Decluttering

I am started to get excited too.

The loft I have left for the time being - DH has been happy with what I have acheived so far, though long way to go.

But I am about to start on the final bedroom.
Will donate about 3 pieces of furniture to my husband's shed. Which will make room for another set of beds for the grandkids when they come to stay.

Getting ro the real nitty gritty now.
(Brian)
Packed full with paint, tools, jackets, all sorts, and all jumbled up in a big floor ro ceiling mess.

PiscesLady thank you for that name. The toys are DDs' and only 2 ordinary bears and 2 dolls.. Nothing special.
They did have some rag dolls and other small bits which I passed on to my friends GCs. My friend who is a good sewer made some new dresses for them.
I want just good homes. Boxed games, Lego and Fischer Price well used toys have been passed on to family and friends. So what took up several big drawers now is condensed into a small suitcase.
It has been a wrench though as they would all have gone to my GC if DDs had had children. So that has been a little sad. And of course they reminded me of times with my DDs as littlies.

Thanks PiscesLady
You're right.
It takes up a surprisingly big amount of space in a tiny kitchen.
Out it goes!!!

Helterskelter - look at Vectis Toy Auctions if you want to sell your dolls and teddies.

I sold a lot of my childhood dolls and toys there a few years ago.
However your dolls may have sentimental value for you and then it is hard to part with them.

It sounds like a good candidate for a charity shop (or a gift). The mouli graters are a real faff to wash up and just not worth the effort. Get rid, as it will only annoy you every time it scowls at you.

Scowling, of course...

I've not felt up to decluttering, but need a few opinions from people.

My neighbour came in singing the praises of a cheese grater that you pou the cheese in, turn a handle, and out comes grated cheese.
Not to miss out, i bought one, used it once, and found it a lot of faffing around.

So, now, having been used once, its scowering at me from inside the cupboard, where it's taking up rather a lot of space.

Should it go? It should, shouldn't it?

Ah, good.
They'll be out of your way, too.
Done and dusted.
I've done no decluttering (yet) today.
I might tidy up the little drawer set by my bed, so i can clear up the sideboard (there's a reason why its there) which currently is covered in creams, clips, false boobs, hairbands... and "stuff".

I too have had exploding tins in the past - pineapples and something I could barely recognise that may have been peaches. I never witnessed the explosion, only the aftermath - YUCK!!
Out of curiosity I asked AI what to do. I learnt that you are not supposed to put milk down the drains because of the fat content. In the end I have decided to bag the tins up and put them out with general waste.

Good gosh.

Never heard of exploding tins.
Have heard of exploding bottles of home made elderflower wine.

Yes, it depends what it is, for me. Beware of black treacle though. My MIL had a tin of that in the back of a cupboard for eons and it exploded when she opened it. She had to have the kitchen redecorated.

I did my yearly go through of one of my freezers.
There were some frozen roast potatoes. I generally have a bag as a "keep in case" thing.
Well they were still half full.
I cant have had many emergencies on the potato front!
I said to DH we were going to eat them.
Date on them was best before June 2022.
We still ate them! We were fine.

Wouldnt recommend eating all out of date food though. Personally.

Oh karmalady, I admire your strength of character. Chocolate bars in any cupboard of mine would not last long enough to be hoarded.

I am just back from taking a full car load to the tip, I collected everything over a week, including good suitcases and sports bags that belonged to my husband, it was hard to let those go and I kept them for over ten years but I have a new found age-related zest. The older I get the easier the letting-go is becoming.

The physical effort does not change but will never get easier as I approach my 79th year and no way on earth am I leaving any of this sorting for my AC

My downfall is still having the post-war mindset of my mum, when food was scarce. The food hoarding has continued however my coffee beans and chocolate bars have increased in price so this sort of hoarding is better than money in the bank

A word of warning about keepng out of date tinnned food.

I had a tin of tomatoes which exploded inside my kitchen cupboard.

The mess, the sound!
I've no doubt that if I'd been holding the tin, it would have done me some damage.

So, on that basis, I'd bag them up and throw them out.

PiscesLady cans and packets from my cupboard have shamed me as well. I am afraid they were many years past BB date. Mostly went in the bin. I am being so careful what I buy now. Only what I am really going to use. Not what in my dreams I may use.

Hooray. Next door neighbour has a skip and said I can pop things in. So some half used paint cans. It's very old paint and a few broken garden tools. I put some smallish old bits of concrete in a small empty compost bag which is very strong and that will go today. Those bags are very useful for such jobs. Very tough.

Nothing to go by the front path this weekend to be taken by passers by. I would like to put an old decorating table out there with some china and books, but I think the table would go and the china and books would be left. Even if I left a note,

DD2 is coming on Sunday and whill photograph some small bits of collectable ceramics to put on eBay. If they don't sell they will go to charity.
I wish I had done all this 10 years ago when I had more energy and my legs werent so painful when bending. I think I have the start of lymphodoema.

They are all over 10 years past the use by date. I'd be ashamed to gift them to the food bank.

My aunt had lovely big cupboards in her flat. Inside she kept boxes neatly labelled for 'a weekend away' & 'a week away ' for herself and her dog as well as other boxes similarly labelled. Oh to be so organised!!

MissAdventure is quite right,PiscesLady.
Your local foodbank will take out of date food. We put it out with a caveat to check when it's opened.

Are they actually out of date?
If not, then I'm sure a food bank would be happy to have them.

It was the cupboards that strongly influenced me to take this place.

Its only a crummy old council flat overlooking some wheelie bins - but when I'm inside a cupboard, well, I'm like a queen!

MissA I love your named cupboards and quite envious of the four in your hall. I would have to label them, DH would never remember!
Folding fitted sheets can be tricky. I like to do it so the label shows (some double and some king) but often give up.
Today I have evicted some very old tins of food from the back of a cupboard, my dilemma is how to dispose of them? Rice pudding; spinach; rhubarb (whatever possessed me to buy them I have no idea). It seems wrong to put them in the bin intact, but what do I do with the contents? Answers on a postcard please.

Well, I stole the idea from aunt who had two barns.
So sooner than thundering up and down the (big, with room for a pony!) garden and shouting "Its not in there!" she ad her partner called them Bill and Ben.

Oh I am awful I have wonderful little burst of clearing out and then bring an armful of things home from the charity shop so
I m really just moving things around
I love the idea of cupboards with names MissA

Adrian, Brian, and Carole are three of them, and one is nameless, poor thing.
Ws also have Colin, who's a cabinet.

Its not as daft aa it sounds because i have a long hall, and the four cupboards are all big and more or less in a row.

So if you direct someone by saying "in the first cupboard" they have to work out if you mean the first one nearest the front door, or te first one you come to when you exit te living room.