The Great Declutter Part 2

Kaz2904

Not been on for aaaaages! Decluttering has ground to a halt as we are in deep with the bedroom revamp. However, DH has finished plastering all bar the ceiling and a couple if tiny bits of walls (window rebates IIRC!) in our room. That has used up most of the bags of plaster which have been lying around. Our bedroom door has been moved in order to get decent workable wardrobes as DH refuses to have a compactum. It is in the hallway ready to go. The last 4 sheets of plasterboard will be used by him and his brother on Saturday (I hope ) in boarding the hallway side of our wall. Builder (a parent / friend from school) came round to check out for our loft hatch last night (cut new hole and insert bigger hatch) and said he'd come and do it Friday evening. Fitted wardrobe man thinks he'll come next Thursday. If that all happens there'll be lots of outs (mainly ££££££s!) and everything will suddenly pull together. Our room can be put back together enough for us to empty DS's to do his, we can plaster out hall stairs and landing too and then get all carpets laid.

Anyway, my list of outs since I was last on...... about 40 carloads of miscellaneous rubble, wood etc to tip. Garden bench made of stones has gone and been replaced with our new one from last year.
I'm getting very excited about the school holidays because I aim to get at least one tip run done each day (woohoo!).

Krystaltips

I used to be very precious about my books... I had 4 bookcases over flowing... Then we decorated the bedroom and I culled it down to 1 bookcase in there and 1 in the living room... Both still piled high but I managed to get rid of no fewer than 9 bags for life full of books :eek:

Shame the bedroom is cluttered full of other crap than books now... It looked so nice for that hour after it was finished and before the crap started creeping in....

ThinkingOfLinking

I just moved house and whilst packing up, disposed of tonnes of stuff. I currently have 6 crates of books I'm trying to sell, 2 crates of cosmetics/toiletries to use, and 2 cupboards FULL of food to try and wade through. Even after disposing of more than 20 wheelie binfuls I have too much stuff, I think, so am going to be re-decluttering when my things are moved out of storage.

HannahIOW

I hate clutter too, just about got it to a manageable level at home. I still have stuff at my mum's from when I moved out back when I was about 18, I have stuff at dads too from when I lived there a couple years ago, and have stuff in my sisters shed from when I lived there too (lived in the house, not the shed lol)... obviously I don't 'need' any of it! Well I do need some but only live in a tiny flat so have no where to put it.

Pee

I don't think I do agree. having a lot of books around makes a place feel like home and I like that if I didn't have any money/ got snowed in we could manage for food and drink in a fashion for a while, maybe a fortnight. Rice and pasta I always buy on offer, much better than buying it as you need it full price.

I hope you and your OH don't annoy one another too much in this respect. Good idea to rant on here rather than to him, though!

Person_one

lynzpower wrote: »

And as for books, I work by the principle: I have read this - if it was rubbish and I wont read it again ( lets face it some books just are) then I give them away. If I want to re-read it or I think some freind might want to borrow it or Ill use it for reference, its a keeper.

Collecting books doesn't make anyone intelligent by osmosis ( I used to believe they did :cool: :cool: )

Its a good principle, the problem is that there are too many 'keeper' books out there!

I got rid of about two 4 foot wide shelves of ones I either would never read again or had never got past the first chapter of last time I moved, but they've somehow been replaced with good ones and now I'm overflowing again!

I see the point about the bathroom though. One at a time is a good rule, looks a bit odd to visitors if there's a huge stack!

Savvy_Sue

Person_one wrote: »

I see the point about the bathroom though. One at a time is a good rule, looks a bit odd to visitors if there's a huge stack!

Oh no, my boss had a wonderful downstairs loo with a whole wall of bookcases in it, you could 'meditate', browse and borrow ... :rotfl:

balletshoes

gabyjane wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

lauraspaghetti i hate having the cupboards empty tbh i like that inbetween bit, dh likes to know if one of us loses our jobs or something we will have food to eat! he has a point..last week my friend had my dd for dinner she rung me in a panic as hadn't gone food shopping and they had nothing in the house, i had to take something to her which is madness..a bit extreme i know but still..again i want food in but we don't need 13 packs of rice!

There is a huge difference between having empty food cupboards and having bulging cupboards and an excess of it in the garage too . With the food and cleaning products, if the bulging cupboards are really irritating you, you are just both going to have to get tough and stop buying those items, until you're down to 2 or 3, so you have enough, and a little bit put by.

I am quite good at clearing stuff out, but I have to be in the mood for it.

Filey

Books furnish a home. Books are knowledge, entertainment, eye candy, indispensable. It never fails to amaze me that in some people's homes there isn't a book in sight. I do send any trashy (in my opinion) novels that I have acquired to the charity shop, but some of my books I can re-read years later and still find something new or forgotten, and enjoy it again.

If anyone got rid of any of my books without consulting me, there would be war.

hngrymummy

I'm a clutter-bug, and I admit it. I like having interesting little odds and ends around, and I love my books. The houses I can't cope with are those where everything is pristine and there's not a photo frame, ornament or interesting object in sight. Makes me wonder if they all just sit in silence in the room all night too afraid to do anything in case a cushion is left out of place!

I still have all my old books from when I was a child, and will pass them on to my kids (as long as they don't fold the corners over, leave them open and face down or use them as mug mats). I have very few fiction books that I haven't read at least once and intend to read again. And lots of reference books, including some I've contributed to. DH has tried to initiate a 1 in 1 out rule, but I'm far more sneaky than he is.

I'm a clutter-bug, DH hates it, so we have to try and compromise (our way is by building a shed for him to hide in and I'll have the loft for my clutter)