Decluttering!

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iloveshopping said:
I find the local Facebook groups good as well to either sell or giveaway stuff
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Thankfully there are lots of options both for social media users and refuseniks.


I've just taken a whole load of pictures of my clutter so I can visually check my progress. The before pictures should then help me to keep from straying too far.

I do think, however, because a lot of cluttering has emotional roots, its important to try and pinpoint your own motivations for removing clutter rather than demoralising yourself with a "one size fits all" approach. We do most things in life from our own unique personal standpoint, so it stands to reason that a generic solution will only be a partial success... And of course, because life keeps on happening, it is always a work in progress.

Anyhoo, this is becoming a displacement activity - so I'll press on with the job at hand!!!
 
Progress! I went to make lunch, including sort of pickling some salary ingredients. I've still not had lunch but have binned tons of condiments and store-cupboard ingredients which were well over their sell-by dates. I have tidied and organised 3 little shelves in 1 cupboard and cleared, cleaned and organised 2 open corner shelves. Off to dump all the recycling I've just generated between rainshowers.

Then I'll attempt lunch again... Who knows what will happen next?
 
Well done May....I'm proud of you...know what you mean about different clutter/different reasons -Mine has been down to a combination of tiredness as I work full time and pure laziness, mix that up with buying stuff I don't need, keeping presents I've not liked, or have been absolutely no use to me..but as you say, there's not a "one size fits all solution".....but I think it is good to share our experiences and offer each other tips. I guess when it comes down to clutter we all have our own tipping point so to speak. Historically I could sit in a pile of chaos and dare I say it - dirt for weeks/months and then suddenly "snap" and blitz like a lunatic. This time around I can honestly say this is the longest time I've actually managed to keep up the good work...it does help that we're getting our bedroom done out soon and someone's coming next week to measure up and give us an estimate, that does give me an incentive. Seriously though, I really think that presents are a lot of the problem...yeah, we all buy ourselves a load of crap we don't need 'cause it was a good idea at the time, then realise that it wasn't and pass in on or throw it out, but when you think that somebody close to you has put some thought in and chosen something you think you'd like, and spend their hard earned money on it, and you really don't like it, it becomes difficult...regift it and you've got to be careful you don't send it back to the person who sent it, throw it out, seems cruel, donate it...still feels a bit wrong...so it just hangs around gathering dust, taking up space etc etc. Think it would be great if present giving was restricted to comestibles...ie a bottle of wine, or something to eat, or vouchers where you can choose something you actually want..but to be honest we'd be better off not gifting at all, or only buying pressies for the kids! Got a make up set last year, it came in a large carry case, the make up inside was pretty crap, there was no room to store it, and it's not very attractive anyway...It took me a long time but in the end I ditched it..but felt so bad 'cause the person who bought it for me knows i like bright coloured eye shadows, and lipsticks..but I've got plenty to keep me going and they're a good quality brand...I'd have been happier if she'd just bought me one good quality mascara, or a lipstick....could've popped it in my handbag and used it every day! Trouble is, one mascara doesn't look like much of a gift, whereas a whole vanity case chock full of stuff, does! It's taken me years to finally get rid of this horrendous picture one of our friends gave us just after the place redecorated, was so worried that he was gonna ask why it wasn't up yet, he didn't but we kept it just in case...Last week I dragged it out from behind the wardrobe, nearly choking on the dust in the process, and I threw it in a skip up the road!
 
Bravo, Merryone!

You are so right about presents from others being more difficult to deal with compared to what we buy ourselves.

As well as my small victory in the kitchen, I've cleared some floorspace previously filled by magazines I'd never opened. They are in the recycling and out of the house.

I've also made a start on slimming down my towels, tomorrow I'll be adding clothes to the recycling bag.

I eventually ate around 8pm... So much for lunch!

I also did 5 hand washes for very delicate and embellished clothes and 4 washing machine loads. My Saturday was very productive. My Sunday won't be as virtuous, as I'll be off to watch the Para Athletics at the 2012 Olympic Stadium. Really looking forward to that!
 
I ended up washing the kitchen floor this morning, and depriving myself of a cuppa :mysmilie_512:

Spilled water from my water filter jug everywhere except in the kettle. Heating element where you put kettle in the stand currently drying out and kitchen floor mopped and cleaned.

Another bag of paper and cardboard recycling by the door. I've also cleared and sorted a trolley in the kitchen on which I store teabags and pasta, and cleared the top of my kitchen cupboards. More stuff to throw out! It is shameful waste but stale and out-of-date food items can at least be composted... And I know I'll never get any other benefit from it otherwise.

Still tons to do, but now have visible results in kitchen and living room to spur me on. I call that solid progress. Just going to take a couple of pictures to commemorate these signs of progress.
 
Have now cleared some floorspace in my spare bedroom. Recycling bag now full, and a new charity bag filled too - clothes on this occasion. I'm on a roll!
 
Watch out for rats if you are composting food at home. If you are taking the food to the tip to be composed then no problem
 
Thought I'd start organising some of the stuff in the bedroom cause I've got to store some of the stuff when the bedroom finally gets done...I thought I'd finished but I went through all the boxes on top of the wardrobe, there was 6, and I've managed to whittle them down to a mere three. One was full of towels, most of which were old and crispy, so I threw them out, another bedlinen, one even full of single bedding from when the kids were still living here! I also had a china bust of a head, with a straw hat plonked on top...think I only ever wore the hat once, and that was the day I bought it! So, those were both put outside to be taken. Got rid of 3 china ornaments that were dotted around...they're abstract shapes and would probably look great in the right setting but just randomly plonked on shelves with books etc just looked out of place, so they went....a pot of pens in glass jar...put the pens in a plastic bag and put them in my now highly organised junk drawer, two old hot water bottles, one in a very tatty and dusty cover, found at the back of the wardrobe...and some more tatty old clothes -and there was me thinking I'd finished! Threw away even more bottles of stinky perfume, and took all the books off the shelf and gave them a jolly good dusting. The wardrobe has clothes hanging a few pairs of shoes in the bottom and the shelves have neatly folded sweaters etc....No more random stuff just crammed in willy nilly...and I gave the ceiling a jolly good hoovering too...Looks so much clearer...Don't know how I thought I was done....I'll keep going!
 
I'm now reading a book called The Art of Discarding by Nagisa Tatsumi. Before I read it I came to the conclusion I have too many storage solutions. She has just confirmed what I suspected is true for me... If you have storage you don't stop acquiring stuff, you just break your own rules about what goes where. Some of the strategies simply aren't relevant as I haven't kids to worry about. But she's onto something with postponement behaviour, treating things as sacred, using temporary storage that becomes permanent. Guilty as charged on all offences.

I'm combining what I think and the advice in this book and one by Marie Kondo. They are both very helpful on the decision-making process. Both are Japanese, but that isn't a problem if you are looking to find strategies that may work for you.

I've now got an extra incentive as my brother and his OH are planning a visit in 4 weeks or so. An hour of going through things every day could save me having to say I've no room for guests (currently the case).

I am passing many possessions under review at present. I refuse to tidy up right now, why tidy something when it may be sent on its way instead?
 
Just filled a Tesco carrier with novels off my shelves to take to Tesco for their charity book sale. None of which I have read but 'will I'? Will read books off my kindle from now on. Instead. Our house is just too small for the amount of stuff we have. Also half filled a large sports direct bag with more clothes. I have treated myself at John Lewis to clothes that fits after losing weight so have gone through my latter stuff again and disposed of more. Eventually if I keep at it, I will see a difference in the house.
 
DunmowDizzy said:
Just filled a Tesco carrier with novels off my shelves to take to Tesco for their charity book sale. None of which I have read but 'will I'? Will read books off my kindle from now on. Instead. Our house is just too small for the amount of stuff we have. Also half filled a large sports direct bag with more clothes. I have treated myself at John Lewis to clothes that fits after losing weight so have gone through my latter stuff again and disposed of more. Eventually if I keep at it, I will see a difference in the house.
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This is exactly the problem we have, however I've got a friend who lives in a pretty large place and it's always cluttered up to the eyeballs! Ok, their son still lives at home, so there's an extra person, but he's got his own room, and pretty much all of his stuff is kept up there, but the big difference is, is that if they decided they wanted to have a good tidy up, they've got plenty of spare room to store stuff, so they probably wouldn't have to throw things away in order to make space! My place is pretty small, fortunately I have a really good sized hallway, and to be honest if I didn't we'd be in a right state, as in it, I have a wardrobe and a chest, a small built in cupboard, two coat rails, umbrella stand, hanging key rack, hanging letter rack,shoe rack, and a couple of shelves, I am also able to store my recycling in pretty boxes on top of the wardrobe,and there's space for the hoover to stand. I dread to think what we'd do if we had one like so many other people we know..which is a tiny little square the size of a postage stamp. The stuff in the hallway, is stuff we actually need, and use on a daily basis. I'd love to have a room where I can have my exercise bike out all the time, or a utility room, have to keep the ironing board tucked in behind the wardrobe in the bedroom, the laundry basket takes up valuable space in the bedroom and before I decided to get on top of all the laundry, you can imagine what chaos I was in!!!! My advice for those who live in a small space is obvious, but get folding/compact versions of everything....and get anything you can wall mounted!!! and make sure that your beds have storage space underneath - Oh, and stop watching the shopping channels lol. Keep up the good work folks, and keep on posting!
 
Had a fella come round to look at us having a fitted bedroom done. He measured up and from the get go he had a real "no can do attitude" and just kept saying stupid things, like "You've not got much room in here have you?" and "there's not really much you can do here is there?" and I'm stood there thinking...Mmm that's why I called you! He asked me what I was hoping for, "Not much I said" ...."basically I'd like the bed to be accesible from both sides. with perhaps wall mounted bedside shelves...a fitted wardrobe here, would like the tv and box mounted on the wall and a small chest of drawers/dressing table"....Well you'll not be able to put your bed anywhere other than the place it's is in a room of this size, there won't be room to get past the bottom of it, oh and a fitted wardrobe here, not really, when you think a standard wardrobe sticks out so far, your bed will have to be right up to the window. I said well I'm not thinking of a standard wardrobe, I'm hoping for a fitted one which is the length of the whole wall, with sliding doors....."Oh, no we'd not be able to put sliding doors in, the ceiling slopes, you'd only be able to have standard opening ones, and then you wouldn't have room to open them! So really your only option is to leave the bed where it is...we can do you a wardrobe where your wardbrobe is now and maybe a slimline chest of drawers on the other wall....'er that's what I've got anyway d'oh!!! The whole thing is I want my bed to be accessible from both sides!!!! Well, there's not much we can do for you love, I'll send you a picture of what it would look like if you did....I said yes, ok you do that...and off he went! I don't know where I got the strength from, cause I've tried and failed so many times..but I shifted most of the furniture into the hall and to the back of the room and turned the bed right round...and yep, there most certainly IS enough room. Got rid of a load more crap, cleaned the now exposed skirting boards. Shunted the tv table and chest a little bit further down the room..and hey presto...a workable bedroom...Ok, it doesn't look great 'cause it still needs a refurb..but it looks no worse than it did and now at least I don't have to clamber over my husband to get in and out of bed...I can lay in bed and watch telly without having to sit bolt upright 'cause he's blocking the view!!! The beside table is now tuckend neatly beside the bed in the corner and not jutting out beyond the end of the wall...and now the storage boxes can be put under the bed from both sides instead of having to cram them all in on one side and shove everything up! All in all pretty damn pleased with myself!
 
I declutter regularly and it's usually prompted by the local air ambulance charity bag coming through the letterbox. I've donated brand new clothes with the labels still attached because I've bought something and then decided I don't like it. Ditto brand new shoes and boots. I also put things in when I've bought them on BOGOF because I only wanted one of them. Unwanted gifts have also found their way into the bags. Obviously I also donate clothes that I will no longer wear although they are still in good condition. Over the years, since moving here, I've reduced three wardrobes of clothes to one and a half �� but I'm hoping I don't start filling up the spare half.

I find decluttering quite therapeutic, but it's also embarrassing to see how much stuff that I've bought that I didn't need.
 
This weekend is clothes weekend. I will get out every item that's neither at the dry cleaners nor in the laundry basket. They will be piled up on the living room floor and I will be going through every single item. If I can manage it, I will do a shoes and bags session midweek A(some of my Kipling bags are also in the laundry pile).

I already took 5 large bags to a charity shop this afternoon.

My idea is that I will get out of the house ASAP everything I am discarding.

Next action will be to download the music magpie app so I can see if I can dispose of books, CDs and DVDs and get something back for them. Oh, and get the phone number for my local Dogs Trust to see if they can use my of duvets (no down or feathers). If yes, I've about 3 to donate.
 
maymorganlondon said:
This weekend is clothes weekend. I will get out every item that's neither at the dry cleaners nor in the laundry basket. They will be piled up on the living room floor and I will be going through every single item. If I can manage it, I will do a shoes and bags session midweek A(some of my Kipling bags are also in the laundry pile).

I already took 5 large bags to a charity shop this afternoon.

My idea is that I will get out of the house ASAP everything I am discarding.

Next action will be to download the music magpie app so I can see if I can dispose of books, CDs and DVDs and get something back for them. Oh, and get the phone number for my local Dogs Trust to see if they can use my of duvets (no down or feathers). If yes, I've about 3 to donate.
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Well done to you, and once you're done, you won't look back...I gave away most of my cd collection once I bought a hard-drive music system, and yes I've still got a few shelves full of cd's and dvds, but i's not overloaded...Now I'll only download music and transfer it to wherever I want it, and as for dvds, haven't bought a new one for yonks and I intend it to stay that way...quite happy with netflix for that kind of thing. My decluttering now has reached a hiatus now - The place looks heaps better, though I would still like it to be a little less cluttered but in a small place, it's quite difficult and if I were to throw anything else out, I'd be doing it for the sake of it and chucking out stuff I actually want to keep...So for now I've just got to concentrate on "maintaining". What I'm trying to encourage my husband to do, is to only buy replacements for things when they're run out instead of stocking up beforehand, or buying bulk bargains of stuff we don't need yet 'cause they're cheap at the time, cause the stuff has to go somewhere...so when I've spent hours decluttering the bathroom shelves it's quite disheartening to come in and find he's bought yet another tube of toothpaste, three more deodorants and a four pack of baby wipes and another couple of bath foams when we've already got enough of these products to last us at least another couple of weeks! I'd rather go a day having to improvise (ok, not on toilet paper lol) and buy replacement products when we actually need them..It wouldn't be so bad if I had a spare cupboard to put all these "bargains in waiting" but I haven't, they just get put on the shelves with everything else and before you know it, you're re-cluttered! Next project for me is to give the venetian blinds a really good clean and the windows whilst I'm at it...maybe tomorrow though I'm a bit tired today!
 
The one thing I want to do though is buy some different storage boxes to go on top of the wardrobe in the bedroom....As you know I managed to whittle six boxes down to just three, which is great, but they don't look very good cos they're different shapes and designs. I thought, I know I'll buy another four of the same boxes I use for my re-cycling, which are ivory coloured wicker look lidded boxes, they look really streamlined and nice..went to have a look and they've changed the design, yep, they're still quite pretty, but they don't come with lids any more, so you can't stack them - How annoying. I've looked on line for the same ones but every where I've found them, it's says "unavailable" ....grrrr! So I'm stuck with my mish mash of non matching boxes...Just a little thing I know but very frustrating!
 
This evening I have another 4 bags ready to go to charity. The shop will be open tomorrow, so away they'll go in the morning.

I've pretty much done the stuff hanging in the wardrobe and reduced it by a third. I'm going to move on to socks and tights in the morning and may even have another bag to go with the 4 waiting by the door.

I find it relatively easy to get rid of clothes, so the cull is going quickly for me, though it might seem slow to some. I don't want to wreck my progress by knackering myself, particularly my back

Once I've done my errand to the charity shop I've got some planning to do to discard some electrical items, having found a charity that may be able to take them; a phone call to another charity for some other stuff, and research where to get rid of textiles. I'm trying not to send too much to landfill. On that note, I find it very frustrating since the 5p carrier bag charge was brought in that it is impossible to find anywhere to recycle plastic bags. How is it progress when all the plastic bags, not just carrier bags, have to go in general waste to decay over 1,000s of years???

For storage I have found that I like fabric covered lidded boxes from IKEA best for clothes. I also use others of their storage items as sectional storage in drawers. I also have very utilitarian lidded translucent storage crates from there as well. For nicer lidded storage, Lakeland are normally very good. For the time being I'm not buying more storage as I strongly suspect that when I get to the end, I will have more than I need!

I'm now going to plot how I will reward myself! It won't be by going shopping, that's for sure...
 

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