I listened to another of your episodes where you mentioned that someone wouldn't get rid of old utility bills because she wanted to do a spreadsheet of them. That sure snapped me to attention because I have a spreadsheet that has every utility bill for two houses and an office condo for the last 15 years. I kid you not. I track usage not cost. BUT, you really got me thinking about whether I should even bother keeping that going. I am coming to terms with the fact that once I determine there is value in saving something I am great at doing that and not so great at deciding when I have enough. I really appreciate you.
I'm washing dishes and watching this! I love your "podcast" videos! They always help me find useful tips! I hope to one day say I have seen them all! Thank you guys!
Uh oh. You caught me. I've kept a ton of leftover picture hangers, old or used--nails, screws, tacks, glue sticks, sandpaper etc. Surely, if I throw one away, I'll need it the next day! I rationalized, they are small so why not keep them?! THANK YOU for opening my eyes! My workbench will soon look tidy. I guess this was my unintentional collection.❤️ For gift wrap I keep a roll of brown kraft paper and it works great for any occasion, just use a bright bow; also works for mailing packages.
🙋🏻♀️I’m 36 and I have one roll of wrapping paper. It is gold with white stars. It works with glitter ribbon from Christmas, it does male and female presents for birthdays. Not many people I know get married these days but if they do I just go buy a single sheet or go and see if there is a wall paper sample I can use. Failing that I make my own custom paper for them. I make my own tags to customise the gift for the occasion and I don’t need 100 rolls of paper.
I, too, discovered a bunch of travel size toothpaste when doing "inventory" earlier this year. When the full size tube emptied, the travel size tubes were used. Shocking how many months it took before it was time to buy a full size tube again! I am on a kick of "could I use it all up" in order to contribute a little less to the landfill. Love your videos. Liz in Houston
I was guilty of bath and body works mostly gifted, floss, and gift bag, toiletries. I've donated, declutter and only keep what I actually will use. Well took me several years to used up 😂.
Trying to use containers that I have before buying new. Wide mouth glass pickle jars are great for storing rice/beans/dry goods. I use an old plastic pitcher for storing long straight open spaghetti near the stove, and next to the spaghetti is the long, sharp bread knife that is an awkward size to store in a drawer. Plastic mushroom containers from the store I reuse to store batteries in the junk drawer.
In response to “make it a project to figure out where that stuff (wrapping paper) can go and get used” be careful that attitude doesn’t become a barrier to offloading it out of your house, sometimes it just needs to go to the trash or landfill. And change behavior so you purchase/acquire intentionally.
I keep 5 rolls of wrapping paper. One gold, one silver, one red and white striped, one shade of green, one brown craft paper. I can do any occasion or holiday with just these . I pick up ribbon for pennies at garage sales and thrift stores to give them “curb appeal “. 😊 Because I know what I have and where it’s located, I only replace it when it’s gone.
One way to get rid of unintentional collections is the Challenge issued by The Minimalists. Pick a Month. Day 1 get rid of 1 item, Day 2 get rid of 2 more items, by the time you get to Day 30 or 31 you have gotten rid of almost 500 items. Surprising how much of it will be things you don’t use and unintentional collections.
Another place to donate the toothbrush and toothpaste, etc you get from the dentist is your local food bank. There are often barrels for those donations at libraries, credit unions, sometimes at your workplace.
I have several bags filled w plastic bags in the front closet - just forget to take them to a store recycle box. Coffee mugs w logos and biz names, and similarly labeled crappy “cloth” reusable bags ... in the end it IS ok to give yourself permission to send these off to the landfill. Regarding excessive holiday gift wrap paper, maybe check w local elementary school as these sometimes have a holiday bazaar where kids can buy inexpensive gifts for family and friends, and sometimes there’s a booth offering free or low cost gift wrapping of these items.
You described me in so many collections! Collections are so irritating to me yet I don’t always realize I have them! I can’t see the forest through the trees!!!
Wow! This just popped up JUST as I was looking at the recently gathered-together MOUNTAIN of fabric SHOPPING BAGS that have invaded my seriously cluttered house over the past 10-15 years, thinking “Today’s the day I’m doing YOU.” I think there’s about 30 of them. At least. Hadn’t seen your channel before and just subscribed. I like how you go into more specific detail about this process than the others who have led me into de-cluttering, folks I’m truly thankful for having discovered. And yep I have a controlled collection of Talenti containers becuz we can recycle them here! Thank you!
The excess cloth bags are my preferred containers for the clothing and such that I donate to the thrift store. No need to scrounge for boxes, both the container and the contents are donateable. Same thing for luggage and anything else that you could use to fill up - if you're donating it anyway, why not fill it with other donated items.
Picture frames, hotel soaps, and free pens from the pharmaceutical companies.😆 I make earring holders out of empty picture frames with various metal inserts. I have 3 boxes full with the intention of making them more for gifts. The soaps, I really love their scents, but the intention was to use for them for travel, but life has changed that notion. With being gifted more soaps (that other’s apparently don’t want because I know they can’t afford them) it’s difficult to use up what I already have. 😅 I had no idea that perfumes would degrade. Mine are as old as the college days of the 80s. Nostalgic. One Lilac perfume was given to me as a pre-teen. The pens- if they have rubber grips they eventually degrade to a sticky mess. 😝 Avon products, buy one get one free, adds up. There are no shelters near me, so it’s “curbside” for non-sellable stuff.
Plastic utensil collections. Realized a good many yrs ago I had a problem collecting them. Started taking them to the Humane Society thrift store where they have a break room for workers. If not, they sell them. We've also taken them to a church that had a kitchenette for teens, and filled their drawer. We do keep and use about 20 single plastic spoons on the counter by the instant pot for tasting spoons. My son goes thru a lot of those daily as he cooks.
I have almost a hundred bottles! Some are very old, but with polish thinner, are still good. Some were never opened. I use some to paint over chips on many things. I just love them.
The other thing about perfume is that you can’t wear it to so many places these days as you need to go scent-free. I have a bottle of my late mom’s perfume, though. I can’t bear to part with it…
Fragrance can be such a wonderful, precious way to keep a memory of a person. Even a quick whiff can bring us right back to a moment or person. If you don't mind me asking, what fragrance did your mother wear? I follow a perfume channel on RUclips called Soki London; in one of her videos about comforting perfumes she talks about how Coco Mademoiselle immediately makes her think of her mother. For me, Tresor and my mother definitely go together!
My unintended collection is dongles. I've collected various of those, along with various sizes of memory cards, thumb drives, etc., And although a bunch of them are now wildly outdated, I've never thinned them out. Will do this week.
@@SouthernBelleReviews a small device that plugs into a port on your computer to provide some type of capability. For example, I have dongles that read a variety of memory cards, some that allow a USB port to be connected to an old-style monitor cable, and more.
Once Kindle and Audible were a thing I got rid of 2 tall bookshelves in the living room, keeping only my very favorite physical books. I had started leaning on the bookshelves which is a potential safety hazard as the shelves were not all that stable.
When my sister and I went to an event a couple years ago, she was horrified when I declined the gifts. I tried to explain to her I didn't need another chap stick, etc but I don't think it made sense to her...
I always use the floss and dental supplies from the dentist. It saves me money that I don't have. The special flosssers I get, one of my grandson's likes, so I give those to him. If you don't want the free supplies, tell the dentist.
I have pacing and shipping material, but I do sell things online, so it works for me. Still... Once I have sold everything I want to sell, I'll try to keep the bubble wrap, boxes, tapes and all of that jazz at minimum ;) I also recycle/reuse envelopes (I stick them back with tape and put a new label onto the old one), and I've counted it has saved me not only money but also the time - I don't need to go to the post office to buy a new envelope everytime I want to ship something that I need to pack at home first.
I currently have a HUGE box of empty/washed plastic food-grade cannisters from the protein powder I started buying 2 yrs ago. They are very nice. Fit about 4lbs lentils. I already sent about a dozen to my sister and used as many as I can fit for my own bulk supplies. And they keep coming... we use about one every week and a half. A friend suggested I call a food pantry and see if they have a need/use, and another suggested a community garden (less likely I think).
@@TheDriftwoodlover will do. I just used 15 myself, bulk storage of various grains, beans, lentils, flax/seeds, etc.. I have bigger tins (popcorn sized) for our inventory, but decided to cut down on what i am keeping inside in the pantry. Overflow goes to the garage in those tins.
P.S. The biggest food pantry organization did not want them. They are really nice, and the same canisters are $2 at the big box. I'm not feeling crazy finding a use for them before recycling.
What a great topic. My gift wrap collection was a whopping 24 rolls. Most is long gone and what remains is not holiday specific. My spice drawer was out of control and I couldn't figure out why. It finally dawned on me that because my garden was so prolific, I had way more herbs than before. Stopped growing herbs and the drawer is much less crowded. I do miss giving out baggies of oregano though.
I would suggest only purchasing wrapping paper that has a solid color rather than a print. A solid color can be decorated by the ribbon or stickers for the occasion. Blue Santa or a similar organization might use your extra wrapping paper. For spices, I would suggest only purchasing the smallest amount for sell of the type you are seeking, because ideally you should only keep it six months.
The flowers from herbs are a much needed food source for birds, etc, especially in the fall when they usually flower. Go ahead and enjoy the herbs for your personal use and let the rest of the plants flower and feed the hungry birds, bees and other pollinators.
Why do people take the plastic forks and napkins, if they won't use them? Tell the restaurant you don't want them. That saves the restaurant money, which is appreciated more than likely, because most restaurants are struggling.
I listened to another of your episodes where you mentioned that someone wouldn't get rid of old utility bills because she wanted to do a spreadsheet of them. That sure snapped me to attention because I have a spreadsheet that has every utility bill for two houses and an office condo for the last 15 years. I kid you not. I track usage not cost. BUT, you really got me thinking about whether I should even bother keeping that going. I am coming to terms with the fact that once I determine there is value in saving something I am great at doing that and not so great at deciding when I have enough. I really appreciate you.
Yes, all of the above! I put it on my calendar to purge every 3 months - paintbrushes, rags, bags, socks, paper piles, soy/ketchup packets, etc. :)
I'm washing dishes and watching this! I love your "podcast" videos! They always help me find useful tips! I hope to one day say I have seen them all! Thank you guys!
Uh oh. You caught me. I've kept a ton of leftover picture hangers, old or used--nails, screws, tacks, glue sticks, sandpaper etc. Surely, if I throw one away, I'll need it the next day! I rationalized, they are small so why not keep them?! THANK YOU for opening my eyes! My workbench will soon look tidy. I guess this was my unintentional collection.❤️ For gift wrap I keep a roll of brown kraft paper and it works great for any occasion, just use a bright bow; also works for mailing packages.
Our culture talks about having too much but there'l come a time we will have nothing!!
Might be sooner than we think 🤔
🙋🏻♀️I’m 36 and I have one roll of wrapping paper. It is gold with white stars. It works with glitter ribbon from Christmas, it does male and female presents for birthdays. Not many people I know get married these days but if they do I just go buy a single sheet or go and see if there is a wall paper sample I can use. Failing that I make my own custom paper for them. I make my own tags to customise the gift for the occasion and I don’t need 100 rolls of paper.
Also, the variety of teas...take different flavored teas to work, church, clubs, etc. That way, everyone gets to enjoy all the one’s you have.
Great idea !
This episode hit home, but in a good way 👍🏻
I, too, discovered a bunch of travel size toothpaste when doing "inventory" earlier this year. When the full size tube emptied, the travel size tubes were used. Shocking how many months it took before it was time to buy a full size tube again! I am on a kick of "could I use it all up" in order to contribute a little less to the landfill. Love your videos. Liz in Houston
I had an organizer with six drawers that I put all my teas in but I drink tea every night. One drawer has cocoa packets.
I just found y'all. So so glad
I bring ALL the utensils and extra seasoning packets to work every few months. People are always looking for this stuff at lunch.
I was guilty of bath and body works mostly gifted, floss, and gift bag, toiletries. I've donated, declutter and only keep what I actually will use. Well took me several years to used up 😂.
Trying to use containers that I have before buying new. Wide mouth glass pickle jars are great for storing rice/beans/dry goods. I use an old plastic pitcher for storing long straight open spaghetti near the stove, and next to the spaghetti is the long, sharp bread knife that is an awkward size to store in a drawer. Plastic mushroom containers from the store I reuse to store batteries in the junk drawer.
In response to “make it a project to figure out where that stuff (wrapping paper) can go and get used” be careful that attitude doesn’t become a barrier to offloading it out of your house, sometimes it just needs to go to the trash or landfill. And change behavior so you purchase/acquire intentionally.
I keep 5 rolls of wrapping paper. One gold, one silver, one red and white striped, one shade of green, one brown craft paper. I can do any occasion or holiday with just these . I pick up ribbon for pennies at garage sales and thrift stores to give them “curb appeal “. 😊
Because I know what I have and where it’s located, I only replace it when it’s gone.
Excellent!!
One way to get rid of unintentional collections is the Challenge issued by The Minimalists. Pick a Month. Day 1 get rid of 1 item, Day 2 get rid of 2 more items, by the time you get to Day 30 or 31 you have gotten rid of almost 500 items. Surprising how much of it will be things you don’t use and unintentional collections.
I’ve been doing what you did with toothpaste with my Clinique samples, getting close to using them all up!
Another place to donate the toothbrush and toothpaste, etc you get from the dentist is your local food bank. There are often barrels for those donations at libraries, credit unions, sometimes at your workplace.
I have several bags filled w plastic bags in the front closet - just forget to take them to a store recycle box. Coffee mugs w logos and biz names, and similarly labeled crappy “cloth” reusable bags ... in the end it IS ok to give yourself permission to send these off to the landfill. Regarding excessive holiday gift wrap paper, maybe check w local elementary school as these sometimes have a holiday bazaar where kids can buy inexpensive gifts for family and friends, and sometimes there’s a booth offering free or low cost gift wrapping of these items.
That comment about the Santa paper= sadly, relatable AF 😂😂😂😂 Thank you for that!
You described me in so many collections! Collections are so irritating to me yet I don’t always realize I have them! I can’t see the forest through the trees!!!
Wow! This just popped up JUST as I was looking at the recently gathered-together MOUNTAIN of fabric SHOPPING BAGS that have invaded my seriously cluttered house over the past 10-15 years, thinking “Today’s the day I’m doing YOU.” I think there’s about 30 of them. At least. Hadn’t seen your channel before and just subscribed. I like how you go into more specific detail about this process than the others who have led me into de-cluttering, folks I’m truly thankful for having discovered. And yep I have a controlled collection of Talenti containers becuz we can recycle them here! Thank you!
The excess cloth bags are my preferred containers for the clothing and such that I donate to the thrift store. No need to scrounge for boxes, both the container and the contents are donateable. Same thing for luggage and anything else that you could use to fill up - if you're donating it anyway, why not fill it with other donated items.
Picture frames, hotel soaps, and free pens from the pharmaceutical companies.😆
I make earring holders out of empty picture frames with various metal inserts. I have 3 boxes full with the intention of making them more for gifts. The soaps, I really love their scents, but the intention was to use for them for travel, but life has changed that notion. With being gifted more soaps (that other’s apparently don’t want because I know they can’t afford them) it’s difficult to use up what I already have. 😅 I had no idea that perfumes would degrade. Mine are as old as the college days of the 80s. Nostalgic. One Lilac perfume was given to me as a pre-teen. The pens- if they have rubber grips they eventually degrade to a sticky mess. 😝 Avon products, buy one get one free, adds up. There are no shelters near me, so it’s “curbside” for non-sellable stuff.
i love the tolente jars
additional use for plastic silverware - use it whilst camping. less washing up if water supply is an issue
Plastic utensil collections. Realized a good many yrs ago I had a problem collecting them.
Started taking them to the Humane Society thrift store where they have a break room for workers. If not, they sell them. We've also taken them to a church that had a kitchenette for teens, and filled their drawer.
We do keep and use about 20 single plastic spoons on the counter by the instant pot for tasting spoons. My son goes thru a lot of those daily as he cooks.
Large peanut and coffee creamer containers. They collect because I use them for craft storage.
Kathy B
NAILPOLISH❗️I only do pedicures, but I do them myself. If I could cut down to 10, I’d be thrilled🤣🤣👌
I have almost a hundred bottles! Some are very old, but with polish thinner, are still good.
Some were never opened. I use some to paint over chips on many things. I just love them.
The other thing about perfume is that you can’t wear it to so many places these days as you need to go scent-free. I have a bottle of my late mom’s perfume, though. I can’t bear to part with it…
Fragrance can be such a wonderful, precious way to keep a memory of a person. Even a quick whiff can bring us right back to a moment or person. If you don't mind me asking, what fragrance did your mother wear? I follow a perfume channel on RUclips called Soki London; in one of her videos about comforting perfumes she talks about how Coco Mademoiselle immediately makes her think of her mother. For me, Tresor and my mother definitely go together!
I have some of my mom’s too … they’re empty but still have the scent
1st time watching! Love it!
CONTACT LENS CASES must go. Realized why do I have so many.
My unintended collection is dongles. I've collected various of those, along with various sizes of memory cards, thumb drives, etc., And although a bunch of them are now wildly outdated, I've never thinned them out. Will do this week.
What are dongles?
@@SouthernBelleReviews a small device that plugs into a port on your computer to provide some type of capability. For example, I have dongles that read a variety of memory cards, some that allow a USB port to be connected to an old-style monitor cable, and more.
Once Kindle and Audible were a thing I got rid of 2 tall bookshelves in the living room, keeping only my very favorite physical books. I had started leaning on the bookshelves which is a potential safety hazard as the shelves were not all that stable.
When my sister and I went to an event a couple years ago, she was horrified when I declined the gifts. I tried to explain to her I didn't need another chap stick, etc but I don't think it made sense to her...
You can use perfumes on artificial flowers etc around the home spray on rugs etc
I always use the floss and dental supplies from the dentist. It saves me money that I don't have. The special flosssers I get, one of my grandson's likes, so I give those to him.
If you don't want the free supplies, tell the dentist.
Enjoy that your dentist still does this. Mine no longer does, nor did the previous one my healthcare covered.
@@TheDriftwoodlover That is too bad. :(
I have pacing and shipping material, but I do sell things online, so it works for me. Still... Once I have sold everything I want to sell, I'll try to keep the bubble wrap, boxes, tapes and all of that jazz at minimum ;) I also recycle/reuse envelopes (I stick them back with tape and put a new label onto the old one), and I've counted it has saved me not only money but also the time - I don't need to go to the post office to buy a new envelope everytime I want to ship something that I need to pack at home first.
My son just bought a house that has a large detached garage/shop. Guess where my plastic coffee containers went? 😉
I currently have a HUGE box of empty/washed plastic food-grade cannisters from the protein powder I started buying 2 yrs ago. They are very nice. Fit about 4lbs lentils. I already sent about a dozen to my sister and used as many as I can fit for my own bulk supplies. And they keep coming... we use about one every week and a half. A friend suggested I call a food pantry and see if they have a need/use, and another suggested a community garden (less likely I think).
Offer a batch of them free on FB marketplace or another similar outlet. Folks who need them to store things will be delighted to have them.
@@TheDriftwoodlover will do. I just used 15 myself, bulk storage of various grains, beans, lentils, flax/seeds, etc.. I have bigger tins (popcorn sized) for our inventory, but decided to cut down on what i am keeping inside in the pantry. Overflow goes to the garage in those tins.
P.S. The biggest food pantry organization did not want them. They are really nice, and the same canisters are $2 at the big box. I'm not feeling crazy finding a use for them before recycling.
What a great topic. My gift wrap collection was a whopping 24 rolls. Most is long gone and what remains is not holiday specific.
My spice drawer was out of control and I couldn't figure out why. It finally dawned on me that because my garden was so prolific, I had way more herbs than before. Stopped growing herbs and the drawer is much less crowded. I do miss giving out baggies of oregano though.
I would suggest only purchasing wrapping paper that has a solid color rather than a print. A solid color can be decorated by the ribbon or stickers for the occasion.
Blue Santa or a similar organization might use your extra wrapping paper.
For spices, I would suggest only purchasing the smallest amount for sell of the type you are seeking, because ideally you should only keep it six months.
The flowers from herbs are a much needed food source for birds, etc, especially in the fall when they usually flower. Go ahead and enjoy the herbs for your personal use and let the rest of the plants flower and feed the hungry birds, bees and other pollinators.
Just found out I have three separate sets of colored pencils.
I suggest the utensil napkin packs be given TILESORTAR the homeless wherever they gather such as Haven for Hope or hidden campout areas
Also travel size toiletries or partially used
We forget we have our Christmas paper and buy more so maybe we should just throw the excess away
feels seen 🤣
Why do people take the plastic forks and napkins, if they won't use them? Tell the restaurant you don't want them. That saves the restaurant money, which is appreciated more than likely, because most restaurants are struggling.
Sometimes I forget to tell them or, I suspect, even if I do they so automatically put them in every bag they forget this bag doesn’t need them.
Are the extra screws and nails donateable anywhere? Are they recyclable?
We donated ours to Habitat Restore.
@@darleneh608 Great idea. Thank you.
You can also offer a whole batch free on FB marketplace. Someone who is a handyman would love them.