One of my goals this year is to simplify and one of the ways I plan to do that is to sell or donate at least 1,000 ordinary items that are crowding our closets and drawers by the end of July. My goal date is set for the end of July because my neighborhood has a big community yard sale every summer and while I don’t mind dropping stuff at the thrift store, I’d like to see if I could make a few bucks at the yard sale first.
I think I need to have a free pile at the yard sale. I seriously doubt anyone would pay $0.50 for 10 mini used jam jars, but someone might take them home and reuse them for crafts or something if they were free. What do you think?
Lucy’s PET egg bed. She loved it when she was little but has since outgrown it in favor of napping on the top of the couch cushions. And really, who can blame her? Hopefully someone will snatch it up for their cat or dog and love it as much as the puggle princess did.
Do people use paper maps anymore? Michael Middleditch makes the best city map guides on the planet and we use them everytime we travel. Somehow I ended up with an additional copy of his London Mapguide so I’m selling my extra book. Streetwise Maps are great as well if you’re in the market for one.
I think it’s time to let go of my John Mellencamp concert program from the spring of 1992. He was playing in LA and I went to see him 2 nights in a row. Time to move on Mavis… time to move on.
The taxes are done and I am so ready to get rid of my old school organizing system. Hello electronic receipts, goodbye paper.
Random clothes nobody will miss but I don’t want to ask them if I can get rid of them because I don’t want to deal with them hanging {unworn} in a closet for the next 10 years. Somethings… are better done in secret.
Another week, another box for the yard sale. Yes!!!!
~Mavis
Year to Date Totals
Donated: 26 items
Gave Back: 45
Recycled: 24 items
Tossed in the Garbage: 59 items
Yard Sale Pile: 572 items
So far this year I’ve purged 724 items. Only 276 more items to go!
See what else I’m getting rid of this year:
- More Kitchenware
- Halloween Treasures and Craft Supplies
- Magazines
- Party Platters, Placemats and More
- Cleaning out the Closet
- Gift Bags, Binders, Glass Frogs and More
- Casserole Dishes and Pie Plates
- Dessert Plates, Crock Pots, Tablecloths and More
- Cookie Cutters, Pickle Forks, Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer and More
- Used Books
- DVD’s
- Rubber Stamps, a Soldering Iron, Seashells, Smencils and More
Lisa L says
Not sure if it’s worth it to you but those tour programs can go for a pretty penny. That one is only about $10 on Ebay but it’s $10!
Lisa Millar says
I would totally buy the used jam jars for 50 cents for 10. Ab-so-lutely.
And on the note of selling clothes? We have a Japanese girl staying with us helping out right now. She got a message from her friend today who just sold her old school uniform for….
$4,000!!!!!!
Not a bad earner huh?
There are some well-heeled mad people out there!
RebekahU says
Those jam jars will sell!!! They can be used to save seed, beads, small amounts of spice… There are loads of things that can be done with them!!
Heather says
I love to use maps as matting for travel photos and wrapping gifts. The jars are awesome. I clear things from closets and blame it on the housekeeper. Works every time!
Carrie says
I love the little jam jars but like you, after the jam is gone they just sit in the pantry empty. 🙁 I went to a wedding a few years back that gave out those tiny jars with honey in them as favors. My favorite favor to date!
Mavis Butterfield says
My friend Jane puts her honey in tiny little jars too.
Laura says
I would love to come to your garage sale this summer – so many great things you’re getting rid of! Will you be letting us know when it is on the blog so the local folks can make sure to stop by?
PL says
The mini jam jars should sell. 50 cents is a bargain!
Brianna says
I would totally pay $0.50 for the jars and put my daughter’s crayola paints in them since crayola makes the neck so narrow and what I pour out always gets wasted. A mini wide neck tiny jar with a lid is useful to someone! Sell them in the beginning and if nobody buys them, put them in your free pile halfway through the sale. People cannot resist cute and miniature.
Funny how people hang onto clothes for ‘memories’ or ‘I might need it’….I just consigned an old pair of uniform shirts of my husbands. He doesn’t work there anymore and is several sizes smaller than the shorts. I had to explain to him it isn’t worth holding onto anymore because he will never be that size again or work there again (7 years ago!) I wish I would have just secretly made them disappear, it was exhausting to hear him pleading his case. I’m using your method next time.
Leslie says
I use those jars to make candles. I buy them at Goodwill.
Mavis says
Oh, good thinking!
Susan says
Those jam jars look like spice jars to me!
Although, frankly, a free box at a yard sale makes me more likely to buy something.
I feel embarrassed taking something out of the free box if I haven’t bought something.
Ranee says
Never doubt the crafting community – people have been know to buy empty paper towel cores for their craft projects. Mark them low to start and as someone said, move to the free box if you get no takers.
Teresa says
Mavis,
If you know anyone into origami those maps make excellent folding paper. A few years ago I folded stars for small gifts for my co-workers. I used the old outdated my from my glove box. Free! just took the time to fold them. They were hand made, unique and much appreciated.
Teresa says
Maps! (not my)
Angie Ruby says
Sell the jam jars! I would pay .25 a piece. Funny how it’s so hard to get rid of things like concert programs. I recently went through boxes upon boxes of that kind of stuff. Even found an oxygen mask from a hospital stay in 2000 (why???) I had also saved from a road trip in my teen years, little pieces of toilet tissue from different rest areas along the way to North Dakota one summer. I even wrote on each little square what rest area they were from. Insanity! Garbage…
Mavis Butterfield says
Oh Angie. Your tp takes the cake!
Laura says
Oh gosh, that is just hilarious! I love that you did that. So cute and funny!
Karol Knowles says
No. Not John Cougar Mellencamp.
Anna G says
What electronic method are us using to store your receipts needed for taxes? I would love to give all that paper the boot. 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
Anna I am going to write up a post about this as I think others would like to know as well.
Marivene says
When I am decluttering, if I didn’t pay for it, I don’t discard it without permission. When I was at college, my parents got rid of some things that were important to me, but not to them. As a college student, you can’t fit everything in a dorm room. As a result, I don’t declutter my grown kids things without their permission, & every single one of them has thanked me for that. The extra space is not worth the hurt feelings.
Emily E. says
Marivene, that is excellent advice for those with older kids. My son tends to be a pack rat, but he is learning to purge and declutter. When he knows the choices of what to get rid of are up to him, he is apt to be more aggressive with the purging. It does mean accepting more “stuff” in his room, but it totally backfired when I “helped” in the past. I just spent about an hour cleaning out a linen and drawer closet and could not believe what I’ve been storing for YEARS! I was able to get rid of close to half of my linens. I found three sets of brand new valances/curtains and blanket. It was such a good feeling to put the closet “back together” and to actually be able to see everything and not be ambushed every time I open the doors. I debated saving them for a yards sale, but have opted for donating them to the local battered women’s shelter. They frequently need those types of items for women relocating with their children. During the sorting it made me wonder how many sheet sets people normally keep per bed?
Julia says
Candles would be cute in them. Or dried mint for tea. Whatever gets put in them, they would make nice gifts so you might want to think about keeping them…