2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

Brambling

Can I join again please Mrs SD I started with good intentions in January but it frizzled out when I retired in May  I desperately need to sort stuff out, I've had to tidy the larger spare room so my sister can stay tomorrow night and that has just been transferred to the smaller room which I would really like to turn into a crafting room so I can clear my dining room 🫣. 

I'm hoping to get my hip declutterred in 2025, it means short bursts of decluttering inside and out rather than prolong work.  To have the op I'll need to take the decluttering of my waistline more serious and stop faffing with my diet 

Happy New Year see you in 2025

-taff

I'm in too. As I just realised yesterday when filling in forms for car insurance I am officially retired, then I need to get my harris in gear and sort out the stuff that has been hanging around and in a mess since the building work. There's a lot more serious decorating work to do [  plastering, electric etc] and I'd like to  not be moving stuff twice a week from here to there and back again.

I'd also like to help my sister declutter her house of my parents things, as my mother died ten years ago and my father six...[in 2025 that is] 

DOn't forget too, charity shops will take rag so anything they can't sell, they can sell as rag per kilo, just mark your bag up as rag and you've already done the work.

D123456789

Thank you @ Mrs_SD for starting a new thread, and for your kind words and support throughout the year, it is much appreciated!

LO is doing better than I am at decluttering, so she will join and I will accompany her! She decluttered toys early December, and we came back from Grandmas after Christmas and she’s been through clothes an is donating a Large bag full. Also she filled a bag with books to give to school. So proud of her! 

All the best to everyone for 2025 😊 ⭐ 

kayjay1809

Hi everyone. I’d like to join in, as I am overwhelmed by “stuff” and have no idea how I’m going to sort it. I have chronic pain so that’ll be a challenge but we want to move out of the village we currently live in, planning to rent for a bit whilst we get the house ready for sale and to try out new areas before committing to buying agin.  I’m a crafter and a collector, and ok - a bit of a hoarder. My husband and I have admitted to each other that we’re at the stage where all our stuff is making us actively unhappy and we want to significantly reduce what we own and live more simply.  I collect hobbies, but recent diagnosis’s of osteoarthritis and cervical spondylosis mean some of my hobbies are going to have to go (does anyone want to buy a room full of wool 🤦‍♀️). Every cupboard we open is stuffed full, things fall out. Every corner is stuffed full. We step over and round piles.   We couldn’t even put my Christmas tree up this year in the dining room as there’s no space. I’m ashamed tbh.  So….2025 is the year of change. I suspect we have 20,250 items to go rather than 2025, but 2025 would be a good start!   

Where do you start when it’s so overwhelming?:

weenancyinAmerica

@kayjay1809 - your house sounds like mine. And I have the same health issues you do. Even with two shots in the spine, the pain still keeps me from moving around a lot. Recently I have mainly been shifting papers as I can't move boxes very well. Going to call in help I think to help get organized. But they have to have somewhere to put it in order to move it and right now, there isn't room to even sort what is in any of the boxes. Someone on the another thread said she was diving her house into 25 zones for the year and was going to tackle one zone at a time. That may be the way to do it here also. If we just didn't have so many cardboard boxes coming in every week. But we have to have a lot delivered now and the boxes keep getting in the way. The spondylosis is the big problem, because all I want to do is sit. But I've started to crochet again, so I least I feel productive that way and I have been doing a lot of family history on the computer. But cleaning I do in spurts. I just need a cleaning crew to come in and get everything done once, and then I might be able to keep up with it after that.

CRANKY40

Hello and thanks for the thread @Mrs_Salad_Dodger. I'd like to join please. I've reached that age where you buy friends presents that can be eaten or drank because their houses are also full of "things". My son and I downsized when we moved to this house after I was widowed and we filled it then. Ten years later I have chucked/donated enough stuff to keep us ticking over but I don't like the cluttered feeling. 

To start with my declutter target is one thing a day for January. I've thought about listing each item and I may do that here and there but I'm likely to get impatient and listing everything will take a while so I thought I'd count by room instead. We have a kitchen, living room, three bedrooms (mine, my son's and one which is now my craft room) and a bathroom. We also have a brick shed which is part of the house - the tumble dryer is in there but so is a pile of stuff because it has two big shelves and there is a wooden shed down the bottom of the garden. 

I had knee operations in 2023 and 2024. I can bend my knees now 😊 but the rest of me is seizing up so gently does it. I have a lot of cake making stuff because I did bake a lot but having to lose weight for my knee ops and the fact that it hurts to stand up for long enough to make anything worth having means that hobby has bitten the dust. My sister has taken two bags of cake things from the pantry but they're now under my son's bed until my sister comes back in the car rather than flying (June 2025 supposedly). 

I've already put the Christmas stuff away so that I can start as I mean to go on in January.

tibawo

@kayjay1809
Starting is always the issue and for me it’s thinking that it will only take a day or so to sort! Remind yourself that it probably took days/weeks/years to get into the state it has so it won’t be done overnight. 

I have decided to take photos and then in a month take another so can see the progress. For me i am going to work on a rule of three.

Firstly i intend to load the dishwasher and put it on the 30 min cycle.

1. Like others i do an area of each room so will work on ten mins in there.
2. Will also do ten minutes upstairs to music doing random bits.
3. Also ten minutes on random bits downstairs.

Empty the dishwasher. I normally sit down doing nothing constructive while it’s on so hoping this method gives me some focus!

tiddles

Please could I join again this year? My target is 2025 items 🙂

pollys

Please could I join you?

I took early retirement in the summer but really need to get some plans in place. We are having a new kitchen and bathroom this year so that’s two rooms we will need to clear.
plan is to start at the top of the house and work our way down.
Pinching another members great idea and will take photos of before and after. 

C_Charlie

Hello all declutterati!  I've lurked for over a year and would love to get around to posting something in 2025.  Multiple rooms of doom, thousands of books and organisation based on the 'heap' principle (3 piles, one for things which need doing, one for things which need filing or putting away and one for things which need disposing of) is not leading to a calm and collected body, mind or spirit.  I'm sure no-one saw that coming.

Thanks to everyone for the inspiration in 2024 and to Mrs S_D in particular for setting up the thread again. It seems that my only super power is procrastination.  Maybe 2025 is the year when everyone on this thread can help me transform it into motivation to find my decluttering mojo. Looking forward to the journey.