'll get there.

If it's a fabric good on the street, people may be avoiding it in case of bedbugs or other hitch hikers. Selling is a good option. :)

- Maerco (he/him)

[msilverstar]

Well, it was originally bright yellow but very dingy after a kid grew up under it, so not exactly inviting.

[preserved_by_bronzing]

What a project, but a kitchen remodel (?) is at least an exciting reason. I certainly find it tougher going when I'm having to sort through things that are attached to memories -- and it sounds like you have a ton of those. Do you have a process for saying thanks to things as you let them go? I find I have to acknowledge stuff, but then I can move it on.

[msilverstar]

For some reason they keep calling it a renovation, but I've decided to just call it "fixing up" because it feels less pretentious.

I have a philosophical friend who convinced me not to let go of quite so much, keep it and cherish it. As my husband is saving acres of stuff including ancient computer games, I have accepted her advice.

[preserved_by_bronzing]

Ooph, I am on a wavelength with your husband: I am keeping my 32" tube TV and my N64, because I want to play Ocarina of Time the way God intended :)