I’m totally planning to stick a random affiliate link into this post. Watch for it.
My living room is pretty easy to clean. It can go from looking like the picture I posted yesterday to looking like the picture from my How to Declutter Living Areas post pretty quickly.
Mainly, that’s because I’ve eliminated almost every clutter spot in it.
Almost.
The other day when I felt like decluttering something (but didn’t feel like tackling something big), I decided it was time to do what I’d been needing to do for a very long time.
Remember when I finally moved our never-hooked-up-to-the-new-TV-for-over-a-year VHS player out of the living room? Well, moving it to storage (only to be saved for wedding videos and such) puts a whole new perspective on VHS tapes and whether we should keep them.
So I grabbed a donate-able donate box and started purging the overflowing basket on the shelf.
Memories flooded back. Specifically, of my time in Thailand.
I watched this set of I Love Lucy’s Road Trip: California Here We Come! until I had them memorized.
(When you live alone and it’s the only thing to watch in English before the days of TV on the Internet, that’s what you do.)
I knew the moment when the camera cut away just before Lucy laughed. I could freeze the frame at exactly the right time so you could see the camera-man in the corner of the shot.
Those tapes were my friends.
But since I was willing to part with them, Hubby agreed to part with some of his favorites, too. (See how that works?)
And in the end, the space looks better simply because I decluttered.
How are your decluttering efforts going?
Did you catch the affiliate link? FYI, that set was originally $50 and now sells for less than $5. Hmmmm.
--Nony
I have not decluttered anything since the overhaul I made on Saturday for the football playoff party we had, I have managed to keep up with the loading and unloading of the dishwasher, its amazing how my day starts off so much better by walking into a kitchen in the morning to cleared off cabinets and no dirty dishes.
I am trying to find the balance between coming back to work and keeping up with my decluttering goals.
In the last year I have closed a business (retail with lots of inventory), moved my mother-in-law (to which she “donated” boxes and boxes of stuff to us) and had my college daughter graduate and move back home (with a full apartment). As you can imagine that had a large affect on how much stuff we have and how much room we don’t have. Did a huge purge this weekend with a dump run and 6 boxes to Goodwill. Last night my daughter and I worked on the big bathroom where soaps and lotions and everything like that go to die because we have so much cupboard and drawer space. It is a freeing feeling!
Unopened toiletries and beauty supplies can be brought to local food banks or womens shelters for distribution. These items are not covered by food stamp programs and often become items women go without.
I just filled a box with VHS tapes last week. When my husband came home he asked what I was going to do with them. When I told him, Goodwill, he said, “Don’t you think we should record them onto DVD’s first”? I just gave him “the look”.
Mine is the exact same way! I know it’s NEVER going to happen but as long as he takes it down into the basement (which is all his domain) I’ll live with it.
Kitchen! I’m still working on my kitchen. And wow I see a huge difference! All those little decisions have finally shown up as success. repeat>repeat…. And finally tada. My cupboards are not jammed anymore!
NOT THE VHS TAPES! Sorry, for yelling. But that’s the response I got when I got rid of the bulk of ours a couple years ago. Ha!
I’m still working on my kitchen. I got into two of the scarier cupboards this morning and only have one more…the one under the sink. But I hear sinister theme music when I think of that cabinet so I’m gathering courage by sitting here on the computer. It’s a “way too cold to go to school” day in Georgia and I’m determined to get that cabinet done and call the kitchen “decluttered” before I have to go to a meeting at church tonight. Determined with a capital “D.” We’ll see how that goes!
I have spent every day since the 29th clearing our unwanted/unneeded stuff and organizing my 9 year old daughters room, master bedroom and closet (closet was a whole day job!) And my kitchen and that’s not including putting away holiday decorations! 31 hours on the DD room alone! Yesterday I organized the donate items..yup put them into groups 🙁 I woke up sick today and feel like I am slacking because I haven’t moved out of bed! Guilt is a killer for me plus the worry that I won’t start again and I still have lots to do like mounds of laundry, the hall closet, storage closet and yet another hall closet! That’s not mentioning smaller tasks like the laundry room and game room or things I haven’t thought of but will notice as I do the others 🙁 my head hurts without thinking of this!
PS…I Decluttered the DVD and video collection during this also 🙂 I am donating DD unwanted vids to the after school program down the street with her clothes and toys. 🙂 We live in a very low income neighborhood soooo it will be welcomed!
PPS…THIS is all thanks to you! Found you just around Christmas and YOU motivated me more than another famous flying declutterer ever did! Thank you soooo much <3
Oh thank you!! And great job on all you’ve done, Lisa!!
No, again thank you! When I do each project I refer to your posts (if there is one) for inspiration and encouragement!
Me too! <3 I find a video, or pod sat and register while I work. 😉
I think the VCR itself takes up more room than the tapes that I took with me. Then again, it is video game equipment, not for watching movies.
I think the only tapes I haven’t found uploaded to the internet is Dog City and most of the first halves of The Jim Henson Hour.
The veterans are coming. The veterans are coming…..Monday. So I am pitching lots making headway to then pack up goods to go to the veterans……Top of the list..VCR tapes and VCR. If I get that done… that alone will make me happy and get me rolling. Next…scrapbooking…
Thanks so much for this timely post!!! I was just complaining to hubby that I have no place on our shelves to display pics of our nieces. Getting rid of VHS tapes will accomplish this goal. He even mentioned that as a solution — Yay! Your blog is awesome — keep up the good work.
I did this last month. I won’t lie – it was painful. I had to talk myself through each and every step. But I haven’t regretted it yet! Amazing how much space they took up. So glad I did 🙂
I never even thought of getting rid of tapes befote! This one inspired me to declutter my vhs tapes too. Most were taped from tv and were not very good quality anyway. Now I have room to store personal care items, perfume etc on the back of the door where the tape rack hung.
Living with a chronic pain illness makes large projects very difficult. I just can’t do them anymore. That’s what I love about your site and FB posts. You break it down into small, manageable tasks that even I can do. I’m very OCD, so the clutter and junk drive me nuts. Thank you for helping me do this in a way I can do it – one small step at a time.
When I saw a mother asking about tapes for kids on one of our local buy or trade Facebook sites, I was so excited that children would enjoy the many videos I had collected for my grand children. I gathered up all my Disney great movies and went to meet the lady who was interested in 32 of them. Turned out she was interested in DVDs not videos. I was so disappointed not about the $32, but that no one seems to want the videos. Luckily I have one large TV that plays both, and one small portable for videos only. So are you saying that Goodwill or Salvation Army are the only places who accept them?
I’m honestly not sure. You could list them on that trade site and see what people want. There are definitely those who love them. I loved that my kids could put them in themselves and I didn’t worry about them breaking the machine the way I would have with DVDs.
I have two large rooms that exist for nothing more than holding all the crap I don’t know what to do with. I’m so glad I found this website! I’m starting on my office/tv room/treadmill room today. Does anyone have experience with getting rid of all the documents and other paper that builds up in the filing cabinets?