De-cluttering, the never-ending process

I could do with all your help
We have two offices in cellar. Husband now retired and there are eleven computers and nine printers I know he is finding it difficult but some space would be nice and won’t get rid of anything
Not quite got the old BBC B
I won’t mention the rest of the stuff
He claims to have been sorting it since July and won’t let me help

I’ve got old computers that I’m scared to get rid of because of the data on them. Is that what your husband is worried about perhaps?

If the computer still works you can wipe the data, and if it doesn’t you can take out the motherboard and destroy it.

Just a progress report

Several have mentioned `using up` and that is me, it will take quite some time but I don`t intend to give my usables away. I am aiming for one in and one out for the mundane, cleaning and eating mainly

I am getting there eg have just discovered the local provenance of the butcher, the fact that all his meat is local and not some cheap injected import from far away. I still have a lot of grass-fed meat in my freezer but slowly slowly am making space. My aim is to meat-shop on an as-needed basis. It will take a while as I don`t eat much meat. The upside is that having the store is better than money in the bank, better than inflation

I am not succeeding with fabric or wool stash but they are my joy, my big hobbies and also a good way to interact with other people and groups

I have had to be ultra-restrained this week, all those bargains floating around. I did get a few items and in the meantime anything I believe that dgs would need for uni, is simply going up on a cupboard top in my utility room, out of sight. A swap for me, for each item I bought

Maybee70, and Gwyllt, my ds is an IT expert, his job in banking. He gave me strict instructions to destroy the motherboard with my lump hammer, particularly the hardrive. I had to unscrew that from my computer and I also got at anything that holds memory.

This will help

www.pcguide.com/hdd/how-to/safely-dispose-hard-drive/

Sounds promising, kl.

We are getting there, slowly. Today involves moving furniture so that carpet can be laid in our room and the boxroom/study on Wednesday after the boxroom is painted, which starts tomorrow - the other bedrooms are done. Then we can reshuffle everything back to the relevant rooms and start putting things away when the new furniture is delivered over the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile the kitchen is in progress. The new sink arrived cracked, but a replacement is coming on Monday, the plumbing and electrical work is done. The more visible work (cabinets and worktops) will start on Monday, and all going well will be finished on Wednesday 🤞. There will then be a lull in the proceedings until later in December, when the decorators come back to paint the new kitchen, after which I will breathe a huge sigh of relief and bask in the glory of my less cluttered and newly decorated house . I’m not counting my chickens yet though - many a slip and all that!

I,ve been doing my Christmas and Birthday wrapping drawer a bigger task than expected. I used some of the lovely-looking paper at the back to wrap presents only to find it was too thin to wrap with. Sorted all the Ribbons and bows . Now to sort the unglittered paper to go in the recycling the rest compressed into general
I don't think I'll need to buy Christmas cards for the next 5 years after putting all the bits left over together Still a worthwhile job making wrapping easier as DH will ask for it on Christmas Eve.

How many notebooks does one need I love notebooks and start a new one off now n then, then when I am having to look for a certain "note" I am having to get several notebooks out and sift through them all (I just like the pretty covers they have ) I have made a start of writing all my passwords down in one book ( yes I know we shouldn't) also If I am on the phone I tend to doodle whilst chatting, it then becomes unreadable

It doesn't help living very near to a shopping village where they

have lots of pretty little notebooks/diaries and also the Works department.

We’re having our living/dining room and kitchen/laundry room redecorated next week, so this will be another opportunity to declutter. Still got the garage and under stairs cupboard to do! 🙄

Lovely to read your progress reports, such good achievements and well done

Bikergran, oh how I empathise. I ordered more dingbats notebooks and they arrived this morning. They are lovely, tactile with good paper. That means a job for me over the quiet christmas/new year period, out with the old, in with the new. One is for my financial details as there are so many crossings out, which happened over two years. The others? well, just because

My house has never been so messy, as decluttering has had to go on pause. Boxes, pikes, mess every where.

Cabbie21 When I read this I had this vision of stacks of boxes with fish heads poking out. My immediate reaction was 'But doesn't that smell awful?? Why would you have loads of pike?' 😅😅😅 But I hope your piles are going down now.

I love notebooks, too. I think it's an ADD thing. Does anyone else keep new ones 'for best' until they have something Very Important to write in them, (in their best handwriting, obviously) before they can use them, but once used they are fair game for shopping lists, random phone numbers and doodles of all descriptions?

I've moved to refillable ones, and keep the refills for future reference (there is good reason for doing this - it's not a hoarder thing ). I'm also looking at a Remarkable (a digital notebook), but they are so expensive I'm not sure if I can justify it.

I empathise with the piles (or pikes if you prefer, Cabbie 😂) everywhere. There are piles everywhere chez Dog, too. It's depressing, but a step on the road to what I keep thinking of as 'getting there'. Comically, it was my wedding anniversary last week, and I have a vase of roses on top of a bookcase which is surrounded by underbed storage bags crammed with 'stuff'. They look very out of place, and are starting to wilt, but I can't get at them to remove the dying ones and refresh the water. It all adds to the horror story grimness of the ambience, though, so I'm not going to stress about it.

I’ve got two password books and plan to get another one because my new tidy one is now untidy again. But I always have to keep the old ones just in case I’ve written something important down. My address book breaks my heart because so many people in it are no longer with us

Well my pikes ( piles ) have diminished by several boxes this past week! I sold the best of DH’s collections, and with my daughter we took other items to a posh auction house. This morning someone came to relieve me of three more boxes of specialist items. So all the real valuables have now left the house. The estate is better off, with more money to come when eventually the items come up for sale. I feel very relieved.

There is still a lot of sorting to do. Two people have promised to come for some of the books but there will be lots left. I daren’t go into the study, it is too daunting. I am going to spend a short while in the garage this afternoon as there are drawers to empty and sort. Soon I want to get a general auction house to collect items for sale- there is enough for a van load. They won’t make a fortune but they have a value. I did think about the local Facebook buy and sell page, but it is hard even to give items away.

Forty minutes in the garage, 20 drawers emptied, ten to go. About 300 VHS tapes, recorded from the BBC , cardboard cases gone in the recycling bin, half of the tapes gone into the waste bin, the rest will need to wait til the next bin day as I don’t want to overfill the bin. The other drawers have DVDs, CDs and cassettes and software discs. These drawers have been inaccessible for at least seven years! I am reluctant to throw blank cassettes away and blank recordable CD Roms, but probably should. The drawers themselves are very saleable.

Cabbie, so difficult for you. i admire your grit and determination and ` perhaps` this is a good way to cope and get onto the next stage of your journey. I went at it like you Cabbie, the downside for me came once the major sort was done and then I had to think about the next steps

Wasn't it a bit chilly in the garage, Cabbie
It's been sunny but barely above freezing here today.

I managed to throw out some coathangers.

I need some new notebooks.

Must sort out some yarn; we're doing some knitting for charity at my group and some of the knitters have been buying yarn whereas I seem to have loads that I'll never use.

Yes it was chilly but I wore a thick fleece and was in and out to the bins so I kept moving. Forty minutes was enough for today.

Yes, it is knowing that there is always more to do that keeps me going. It was very frustrating putting things in hold for a month when I was injured. I honestly cannot imagine a time when the whole house will have been sorted, decluttered and decorated. Believe me, there are many hours when I do nothing useful at all.

I put some washing out and my hands were frozzen.

Lol yes I am also guilty of keeping the "old" notebooks/passwords,just in case I have forgotten to yransfere stuff over,then I also kp a spare in case the other gets lost or whatever.I did think of going digital and putting " stuff" on a usb/CD but what if it becomes obsolete as techy is moving so fast.Im sure I will find the answer somewhere

Yes, tech moves on. In DH’s stuff are lots of recordings made using what is now old tech. I am not at all sure that I will get round to transfering them.

I have loads of photos on CDs but no CD player 🤔

It is frustrating, isn't it? We think we are future-proofing things by storing them digitally, but the next thing we know they are inaccessible because the technology has moved on. The safest thing (for now) seems to be the Cloud, but tomorrow that could be out of date too.

Some of mine on a tablet seemed to have disappeared, I did find a lot of them but the rest must be in the ether somewhere.