Decluttering Club thread 20(22)!

[Mommabear20]

Let's go!

Got rid of a broken photo frame that has been around for ages. Kept the photo. A couple of instruction books got rid of.
Not very inspiring hopefully do better soon!

Yesterday was a big declutter day for me. In the morning I did the top shelf of the wardrobe mainly full of sentimental things, so in the to-go pile: my wedding garter, mini bride and groom, 4 artists' easels, 3 metal signs, 1 ring, 1 jewellery box, 1 fan, 1 pebble, 1 glass bowl, 1 wooden memory box, table card names and drinks tokens, collection of 1st birthday and welcome to the world cards, and 4 candles.
In the afternoon DH and I started blitzing the garage! Already gone/collected are: two completely stuffed full boxes of DVDs, one box of videos, Xbox games and PlayStation games, and one box of magazine racks and other vintage items from my DGMs. In the to-go pile: one black sack of toys/cushions and 4 whole boxes of misc items for charity (everything from paintings to ornaments). We have also filled the black bin with rubbish, and the car (and roof box) are fully loaded ready for a tip run today!

Yesterday I went through a pile of packaging from Xmas parcels - kept two padded envelopes for reuse, but the rest has gone in the bin/ recycling. Also got rid of some packaging from Xmas presents that was still in the living room. And the Xmas decorations have been taken down at last.

Still need to catch up on housework and tidying before I can get back to decluttering, but things are improving!

Can someone please give me a kick up the ass. Struggling to get rid at the minute.

Tricky to get rid sometimes isn’t it! I find watching a decluttering show good for inspiration when I’m flagging.

I really need to keep pushing on with the decluttering, I have just secured a couple of new piano pupils and they’ll be coming here rather than me going to them. First time I’ve taught strangers in my home for years, luckily we have a nicely decorated living room now but it’s still messy!

@Debsdonein One trick I've found is to focus on one room or even one area of a room. I find that if I clear even a small area it inspires me to do more as I'm so pleased to have a decluttered space. Even if some of the stuff I've cleared from said space is being kept & it just sits in another room until I find it a new home, the act of clearing the first space inspires me to clear the rest IYSWIM 🙂

The other thing I've really worked on is being radical in terms of throwing away. I've held on to so much stuff thinking "it may come in one day" or that I could sell it. In truth it was stuff like clothing that was taking up too much space & was never going to command much on eBay. It's better to give it to a charity that can really make use of it now. You feel like you've made a contribution for good & you've got more space back.

The final thing is to break it down into bitesize chunks. Many of us are incredibly busy & proper decluttering takes the sort of headspace & engaged thought that we often don't have when we're busy working & bringing up kids etc. I think this leads us to put the task off for fear that we'll make the wrong decision about something. Perhaps set aside half an hour every so often where you really focus on an area & get to the bottom of it. That practice builds up over time. And I think it's like they say about murder, it gets easier after the first time 😉 I'm far more inclined to throw away/charity shop stuff now than I was - I'm more relaxed & less anxious than I was the start. Experience teaches us that we really didn't need all that stuff we were hoarding, & life is better without it.

Good luck 🙂

I've sold another item on eBay, I was mindful of my own advice posted to @Debsdonein below as when the offer came in I debated it before accepting. It was near enough the price I'd wanted, it was a bracelet that I liked but haven't worn for years. It's in a style that isn't very practical & I have another one that's made of the same material but in a nicer & more wearable design. So I concluded I'd rather have the £25 & let this one go!

I've made £279 in sales in just over a fortnight 😮

Other than that my only real decluttering is old filing that I'm finding to shred as I go through my file archive...

Have decluttered a lot of my things. In preparation for the move. Two huge bags for life for charity. Plus two bags for bin and a bag for the Salvation Army bin.

@debsdonein I agree with @8stone13 if you clear an area - even to move stuff into its proper places - it is motivating. On previous threads we talked a lot about Tidy Up Tetris which involves clearing a space, moving the stuff to a new, more appropriate space, clearing that space and so on…. My eventual goal is the Kondo thing of everything having a place and similar items being together so you can see what you have. I’m fairly close to that stage where things are grouped together but we still have too many toys, books and papers.

I went in the Room of Doom today and found an envelope of expense receipts from twenty years ago on top of a box of papers. How have I not thrown that out before?

I've posted two things today, Also done another box of shredding (we are almost into 2008 now everyone!). I've also thrown out some stubby ends of eyeliner pencils and some rubbish from the windowsill.

I'm almost in a situation in my bedroom where everything has a place. This does make me happy!

I want to do my desk before work tomorrow now, but tea first.

@Debsdonein

Can someone please give me a kick up the ass. Struggling to get rid at the minute.

I was just about to say the same! Where did everyone start. I feel like I can always make an excuse not to get rid! Please help 🥴

[quote 8stone13]@Debsdonein One trick I've found is to focus on one room or even one area of a room. I find that if I clear even a small area it inspires me to do more as I'm so pleased to have a decluttered space. Even if some of the stuff I've cleared from said space is being kept & it just sits in another room until I find it a new home, the act of clearing the first space inspires me to clear the rest IYSWIM 🙂

The other thing I've really worked on is being radical in terms of throwing away. I've held on to so much stuff thinking "it may come in one day" or that I could sell it. In truth it was stuff like clothing that was taking up too much space & was never going to command much on eBay. It's better to give it to a charity that can really make use of it now. You feel like you've made a contribution for good & you've got more space back.

The final thing is to break it down into bitesize chunks. Many of us are incredibly busy & proper decluttering takes the sort of headspace & engaged thought that we often don't have when we're busy working & bringing up kids etc. I think this leads us to put the task off for fear that we'll make the wrong decision about something. Perhaps set aside half an hour every so often where you really focus on an area & get to the bottom of it. That practice builds up over time. And I think it's like they say about murder, it gets easier after the first time 😉 I'm far more inclined to throw away/charity shop stuff now than I was - I'm more relaxed & less anxious than I was the start. Experience teaches us that we really didn't need all that stuff we were hoarding, & life is better without it.

Good luck 🙂 [/quote]
Thank you 🙏🏼

I’ve admitted defeat with a few small items that have been on ebay a long time and have low value - delisted and put in the charity bag.

Have sold one last thing on there and hopefully done with ebay for a while.

Vinted - sold a couple of things last week and listed three more today.

I have a total of two charity shop bags ( one is a large ikea bag) but its mostly home decor, clothing and craft items.

Not much left to sort now. A couple of bits in my dressing room and both my car and the garden shed - which won’t happen until it warms up. I will probably move to the organisation thread.

I also have lots of odd jobs in my house to do, some I can do myself, some will need to rope in either my dad or paid help. I might make a list tonight as I feel I will get on top of it that way.

Did the dcs wardrobes and books too. And their toys. Woo.

Made some space by finally putting some pictures up in the hallway. Also got rid of a toy car and used a craft kit with youngest.

@Wam90 You're very welcome. It is doable, even if it feels impossible right now. Start small - every little thing decluttered will feel like a victory. And before you know it, you'll have clearer space, which is then easier to clean & keep tidy. Good luck 🙂

The bread maker that's been cluttering up the shed has been sold & is being collected tomorrow night hopefully. I feel like a moral failure but I have to admit that I never liked homemade bread. Everybody around me went mad for it in the first lockdown & I was 🤷🏼‍♀️

It's a shameful thing to say, but give me a supermarket white sliced any day of the week 🍞 😀

I have done quite well since I last posted.

I listed 2 new items on eBay last weekend, and re-vamped an existing listing, bundling 2 items together. One item has sold and I posted it yesterday. I hope to do a lot more eBaying this year. Last year was my worst year for a long time - I only got around to listing and selling around 10 items.

In the garden I dug out an elder tree that I have been meaning to get rid of for a while. I also filled up the brown bin with bush clippings and weeds before its collection on Friday.

Today I have spent some time starting to sort the piles of stuff on the dining room floor. Some of it is now neatly put away in boxes, other bits have been chucked. It doesn’t look any better yet.

On Thursday I got round to taking 2 bags - one large and one medium - to a local charity shop. They had been hanging around since before Christmas waiting for me to take them to one of my favourite charity shops in the next town. I haven’t had an opportunity to go there yet, so decided that I would just get rid of them now so that the jackets and hats might get some use this year!

I also remembered to take the large bag of plastic bags and packaging from the porch to drop off at Tescos this morning when I did my weekly shop.

@Wam90 and @Debsdonein - the advice you've been given on here about just tackling a small space is really good. I started late October and literally did one shelf or one drawer a day - the first month didn't seem to make much difference but by the end of December I really could see it (and I was starting to have places to put things so I'd clear out a drawer and a third would go back, a third would go out and a third would end up in its proper home elsewhere...) If I really couldn't face it I'd find one thing to bin or list on ebay and do it. It helped that the last thread was about decluttering one thing a day....

Today I binned half a dozen bras where the hooks have crumbled or the wires poked through. One of my neighbours came and collected an recorder that was surplus to DDs requirements and needs mending (it would cost £90 new so I wasn't too guilty about not getting it mended myself before giving it away). I have also...drum roll.. started on the cupboard with all my evening clothes which I have been putting off for about a month. I've listed four items on ebay/vinted and hope that they will go - its actually really annoying that you can only list on 1stdibs if you are a professional seller as it looks like a much better place to sell vintage stuff. DD2 is home next weekend and I know she wants some of the things in this cupboard so hopefully I can palm them off on her wardrobe - my decluttering brief does not extend to tidying up after teenage girls.

Brilliant day of decluttering here as we attacked the garage again and I put a lot of things up in Facebook free for collection. Actually gone: 1 mattress, 1 duvet, 1 pregnancy pillow, 1 exercise bike, 1 rocking chair, 1 hoover, 1 large wooden back massager, 1 folder, 1 biscuit tin, 4 ceiling lights, a 5-foot dog agility set, 2 paintings, 2 book ends, a full bag of videos, a tonne of flat packed boxes, and 3 whole boxes of houseware stuff like cushions and ornaments!

One very large and much planned 'in' though - we have ordered a treadmill.

C'mon @Debsdonein and @Wam90 - consider this your friendly kick up the ass

Finished the living room today, room 4 complete 🙌 and I now have 1 totally empty drawer, half a cupboard and so much more space in all the other drawers etc. Feels so good! for those struggling really just do 1 bit at a time, 1 drawer or 1 unit, it all starts to add up.

Out today: packaging for an Xmas present, 1x fabric sensory box, 1x broken candle holder, 1x teather toy, 1x decorative bottle, 51x dvds, 3x skipping ropes.

1 in aswell, new cat water bowel which frees up one of my tupperware boxes

Got rid of more Xmas present packaging today (into the recycling), and I filed one (yes, just one) piece of paperwork. Better than nothing, I suppose!

I also spoke to DH about getting rid of our slow cooker. PIL bought it for us when we had our kitchen redone, but we haven’t used it for a few years. It was far larger than we needed (can cook 6-8 portions of a stew or whatever), so it takes up so much space in the cupboard. He’s agreed it should go, hurrah!

more cleaning than decluttering again today but some drawings & bag of recycling/rubbish gone from older 2's rooms. I brought in some perfectly good coloured paper being thrown out by work but that gets used then recycled so 🤷🏽‍♀️

Im in awe of people keeping count of things going out!

Good few days here. 2 bags to the charity shop, 1 more bag ready to go next week
Old body lotions cleared out
Unopened wash sets bought by well meaning family in law given to the local homeless charity as im allergic to the world 😅
8 items sold on vinted
Also have done lots of organising but thats for the other thread

@FurBabyMum02 A cat water bowel?! 😀