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bmmalone

Attic space

bmmalone
16 years ago

we made the mistake of boarding our attic about seven years ago. Since then anything and everything has found its way up there! So, after decluttering the house its now time to start on the attic. We must have sixty boxes of books to start with (DH and i went through them about 5 years ago and donated the ones we didn't want to keep), school work done by our son, clothes (not to many and things like first baseball uniform, all star uniform, firs cub scout uniform etc) and a bunch of other stuff. My plan is to go though all of the boxes and sort out into three piles, keep, donate, trash. So the things i want to keep really need to go in plastic containers i guess. Anyone been through this or have any ideas that could make this easier? thanks

Comments (4)

  • kitchenredo2
    16 years ago

    Just think how great you will feel when it is all done...... Only do a few boxes at a time or you will be overwhelmed and won't want to go back to the task...

    For the school work done by your son, try to purge some of it. You could scan/photograph some of the artwork and then throw out the originals. You could use some of the artwork to send a note or letter. And you can ask him what he wants to keep - if he has kids he might like to show them what he did when he was little.

    A friend had a quilt made from special clothing worn by her kids (she sent it to a place she found on the internet - she doesn't sew). She had one made for herself and one for each of her kids. She used her son's old concert T-shirts for his. I plan to do this with the special clothing I am saving from my kids.

    Label each bin with a number (Sharpie pen - number all sides and top) and keep an index of what is in each bin (in a plastic sleeve on the inside door/wall of the attic and a copy where you keep home information). This will make it easier when you are looking for something and will have to just tell your DH to get Bin #14 instead of looking through each bin.

    Good luck!

  • Adella Bedella
    16 years ago

    Hopefully, If it has been up there five years, it will be easier to look at with a fresh eye.

    Something that helps me when I'm going through the more sentimental items is to think of it in terms of others. I absolutely adored some of my chidren's baby clothes, bankets, etc., but I also know a few things about them.
    -I have pictures of my kids with those things (and they are things.)
    -I really don't want to lug all of this stuff around every time I move.
    -There is a good chance the kids won't want all of it in their home when they move away.
    -Things become outdated. I could hang on to all of this stuff and eventually discard piles of it in the future when I get tired of it, but then it would be outdated and no one would want to use it. If I donate it/garage sale it now, another child will benefit. And I will benefit by having extra room.

    I would suggest looking at things like the uniforms/clothes and think about whether they would be useful to another child. For instance, another little boy could probably use the cub scout uniform. I would keep the badges and maybe the neck kerchief and donate the shirt and pants.

    The books - go through them again. Are you ever going to have shelves to store them? If not, go through and rank them - favorite to least favorite and irreplacible. Keep the favorites and irreplacibles. Borrow the others at the library if you get interested enough to read them enough again.

    Good luck!

  • rjvt
    16 years ago

    Does your attic have extremes in temperature? If so, I would think that keeping books up there wouldn't be the best way to store them. This is what helped me get rid of books. I figured that they would be better off being donated and used now, rather than sitting in a hot/cold attic and slowly deteriorating. Same thing with clothes. Just a thought.

  • minnie_tx
    16 years ago

    I would love to have a large attic that I could get up into and make a cosy room. Mine is very utilitarian and empty.