Enough is enough - the great declutter

charlies_mum

We had a power cut yesterday that lasted 11 hours, but when I first reported it, they said we needed to check the trip switch in the garage. Had to phone DH who came home and mountaineered over the stuff in the garage to get to it :eek:

At one point I thought the engineer would have to do the same, so my determination to get rid of everything is now stronger than ever :rotfl:

mary43

Sola you are doing well. I like the way you've listed it all out like a checklist............I'm about to do that otherwise I won't know where I am...........lol

charlie'smum..............sometimes it needs something like that to make you more determined............oh the embarassment when the ellectric man came to read out meter before christmas...........it's situated in a sort of cubby hole area and poor man couldn't actually get in there for 'stuff'.............OH promptly set to afterwards and chucked the lot out...............stuff I'd forgotten I'd got and half of it OH said he wouldn't tell me what it was anyway as I hadnt looked for it, asked where it might be or anything.............in otherwords it was out of sight, out of mind and not needed at all.................lol

Sola

Kitchen and bathroom now completely done, and last night I started on the livingroom - have 15 carrier bags of books so far for the charity shop just from the living room. I'll have many many more from the rest of the house so it won't all get done this weekend.

About a decade ago we thought we'd try making things with beads with the kids, so we went to The Bead Shop in London and spent a fortune; have 3 carrier bags full and a couple of the special compartment plastic cases. Am I allowed to get rid of them now? No - DH wants to go through them first. Why?? No-one's looked at them in years.

charlies_mum

Sola wrote: »

About a decade ago we thought we'd try making things with beads with the kids, so we went to The Bead Shop in London and spent a fortune; have 3 carrier bags full and a couple of the special compartment plastic cases. Am I allowed to get rid of them now? No - DH wants to go through them first. Why?? No-one's looked at them in years.

You could probably sell them on Ebay and make some money :beer:

Sola

Yes the bead stuff would go extremely well on Ebay; just got to convince DH to let me do it. I'm working on it I bring up the subject every 6 months or so.

mumofjusttwo

Hi All. Hi Sola, was looking at the declutter thread earlier and i now have a few bags of charity stuff and rubbish and DS and DD now have their Christmas presents put away rather that still being in their Christmas sacks shoved in their wardrobe.

mary43

Hello all................disappointed with myself today..............got up with all good intentions then decided to plough into making some birthday cards instead. Still, at least its productive.............maybe tomorrow I'll grab OH and try and sort the bookcase out, failing that, I'll get stuck into our bedroom. OH has loads of clothes that need throwing out.......work clothes no longer even fit for work...................lol Why he's hung on to them this long I've no idea
You all seem to be doing so well -makes me feel very guilty but at the same time keeps the de-cluttering to the front of my mind............I will get there.......:T

Sola

Here's my progress this week:

- Kitchen - done.
- Bathroom - done.
- Livingroom - done.
- Cupboard under stairs - to be done.
- Diningroom - to be done.
- Hall - to be done.
- Main bedroom - done.
- Study - to be done.
- Back bedroom - to be done.
- Loft - to be done.

Today I'll:

- put away clean laundry
- do some more laundry
- do some ironing ready for the week
- foodshopping and returning books to friends
- put clean bedding on
- wash livingroom and bedroom windows
- sort out the cupboard under the stairs
- do a quick clean of my desk
- wash the kitchen floor as the kitchen's pretty good already
- quickhoover the diningroom and livingroom
- start more charity shop bags ready to go next Saturday

DH's task is to swish and swipe the kitchen and do a basic tidy of the livingroom before he goes out for the afternoon. The diningroom deep-clean will be a mammoth task so I'm saving it for next weekend while DH does bookshelves for the bedroom. I'll do basic pickups and swishing during the week as I have much less time then. It's all starting to feel manageable now. Once we're really on top of it I'm going to Vax the livingroom and diningroom carpets (but not next weekend as the stepkids are here).

One of our biggest problems is the number of carrier bags in the cupboard under the stairs so I'm going to sew up one of DH's old T-shirts, add some elastic in the waist and neck and use that as a pull-out store to go on a hook.

When I get paid on the 25th I'm going to get someone in to clean the oven (only managed to get half the crusty gunk off myself so I think I can justify the expense), then put in a base liner someone recommended from Lakeland.

auntymabel

Sola

Could you sort your bead stuff into groups and sell as kits? It shouldn't take too long and it might make them easier to sell and might make more cash. Ideal for people who don't know where to start or as gifts.

MrsTinks

I second the idea of making into kits - I agree that might make more money too as people like to have everything they need when they try something new instead of having to chase round shops to get all the bits

Good luck all!