Nacktschnecken omlet Cube

[The Dogmother]

Shall I bring my white jacket over? the one with long arms....

[Olly]

I am shamed by the activity on here - I've done nothing for months. I'm determined to tackle the Paper Problem this weekend - get some filing done, find the receipt for the radio that I need to take back to John Lewis and ditch all those old bank statements, guarantees for things I no longer own, and other obsolete items.

 

I just need to check my emails first ....

[Purplemaniacs]

I just need to check my emails first ....

I am good at finding lots of other things to do

 

It's a bit like studying and writing an assigment suddenly ironing looks attractive

 

Chrissie

[The Dogmother]

Procrastination!

[Lesley]

Procrastination!

 

I can't find that word in any of my dictionaries

[The Dogmother]

you want to talk to Rosie then; she's had 6 weeks off school and the only time that her room was in any sort of order was when I had a day off and helped her sort it out She'd rather eat her own toenails than sort things out.

[merlina]

I am very impressed at all the de-cluttering - and wish I could say it's inspired me to do likewise.. but...

 

Having inherited all my mother's belongings (and thereby every other member of the family who has passed on), my home is beginning to resemble one of those 'hoarders' next door'!

 

But I'm rubbish at throwing stuff away! Unless it's completely gross, I can always think of a use for it - crafts, animal bedding, convincing myself I might one day be a size 8 again (not for the past 30 years!) etc etc.

 

I feel guilty about getting rid of anything my mother/grandmother saved and nurtured - and can very clearly hear my late mother's voice in my head saying how wicked I am to throw away a perfectly good x

 

IMHO people are pretty clearly divided into 'throwers' and 'hoarders'.

 

Has anyone found a good way to turn from the latter into the former?

[Olly]

I am a natural hoarder, and I've worked hard at this one. I really recommend Don Aslett 'Getting Rid of Clutter' because it transformed me from a lifetime of 'it might come in handy' and 'yes, but it's made of pure wool' into someone who goes round the house with a black bag rejoicing at filling it up! He has answers to most of the excuses people give about why they can't throw things away.

 

The other (and probably more important) reason I have changed is that I and my siblings had the sad task of clearing my parents' house after they both died. We had no idea why they had kept some of the stuff they had, and it made me realise that I wouldn't want to give this job to one of my relatives. That's not to say that I am a minimalist, far from it - but I try and think twice about keeping things that aren't being used.

 

Your mum and grandmother probably kept things because they'd lived through hard times, and stuff WAS reused and recycled much more in earlier times. You're living now, in 2012 not in 1942 and you don't have to be bound by their beliefs and habits. I have kept stuff in the past, only to find when I eventually came to give it away that it had been damaged or broken while I was storing it. Try and focus on the positive benefits of 'blessing' someone else with your stuff!

 

I can't remember if it was someone on this thread who mentioned it, but this blog The Year of Less has been quite inspiring. I couldn't get rid of all the kitchen things like she did - but she says they have so much space now, they've decided they don't need to move!

[The Dogmother]

I'm still working my way around the house Olly, another bag went to the charity shop at the weekend and I have at last found time to take photos of the next lot of stuff I have to put on ebay.

 

My mother is a terrible hoarder and had a habit of hanging onto things because 'aunt so-and-so left it to me' despite it being ghastly. Before she was taken ill I used to joke that wouldn't sort through it all when she went; I;d just bung it all in the skip! I was only half joking.

 

My father (much to my annoyance) has no idea of the value of some old things; they'd had in one of the spare rooms, a beautiful old chest of drawers which had been part of a long-disbanded bedroom suite that my grandfolks had. I'd always said to him that I'd have that chest when it was being moved on.... you've guessed the rest he was having a clear out and it went to the charity shop by the time he went back there it had disappeared out of the back door, doubtless to appear on a future episode of Antiques Roadshow! Took me a while to get over that one.

[Eggasperated]

 

The other (and probably more important) reason I have changed is that I and my siblings had the sad task of clearing my parents' house after they both died. We had no idea why they had kept some of the stuff they had, and it made me realise that I wouldn't want to give this job to one of my relatives.

 

My dad passed away a few years ago and whenever I visit my mum I try and gently suggest it might be an idea to clear some of the stuff as the sheds and garage are stuffed with things he collected in case they could be useful - his large collection of Teasmaids for spare parts are one thing she won't part with, even though she readily admits she doesn't even use one now . Unfortunately my dad also stipulated that his clothes shouldn't go to a charity shop as he considered them too good for that, although my sister has now persuaded her to pass them on.

 

On the plus side whenever I return from visiting her I always feel like a good clear out here .

Quite interested in the book you mentioned as well, might have a look at that.

[Charlottechicken]

Nice to see decluttering still going on!

 

I've moved on to the garden and have bought turf and created a lawn where the veggie patch once was. After several poor years I've decided to pack in the growing (except fruit) and turn the garden over to relaxing and am using some of the bits squirrelled away to do so. I've tidied up the yard and found some old concrete edging pieces which now edge the new lawn. There's a few pieces left over to edge the path further up the garden too. I ordered two proper water butts from my water supplier and they will hopefully be installed this weekend. I cleared out one of the mini sheds in the yard a few weeks ago, so all the refuse and recycling goes straight outside, rather than building up in the utility room Got to say it feels great to look out onto an almost tidy garden! Just have lots of wood to chop up now, but it's nearly there. It also means I can go shopping for a table and chairs so we can eat alfresco next year Still have some clearing up to do and it will be difficult as I've been chucking bits of junk behind the shed as I go, but once I have extended the patio at the bottom of the garden with the leftover broken slabs I have found and sorted the wood out it should be pretty much tidy! Apart from the shed, but that's another story

 

I'm popping up to the charity shop at least twice a month with carrier bags of donations, and had an email not long ago telling me they have raised almost £120 from the items I have donated under gift aid this year so far

[Olly]

That's really impressive, CC - good to know that the charity has benefit to that extent. My garden is a whole other project.

 

I have got next week off work, and I'm determined to get some serious decluttering done. I've already managed to offload my desktop computer, a modem, computer trolley and a bag of miscellaneous leads and random computer bits - I gave them to a chap who fixes computers, and he's going to clean the hard disk and then give the desktop to a charity. I apologised for offloading my junk, but his eyes lit up when he saw the bag of' 'bits'!

 

Two bags of books, clothes and assorted 'stuff' went to the charity shop last weekend.

 

The Room of Doom (small bedroom used as study) is my main focus, I am going to tackle the Paper Problem!

[Charlottechicken]

Well done with the offloading of the computer related stuff, Olly! You know what they say, one man's junk is another man's treasure, or something like that!

 

Good luck with the paper clearing too, decluttering can be so theraputic if you are in the right mood

 

I was stopped in my tracks yesterday whilst laying some slabs, by a huge nest of horrid big yellow slugs Those nasty opaque things with the grey markings on, eew! Had to throw down a lot of slug pellets and fence the area off from the chickens. I've had a look this morning and there are lots of dead slugs, yay! Ended up doing lots of pruning and cutting back in the garden instead, which is no bad thing. Three huge bags of green waste for collection on Thursday

 

Confession time though, I took another bag of stuff to the charity shop yesterday and managed to buy a lovely M&S tunic shirt, from their Indigo range, for a pound, and two brilliant tee shirts for OH, just 50p each! One is a long sleeved Blockbusters one (can I have a p please Bob?) and the other has a vintage Japanese logo on.

[Olly]

My Week of Decluttering is over - I have had the last week off work and I decided to tackle the filing cabinet, which was so difficult to get to (due to clutter!) that nothing was being filed. I have shredded over 20lbs of paper - receipts for items I no longer own, bills for work done on a previous property, old policies ... you can imagine. The files now move freely and are labelled clearly and ALL the filing is done!

 

On a roll, I decided to go through every drawer, cupboard and storage box in the house. I will confess immediately that a week was not enough (it was my week off and I wanted to have some fun as well) - I have only done upstairs, not downstairs and there are still a couple of places that haven't been purged, either because I know pretty much what's in them or in one case because I knew it would be too painful.

 

I have found clothes I don't remember buying, brand new items that I'd forgotten and in more than one case, I have obviously been out and bought a new item, not realising I already had one. Like Charlottechicken I have signed up for GiftAid with my favourite charity shop, and this week I have taken 11 large bags of stuff in there which I hope they can sell. I've thrown out everything from hats to shoes, bags, bedding, books, stationery, and some unwanted and unused gifts. A few items are on eBay, and some more have been Freecycled.

 

What's really embarrassing is that you would hardly know - most of this was hidden away in cupboards and drawers. I'm not a minimalist by any means, but neither am I like The Hoarder Next Door - my house is like that of most of my friends, reasonably tidy but 'lived in'. I feel much, much better for it though - I can see where things are, and no longer am I shoving stuff into a cupboard and holding it back while I slam the door! I can see there is lots more to go, but I'm going to tackle it a la Flylady in 15-minute increments in future.

 

Come on - join the Great 2012 Declutter and bless someone else with your unwanted goods! Many thanks to Charlottechicken for inspiring me.

[chickencam]

Well done Olly, you will be my inspiration this week I need to tackle an over full filing cabinet too and quite a bit more besides

[chickencam]

Well I sorted out my bureau top this morning ans it looks much better in there and the door shuts properly. I had no idea how many birthday and note cards I had, shouldn't need to buy any for a while and I also found an envelope with loads of lower value stamps in it from a previous ebay stint, so that was a valuable find too.

 

I did however undo some de-cluttering work by going out and buying a coat and a jumper from the charity shop at lunchtime, but WILL be sorting out my clothes later this week.

[The Dogmother]

I am slowly ebaying stuff too, a couple of things per week as i get the chance to take photos and list them. I am going to go through my shoes as I have some very glamorous ones that I just don't get the occasion to wear any more.

[Charlottechicken]

I have taken decluttering to a new level this week, the jewellery box!

 

I have a lot of jewellery I just don't wear, really heavy pieces of silver I bought off a former colleague. It's time to downsize the jewellery box and see if I can release some cash.

[Olly]

Last weekend I took a small suitcase (which I'd forgotten I owned, till I found it in the loft!) and a carrier bag both full of books, bric-a-brac etc to the charity shop. This weekend it's a sports bag, also forgotten about, and a carrier bag full of books. The desk has just been collected by a nice Freecycler, and I even found someone to take the ancient Hoover which worked but was rather battered.

 

I have freed up an entire bookcase - necessary, as one of them needs some repair work and a repaint, but quite amazing. It will soon be refilled once I've done the gluing and painting, although I've stopped myself from buying any new books until I have read my way through some of the ones I have waiting.

[The Dogmother]

Rosie and I spent some time last week going through all the hundreds of books on her shelves; two of the children who she normally looks after in the holidays came round to see her, so they went home loaded with old books and toys managed to palm off a year's worth of National geographic mags (my folks gave Rosie a subscription) to a neighbour and her old English/Spanish dictionary to another neighbour who teaches languages.

[redhotchick]

I took 2 boxes of books to the charity shop today. They have been sitting in my front hall for months! I resisted the temptation to open the boxes and check what I was giving away!

I've shredded quite a bit of old paperwork this week too.

I still have a very long way to go!

[The Dogmother]

I did a bit of reverse de-cluttering this weekend... a friend (who has more money than sense) re-fits and decorates her kitchen every couple or so years; I now have a 2 year old NEFF under-counter freezer and a 2 year old Miele under-counter fridge for nowt I am saving up to re-model my utility room to make better use of the space I have, so I wanted a new freezer out there for the dog meat and bones, and also for use as overflow when it is coming up to Christmas and the 3-drawer freezer in the kitchen is full. I had intended to get one of those square, caravan type counter-top fridges fro out there, but this is better then I'd dreamed of.

 

Both are now cluttering up my attic room the freezer is already in use

[redhotchick]

I've shredded 4 years worth of mail that I've been "saving"

Not sure what I was saving it for!

I have 48 feet of shelving to de clutter and tidy now, this will almost certainly not be finished until early 2013!

Unfortunately I'm just not one of those people who can turn a room around in a day.

[Couperwife]

We are getting a new kitchen next week

 

Why does anyone need 10 sauce pans and lots of plates....there are only 2 of us

 

I'm doing a serious declutter

[Charlottechicken]

Ooh Couperwife, I don't envy your kitchen declutter, I've tried several times to get rid of kitchen stuff, but there always seems to be a need for a whole cupboard full of storage boxes, and a drawer full of handy little gadgets