De-cluttering, the never-ending process

Ah yes. Forgot that.

I started a continuation thread

www.gransnet.com/forums/house_and_home/1347134-De-cluttering-still-at-it-still-no-end

and yes, I am still at it

All sounds good.

Home from the car boot sale.

We did well, made £100 or so, less £5 pitch fee.

DH had sorted a lot out from the garage, including ‘vintage’ tools that had belonged to my dad, and some of them went.

Today was different to some we have done, several items went for £5, instead of 50p and £1, which has often been the case.

One particular chap bought quite a bit, no doubt a dealer, but he wasn’t pushy or rude, he was a pleasure to deal with.

Of course not all the stuff went, some will go to the charity shop, but certain bits I will keep to have another go next year.

It was a lovely sunny day, there were a lot of booters and a lot of buyers, but it had the feel of a traditional car boot sale, not heaps of commercial stalls which is so often the case,

Good luck!

DH and I off to ‘sell’ at a local car boot sale today, first one of the season.

Sun is shining at the moment, so that’s always good.

Debating what to charge for my ‘treasures’, difficult.

Ask too much, sale lost. Ask not much, quick sell, then wonder if too cheap?

All depends on whether you want to bring certain items home or not.

Will post later how we got on.

🤞

That could be interesting. Thanks,

Woman’s Hour today - all about decluttering.

I had to buy new printer cartridges for my printer. I spent hours recently trying to copy something only to eventually realise that it was because one of the cartridges had run out. What’s annoying is having to download instruction manuals instead of having a paper version, as I had to keep leaving the page I needed to copy to find out why it wasn’t working. I decided to buy a box of new cartridges so I know I always had them. I’ve had old cartridges floating round the house for ages and I knew that if I bought new ones from Rymans they would take the old ones. I did hesitate once in the shop, thinking that, maybe, some of them were still usable ( they were from another printer that isn’t wireless free) but then said, ‘right, take them all’. I felt quite proud of myself for doing it. Mind you, I went to a picture framers to get a couple of pictures framed, only to buy a sweet little oil painting that I have no wall space for and also needs framing. It’ll end up in the archives with the other wall less pictures.

fancythat

Well, I have sorted mine neatly, put them in separate plastic folders.

They are now in a large plastic storage box, alongside my wedding day ‘lucky’ tokens, given to me when I came out of church, (Are they still a thing?)

I intend to put any other wedding day memorabilia in said box, at least it will all be together and ready for disposal when I have got some more pressing ‘stuff’ sorted.

Should add, I have disposed of spare invitations, order of service cards etc. They are now residing in the drawer where I keep scrap card for shopping lists.

Waste not, want not.

I shall be keeping them.

^What have any of you done with your own engagement and wedding day cards?
^

I had been thinking, "what had I done with mine"?
Then remembered I havent done anything much with them up until now.
I started emptying out the large drawer. Managed to empty out about 1/4 of it, then moved onto something else.

Thanks cornergran.

Good advice.

I also have a scrapbook with DS’s birth congrats cards and his early birthday cards. (He is now 48!).

I shall ask him if he wants them but suspect what his reply will be. 😂

More for the recycling, but oh, it so takes me back.

I took photos of ours calendergirl. Using my phone the magic of the cloud added them to our Mac which is backed up to a hard drive. It took a couple of months over a winter. I could access at any time on the phone from cloud. The reality is I don’t. I hadn’t looked through the cards for over 20 years. Mr C had no interest in them at all. The same approach was taken to other cards. From three large boxes and one small one I’m down to one small, pretty box. This has a few with our parents and my grandparents writing in, some our children and grandchildren made for us plus a very few that have special meaning. Before tackling it I asked the family if they were interested to see any. They weren’t, but then we have very practical sons. It worked for us, not for everyone I know.

Photos of some things weeded out are in a small album. Bits and pieces from family homes, some ornament type things we bought and moved on from, a few toys. I do glance at this from time to time, memories are triggered which make me smile. It works for us, again it’s not for everyone.

I got rid of cards a very long time ago and shredded love letters from my husband to me when I was widowed. All that stuff is not necessary to me, it is in my memory

I need to go to recycling today and I feel as though I am winning the battle, as long as more goes than comes in.

What have any of you done with your own engagement and wedding day cards?

Mine were in a scrapbook in the loft, I fetched it down today.

I realise they will hold little interest to anyone else, but, oh dear, leafing through them took me back to our wedding day 52 years ago…..

Memories, it’s so hard to dispose of stuff like that.

😥

I went into the garage just now, to see if I had a specialist wholefood, yes I found a pack and then found two more packs in my freezer. Gone are the days of me ordering in excess, just in case or because it was a better price in bulk. My future buys are definitely one out and one in.

Tbf the wholedfood is cacao nibs and I was checking to see if I had enough as cacao trees are blitzed due to climate change damage

Re excess, this was the reason I did not renew costco membership, only last year though

White finger now, the garage is too cold for me

I'm doing this small- style, a little at a time, like you, keepingquiet.
I have taken a few books each week to the book swap in the park, and am feeling rather proud . However, I suspect that when we gather together the coming weekend, the children will do the lemon- lips stare at the bookcases and say " Oh really, mother? " .

Well this is an old thread but here's my solution for what it's worth- I de-clutter slowly, small bags taken regularly to charity shops, re-cycling or just in the bin. I am just starting to sell larger stuff too, but haven't managed this yet.

Most importantly, I have stopped buying stuff I don't need- this includes clothes, books, general knick knacks etc. If it doesn't come in your house you don't need to get rid!

For some reason this thread has not been appearing on my radar in the last few weeks.

Well done Esmay. Not easy if you dont enjoy it.

Calendar girl - you are at same point as I am.

Will do more catch up on reading posts later.

Today I am waiting in for a carrier to collect two boxes of books, about 50 in all, for which I will receive about £38, some as little as 10p, one over £4. But it’s not about the money, it’s about clearing the room. About 200 books still to go, very specialist books. I’ve got till the end of July when someone is coming for the bookcases. Oxfam and the nearest National Trust bookshop will take some, but I need help to carry the boxes downstairs.

Oh yes me too, it took me many years to stop buying food for a family. I also need to go through my stored food date by date, without being too precious and I agree the pandemic was also responsible

Rula, your poor friend, seems as though she will never respond as you would like her to, then again its her life

I’ve had such problems with the old freezer. For one thing, the new freezer is much smaller so I’m going to have to have a rethink about what to keep in it. I thought I could unplug the new one and give it a day to dry but so much water has been coming out of it. I think it hasn’t been working properly for a long time and there was a build up of ice in places I couldn’t see. New freezer is so flimsy compared to the old Bosch one. I think I may have to buy a small chest freezer to keep in the garage but can’t do that until the leaking garage roof is sorted. I’ve got so much old food to throw out. The pandemic was the worst possible thing to happen to a self confessed hoarder who feels terrible guilt about throwing food out.

I have a friend who lives in utter chaos. She's sent me photos. Nobody is allowed in the house. Nobody . Her boiler is broken but she won't allow antibes in to fix it because they're dirty.

This isn't hoarding particularly, it's just rubbish, you can't see the front door. Piled high with rubbish. The stairs are a death trap. Used as shelves.

It's a fire hazard. She'd never get out. She says it comforts her, living in utter chaos . She insists it's clean but it obviously isn't.

I would love to know how to tell her that things need to change but I have no idea how.

She just tells me she's happy and i should mind my own business. Which I do. But it still bothers me.

Fetched an old suitcase down from loft. It was filled with my late mum’s diaries. (She has been dead 20 years, but have never tackled them before).

The suitcase is now empty. The diaries have been disposed of, they were full of mundane stuff about the weather, shopping, just everyday ‘stuff’, nothing really personal.

I found the one that was the year of my birth, I kept it!

It said simply on my actual birth date, ‘baby girl arrived, 1am’

Short and sweet.