Enough is enough - the great declutter

missyg_3

Hi Brummiebabe, welcome! We're all at various stages in our organising... I actually hate the word declutter, I've never had a 'cluttered' house or been a hoarder but I'm here because I'm questioning what I really do NEED to keep Yes, ebay is time consuming and you have to be in the mood don't you!

Pigpen, brilliant update! You must be really noticing the difference now! I want to hear about this shoe clearout later, when I mentioned shoes a few pages back there were some gasps

Asset77, if you set 10 day listings when ebay has Thursday offers, they will end on Sunday. The folks on the ebay forum say 8:00-10:00pm on Sundays is good and that's what I aim for. If I have an item I think might go particularly well I add a gallery picture. Perhaps some of your items might go better at a set price on buy it now instead of auction? Like Tattycath said too, it can just be hit and miss! Stick around and chat to us, hopefully we can all help each other by sharing our experiences!

MEJ, it's definitely time to sort that wardrobe I bet you could turn some of it into £! What about starting with anything that's more than 3 dress sizes too small? Let us know how you're getting on!

Kscour, from the mention of Duran and Spandau I now know we're roughly the same age :rotfl:

Charlies_mum I'm only planning to take one month off from the ebaying, I'll be back with another batch in April! Assuming there's anything left I can sell! What sort of postcards did you have, that is excellent money and I've just given a stack away (about 100) because I thought they would be worthless

Moo2moo 24 bin bags in one day! *Faints* And you still have more to do? Well I think we have to hand you the medal for most stuff flung in a day, don't we folks?!

Tibbie's mum, I had the most horrendous 80's item of clothing and perhaps I should have put it in the Vintage section but I ended up listing it in fancy dress! :rotfl: That's another option if there is anything REALLY bad because lots of people have 80's parties etc!

I think I rushed my listings too much yesterday, so I'm going to go back through them now and add some more detail to some of the descriptions.

Then i MIGHT take a first pass at the 'photo library'... no promises though!

furrypig

Yeah got rid of loadsa books,dvd freebies, toys, few clothes cuddlies to the charity shop. Of course I managed to buy 3 things but couldn't resist brand new pair of jammies for DS and only £2.
I actually think our local shop is a bit pricey eg per una 2 piece was in there for £25! T think that's a lot. I much prefer the 2nd hand shops in Essex where my family live as the are much cheaper.
I'm off to Florida on Thursday and we have started going to the 2nd hand shops they have out there! How sad am I?? My mum was really excited as she managed to get 3 books by an american author that she normally has to especially order in and they were really cheap!
On the 'de-cluttering' front we also leave a whole load of clothes at the 2nd hand shop the day we leave as the summer things won't fir the kids by the time the summer reaches here! So we do get rid of a few things (we also always bring a lot back!)

cat64

Hi everyone, can I join in:D. In the process of moving bedrooms around, so for the first time in about 5 years OH and I will have a room bigger than a broom cupboard, we are swapping rooms with youngest.

I'm really rubbish at de-cluttering, always want to hang on to stuff in case it comes in handy. Hate parting with books too. What can you do with books that have got too tatty to pass on? I've chucked some in the cardboard recycling today but not sure if thats the right place?

Can anyone give me some motivation:o

missyg_3

Have a wonderful time in Florida Furrypig! Not sad at all going to the 2nd hand shops there. I can remember picking up some really cheap CDs in years gone by - the very same ones I'm selling now :rotfl: How long are you going for?

Cat64, for motivation keep posting in here what you need to do next and what you have done! If books are really too tatty to do anything with, I'd suggest tearing out the pages and putting the paper into the paper bank, throw away the hardback part. With the bindings, glue and perhaps shiny or embossed cover etc it is probably too difficult an item to recycle as cardboard. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong...

This morning I went back to my ebay listings and added to some of the descriptions, I also dropped the price on a couple of things that seemed to attract no interest at the weekend.

I took a few recent magazines to the Doctors surgery for the waiting room and chucked out two of my 4 remaining vinyl LPs, they were personally signed but I've decided I don't care about that any more. The two that I've kept have two of my all-time favourite songs on which aren't available digitally or on CD. I don't have a record player but if I part with these I know I'll never hear those songs again... any ideas folks?

I think it's now time to delve into the photos... drum roll...

pigpen

This is me.. being ruthless.. guess who going upstairs to get the DD1's room FINISHED!!!!!!!!?????????? .


No floor .. no dinner tonight.. simple!!

My children hate me!! lol

sandy2_2

missyg wrote: »

the two that I've kept have two of my all-time favourite songs on which aren't available digitally or on CD. I don't have a record player but if I part with these I know I'll never hear those songs again... any ideas folks? quote]

Do you have a cassette player, you could ask a friend to transfer from record to cassette or if you have an MP3 player with a voice record, perhaps put them on there. How about putting records onto CD as you can then play them on DVD player if you have one. If you know anyone who's clever enough they may even be able to transfer songs onto your computer

kscour

missyg wrote: »

Kscour, from the mention of Duran and Spandau I now know we're roughly the same age :rotfl:

Happy memories! - pastel colours, big big buttons, big slogans on t shirts, shoulder pads, puffball skirts :rolleyes: quite liked the v-back thing that came in then - seemed so daring! How it all seemed so "in" at the time!

Right off to do the upstairs hall (should be quick hopefully) before I start cooking tea. There I've said I'm going to do it so I've got no choice now - bottom in gear!

cat64

Have just started trying to wade through the tons of paperwork that is invading our house! How long should you keep bills, bank statements etc? Wage slips? Help please!

kscour

Hard one cat64 - I'm self employed so i keep everything for 10 years to be on the safe side (inland rev. recommend 7 years but have a we can go back further cop out:rolleyes: ) . I keep all my receipts in a lever arch file (small receipts in polypockets) and I manage to keep everything in one file per year. Exception being receipts for things with guarantees which go in a seperate file sorted under room they live in and kept with instructions and guarantee expiry date noted.

Don't get bogged down trying to catch up - start from now and bung anything previous in a box mark with todays date and store in attic until ready to dump in x years time.

P60's should be kept forever! they are proof you have paid ni contributions etc.

Filing seems to be the key for me, somehow they take up less room when sorted. To be honest if I wasn't self employed i wouldn't keep them nearly as long but it does prove where our household money comes from and goes to.

Have finished hall:j Still shredding though!

missyg_3

Cat64, mine's a similar response to Kscour above, I'm self employed too and I keep one box file per year then go back and prune earlier stuff when I feel like it, so that ultimately I'm only left with REALLY important things (P60s from past employments!) from 10+ years ago.

I don't keep household utility bills more than 1-2 years. The bank statements show the direct debits going out so I know what's what.

I'd say hold onto your payslips for now and anything else with tax/NI implications.

... didn't get around to the photos tonight, had a nice relaxing bath instead :rotfl: