Decluttering

I've been meaning to get those coat hangers for ages.

I think a lot of shops are rationing donations these days. I've started using Anglia Doorstep Collections, as they pick up from the house and take clothes and bric a brac. You book online, and just have it ready for them on the collection day - you can leave it outside if you're not going to be in. The things get sold and a percentage goes to charity, so much like a shop after overheads. The charities vary from month to month, and you get to choose which one you support.

I've had to call a halt, for now.
I'm just not well enough.

Mind you, that Anglia collection...
Do you think they would come just for the Christmas tree?

Yes. They will come for anything. They do a whole postcode area on the same day, so will be passing anyway.

Oh I just looked them up and they don't accept Christmas trees.

On the plus side

I now have an empty sitting room, apart from the sofa, in readiness for the decorator. My son is coming back next Saturday to help put things back. I know he won’t want to put much back, especially the five small bookcases. If I move the sofa away on to the long wall away from the radiator, which makes sense, there won’t be room for the bookcases. And I can’t move the sofa once he’s gone. I have a week to think about it. Meanwhile I might get some sorting out and filing done in the study, so will be decluttering and shredding paper.

Oh, that's a shame about the Christmas tree, MissA. Good news about the fishtank though.

Emptying a room is a massive pain, but the best way to declutter, Cabbie. If you only put back what you want to do in, you are really left knowing what you can get rid of.

Yes Doodledog, but because the books are being stored in my late husband’s study, there will be no real rush to decide what to get rid of or to actually do so. I am going to have to be disciplined.

Books are hard.

I got rid of a lot of them last year, and found, against all instinct, that reference books, of the type that used to be seen as investments would be missed least. You can google now, and will get much more up to date answers than in the books I got when the children were small, so out went atlases, history books and so on. I kept some, but know I will rarely look at them, so they will go out in the next round. I hung onto novels and poetry books, as they stand a chance to be re-read (the poetry books in particular).

I also applied the £20 and 20 minutes rule, which applied to the vast majority of old books, as I don't have first editions etc.

It's really difficult though.

Books was one of the first things I did.
I sort of thought, if I dont do them nearer the beginning, I was not going to look forward to doing them later on.

I couldnt quite believe how much books date.

I didnt get rid of more recent ones, but most of those older than say 30 years old, personally, with the books I had, were quite easy to declutter.

I did keep a few. In case, the powers that be, past and present, might change "history", if they had a mind to.

We're doing a lot of decluttering at the moment, but finding it really hard to get rid of stuff. Some has ended up going to the skip because even trying to give it away free on Facebook or Gumtree etc proved fruitless. I do find it hard to part with books though. We had a big box left behind by my daughter when she moved out - she had a root through them and took a couple but said just to get rid of the rest. I advertised them on FB - there was a set of Harry Potter books and a woman said check in case any were first editions, so I did and several are, so I've put them aside.

Wow, they go for thousands now.

I wish books were easier to recycle - I love books & can't bear just sending them to landfill. I'll probably give a couple of boxes to Free Little Libraries, & our local Tescos also has a book swap. I have so many though - 2 boxes from S-i-L when I was going to do a carboot then didn't , 2 boxes from Son 1, one box from son 2, probably 2 boxes from me & DH - that's besides the shelves of books that I'd never get rid of.

A lot of charity shops won't take books now - I'm never sure why, as I'd have thought they'd be good sellers and people going in for something to read are likely to pick up something else they see.

Definitely get the HP books valued, MissI! They sound like a find. My children got all of them as they came out, but we passed them on when they grew out of them.

fancythat

They must all be different in that case.

Our local ones take soft toys, no problem.

But cant say I have ever seen arch files, box files etc.

We take everything, and I do mean everything
I thought I’d seen it all until last week.
A packet of small incontinence pads for a small dog 🤷‍♀️

Ew no!

I will guess though that it will get bought?!

I’ve got boxes of old hardback poetry books that I inherited from a friend. I always wanted to have a library room so I could fill the shelves with them. I don’t know what to do with them. I wish they’d been passed onto someone else. I thought when I retired I’d find time to read them but never did. I find old books beautiful.

It’s come to the stage now where in the past I would take clothes and toys from our shop to women’s refuse homes.
Now they can’t take any more.
From our charity shop I can walk to 3 others in less than 10 minutes. They are all doing boot sales.
They are selling clothes/shoes at 20P an item.
Last Monday I had to refuse all donations. We were at the unsafe stage in the shop and sorting rooms.😱
I’ve been aware of this problem for a couple of years.

To all that donate.
Please be aware that charity shops pay a high price for our skips to be emptied.

Doodledog

A lot of charity shops won't take books now - I'm never sure why, as I'd have thought they'd be good sellers and people going in for something to read are likely to pick up something else they see.

Definitely get the HP books valued, MissI! They sound like a find. My children got all of them as they came out, but we passed them on when they grew out of them.

I don't think they're actually all that valuable now. I was having a look online and they're certainly not worth thousands.

My favourite charity shop takes everything, like yours petra. In their loo they have loads of free sanitary pads with SIEMPRE printed on the wrappers. (It's Spanish for Always. 😁)

The shop is siempre 😏 my first port of call when I declutter. The other day I laundered a mattress cover and packaged it tidily and they were so touched because it could be put out for sale straight away.

I had a set of Books Of Knowledge and a large dictionary which dad bought off a door salesman back in the 50’s. Expensive back then, but he thought they would be useful education wise for my sister and me.

I ‘inherited’ them, they filled up shelves in the bookcase and were very heavy, no one looked at them but the thought of getting rid filled me with guilt.

Then a couple of years ago I found a charity shop that would take them. They said if they didn’t sell they would go for pulping, so that seemed less ‘wasteful’.

I felt so relieved, have never missed them.

Yes, that's exactly it. When we were young, books were seen as an investment - people had matching sets of encyclopaedias that cost a fortune, and they were the equivalent of investing in a PC 'for the children's education' in the 90s. The marketing surrounded the narrative that they were expensive, but worth it as an investment in the future.

Getting rid of them goes against all of that, and feels 'wrong' to those of us who were part of that way of looking at them.

Just like the computers that had 1 Gig of RAM and needed a separate room, the books went out of date, despite the promises of investment, though. Some subjects are more susceptible to change than others, but few have had knowledge stand still.

Also, there is something about a shelf of books, particularly those in matching sets, that appeals to people - probably more in the case of our generations than subsequent ones. My children use Kindles and Google, and have far fewer books than we do, even though they grew up surrounded by them. When the time comes for them to 'sort out' our things they will see our books as clutter. They may take a couple for sentimental reasons, but most will go to any charity shops that will take them, or into a skip with the rest of our things.

Calendargirl

I had a set of Books Of Knowledge and a large dictionary which dad bought off a door salesman back in the 50’s. Expensive back then, but he thought they would be useful education wise for my sister and me.

I ‘inherited’ them, they filled up shelves in the bookcase and were very heavy, no one looked at them but the thought of getting rid filled me with guilt.

Then a couple of years ago I found a charity shop that would take them. They said if they didn’t sell they would go for pulping, so that seemed less ‘wasteful’.

I felt so relieved, have never missed them.

I have that set, bought for me when I passed the scholarship.

The thought of them being pulped fills me with horror but I think a relative of DIL's might like them.