Hoarding - Springing Ahead

thriftwizard

Today I took two armsful of stuff down to the stall - and I can get a LOT in an armful! And a big box of rubbish to the Tip. Unfortunately I also came home with a big box FROM the Tip, but it's a big box full of brand new, unused jamjars with lids. Which is wonderful as I make a lot of jams & other preserves! I haven't counted but I reckon there are probably 60-odd. Looks like one of the WI/Country Market ladies has given up or even sadly passed away. Every summer I end up haunting Freecycle & driving all over the conurbation picking up handsful of jamjars; this year I'm not going to have to!

So not the most productive day in terms of getting rid of stuff, but another area got sorted out & cleaned (the hallway) so at least there was progress of a sort. Onwards & upwards!

Aaleigha

I too would have picked up the jam jars in fact I have got all the frozen blackberrys out of the freezer and was going to do blackberry and rose jelly tomorrow (if no rose water I will leave plain) and later in the week I was going to do rhubarb and vanilla as I have loads of rhubarb

right today has been a really happy day - after having some very difficult days and a huge swathe of depression today I woke up happy

and I wore a beautiful vintage silk scarf in my hair - its bright green and orange

so today I put away a basket of washed things that I folded whilst still in the garden - putting them away took 2 mins for a whole washing basket full of clothes - I have put the rest of the loose clothing into the laundry basket and a big yellow trug for taking to the garden to sort tomorrow - it will either be charity or putting away - then I can get at my jumpers - I have not even opened that chest this year so they can all go to charity (well maybe keep a couple for layering next winter)

all my clothes apart from coats will be done so later in the week I will be sorting coats - then all my clothes will be done - my shoes are done
bags still to be done but want to move onto makeup and STUFF I have loads of stuff in the chest of drawers that really does need sorting

have a great evening everyone

H xx

MummyBobble

I have a huge reluctance to get rid of anything and unfortunately DD is rapidly becoming even worse than I am (she is now in her first year and college and didn't want to bin any of her school work from primary school because "I might want to look at it sometime...).

I have a plan for myself and DD :-) I read a suggestion that a simple way to ease into decluttering mode was to have a two week "starter" session. Day 1 get rid of one thing in the most appropriate way (bin, recycle, charity shop etc), day 2 - 2 items etc. At the end of the two weeks you'll have cleared 105 items!

Having been in hospital recently it's probably not the best time for me to start (can't drive, lift anything heavy, walk very far and tire very easily), but I'm going to be off work for quite some time so I should be able to find time to make a good start, especially with things that can just be binned or go in the recycling bins. I now have two bins for paper, cardboard, glass, cans etc that are emptied fortnightly so paperwork etc will be a good place to start. I'm also going to focus on using up the vast number of part used cleaning products, bath and shower gels etc that are cluttering up drawers, cupboards, and window ledges.

I'll update after the two week plan is done :-)

Aaleigha

That is such a brilliant idea one thing on day one then moving forward - even though I have started if I come to a halt that is something I will definitely be taking on board - thank you so much for sharing that

I have a suggestion for your daughters primary school work
would she be able (I suggest doing it herself) to look through and see if anything is special to her for some reason and then to take a photo of it - will that enable her to let go of the actual pieces - it might not be the right time for her but planting the seed might help - she can keep a memory stick for the stuff or get an external harddrive each and photo special things and then you each have somewhere to store the photos of anything special that you want to remember

as for me today I woke up not quite so happy and I have found SO many coat hangers - now I know that socks are the larval form of a coathanger - they change whilst in the machine and appear elsewhere as a coat hanger leaving you with an odd sock at the same time

but girls what can I do with them - charity shops often dont take them these days as they want to have theirs all the same

I also have a LOT of nail varnishes - will charity shops take those - I dont want to put them into land fill if I can help it

in my garden I have the two baskets of clothes and am sorting folding and putting on hangers as I go when it is done - I will take them upstairs or into right bags (ebay or charity shop or bin) when I go up I will also take a bin bag some carriers and some zip lock bags
all my first aid stuff is going in zip lock bags in a nice basket in the bathroom - I can actually see the tops of the chests but not quite all of the tops I feel I am getting somewhere
I am going to start counting things that leave the house
two bin bags of charity shop items on saturday (2)
5 sewing machines on sunday (7)
one spinning stool (8)
one bag of yarn (9)

I so wished I had counted every item as a single I would be up to thousands in NOW time

good luck today everyone - the sun is shining here - do what you can in the garden the sun is good for our mental health
Hxx

mothernerd

MummyBobble sounds like an excellent plan. I had a hip replacement operation at the beginning of November and have some of the same restrictions and don't have a car. I have been counting again for part of the year (did 2014 in 2014) but seem to be better at getting the small stuff out. Seem to have run out of steam atm, lots of little things getting me down. Going to attempt doing the housework in 15 minute chunks (when I manage 10 x15 minute chunks a day it starts to make a difference).

Aaleigha I think some charity shops would be glad of your nail polishes and some still welcome hangers. Otherwise does your daughter have friends who would use them or do they do any charity events in college where people who could make use of them would make a donation. Do you have a local college that does hair and nails, they might do demonstrations (ours does charity fashion shows and things like hand massages at local community events) or possibly old people's homes might have people going in to do hair and nails (often they have an 'events organiser').

I have rounded up another 12 small items today. I am moving craft and stationery supplies + some paperwork (all organised into small boxes and sets of drawers) onto a set of pine shelves. It's been out, sorted through, weeded out, organised into small spaces (like with like) and now it's going to make a beautiful tetris like jigsaw and all fit on one set of 3' x3' x1' pine shelves. If I can manage it there will be two wooden boxes on top (one lidded, one with two slightly larger drawers) one for my laptop, one to hold the things I need next to my bed, so it will double as a bedside 'table'. Mind it's taken months of work to get it to this stage (the embroidery thread alone took over a month, doing a bit at a time and a week long gap when I thought it was never going to go back and had to fight down the terror when I approached it). Material and larger craft items are in larger boxes (double as coffee tables/ footstools maybe a window seat when I move again).

Just keep plodding everyone. I keep telling myself there are lots of things I can't do anything about, but this I can do so I will.

ivyleaf

Aaleigha wrote: »

as for me today I woke up not quite so happy and I have found SO many coat hangers - now I know that socks are the larval form of a coathanger - they change whilst in the machine and appear elsewhere as a coat hanger leaving you with an odd sock at the same time


Hxx

I think you've solved the Odd Sock mystery :rotfl:

I would definitely have treated each thing in the charity bin bag as a single item

Getting a bit bored here, gradually getting rid of elderly un-needed paperwork :cool:

Mothernerd The 15-minute chunks thing certainly helps, doesn't it!

thriftwizard

So that's where the socks go! Mind you, I use tons of coat hangers; once they enter the Emporium where my stall is, we're very lucky to see them again. This explains my giant odd sock box...

Cheated a bit today; I got rid of an enormous petticoat - a hooped wedding-dress one - given to a lady who does vintage weddings, and a huge but sadly rather smelly lampshade, to the Tip. I'd tried Febrezing it & dusting it with bicarb, but couldn't shift the strong smell of stale nicotine. So quite a lot of volume shifted, but only two items gone!

thriftwizard

Today's update: old stair carpet gone! Yippee! Rather more than a bin-bag full of revolting smelly carpet; it should have gone soon after we moved in, 22 years ago, as it had holes in then, and it's only gone downhill since then. It did the job, but looked dire & smelt worse. The whole house feels brighter & smells so much cleaner without it!

I'm not replacing it with another full-length & width carpet. I've bought "stair treads" which are little individual rugs for each step, with a reinforced edge. We're going to paint the stringers & the banisters, which had been stained reddish-brown - so 1980s! - cream, sand the rail & beeswax it, and the little rugs, in a dark red floral pattern appropriate to the house, can be lifted & cleaned individually when necessary. A much better solution when you have elderly cats...

ivyleaf

The stair treads sound interesting thriftwizard, but I'm wondering how you keep them in place? It sounds as if your stairs will look really lovely

thriftwizard

They have heavy-duty double-sided sticky tape underneath, Ivyleaf, but I shall probably tack them down, so that it's not too damaging to the stairs themselves if I have to lift one or two. I'll post a pic when they're down but we're still at the stage of cleaning & sanding the bits that are going to be painted for now.

Today's tally: one very pretty feather eiderdown carted down to the stall, with a ridiculously low price tag on it so it doesn't hang around too long. Also some pictures. One damaged blanket, one ripped sleeping bag and a damaged "window quilt" (just cut down from a cheap quilted bedspread, nothing with much value or work in it) carted off to the dump, which was a good bin-bag full. And the car is now full of excess bits & bobs from the garage & the porch, to do the car boot sale at our local stately home tomorrow, which is always a good one. I'm not looking to make much money from it, just to shift stuff & have a good laugh - I expect to see most of my fellow-traders there as buyers!