A bit of de-cluttering. Now and then

Some recipe books today. Never mind that I bought them when they were heavily promoted, I was sucked in and have never used those I removed this morning. Nom nom, 4 of them and all unused. I looked at a book buying site, the offer for a completely unused nom nom tome was £1.56. So it has gone locally, as have the other nom noms

I know what I like at my age and tbh any recipes with more than a few ingredients is not for me, I cooked all my life and now only want food that is easy to prep, unless I have visitors and I am keeping just a few books for that

I'd be sitting at the front door, stopping them!

MissAdventure

You can hire declutterers, who will do it all for you, and will take it with them (depending on what you pay, of course)

I discovered that there is one just up the road from me. Tempting though it might have been to hire someone when I was in the middle of the Grand Clearout of 2022, I would struggle to allow anyone to access all areas before they are decluttered. That's the built-in problem, I think. Now that the house is on the way to being finished, I wouldn't mind her coming and making suggestions so much, but there is much less of a need.

Plus, they charge a lot, and I'd struggle to justify paying hundreds of pounds for someone to throw out unnecessary stuff, particularly at a time when paying for renovations and decorators. If you get one who doesn't live nearby (so you are less likely to bump into her in M&S) they charge travelling expenses - some even charge hotel fees if they don't want to commute. I'd rather have that money to spend on the house, really.

I don’t think that ‘decluttered’ needs to mean ‘minimalist’. Perish the thought grin. I like to live amongst things that bring me joy

Agree with this. During lockdown we de-cluttered our books. We have both always been readers and were constantly buying books. Every room in the house had shelves stacked up with books. It was only when I was cleaning a bookcase out one day I realised it was almost full of books neither of us will ever read again. We started trawling through some other bookcases and by the end of the day had a mountain of books that we had no interest in. We sold some to 'WeBuyBooks' and Ziffit and the rest were spread around loads of charity shops after lockdown. The books we love and will probably read again we kept - we now have more of a personal library rather than a public library and two less bookcases.

You can hire declutterers, who will do it all for you, and will take it with them (depending on what you pay, of course)

I think that I'm not good at decluttering .
I wonder if it's a reaction to
my mother , who used to decluttter regularly .
I'd be reading a newspaper , go to the loo come back and find it wrapped around food scraps on the bin !

I'm having another declutter this afternoon .
If I'm honest , it's my idea of hell !

I really need to start and do some decluttering now I am over 70. Just don’t want to think about the kids having to sort through the lot when I am gone.

Yay!

The bike had gone in 2 hours!

It will have created some space. I hope someone claims it soon.

I need a target. I will pledge to paint the fireplace in the kitchen before the end of the weekend. That will mean clearing the kitchen table/horizontal space with 'stuff' on it, and sorting out the jugs and other items on the mantelpiece. I've been meaning to do it since before Christmas, and put off because the dog was visiting and might have shed hairs into the paint. A poor excuse even then, but a nil excuse now .

This morning I've put my old exercise bike out the front of the house. Hope someone takes it!
If not will arrange with council to take it away.
It's a start.

People are doing really well. You must all feel better - I love the post-checkout feeling

My progress has stalled. I really need to have an immovable deadline before I get going. I blame ADD, but who knows? We are waiting for someone to get back to us about the bathroom, as it needs ripping out and replacing. That should force my hand, but there have been delays. If I don’t hear something soon I will get someone else in.

I am waiting for the air to warm up outside. In the meantime I have taken out 3 boxes of pens pencils etc containing lots of duplicates and non-essentials

I hope to end up with one box of writing implements and one box of extras such as bulldog clips. Should not take me long to do that first sort. Much of that stuff was given to my husband 16 years ago. Always has been a `what if` I might need it scenario

I did it, 53 cds are out and I will be keeping the old cd player handy in my living room, it nicely occupies a neat space that was vacated. Music has the power to uplift and I got rid of those that drag mood down

I thought I might make a very tentative start on cds today, I need to wait in for some frozen food and won`t be wasting time. I think I will tackle the cds very much as I tackle any decluttering, ie stages. I am hoping that the first sort will be easy. I will test first, on my old bose cd/radio. I need to be sure

It seems we’re fortunate as the Salvation Army have a local shop. There is little they won’t take or can’t use. They support homeless people, those setting up after homelessness and run a hostel type building. Curtains and bedding are particularly welcome. If I’m not sure I phone in advance and have rarely been refused.

Having waded through three large boxes of greetings cards, whittling down to half a box, I’ve dug out two large folders I kept with our sons school projects. Have I looked at them since they were stored away eleven years ago? Of course not! I’ll ask the authors (and their children) if they’d like them, otherwise sadly I’ll let them go. Mr C is busy with the shredder as I weed out paperwork. It does all feel very productive and I’m keen to press on before the rain stops, as surely it must, and the garden dries enough for some far more enjoyable work out there.

The impetus came from being given a date for a new carpet in that room. We’ll have to empty wardrobes in which a lot of this stuff was stored so the clearer they get the easier it will be. We laugh and call it clearing space while the rain falls.

Good luck everyone.

Anglo Doorstep Collections collect from most areas. It is worth putting in your postcode to see when they could come to you. I believe they then sell and donate to various charities but I can’t vouch for them.

Thank you greenfinch & Petra. This is my problem, that I don't want my donations going straight into the rag because when I say they're good conditions often they are brand new and not worn or only worn once or twice...

We don't get doorstep collections here... with regard brica-brac... so it's a real problem for me...I wish I lived in a city where there's perhaps homeless shelters and I could just donate directly.. sadly there isn't as I live in a rural area.

Ailsa43
I’ve sorted donations in a charity shop for 8 years. I’m sorry you have this problem but it’s a problem for us also. We often get to the stage where it’s unsafe to work ( in the sorting room)
Add to that it costs us money to have our skip emptied every week.
We sometimes have to put donations straight into the rag bag because we havnt got room to sort it.
Would you believe that we have donations from other charity shops?
There is too much stuff!!!!!!!
Our shop isn’t one of the well known shops, we are a local charity. I think most of you would be horrified by the amount of clothing that goes to rag from the big names. I know this for a fact because my friend is a manager in one such.

I sympathise with you Ailsa. It is so frustrating when charity shops refuse donations but they seem to be inundated these days .In future I will take unwanted clothes to a Salvation Army skip in a local car park. They accept good clothing and that fit only for recycling so nothing is wasted. I think the local tips do the same but the problem comes with bric -a-brac. I don’t know who will take that except those organisations that collect from your doorstep one of which was mentioned a while back on another thread about de-cluttering.

I tell you what deters me from decluttering often, is that inevitably I'll haul the stuff, and it's always good clean things..to the Charity shop and they'll have a sign on the door saying they're no accepting donations that day , so I'll drive off to another town, and perhaps the same thing occurs, not accepting donations.

I can't keep going from town to town looking for somewhere to donate my items, so I'm finding that perfectly good clothing, Bric-a-brac etc, is going to landfill.. anyone got any other idea what to do if the Charity shops are not taking it ? It really does put me off having a clear out, knowing my very good items might have to go to the tip.

TV was rubbish and I wanted a dvd to watch. That got me started and I am now rid of over 3/4 of my dvds. They were all stored in special dvd files standing on a shelf. One large, 224 slot now empty, file is destined for cs tomorrow.

I don`t know if I will ever have the enthusiasm to tackle my vast cd collection, similarly stored but I will one day

I did not wake up thinking I would do this today but am happy I did

Oops, I did that with my good china, complete vintage set. Took it all to oxfam, good reputation at that time. I had seen their collectables online so realised that they would gat a fair price for it. Card making supplies went to a school. Lovely to pass things on

I finished for today. An easy job as all my baking odds and ends are neat in a fridge/freezer, never switched on and was supplied with my new house. Perfect for me, shelves, little drawers and I can reach to the back. Umpteen jars are gone, including a few I bought last year. Lesson learnt, to read the use by date when I buy jars of herbs and spices

I have a short re-buy list but only herbs and spices I would use myself. Baking ingredients also sorted and everything is properly labelled, brother labeller. I even ditched my medicinal herbs.

Feeling good by doing this in little hops

I was tickled to read about being frustrated at 'not having anything to throw out!' I can just picture scratching my head while surveying my house thinking 'What can I get rid of today?' So much 'stuff' here, it struck me as comical!

Made the decision yesterday to donate most of my vintage crockery to a Charity shop where I used to volunteer, I know that the manager will put a decent price on everything and will sell everything quickly.
The thought of taking umpteen photos of everything, buying the boxes and packaging, hoping it made it unscathed through the post ( unlikely) then having to pay all of the fees has put me off trying to sell it.
Our GD and her partner are are moving to their own flat soon and want some crockery and cutlery and I will keep some of the nicest bits and pieces, but not the punch bowl! I think the days of tipping left over alcohol into a punch bowl are over. We don’t seem to have those kind of parties any more….