Enough is enough - the great declutter

sandy2_2

missyg wrote: »

Thanks Ellidee, it's just a box of travel tickets, entrance/event tickets, some postcards, leaflets and guides - all paper-based stuff. I'll never have the patience to make it into any kind of a project. I'm inclined to get rid of the lot, it's just this nagging voice in the back of my head wondering if I would regret it someday...!

Know what you mean, how about photographing it or scanning onto computer then saving it on a memory stick or CD. It would take up less room and you'd still be able to look at it occasionally if you wanted, or you could turn some into screen savers

pigpen

concert tickets etc.. I stick in my diary at the relevant page.. and leaflets etc I keep at the front secured with a rubber band. I keep all stuff like that too.

Can I ask.. parents who have grown up children.. what do you do with all their baby teeth??? I have 8 little boxes full of teeth!! HELP!! lol I was thinking of making them into a necklace!! ROFL!!

I have decided what to do with all their 'first pair' of walking shoes.. they are to be polished and mounted in frames and displayed on the kitchen wall!!

Ellidee

Well ppen you might need the teeth one day :rotfl:

Kaz2904

The teeth made me laugh! Thankfully we only have 2 teeth so far but I only wanted to keep the first tooth from each child as I told DD that the fairy collected them and ground them up into dust to help her fly.
I kept their first pair of shoes each and when we moved the little blighters got them out and started playing with them. There are now (somewhere) 4 shoes with no laces scattered around.
DD won't be happy when she's older anyway as hers weren't 'cute' little girly shoes. She had to have boys boots as the girls shoes wouldn't fit her girt big hoofs!
Anyway tonight when I put them to bed I said she could read to me and DS (she's 6 and practising). While she read the story I went through her room putting stuff away and chucking out carp. When she'd finished the story she said
"Thankyou for tidying my room Mummy" then looked in the bag and tried to pull it all back out- screwed up paper etc! I said
"What did you JUST say to me about tidying your room?"
"Erm, Thankyou Mummy?"
"Exactly, now would you like me to fill it up again with all this junk or shall we get rid of some more rubbish tomorrow so that you can enjoy your lovely bedroom and I can get the hoover in here? Won't it be nice to have somewhere that you can come and sit and be able to get to your desk to do your drawing?"
"Mmm, that will be nice won't it Mummy- yes ok!"
RESULT! Well small result, 2 carrier bags, 1/2 a load of washing and a pile of Christmas and birthday cards to go to preschool tomorrow for craft work.
Add that to the big bag of clothes, 2 frying pans and loads of rubbish I got rid of today and it's coming along.
DH has plastered one wall in our lounge tonight, so 2 more walls and then all around the bay to do.
The wall paper isn't exactly vintage, it's quite nice really but we don't want any pale orange rooms as the house is too dark. I did think of doing our utility and downstairs loo with some of it but they're small rooms. As there is such a lot of it it would be nice to give to someone who needs to decorate a nursery in a baby friendly colour. Either that or the kids are never going to have problems with covering theiir text books when they are at big school!
I did think about covering shoe boxes with it but I don't want any shoe boxes around with stuff in them.
Maybe I should use it as wrapping paper for the next 100 years?
Or maybe I should just pull my finger out and get rid of it?!
Loads of ironing to do tomorrow so shall sort some more then.
I don't think I'll be crawling around on my hands and knees tomorrow as I hit my knee earlier with a hammer (don't ask) and it hurts like a *******.
I'm getting this house done if it kills me. I did it in 2006 and it was looking smashing. Then we started ripping out the kitchen and everything got shoved into our cupboard under the stairs. I have gradually emptied it but DH and allof our rellies seem to be conspiring against us. We get so much carp at birthdays and Christmas that it is untrue.
MiL keeps bringing stuff round and offering it to me. I say no thanks and make her take it away and then when DH goes round to hers with the kids when I'm in bed at the weekend he ends up coming home with it. Then I chuck it and he gets the hump. Then she gives him some more!

r.mac_2

hi there - I don't have children yet so don't have things like teeth to worry about - however my mum has gone through it all with three of us. She has a small box for each of us. In it is our first pair of shoes, our first tooth, a lock of hair and a couple of other sentimental items. The rest went out over the years. She has got tonnes of photos though - however she is good at having them in albums so we can flick through them. Perhaps you could do something similar.

I popped into our local BHF charity shop yesterday to check they took donations over the counter and the lady couldn't ahve been nices, so doing that today, have one ebay parcel to post and then have some more organising and packing to do - lucky me!

My ebay items aren't selling for much - anything is better than nothing, is there a help post anywhere on here someone could point me in the direction of????

tattycath

Hi all. Well My DD pushed us into sorting out large collection of cds last night.l So I now have loads of cds to get rid of -feels kind of empowering to see the space created!!!

missyg_3

Cute story Kaz2904! We did my son's bedroom before Christmas but it's already quite cluttered again compared to the rest of the house! Once or twice a year clearouts for him is plenty though, I tend to concentrate my efforts elsewhere

r.mac - have you been on the ebay forum, the stickies there might help you, or get someone to have a look at your listings and make suggestions? It could just be a difficult time of year for certain ebay sales though.

Tattycath - I've done my CDs this week too! What are you doing with the ones you're getting rid of? I'm offering to family first, then there are a few that might sell for a small amount on ebay. The rest are a charity shop job I think (if they will take them).

I'm tackling my "memorabilia" boxes today, there is the travel stuff as I mentioned before and also another box with stuff from my pregnancy and son's baby years and some other general stuff like press cuttings and so on. Then there's a third box with some bits of hardware etc. If I can get these from three boxes to two today, that will be a result!

tattycath

Hi Missyg, I'm going to sell what I can and charity what won't sell. My family are pretty wide spread and tbh I haven't got the time to faff about contacting them about what cds they might like-none of them live anywhere near me & I only see them a 4 or 5 times a year because of time and logistics

earthmother

Well, I got tidied in time for the landlord inspection - there was a great pile of stuff in the hall, but at least it was there for a reason (freecycle waiting on collection).

Despite not feeling like I've actually 'sorted' much, the house is already starting to look better, which is great. Going to have a couple of days off now and spend some time on the kids (homework, football training etc), then get back into it all on Monday.

missyg_3

Pleased to report two boxes of memorabilia merged into one (with room to spare)! I kept all my ticket stubs but got rid of the "bumph" (sp?), kept some family press cuttings, my few sports trophies, one small cuddly toy, the notes from my son's home birth and his first birthday cards.

It felt really good to let go of some of the other stuff from my past years!

I think I am becoming a clearout addict...!