A bit of de-cluttering. Now and then

Someone on GN started a thread today on re purposing garage space, so I put on a fleece for an hour or two and braved it into the very cold garage attached to the side of our house. I've decluttered the summer kitchen cupboards - far too many glasses, crockery and trays, all off to the charity shop.
Books are my problem too. I have an overflow line up in the garage I need to get rid of. The pages go a bit damp in winter!

For me it’s the party stuff. I have champagne glasses galore( DH birthday coincides with new year) and dinner services. A splendid mahogany canteen of solid silver cutlery. Fine embroidered table napkins. All no use now as I suspect I will never give a party again and that makes me so sad. I thought I would hang on until DH's 80th birthday and then hope that I will make a decision. And someone up thread mentioned 37 pairs of gloves- I always asked DH for gloves for Xmas as I constantly lost them except I’ve stopped losing them and the drawer is full. All leather with silk linings. Too nice to throw out. He now gives me scarves or pashminas. So many. I doubt if anyone would like my taste. I keep muttering Swedish death clean but I don’t seem to get very far.

I have decided to keep all the wood carving stuff, on advice from one of my sisters. Now I will forget about it and not fret

I am de-cluttering bits now, just a bit at a time. Today will be the bottom shelf in a pull-out larder. I store things in muji storage in there, open topped and have had that storage for 14 years via two homes. It is good storage btw, japanese and they are very good at storage for small spaces

I have bits and bobs in those, such as unopened chutneys. I think I will manage to remove half the contents later today

The other day I did a tall larder cupboard and that bit of de-clutter has helped me so much. The de-clutter extended to under kitchen sink and under utility sink. Now I feel good when I open that larder cupboard door and somehow that feeling has extended throughout my kitchen, which has been tidy ever since

Tizliz

^about wood carving equipment. I have a lot and in superb condition^

These people are very helpful and knowledgeable, run regular auctions for tools etc:

www.davidstanley.com/

Thank you for that helpful link

I’m currently at my partners house. I decorated most of it and furnished it with upcycled furniture from charity shops so I’m pretty chilled when I’m here. But my own house is waiting for me. It’s even worse than before as I had two more windows fitted before I came away so had to move stuff into other rooms.The toys are still the biggest problem but I’ve realised that I do love them. I think it”s because I have virtually nothing from my own childhood.

Most of my `stuff` is for my crafting hobbies. I make all my own clothes to a high standard, I spin and I knit. None of that will go.

Petra, I am sorry that my so -called stuff is making your head spin. I did not know that you could see into my neat, tidy and clean home. Even my garage is tidy

It is very important to think ahead, all about `dying tidy` and consequently saving AC from the heartache of disposal

My house is currently not too bad as a house fire this time last year created an opportunity for a de-clutter of the downstairs rooms and three bedrooms are guest rooms, so apart from maybe going through the linen storage there’s nothing there that needs work. My bedroom, de-cluttered a couple of years ago, now needs me to attend to the drawers in my desk again and although I regularly clear the shelves of my bookcase it currently has only one shelf filled with books, one with jigsaws and the others are very untidy with necessary ‘stuff’. My bedside cabinets are quite large and each has two large basket compartments and a cupboard that get cleared out fairly often, but still seem to get filled again in no time. 😔

That is exactly what motivates me karma. Having ‘stuff’ didn’t worry me when I was younger, but as an only child who dealt with her parents’ possessions (not that they were hoarders), and having an only child myself, I don’t want to leave behind more than the bare minimum.

I've just done my yarn and pattern stash. Two bagfuls on their way to the charity shop AND I have sorted yarn and patterns into meaningful piles - more or less ... including an odd box, which I may or may not use one day.

What I don’t understand is how, for some people, this de cluttering seems to be an almost constant, daily task. We have quite a large 3 bedroomed house, with only the two of us here now, though AC and GC come to stay quite often. I’m quite a tidy person and I do some housework daily, with a ‘spring clean’ every so often. I can’t imagine clearing out cupboards, etc, day after day. I’d rather be out somewhere, or in the garden!

Karmalady
I’ve lived my whole life in the dying tidy mindset.

Same here. I’m strongly motivated to make the inevitable clear out as easy as possible for our family. Three large boxes of greetings cards collected over 57 years have been my most recent challenge. Photographed and labelled we now have just three quarters of a box of cards with meaning to us. That’ll do.

My next challenge is to weed out the paperwork which is neatly filed but can definitely be reduced.

It’s been a while since I’ve had the motivation. Making the most of it while it’s here and before Spring arrives.

Good luck everyone.

Last year I kept my cards from my husband with the thought that if something happened to him I’d want to put up the last birthday/Valentine’s/Christmas card he sent me.

I’m poorly (in bed) at the moment and my husband has a big project on at work, plus he’s replacing a bathroom at home, so he only realised it was Valentine’s Day at lunchtime yesterday. He was very upset until I pointed out the card from last year that I’d put up and reminded him that he’d bought me ‘get well’ flowers the day before.

Sometimes a bit of ‘hoarding’ is helpful. 😁

I'm a bit poorly today so I have used the time to sort out my wool stash. It's all set to go to a local community group who can use it. I'll give them the patterns I've collected too but I'll hang on to the knitting needles for the moment. I have books I want to get rid of and I'll use the empty shelf for my grandsons jigsaws. I have quite a lot of craft materials and art materials but they are stored neatly in plastic boxes.

petra

Karmalady
I’ve lived my whole life in the dying tidy mindset.

perhaps you could find a few words to help us Petra.

Grannyactivist, my DH died 6 years ago, and yesterday I put up the last Valentine's Day cards we sent each other.

Really lacking any energy to do anything much today, but I have a series of dates lined up and will just have to work to deadlines.
29th garage cleared and off to auction, so I can move surplus stuff in there for the time being and get on with sorting the rest of the house.
4th March gardener comes, taking the mess through the garden room.
6th a window replaced, then I can give the garden room a good clean before the decorator comes.
I have more books to pack up for Oxfam but will wait until I know my daughter is free to take them as they are not in the way whilst on the shelves.
I have lots for charity shops but can only carry a few at a time. So hard to park anywhere near.
Curtains taken down and folded ready for the drycleaners, again the easiest way is to get my daughter to drive and drop me off with them.
I can’t manage to make decisions about the CDs, LPs and DVDs. So they can wait.
For now, everything can wait.

bedrooms done
Study done
Cupboard filled with photo albums and paperwork that can’t be thrown away yet is done. Yaay.

Dining room to do as it has a sideboard filled with China in it and 3 large bookshelves to be sorted.
Airing cupboard still to do, I have a large ironing contraption in there that can go to the tip but its box is handy for stacking things on!
Kitchen still to do
Garage filled with crockery to do, this really is my nemesis!
Potting shed still to do.
We are moving, otherwise it would all stay where it is!

I find the going through stuff especially on a grey wet day is really helpful...so you know what you have got and where it is. Even if you don't get rid of stuff at that moment.

Luckily we have nothing stored in the loft, but we do have some stuff in boxes in the quite deep space under the floorboards with a trap door for access. I can't remember what is there, so that is the next job. Perhaps when my younger daughter is here to pass things to and go through stuff with me.
Her partner is an antiques dealer so she is not phased by lots of stuff. He would not be interested in any of the stuff. Sadly. It's all more collectable than antiique. Or just junk.

I am so glad thst others have this same problem or desire to declutter. And no it doesn't take all my time, but the combination of Springtime tidying afresh and death clearing calls to me.

GSM i am like you, lots of books and pictures, but otherwise lots of empty drawers and cupboards elsewhere in the house.

But we are on the move. So each week when one room gets a thorough clean, I am also going through every piece of furniture and looking at everything really critically. I did our big kitchen/ family room last week and 8 glass plates, a small glass jug and a glass bowl were cleared out. nest week the hall/dining room, which will probably result in little or nothing, but then the study and we have mutually agreed a cull of books as the surplus pile on the floor is not acceptable.

SAt the same time we have just sold our holiday home and todaay started the 'get out' process there. What to get professionally moved to us and other members of the family, what we will empty, what we will leave for the new owners and what the hosue clearers will get.

Tomorrow a whole lot of stained bedding will go to the tip with lots of rusty and broken tools. Today we sort the books!!!!!!!

I’ve put some clothes in the clothes bank this morning, have things nearly ready to get rid of on Saturday and a tip run booked for Monday. Next month I’ll think about getting a few things to auction rooms.

Monica, stained or not, the bedding may be useful for wrapping pictures, large mirrors, glass vases etc? when you move?

I’m astonished by how long this sorting out takes, being sidetracked, reading cards and letters, becoming melancholy and listless, finding baby stuff, reminiscing, with boxes and boxes to plough through yet.

I did bin a large dustbin bag of cards, once I had removed possibly ten I really wanted to keep, wondered then why I
was being so sentimental.

The biggest clearout to everyone’s amazement, were my books.
In order, family first choice, then a dealer, then Oxfam Bookstore.
I thought about this long and hard, prevaricated for weeks,
then did it, never thought I would or could.

I’m sure many of us have stores of things, ‘just in case’
batteries, bulbs, candles, screws, so many, bits of things I don’t remember what they are for/from but know if I dispose of it I will remember.

SORES It is the difference between emptying a holiday home in a foreign country and our main home.

In France, where we are doing a lot of the moving ourselves and can only be there for short spells to do it, anything bulky and manky goes to the tip. We have a big roll of bubble wrap for wrapping,mlighter and less bulky and means we can get more in the car.

Blimey you were lucky to find bubblewrap in France M0nica. It seemed very expensive there and not easy to get.
Keep up the good work!

Cabbie, you need a break, to stop and breathe and to ignore what needs doing for a while. Coping with emotional bereavement on its own is hard enough.

We all need a break sometimes, personally my life is now one long stretch of doing as I please, no tail wagging the dog over this de-cluttering. Sometimes I see what I can do to de-clutter, without looking for it and that is the most satisfying for me

My kitchen is short on storage, I am a cook and it is not a cooks kitchen but I will not be spending any more money on fixtures, I may move again in 5-7 years. Whatever storage I have has to work for me and generally it does. If it does not slot into my storage, then it is clutter and that makes me think from outside the box.