De-cluttering, the never-ending process

Four more bags have gone to the charity shop this morning, and we are about to start clearing out the second biggest bedroom. Joy.

I never had a Sindy kitchen but did have a toy one. Sadly I never learnt to cook until I left home as DM was a 'get out from under my feet' sort of cook but I did storming hot water, bread and butter and uncooked biscuit high tea.

I agree Maw but my last home was in a village with no shop. 2010 we were suddenly snowed in and it lasted for six whole weeks, no way out, too dangerous, too slippery and we lived on my food storage

The area around my present house does not get cleared of snow so there is still a bit of that storage need here. However I am now storing a lot less, I suppose that is even more important since I arrived at the `old` category. I am working at it, truly it is a jumble of past experiences, not least starting from a childhood when there was very little money

I've been reading rather than posting but taking inspiration from so many. Today I resolved to be more ruthless. I have a tiny cottage style house and need to make more space. When I cleared my parents home I kept only a very few pieces that I loved and meant something to me, the rest all went to charities in their area, some distance from me. My stumbling block has been hanging on to things they gave me while they were alive, even things I've never liked or once liked but my tastes have changed. I've decided there is no point to retaining them so shall say a happy goodbye and pass them to the charity shops. I will not be off-loading any on to my children, who'd likely be honest enough to say "no thanks" anyway 🤣

Plant. Thank you.
I dont have many of those either. But a DD gave me a sort of fake one that is scented. That could fit there. Thanks.

Havent they just. And the gc tastes keep changing too.
I used to write lists of likes and dislikes, but the lists are out of date in about 6 months.
Nowadays, before they come, I just ask for their current tastes.

Sindy kitchen anyone?
Or Virgil's Aeneid? Come to think of it, perhaps the present Queen might like the story of Camilla 😁

I am not a jeans person any more, they have all gone.

But it is sometimes hard to remember that the “chicks have flown the nest”
And when they do come back, their food tastes may have changed drastically.

That is spot on, AWTY. I went through a massive suitcase last night (why I had one that size is beyond me - it wasn't even on wheels, so I couldn't possibly have carried it) and found a lot of hippy clothes in size 8-10. Obviously I struggled to get rid of them 30 years ago and packed them away then. It was quite poignant remembering the days when I could fit into them and was young enough to carry them off. Neither is true now.

I kept a dress that was from Afghanistan before the Taliban, and a Wrangler denim shirt that might come in for someone one day. The dress is too special to donate in case whoever buys it doesn't realise where it is from, and the shirt won't date but will get more desirable as time goes by. All the rest is bagged and waiting to go to the charity shop. I won't ever be that woman again. It's not that I thought I was, or that I'm not happy how I am now, but it does need a mindshift somehow.

Another example is that I kept a lot of textbooks when I sorted the books. I will be re-rationalising the books when I get my bedrooms back, and think I will get rid of them, too. I have accepted that I don't need them, and may as well get rid of them before they are too far out of date to be useful to anyone. The cookbooks are going too. The weekend after next is pencilled in for that purge.

It isn`t just about de-cluttering, it is about not making more clutter and that might even be food-based

I think I tried to make this point a long time ago and didn’t get very far, so it is reassuring to read this @Karma
Filling the freezer with things that then never get eaten, stores to survive a nuclear winter in the kitchen cupboards, extra tins or jars in the garage or loft, shopping for that family we used to be.
One person’s stockpiling can become another person’s hoarding and with a very few exceptions, few of us live so far from shops/internet shopping /even a convenience shop to need to do this any more.
But it is sometimes hard to remember that the “chicks have flown the nest”

Something I read a long time ago before I started decluttering was that you need to get rid of the 'who I used to be' to make room for the 'who I am now'. Which made a lot of sense to me when I thought about it.

Most of the stuff I've got rid of over the last three years has been stuff needed for hobbies I haven't done for a long time. I haven't been scuba diving for over 15 years but yesterday I was still getting rid of scuba diving gear. My motorcycle helmet and jacket were still sitting downstairs until last year although I haven't had a motorbike for about twenty years. I think it just takes me (a long, long) time to accept that I'm not the person I used to be because I used to like being that person. Very philosophical for a Friday morning.

Fancythat, the space behind you, a big plant perhaps?

I had to restrain myself in the supermarket this morning, had to stop myself buying too many christmas nibbles. My stashing brain was hyper-active, that brain from a long time ago ie get the christmas bits into the cupboard just in case it snows and I am snowed in, again. Whatever the reason, my instinct is still to shop for a family. I didn`t and was glad at the checkout when I needed to hand over £93 for very little

It isn`t just about de-cluttering, it is about not making more clutter and that might even be food-based

Callistemon21

Sigh.

Onwards and upwards - to the little bedroom which seems to be full of clutter moved from elsewhere!

All my bedrooms were like that. It is a case of too many ‘things’, coupled with a difficulty in working out which to get rid of and which to find a home for. I’m reluctant to get more storage furniture, as all that does is put things out of sight. I really need to make some difficult decisions and rationalise it all.

I feel frustrated by it, and guilty that the situation has arisen at all. Whilst I know that it has taken 25 years to accumulate the clutter (longer, really, as some of it came with us to this house), I am also aware that two people shouldn’t have more items than easily fit into a four bedroom house - it’s ridiculous. I’m sure that I will feel psychologically better, as well as the house looking aesthetically better when I eventually get it to where I want it to be.

My house has never been so messy, as decluttering has had to go on pause. Boxes, pikes, mess every where. It is really annoying me so as soon as I can manage it, I need to get on with it again. It is no good people saying there is no rush. I need to have a tidier home.

Most of it isn't really mine either! Toys from DC, stuff from MIL's house so not really mine to dispose of.

Callistemon21

Sigh.

Onwards and upwards - to the little bedroom which seems to be full of clutter moved from elsewhere!

I have a few items left like that.
It can take me ages to decide on a final home, if it is something I am keeping.
A year I have realised, occasionally!
But largely I have gone through most of it now, either now gone out the house or found a place for.

I was given something 3 years ago, something small, and it has been around the house all that time!

I have a confession to make.
It is not something I have told many in real life.

I dont like totally tidy areas.
Especially if there are a few.
It is what stopped me from starting a complete declutter a few years earlier.
It was when it dawned on me that it was going to be a long process, that I was happy to begin.

At the moment there is a space behind me that is empty.
I find it boring.
I am tempted to put a cloth on it or something, so it looks less boring to me.

I am not much for ornaments.
I dont like too many photographs.

Sigh.

Onwards and upwards - to the little bedroom which seems to be full of clutter moved from elsewhere!

I saw a photograph recently of a part of the house when we had only been married a few years.
I was shocked as to how little was in the room!

Thankfully I dont replace what I get rid of, with other things.

I think, having given it some thought, is that I have a relatively good amount of storage space. So things can be put somewhere, and left there for 5 years quite easily.

After having done the slow method for 4 years[I think 1 more year to go], I have been able to get rid of about 3 pieces of furniture.

The less storage should also help with me keeping on top of things going forward.
Also, with several grandchildren running around, it gives them more space.

Fellow gransnetters, I salute you. My journey of a few things each week has been slow. I'm not sure that my bookshelves show any evidence of slimming down- probably because when I go to the cs with half a dozen books, I sometimes come away with- er - two or three books.
I'm with Doodledog in sorting out bedrooms. The wardrobe in the smallest one is being taken by DD and I will replace it with a desk/ craft table ( ooh, furniture shopping..)
The contents of said wardrobe will need to be ...redistributed somehow/ somewhere/ sometime .

Don't know what I have been doing for last 3 years but it's not been clearing and cleaning out the kitchen.
So a start has been made.

Tops of cupboards first.and why do we have so many plastic drinking bottles??
My new brilliant toy is a handheld vacuum cleaner. Wow the dust it picks up and I don't have to cart around the Miele.
Then I made pickled red cabbage what mess and need to reboil it as very runny.but very tasty.

The chess piece is safe in my son’s car. I can concentrate on the decluttering now!

Ah. Well, it's a start.

That’s just the garage. I’ve still got his dad’s stuff in the loft.

Oh, and I meant to say - good news about your ex, MayBee. That should give you the push to crack on, now that his stuff isn't everywhere.