Don't Miss A Thing!Save or Wave
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How to Decide to Save It or Wave Bye to It. . .
. . . 10 Things You Should Ask Before Deciding
All day long moms have many decisions to make, what to cook for dinner, whether to do two spelling lessons or not, if we should go to the library today or tomorrow, etc. We have all kinds of decisions to make and one of the biggest and longest lasting as far as long-term impact, is whether or not we should buy this or that . . . or not. Here are 10 questions to ask yourself when faced with talking yourself into taking it or leaving it.
1. Do I have a place to put it?
Do you tend to make impulse purchases and then have to deal with where to put it and how to use it? I’m especially challenged in this area when garage sale or thrift store shopping. Come on! A deal is a deal and where to put it and how to use it don’t often enter into the decision. It’s a grab it now or someone else will!
So, let’s make a conscious decision to stop and think before we buy. Make purchasing decisions based on knowing exactly where it will go in your home. If you do, chances are you won’t make that impulse purchase after all!
2. Do I absolutely love it?
This question won’t work in every case. I mean, I don’t love my vacuum, I just love what it does to my carpet! But this is a great question to ask yourself when you are trying to decide whether to keep an item, or get rid of it. If you cannot honestly say you absolutely love it, chuck it!
3. Is it a time or money saver?
If you can’t use it for one of these, and, if it doesn’t bring you joy when you see it, let it go!
4. Will it still be current when I need it again?
Saving clothes, shoes, and textbooks between kids is rather risky. I like to use the saying, “When in doubt, throw it out.” Clothing styles change rapidly as does technology. It’s easy to replace clothing from thrift stores and it’s just too easy to find the most up-to-date information on the web to keep many books.
5. Am I hard up for hard copy space?
Saving papers means we need storage space AND we need to be able to relocate where we stored it. Rather than printing from your computer, save a copy to your computer. Create different folders on your computer or better yet, store it on a removable or external drive the size of a pair of fingernail clippers!
6. Am I hanging on to it out of obligation?
Let’s face it, we all feel a twinge of guilt when we think about not keeping a gift. It’s good to ask ourselves the question of whether or not we’re keeping it out of obligation. If we are, then we need to remember that a gift is given without strings or obligations, and the receiver is free to do as they wish with the gift.
7. Will it affect me financially if I toss or shred it?
There are many places that you can get advice on what financial records you need to keep and for how long. Beyond that, you can shred financial papers without fear. If it’s a receipt for an item you still own that is under warranty, by all means keep it with the owner’s manual, but other than that, fear not!
8. Do I really need to buy it, or can I rent it?
Movies, carpet cleaners, sewing machines, foot baths, etc. How much have you purchased that you only needed once or twice a year? In most cases, rather than owning and thus storing, you can rent much of what you use.
Let’s think about entertaining. If you entertain infrequently and need some warming trays and large beverage dispensers for coffee, tea, and/or a cold drink, the charge to rent isn’t usually anywhere near the cost to purchase and you don’t end up with clutter that you have to store!
9. Do I use it?
Why do we keep things we don’t use? If we don’t use it, lose it! If we don’t wear it, donate it! If we don’t eat it, get rid of it! Think how much less work there will be around the house if we don’t spend all our time maintaining stuff we never use, wear or eat!
10. What’s the worst case scenario if I get rid of it?
By trying to figure out the worst `what-if’ we can be assured that in all likelihood, it won’t ever be an unrecoverable act to get rid of something. For example, say you shred your bank statements and end up needing a copy of one of the statements? No problem, simply contact your bank for another copy!
Or, if you have scanned and stored copies, you have them at the ready without having paper taking up valuable space. In nearly all cases, recovery is that easy!
I hope the 10 questions to ask yourself give you clarity while making decisions on whether to save it or wave bye to it.
*Drawing Rules: It’s easy! Winner will be announced in the March 1, 2010 TEACH Talk and must respond by email within 24 hours to claim her prize.
Oh, how I struggle with the “stuff” of life issue. And am I ever an impulse garage sale shopper. I have bought and now have to keep moving around a bunch of kitchen utensils that I got at a garage sale – the kicker is that I bought them for a new house we haven’t even finished building yet! UGH!
Well, the most important aspect I try to keep in mind is that people are more important than stuff. When I find I have been spending all of my time maintaining, moving around, and cleaning up stuff instead of spending time with the children of the King that I am raising in my home, then somethin’s got to give!! I seem to reach a tipping point and then the stuff starts flyin’..out to the give away bag!
A great trick I used this year before Christmas was that if each child could fill a giant sized trash bag with good and useful things that they no longer wanted, I would buy them a special toy they wanted (a fancy car that you could drive on the walls!), or give them $30 whichever – their choice. Let me tell you, these bags were taller than my 6 year old! I didn’t think we would ever get to the top, but we did. And that left plenty of room for the new Christmas presents that were on the way. We really enjoyed the extra space, and no one has missed a single thing they gave away.
In fact, with all of my encouraging, they giving seemed to continue as my littler boy would think how much fun another child would have with a particular thing, and since he had already had a good time with it, he wanted to give someone else who may not have as many toys a chance to play with it too. Oh, the precious gifts our children bring with their innocent spirits! I really learn a lot from him about generosity!
Thanks Lori for being so honest about your struggles with “stuff”, and for taking the time to address something that I think is a rather new problem for us moms…I don’t recall my mom or any of the Grandmas remembering having too much stuff!! Quite the contrary!
Two winters ago we had mice in our garage and this last fall we were faced with bedbugs. Having less stuff makes those kinds of issues a whole lot easier to deal with!
Lorrie, Just wondering if you have any advice on saving and tossing when the “stuff” in question isn’t yours? My dh is a pack rat…and I’m ready to toss (since I usually have to deal with the clutter), but he’s not so willing….any thoughts?
Also, not so sure if clothes should be so easily tossed. I shop the thrift stores, but those dollars still add up quickly, and I have found that it is growing increasingly difficult to find dresses for my girls…so I save them all! And I shop the larger sizes as well so we can scoop up any great deals that we know we’ll use in the coming years.
Regarding the clothes for children. I have four kids 5 and under, first 2 boys, next pair – girls. I was keeping all their clothes, but it has gotten too overwhelming, so I decided to get rid of the clothes that are not gotting to be handed down to the next sibling within the 2 years. But as Sherry said, I too store a couple years in advance for the oldest in the pair when I find a good deal on a quality item whether its second hand stuff or great clearance prices – I think it is a big money saver to think ahead of time.
Ladies, can anyone recomend a good book to read on what papers to keep in the office and how to organize them. We moved recently, and I am about to start tackling the office paperwork. My husband used to do it, but he is too busy now to keep up with it. It has grown to be a big mess.
I wrote in a post earlier that I was about to get rid of some of the kid clothes and some of my pracically-new clothes that I probably won’t fit into anymore. I have two things struggling within me – 1. do I resell it? (like at a garage sale, craiglist or kid consignment sales) or 2. do I give it away? The moment I decide to do one, I hear something that pursuades me to do the other. For instance, one moment I am thinking, I should give it and trust the Lord to provide and bless me, enlarge my husband’s business; the next moment, I think, but I need to help my husband by bringing some income into the house, with four little ones – this one of the very few ways I can help him. We have been struggling financially, in heavy debt. But, I ask myself, Is it going to be worth all that time – hanging the items, tagging them, taking the time to sell?
What has your experience been on this? What do you think the Lord want us to do? I haven’t had a clear confirmation on either way.
Well I do have to disagree with your comment about not storing books because of the internet. Really good books are always current and many old classics are being purged by libraries making them even harder to find. My children have already had some slightly heated debates about who will get which books when they leave home, and I often buy extra copies of favorites if I find them just to make sure that different sets of grandchildren will be able to have those titles in their homes some day. The internet just can’t take the place of curling up with a good book.
Thanks so much for the tips, Lorrie! You’ve inspired me to re-start my decluttering engine. I detest spending time moving my clutter around when I could be spending time with my precious family. So . . . out it goes!
Our family seems to move every few years. Some would think this is not a desirable thing. But my hubby and I have come to look forward to it. We find that with each move, we are able to declutter and only take those things that matter most. Like most people, the clutter returns, so we look forward to our moves as an easy way to force us to declutter again. I could certainly stand to remember your tips from now on since it would sure help our moving process!
I love reading all you tips and ideas. I get so much encouragement from them.
My struggle has been with books. I am addicted (aren’t all homeschoolers:-) The greatest thing I have ever purchased for myself is a Sony ebook reader. I can now keep nearly all my books right at hand on my reader. This includes a large number of homescooling books and all the ebooks I own without having to sit at a computer monitor to read, which hurts my eyes after awhile, or hvaing to print them out.
I’m a pastor’s wife with six children. I love to shop consignment shops and garage sales. The thing that I have learned this past year or so is, if you bring something home, try to send something out. And the other thing is, when I feel like I “need” something, my husband and I look for it together. For about 3 months or so we needed a jar or container of some kind to hold loose leaf tea in. We were keeping our eyes opened for the “perfect” container. We found two milk glass jars with screw on lids at a local antique store for half price. $5.00 Yay! Now they are not only beautiful to look at, but they are very functional as well. We filled one them with our favorite loose leaf tea called red roobios and the other holds mango green tea(loose leaf).
So, that is it for my household. I want items that are functional and beautiful(or cute).
Ms. Lorrie, I just love you and all that you provide for all of us ladies. If the Lord is willing, and I live One day I will be able to purchase all the bundles that you have that I like. Which is all of them! Which one is the best one to start with?
Praising the Lord for you and all who help you!
With five children and a family history of saving things “just in case”, I can totally relate to the “stuff” issue. The one thing we save that Lorrie suggests not saving is childrens clothing.
But I have some rules for myself.
1. We only save “little kids” clothes. (newborn to about 6)In our experience styles don’t change much.
2. We only save clothes that are unstained, lightly worn and have no movie or tv characters on them. (we avoid these in our purchases.)
3. We buy little kids clothes with the chance of handing them down in mind. (quality, styling, color.)
With these things in mind we have successfully seen all five of our children wear many items (5 through 18, boys and girls). For me this not only saves money but more importantly, time and decision making. Which leaves me more time to decide what to do with this other “stuff” that I’ve been saving “just in case”! Thanks Lorrie!
I am the only one in the family that has come to the realization that our house cannot hold EVERYTHING! My daughter keeps everything. I hope she outgrows it, as I did. But she seems so attached to even pieces of paper that have some significance to her, I fear that she won’t outgrow it! We do, however, take lots of things to the thrift store to donate. But my parents are “buyers” (for the kids), and we end up with more coming in than going out! We get packages of “stuff” (all from thrift stores or garage sales) about every other week. The kids love receiving things, but after a while, we decided that not ALL of it can stay.
Oh how I struggle with making decisions! I am not a decision maker AND I am a collector. I keep anything from cardboard (some boxes are just too good to throw away), recycled craft items, old clothes (that someone may need), as well as gifts that I will probably never use. I have thoughts of having a yard sale, but the work that goes into one is just too great considering the limited time a homeschooling Mom of 3 has to spare. This year, I have decided, is the year to declutter my home. I have found it difficult to find time to work on the clutter piles so far this year. Your article is so timely and inspiring. Thank you.
We try to operate under what we call “The Equal Mass Law” – meaning that for everything that comes in, an equal mass must go out.
If I bring something home, something has to go.
And to the wife of the pack rat… I’m married to one too! I’ve worked a few angles with him:
1. Can we take a picture of the item, and then get rid of it?
2. Stuff that isn’t personal (like knick knacks, cheap books, etc.) I will box up and put away. If nobody has missed them in a year, away they go.
3. Some stuff I just get rid of without saying a thing. Not personal stuff, but things like back issues of magazines, for instance. He gets a professional journal and for years kept every issue because he thought he was going to go through them and tear out pertinent articles and catalog them for future reference, yada yada yada. It’s never going to happen, and it’s an unnecessary burden on him in this day of the internet.
Same thing goes for things that are broken. Some men are real “fix-it” guys. Mine isn’t. (He has other skills
) Those things pile up and are a burden on him. So I remove the burden.
It is all just STUFF. And it can’t love you back.
Good luck.
This is in regards to “Mya” and the list as a whole.
They might have something like this at your church…if not, this might be a new idea for you to head up!!!
The good thing about a garage sale, is it teaches your kiddos how to count money. I learned this at our MANY garage sales when I was a kid. 
Finding a good deal on something you KNOW you’re going to use soon or something you KNOW you need is fantastic!!! Otherwise we say…let the next person have it.
First off, Mya, I completely understand where you’re coming from wanting to financially help your household and being torn spiritually. I have many suggestions about this: Before we decided to home school our daughter, she attended a private school. At the private school they had an “exchange” rack full of all kinds of clothes. Basically the idea was to bring clothes that don’t fit anymore and exchange for used ones that do! This helps everyone out, with or without financial problems.
There’s also sights on the web where you can sell your clothes…the good thing about this, is you can sell things in groupings and get rid of it all for one “hassle free” price.
Garage selling is good or clothing exchange stores also, but it does tend to be time consuming and with little ones……you need all the time you can get!
Currently, our feeling on “too small” clothes is this: If we dont’ have anyone that we know needs the items of clothes, we just give it to a local shelter, the church or charity. We want to bless others as much as we can.
Good luck to you Mya!!!
My comment on “Save or Wave” is this…we’ve tried to take on a new way of thinking not just with our daughter, but our family as a whole. I guess it’s not really new…just new to us! In the Bible, there’s alot of reference to people living with “just what they need.” Basically is boils down to this: Do we “need” it or do we “want” it??? If we decide that we “need” something, then we have to make a decision whether or not we need more than one. Not only for “space saving,” but also because we don’t feel that we needs tons of everything!!!
Blessings to all you mommies! Keep on a keepin’!!! ~Andrea
I am so thankful for this blog! We are in the middle of “spring” cleaning. These ideas will really help out!
Thank you for the inspiration! I had run into a *wall* and was stuck. You have opened the door!
Thank you!! 
1) for books that tempt me at thrift stores, library sales, etc, my rule is if it can be obtained from the library it must, but if it needs to be written in (such as a workbook or devotional journal)I may buy it.
2) my daughter is now in a 16 and at age 11 is also starting to care what she wears but for sizes newborn through girls 14 I nearly never bought something the same year it would be used. I always bought ahead at after season clearances, which was cheaper than buying used. I had one container for future clothes and one for clothes that she was through with that would be sold the next year when they were back in season if they didn’t fit a second year.