Nancy's attempts to declutter

Paper stuff: my son has a chimenea and he burns my private paper stuff for me...when we don't have a burn ban.

Socks: My mom was the Queen of losing socks but she wouldn't throw away the ones without a mate. Even more strange,I went over to her place one day to find a mound (3' circumference, 1' tall) of single socks...that she had all dyed pink. Truth is stranger than fiction! She was an artist...maybe she was working on a creation...lol.

Hi Tina, Apparently some washing machines can swallow some socks, which would explain where some of them go! I did get rid of my odd socks, except the ones that we would be really happy to find the matching one as they were good thick socks.

Having no joy with my wellies (I now have another pair of wellies with one leaking boot !) I have moved on to my mending pile. More like a mending mountain! I fish clothes out after they are washed, on the basis that 'it just needs a new zip' or 'I could shorten those sleeves and that would make a summer shirt', 'just a patch'....etc. Unfortunately my ambitions are greater than my time (or inclination to mend) so the pile of mending was taking up a fair volume of our bedroom! I've brought it down to the living room, where the light is better and I can spread out into piles:

Not worth mending:
- woolens: I'm thinking of adding these to my felted sock project pile, not sure what I'm going to make with them yet)
- jersey cotton t shirts and undies: these I have been stripping down into fabric panels. I'm contemplating using them for personal toilet cloths (see this thread for inspiration)
- woven cotton sheets and shirts: again stripping them down into fabric panels for reuse as patches or other clothing repairs or possibly patchwork.

Yes worth mending:
- cotton clothes, shirts and trousers
- woolens: a few jumpers so far that either are pretty special and just need a few holes darning, or elbow patches to prevent future holing

Hopefully the latter pile will be much reduced, and I can keep it handy next to my seat in the living room for evening projects.

I've done one bin bag so far, and that took most of Sunday afternoon!

I will let you in on a secret. I have found where the missing socks go. They creep off into the closet and metamorphose into clothes hangers!
Bob

Bob Waur wrote:I will let you in on a secret. I have found where the missing socks go. They creep off into the closet and metamorphose into clothes hangers!
Bob

That explains everything! I could always count on Mom for clothes hangers!! 😂

I am a hoarder too and so is my hubby.  For me it's books, clothes and craft supplies and for hubby it's DVDs, electronics and a broken pile of I'll fix it's.  Plus I have about twenty boxes of stuff that belonged to my grandma who passed in 2016 that I really need to go through.  

I really need to start with clothes but that is always made more difficult by the fact that I use both cotton and denim in my quilting projects and have totes (multiple) set apart for shirts and jeans for craft purposes.  I'm sure I have over 100 T-shirts in various stages of wear.  I did go through them last year and put the seasonal and ones relating to organizations I belong to in a tote but then I'll need one of them and out the whole pile comes again.  Then I keep a tote of jeans that are a size or two too small which has come in handy as I've lost some weight.  

Actually the easiest to sort out is my daughter's clothes because she's went through a growth spurt lately.  I sort these out and make a pile for the thrift store and a pile of nicer stuff that we'll take to a large community sale in August and add the money to her piggy bank.  Of course I have kept back a few things over the years as keepsakes and some of her cute little T-shirts with intentions of making a quilt...

With more updates on our old house, I'm going through another sort and purge, so I can really relate to this.

Mar Viega wrote:I'm not a hoarder. It's spare parts. Poverty - many times why someone has what looks like a junkyard.

You won't be able to afford a new item nor a part and you can't anticipate what you'll need nor when ...

That's it exactly! I can't tell you how many times I've gotten rid of stuff, only to wish I had it back again at a future point. One of the questions I've learned to ask myself is - can I afford to buy another one?

One thing I kicked to the curb was using the term "hoarder." I think of a hoarder as someone who just possesses stuff. Being a homesteader working toward greater self-sufficiency, I see wisdom in being prudent about what I keep and what I don't. It's more about broadening our options if a need arises, rather than just collecting stuff. For example, I was recently able to pass on boxes of curtains, blinds, and window trims. I kept them until the day we could finally finish our last two rooms. Now that I know what I want to do with them, I can pass on what I don't want or need.

The hardest things to let go of are keepsakes, like my children's kindergarten papers and such. So cute! I resolved that by giving them to the respective adult children.

One dilemma for me is my boxes of fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Everything has gotten so expensive that I know I can't replace any of it. But finding space to put it all is a challenge. I'm just going to get busy with my project planning and use it up! Another is old clothes. We wear our work clothes until they aren't fit to pass on, even to a thrift shop. Some I can use for mending patches and I make rags out of others. But how many rags do I need? I don't want to replace boxes of old clothes with boxes rags, lol.

I clicked on this title from today's Tina Topic, glad to hear how others are finding themselves in and getting *through* this struggle.  Of course, it makes sense to have this issue as a permie!  Want to say that at the outset.

I grew up in a city that adopted recycling pickup in the early 90s, I think, which was the perfect solution to help me get rid of most pages of paper accumulated through schooling, while keeping some favorites. That was a big personal W.

For the last 20 years, I have lived where recycling pick-up does not happen and have variously gone through periods of intense compulsion (See: guilt, not gilt AND poverty-mindset) and I-cannot-be-a-psychic-garbageman-forever and I set an ardent intention that whatever item I'm throwing away will be for good.  I also have (and also been given by committed and passionate people) herded up a bunch of stuff that was holding space indefinitely and offered it for free (it helped to add pictures, brief descriptions, and estimates of the resale value) or took it to the dumpster.

I have also had several experiences of helping others sort their things, including (gasp!) when it wasn't asked for (See former mother-in-law's junk drawer AND codependence).  A Swedish death preparation clean-out is a beautiful sentiment, even if, while life keeps going,  we keep bringing in and putting out.

In my spiritual quest, stuff and the vagaries of life maintenance (ugh) have also shown what attachments I have.  You don't have to agree with me about this.  I am believing that humans are evolving, our grasp of technology is evolving, our collective concern for this blue (and green and brown) planet is growing. My focus is on feeling at peace, a place I have glimpsed but not yet been able to attach myself to permanently (heh 😉🙃).

Met a guy living in a slick-looking small schoolie yesterday and want to find out what the winnowing process was and continues to be over his 18 months so far.

__Paper, your mileage may vary and for what it's worth:
Papers to shred can often be brought to clean outs hosted by cities (mine is only 40k and we do) in time for Spring and Fall. Call City Hall to inquire, or give them the idea.

Also, Comerica Bank has locations throughout DFW, TX anyhow, with a wooden box inside and a slot to feed in papers, including mail. No prerequisite. That's a beautiful service to offer.

Goodwill Resale Shops have a way to guide Cloth / Clothing waste for recycling.  I've currently got a bin destined there, separated and marked 'rag waste for recycling.'

Just yesterday encountered an online printing company offering recycled cotton (!) t-shirts (See "eco options," https://www.bonfire.com/catalog/shirts/) That’s a way of closing the loop,

This discussion hasn't even mentioned digital stuff yet!

This world is soul school, to my understanding, and not living in fear seems like a tall mountain to climb; worse if attempted alone.

Hi Nancy, I enjoyed your post. Here is what i do with socks that have holes in them - first, I cut off that tightly woven border at the very top, then I cut off the ribbing section and use it as ribbing for cuffs when I sew sweatshirts using polar fleece. Also, when Walmart or other big box stores have a reduced price sale of men's socks in various colors and patterns I purchase them and if no one in my family wants to wear them, I cut off the cuffs and use them as ribbing.

Are you tossing the socks and undies, or using them for gardening things?  These would make quick filters or small strips of fabric for tying plants.

A couple of thoughts:

It's not your fault that the stuff available to buy has plastic in it.
So it's not up to you to keep it out of the waste stream.
We will either deal with it as a society or drown in it, our individual portion is a drop in the ocean.

I keep a (rather large) rag box. Once it's full the rest goes in the trash. More will accumulate faster than I will use them.  I'd rather use my limited mending time for garments I love rather than disassembling old stuff.

For pure plant and animal fiber garments that are no longer useable, I throw them in the municipal compost, not the trash.

I save old socks (not too many!) to slip over my ripening avocados to deter the squirrels. I suspect it would work for other medium-large fruit.

Another vote for sharing, AKA giving away stuff. Someone else needs it now, someone else will have one when you need it. What goes around comes around.

If I keep too much stuff I can't find it when I need it, so I buy another anyway, which defeats the purpose of keeing it in the first place. Occasionally I go looking for something and curse myself for giving it away. But quite a bit more frequently I am happy to find a recently cleared space to put something I currently am using.

Hi Nancy, I've seen your wonderful photo thread,
Nearly GAMCOD on the Isle of Skye
where you write,

I am preparing some beds in my tree field, which certainly comes under the heading of 'dirt' rather than soil. I'm intending to grow berries there longer term, but having a go at growing some food this year seems like a worthy ambition. … The new beds will be mini hugels using trimmings from my coppice trees and spruce branches.

Since hugelkultur is a living composting process, how about offering your carbon and microbe rich cotton, wool, linen, paper, wood and other natural fibers (that are temporarily in the form of sox, underwear, T-shirts, sweaters, financial records, paper-backs and other objects) to your “mini hugels”? The decomposition process could be accelerated by then adding some extra “green waste”: green plant matter, manure, kitchen waste and other nitrogen rich material.
Instead of giving away your old stuff, give away (or sell) your fresh berries grown from buried things that are way past their expiration date. When I imagine the cycle moving along like this, decluttering is really about repurposing stuff to feed the soil microbiome so a garden will grow.
In my experience, reframing the problem from home-care to gardening can make decluttering way more fun. Now more than ever before, I avoid buying or accepting "gifts" like used electronics, DVDs, and toxic craft supplies that cannot someday be put in the berms. Offering used stuff on a "free stuff" table at the end of my driveway has been a big help with moving things along.
Good luck with this difficult decluttering process, Nancy. Happy composting!

Mari Vega wrote: Of course, it makes sense to have this issue as a permie!  Want to say that at the outset.

Thank you for that Mari! It's nice to know I'm not alone. Thanks also for the great suggestions.

This discussion hasn't even mentioned digital stuff yet!

Luckily I don't have much in the way of electronic stuff. I've never been one for gadgets, never had a mobile phone for example - the one that plugs in the wall is fine for me! I do have a very old tape/CD player, but I quite like to have music or talking books going while I'm sewing, so I think (assuming it still works) I'll hang on to that. Somewhere I should have a pair of tiny speakers, which I'm wondering will plug into my tablet to improve listening to that. They date from about 35 years ago! I had (or possibly still have?) the cutest little radio/cassette player where the speakers could slot into the ends like a mini getto blaster, or be set on cables to give a spread of sound.
My husband is the techie with drawers of cables and circuit boards. I touch that not!
I also have an old kindle, which I did quite like for reading on the move, but, well I don't need that many books for a short journey, and I don't travel much so it just sits there. I never liked the fact that you don't actually own the book (and that the Harry Potter books are the American versions). However I gather that my kindle is so old that you can't get books for it anymore, so I don't think anyone would want it now. I think it is just a bit of tech junk to anyone else. It's pretty compact and I think the batteries still work so I think it can stay in a drawer.

Catherine Guzovich wrote: I cut off that tightly woven border at the very top, then I cut off the ribbing section and use it as ribbing for cuffs when I sew sweatshirts using polar fleece.

It sounds like your sewing skills are way beyond mine Catherine! I'd love to do more with knitted fabrics. It just seems to go baggy or tight in the wrong places when I try. This probably isn't the right place for that discussion however, but if you could share some of your secrets, probably in the sewing forum, I for one would be so grateful <3

William Wallace wrote:Are you tossing the socks and undies, or using them for gardening things?  These would make quick filters or small strips of fabric for tying plants.

Mostly binning them I'm afraid William. I don't do much plant tying and when I do (grape vine) I tend to use a bit of bicycle inner tube or pond liner rubber, which I also have plenty of and is a bit more durable, yet still soft.
I remember using a stocking as a grease trap at Guide camp for the washing up water. But don't have much use for filters now. I have set one up in my water terrace water intake, but have used a bit of windbreak fabric there. A sock might be an alternative there if it were fairly coarse knit.

Ellen Lewis wrote: I'd rather use my limited mending time for garments I love rather than disassembling old stuff.

I'm actually finding, on sorting my mending pile, that some of the garments I'm putting to one side I have already mended in the past. Somehow this act of caring for them before, makes them more precious to me now.

I'm hoping that by cutting the good fabric out of the worn clothes, I can compact the pile down so it doesn't become so intimidating again! I'm also going to segregate the pile by the type of mending required: sewing a button on will be relatively quick and need no special tools. Mending a crotch in trousers much more involved hand sewing there, and replacing a zip almost impossible, but it will be good for me to achieve a new skill. I also have several of my husbands work shirts that have torn sleeves. He says he can use short sleeved workshirts, so I can probably get 4 or 5 shirts done in a couple hours if I set up the sewing machine.

Amy Gardener wrote: how about offering your carbon and microbe rich cotton, wool, linen, paper, wood and other natural fibers (that are temporarily in the form of sox, underwear, T-shirts, sweaters, financial records, paper-backs and other objects) to your “mini hugels”? The decomposition process could be accelerated by then adding some extra “green waste”: green plant matter, manure, kitchen waste and other nitrogen rich material.

Thank you for this inspired suggestion Amy! I will try to put the debris I know is biodegradable to one side to be used is this way (so far it is all just mixed in a bin bag). Much of it is mixed fibres though, since i have been keeping any panels I think may be useful for patching or other future projects. The seams are almost all sewn with synthetic thread :( so I have already stripped those out.
I do like the idea of closing the organic circle this way, returning the soil carbon (and nitrogen)!

Nancy, I would be delighted to share what I know about sewing. See you in the sewing forum.

Tina Wolf wrote:Paper stuff: my son has a chimenea and he burns my private paper stuff for me...when we don't have a burn ban.

Socks: My mom was the Queen of losing socks but she wouldn't throw away the ones without a mate. Even more strange,I went over to her place one day to find a mound (3' circumference, 1' tall) of single socks...that she had all dyed pink. Truth is stranger than fiction! She was an artist...maybe she was working on a creation...lol.

I save burnable paper to use as woodstove fire starter in winter. The confidential parts of all mail (including junk mail) gets quickly torn off the envelope or back of magazine or whatever and added to the bag of fire starter. It helps minimize the amount of what needs to be recycled or put in trash- such as glossy paper and other non-burnable material.
As for single socks - I've turned mine into dust mittens. Easy to slip hands into and do the job quickly, then simply toss into the wash with other things. They can be made quickly identifiable by sewing a bright colored thread/string loop on them or piece of ribbon if desired. Seems the washing machine just eats a sock occasionally for a snack!!  Other than that if you dare, tell no one and just use odd matching socks for working outdoors. Hard to see them in work boots and who cares if they get worn out and muddy anyway!  When they wear out, they'll go into the "dusting mitten" bin too.

Denise Cares wrote:

Tina Wolf wrote:Paper stuff: my son has a chimenea and he burns my private paper stuff for me...when we don't have a burn ban.

Socks: My mom was the Queen of losing socks but she wouldn't throw away the ones without a mate. Even more strange,I went over to her place one day to find a mound (3' circumference, 1' tall) of single socks...that she had all dyed pink. Truth is stranger than fiction! She was an artist...maybe she was working on a creation...lol.

I save burnable paper to use as woodstove fire starter in winter. The confidential parts of all mail (including junk mail) gets quickly torn off the envelope or back of magazine or whatever and added to the bag of fire starter. It helps minimize the amount of what needs to be recycled or put in trash- such as glossy paper and other non-burnable material.
As for single socks - I've turned mine into dust mittens. Easy to slip hands into and do the job quickly, then simply toss into the wash with other things. They can be made quickly identifiable by sewing a bright colored thread/string loop on them or piece of ribbon if desired. Seems the washing machine just eats a sock occasionally for a snack!!  Other than that if you dare, tell no one and just use odd matching socks for working outdoors. Hard to see them in work boots and who cares if they get worn out and muddy anyway!  When they wear out, they'll go into the "dusting mitten" bin too.

Denise, in my book...you are brilliant! My son takes after my mother in the sock department so I anticipate plenty of "dust mittens"! Thank you for the idea!

YouTube algorithm was quite right to show me this the other day: "The #1 Problem With Minimalism No One Talks About"

Thinking it might just help you, also, Nancy.

I've heard it some, and probably need to remind myself more-- to not judge my insides by comparing myself to someone else's outsides.