Decluttering 2013, the saga continues ...

karren

Well 2 large bags for charity shop and black bag!!!
From our bedroom alone but saw that my beds broken where the screws go in!!!!!
But loads of storage boxes under there so that. An hols it up for now, why's life never straightforward??? The beds 2 year old!

If push came to shove my daughter has double bed I could use, only bought her double as in laws were living abroad, and she could do with more room to play

mineallmine

Wow everyone is motoring along! I bet the charity shops are loving us at the moment! That's great RD :j That will sell in an instant this time of year! For several years of donating stuff I thought come on karma let me find a real bargain. And finally I did the other week with a nearly new sewing machine for £20. Then a week later I found a Dents faux fur bag for £3.50. Obviously the trick is not to buy too much there as that kind of defeats the object! Well done RD that must feel good.

Bubblegum - re your dining table. I had this problem and it's heartbreaking to hear the kids are asking to use it, usually it's the other way around! I suggest finding a big box (cardboard, a washing basket, anything large) and literally scoop everything off of the table and the chairs into this box. Everything. Then clean the surfaces, the chairs to freshen it all up. Then sit down and go through the box.
If you try to do this at the table the temptation is to shuffle papers around and nothing really gets achieved. That's my experience certainly.

If only I could empty my very cluttered Hobby Room, which can't be used as a Hobby Room in this way I'd be sorted. I have no space to put boxes of stuff from there anyway. I know I'll work out a solution somehow. It will probably involved putting a dust sheet on the bed and box stuff temporarily to there so I can at least clean the Hobby Room.

There's a couple of Kindle books on decluttering that are free at the moment. Don't forget you can borrow books on this from the library too. Plus Youtube has some good videos. Just don't spend too much time reading this or watching that. At some point you need to roll your sleeves up.

:j

mineallmine

Talking of rolling our sleeves up.....
Who's up for 15 minutes of decluttering this afternoon? I'll aim to start at 3pm :j

Tiglath

I'm about to tackle the baking cupboard, but it's going to take more than 15 minutes (and a couple of binbags) ...

lobbyludd

I've done the shoe cupboard and released 2 large carrier bags of shoes that no longer fit the children (why have I kept them?????). These are in the boot of the car for the charity shop, together with some really good quality curtains (2 large pairs) that I hate the pattern of but couldn't let go because they were good quality and exMIL gave them to us (ex does NOT want them, in fact I still have about a room's worth of stuff that belongs to him, that he wants but "not right now" - we seperated nearly 4 years ago, hmmmm.....).

DVDs will be done tonight, but childminder is ill so my rare day off tomorrow without kids as a treat for my birthday is a no go, so not sure what I'll get accomplished but I'll try

bubblegumcola

applepad wrote: »

Storage boxes are good as are plastic wallets and ring binders, check out the local £1 shop.

Or just go to the supermarket and get some cardboard boxes to start with, label, keep,charity shop,eBay etc. then go through a box at a time.

And remember all the stuff has built up over time, so do not expect it all to be gone, or in its proper place in a matter of days.

Thank you. Have got quite a lot of plastic storage boxes full of stuff in all rooms of the house, yeah I think I'm just going to have to go through them bit by bit. I work full time so even if I can get through one box during an evening after work that would be an achievement. Every room needs attention but I know it's going to take months, probably longer if I'm completely honest. I have all my clothes in plastic storage boxes with a pile of stuff jammed up against them and then in front of my wardrobe a flat pack chest of drawers I bought 6 months ago which I haven't built yet. If I clear the stuff next to the boxes I will then be able to build the drawers and that would make my bedroom a bit more less like a tip. Maybe a project for my next weekend off.

I've been to the local tip this morning and got rid of broken furniture we had in our dining room and bags of general rubbish. Have been shredding a lot of old documents we don't need so my recycle bin is now full! Still a lot to do but it won't get all done today because there is so much paperwork to sift through. I have got folders for stuff but they got 'lost' under paperwork getting dumped on the table. I'm one of these I will do it later and then it builds up to a rediculous amount, then more gets dumped on top. Not to mention the amount of clothes clean clothes also dumped beside the table.

Will definitely have to do it all gradually as much as I want to wave a magic wand and have it all done overnight there's just no realistic way of it happening. My parents were both hoarders and all my siblings seem to be the same.

So I think the plan for today is to continue with my dining room for the time being. Half is cleared from yesterday, if I can manage to clear some of the top of the table that would be an achievement.

Tiglath

Baking cupboard's done - 3 binbags of weevil-filled flour and assorted yuck all gone. Some of it was 4 years old. Haven't salvaged much - half a bag of SR flour, a 2.5kg bag of strong white bread flour, some dessicated coconut, and a tub of things like glace cherries and choc cake covering. Still, I feel better for it, and now all my glass bakeware can sit nicely instead of perch precariously.

bubblegumcola

Mineallmine, thanks for the advice, just read your post.
I do have a massive box, surprisingly empty (!) which I could do with my stuff on my dining table, what you suggest.
Yeah my DS is desperate for us all to sit down as a family at our dining table. He is a lovely soul and he would be over the moon if we could sit down together like that.

I appreciate your advice, it's so easy for it all to get too much and get depressed about it all.

Rummer

I have just had a whizz round the house and taken all the xmas gifts out of their packages and put the packaging in the recycling bins

nearlyrich

Just chucked out some game boxes from computer games on floppy discs running on DOS:o and a soundcard which I suppose was the replaced faulty one that recommended Win 95 from my loft LOL:D