Put away your purse & become debt-averse

wishingthemortgaheaway

Here's my decluttering list for today: (not doing your challenge as explained previously, but still getting things out of the house:

1 bag of 2-3years clothes to charity shop
1 bag of random stuff to charity shop
1 small bag of school uniform passed onto a friend after another friend dumped it on me the day they moved house
2 packets of swim nappies gifted to a friend who has just adopted
1 broken coat hanger binned

Foxgloves can I ask a random question?
How do you store coat hangers when they are not in use?
They drive me potty, I can't cope leaving them in the wardrobe.
We don't have a utility room (I know how I want to store them if I ever get one)
I've tried bags, I've tried boxes. Everything just does my nut in.

foxgloves

Great decluttering, Wish. Re coat hangers. I just keep 2 or 3 spares in my wardrobe, but I do have a stash stored. I have one of those vintage Lloyd Loom ottamans in the bedroom. It belonged to my Nana. I think it's probably 1930s, so expect it dates back to her getting married & setting up home. It's old, but useful. I store my out of season clothes in there, & swap over around April & end of September. I also store currently used coat hangers in there, so they are out of the way & not clogging up my wardrobe, but are easily accessible if, say, I want to put a few in the guestroom, or need an extra one of a particular type.
There was a lovely ottoman at Mum's house, which I think was woven from seagrass or similar over a metal frame. I wish I hadn't let it go to house clearance now, as they are so useful for storage, but I hadn't really got a space for it.... & I still haven't.
F x

wishingthemortgaheaway

Thanks for the response. Not one that will work for me (our ottoman is used to store camping type bedding - sleeping bags, air beds etc (for now, may change things round a bit when the building work is finally finished) but something to think about.

Thank you.

foxgloves

I can identify with the camping-type stuff taking up lots of room, Wish. We've manged to get all our camping gear into the bottom section of the linen cupboard, underneath the shelving, but only because mr F is very good at Tetris. I only have to remove one or two items & find I can't fit them back in again.

Hello all,
I've zoomed around this morning getting the house cleaned. I was on my hands & knees scrubbing out the fridge last night at 8pm. We'd got our grocery delivery due to arrive & I must have just happened to look inside the fridge with the light at a certain angle & ewwwww.......I'm not one of these uber houseproud people, but I didn't want to think of our newly arrived supplies going into such a mucky fridge. Felt quite motivated by its squeaky cleanness today & cracked on with the rest of the house cleaning. Off for a potter around the garden in a bit, but just popping by to say I've successfully decluttered my 12 items for 12th July:
*5 x jam jars. This is not enough. My jam jar stash is out of control. I need to think about how much preserving I'm likely to do this year, given that it's nearly that time of year, then sort out my jars & lids & send quite a lot more to the bottle bank.I love making jams, jellies, chutneys, etc, & I do find it very hard to throw jars away. Must try harder while I'm still focused on my July challenge. I think I must have told you what happened once when I took a whole lot of jam jars to the recycling?
*1 x voucher for something I shan't buy.
*1 x invitation for a community event I thought I might pop into, but have now arranged to do something else instead.
*1 x draught excluder. We have a very draughty house & although I have a 'snake' which I made myself from an old door curtain (which was in turn made from patchwork from my fabric stash.....), I bought one of those double-sided draught excluders which slide under the door & insulate it from both sides. We did use it for a couple of years, but find that it's too much faff a) because the door is difficult to shut when it's in place & b) because it then slides out whenever it feels like it & I trip over the bloody thing. Sound like a piece of clutter to you? Yep, me too. It's gone.
*1 x lidded pottery container from my dresser. I think it originally held stilton or similar & looks nice enough, but is pretty meaningless. Wrapped for charity shop bag. Have replaced with a pretty jug from Mum's tea-set.
*1 x paper bag of scented wax remains saved from a big candle jar. I literally have to move that bag each time I go in that drawer for tea lights. I will use it to fragrance our house TONIGHT. Defo!
*1 x piece of stair rail. It is ridiculous that this is sitting in a drawer. It's fiddly to replace but not beyond the wit of womankind & I'm sick of seeing it. I will fit it by dinnertime today. Some soggy tissue & glue did the trick last time, sadly just not permanently. Oh, & I tidied up the drawer while i was in there, too.
* 1 x bus time table. I don't think I will use that particular bus atm, as I'd prefer to be using my bike more regularly & getting the fitness activity in of a couple of miles whenever I want to go to town on a weekday.
I am quite enjoying doing this challenge. I think the big jobs are going to be my half of the shed, my big home admin/financial box files, a couple of kitchen cupboards & the top of the garden (Mr F's big project still not finished, but to be fair, he does work full time & has spent a lot of time over the past couple of years supporting me with visits to elderly, poorly & dying parents, then helping hugely with all the house-sorting, etc, which followed. He's slowly progressing with it, & the local bird life is making good use of the space.....dunnocks & blackbirds nesting, etc, & robins & thrushes nesting somewhere nearby too).
OK, I'll wish you all a peaceful Friday night.....unless you're getting your gladrags on & hitting the town, in that case, have a wild time, but don't keep opening those purses!)
Cheers,
F xx

crazy_cat_lady

Inspiring!
I need to make August my decluttering month.

carrielovesfanta

foxgloves wrote: »

Another busy day (see above!) which I've enjoyed a lot, actually. In fact, I've only just come indoors for a cup of tea. I've had a garden day, mostly veggie garden maintenance & once the workman next door had turned off his chainsaw, I've really enjoyed all the birdsong & being among all the greenery. What an old hippy!
For anyone interested in these things - I know Kantankrus will be doing similar jobs on her allotment atm - I've tied in all the tomato plants, both the greenhouse ones & outdoor ones and salvaged a chilli plant which was broken by a very fat panicky baby blackbird, which got into the greenhouse THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR, but then simply couldn't find it again when it had finished having a nosy & wanted to go out. I've gone over some badly nibbled pepper plants in forensic levels of detail looking for caterpillars, but not a single one......maybe the baby blackbird snarfed them while he was trapped in there. Then I got some tidsy little scissors & made a really good start on thinning the grapes. I'd already thinned the bunches, leaving only decent ones on the vine, but now it's time to thin individual grapes off the bunches so that the best ones grow plumper & juicier. I enjoyed doing that. Very zen! I've also hand weeded the climbing beans, hoed two courgette beds, hoiked out a squash with a rotten stem (that will have been that incredibly rainy week we all had recently), raked the bed over & re-sowed it with radishes. Then another tray of lettuce seed sown, & a packet each of hollyhocks & pansies. Then as Sun & Weds are veg-feeding days, I fed everything, before harvesting another pot of mr F's first earlies & the first punnet of home grown beans.
I'm ready for something to eat now, followed by a serious sit-down & maybe a bit of knitting. I'm knitting mr f a pair of socks (he loves the funky hand-knitted ones) using up a variety of self-patterning colourways from my neverending stash, so it's nice to relax & be productive at the same time!
Anyway, must crack on. Take care all,
F xx

Life goals right here :happyhear

foxgloves

Awww, you think so, CLF? For my life goals at the moment, I'd just settle for getting my bloody novel finished! I think I'd feel quite inspired to write sitting out in the garden, but I have nothing to sit on...... so there we are, another silly excuse not to write right there!!
F x

foxgloves

CCL - I'm finding it really satisfying. It's surprising how many pieces of clutter actually turn out to be from silly little annoying jobs I intended to do but then shoved in a drawer instead. I've started tackling the shed.... there's a blimming lot of daily decluttering going to be coming out of there, I can tell you.
X

HairyHandofDartmoor

A lot of clutter is caused by unfinished business or projects. Well done on all our de-cluttering .

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foxgloves

Thanks, HHoD, I shall give subscribing another go. And, yes I agree that unfinished projects do create lots of clutter. Very true.
F