DECLUTTER....in 40 days ....care to join me ?

[spiderbabymum]

..
Have decided the only way I'm ever gonna get organised it to own less ....

I like the look of this

www.keeperofthehome.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/8-weeks-to-declutter.pdf

Day 2 plates and tupperware done and about 10 items removed to clear out. Most freeing is allowing myself to get rid of presents I know I'll never use but I've kept for years out of guilt.

Iliketoclean yeah, 50 mugs and cups sounds rather a lot! Unless you host a lot of giant coffee mornings?!!

mrspaddy like your thinking on the battery tins etc. I can never find spare bateries but sure they are around somewhere. That could be a good use for one of the tupperware pots I was dithering over chucking or not also.

Badchat no giant coffee mornings no! Just wondering what to do with it all! Local charity shop often rejects stuff on the basis they have too much stock! What to do with excess mugs...?

Marking place:)

I went to Ikea yesterday and bought some new spice jars. I have now decanted all my spices into the new jars (some were very out of date and had to be chucked). The spice rack looks fab!

Have also bought lovely Ikea storage jars and filled them with flour, coffee, sugar etc and all in my decluttered kitchen cupboards. Feeling fab about the whole thing even though I still have a long way to go.

Okay, count me in.

I have done the cutlery draw and the draw where I store utensils. I am going through the books being merciless. I am also going to swear not to buy another book until I've read all of the ones that are still untouched on the shelves. That should keep me going for a couple of years .

I took a car load down to the charity shop on Saturday and plan to take another couple of bags tomorrow.

I feel so sad we have wasted so much money on tat. I really need to control what I spend. That will be the biggest challenge. I declutter annually, but it builds up again so quickly. I am sick of living in a messy tip. I liked what the link said about is your stuff really worth the time you spend on it. Mine isn't. I work full time as it is, then run around trying to keep tidy or give up completely, sit on the sofa and feel fed up.

Here's to a new era.

Sounds v organised maypole! Well yesterday I veered off and did the lounge, we have a coffee table which opens up and has lots of drawers on one side, sideboard the same and although every drawer is organised so all same sort of things are in each one (anal!) I still emptied all the drawers of old takeaway menus, leaflets on days out, old phone books, catalogues etc. Only took an hour! I think kitchen, study and DDs bedrooms will be the worst for clutter so am going to do them when DDs go back to school! Today we are out (sunny day!) so might do a small job like the porch later, so not strictly following the 40 day thing (I like to be a bit more hardcore and do more than one drawer ) but it's inspired me to get back on track with my organisation!

I tackled my airing cupboard last night.. exciting stuff! Ah no, I enjoyed the feeling of getting it done. I got two large crates and put linen in one, towels in another. Then I went through the linen.. will need to boil wash some then only keep what is worth keeping. Luckily all linen white.

Towels- I bought a wicker storage stool and put half my towels in in then went through the rest. Will give a lot to a centre I know will be glad of them.

I found a black bag of more clothes :( will sort another time.

Then on the top shelf serious junk - sofa cushions/pictures I am fed up of.. gone to a good home.

Yipeeeeee

I have come to the thread a bit late, but started about 6 weeks ago. I seem to have lost momentum though so this has given me a much needed kick up the ass
I have done the front room bookcase today and 10 have gone.
My problem is finding somewhere to take it all, we have hundreds of charity shops, but I don't drive and the bags can be heavy or lots in number.
I have taken about 10 carrier bags in past month, must step it up a bit Not enough for them to collect it really.

Well I'm back from holiday and all the unpacking and laundry is done. Now to get the children off to school tomorrow and I can really get going with reclaiming the house.

Thanks for starting this thread - I'm hoping that by posting here I'll be better at sticking with it rather than drifting off after a week or two. After living longer in this house than any other the clutter has really built up.

Kitchen drawers tomorrow morning.

Is it very wrong to be feeling excited by the prospect of throwing stuff out and clearing up? I'm usually not very domesticated so this is new territory for me.

It's the prospect of freedom, NotAnother. I'm the same. At first I was all paranoid about wasting money and giving away stuff that might come in useful. Now I love the idea it will be someone else's treasure!

Kitchen drawers today - still 1/2 of one to go :)

Hi all, just delurking to add my tuppence worth. I've printed out the plan but am using as a checklist as I declutter and pack for moving house on 1st July. No doubt I will revisit most categories as we get settled in.

I volunteer in our local Oxfam bookshop once a week, and if people phone to say they
have books that they can't get to us, we leave a message in the notebook and whichever volunteer is passing or lives nearby will go and collect the books. Just give them a call morethanpotatoprints ! They can only say no, but I bet they won't.

I Second everything NotAnotherPackedLunch has said.

Holiday laundry mountain tackled, DCs back to school tomorrow, kitchen drawers in the morning!

I've done 2 of my 3 kitchen drawers, but I need some deep dividers before I can properly finish the 3rd drawer. Have ordered some tonight, so I'll just put everything back in for now, until they are delivered.

My towel cupboard was done recently, so that's already ticked off the list.

I'm going off list for now, it's my church summer fayre soon, so tomorrow I'm going to sort out the kids old toys and donate any unwanted ones to the fayre.

where to get such dividers OpheliaBumps?

I have q.deep drawer and need some way of storing less often used spatulas and other bits and bobs which are roughly the same length but quite heavy as mostly are made of stainless steel.
Plastic boxes aren't that user friendly, but may look for them

I have dismally failed to do the 30 mins per day.

OTOH, I have

Offloaded 20, yes 20, books on a friend for her and others,

Handed on 3 birthday presents that were hanging around

Got rid of 10 plastic storage boxes to recycling

Put a multitude of papers, takeaway menus.etc in the recycling.

Sorted out a breadbin which we never use, a lampstand, some of Ds's shoes.

Got rid of a whole lot of arsenal paraphernalia Ds says is out of date and us no longer desirable

Have a plan for the plastic flower pots.

The latter is the most interesting and some might want to try something like this.

One of our neighbours puts her cuttings out on her garden wall with prices on them and you put the money through her letterbox. So far she has raised a couple of hundred pounds this year for the local hospice. Really impressive. So I thought I would drop my flower pots on her.

Another neighbour puts spare books outside, hardbacks one price, paper another. I think he may keep the money, not sure.

Others set out things on the pavement, saying free if wanted.

They all disappear.

So I might follow one of those routes.

I think now the weather is good putting stuff on pavement may be good idea - I'll try with some books later today :)

Dividers are here dividers they also do 5" ones but they're a lot more expensive. My drawers are deeper than 4" but I find that's high enough to keep things fairly tidy.

This morning I've done 1 kitchen cupboard as well, and have already got my 10 items before I've even started on the old toys

I will make 10 amongst my books in 5 min :)
thanks for the link OpheliaBumps

Just done my day 4 pots and pans and so on. V pleased with myself as I intended to keep going over the weekend and thought I'd never pick it up again when I didn't.

Not quite 10 things, but 8 or 9, AND I did this at the same time as cooking a ginormous batch of sauce to freeze, which I never do, so I am feeling terribly domestic and organised.

Now rewarding myself with a , a plateful of cheese and an episode of Pointless on the iplayer

Love those drawer dividers btw - they look really useful

I started properly today so the cutlery drawer is looking lovely and I made a start on other areas in the kitchen/diner so there is already a visual difference

Now I need to find the original 40 day list to see what my challenge is for tomorrow...

Oh and I filled a carrier bag of stuff to throw away and have a few items ready to sell/donate (but not enough to sell/donate yet).