Enough is enough - the great declutter

susy_2

Hi everyone, what a great thread.

Thank you to you ALL for making me feel soooo much better.

I have been trying to declutter for ages! My house is beginning to look like one of those that dear old Aggie and whatshername visit, :eek:

Everytime I start it, I have a plan in mind, usually along the lines of.........
I'll start at the top and work down. I'll start at the bottom and work up, I don't meet myself in the middle, I meet myself going backwards! :rotfl:

Sometimes I have a degree of success, but most times just spread the clutter around on the basis of ......... I will just move it from this room into that room and then when I have cleared this room I will look at it again. Get the picture :eek: :eek:

I have tried the theory of something new in, something old out, but I don't think bringing in a chair and throwing out an old (single) shoe works.

I am going to keep this thread close and try again, using you all for inspiration. Thank you.

onredbull

Penny2myName wrote: »

I'm with you on this one, starting off by trying to ebay the Videos. Its time consuming as I have to watch every single one first to make sure it doesn't jump and is in both decent visual and audio condition, if not then scrap heap time. So far from the 73 pg/u ones I have watched 13, listed 12 and have 60 to go, if I start singing Disney songs, please forgive me:o

I sold 23 childrens videos on ebay auction as a bulk buy as i had tried individually and agree it was time consuming and they were not selling very well.
I still lost out as they sold for £3.99 - I put P&P as £10.50 after weighing them many times in boxes and the P&P cost me more and so in total after costs i sold the 23 videos and made about 1.50 for my time.:mad:

I would advise to make a list of main titles and put notice up in shop or nursey notice board first and try and sell them at £X.XX for 1 video or £X.XX for 2 or 3 videos.

You may sell a few and then you could put the remainder on ebay or car boot.

We have bourght & sold loads of videos at car boot sales for £1.00-£1.50. A couple that i have bought havent worked but most do.

onredbull

tranquil wrote: »

My good news is our attic is now empty, the bad news- it's all in our bedroom (where the loft access is! ). This is despite sending a suitcase full of bedlinen, box of books and huge box of clutter to the local charity shop. DH did 4 trips to the local tip with full car loads last weekend. I have now got rid of all the empty toy boxes I hadn't realised how big our attic was,QUOTE]

You seem to de-clutter in a similar way to me !!!

I have sorted out a few cupboards by looking in them and taking out whatever i know i wont/havent used, and i have put in a box/basket.
Last week i had about 5 boxes/baskets and :think:tried to organise them but there was such a mish-mash of stuff it couldnt be orgainsed. (I am good at organising)

So now i have about 18 boxes/baskets piling up in front room with more stuff on top ranging from:-:think:
Folders -->To --> Foot Spa (Never Used)
Toiletries --> To -->Teddies
Brand New Blender in Box -->To-->Birthday cards & Other Greeting Cards-29
Mostly Brand new and never been opened/used:- Clothes, Bags, A radiator, Toys, Books, the list is endless.

I can see why I am in debt as by looking at these items piled up :shocked:I can see where I have wasted my money on things that were on offer or reduced and i bourght them thinking i was getting a bargain or saving money and they have never been used or needed.

I think I may have learned an expensive and time consuming lesson.

JillD_2

I am going to try and ebay some stuff. I always think its not worth it but I found this great thread over on DebtFreeWanabee which is pretty inspiring (and very funny):

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=343625

Full of people telling what mad things they were able to flog on ebay.

Our "new" filing cabinet is pretty good, bit squeaky and noisy but hopefully a clean and some WD40 will sort it out. It looks all sad and empty just now - soon fix that LOL

charlies_mum

Well done everyone, glad to see some of us are making money from this decluttering.

Well, today is wet and miserable, so might as well designate it as a clearout day - might carry on emptying the caravan so I can sit in there with a cup of tea and pretend I'm on holiday

Don't give up, I can now see the floor in two bedrooms :rotfl:

tranquil_2

Achievement for today: I have moved the attic junk from my bedroom downstairs into the sitting room! Not only can the floor now been seen but I've also cleaned. My task for the weekend will be to sort out clothes to be got rid out of our room and, if time allows, I may even start sorting out the kids room (but that may be a little optimistic! :rolleyes:). Obviously I am still ignoring the difficult bit- sorting what came out of the attic! However it is shrinking as it moves further down the house, and I've just about graduated to the 3 box system (sell, charity, chuck).

No news on our chain. As I've always been told no news is good news, will continue in ignorant bliss (and panic madly if going back on the market!)

caroline1973lefty

Wow just found this thread really inspiring just wanted to share what i have done in the last month or so:
Made £500 :j selling books and the odd CD/DVD on amazon - so simple, no faffing with digital camera, writing descriptions, just tap in ISBN code or title, it's great! Really resisted selling any of my huge book collection but finally persuaded myself it was 'greener' to allow them to be recylcled to a good home. Plus if i hadn't read them, decided i could always get them out of the library if i really wanted to.
Taken loads more stuff to charity shops
Taken mags to doctors (they were really chuffed!)
Bought a CD folder (£15 from Maplins) and transferred all my CDs into there - kept the inserts but threw away the boxes (probably should have freecycled them but I was impatient) -freed up loads of space!

What I'm hoping to do next
learn to freecycle
learn to ebay for clothes that don't fit/flatter
get rid of the tv, dvd and old bulky pc for one multipurpose laptop (which was an absolute bargain following the advice on here - £380, so paid for out of my amazon earnings!)
car boot/charity shop any remaining books i don't want (i'll still have plenty...)

I've been meaning to do this for ages, things that have helped motivate me include:
this site:T
the wish to be greener, and recycle stuff to good homes.
the 'clear your clutter with feng shui' book was helpful,
to get loads of extra space - almost like having a bigger flat at no cost!
To have better air circulation round the flat (since the landlord put in double glazing i've had a problem with condensation and even mould)

amandada

Well that's me started!
I have a loft full of stuff which is now taking over! It's suffering from 6 years worth of "just bung it in the loft"
I've listed some things on ebay, but there is a huge amount of outgrown toys in the loft, but I'm thinking these may be better for car boot sale rather than ebay.
It feels goooood!

saverstacey

This is a great site-

https://www.organizedhome.com

I am also desperately trying to declutter and clean my home this Easter. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE

nearlyrich

Not been on this thread for a few weeks, too busy decluttering at my mum's LOL. The good news is that I have finished the bedroom and it looks lovely (and it seems huge) the kitchen is looking good and the lounge is much better with less furniture and stuff that doesn't get used relegated to a spare room upstairs. There is still a lot to do but at least there is room to work and everyone can see the results of a few weekends hard labour LOL.