The Great Declutter Part 3 - 2011

nickynoo08

I've been doing this challenge for the last few weeks although i've never posted till now.
So far i have.....
sorted old baby clothes and other baby bits and given to charity, friends and local church group
sorted ds(4)'s clothes and packed away all too small things for ds(1)
have sorted my wardrobe and given some clothes to my mum and charity
gotten rid of loads of OH's socks and underwear (how on earth do they manage to get holes in these things all the blummin time)
been through kitchen and binned any chipped items, binned a few things (odds n sods of nothing!) and given some cups and saucers to charity - i now have 2 huge empty cupboards just from getting rid of a few bits and re-organising things, it's madness
been through draws in front room and put loads of paper,mags,old recipts into recycle bag

Still got loads to do but i feel so much better for getting this far. Have decided after many years to re-decorate our bedroom but will be doing on a small(ish) budget of £150 max. So far we have bought new panel blinds for our wardrobes costing £90. We were going to get new wardrobes but we really wanted fitted ones but they were going to cost over £500! and tbh the ones we have are fine just the doors needed changing as they are tatty and knackered. Have also bought a large canvass from b&m to go above our bed for £6.99, i saw a simmilar one in another shop costing £40, have also re-painted the walls - managed to find some suitable paint lurking under the stairs so cost nothing. I still need new curtains and some new sheets but i'll get them as and when we have the spare cash.

Also getting things ready for the boys bedroom. Have decided to put them in bunk beds later in the yr when ds(1) is ready to move in to a bed. So far we have been donated a brand new single bed and mattress and have just found someone that wants to get rid of their bunk beds for 2 single beds so we are doing a swap:T, all i'll need is another mattress.

This week i'll be...
emptying storage box in boys bedroom and putting toys in loft till ds(1) is older
giving storage box to my mum in exchange for a set of draws to go in our room (i already have one set and the ones i'm getting from my mum match)
re-vamping 2 old wall canvasess for front room
putitng up pinboard in kitchen for boys art work

phew sorry for the long post folks, didnt realise i'd done so much already. Good luck with the de-cluttering everyone

cyclingyorkie

3 full charity bags at gate awaiting collection! Including all my size 22 clothes.... (yippee!!!!), a load of hubbies old suits and work shirts.

I feel better for that!

The_Dragon

Half a dozen stitching related things sent out to someone who needed them - so less for me to store!

pollys

Cleared out some drawers today and got rid of some rubbish. Also cut a few bushes down in the garden - does garden rubbish count? Got a large bag now half full of rubbish, I plan to fill it by the end of the week.

Well done everyone

Pollys x

vanilla

I need to join you all, i think.
Front hall full of broken, unused and things with no home. It doesn't look like a front hall just a dumping ground. So my plan is to put the back seats down in the car tonight and fill the boot. Then tomorrow i have no choice but to go to the recycling place.

Big stuff to go first then small stuff and then find a home for everything thats left. I really need to start ebaying again but find that i bring all down then get sidetracked and it's left in binbags in a room somewhere. I may just have to bring down a bin bag a week and then hopefully i'll get somewhere.

Need to also get a move on with decorating the house as i've been ''sorting my hall'' for over a month.:o It only needs a lick of paint and at least then i could go get a carpet for it.

Someone please kick me hard.....:rotfl:

Penelope_Penguin

PenPen's 100 in 10 Challenge - part 2

Day 5; Fri
41. basket of assorted paperwork gibble recycled or filed
42. dribbles from bottles of shampoo and conditioner to new bottles, and empties recycled
43. waste paper basket contents to recycling
44. broken egg timer to the bin
45. weekend newspapers to recycling
46. last month's parish magazine to recycling
47. item to Freecyle
48. computer cable to recycling
49. I've bought some new running shoes, so the tatty old ones can go :j
50. old lightbulbs to the bin

Day 5; Fri
51. empty deodorant to recycling
52.

Kaz2904 wrote: »

Although saying that, many many years ago, my sister and I both got those coloured Leclic cameras for Christmas. Mine was purple and grey. My Aunty took us on a day trip to London and we were on the top deck of a bus. As we were rushing to get off, the battery cover flicked off and under a seat. I rushed to get it but couldn't find it and my Aunty dragged me off the bus. I was really upset (about the same as I feel about this bead) as it was something special of mine and I had nobody else to blame for something I treasured getting lost (well, you know what I mean). Later on in the day, we got another bus in a very different part of the city (we'd been on the tube and walked miles). After sitting there daydreaming and looking at the sights we got stuck in traffic. Gazing down at the floor I thought it looked familiar. "This is the bus!" I exclaimed and rushed to the back to start looking under seats. "For heavens sake Kaz, come and sit down. It's not the same bus, do you have any idea how many red busses there are in London? We're miles away from the other one" Said my Aunty. At which point I triumphantly emerged (a trifle grubby I'll admit) from under a seat with the battery cover for my camera :T. I was well chuffed .
So who knows?

DD once gace me some beautiful glass earrings she bought in Barcleona. I took off my sweater at Paddington station, and didn;t notice until we were on the tube that I'd lost one :eek: When we went back at the end of the day, there it was between the stair rail and the wall - thank goodness that they don;t clean the stations often :rotfl:

LauraMac_2

Not much to report here for yesterday and today - yesterday I felt terrible (I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and it's hitting the low point before it starts to lift) and today I had a much-needed but probably temporary rise in business that will keep me very busy for the rest of the week at least.

The total decluttering for the last two days has been:

Two document boxes emptied and contents shredded/put in recycling
Nine of OH's magazines put in recycling
One piece of old carpet added to the council collection pile
One pair pyjamas in the charity bag
Two catalogues in the recycling
Various other bits of paper shredded
One book posted (via Green Metropolis)

A charity collection bag dropped through the door yesterday so I've filled it and will put it out tomorrow. That's more knocked off the charity-donation mountain in the hallway.

OH has complained that he has "too many t-shirts" as he tried to stuff more into his t-shirt drawer then his underwear drawer. I've told him that on Sunday he will be binning worn out clothing (I've already removed a couple of t-shirts to use as cleaning rags and he hasn't complained).

Tomorrow is a day of temptation - I have a hair appointment so will be doing a charity shop bargain hunt. I promise to try and buy only things I need.... :A

cat04

It looks like I'm on the mend now, still feel tired easily, but I'm putting it all down the the viral infection I had last month. Anyway, feeling better has meant we have got on with some decluttering

8 out of 16 items sold on ebay and were posted yesterday, plus OH sold some of his DVDs and Blu-rays on a forum he's a member of and also on ebay, which also got posted yesterday. He had the day off yesterday so we've had 3 days to do bits and pieces. The conservatory had a good sorting yesterday (kind of used as a storgage area recently with boxes of my xmas gifts and nappy cakes etc), we recycled a big bag of paper/card bits which got collected today so the wheelie bin is empty and ready for more! Spurred on by this I made another start on the 'cupboard' under the stairs (accessed from the dinning room/kitchen and is pantry sized/height) and found some more bits to be recycled, a few bits of rubbish and generally tidied it up.
I've taken my birthday cards down today, so the mantlepiece/tv stand look less cluttered. Feeling better and getting started again with the decluttering are both giving me that 'lifted' feeling, not that I felt depressed or anything, but it's made me feel happier/brighter/more optimistic IYSWIM. I get so fed up with a the little bits of gibble/toys/bits of stuff etc that get dropped/dumped etc and not being able to do too much about it whilst I was ill made me angry/low.

Talking to OH last night in bed I realised where the problem stems from. The home we rented for just over a year from a friend of a friend as a put on for 'a few months' whilst I waited for my divorce and financial settlement (that took longer than expected) was too small really. It was a 3 bed 2 year old house with no garage and we didn't have proper storage (we wanted to wait to buy for our new home, rather than buying things that didn't fit/suit when we moved). Whilst there my ex finally decided I was 'allowed' my things back so we had a sudden influx of belongings from my childhood onwards, and we were packed to the rafters until we moved. Therefore, we kind of set the standard as it were, and although our new home (been here a year now) is much, much bigger, we are got stuck in the rut of not finding proper homes for things/allowing ourselves to live with general clutter etc. Now it's finally dawned on us, we now have to re-train ourselves (and the kids!) to get the house how we want it - and keep it that way!

Sorry for the long and rambling post, but I feel better for 'talking' to someone else about it, and sort of explaining how we ended up like this. I make it sound like we're living like they do in 'how clean is your house' - packed to the rafters with dirt, cobwebs, and piles and piles of crap etc, it's not like that at all, we just have a tendency to leave things laying around, and almost stop seeing them and let them stay that way. For example, the living room tonight is mainly clear - a cardi and 2 pictures from the girls on the sofa, a game we played on the floor (abeit put away in the box), but it's the things like the fireplace. It's obviously not somewhere we use - i.e. not walked on etc, so it goes 'unnoticed' that it has an envelope, notebook, pile of OH's ebay receipts, 2 Xbox games, more kids pictures, remote, pencil, brochure etc. They've been there for maybe a week, but inbetween doing bits they get overlooked and that's what I hate. Need to give myself a good talking too and keep get it cleared and kept that way!!!

Good grief, that really was a long post - sorry!

Kaz2904

That's simialr to how we ended up like this cat04 too. We moved into our house on the 28th May 2005. It needed everything doing to it. Wiring, plumbing, heating, kitchen, bathroom. The whole shebang. We have ripped walls down, moved doorways and replastered every room (except the hallway which is left to finish). So we never actually unpacked properly until a room had to be emptied to 'do' it and then we bought the correct furniture and put back. Even so, we still have more storage here than we did in our flat.
As we are getting to the end of the house, we have adequate furniture and adequate storage. We have unpacked each room and I have decluttered along the way.
I just can't wait for the last little bits to be done so that I can get the tool boxes put away on shelving in the loft and then use our great big floor to ceiling cupboard on our landing.
It's been ever such an eye opener for me though, we've been decorating our dining room. I started it yesterday morning and we think we'll be done by Friday/ Saturday. It would be quicker but it's cold and wet here so the paint dries slower. I can cope with the dining room chairs in the lounge for a week. I can even cope with moving them back and forth for a week! This is what normal people do when they decorate. None of this 1 week to box everything in the room up madly decluttering whilst doing so then ripping down the ceiling/ walls. Then replastering the whole lot and getting all the rubble to the tip and so on. That usually takes a couple of months before we even get to choose colours!
Now, bish bash bosh, done!

Sue14

Yesterday I tidied the cupboard at the top of my wardrobe, which contains ring binders and document wallets of paperwork, found that the document wallet containing some of DS's paperwork was mostly his jobseekers paperwork from about 6 years ago, so that has now been shredded and put in for recycling. Also found an old Which magazine from about 10 years ago(?) so that has gone into recycling, along with other unnecessary paperwork. Used up a couple of body sprays, (recycling), did a lot of washing that had been piling up in the laundry basket, put 2 old work blouses in for CS.

Pending: 7 items sold on ebay, awaiting payment on 2 and if they're paid by tomorrow, I will go to the post office and post them, if not I'll just post the ones that have been paid for. Got a few used batteries to put in recycling box when I go back to work on Thursday, and some used envelopes to take in for internal mail.