For printers & keyboards, check what your towns electronics recycling program entails. Ours requires you bring to the dump & put in the special electronics recycling area. I'm not sure about CPUs / laptops & how to wipe them of personal info first.
Looked it up and my city doesn't recycle electronics so they go to the landfill. I'm struggling with how to wipe the hard drives, I just have no idea
It's Bren a while since this was my thing, but best practice was to remove the hard drive, drive a nail through it, and store it indefinitely. At least a hard drive is smaller than a whole machine?
For printers & keyboards, check what your towns electronics recycling program entails. Ours requires you bring to the dump & put in the special electronics recycling area. I'm not sure about CPUs / laptops & how to wipe them of personal info first.
Looked it up and my city doesn't recycle electronics so they go to the landfill. I'm struggling with how to wipe the hard drives, I just have no idea
Check if your Goodwill takes computers. Ours has a massive computer recycling program but I'm sure that varies by community.
Post by bibliothecary on Dec 18, 2016 10:54:32 GMT -5
I feel like my mother is actively sabotaging my desire to declutter. She keeps bringing over things. Toys. Photo albums. Family heirlooms. STOP. It's enough that I have a husband who wants to hold on to every book he's ever read.
My 5yo drawer, minus pajamas, underwear and socks. His uniform outfits are held together with elastic bands so he just picks an outfit and then a sweater if needed.
I feel like my mother is actively sabotaging my desire to declutter. She keeps bringing over things. Toys. Photo albums. Family heirlooms. STOP. It's enough that I have a husband who wants to hold on to every book he's ever read.
I'm your husband.
But I discovered Little Libraries earlier this year and it's made it easier to donate books to them.
If you're looking for a place to donate good condition toys, check out your local hospital with a pediatric floor. We have a playroom with donated toys at mine.
Also, I've donated toys to the early intervention program here. They either use them for therapy or donate them to families that can't afford toys.
I don't fold my shirts her way. Too time consuming, especially since the kids tear everything out of their drawers. Also, h couldn't do it so it was making more work for me.
Post by obscurereference on Dec 18, 2016 13:23:02 GMT -5
RE: computer data wiping - My H takes out the hard drive and destroys it with a hammer. He's a computer person and a bit paranoid and says that even if you erase the data, people can still get it off your hard drive. Hammer it and throw it in the trash.
The biggest thing that has helped me is the combination of sparking joy and actually holding each individual item. I had a little over 3,000 books and would never read 90% of them. This was the first thing I've read that made me willing to purge them.
I don't remember her exact logic on clothing I've never worn, but that flipped a switch for me too. And I've read dozens of decluttering books. Can't say why this was different but something was.
My current stall point is things that should go somewhere other than the garbage. We run into delays in donating or reselling. Run out of boxes to put them in. The library only takes books for the sale some months of the year. Etc. DH has agreed that reselling causes so much hassle we should just donate everything and be satisfied with the karma.
For printers & keyboards, check what your towns electronics recycling program entails. Ours requires you bring to the dump & put in the special electronics recycling area. I'm not sure about CPUs / laptops & how to wipe them of personal info first.
Looked it up and my city doesn't recycle electronics so they go to the landfill. I'm struggling with how to wipe the hard drives, I just have no idea
MH works with computers and unless you have super secretive stuff on there, he recommends using a free app called Eraser to clear hard drives.
When the really bad floods happened here in August, a lot of people lost everything they owned. The water went up to 5 feet in some of the homes we helped gut. We threw out albums and boxes of pictures, artwork from people's kids, papers that couldn't even be pulled apart so see what they were, furniture that had been in their family for over a hundred years, collectibles, and so much more.
I kept trying to save water damaged stuff that looked sentimental, but the people always just wanted to throw it away. They were like, "It's just stuff. We're okay."
I'm trying to keep that in mind while I go through things.
I will alphabetized the spices as t a later date. I am trying to get uniform spice jars that are all the same. I just need to look on Amazon because the stuff at the Container Store isn't what I want. Well, it is what I want but it's $2.99 PER EMPTY JAR and I just... Cannot.
I put all of ours in small mason jars organized by cuisine in our pantry. I like that they're relatively cheap but easy to find if you need more.
Unfortunately the 3 computers don't even turn on anymore
He also says a decently powerful magnet would work to clear it, but that's a bit harder to get your hands on. Sounds like the nail might be the best option.
I don't do any of her folding techniques because they don't work with my closet setup and we don't have a dresser. I did reorg my underwear which is in my little side table draw. I started rolling and standing it on end so I can actually see all my knickers now. It's honestly saved time in the morning
Speaking of parents. My father just showed up with three open boxes of crackers that expired over 1-2 years ago. He was going to throw them to the birds but my mom said that we would eat them. WTF mom? Now I get to spend time trashing them.
Post by ainsleyhayes on Dec 18, 2016 16:35:22 GMT -5
I need to re read the book. I made great progress when I first read it.
Like cadien (I think?), it had a huge impact on my mindset unlike previous organizing things. I love to shop so recognizing that I got joy when I bought something and now I can let it go was a big revelation for me.
I don't know what the biggest issue for us is right now since books, clothes, etc are generally under control but I've got a couple closets that are just full of random shit like vases, toys that are out of rotation, holiday decor, that always creep back up. And my closet has become the dumping ground for work papers and all sorts of stuff that shouldn't be there.
Post by ainsleyhayes on Dec 18, 2016 16:36:05 GMT -5
Oh, and we don't have a pantry, just a kitchen cabinet for storing food and that's gotten ridiculous in the past month with snacks and random holiday buys.
I need someone to come hold my hand through this. I'm drowning in my house. I have such a hard time getting rid of things because I feel wasteful. I do much better when I know it's going to a good home. So, I need the Grinch to come take all my crap. Or something.
I can travel.
Look at it this way, you are making them available for a better home. You don't have to see them there.
I know Larry happened. Please do not try to convince me otherwise. Please don't talk to me about coffee. I don't drink it. I don't caffeine. When I state my opinion, that is me chiming in on a topic. This is not me saying you suck at life if you do or feel differently. If I want to say that, I will. If I want to speak on you, I will.
I know Larry happened. Please do not try to convince me otherwise. Please don't talk to me about coffee. I don't drink it. I don't caffeine. When I state my opinion, that is me chiming in on a topic. This is not me saying you suck at life if you do or feel differently. If I want to say that, I will. If I want to speak on you, I will.
It's a faster satisfaction to do it one room at a time, but the point of the book is that everyone's been doing that forever and basically rotating through the rooms in their home forever. The KonMari method is meant to break that cycle.
:::slugs back koolaid:::
It's primarily about changing habits and attitudes.
I just checked out 2 copies of the book from the library- one for me one for MH. I'm trying to get him to buy in so maybe he will finally pare down the giant book collection that I have been dying to declutter for like 10 years now.
I LOVE decluttering and organizing, but since DD was born it's been creeping up on me and with nursing school I just haven't had time. I'm on break though now for a couple weeks and I'm SO READY!
One of the things I struggle with getting rid of is old computer crap. I have 2 laptops, 1 desktop, 2 printers, and a keyboard that needs out of my house. Do I just dump them?
In your new city you can take all small appliances and electronics to the bottle depots run by Encorp. Free Geek also does electronic recycling/refurbish/scavenging. Probably don't want to move with them though. Not that I am stalking...
Post by librarychica on Dec 18, 2016 20:39:30 GMT -5
I have read and enjoyed. There are areas of the house I do well at (kids toys, my clothes) and areas I struggle with (small kitchen appliances, craft supplies) and areas I don't event attempt (husband's office aka "his problem.")
I am really tempted to go full-on capsule wardrobe.
I just checked out 2 copies of the book from the library- one for me one for MH. I'm trying to get him to buy in so maybe he will finally pare down the giant book collection that I have been dying to declutter for like 10 years now.
I LOVE decluttering and organizing, but since DD was born it's been creeping up on me and with nursing school I just haven't had time. I'm on break though now for a couple weeks and I'm SO READY!
OMG Nursing school killed any organization that I tried to do. I would go weeks without washing clothes. I bought extra underwear and socks a few times. And I would just switch out booksacks every semester instead of unpacking them.
Okay we both read up through chapter 2, and we're ready to start going through the categories hopefully tomorrow. We will work around MH's schedule because his buy in is key. He saw right through my this-is-really-about-getting-rid-of-your-books ruse, but doesn't seem mad about it. I think he knows in his heart the books are excessive and a whole lot of them need to go.
I just checked out 2 copies of the book from the library- one for me one for MH. I'm trying to get him to buy in so maybe he will finally pare down the giant book collection that I have been dying to declutter for like 10 years now.
I LOVE decluttering and organizing, but since DD was born it's been creeping up on me and with nursing school I just haven't had time. I'm on break though now for a couple weeks and I'm SO READY!
OMG Nursing school killed any organization that I tried to do. I would go weeks without washing clothes. I bought extra underwear and socks a few times. And I would just switch out booksacks every semester instead of unpacking them.
it's been brutal. On the whole MH has been awesome about doing more than his share so the house doesn't fall to pieces, but I'm, ahem, a LITTLE neurotic about organization and clutter and it's been creeping out of control and driving me totally insane.
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