decluttering - how do you throw stuff away?

[MaryIsA]

We aren't bad, house is fairly tidy, not too much stuff.

But we have CDs that neither of us can bear to throw away - we don't have a CD player, DVDs that we aren't going to watch again, books - I find books so hard to get rid of.

I don't want to throw them, there's a limit to how many you can give away, charity shops don't want them - they are full.

What are your tricks and tips?

@Girliefriendlikespuppies

I've never know charity shops to be fussy, surely you just bag it all up and drop down there if one declined my stuff there's about 50 others in our little town!!

I've joined a Life's a Gift fb page which has been great for donating stuff over lockdown.

Our charity shops are very fussy. I'm probably a bit too kind as I check with them first as I drop stuff.

My mum volunteers at a charity shop and they have to be quite ruthless or they end up running out of storage space and paying for stuff to be disposed of.

When my dad finishes a book, he leaves it on the bus for somebody to find. I think this is a lovely idea.

Some people do still have VHS players. Some elderly neighbours of ours do - no DVD player.
Have you tried Freecycle or e.g. Gumtree/FB marketplace/a Next Door site?

Re binning books, if they were non-fiction/ text books they were probably out of date.
Fiction, I'd have tried to pass them on.

One family local to us has a garden library, it looks like a bird house in the front garden, pick a book, leave a book, free to anyone it is a lovely idea.
My Dads local had a shelf of books free for the taking. And my grandfather used to buy charity shop books, read them and return and buy more. He was using it more like a paid library because it was an easier walk than the main town library.

But ultimately books esp paperbacks get to the stage of being worn out. So binning is probably not that bad.

VHS tapes I'd bin them. Sod the hassle of trying to keep them out of the tip for a couple of more years.

Ok There might be the odd person who hasnt moved to DVD but ultimately DVDs have been a thing for 20+ years.
Anything on VHS will have been seen on TV by now. I'd bet the VHS owners rarely if ever use them.
And ultimately VHS tapes will end up in the tip eventually so why hassle yourself trying to offload to someone else?

freecycle, or free on facebook with a proviso, for example, bag of books or toys, must go in one batch, and be collected, then people can't separate them out!

I have no problem with this.
We had a room of doom with lots stored in there.
We emptied the loft as want to downsize in the next couple of years.
Enter one helpful dh and 17 year old dd.
The lot has gone, sent to the tip.
Stuff I wanted to sell, personal things I wanted to keep.
All gone, as they thought it was rubbish.
Was gutted at first but now our home is lovely.

Get someone to help who is ruthless, is my advice.

Could local retirement homes use the books and cds? One of mine would but I appreciate they are all different with regards to infection control.

I’ve been decluttering but like you can’t bring myself to throw certain things away.

I bought boxes and have put all the cds into them and put them in the cupboard, in a year or two they will probably go, but at the moment I’m not ready to let them go.

I also have lots of cassettes, which I know should just go out. They aren’t even proper ones they are ones that I made up of favourite current songs when I was a teenager! I don’t have a tape player so I have no need to keep them, but at the moment they are sitting in my room. My dh keeps asking when they are going but again I’m not there yet.

I also have bags of vinyl records. This is harder as they were my mums, but for some reason they are not in their sleeves they are just all in an old m&s bag together. Dh says they are all scratched and won’t play and they have been in a cupboard for years which is a little damp so they might also be slightly warped. But because they were my mums I can’t bring myself to throw them away. There are a lot of Beatles records but again with them not being in sleeves I don’t think I could even sell them.
I will let them go one day but maybe not just yet.

I give things away.
Donation boxes
On FB on the for sale I offer up free or charity donation

Years ago I used to sell items because I needed the money and things were tighter, now I can afford to give to others who need more that me.

We gave 1000 books and journals to the charity shop when we were expecting DS as needed the room. If I knew I wasn’t going to read it again what did it matter.

I recently moved house and wanted a completely fresh start with no clutter so I had to be ruthless. I kept some things in a box to store away but things like old films books etc I put on Facebook for anyone to take.

eBay!

@CommanderBurnham

eBay!

The stuff I've sold on ebay has been more hassle that it's worth by the time ebay charge their fees and paypal have their cut it really isn't worth the effort unless it's a big expensive item.

My BHF charity shop is a book specialist shop, so they take any books (during non covid times). If you have children's books, your local school or nursery might also welcome them. I volunteer in a primary school library, and would never say no to a donation! I have also seen books being left at local railway stations, with the expectation that you put a donation into a collection box if you want to take one.

I'm fairly sure I have read, on Mumsnet, that you can send books by Freepost to overseas army bases. Maybe someone who knows the details could post them?

Could also try local old people's homes/refuges to see if they would want any.

I put them in a bag and then put them in the bin.

I've always been quite lucky not to be sentimental, clutter gets thrown out pretty sharp in this house!

We have local for sale & give away boards... omg, I have got rid of so much stuff, things I thought no one would ever want. I reckon OP's CDs & DVDs would get snapped up. Or the box out front -- I got a book off my neighbour the other day.

I joined a local free stuff Facebook group; it’s been absolutely astonishing how much stuff I’ve been able to get rid of this way! Toys DD has outgrown, cat food after DCat died, books, clothes, camping stuff - it’s all gone really quickly. It feels good to give things to people who actually want them, we do contactless collection, so I just arrange a time and leave it in the front yard.

We have so many cd's and Lp's that we didn't want to get rid of so we caved in and decided to get a hifi. Just for cds, records and an amp. We love it and use it most nights, much more than we thought we would.
All books we take to charity. Local recycling centres often have book banks.