Decluttering revelation

[Sugarcoma]

I have been on a (not always successful) mission to declutter for a long, long time but had my first useful revelation this week: when you buy/are given an item, you don't automatically have to keep all the random accessories that come with it!

Have now charity shopped a knife block from a nice set of knives as I don't like keeping them on the counter & some parts from my magimix I know I'll never use.

Any other decluttering revaluations that you've had which might spur me on my journey?

*revelations (damn autocorrect)

That you don't have to keep everything hideous or otherwise unwanted just because someone gave it to you. Of course if its the sort of mil person who would expect to see the item on display/in use then make sure they do see it a time or two and then move it on to the charity shop.

Ha! I got rid of my knife block a couple of months ago! I don't know why I thought knives couldn't be safely stowed elsewhere. It's not like I've always had a knife block! I basically went through every drawer and cupboard and got rid of what I didn't like and spent about £200 replacing things. For example I got rid of 4 plastic, cloudy measuring cups. I bought two (small and large) Pyrex measuring jugs.

That getting rid of something that somebody gave you does NOT get rid of the sentiment behind it.

That is a good one. I used the same idea with toys. I kept all the train track but chucked out all the buildings and trees which were part of the same set, but never used. I went through the small world animals and kept the best few cows, best few horses etc and chucked the excess. Pick a container for the category (eg small green trofast tray for small world animals, medium trofast box for train track) and keep only enough that will easily fit when tidied away by a toddler.

Also it pleases me(!) to keep items that can be used all year round. I don't want special christmas themed serving bowls, tablecloths, duvet covers. They just take up space uselessly for literally 99% of the year and they don't make me happy. I'd rather get a serving bowl I like and use it all year round.

Finally it's straight from Kondo, but repurposing random boxes rather than buying special storage containers is good. I've had old strawberry punnets and icecream boxes organising our medicines cupboard and margarine tubs in the keys'n'batteries drawer for ages, and they're just the job. Lids are also useful as "boxes" inside drawers.

Go through your "plastics" cupboard (Tupperware, lunchboxes, take away containers, water bottles etc) and take a few minutes to match tubs and lids - throw away tubs without lids (and vice versa), leaky water bottles, stained and manky containers.

I've just freed up so much space doing this.

For every bagful / boxful of stuff you bring into your house, try to get rid of another bagful / boxful.

Especially at Christmas time, when We all bring loads of stuff into our lives that we wrap and distribute amongst each other.

I try to get rid of at least a pile as big as under the Christmas tree from around the house, in order to make space for the new stuff.

My biggest one in the last few years has been "don't get cheap stuff to to upgrade later". When I met DH I was super stingy with our money and would buy the cheapest version of everything even if it was the crappiest.

I got stuck in a cycle of throwing out loads of cheap stuff either because they fell apart or I hated them, only to replace them with more "temporary" stuff. If I had bit the bullet in the first place and bought high quality stuff that we loved, I wouldn't have wasted all this time, energy and money decluttering and replacing them all the time.