The Great Donate 2017- 2 Weeks and 26 Objects

by - Sunday, January 22, 2017

donate buy nothing coat rack
This year, I set an ambitious goal for our family- donate or recycle 2,017 items from our home. It sounds crazy, but it isn't as crazy as you think. The average American home has 300,000 objects in it, so giving up 2,017 isn't even 1%. We are taking on this challenge for a number of reasons-

-A cluttered house wastes so much time. I have two small children, and everything in my house needs to be worth the time I am going to spend picking it up off the floor. Less stuff= less to clean= more time to spend actually playing or making or writing this blog.

-Too much stuff keeps us from even knowing what we have. Have you ever bought something at the store only to find you already had it at home? Me too. And that is waste.

- Someone else can use it. We have stuff sitting in wait for us to need it or want it again, but someone else can use that blanket/ coat/ book; now. And if we give it to them, we can do so much good. If they can't afford it, we can help. If they could but get it used instead, we are keeping something out of a landfill. I love that.

- I believe in a re-use culture. Our generation can be the first in quite a while to really appreciate reuse. Part of that is being willing to buy things used. The other part is to keep putting things we aren't using back out for other people to use.

So this is the dream, and I feel fired up to clean out our house in the right way. I am not going to send a bunch of stuff t the landfill as part of the purge. We will get rid of things in a way that is good for the environment and helps other people only.

 We are two weeks into this challenge and have given 26 things away. Yes, you read correctly, 26. Look, Rome wasn't built in a day, and right now we are in major sorting and skimming mode. At some point, we will have some major purges, but right now we have only given things away on our Buy Nothing Group. One at a time, but all to new owners that are excited to have them. Here are a couple of highlights:

We finally got rid of a coat rack that scared the crap out of me like once a week. It lived on our porch, and when I would come out to nurse, my sleep-deprived brain thought it was a hoodlum coming to bandit us. Nope, still just a coat rack. The new owners seem very excited about it, so clearly they don't know a trickster when they see one. Glad it is off to a life where its owners don't hate it.


This is a wreath we bought our first Christmas living together, and it looks rough. We haven't had it up for years, because of said roughness and that a little berry bead falls of every so often. Just the right size to choke a baby. The new owner seems excited to spruce it, and I am happy to see some of the old decorations I don't use finding new life with Buy Nothing.


I kept this big roll of tulle from an early anniversary to help with my brother's wedding. Well, he is married now. and it never moved from the closet. It is off to add a little more glamour to one of our neighbor's upcoming wedding. That's pretty cool. 

 So we haven't gotten rid of a ton yet, but I feel like many of our gifts have been meaningful and useful, which is pretty damn cool. If you aren't in a Buy Nothing or Freecycle group yet, let me recommend one yet again. It is so much fun to get rid of things this way, and you will meet so many of your neighbors while doing your spring cleaning. So cool.

So, how is everyone's purging going? What number are you at? I have a big donation of warm clothes and blankets planned for Tuesday, so I am excited for that. Any questions of where to get rid of things? Be sure to check out my Where to Donate posts and get to it!

You don't have to do everything this week, but do something.



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2 comments

  1. I have gotten some serious purging in, and in some cases even made some money doing it! The next struggle is weeding out clothes; I always feel like I've given up everything I can stand to, but I know that there are some pieces I just don't wear. I was able to make $7 selling an old leather jacket that didn't fit me anymore though, and that felt like a win!

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    1. That is a win! Clothes are so hard, because you have the clothes that fit who you are and the clothes that fit who you want to be. I have all these dresses that I haven't parted with, but when am I ever going to wear a dress everyday again?

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