Decluttering

Its so clear to see, reading through this thread, that decluttering is so much more than gerting rid of unwanted stuff.

It's drawing a line under a part of life that'll never return.

It’s drawing a line under a part of life that’ll never return

Wise words.

Our childhood, courtships, getting married, having our own children and seeing them grow, our youth…..

Wise words indeed MissA.
I'm glad I didn't do this soon after DH died. Nearly 6 years later it feels different and like the time has come.
Mind you I am still culling books . I've not started on the photos yet or the children's artwork and school jotters!

Perhaps I will have an Autumn bonfire 🔥..

Do you know what, a bonfire seems rather a good idea for decluttering papers stuff.
Voom! .. a bright flare, and gone.

I am churning some Marie Kondo-type effort in my mind. It really is churning for me because I do like my many sansevieria plants but I have too many and just now am thinking of removing the 5 pots on top of a tall kitchen dresser

Two hold tough lady and they are now tall and `just there` the other three are leftovers from other pots. I will have to get rid of the pots too, I cannot cope with any more of these nice pots in my storage. They are Lechuza pots but I have many. I think I will take them down now, for me to feel the space, for a day or two Dds really cannot take any more of my stuff

This is a hard decision, again but it will make a difference

Calendargirl

^It’s drawing a line under a part of life that’ll never return^

Wise words.

Our childhood, courtships, getting married, having our own children and seeing them grow, our youth…..

I find things like old pay slips fascinating. How much we used to earn. Old magazines or newspapers with adverts in; how much things cost back then, how styles have changed. We put our next door neighbours bin out yesterday and there was a copy of the Guardian in it so I took it. We have a daily paper online now and I wanted to read a real newspaper.

I told some new people moving to the area to take away some stuff yesterday which they did but just before they left they showed me everything, mostly pots pans, kitchen ware but then showed me a little 3 legged stool they had spotted and I said oh no not the wee stool. My DD used to sit on it and her DDs. Oh dear. It's hard isn't it.

The van from Shelter is coming again next week for more books and some other non book stuff too.

Yay!! 😅

Oh yes it really is bloomin hard to get this de-cluttering done, I don`t really think there is an end to it all

I have taken 4 plants off the dresser top and just kept one, so now there are only 3 items up there and all basically in red eg a precious photo in a red frame. I have even removed a sony radio that has not been turned on for months

I did not notice this clutter until yesterday and suddenly, that wall looks fresher. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, removing those plants is focusing my eyes on two more plant pots in my living room, just basic zeylanica sansevierias

I will still be keeping sansevieria plants but in smaller, neater clusters and as focal points not as comforts, I started collecting them after my husband died

I`m just back on to say that I have done another 4 pots, they were tough especially when I saw the baby plants about to pop up. I have put the lovely plant pots to one side until tomorrow but in reality I need to get rid of them. I grew those 4 groups all from leaf cuttings but I am facing age-related facts now and all of those grow quite big over a long time

This is worse than culling my wardrobe

Plus I removed the 2 zeylanica groups earlier

I tidied some drawers yesterday from a piece of furniture we always refer to as ‘the desk’.

Inherited from my mum, it was a utility piece bought when they married after the war.

Glass front display cabinet on top, with shelves, drop down middle section, drawers at the bottom.

Worth nothing, but I’m very fond of it.

I culled the drawers, outed some postcode directories that I had, but don’t need nowadays, and chucked out some old envelopes etc.

Tidier.

Also moved furniture around in the room where I watch tv and read at night.

TV now standing on a different table, original table now next to where I sit, room for the remote, specs, library book etc.

Not thrown anything out, but just ‘refreshed’.

I have a utility desk my father used. Well I think it's utility as most of their furniture was after they married. Mum bought Ercol furniture in the 60s of which she was very proud and it is beautifully made, but this desk is my favourite piece I inherited/cleared from their house which I use every day and will pass on to one DD I hope.
Its drawers could do with another tidy on a wer autumn day.

I finally threw out two more plastic units that I bought to house the vast amount if stuff that I needed for my Father .
And I cried.

Just saying that I have lived with the new indoor plant set-up for two days and am liking it very much. I did rescue the nice white Lechuza pots, they are washed and tidied away in outdoor Keter storage. I am getting rid of the red Lechuza pots, they can go to cs. My indoor plant- pot colours are now only shiny white and matt dark grey, more joined-up unity

It is a dark and drizzly day and am starting to feel some need to do another small wardrobe sort, nothing onerous but I think I can take out a few summer poplin tops, I will make some styles again but in linen and only a couple for next year, a winter project

Candles need de-cluttering next but best by being used, they are all safe stearin wax and fine to use. I have a lot

DH kindly repotted two leopard lilies yesterday. One had got very ‘leggy’, lots of stem, so he cut it down and it went in a smaller pot. The other one had grown well, so it went in the larger pot.

They now flank the electric wall fire in the sitting room, and are the only plants in that room.

So the plants in the dining room, where one of the LL’s came from, have now been juggled around.

I love finding fresh pot holders in the shed to place my rejigged plants in.

Not really decluttering, but freshening areas up.

Calendargirl yes I completely agree and freshening a room can make all the difference. Mum used to do a spring clean and an autumn clean, both to prep for the forthcoming seasons

I too am finding that small tweak here and there does change energy for the better. In my case `hiding` bottles of body oils etc made all the different to my bedroom ambience. Changing a lamp position also helped as did getting rid of a cushion in my living room

A fresh ambience is all important

My house move is less than a month away.
I have just let 3 young people loose on my tool shed and on a room that's been used for storing everything from bikes, tools, lawnmowers to unused rolls of wallpaper 50yrs old.

They are living off grid so I doubt they'll want the electricals

At least one has quite wealthy parents so I am conflicted about giving it to her!
On the other hand, it will probably get chucked out so the fact she is saving it is good isn't it?

I continued with my decluttering over the weekend.
There's another massive bag of clothes for the charity shop -including brand new evening dresses.
That's bag no 11 of tiny clothes of mysterious origin - mostly left by daughters friends when they used to stay with us for months .
Apart from that I can't believe just how much stuff I've accumulated over the years.
It happens so easily ....

Just realised there’s a new series of Clean It Fix It. This will inspire me again! Even though I’m away from home and have the thought of somehow clearing out the garage so I can have the asbestos removed. No idea where it’s all going to go.

Grammaretto, the wee stool made me smile. Whatever stays and whatever goes, the story is the part that disappears first. Before the move it might be worth going round the keepers with DD and saying out loud who sat on what and where it came from, and jotting it down or typing it into the phone as you go, one line per piece. Calendargirl, the same for "the desk": bought when your parents married after the war is exactly the sentence that should live in its top drawer. HelterSkelter1 too, a date and a line tucked inside your dad's desk before it goes to DD. Worth nothing to anyone else, but not to her.

Good idea Deudits. I will do that this winter.

Yesterday I took a bag of neatly folded recently late DHs winter shirts to the charity shop. I still have 3 drawersful of clothes I will keep and sort again. But these being just right for this season I am sure they will sell. I have a "summer" drawer to sort next year.
I am finding it is helping me to sort and tidy at the moment. Lots of tears of course. But good to keep active with plenty of tea breaks.

There's a huge skip outside my house now. Still a lot of clearing and sorting before I leave.
Sadly a lot of decent things will end up in the skip. It takes such a long time to find the right place for things.

I did have a young woman come to take away my display stands and the men's shed have taken my trailer so things do move eventually.

How should I dispose of knives? I have quite a collection of kitchen knives which I don't need.

Thank you deudits for your wise words.
The trouble is I have a story about every single thing and I can't keep it all.

BBC Radio 4, ‘Call You and Yours’ yesterday was asking people to call in about their experiences of inheriting things they didn’t want. I’m not sure I learnt anything new from it but it did renew my determination to get rid of the things I know my children will neither want nor need 😬. We have very little of monetary value but too many books and papers - I am a hoarder of interesting articles, old calendar pages and other paper stuff with patterns and colours I like. I have vague ideas of creating scrapbooks or collages (just for my own amusement), but that never seems to happen. DH’s weakness, like so many men, is a garage full of wood, tools, ‘nuts &bolts’ and many other things that may come in useful. Then there are the photographic colour slides that we keep saying we will select the best from and digitise. Oh, and DH’s collections of coins, stamps, postcards. One good thing is we resolved not to put stuff in the roof space when we moved to our current house 12 years ago.

I don’t know what you can do with kitchen knives Grammaretto. If your family don’t want them they might have to go in the metal recycling 😕

Thank you Litterpicker for the reminder to listen to You and Yours 6/10/26. I like the programme anyway but missed that one and have now listened to it on Sounds just now.
Very interesting and useful information. Hopefully it will spur me on. Our problem is very very common.