Enough is enough - the great declutter

jane130

was eeling really dispondent today as It was 1.30 I had to get the tesco free bus to do my grocery shopping at 2 , by the time i returned hme the kids would be home form school and my chance to declutter today would be gone .

but i grabbed the bull by the horns I wasn' goin to let myself be beaten and I decluttered my bedroom windowsill, It used to huse two baskets full of old make up, photo negatives, old bank statements, ven a book containing a stamp collection from when I was 9 !!! no there is one basket that contains a small box of my most regulalry worn jewellery, and hair accsesories and my make up bag .

The room looks better already and tomorrows mission is to fix the curtain track that has been hanging off for the last 3 months and rehang the curtains .

I am getting so that I really want to declutter my clothes but I need to wait until this baby is born and i have lost some of the extra weight. I am resisting the urge to just get rid of it all now , most of my pre pregnancy clothes were not great and I will be able to have a little shopping trip and buy myself a new wardrobe but it can't be done until my weight and shape find their new normal.

r.mac_2

getting there slowly

I have 6 items on ebay - 2 of which people are bidding on (every penny helps).

I have decluttered all our paper work and only kept the necessary stuff, but organised it all so we can find it when we need it.

recycled all the old carrier bags in the kitchen (there were hundreds!)

its a start anyway. In the process i have had to chuck out a few bags worht of things/rubbish and everytime I do I feel good!

next to tackle:

bookshelf (excess to charity shop round the corner)
accessory drawer
shoe boxes


baby steps baby steps!

How is everyone else getting on?

tattycath

Hi everyone. I've made a start-slowly. I have sorted some of my extensive collection of books out and got rid of loads!!! I have got rid of clothes and shoes-excess to requirements. Got to tackle something where we'll really notice soon... Any suggestions??? Our house looks like a bomb has dropped!!! Have listed a few items on ebay and sold £45 quids worth so far, so that helps. I do need to make serious in-roads soon. We sorted out cutlery drawer the other day we had loads!!! we had about 7 potato peelers etc etc, so we have sorted and downsized!!!

Ellidee

r.mac when you clear your bookshelf why don't you try selling on Amazon or Greenmetropolis ?

mary43

I started off really well but seemed to have slowed down now. Still keep looking at the bookcase and don't know where to start.....daren't chuck a lot of them as they belong to OH so need his go ahead for them.
Found a whole load of plates in three different kitchen cupboards. We'd had them given to us (why didnt we say no?)...........one lot are dark brown, one lot plain white and the others white oval with a bit of a pattern. Think MIL gave them to us............maybe ought to keep them ???
At least comp. room is about clear (not mentioning two drawers that need doing again as I put a lot of it back). Our bedroom is getting to look like its been burgled.............if I don't soon sort that out I won't sleep at night............lol
Spare room was reasonably clear but now filling up fast with christmas hampers and goodies for them.................lol Can't win with that one but at least I can shut the door on it.
Oh well, I will get there.........said so other years and this year I will.
Trouble is, there are so many other things I want to do .........painting, card making, sorting out all these pressies I keep getting before it becomes a nightmare..................
Need yet another notebook with checklist in it...................lol:rotfl:

Sola

Since I first read this thread I've blitzed the kitchen cupboards and surfaces in a 7-hour stint, cleaned the oven, chucked out a load of old videos and cassettes. The challenge continues; the bathroom is next (shouldn't be too bad), and there are bookshelves to be made for the bedroom (materials bought). DH is all fired up about it now because it's so much easier to keep clean and voluntarily washes up every day - first time ever.

Over the next couple of days I'll sort out stuff for the charity shop and wheel it up bit by bit in my wally trolley on Saturday.

r.mac_2

Ellidee wrote: »

r.mac when you clear your bookshelf why don't you try selling on Amazon or Greenmetropolis ?

i have used amazon before - most of the books aren't really worth anything on amazon and i want to get rid of tehm before we move house. WHile the extra cash would be nice, I don't see me making much more a than a few pounds in total - so I am quite happy to let a charity benefit from them

I do use amazon for selling better quality books and academic books though and recommend it to others so it was a good suggestion Ellidee :beer:

catherineblack

Oh I'm loving this thread! I am an obsessive de-clutterer - and no matter how often I clear out, within a couple of months I can clear out even more. And I really don't buy very much at all so I've no idea where it all comes from. It's so satisfying! I'm hopefully doing a car boot sale with some friends this weekend, I hope I'll make a huge amount!

Newly_retired

I have just discovered this thread but looking at the time I'd better not get too engrossed! I'm far from being a minimalist but would really like to get this house sorted, now I have retired. Today I sorted my shoes. I've already been through my clothes and though I can't bring myself to get rid of very much yet I do at least know what I've got .The main parts of the house are OK but I need to get to grips with the spare room. My problem is DH - like many other people, I see. He has a study ( fair enough, so have I ), but has also commandered DD's old room for his hobbies, as well as the garage ( = workshop) and the basement. When I went down there to put the Christmas decorations back I could have wept. Then there's the loft.....
He'd have a fit if I started clearing out his stuff, but there's no way we could think about moving house the way things are. I would love to be able to have my grandchildren to stay but there is nowhere for them to sleep in this 5 bedroom house!!! Then, to get really morbid, I think, what if he dies suddenly and I am left to sort all his stuff?!! It isn't rubbish by any means, but there are lots of things he does not need as well as masses of hobbies stuff and collectables.... It really depresses and upsets me but he doesn't want to know. He had a day off today and I was hoping to make a start ( well I did ) but he went back to work after lunch. At least it is comforting to know I am not the only one in this situation. WHen I get time to read the whole thread I am sure I will find some great ideas and encouragement to go on.

Sola

Here's my progress:

- Kitchen - done. Very impressed with myself.
- Bathroom - done.
- Livingroom - half done.
- Cupboard under stairs - eek, scary. The cats go mountaineering in there.
- Diningroom - to be done.
- Hall - to be done.
- Main bedroom - to be done.
- Study - DH's room so he can do it.
- Back bedroom - to be done with stepdaughter.
- Loft - to be done.

DH is out this weekend so I'm taking the opportunity to sort out books without him interfering. We have 1000 or so on various bookshelves, and probably the same amount in piles around the house (5-feet high in front of CD cabinets, up either side of the stairs, teetering piles all around the main bedroom), plus about another 50 boxes in the loft. My best friend and I have a fluid approach to books; we have several hundred of each other's borrowed over the years. She had a good sortout a couple of months back, but recycled 'mine' because I didn't want any of them back. I'm going to sort mine into piles:

1. Friend's - offer them back. Will send her a rough list first to see what she wants, as I'll have to lug them on foot a mile or so in my wally trolley.
2. Unwanted - to charity shop unless good quality, in which case to Amazon/Ebay. Can only get there on Saturdays so it'll take a while.
3. Keep - sort into boxes and put somewhere until shelves are ready.

We've bought the materials for floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in the main bedroom; should give me 12 shelves, 4-5 feet wide. This is 'my' space as DH keeps all his books in the livingroom, so I'm going to be absolutely ruthless about what I keep; if it doesn't fit in there it's not staying. I used to find it so painful to get rid of books, but I must've bought close to 20,000 over the past 30 years (and got rid of a lot too); still got about 5000 at my Mum's to go through but they're mainly old college books.

I'll start with the ones on the floor in the livingroom as that'll have the greatest impact on our daily life, then do the main bedroom so we have the space to put up the bookshelves. I haven't been up in the loft ever in the past 7 years and DH says we've got about 50 boxes of books up there, so I'll tackle them one at a time when all the rest is done.

I need my books to be in author order, unless they're historical books in which case they have to be chronologically according to the period covered. One alcove will be the historical stuff, the other theology, health & fitness, gardening and general. It'll be great to be able to find them again; when I've had a desperate urge to reread something, it's been easier to simply buy a cheap copy from Ebay or Amazon rather than trying to find my old copy in this house.