Decluttering

Believing I was moving, to a more modern (warm, quiet, secure, brand new still smell the paint) apartment,for over 55’s for which I well qualify, I decluttered with reckless abandonment, gave/threw away/donated stuff much of which I had ambivalent feelings about, packed everything with great zeal, gave notice, told everyone I was leaving, (encountered indifference and not one offer of help although ready to accept anything I didn’t want or did not have further use for)

Booked removals obviously, no deposit required luckily.

I declined the flat for many reasons, came back heavy hearted and disappointed, to a packed up ‘home’
stumbling over heavy boxes, cannot find anything, missing various items which I distributed like Lady Bountiful.

I’m resolved now though, until Im away over Christmas/mid January, to further declutter,
realising that I do not actually need 3 spare feather duvets just in case, large pasta pans, granny’s china, 184 tea towels (used in packing) curtains I have humped around for years and never hung, pictures which have lost their appeal for one reason or another, costume jewellery, and boots - I have enough boots to stock a shop! how does this even happen - now would be a good time to donate them to my local Hospice Charity Shop and I will.

Over the last few years, I have been half heartedly decluttering, thought sometimes - I could never ever ever part with this, whatever it is, for sentimental reasons, remembering the giver or the circumstance.
Then my daughter would really really love it/them, ownership changes and I don’t give it another thought.
Possibly because it is still ‘in the family’ or possibly because
in photos of her home I can see whatever it is settled in it’s new home.

I see there are the germs of several satellite threads here ^
removals, housing associations, unreasonable expectations, cost of bubble wrap, tape, paucity of small boxes, not enough gin …

I always think that we imagine we are buying into a lifestyle.

The old percolator percolling, husband strides in "Oh, a lovely cup of coffee, made by my favourite wife! Mmmmm"
Wife reaches up to kiss manly husband, wiping her hands on her pinny...

Vs "Am i the only one who actually checks things around here?"
"Eh?"
"I said - I've just found a mouldy filter in the percolator again!!"
"Well, I don't use it, never liked it much"
"Well, in that case I'm going to stick it in that greasy cupboard, next to the George Foreman, Breville toasty thing..."

Why do we keep it all?

I love my coffee percolator but haven't used it in 20 years.

I know what you mean, regarding the hassle of new things.

I'm quite upset by having people in, moving stuff, cleaning up, and so on.
I used to get cross with my mum for being the same, but I now understand a lot better.

You could always get a declutterer in, to do all of the sorting before or after the kitchen refit.

Or both!

MissAdventure

Seriously, my toms were only about two years out of date, so just be careful about keeping some things.

A new kitchen!!! Excellent. Is it coming soon?

Not until after Christmas.
I think I'm too old for the hassle.

Seriously, my toms were only about two years out of date, so just be careful about keeping some things.

A new kitchen!!! Excellent. Is it coming soon?

Oh! I've got out of date tins f tomatoes in the cupboard!
All needs to be sorted before the new kitchen arrives. Don't know if I can face it.

A word of warning.
I had what may have been a very slightly out of date tin of tomatoes explode, in the food cupboard.

It made a terrible mess, and all for the sake of a 15p(!) can.

I would try one and see. I'm a firm believer in the 'sniff it and see' method, and am still here to tell the tale.

When we went through my cupboard I was astonished at the way my cleaner wanted to throw out unopened tins and jars that I would hold onto for another ten years . I wanted to create space, so did get rid of a lot, but not so much on the grounds of date as on the likelihood that it would get used any time soon.

My plan is to not buy so much in future, although I'm out of step as usual, as everyone else seems to be talking about building up supplies in case of cyber attacks (or worse).

I think it might be safe to eat them, but I bet they'd blow your hat off! Also, they may be a bit 'bendy'.

Nicer to have some freshly pickled ones, I think,with a lovely crunch when you bite them.

Well, the electric jar opener worked well albeit being a bit scary to use! Couldn’t get the Culinaire one so ended up with a Chinese import. The question is, is it safe to eat pickled onions that have been unopened in a jar since 2013 because I haven’t been able to open it? I think they’ll be going in the brown bin next week. I’ve waster so much food over the years from not being able to open the jars. Huge thank you to whoever recommended them.

Annoyingly they don’t seem to sell them in supermarkets any more. I bought some, pre lockdown from Aldi/Lidl. I’m also sending away for a couple of those fabric bags that hold carrier bags as I keep bread bags to double wrap food to freeze. The greengrocers that I used to go to that I wanted to use them for closed down during lockdown.

The wall coat hooks are to hold the vegetable bags that I’m going to put scarves etc in.
Those bags are great for yarn, especially all those leftover bits of yarn.

Ah, well you are making good progress, then.
You won't see it until everything is in place, where you'd planned, and tidy.

I think when everything is everywhere it's easy to lose heart, but you've a light at the end of these particular tunnels to aim for.

Let's hope your dog enjoys her mini break, too.

The wall coat hooks are to hold the vegetable bags that I’m going to put scarves etc in. Also leggings that I struggle with because I change size all the time and I never know if they’re short, medium or long. I’ve bought trouser clip hangers so I can hang them up and see straight away what length they are. I’ve just sorted lots of toys to take to a charity shop. I need to ask the gransnetters that work in charity shops if any of it isn’t suitable. My partner is having our shared dog next week for a few days so I can go to the charity shop etc. She doesn’t have separation anxiety as far as I know but,as a lockdown dog, she isn’t used to being left alone and I can’t be sure that she won’t rip up the sofa if I leave her in the living room and I don’t want to risk it.

This time of year is always messy, with packages and things indoors, and leaves and such outside.

So long as you have a plan for all your new things, it's another step forward, I'm sure.
Once they're all in their rightful places, containing the right "stuff", you'll be glad to have them.

If I wasn’t so ashamed of it I’d post a picture of my rooms. Every room looks as though I’ve been ransacked. Just had some stuff from Amazon. I tried so hard on principle to not use them but I can’t. I’ve bought the wall coat hooks, vegetable bags ( that I use for storage as well as shopping, small hessian bags to put moth balls in and and electric jar opener as I’m always throwing food out because I can’t open the jar. And a carbon monoxide detector. My last one stopped working and it’s downright stupid not having one, especially as I’ve had work done on the gas meter. All that I haven’t received are the coat hooks but they’re not being fitted for a week or so. Spent ages working on the garden but haven’t achieved half of what I wanted to do. Tidied the shed. I have glass jars in there which, if I dropped them would cause no end of damage. Why aren’t I using plastic containers? Still haven’t thrown much away though.

Today is a non starter, here.
The flat looks as if it's been ransacked, and I've not been feeling well, yet a-bloody-gain

Sorry - I edited and some of the above post is nonsense - I hope you get the drift.

I can understand people not wanting to throw away something they might need (to be fair, that's probably true of most of us on this thread), but why do people keep huge piles of old newspapers and takeaway cartons?

I have made good progress today. I tackled the huge pantry cupboard and sorted out the contents into numerous IKEA bags - the big blue FRAKTA ones. they are back on the shelves, but so that I can get at the contents, but when the carpenter is ready to fit the drawers all he needs to do is take them out. It took the cleaner and me working together flat out for over two hours, but we did it.

The top shelf is still to do, but we thought it would be safer for Mr Dog to do that. His contribution today was to take around six bin liners to the tip. They were filled with out of date food and old appliances such as a toastie maker, a popcorn machine etc. They had all been replaced, so were either tatty or just broken - why they had been kept is anyone's guess, but they have gone.

I'm going to the carpenter's workshop tomorrow to check on progress, and to remind him that he promised to have the job done before Christmas.

The charity collection people are coming on Thursday (again). As they didn't turn up (or didn't ring the bell, at any rate) last month, the bags went to a charity shop instead. I have nothing much to put out this time, so my next challenge is to sort out items to go out. It's hard work, isn't it, but I like it when I can see results.

I'm intrigued by hoarders.
They are so frustrating to watch, sometimes - climbing over mountains of old newspapers, and obsolete, broken items, insisting that they need them.

There's virtually always some trauma in their past, though, that they carry around as closely as their treasures.

What I find a bit depressing about these programmes now is that beautiful items, china etc are dismissed and it's the ugly old items, battered, sometimes, rusty which seem to be all the rage at the moment, the kind of stuff you'd have thrown in a skip.

MayBee70

Allira

Been trying to declutter cupboards and the attic. Now the DC have said they'd like us to keep some for them so back it goes!

However, watching The Travelling Auctioneers this evening, I realise our house is quite minimalist!
What a lovely man, what an extraordinary collection.

A friend of mine is going to feature in the programme in January but I wasn’t sure when it was on so that’s worth knowing. Thanks. He said he found it more intrusive than he expected in that they wanted a back story to it etc. In the early hours of the morning for inspiration I rewatched an episode of Clean It, Fix It, my favourite decluttering programme.

A house can be stuffed full of collectables, curiosities and antiques but they only seem to pick out a few items.
It doesn't make any dent in the decluttering process.

However, I hope your friend does well, sometimes they make thousands, tonight was just a few hundred £. I would have bought the screen to add to my clutter!

Currently watching tonight’s episode of Only Child on BBC. Think I need to watch the whole series. In this weeks episode they’re decluttering the house.

Allira

Been trying to declutter cupboards and the attic. Now the DC have said they'd like us to keep some for them so back it goes!

However, watching The Travelling Auctioneers this evening, I realise our house is quite minimalist!
What a lovely man, what an extraordinary collection.

A friend of mine is going to feature in the programme in January but I wasn’t sure when it was on so that’s worth knowing. Thanks. He said he found it more intrusive than he expected in that they wanted a back story to it etc. In the early hours of the morning for inspiration I rewatched an episode of Clean It, Fix It, my favourite decluttering programme.