2017 - No Clutter To Be Seen

I have had a very productive day today.Not millions of things leaving the house,but making lots more space in most rooms of the house,sometimes by putting things in the loft .For now,I am impatient to make my living space as uncluttered as possible.And if that means putting stuff to be sold, in the loft,then I will forgive myself that,even though it is a little bit .

So I worked my way around the house:
Son's room:
As I mentioned the other day,he only has a small box room.He doesn't own lots of stuff,but it doesn't take long for his room to look untidy.And my OH has left some stuff in his room.It has been there since we were preparing for the extension.
Son's shoes were stored in a deep trofast box,simply sitting on the floor.He had had a cull the other day,but still left himself 3 almost identical pairs of trainers :cool:.I put that deep box ontop of the storage unit in his room,keeping back only one pair of trainers,and his school shoes.I put those in a shallow box,under his bed,out of the way and off valuable floor-space.Easy for him to get too,but out of the way the rest of the time :j.
Put 2back-packs in the loft
231:binned a novelty flag.I did feel very bad throwing away a flag-felt a bit disrespectful
232:Bean boozled game.Great novelty value for his birthday,but now " a bit boring".Binned remaining beans,recycled packaging.

About 8 boxes went to the loft.These belong to OH,they had contained statues of dragons,and he will probably never let them go,even though the dragons are on display in the house

A small stand/shelf unit went to the loft (it is what the boxes were sitting on).

I re-organised the shelving unit in his room,making a bit more space.

When son came home this evening he was thrilled with the space created in his room.It really does look lovely.:j

14yo's daughter only took 5 minutes to tidy,literally.She is very good at keeping her room tidy.
I moved an abdomen-crunches machine (bought by OH and I many years ago,but not used for ages) to the loft,after taking photos of it to list to sell
Also put a cardboard box her guitar came in a few years ago,out for recycling.8yo DD now uses guitar,and it is stored in a case,so original box not needed (because unlike her dad,DD does not become attached to the packaging everything arrives in.)
DD was also pleased to see ab-cruncher gone.

In two youngest girl's room,spent about an hour:
233-236:different-shaped plastic bottles that came in a set with different coloured sands.Fill bottles with different sands to make pretty patterns,seal them up,then have them clutter up your bedroom for the next year :rotfl:.Bottles emptied of sand ,and put out for recycling.
237:cheap child's watch-cost about £2 in B+M months ago.Doesn't work,just hanging around-binned (had found the other daughter's one in bottom of the wash basket a few weeks ago,and had already binned that one)
found a jumper for wash and donation,will count when it leaves the house

I also cleared,polished,decluttered/tidied bits on each girl's chest of drawers and bedside table.

These 2 were also very pleased with their room when they came home,as was eldest daughter.It is always nice to have a mummy-win :rotfl:.

All rooms,plus top landing and stairs vacuumed and dusted

Cleaned both bathrooms,not much decluttering needed there.

Started tidying kitchen,then the rest of the family came home,so work stopped.Will make sure I finish that and wipe down benches before going to bed.

Also did a couple of loads of washing

5.5 hours work in total.I am very pleased with the result.I just wish I could maintain it with little tidies throughout the day/week,rather thsn needing a whole day without the family every week,to catch up.

Managed to sort out some of the other half's stuff without him moaning :j :T

He came over for new years 2013 and has basically been living here since, and bringing a couple more things with him after each visit to his house :rotfl: :rotfl:

I have some old letters from the DWP, old letters back from when he crashed his car(he assured me he does not need any of these anymore) and other random leaflets etc. he's picked up along the way earmarked for recycling while a couple of important ones earmarked for him to take back to his house to put in the safe.

4 bath/wash sets he says he will never use(he's a loyal Lynx follower I hear :rotfl: ) on the sell pile.

His bag that had basically all of his stuff(apart from clothes) emptied - letters dealt with as mentioned above, the odd nick knack-type items put into a storage area in my room and his more summery clothes(which is only really 2 pairs of combat shorts!) put into his bag like what I did the other day putting summery clothes into a bag to save wardrobe space

I'm going to keep going through and sorting out the little things where I can this week. Sold quite a lot of stuff that's on the sell pile now so be glad when that stuff leaves the house

The fun really begins Friday evening/first thing Saturday morning. 6pm Friday evening marks the start of 9 days off work for me but I'm poor until I get paid the following Friday and I'm busy from the Thursday the day before so I will have almost a week of solid days with no interruptions where I can sort, tidy etc.

Oh and the charity shop bag WILL be leaving with me when I leave for work on Friday morning as I highly doubt that even if I was to leave the house I won't be going any where near the charity shop for a few days!

Another productive day, whole shelf on books listed on Amazon, leaving only half a shelf of ones we are keeping. Understairs cupboard cleared of several old paint cans to the recycling centre, tools put into a new tool box large enough to hold them all in one place. Another bag of clothes to the charity shop, 2 sets of old bed linen to the bin, lots of samples of toiletries given to work colleague who loves trying new things.

Bag of old plastic hangers and boxes from electronics to recycling centre to get the spare room cleared for family visiting next month. Decided to live off freezer contents for the next week as I've lots of frozen veggies, fruit, and meat that needs to be used up before I buy more fresh products and start growing more of my own this year. Several rabbit chewed non working pairs of earphones/phone chargers/assorted cables into the bin as well. I'm going to focus on the kitchen this weekend to get one room completed this month.

I am being simplistic this week and only taking the bare essentials to work with me rather than a back pack full of rubbish I don't even use.

This is partly an experiment to see if I really need all that stuff and partly so that on Friday evening, once I am finished with the basic plastic bag I had been using all week to carry my lunch and a 1 litre plastic pop bottle with my drink in that I swiped form beside the sink as it's been sat there for about a year, I can just throw it in the bin as I leave work and hey presto - hands free