No buying until I’ve used up ALL my stashes

London_1

My soap stash seems to go on forever.because my eldest DD travels to the US about every three months she always comes back loaded with hotel 'freebies' as she only uses her own particular soap.So they get donated to me   I can't remember the last time I actually had to buy a bar of soap.I'm not fussed though as they get often stored in underwear drawer and nighie drawer  so do a double use

The upside of not being able to go to the shops properly since Christmas is I am slowly working my way through the large stockpile of dried and tinned stuff i bought in case of bad winter weather at the end of November !

My upstairs spare book-shelf stash is slowly being brought downstairs to go in to my cupboards, and I must admit its quite liberating not to have to go shopping for food.

My freezer is still about three quarters full so that too is being slowly whittled down.

My two DDs get me any fresh milk, bread or fruit,veg etc so I think when I do eventually get to go food shopping I will have a bit of a shock.  but my food bill has dropped quite a bit ,as my appetite is a lot less than it used to be. I still have a good stash of tea bags and coffee so no problems there.

My grandson Henry is possibly moving out from his parents place, and moving to London to live with his brother in August, a lot less to pay commuting as it costs him around £500 a month at the moment train and tube from Kent to the City, and when in     London only £3.00 a day,great deal of saving in both time and money.
 
 DD will only have one son still at home from the four, as the other one lives at the school he teaches at in a residential boarding school in Kent. The youngest Mikey is at Uni in Essex for another two years so our duel house move will now be brought forward to possibly next spring.
Decluttering bits and pieces, and eating up from the food stash is more and more important as we are moving to the Isle of Wight, so the less stuff to pack the better.

I'm using up as much as i can before buying anything to store foodwise,no point stashing large amounts of stuff . I really didn't realise how much stuff I had stacked away

I shall be minimising almost everything from now on I think and finding homes for lots of stuff to cut down on the packing. Slowly reading through my bookshelves then bagging up for the local charity book shop.
Everything must be minimised this year.

JackieO xx

YorksLass

Now we're halfway through the year I wondered how everyone has been doing with this challenge?  I mentioned my focus would be on toiletries, cleaning stuff, knitting yarn, fabric stash and stationery.

The toiletries and cleaning stuff are under control i.e. I haven't bought any more although the cleaning supplies still need a bit more whittling down.

Stationery has been pruned and I've even gone through all the Xmas-y stuff with surplus gift bags/wrapping paper/cards donated to the charity shop.

The knitting yarn has gone down to a more reasonable level - some has been used and some has gone to the CS.  Now, I'm not saying I haven't bought any more - of course I have  - but there's more gone out than in, so I'm happy with that.

The fabric stash is a different kettle of fish.  At the beginning of the year I cut out a pair of trousers and even bought elastic for the waistband but, guess what, they're still waiting to be sewn up!  I think my choices here will have to be (a) make more time and effort (b) move this to 2024 and try again (c) be more ruthless and get rid (one way or another).

Over the winter I borrowed some paperbacks from the Little Free Library; these have been read and, even better, all but four have been returned.  They'll be gone over the next couple of weeks too.

All in all, progress has been surprisingly good.  

Siebrie

I'm working through my pantry, eating down the flour, pasta and tomato sauce stash.

Hair product stash for me has gone down, for dd1 (15) has gone up. I need to concentrate on actually finishing a hair product before I start finishing the next one. We're off to a fortnight at my Mum's, and I'll take 2 almost finished spray bottles with me.

I'm working through old notebooks for shopping lists, to-do lists and packing lists. I don't like making those lists on the backs of envelopes or other scrap paper.

mandy47

My haircare stash has gone. Just buying what I need.
Shower gels all gone now using bar soap.
Tinned goods down to about half of what I had in January .
Freezer worked through everything and will soon be stocking up for winter months.
I've crocheted 4 blankets so far this year and off they went to the charity shop along with pictures that haven't been on the wall for years. 
Cleaning products still a work in progress. 

Siebre, I'm doing the same with old note books. Surprised how many I had but I do love a list. 

London_1

Back home from my holiday and stopped at a farm shop before getting the ferry yesterday and bought some fresh veg plus a lovely (expensive ) but looked delicious ginger cake as a treat.
 6 huge fresh free range eggs £2.75 but they will last me a good while as I'm trying not to go near a shop for awhile. I am slowly getting through the tinned stuff but I have such a lot and coming home DD said \Oh you take these Mum as I don't want to leave them at the holiday house' as apparently the cleaners bin them so I had some tins of veg and fruit plus a few other bits, so no need for a foray to the shops today.
Freezer is about three quarters full, so nothing to buy there either.I also brought some fresh milk home, plus a carton of UHT so no shopping at all if I can help it.

 I batch cooked some stuff before I went away for the freezer, so plenty of meals there.
 I go into hospital in just over two weeks time hopefully for my op so as I'm not sure how long I'll be in for I am keeping a firm hold of my shopping as much as possible.

JackieO xx

jackieblack

Well done everyone 👏🏻

I’m failing miserably at this 🤦🏻‍♀️.  

Life has been ridiculously busy and, between work (I’ve transferred into a new role which I am enjoying but is very demanding, with 11 hour days needed until I get to grips with it), grandparent duty and dutiful daughter duty, I am lucky if I get half a day a week to get my own housework done, so anything other than the bare minimum of absolutely necessary tasks has simply gone out of the window….  School holidays are imminent, however, so I may get a couple of extra days per week for a few weeks 🤞🏻

I’m also not sleeping well - this time of year I wake up when it gets light (despite blackout curtains 🤷🏻‍♀️) so I’ve been waking up around 3.30 for several weeks (although recently it’s been closer to 4am and this should gradually improve further over the next few weeks), but I’m feeling the effects of this and the extra hours at work at the moment.

YorksLass

Good to hear of your successes - or otherwise, as the case may be!

@jackieblack - I thought you hadn't posted for a while.  Don't beat yourself up, you've a lot on your plate right now.  The stash busting can wait until you have more time.

@London_1 - I might have known you'd go for ginger cake, it must having been calling you!     Take it easy, hopefully you'll be up and running again soon.

London_1

You are so right ginger cake and biscuits are my secret pash

 I brought some Guernsey fresh milk and double cream back from my holiday, very naughty but so delicious
We stopped and Briddlesford Farm at Binstead, the one that Alan Titmarsh showed on his TV programme about the IoW.
The family run farm is lovely and you can see the animals the milk, cream and  cheese etc come from.
 
I also brought some of their cheese back, plus 6 fresh free range chickens eggs that were pricey, but I had one with some bread and butter yesterday for breakfast as they were huge eggs, also delicious and a deep almost orange yolk. I did splash out a bit at the fa:) rm shop but have nothing to shop for this week at all so I am eating well with a little bit of fresh farm fruit and veg as well. I'm building myself up for my op. on 1st August so I figured a little treat will make the next fortnight whizz by (fingers crossed its not cancelled).
I've sliced the ginger cake up into two portion slices and frozen them so I will eke the cake out for well over a week

Tomorrow I have to have some blood tests done , and possibly some other tests to make sure I'm ok for the op. but I don't mind as the quicker its done the quicker the drain is removed its been in for 28 weeks now and I'm fed up with 'Dora the Drain'  
Just back from DDs after a lovely dinner, my son-in-law is a great cook and does a mean roast dinner on Sundays 

Right I'm off to bed for a read, so night night God Bless all here 

JackieO xxx

jackieblack

Happy 2024 everyone 🙂 
So, I failed miserably at this in 2023, but it’s a new year and time to ‘re-boot’ 

As part of my ongoing decluttering efforts, and to avoid unnecessary spending, I need to stop buying more and start using up what I already have.

My main stashes are:
1. Toiletries - two large plastic storage boxes full plus other bits tucked away around the house 
2. Cleaning/laundry products - I’m good at buying the stuff but not actually getting the jobs done!
3. Stationery - a particular weakness of mine 😳
4. Knitting yarn - at least two dozen 100g balls of DK and about 10 of chunky, mainly purchased to make for my granddaughter (who is now two!)
5. Dressmaking fabric - a chest of drawers plus two large laundry baskets full, at least half of this was bought to make things for my granddaughter but I haven’t had the time to do any sewing since she was born! 
6. Two freezers full of food - I plan to try and eat something from one of these every day until I can fit the rest into one freezer and then get rid of the very old one I was given as the seal is not good and I suspect it’s costing quite a lot to run

Cherryfudge

Morning, I followed this thread for a while and I too have stashes to reduce. Why do they seem to take so long?!

I am still using up some toiletries from years ago, but have gradually reduced a lot of them. I'm now wondering whether just to bin the ones that aren't shifting - things like a face mask I never get round to using as I prefer exfoliating plus serum or oil to treat my skin. They aren't really donatable as they're too old. I'm just not good at binning things rather than using them up!

@jackieblack, I have a yarn stash too. A really good piece of advice I was given was to have an easy project on the go (whether or not you have something that involves counting stitches and being awake enough to follow a pattern). If you have something you can just pick up and knit or crochet without getting hung up on tackling a difficult bit, you'll get through more yarn!