2014 decluttering thread (part 3)

Frogletina

pixtotts wrote: »

Today ( or yesterday now) I started an attack on the kitchen cupboards. So much out of date stuff, or bottles with dregs that look dodgy. And the number of things stuck to shelves! We seem to have a bottle/tin of golden syrup on every shelf, it's some kind of conspiracy I'm sure. I did it last year and less than a week it had turned to chaos again nobody seems to be able to stick to a simple system in this house... fingers crossed it might last a little longer this time.

I am food decluttering at the moment. I tried last year but my system didn't work so now I have a new system.

First of all I emptied everything out of my cupboards into the kitchen and wrote down every single item I had including its use by/best before date. Then noted down the freezer and fridge items.

I then added lists to a notebook in the following order.

ASAP - items which were past their best before/use by dates.
Freezer/Fridge - all items not included in the ASAP list as I need a new fridge freezer.
January/ All items with a best before date of this month.
Then a page for each month this year
A page for 2015 - for items with best before dates in 2015
A page for 2016 - for items with best before dates in 2016

I have been trying to eat mainly from the Freezer and the ASAP list although 3 jars of marmite won't get eaten that quickly! I bought two of them at the same time as the price was good without realising that it would take me so long to get through even one jar.

So far this month I have only bought vegetables, fruit juices, milk and eggs.

I have just put an order in for a Waitrose delivery, but it took me ages to think of enough things to buy to make it worthwhile - so I have bought a lot of non food items, shower gel, toilet rolls and other toiletries - plus fruit, veg, butter, eggs and milk. I have bought some jam that I will make jam tars with using up the pastry in the freezer, the rest of the non-fresh food items I buy will be used to make a couple of green thai curries using the ASAP green curry paste and some tofu I also have in the freezer. The things I have to do to get the complementary bottle of Champagne on offer...

When the delivery arrives I will add the fresh foods to the January list and the rest of the food to the correct best before date list.

I will try to work my way through my food lists starting from the ASAP list and only using items from the February to December lists when strictly necessary.

Wish me luck. It doesn't help that I am trying to lose weight as well!

Mumof2_2

Big step forward today as got rid of the cotbed we used for DD and DS and most of the soft toys/baby stuff we had for them. Don't need it now, no more LOs and DD and DS are 11 and 7 so need to pass on to someone who'll make good use of them. Did feel a bit wobbly though .....

PenguinOfDeath

This weekend I have:

Thrown out 2 empty aerosols, 1 razor, 1 hand cream
Started on new CS bag, 2 tops and a pair of trainers in there so far
Sorted through 'to be ebayed' pile and started listing, slow progress at the moment through
Necklace hanger (Christmas present) hung in bedroom and jewellery sorted onto it
Some items deleted from laptop desktop
Homemade scones de-cluttered from kitchen into tummy

Next job - Mail to be sorted through into bin and document folders

cat04

A few bits today:

Various bits of papers from a tub I stuck stuff in before Christmas 'to be sorted' to recycling

Bank statements etc from tub filed and some old, unneeded bits of paperwork removed and shredded

DD2 was at a party today so 2 presents (specifically bought for this child a while ago!) from my now very small present stash, a birthday card, wrapping paper, tag and gift bag all used and gone

DD2 also decided she wanted to give her friend a necklace and bracelet of her own so they're gone for good too (hopefully!)

WE have a very very small loft over the extension which OH uses for boxes from games consoles/blu ray player/phones etc. We've had a stack of boxes waiting to go up for a while and that was one job he got done today. Found one box to recycle and 2 to get down for items he wants to sell.

A 'car boot bundle' OH put on ebay sold and it's being collected tomorrow. That's 4 CS size bags of stuff going to a new home :j

pixtotts

Frogletina - that sounds like a really good system for organising food!

I've had a pretty lazy day today and I'm not sure this really counts as decluttering, but I got all my Avon stuff out, all samples have been sorted, all old books put for burning, returns logged, deliveries bagged and in the car ready to be dropped off tomorrow and I've managed to get from 3 boxes down to 2. It's only just too much for 1 it's so frustrating!! I may just have to cheat and buy a bigger box just so I can say it fits into one! lol.
x

Lilyplonk

Good morning everybody :wave: -

Weatherwise, we've had a really horrible weekend - sudden bouts of torrential rain coupled with howling/gusting winds - and was totally unable to venture out on Saturday. Had been planning on a visit to the s/market to get a Haggis for tea (Saturday) - that turned into Sausages, Mash and Carrot/Turnip BUT it did mean that I had to 'declutter' items from the f/freezer - so WAS productive, in a way . Also 'decluttered' a pizza from f/frezer for dgs1 at the same time :rotfl:.

However, major fail on Sunday - having been cooped up all day Saturday, I needed to get dgs1 out of the house and took him to A$da to do some 'whoopsie hunting'. Brought home some whoopsies - 3 loaves (1 immediately got sent home with dgs1 for DD), pack of fruit crumpets, pack of scones (got used for Sunday evening tea), 4-packs of Lucozade x 2 that dgd1 will use up when she stays (likes to take a 'sports' bottle of Lucozade to school with her). Although they weren't 'necessary' they were all things that will have 'saved me money' in the long-run - I'd rather pay 30p per bottle for Lucozade than £1+ from the local newsagent.

Finally finished off the last curtain in the bedroom (2 windows with matching curtains) - I've adjusted the 'heading tape strings' and the windows are now looking much smarter. Curtains had been lying around in a box for a year - since moving here - so this has been a job well-done :j.

I've been working on a 'full inventory' of the contents of my freezers. First of all, I made a complete list of what's in them - then made a Spreadsheet that organises everything into 'food groups' (Bread / Vegetables / Potato Products / Ready Meals / HM Soups etc) and has columns stating 'Food Item' / How Many / Which Freezer.

It's now complete - quite scary when you see what there actually IS in them - and has now made me determined to 'eat from freezer' whenever possible to get it all used up. I want to be able to 'get rid' of the large 'charcoal-grey' fridge/freezer which 'over-dominates' in my tiny kitchen. The plan is to get another wall-cupboard fitted above the space - and to then find a smaller white f/freezer which will fit below the wall cupboard. Obviously, I can't do this until I reduce the contents of the offending f/freezer ..............

Might take a trip to the CS that I work in later - can drop off the items that I've put to one side - plus it'll give me chance to collect 'my pinny' (needs washing before Wednesday) that I accidentally left there on Thursday.

Keep up the good work everybody - looking forward to seeing all your progress when I get back - speak later - Lilyplonk xx

charlies_mum

Morning all :wave:


36 Ebay items out today. Off to work so no decluttering today. Did go to an auction on Saturday, but the majority has been sorted, priced and is out for sale.


Have some furniture to paint this week, and more to list on Ebay. Want to sort the space by the freezer, and then on to the hall.


Happy decluttering everyone

Chocolatedrinker

I'm a late starter this year. I have got a load of books and kids toys out to the charity shop in the past week. Also some spare clothes to DDs nursery as they don't fit her any more but should do for other children.

tiny_courageous

sorted out my make up this morning and slimmed it down into one bag (there were 3). Also slimmed down the jewellery boxes from 3 to one (keeping one of the boxes though as storage for hair grips etc), with one pile for the charity shop and another for ebay.

Mumof2_2

Got rid of a big pile of old magazines, old fleabay receipts, empty envelopes and general old carp - all of which belongs to DH :T. Always more to do but have to be careful and not chuck out too much as it arouses suspicion iykwim (DH hoarder extraordinaire!)