Decluttering

Can I bear to part with my children’s old rocking horse though?

If the children and GC don’t want it, then yes, yes, yes!

A couple of plants are going today but I will save the special self-watering pots, the pots can go outside into my keter storage.

That will leave only my precious sansevieria plants, I have 80, I think, but they are in groups in pots, they only need watering once a month in summer and two monthly in winter. I love those plants and most are unusual varieties

One of the plants about to go is a type of palm, lives in my hall on a trolley, blocking the mirror. I can use the trolley for my outdoor shoes instead and clear a small space on the hall floor. That plant does not give me joy these days so bye bye

The other plant is a Christmas cactus and is dull for most of the year

I have more items in a pile, from my wardrobe, at least six so far and ready to go

I'm still not able to do much, not only with one arm, but doing it with my "good" arm plays my "bad" one up.
Still, I had an ugly little trolley thing in my kitchen, which broke, a few days ago, so I am throwing it away and not replacing it.
It only had carrier bags and crisps in it, anyway.

I've such a small kitchen, though, I will need to make space for the trolley contents.

I’ve found a fridge freezer that will fit in my tiny kitchen. This will be a game changer for me as I can move my Beko freezer into the garage ( it isn’t as good as my old Bosch) I can put the dogs crate where the tiny under counter fridge now lives and I can stop using the spillover mini fridge in the utility room. I can also do some batch cooking when I have my knee op.

Great.

It is what I call A B C D E

You go to do E. Think D has to happen first. But C has to happen before that, all the way back to A.

My bete noir is empty boxes. In the loft, in my study, in the garage... I even have big boxes which were empty but are now full of . . . smaller empty boxes. I'm a graduate of the "bound to come in handy one day" school of de-cluttering.

I have boxes ready for "tidying the attic", plus another area.
May have collected too many.
I shall see.

CarrotTop

My bete noir is empty boxes. In the loft, in my study, in the garage... I even have big boxes which were empty but are now full of . . . smaller empty boxes. I'm a graduate of the "bound to come in handy one day" school of de-cluttering.

I’ve got boxes full of boxes for when I’m going to sell things on eBay. Not helped by my local post office closing down.

Blooming slow yet again, I am glad when I get to the end of a bar of soap these days. Yes I still have a stash of beautiful quality French soaps, I am not giving any away, no doubt they will last my lifetime. It was the special offers that did it

Oils, beautiful oils with beautiful scents. I sometimes pamper myself in the wind down to bedtime. Relaxing music, oiled skin, oiled feet and cotton socks but still have enough oils for a very long time

I finally decided to throw out the large box the bread maker came in. DH duly cut it up as is required. Now I realise it was perfect to sit my washing basket on....

I'm back looking at this thread in the middle of the night.
It's not a cure for insomnia 😧

I shall be moving house in less than 2 months and have 16 rooms to clear

I have been trying for ages but my new house is tiny by comparison normal sized
I can find homes for most of the unneeded furniture but what do you do with the contents?
I have a big chest entirely full of towels and spare linen.
Another which houses lightbulbs in one drawer, calendars dating back to 1972 in another etc.
A chest devoted to photographs.
Suitcases of the brown pseudo leather variety, some empty, some not.
Clothes in a trunk. Several trunks....

A house clearance company has quoted for a total job as a last resort but I can't let that happen.
As for books. I'm beginning to think they are the least of my problems.
I hope my task ahead will make yours seem easier if nothing else!

5 bicycles left last week.

The buyers of my house are coming tonight to tell me what, if anything, they would like me to leave for them.

Grammaretto

Not sure why you’ve kept calendars over 50 years old. 🤷‍♀️

The towels and bedding would be useful for anyone setting up home after leaving hostel accommodation or similar. Women leaving a refuge?

Our local community page has a ‘Give For Free’ site, and would be another avenue to go down.

Oh hell Grammaretto that job is almost beyond comprehension, get the family in to help, not to pick through this and that but to help. Two months is no time. Those suitcases of eg towels, don`t let them pick through, just tell them to take the whole case home and to recycle what they don`t want

Empty a room, then fill it with the unwanteds. Empty another room and fill it with boxed goods that you want to take. Put a label on anything large, ie take or remove or remain. Label the room door

Kitchen goods,you need a helper to help clean as you remove stuff. Work from top down, empty shelves, clean and leave them empty

You could do with emptying rooms one by one and leave a note on the door. You will still need the house clearance, in reality it took me over 6 months to prep my last house for a sideways move to a house not many sq feet smaller and even then I had to make several trips to the tip afterwards

A skip will help

Are you moving a long way from your current home? If not might it be worth putting a lot of it in one of those storage places for a while so you can go through it in more time? I understand the calendar stuff. If you don’t throw things like that out straight away they become part of your memories. I have a terrible memory for lots of things but when I come across something like an old calendar it gives me instant recall to things I’d forgotten and I then struggle to get rid of it. I also like the pictures on some calendars and plan to frame them which, of course, I never get round to doing.

Oh dear Grammaretto

Your post.
Clothes in a trunk. several trunks.

What was your plan for your belongings, previous to the house move.
Not to move so not to have to do anything with it all?

I am wondering, if you can think back, did you have a plan?
And wondering if that is what needs to be done now?

grammaretto get rid of the calendars? There are charities that would take the towels and bedding (if in good condition) to give to people who are furnishing homes eg women who have been in refuge shelters. Otherwise places like the Dogs Trust or local animal rescue centres might take them.
Good Luck!

You could have an "open house " sale, Gramaretto
I've been been to a couple, where there was a sign up, inviting people to come and have a browse, and just make offers on anything they wanted.

Both had stuff laid out on the lawn.

Grammaretto

I'm back looking at this thread in the middle of the night.
It's not a cure for insomnia 😧

I shall be moving house in less than 2 months and have 16 rooms to clear

I have been trying for ages but my new house is tiny by comparison normal sized
I can find homes for most of the unneeded furniture but what do you do with the contents?
I have a big chest entirely full of towels and spare linen.
Another which houses lightbulbs in one drawer, calendars dating back to 1972 in another etc.
A chest devoted to photographs.
Suitcases of the brown pseudo leather variety, some empty, some not.
Clothes in a trunk. Several trunks....

A house clearance company has quoted for a total job as a last resort but I can't let that happen.
As for books. I'm beginning to think they are the least of my problems.
I hope my task ahead will make yours seem easier if nothing else!

5 bicycles left last week.

The buyers of my house are coming tonight to tell me what, if anything, they would like me to leave for them.

Do you have a realative that would be able to store things, as a medium term solution?

Thanks everyone. I am grateful for your support and suggestions.
The calendars are my diaries.
I'm about to call a vet to see if they can use old towels.
Shelter may take linen and some other excess stuff.
DD is coming at the weekend to remove the things, mainly of hers, that she wants. They're bringing a trailer.

I have decided, once my lodgers move out next week, to use the granny flat as a holding place to store anything I am definitely taking.

None of my family have space to take anything.

If there's time I will have another sale. I have one currently so tonight I'll have a board out in the street inviting passing folk in.

It occasionally feels overwhelming but I think it will turn out fine.

Great!

Nothing thought about in the night is good.

I'm not a happy bunny! Took three bags to a charity shop today only to be told everyone has had the same idea now that schools are back and they've no room for mine. Ten miles worth of petrol wasted. Am very peeved.

I am procrastinating and it is driving me insane. I need to get rid of some clothes and some things I in the loft.
I sm on snti biotics, and feel alful so it doesn't help.

Grammaretto

Thanks everyone. I am grateful for your support and suggestions.
The calendars are my diaries.
I'm about to call a vet to see if they can use old towels.
Shelter may take linen and some other excess stuff.
DD is coming at the weekend to remove the things, mainly of hers, that she wants. They're bringing a trailer.

I have decided, once my lodgers move out next week, to use the granny flat as a holding place to store anything I am definitely taking.

None of my family have space to take anything.

If there's time I will have another sale. I have one currently so tonight I'll have a board out in the street inviting passing folk in.

It occasionally feels overwhelming but I think it will turn out fine.

I expect if we lived close, some of us would be there, buying up some of your stuff.

Grammaretto, sixteen rooms in two months is not a decluttering job, it is a removals job, and the thing that will wear you out is not the lifting but carrying the plan in your head at three in the morning. What has worked for people going from a big house to a small one: sort by destination, not by room. Five lists and only five: DD's trailer, the sale, the shelter and the vet, the tip, and the new house. Walk through once with the phone in your hand and say it as you go, 'landing wardrobe, sale', 'towel chest, vet', so it is out of your head before you reach the next door.

A notebook does it, Google Keep does it, a phone app such as XNeuronal files what you say under each room and can hand the DD list to your daughter before the weekend, so she arrives knowing what is hers and the trailer fills in an hour.

karmalady is right about the suitcases: the whole case goes, they sort it at home. The calendars are your diaries, so they stay; fifty years of them fit in one box, which is more than can be said for the towels. And whatever comes to you in the night goes on the list, not back under the pillow.

Thanks deudits for such useful advice.

I have had a quote from house clearance people and a removals company is coming soon to see what is involved. I think I will want them to pack too.
It adds quite a lot to the moving bill but I think will be worthwhile.