Help me to throw out...

Thank you Janerowena, I do need those kettles, I have a serious tea addiction and the thought of no kettle when shops and stores are closed brings on panic, this is why I need three thermos flasks , fill them up every day when weather is stormy , could be a power cut . Now why seven dog leads for two dogs , must be a sensible explanation , just can't think of one. What makes things so difficult is my younger daughter , when she visits I have to check the bins. She threw out all my video tapes just because my two video recorders are broken and I use a DVD player ,

They don't want to have to clear it all out when we are dead, that's why.

Do you like gardening? I used mine as tree ties. The loop went around a stake, the length was wrapped around tree however many times and the clasp went back to the loop.

Or - how about a fashionable belt? Narrow leather belts are in fashion, but tied rather than buckled.

I save birthday/Christmas cards..not all of them just ones that are special or that are particularly nice. I do so because an elderly cousin of mine showed me cards that she's kept that our family had sent to each other decades ago and I wanted to keep some for future generations. I also like the way that the designs go in and out of fashion. But they're all in boxes and never get looked at and I doubt if my kids are interested in them. And newspapers when something historic happens.

Oh dear, I was trying to pretend my birthday card stash doesn't exist.

I have thrown out all the papers though, apart from the ones with the dates of birth of family members on them.

I am tidying up my cupboards but have not got as far as throwing anything much out yet.

Back tuit.

It makes my head feel less cluttered, somehow. I must have a permanent image in my brain of cluttered cupboards, lurking in the back of my subconscious somewhere. It's my wardrobes now/next. Time to have another clear out I think. This is only because I have about 20 items hanging outside them that I can't squeeze in.

That's how my head feels at the moment but I'm beginning to be like one of those people in tv programmes where the clutter is getting so bad I almost get a panic attack thinking about where to start. I have asked my ex to come and clear his stuff from the garage [he left 15 years ago] because a lot of things in my house could actually be stored there if it wasn't full of motor bike bits and lathes . I bought a machine a while back to put old videos onto disc but never worked out how to use it so I have old videos everywhere as well.

DBH accidentally threw out loads of old tapes and videos, many of himself performing, that he had always meant to transfer but didn't. It's rather sad, but it certainly saves a lot of space!

I was starting to get a bit panicky too. I just decided to concentrate on the easiest storage boxes first, we have those woven ones that you can stack in a couple of rooms. Then my wool stash, and then it became very interesting as I saw things I hadn't seen for years. You do start to wonder what on earth you were thinking of sometimes though. Why I thought I would need so many of those old aluminium takeaway trays I have no idea.

Tegan you could tell him that they are being moved from the garage to the front garden and that if he doesn't collect them, the scrap man will (oops)