The Great Declutter Part 3 - 2011

cat04

As previously mentioned I was hoping to get quite a lot of decluttering and other household jobs done or at the very least started this week whilst the DDs are staying at my parents for their annual 'holiday' but I haven't felt very motivated, mainly down to what happened to OH and I on Sunday evening. Spent the day with my family in Leeds, then headed home on the motorway and whilst in the 'fast lane' OH spotted with seconds to go what looked to me like a windscreen (that kind of size). There was a motorbike right next to us so OH had no choice but to slam the brakes on and hit it, sent us spinning towards the barrier and I thank God OH was driving as we managed to keep us under control (by that I mean he managed to avoid the barriers 3 times as we were spinning). Finally ended up facing the wrong way and managed to get onto the hard shoulder. It was not long after 8pm so it wasn't too busy.

I have no idea how we didn't hit anything, and nothing hit us. A lovely family who had broken down seconds before we span and watched in horror came to check we were ok. Miraculously the car was fine, just hot stinky tyres. Looking at the pieces of the object it turns out it was thick plastic - smashed to bits, and Police called to come and clear it. We passed a caravan a bit further along and after seeing the plastic windows at the back I wonder if it was one of those?? I was ok at the time, but whilst OH has been at work and the girls are away I'm sat here contemplating my falability (is that even a word??, I know what I mean though lol). It could have turned out a lot worse, and as one of my feas is that something will happen to me whilst the girls are young and they will have to go and live with their dad (that DD1 would hate, and DD2 would tolerate) it's left me feeling shaken and not wanting to do anything at all. Got to snap out of it later as OH's grandparents are coming for their Tuesday evening visit, so I need to pick up a bit of shopping, tidy up, hoover plus make tea.

Sorry, I know this post isn't really about decluttering, well, I suppose I've decluttered what's on my mind! OH is off for the rest of the week from tomorrow, and the girls are back on Thursday so I'll be fine by then, just feeling lonely at the moment

Mini list of things to do today:
Shopping
Hoover
Unload dishwasher
Dry washing (raining on and off here today so tumble drier it is)
Clean bathroom
Tidy living room, kitchen side, dining area
Cook tea

silvasava

Cat04 sounds like you are still in shock - as Lyndy says try to concentrate on the positives. You & OH were safe, no one else was involved & DD's were safe with their GP's.
The nasty 'what ifs' DIDN'T HAPPEN

Hugs to you

jpscloud

Cat you're bound to feel like that, you wouldn't be human otherwise! Like others say try to stay positive and do things that make you feel good. Hopefully your OH and visitors will see that you need some TLC!

Yorkielass

Bumper decluttering happening here slowly but surely:

Full paper & plastic recycling boxes (including 2 bottles of bubble bath finished this week) this morning and pretty full glass/tin etc.

Also out/in the garage waiting to go are:
9 drinking glasses - had them for years from IKEA and well used but keep shattering when knocked so rest need to go.
Anything in the fridge past its best etc. Not too much & veggies made into a stew for dinner on Sunday.
about 5 vest tops and 4 pairs of pants for textile recycling.
CDs & batteries to be recycled.

Then about:
12 mugs
2 teapots
2 egg cups
6 espresso cups, 4 saucers, 1 stand
1 toast rack
2 bowls
1 plastic cup
2 cocoa shakers
1 mini metal jug
1 large metal jug
1 chip and dip set
4 ramekins
and possibly a few other bits

are now out of our cupboards and nicely wrapped & stored in our hallway for now ready for our next fundraiser for the community theatre we both volunteer at - had a really ruthless cupboard clearout and reassessed what we actually need.

Have a small list of what we need now but much less than this.

Got an estate agent coming to do a valuation on Thursday so decluttering needs to continue a pace!

Well done to everyone on their efforts recently too.

calleyw

Husband had no room in his wardrobe to hang his clothes.

So went through it and found a couple of empty boxes :eek: I know.

Out:
Cardboard boxes from a laptop we bought nearly 5 years ago :eek: and printer bought 2-3 years ago.
And a shoe box all in the boot of my car to go for recycling.

Packing in the bin from the said boxes.

In:
Monitor don't ask.

Pending:
One pc base unit
One ceiling airier
Old ikea desk
Archery Bow
Box of DVD's and Cd's for music magpie.

One massive box of odds and sods to be sorted. And found my NHS number my dentist has been bugging me about:j

Husband clothes now hanging in the wardrobe rather then on the handles on the outside.

slowly slowly get a clean house :rotfl:

Yours

Calley

whitewing

I'm freezing and it's this thread's fault!

I decided to go through my wardrobes and get rid of:

clothes that don't fit
clothes that are tatty
clothes that I have never liked wearing
clothes that my husband hated

(A lot were passed on by family or friends, so had acquired some nice stuff).

4 bags went to a clothing bin
4 bags went to my mother
4 items went to a nearly new shop, and 4 back to the wardrobe to await the summer season.

I decided to buy a small selection of nice new stuff but haven't yet... and now the weather's turned and I have no jumpers or jackets!

I am pleased though. Have loads of space so will be able to keep things ready ironed now.

Sue14

The council are doing a check to see if their properties have enough loft insulation, so we had 2 people round yesterday to check our loft and they decided that we do need to have more put in, they are coming next Wednesday so we have been forced to clear the loft of all the junk! :eek: We have been planning to clear it for a while, so this has given us the push that we needed to actually do it, lol!

Luckily OH and I are both off work this week, and he decided that we should do it yesterday afternoon to get it out of the way, so up he went and passed the stuff down to me, some of it was too heavy so he just chucked it down, and a lot of it just tumbled down the stairs. We ended up in a real mess with boxes, bags and other stuff all over the landing, down the stairs, and in the doorways to the bedrooms, to the point that we couldn't get down the stairs or in the bedrooms, lol!

A lot of it was empty boxes for stuff that we no longer own or use, (including our 1st computer which was bought in June '99 and hasn't been used since we got the new one in January '04) so they have all been taken to recycling, (OH took some yesterday and some today). There was packaging in the boxes, some of which I have saved to use for ebay parcels, and the rest has been put out for the binmen. I had to put most of the bags and boxes, that did have stuff in them, in the spare room ready to be sorted and the rest had to go in our room. I was a bit depressed when I woke up this morning and saw such a mess after all my efforts with de-cluttering!

A lot of the stuff belongs to my DS, as he is an avid collector of sci fi models, figures etc and he had put a lot of them into bin bags and put them in the loft unopened, in the hope that they will be worth money in the future, but he has also put a lot of empty boxes and packaging up there for things that he has opened, which of course take up a lot of room. I texted him this morning to ask if he still wants to keep the empty packaging and he said no, (YAY!!) so I've spent most of today going through the bags to get rid of all the empty packaging, I've put all the plastic packaging in bin bags and the cardboard/paper into recycling, (we had 8 bags of rubbish this week compared to our usual 1 at the most, lol!), and I've so far emptied about 6 or 7 of the bags but still have a few more to go through.

I've also got rid of a cot, high chair, car seat, push chair, bed guard and a rocking dog, all of which DS used as a baby and as he is now 30 I decided there was no point in keeping them, lol! OH was very impressed with how much I've got rid of, as the old Sue would have kept them for sentimental reasons! I even chucked most of the birthday and Christmas cards I've had stored up there for years!

I also found the boxes for 2 ps1s, 2 ps2s, a commodore 64 and a nintendo 64 so all of those, apart from 1 ps2 (which is still in use) can go on ebay on the next free listing, as I didn't want to sell them without the boxes and we've not had a chance before now to look for the boxes.

cat04

Thank you for your kind comemts I'm feeling a lot better now - your all right, nothing bad happened to us, we're both ok and complete
Lyndy - how awful for you, but a good job your dad made you drive otherwise like you said you might never have driven again.

So, once I got my mojo back I got dressed (!), went to Morrisons and got the shopping I needed, unpacked, made tea, cleaneb bathroom/kitchen sides/dining table, hoovered all over and even had time for a hairwash

Had a lovely evening too

Managed to recycle some junk mail, unwanted mail and odds of paper


That's it for today but have plenty of things lined up for the next 3 days with OH's help, then the girlies when they come home

Sue - Wow, you've been busy! That's a lot of decluttering. I too like keeping things for their sentimental value, although I have got better over the years!

Spendaholic_Chick

Hi - long time messy lurker here! I've been decluttering for years, obviously not doing a very good job lol, but found a suitcase full of old cards I've collected over the last 20 years since I've had my own house. Someone please tell me I need to get rid of them so I see it in black and white - I know they're useless but I also know if I start going through them, none will go out!

whitewing

I didn't want to chuck out my wedding cards buy couldn't enjoy them in their pile in the box. So I cut out the messages/people's names and mounted onto a page. Then I cut the main picture from cards into 4 inch squares and mounted as a 3x3 pattern on my wedding album pages. I used ribbon to cover the joins on the page. They look great (if I say so myself).