Decluttering

I've got to waltz around the kitchen with the fridge freezer next, to get the next bit of the rug in place..
After that, I'm going to have a nice cheese sarnie and a cuppa.

I’ve hit a wall again. Haven’t even wrapped any Christmas presents ( not that there are many to wrap) and still have a few Christmas cards to deliver. I can’t believe how much stuff there is in the loft. Going to try to have a whizz round for the next couple of hours and achieve something.

Good luck everyone, and Merry Christmas if I don't get back on the thread before then 🎄

We've all done really well - it's too easy to look at what we haven't got done, but this version of the thread started at the end of September, and look what we've achieved in three months! Every one of us has managed something, and we are much further forward than we were.

It will be a new year in a week or so, and whether we go in for formal resolutions or not, we can carry on the way we've been going, and this time next year we'll have made even bigger strides.

Two years ago I was finally sitting down after a very stressful summer of decluttering so that I could get the hall stairs and landing decorated and bespoke furniture in the dining room. That ended up meaning a new ceiling and floor, as well as a massive and ruthless 'chuck out', but it started with clearing out a sideboard.

Last year it was the kitchen and all the bedrooms (madness), and that ran right up to Christmas despite my determination not to have it happen again. This year it's been the bathroom and The Cupboard of Doom. It's real progress all told, and however stressful it's been when it was going on, each project after the first was made easier than the last because decluttering just does make things easier.

My mission is to get the whole house future-proofed as far as possible before I'm 70. I still have a few years to go, and I realise that if I live long enough I'll have to keep redecorating every so often, and things will continue to crop up as things always do, but I'm getting there. I have a few other projects on my mental list for next year. I don't have a Grand Plan as it would be overwhelming, so it's one step at a time.

Anyway, I've done enough for 2024. Here's a toast of your choice to us all, and to an ever more streamlined 2025!

MayBee70

I’ve hit a wall again. Haven’t even wrapped any Christmas presents ( not that there are many to wrap) and still have a few Christmas cards to deliver. I can’t believe how much stuff there is in the loft. Going to try to have a whizz round for the next couple of hours and achieve something.

The pile of stuff that has lived on top of my fridge freezer has ended up in a bag in cupboard Brian.
I tipped the whole sorry lot in, opened the door, and threw it in there.

I did throw away a dried out felt tip pen, though.

It'll keep until next year.

I can't think about it any more.
As we're planning a new kitchen for next year, the thought of that is making me anxious so I'll block that out until January.

I did throw away a dried out felt tip pen, though.
Well done, I bought a set of silver and gold pens from a card shop before Christmas and they don't work. Should have taken them back but they'll have to go in the bin. 99p wasted!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your kitchen, Allira. I agree that we all need a few days with our feet up first, though .

Well, I had a meal with my family yesterday; the long term plan was to get the living room declutterred and the meal was the target point. However, I was up most of the night trying to get the room ready. And ended up throwing stuff in bags and boxes and dumping it in other rooms. I’m shattered now.I’m looking after the grandchildren at my sons. At least I now have an almost normal living room and a clutter free dining table.My partners got the dog for a couple of days so I’ll start again when I get home tonight if I don’t fall asleep. Bit worried about my dog again at the moment ( she’s always getting lumps). It’s good to have a proper living room for the first time in ages.

It must feel quite luxurious, MayBee that living room.

I've done the exact same as you, and emptied clutter into any and everything, and thrown it into Brian cupboard.

I keep thinking, though, that there must be slightly less than there was...

I'm afraid I've fallen off the wagon and stuffed various things into DOOM bags (Didn't Organise, Only Moved) and they are on the bed in my daughter's room.

There is such a lot of moving things around over Christmas, and I was busy, so didn't put it away in the first place.

I'm poorly sick just now (that horrible virus that's doing the rounds), but when I get a bit more energy I will prioritise sorting out the bags. It's definitely an ADD thing, and it's very irritating, as when items go in a DOOM bag they all but disappear, and it's no easier to find homes for them en masse as it would have been just to organise them in the first place.

I know the top of my fridge freezer stuff consisted of screws, pens, a couple of hairclips, bit and bobs like that.

It's in my mind to just go and get that bag and put it in the dustbin, without peering inside.

It was the last thing I thought about before going to sleep last night.. how ridiculous!!!!

I started off so well but then my mum was taken ill at the end of September and everything stopped.

I have had a couple of weeks to recharge but plan to start again next week.I now have mum’s house to sort as well as she is in a care home.

I will start with the room DGS uses when he stays over as he has out grown a lot of his toys.

I am trying not to think about it too much as it is all a bit overwhelming.The houses are both tidy so basically every cupboard in two houses🤦🏼‍♀️😭

We've found bite sized pieces seems to work best for us, on this little thread.

Only making a mess in two places if stuff is to be moved from one place to another. (Not that we are experts! 🤣)

Doodledog

Brian has ready made enemies on this thread 😎. We are here for you.

I am dreading the necessary attack on wardrobes. Some may remember that I did this with a vengeance last year, but I need to begin round 2. I think it will be harder, as the things in there are the cull survivors so have an advantage of sorts.

The trouble is that I have knitted more jumpers (don’t they take up space?) since then, and have failed to lose the weight I’d hoped for, so here we are. I need to get rid of more😩

I am with you on that central paragraph! I did the same, tho in my case 1 and a half wardrobes full then, now I have to do the remainder and REDO the rest!
Unfortunately I have no Brian!
It’s too cold now … and I’m too tired…but I’ll do it ONE DAY! Will have to cos things are now on the floor and it’s beginning to look like one of those ‘hoarders’ programmes!
The problem started some 24 years ago when we moved house ..myself and youngest ‘child’. My eldest was at University, so was allotted the smallest bedroom which was fitted professionally, so when he did come back briefly tho tiny it was a room with all things for him ..desk, wardrobes, too boxes, shelves and bed. My youngest son was ? 17 and still at home so he was provided with a brand new fitted wardrobe down one side of the room , bed, bookcase, log table for computer/study, bookcase and TV and cupboard on which it stood. I was left with 2 elderly small wardrobes from the boys old room..which had been mine, bought in the 1960 s! You know the sort of thing ..white with slatted doors! I put misc furniture from my old house in my bedroom …and it has stayed like that ever since…I LONG for a proper fitted room with space…but no money. I now use my youngest’s ( 43) bedroom wardrobes, but they now contain coats and big items that I use but not often.
My eldest ( 46) returns with family from Japan occasionally and throws a fit if anything has been moved in HIS room! I now use it as a dumping room for Christmas things, accounts, etc … but all wardrobes are full with his things carefully boxed etc …similarly part of my other son’s wardrobes. I would of course like to dispose of all that to them, but youngest is single and a ‘minimalist’ and will be selling his apartment soon… so until he has done and has more space, not much of a chance to do that yet. Eldest is in Japan, so no hope of him taking all his Uni papers, etc, over there. They might return to the UK one day and then…
But I’m 79 this year, and living on my pension/ health benefits so it’s unlikely I’ll ever get my wish…. So on with the cull… er soon?

* TOP BOXES
** LONG table…
Must check before sending next time

I have Adrian, Brian, Colin (though he's just a cabinet) Lance, (his name changes often), and Carole.

All big enough to get into, all jammed full of clutter.

Colin the Cabinet . I'm sure there is a children's book or TV series in there somewhere.

Where are the missing toys? Have Brian or Adrian stolen them, or are they hiding safely with Colin the Cabinet? Tune in for tonight's thrilling episode. . . .

suelld: that’s how I am. Grown up kids stuff. Ex husbands stuff; his dad’s stuff. I think my kids are beginning to realise that they need to go through their things ( my DIL said that today: I’d always felt they were far too busy juggling work with children and didn’t like to ask them).

That is a lot of work Susan56.
But we are here to help with encourangement and support.

I am back now to decluttering.

More or less put the Christmas stuff back again into it's places. Decided while I was at that, to reorganise how I deal with large pots and pans.
Asked for advice on a thread I started, about that and other items.
Went with, decided to tackle them head on.
Someone asked how often they were used. Opened my eyes to every 4 months or so, so no point "hiding them away somewhere".
So made the space where some of them already were, more free, and added in all of them.
A nuisance that now a big cupboard shelf is largely taken up with them, but at least they are now tidy, dealt with, all together and I can access them relatively easily.

MayBee70

suelld: that’s how I am. Grown up kids stuff. Ex husbands stuff; his dad’s stuff. I think my kids are beginning to realise that they need to go through their things ( my DIL said that today: I’d always felt they were far too busy juggling work with children and didn’t like to ask them).

I am going to be more ruthless with my kids too, this year.
A surprising amount of stuff in the loft is theirs.
Fed up of it up there.

MayBee70

suelld: that’s how I am. Grown up kids stuff. Ex husbands stuff; his dad’s stuff. I think my kids are beginning to realise that they need to go through their things ( my DIL said that today: I’d always felt they were far too busy juggling work with children and didn’t like to ask them).

Grown up kids stuff
That's why the loft has more than suitcases.

It's my fault because we took it all down then I asked if there was anything they wanted to keep before I got rid of it. So some has gone back up there again.
Plus stuff they need to sort.

Doodledog

Colin the Cabinet . I'm sure there is a children's book or TV series in there somewhere.

Where are the missing toys? Have Brian or Adrian stolen them, or are they hiding safely with Colin the Cabinet? Tune in for tonight's thrilling episode. . . .

I remember reading a book about Alfred the grate.

Well I didn’t intend to start until next week but with the grandchildren’s help we have a clear shelf in one of the cupboards in H’s room.Yes, totally clear.I have been in to look at it several times!

I realise every day won’t be this good but a very encouraging start.

Oh that is good!!!
I think you're declutterer of the week, seeing as it's Friday.

You've certainly done more than me (nothing!)

I've decluttered one freezer.
We've eaten some (made soup and jam), I've thrown some which we'd never eat and some got spilt on the floor 😯

That's a good move.
I find trying to sort out, and potentially throw out food really difficult.