Monday, May 14, 2007

Keep or toss...

UPDATE: Thanks for your feedback!!! I've decided to clean and box up my wedding dress and keep my flute since I remembered how to play a scale or two. I kept a few magazines from after 9/11 but decided that the newspapers can be looked up at the library or online in the future if needed.

Wedding bouquet = garbage (pictures do it WAY better justice) Cassette tapes = garage sale except 4 (couldn't part with Billy Joel and a few mixed tapes people made for me) - then trash if they don't sell. Bank statements and old bills gone. Random gifts - most are being sold (I've re gifted everything that could be already) or given away.

So far 5 bins and 3 boxes of stuff have turned into 2 bins of stuff to keep!!!!! 1 overflowing bin and 2 boxes to sell/ give away, and a couple bags of garbage/recycling!!! Hello, that is 6 less boxes to move!! Wahooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Our subdivision is having a huge garage sale the first weekend in June so in the next few days I'm putting everything on ebay or craigslist. Whatever doesn't sell by the garage sale will be sold there and anything left donated and we'll be FREE from more stuff!!!

I'm going through more stuff and I'd love to know what you did (or would do)with some of this stuff! Note: my inclination is to sell/give/toss away most of this.

Your wedding bouquet - assuming you didn't have it professionally preserved and it's just a dried pile of flowers now!

On that note your wedding dress.

Your old cassette tapes that have been in a bin for at least three years and it's probably been much longer than that since you've actually fired them up in the tape player.

How long to you keep bank statements for? For a closed account?For that matter old bills?

My flute - which I gave up playing my freshman year

Some random gifts that you've never used but feel obligated to keep?

ALL of my 1/2 finished or not started craft projects are in the give away or sell pile (one and a half bins full)- I kept a pad of tracing paper and a few other small things for kids craft uses. The only other unfinished crafts are my wedding/honeymoon albums and my son's baby album.

Can you believe that I even had a rubbermaid tub full of newspapers from the couple of months after 9/11. I have NO idea why I saved them all nor do I know why I moved them - twice now...never again!!!

I'm just loving not feeling the tug on my heartstrings about keeping all this stuff - it is after all just stuff!

10 comments:

Sherri said...

Wedding Bouquet....I gave it to my FIL to use because he was a wedding photographer at that time. I guess it is still in his office.

Wedding Dress...It is in a bag at the top of my closet on a shelf.

Cassette Tapes...I have them piled in a cabinet in my entertainment center as well as in a couple of bages....can't part with them!!!

Bank Statements...filed...need to go through and toss some of them.

Flute...if it were mine, it would go into my hope chest.

Gifts...hmmm, it depends on what they are. If they have never been taken out of the box, I might have to regive them...haha!!!

So, that's what I would do. It looks like I kept most of it..haha. I wasn't much help, was I?

Stephanie Wilson she/her @babysteph said...

I kept my bouquet- it's in the basement somewhere and yes all dried up. I kept my dress- it's actually STILL hanging in a closet at my parents' house. I've never taken it home... it's going on 8 years! Cassette tapes... hmmm- I don't even know where those are. Probably gave them away or threw them out. Bank statements- shred & recycle them. I would only save a year's worth. Flute- if it's sentimental, I'd save it. Your kids might think that's neat. Same with the 9/11 papers. I saved some, too. Someday your kids might be doing a project or studying history and those papers will be really neat...

Steph

Kelly Curtis said...

Oh man - I'm totally a "tosser", unless the thing is buried in a storage garage somewhere so it's not in my way. Problem is, I don't toss the thing until it irritates me so much I just get rid of it out of frustration. Inevitably I need the thing the next week.

For me, the dress is in a box, in case my daughter wants it one day. THe bouquet is gone, casssete tapes, gone. Bank statements and old bills are shoved in a file by year, until there's no more room in the cabinet. Then I toss the oldest year.

Flute and random gifts - gone.

But I'm definitely NOT the person anyone should take organizational advice from/ You should see my office;)

Anonymous said...

I agree with pass the tourch. Get rid of the cassettes, only keep bills for a year, and that's only if you can write them off on your taxes (pastor's can, and probably some others) if not, shred them like Steph said. Flute, bye bye. I never kept my wedding bouquet, I guess I didn't know I was supposed to, pictures of it are plenty. I do have my wedding dress packed away somewhere, since we're still living out of boxes!! Gifts that you don't want, if they're good enough, re-gift them to people who unexpected give you gifts. haha. Or sell them!

That's my 2 cents worth!

Staci said...

One word...Ebay.

Toss the rest :)

Staci

Lisa @ Heaven Sent said...

Good stuff! I need to organize soon -- must be that nesting kicking in for both of us!

My thoughts...

wedding bouquet - tossed

wedding dress - stored

old cassette tapes - kept a few for old time's sake and tossed the rest

bank statements and old bills - I need to go thru and toss. You used to be advised to keep 7 years worth in case you were audited, but I think it's 3 years now...

flute - sell it on ebay

random gifts - regift or donate

Happy cleaning! :o)

Anonymous said...

One bit of advice: don't toss the bank statements, shred them. That way you're much less at risk of identity theft. And also you get to spend an afternoon shredding, which is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned. Although it does assume you have a shredder. I guess you could always burn them...

Linds said...

Keep the wedding dress, and the flute, and toss the rest. Or shred, rather. I am in a tossing mood at the moment too. In fact, I want a very large skip to be parked on my drive so I can fill it up with everything.

And I tagged you for a meme, if you feel like doing it. Or maybe you have already... I can't remember!

momteacherfriend said...

I think it is freeing to let go of stuff. Way to go.
My flute is in need of repair. I can play a few notes but the pad that is off affects too many notes to actually play it.

Becca said...

What a great post! I love getting rid of "stuff," but if I put it off for too long then I am very likely to go on a "tossing" rampage. Almost nothing is sacred at those times!