The Great Declutter Part 3 - 2011

Shalva

Another lurker wanting and needing to join in......

hot spots are our bedroom that looks like a cross between a book store and a warehouse.......our walk in closet that is now a "step in at your own risk closet"...and a store room in our backyard that is full of stuff that "we need" from when we fixed up our house 6 or 7 years ago.........

Am wanting to use up toiletries as well especially all the small freebies I have in the drawer......started that last night by using a sample size night cream instead of the new one waiting.....yah!

Also light my candles instead of saving them....g_d knows what I am saving them for.......they look so much better lit and not just gathering dust.....

and paperwork.......well thats something else to add to the list too..

will try and be able to list "things out" everyday.......[from jan 1st of course

good luck to us all..may this be the start of a clutter free 2011.......

cyclingyorkie

back on board here too!

dizzybuff

Ive started my bedroom at last , spent an hour cleaing my side of the bed) 2 black bin liners and an aching bump ( 35 weeks) later and my side of the bed is clear. Today im doing the under the bed boxes , Im dreaming about decluttering , I need the bedroom and front room done at least . im child free from 12 so 2 hours clearing then off for Harry potter at the cinema , food and shopping yey .

mummyroysof3

i want to join in too, i may not post much but ill be lurking x

lola34

I've alredy made a start- well the house still looks like a minefield - it is bad to say I'm dying to get the Decorations put away and tidied up:o However I made it up into the loft the other day, now Santa has cleared it out its looking pristine, I do have all my ebay bits up there but I want to sit up there instead of in the lounge;) But after reading some posts I have all my childcare and uni stuff up there, the child care stuff is 20 years old and I've never looked at in so I think that means it safe to be recycled:rotfl:

Kitchenbunny

Right, on today's agenda is to clear out my pots and pans cupboard. I have quite a few dishes either not put away right, unused or rarely used, and I want to make more space as it looks hideous in there. Also, it's bin day so the recycling from the last week or so will be collected - hurrah!

KB xx

chocaholic110

Hi, I'd like to get onboard. Until last week our house was surface tidy but after Christmas it's like the aftermath of a hurricane in a department store - stuff everywhere.

I have a dream of a tidy house with a place for everything and everything in its place. However, I've had this dream since leaving home in 1994 and it still hasn't quite materialised. Having a hoarder for a husband and three kids with the same attitude as him doesn't help! We are planning to put our house on the market this year though so it needs to look a lot tidier than it does at the moment!

My biggest problem is time. School holidays are fine and I get a lot done but it all gets undone again during term time when I'm really busy.

Biggest hotspots - books, masses of them. However, I got a Kindle a couple of months ago so I have got rid of a lot of books to a book exchange via Freegle. Just need the courage to get rid of the whole lot, especially as I haven't picked up a real book since I got it. If only DD would switch to kindle as well as she also has masses of books.

Also, most of the cupboards and drawers could use a good sort out. OH insists on washing and saving every plastic tub that passes through the house - very environmental but what's the point if you don't actually use them?

Spent yesterday sorting out the wardrobes of myself, DD and DS2 and now have three binbags for the charity shop and gave a further binbag to my niece who's a couple of years younger than DD. To my shame, most of them weren't even worn. Still, it'll save me money as I have decided not to buy clothes for DD anymore unless she really needs them - she just wears the same three or four outfits in rotation anyway! A colleague at work told me about a charity shop where they will weigh your bags and pay a nominal fee per kg of donated clothes - might give that a try. A happy medium between selling and donating, maybe? Anyone tried this?

Toys and cuddly toys - Santa was generous this year. And we have a tiny house with tiny bedrooms. I desperately need to properly sort and organise DS2's toys - especially as he has a January birthday!

Toiletries - I also have tons of body butters and moisturising creams. Must make an effort to use them and NOT BUY ANY MORE!

Currently we also have an enormous cluttered pile of sweets, chocolate and biscuits. I'm sure I can work hard on decluttering those over the next few days and weeks.

Target for today - DS2's toys, DS1's wardrobe and 2 kitchen cupboards.

lovecrafting

can i join in aswel please, my house looks like a junkyard that has had a tip thrown over it, I will start with the living room and work my way from there i think, taking the tree down and removing the decortions is a good excuse to start in there. I wont be ebaying bits, if its still useable it will just go on freecycle or the charity shop.

mineallmine

mineallmine wrote: »

Blitzed the understairs cupboard this evening. Couldn't keep a detailed tally as got rid of so much but it broke down as:
16 x items for the bin (general tat)
29 x items for recycling (loads of old brochures and stuff)
20 x items for charity (books, unwanted gifts, old photo frames etc etc)

So that's a total of 65 things decluttered from the understairs cupboard, and it's still not done!

This brings my total decluttered so far this week to 206 items. Blimey. Keep getting embarrassed at how bad this is, but I can't get stuck in that frame of mind. I have to clear it out. Still a way to go for me to reach my target of 500 things by this Saturday. Wish me luck.

Right, I need to declutter a minimum of 100 things today - tough target but it seems to be the only way to be is ruthless. Will report back later.
:A

PS: think it's the kitchen's turn today to be blitzed!

Linda32

artichoke wrote: »

hi all

well i do need to declutter but my major problem is that i think i should sell things on ebay rather than just send to charity shop / freecycle and so i haeve bags of stuff (under the bed and in the garage) that i say i will ebay but i never have time to do it...

and other things i send to charity shops and then feel guilty that i should have sold them...

so what do you do? do you sell or do you just get rid?

we live on a very tight budget so could do with the money but also have no time to list things /post things etc...

aghg i want to declutter without the guilt:eek:

art

At the moment, I'm checking on ebay to see if the same book is selling, if it isn't then I don't bother listing it. I'm not at the stage yet that I want to give books away.

However, we do have quite abit of "stuff" in the loft which I shall try to sell, if not then that is likely to go to the charity shop.

Regarding having the time, we list 3-5 things every 5-6 days etc, this suits us. But maybe you could say list one item a day. That way it stays managable and you work your way through the bag.

Also, at the end of the auction you only have one thing to post, rather than lots of things. Keeps cost of postage down and time with wrapping up.