De-cluttering, the never-ending process

You can’t take your treasured possessions with you. I am having to disperse DH’s treasured possessions. It is hard. Lots have been sold and raised good money but not everything he treasured is saleable. He had already got rid of a lot before we downsized ten years ago and I never heard the last of it.
It is not easy to be the one left behind without having to deal with all their treasured possessions too. You need to bite the bullet.

At Christmas, I gave my church a lot of Christmas decorations .
Since the New Year - health allowing I've been having a declutter .

I really hate it !

I did two hours yesterday and gave a friend a dress , which she'd admired back on the summer .
And today , I've done another two hours finding a dress ,
which needs a button change .
I rewarded myself with a nice programme about the 100 Years War - sheer bliss .
Didn't see the whole programme , but it will be repeated .
I rewarded myself with the Liz Taylor film , Cleopatra after major sort out a few days ago .
I ended up feeling frustrated as it was so inaccurate !
But that's how I do my sorting with rewards !
.

I enjoy the sorts.

Not many treasured possessions here, varian, so I'm afraid I can't help you with that one.

Last time I went to a car boot, I wondered who bought all the stuff? Because it was filled with stuff that looked exactly the same as the stuff I have in my loft!

What about taking photos of things you are likely to let go, so you still have the memories? If you make sure that both of you are in the photo, you’ll have the added bonus of that, too.

We’ve two albums of photos of ‘stuff’. One of things we have let go of, what I call my memory album. It is never finished.

The other is of the bits and pieces we love and don’t feel we want to part with. Some are things from my grandparents, others from both our parents. Some we’ve bought ourselves. Nothing physically large or indeed valuable. Each photo has an explanation. This album is labelled ‘why on Earth did they have these’. It’s not for us, it’s kept with our Will and is intended to help our family when the second of us dies or residential care is needed. It’s fair to say some items which were originally in this album are now in the other as we have found it’s ok to let them go

We’re about to embark on taking photos of cards going back to 1964. They fill three boxes. We’ll keep some but most will be kept digitally. It will clear space and make life easier for our family in the future.

Photos can be jolly useful.

I really struggle with certain cards. It all goes back to my cousin having family cards going back to the early 1900’s and being so thrilled to be able to see them. I also like the way that card designs have changed over the years. My children have given me such beautiful cards over the years, too. I’ve got boxes and boxes of them. I’ve been going through some of them just now. I’m having more new windows next month so the back bedroom has got to be cleared even though I still haven’t got round to moving stuff back into the rooms where I had new windows put in ages ago.

Esmay

At Christmas, I gave my church a lot of Christmas decorations .
Since the New Year - health allowing I've been having a declutter .

I really hate it !

I did two hours yesterday and gave a friend a dress , which she'd admired back on the summer .
And today , I've done another two hours finding a dress ,
which needs a button change .
I rewarded myself with a nice programme about the 100 Years War - sheer bliss .
Didn't see the whole programme , but it will be repeated .
I rewarded myself with the Liz Taylor film , Cleopatra after major sort out a few days ago .
I ended up feeling frustrated as it was so inaccurate !
But that's how I do my sorting with rewards !
.

What channel was the 100 years war programme on? I’d like to see that if it’s repeated.

Speaking of cards.

I wish I’d kept a card that my boyfriend at the time gave me for my 16th birthday.

It was quite big, had a picture of a Disney type girl on the front, very pretty with huge eyes.

Inside, he had written in beautiful italic writing,

“A very happy birthday to my favourite girl, Love C….”

I finished with him some time later, met and married DH. But I kept that card for ages, until DH commented on it, so I threw it away (and why not, the past?)

It’s 55 years since I received that card, never regret splitting up with him, but I would love to look at that card again and remember how it felt to be 16.

[sigh]

I know, daft isn’t it?

It’s ongoing, and little and often is how I’m dealing with it. Fortunately, I volunteer at a charity shop, so the saleable items and clean ‘rags’ contribute to their funds. We’re going to tackle the garage next, so will need a skip for that project.

Hi Maybee ,

It was on the American channel PBS channel 84 on freeserve .
I've enjoyed many educational programmes on this network .

Watching Harry Potter on ITV at the moment !

Thanks. I discovered channel 84 a while back but keep forgetting to see what’s on. I’ve seen some interesting stuff on there. My granddaughters obsessed with Harry Potter at the moment. She’s reading all of her dad’s books.

I enjoy a good yarn and have a very broad taste in my TV watching .

Recently , I watched an incredible film on Mosses and it certainly captured my imagination . I'd love more Botany programmes .

Has anyone decluttered their piano stool recently? It is one of those places that doesn’t get sorted. It must be ten years since I went through mine.
I found tutor books and exam pieces from the children’s piano grades back in the 1980ies, my husband’s clarinet tutorial books ( I have no idea what happened to the clarinet), ancient copies of various pieces and an Edward Heath book of carols!

No, we don't have the piano stool any longer (nor the piano) but DD still has all her music and some from MIL and GMIL stored in "her" bedroom!

Cabbie21

Has anyone decluttered their piano stool recently? It is one of those places that doesn’t get sorted. It must be ten years since I went through mine.
I found tutor books and exam pieces from the children’s piano grades back in the 1980ies, my husband’s clarinet tutorial books ( I have no idea what happened to the clarinet), ancient copies of various pieces and an Edward Heath book of carols!

In my Big Declutter I found a lot of sheet music, from Tune A Day books to whole scores. I kept them, as they are so expensive to buy, but that contradicts my new philosophy, so they really should go. I might ring the local High School and see if the music department can use them.

My choral society has its annual Come and Sing day next month and there is usually a stall of music scores so I hope to take them there.

Cabbie21

My choral society has its annual Come and Sing day next month and there is usually a stall of music scores so I hope to take them there.

Ah, good idea. There is a choir who uses the church opposite me for their meetings. I could find out the dates and take them across to see if they can use them. They are all single copies though, so probably no use to the choir as a whole, but the members are likely to have musical children/grandchildren and friends who might like them on an individual basis.

H&M still have their ‘ bag of clothing’ deal for a £5 voucher, now required to spend 30£ rather than £25 as used to be.
Even if you don‘t shop there, for clothes or housewares, maybe your children or grandchildren do?
I give my vouchers to my daughter who buys work clothes and is always pleased with a monetary boost.

We are being ruthless, bought a shredder, what fun, then rootling around at the back of kitchen cupboards, found a bottle of champagne, hidden from last year, a welcome find.

I had to stop for a while after opening boxes and finding baby stuff, too emotional.
The death cleaning is more difficult than I anticipated, now I have changed banks and investments but not impossible.

I find it’s important to keep up the momentum, expect to feel sudden regret over some clearances, expect adult children to turn their noses up at what we deem to be treasures, ignore YT posts declaring political reasoning for this as a movement and keep on, clear out the clutter.

Does anyone else find plastic, tupperware boxes, lids which don’t fit, cannot chuck either as then the corresponding top or bottom will materialise?

cast iron casseroles I have passed on to children, anything large or heavy, which I find I am unable now to lift, set of heavy metal steps, wellies! cannot even lift my feet in them now,
plates from IKea, wrist breakers, box of cleaning stuff stockpiled during lockdown, gone to daughter anticipating spring cleaning, its so liberating, what will we do when we have gone down to the bone?
Less stuff, more life!
as a reward for my endeavours, a robot vacuum cleaner.

Does anyone else find plastic, tupperware boxes, lids which don’t fit, cannot chuck either as then the corresponding top or bottom will materialise?

I now store all mine with the lids on SORES, so easy to use and stopped me from keeping too many and having the occasional tupp-avalanche!

I have just done that very thing, genius! piled up now in the cupboard, odd tops in the drawer, keeping an eye on them!

Cabbie21

Has anyone decluttered their piano stool recently? It is one of those places that doesn’t get sorted. It must be ten years since I went through mine.
I found tutor books and exam pieces from the children’s piano grades back in the 1980ies, my husband’s clarinet tutorial books ( I have no idea what happened to the clarinet), ancient copies of various pieces and an Edward Heath book of carols!

No. Though I transferred the music to half a cupboard a while back. That is as far as I got.
GCs too young yet to know if they are musical. Though I suspect one is. She is showing definite signs. [her great grannie, other side, was still a paino teacher until recently].

keepcalmandcavachon

*Does anyone else find plastic, tupperware boxes, lids which don’t fit, cannot chuck either as then the corresponding top or bottom will materialise?*

I now store all mine with the lids on SORES, so easy to use and stopped me from keeping too many and having the occasional tupp-avalanche!

Same.
Those without lids were removed.

People are certainly doing a lot of clearing out where I am. We had to shut our charity shop yesterday as we got to unsafe stage. And still they kept knocking on the door.
It’s the perfect volunteer job for me and my co- worker as we are both chuckerouters. Neither of us likes tutt.
We both get the giggles when we’re trying to get past the manager to get to the skip without her seeing what we are dumping.

What are YT posts, please?

Tupperware lids are like teaspoons, odd socks and rolls of Sellotape. There will be a planet somewhere where they all live happily after disappearing from our houses.

Esmay

Hi Maybee ,

It was on the American channel PBS channel 84 on freeserve .
I've enjoyed many educational programmes on this network .

Watching Harry Potter on ITV at the moment !

It’s on now! I’ve missed one episode but another one is starting. Janina is my favourite historian too!