Enough is enough - the great declutter

charlies_mum

I started this thread back in February last year, and I'm ashamed to say I haven't got very far. I did manage to get rid of quite a lot, but I have my own small business, and bought about 20,000 greetings cards for very little money, and I know I will make a massive profit (eventually) so I was being moneysaving - honestly :eek:

Walks off, hanging head in shame

poppett

I was getting fed up with the clutter in my garage. When we moved here in March we downsized and we had far less storage space so all our stuff ended up thrown in the garage. Today me and DH have had a sort out. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, nice weather meant it was pleasant to do. I ended up putting quite a bit on Freecycle and I'm happy to say most of it has gone! Thought about ebaying it but alot of it is big stuff that would cost a bomb in postage so rather than just binning it I have given it new homes! Just a few bags of clothes that the kids have sorted out to go to charity shops now and that's me decluttered! :T

Gers

I'm now in the middle of decluttering one cupboard in the living room and have chucked out about 20 video tapes of unknown content. Trouble is that behind the 20 video tapes I have found 2 x 1kg packets of pasta.. one with BB date of September 2003 and the other June 2004! :mad:

Are these still edible??

And just how long will it take to munch through that little lot, given that the kitchen cupboards have at least the same again... :eek:

jane130

well this morning I have decluttered my mug colection ( yes we really did have that many ) and thrown away any that were chipped or cracked. we now have a lovely random selection of mugs lots with christmas designs that we will still be using in July but does it really matter , they will get broken and replaced sooner or later..

I am also going to tackle the baket on top of the fridge , when we redesigned our kitchen a few years ago we deliberatly didn't include many drawers so we had no junk drawer but lo and behold we now have a basket on top of the fridge that does the exact same job as a junk drawer would do and the storage space culd be used to much better effect so thats the job for today .
I figure if I post here what I am going to do it will make me acountable I hope you don't mind .

annie123

charlies_mum wrote: »

I started this thread back in February last year, and I'm ashamed to say I haven't got very far. I did manage to get rid of quite a lot, but I have my own small business, and bought about 20,000 greetings cards for very little money, and I know I will make a massive profit (eventually) so I was being moneysaving - honestly :eek:

Walks off, hanging head in shame

no shame at all, think of all the mse that have been inspired by your post :j

so far this year I have managed 1 bookcase, next one will have to wait 'till sunday my next day off work

mary43

I should, at the be sorting out the bin bags of clothes that are due to go to the charity shop but I got back from shopping -not clutter for me, bargains for christmas ! - and internet connection wouldn't work. In the end had to phone helpline and unplug something at the back of my wanadoo wireless box, wait, plug it back in, report to chap on phone about which light was flashing etc. and eventually got on........................wasted about an hour and half trying to sort that out and now gone right off the bin bag shifting idea............!
Instead I'm surrounded by yet more stuff in comp room that I've bought early for birthdays and christmas.......................lol Cant seem to win, but I'll get there.............I will...........honest:j

jane130

no delutering for me today taking the christmas dec's down has just about finished me off before I start , still the room does automatially look less cluttered so maybe that was just a cheats way of feeling like i have decluttered today .

Sassamac

Hi guys and girls. I have just read the first and last page of this thread (will catch up on the rest later) as I have been wanting to declutter for some time. So I would like to join you all please as this has inspiored me.
Trouble is I am skint and cant afford to give anything away without trying to sell it first, so I have to balance getting a good price for things vs getting rid of them and freeing up the cash.

I am going to have 2 targets, to raise £1000 during the first half of 2008, and to raise £500 during the second half of the year. I might put something in my signiture so you call kick me up the bum if this doesnt go to plan. That way I can keep a note of my progress.

My basic plan of action is NCT spring sales for the kids stuff and maternity (which is most of the problem). Then for all the house stuff I will try selling on Amazon. Everything that doesnt sell between those I will try on ebay, followed by car boot sales when they start around easter, with the hope that most of the summer stuff will be gone by then. Then a repeat of the same pattern for the winter clothes, obviously with the exception of car boot sales which will be finished by then. DH is just listing some of his collectables so that should get us of to a good start.

Luna69

Hi all
Not read through all of this thread, but I seriously need to do something.
I do actually sell on ebay already, my problem is sorting it all, taking pics, listing, weighing, packaging.. so much effort! :rotfl: But I do it eventually.. however until that point I store everything in an airing cupboard, which is now overflowing. I do go through it all every so often and end up throwing stuff in charity bags if we get them through the door.
Our house is so over run now, I can't get the hoover in the living room very well and the floor is a disgrace:(
Basically 20 months ago, my partner had to work from home for 6 months after a fire at our business premises. We had to get rid of our dining area (table and chairs) to fit desks, computers and all the other junk.. it's now still the same!
We have premises back again, but my partner also works from home so the desk/computer and junk has remained. I also have a table as a desk for my computer/craft stuff, but I want a dining table back.
We have 3 kids and basically I sit at my desk to eat, my partner sits at his (when he's home), my two oldest sit at a small childs table (eldest is a bit big now really) and my youngest is in his highchair a bit further away.
We manage, but it's not ideal and I'm fed up with it.
Although this doesn't have anything to do with the decluttering, if I can declutter other areas, then I may be able to move my stuff and get some space back in the living room.

Basically don't know where to start, I have done fly lady before about 2 years ago and it worked for a while.

I did one car boot sale last year with a friend and we hope to do some more this year. I don't drive so I have trouble taking anything to charity shops, or doing car boot sales or taking stuff to a tip.
Our back garden has a lot of old junk in it that gets thrown out of the house into it, but then due to weather is turned all soggy and means we can't move it anywhere, so it's left out there to rot and the kids can't play out there.
We did get rid of a lot of metal bits when my partner found some junk men in a garage and they came to collect it, so that was good, but we're still left with wood stuff and old kids toys that are no good to pass on.

Sorry for all the whinging, but I"m hoping if I can keep up with this thread, some of you can spur me on with some encouragement it might help a bit.
I'm not sure whether to take a photo of it all then it might help when I get some cleared to see the difference.

Might not start right now as we're all ill and the last thing I feel like doing is sorting out.

As it happens things are also worse because we are moving kids rooms around and with little space to move anything, we have bits all over.
One good thing is that my 11 year old for the first time in his life has been getting rid of things of his own accord. He has recycled a ton of papers/magazines and bits of junk. He's filled 3 bags of stuff to go to charity, car boot or ebay and he's not finished.. so I'm very impressed with that. :T

Anyway, I'm off now, if anyone has read all of that you want a medal! :rotfl:

Yvonne

earthmother

I'm joining in and making a concerted effort this year

We're two adults and three under7s living in a 2 bed bungalow - trust me, we're cluttered, lol.

But the plan for me is not just to declutter, but to make some money in the process - this year is already looking tight what with the cost of petrol and food going up, no.2 son starting school in September and imminent rent hikes. We can cover that, but treats are another matter. We've booked a couple of over-nighters with the Travelodge deal, and so spending money is required.


Made a start in December with two table top sales, but now Christmas is out of the way, I can really get started.

There's another local tabletop in 2 weeks, so I'll do that, but most of January is going to be sorting time.
I know I have 10 foldable crates full in the loft (put up there before last christmas with the plan of selling in the new year - well I'm a year late but at least I'm getting there, lol), and there are loads of boxes in the garage - many that haven't been opened since we moved here 3 years ago, so that stuff obviously isn't needed. Add to that the combined cast-offs of three kids (toys, equipment and clothes), and I'm sitting on a goldmine (or a pile of junk depending on where you look :rotfl: ).


My plan is to Freecycle and charity shop everything I can't sell for whatever reason, to do as many tabletops and carboots as time allows, and from February I'll be listing at least a dozen items on eBay every week.


On your marks ....