2019 - A Clutter Free Life

Blue_Doggy

Siebrie wrote: »

They started out at a leisurely pace, but have stepped it up when they saw how much time it took, and how exhausting it was, for my Aunt and Uncle ...

They are also still helping Aunt relocate stuff; Uncle has since died, and Aunt is now sorting through his stuff. He was Head of a University Hospital Lab, doing research with 250 staff, and had many interests besides (Chinese, atheism, etc). She is grieving, and getting rid, and can only concentrate for about 15 minutes as decisionmaking wears her out.

I’ve found that the emotional exhaustion is at least as much as the physical, and makes it difficult to sort things quickly.

Among the stuff there are always what I call “timebombs” - little things (insignificant to others) which out of nowhere grab one by the heart and activate the tear ducts.

Has your Uncle’s University an archive which would be interested in his papers?

Wednesday2000

I've read about Swedish death cleaning before.

Three pairs of leggings will be donated tomorrow. I will look through my wardrobe again as well and my husband's wardrobe too as I'm sure there are certain things he never wears!

I've used up a lot of stuff lately, shower gel, shaving gel, deodorant and my lipstick will be thrown out.

I'm going to go through my paperwork to just keep the last 6 months of bank statements.

Wednesday2000

I decided to keep a year of bank statements.

I put six pairs of leggings in the donation bag along with some pyjama shorts and a vest top.:)

bit_by_bit

Not much decluttering done in the bit by bit household. In fact the whole house has descended into what my Scottish friend calls a midden. Over the last few days DH and I have cleared out DD room, filled and sanded the crack lines on the ceiling and painted it and also laid a laminate floor. We have moved a set of draws and two cupboards in but nothing is in anything right now.

Tonight I will begin putting stuff away in a planned fashion and empty some of the boxes. Henceforth DD room is now to be known as the sewing room.:j:T:j

So this will be my project all week I think. I need to get it done by the first weekend in October when DD comes home, she will be sleeping in a tidier Room of Doom.

Also this week I am organising the MacMillan Coffee morning at my place of work on Friday. Luckily I have a lot of help After that I am off to weekend a way in a friend's caravan with three of my old nights colleagues. We always have a relaxing time so I think I will recover from all the activity.:)

villagelife

Not much done today so far as been working but

1090 book to League of Friends shop.
1091-1092 lunch box and lid of DS2 girlfriend taken back to her house after about a month here.
1093-1094 two old blood donor cards
1095 some photos
1096 negatives
1097 paperwork
1098 some old body lotion.
1099 an old file

Happy_Kitties

DD has been efficient before going back to uni and sorted out the airing cupboard. There was way too much stuff in there (mainly DDs! )

357-367 items of bedding and towels x 11 taken to the vets. They put out an SOS for items
368 big bag of plastics-recycling
369 mug binned
370 dominoes dip disposed of-plastic into recycling
371 sample shampoo and soap put to good use
Seem to have really slowed down, need to get sorting again.
Have a rag bag on the go and collecting items for the CS. Would like to hit 500 before Christmas


184 neutral items sent to charity

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. SMALL TASKS WILL BE DONE ASAP
2. I WILL LEAVE A ROOM TIDIER THAN WHEN I ENTERED
3. KITCHEN WILL BE LEFT CLEAN & TIDY EVERY NIGHT
4. WHEN DEALING WITH CLUTTER I WILL USE ‘Daisy1571’s idea of ‘WHAT WOULD I DO WITH THIS ITEM IF IT WAS SOMEONE ELSE’S ?’
5. IF I WAS STARTING FROM SCRATCH, WOULD I BUY THIS?
6. BE LIKE A POSTAGE STAMP - STICK TO ONE THING UNTIL YOU GET THERE

Apologies for not posting yesterday - sheer laziness Monday was showery with some bright spells it a summers day compared to today :rotfl: However I did manage to do 40 minutes of weeding on both days - have weeded the front kerb/road area in front of both next door houses as well as ours. Have also started weeding the pavement on our side of the road - 10 slabs down, 84 to go :eek: DSis has spent most of yesterday & today in her room watching N*tfl*x.

Did some telephone banking & made a chicken based soup with lots of freezer los. Absolutely delicious & plenty for at least 2 more days lunches. Cheated tonight - takeaway pizza

DH has almost finished making the hose box planter:T

3397 - 3416 Four drinks cans, 2 glass bottles & metal caps, 4 lots of cardboard packaging, torn foil, plastic pot & lid, newspaper, 2 cardboard boxes, food can, paper packaging, 3 instruction booklets - Recycled
3417 - 3427 Coffee tin of kitchen detritus, plastic tray, 2 lots of plastic packaging, 5 empty plastic sacks, uu pen, uu glue container - Binned

Oh dear Teresa - a bit of a drastic way to finish up with a hobby :rotfl: Are you going to take up mosaic work Hope you recover quickly

Hello :hello: Mrs Arthur Crown, welcome aboard the Decluttering Bandwagon :T I am a fan of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning - it sounds so ominous but the article I read last year was very interesting & I like the idea that you are the only one who knows what to declutter so why leave it to someone else Re the letters to & from Capetown - Might the school like the correspondence? Another option is to scan all correspondence & the diaries & dispose of the originals - it will take up far less space & you will still have memories etc that you can read at your leisure. Re the certificates & school prizes - is there a local historical society that might like them?
Re your own clutter - just promise yourself that you will try NOT to bring in any more clutter & can I suggest you read my post #3205 on page 161 - there are a few ideas that might be useful. I know you can do this but remember it has taken years to accumulate the clutter & will take a while to get rid/tidy your clutter. Slow & steady wins the race

GreenQueen - I know you can do it now you just have to tell yourself that you WILL succeed in your decluttering

Thank you Siebrie :T:T A timely reminder to us all that it does take time to declutter but if we persevere we will start to see a difference

Thank you Blue Doggy, a great idea to label items that you need to revisit - as you say the sentimental ‘stuff’ can catch you unawares. Your dad’s photos sound really interesting & will be a lovely journey that you can take on those long miserable winter evenings that seem to be fast approaching

Well Done Wednesday2000 :T There are quite a few of us who seem to like the Swedish Death Cleaning idea :rotfl:

Excellent work bit by bit :T You must be ‘sew’ (ha ha) looking forward to completing your sewing room

Well Done villagelife :T still decluttering :T

Well Done Happy Kitties :T You must have felt a warm glow at being able to answer an SOS & to add to that I am awarding you a Gold Star ⭐️

If the rain holds off tomorrow, I will do another stint of beautifying our close

MrsSD
3427/4038

[Deleted User]

Still sorting out PC but have been through online calendar and have found outs dates for 3 previous apponyments and operations as cannot find paprwork for 2 of them, was able to declutter the files, some duplicates etc. and informed dd of the dates so big weight off mind now, just waiting for consultant app now. Using food from freezer to make room for ready meals when out of hospital and am so pleased I have done lot of Xmas shopping, will have to start wrapping etc so it is all done and dusted before Xmas. Have put clearing Mum's stuff on back burner for now until I am more mobile but have decided to take to CS after all now, also asked at hairdressers, student training place, if they would be interested in set of heated rollers and some curing tongs, they said yes so as soon as I am able to get up and at it in a few days I will drop them in.

bit_by_bit

Nothing out of the house the last few day but made 5 apple and blackberry crumbles and two vats of soup with all the veg and fruit hanging around. Some of it was donated (apples, cress and rape leaves), foraged (blackberries) and homegrown (spuds) plus some veg I bought to make it all up. Dead pleased with the results.:j

I was also made cheesecakes yesterday. I made a big one and a small one with free double cream my nephew gaves us he cleared out the work kitchen for stuff going out of date. There was a lot of it, two four pinter so some has been frozen. :T

DH emptied a box with kitchen items in from when we had the kitchen done. He rehomed the lot and I am using the empty box for recycling.:T

And yes Mrs SD, I am sew excited about my sewing room. I have two projects I want to do by winter. Turning wool jackets into skirts. Looking forward to the moment I can get on with it.:D

Catcrazy

Hi, back again and have read through the last few weeks (!) of posts. I couldn't log on!
Have decluttered a large amount of paperwork , must be 100+ sheets shredded and still more.
So 132-232 papers shredded .
232 -blouse to C/S - nice but I have a similar one.
233-trousers to C/s too long and difficult to shorten,they would just stay in wardrobe.
234-large bag of weeds to green bin.
235-pyjamas to C/S.
236- box of cat food to animal charity collection
237-238 cat scratch mat and blanket above charity.
239.broken cup in bin
Thanks to you all for encouragement.