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[educatingarti]

This is the new minimalist/decluttering thread! I hope everyone likes the minimal title!

confusion, I was given some lovely L'Occitane shower gel for Christmas and I initially thought about saving it 'for best' then I thought how nice it would be to smell of that instead of Tesco Value Soap (although that's fine too), so I use it every day. But realistically I'm not going to use all the hand cream even though my hands could do with it... Most of it is unopened so maybe I could see if anyone wants it on Freecycle... What do you think?

If it's named stuff, stick it on eBay! I made about £40 on Soap and Glory stuff, most of it opened and smelt, then stuck in a cupboard. Old/ half used perfumes too- the Next perfume I had went surprisingly well. If you quickly list it now, take pictures on the mobile app maybe, you could put it on a 3 day listing, it could be sold and gone by Monday.

I use No7 body care daily as I have terrible skin and it is one of the few perfumed products I can use. I think I will pop all the unopened (7 I just checked) festive box sets on freecycle.

It has taken me long enough to ebay bigger items!

I'm going to be ruthless and chuck out all my paperback books, will charity shops take them?

Also does anyone have a solution for bloody dvds? We watch a lot of films, have a lot of dvds and they are so bloody ugly! Could i perhaps put all the discs into cd wallets and pack up the boxes and put them in the loft?

We have little plastic cases in different colours, got rid of the cases and file them in there- pink for kids stuff, green for films. Got them from Amazon I think. The only ones we kept cases for were Disney- don't know why, just seemed like we should!

Charity shops will usually take paperback books if they have room. We took loads to a local one, the man in there said he never refused books but we went back with more and a different person said they had no more room (we were clearing a relatives house so there were lots!).
If they are in good condition and not too old (or claims) your local library may take them too.

goofy I use these from muji for dvds www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?Sec=14&Sub=58&PID=421 and I chucked boxes. Also use separate folders for cds and wii games. Works brilliantly for us and takes up a fraction of the space. (hope link works - doing this on my phone and not sure how to make links clicky).

Thanks for the invite arti but I'm embracing the clutter right now.

Maybe in 15 or so years when dc3 has moved out?!?

Hello!

I have until now avoided decluttering threads (apart from my own pre-xmas one last year which was actually quite successful) but I was intrigued by this title :o

Can I please join you?

We are massively cluttered and it is getting a lot worse now as I got ill last year and am juggling work/DCs/pacing myself (ha)... I think I have reached a tipping point with our clutter. I am realising how much more difficult it is making my life, and it is even starting to make DD sad too (she is nearly 6). She said the other day "There is too many things in our house and it is hard to play" :(

I have no idea how the hell we are going to manage this, DH's health hasn't been great either (had surgery last year for a back injury) and for both of us, doing too much in one go is risky and we will suffer for it for weeks so it's going to be interesting...

Haven't read whole thread yet so apologies if repeating but a couple of things I'm noticing from posts above - for DVDs (they are our weakness and do not count as clutter thank you very much :o) we use CaseLogic cases which I buy on Amazon, they are pretty good quality, we have them in various sizes from 72 to 320 capacity!

Also - don't know about other charities but I previously volunteered in British Heart Foundation and they don't turn away books - any that aren't sellable get recycled and the charity gets money - it was around 50p a kilo, which adds up pretty fast with books. They do a similar thing with unsellable clothes.

Really must go to bed now, having a lot of trouble sleeping lately so I will try and think of decluttering plans while attempting to doze off...

Fuzzpig, you don't need big chunks of time (although that is useful for big projects like photos, sorting books etc). It's really about how you view your stuff. Reading some of the links on the previous threads could help. Then you'll find as you go about your daily life you'll see things and think 'I don't need that'.

It helps if you have a space to keep a charity box/clothing bag.

Can you set aside 15 mins each day to sort through a drawer, a shelf etc? Take out a piece of clothing from the back of the wardrobe every time you get dressed and make a decision about it.

If you don't need the money, take anything that could be sold to the charity shop so a good cause benefits and you clear things quicker.

Looking on the bright side, your DD is on board already!

Welcome fuzzpig just take it one box/cupboard/shelf at a time as clearsome suggests. I'd even recommend trying to completely clear each small space before you start the next one, because I have noticed that it can feel more stressful when you are tripping over 3 bin-liners of clothes in the hall as you try to de-clutter the bathroom.
At the moment I have 4 trays of papers in my living room which are being scanned and then binned, but it is a work in progress!

We are moving house on 8-10th August and I am DETERMINED not to haul the same boxes of shit junk with us when we move as we did when we moved here. New life!

Thanks all for the advice about dvds, i will make that the job for the next few days!
Actually i think books and dvds are the biggest clutter culprit in this house so i think that will make me feel tons better!

fuzzpig i definitely agree, one shelf or drawer at a time, it soon adds up! Good luck :)

I'd echo what clearsommespace and artemis have said, fuzzpig. . Great advice!

For me there's a really helpful distinction between decluttering and minimalism and I find blogs like www.becomingminimalist.com/ really inspiring. Their motto is 'Own less. Live more.' The minimalist approach means I've started to re-evaluate how I live not just how I organise my things.

I think getting rid of things feels like incredibly hard work at first but it takes on a momentum of its own, especially when it's balanced by making space for what you really want in your life, even if that's just some clear space in the bathroom for a candle while you have a hot bubbly bath...

Argh, how hard is it to get rid of a double buggy? It's in great working order, just needs a clean. Have put it on a local fb page for free things, lots of people commenting to ask to see it then vanishing, I keep waiting to see if they come back and it's such a waste of time! One lady messaged me on Tuesday to ask to see it, I replied straight away with my address, haven't heard from her since. Have another lady asking for it so hopefully she'll still be interested.

How long do you usually let people dither for before you let someone else have it?

Nishi where are you? A girl I know from toddler group desperately needs a double buggy as her one got stolen.

Oh, and don't forget Women's Aid or Refuge.... call your local one and they will collect all SORTS of things from your place.

Welcome "fuzzpig".

My mum recently unearthed some writing my sister did when she was five. It said something like " I am 5 and my sister is 9 and my Mummy is 35 and my Daddy is 35 and in our house we have got a clock and a sofa and a musical table (it had a lid that opened and was a musical box) and too much junk!

Actually my parents house wasn't too overcluttered (unless you were a 5 year old trying to take an inventory of your life!)

I can identify with the tiredness because of health problems thing too! I have fibromyalgia and that makes things difficult- especially when most energy I actually have needs to go on work!

Speaking of which... (the world of the self-employed is definitely not 9-5!)

Welcome Fuzzpig. It's pretty daunting getting started, but just take it in small chunks as others have said. I don't stock up loads to take to the charity shop, I just fill up and drop off one carrier bag at a time. It gets the stuff out of the house, but it's not piling up and getting in the way.

Re: body lotion and hand cream - I never, ever use body lotion, and yet you always get it in sets of smellies. I read on another thread this week that someone recommended using it instead of shaving gel / cream. Might be worth a go? I plan to try it, but shaving my legs is a bit of a mission at the moment (31wks pg).

Alark It sounds like the boden dresses were more what you were initially looking for, so if you think you have bought more than you needed, maybe take the mothercare ones back? But if you think they are needed and will be used, go with the "one in, one out" policy, and get rid of some older things. I don't think you should be annoyed with yourself, especially considering they will likely be used by your other DD too.

Nishi I'm a bit ruthless with freecycle collections, I tend to tell people things need to be gone urgently and make it clear that it will go to the first person who can collect it. I always put "collect from..." on my listings but get no end of people asking if I'm ever in X town, or saying they can't get over this way for a week or so. I normally apologise that I won't be able to hold the item for them but tell them to drop me a message nearer the time and if it's still available they can have it.

Hi, I'm new to the thread. Very inspired by the decluttering going on in here

I expect you've all seen this, but I can't recommend this blog enough (might inspire you Lark??)

Lady called Kerry buys nothing new for a whole year apart from "consumables" or second hand. She writes really well and with lots of humour. She did this for a year and has now passed the blog on to someone new (can't remember name ). The new lady is doing some brilliant decluttering - check out the before and after pictures of her dressing table! Anyway hope anyone who hasn't seen it enjoys it as much as I did.

The Simple Year

Should say you have to scroll down to the bottom to go through the days of each month after selecting a month. You probably know this but I am old and had to work it out!

Oh thanks so much everyone for the and well wishes. Milk has come in so obviously decluttering has not been a priority, but I have been following a tip that I think I got from one of the earlier threads: when you leave a room take something with you that doesn't belong there. I love this, I am just taking things like a dirty tissue or empty drink bottle, all I can manage really but it feels good to be doing something even if tiny.

boffin how's the 100 year project going?

Amiga well done on chucking the diet books.

Morning all! I hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine. i have to work this morning, but I'm hoping to do a little bit of sorting/tidying/decluttering later!

Morning all.

For those who ebay it is a free listing weekend.