Carrying on from the de-cluttering theme

Cabbie21

Our nearest charity shop will only take things in bags, Petra. But all too often they have a board outside saying they cannot take any donations that day.

We have local fb pages where you can offer things - one man's junk is another's treasure. My DDs unwanted toys have made me quite a bit.

Daft things - I have given away buttons, books, puzzles, but also bean sticks, and even garden shreddings. But the best was when I posted cable images and 8 out of 9 went to very grateful searchers.

When my parents downsized from a very large house and we ACs helped them clear it, I discovered lots of things I had 'left there' at different stages of my life, and completely forgotten about. I should have got rid of them at the time, not left them in storage to be forgotten for years. My parents wanted to take a lot of stuff to their new home, and boxes and boxes of it was stored in the loft of the new home. Several years later after both parents' deaths all of these untouched boxes are now having to be sorted etc by us ACs - and it is a horrible task, relics of my parents lives that are hard to throw away but that we cannot keep because there is so much. I am trying hard not to leave such a task to my own ACs.

I’ve got lots of large plastic boxes that I bought the other year. I’m now going to categorise things and put them in labelled boxes. Many are toys that I kept for the grandchildren. I do have a friend that deals in toys but unfortunately he lives a long way from here. I know he buys boxes of toys from auctions and often finds hidden treasures in them ( he deals mainly in dolls and people often don’t understand how much they’re worth).

FranP

Cabbie21

Our nearest charity shop will only take things in bags, Petra. But all too often they have a board outside saying they cannot take any donations that day.

We have local fb pages where you can offer things - one man's junk is another's treasure. My DDs unwanted toys have made me quite a bit.

Daft things - I have given away buttons, books, puzzles, but also bean sticks, and even garden shreddings. But the best was when I posted cable images and 8 out of 9 went to very grateful searchers.

Out of interest, did the cable searchers collect the cables from your house?

HiMay

No problem decluttering my own stuff, but husband can’t bear to part with things he spent money on once. Anyone know how to tackle this? No reasoning with him! And absolutely impossible to sneak anything out of the house

I have this problem. Not just DH's things, but anything that belonged to his parents or relatives that has come to rest in our house.
I left a sailing dinghy on the front lawn (DS helped me carry it) after it had been in our "small bedroom" for at least 5 years, gathering dust. When faced with the neighbours seeing it, he rapidly took it away. He wasn't pleased, but that is one whole room we now have use of again.
We still have 3 lawnmowers in the garage though, only one of which works - I need a cunning plan...

My problem is that I am rather a Jeckyl and Hyde person, and also somewhat of a control freak when it comes to my own things. So I have never had any problem passing on clothes and useful things to friends and charity shops , especially the toy things as my son grew out of a particular interest or whatever. I did rather regret having given 3 lovely large toy vehicles which were very sturdy and could be ridden on, a fire engine, a digger and a lorry, to the kindergarten when I had my grandson to consider. But as I say they were not a problem.

When I had to leave my own house and move to this smaller flat, and give up my piano etc., it was a big wrench, although I chose to do it, knowing that my independance was the most important thing of all, but had to get rid of so much stuff that once I had moved it took me something like a year to even be prepared to get rid of anything from here.

However now I know I need to be thinning things down and so forth, but that does not include my precious books, which when I am dead they can do as they want with. No, it is the whole range of things such as letters or diaries that hold so much of my life and just looking through one, brings me back to countries and people I remember. Even things like special recipes and cookery things that I readily agree, that it is extremely unlikely I shall ever want to , or need to , cook now. BUT I dont want family to come and start going through things , as I want to know everything that is being thrown out and I miss my lovely husbands way that worked well for me.

So he would go through a drawer or a cupboard, but everything he was preparing to throw out, would be put on a tray or on the table for me to check over. That worked well, as occasionally he would have thrown out some important spare bit for something or other, but usually I only had to look things over and then could say thats fine, chuck them out. That way a lot of stuff was sorted but I still had peace of mind and that final say so as to whether something went or not. It may not work for others but it was very good for me , and stopped me getting too anxious about it all.

I now have to be in the right state of mind to tackle things, as I am on my own, and with my back problems etc etc., it is frustrating that I can be having a decent sort out and have to stop for a while, when I am in the mood to clear stuff. Still this is the time of year rather than spring cleaning for me, as the darker evenings , and the less good weather mean that I am at home more and can tackle things more often. I need to be in the right mood, and then do get a fair bit sorted, whereas on another day I take so long to decide about stuff it is pathetic.! So I have now devised my own way over those things that you just cant make up your mind whether they are worth keeping or not. I put those things in a black plastic bag and stick it far back in a cupboard. After a couple of months , if I havent rooted anything out or gone looking for something I get rid, without looking through again!

Another thing we have done that went well at one time. In a womens group I go to , we gave a fair bit of notice and agreed to bring up to 5 items to the meeting, that we wanted to swap. Then we had 2 people looking at the items and they and the owner agreed its worth. So we had raffle tickets, which were easy to acquire. So for example you might have a cashmere sweater that you no longer wear, but in good order, so that would probably get 5 tickets, and a simple pair of gloves 1 ticket etc. Then when we had taken in all the available clothes. everyone could go round and use their raffle tickets to "buy" another item. Firstly we only allowed people to choose one item so that everyone got a fair chance to get something they wanted, and then just carried on until everything was chosen . Anything still left could either be retrieved by the original owner or given to go to the charity shop. All the items had to be clean and in good order or we would not accept them at the beginning. Result - quite a lot of fun trying things on and some decent bargains, and people felt good about themselves for sorting something out!

Sadly the only person who can sort out paperwork is me, and at the speed I am working at the tortoise will have passed me and been round twice !! Ah well I have made a start, and need to hope for that good combination of a determination to clear a lot more, and there to be very little or nothing going on, and no excuse to avoid starting. Then usually I leave the bag of stuff in the hall for an evening, just so that I can look at it and know that I have at least cleared that out, as when I look in the room I have been working in I often cant see much difference!!

Its my photos that I cant get rid of ....

One of the benefits of my small house is there’s no room for clutter (apart from my fabric and yarn stashes). My loft is inaccessible for me so is empty. My friend’s husband has been unwell and they have sensibly decided to move from their large semi to a one bed retirement apartment. The trouble is they have a large loft, a huge shed and too many spare rooms, all filled with ‘stuff’. Her husband is too unwell to help so this is all on her. My friend, nearly 80, thinks it will take a year to work her way through all this. I worry that it will be too much for her or that they have left this too late. I was grateful that my sensible mother did not keep things that were not useful. When she died my brother and I were spared the awful task of trawling through piles of stuff that no one wanted as I have seen others have to do.

I’m currently watching the latest series of The Travelling Auctioneers because I know someone who is on it. It does make me feel better about my own house ( although I’m watching it when I should be decluttering).

I am in process of making a conscious effort to use things up, this week, the bio D 5 litre container of bathroom cleaner.

Reading the ingredients, there is nothing in that which could damage my kitchen so I have started using that and it does a very good job on my stainless steel sink unit. I would not use it on ceramic but I don`t have ceramic.. It also cleaned up my bistro garden set, was good at getting rid of bird muck

Herb tea is another, I have loose and I have bags, all were carefully chosen but I have been turning to yorkshire gold and a very nice coffee bean. Yes a large tea first thing and then these nice blends of different flowers for the rest of the day. Strangely, I am also sleeping better. I have a lot of these herb teas and want the space back

Flours, I used to make sourdoughs etc but not these days, I have run my flours right down, ok I did order more for winter but only one type, an organic ancient grain and only for bread or crumble topping and only enough for winter

Oils, body oils such as jojoba, almond and the essential oils, the black seed blends, the rose face oils, the hair oil. Lots of oils but now I make a point of using them, keeping my skin nice and soft and any of these on my legs. Hair oil on my legs at the moment, I mean hair oil! I don`t need hair oil for my hair

I have rich blends from an edinburgh company, they call it face cream but they are pots of grease in posh jars with clips, awful for my face but satisfactory on my legs and arms and feet. I am not throwing any of these things out. They take space but I am reclaiming that space, inch by inch

I have got duplicates of so many things. Shampoos, face creams etc. I don’t know why I don’t just use one up before starting on another. I think buy one get one free offers are partly to blame.

I am on a mission to use shampoos up and this morning I tried shampoo on the en suite wash basin and in the toilet. Excellent results both times, some bubbling up the basin overflow outlet but that is a good thing for cleaning that area. I use a round soft brush like many use in Japan, for the basin

I don`t need shampoo for floor cleaning any more, only using an e cloth flat mop with water. I can see me getting through shampoos at long last

Body oil use has continued well, this morning again I used a mix I had made for myself from jojoba oil plus castor oil, excellent for the body. That brown glass bottle is now empty, hurrah

This is all very satisfying. I have too many unused part bottles of shampoo and an almost full newish bottle of head and shoulders, that shampoo caused an awfully itchy scalp

I have more or less finished my duplicates.
Didnt take me as long as I thought.

The best part is I no longer have ingredients "at the back of the cupboard".
They had begun to annoy me a lot.

I am just about to sort kitchen drawers, again. Trying to reduce exposure to microplastics and have just received a wonderful set of teak utensils with a large teak pot, big enough to hold all of them, although in reality I only want a few in that pot on the work surface

For a second I thought I might change to a wooden cutlery tray system but that is a step too far, the system I have now works perfectly

Silicone, I believe is a bit better than plastic and I may hang onto the bowl scrapers. I took everything out, silicone and plastic and now need to take a break while I think about the items I can remove. I have an induction hob over so would have to place excess wooden items into a butchers block drawer close by

I don`t think I can remove everything, some things are just too useful. I am hoping someone can give me some inspiration

Spent time yesterday on a suitcase in the loft which held various items I have hung onto for years.

One was a file containing newspaper cuttings from the local paper featuring stuff the children had taken part in locally- cubs and brownies activities, school events, dance competitions and so on.

Why have I held onto these faded, scrappy bits of newsprint with pictures of DD and DS who are now 51 and 49 respectively? In some cases, the images are so tiny and blurred you can hardly make them out. But it was many years before we all had cameras and phones available to record every little thing.

In short, they went into the recycling. But it brought back a few memories looking at these events of 40 plus years ago, when life seemed simpler somehow.

😢

Yesterday brought the relief of getting rid of the last two boxes from the massive attic clear out that my daughter and I did in the summer.

I do have some more decluttering and tidying to do in my craft room but will concentrate on that during January.

If you are sorting out kitchens whether you are moving in with someone and have 2 of everything or just clearing a kitchen, I would give everything a wash, and check if kettles etc are all working and then you might contact a local community help group or perhaps a refuge anywhere near by or a care home where older children are now going to live on their own for the first time whether at college or a new job. To have good quality kitchen utensils and things to start your new home is lovely. That also means that that first bit of a new home which you find so many little things needed, you will have usuable decent goods to hand. Either you keep them and save landfill, or eventually you might choose to buy something new when you have the cash but can still pass these very useful items on to others. Alternatively at this time of year ask amongst friends whose children might just be setting off to a new place and be glad of the chance to have some items for their kitchens.

I advertised my single divan bed on a local ‘Items For Free’ site three days ago.

Zilch interest.

I hope it doesn’t end up going to the tip, as it is in really good, clean condition, two storage drawers, firm, very clean (protected) mattress. When you read about children who have no beds to sleep in……

I’ll give it another few days, maybe post on another freebie site with fresh pictures.

I have moved very many times both here and abroad, and whilst you learn certain good things that will be useful in the future, it is still a never ending hassle trying to downsize for me. My major problem is my own feelings. I know that when I am depressed or not feeling well, that is not a good time to start throwing stuff out as I can feel very anxious, take so long making decisions and then doubting myself about what I have done. Of course when I feel fine, there are far better things to do than sort things out!! So I learnt to very carefully draw up a plan of the new place, making sure it was to scale and showed which ways doors opened etc etc. The plan on graph paper of each room of the property was easily sorted. However much more difficult was measuring and cutting to scale pieces to represent furniture and showing which way their doors open etc. This was an extremely fiddly and irritating thing to do, and my husband usually did most of that as he was very meticuluous and careful. But so very worth while, as you have a much easier time sitting with your bits of paper and seeing what looks well where and finding that no matter what you do you cannot possibly take those two chesterfields to this new house. Then when you finally resign yourself to that fact you can then sell the chesterfields before you move, saving you money and space and hassle. I have used this method for all the 19 places I have moved to, and know that however much of a hassle it is it really works. The one strange thing I found is that no matter how many places you moved to your curtains NEVER fitted the new ones and you were better off selling them in with the old house!! So these inanimate objects are reasonably easy to deal with except when I had to sell my precious piano, which was so sad for me, but no matter how I tried it had to go, and I still miss it. However I have found ways around this but quite another matter is the paperwork and documents that only I can deal with myself. When I am busy doing other things I can ignore things for a while, but then I become aware of how much I need to sort these things, and am quite controlling about some of them and dont want anyone else to do it, yet cannot make myself get started, so it can become a circle of worry and anxiety . Not helped by things all being done on line. I prefer to have things written and in my hand . Then if I need to I have chapter and verse and people cannot say that I have got it wrong. So I try to pick a time to do quite a bit, but as Karma says you can work all day and not see a good space if you didnt work out what to do with things first. So just very recently feeling quite happy and trusting in myself was able to throw away some paperwork that was over 3 years old, which I just felt the need to hang onto in case! So I need this good reminder of ways to cope with stress and anxiety. I am now thinking of Karma s advice to start in a corner and I do see that the next few weeks, the weather will not be as good and should encourage me to make a start. I have given lots of clothes, books and utensils away with very little worry but now need to make some effort, so will be glad for your encouragement shortly.

Nannan2

Since my heart op i can only do little and often, so ive put some really good or unused stuff on ebay, this year i sold a bath lift(used once) a set of unopened lego, a new digital radio, 2 beautiful barely sat upon velvet chairs and made over £300.Ive put on a few more items not yet sold.And i will add more as i can.Ive also given away lots to charity, clothes nearly new and some with labels still on, and given more still on freecycle.(including today in fact) But i still have more to do, as we have very little storage space.

I'm finding it hard to move stuff on using both eBay or vinted .
I vastly under price items most still have labels from new on.
It doesn't bode well fir the 'looking' new but worn once items.

I wish I knew why these items don't sell, I'm desperate to empty the house.

My sister sells her stuff and so do the AC but I have never sold anything, even things that have a value. Good karma always comes back to me, eventually

It is gloomy out and raining so I have done a bit of sorting in my kitchen. I labelled some underused items such as bamix accessories, I could never remember which was which. I must have removed over a sq foot worth of items from my cupboards today and it adds up over time. It never has to be all or nothing

Having a freshly ground coffee now and feeling satisfied. Slow de-cluttering is a perfect job for these grey days

keepcalmandcavachon

Spotted this recently -
We spend our first 30 years wanting stuff,
the next 30 years acquiring stuff,
then,
the next 30 years getting rid of stuff ...

Just come across this thread - and gotta agree with that one for sure.

Easily done in a fairly typical lifestyle - maybe the "forever" home takes longer to get than anticipated and you can't get "everything" until you see what size etc your eventual house is.

Maybe it takes longer after that (especially if you're waiting because the house needs renovating before you can see what's what fully).

Then after that thinking "Right - I can finally buy what I decide I'm going to buy when I decide to buy it....rather than sticking it on a 'waiting list for when I have the money for it' ".

Then because you've been waiting years/maybe even decades to buy some of the stuff and you don't really want to chuck out the "make-dos" you bought meanwhile.

If you are someone that has built up your own home reference library and then seen just how much public libraries are being cut etc you keep a lot of your older reference books - particularly because so often "the wheel gets reinvented with brilliant new idea on the market for the first time (apparently)" and you haul out your 40-50 year old books where it genuinely was invented in the first place....

...and so it goes on.

Calendargirl

I advertised my single divan bed on a local ‘Items For Free’ site three days ago.

Zilch interest.

I hope it doesn’t end up going to the tip, as it is in really good, clean condition, two storage drawers, firm, very clean (protected) mattress. When you read about children who have no beds to sleep in……

I’ll give it another few days, maybe post on another freebie site with fresh pictures.

Just an update, my bed was collected last weekend by a nice lady who wanted it for her GD’s when they come to stay.

She also took the duvets, mattress protector and fitted sheet.

So pleased, for her and for us.

Best way to declutter is give away the nice stuff to children and grandchildren

Me - well there's plenty of Facebook groups around here for giving away Freebie things. But I've found that 95% of the time just putting up offering whatever it is on my personal FB page means there's 1 or 2 people wanting it - just got rid of a vacuum cleaner that is more complicated than hoovers used to be and so I don't like it because it's badly designed. That went in hours....as usual.