The Great Declutter Part 3 - 2011

Spendaholic_Chick

Lovely idea...but I'm divorced and my ex is here a few times a week seeing our son. Imagine his face if that was on the wall next time he came over! :eek: :rotfl::A

whitewing

Well, get on and chuck them out then. As soon as you read this. Go on. Do it.

I have to say that I have not regretted anything that I have thrown out, even if some of it was hard to prise myself away. I think it has been the relief of having the space/ease of what's left.

Yorkielass

I went through lots of cards last autumn, I've kept the birthday, Christmas, valentines and anniversary cards from OH to myself and vice versa, then Christmas and Birthdays kept the last lot and the ones from before I just kept parents, grandparents and a few others but the rest went. In my special box from when I was little I have 2 5th Birthday cards signed from Nanny and Grandad and 2 6th Birthday ones signed from Grandad and I'm very glad my parents kept those 5th Birthday cards as they're the last things I had from my Nannys.

However if you know that going through them will be hard/you'll end up keeping too much then just get rid of them all into the recycling.

TheDoolallyDilly

Cat, I hope manage to put all the 'what ifs' out of your mind - someone/thing was looking out for you and your OH (hug).

I'm working on DH to sort out his clothes in his chest of drawers ... might take me some time!

Spendaholic Chick - I get rid of cards - I have our wedding cards, and the birth congrats cards for my boys, but all the rest I get rid of. I know some people have a real attachment to them (and whitewing - that's a lovely idea, and I wish I'd done it - I've been married for 24 years now!) but I never have. How often do you look at them? What does having them give you (apart from a suitcase full of cards :rotfl:). What could you do with that space if the cards weren't there?

Igamogam

whitewing wrote: »

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).

I did a similar thing with the cards and the wrapping from presents I got when our children where born - put in frame and given to each DD

Igamogam

whitewing wrote: »

I have to say that I have not regretted anything that I have thrown out, even if some of it was hard to prise myself away. I think it has been the relief of having the space/ease of what's left.

So true! I cant remember ever wishing I had kept something which I have got rid of. Except things that other people have 'thrown' for me thinking they were doing me a favour - when I finished university and it was obvious I was not going to mmove back to the family home my Gran - in her wisdom - gave away most of the contents of my room and I never quite came to terms with it Probably why I am such a hoarder now. That and being a teacher - "now that would be useful......" its such a curse :rotfl:

Caty

The decluttering is getting worse now that I'm packing to go to uni. You'd think it would be going better because I've got to sort through stuff, but it's ending up in lots of piles I'm aiming to tackle downstairs again tonight though, while the family are out

Savvy_sewing

Twin1 came to visit her daughter, and I got her to go through the cupboard of DGD's clothes! So there is a large laundry bag full of clothes that are now far too small. Dispite DGD only being 3 not 4 till October, they are all sizes 3-4 and 4-5! She is now into sizes 5-6 mostly.!! I will get my other daughter to go through them, and see if there is anything she wants to keep thats lovely, for her daughter, and then will either ebay/similar or send to charity.
I thought I would need to be buying some clothes for DGD to go on holiday next week, but actually I think we have enough stuff. It will be her winter wardrobe that we need, when we get back. I can make some of that, as I have her summer clothes, I made her a complete set of clothes out of an old duvet cover. Second time I have done that now, and so pleased with the results. I am also making aprons, and plimsol bags etc out of other childrens duvet covers. Only problem is I tend to horde these things until I get the time to make, and the work room now needs decluttering as well.

mcculloch29

Thanks everyone for such interesting and inspirational posts. I'm also a teacher - an adult education tutor - and have hung on to so much stuff that might come in handy.

I know how you feel Igam-ogam (great name, I know what it means, I'm Welsh ) I feel that I never move forward in a straightforward way, always one step forward and one step sideways with half a step back. But it's still progress.

Other people decluttering for you is horrible... my son threw out hundreds of pounds of early years art materials when I finished childminding. :mad: So much of it would have found good homes in playgroups, it took me years to recover from my anger at the waste. He went through a dreadful phase of throwing out my things, I lost a lot of good kitchen equipment that he didn't see a use for (because he never ventured into the kitchen). Ironically, he now likes cooking more and has bought some good pans and knives that we both use.

I've just decluttered the old printer from my office to the bin alcove outside and the cowing thing dripped ink all over the wooden floor in the rear hallway.TG I spotted it straight away to mop it up. The cartridges were already refilled, in true MSE style, so can't be recycled.

The guy who came to fit my wrought iron bannisters on Monday took away the old ones. Thank goodness, as the council charge £20 for removing up to six items of building / DIY rubbish.

With the Bank Holiday next week, the bin collection will be a day late so I'm making a point of jemmying in as much rubbish as I can into the bin this week - all my household waste bins emptied into main bin or recycling.

LydiaJ

Hello everyone

I joined the old thread in May 2009, posted just 3 posts in 4 days, and didn't make it back again.

I am starting again. This time I have a slightly bigger house, and nearly twice as much stuff. It's a long story, well known to the people on the Debate House Prices board (especially the Nice People thread over there). Briefly, since I last posted on here, my husband (who had left me and was in the process of divorcing me) was killed in a road accident, and hadn't written a new will. I have lots of my own clutter, and most of the contents of his rented 3 bed house as well (mainly in boxes). I have two kids who attach a lot of emotional significance to the stuff from Daddy's house, so I can only get rid of stuff gradually, and even then I have to take photos of it all because that seems to help them. They're both hyper-sensitive to loss because of what they've been through.

So, I am back on the decluttering thread, and this time I am going to try to stay for longer than 3 days. :rotfl:

Today has been a good day for decluttering.

In:
Nothing

Out:
3 unusably lumpy single mattresses
1 large pile of cardboard (for recycling)
4 old phone books/yellow pages
1 pile clothes (for textiles recycling because not nice enough to be worn again)
1 sheepskin rug (which the dog had ruined by digging at when frightened of the fireworks)
1 bag assorted rubbish resulting from......

Emptied:
3 packing boxes

Found:
3 much loved cuddly toys belonging to DD (who has literally dozens of them) - two that were bought for her and one that used to belong to late-nearly-ex
1 key to DD's secret diary

There may not be a day as productive as that for a while, but I thought I'd use it to launch myself back onto this thread.