2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

tiddles

Thank you for my stars and medal, Mrs SD, and also thank you to others for your comments on my question about how to cope with potential declutterring of items in good condition that may be useful in the future. 

I think I am just going to keep plugging away at getting rid of things that are definitely not needed for now, as I have plenty of stuff to sort through! I’ll try to do a little every day. This thread is a real inspiration!

TC77

@CRANKY40 and Mrs SD thank you for your encouragement and approval to count dd2's items that pass through my hands ( and some kept for the time being) but yes without my encouragement would be gracing surfaces somewhere.
I will tell Dd2 of her gold 🌟.  Thank you. She flies next Sunday and has gone to friends and then her dad's for a few days and back tomorrow.  
Have major frogs which need abit more.than nudging at the moment and noticed yesterday I was procrastinating and wondering around the shops ( nothing bought). I did clean and tidy the kitchen , although this is ongoing in nature.
Have book club tonight and reading my suggestion which I haven't finished. So that and frogs priority. Ordered dd2s 21st pressie A she will be abroad , a camera to be picked up Tuesday. She's suggested we go out with our cameras this week. I bought myself one about 6 weeks ago but got stuck with attaching the strap so yesterday navigated this and charged the battery and threw away some packaging and also some paper pikes.. Will update later.

London_1

Well the patio chap is almost finished, just got the pointing to do tomorrow .There were a pile of slabs left over from the job and I was thinking I'd have to take them to the tip, but DD said I'll stick them on MarketPlace and see what happens There were 58 altogether so it would have meant several trips .

Anyway she put them on Friday night and on Saturday morning a chap offered the asking price (I hadn't got a clue what they were worth.)
 DD looked at the price of them new, and said we'll put them on at half price.:)  11,00 am on Saturday morning the chap picked them up in his trailer ,and I was £120 better off.

So promptly went with my son-in-law to B&Qs and we bought a new watering hose on a wheeled  reel for £70 so still  £50.00 in pocket and have a brilliant hose for the garden

Our outside tap is at the front of the house as the kitchen is at the front.  win-win.  Apparently the slabs are enough for this chap to make a small patio in his garden so he was more than happy to take them away and I've been spared a job of several tip runs and we now have a super smart hose Decluttering at its best  

JackieO xxx

Soontobeoap

London_1 said:

Well the patio chap is almost finished, just got the pointing to do tomorrow .There were a pile of slabs left over from the job and I was thinking I'd have to take them to the tip, but DD said I'll stick them on MarketPlace and see what happens There were 58 altogether so it would have meant several trips .

Anyway she put them on Friday night and on Saturday morning a chap offered the asking price (I hadn't got a clue what they were worth.)
 DD looked at the price of them new, and said we'll put them on at half price.:)  11,00 am on Saturday morning the chap picked them up in his trailer ,and I was £120 better off.

So promptly went with my son-in-law to B&Qs and we bought a new watering hose on a wheeled  reel for £70 so still  £50.00 in pocket and have a brilliant hose for the garden

Our outside tap is at the front of the house as the kitchen is at the front.  win-win.  Apparently the slabs are enough for this chap to make a small patio in his garden so he was more than happy to take them away and I've been spared a job of several tip runs and we now have a super smart hose Decluttering at its best  

JackieO xxx

Have you checked out wightbay too. The islands equivalent of eBay. You can buy and sell most things on there very quickly. The best way to recycle on our beautiful island.

daisy_1571

gosh yes, slabs are always required by somebody so tipping them would be a bit of waste, so glad somebody came and got them.  Even a few slabs can be useful for someone wanting to finish a little job  😀 

Tiddles, I've been pondering your question too.  I think the idea 'but it could be useful' is a very difficult one to get over.  When, like most of us, you've ever had a time in your life when you couldn't afford something, the idea of voluntarily getting rid of something you might need in future is really tough.  Heres my tuppence worth for any items causing a little anxiety when you think of getting rid.

If you genuinely can't see yourself actually using it in the next year BUT it WON'T disintegrate in storage, allocate a box, mark it up as storage, put a note on it and write down item and date then set the box aside somewhere out the way but accessible. Then move on, continue with the decluttering.   Add any other things to the box as you find them, keeping the list going.

If the item is likely to not last in storage then yes, you need to make a decision sooner.  If you don't have the space to store a box for a year, again a quicker decision needs to be made

Once you've done several passes round the house, once like is with like, once you are getting better at identifying the things that for you can go, once you have a better idea the amount of things you have in each category you might find you can 'shop from home' in that box (maybe several boxes by that point) and that you do need the item.  Maybe in 5 years you'll revisit the box(es) and find its easy to let them go now.  If you have the room, no problem, continue to keep them.   If you need the room the boxes take up, then that's a different decision, item versus space gained. 

There's lots of different questions to ask yourself:  do I actually like it, is it useful to me in my current life, if I had to replace it could I find another easily,  could I afford to rebuy this item if I should suddenly need it again, could I find it easily if I need to use it, if I keep it in the attic will it start to disintegrate in the cold/warm cycle up there, could I access it easily in a year or two from my attic or will I have to get somebody to bring it down, is it more useful to someone else right now than me keeping it, do I already have enough of this item to keep me going for the next x years, does this item do something unique or do I have something that can do the job of several individual items, am I keeping it only because I paid a lot for it, am I keeping it because of the memory attached, is the memory a positive one, does the item make me feel guilty by either keeping it or by getting rid, if I'm keeping it to sell will I actually genuinely try to sell it.

Hooe this is helpful to anyone out there, I try to remind myself of this stuff from time to time.

Dxxx

TC77

@daisy_1571 very helpful post as I and many others I know struggle with Tiddles difficulty. 

I showed dd2 a house I quite liked but I agree as she pointed out our house is much nicer and it still has the issue my occupational therapist friend has told me to avoid next time which is steps up to the house.  I will keep an eye out in case something perfect comes up but resigning to staying here prob for a couple of years and then will know whether dd2 will move back for a few years. This means I have lots of space ( in theory but in practice I still find things to trip over). Where I have def abundance I have put some in a donation pile and some in a box and will review in a year etc. 
As I think dizzy said moving the things from for sale to cs can be difficult but the working out of the cost of your time is helpful.
Ploughing on with frogs for the time being.

charlies_tribe

Afternoon all. I couldn't get on before we went away and then weve spent a fantastic week in Cornwall.
 Luckily it wasn't as hot as at home. We've all come back exhausted as it is so I can't imagine we would have managed anything if it had been in the 30s like at home.
Only thing I've decluttered is a broken spade. DC5&6 had their 16th birthday on holiday and have bought some ornaments with birthday money. When they got back yesterday DC6 cleared off their shelf of school things to put the ornaments on but I haven't sorted through the piles of books and paper they brought down yet.
I did 2 loads of washing last night, just put it on the line and its just thrown it down. It's staying there though. 3rd load of holiday washing is in the washer. 

I have caught up on all the posts this morning and Cranky, you've almost changed my mind. The DC asked to buy a kitten together with their birthday money and I said absolutely not. Your bundle of fluff is absolutely gorgeous 😍

Right, phones on 12% so suppose I should Empty some more bags and find my phone charger. 

diminua

Running at six items over - mostly because I went round the charity shops last weekend looking for skirts and dresses. I rarely wear either but will in heatwaves. Also I'm off to Southern Italy in a week - it will be even hotter there but not as muggy, which I can live with - and will take at least one dress. 

tiddles

Thank you for your very helpful suggestions Daisy. I have taken a screenshot of your post so that I can refer back to it 🙂🙂

Dizzycap

Afternoon all  Great going with all the wonderful decluttering folks! 

charlies_tribe - I hope you had a lovely holiday and by the looks of it, it was! 

I finally managed to off load the car full off to the local CS at 1pm this afternoon after a full mornings worth of rain, which has done the garden good!  We're off to watch some tennis on the iPlayer while I clean up and re-organise what's left to list / sell. Wishing everyone a splendid decluttering Sunday!  Ta-ta for now xx