Tag: Donation Pickup

So You Shopped the President’s Day Sales

Posted on by Jordank

Happy President’s Day!

We at the Organizing Blog know that we’re a little late in telling you this, but since retailers were trotting out the deals over the long weekend, you may have celebrated your day off shopping for mattresses, furniture or other household goods.

Having recently moved in to a new home, we did the same. And some of the discounts were incredible! But that doesn’t mean we bought a lot — some things weren’t that great a deal, most we didn’t need, and many would have created more problems than they solved.

Unless you’re starting over, any decorative item or piece of furniture you buy is likely redundant. If you’re short on space, you need to make sure whatever you buy actually replaces an existing item, or you’ll wind up surrounding yourself with #clutter.

You can buy things and still avoid this problem. Is your living room already crowded with furniture and knickknacks? One new couch might be able to do the work of two old loveseats, or a new wall unit could help you make sense of what’s on display.

Some furniture — like beds frames with storage underneath — can actually create space by offering a place to store some of your stuff out of sight. But you’ll need to observe a strict out-with-the-old policy to avoid #clutter.

With large items like beds, mattresses and couches, the ultraminimalist one in/two out rule doesn’t always apply. But be sure to get rid of the one old thing as quickly as you find its replacement, and donate it to ClothingDonations.org if it has some life left in it.

For smaller stuff, make an attempt to find two items in the same category to get rid of as soon as something else enters the inventory. This will preserve the thrill of the shopping “hunt” while slowly downsizing your possessions — or at least keeping them in check.

Observe this simple #decluttering rule, and before you know it, any new stuff you find at the weekend sales will help your home look brand new, stylish and spotless, and the old stuff that survives will consist only of things you truly cherish.

You don’t necessarily have to stop shopping to keep the #clutter at bay!

Store the Holidays Away Sensibly

Posted on by Jordank

Even the most diehard #holiday celebrators will admit that it’s finally time to take down the tree, wind up the lights and box up the tchotchkes for most of the year ahead. They’ve communicated your holiday cheer dutifully for several weeks, and it’s time to give them a rest.

A little ingenuity will help you pack away and preserve those holiday items for next Christmas. And a little judicious weeding out will save you some space so that holiday clutter can’t get the best of you next season.

First, of course, is the weeding out. As you take down the lights, toss any strings that no longer work and can’t be fixed with a simple swap of bulbs. And throw away damaged ornaments and other decorative items — the only place to stores trash is in the circular file.

You’ll want to preserve what you keep to create that winter wonderland again quickly, so take time to sort, organize and store decorations carefully. Good Housekeeping offers a number of clever ways to keep thing safe and organized for the months they’ll spend in the attic, garage or basement.

Wrap string lights around squares of notched cardboard so they can’t tangle when stored, for example, and put fragile ornaments in plastic cups or egg containers to keep them from getting crushed. Bag any artificial wreaths to keep them dust-free, and consider shrink-wrapping the tree.

Remember to label all bins and boxes with their contents, even if you opt for clear-plastic containers. If you really want to streamline 2020 decorating, The Spruce says, you can number your bins to know which ones should be reopened first.

After all, the biggest benefit of getting decorations organized as you put them away for the season is that you’ll be able to locate and use them easily next fall! The holidays are hectic enough without your having to hunt down every item or buy it again.

If there are still-useful items you just don’t want to store or display next year, bag them and contact ClothingDonations.org for a pickup. They will be resold to benefit veterans’ initiatives, and other families will be able to use them to create holiday cheer.

It can be bittersweet to take down and shelve your holiday decorations, but that’s what makes the season so special. Get #organized, and this year’s holiday season will be better — and more stress-free — than ever.

Resolve to Cut the Crap in the New Year

Posted on by Jordank

One of LifeHacker’s favorite easy-to-keep #resolutions is to keep one’s home cleaner. “Cleaning is one of the first chores we start to neglect when we start to get busy, but it doesn’t need to be difficult. Start by de-crapifying your home” to eliminate unwanted #clutter, it says, then schedule 15-minute cleaning sessions to keep everything neat and spotless. And while you’re de-crapifying, resolve to contact ClothingDonations.org to have all of that unnecessary junk whisked away with a free donation pickup. You’ll not only help yourself own the New Year, but help veterans, too!

Out With the Old in the New School Year

Posted on by Jordank

Back-to-school time is the perfect opportunity to get rid of all sorts of extra stuff that kids have brought into the home in years past, says #decluttering expert Tracy McCubbin. Toys that the kids no longer use, books they’ve read and won’t pick up again, clothing they’ve outgrown, equipment for sports they no longer play, and last year’s backpacks and bags are good targets for your seasonal purge. Bag or box these items and get them out of your house by scheduling a free #donation pickup from ClothingDonations.org. “Next year, think about doing this decluttering while the kids are at sleepaway camp,” the dClutterfly ounder adds.

Moving? Don’t Forget to Declutter

Posted on by Jordank

The average American will move 11.4 times in his or her lifetime, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And the Organizing Blog thinks that summer 2019 may be more mobile than most — those orange box trucks seem to be everywhere this season, taking people and their stuff across town and across the country.

One thing is certain: Moving is not easy, and it gets harder as you accumulate more stuff. Everything you keep has to go into boxes and onto that truck, and the more you have, the longer it takes and the more it costs. There is a solution, however; and that’s to keep less stuff. #Declutter before you move, and the process will be (somewhat) less of a burden.

A pre-relocation #decluttering differs from an everyday decluttering (although if you’ve followed the Organizing Blog’s advice consistently, you’ll already have limited your possessions to only the essentials). For one thing, says The Art of Happy Moving, you’ll want to declutter by category rather than room so that you pack like items together.

Begin with the heavy stuff — books, records, etc. Even if you’re an avid collector, the less of these weighty items you keep, the better your friends/movers will manage. Have extra boxes and bags available as you pack; seal up the things you want to “Keep,” sort out what you want to “Donate,” and “Trash” anything that too broken, outdated or dilapidated to use immediately.

Set the donation bags and boxes aside and contact ClothingDonations.org for a pickup. Once some of the trashed and donated items are out of the way, you’ll have more room to carefully pack up the things you want — and likely be ready to #declutter more of the things you don’t want more aggressively.

Pack three or four boxes of keepers per day, Nourishing Minimalism suggests, and start well ahead of the move so that you have plenty of time to get the place cleaned when the zero hour finally arrives. It’s toward the end of the packing phase when things can get frantic; random objects will wind up in boxes together — some essential, most not.

While it’s an incredible chore that brings lots of stress, moving is the perfect opportunity to edit nonessential stuff out of your life for good. When you unpack only the things you need and cherish in your new home, you’ll be glad you decluttered before the move.