Hellobee

I wrote a post about our major decluttering one year ago when we moved to a smaller apartment. I thought it was time for an update on how we’ve been doing because even though we got rid of so much stuff then, it’s amazing how decluttering is an ever ongoing process. In an ideal world we’d get rid of one thing for every new thing that we bring into the home, but life gets in the way and it’s difficult to stay on top of so regularly. I also find myself justifying purchases like books for the kids and camping supplies because we will use them for years to come. We live in a small city apartment with very little storage though, so regular decluttering is a necessity, and I continue to aspire to adopt a more minimalistic lifestyle.

Last year I shared 21 categories where we decluttered. I did a major clean-out this past holiday weekend, and these are 32 more things we’ve gotten rid of over the past year.

– Paper. It’s a constant battle to keep our paper clutter at bay. I had a ton of old bank statements, insurance papers, etc. to shred that I’d been putting off forever. I spent half an entire day this past weekend just shredding them (I wish I had a fireplace!). I also shred everything with our names on it, so if I don’t stay on top of it regularly, it builds up really quickly. I ended up with 2 jumbo sized garbage bags worth of paper!

– Kids’ Artwork. I toss this as it comes in because the kids produce so much artwork at school and at home. I only keep my very favorites which will eventually be made into a photobook (there’s even an app to do this). I have to be careful about tossing artwork though because the kids have found it in the trash and asked why we threw it away!

– Clothes. I have really embraced the capsule wardrobe concept (you can read Brandy’s posts on her spring, fall, winter and accessories essentials), and it becomes easier and easier to get rid of clothes and shoes. Every time I do a pass, there is at least one more thing I want to get rid of, like the jeans that I’ll fit in again… one day. I sell the nicer things, donate clothes in good condition, and donate damaged clothes to a textile recycling nonprofit. Most of my clothes are now in a similar color scheme, so it’s much easier to mix and match everything in my wardrobe, and I focus more on accessories to change up outfits rather than having a big closet of clothes. All my clothes fit in half a small standard closet that I share with Mr. Bee and a 5 drawer dresser.

– Hangers – We sure had a lot of hangers. Every time I do a clothing purge, I also get rid of hangers.

– Purses – Now that I have kids, I try to fit everything in my pockets if I can and go handbag-free. I used to have tons of handbags, but realized that I only really need 4 — a classic structured bag that I use for work functions; a casual tote bag that can be dressed up or down and double as a camera bag; a cross body; and a clutch for dressier events like weddings. When it comes to handbags, especially now that I’m older, I’d rather invest in a few quality, timeless, versatile pieces.

– Boots – I got rid of a lot of shoes in my last purge, but I still had too many boots. They’re such a great mom shoe because they can be dressed up or down and they’re comfy. I’ve culled my collection down to rain boots, snow boots, black ankle boots, black ankle boots with a heel, and brown knee-high boots.

– Scarves/Belts – I don’t know how I amassed so many scarves and belts over the years. I haven’t worn most of my scarves and belts in the past year since I did my last clean-out. Off to the donation pile they went.

– Sunglasses – I had tons of cheapie sunglasses that I’ve picked up over the years from stores like H&M, but I really only like a couple so most of them went in the donate pile.

– Old glasses – I recently got new glasses with a stronger prescription so I’m going to donate my old glasses (I have some that are over 10 years old!) to a charity that passes them on to people in need.

– Kids’ Clothes – Admittedly kids’ clothes are my vice, but I am brutal about selling/donating/giving away things as soon as they outgrow them. All of Charlie and Olive’s clothes fit in their small dressers and a small closet that they share for hanging clothes.

– Mismatched/Outgrown socks – These got a second life when I donated them to Charlie’s classroom to use as markboard erasers for the kids (they each have a mini markboard).

– Unused home goods – I had several brand new items that were meant for our last apartment. I held onto them because they were new and maybe we would use them some day, like a full size duvet cover (even we no longer have a full sized bed). One year later and they remained untouched, so into the sell pile they went.

– Blankets/Bedding – My mom loves to gift us blankets, so I said goodbye to some of our older blankets. This is an example of a useful item that’s easy to hold onto because it’s still perfectly fine, but if you have a replacement there is no need for it.

– Unused/Outdated Tech – We have a manual camera (not digital) and a polaroid camera that we never use. It’s highly unlikely we’ll ever use them again so into the sell pile they went. We also had things like a keyboard that fit an old ipad and an ipod dock that fit an old ipod that are now obsolete.

– Old computers – We had several old computer towers that we weren’t using. I finally had all the data put on an external hard drive that I’ll upload to Google Drive and Dropbox and had them recycled.

– Old cell phones – I had a couple of old cell phones that I saved so that they kids could use them as toys. But they never played with them (since they’re never charged and they don’t have touch screens) and actually prefer to play with their toy cell phone.

– Toys – I firmly believe that kids play with their toys more when they have less. Both kids got a bunch of new toys from friends and family for their birthdays and Christmas, so I pulled out all their baby toys and seldom played with toys to sell.

– Board books – Olive is 3 and she still loves a lot of her board books. But now that she has the ability to sit through longer books, I really want to encourage her to read longer books to improve her vocabulary and comprehension. So I decided to sell almost all our board books, save for a couple of her favorites.

– Photographs – I have boxes full of old pictures that I plan on sending to a digital scanning service (Scancafe is very highly rated). I love albums, but a photobook will take up much less space than an actual album. Now if only I could get around to actually making the photobooks!

– Party favors – With two kids in school, we go to a lot of birthday parties, and they always have favors filled with little trinkets. Once the novelty wears off after the first day, I put everything outside on the sidewalk and someone walking along takes them.

– Refrigerator/Pantry – I’ve done a pretty good job of regularly cleaning out our fridge, and we only had 2 expired condiments to throw out this time around. We also had a lot of pantry items from all the various diets I’ve tried (gluten-free everything). It’s hard to get rid of food because it feels so wasteful, but I honestly wasn’t going to eat it so it got tossed.

– Condiment Packets/Plastic Utensils – I never keep these because I never remember to use them anyway. But ketchup packets do find a second life as mini ice packs that we keep in the freezer for booboos.

– DVDs/CDs – We have 3 huge cd notebooks filled with DVDs and CDs. We’re planning on taking all of these with us to the Philippines so Mr. Bee’s parents can use them at their b&b.

– Holiday Decor – Unfortunately we just don’t have the space to store lots of holiday decorations so last year I got rid of all our glass ornaments that took up a lot of space and have been in the process of slowly collecting felt ornaments that take up much less storage space.

– Greeting Cards – I always feel bad, but I toss these. If it’s a family photo, I might snap a picture of it with my phone and use it as their profile picture.

– Gifts – I do feel bad getting rid of gifts we’ve received, but if we’re not using them, I don’t think it makes sense to hold onto them. You can always photograph anything if you want to have a tangible memory.

– Memorabilia – We had random tchotkes like shot glasses from places we’d traveled. They never saw the light of day so out they went.

– T-shirts – We had so many random old t-shirts like ones that we received for free at events. I’d hold onto them thinking that we’d use them to work out, or paint to in. But they pretty much just took up space so I got rid of all of them.

– Baby Gear – I have always been brutal about selling outgrown baby gear because we never had the space for it. Big baby gear like exersaucers, swings, etc. are easy to buy and sell. Now that Olive is 3, the only remaining baby gear we had were her sleep sacks.

– Sporting Equipment – Things we got rid of included: boxing gloves, rollerblades, and fishing poles (although I do regret the fishing poles).

.  .  .  .  .

Have you been decluttering in the new year? What are some recent things you’ve gotten rid of in your home?