Donating Demystified

So you’ve decluttered your entire house, and want to donate your old clothes, homewares and knick-knacks. Sounds easy, right? Turns out, it can be a little more complicated than you might expect.

There is a complex and troubling discussion that surrounds the ethics of donating used goods. Questions such as ‘Why do you think poor people/homeless people/people in developing countries would want your cast offs when you don’t want them yourself?‘ and ‘Wouldn’t it be better to buy less and save your money so that you can give financial aid – arguably a much more useful contribution – instead of your old crap?‘ can leave you wondering whether you are really intending to donate your old goods because you want to help others, or because you want a guilt-free way to offload your stuff without it going in the garbage bin.

#icandeclutter: The Last Day

This post is soooo long overdue, I’m sorry!! I have been donating things left, right and centre, and it has taken a hell of a lot longer that I expected!

The pantry was the last area that I chose to declutter for my #icandeclutter challenge. The ‘before’ photos are actually from a long time before – maybe about a year after we moved in. The current state of the pantry has been much closer to the ‘after’ photos for a long time, but it definitely needed a refresh.

#icandeclutter Day 1: Linen Press

Woo hoo, I survived Day 1 of my #icandeclutter challenge! Thanks for the fantastic response to my post yesterday, it made me feel so motivated! Don’t forget to post your own decluttering pics on Instagram or email them to me at tamarakwilkinson@gmail.com :). Laura from Crafty not Shifty is also starting a series on decluttering/organising this week, so you should definitely check out her craft room transformation.

For Day 1, I decided to take it easy and start with an area that didn’t really matter to me emotionally: the linen press. As you can see from the ‘before’ photo, it was absolutely jam packed with crap – I had to shove things in and slam the door so they wouldn’t fall out. Definitely not ideal, and we hadn’t used half the things in there since we moved in. Hell, we didn’t even know what half the things in there were.

It didn’t take long at all to pull all the stuff out and sort through it. A couple of things – like the gym towels, I moved to other homes – but the majority of the room came from ruthlessly culling and organising. The weirdest thing I found in the linen press was two packets of glowsticks, which I am now wearing (of course). Also, an entire box full of perfumes that I have no idea where they came from. I moved those to the bathroom to deal with later!