2026 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

PollyWollyDoodle

that sounds like a great opportunity - a bit like the warehouse in Sort Your Life Out - it’s easier to see what you really need/want when it’s all together. Good luck, and you’re lucky to have such kind neighbours.

weenancyinAmerica

Sounds wonderful to me. I have absolutely nowhere to do any sorting except on my bed. Which of course has to be moved at night so I can go to bed. It is so frustrating. Have fun with all of that available sort space.

Baileys_Babe

What a great opportunity, Laura, something many of us could do with from time to time.

Laura_Elsewhere

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82160793#Comment_82160793

that's exactly the situation we have, Nancy!!

It is really kind of them (we are paying them the month's rent, though!)- somehow they fit two adults and THREE children under 5 into the tiny flat! They are delighted to be moving just a few hundred yards to a two-storey 3-bed house with a secure back garden!

We're going to be carrying bags, boxes and furniture down two flights of stairs, down the outside steps and a few hundred yards to the new house- and repeat!! :)

Cherryfudge

I hope you are able to feel you are making the most of it, @Laura_Elsewhere - it's not an opportunity that comes up very often!

I think, if it happened to me, I'd be wanting to know what things belong in the past. I'm not at all good at letting go! There are also the things you rediscover. I've just found some items of clothing bought this year or last and forgotten till I came to set aside summer things for storage. I've no idea how much I'd find if I sorted the whole house out! I'd also have to be very strict about how many rediscovered books I put to one side with the illusion I was about to read them.

I hope you're more skilled at this sorting and decluttering business than I am, and I'll be interested to hear how it progresses (and any tips)! 😊

thriftmonster

How great for your neighbours to get the house with a garden and a great opportunity for. Looking forward to hearing how you get on

PollyWollyDoodle

I am no expert at decluttering, as my house would show! But I did the MarieKondo thing a few years ago, in fact I think that's what brought me to the MSE Forums. A couple of things I learned: some things belong to a person that I once thought I'd be/hoped I'd be, but I can recognise that I am not going to be that person. Yes, I would love to be someone who speaks Italian fluently/does cross-stitch/makes their own bath bombs (you can insert your own past hobbies here) but the reality is that I only have so much time and if I wanted to do it badly enough I'd have done it by now. So - maybe you can let the Italian dictionary, the cross-stitch kits and the bath bomb ingredients go. There'll be someone on Facebook or Freegle or wherever who will snap them up!

Secondly, keeping things that I never wear … if you look in the wardrobe and instinctively pick something else every time, there's a reason. Is it itchy, too tight, needs a modesty camisole, doesn't go with anything else … do you need to keep it? Reducing my clothes has actually made me look much smarter because I only wear things that fit and which I feel comfortable in. Likewise the smart work clothes that I'm realistically never going to need again, I am really happy that I will never have to go to a formal dinner or sponsored event again.

I hate waste so it helps me to know that things are going to a good home (and some of these things will sell on Vinted if you can be bothered, or will be snapped up on Facebook) but I have to accept that sometimes hanging on to things is just deferring them going to landfill - because that's what will happen when I pop my clogs. I'm very conscious of environmental issues but you shouldn't let 'analysis paralysis' stop you from decluttering.

Do you need it? I've got a certificate to prove I got a degree, I don't need the copious handwritten notes which are now hopelessly outdated. Did you know this was here, and would you have been able to find it if you needed it? Frankly if I'd forgotten that I had a widget for getting stones out of horses' hooves (I'm joking) I probably didn't need it in the first place, and if I haven't missed it, it can go.

So my advice would be to go with gut feeling: does this thing, whatever it is, make you feel happy, excited, optimistic, enthusiastic? Or does it make you feel sad (old love letters), angry (letters about a complaint you made), grumpy (clothes that no longer fit), guilty (stuff you bought and haven't used). Hanging on to it won't change those feelings. It will hold you back in life.

Finally you might need to give yourself a moment to mourn these things. Don't dismiss the feelings, acknowledge that it was once useful/wanted/needed, but that you've grown and moved on, and so it can go to someone who will appreciate it and use it.

Good luck! Let us know your progress, although it sounds as if you'll be busy helping them to clear the flat first.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Brilliant post about decluttering PollyWollyDoodle 🤩

PipneyJane

Such wise words @PollyWollyDoodle. I have bookmarked your post for multiple re-reads.

< rant >

I am not a tidy person. Heaven knows I try, but i can put a pen down on an empty desk, turn around and it’ll look like a bomb has hit it. Annoyingly, I’m married to someone who is even worse. My DH files things on the floor. It may be in a bag - say a collection of board games - or neatly stacked, but it doesn’t have a real home and is getting in the way. Even more amazingly, since he’s an engineer who has worked in manufacturing, he’ll use something, put it down for a moment, and never put it back where it belongs, e.g. the knife sharpener or the kitchen scissors. Nor will he remember what he’s done with it. (This is the man who, a week ago, let himself into the house while I was working late, came upstairs to say “hello”, then put his car keys down somewhere, has no recollection where, and later demanded that I tell him where he’d put them. I have no clue; I was on a call when he got home.)

Ideally, everything needs to have a home. I know that if something isn’t dealt with or put away immediately, it will never get done. I also know that if you have to move stuff in order to get to other stuff or to put stuff away, you’re less likely to do it.

< / rant >

I have a confession to make. I was out and about on Wednesday evening and dropped into C0stc0 to buy DH’s porridge. It was quite chilly. Somehow, I found myself drawn to the coats on display and ended up buying a heavy-weight, black, DKNY puffer coat for £59. It’s waterproof, with a fleece-lined hood, and very warm. Totally “black market”, since I’m out of coupons. Did I need another coat? No. Will it get worn? Yes. I’ll probably wear it to work in the colder months.

• Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

They're taking longer than they thought to empty the flat (which we expected!) so it's going to be next week before we start sorting- @PollyWollyDoodle like Pip I have made a note of your excellent advice. Much of it is what we already intend to do but having it written down like that is really helpful!

I am steeling myself to let go of clothes. I keep on hanging onto something tatty because "I can get more wears out of it- I'll wear it under other things…" but I need to just get rid of anything that is past its realistic lifespan… and clothes I made that don't fit me, or which are great *except that..* they are too long or too short or they sit wonky, etc.

my fab reversible dress, made in January, is a good example- I have actually kept it as a dressing gown and it's come in very useful, but as a dress I made some poor decisions: the heavy box-pleats in both fabrics at centre-back pull the whole thing backwards as a dress, the skirt is too long, the overlap is too generous for a dress (but ideal for a dressing-gown!), etc. In that one case, I could change its use, but I have other things which I need to just admit were Learning Experiences and let them go… the red linen pinafore is lovely but weighs two tons and the pockets are only just wide enough to fit my hands in. I don't wear it- as opposed to my Acorn Fairy dress in my fab 1970s Laura Ashley needlecord (thankyou again @thriftwizard ) which has its own flaws but which I absolutely live in during autumn as it is so comfortable and practical, plus total strangers stop me in the street and in supermarkets to tell me how much they like my look :)

so… I need to be ruthless with the failures, and jettison them…