De-cluttering, still at it, still no end

If you are thinking about it, do it for goodness sake. I came back from visiting a dear friend, she is very clever but that is not enough. She has shrunk into herself now that she is a widow and her world is smaller. Her house is clean, she has a cleaner but my goodness, there is so much clutter, she has hardly done any de-cluttering in the 6 years since being widowed

Every surface, every professional magazine as a retired medic and they still come and she saves them all. Every item of furniture, every picture, every suit, the boots, the shoes. She is younger than me but she has given up, her energy has gone and she cannot get going

It has made me very glad that I have been so pro-active and I have more impetus to keep on doing. I see her quite often and can sow a little seed into her head but that is all

Got to do it now, a bit at a time and in a few years, the difference to surroundings is obvious

This morning I have cleared the last vegtrug and it is dismantled in my car for recycling. My garden is an extension of my home wrt de-cluttering and is now easy to manage, to water. From next year I will only have begonias and figs in pots

Paperwork? Still not up to date but I am throwing in the towel for a rainy day

I’ve just bought some new flour. Must put it in the freezer for a while. Trouble is my new freezer isn’t as big as the old one. Just broke a large Kilner jar in the kitchen. It’s splintered horribly but thankfully didn’t break on the floor.

Blasted flour mites, I only ever had them once but they were horrible to remove. I use lock n lock for all my flour and never get them now but yes they are waiting to pounce, same as wool moths

I took my shopping trolley to the cs, loaded with top quality softback colourful books in new and pristine condition, all to do with carving, scroll saw patterns etc. They were very glad to have them as well as my bags and also the Greenhowe knitting books. Psychologically hard to do and physically shattering

I have ordered some pastel coloured cardboard lever arch folders from amazon, 7 cm wide. At least I can tidy up my knitting pattern stash when they arrive and they will be here by saturday

I do feel more in control of my environment now, I want my knitting things around me, neat and tidy and filed away. I confess to buying two thread and maple leather binders and pages several months ago, they are so nice and hold all my knitting tips and cables. Much better than rummaging in several big boxes

I will still be doing some circular needle culling, I am in process of knitting swatches for a gansey for my ds. Made a swatch just now on 2.5 needles and will need to go down to 2.25 for the next swatch, hopefully not to size 2. I am in process of treating myself to some lovely new circulars and will eventually remove the ancient circulars from my stash.

Today I can see more space and I like what I have done

Having worked on the garden I rather let my kitchen get into a mess and I now find I have flour mites again. They were in sone porridge oats that were in a tin rather than an airtight container. Thank goodness most of the stuff in my kitchen is now in airtight containers. But it just shows they never go away, they're just waiting to pounce.

Not much progress house wise but did a lot of work on my garden recently which means at least I feel good when I look out if the window. Painted fences that were looking shabby, painted a wooden bench that had gone rusty and threw quite a lot of stuff away. Surrounded by trees I can’t grow flowers etc so I’ve tried to turn it into more of a wildlife garden. I found a frog or toad living in the hollow inside of a Buddha and another one was partly dug into the soil so I’m now putting frog/toad friendly areas around. I had some black compost bins that I didn’t use and wanted to dispose of them but now think they’ll be good for my frogs…

As I found upthread, and someone replied to, I found books hard.
Only passed on 6.
I need to buy a new bookcase. Which is hardly the point of decluttering!
But it has been my only "failure". To date anyway.
And I have removed 3 pieces of furniture already, from the house. Another 2 or 3 to go.
So 5 out and 1 in doesnt seem to bad?! Does it?!

Eeek, I am overwhelmed. My living room is now a tip and there are mountains of folders and part-filled notebooks, patterns and craft books to filter through. The sun is blazing through my window and I am HOT

I have put roughly half my books back on the shelving and managed to place heavy tomes on a low-down shelf. Tidying as I go, sorting and even finding a thin booklet about ganseys, So glad I never gave that away

Next is coffee and fruit and then back to it. Someone on the good morning thread mentioned bookcase and that is when the seed was sown, I think it was Madeleine with the `can-do` attitude

I have seen so many books that I need to read again, slowly and carefully, all non-fiction and many with small writing. The fiction books are easy, I read and take to cs, apart from the few I read over and over again

Give me strength, I need to plod on, I have a pig to finish knitting afterwards

Fancythat thank you

I have upped momentum a bit, trying hard to keep just the boxes of things that would have to come with me, if I ever move again.

I did the cards this morning, letting go of all the cards I made and the ones others made and that I bought from them. I have kept some shop-bought cards wrapped in cellophane

Now for books, another difficult category and it is time for me to `let go` of all my wood carving and intarsia books. The scroll saw magazines are now in my garage to make food and hence compost, via my composting worms. Magazine paper is so heavy. My wood carving group `died` during lockdown.

I need to keep the weight of my tall bookcase low down, will need to move my heavy professional books from top shelf to the bottom shelf, for safety. The wood carving stuff did that job

I will have to filter the actual books to each charity shop here, only two. I don`t want to inundate anybody but, honestly, better done now than it has to be done, voluntary is better

fancythat

This thread only has 224 posts.
I think it can go to 1000 posts?

Maybe some of us ie me procrastinate when it comes to posting in the same way that we/I put off decluttering….

Worth knowing. Thanks.

I had a lot of jigsaw puzzles taking up space so I got rid of them, apart from a couple given to me by my late mother. I have since discovered the joys of online jigsaws, courtesy of a website called Jigsaw Planet. The maximum size is only 300 pieces, but I find that is enough to keep me amused for an hour or so. There is a HUGE variety of puzzles on there, including user-generated ones. Lots of fine art puzzles, which are my favourites. So no more bulky jigsaw boxes taking up space, and no more crawling around on my hands and knees looking for lost pieces.

This thread only has 224 posts.
I think it can go to 1000 posts?

Although I am a regular on this thread, I will leave it to someone else to start a new thread.
I am still, yes I know, in paperwork.

Perhaps someone would like to start a new de-cluttering thread soon. This one is almost at an end and I do believe that I am not the only one who needs the support of other de-clutterers

It is so boiling hot today, I am not going to waste my day so I am tackling a biggie, in slow mo fashion. I want to halve my case logic dvd/cd files from 4 to two. Makes sense esp re the dvds, it took me a while to work out how to use the dvd player again

I am just part way through the dvds and am getting rid nicely, no cases to go. Even all the cranford cds are on the way out

I think CDs will be more difficult

More de-cluttering in the garden today and yesterday. It was not intended when I woke up but my bad hip/leg felt quite a bit better. I knew it was not a sensible decision and you will be able to guess the consequences

Yesterday a massive self watering planter, 50cm high and holding 3 x 45cm square planters. in a row Very heavy, I had to be cautious but managed by sprinkling all that bone dry soil all over my garden. I could not face taking it to my allotment in heavy trugs. That is how I suffered the first hip injury

Planters all dismantled and in recycling

Today I needed to water my tomatoes and my two climbing roses were still looking poor ie prickly twigs. I dug them out and tipped again with rosemary trimmings then I took out the 2 cast iron obelisks, one was especially heavy. I don`t like leaving work for the following day so I took them to my allotment today, they can lay down until next year when I will use one for beans and the other for cucumbers

Crikey the pain came back with a vengence, it is abated now but honestly makes me think of the future. I cannot be doing this heavy work in a few years so bit by bit, it will be done asap. Two more metal vegtrugs to empty in a few months and about 14 heavy trugs of soil to move to the allotment, then I will have downsized the outside enough

I’ve been busy with paperwork today. Have probably asked this before, but how long does anyone else keep closed account statements?

I know 7 years has been the suggested time, but I have stuff, neatly filed in order, going back a lot longer than that! Different building societies etc.

Trouble is, 7 years somehow doesn’t feel as long as it used to! It seems to have gone in the blink of an eye.

We have a big old-style computer processor using up space in our spare bedroom, and I recently discovered www.cprcomputerrecycling.co.uk/computer-recycling-services.aspd Has anyone used these, or a similar service?

Yes, photo-sorting was the hardest for me too. I was not widowed when I decided to tackle them. A pile for each person and that included my 6 siblings, packed into big named envelopes and given to each of them. Immediately a weight was lifted, no longer my problem

The other photos, my late husband scanned each and every one of them and my AC each have a copy and so do I. Also includes precious photos that I put into their envelopes. My conscience is clear, my mind is clear and a weight was lifted

I also did family books, photos with explanations via a site called burble. I bought each book for the AC and siblings bought what they wanted. Another thing ticked off and believe me, it really does lift that overhanging weight

I have decided now to just concentrate on clearing this and that from my home. Cookery books are an example Delia Smith `frugal food` has been parked in my shredding area for a long time and today I turned it into food for my compositing worms

The garden is another area and this year I reached the end point of me having to water pots and containers. The begonias are frugal with water, squashes, marigold are certainly greedy for water and I can buy the most delicious tomatoes ever, not ever again will I be tempted to grow squash, tomatoes or anything apart from begonias in my troughs. I have tiered troughs and begonias will reside nicely in them

As soon as the butternut squash has ripened, my two remaining metal vegtrugs will be emptied and dismantled and I will be growing easy, wonderful figs along that sunny hot wall instead. I can stand their manageable pots in long trays and just pour water into those trays

I saw part of an architects programme earlier, what he said made sense, ie to work from inside the space I have

So far.....almost nothing!

I always thought when I started the declutter, that that may be near the top of things to declutter. Turns out it is one of the last!

The way I look at it, is that they are all there. Just not all in albums. But they are there altogether in a cupboard.

The one thing I’m having a problem sorting - photos! We have literally a wardrobe full of albums and also hundreds of loose photos - lots of memories and also two sets of parents photos too! What has anyone else done with all these pics - help!

Good and satisfying result bookwormbabe. I love it

A big de-clutter off my patio during the past two weeks, 2 big metal vegtrugs are gone and it took me a lot of effort, large bucket by large bucket of soil onto my allotment and then all that dismantling of the metal. I did the fengshui move-about and my patio suddenly looked more calm. Those metal vegtrugs were bone dry in spite of 3 waterings a day, I tried hard for 6 years and enough was enough

Two more left to do in a couple of months, I did initially get them as patio dividers but am now embracing the very large area. Hot dry summers will happen year on year and I am going with the flow

I am debating a third large column water tank to match the two I have. Not sure yet

Indoors is at a snails pace but I have oomph for it today, now that my bamix blender has arrived. I am going to remove my ancient grinder (30 years) for starters and tackle my various herbs in jars as I need to free-up some handy cupboard space for my various teas, also in jars. Dds will definitely have the empty jars, they are alessi and good to pass on

I’m going through videos from back in the day when I used to tape everything. Trouble is, I’ve recently watched things on utube that are only there because someone has found an old recording. And these are things that I’ve been desperate to watch. I did buy a recorder that could transfer videos to discs but never worked out how to use it. And it’s difficult to get the discs now anyway.

Update on the ringbinders. Someone has taken all the ringbinders I left outside. Result!

I have a growing pile of no longer needed stationary items too.
Plan to offer them to my kids first.
But they dont tend to take much unwanted stuff off my hands.
Hadnt thought as far as what I would do with the items, after that.

I’ve got two containers full of ring binders in my loft. More stuff that I can’t just throw away but don’t know what to do with. I had two weeks to make a dent in my clutter ( my partner took the dog on holiday) but I had to deal with a furniture beetle infestation and it was hard working in the extreme heat. It’s getting more urgent now because my mobility is getting worse.