The Great Declutter Part 3 - 2011

pollys

Last year as I put the christmas decorations away I was quite ruthless and got rid of the old, but not precious, baubles, ornaments, lights etc. I put all the bauble hangers in one small bag, spare bulbs in another. It was great to get out the box this year and everything was so organised. No tangled lights, no searching for hangers etc. I know it is only a small step but it made such a difference. Now I just need to get all the other boxes/drawers/cupboards done.

Good Luck Everyone.

Pollys x

juliejim

DD's room now finished so DH has the job of taking 7 binbags of stuff to the CS and 3 binbags of rubbish to the tip. I've also got 2 bags of stuff for my mates.

twinkle_star_2

I am totally joining this challenge for 2011. I'm just so sick of the amount of STUFF in my house. Plus, we had a huge cut in income in late November so I need to get the spare room sorted in case we need to take in another lodger! So my decluttering goals are currently:

1 - declutter our bedroom and make it nicer to relax in
2 - Empty the spare room of as much stuff as possible to enable it to be let if needed
3 - Sort out proper storage for all our clothes and accessories to prevent damage
4 - Declutter and reorganise understairs area as main storage/toiletries area
5 - Declutter clothes to allow for revamp of wardrobe (doesn't sound very mse but most of my clothes are ancient and getting unsuitable for work now)
6 - Sort and declutter things still downstairs from redecoration of bedroom (6 months ago!). Move kept things to relevant space.

I'm trying to keep track of how many things I get rid of just to make it seem more tangible. So far, today I think I've approximately 45 items, although lots of these have gone into the ebay box ready to be sold. Oh, and around 20 books ready to go on amazon second hand. I've also completely reorganised my clothes storage and discovered I don't need to buy quite as many work things as I thought. Excellent.

Tomorrow I intend to continue the good work by doing the following:

1 - Sort towel cupboard, bedding and toiletries.
2 - Tidy and declutter understairs area
3 - Move storage from spare room to under stairs

Still to do:

OH's wardrobes (yes multiple - he's a hoarder) and shoes
Attic
Bedroom stuff in living room (OH's)

charlie-chan

I am joining this challenge too for 2011. I have already started on it by putting stuff on Ebay and by chucking things away.

In 2011, I am hoping to:

- Wash and dry my clothing before organising them and putting it away. (I have already started on this by washing one colour load per day ).
- Shred and sort out all my paperwork.
- Clear out all the stuff that I have been holding onto and not even used in the last few years!
- Tidy the bathroom to make way for my S & G Tote Bag and Gok Wan set (also re-organise my toiletries and throw away what I don't use).
- Sell anything worth selling on Ebay.
- Give to a Charity Shop any books/clothes/toys (with Gift Aid ).
- Become clutter free!

BatOutOfhell

I'll be joining in this year - 2011 is the year I stop dreaming about moving house and actually deal with the one I'm living in.

My tip for ebay is little and often - I sell everything you can think of - clothes, toys, books, DVDs, vinyl LPs, collectables, craft items - you name it, I've probably sold it. Listing gets REALLY REALLY boring if you try to save it all up for one long session. Use Turbo Lister or one of the other free listing tools and add 1 or 2 listings per day. On Sunday evening, list everything on ebay on a 7 day auction. Monday morning, start again. (apologies if this is beginning to sound like the ebay forum!) Each Sunday you can also relist anything that didn't sell the previous week. It's up to you to decide how many times you relist something before you give up and put it in the Charity Shop bag.

My other tip is "the 15 minute rule" - another tip designed to cut down on the boredom and keep you on track....
All you do is pick up an ordinary carrier bag, go to the cluttered area or room of your choice and spend 15 minutes sorting, tidying and filling the carrier bag. After 15 minutes you stop, no matter how enthusiastic you feel. Repeat the exercise for a few days - no more than 15 minutes each time.
After a few days you can keep going after 15 minutes if you want to, but you should stop as soon as you feel you aren't enjoying yourself anymore. By doing the de-clutter this way, it's always in small chunks and you know that you never have to do more than 15 minutes of it.

I should also say that this idea isn't mine, I've read it several times in different books and an article in The Times this week reminded me about it again. The "rule" is also good for other jobs you don't want to do e.g. cleaning, gardening, work related projects.

mineallmine

mineallmine wrote: »

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!

Early morning all,

Just finished stage 1 of many of blitzing the kitchen. Amazing when you get started how much out of date food I have tucked away in corners (grrr), and general tat hanging around. Found nothing for the charity shop yet, noticed the recent spate of breaking mugs has decluttered a cupboard quite by accident. But did declutter;

15 x recycling (plastic and cardboard mainly - plus recycled some only recently out of date food to a friend who has a stronger constitution than me!)
20 x bin (sadly lots of really out of date food),

So about 35 things today but a huge clean up operation in the kitchen. I have reorganised a lot of things. Moved a couple of dusty bits from the shelves and replaced with jars/pastes that we often forget to use. Also found a cardboard box and put all the crisps and other xmas snacks into that instead of littered across the surfaces! I probably need to bring everything out of one cupboard at a time to really sort it. I'd like a new kitchen later next year so this will all be good prep work.

So total so far is 206 + 35 bits above -- 241 things decluttered woo hoo! And a huge leap toward making the kitchen surfaces as decluttered as possible.

Keep up the good work everyone :j

charlie-chan

Well done Mineallmine!

I need to make room in my kitchen for all the sweetie tins I have accumulated.

I may do it as a New Year Clean so empty the cupboards, clean them all and put the items back in. My OH will then dictate how long they stay tidy :rotfl:.

Claire_Bear

Hello all I would like to join in this year please

I just posted in the resolutions thread that I want to have a big sort out in preparation for moving house in the first half of next year so I have a good reason which should hopefully motivate me into doing it! Another reason to pull my finger out is that my mam said that she'll pop over one night after work to see me, after living in the house for over a year and a half she's only been round once, and that was just after we moved in so it was in a fit state for her to see. I'm actually embarassed when people pop round and try to discourage them from doing so, it's not really a very good way to be!

The thing is I keep telling myself that it doesn't matter because the house itself isn't very nice inside so there's no point in putting all my nice decorative items out, or we'll be moving soon anyway so it doesn't matter if it's a bit messy :eek:

I'm not going to stop myself from buying new things as I know that I can't resist and love looking for hidden treasures at carboots and flea markets etc, but I need to learn to let go of stuff that I already have that never gets used or I don't like but don't want to throw away because it was a present five years ago or any of the other silly excuses I make to hold onto stuff!

lovecrafting

morning everyone, today i am taking the decorations down so will de clutter the living room at the same time, I am hoping for my living room to be entirley de cluttered today, including the back of the sofa (or the corner of doom) I will post when i have finished.

phizzimum

BatOutOfhell wrote: »

My other tip is "the 15 minute rule" - another tip designed to cut down on the boredom and keep you on track....
.

thanks for that tip BOOH - I find I procrastinate decluttering until I have "time" - so I'm going to try 15 minute chunks. Just the inspiration I was looking for!