30 bags in 30 days decluttering method

Just sorted the toy box. - 1 bin liner full of playable outgrown toys to take to the charity shop, and another bin liner full of broken toys, for the dustman, next week. I will replenish the toy boxes, with toys for 6/7 year olds (from the charity shop ofcourse )😂

Day 2 - A bag of books to be taken to the charity shop. They’ll never be read again in this house and they’re in good condition.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get there until the beginning of next week, so they’re lurking on the upstairs landing. It would have been nicer to have got rid of them straightaway but it can’t be helped.

I think tomorrow’s task will be the same as today’s. More books.

2 days down. 28 more to go.

I started doing some kitchen sorting yesterday. Removed loads of stuff we never use now to trays on the kitchen table.
When OH came in he asked what I was doing, went through the stuff, and decided that most of it should be kept "just in case". In future I'll do my clearing out when he is not around!
Love the idea of 30 bags in 30 days.

Thirty bags in thirty days have led to attending to the kitchen cupboards.

Our home is very old, thus very old wood cupboards needing varnishing/shellac attention every decade or so. It's time.

Considering painting. We painted kitchen cupboards in our holiday home to the sea - white and door fronts various different colours blues.

Always, one project leads to another.

Cupboards in kitchen have roll outs on top to the old shelves, nothing hidden from ease to view. Or so I thought.

Today we cleared out more of our mums' old kitchen items.

Two carrier bags, gone to Charity shop.

Ok I’m sorry

Doodledog

Germanshepherdsmum

Oh. Well living in a minimalist clutter-free house where everything is in its place, I know where that place is, there isn’t an avalanche when I open a cupboard and knowing that I’m leaving as little trouble and stress to others as I can makes me happy.

That's not negativity, it's Nirvana for people like me ).

This is what a lot of us are aiming for, and have started doing, supporting each other along the way. Telling us we are making excuses and that what we are doing is not enough - that is negativity. As you say, GSM, we are not all the same.

I have taken 17 balls of yarn to my craft group today. It was just one bag, but I wouldn't have used it, and other people were pleased to take it, which is a win/win. I plan to have another bag ready to add either to the collection pile or the 'tip' pile by the end of the day.

I realise that the momentum might wear off, but even if it does, I'll be a few steps along the road to feeling 'lighter', and I can always start again when I feel inspired. My house is not remotely like the ones on Hoarder Next Door - it's more that all the storage is full of things I no longer need, and there is no room for new things when I want to put them away. A few empty cupboards will be liberating, I'm sure.

Ok I’m sorry

I have a box full of newspapers that are copies of wartime newspapers. I was given them by a friend years ago. My daughter, who was a history teacher at the time, wasn’t interested in them. They are fascinating to browse through but it’s one example of the sort of thing that I hang onto.

I'm doing Danish Death Clearing. Every week I throw a bin bag of "stuff" away. This will take me the rest of my life.
However, I've been lax over the last couple of months (SAD) so ill join you for 30 bags in 30 days. Hugs

Germanshepherdsmum

Oh. Well living in a minimalist clutter-free house where everything is in its place, I know where that place is, there isn’t an avalanche when I open a cupboard and knowing that I’m leaving as little trouble and stress to others as I can makes me happy.

That's not negativity, it's Nirvana for people like me ).

This is what a lot of us are aiming for, and have started doing, supporting each other along the way. Telling us we are making excuses and that what we are doing is not enough - that is negativity. As you say, GSM, we are not all the same.

I have taken 17 balls of yarn to my craft group today. It was just one bag, but I wouldn't have used it, and other people were pleased to take it, which is a win/win. I plan to have another bag ready to add either to the collection pile or the 'tip' pile by the end of the day.

I realise that the momentum might wear off, but even if it does, I'll be a few steps along the road to feeling 'lighter', and I can always start again when I feel inspired. My house is not remotely like the ones on Hoarder Next Door - it's more that all the storage is full of things I no longer need, and there is no room for new things when I want to put them away. A few empty cupboards will be liberating, I'm sure.

Germanshepherdsmum

My parents didn’t have clutter, but dealing with their things and making decisions about them without a sibling to discuss with wasn’t easy. So I know what would face him.

My MIL went into a home in August, and we spent the last part of 2022, clearing her house. My OH is an only child and retired, so he didn't want to pay someone to come and clear the house. It was so time consuming, and because his parents had "dabbled" in antiques, there was a lot of stuff, e.g. 4 hall tables!!

He also found the receipts for some of the dark wood furniture, and a lot of it was several hundred pounds 30/40 years ago, but now only worth £10. The local auction house wasn't interested.

My mother is a hoarder, so dreading clearing her house when the time comes!

We're not minimalist, far from it, my husband being more a collector of odd bits. Our parents left full big homes for their children to deal with. Our children wouldn't deal, they'd burn this house to the ground including contents. We're elderly, don't want to burden our children, we donate now.

Here’s an exercise that will help move things out of your house… consider what would have to be moved if someone had to come in and move YOU. I did this in July when I thought my son would have to move me. I cleared out all drawers and closets so I could tell him to “this is ready” - even my bathroom closet and medicine cabinet! Start in kitchen with old pans, dishes, mugs etc. It feels great in many ways. Good luck!

That’s the thing though Maggie - ‘we’. Not the same at all if there is no ‘we’, I assure you.

I think there’s many a mile of happy medium between leaving loads of meaningless clutter for your children to sort and doing the Swedish death clean.

My grandmother was forced to get rid of just about everything when her Victorian house was compulsorily purchased and she was moved to a tiny bungalow - I used to love her “clutter” but was too young at the time to be offered any of it. My mother was a bit of a minimalist and got rid of a lot of things that I would have liked to have had (including a set of first edition Just William books bought for my father when he was a young William - her reasoning was that I’d read them, so they didn’t need to be kept).

Sorting a relative’s house isn’t necessarily all stress and trouble. My mum-in-law’s house was like a treasure trove of memories and we enjoyed finding “useless” things like her old button box (DD1 claimed it, because it brought back memories of sorting and counting them when she was little with her grandma) and her own mother’s first embroidery sampler (now on display at DD2’s). It really wasn’t that much effort either to sort the clothes into charity shop or textile recycling, and to distribute the dozens of packs of toilet paper and sugar to willing recipients.

My parents didn’t have clutter, but dealing with their things and making decisions about them without a sibling to discuss with wasn’t easy. So I know what would face him.

I think your feeling about not leaving a 'mess' for your son that might cause him distress, gsm, is a common one. It's often mentioned on GN threads of this kind anyway.

However, I and my siblings (and some of the grandchildren) did not find sorting through our parents' clutter after they died distressing. It was the clutter of both of them because Mum had not cleared Dad's stuff even though he died twenty-six years before she did. Some of the clutter was from both sets of our grandparents too. We actually enjoyed dealing with it all. It was so memory-jogging and absolutely historical.

Perhaps this was helped by the fact that our mother's death was not sad. It happened, peacefully for her, when it needed to happen. To this day I still mind about my father's death because he was too young when he died, and he suffered serious illness. But I am glad to have had the chance to find and keep some of his keepsakes.

Oh. Well living in a minimalist clutter-free house where everything is in its place, I know where that place is, there isn’t an avalanche when I open a cupboard and knowing that I’m leaving as little trouble and stress to others as I can makes me happy.

Germanshepherdsmum

You could perhaps sell them Calendargirl. I am ruthless about not keeping things that I don’t use or need, not only because I hate clutter but because I don’t want anyone to have the task of dealing with lots of stuff when I die. I was an only child and so is my son. I want to spare him as much pain as possible. I know people who live amongst so much clutter that they lose things, and blithely say their children will sort it out when they’ve gone. So selfish.

Apparently that’s negativity.

I'm having a slow – very slow – clear out. And anyway I don't have 30 carrier bags.

You could perhaps sell them Calendargirl. I am ruthless about not keeping things that I don’t use or need, not only because I hate clutter but because I don’t want anyone to have the task of dealing with lots of stuff when I die. I was an only child and so is my son. I want to spare him as much pain as possible. I know people who live amongst so much clutter that they lose things, and blithely say their children will sort it out when they’ve gone. So selfish.

DH says AC must come and take their belongings from the loft as he is unsure how much longer he will be able to climb up there.

I don’t appear to have clutter as I squirrel it away in drawers and cupboards but if I could get rid of 30 bags full it would be great to have some empty drawers and cupboards.
Seriously considering it for February.

My Bunty annuals are still in the loft, despite previous de-clutterings.

DD (47) was never bothered about them, as for GD (15), never looked at them, although I always hoped they would love them like I did. But why should they, they are of a bygone era,

However, I think they will remain in the loft, discoloured, battered spines, loose pages, but unlikely to be binned in my lifetime.

📕

Day 3 and I’m parting with some baby toys that are too young for the littlest DGS now. It’s a bit of a wrench, I must admit, but it’s better that someone else has the use of them than that they sit here just taking up space.

Though it’s quite likely that I’ll be picking up more age-appropriate toys while I’m at the charity shop.