30 bags in 30 days decluttering method

Horty
Vinted is good to sell on. I havnt but my friends daughter does very well selling on there.

Ooh I didn't notice we had six more weeks!
Phew.
Df who helped before with my papers is coming again tomorrow and bringing her sister.I am hoping for ruthless decluttering.

DD came today and took away a few of her things and also told me to "chuck, chuck, chuck*
Why do I have 5 guitars and 2 pianos? I don't play any of them. The DGC love the piano and my DGS is grade 8 now but he doesn't live here.
I have sold the clay mixer.
Some small victories amidst the chaos.
I agree about SAPLE but there are things to enjoy while we are still here

Ooh I didn't notice we had six more weeks!
Is that all? 😲

Actually I've probably cleared 20 bags and only another 100 to go!

Why do I have 5 guitars and 2 pianos?
Oh yes, we got rid of one large keyboard and stand plus assorted music 🙂

Just found a box that contained my son’s uni stuff. Old photo bus passes etc. Forms that he had to fill in when he was glassed at a night club. He didn’t phone me till he left the hospital and was walking home. I can still remember hearing the church bells ringing in the background. He was at Leeds Uni. He was always being mugged or burgled. Someone broke in and stole his bike one day. He saw someone riding it but didn’t dare take it back when they left it outside a house. I phoned the police on his behalf and said ‘ I know you’re very busy but I need to ask you for some advice’. The policeman paused and said ‘don’t buy any stocks and shares at the moment, it isn’t the right time’. He did go on to say, if he sees it again just take it back. But he never did. I remember him saying ‘ mum, it’s not fair: I saved up my pocket money for that bike and someone just took it: how can they do that?’. This decluttering really tears at your heart strings. It’s much better to just throw things away at the time, not years later.

I'd love to borrow Grammaretto's friend. It would be so much easier with someone to help, wouldn't it? Sadly, Mr Dog is not the right person, as we'd just argue over what should go and what should stay.

That’s a very easy thing to declutter MayBee. I hauled my daughter’s uni stuff out of the garage before she came to visit, put it by the sofa, and she sat down and went though it all in about 5 minutes, she had no sentimental attachment to it at all. She kept one piece of work, the rest was straight into the recycling bin, and folders in a black bag for the tip. That’s the sort of decluttering I enjoy best. It’s my own stuff that’s the hardest for me, I’ve still got a little box with my school exercise books in that I can’t part with.

I've come across my mother's exercise books and her essays from the 1930s and a drawer full of DS uni work.
That is awful to hear about your poor DS at Leeds MayBee
3 of my nieces and nephews were at Leeds and I never heard stories like that from them.

I am in 2 minds about the value of having friends to help.
I host volunteers from time to time through HelpX but I recently hosted a couple from Kentucky who were so ruthless, I had to rescue things off the bonfire!

When DD was home we asked her to sort out all her paperwork and University notes.
That way it wasn't on our consciences!
The other DC had disposed of theirs years ago, apart from a few things.

I cross posted and missed the story of your son, MayBee. What an awful thing to happen.

To be honest, Leeds was the making of him. The students really looked out for each other and the friends he made there are still in touch. They all turned up for his surprise 40th birthday party. For two summers after they graduated they travelled round Europe together. My boss’s son went to Leeds, too, and he said all the students want to stay there afterwards. What did make it hard was that my husband had left us for someone else and whenever I got a phone call from our son I was left to deal with it on my own. I’d love to meet that policeman, though: I still chuckle to myself when I think of our conversation. He had his wallet stolen at one time and I had to cancel all of his cards but a few weeks later someone found it and sent it to me which restores your faith inhuman nature somewhat. I can’t believe it was so long ago, though. It only seems like yesterday. Unlike my daughter who decided to raise her children in a village it turned him into a real city boy.

I went to Leeds University too . I’m so sorry to hear about your son’s misfortunes, MayBee, but I’m glad that in the long run he enjoyed his time there.

My niece and nephew met their partners at Leeds as well as getting good degrees which led to good jobs.
Now it's their DC and our DGC we worry about.

My df came with her sister today and began the big declutter. Lots of lists were written and things I do not need to keep were explained.
I'm to be given a fireproof safe to keep the really vital papers but they want to help to release an entire room to be repurposed.

I’m going to throw some paint tins in the bin. It’s chalk paint and has completely dried out. It isn’t as toxic as other paints so I don’t feel so bad about putting it in the bin. Annoyingly I covered some tins in cling film as the tin tops were difficult to get off and they’ve dried out, too. I wish I’d been more careful with opened paint tins. I’ve sorted out some toys for the charity shop. I can’t give my grandsons rocking horse to a charity shop: can’t bear the thought of him being left in a shop.

Many of us have a Leeds connection - my son lives there and met his wife there. He didn't go to Leeds University (he went to Manchester) but got his first job in Leeds and has been there ever since. It's a long way from us, but he loves it.

As for decluttering, I have nothing to declare for today, but more space has been created by moving Mr Dog's ancient stereo from under the stairs to an alcove in the dining room. It doesn't look as bad as I'd expected. It has meant a table going under the stairs where the stereo had been, but at least that's useful, and the area looks (a bit) less cluttered. Small steps, but in the right direction.

We're coming to the end of February, and the next charity collection is in the middle of March, so I don't have long to get on top of that. I'm setting myself a target of six bin bags to go, which means I need to stop procrastinating and get on with it.

My dd has given me permission to dispose of the baby car seat that’s been in my garage for months. So that’s nice, dear. . I’ll cut the straps and take it to the dump soon.

I’m not sure if it counts as decluttering but we’ve eaten our way through quite a big stockpile of jars, cans and frozen foods that I’d accumulated. I am trying to not live life as though there’s a siege on - we no longer live miles from a shop, I can get most things with just a ten minute walk! Habits die hard…

Grammaretto why did you have two Kentuckians(!) decluttering your stuff? Do tell!

I still have a fair bit of ds2’s possessions but she doesn’t have her own home yet and still has her own bedroom here so I guess that’s allowed. She is clinging to so many books, though, stacked in boxes in the garage.

My ds2 accused us of losing his PhD certificate as we were decluttering. Seeing as he had got two fancy jobs at the Foreign Office and then a top London university, I told him I found it hard to believe his claim that his certificate had been 500 miles away in Scotland for all of that time. No more was heard about the Lost Certificate.

Your poor son, Maybee, what a horrible experience. . My dd2 now lives in Leeds and loves it there. We went to see her last week and visited Kirkstall Abbey and the nearby museum, which was fascinating. We also found out about loads of other interesting places to see on future visits.

I put two bags full of polystyrene packaging in the bin tonight. It’s been sat in my garage for ages because I feel terrible about it going into landfill.

I have defrosted the freezer. Not decluttering as such, but I did get rid of a few unidentifiable items, and a few that looked a bit shabby.

I bought some of those Lakeland soup cube things (well, rectangles, really) and the tray was bigger than I expected (ridiculous, as I know each one takes a full portion of soup/stew) and I needed to create space for it. I make a lt of soup but there are always leftovers, even when we've had it two days running and are sick of it. My plan is to freeze them in the tray, then put the frozen blocks into freezer bags, to free up the tray for the next batch. I'm hoping that will save space, but we'll see. Does anyone else use them?

There seems to be a smudgy line between DC needing their room and wanting you to keep it for their eternal use.
DD, my youngest, is the only one who still has her own room here but she celebrates her 10th wedding anniversary this year so hardly needs it. It is storage and an occasional spare room when they stay over.
The Kentuckians SueDonim stayed for a couple of weeks. They were travelling with www.helpx.net
This is a platform for matching people who want to travel cheaply and help out with those who need some extra help in their house, farm or garden.
My next helper is coming from Brazil in April.
I'm taking my cue from you btw and have just opened some pumpkin and chestnut jam (?) Lurking at the back of the cupboard. It was really nice.

My parents lived in slum properties that were demolished and then council flats. After leaving home at 17 I never had a bolt hole that I could return to and when I did go home for a few weeks after having had a relationship go badly wrong it was just a box room in their latest council flat. For that reason I always wanted my children to always have their childhood bedroom there for them if ever they needed it. My daughter never did but my son also had a relationship breakdown ( they weren’t married but had been together for many years) and came home for a while. I think it’s another reason why I struggle to let go of things.

Yes Maybee that could well be true. Our own experiences colour what we do.
My widowed DM had to go out to work so we were latchkey kids and I vowed my DC would never have to be that so
I made sure I would be home when they were but did they care? Of course not.
But now they have all long gone; I'm a widow rattling around in a huge house it is only sensible to scale things down a bit
I cleared 3 boxes of papers today, saving back a few items for the nostalgia pile.

There seems to be a smudgy line between DC needing their room and wanting you to keep it for their eternal use
They seem to add to all their stuff whenever they come home 🤔

I've been out but did get rid of one knitting kit to a friend today 🙂

Just sorted through my nail varnish collection, thinking that some would have dried out or become unusable. But no, only one had to be thrown out. All the others needed a good shake to get them looking normal again, that’s all.

I need to look through my make up, skin care etc. now to see if anything there can be discarded.

I've got rid of a bookcase from my son's old room, and replaced it with a nicer one from downstairs. That's the last of the shuffling of the dining room furniture. One bookcase is in the boot room and one upstairs, a drop-leaf table is in the hallway under the stairs next to a sideboard, the twin of which has gone to a new home. The stereo system is in a relatively inconspicuous corner of the dining room, and is coupled in now, and the old bedroom bookcase is going into the broom cupboard, apparently, where it will hold old tins of paint and assorted items. So not much has been evicted - in fact I've added new items of furniture - but a lot of things have been put to better use than before, which I think does count as decluttering, and it's all been done since 23 January, which is not bad by my standards.

I will sort out some yarn to take to knitting group tomorrow before I go to bed, or possibly a pile of magazines I found in the bottom of a cupboard.

It was all going so well, but I'm failing at the airing cupboard hurdle. The contents look at me reproachfully whenever I open the door.