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help me get rid of baggage - minimalists come in
i don't like to have a lot of stuff. however.... when i moved into a house i think i thought phew... i can finally hold onto some things because i won't have to worry about moving in awhile. well that coupled with the fact that i didn't have to do a yearly purge because i was moving... and all of a sudden i have waaaaay too much stuff.
i've been good lately making a concerted effort to purge. but it gives me major anxiety. i feel like it's all or nothing.
so i was wondering... do you keep ALL your pictures? or just the good ones? i have albums full of photos and i'm wondering if i can pare that down. but it's not like i can go back if i go too far.
also christmas decorations. oy. i have a huge storage shelf thing in my laundry room (four shelves to the ceiling, 3 feet deep) and it's mostly christmas decorations. that's just ridiculous, right? we don't even ever have a full size tree. it just too me so long to aquire them.
board games... we have them but we NEVER play them.
craft supplies - what's your rule of thumb?
books... oy.
notes/greeting cards, etc. - what's your rule of thumb?
help me make the tough decisions!
Re: help me get rid of baggage - minimalists come in
I'm probably not the best person to ask because I keep EVERYTHING! Things like Christmas decorations and board games are things I would never get rid of! If I had a ton of photos and didn't want to store them, I'd probably scan them and save them in a free online storage site, like shutterfly. That way I have them and won't ever lose them (even if my hard drive crashes).
I think a lot of it is how you store everything. Is it neatly organized? Do you have cute boxes or baskets? What spaces in your house aren't you using effectively (closets, under beds, etc).? Attics, basements and garages are great for hiding the bulky stuff.
For photos I am really bad. Now I tend to toss and duplicate copies (because I always used to get doubles when getting film developed). I also tend to throw out any photos that I just don't like of myself. Not necessarily every "fat" photo, but ones where I have a weird look on my face, horrible skin, crazy hair, was drunk out of my mind, and/or something else unflattering.
I am not much help with the Christmas decorations as we don't have many. We have 1 box of holiday decorations (Christmas and Hanukkah). I would say go through it and if you don't love it and/or it doesn't have real sentimental value then pitch it.
Craft Stuff. This is hard for me, but I recently just went through all my scrapbooking stuff and purged a ton of stuff. I had a hard time with it, but now I actually am able to stay far more organized then I was before. I just went through all my stuff and honestly asked myself "Will I really use this?" I have bought tons of stuff over the years that while I liked it, it wouldn't really fit in with my personal style and I would have a hard time actually using it. That stuff I either gave away to a friend or my nieces.
Board games- we keep the ones we enjoy playing even if we don't play them often and donate the rest.
books- If we are going to read it again it stays. If not it gets donated or sold on half.com
notes/cards- I pretty much toss all of these. It was hard at first, but now I try to be pretty unsentimental about that kind of stuff unless it is from someone really special or it is for a special occasion (i.e. our wedding).
I am getting ready for another purge as wel.
For me board games and Christmas Decorations are keepers especially for when children grow up or if you host Christmas...if it's neatly stored then I would leave it...if it's not then maybe go through them and figure out what doesn't have sentimental value/won't go with your theme and donate.
Agreed on the books...if it's not a book that you truly will want to read a few more times donate or sell on half.com
Crafts- I am just too busy for fun little crafts so I have just one storage bin a little bigger than a shoe box where I keep my paints and what not and I feel that's a good compromise.
Notes/Cards toss....I do keep Christmas cards but they are in a Christmas bin not taking up room and actually was already planning on tossing any that weren't picture cards.
Pictures- I would never throw pictures away, unless it's a duplicate. To me pictures are very special.
Christmas decorations- I love Christmas decorations. I think those can be kept for a long time. I like to decorate my tree with certain colors so I store them in boxes and label them by color, that way I know which ones to bring down when I am ready to use. Although if you feel you have more than what you want to use or will ever use just sell or donate.
Board games- If you never use them then, you probably don't need them. Af of right now we don't paly board games but after dh if done with his masters we might start to buy some and use the ones we have to have family game nights.
Craft supplies - I keep almost everything! I love crafts and I like to keep everything I think I might use. I do keep my stuff in clear boxes so that I know what's in each box.
Books- We've kept all my nursing books, all his dental and science books. Anything else, we alsos keep because we are weird like that haha.
notes/greeting cards, etc. -If it's new, I keep to have them ready for when I need them. If they were sent to us, I also keep but stored in a box.
I guess I'm not much help, but I can send you my h since he starts throwing away anything that is not his, if he thinks there's a mess. Please note I said "anything that is not his," because his stuff he stores.
I didn't read the other replies, so some of this may be duplicate.
Pictures- do you have a scanner so that you could scan all the pictures and have a digital copy of them? Or if you have all the negatives you can take those and have them put on a cd so you have all the pictures that way.
Christmas decorations- What I would do is when it comes time for you to decorate go through everything. Put out what you want, and if there is stuff you haven't used in years or no longer like, get rid of it. I would think having a house you would have lots of places to decorate, so like I said I'd use what I want. Tastes change over time so maybe a bunch of the stuff you no longer like.
Board games- I'm not big on board games so if you weren't going to play them even when you have company over I'd donate them.
Books- I have a limited budget so I only buy books that I KNOW I'll want to reread later. I tend to want to only read certain scenes from books I love, so I make sure to keep those books. This is also why I joined Paperbackswap. To get rid of books I bought and didn't love, and to get books I want to try without having to pay money.
Cards- Right now I just throw any cards we get into an old shoe box. Eventually when it gets full I'll have to sort through. If there are any personalized/special ones I'll keep those and probably just throw out the rest.
My Profile
oh forgot about pictures! I have a shoe box (what is it with shoeboxes for me haha) of old pictures of me growing up (not a ton) and some college...one day I'll get around to scanning them but that's not taking up too much room.
The others I agree with pp they all go into my computer and sorted by months or year or events in the year and then uploaded to shutterfly. I love that site so much. I have created tons of photobooks that are super thin so they don't take up room and really keep the pictures to the ones that are most important, but at least I have all of them backed up in case something happens to my computer (which has happened).
Umm...I keep all that stuff!
The only rule I have is that I keep hardbacks and PBS or donate paperbacks.
I need to do a purge of cr@p soon.
With books, I am of no help. I'm a bibliophile and will never get rid of a single book. I also refuse any sort of e-reader. So, I just keep buying more bookshelves.
My parents were never big on pictures, so I don't take any of vactions, family gatherings, or anything like that. I do artistic photography, though. When I shoot a roll (usually black and white) I get them developed, and have a contact sheet made so I can see what the pictures look like, then enlarge the ones I want, usually for a show or project. If all those photos are important to you, I'd scan them, keep the negatives (they sell sleeves for them you put into a binder) and ditch the prtints (except important ones, or very old ones)
Christmas decorations- get one bin and don't exceed it! If you decorate the tree and the house, maybe stretch it to 2, more than that ins't really needed. All of mine fit in one "book" box (think the small moving box size)
Board games- we have Scrabble and Candy Land. We play both. Yes, Candly Land. The game meant for 3 year olds. Don't judge.
Note cards- I have 1 set of stationary, and one small box of note cards for letters or thank yous. They're good quality, and pretty, but non-specific.
I'm not a crafter, but 'd say toss anything you haven't used in a long time, or will never need.