Declutter - an encouraging thread

[Housemum]

OK, so have been lurking/posting on various declutter threads - there are a lot of us out there trying to shift stuff. Anyone care to join me by sharing their small achievements in the hope of helping others to get motivated? Similar to the Flylady threads, I think, where they share their lists of achievements. I'll start off with my small achievement today - we have an IKEA tall CD rack which was full of assorted CD roms - I have been through them and ditched a pile 18" high of CD roms that I don't want or that are incompatible with our current PC. Straight in the bin as they are not worth anything, not even for giving away. I know it's not huge amounts of stuff, but they have been preying on my mind for ages.

Next up, the kitchen cupboards :)

OptomisticPessimist what qualifies the clothes for payment?

We have a cables drawer which is great as I can always find my camera charger, there is also a useful draer which DH looks after which had all kinds of crap in it!

I'm currently harbouring a biiner full of stuff to go in my bedroom, us two wicker baskets also earmarked forcharity, in the dining room.
My trouble is, I get enthused, fill the bags, then don't get around to taking them anywhere. Partly because we live in the sticks so getting rid requires a slecial trip into town, and partly because I forget to take the. When I do go to town. And also there's no parking outside the charity shops. < excuses >

i am fed up of my house looking so dreary, though - it desperately needs decorating but I can't seem to make decisions with all this crap everywhere.

Dvds and especially CDs are my pet hate - but every time I try to get rid, DH insists we have to copy them onto a pc, then file away the discs. I just cba with any of that, so they languish on shelves gathering dust and looking ugly, or in cupboards taking up useful space.

Then I seem to have pillows and duvets breeding in the loft - again, when I make noises to get rid, DH thinks they'll come in useful for kids' sleepovers. I very much doubt we'll ever have six or seven kids sleeping over, however.

Must get a grip and just get rid!

slowlyburning - the cable drawer (TM) is not for useful cables, it's for those cables which your other half simply refuses to part with 'in case they are useful in the future'. You can't put genuinely useful cables in the cable drawer, because you'll spend half an hour untangling them every time you want to get them out.

Shotgun - I have similar problems with offloading to charity shops - understandably they don't have massive car parks or 24 hour drop-ins, most unreasonable But there are many, many charity bins around these days, in supermarket car parks as well as at the tip, that take all sorts. My local Sainsbos has a charity bin that takes books - what a glorious find that was!

They sell it as second hand so it has to be in sell-able condition really, they have guidelines here, but like I said, they recycle anything unsuitable anyway so it made no odds to me.

I learnt today that you can roll cables into individual bulldog clips, like this:

www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/house-and-homes-blog/gallery/2012/jun/08/ideas-for-organising-your-home#/?picture=391150590&index=2

I am better at reading about ways to be organised than actually organising ATM

Shotgun - if i don't get rid of stuff asap it gets rescued!

Thank you, I might look into that.

Re cables. Hmm. You could be right. I only care that I can find my important cable and don't care about the others. Labelling them helps. And the fact we both work in computing so usually know what we have. Though we also have a breeding set of mobile phones, neither of us ever throw them away! And those we could get money for.

Celestial - if life's too short to stuff a mushroom (which it is), life would be too short to decoratively arrange cables in fancy jars if you were immortal.

Ah yes but not too short to sit and read about it whilst coffee drinking and procrastinating on the actual housework - and there is essential advice on how to arrange one's cosmetics on a cakestand if you read further

there is essential advice on how to arrange one's cosmetics on a cakestand if you read further

All the people involved in the creation of that article need to be given 200 hours' community service.

As a follower of many brilliant boards on pintrest that article is naff!!!

Sorry, but it is!

I loved the marvellous glass jars full of dishwasher tablets. Who in their right mind would decant dishwasher tablets into glass jars?? Even Marie Antoinette wouldn't have her servants do that (had they had dishwashers in France at that time).

slowlyburning you mentioned on your Chat thread about paperwork - that's one area I have controlled now. I bought basic A4 files from Staples and filled them with those punched plastic pockets. Everything "useful" is filed in alphabetical order, I put a sticker on the pocket and write on it. For instance mine include Council Tax/Gas & elec/TV license/Tax DH/Tax me/Mitsubishi V5 and service/Driving licences (paper copies)/Child Trust fund DD2/Child Trust fund DD3/Hospital letters, and so on. Whenever I add anything new to the front of the pocket, I look at the rest of the paperwork in there to see if it is still current eg I only keep the last 2 years' utility bills (in fact that will stop as gone paperless billing now). I have a separate folder for bank statements, though again I have now switched to paperless so will not have any more to add.

I have 2 separate A4 files marked "guarantees/receipts/instruction booklets" where I file these. I do have to remember to go through these about once a year just to chuck out instructions for things we no longer have, or old receipts that are well out of warranty.

We have an Ikea chalkboard in the kitchen - on the chalkboard (magnetic) we put vouchers to be used soon eg the Sainsbury's petrol vouchers so one of us can take it when we go out. I also scribble on there anything we need to buy when out shopping, or something to remember to do, and which days the kids are school lunches. I try not to put much on there else no one looks at it. On the shelf underneath to one side go any tickets/things to do in the order they happen, plus on the other side takeaway menus. Eg at the moment my pieces of paper are in the order of preschool fun day details, Year R induction dates, dance show rehearsals, dance show tickets, Olympic tickets.

We have an Organised Mum diary on a recipe book stand in the kitchen - doesn't always work perfectly but the idea is that anything that is going to happen goes in there, and to check it before agreeing to go anywhere/do anything. (Could go electronic but I have an iPhone and DH has a work Blackberry that can't be synced to Outlook or similar due to firewalls so would be too much hassle, paper is quicker!)

The post is dealt with every day - filed or binned or put on the going-to-happen shelf. Any money off vouchers go in a little plastic envelope thing I keep in my handbag.

Ikea notice board

As a bonus there are 2 hooks underneath so DH and I put our car keys there when we get in (kitchen slap bang in middle of house so no chance of any fishing rod through a letterbox burglars!)

Dishwasher tablet storage for me is to rip the top of the box off so they are easier to grab! And as for hanging tights, I don't have enough hanger room for that! Must be nice on their multicoloured tight-wearing, tidy child, planet! (Did like that Ikea plate shelf though)

Wrapping paper - Really Useful Box make a wrapping paper storage box now (mine was a tenner from Rymans) - holds several rolls, I just throw a roll of sellotape, some scissors and gift tags in there with the paper.

I'm starting today - to get a head start on tomorrow if you see what I mean?

Dining room here I come - If I can have just ONE room tidy it will spur me on to so the next one. For me that's gonna be the best way - up till now I have been doing a little in each room which is unnoticeable.

Have done music magpie in the past - love it!

Housemum, fully supportive of your dishwasher tablet storage arrangements. Were those tights, then, on hangers? WTF?!

With paperwork, I did read that for the return on investment (i.e. amount of time spent filing stuff vs ease of retrieval if needed) it's as easy just to whack everything you actually need to keep into a folder with the year marked on it.

I keep V5s, passports, birth certs, paper bits of driving licences and TV licences (i.e. paper needed to keep but rarely needed to retrieve) in a fire box like this. Not to be too alarmist but most paper can be replaced, so I personally wouldn't get too hung up on filing bills and stuff.

I do DH's tax return online, a teeth-gnashing couple of hours every year after which it turns out he owes something ridiculous like £20. I should just offer them £50 to avoid having to do the return, it'd be well worth it!

I use a Google calendar for house stuff and then invite myself (my work email address) and DH (his Google mail address) so you might want to try that to get round the firewall restrictions on your DH's Blackberry. They're in his work calendar but they can be marked as private if his calendar is shared.

I do keep meaning to sort out a wrapping paper 'thing' - I have one which I kept in the car for the many things I ended up wrapping on the way to work (a lot of presents for colleagues who've had babies of late) and I'm not sure how well something like that would survive at home. DH and ds are there a great deal more than I am .. with all that that entails.

Top of sideboard deckuttered and cleaned.

Dining table next

Can anyone point me to the list bit of the other thread (too lazy to scroll through 29 pages! )

I signed up to flylady a couple of weeks back but got fed up of all the silly emails so unsubscribed, but did pick up a useful push in the right direction tip of chucking 29 (no idea why 29) things from each room. While I haven't quite managed that, I am getting better at chucking things mainly belonging to other members of my family :o

flubba, from scanning the thread, I think although most of the advice is in there, someone actually collated it all into a list, which is now doing the rounds behind the scenes on MN. Hopefully someone in possession of The List (and with the privileges to send it on) will come to our rescue at some point!

I'd been keeping on top of things in the kitchen until a couple of days ago, and things have backslid a little. But this was due to two things I think: 1, not emptying the dishwasher as soon as it was done and 2, not washing out empty drinks cans so the two things together create an unholy mess. It really is true that mess begets mess. I'm not saying one should be an obsessive about shining the sink but identifying one's trigger points probably is a good idea. It is a bit like dieting vs. aiming to change your eating habits long term.

I shredded two carriers of old paperwork yesterday, and have another to do today. Had to stop as DS woke up everything I ran the shredder

Sorted the paperwork file into 1 new, lockable metal box and will today move the certificates/passports etc into it.

Hello!

I have the list! Will send on if you PM me.

My house and life are in desperate need of organising and decluttering. So much so that I printed off the list in January and have lost it somewhere in one of the piles of crap in my house!

On the Lego thread the other day someone linked to a Lego storage solution image and from that I found a blog called "Iheartorganizing" which has totally inspired me. She takes it to a whole new level and I want to be her when I grow up!

I have just spent hours on the Store website thanks to the link to the Guardian article. I went on to order the wrapping paper storage thingie and ended up ordering an Elfa back of door basket system! Along with some other vital organising weapons.

I am definitely a person who likes to read about and plan and spend money on decluttering and organizing but never actually gets round to doing it!

But I am now on a mission. We moved back to UK last summer after years overseas and even with mammoth decluttering before we left Hungary, I still have piles of crap. Decor wise my house is not quite finished yet and I had lost impetus but that blog has reinvigorated me. And the decluttering needs to happen first.

I also have the list and can send it on if you pm your email address

I am meant to be writing my thesis literature review today, I am clearly not and I am on here instead. Each time I have an idea about organisation which I can do in the new house I am writing it down in my notebook, I am drawing where things will go in the new house an d I will pack up this house on my own ensuring that I will be wholly ruthless with clutter.

My Question of the day is this

I keep the boxes which toys come in. Especially toys which DD will not play with forever and I will want to pack away and keep for siblings(s) if they happen. I also keep baby clothes as I know we will have more. I don't want to keep these items in the loft of the garage but how and where can I store them without them taking over?

Why not put them in the loft?

I used to keep spare clothes under my bed, any good?

We cleared 40+ books off the shelves this weekend to cart to Charity shop. Mostly non-fiction obsolete technical stuff. Plus a copy of American Psycho that DH would like to burn (but might fetch me 99p on Ebay ).

Pile of stuff to burn, too.

We badly need new carpets but my problem is furniture, I don't have anywhere to move all the furniture whilst the carpets are being done. . I am wondering about hiring a storage unit for a fortnight & moving stuff into it so the carpet fitters can do the job properly. Plus I have a 1000 lb piano that would need to be moved about to put new carpets in (£80 to the guy to move it twice, and that would be a bargain price).

I worry they might get damp and musty in the loft...

Way to go on the clearout. Why don't you go find the carpets you like and explain to the people that you might need some assistance with the furniture. When we had a carpet being done they moved everything to one side of the room, fitted the carpet, lifted everything to the 'done' side, fitted the other side and then we rearranged. Yes we had to clear out rubbish and our other reception room was to the brim with stuff but as we were spending £££ then the fitter was quite happy.

FWIW cream carpet is a STUPID colour to have in a dining room with a baby!