The Great Declutter - 18 months on

taka

Hello :hello:

Is there room for another person?

I desperately need to declutter my flat! For a smallish flat I have so much stuff its not funny. I can't find anything and am sick of walking round the "assault course" of stuff that is everywhere to get from one side of my flat to the other. After tripping up on a box in my hall leaving for work today ... enough is enough! :eek: I would love it to be presentable enough by Xmas to invite my family round though that may be a bit optimistic... :eek: Maybe Xmas 2009?? :rolleyes:

essexgal

Had a goodish start to the week - OH started clearing garage and disposed of two car loads of recycling/rubbish on Saturday. Then it went a bit downhill......:o

OUT: 2 x car loads of cardboard, rubbish, recycling
small carrier bag of kids clothes/shoes to friend

IN: groceries
some craft bits from The Range (not unfortunately what I went in for though:rolleyes: )
2 empty photocopier paper boxes for me to recover and organise my craft stash cupboard.....(done)
3 X usb memory sticks (special 3 for 2 offer at Argos - and they were half price to start with......so now I can make sure my family tree info/photos are safely backed up:D

BUT....

ebay are having free listing on Saturday/Sunday for auctions starting at or under 99p:j

Think I'll have to get my act in gear and get some photos taken:D - and make the most of this offer now.

essexgal

skint_spice

I noticed that on ebay too essexgal - I think we'll all be over there at the weekend!

Today

in - nothing

Out - two carrier bags of paperbacks to charity shop.

Real excitement today is that I now have an empty bit of worktop in the kitchen where previously there was a strange assortment of junk!:T

To Luckysmum - ebaying is really easy but I find it helps to have the pics and the description ready in advance and just paste it into the form. You could have a wee practise and just not list.

Kaz2904

OK, today and yesterday.
In: 1 pair new work shoes. 50m lighting wire. Box of cable clips. 3 metal back boxes. About 15 wallpaper samples. None of which DH likes (DD went mad when I told her!).
Out: Old computer desk. 1 fab multi coloured pen which went through the washing machine.

Will try to get rid of some more rubbish tomorrow but my back was hurting so badly yesterday that I couldn't even bend let alone do any lifting/ carrying.

pigpen

Do you think seeing as people think they are really skint now stuff will sell better on ebay than it has been doing??

skint_spice

Good question pigpen, folk I work with though complain about being skint but they don't seem keen on changing anything to fix the situation!

essexgal

pigpen wrote: »

Do you think seeing as people think they are really skint now stuff will sell better on ebay than it has been doing??

I was wondering this too....:D

will more people use ebay as they think they are getting more of a bargain.....or will people only buy what they really NEED from ebay, rather than getting carried away with 'I don't really need it but it's only a fiver' :rolleyes:

Hoping that it's more people buying - I have various good quality autumn/winter girls clothes to list, i.e. jumpers, coats, (all of which are taking up space) so I'm hoping to get shot of quite a bit of it! If it doesn't sell it hasn't cost me anything - and I can at least not feel guilty if it goes to the charity shop:o

essexgal

valk_scot

pigpen wrote: »

Do you think seeing as people think they are really skint now stuff will sell better on ebay than it has been doing??

I think there will be a lot more folk looking at Ebay as a buying option who never did before. But also there will be more folk selling to raise a bit of cash, so I don't think prices will go up or that there will be more bidders. Perhaps in some areas.

skint_spice

I've started early today:

out - multipack of ryvita crisp things that I bought in aug (were still in date) and both DS and I found them utterly revolting! don't know why I was saving them as there was no way in hell they were ever getting eaten...

valk_scot

valk_scot wrote: »

Today's Plan:-(both kids will be out this afternoon...)
Finish emptying room, then put some of the boxes of stuff away in other areas of the house ie books into bookshelves, craft stuff to the correct storage area, spare toiletries into a shelf in the airing cupboard. If I leave it all boxed up till the end of the move I'll lose the will to unpack it again and the boxes will still probably be in the hall this time next year.
If I have time I'll also clear out the bottom cupboard of the dresser, which is full of half-used bottles of old painting stuff from the kids toddler years. This is the prelude to a major craft sort out.

Update. Well, I didn't get as far as I planned (do we ever????) but I finished boxing up the bedroom and cleared out two shelves of the bookcase. Now I can just walk through and unpack the four boxes of craft books and papers. (This is work related stuff so I'm not feeling guilty about how much there is...and I did clear out the older mags.) I went through all the current toiletries and threw out all these bottles with 1/4 of an inch of this and that in the bottom, except for shampoos...I put all these dregs into one bottle for hand washing woolies. I have another few bits of soap and handcream aside to go to the allotment shed.
I have three piles in the hall of books, magazines and papers and a general mixed bag, all to take to the recycling/charity shops. And in the garden there is some scrap metal, so I'll take that to the dump today too.

So yesterdays totals...

In:

One spinning book, borrowed. this is one I want to buy, I think, but having a look at it will help me make up my mind and not be wasteful.
Otherwise, nothing, despite having gone shopping yesterday in a childfree hour!

Out:

Three binbags of shredded paper to the allotment compost bins.

Todays plans:

1) Start moving DD's stuff through to our room, via a sorting area in the hall which will cream off unwanted items for Ebay/charity shops/dustbin.

2)Unpack books.

3) Go to dump/charity shops.

4) Craft cupboard that I did not clear out yesterday.

Kids are both at home today and I'm too skint to take them out so I shall let them plan out the lunch and tea menus till they go back to school (Tuesday) because I need to do the weekly shop. They like this (the younger one usually makes a poster for the kitchen wall) and it's good training for them to learn about budgets.