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[The Dogmother]

I started on the garden yesterday too, I could really do with a couple of days out there TBH, lots of mending and pruning to get done.

 

2 bags to the charity shop on Saturday though

[Willow]

Front book now clear Spent a happy afternoon pulling paper off walls and ceiling. Now need to spend several less happy days steaming and scrubbing ceiling to remove old distemper (amazing paper stuck to this originally).

[Charlottechicken]

Painted the front door step late last night and again this morning, just needs another coat when this one is dry, and it'll look really smart Then I've got a few bricks to touch up with Sandtex etruscan red (house was subject to 60's vandalism by previous owners, stone cladding and all sorts of horrors ). I'm determined to get a few jobs done each week though, now I'm into a flylady mental attitude!

 

Must sand the front gate down, that could do with a lick of paint too, it's like the Forth bridge out there

[The Dogmother]

I have scrounged some more wood today, so reverse flylady! And now need some time to cut it all up and stack it on the woodpile.

 

I had been collecting old internal pine doors, getting them stripped by a friend and then using the in the house while I have been renovating. I have now used up all the best ones and have a couple of s"Ooops, word censored!" left. One isn't good fro much, so I will saw that up for wood. T'other needs stripping but is a lovely door underneath all that paint, so i have popped it on Freecycle.

[Mrs Potts]

I have just picked up the thread. What an inspirational lot you are.

 

Our declutters have always been unintentional, kind of side effects? We had a bit of a declutter in 2004. OH was in hospital for three months and a right old hoarder - paperwork in two foot piles all over the dining room. While he was away I bought some folders and filed everything - opened it, filedit or shredded other things, just did the whole lot. It was at once the best thing I had ever done and the worst. There is nothing like a reformed untidy person ... he thinks we have now swapped habits (I think he may be right).

 

We also got a new kitchen the following year. Trouble was it was so expensive, we could only afford half the units we had before, so filled one half with a breakfast bar and had to declutter in a big way to get everything to fit back in! Now, like some of you have said, I never buy anything unless it is dire necessity because we just don't have the storage. What helps is an agreement that we don't buy anything without the other seeing it/agreeing. As he is allergic to shops this is quite good (I get to do the recce before we go out so really it is his choosing from things I like!) but bad because it takes a lot to get him out shopping. I have to say we spend hours sitting at the breakfast bar watching the chickens now and I don't even remember the bits we had to get rid of.

 

Apologies if I have missed this in the topic postings so far, but how do you deal with a) bedrooms of those who have left for Uni and b) belongings of those older children who have left home but think they can leave their childhood behind for you to live with (and I mean they have permanently left home). This one is a real toughie for me, but OH finds the thought of charity shopping and tipping the whole lot very easy ... I just couldn't ...

[Olly]

I don't have children, but I do recall that when my ex-OH and I got our first home together, his parents came over to see us the day we moved in. Their estate car was full of everything from his old bedroom - A-level notes, degree notes, football memorabilia, sports kit - the lot.

 

As his dad carried the boxes in, his mum was cheerfully telling me about the new built-in wardrobes she had planned for the room ... I think you probably have to make it a fait accompli, just dump it on them and run!

[The Dogmother]

I certainly would!

[Mrs Potts]

Thank you Olly, and Claret. Erm, I haven't quite reached that stage yet, but have boxed bits up in plastic storage boxes and put them in our garage, which is dry, and every time ED comes home now, she sorts through a box. We bought about fifteen boxes to fit everything that came back from Uni - none of it was sorted, it was literally just her room contents scooped into a friend's car and unloaded onto the patio. She boxed it all up and put it in the garage and she disappeared off to France to work.

 

I did sort through one box, which was a bit of an eye opener. My, they grow up fast in three years, don't they?!

[Couperwife]

I sorted out the front bedroom yesterday

 

i "invited" my mum round (she knew what she was letting herself in for - honest )

 

and it took us 4 hours Ive now got a carboot full of stuff to go to the charity shop in fact, as i sat down at the end, i checked on freecycle (or freegle is it is now) and a lady wanted some fabric to make bunting - i was dumping 2 large bags of fabric that had been sitting in the front bedroom she is picking them up this morning

 

ive got 2 bags of paper to shred and (mum took all of the ironing home - i love my mum - she is the best!!!!)

 

phew!!!!

 

cathy

x

[The Dogmother]

That reminds me Cathy - I need to make some bunting for our street party in June... I have given all my fabric s"Ooops, word censored!"s away I think, but I'll check it out or get some old bits from the charity shop.

[Charlottechicken]

Thanks to the unpredictable weather over the weekend, I've managed to get chores done in the house this weekend. As soon as it's sunny I'm out with the hens Still want to empty the shed and give it a good sweep out though. I came across ***these*** when giving the shed a quick tidy last week. They are all pre 1980 (that's when the lady of the house died and she was the gardener I believe), not sure of the traditional shaped ones but the smooth sided ones are very old.

[The Dogmother]

Those are gorgeous Claire - any plans for them?

[Lesley]

What a find

[Plum]

Ooh I love terracotta pots, I've lost so many over this winter.

 

Just found this thread and will read it all next week when I get back from holiday. I am a very lapsed flylady and very rarely fasten my laces or shine my sink, though I do get dressed to my shoes

 

My sewing room is blugh, so Lesley you will be my inspiration

[Charlottechicken]

Those are gorgeous Claire - any plans for them?

 

Not sure really I like the look of them all together, they take a good photo! I'll definitely move the boxful into the loft, just in case we have a bad winter again. However, I've got two friends who would certainly appreciate them so may add a set of three to their Christmas gift bags. I think there's 25 decent ones of the straight sided Victorian style. The others look so modern but I know they are probably earlier than late 70's.

 

I'm a bit lapsed with the indoor flylady at the mo. Got home yesterday to find my kitchen sink and drainer sparkling. Mum had been round to see the chick and let her out for a fly round the kitchen, and had cleaned my sink whilst there

 

If we have a bad Saturday and Sunday I'm working on the junk in the spare bedroom!

[Lesley]

My sewing room is blugh, so Lesley you will be my inspiration

 

Not if you saw my sewing room/gym/jam store at the moment

 

I'm married to a 'dumper'.....he has a bad habit of dumping things right where I need to walk and so then I end up throwing stuff at my sewing table from a distance

 

I do have an immaculate polytunnel at the moment though

[Olly]

I've been rubbish lately but that's because I'm spending all my free time in the garden. Does throwing out lots of old shrubs count?

[Lesley]

Of course!! - and so do my wheelbarrows full of weeds

[Charlottechicken]

I've been rubbish lately but that's because I'm spending all my free time in the garden. Does throwing out lots of old shrubs count?

 

Absolutely

[craftyhunnypie]

Two large bin bags to the tip the other day - another to go tomorrow. 2 bin bags of stuff for the charity shop & tomorrow we are dismantling the bed in the spare room & taking the mattress the tip too. It doesn't owe us anything - so can go. The wood from the bed can be chopped & used on our fire - either here or where we're moving to.

The room will look so bare!

I organised a lot of my knitting wool into a mega cardboard box ready for the move. Tomorrow I will tackle my handbags & donate some to a good friend who is also handbag mad.

I felt quite pleased with what was achieved in 2 hours.

New house will be soooooo organised! Heck!

Emma.x

[Olly]

Moving house is a great motivator for decluttering, isn't it!

 

I'm back on track - three bags to the charity shop today, and managed to only buy two books and a pretty plate on my way out I retrieved the suitcase from the loft which contains summer clothing, some of which I'd totally forgotten - it all needs trying on and ironing, and I bet a few more items can go once I've done that. Oh, and I saved a couple of t-shirts for my rag rug UFO.

 

If it rained today, I was going to do the filing ... it's grey, but not actually raining, so I think I'm let off that!

[Plum]

Good work Olly. Not quite started my flings yet

 

I'm a bit like you when I give things away. OH looked aghast when I went to tip with a car full and came back with a garden bench

[Guest]

I go through clear out phases - I had a big one when I divorced and am having new windows in a few weeks time so plan another! I have bits and pieces on the windowsills which I am going to whittle down! The trouble is - they are pretty things that I like - not junk as such - but I feel a cut down is needed!

I try - I emphasise "try" - to get rid of something everytime I buy something! If I have not worn something in a year - it also goes - no point having a wardrobe stuffed so full that everything gets creased!

[craftyhunnypie]

2 bags of rubbish taken to tip, along with double matress, old bedding & pillows. Bag for charity. Bed dismantled.

I have soooo much stuff! All stuuf for keeps is on our bed - goodness knows how I will go bed tonight or where I will keep it all. It was all on spare bed. Lots of stuff packed into boxes.

I thought de cluttering was supposed to make you feel 'enlightened'. It just makes me fell ugh & exhausted!I'm shattered. Been on it all day. Just having a tipple before I have a breakdown!

Emma.x

[Charlottechicken]

Well, CHP, I think you are the only one flyladying the house at the mo!

 

Hope the move goes well for you

 

I'm putting flylady indoors on the back burner at present. The kitchen is full of bottles of fizzing elderflower champers and cordial, and I still have cordial to bottle. Flylady has moved outside for the forseeable future