De-cluttering, the never-ending process

I've just seen that I said I was going to do this weeks ago . I was away for a week, and came back with Covid, so it's been put back till now - I'm not fantasising!

It will be worth it!

I know about the "spare bedroom" scenario.
Part of the reason I keep going with it all.
The family keeps growing. Effectively, with their visits, they are here for days when they come, and it is inconvenient all round to not have all bedrooms ready in proper use.

Yes, it is definitely worth it. Keeping it going is the hard part

My lovely accordian and all my teach yourself books are going to dgc next week. So brand new that it has sat under my bed in its case for a year. I am finally admitting that I cannot turn the clock back to pick up where I left off at 25 and they are downstairs, to remind me to take them

I am succeeding in some aspects, bogof especially and at long last I am learning to buy for one person wrt eating and cleaning. I am continuing to add to my fabric stash, especially beautiful linens and blends. I don`t have a guilty conscience as I need my wonderful sewing. Anyway I am doing without the likes of netflix and amazon prime and I like the endorphins when I indulge myself. Sewing and spinning and knitting, all are very well supplied in my house and so is dark chocolate

I’m currently sorting out my decorating stuff. I’m so annoyed with myself for not storing used paint correctly, thereby rendering it useless. I’ve decanted it into non airtight containers and it’s gone solid so will end up in landfill, I guess. I now, when I open a new tin of paint, clean the lid and, when I put it back on cover he top of the tin with cling film first. Painted the window recess in the two windows that have been replaced and realised I might as well just throw the used roller in the bin: the amount of water I’ll use to clean it will be massive. I’ve started buying tiny tins of chalk paint as well, as one small tin is usually enough to paint one item of furniture. I feel awful about the amount of old decorating stuff that I’ve taken to the tip, though.

Any tips for how to store unused rolls of wrapping paper?
I have found a stash when clearing out a cupboard. Most of the rolls are started which makes it trickier. Actually it will take me years to use it, as I give very few presents that need wrapping up. Will a charity shop take it?

I keep mine in a long plastic box I bought in Hobbycraft Cabbie.

My dd loved my wrapping paper rolls but their children were younger then, nowadays it is all about brown paper and minimal wrapping. I still have quite a few shiny bags with drawstrings. That really useful storage box is quite big and I may well empty it, when the weather cools. I have small `just in case` presents in there but they have been in there for years. Time for me to reclaim that space, it is a pretty obvious area to de-clutter

I have decided that vegan keto is not for me so did the de-cluttering for that yesterday and emptied 7 kilner clip jars. All washed and tidily stored now to give to AC in due course. In process, I did find my 5 unopened boxes of cbd tea. That was a welcome find for me. I got rid of some packets of artificial sugars, coconut flour etc so have actually ended up with some free space

Maybee, I had good results when storing unused paint. It was eco paint so was water-washable. I used lock n lock boxes, wrapped in sealed bags. Last house, it was still good for touching up after 7 years. The boxes washed fine and I have re-used them for the same paint after getting this house interior done. I keep them in my utility room as they don`t like freezing garage temperatures. I had to throw various other paints out, they were kept in their tins

My son has been busy sorting my garage, taking stuff he can use himself, and dropping off things at the tip on his way home. Soon there will be enough space to move items from the house into garage, meaning rooms can gradually be decorated.
DH’s special collection has now gone off to auction and I am able to move things around in the sitting room, making it more spacious. He filled every inch! I am not a minimalist by any means, but it is nice to have room to move.

Well, my ex actually came round and took away a lot of his things from the garage. There’s now just a small cupboard with his motor bike bits in. Unfortunately I’m currently at my partners for a few weeks. Was hoping to do lots of walking but I seem to have hurt my back and am struggling to even walk round the house. I think it was own to me moving heavy stuff around in the garage. I’m really hoping I haven’t done some sort of permanent damage

I am in the process of sorting out double garage. So far so good. I have started labelling boxes and found it very satisfying.

Next I plan to get items in the attic brought down and put in the garage for sorting. I hope this does not undo all my hard work!

I'm also having a major declutter .
Having a sore knee and back isn't helping .
I have to bribe myself with the promise of a nice film .
I'm not enjoying it .
But I've found lots of mislaid items .

I hope everyone's sore bits feel better soon. It's bad enough having to declutter without it hurting as we do it!

I am away just now, and every now and then my mind drifts to the clutter that is waiting for me to sort out when I get back. I hate it too, Esmay. I know it is worth it in the end, but getting there is so wearisome. My plan is to do a couple of hours a day for a week, which should cover a lot of ground, but not be too unbearable. I have bought a pack of those blue IKEA bags so that I can sort into those, as some of the stuff will be going back after the room is decorated. I have yarn on open shelves for instance, and will try to thin it out as I put it into the bags, so it is more organised when it goes back on the newly painted shelves. Other 'stuff' that is to go out can be put into one 'chuck' bag for sorting into recycling categories and another for donation - that sort of thing. I'm not bad at procrastinating planning, but not so good at getting on with it. I frustrate myself at times!

Yes. I’m away from home at the moment but the mess awaiting me at home hangs over me like a dark cloud. I thought this year was going to be the year when I got everything sorted but I seem to take one step forward and two steps back eg I wasn’t expecting to have to have windows replaced. And I only finished painting the recesses and putting the curtains back up just before I left.

Those ikea bags are wonderful as a help and also if ever moving house. Watch when lifting heavy boxes down, that is how I hurt my shoulder and it was bad for months, couldn`t lift my arm at all

I think that when it starts to feel overwhelming and a never -ending process, then it is time to take a break from the de-cluttering. The mojo will come back in its own time

I think it’s moving an IKEA wardrobe that did it for my back. It’s never been assembled and I moved the parts away from the wall to clean behind it and didn’t put it back flush against the wall so moved it out again because it was taking up too much space. There’s a new series of Sort Your Life Out starting this week which I find inspirational. I still prefer Clean it, fix it but that’s finished for now! It’s a bit like being on a diet and watching cookery programmes. I’m obsessed with de cluttering programmes!

In our area we have a man who will collect anything, so about once a year we pile up the drive , this year, it was garden furniture, old outdoor toys, stuff from the garage never to be used, anything no matter how big or small, he takes it all for a very reasonable sum.
It inspires me to get rid of anything we aren’t going to use.

I am going to simplify my skincare and have decided that I really don`t like rich stuff on my face. Nor did I like the expensive out of date peptide stuff bought in my qvc days. I have had a skin issue and have also been learning a lot from dr Dray dermatologist. Have ordered 2 cetaphil items, will finish the nice skin wash that I already have, the rest will be gone today

I may well also go through my `just in case` winter cough/cold stuff, if nothing else then I will remember where it is, if needed, for this coming winter. This stuff needs to be handy, I needed my burns first aid a few weeks ago and could lay my hands on it pdq.

I love these posts. We are moving house soon and it’s the ideal opportunity for another declutter. Each time I do it I notice that I have changed in terms of my values, so some books that were highly treasured only two years ago can now go to the charity shop. Items that belonged to my late mum can also go now. I can’t surround myself with the past as I want to look forwards and embrace life in my new house and with my grandchildren.
My greatest project was to tackle my photo albums. They took up most of the shelves in my under stairs cupboard. Over the past months I have taken them all out, disposed of the holiday views, duplicates, poor photos etc and ended up with 4,400 prints, about one sixth of the original collection. These were couriered to Vintage Photo Lab (UK) who have been brilliant. They scanned the lot so all my photos are now on my laptop and will be backed up on other hard drives. It was expensive (I couldn’t face scanning the prints myself!) but well worth it for memories that go back to the early 1970s . I get back the original prints (they take up 4 shoeboxes)and may follow advice in an earlier post to make an album for each of the grandchildren that shows the members of their family, together with a family tree.
I’m looking forward to showing my digital photos to friends and family via the smart TV, eg I will collate all the ones that show this house. We bought it 32 years ago and my adult kids will be interested to see how awful it looked when we first bought it, and how we changed it over the years.
The book The Swedish Art of Death Clearing covers the topic of decluttering in a really joyful and positive way, so it may inspire other gransnetters.

Rolls of wallpaper - I use the IKEA plastic carrier bags holder. It sits on the floor of a cupboard and holds enough rolls. I put a rubber band round the opened rolll

The book The Swedish Art of Death Clearing covers the topic of decluttering in a really joyful and positive way, so it may inspire other gransnetters.

I got rid of my copy in the last declutter 😂. My 'well meaning' daughter bought it, along with a Marie Condo one some time ago as a (good natured) joke. I have the death cleaning one on Audible too, so could listen to it on that.

We go home on Monday, so the fun will start then. I plan to do what I did last year, and fill a binbag a day for donation and as much as possible to chuck. That worked, as sometimes one item fills a bag, so I would fill another one that day too, which covered me on days when I was too busy to do anything. I averaged it over a week and wasn't too picky about it - the overall aim is what counted. I found posting on here every day helped too as I felt accountable in a low-key sort of way.

We are home for a week, so I hope to get rid of a lot in that time.

Good idea about the cold remedy stuff. Because I spend a lot of the year at my partners house I don’t have everything with me that I have at home and end up having to go out and buy things from Boots: the local shop doesn’t carry a lot of stuff though. I’ve found Broncho Stop is good for coughs because I often don’t know what sort of cough I do have. A saline nasal spray because I usually end up with a post nasal drip after a cold. First Defence nasal spray which I do carry around with me and invariably forget to take when I do think I’m coming down with a cold. And some throat lozenges called Zincovit-C. I have boxes of photo albums. I put so much effort into them when my kids were young but found that after they’d left home instead of wanting to look at them they just made me feel sad: the passage of time and all that! I have boxes and boxes of horse racing videos. I used to record big meetings and Saturdays racing. Someone on a Facebook page I’m on wants to buy them from me but I keep thinking if someone wants them are they of value? Could I utube them myself and, if I did is there a problem with copyright? Again I thought I would like rewatching them but they too make me sad. I did buy a recorder to transfer them from tape to disc but never worked out how to use it.

That book Doodledog! I have never read it but accidentally saw two youtube vids about it yesterday. Both by simple ordinary older people, one male and one female and they both had the right attitude. They were absolutely not minimalistic and the man had 10 big boxes of paperwork in his loft. They called it SDC but really it wasn`t, it was just about getting rid of stuff to simplify, to make it easier for their children. The man mentioned getting rid of videos etc, with the emphasis on the etc

I have the case of essential paperwork in my wardrobe, it was awful scrabbling around when my husband died and I was the one in charge of paperwork so knew where everything was

I would love to sell some workshop stuff, at long last I am mentally ready and if someone came and said they would buy if off me and collect it, I would let it go. Really good stuff for the hobbyist woodcarver/woodworker. My thought is that a mans shed is starting locally in the future, maybe I will send a note in when that happens. Just now I deliberately keep pushing it to the back of my mind. Out of sight, out of mind

A lot of the stuff in my garage is my FIL’s. My ex is now going through it because the metal must be recycled. But it should have been passed on when my ex inherited it…it was still usable then. As it is, it’s now turned to rust. It’s really sad to see it in that state.

en suite this morning, de-cluttering there after wearing my glasses in there, unusually for me. I moved in 3 years ago and bought amazing metal stick on corner shelves. They are fab but were cluttered.

Now cleaned, with method kitchen spray which will be my one and only in future, quite a few items are gone. My mission now is to get back to old fashioned simple soap in the shower

I have all white tile in there, have done all corner trays and the lower tiled shelf. What a difference, could be on telly with that

Next job will be bedside drawers, maybe tomorrow as I am cooling down for the rest of today

A dark and rainy miserable day outside today. Perfect for being thoroughly involved in de-cluttering a space and once I start, it is perfectly engrossing and very satisfying. Clothing, wardrobe plus winter clothes from boxes later today.

I re-started with a wardrobe the other day and now have a large pile in the kitchen ready to go, all what I call wearable toiles ie practice pieces that I made well from cloth stash. I have worn them for one or two years and am satisfied and will repeat sew with good cloth such as linen etc from stash.

I think I will gather another large pile today, I can see space appearing before my eyes.