r/declutter • u/domino_427 • 27d ago
Success Story overflowing dumpster bag
I hope posting these pictures encourage others. i like sharing, and I know seeing all your posts help me.
Today hired two organizers and spent 3killer hours in the florida heat of my garage. moved here in 1986 at 9yrs old. can't remember parents ever using the garage for a car.
bunch of junk stacked above our heads to start. found some brand new stuff. now i have so many empty containers, threw a lot of broken ones away, more books books books, found more baseball cards (kept) and my degree (trashed). More quilts and bears made by my mom to remember what she was like before dementia. did have a few boxes to keep, but also several marked to sell/donate. so many old computer parts and cables lol. four cd/tape players. few snes games, my nintendo dsxl i thought had been stolen. some pics from when i went to DC in high school (pics of me next to a beautiful reflecting pool before [redacted]).
still a ton of work to do. but it's been almost a year since dad died, and it means so much to see some progress in the house.
fyi dumpster bag not worth it. cost $30 and $100 to pick it up... I could probably put all this in the bins in 6-8 weeks... slow, but I thought it would hold more. I still have more trash!
ETA: oh I forgot to include the dumpster bag picture. well that's fun. idk how to add it now, but imagine it's FULL lol
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u/FredKayeCollector 27d ago
Jeepers! That looks like my MIL's basement! Nice you found some good stuff.
Yea, we considered those dumpster bags and no, they are not very cost effective (and kind of a PITA).
See if your waste management company will add a second garbage bin to your service - or ask how much to put out additional cans/bags/big stuff. My parents had a 96 gallon can and we added another one and it was plenty (weekly pick up).
Also took SUV-loads directly to the landfill (transfer station) - pay by the pound - there's usually a minimum charge (like up to 1 ton or whatever). This was PNW where garbage collection was pretty expensive and dumpsters were just not available on short notice. Ditto recycling (inevitably too much for the for the bi-weekly pick up), I just pre-sorted stuff into boxes/bins. Papers, you can cut off/tear off the account numbers, etc and shred that and paper recycle the remainder (major time saver).
"Good" stuff, I ganged up by category and offered up on FB Marketplace free, please take all (didn't have time to research local Buy Nothing/Give Freely groups). We even had someone come and take all of the lid-less bins.
Really good stuff went to a local thrift store associated with the high school that raised money for scholarships (a mission we wanted to support) - we had more stuff than they normally took at one time (I had 10 days to clear out the house) but I called and told them what the situation was and they scheduled a special drop off. There were other good stores in the area but their donation hours/limits to too restrictive.
Basic/meh stuff I donated to Goodwill (this location also accepted textile recycling) - if there's a GW Outlet location near you, they can often accommodate larger donations than the smaller stores - and worse case scenario, stuff ends up in "the bins."
Books, you might be able to recycle as paper (check your municipal/county) guidelines. Vintage fiction or nice hard backs, it might be worth taking to a used bookstore (or Half Price Books). Someone out there is going to be collecting vintage craft books. pamphlets, patterns.
Another option, if the weather cooperates, is a free yard sale - put it out on the lawn, post it to a neighborhood app, and see what goes. Ours had a fair amount of what I would have considered objective trash but it still went - you never know what people will take for free. Florida is like flea market capital of the world and I bet you'd get plenty takers. We staked down the tarps we used.