Decluttering 2012, this year, definitely ...

happytails

Hi all,

afraid to say i still havent decluttered the baby from my womb lol But i sorted out the lounge/office today, properly. Except husbands desk drawers. Got a large carrier bag for charity and a bin bag of rubbish for the tip. Then this morning i was pro-active and took the bag to the charity shop, bin bag to the tip, along with another bedside cabinet i decluttered out of the lounge and some cardboard. :j i then went to the post office and posted 2 more ebay sales. Feeling quite pleased.

Though yesterday, husband came home from work with a load of gadgets from amazon 3 new pans (he insists we keep the old ones for a while too GRR), a tea towel wall mount hanger (which is good as it keeps the tea towels tidy.), an in oven meat checker thing, 50 pillar candles (WHY??), 2 pillar candle holders and something else that escapes my mind. He's just got a bonus so the money isnt too much of an issue but all the decluttering i have done seems to be for nothing sometimes

Hoping to do some decluttering of food in the fridge later. Making some batch cook meals and veg prep etc so its not a chore to cook once the newborn arrives. And hopefully i can stop some of the meat from going off! (we seem to have loads!)

Sarah x

fitnessfreak74

silentsister wrote: »

But the MAIN THING OF THE DAY for me is that since June I have moved on over 2000 books :j

I am in awe of you silentsister. I am a huge boook hoarder. I got a Kindle with the intention of filling it with classics like Dickens etc which are free and then giving away my hard copies but when it came down to it I couldn't do it. I have given away quite a lot of books but it feels like barely a dent is made and I don't notice any extra space. How did you make decisions on what to get rid of? I am good at giving away the chick lit type books but no way am I ever giving away my Stephen Kings and similar. I also have a thing about hard cover books, somehow it seems worse to give those away it doesn't help that I constantly borrow books out of the library so I never get to read my own books at one point I even took to borrowing books I already had so I could give away my copy. I know it sounds crazy but it made sense to me in a weird way!

donnajt

happytails wrote: »

Hi all,

afraid to say i still havent decluttered the baby from my womb lol

Sarah x

Oh Sarah - that did make me giggle - at least you are nesting - fingers crossed baby makes appearance soon !

purple.sarah

I'm a late comer to this thread but I'm determined to make progress in 2012, so can I still join? We desperately need to declutter. We moved in July and seem to have moved most of the clutter with us and still haven't unpacked some of the boxes. As time goes on it's becoming less socially acceptable to say sorry about the mess, we've just moved :rotfl:Also there's a wardrobe in our living room that won't fit into the bedroom until we've decluttered so that's my goal for today. If I don't report back, send out a search party!

donnajt

donnajt wrote: »

39. Kids plastic dinner plates - charity shop
40. Misc plastic pots and lids that don't match - recycling
41. Serving dishes, lazy susan, crudite platter etc - sell on FB
42. Deep fat fryer - brands new - sell on FB
43. Old Dinner Service - charity shop
44. Decanted cereal into Cereal Plastic Containers, Biscuits into biscuit tin etc
45. Shoe polishes - threw away 3 almost empty ones that had gone rock hard
46. Old Baking Trays - bin
47. Broken roasting tin - bin
48. Old Loaf tins - bin
49. Old water bottles - recycling bag
50. Envelope of receipts from xmas 2010 - recycling bag
51. Old plastic mixing bowl - recycling bag
52. Empty tin - recycling bag

....still at it 8.5 hours on :eek:

Finally finished the kitchen!!!

53. Broken inflatable spiderman in bin
54. Painted pig mask - bin
55. Fixed loose shelf in kitchen cupboard
56. Tightened up spice rack to inside of kitchen unit that had worked loose
57. Plastic measuring jug - recycling bin
58. 4 old glass candle holders - charity
59. Old pencil case with manky felt tips - bin
60. Plastic bottles recycled
61. Finished off Crunchy nuts (hate cereal) but to get rid of them
62. Emptied rubbish contents of "dumping drawer" 1/4 black sack of toot!
63. Finally put up peg for towel in downstairs loo (only taken 9 years!)
64. Decanted all kitchen cleaners into one Bottle
65. Found 3 shampoos under sink - sent upstairs to bathroom
66. Found a can of Stella under sink (prob hidden by kids from DH as a giggle and forgotten about)
67. Found a large tin of salmon (I prob hid under kitchen sink to sop DH from eating)
68. Changed hoover bag and put some drops of white musk oil into bag - house smells lovely now
69. Caustic Soda 1/2 bottle made up with warm water and poured down sinks/drains
70. Slimy bag of potatoes found at bottom of fridge
71. Mouldy bag of tortelloni

prob loads more but this is what I remembered to note!

happytails

Fridge now done. Ive chopped and cooked a load of broccoli, purple carrots and normal carrots. They are now nicely labelled in containers back in fridge ready to reheat. Did 8 eggs too, boiled, these are in a container. 2 burgers and 4 sausages cooked and contained too. Also currently cooking a massive chicken with all the trimmings, so used up 5 spuds, 3 onions, a lemon, thyme, 6 more carrots and a leek This will be tonights dinner. NOM On my fridge mission i only threw out a small bit of off mince and 3 wrinkled peppers. Quite pleased that its in order And all the dishes and pots are on the go in the dishwasher.

i am however, extremely tired now. (thank you pregnancy!) so dont expect to manage anything else today. Except baking orange buttercream fairy cakes that ive promised to do with DD.

Keep up the good work everyone x

suzeesu2000

Originally Posted by silentsister
But the MAIN THING OF THE DAY for me is that since June I have moved on over 2000 books :j

WELL DONE YOU!! thats a huge amount! :T

Have decluttered the fridge this morning of one chicken carcass and a big bowl of left over veg into a big pot of chicken and veg soup, had one bowl for lunch will have some more with a sandwich for tea and then freeze the rest.

Hope everyone is having a good day and Sarah.....we expect news of an "in" to your house because of an "out" of you...tonight.....please!! :rotfl:

silentsister

fitnessfreak74 wrote: »

How did you make decisions on what to get rid of?

Thank you for all your encouragement. I'm like many of you gathering books through my life, but I've also inherited books from 3 other collectors. I knew I had to do something when I found I couldn't live anywhere without books dominating - I would choose a place which had room for the books and I then I fitted my life around them. I had to decide I would deal with them, no-one else's comments would make any difference. The first thing was to get a room lined with shelves which finally allowed me to unpack all the boxes and see what I had. I sorted them into subjects and a/z order for fiction (I'm not a librarian for nothing!), and that immediately threw up dups. I then started from the other end and put in upstairs bookcases those books I definitely wanted to keep - family stuff, authors I really appreciated etc. Then I just went through shelf by shelf - I'd never read that book - why? - it looks too dull - I'm no longer interested in the subject - I can't think of anyone else who would want it - I've got another book that covers the subject or is more up to date etc etc. I think it was July that I set myself a high number and just kept on until I reached it - not because I think we should only have x number of books, but rather to stop myself calling a halt too early. Now each time I'm near a shelf I see if there are others that can go. Yesterday I looked at a Conan Doyle book I had as a teenager. Didn't want to reread it. I had been keeping it just because - well, it was a habit to do so. I've still got many more books than I care to count, but my attitude has changed so I think I'll still note books separately but just to make sure that continues, rather than because I am trying to reduce to a certain number. And I'm promising myself cosy afternoons by the open fire going through cs fiction acquired from my father that I can quickly return to a cs.

Sorry for the long post, hope it helps.

Becky_2

Massive achievement completed today while watching This morning, I have sat all morning with a nail and thread to attach all 6 buttons firmly on my winter coat. At least now they cannot fall off, they were all getting really loose. Sewing box can now put away until at least next year. I have now sorted 8 out of my 21 photo albums, planning on doing at least 2 today.

fitnessfreak74

:(Silentsister thanks for your post, it was very helpful and I will try to make book shedding decisions with a different mindset. I can recall instances where I've been about to chuck a book but then said oh but I might read it but as you say there is a reason i never get round to reading it because it just doesn't interest me. I am going to set myself a target of 50 books by the end of the year. Now I have said it out loud i am going to try and stick to it. I don't know if i can count the ones already in the CS bags on the landing, I think I will

I have a one bed flat which is very small and last summer I had shelving built into an alcove in the living room which houses most of them but not all. There are 3 boxes of books in the loft which can't fit so my aim would be to have all of my books in that shelving in the living room. So I need to stop borrowing library books and read my own. There are books I can part with but I want to read them first and that is the problem.