Junk Selling for Fundraiser Update

This is a picture of a meal that my friend Hritika and her mother prepared for us in their little rented room in the village of Aaru Bari just outside of Kathmandu, Nepal.

For a few years now, I've been doing some fund-raising for my friend's education fund. She is now seventeen years old and graduating in a few months from high school. She will be going on to a public health/nursing program most likely.

All the funds raised have come from selling accumulated clutter and junk--some from my own home but the bulk of it from other people's donated cast-offs that have been stored in my basement and then sold on Craigslist. Thanks to everybody who cleaned out their closets and donated.

From May 2008 until the end of January 2011, the amount raised comes to $3781, including one garage sale which earned just over three hundred dollars.

With my mother's cash donations, the total in this fund is now $4436.

This is clutter put to good use!

The Bedroom Closet was Next...

BEFORE PHOTOS




Although the closet in the hallway drove me to tackle it first, its clean-out inspired a chain-reaction and the bedroom closet became more organized at the same time.












































AFTER PHOTOS






This was mainly due to the bedroom closet becoming a spill-over place for things which truly belonged in the hallway storage but wouldn't currently.


It's unfortunate that once a closet is overcrowded, there is very little incentive to keep it tidy and I found myself ignoring the general higgledy-piggeldyness that resulted over time. Some clothing item would slide out of a basket or be left piled on the chest of drawers at the back and there it would remain.

But when something is uncluttered, there is a sense of how nice it looks and you want it to STAY that way.

As in, "MMMMMMM, flat, clean surfaces....."

I have to call this just PHASE ONE as the closet is still too cluttered. Too many clothes! (And this after actually removing twenty-five hangers worth of clothing and taking them to a clothes trade. I came back from the clothes trade with five items but it was still an improvement. I'm very glad I sold the extra hangers on Craigslist as I certainly didn't want to fill them up again.)

Also, there are some boxes on the floor with contents that I can only describe as "Miscellaneous". I'd like to see them disappear soon.

Still, I now have two relatively organized closets.

Hall Closet of Doom Clean-Out

BEFORE PHOTOS

















It was time for a major closet clean-out. An overhaul. A crap intervention, if you will. I was having trouble reaching the laundry chute. You know there's a problem when you are leaning into your closet space because there is NO floor, and using a long stick to poke mis-aimed stray socks down the chute.



This is the main storage closet upstairs, just outside of the bedrooms and across from the bathroom. Every time I went to get a towel and saw the mess, it made me twitch. But the thought of pulling everything out and spreading it around my tidy bedroom made me want to take a nap.

It most recently became a way-station for the holiday chaos of unwrapped presents and tissue paper and miscellaneous things pulled from my flea market boxes that were potentially presents. There were a bunch of empty toilet paper rolls awaitng their destiny as home-made Christmas crackers. There were souvenirs from our recent trip to Greece and Egypt waiting to be distributed.



But here it was the end of January, and the mess was no longer so Christmas-y. The underlying clutter of old school binders, fraying towels, unused bed linen, Halloween decorations, gift bags, board-games, and old D&D manuals remained.

I could close the door and go have my nap...or I could do something about it..

Once I got started, I realized the bedroom closet had many of the things that belonged in this closet and if I could somehow clean out the hall closet space, it could start a chain reaction and make space in my bedroom closet too.

First I pulled everything off the top shelves and wiped them down. I spread all the mess out in my bedroom (a cringe-worthy action as I have a really tidy bedroom, er, aside from the inside of the closet). But it was easier to with empty shelves.

I got Jeff to come and decide whether he wanted any of his school binders or books. An enormous stack of paper was relegated to the recycling bin, and the remaining books moved into the library.

The board games were organized and put in a small pile.

AFTER PHOTO


The gift boxes and gift bags were corralled onto one shelf.

Unworthy towels were placed in the trunk of our car to be delivered to the SPCA.

I had been keeping one sad-looking sheet because I JUST bought it, but it pilled up in its first wash. That got chucked. An old pillow followed suit.


A lot of items were relegated to the garage sale pile in the basement, which made room for some of the duvets and blankets to be brought out from the bedroom closet.

Sea-grass baskets that used to hold, um, stuff now hold extra towels, table-cloths, and pillow-cases.

There was now room for all three of our suitcases!

But best of all, we can SEE the laundry chute. :)

Craigslist Lately

So what do all these things have in common?

Well, I sold them on Craigslist. :)

Since I wrote on this blog last, I've changed my focus on clutter once again. Now, instead of keeping track of what I'm getting rid of, i'm actively collecting more, er stuff.

What? Why?

Yes, I still struggle with the fact that sometimes my basement (and computer room too) have various boxes and bags of stuff that I neither want nor need for myself.

But the fact is, I'm making as much money this way as I ever did from the Flea Market, and the money is being saved for Hritika's education fund. My goal is $100 a month raised through Craigslist. And this year, I've raised that much and more! (well some months I only make ten bucks but other times I make two hundred so it's averaging out).

It seems for the time being I'm welcoming junk---as long as I can sell it!

Posting Long Overdue

There are only so many hats and mits one girl needs. Also, recycling bags are a good thing but I don't need a bazillion.

My friend got a lot of use out of these befor winter ended....

So much junk in one kitchen drawer...

So much unnecessary miscellany...

These all came out of the Kitchen Cupboard of Doom ...

These things went bye-bye a while back, but I forgot about them. Might as well include them in the count.

Another 139 things gone. 3522 things gone.

Unbirthday Declutter

I had a wonderful time visiting two dear friends on our sleepover Unbirthday weekend--- a celebration about seeing one another instead of getting presents.

I also had an opportunity late that Saturday night (between fabulous dinner at the Cafe Brio and a Lara Croft action film) to put some seldom-used items up for grabs. If my friends wanted anything, they were welcome to it.

I brought hair clips, bath oils, herbal teas, a stainless steel soap dispender still in its packaging, kerchiefs, hairbands, necklaces, bracelets, earrings and silky little bags which are lovely but I never use them.

There was one bracelet which was a bit of an internal struggle to part with. It was made of beautiful luminous green beads and I bought it at a craft fair only a year ago as part of a set. I wear the earrings almost daily. But the bracelet? Gorgeous, but I think I wore it twice.

I was glad of my decision when I saw how pretty it looked on my friend Pol...

I also gave Pol my old glass coffee bodum as promised. I love the metal one I have and I'm quite sure it will be enough. :)

Hurray for friends to pass things on to!

(I must say that my dear friends often pass things the other way too---trading among ourselves has become a time-honoured tradition. I've received many clothes, shoes, and fabulous books over the years. It's like shopping for FREE!)

42 more things passed on. A tootal of 3383 things gone.

To the Restore! (and More)

So, luckily for us, Jeff's mom will lend us the truck now and then. About a month ago we made one trip to the Restore, that blessed Habitat for Humanity place that accepts old household building cast-offs instead of letting them go into the landfill. It doesn't matter if the items are dated, as long as they are in good condition.

To the Restore there went: two folding closet doors, two interior wooden doors within frames, an old bedroom light fixture from before renovations, and 14 green cupboard knobs. (19 items)

Alas, the old broom, a big broken tile, and a broom far past functioning were just garbage and have been languishing in a dark corner of the garage. No more.

Three sets of broken Christmas lights went too, and a clunky old television antenna from where-I-don't-know.

I also turfed two rotten garden hoses (I was storing them for a friend who has to live in an apartment but there are limits to the time I'm keeping them when they are useless to anyone--that's two years apparently.) (8 items)

To the Friends of the Library Donation bin travelled sixty (!) more magazines and a few children's books.

So sixty plus nineteen plus eight.....

Hmmm...this brings the new Decluttering total to: 3342 .