Enough is enough - the great declutter

luvaduck_2

I started decluttering - passing on stuff to friends - charity shops etc. Then sold some stuff on ebay and bought a lot of other different stuff to replace it!!

kscour

Evening all:hello:
Not much decluttering being going on due to meetings and work and DD2's arm. Somehow it doesn't matter because i know I'm on a roll now and it will happen!
Nintendo Wii arriving tomorrow - DD's have been told that if decluttering stops then Wii will be on ebay! To be fair to them both I think they are feeling the benefits as well. They hate being bombarded with stuff and dread birthdays & xmas because so many relatives insist they have a present.
I ordered the Wii while I had the chance because they have been erratic to get hold of and DD's said don't worry about games and stuff cos we'll ask for them for Easter and our Birthday. It seems quite sad that in a few short years we've gone from my generation when opening a present from an Auntie meant getting something special and treasured to a generation down when my children feel they get way too much and are unable to stop it. People seem to think spoiling children is indulging them and a good thing and yet they don't seem to realise the stress they can cause them.
We still have 4 easter eggs in our kitchen - ready to be melted down for cake toppings. I used to love Easter yet my DD's will be spending the time leading up to it not dreaming of what they'll get but trying to work out how not to get the eggs! As usual I'll be torn between treating them to an egg I know they'll really like and yet on the other hand not wanting to because I know they'll get so many.
The awful thing for me is that I'm the adult and I should be able to protect them from anything and I'm not. That's probably a bit melodramatic but if my parents were to walk in my house and slap my children I'ld kill them and yet I don't seem able to stop them walking into my house and dumping stuff on my DD's that overpowers them and leaves them in a position where they feel unable to voice their opinions and refuse the stuff. I'm left being the bad guy because I say do you really want that and of course I'm the one making them part with their stuff - even if that stuff is just the stuff that someone just dumped on them because they couldn't get rid of it themselves:mad:

Ok first Cottage Law
Thou shalt not sneak chattels into my abode via my children without my express, not under duress, consent.:D

Nix143

*collapses into her chair in a grubby, ker-nackered heap*
Well it took me a whole 12 hours, apart from cooking lunch and dinner, but that's it, one room, my bedroom completely de-cluttered and cleaned. I literally haven't stopped all day. I even pulled my soddin' hooge pine bed out and hoovered under it (it hasn't been moved since I moved in 5 years ago there was such a mountain of fluff underneath it that it clogged my hoover!*

*is NOT a flylady, can you tell? *

Got piles for freecycle, bin bags for charity stuff, a bag full to go and get dry cleaned, I've flung shoes and handbags and make up and junk junk junk, but now there is nothing in that room that I don't wear or use regularly. I am boogered as they say oop North but I SWEAR I am never EVER letting that bedroom bog up again like that..........and I really really mean it

Honest



missyg, I actually still have SEVEN handbags When my mate at work had a tidy up of her bedroom she counted and she had SIXTY THREE pairs of shoes!!!!! That makes me feel positively spartan

Kaz2904

Not managed to get rid of very much in the last few weeks as we are mid decorating. I'm still doing well with the sorting of clothes as they come out of the wash though.
I'm just chucking all of them as I know I'll end up with millions of rags for cleaning otherwise.
DH hasn't been able to find any socks for ages, he's getting 1 pair at a time out of the clothes basket or off the line. I have quite a bit of ironing to do tomorrow but the most annoying thing is that I spent all day Monday ironing and washing.
I managed to get most of it put away and then as DH came in from work I said to him to serve tea and motored through another whole sofa full.
I left it on the sofa hoping that having nowhere to sit down might encourage him to put it away as I went to bed for 2 hours before my night shift.
He put it all on the ironing board and it's still sitting there now.
It drives me insane. Every night he comes home and complains about the mess here but he won't willingly get rid of anything that's his as it's not clutter. He won't put anything away during the week as he's been at work all day.
I have tea ready when he gets home from work but when I get home in the morning having been at work for 11 hours and still having to do the school run he hasn't done the kitchen. It's not really that hard- we even have a dishwasher.
He then moans that he has to do everything around the house-I don't bleeding well think so somehow!

Anyway, tomorrow I will get the ironing cleared away. I will clear the kitchen. I will get rid of the clothes in my hallway as I missed the binmen today so have to go to the tip.
That should mean that I can get rid of mountains of stuff because we have recycling facilities for clothes too there. I can get rid of some rubbish, yay!
I can then see how many more boxes of tiles I need to buy in order to tile the kitchen walls. Then get on and do it so that'll be less clutter.
Hopefully DH will be finishing off the plastering in our front room on Saturday so that we can crack on with finishing it.
When it's done I won't have 6 rolls of wall paper sitting on my dining room table and a sofa blocking off the rest of the room!

I just so want to get this place sorted out and decluttered so that I can breathe.
I find life much easier without so much stuff. I sometimes think that it must be really refreshing for people who have a sudden total cull of everything. Do you think that there is anything you would really miss if it was gone?
The only things I can think of that I have which are irreplaceable are my family (even DH the grumpy old sod! I'm quite fond of him really and he makes me laugh!) Oh, and my work uniforms. It took so long to actually get any uniforms that I think I would be working in mufty if anything happened to them now!
Oh well, off to bed now as I'm up way too late!

moo2moo

My B-I-L who hasn't been here for almost 4 years phoned 2 days ago to say he was coming to stay this weekend (today eeeks). Hubby is over the moon. Spent the last 2 days clearing out and shuffling the kids bedrooms so he has somewhere to sleep. Loads of stuff off to the charity shop, more to school for bag2school even more in the bin. Went to vac the carpet and the vac went *fizzle fizzle splutter splutter* and smoke appeared from the switch. Not a hope in hell of getting a replacement part today. I'm in the middle of nowhere, don't have any neighbours to borrow on from. Going to hope I can convince someone at school to loan me one for the day or better still borrow schools. Being chairperson of the PTA does have some advantages I suppose, although not the pile of paperwork that goes with it.

Still have to locate the bathrooms. Kids had an unsupervised bath last night and managed to use the contents of the towel store mopping up the tidal wave. Apparently the youngest wouldn't sit still when the eldest was washing her hair. That explains the puddle of water in the middle of the room then and the toothpaste on the wall and the soggy mess that was once toilet paper.

tattycath

(((hugs)) for Kaz, sounds like you have to do everything. My OH hates mess and periodically sticks everything that looks messy out of one room into a bin liner-that's him tidying up-coz none of it is never his!!! He gets strange attachments to piecesa of furniture is managed to have given-I shall put my stamp on this place and get rid of his sideboard(my mother would be proud of, and she has 3 sideboards in her front room and she doesn't live in a very big house!!!)and I shall prisae some of his other fruniture away too. I wouldn't mind but some of it just isn't practical, functional or pretty!!!! When I moved in I had to get rid of nearly all my furniture coz he was attached to this or that, then after a couple of months or so I find out that nearly every piece of his has been given (and I don't mean like family heirlooms, just people offloading their stuff they no longer want/need), not lovingly chosen and paid for-I was furious!!
So I have already made a start, and while it's great that he hasn't had to fork out to buy it some of it is definitely going!!!
Rant over, sorry everyone, just had to get that off my chest.
Right today... I really need to go through my drawers in my bedroom again and the bathroom cabinet again and I have to make a start on my cupboard/shelved wardrobe. i also have to sort some old paperwork that needs shredding. But also gotta go to w*rk!!!
After a cuppa.

Clutterfree

Hi Everyone,
Will catch up with all your posts later because otherwise I'll spend the morning on the PC instead of doing something constructive!
Today's task: sort 3 file trays of paperwork (yes, more paperwork!). I think I will be left with just one full of Hubby's stuff at the end which he will need to sort.
Also, I have a carrier bag full of "stuff" that I "tidied away" in there and then shoved under the bed lol so I will empty that and put away/bin the contents.
Not a lot I know, but slowly, slowly, wins the race!
Happy decluttering!

kaleoma

pigpen wrote: »

I have another binbag filled for charity shop... I have 3 to take now!!

I LOVE charity shops!!!

Do you never stop???? I love charity shops too-most of our clothes come from them and then either go on ebay when finished with outgrown unworn or most of the time back to the charity shop! I got a gorgeous Boden wrap dress from our local one for £3.25-I snatched it off the rail as though it was a golden Wonka ticket!

pigpen

kaleoma wrote: »

Do you never stop???? I love charity shops too-most of our clothes come from them and then either go on ebay when finished with outgrown unworn or most of the time back to the charity shop! I got a gorgeous Boden wrap dress from our local one for £3.25-I snatched it off the rail as though it was a golden Wonka ticket!

Not very often!!!

I once found loads of mens boden shirts in a charity shop bought them ALL and ebayed them when hubby was fed up of them.. made a small fortune on them!!

beckyw_2

Some more stuff due to be collected today by freecyclers. Makes me wonder why I bought some of it in the first place!

Just sorted out the understairs cupboard - didn't take long as i did a good job a while ago. Put lots of hats, scarves of children's in charity shop bag - they never wear them however cold it is.

Going to start on children's storage drawers in kitchen - paints, pens etc. I refuse to buy glitter but it's still everywhere!!

Won't get much else done today as DS 1 was complaining of earache so took him to dr's - no infection but lots of wax and he's now at home for rest of day. DH and I are going out tonight and MIL is babysitting so must make sure the place is spotless! Well, the rooms that she will go in

Must get on or I will spend all day on here and not achieve anything

Becky