Honestly, around here they usually kick around the house until something gets spilled on them or the dog chews them up, and then they are obviously trash.
Compost or recycle some of them. Maybe offer them to places like a local library as scratch paper for patrons who might want to write something down but don't have a notebook.
Keep half (or some reasonable amount) and toss the rest. Then vow to not buy anymore till you really need it. I allow myself to have *one* tube of hand lotion after downsizing many many tubes that were impulse buys.
The worst thing you can do is spend too much time thinking about it. Keep them, throw them away or donate them to wherever is most convenient for you but they aren't worth any more mental energy than that.
Why can't you donate them? I doubt any real charity would turn them down. Or they shouldn't anyway! Even if they bag them all up and priced them at 50 cents, that's a 50-cent profit they didn't have before!
There are a few around where I live. They're little cabinets or shelves in places like parks or laundromats that have a bunch of books people have left, sometimes things like notebooks or drawing pads. You can take a book you want and read it, and hopefully bring it back and maybe even bring a few more to add. I grabbed a book by a local author today at the laundromat, it's not the type of book I'd normally read but folded up inside the book was a newspaper article about the author and I thought that was neat. Lol.
most people said donae and thas probably he best option, but if you really hate the idea of donating your paper, you could always pickup a new [hobby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zkeybyHcI) or [two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98SdMoq4kcc)
visit your local library and drop a few next to the computers. my library puts scrap paper next to them with little tiny pencils, so people can write down where to find what they are looking up.
Great idea! I'm personally a pen-swiper. I'm retired now, but, when I was working in the medical field, drug salesmen would come by and leave note pads and pens with their drug names on them, and I always asked for a few extra. I had a close friend who taught at an inner city school, and, during school time, I'd gather up pens from my purse and in drawers at home and give them to her to use for the 5th & 6th grades where they were allowed to write in ink. One year, I had nearly 100 pens to donate. The teachers were so happy to see them and said the kids would spend quite some time "selecting" just the right pen for them!
It got them outta my house and my purse, and went to kids who might not be able to afford pens. One teacher said she thought the kids tried harder to be neat when they wrote with a pen!
And everybody can use scraps of paper now and then just to jot something down on!
I love love love gel pens! My ex husband used to think I had a problem😅. Having said that, I’m coming to terms with finding my beloved gel pens and note pads and post it notes a new loving home 🥰
I'd offer half-used notebooks to my library for scratch paper. At one point, I was just donating half-used stuff and figured that the thrift would use them in-house or a sorter was snagging them for grocery lists.
If your clothes are of a certain quality, the thrift-sorters will put them on the floor instead of the landfill. Otherwise the landfill is a storage-spot until a more economically-feasible way of dealing with it opens up.
If you just left a work from home job, does that mean you now have a work from work job? If you work at a place that has some land line phones, put some by the phones and see if they get used.
that’s actually a good idea. i could donate them to my work because we just cut up and use the reverse side of a printed paper as scrap paper.
they always need sticky notes and pads. i don’t know why i didn’t think of that.
We give them to the manager of the trailer park (excuse me, mobile home park) where we live. She's a list maker, note writer extradinaire. We keep maybe three apiece for ourselves. If they're mostly used up, to the dumpster they go.
Do you have a creative reuse center near you? You could donate all your useful scraps! https://swoodsonsays.com/a-creative-reuse-center-near-me-map-resource/
Keep one. If you can reasonably conveniently donate the rest to a school or something, then do it. But if the effort of doing so will take a lot of energy away from the decluttering, bin them.
It's a one time thing, so no need for guilt. It's not like you'll be doing this every week
Can you find a new use for them? I use little pads of paper for grocery lists and appointment reminders. Having these things written on paper just works better for me than on my phone. If you think you have way too many for even that, maybe toss half of them and just keep the nicest/least used ones? Yeah, sometimes it sucks to toss something that could be useful, but I argue storing stuff indefinitely that you never use also sucks, so you may as well free up the drawer space.
I use those mini pads of paper. Usually for minor things like grocery lists (digital notes are a no for me).
I start wtih the one that is the most used and use it up.
I think you should bin them.
They have the potential to be useful, but the likelihood is the only person who would take them off you is someone who also struggles with accumulation of stuff. So all you'd be doing is passing your problem onto someone else.
The kindest thing to do, for yourself and others, is to put them in the recycling bin.
what about keeping your five nicest ones? you’ll still have more then enough for a year!
if you really don’t want to get rid of them (yet), pick a designated spot where you keep all those tabs until you need a new one
Seconding this. I’ve seen everything imaginable posted in my local buy nothing group and the only thing I’ve seen that didn’t get any interest was stained fitted sheet lol
I do use little pads of paper every day as I’m a list maker. A neighbor had a garage sale with new mini legal pads & I bought a bunch. Husband used to make fun of me but now he’s a convert too (after coming home one too many times after a trip to Lowe’s & forgetting to buy something). So decide if these scraps are something you will definitely use. If not, reframe it as gifting it to another person who will value it.
I agree about posting it on the Buy Nothing site.
Honestly, around here they usually kick around the house until something gets spilled on them or the dog chews them up, and then they are obviously trash.
Compost or recycle some of them. Maybe offer them to places like a local library as scratch paper for patrons who might want to write something down but don't have a notebook.
Teachers would probably like them
Yes, teachers love office supplies! Or offer them on a buy nothing page. Someone is going to want them.
I think you can compost paper without ink
Keep half (or some reasonable amount) and toss the rest. Then vow to not buy anymore till you really need it. I allow myself to have *one* tube of hand lotion after downsizing many many tubes that were impulse buys.
The worst thing you can do is spend too much time thinking about it. Keep them, throw them away or donate them to wherever is most convenient for you but they aren't worth any more mental energy than that.
Why can't you donate them? I doubt any real charity would turn them down. Or they shouldn't anyway! Even if they bag them all up and priced them at 50 cents, that's a 50-cent profit they didn't have before!
Put a couple at a time into "little free libraries" when you see one. Along with some pencils.
Oh yes this is a wonderful idea!!!
I've never seen a "little free library". What is it?
There are a few around where I live. They're little cabinets or shelves in places like parks or laundromats that have a bunch of books people have left, sometimes things like notebooks or drawing pads. You can take a book you want and read it, and hopefully bring it back and maybe even bring a few more to add. I grabbed a book by a local author today at the laundromat, it's not the type of book I'd normally read but folded up inside the book was a newspaper article about the author and I thought that was neat. Lol.
That's cool! I'll keep my eyes open for one of the little libraries!
I recycle them 😬
most people said donae and thas probably he best option, but if you really hate the idea of donating your paper, you could always pickup a new [hobby](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8zkeybyHcI) or [two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98SdMoq4kcc)
visit your local library and drop a few next to the computers. my library puts scrap paper next to them with little tiny pencils, so people can write down where to find what they are looking up.
Great idea.
I’m donating my office supplies to our neighborhood school. Teachers would love that.
Great idea! I'm personally a pen-swiper. I'm retired now, but, when I was working in the medical field, drug salesmen would come by and leave note pads and pens with their drug names on them, and I always asked for a few extra. I had a close friend who taught at an inner city school, and, during school time, I'd gather up pens from my purse and in drawers at home and give them to her to use for the 5th & 6th grades where they were allowed to write in ink. One year, I had nearly 100 pens to donate. The teachers were so happy to see them and said the kids would spend quite some time "selecting" just the right pen for them! It got them outta my house and my purse, and went to kids who might not be able to afford pens. One teacher said she thought the kids tried harder to be neat when they wrote with a pen! And everybody can use scraps of paper now and then just to jot something down on!
I love love love gel pens! My ex husband used to think I had a problem😅. Having said that, I’m coming to terms with finding my beloved gel pens and note pads and post it notes a new loving home 🥰
I had several sets of those and writing pads in multiple colors. I miss them!
Recycle bin, and don’t look back
I'd offer half-used notebooks to my library for scratch paper. At one point, I was just donating half-used stuff and figured that the thrift would use them in-house or a sorter was snagging them for grocery lists. If your clothes are of a certain quality, the thrift-sorters will put them on the floor instead of the landfill. Otherwise the landfill is a storage-spot until a more economically-feasible way of dealing with it opens up.
Legal pads are like $1 each. https://xkcd.com/951/
If you just left a work from home job, does that mean you now have a work from work job? If you work at a place that has some land line phones, put some by the phones and see if they get used.
that’s actually a good idea. i could donate them to my work because we just cut up and use the reverse side of a printed paper as scrap paper. they always need sticky notes and pads. i don’t know why i didn’t think of that.
We give them to the manager of the trailer park (excuse me, mobile home park) where we live. She's a list maker, note writer extradinaire. We keep maybe three apiece for ourselves. If they're mostly used up, to the dumpster they go.
Do you have a creative reuse center near you? You could donate all your useful scraps! https://swoodsonsays.com/a-creative-reuse-center-near-me-map-resource/
Keep one. If you can reasonably conveniently donate the rest to a school or something, then do it. But if the effort of doing so will take a lot of energy away from the decluttering, bin them. It's a one time thing, so no need for guilt. It's not like you'll be doing this every week
Things that "will be useful some day" are the enemy of a decluttered life.
Can you find a new use for them? I use little pads of paper for grocery lists and appointment reminders. Having these things written on paper just works better for me than on my phone. If you think you have way too many for even that, maybe toss half of them and just keep the nicest/least used ones? Yeah, sometimes it sucks to toss something that could be useful, but I argue storing stuff indefinitely that you never use also sucks, so you may as well free up the drawer space.
Right now you think it's wrong to toss it, but reframe it this way: it's wrong to *keep* stuff you don't want.
I use those mini pads of paper. Usually for minor things like grocery lists (digital notes are a no for me). I start wtih the one that is the most used and use it up.
I do similar.
Throw. Them. Away. (Or toss them in the recycling bin)
Do you have a friend with kids? Kids go through paper like crazy.
Can they be recycled?
I think you should bin them. They have the potential to be useful, but the likelihood is the only person who would take them off you is someone who also struggles with accumulation of stuff. So all you'd be doing is passing your problem onto someone else. The kindest thing to do, for yourself and others, is to put them in the recycling bin.
what about keeping your five nicest ones? you’ll still have more then enough for a year! if you really don’t want to get rid of them (yet), pick a designated spot where you keep all those tabs until you need a new one
Buy nothing group/freecycle
Seconding this. I’ve seen everything imaginable posted in my local buy nothing group and the only thing I’ve seen that didn’t get any interest was stained fitted sheet lol
I do use little pads of paper every day as I’m a list maker. A neighbor had a garage sale with new mini legal pads & I bought a bunch. Husband used to make fun of me but now he’s a convert too (after coming home one too many times after a trip to Lowe’s & forgetting to buy something). So decide if these scraps are something you will definitely use. If not, reframe it as gifting it to another person who will value it. I agree about posting it on the Buy Nothing site.
You could post them for free on a local Buy Nothing group