Decluttering Successes

I feel like my motivation to declutter has been minimal lately. Upon a little reflection, I realized that I have done several things recently that I can celebrate as decluttering success!

I finally tossed my dead crockpot in the trash. I really was looking for a place to recycle, but didn't find any options. So yes, unfortunately it is now in the landfill, but it is out of my house.

I recycled a lot of plastic grocery sacks. The store we shop for groceries has stopped taking them. I was given the stink eye when I  brought them in sometime in April. I inquired again in May seeing recycling containers out, but those for in store use only. I finally found another grocery store that didn't have such limitations and our grocery sacks were recycled. What a relief! They had really accumulated in four months. Once we are given the green light to use reusable bags again, I will start using them more faithfully again. 

I cleaned out a pantry closet that we use for many various things including printing! The grocery sacks were filling up a third of the top shelf, so that was part of cleaning up this space. We do store our recycling here until we drop it off which is about once a week. 

These are after photos. I didn't know I was going to write about it!

The biggest area I needed to address in that closet were some paper files. I have a couple folders where I put notes and mail that is needed temporarily, usually less than three months. Long term papers, we either scan or put in our paper files. I have learned in recent years to save far less paper, as we tend to save more than we ever need to refer back to. I found prescription receipts that could be shredded, appointment cards and various notes to toss. There were around five items to put upstairs in our longer term filing cabinet.

I also listed two textbooks on eBay. They have not sold yet, but it's definitely hard to sell something if no one knows it is available, right?!  Now I am on the right track. I have several more items to list, but at least I got started. In this process, I think I will find some boxes and mailers that have once again accumulated and need to be culled. Hopefully, I can get that done soon and post about it. 

Have you decluttered anything recently? It all counts!!