The Great Declutter Part 3 - 2011

Spendaholic_Chick

Thanks for the wise words...I am going to recycle all the cards....tomorrow ...no, honestly, I will! :A

Igamogam

mcculloch29 wrote: »

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.

Spot on! But then you already understood the name :rotfl:

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.
I am the same - hate waste :mad: and always try to pass on as much as possible. But my new mantra is 'do I need/use/want this?' and its working so far

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.

Have to give it to our local council they collect on BH's and Saturdays too with the exception of Christmas and Nw Year

minuettoallegretto

I have now recluttered the house with the family after our holiday, and spent the whole of yesterday getting the washing done! 5 sleeping bags washed dried and vacuum-packed, plus 5 loads of clothes all washed dried and put away! Today (after the dentist) I intend to declutter as much as possible - I have an empty bin which will be emptied tomorrow, so it's my duty to fill it first:rotfl: Plus DS3 will be 4 next week, so the family will be round - I always work better with a deadline! I'll hopefully be back later with a worthwhile update.

Igamogam

Going to tackle our bedroom today - I maybe sometime. Sun is shining and I really want to be in garden but I made a promise to me, I would get this done............so here goes

Just got back from unloading boot at Oxf8m - all bags carefully tagged so the tax can be claimed. Lady in shop said "Think you have restocked us this month!" Didnt know whether to embarrased amused or offended :rotfl:

Yorkielass

Welcome LydiaJ - what a time you've had - that decluttering sounds really promising now - little and often will hopefully do the trick - and as you say help find things. I find posting here really does help.

Last night we had a good clean and tidy ready for the estate agent coming later.

Out:

Few cardboard boxes & out of date catalogues/magazines into the recycling.

As I was tidying I was thinking that although there is some decluttering that needs doing in our house now, mostly it is finding storage that works for us, for example most my craft stuff is in really useful boxes but the landing it's all stored on does get the sun and I wanted a light tight box for some threads. I was going to buy one, then I spotted that the nice soap and glory boxes my cosmetics are stored in (from old gift sets) could have their content moved around so I have a big box empty and can have put threads in that, meaning I don't have to buy another box.

This is my way forward I think - working out what I've got and the best storage solutions in our current house and hopefully we can take these forward if we do ever manage to move.

trumpton

I'm usually on the Vent and Grabbit boards these days, but wandered over here for some inspiration to help with my decluttering. Yesterday I sorted out a pile of books for church, took several bin bags of clothes to charity and friends, and broke up some old furniture to recycle at the tip. I have trouble parting with things, but watching Hoarders on the Bio channel always makes me want to tidy up.

This is a great site for resources about zen living, but with some good ideas about decluttering too:

http://zenhabits.net/about/

http://zenhabits.net/zen-mind-how-to-declutter/

http://zenhabits.net/a-guide-to-creating-a-minimalist-home/

I thought this was a good tip for decluttering from there:

Put one things aside each day to donate, recycle, or throw away. A single item of clothing, an old towel, a book, a mug or utensil you don't use anymore, an unwanted ornament - that's five things a week gone from the house without any real effort.

Spendaholic_Chick

trumpton wrote: »

I thought this was a good tip for decluttering from there:

Put one things aside each day to donate, recycle, or throw away. A single item of clothing, an old towel, a book, a mug or utensil you don't use anymore, an unwanted ornament - that's five things a week gone from the house without any real effort.

I like that idea - might give that a go! :T

minuettoallegretto

I think I've done very well today - dentist for the family this morning, so couldn't start "work" till 11, but nevertheless:
Main bedroom decluttered (2 black bags for bin; plus 2 large boxes for charity) and rearranged so the camping stuff fits better!
Living room decluttered (4 black bags plus 1 box for bin; another box plus 3 cushions for charity)
Garden tidied, broken toys and empty bottles in bin (approx 2 black bags).
I did my duty so well with the bin that I had to get DS1 (14) to jump in to squash it down! Not bad for a day's work, even if I do say so myself!
Unfortunately, the rest of the decluttering will have to be transported to the tip, cos our bin's only emptied every other week, and we normally fill it with our normal rubbish - well, there are 5 of us!
I'm now decluttering a bowl of strawberries raspberries and cream - and then to put my feet up with a good book and a glass of wine :j

Sue14

Spendaholic_Chick wrote: »

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!

Unless they mean something to you, get rid, but I have to say that until quite recently I found that easier said than done, lol!

Yorkielass wrote: »

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.

I have a card from my nan who died when I was 6, so possibly the last one she sent to me, I also found a card from each of my mum's brothers (both of them also died when I was little) so possibly the last ones I got from them, so I will be keeping those. I've kept all the cards I've had from my DS, including ones he made, cards to my DS, cards from special birthdays, some from my parents, and some which I've had from OH, but the rest have gone into recycling, along with some I found to my OH, as he's not bothered about keeping cards, and would have all cards chucked out if he had his way, lol!

mcculloch29 wrote: »

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.

Our council charge £20 for one item!

Sorted through some more of the bags from the loft today, took another bin bag of cardboard to recycling, and have another bag almost full with plastic packaging. Only had time to do an hour or two today, as OH and I both had dentist appointments, and I've hurt my back (again!) with all the bending I did while sorting through the bags, so I had to rest this afternoon, hopefully I'll get a bit more done tomorrow.

I had the dreaded visit from MIL yesterday, as it was OH's birthday and we went out for a meal with her, her partner and her friend, and OH invited them back to ours after. The house wasn't as perfect as I would have liked it to be for her first visit in years but, apart from the bedrooms it was presentable, so the visit wasn't so bad, lol!

I shouldn't worry about her coming round, as she's lovely and not bothered what the house looks like, and her house isn't immaculate, but I always like the house to be like a show home when I have visitors, although I daren't open the bedroom doors as I usually chuck all the clutter in there until the visitors have left, lol!

Will soon be having a large 'in', as MIL and her partner are getting a 50" plasma tv and are insisting on giving us their (almost new) 40" one!

LydiaJ

Yorkielass wrote: »

Welcome LydiaJ - what a time you've had - that decluttering sounds really promising now - little and often will hopefully do the trick - and as you say help find things. I find posting here really does help.

Thanks for the welcome Yorkielass. I am hoping to keep at it for the long haul now, until it's all dealt with. (Well, nearly all, anyway!) I'm not very good at little and often. Actually, I'm quite good at the "little" bit, but not so good at the "often". I probably work best on a "burst of enthusiasm & activity once a week" pattern rather than the "few items a day" pattern, but I have to make sure it doesn't disintegrate into "burst of enthusiasm & activity every couple of months" instead, especially when term starts and I go back to work. (I'm a teacher.)

Today has unexpectedly been another fabulous declutter day. My bro and SIL have been visiting. My SIL has recently changed job and is now working in the line of work that late-nearly-ex did for a while. I was almost certain I still had a lot of his stuff from that kind of work, and offered to give her the bits I thought would be useful to her. Bless her, she offered to help me try to find it in the garage boxes. We went through every single box in that dratted garage, and in the end we still didn't find the stuff I'd offered her. I felt awful but she was very nice about it, and said she was glad to have helped me. We did find some other things that will be useful for her, so it's not a total dead loss from her point of view.

In:
2 keys - yale & mortice to my parents' front door, since Mum's condition continues to deteriorate and they decided it would be good for me to have them. (She has dementia and some physical limitations too.)
(Also some food, but that doesn't count, because you eat it, so it isn't clutter, right??)

Ready to go:
1 sack of late-nearly-ex's clothes (to go to the group at my church that work with homeless/vulnerable people)
Several packing boxes flattened and ready for the removals company when I've got enough of them
1 small pile of thick cardboard in back of car ready to go to tip for recycling
1 box of late-nearly-ex's books (his taste in fiction doesn't coincide with mine )

Out:
1 small TV (to bro & SIL, whose TV has broken down)
1 large rucksack (to nephew, who needs it for D of E)
1 item of late-nearly-ex's work stuff (to SIL, but there ought to have been lots more items )

Emptied:
I think about 4 or 5 packing boxes. :j I lost count because I wasn't doing it on my own. It wasn't just my SIL who helped, but my bro as well when he came back from taking my kids and my nephew for a walk.

Found:
1 grassbox for my lawnmower
1 grassbox for lawnmower that belonged to my previous (rented) house - will have to take this back and apologise, but don't feel too guilty because the house had 2 mowers and the other one still had its grassbox when I left.
1 thingy that's been missing from my table which is supposed to support the extra leaf when it's folded up underneath
3 crates/drawers from DS's storage unit, so when I bring it back from where my parents are currently storing it, we'll be able to put them in and keep his stuff in them
3 small shelves that are part of DD's high sleeper bed and have been missing since we moved - I am soooo not impressed by the pig's ear the movers made of reassembling it here. Parts of it are missing and one bit is upside down, and only about half the screws have been put in. I should have done it myself, and then it would have been done properly.

Hope everyone has had a good week and enjoys the weekend.