Decluttering

I am creeping through decluttering again because I am visiting a DD in Wales tomorrow and will be taking two new hand made wool jumpers plus an unused (hangs head) merino wool throw by Bronte Moon. Yes I do remember buying this throw when I moved house but ever since it has been in a moth-proof vac bag

I took other things out but put them back again many a time I can only remove a bit, more is too much for my own sanity

I have answered my own question. I can send my knitting needles to Knit for Peace who seem to have an office near Hampstead which my younger DD can get to easily. So I will sort them and keep just a couple of pairs.
Isnt Google wonderful for getting an answer quickly when you ask the question.

Another wheelie bin is filling up with papers. I hope books don't end up being recycled too.

Our Oxfam keeps knitting needles behind the counter so you have to ask for them 🤣

I have lots of knitting needles and am not a knitter. I can keep a few pairs for DDs but do charity shops take them as they are pointed? They were myDMs.

Not car parts I hope MissA*you are making him too comfortable

Slow down here, hibernation transition is setting in but it does not bother me, soon I will soon have a really good set-to in my wardrobe and bedroom drawers

I have a trug of plants for the tip but it isn`t worth the petrol just for them. They will have to wait

Meantime I do have some glorious shiny yarn on cones for weaving to pass on, I must work out how to get to a community craft cafe in a nearby town. The CSs are rammed full here just now

I can't even get a foot inside Brian now.
Adrian was looking pretty good, then my boy seems have taken out half of his car and put it in there.
It smells, whatver it is.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Great!

Nothing thought about in the night is good.

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.

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?

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 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!

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?

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 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

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.

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.

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....

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

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.