Declutter project - The Settlement

This has been an interesting three day yard sale. Keep in mind it is November and Kansas temperatures were in the 60s, not much wind and lots of sunshine. People kept coming back for all three days.

Friday was our best day and although the scheduled time was from 1 pm - 7 pm, the actual hours of selling were 9:30am - 5:30 pm (once the sun went down and it got cool it was over). We started setting up tables in the yard about 8 am and we started selling by 8:30 and I do not turn people away. I'm here to sell. Friday bought the buyers out and they bought. One lady was a little huffy, "at yard sales nothing should be over $2," she said, and left.

"Bye, bye, " I said as I sat counting my money. *g*

Saturday's 8 am time was too early as it was chilly so people started coming about 10 am when the sun warmed things. For the most part, Saturday brought the garage sale buyers spending money on less expensive things. They kept coming until about 5:30 pm too and I kept selling.

Sunday's 10 am start time was good and our last sale was about 4 pm and sales matched Saturday! Mostly higher priced items with some bargains tossed in. I had a sign up that said. "Today is a Make Offer day". Funny thing several people made me an offer and when I accepted (without arguing) they actually paid me more!! *lol*

Since the sale had a strong holiday theme with 'Christmas" the star it was a lot of fun to listen to people's plans for their new items. :o) Once little girl came her dad and they bought a Lemax Sugar n' Spice house, it needed repair and I felt a little bad so I had another upstairs that was in perfect shape. I gave her the broken one that "daddy can fix" and let her pay for the good one. I'd love to see their little village when it's set up for Christmas. She was a happy camper.

Even though the Declutter divorce isn't final and there is still more to come- this weekend's settlement was nice. And you know as I looked out over my past loves departing--I felt relieved and no remorse. *lol* Maybe even a little giddy.

Next: Still more attic cleaning to go and making a decision where it is going? Consignment auction, online selling and local classifieds. where the best fit is.

Lesson learned: Be accommodating, friendly and remember a little extra goes a long way in making a good experience.

Running total on the Declutter project including gold and silver: $3,329.00

The Declutter Divorce.

Decluttering and sorting is a lot like a relationship that's gone sour. Loved the process of romancing the stuff, lived with it a long time in mutual admiration. But finally it wore out its charm, usefulness and functionality. So best to make a clean break and hope there are better relationships for both of us once it's over!! :o)

Friday rocked!! and we moved a lot of stuff for good prices. It was a steady stream of people all day long and the weather was wonderful for Kansas in November. We were lucky to hold an indoor/outdoor sale which let us spread out nicely.

Some of the best moments were when I watched a new romance bloom between someone and their "find"!! It was a sigh of relief that it moved on to a better place and such a pleasure to have it gone. *lol*

Had some (leftover) Beanie Kids so the children who came along with mom and dad received a new friend to take home just for fun. They were so excited it made everything else pale in comparison.

We will be done at 1pm today. Remember the object is Decluttering and moving things out of the attics. The more we sell the better. What are we going to do with the rest of the items left? I can tell you it's not going back in the attics or basement or garage!


This evening I'll let you know how we are moving the rest of the yard sale stuff and remainder of the attic cleaning process.

I am about to reclaim my clutter-free life and soon the divorce will be final !!! Yay!!! And make a little $$ in the process!!--you know settlements are nice. *g*

It's been a long Declutter day :o(

Anticipating the new day and adventure into a major declutter project

Right now I am sitting here almost too tired to go to bed and wondering if a night's sleep will refresh me enough to bounce out raring to go in the morning. "Raring?" um, I think I would settle for creeping out of bed and getting dressed+ ! :o) But it will be fun to see what this big declutter project brings by tomorrow evening at 7 pm. I brought down Mr. and Mrs. Santa window display units this evening. Ohmygosh!! They are even cooler than I remember. Parting is going to be the pits. But I have a solution. I'm putting a BIG price on them and if they don't sell--well they are going to be part of my Christmas display this year. *lol* Mrs. Santa knits while Santa holds the yarn and bends toward her. Santa is about 4 ft tall.


Found this great looking thing and traced it through the patent number: It is a mixing jar by the Hazel Atlas Glass Co. circa 1930. Some were used to make malts in drugstores but this one has wicked prongs on it and I suspect it was used for crushing ice.

Austin (4 years old) and his mom will be over in the morning to help with more getting ready. Can you imagine a 4 year old in the middle of all this stuff? Guess I better get to bed so I can see what other treasures we can get out of the attic. The garage and basement are done!!

Declutter Yard sale is hours away

Okay one more day to go!!!! Are we ready...Nope!! But working on it

Tomorrow (Friday 1 pm) started the entire event. I'm telling you this is the grandmother of all garage sales!! Fortunately the weather is beautiful so we are moving a lot of it outside.

These are embroidered and cross-stitched quilt pieces. One box has 15 yards of backing fabric. Lots of cross-stitch and embroidered samplers. Really nicely done.


A table full of Fire King and Noritake dishes. An entire batch of Fire King over
60 pieces for $10. You can tell I don't want to bring these back in the house. This is a downsize, get rid of, don't take any prisoners kind of sale *lol*

We are working at a steady pace but are only about half way through the process. Still have a 1930's vintage, maple chair with stool (one of the first recliner type chairs), a 1940's drum table, a Dell p713w combo printer ($30 almost new) yet to be added.

The front porch is beginning to look like a yard sale in process:

Some things you have to think about and I have a pair of 50 + year old animated window display Mr/Mrs Santas that were window displays when we had a the flower shop. They are going to be sold!!! Pictures tomorrow.

These early sales are fun

Tables are filling up, the Declutter Project is on a roll

It helps pay for the advertising for the Huge Indoor Attic cleaning sale!! Just put an ad in the area newspaper and on the cable channel. The sale is for three days. Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

The real progress is bringing stuff downstairs and starting to stack the tables.

There are some pretty cool cross stitch and sampler pictures, one is dated 1934. The one on the back of the table to the right is the Lords Prayer and vintage. There is a beautiful Millennium Nativity (new) in the blue boxes. and some Hallmark bells for 2007/2008 new in boxes too. On ledge is 30 cross-stitched quilt block and some vintage linens including a child's gingham apron.

It is interesting what dollar value can be found with a little research. I found a 3.4 oz full bottle of Gio by Giorgio Armani. Checked it out on eBay and it's selling for $90 to $100 a bottle!! Hmm, I know I won't get that much for it but I'm sure I'll get more than originally planned I'm putting $45 on it.





Finally brought the boxes of books down. There is a boxed set of Home Repair Encyclopedias by Time-Life and a boxed set of Gardening books by Time-life too and some wonderful plant and garden books.


Oh and did I say I had Christmas village houses and accessories? How about this Lemax Sugar n' Spice house. You know even one would make a great display. I guess there are about 25-30 more houses. :o)

I am so excited this is exactly the kind of sale I'd love to go to!! I welcome emails: danse@media-net.net or calls 785 483 6300 if there are any questions.

Now back upstairs only 8 more tables and the floor to stack!! Wanna help? I can use all the help I can get *lol*

Okay, I admit I lost something in the mess

Losing things in plain sight

I am one of those people who can lose something in the middle of a mess and not see it-even if it's right under my nose. Clutter absolutely boggles my thought processes. So you can imagine what it's like to lose something in the middle of a big cluttered, messy, no end in sight piles of junque!

This morning I lost something extremely important and if I don't find it I may not survive this big indoor attic cleaning sale. I can't quite remember where I was at when I realized it was missing but I believe it was in one of the boxes I was sorting through yesterday.



It could have been back under the eaves where I cracked my head on a beam yesterday. I know my entire family is wishing I could find it because they know how rattled I get when I lose something important. I can wander around for days in a confused fog.


*Sigh* I'm going back up to look again and try to be patient and retrace my steps so I can find it and get back to work.

What did I lose?
My sense of humor!!! Did you see it laying around anywhere? :o)

Oh ouch, banged my head on the attic rafter

When I bang my head, the price goes up

It is amazing just how much cool stuff is in the attic that probably hasn't been looked at for a few years. Right now I am sorting "like" things into separate areas and I have some plastic bins I'm putting things in that I may keep or at least have a second look at. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Then you have to deal with memories!

For example I found four Vintage Wizard of Oz mechanical display dolls that have never been used. They were originally sold for $185 per unit, wonder how much I should ask for them?






Also found a beautiful Hallmark tree topper from a few years ago, never out of the box. Original price was $49 and I'm thinking $10 might make it interesting to buyers.

It is kind of exciting to see some of the fun stuff I've accumulated - as long as I don't think about how much is invested in it in the first place *lol*

Declutter is moving along with some success

The attic has it's own charm..or will when it's clean

Called a reseller to come in and go through a few boxes of items that were designed to be sold and ended up with over $200 in my pocket. There is so much seasonal stuff to be sold I made the decision to have an 'in-house' sale next Fri/Sat/Sunday and sell it from tables set up in my living and dining room. There are some nice holiday and Christmas items to go and since it's cold and weather can be contrary it seemed like a logical move.
Quite a stack of Department 56 houses and accessories to be sold (I'm keeping a few of my favorites and checking out prices on eBay as I go. I also have a few Lemax Sugar n Spice buildings in boxes. So we will see what they bring.

Moved into the back attic which is the real challenge as it's pretty packed. I don't like to handle things two or three times so the indoor sale seems logical. Starting Monday we will set up the tables and bring them downstairs, price and get them ready to sell. Also will be listing on eBay depending on fragility and weight.









Tally to date from the Declutter project (including gold) $2131.00

Big TIme clutter sorting and listing to make money

Clean attics and Butterfly quilts

Slow progress the last two days. Moving into some major decision making projects. Plus had to take time out for a 4 year old's birthday party and a little Halloween
.The small front attic is beginning to look almost tolerable. Sold a book on Amazon for $20 and a box of books on Nextech for $25 but still haven't started listing the heavy duty stuff.

Spent time sorting through things bought at auctions and garage sales for reslale. Found a box of 30 hand-embroidered 18" butterfly quilt squares, plus uncompleted printed border fabric and enough plain fabric in white or pink for a completed quilt or spread (50% cotton/50% polyester). These were someone's project 'in process' and I'm wondering where the best market for them would be. Local or eBay. The embroidery work is nicely done. According to the instructions 20 completed squares would be enough for a king size bed. So there would be enough for pillows too. Would make a beautiful bedspread-butterflies are in muli-colors..

Decision for online vs local selling

Books and Magazines, what to do with them

One thing I've noticed as I sort and look for ways to eliminate the clutter is the decisions that have to be made. Originally I thought it would be simple to sort into bins and get rid of 'stuff' that way.

Blasted WRONG!!. Emotions, logic, realization that everything is not high priced gold and bah! humbug! Decisions take on an unrealistic complexity.

So yesterday I spent hours sorting.............magazines and books!! Agh! Now I go to enough Country Auctions to know that not many magazines and books bring huge prices (reality check like $1 a box-or less). So what to do?

Sorted the holiday magazines into separate piles: Tried not to angst over the really neat stuff between the pages of 1981-2000 McCalls, Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day Christmas editions (you know back when a magazine had super great stuff in them to tweak the imagination and Christmas crafting?

Was only moderately successful. Today I listed the magazine on the local Nextech Classifieds at $1.50 each or make offer for the entire bunch. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

But wait!! Maybe I better go up and look through them before someone buys that one magazine from 1983 that I can't live without!!..Do you hear them calling me? Maybe it's just a ghost outside my window as it's almost Halloween. Better go check.

Back to Declutter Basics

I've made little progress since I started this project a couple years ago. What can I say-life got in the way. Energy level tanked and the process slowed down to a halt for awhile.

I did make money from my first effort to start the declutter project but it was easy money. Sorting through old jewelry and turning it into cash with high gold prices was enough to keep me happy . But that was a two sided sword because with money jingling in my pocket that didn't require much work I found I could ignore the mess upstairs and in the attics pretty easily.

Perhaps watching the TV Hoarders show renewed my interest and made me think harder about the declutter project in the past few weeks-or perhaps it was the need to see just how much can be made from the clutter and the 'stuff'' accumulated over 40 years in the same house. So I am on a roll again and this time I'm not quitting until it is sorted, saved, sold or sent to the kids (if they want something).

I am going to see if I can finance our Christmas this year with my clutter. Think I can? I don't know but it's worth a try. Come along for the journey and let's see how it happens.

Just for a little more motivation I am on the Christmas Holiday Home tour December 11--so it has to be done, decorated and delightful by then.

Now I'm ready for a tall glass of tea.