Enough is enough - the great declutter

sillyvixen

i am post op and clutter is building up as i cant reach into cupboards/wardrobes to put stuff away!! washing hanging around the house as i can put it on airers but not on the line - shame as it would be dry if outside!! plates from high cupboards all over the kitchen so as i can get to them (tins the same) not able to hoover for 6 weeks (cream carpets)my life is a mess! clutter at momentus proportions!!

kellitots

Calley I know how that feels, there are only the 2 of us here living in 2 rooms and it still looks like a rubbish tip a lot. My OH tends to 'womble' a lot, ie bringing random stuff home he has found or acquired through work. So every time I throw something out, five things seem to sprout into its place!

Another problem I have identified is with his toiletries, he always buys a shower gel, shampoo, face scrub when we get the shopping in, well the other night when decluttering the bathroom I found no less than :eek: 3 :eek: half-used bottles of shower gel, and also loads of half empty/empty shampoo, face scrub etc. He not only overbuys it, he hoards it when it is empty! :mad:

He hoards all sorts but is gradually coming around to the decluttering thing.

Though looking round my living room at the moment you wouldn't think decluttering was going on! I must do some when I get up!

Anyway you might have been joking around calley, and sorry if you were! But it must be tough for you sometimes, so I thought I would share one thing in my life that gives me strength, and it might sound strange..but my plants! Nothing gives me greater pleasure than caring for my houseplants and watching them grow, bloom and thrive. I can get lost just looking at them! They ask for so little, just the right amount of (fishtank) water, light, humidity and love (which is about a tenth as demanding as my OH can be ) and I find it a complete joy to care for them.

Sorry for the looong post!

*hugs* to all, keep going with the declutter. None of us need all this stuff weighing us down. If anyone needs any motivation, I know of some great Zen sites to do with decluttering and living minimally/simply.

calleyw

We (notice the we bit)did a little bit of tidying. It was only tidying up a cabinet and all the stuff on display.

And cleaned the area up around it. Better than nothing I suppose.

Told my husband he must spend 20 mins everyday in his office tidying up :rotfl:

I have spent so much time tidying up in here. I have spent a nearly a whole day in here before only for it be a mess with in a few days :mad:

I don't know where I get the lazy gene from. I suppose it is rather like my fat gene. can I be operated on to get rid of it :rotfl:

Yours


Calley

calleyw

sillyvixen wrote: »

i am post op and clutter is building up as i cant reach into cupboards/wardrobes to put stuff away!! washing hanging around the house as i can put it on airers but not on the line - shame as it would be dry if outside!! plates from high cupboards all over the kitchen so as i can get to them (tins the same) not able to hoover for 6 weeks (cream carpets)my life is a mess! clutter at momentus proportions!!

I bet you can't wait for the 6 weeks to be up. Mind you if you like me. I will leave it for a while then that is it. When I can't take it any more I have a mad clean.

Take it easy.


Yours


Calley

pollys

Took some clothes to the charity box today, did lots of gardening and DH took the 3 bags of roots and weeds straight to the recycling depot along with some cardboard. Got 2 loads of washing dry. It's given rain tomorrow so planning on decorating the bathroom will be using up some lining paper we have had for ages so I guess that is de-cluttering.

angelavdavis

Hi all,

Spent some more time decluttering this weekend.

Sorted three bags for the charity shop, sorted four boxes of ebay items into categories ready to list and two huge boxes of cardboard and recycling to take to the tip (in addition to the two sacks of rubbish and two bags of roadside recycling which went out this morning).

Oh, and the good news is that post-move cardboard box city has disappeared from the dining room and I am starting to get a dining room back again!!!!

Spendless

Our house is tidy:j even the laundry is done.:eek: :beer: The main thing I have stopping me saying I am now de-cluttered is the paper-work still:o and I still don't know when I'm going to find time to do it, reluctantly I might have to wait till kids are back at school.

I have tidied up the kids wardrrobe (they share a large one), got rid of some clothes and finally reduced the amount of coat-hangers we have.:T

pigpen

In.

Enough clothes for ALL the children to see them through winter.. and the next school year.. I LOVE next sales!! .. Just got to pay for it all now!!

Out

THE STUDENT LOANS!!
Very little else!!

Ebay.. I have some bits off Tiddles to get listed on Thursyda ... HALF PRICE LISTING!!

Freecycle... My membership has been suspended pending the out come off the investigation into whether they are breaking the law or not.. should be interesting to see if they let me back on.. if they say they can hold everyones postcode I'll give them someone elses!!

Sillyvixen.. do you have room outside to erect the airers out there?? might be a little compromise for now.

Calley.. be kind to yourself.. I've been trying to get my house decluttered for about 8 years.. it takes time and patience and a huge amount of time and effort. Granted I have the children but I am just bone idle really. You got the cabinet done.. that is a start.. one step forward at a time!! Give yourself small challenges. Other people have 'better' stuff because they are thousands of pounds in debt, because they have more money coming in, or simply because they were given so much at the beginning.. I have mor epride and take joy in the knowledge what we have we have worked for and achieved through our own hard work and saving. Don't give up.. it'll come right!

Soapy955

kellitots wrote: »

Another problem I have identified is with his toiletries, he always buys a shower gel, shampoo, face scrub when we get the shopping in, well the other night when decluttering the bathroom I found no less than :eek: 3 :eek: half-used bottles of shower gel, and also loads of half empty/empty shampoo, face scrub etc. He not only overbuys it, he hoards it when it is empty! :mad:

My husband has about three bottles of Lynx on the go at once. If it gets too low in the bottle he can't be bothered with it and opens another! Well I bought a funnel thing from Betterware and use it to decant them together into one bottle when they get too low.
It has a kind of clamp at the top that you put the empty or nearly empty bottle in upside down and it holds it over a funnel that goes into the newer bottle. It gets every last drop out and declutters the bathroom! Result!!
I also use it for decanting ketchup, fabric softener, anything at all like that really. It really does save wasting the last drop as you can leave it dripping while you do other things!

Sorry for the long post but I love my Betterware funnel and my Mum is very jealous of me cos she can't seem to get one!

Lizbetty

Hi everyone!

I'm really inspired to get a spurt on and get decluttering having seen this thread. Want to read it all but my 18month old is climbing all over me so I've only managed the last coupla pages :rolleyes:

I am DROWNING in stuff I have been buying kids clothes on Ebay from birth (I have 2 girls of 18months and 3 years) intending to sell them on again, and now they're growing so fast, I have a loft FULL of stuff which I daren't sell!

I've been from a size 8/10 to a size 16/18 and bounced about inbetween over the last 5 years, so you can imagine how much stuff I have pointlessly sat there. I just don't know where to start!

I'm worried about selling the kids stuff as there's so much to sort out, plus there's probably a few bits with stains on which I'm worried about slipping through the net and getting bad feedback for, I have no clue what to do with my clothes as they need washing/ironing really and I just don't get chance, esp as there's so much.

I just wish I could take it all to the charity shop to give me some sort of relief! But that's so not MSE, I know.

Plus we're skint, so the money would help a lot, if we made any!

If anyone can tell me how to eat this bloomin elephant, I would be very grateful. I think I'm secretly hoping that someone will say oh, take them to the charity shop/freecycle em and start over again from now onwards. But I know that's nonsensical when we're brassic.

It really is getting me down though

All advice would be very welcomed indeed. Then we have the other stuff in the loft and garage to sort...but it won't seem quite so bad once the size 8 pair of trousers have finally gone somewhere else (like I'm ever gonna get back into THOSE !).

Thanks so much everyone
Luce

ps is it worth listing a huge kids lot on Ebay and an adults lot, collection only for 99p do you think? Never tried but would love to hear others experiences of this.