Enough is enough - the great declutter

FrankieM

Well, I wimped out on starting the loft, but I have made a start on bedrooms.
I've done my son's and my 2 daughters that share...
well, I've cleared the floors and this afternoon I'm going to work with them to go through their things and get rid of stuff that is rubbish/broken/not used anymore. I will get my eldest daughter to go through her room as well.
Hopefully the incentive of making some money will help!

Of course this means that I have to do our bedroom as well!! Yuck!!
Am going to make a start today, I have loads of childrens clothes and stuff ( things that just don't have a home at the moment.)
Also a roll of carpet...will have to get some one in to fit it, its for the stairs and landing...

What do you guys do with the things you are going to sell while your getting around to selling them??/

FrugalFairy

De-cluttering is worth it!

We moved 3 times last year and did it ourselves to save money.

Having to pack and move everything 3 times really made us think about what we really wanted to keep.

We had a really big declutter before the 1st move, then had to put it all in store as our house purchase feel through. As we were taking things out of store and moving them into our rented house we got rid of some more. While we were living in the rented house we got rid of even more. Then when we finally found a house to buy, I planned where everything was going to go in the new house, and anything that wouldn't fit had to go!

We did it by throwing things away, giving to friends, freecycling, donating to local jumble sales and charity shops.

When we finally moved into our new house it was a fantastic feeling!!! We had no junk or rubbish anywhere. Cupboards and drawers are only half full and we can always find everything.

We even went through our vast collection of photos and got rid of 2 bin bags full. We kept the really good ones and stored them in a few shoe boxes - It's a real pleasure to get a shoe box and look through them!

It is an incredible money saving motivator as well, because after getting rid of all that stuff you have spent your hard earned money on, you never want to buy anything again!

I've got 2 tips ...

There are lots of books about decluttering out there - worth looking in the library for.

I did it by starting small, just a drawer at a time etc, and I found that the more I did, the more enthusiastic I felt.

nodwah

Onredbull, I like the way your mind works, sell it - buy alcohol, sell more , buy more Hic1

frankieM, in my house the decluttered stuff is piling up behind me here in the "study" which unfortuntley is the first room you see when you come in the front door.

I did the bathroom cabinet (my side only) and I've got 4 of the tinted sun in body moiturisers thingys, 3 styling mousse, 5 face creams, 2 deoderants, various sun factor creams some of which antique, 4 other body moisturisers, multple free sachets of creams and stuff. So no more buying anything til it's all used up, even if it means putting foot cream on my face.

onredbull

FrankieM wrote: »

What do you guys do with the things you are going to sell while your getting around to selling them??/

Hiya,

I have moved my bookcase that was in the corner of my front room and got a couple of large boxes and im just piling it all up.

I have a huge pile in the corner and more piles piling up in every room at the moment. :eek:

I managed to put a few items on ebay tonight :T which I then put in a seperate box or on the shelves under my computer desk.

I have enquired about selling some of my stuff at an NCT nearly new sale which i am gonna give it a try.

What i have found out and more info can be found on their website including when the next sale is near where you live:

I need to pay a cheque of £10.50 and they send me a pack with info, price guide, 50 price tags ect.(of this £8.00 will be sent back to me with the money for any items sold, provided I collect my unsold items).

I then get 50 of my items that I want to sell that relate to pregnancy, baby and children:- Any good quality baby & children's (up to age 6 yrs) clothes, games, toys, equipment and maternity clothes . (although there are a few exceptions like no glass/electrical equipment ect-see website).

I then price up my 50 item and on the day of the sale - I take them to where the sale is and the lovely nct staff will volenteer their time :T and I pick what stuff is left at the end of the sale.

As I have got loads - I thought i would give it a try - the nct take 25% of the price of anything that is sold which goes towards their charity:T.

I think that it is worth a try, especially as it will save me time and ebay fees of listing the 50 items so it should work out about even.

And the good thing is Nearly New Sales are only selling certain items so the people that go to the sales are looking for specific range of items so as long as they are reasonably priced - it should be great. The lady at NCT advised me to price items at what i would be prepared to buy them for at a sale.
Not like a car boot where anything & everything is sold.

Anyone else had any experiance of these - i have bought from them before but never sold.

onredbull

nodwah wrote: »

Onredbull, I like the way your mind works, sell it - buy alcohol, sell more , buy more Hic1.

Hiya nodwah,

Have you had a look at the completed listings under empty boxes or empty bottles ?

I have just a quick look at completed listing of empty bottles and they are quite a few empty perfume bottle but there are also whisky bottles, champayne (hic) bottles, red cherry something bottle, vodka bottles and they were all empty and they had all been sold and this was just on the 1st few pages.

:beer: Anyone for a _party_ party :dance: at mine :beer:
Its bring a bottle and the bottles must be 1 or more of the following:- Whisky, :beer:
Vodka, :beer:
Champayne :beer:
or
:rotfl: Expensive Perfume ££££££££ !!!:rotfl:

lessonlearned

Sorted through my wardrobe today. Gave my unwanted clothes (some of them not even worn - bad purchase decisions!!) to my niece who is a student and strapped for cash.

I was a bit concerned she might be offended but she was thrilled with it all - especially with the evening dresses - the May balls etc are coming up soon .

Just need my OH to tackle his wardrobe;) .

FrankieM

I cracked on with my bedroom yesterday.....have decided to just give my unwanted stuff to charity. The idea of having it all sitting around for another week or more while I try to ebay it or keep it to carboot, just doesn't appeal to me!
I guess once I get started, I just want to get rid of it.
I have a pile of my DH's things for him to go through. I'll also have to go through clothes and underbed storage, but most of that has been done previously, so it should be ok.
Today is paperwork. I have to get it all filed. Its in my bedroom at the moment...like everything else that doesn't have a home, it seems!!

Anyway, its looking great. I'm really happy with it. Still have to get my children to do some decluttering as well.
I send them to their rooms to get it done....but they never seem to get anything in the bag . Thing is I know there are loads of things that they are not playing with / using anymore....

newlywed

Well I spent ages doing this before I got married and moved in with OH. But I gave up and left loads still at Mum and Dad's. Really need to sort it out now but mum has put all the stuff I sorted for charity with all the stuff I sorted to sell :rolleyes: So now I need to go and sort it again.

Plus most of it has been there nearly a year now and I've survived without it all so I think I will need to sort more of it to go on ebay etc.

Time to finish off and let Mum have some space.

Just have no room for my books as OH wants to build a bookcase before I bring the books over, and he hasn't even started it yet. :rolleyes:

Never done a car boot before but keep thinking about it. Do you turn up and just pay entrance fee or do you need to book??? Or should I just ebay it all?

nodwah

Newlywed, some bootsales are turn up and pay and some are book ahead. It pays to do a bit of research as we went to one last year which was very poorly attended, but later found out there was a rival one nearby which was very busy, we're newish to the area and so didn't know, but worth asking around.

Onredbull, I've seen some of the plain mad things people buy - eg carrier bags from posh shops (not that I've ever got any of them!). I once sold a half used bottle of Dune perfume which was so old I thought it had gone off but the buyer was delighted with it - some mad people out there.


You did give me an idea there, my OH is dedicating his life to trying every type of Malt whisky so I could sell his empties. We were at one of those 'northern' funerals in Manc last year and someone told us that Oban Malt is very hard to come by, well we go our hols to Oban and it's readily available there! So he could drink it and I could flog the bottles - I'll put that idea to him.

inkie

Anyone else had any experiance of these - i have bought from them before but never sold.

I sell at the NCT NN sales - it's our this Sat, just have been bagging the stuff up to go. I work on the principle of chargeing a reasonable amount so that my stuff will sell quickly. Last time in the spring went I went to collect my stuff, I only had 3 items unsold - I was amazed.

I tend to sell individual items for 50p (some people charge up to £3 - but as I said, I would rather have a bit of cash and get rid of the stuff, than be lumbered with it and end up having to give to charity shop or on freecycle), and then I bundle up new-baby stuff, I have just bagged some baby vests up 3 for 50p/babygros 2 for 50p etc. Also have a couple of baby baths which I will be selling for £2.50 I think.