His

How to delegate a clutter-bust (hint: it helps to have a willing victim).
Me, standing in the bedroom closet: "Can I borrow you for five minutes?"
My husband, coming into the room and sitting down on the bed with a smile: "That's four more than you usually get."
Me: "Ha ha. If you sit way over there it'll take at least 10 minutes."
He gets up and walks into the closet, unsuspecting. Kiss.
Me: "Can you go through your clothes and pull out everything you don't wear?"
Five minutes later there's a pile of clean clothes on the bed.
[That sentence would be so much more fun if it said, "Five minutes later there's a pile of dirty clothes on the bed." But no, this is a clutterbusting post! No nudity. The only clothes on the bed were the ones that he pulled out of the closet.]
Suddenly I'm the one objecting to the purge. "This is brand new! I just bought you that! That's your Norwegian sweater!" (In-joke. "Two Canadians walk into a bar in North Dakota...")
After he left the room I tried on two of his rejects and put them back on my side of the closet. (I also took two of his rejects and put them back on his side! Shhh...)
I put the rest of the pile into a huge, ugly Christmas gift bag, added a few rarely used clothes of my own (amazing how you can always find more), and put it in the back of my car to be dropped off in a donation bin later.
The next day I stopped at a consignment store to pick up a cheque and discovered that they sell men's clothes. Who knew? So now my husband's purged clothes are for sale.
And I have been loving my two "new" sweaters which look a lot better on me than they did cluttering up his side of the closet. Go figure.
Easiest clutter-bust ever.

Four Weeks: Baby Clutter

Baby clutter was a real challenge for me, because I've been trying to have a second baby for more than three years.
On one hand, I wasn't ready to give it away because I hoped to use it again.
On the other hand, it was a constant reminder of our unsuccessful attempts to conceive again. Or, as it struck me each time, the child who wasn't. Exhale.
I eventually came up with a baby-clutter solution that worked for me. Baby clutter has been my biggest clutter-busting challenge, and I broke some "rules" to overcome it.

I was faced with a landscape of baby things that my son had outgrown. Bins, bins, bins, strollers, swing, 'saucer...

Before:
The tower of baby-gear.

More before.

Still more before:
Baby-clutter, etc.

The quantity was shocking considering that we'd been shipping clothes and other things to my nephews since they were conceived in 2010, and had consigned some toys too.
It was overwhelming, but I had to start somewhere. I needed a plan. I came up with 3 categories of baby-clutter and suddenly the job was do-able:

1. Keepsakes: Things I'd keep even if we never have another child.
2. Toss-ables: Things I wouldn't miss even if we do have another one.
3. Store-ables: Things worth storing just in case we do (for now).

Keepsakes are self-explanatory. We now have one sweet bin of tiny sleepers, itsy-bitsy Sorels, and other treasures. I invited my husband to select items for this bin too. It isn't about having another baby; it's about our perfect son. I'm grateful that my mom kept a similar selection from my babyhood, and I'm happy to keep these for us and for J.
Toss-ables are clearly clutter. Baby clothes that looked itchy; toys that were ignored; duplicates; etc. I took a few of these to a consignment store and I gave the rest to charity, along with some maternity clothes I never wore. We also sold J's beautiful but unnecessary cradle on-line for $100 ($25 more than we paid for it!). It didn't sell in our garage sale.

Store-ables is the rule-breaking category that got me over the emotional baby-clutter barrier. I didn't want to give it away -- I didn't want to look at it -- so I stored it. Storage may be taboo in clutter-busting circles, but it worked for me here. Similar to my little bag of wear-dated clothes, but much, much bigger. The key is, I only stored things I'd actually use if I have another child, and would ditch if I don't. In other words, this stash is keepsake-free. I didn't want to have to go through it again before purging it. Also, it's temporary and off-site. I'm indebted to my mother-in-law who graciously agreed to store this stuff in her garage-attic. (She's hoping for another grandchild.)

Left: Toss-ables. Now in better homes.
Right: Store-ables (plus strollers, swing, and Exersaucer).

As a result we now have just one blue bin of baby gear (keepsakes) in our home! Yaaaayy!!!
......
A few months have passed and today, perhaps in part because I'm no longer tripping over baby gear, I'm at peace with our family of three. We're no longer trying to conceive another child.
Last week I gave away J's playpen and playpen sheets.
My parents-in-law are away for three weeks and I'm thinking about purging all the "store-ables" from their garage before they get back... Their next vacation will be in July. Hmmm...

Consigning clothes: the journey

Contrary to conventional wisdom, I haven't tossed or given away all my old clothes. No, I've started to consign some. I say "started to" because so far consignment is a journey to an unknown destination.

A couple of points about consigning clothes:

1. Consignment shops are choosy. They each have their own clientele, and they select clothes that are marketable to that clientele.
2. Consignment shops don't store anything. They don't just choose what they'll accept, they also choose when they'll accept it. That is, when it's in season, and when they have space for it.

That's why I found myself travelling across town with bags full of clothes, and bringing half of it back home again.

On the up side, the shop accepted 14 things (technically 17 because 3 were sets, but who's counting?). I'll get 50% of any proceeds.

The shop rejected the other 17 things I brought, but offered to accept 7 of them in August.  I can probably get at least $100 for those 7 things if I'm willing to store them for two months and take them back across town.


And then there are the clothes that I didn't bother to bring with me, since I only presented the best of the bunch.

So I still have this lovely collection of "consignable" clothes...

What next?

I'll follow up with another consignment shop which told me to call back next week, and I'll hold the fall clothes until August.

As I write this it feels pretty pathetic. But I'm stubborn and curious, so I'm willing to see how it plays out.

In the meantime, I've tossed a lot, so I've got space in my closet and empty bins in my basement, and I don't mind hanging on to these things for two more months.

And happily, despite the shopkeepers' invitation to "look around" while she reviewed my goods, I managed to get out without buying anything new, or rather old, although I was seriously tempted by a black silk satin Tahari dress with a knock-out ruffled hem.

There's hope

At last -- I have an appointment to bring clothes into a consignment shop tomorrow! I've picked out the best of the bunch, at least half. It's a lot of clothes. Now I have to squeeze them all into garment bags and hope that they make the grade.

Oh dear,
won't you sell my
old clothes for me!

Stop-and-drop toy consignment

What a weekend.

Friday evening: hosted in-laws for supper.
Friday night: attended party -- first non-work party without child in almost four freaking years!
Saturday morning: worst hangover ever.
Saturday afternoon: mommy & son time on the patio, at the grocery store, and behind the scenes at the local NHL arena -- J particularly enjoyed body-checking imaginary opponents into the boards.
Saturday evening: hosted friends for supper.
Saturday night: sleep, beautiful sleep.
Sunday morning: picked up my dad at the airport.
Sunday afternoon: hosted J's 3rd birthday party Part I (the family party).
Sunday evening: J's birthday party continued.. Did I mention that I was still recovering from Friday night?
Sunday night: deep, deep sleep.
Today: up at six; golf with dad; fun with J...

Did I mention that I'm an introvert?

Where did I get all this energy?

Could it be, possibly, the joy of clutterbusting?

On Thursday afternoon I took a huge volume of toys to a consignment shop. Their stop-and-drop system rules. Basically, I dropped my toys off, no questions asked, no appointment necessary. I was in and out in five minutes.

They promised to review my stuff within a few days and call me to pick up anything they didn't want. I figured there were bound to be a few rejects, which I would then drop in a donation bin. But no. I got a message the very next day thanking me for the great toys which will all be displayed for sale in their shop(!). I'll get 40% of any sales within the next 90 days. After 90 days anything unsold will be returned or donated. This system is a thing of beauty.

I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Still playing with clothes...

I was pretty disappointed with the prospect of returning two big bins of clothes to the basement, so I gave them another look. 


I realized that there's room for my off-season, business, and too-small clothes in three small, recently-emptied, drawers in the guest-room closet. 


I'm much happier with this, because I did not want to put any clothes back in the basement. When it comes to clutter, out of sight isn't out of mind.


Then I turned to the "rags" bin. 


Since I wanted to keep a painting outfit, I put a pair of jeans and a couple of tops back in my closet. Better to keep them with the rest of my clothes, instead of hidden away in a (packed) basement. 


I took the wearable "rags" out of the house and dropped them in a donation bin. Getting them out of the house felt great.


Now, instead of two full bins going back into the basement, I have just a dozen rags. 


This feels much better.

On the consignment front, I discovered that the local consignment boutique isn't taking anything until August. What a drag. I've got call in to two other shops.

Now what do I do with it?

I finally finished going through my clothes yesterday. 

I started last week, ran out of time, and then took a break.

When I returned to the task, I was a lot faster.

In the meantime, I'd been to a business-social function. In the past, this would have meant lots of outfits on, outfits off, and general angst. This time, I was able to see everything in my closet knowing that it all fit me. I picked out my clothes and got dressed in less than five minutes. This was great motivation.

Here's how I tackled my clothes.

I dragged all my clothes out of the bedroom closet, the armoire, the laundry area, and two bins and a portable "closet" in our basement. I hadn't really noticed before how many places I had clothes stashed away.

I gathered it all in our guest room.

Then I went through everything and put it into one of these categories:

1. Garbage. (I put these things directly into my son's diaper bin, for obvious reasons.)
2. Give away or sell. (Initially these were separate categories, but I kept getting caught up trying to decide whether to give away or sell.)
3. Keep and mend. ("Do you want it enough to actually mend it?") (Nothing went into this category!)
4. Keep and store -- Halloween. (Two things: a black silk skirt that would make a great Batman cape; a black velvet tunic.)
5. Keep and store -- business clothes. 
6. Keep and store -- off-season clothes.
7. Keep and store -- too small. (Wear-dated for one year.) 
8. Keep and store -- too big. (In the end I kept just one thing in this category. A pair of gorgeous black wool pants with a black satin stripe down the outer seams. I should ditch these because I don't ever want them to fit again, but they are really great, flattering pants...when I was two sizes bigger than I am now. Hmm.)
9. Keep and wear now.

I went as fast as possible and tried to imagine myself shopping. I'm a slow shopper, so I asked myself, "Do you love it?" "Does it make you feel good?" Also, "Do you ever put this on only to take it off because you don't feel good in any way?" That's an easy good-bye.

I did 5 loads of laundry at the same time. Distracting but surprisingly effective. Every time I ran to the basement to switch loads, I witnessed the incredible amount of crap down there.

As contemplated, my remaining too-small clothes are now in a wear-dated bag. It's practically a minimalist's closet: three pairs of pants; shorts; a turtleneck; a cardigan; and ten pairs of new cotton undies, which I look forward to wearing five pounds from now. 

If these clothes don't fit in a year, I'll throw in a t-shirt and eBay the lot under the heading "Complete Minimalist Wardrobe".

My own wardrobe is far from minimalist, but it's much trimmer now and it fits me.

I still have a bin that holds off-season and business clothes (unworn since I quit my job but definitely keepers), along with the wear-dated bag.

Although I threw out lots of other clothes, I kept a bin of "rags". That is, clothes I'd be happy to rip up or paint in. Why, oh why? Possibly because my hubby recently bought a 10 lb. bag of rags!  I'd rather toss those purchased rags and use my own. And I'd like to have something I can wear to paint a room...

I just realized that "rags" was not one of my nine categories. How did this happen? This bin is pretty much as-is. I guess I got lazy. Or rushed. Added a label and felt good about it. Fell for the organization trap.

Clearly, I have more culling to do there. And apparently writing about this process has some use for me. In the meantime...

... I now have all of these clothes that I've decided to sell or give away!

Going Soon

Yes, this picture makes me smile. 

I'll be even happier when it's gone. It's all in good condition, since the worn stuff either went out in the garbage or into that "rags" bin. The easy thing would be to put it all in donation bags and be done with it. But I like the idea of a little cash in my pocket. While I'm tempted to Craig's List it, I'll probably compromise and consign it. I won't get as much for it, but I'll be able to get rid of it quickly.

So, next steps:

1. Divide it into three sets -- dressier consignment; casual consignment (for a different consignment store); charity.
2. Move it on out.
3. Do something about that "rags" bin...