What do you do with the junk...?

FourAM

FourAM

Cathlete
:DAnd no I don't mean the junk in my trunk ...I mean my husband and I are tackling the remodel of our junk room and now I am overwhelmed with just how much crap is in here. It seems everything we did not want to look at on a daily basis is in here.
Let me give you an example of what I see when I look around...Seeing as how this is also where the computer is.:eek:
Lets see...
VHS tapes (and we do not own a player that works)but some of the tapes are from high school sentimental you know:rolleyes:
about 200 cassette tapes (i know)
roller blades that we thought we would teach ourselves to use but chickened out when we tried and realized if we broke something we would be screwed.
6 bottles of elmers glue (i don't know)
swords, guns, binoculars and walky talkies ( don't worry no children)
art supplies
a whole corner of stuff I intend to put in a garage sale :rolleyes:
And this is not the tip of the iceberg.
DH <----horrible pack rat.!!!!
But I too have my fair share of problems like the elmers glue...It is still good so I just can't throw it away but I do not think in my lifetime I will use that much elmers glue! So what to do ? Sorry guys I just needed to take a break from sorting and kind of see the humor and the stupity of this dilema:D
Hope you all have a great day!
:DRachel
 
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Well, if you do it the fly lady way (www.flylady.com), you could go in there with a trash bag and throw away 27 things. Then go back in there with another bag and pick 27 things to get rid of. Keep one container of glue and either chuck or donate the rest. ;) Do that everyday for just 5 minutes and in a week, you'll start to notice a difference. There are a lot of other little tips and strategies at the website. It really has helped me get my house under control. The big thing to remember is to do a little at a time. They keep saying "it didn't get to be a mess in a day, and it will not get cleaned up in a day". ;)
 
My sisters and I had to clean out my aunt's house after she passed away. She was a pack rat. We put everything into piles ~ Goodwill, garage sale or trash. She passed away on July 13 and the house was emptied, cleaned and sold by Sept. 21. There were lots of things that were sentimental value that was put aside. Then we went back through that pile and either kept it or sold it.
 
Consider taking pictures of the things you keep only for sentimental reasons. Like others have said sort for giving away, trash, moving to a more useable location etc. Doing the 27 items at a time really helps break things down, so it seems more manageable.
 
You could donate the Elmer's glue and art supplies to a school/pre-school, senior center, or some other place that does things like crafts.
 
As Liann said, FlyLady has a great system and philosophy for helping get rid of junk. Even if you could get $100 for your stuff at a garage sale, how much time would it take to advertise, organize, price, sit out in front of your house?
Throw it away or donate it, but do not let yourself believe that keeping it will make you happy.
DH as a packrat is a bit difficult. Mine is too. We tend to work fairly well if I say things like "all of your t-shirts need to fit in this drawer, I will not tell you how many or which ones to get rid of, but they need to fit" or "all board games must fit on this shelf"
I am happy because his stuff is not overflowing, and he is happy because I am not griping about the nasty old shirt that I do not like.
 
I use: http://www.freecycle.org/ Check if there is one in your area.
You post all the things you want to get rid of and people who want them contact you and arrange pick up.
I got rid of a lot of stuff this way, but also picked up some useful things.
 
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