Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Cut Clutter - Make A Donation Bag

I live in a very tiny two bedroom apartment with little to pretty much no storage. So apart from only bringing the necessities with us, my husband and I are constantly looking for ways to cut clutter.

So I started brainstorming about some of the biggest things that cause clutter in our lives. And what I discovered was a pretty broad thing.

My husband and I are pack rats. We don't like to throw anything away in case someone we know or we will need it some day in the future. If it is still in working condition, or has no damages we try to find some justifiable excuse to keep it. Especially in the clothes department.

So I saw something on pinterest (I saw several versions of this and unfortunately I don't remember which one I found first.) about making a donation box. This completely solved all our problems! We could put clothes and other things in the box, and if sometime in the future we needed it we could just go pull it out and take it. And if we didn't need anything from it by the time it filled up, then we knew it would be time to give it away.

We plan on taking all our clothes in the donate box to Plato's Closet, a great store to trade in gently used clothes for cash or for other gently used name brand clothes. They're really picky about what they take so it is a great consignment shop. Anything they wouldn't accept and the rest of the contents of the box (kitchen appliances we don't need, etc) we could donate to Goodwill. Someone somewhere will get a good use out of our stuff that we don't need anymore so it doesn't seem like a waste but we still get it out of our hair. Yay for donating!

All we did to make this was grabbing an old sturdy bag (mine happened to be a huge one I had from a previous bookstore shopping experience) and started filling it up! However, now that we have this, its filling up pretty quickly so I may have to upgrade to a bigger bag!

What have you been doing to cut clutter lately? Have you ever thought of making a donation box before?

8 comments:

  1. I never thought of a donation box. Great idea. I might have to do this. Jess thanks for stopping by my blog. Glad I inspired you with the wrapped shoe boxes for storage. Send me a link if you do some yourself...I would love to see what you did and how you used it. Have a great day. :)

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  2. I totally need to make a donation box! I just throw things is different boxes and then forget which is what and where and I get all disorganized again! As to cut the clutter, I just re-vamped an old Ikea box. Check it out!
    http://www.diapersanddivas.com/ So glad I found your blog!

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  3. I have a couple donation boxes sitting by my front door all the time... I just have to remember one day to take them to our local God Store! :D Nice to know it is catching on. Good luck with yours Jess hon!
    I am so happy to have found your blog, I also mentioned yours on mine today. I am a new blogger, and wanted to share yours with anyone who would read mine. Thanks dear! Hope you have a wonderfully blessed day!

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  4. Great idea...Thanks for linking up @CountryMommaCooks…..have a wonderful week:)

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  5. Great idea! I just leave stuff lying near the front door and then start to wonder why it looks even more cluttered...or a sad alternative is packing it into the car, then forgetting to drop it off, then doing the shopping, then having nowhere to put it all!! Seriously will be trying this out now... RIGHT NOW

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  6. Hi Jess! What a beautiful blog! Thank you so much for visiting me and leaving a comment! I wanted to answer your question about thawing food...I would definitely recomment freezing foods in smaller quantities for you & your husband. I would buy medium size ziploc bags and freezer quantities appropriate for one meal! I hope this helps! Also, did you know that your comments on blogger are set at "no reply" so that no one can reply directly to your comment? They have to click thru your profile to get to your blog! Just thought I might mention that! Wishing you a wonderful week! Angie xo

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  7. You really know your stuff... Keep up the good work!

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  8. I need one of those in my art studio, seriously. I every time I make an attempt at reorganizing I'm always trying to figure out WHY I STILL OWN THIS. :-) Great idea.

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