Trying to declutter... this isn't good is it?

[listsandbudgets]

I found the curtains I had made for the last house we lived in still bagged up from when me moved 6 years ago

I couldn't bring myself to get rid of them... and how did I justify this to myself ....

"We'll need them if we ever buy the house back again"

Of all the houses we ever lived in that one was easily my favourite but surely this is an excuse too far to hang on to the curtains!!

I'm currently sitting in a room with curtains that I had made for a bay window in London in 2000, they perfectly fit my new French windows and I still like them (I did have to get about a foot and a half lopped off the bottom) sorry not helpful 😬 (full disclosure also trying to declutter the office today and failed miserably)

We decluttered massively when we downsized, fantastic experience once you get into the right mindset, you need to be brutal and let things go. I can honestly say I haven’t missed one item that we donated to charity or dumped. I was determined that we wouldn’t move stuff that we didn’t need or use.

In my parents’ house I found mine and my sister’s old school uniforms from a previous city we’d lived in - no chance of going back to primary school there!

I’ve always left curtains behind, and the three houses I’ve moved in to had curtains in place. Is that really unusual?

My dp does this-hangs onto utter crap in case ‘it might come in handy one day’

i mean we still have the box from a kettle-from 3 kettles ago (god knows what other crap he’s put in the attic,’just in case’)

the joy on his face when an item does indeed come in handy,has to be seen to be believed

says me-I once went through our cupboards for something to donate for the harvest festival,and found a tin of toast toppers that was at least ten years out of date-and we had moved house 3 times in that time

none of us even liked toast toppers so god knows why it was there

I'm like this with flip-flops.

Every time I declutter I find one of a pair and daren't throw it away just in case the other one turns up. So every year I have to buy another pair.

If you do decide to get rid of them, curtains are near impossible to sell.

I can’t even give away some hand made interlined completely inoffensive floral curtains with track and matching pelmet. Left by the previous owner & not to my tastes.

I bought some very expensive, unusually sized curtains for a former home. I moved away.

Then moved back and have the house 2 doors down. 😁 never say never!

😂😂😂

I’ve got dry cleaned curtains from the house we left 15 years ago. The babies are now over 6 foot. I’m not hoarding thinking we will use them, but they are lovely and I want someone to have them.

I really wish I hadn’t donated the curtains from the last but one house, they would have been great in the spare room. The price of the fabric is probably five times what it was, and I don’t have the energy to haul it through the sewing machine, either.

Some people don’t even leave the curtain poles, let alone curtains!

DD moved recently and left most of the curtains as they were of no use to her in her new house. She also left the curtain poles and blinds for the same reason. Had the curtains been of use in her new house, she would have probably taken them with her.

48 years ago when I was ten mum got duvets and covers, they are still using those covers as dust sheets for decorating.

im currently decluttering in my head, DH is going away soon, he’s going to have a bit of a shock when he comes home. I know he’s fed up of so much stuff, he’d like me to do my craft room. That’s the one room I’m not doing.

I've got curtains up in the loft. They're the children's curtains from their rooms now they've moved onto more adult ones, and I was thinking they might want them for their dc.
They might not, but I feel better for keeping them.

@fatsinglereadytomingle
This gives me the fear. I'm too far the other way and if something hasn't been used in the last 6months it gets chucked/sold/donated. Stand still long enough in my house and you get rehomed 😬

Do you have to buy new Christmas decorations every year? 😂

OP, I've just started selling my old clubbing outfits from my 20's. Im 52 now 🤣. They're selling so well as they're now classed as vintage! Hold on to the curtains for another 20 years and you'll make a fortune😀

Get rid....each day I scan every room and see if there is anything to throw out or donate, aim for at least 2 items each day, it actually doesnt take long to see the difference, just be very firm !

@fatsinglereadytomingle it’s pretty much the same at my house! Obviously Christmas decorations don’t fall into the same category 😂 but generally I like to only have things that are in use or will be used.
Went to mummy mums the other day and she asked me to get some candles out of the cupboard - the whole cupboard was filled with ‘stuff’ - cables she didn’t know what she was keeping for, chargers she doesn’t own devices for, old empty notebooks… looked in the next cupboard in case I was looking in the wrong one and it was full of old house ornaments I hadn’t seen in years - I’d have had the whole lot gone, no idea why she keeps it all. Her hoarding tendencies don’t spill into her house in general, it’s tidy and clean! But every space is just stuffed full, stresses me out 😂

My dad bought a new back door in 1979 as the old one was draughty and flimsy. He kept it in the garage for the next 30 years just in case the new one "malfunctioned" .....

You can rehashion old curtains into cushion covers, dog beds, seat cushions for kitchen chairs, draft excluders, tote bags, bucket hats, bags to hold dirty laundry from a weekend away, or wet towels from the beach, holders for your Christmas tree whether real or fake. I made a Christmas tree bag from a pair of old sheets so now I can drag out ny annual real tree without filling up the house (and the printer) with sharp, dry pine needles every January.

🤣🤣

I've kept the curtains and lampshade from dds nursery. She's nearly 16.
In my defence I'm keeping them for when grandchildren visit.

I like to think I’m pretty good at decluttering (not being smug - I fail miserably at lots of other things in my life). But I would ask myself:

• can the curtains be put away somewhere logical, e.g. a linen cupboard?
• were they expensive or bespoke? If cheap from Argos/Amazon etc then donate
• If the condition is too poor then put them in a plastic storage box with a few old towels as your flooded house/decorating dust sheet box

Seriously, there needs to be a single central online shop selling second-hand curtains in good condition. They are so expensive to buy new everyone could just check on there to see if any suitable could be reused! And everyone could donate/sell them to that one place.

Do you have any photos of the tree cover?