Decluttering

I did my yearly go through of one of my freezers.
There were some frozen roast potatoes. I generally have a bag as a "keep in case" thing.
Well they were still half full.
I cant have had many emergencies on the potato front!
I said to DH we were going to eat them.
Date on them was best before June 2022.
We still ate them! We were fine.

Wouldnt recommend eating all out of date food though. Personally.

Oh karmalady, I admire your strength of character. Chocolate bars in any cupboard of mine would not last long enough to be hoarded.

I am just back from taking a full car load to the tip, I collected everything over a week, including good suitcases and sports bags that belonged to my husband, it was hard to let those go and I kept them for over ten years but I have a new found age-related zest. The older I get the easier the letting-go is becoming.

The physical effort does not change but will never get easier as I approach my 79th year and no way on earth am I leaving any of this sorting for my AC

My downfall is still having the post-war mindset of my mum, when food was scarce. The food hoarding has continued however my coffee beans and chocolate bars have increased in price so this sort of hoarding is better than money in the bank

A word of warning about keepng out of date tinnned food.

I had a tin of tomatoes which exploded inside my kitchen cupboard.

The mess, the sound!
I've no doubt that if I'd been holding the tin, it would have done me some damage.

So, on that basis, I'd bag them up and throw them out.

PiscesLady cans and packets from my cupboard have shamed me as well. I am afraid they were many years past BB date. Mostly went in the bin. I am being so careful what I buy now. Only what I am really going to use. Not what in my dreams I may use.

Hooray. Next door neighbour has a skip and said I can pop things in. So some half used paint cans. It's very old paint and a few broken garden tools. I put some smallish old bits of concrete in a small empty compost bag which is very strong and that will go today. Those bags are very useful for such jobs. Very tough.

Nothing to go by the front path this weekend to be taken by passers by. I would like to put an old decorating table out there with some china and books, but I think the table would go and the china and books would be left. Even if I left a note,

DD2 is coming on Sunday and whill photograph some small bits of collectable ceramics to put on eBay. If they don't sell they will go to charity.
I wish I had done all this 10 years ago when I had more energy and my legs werent so painful when bending. I think I have the start of lymphodoema.

They are all over 10 years past the use by date. I'd be ashamed to gift them to the food bank.

My aunt had lovely big cupboards in her flat. Inside she kept boxes neatly labelled for 'a weekend away' & 'a week away ' for herself and her dog as well as other boxes similarly labelled. Oh to be so organised!!

MissAdventure is quite right,PiscesLady.
Your local foodbank will take out of date food. We put it out with a caveat to check when it's opened.

Are they actually out of date?
If not, then I'm sure a food bank would be happy to have them.

It was the cupboards that strongly influenced me to take this place.

Its only a crummy old council flat overlooking some wheelie bins - but when I'm inside a cupboard, well, I'm like a queen!

MissA I love your named cupboards and quite envious of the four in your hall. I would have to label them, DH would never remember!
Folding fitted sheets can be tricky. I like to do it so the label shows (some double and some king) but often give up.
Today I have evicted some very old tins of food from the back of a cupboard, my dilemma is how to dispose of them? Rice pudding; spinach; rhubarb (whatever possessed me to buy them I have no idea). It seems wrong to put them in the bin intact, but what do I do with the contents? Answers on a postcard please.

Well, I stole the idea from aunt who had two barns.
So sooner than thundering up and down the (big, with room for a pony!) garden and shouting "Its not in there!" she ad her partner called them Bill and Ben.

Oh I am awful I have wonderful little burst of clearing out and then bring an armful of things home from the charity shop so
I m really just moving things around
I love the idea of cupboards with names MissA

Adrian, Brian, and Carole are three of them, and one is nameless, poor thing.
Ws also have Colin, who's a cabinet.

Its not as daft aa it sounds because i have a long hall, and the four cupboards are all big and more or less in a row.

So if you direct someone by saying "in the first cupboard" they have to work out if you mean the first one nearest the front door, or te first one you come to when you exit te living room.

Please remind me, MissAdventure, of the names of your other cupboards. I remember the one called Brian but not any of the other names. When you first mentioned naming the cupboards it really amused me.

My friend came round today, and while we were chatting, sorted out a huge pile of medications and dressings, ehich were in my living room, with a load of other "stuff" piled on top.
So, the meds have been put into cupboard Brian until someone can take them to a pharmacy, so they can throw them away.
Once again, I can't get intp te cupboard now.

And for me it was two duvet covers and six odd pillowcases that got thrown out.

Have finished filling the big box under my bed now.
It's got my quilt covers in, and any pilow cases that came with them.

I spent ages watching video demonstrations of how to fold a fitted sheet.

I still can't do it, anyway. Three pilowcases, one pillow protector, and four cushion covers have been ousted today.

As long as they're neat, that seems ok, i think.
I threw away a fair few dvds thay were in with my "favourite" books (that I was never going to read again)
It was a bit of a wrench, because they'd come from my daughter's place.

She and her boys used to watch them, when she started to get quite poorly.

Sad, but I'm not likely to get a now 18 year old to watch "frozen"

I try not to have clutter MissAdventure, but still have too much ‘stuff’, of one sort or another.

I’m sitting in our conservatory, looking at three wicker hampers, which contain CD’s and DVD’s.

We never use them, and I’m sure charity shops are inundated, and those websites that buy them pay so little it’s not worth the effort…..

But they are neatly packed away in their hampers…

I've thrown out a,hairclip and an ancient call blocking device.
Not exactly leaps and bounds here.

Because i shop online, the cheapest way is to buy in bulk, so I've been moving big packs of kitchen towels from place to place.

I've started moving a few tops in my wardrobe to a different part of the wardrobe, as its i had black tops behind where the door opens, and couldn't see what was what.

I've put colourful tops there now, so I can see them better.

Yes, as long aa you don't overfill them, i found

Aren't under bed drawers just wonderful!!

I havd some relations coming who have grandchildren so today I have bagged up good hardback children's books. If they dont want them, I expect they will, they are bagged ready to go to the book charity shop.
I also have been through the boxed games, tidied them up, sellotaped any damaged box corners and await DD1 and 2 s decision. They don't take up much space as they stack neatly.

I put 2 large tins of emulsion, very old, but unopened by the front path with a help yourself note stuck on....and they have gone. Didn't see who took them. They will need a very good stir.

Finally I put back into a suit case 2 teddy bears and 2 other dolls. Their little eyes looking at me as I zipped it up. They are for another day when I find a shop taking toys such as, maybe dusty, bears.

Onwards and upwards everyone. A day at a time. Don't get overwhelmed.

I meant to say, Calendargirl two quilt covers is marvellous!
Are you not a clutter collector, generally?

My bedding stuff is a constant battle; I have to fight my way through to the shelves (only two) it's kept on, and just take what i can get.

I've been hoping for a particular quilt cover for around six months, now, but it hasn't made itself available.

Yes, its supposed to work really well, except you have to empty out all the casualties.
Shudder!!! 🤮