Decluttering 2012, this year, definitely ...

luxor4t

Just popped in to say I finally took all the de-cluttered fabric items (bedding, curtains, clothing & shoes) that I'd collected over the last few months off to one of the 'cash for...' places and came away with £15!

The local collections only pay between 35 - 20p per kilo, but no complaints as it was quick and easy.

suzeesu2000

My fingers have blisters! Have spent the last three or is it four days, sorting, photographing, cleaning and describing for eBay. Have 150 items listed and am fairly confident most of them will go, if not sold this time will realist once then remainders will be off to charity shop.

Everything - all FIVE boxes(!!!!!!!) is stacked tidy out of the way.

Roll on this weekend so I can starting posting it off

Have a great evening all

silentsister

Well the African drum has gone to a freecycler - it measured 34" in diameter, so that's a lot of space back! I'm afraid to say I won't miss it because I inherited another one similar, though a few inches smaller from my father! But it did get a lot of interest and I do have a few other, smaller drums so I might look those out tomorrow.

loopychriss

Got an early start today, thanks to the Gas Man due between 8am and 10am..... was up, showered, dressed and breakfasted by 8.15 - he came at 8.25! So I made good use of the time and decluttered the sideboard drawers.

20. 4 notebooks - there were 6 in one drawer! Gone to church group
21. Pack of balloons - same as above
22. Party blower thing - same as above
23. Blank postcards - same as above
24. Ruler - as above
25. Pencil box - as above
26. 2 x erasers - as above
27. Ambi Pur plug in thing - recycling. It's cheaper to buy a new one than to buy the refills!
28. Old business card
29. Sticky note pads - church group
30. 2 old newsletters from 2011 - paper recycling
31. Baby rear view car mirror
32. Various other bits of paper/leaflets
33. Box that some jewellery came in - church group
34. Broken calculator - bin
35. 2 expired Art Passes - shredded
36. 1 table runner - CS bag
37. 8 cloth Christmas napkins that match tablecloth that went ages ago
38. Grass cuttings and trimmings from hedge - recycling at local site
39. Half a dozen tins of out of date foods

Getting there..... got a viewer coming to look at the house on Saturday afternoon so I need to tidy up a bit and clean round. Going to the coast tomorrow so might not get any decluttering done.

One thing I'm getting shot of on Saturday are the books and accounts for my quilt group. I've been Treasurer for 2 years and have hosted the bag with all the books and money etc. Someone else is taking over as Treasurer so I can kiss goodbye to them at last!!!

Sue14

craft-a-holic wrote: »

Hello Everyone!

Our house is simply the case that we've lived there for 21 years, brought up our boys and now that they're older, and eldest is off to uni, find myself unable to let go of a lot of their childhood stuff - crazy, I know! We've redecorated their rooms and neither of them want any of this stuff so it's all lying downstairs waiting to be 'dealt with!'
Do other mothers have this compulsion to keep their kid's stuff too? Or do I just need a talking to?

I know how you feel, I still have lots of my son's childhood stuff, some that he wants to keep but also a lot that I've not been able to let go of, and he's 31 and left home 3 years ago, lol! I have managed to get rid of a lot of things since starting to declutter but still a lot to go.

I've put the garden chair cover on the chairs (only been under the stairs for about 6 months, lol!), shredded a pile of paperwork which has been on top of the shredder for a couple of weeks, and cleared a pile of newspapers/leaflets from beside the sofa and put into recycling box.

I can't believe how little I've got rid of recently, especially as I had 4 days off over the bank holiday, and I was also off for 5 days last weekend, but I just couldn't get myself motivated, the ironing pile is a bit smaller though!

September Sling 3/100

craft-a-holic

Thanks for your replies!

Judi - I like the idea of a mementos drawer. Just now I have little treasures all over the house in boxes so I'll consolidate/confine them to one drawer now!

PigPen - Thank you, I needed that! I'll now view decluttering as important work of the Toy Liberation Front

Sue14 - I understand you saying how little you seem to get rid of. I spend waaaay too much time just moving stuff from one space to another cos I can't decide what to part with. I think I need to adopt the stance that each item is only touched once from now on!

Right, off to work! I'm charged now to get some decluttering done when I get home.

Hope everyone has a little more free space by the end of the day!!

silentsister

Does anyone else have a problem with hankies? They are lovely and soft to use but ... the washing, ironing, storing, to say nothing of hygiene. Mine never seemed to wear out even when I did use them and I carry them from year to year, place to place. Earlier this year I moved them from a drawer they completely filled to a bag - today I moved them out of my room to the rags.

70 hankies to rags
1 book to recycle

pigpen

Hankies are disgusting!! Who really wants a pocket full of snot?! groooossss!!!!!

Anyway.. 1 more binbag of rubbish out of my room.. and a few more ebayable bits found.

silentsister

pigpen wrote: »

Hankies are disgusting!! Who really wants a pocket full of snot?! groooossss!!!!!QUOTE]
The problem was - I agree with you - yet still didn't get rid of them, until now!

suzeesu2000

Just a thought, and I am sure someone will have mentioned this ages ago but...

We now have four boxes
1 PUT AWAY
2 GIVE AWAY
3 THROW AWAY
4 EBAY

Just moving through the house means you pick up that pen and move it to a box, or the shirt that doesn't fit or the broken shelf bracket etc. At selected times through the month, you remove the box contents to the appropriate place (charity shop/list on eBay etc)

You free the space up, everything is tidy and you deal with it instantly = no procrastinating!

I have been using this method for a little while now and it is amazing how much carp is sitting in full view that we just don't see! An example, yesterday I picked up a till receipt from Iceland....from April....left on my PC trolley....just in case I need it...:o. WHY WOULD I NEED A 4 MONTH OLD FOOD SHOPPING RECEIPT????? I know I kept it "just in case" but I don't know what it was "just in case"of!

I am learning the benefits of dealing with things now and not putting it off or saying I will do it tomorrow.

Just a thought:)