apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I remember one spring a couple years back when my ex moved out...
...best de-cluttering I've ever had.

I have five things that are waiting to leave my apartment.

Filing Cabinet (going up on CL)
Old Desktop Computer (going up on CL)
Clothes that are now too big (Goodwill)
Old Sheets & Towels (Animal Shelter)
$5 breadbox that is no longer useful (Goodwill)

I love de-cluttering. It's like a master-cleanse for your house and soul (minus the maple syrup overload).

One question for this post that kind of has the opposite effect of de-cluttering.... can anyone tell me the name of the round coffee table/bean bag contraption in the main picture? We have a 6 month old who's ready to crawl and I'll be donating our beloved mid-century trunk in favor of something without corners very soon. That thing looks PERFECT.

In reply to genevieve78:
http://www.bebitalia.com/#/BEBITALIA/LOWTABLES/FATFAT-LADYFAT_1_875_5_1

or you could get a pouf or ottoman and a put a tray on top.

bepsf...you are too funny!

For you urbanites without cars or neighborhood donation sites, Goodwill does pick ups. Call and let them know what you have to donate, they will let you know when a truck will be in your neighborhood and you can put the stuff on the curb for pick up.

Love the name of that ottoman - fat fat lady fat. (And the ottoman, too, naturally. )

Please do some research before donating clothes to Goowill or the Salvation Army. 60 Minutres did a major story on this a few years back. Here's an ABC news article ( http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/print?id=2743456 )A huge amount of the clothing donated to these organizations is sent abroad to countries in Africa, where they are sold and resold. A lot of individuals along the way make a lot of money off these items, so it sort of depends on your definition of "charity". But for the most part, most of the clothing you donate may very well be sold in bulk bales - at pennies on the dollar - to middlemen, who will ship it overseas and will get a large profit by reselling the clothing to third world merchants. Toss ed off American clothes are destroying third-world textile ecomonies. Of the these textiles are the Country's main export.

Here's a fascinating article following a shirt donated in England all the way to where it is sold in Zambia. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/feb/25/voluntarysector.charitymanagement Here's a similar article about clothing collect in Anchorage and what happens to it: http://www.adn.com/anchorage/story/614624.html

Please donate. But donate to your small local thrift stores rather than the multinational charity conglomerates. Sadly, the charity conglomerates have become as exploitative of third world economies as the commercial ones. Thanks for this indulgence.

Befs..hahah...as well...and quiltmaster, ugh..so depressing...thanks for insight...there must be a better way, just packaging up, somehow...reusable items directly to a charity in the process of rebuilding or helping an area. Hopefully most of the donated items do go to the right people...

Big Brothers/Big Sisters also take donations and they pick up. I'm not sure if they're involved in any of the same reselling practices as good will.

As for my declutter, I have already replaced chipped dishes with new ones I got on sale at Fishs Eddy over the weekend. I went through most of my closet and have a big bag of items to donate. Now I just need to tackle my storage closet. I have a lot of cds I need to donate to the library or sell--whatever. And junk from my old interior design classes--do I really need 5 year old fabric swatches? No.

Interesting tack there, quiltmaster. I think it's a good reminder that recycling alone is not enough. We also need to reduce the amount of new goods we buy, because our excesses are glutting the world market with cheaply made goods.

Maybe in addition to purging, we really need to buy less to begin with. Un-useful items should still be donated, of course, but replaced with other vintages, with everybody just sort of trading furniture until they get what works in a space. My own solution is to live in a less than optimal space with what I have. Don't know if that's anti-AT but there it is.

Wonderful!

There's plenty of other places to donate used clothing than the big charities. It's all fine to suggest that we buy less, but children outgrow clothing, not every garment can be passed along in a family, etc.

Reducing the amount of new goods we buy sometimes means someone, somewhere loses a job. I'm not suggesting that we all go hog-wild, but Puritan pinch-penny ways don't keep those Etsy sellers in business.

another pouf table option:

http://www.westelm.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?partNumber=WE-PRODf697&storeId=17001&langId=-1&catalogId=17002&viewSetCode=E&parentId=WE-SH1OUTCHB&retainNav=true&cmsrc=WE-SH1OUTCHB

Well... since Goodwill and Salvation Army are apparently evil d-bags, does anyone have a suggestion on where else in Los Angeles I can donate clothes and random household stuff?
I'm all for supporting local stores rather than the "big box" stores, but the "plenty of other places" suggestion isn't really all that helpful in driving the point home. We need specifics.

Sparkle: Check out National Council for Jewish Women (NCJW). They will even give you an itemized receipt for your taxes.

Goodwill is not evil! I've been working for Goodwill as a case manager for a few years, and I can attest that Goodwills use the profits from the stores to help people with jobs (and not just jobs in Goodwill stores). Each area Goodwill is run independently as a local organization. Yes, it's a huge organization, but don't call them evil or d-bags. Uncool.