Every decluttering fan knows the routine: pile up the extras, snap a few photos, list them online and wait for the offers to trickle in. But when the creator behind @rachelleea had a stack of items left over from her last big purge, she skipped the haggling entirely. A woman on Facebook told her how tough things had been lately, and that was all it took. “I just gave her everything,” she says, “which makes me so happy.”
She shared the moment in the middle of a busy afternoon vlog about all those household chores people put off. She had planned a different organizing project, but the supplies for it never arrived, so she turned the day into a marathon of decluttering, cleaning and errands instead.
Here is how her afternoon unfolded, along with a few ideas worth borrowing for your own home.
Why She Gave It All Away
Her usual habit is to list things on Facebook for very little money, since the goal is to get them out of the house. This time, one buyer opened up about how hard things had been for her recently. Instead of negotiating a price, the creator handed over the whole lot. Most of what she had decluttered went to that stranger, and she says it felt wonderful to know the items were headed to a home that needed them.
Only a few odds and ends remained afterward, including some jars from that earlier declutter that she still had not figured out what to do with. She set them aside and moved on with the day.
It is a reminder that decluttering does not always have to be about the money. If you have a bag of kitchen items, clothes or household goods that still work, passing them to someone who could use them can feel better than a few dollars from a stranger haggling over a quarter.
Packing A Day Into One Afternoon
She began the morning by combining errands. Her husband had a physio appointment, so she went along, picked up vitamins at Whole Foods and then stopped at Trader Joe’s for groceries to cover the week’s meals. Back at home she showed off her haul: parsley, cilantro, beef birria, boxes of butternut squash mac and cheese, chicken mole, tortillas, cucumbers, a red onion, a lemon and a lime. She also picked up multivitamin gummies for her husband and prenatal gummies for herself, which she says have her hair and nails growing fast.
Then it was time for the dining room, which she describes as a mess of packages and boxes from a recent Costco trip. She put away the shopping, moved a store-bought basil and rosemary plant to the bar cart because it was too cold at the window, and tidied the dishwasher tablets into an acrylic drawer under the sink, new ones at the back and older ones in front.
The Foyer And The Broken Desk
Next came the foyer, which she warned was pretty bad. It held toilet paper from Costco, a bag of junk from last week’s declutter, a rack from over the toilet that had to be moved because of window construction at her apartment, her husband’s knee scooter from when he was injured and a water tank bound for the storage locker.
The centerpiece was her desk. She had bought it for $25 on Facebook Marketplace, painted it black and tried to bring it back to its original look. It had water damage and was falling apart, so on Sunday she decided she had had enough and pulled it apart. The problem is that her building does not have hard rubbish disposal, which happens only every couple of months. She plans to talk to the building or find a drop-off spot rather than wait.
Without the desk, she says the corner feels much better, and she is not sure she will replace it since she mostly uses the dining table.
Freezer Tips From A Meat Disaster
The most practical part of her afternoon involved meat. She buys all of it in bulk from Costco about every two months. A few weeks ago, she says, her freezer defrosted and she lost an entire pack of chicken, almost all her ground beef and some steak. She now keeps a small metal washer sitting on an ice cube tray so she can tell if things have melted.
She divides everything before freezing. The chicken goes into individual packets, and the ground beef is weighed on a scale into half pound portions. Her key tip is to lay everything flat in the freezer, because flat packages defrost much more easily than bunched ones.
A Crafts Cabinet That Fought Back
Her last project was the crafts cabinet in the entryway. After getting rid of her desk, she had extra stationery and no room for it. When she emptied the cabinet she found sewing, painting and drawing supplies, gift and party items, home decor, books, journals and coloring books. She sorted everything into categories and started a garbage pile for broken items. A set of ten stackable containers from Amazon, labeled with a label maker, did most of the organizing.
She also made decisions about keepsakes. A collection of fridge magnets she gathers while traveling for her mom stayed, tucked away safely, since she has not been home in almost two years. Photos went into a big Ziploc bag. A framed picture with broken glass was thrown out after tiny glass specks covered it.
She admits the cabinet did not get as lean as she hoped. Anyone who crafts will understand, she says: it is hard to throw out scraps when you think they could come in handy one day. She did let go of one leftover piece from paneling her bookcases, and she is proud of it.
Little Lessons To Borrow
- Combine errands. Pairing a vitamin run with the grocery store saved her a trip.
- Sort by category before you organize, so you can see how much you really own.
- Flatten frozen food in the freezer so it thaws quickly and stacks neatly.
- Know your building’s bulk pickup schedule before you break down furniture.
- If a buyer is having a hard time, consider just giving the item away.
She also had a verdict on laundry detergent pods. After a few sample packs left white marks all over her dark clothes, she says she will not buy them again.
By the end of the day, the dining room felt normal again, the foyer was clear and the freezer was stocked. It was not a perfect cleanup, but she wrapped up with a plan for her desk and a good feeling about the box of items she gave to a stranger.
More Stories You May Like
- Woman Decluttering Her House Before Downsizing Draws a Number From One Bucket and a Room From Another to Decide Exactly What to Throw Away Each Day for Thirty Days
- Moms Are Cheering A Birthday Party Idea Where Guests Bring Just Seven Dollars For A Seventh Birthday Instead Of Another Last Minute Target Gift
- Mom Says Six Small Cleaning Tasks Take Her Less Than Half An Hour And Keep Her Whole Home In Maintenance Mode Starting With Making The Bed Every Day
