clean out

Cleaning your Closets: 5 Items That Have To Go!

Abby H.

I’m bringing this up because it’s time to pull out some of my fall/winter clothes and donate some of my older clothes, or clothes that I don’t wear as often.

Here are my Five categories for giving clothes the boot:

Stains: You know that one shirt in your closet that you love, but it has a stain that won’t come out. It’s time for it to go.  Clothing can be donated to be recycled. To find your closest clothing recycling location, click here.

It doesn’t fit: Too small, big, long, or short- it has to go. Time to throw those in the donation pile.  This goes for shoes too!

Needs repair and you lack the time or skills to mend/fix. The pants hanging in your closet are so cute but they are 1/4 inch too short and you can’t sew? One Caveat- Undergarments that are holely or stretched out go directly to the trash. No one is darning mass-produced socks. I mend and repair my clothes as needed weekly. If you are looking to learn about mending clothes, check out my post here. 

Out Of Style: Low-rise jeans? Powder Blue Tuxedo? Your Prom Dress from 1997? Time to throw those in the donation pile.

Cheap Crap:  This encapsulates several categories- Knock off’s (They are mass-produced in horrible conditions), poorly produced “fast fashion” that offers no quality and doesn’t add anything of substance to your wardrobe, and anything you bought and wore once, and it was damaged or you swore you’d never wear again. In my opinion, cheap shoes are the worst and are usually tossed into this pile.

Once you have your donate pile, if you are looking to donate straight away, check for your local non-profits needs. I also like donating my unwanted good clothes to local clothing swaps. For more info about clothing swaps, click here. 

Day After Christmas Traditions- Helping Others!

Abby H.

file0001189581306.jpgOne of the things that I like to do on Boxing Day (that’s the day after Christmas), is to clean out the fridge. It seems like a strange time to do it, but I like to end the year being able to start fresh. Here is a list of stuff I’ll be doing today:

  • Clean out the fridge and toss/recycle/compost (I have a friend who takes compostable stuff for her bin) the unwanted/expired stuff and containers.
  • Go through the oft neglected kitchen cupboards and pull out kitchen gadgets and stuff we don’t use. Figure out whether to integrate them into daily life or donate them. I’m in a Facebook group that brings neighbors together, so I’ll probably post the stuff there before I take it to AMVETS.
  • While doing laundry, I’ll pull out the kids clothes that is started to get outgrown. I’ll also pull out clothes from their drawers that don’t fit/they don’t wear and separate into two piles: pass along to friends and donate. I did my clothes a few weeks ago. I’m still waiting for husband to do his….
  • I’ll also go through the linen closet too. I donate old towels and sheets to the local animal shelter.
  • On the sly, I’ll go through the kiddos toys and pull out the ones that don’t get much play. We’ll donate those. The toys that are broken, missing pieces (oh hi, every puzzle in our house!), or are just junky will get tossed.
  • I usually start entering the tax info I have into Turbo Tax today, but I started last week, so I’m all caught up. I keep a manilla Folder in my desk with the tax year written on it, and I toss tax paperwork and receipts into it as we  get them, so at the end of the year, it’s not a huge rush to gather everything for tax time.

I’ll also be doing the meal plan for this week, as we were busy with family yesterday.