Argh -clutter!!

[Misty9]

We have a decent sized three bed semi, but I'm surrounded by clutter! Boxes of clothes, outgrown, not grown into, waiting to use after breastfeeding etc etc. Boxes of cds, waiting for a suitable storage solution to present itself, boxes of toys, decorating paraphernalia, spare bedding, suitcases, pictures waiting to be hung, and just STUFF.

What does everyone else do with all the stuff? We've got a skip coming this week for more stuff and it's tempting to chuck the lot in!

You need the Kondo threads!

I really need to invest some time into decluttering but time I do not have so I feel you. I've been doing what I can as have an estate agent coming next week to take pictures for marketing, god help me!!

Place marking!
We are drowning in stuff and are adding another baby to the mix in a few months
Hoping someone on this thread will have a magic remedy for me

Just looking through your list though I would suggest doing things in this order -
Hang the pictures
Do you have underbed space? If you do, buy underbed boxes for the bedding
Also I only have 2 sets of bedding for each bed, you just really don't need anymore than that IMO so maybe have a look at getting rid of some
Also the cd's - do you listen to them at home? If not put your favourites in the car and chuck the rest, I did this recently and freed up a whole shelf in our living room cupboard thingy

...that's all I got! I'll wait for someone wiser to come along about the rest now

I'm in the same boat & need easy baby steps. E.g. Think the CDs just need to go. Faves in the car (to suck up room for next 5 years until I. Allowed a grown up CD on). Rest to charity.

I also have excess bedding & towels. So many clothes outgrown & grow into etc. too.many.toys. Aargh!

Thank you for suggestions blue :) no Underbed space but divan bed - its spare duvets though (winter one, guest double etc). Want to hang pictures but need to decide on room layout first... There are over 500 cds...mostly belonging to dh. Nuff said. I've told him to sort a solution!

Think I'm gonna do a pax shopping spree for the bedroom - and chuck the rest in the skip!

Had a glance at the kondo thread...Bit advanced for me I think! Start small...

Start with clothes, anything you do not love has to go, make sure it leaves the house as soon as you can. If you fold clothes so that they are veertical in the drawer they take up less space and you can see what you have. Do a toy rotation and get rid of anything that is broken. If you sort by category and only keep things that make you happy you will be amazed at how much you can soert out. HtH.

No, no...the Kondo thing is not advanced at all. It's a lovely, slightly strange, little book here which kind of goes against all the usual rules of decluttering and tidying. Basically, you don't take it room by room but category by category. So you get, for example, all your clothes (or break it down into tops/bottoms if you have tons) and hold every item deciding which bring you joy or not. Get rid of the ones that don't bring you joy. The end. The author is against buying storage as you are just organising your clutter instead of dealing with it. She suggests an order which starts with easy categories and ends with sentimental items (once you're better at getting rid of things). It's weirdly incredibly easy and effective.

If you don't have the time or inclination to car boot/ebay/freecycle your stuff then bag it up and give it to a charity shop. Fill the skip with broken items rather than items in perfectly good condition just to be environmentally friendly.

Women's refuges will collect household items/clothes/toys from you as they need to keep their location secret.

How about selling your CD collection to music Maggie or Amazon? You might as well make some cash from your junk.

www.musicmagpie.co.uk/

Well the skip has been and gone - it was for a massive load of wood from some outbuildings we dismantled. have been trying freecycle and gumtree but finding it time consuming and frustrating when people don't turn up and change their minds. dh is at least now on the case and is going to hide put the boxes of cds in his office :)

We just need reliable tradespeople now and we can get the bedroom carpeted and new wardrobes to hide all our crap! I do like the sound of the kondo thing though...

What on earth do people do with surplus paint?? Not allowed in skip or tip and probably not usable as froze over winter in garage - so can't donate it. Down drain??!