Hmm, I might actually be you, because I’ve also had to clean out a few of these places. Kee-rist, how does someone acquire 100 gallons of laundry soap? Stocking up when it’s on sale doesn’t even begin to explain. Emptying out a couple of relatives’ houses finally made my mom get rid of a whole lotta stuff.
w.t.f.
Here’s an entry about it, still researching, anyone have a news-ish type cite?
You might be aware that the Salvation Army does a lot of good for the needy and homeless, including providing food, shelter, financial assistance and even clothing. Presumably all of this costs money. It’s not like they’re taking the donated clothing, selling it and then having a party with the proceeds.
That blog seems like a weak criticism of Locks of Love. The IRS form 990 for 2004 for that group says that they received $352,000 in revenues from selling “unusable materials” which is used to “purchase manufactured custom hair prosthetics” so even the hair that they can’t use benefits the kids. Plus the the criticism is based on the lack of details provided to the BBB, but the Charity Navigator website gives them a generally good review.
Salvation Army & Goodwill donated stuff gets sold at the local & regional stores. Only crap too beat up or worn to be sold is usually tossed and it has to be *pretty *distressed for that to happen.
There are places that collect for the 3rd world but the US Slavation Army and Goodwill aren’t those places.
I don’t promise you it’ll work. I think I’ve moved 9-10 times in 7 years, and I’ve accumulated a ton of stuff. Seriously, moving a bunch of stuff doesn’t deter everyone.
That said, move into a much smaller place each time. If my last two apartments are any indication, that will be the way to make it happen. Still, I own a ridiculous amount of stuff, and am really bad about getting rid of it. It’s nice that the apartment I live in has a freecycle type thing down in the laundry room. That also helps.
Well, for starters, one rationalization is that it’s just stuff. It’s people that matter, not the errata that we accumulate as we live our day-to-day lives.
The other thing you might want to do is, at the moment of purchase, instead of thinking “Now I’ll have item X!” think “Shit! I now have $53 less to save for my retirement, pay for school, pay off that debt, etc etc etc.” Think about how many hours you had to work just so you can buy that X-Box, money that would be far better going to, say, paying off the mortgage earlier. Learn to feel guilty about spending that discretionary dollar on mere consumerist items!!! Improve your cash position and stop buying non-appreciating assets like DVD’s, that home theater system, that shirt. (As I noted in another thread, we’re rather parsimonious).
That’ll help you stop accumulating it, at least. 
To be honest, I couldn’t imagine having a piece of clothing (other than my suit and my winter jacket) that I wouldn’t get around wearing in a three week period. I have 8 pairs of pants, 10 shirts, 3 shoes… all of it worn regardless of season. I’m stunned whenever I hear about closets so full of clothes that people could go weeks w/o cycling though them.
I have 5 bookcases. If I have more books/CD’s/DVD’s/computer games than can go on five bookcases, I get rid of books/CD’s/DVD’s/computer games. I do not make space for overflow.
We have regular “purges” and nobody is spared: myself, the wife, our child. Toys, books, clothes, stuff we haven’t used in a while, all of it goes to Goodwill.
And it works: Our attic is completely empty… and we have enough space in our garage to fit both cars. With the Christmas stuff and my toolshelf.
I think we’re about ready for a purge, too. Maybe a spring purge. Yeah, that’s it. Rent a truck and make a dump run, if necessary. Some of our stuff seems too good to throw away, but not good enough to give to anyone else, so I might have to do something distasteful and just chuck it.
God, we’ve tried. I tell myself that this stuff was probably made off of the underpaid sweat of third-world workers, and that I’m supporting evil corporate entities. I’[ve even tried putting my purchase through environmenist protestations: think of how may trees died to make this, how much petroleum went into the plastic, and how much pollution it will create."
It doesn’t work for Hubby and I. One of us will always pop out with our one-size-firts-all justification: “That’s why we work: so we can buy the stuff we want.”
We save for retirement, of course, and pay extra on our mortgage dilligently, but the only thing I can ever think of when it comes to think-what-this-money-could buy is the stuff I could buy* instead.* (Books, mainly. As in: “The cost of this lamp would buy me five books.”)
Watching that show, Life Laundry was it called? was a good way to motivate one to throw stuff out. Just seeing the crap that other people accumulate and won’t part with made me want to leap into my closet and pantries and begin culling. What happened to that show, anyway?
Ok, but you asked for it. Last May my mother died, very suddenly and pretty young. Her house was like one of those nasty places you would see on TV where you couldn’t get around the house and stuff like that. One room was so full you could not go into it.
I spent two full weeks, as in 14 days at least 5-10 hours a day going through everything. Because of stupid laws that say you can’t get rid of anything really I had to hire someone to come in and move it all. That’s what took the two weeks to move out. Everything was sold, most at a huge loss.
The rest that wasn’t sold, clothes do not get sold here in Maryland, I took a ton, yes a ton of junk to the dump, I know because I went back twice and they weigh it. I also took 5-600 pounds worth of clothing to the Goodwill.
Last week I had to go to the court and get all the estate money finalized. I lost $31 from all of her stuff. Plus the two weeks off from work. I could have called some place to come take it away for cheaper then that. The sad thing is that I asked the woman going over my paperwork and she said that I got off lucky and only lost 31 bucks.
Since then I’ve really changed, I get rid of clothes that I just don’t wear. I throw stuff out, plenty of it. I hadn’t been to the dump since I was a kid, I’ve been ten or so times now, even things that might be worth something I get rid of. Yesterday I paid a junk place $200 to get rid of a basement full of stuff, most of it wasn’t mine it was from the people we bought the house from. I’ve rid myself of hundreds of books, I’ve selling all my Star Wars stuff on eBay, plus anything else I can think of.
If I can’t put it on a couple of bookshelves, or in a display case that I have then I’m hoping to get rid of it. My plan is to have maybe ten boxes worth of stuff, a couple for Christmas and Halloween, a couple for baby stuff for when we have a second kid, and maybe some collectable stuff that I want to hold on to, but very little of that.
The sad thing is that my mother died with all this stuff, but if she wouldn’t of had it all I think she would have been in better health, had a ton more money, and might have been happier.
My advice, you can’t wear it, don’t wear it at least once a season, or can’t display it in a reasonable space get rid of it. Someone will have to go through it one day, and I can tell you first hand that it’s hard to do.
BTW if you want pictures of what my mother’s house looked like email me and I’ll send them on.
That works because, by law, it has to be able to call 911 without other service. I keep one of my old ones in the glovebox of my car just in case for that exact reason.
I hadn’t thought of that. I take my mobile phone with me most of the time, but not always. My old one is around here someplace. (Aside: Whenever I say ‘around here someplace’ I flash back to high school German: Ich habe es irgendwo liegenlassen. It was funny to say.) I should probably put it in the car just in case.
Thanks to all for the very helpful comments. I was hoping that someone would say that they’re from NY, broke, need warm clothes and either don’t care about style or love the ski look of the 1980s. But that’s OK, the advice will suffice.
Edward the Head, you’ve got mail.
No, no, no, no, no. Feel guilty about how the discretionary spending is negative impacting your life.
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After all, that dollar that you spend today on a new shirt will be worth $1.50 by the time your kid goes to college. A $50 shirt means $25 less spending power 15 years from now.
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You accumulate stuff. It obviously has a psychological cost, or else why this thread?
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Stuff must be stored. This costs in that you need storage containers, space, and effort in storing it. If you pay $1,000 towards a mortgage on a 2,000 sq ft home and 5% of the space in your home is dedicated to storage of stuff you don’t use, then this means that you are spending $50 and 100 sq. ft. of space, every month, to store stuff you don’t use. That’s $600 a year spent storing stuff that you’re not using. That’s 100 sq. ft. of space in your house that’s dedicated to keeping stuff that isn’t important enough to take an active role in your life, but is important enough that you’d spend hundreds per year so that you won’t have to be “bothered” by the presence of stuff that is, honestly, just one step away from being tossed or donated.
(Please read the royal “you” into the above as, of course, I haven’t the slightest idea as to your specific situation. ).
I mean, you get to a point where you don’t own stuff, the stuff owns you. That’s not a good space to be in.
Actually it can be much worse. Imagine you have a beautiful expensive apartment in a great building. Let’s say you pay $2000 a month in rent. You could get the same size apartment in a bad building for $600 a month. You fill your expensive apartment with crap so that it’s about as esthetically pleasing as the cheap place. Cost = 12(2000-600) = $16,800 a year
I forgot to mention that a house full of stuff looks dirty and dark and needs constant cleaning of otherwise-ignored knick-knacks.
I’m just sayin’!