De-cluttering, the never-ending process

My DH does his decluttering when I have done mine.
If I have done an area, he will then do anything of his around that area.
Bit weird, but hey ho.

I’ve had decorators in, and as our house is very open plan, there is a lot of dust.
So this morning I’ve taken everything off the shelves and washed it all.
I don’t know why two people need so many plates , bowls and dishes, I am not planning on hosting any banquets in the near future.
But I can’t resist pretty bits of China, and I’m far more likely to be adding to it, than getting rid of it.
I was surprised by quite how much there is though.

I think if you have hobbies and interests you have a lot of gear. Over many years I have enjoyed knitting, crochet, card making, macrame, decoupage, rag rugging, felting, watercolour and pastel painting, decorating stones, doll making, salt dough, a dip into embroidery, some machine sewing etc so I have a spare room which was pretty full but I am getting through it.

I’m taking an unopened bag of specialist cat food and some treats to a pet shop with a food bank for pets. That another space in a cupboard, along with the cat-shaped hole in our lives.

SueDonim

I’m back on the decluttering wagon! 👍 I tidied out one third of a sideboard today. Because we moved in so recently there’s not that much recycling or ‘big’ stuff to get rid of but I went through receipts and threw out the out of date ones, binned some odds and ends like the child car seat instructions in French/German/Arabic which we will never need.

I also found a very small kitchen cupboard which somehow is still empty and it'll be perfect for jugs and vases which are currently scattered about the kitchen.

I’m glad somebody else has a jug and vase cupboard! I love flower arranging, and I have loads of vases and jugs for that, in a corner cupboard but it’s not big enough to house them all. It should be next on my decluttering hit list, who needs about 30 vases and jugs after all.

At least, during the pandemic, I wasn’t going into charity shops. I can’t resist buying things from them.I reckon I could open a little bric a brac shop with them. I need to ask myself ‘do I actually need this’ before I buy things. Some things do have a home eg these birds that I picked up in a charity shop and love. But most end up in a cupboard.

If ever there was the best time to de-clutter, it is moving home internationally. Amazing how much we gave away the last time as well as the time before [and the time before that]. Wonderful to have lived all over the world, but it goes to show how quickly "stuff" is accumulated which one does not need really.

I don’t have that many vases, maybe four, Casdon. The jugs are all sorts! Ones that are decorative and also water jugs, milk jugs and measuring jugs etc.

I love those birds, Maybee.

I have been sorting through a couple of box files of recipes, one ‘sweet’ and one ‘savoury’.

Full of cuttings from newspapers and magazines, thinking “oh that looks good, must make it one day”.

Hmm, as DH says, if only I spent as long cooking as looking at the recipes….

Don’t need them now, of course, as you just google a recipe and up it comes.

I have culled them, quite severely, but still have quite a lot of chocolate related recipes left, which I really must get round to making one of these days.

🍫🍪🍰🧁

I'm a jug collector I can't resist them. I have corralled them into a cupboard as DH said we were starting to look like a Charity shop. Even the postman when I answered the door in my dressing gown remarked"Your jugs say rise and shine, practise what they preach'.... in a friendly way.
We have 3 loose-leafed Files for recipes we have been given or printed. I knew we were using barely any of them so I sorted mine on Saturday and they have gone in the paper recycling. DH's will probably get done sometime next year. One file came with us from the last house.
I have cut down on patio pots and donated them to a friend who had space for them. I intend to plant the ones left with perennials and just a few bedding. It always seems such a waste to get rid of plants that have only lasted a season.

We had a Clutter Fairy at WI, all happily thinking this would be a funny talk/jolly job. Were we in for an eye opener, she was inspirational!
I now have a young friend who helps me slowly decluttering, and after 35 years in the same place it's quite a task. We're slow and methodical. She is sensitive to my sentimentality and we make sure everything is going to the best place possible, e.g. recycling and charity shop or parcelled up to go to the grown up kids. I can't bear not doing it this way, so the knowledge that things are going to the best places is actually uplifting - and seeing it go is a real pleasure. It will take a while but we're getting there. After major surgery last year it is a plod on rather than a race, but well done to everyone working their way through it. Best of luck.

Plodding is good Cymres1, tortoise always does well

A full big yankee candle went yesterday, the last one. I have a sophisticated air filter, blue light is clean air with shades to red. My stearin candles keep the filter on blue, yankee immediately puts the filter on red. The big heavy glass vase/candle holder also went, both to cs

Pottering and removing are going hand in hand with this long winter, something positive and good to do while the rain is beating down.

A lovely, gentle thread Karmalady. Very inspirational.
I have very little that isn't necessary, but I'm aware of a few items I could dispose of.
On the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard are some Edwardian, glass cake stands, etc. They originally belonged to my maternal grandma. It's time to let go as my daughter will not want them.
The same goes for sherry glasses. No longer used, but kept for their sentimental value.
Last week, inspired by this thread I emptied two shelves in a kitchen cupboard. Some items were disposed of, and the the rest, after cleaning were replaced, but more logically. Very satisfying.
My box of herbs and spices is next on the agenda.
Photographs and cards are my failing. I really must try to reduce the hoard.

I blame the constant rain and the recent wind but now I feel as though I have wasted the day. The saving grace comes from accidentally finding several sheets of stickers for journals. Now packed into a zip lock for cs, also a great paperback tome of a book, lots of intense information and small writing, on woodwork. I am not going to tear out the bits I might use and am thinking that my neighbour can take it to the new mens shed. I am sure they will be more interested in various joints

My old cycling helmet, hanging patiently in the garage, just in case a spare is needed. Then I find out that it should have only been kept for 3-5 years, whoops, I am glad no-one ever needed to use it as it was 14 years old. I cut the straps off and binned it

Ok I accidentally sorted a bit but what boring way to spend a no-spend saturday. Tomorrow will be entirely different

ps, still no spend but by hook or by crook, as long as it is dry. I am off out on my bike to count cats eyes as I struggle up the first hill.

I’ve found this thread so helpful especially the emphasis on taking it a bit at a time; I t’s made it feel so much less overwhelming. Am finally feeling that I’m making progress. Thank you.

Yesterday I put a car roof rack on freecycle. Still in its box bought 17 years ago when Dd expecting grandson. Has sat in our shed all that time. Had email same evening.
Also getting rid of my petrol strimmer as no longer needed on allotment.
But so much stuff!

I do have stuff in the loft that we thought we would need, but havent.
We did use some things, but not as much as expected.
We did use replacement tiles for example. But not much of replacement carpet or lino.

I was looking for something in particular yesterday and decided a bit of de-cluttering was required. In my quest I came across a little thank you card that my Mum sent me years ago. She died a short time afterwards. On reading her special message to me I wept, not just a few tears but loud, heartbroken sobs! The decluttering will have to wait now.

I’ve moved 2x in the last 5 years. (I really wish I hadn’t). 2 years before moving from the big family house I began gradually decluttering. When I unpacked at the next house I found I had to declutter again to fit everything in despite storing boxes in the garage. When I moved from there last November I had spent the previous 4 months decluttering. I now have a garage full of boxes of books ++ and to make room for the shelves which are being built for them, I am, yep, decluttering again! Where did all this, I now realise, unnecessary stuff come from? Ive always found it hard to part with my possessions but these moves have taught me that I only really need the basics. But, why is it that you always find you really need something 2 days after it’s been despatched to the charity shop? 🙄. Sod’s law. If I move again, there will be no garage. That’s definite!

I know what you mean ParlorGames.

I once came across a couple of birthday cards that Dad had sent to Mum when they were courting, back in the 1940’s.

Dad was the most unromantic of souls, and I can never recall him sending Mum cards since they had married.

But to see his ‘With all my love, …,’ written in a careful hand, broke me up.

They had both been dead for quite a while when I found these cards.

Obviously precious to Mum.

I couldn’t put them in the recycling.

If you're still living with a partner it's a good idea to declutter together. Bereavement can happen sooner than you think and will make the process much harder. My husband emptied the loft because he knew I would not be able to do that. I have decluttered on and off when I feel like it. It'll never be 'done'. My husband was both an avid reader and avid writer and I keep coming across his notes. His handwriting and turn of phrase - so familiar - make me cry but also make me realise he is still with me.

But, why is it that you always find you really need something 2 days after it’s been despatched to the charity shop? 🙄. Sod’s law.

It is indeed!

Sometimes I've spent a while looking for something only to remember it went off to the charity shop months before when I was in a ruthless mood.

I wish my DD wouldn't keep saying "Oh, don't throw that out, I'd like it one day"

Well, if we downsize they will have to take it or do without 9ne day.

Callistemon21

I wish my DD wouldn't keep saying "Oh, don't throw that out, I'd like it one day"

Well, if we downsize they will have to take it or do without 9ne day.

Why not say, “Here, take it now then”.

She would have it, and you would have got rid.

Of course, it’s soooo much easier for Mum to store this ‘stuff’….