Enough is enough - the great declutter

earthmother

Well, apart from the two bags of jam jars, everything is taken subject to collection - result!

floss2 wrote: »

I bet when it's listed, there will be a rush of emails.....do you do 1st email gets it, draw lots or decide on who's the most needy? I have to admit that when I cleared a load of stuff onto Freecycle, I chose the ones I felt were most in need....not the names you always see on the list as taking stuff.

I'm normally the same, but I think we're lucky in that this group is still fairly new and hasn't been overtaken by the ones who just ask for anything.

All the takers were polite, weren't obviously asking for things for the sake of it, and so I've gone with first responders overall as I just want rid. The big item, that I'll probably still be getting emails for in a weeks time, is going to someone I've had dealings with in the past so I'm pretty sure I've picked the right one.

tattycath

Hi everyone. I've started decluttering. I jhave repeatedly asked DDs to sort out their clothes in their bedroom and they have made a few half hearted attempts and I've been somewhat disappointed. But tonight I gave them a large pile of clothes to put away and I said 'and I mean put away whatever isn't put away and is left lying around I shall put in a bin liner and you'll lose it!!!' Amazingly they left the clothes downstairs while they took 2 binliners upstairs and they sorted loads of clothes out and nearly filled the 2 bin liners, so they are all going to charity later in the week-they did take their freshly laundered clothes away and even bragged that they still have space in a couple of their drawers!!!. I was so impressed and proud of them. It reallt motivates me to want to crack on and get loads of decluttering done but it's just so hectic at the moment. Where does time go!!!

Sola

The decluttering is continuing slowly now I'm back at work and doing 12-hour days. We're keeping the kitchen and bathroom clean for the first time ever, which is a huge achievement. DH worked really hard on tidying, cleaning, cooking and washing-up on Tuesday night. Last night I cleared and hoovered the hall, did a bit of tidying in the livingroom and hoovered that, including under the sofa cushions (yuk). I also dismantled and cleaned a desk fan that we keep downstairs - it was filthy and disgusting, but looks pretty good now. When the heating's off during the weekend I'll wash the radiators throughout the house, and also wipe the lightswitches and evict a few more cobwebs. I have polytunnels and electric propagators tucked behind the sofa, so I'm going to sort them out ready for sowing seeds.

The diningroom continues to be chaotic but I hope to tackle that this weekend, as we want to use the table Saturday night for a dinner party. We have the stepkids staying so I'll put them to work as well; stepdaughter's room desperately needs clearing out - we have games etc up there that we 'inherited' with the house when we moved in 7 years ago, so they can go. I found about £60 worth of Spring bulbs that I never got round to planting a few months ago, so Sunday I'll stick them out in the garden and in pots and hope for the best; they may have dried out being next to the radiator but I won't know unless I try them.

Saturday morning I want to tackle the many dried paint splotches on the bathroom floor - they've been there for a couple of years since my stepson painted it for us (penance for having run up a £200 phonebill that we had to pay), and he didn't clean up after himself. The whole bathroom needs repainting - we used washable eco-paint about 3 years ago, and it's flaked terribly and looks awful in places, so it needs sanding and repainting with 'proper' washable paint. Also need to look at the ventilation in there to sort out mould in the shower; I'll probably need to replace the sealant at the bottom of the tiles/shower tray, but that can wait for another time. I bought some Nitromors for getting the paint off the floor, but really I think I need turps/white spirit and/or meths which I'll buy today; we'll save the Nitromors and work on the landing banister which was painted white sometime around 1950 and has been deteriorating ever since! It would be great to get that back to the wood and then stain/varnish it. The banister going up the stairs is a fake 'rustic Tudor' thing, so it will eventually be replaced when we redorate.

I sympathise with those living with hoarders; DH is one of those too. I'm just shoving his stuff in the study at the moment and leaving him to it; I've managed to 'break' all the awful mugs that the kids decorated over the years, and have compromised on having one photo per person on display (I hate photos). I think his study will end up being left till last.

DH is going to start putting up bookshelves in the bedroom alcoves, and I'll take more stuff to the charity shop - I've got a bin bag on the go for bits and pieces I find as we sort things out, including some unwanted Christmas presents in their unopened wrappings.

I have a master document which lists what we need to do room-by-room. Once it's all decluttered downstairs I'll get some professionals in to clean the carpets; I had a go with a borrowed Vax last summer but it was really hard work so I'm prepared to pay someone else to do it this time round.

Sassers

Sola wrote: »

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.

Morning all :wave: I don't know if this helps but Cazmainian Minx sells jewellery beads and findings on her ebay shop - (read about it on her mortage free thread diary thingy the other day) she might be worth approaching?

Love Sassers x

Ellidee

Sola couldn't you er 'recycle' the Xmas pressies this year if you know who gave them to you ?

Sola

Ellidee wrote: »

Sola couldn't you er 'recycle' the Xmas pressies this year if you know who gave them to you ?

Not really - they're from the inlaws to me (gardening stuff - leatherbound hip flask/wind-up radio etc), and I don't want to let on to DH that I'm getting rid of them as he'd be offended that we're not keeping them. I don't want to disturb his decluttering journey with anything too traumatic!

missyg_3

Hi everyone, please may I join you? I've been reducing my household stuff bit by bit for several months and I'm in pretty good shape, but I always feel there's more I can do. I hope to get some ideas when I see what others are doing!

Recently I've reduced my clothes to a total of about 25 garments which feels great. I've just finished a loft clearout and there's nothing up there any more except my son's old school books and artwork (boxed and organised). Yesterday I halved my CD collection down to about 100 CDs, hoping to cut that further next time and I'm not buying any more new ones.

The task I am putting off at the moment is sorting out the thousands of photographs and negatives I accumulated before digital came along! I just have no idea how to approach this until I decide how I'll be storing the ones I'm keeping.

Like many of you, I'm getting rid of things via ebay, freecycle and passing along to friends. I'm delighted that nothing's had to be dumped so far!

JoeyEmma

Somebody else mentioned this before, but how do you choose who gets stuff on Freecycle? The other day I gave to the first person who replied, however with my alarm clock I gave it to somebody who said they get woken up by their 3 cats every morning! I wonder if there is Freecycle etiquette?

Fruball

JoeyEmma wrote: »

Somebody else mentioned this before, but how do you choose who gets stuff on Freecycle? The other day I gave to the first person who replied, however with my alarm clock I gave it to somebody who said they get woken up by their 3 cats every morning! I wonder if there is Freecycle etiquette?

I generally give it to the person most in need, or the person who send me a nice email - sometimes I get a blunt reply asking for measurements/photos or not even a please or thank you so I just delete those ones.

missyg_3

Thanks to another tip on MSE, when I list something on Freecycle I now ask for people to state when they can collect in their reply. That way, they at least have to think about the logistics of collecting the item before they fire off an "I'll have it!" message.

If they don't give me an idea of when they can collect, I don't consider them. Apart from that, I just wait a while and then generally give it to someone who has been polite and who sounds like they will get good use from the item