The Great Declutter Part 3 - 2011

Caty

Hello,
I'd also like to join in. With the rest of the family away for the week, I'm having a long overdue clearing of the house! The problem is, my family are such hoarders. Yesterday I cleaned the cupboard under our sink, containing cleaning products. One example of the hoarding is a 3/4 gone box of washing powder, with marker pen writing saying 'opened July 1992'. Oh dear. Anyway, used the last of it up washing the net curtains. On the sofa I've made a massive pile of books to go to our local secondhand book shop. The man who runs it offers a small amount of money when people give him books to sell on. We have a box of old books and about 5 carrier bags! Also 3 bags of stuff for the charity shop. And the recycling bin and dustbin are completely full!

Callisto

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

I have been on MSE for about 4 years and although I recently became debt free and some areas of my life have improved massively my tidiness and organisation have not. It is making me so depressed. I worry about losing things, forgetting things and am utterly FED UP with my lack of filing and the mess the house is in.

I am sitting here now, having cleared my bed of the shopping brought today, ignoring the work I have brought home and the parcels I have received during the week which I have left unopened. My whinge is I have no where to put anything but in actual fact that is a lie, I am just SO all over the place.....I don't need to buy anything I just need to get my !!!! together and get rid of stuff.

So what do I do (have only read the last 7 or so pages)

Hi Buffy, welcome to the thread, I'm a long haul declutterer as I've been here quite a while - mainly because every time I make some headway in clearing the spare room, OH brings more junk back home and as we don't have a loft, it goes into the space in the spare room that I just cleared out!

I used to be incredibly untidy and disorganised in my younger days, but I developed systems to help me try and keep on top of things. For example I open mail as soon as I get it, and it either gets recycled, filed or kept in the action pile until I've dealt with it. Also whenever I leave the living room, I take something that doesn't belong in that room (always something in there that shouldn't be!) and either put it back where it should be or leave it on the stairs until I've got a few things to go up. I have a concertina file and keep all of my car and bank documents in it. I have a place for my passport and I always return it back there.

As minuettoallegretto said, start with 15 minutes of decluttering, set a timer. If you want to stop after the time is up that's ok, if you feel like carrying on longer, great!

Also a big HELLO to Tinkabell25, hollysmum22 and Caty (and anyone else who sneaked in while I've been busy Ebaying!)

Buffythedebtslayer

Hello Everyone xx

tattycath wrote: »

Buffy, i can so relate to this-I could have written your post myself (apart from the totally debt free bit-lol)
i'm so disorganized, I have so much stuff-I really nead to get my ar*e in gear too and de-junk the house so we have more space, then everything would probably fit. I sorted out 2 bags of clothes for charity last week but they haven't gone anywhere, just in the corner of my bedroom creating more clutter!! :eek:

minuettoallegretto wrote: »

We all start somewhere - or in my case I start, stop for ages, then start again. I take great comfort from the original, American Flylady - "you can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes", and "your home did not get cluttered overnight, so won't get decluttered overnight". It's amazing how comforting these sayings can be when looking around my "palace" (ahem)! I'm constantly surprising myself with how much stuff I can clear in those magical 15 minutes...or during an ad break...or waiting for the kettle to boil!
But on the positive side - so long as there's somewhere for everyone to sit, I've had some really positive comments from visitors: "oh good, we don't have to feel we're putting something down in the wrong place" and "this feels like home immediately" - which just goes to show how many of us there really are!

Callisto wrote: »

Hi Buffy, welcome to the thread, I'm a long haul declutterer as I've been here quite a while - mainly because every time I make some headway in clearing the spare room, OH brings more junk back home and as we don't have a loft, it goes into the space in the spare room that I just cleared out!

I used to be incredibly untidy and disorganised in my younger days, but I developed systems to help me try and keep on top of things. For example I open mail as soon as I get it, and it either gets recycled, filed or kept in the action pile until I've dealt with it. Also whenever I leave the living room, I take something that doesn't belong in that room (always something in there that shouldn't be!) and either put it back where it should be or leave it on the stairs until I've got a few things to go up. I have a concertina file and keep all of my car and bank documents in it. I have a place for my passport and I always return it back there.

As minuettoallegretto said, start with 15 minutes of decluttering, set a timer. If you want to stop after the time is up that's ok, if you feel like carrying on longer, great!

Also a big HELLO to Tinkabell25, hollysmum22 and Caty (and anyone else who sneaked in while I've been busy Ebaying!)

Thank you for the welcome, I had to go out today and haven't made much progress as I have been out for most of the day, I did manage to put the gardening stuff (that I bought two weeks ago) into the shed plus old school work and a couple of empty boxes.

Right now I need to spend 15 minutes decluttering some more of the conservatory.

xxxx

Rummer

I have been trying to slowly declutter my home but I appear to not be very good at it

This week I am going to tackle the kitchen and remove all the items that I do not use or do not like so that I have space in the cupboards and no excuse to use all the dishes in the house

Buffythedebtslayer

it was ten minutes decluttering and half an hour picking apart the Shredder!

hmmmm.

xx

Buffythedebtslayer

Ok, so things look slightly better, not great but slightly better. I did however find some work I was meant to do AGES ago and haven't done because it was in the "wrong" pile.

I feel terrible. However this really does prove to me that I need to get my !!!! together even more.

See you all in the week! I am really going to be bugging the thread now xxxx

gillypkk

well i gutted my dining table last night which is a general dumping ground for mail, papers, kids drawings etc etc etc.

i threw out 2 bags full of stuff to be recycled and a bag of rubbish.

today i think ill do some washing and maybe some ironing when i catch up on the apprentice from last night and i need to change my bedding.

think ill do the beds over 2 days ie mine one day then the boys another day that way im not trying to get 3 loads of bedding including one king size set on my line to dry then in the ironing basket and get them all made before bed time.

ill be running about upstairs with the hoover too and im gonna try to get the bathroom floor washed again but no big deal if i dont it can wait till tomorrow.

julie2710

Can I please join in? I have been wanting to declutter for ages but feel so totally overwhelmed by it all sometimes! My house is a tip, I have so much stuff I need/want to get rid of. My youngest son is almost 3 and I still have all his baby stuff, clothes toys etc. What is the best place to get rid of it? I know I could take it to a charity shop but to be honest it's in really good condition and I could use the money to try and eek into my debts a bit quicker!

I also have a Quinny Pram combo with the car seat, carrycot and pushchair, same thing really?

Is ebay any good? I keep reading horror stories about buyers not paying etc.

On top of that I have some jewellery I could get rid of and loads of kids toys and that's before I start on cupboards and the garage!

I keep making a start and sorting a load of stuff out then it just ends up in a pile in another part of the house waiting for me to get rid of it somehow?

Help!!! Oh and I have two young boys and a fulltime job, so time is limited!

Thanks

vasseur

julie2710 wrote: »

Can I please join in? I have been wanting to declutter for ages but feel so totally overwhelmed by it all sometimes! My house is a tip, I have so much stuff I need/want to get rid of. My youngest son is almost 3 and I still have all his baby stuff, clothes toys etc. What is the best place to get rid of it? I know I could take it to a charity shop but to be honest it's in really good condition and I could use the money to try and eek into my debts a bit quicker!

I also have a Quinny Pram combo with the car seat, carrycot and pushchair, same thing really?

Is ebay any good? I keep reading horror stories about buyers not paying etc.

On top of that I have some jewellery I could get rid of and loads of kids toys and that's before I start on cupboards and the garage!

I keep making a start and sorting a load of stuff out then it just ends up in a pile in another part of the house waiting for me to get rid of it somehow?

Help!!! Oh and I have two young boys and a fulltime job, so time is limited!

Thanks

Ebay is great for childrens stuff. You could bundle the clothes up in age groups and sell them like that. It's a bit daunting to start wth but once you get started it's quite addictive (especially when the money starts rolling in ). You do need to put a few hours by for listing if you have loads of stuff.

Failing that boot fairs are great for selling kids clothes.

BungleGirl

Can I join in too, please?

You've all just inspired me and I've had a good sort out during the last 45 minutes - so I've already started :j

I have always been untidy and tend to accumulate things, paperwork is my worst thing...it covers the dining table then I pile it up, put it in a cupboard and then slowly (or sometimes quickly!) the dining table gets covered with paperwork again...and this just keeps repeating itself!

I work from home too and have quite a bit of work related stock to store and yet more paperwork - I really need to get a system in place for storing and dealing with it all and actually getting rid of things as soon as I no longer need them.

I split with my husband and moved into a new rented house on 1st April and started out quite well, kept everything tidy, was considerably more organised than I used to be but it is all slipping now and I need to regain control! I still have boxes of stuff that needs sorted since the move and as I have only just got bedroom furniture I need to take control of the clothes/ironing mountain situation too.

I have friends coming for dinner on Saturday night so I'm on a mission to have the place looking lovely - I think (as I've already decluttered for 45 minutes!), I'm going to make a list to post of what I would like to achieve before Saturday night...then I can start crossing things off