Going to deal with decluttering and cleaning living room coffee table today. Prayers welcome. The whole apartment has been like a mountain I stare at, getting overwhelmed, feeling unable to even begin. But it has to start somewhere.
🕯 for you
A few minutes a day, one table or shelf at a time and you will get there.
Tomas, the Flying Pole, has just assembled 3 bookshelves/units. All (!) that remains is for me to fight my way into the room where we dumped the hall contents 5 months ago, and sort out what's going into them.
My goals are a clean kitchen bench and floor before Christmas day. I refuse to beat myself up about it, but I will celebrate when I achieve it (thinking positively here).
My decluttering of fabric stash by making a quilt with it is on hold until new kitty can cope with the noise of the sewing machine (I can no longer sew by hand).
Right, that's the books reshelved and a fair few identified for going to a charity shop. We have sufficient spare capacity to give an entire shelf (and it needs it) to an 18thC one vol. edition of Johnson's Dictionary.
My plan for today was to give a good general clean up to the whole house for Christmas. This morning I did the final paperwork for the purchase of our new mobile home. Because of Covic all of this is now done via E-mail, print then out to have it faxed after signing on the dotted line for 20 sheets. Then next to the bank to transfer money via wire. All this being very new to me and a bit uncertain I am doing it right with no guidance has left me exhausted. I told Mr. Image I plan to get into my night clothes at 5 PM and drink some straight gin. Needless to say, no house cleaning will be accomplished today. The good news is so far no phone call telling me I did it wrong.
I found all that online signing malarkey a bit disconcerting too when I was selling the former Château Piglet, GI. Not actually signing a piece of paper with an actual pen rather detracted from the "realness" of it.
Whoo whoo, no phone calls, I did it right, the mobile home has closed escrow. I now own a country house and a city house. I feel like one of those rich people. Hope not for long may our house sell quickly. In fact, we are at the moment rather poor people.
It is our country house that needs to sell Piglet. Old age means isolation from medical facilities, public transportation, and caring for 1/2 of an acre of garden is now beyond us. I will miss the views, the wildlife, and good small-town neighbors, but it is time we are close in and near one of our children to help us out. I plan on a tiny potted garden and a bird feeding station.
I've been going slow and steady for about eight years -- ever since my sister died and I had to deal with a condominium FULL of unsorted stuff. I came home and started decluttering, organizing, etc. I'm so glad, since I just found out that my new place will be ready for me this spring rather than next fall.
Three boxes of kitchen stuff going to the thrift shop in a couple of hours. And that's just a start! (Most of my meals will be provided, so there's no need for a lot of things.)
I've slowly been emptying the wardrobe in my bedroom to identify what went into there unwashed, and this has filled two large bags (clean items) to go to the charity shop when they reopen. The offending item was right at the very back and hasn't been worn for around 30 years - it's a pretty embroidered waistcoat that belonged to my grandmother's aunt, so I'll gently wash it and put it somewhere so I'll see it and find a reason to wear it.
This year, as my contribution to world peace (and decluttering) I have THROWN OUT the items for which I received replacements. So the old apron was cut up for rags; the slippers went in the dustbin; and I did get rid of something else which I have now completely forgotten
Post Christmas bug hit, even went off wine......
Mercifully I have a decluttering list, so today felt half way sensible enough to try something as an alternative to sleeping.
One huge bag of papers has been sorted into recycling or to be kept in a file. But in between two very random pieces of paper .....& almost thrown out.....I Found My Birth Certificate !
Today I went through a drawer, but put most of it straight back as it would have distracted me for the whole day( or week). It contained old photos, cards I received when my children were born, some of their hand made cards to me, cards I received when my parents died, retirement cards....
Then I decluttered some jewellery, and wrapped it to give to my granddaughter for her birthday next month. I wrote a letter telling her under what circumstances I was given the pieces( a necklace for being a bridesmaid and a bracelet when I left a certain voluntary job).
... Three boxes of kitchen stuff going to the thrift shop ...
I'm going to be a little bit heretickal here; I shouldn't be too hasty about ditching kitchen thingies. When the movers cleared the kitchen in the house in Fredericton, I was paying rather less attention than I should have been (in fairness, I was in A Bit Of A State - it was all rather emotionally charged).
The upshot was that several things got left behind that I either have had to, or will have to replace, as they're not as dispensable as I might have thought. Small things like an apple slicer; a colander and sieves; skewers for baking potatoes; corn-cob prongs ...
The only clutter in our house is music and books. I can't imagine ever decluttering them although we do "recycle" read books through our local second hand bookstore. Alas, books come through the door at a faster rate than they depart.
... Three boxes of kitchen stuff going to the thrift shop ...
I'm going to be a little bit heretickal here; I shouldn't be too hasty about ditching kitchen thingies. When the movers cleared the kitchen in the house in Fredericton, I was paying rather less attention than I should have been (in fairness, I was in A Bit Of A State - it was all rather emotionally charged).
The upshot was that several things got left behind that I either have had to, or will have to replace, as they're not as dispensable as I might have thought. Small things like an apple slicer; a colander and sieves; skewers for baking potatoes; corn-cob prongs ...
Thanks, Piglet. I'm getting rid of things I haven't used in a loooong time. I'm taking my time doing it, since I have several months. Anything iffy will not be donated at this point. I can do that once I've settled in. I will have plenty of kitchen cupboards and drawers.
But, best of all, once I move they'll be providing most of my meals.
Went down to our new mobile home today and did another round of measuring I was pretty close as to what we can keep and what must go. I was delighted to find that the storage in the bathroom and the kitchen is better than what I have now. Although the floor space now is much larger, it is just open space and not storage. Side note we met a new neighbor's very nice son who informed us the lemon tree between our homes is on the property line and has always been shared. So I get the lemons from our side and his mom gets the lemons from the other. The tree is so full of lemons I am sure that there are enough for the whole block.
Remember the guilty smelly waistcoat? Even after I took it (and all the other clothes) out of the wardrobe the pong persisted. Turns out it was the lily-of-the-valley scented sachet that I was given a couple of years ago. Still, the wardrobe emptying has resulted in at least 2 bags for the charity shop and a reminder that I really do not need any more clothes!
Decluttering one clothes cupboard showed me that mice love real lavender in those cute hanging lavender bags. Half the clothes and bedding were unable to be kept. But that discovery prompted Mr Alba to seal up every last hole or even maybe-hole in the house and we now have a strict Doors Closed policy at night time.
There is another clothes cupboard to be de cluttered.
Today I think
I'm another turning out cupboards. All shoes that need mending are bagged ready to go to the splendid local leather shop, the rest have had laces checked, etc.
Clothes: gone through and "tired" socks and underwear bagged for recycling. The lodger has had his pick of those garments I don't think I'll wear again, the rest have gone to the Clothes Bank.
The linen was sorted through earlier in the year so no throw-outs, just a few things to be fixed.
I've a pile of mending for the next week to keep me busy: the lodger is going to be taught how to sew on buttons and do simple darning/pulling through stray threads 😀
FINALLY got the hall sorted (let's forget for the moment all the ex-hall stuff piled in another room). The hall is - literally - central to the flat; 7 rooms and a cupboard give off it, so there is a lot of open space, but not all that much wall. Things were alway ending up there, piled on, in, or under a miscellaneous collection of furniture.
We got new shelving/storage units which actually match and got rid of 75% of the old items.
This morning I dragged the remaining chest of drawers down to the garden and ascertained that, as I thought, that the drawers can be recycled as shelving in the shed. I then set about the frame with a hatchet and reduced it to fire bowl fodder.
Twice now Books have been mentioned in the same sentence as Decluttering
Is this even a thing?
Truly?
I “decluttered” some books a few years back and felt dreadful afterwards. Sincerely wishing that I had not......
There are books that are clutter and those which are not. In moving continents, when I was chucked out of the USA back in the mid ‘90s, I had to get rid of most of my books. Foolishly I kept the theology and lost the novels. All of those novels are now replaced (and of course have bred) but I am happily considering de-cluttering the theology this year: but not to the local charity shop, since as soon as they get a religious book they send it to the church library. (I once decluttered the church library and found that they all returned within a fortnight!)
But old “blue books” i.e. books of reports from past General Assemblies of the CofS and old year books are definitely clutter and are going t9 be gradually introduced to the recycling bin. The novels stay.
I decluttered David's vast collection of hymn-books and books about church music by giving them to his successor; I knew there was almost a whole wall of empty shelves in his office at the church, and he was delighted to take them. It's just as well, as I couldn't really see the local charity shops wanting something as specialised as that.
I've been decluttering the room grandly known as the organist's study, which this year seems to have been more of the space where I record hymns for the church's social media, keep the church's social media alive, plough on with the church-based admin-type work I seem to have acquired, do the Zoom-type education work when the schools have been closed, Zoom-type piano lessons (when I've not been allowed to have the students in my home) and mostly dream of the day I can do my education jobs and organist's job properly again.
I thought of you @Piglet as I was pondering if now is the time to declutter back copies of Church Music Quarterly and Sunday By Sunday (this year's copies look sadly pristine) as I've been doing a "Hymns we would have sung" feature on the weekly newsletter and used previous choices based on the last time we had those readings. So, it's just been a case of going to the Complete Hymn List document and looking them up.
I've not ever had many piano students, not since I stopped teaching piano/clarinet self-employed full time in the 1980s, but as there currently are only 2 of them, both under 14. and both working towards grade exams we've deemed it a mixture of childcare and formal education - both of which are allowed. And true. For the last couple of years, the lessons have on the one evening a week that childcare is hard, so one parent drops them off on the way to an early start night shift, and the other often not yet home (both work in the NHS) - so I had regularly kept them with me until the collecting parent could get here, and they do homework whilst they wait! They are the only two people who have been in my house, other than the person who services the boiler and does the gas checks, since March.
Twice now Books have been mentioned in the same sentence as Decluttering
Is this even a thing?
Truly?
I “decluttered” some books a few years back and felt dreadful afterwards. Sincerely wishing that I had not......
I decluttered a massive amount of books a few years ago - 2 sets of utility shelving with 7 shelves each, all packed full - and haven't missed anything. I got rid of almost as much when I moved a few months ago, and again have no regrets. I kept only books with a lot of personal meaning to me and books I haven't read yet.
I helped my mother downsize from a five-bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment 7 years ago, which was quite a task for the two of us, and now she's moved into a single room in a memory care unit. Sorting through her remaining stuff in the apartment, I saw how much was never touched. Once I have the mental energy, I'm determined to set up a regular system of decluttering. My mother is a wonderful person and I love her, but just sorting her belongings prior to moving to storage has been unbelievably taxing. (Post-pandemic I'll have my brothers' help, and we'll divide up what we want and get rid of the rest.) I'll get a third albeit smaller round of going through her things and figuring out what to do with them when she ultimately dies. So I don't want to make anyone deal with an enormous amount of my stuff when the time comes, including books.
I know exactly what you mean, Ruth. We had a huge task after my parents died, both in the same year. It took four skips and countless trips to the charity shop. I vowed not to do the same to my children. Dad’s books were a specific bequest.
We got rid of a lot, including books, when we moved from a 5 bedroomed house to 3 bed, but the loft and the garage are full, and DH’s stuff spills out of his study. Mine is minute in comparison, and will be thrown out by my children.
It’s over 23 years since my mother died and I’m still trying to declutter her stuff - I don’t have the oomph to take things of questionable value to auction houses where (based on previous attempts) they’ll probably say it’s not what she thought it was so when I have the courage to take it to a charity shop someone might get a “find”. It’s the family treasures that are tricky, when the next generation are on the other side of the world an not interested.
There’s no-one to distribute my stuff when the time comes, so I’m trying to gradually let go of my more precious things when the right opportunity arises.
You all have my sympathy. My late husband brought boxfuls of things from his father's house and more from his his grandfather's house. To the best of my knowledge, he never opened them. I have had to deal with them, alongside the boxes of his own books he brought from our last house and never opened. Books might not be clutter - but they certainly feel like it when they are unused and kept in boxes.
I wish I had the energy left to finish his garage and the things that came down from the loft. Then I might be able to sort my own stuff and undertake the downsizing move I am more than ready for.
Me too, or three, or four. My mother never saw a shoebox she didn't stuff with stuff, often quite random mixtures of stuff, and stuff into a cupboard. In consequence I now shy violently away from any shoebox unless firmly labelled Ribbons, or the like.
And after emptying 5 wardrobes full of clothes, plus assorted shelving, I now look at all my clothes (neatly folded or on hangers) and reflect that when the time comes Miss S will just be able to whisk it all off to a charity shop.
@Puzzler when we finally cleared the Dowager's house it took three skips, gradually increasing in size, numberless trips to charity shops - and the house clearance people took a full day to empty what was left!
I suppose some "stuff" can be comforting; things that have always been in your life, things that you keep in case one day you might need them, just things that you like.
I'd like to think that I strike a reasonable balance between having the possessions I need or want and being uncluttered; having limited storage space helps, as I feel I have to justify the space that things take up
It was sorting through my Papa's belongings (hoard might be more appropriate) that honed my tidy/de-clutter habits. Uncashed cheques, unopened letters, sermons, endless books (5 copies of War and Peace anyone?), 12 still wrapped clerical shirts, worn-out cassocks - a nightmare. My siblings all declared it to be my problem which was kind of them. I rented a storage unit so I could go through it all, bribed the twins to help, and set a 3 month limit on getting it all done.
Result: we are all fanatically tidy. The bonus was finding a couple of shoeboxes full of jade, origin unknown, which sold for a tidy sum and, since the siblings had declared it all mine, I used to give the boys a nest-egg 🙂
We had a second forced declutter this year in October after leaving the windows slightly open* to air the flat when we went for a walk and came back to find it filled with cannabis fumes. It feels like we've tracked down the bits that smelled but I lost 13/30 garments I'd made myself, irritatingly as I really liked quite a few of them. Others were a bit experimental and I wasn't that sad to lose them.
* there's a setting on windows that allows them to be locked shut just cracked open.
I am now at the stage that I am thinking, Where will you be putting that when you move. I have some interesting old glass bottles. They sit on the windowsill in my bathroom. One is labeled as a cure for everything from train sickness, to low libido. No window sill in my new bathroom so I am keeping that one favorite bottle and the rest are going to local antique dealer. All the charity shops are closed to taking donations until the middle of January. I hope I do not have to chuck good clothing.
I read an interesting article recently by a child of immigrants, saying that because they had lost almost everything when they were refugees, they now hung onto everything else. The Marie Kondo philosophy of "less is better" was not for them. I think many of the generation who went through war and rationing have a similar mindset.
I, on the other hand, feel horribly cluttered with all the new Christmas stuff. On the plus side, that feeling pushed me to tidy up 2 cupboards and chuck out some stuff which hasn't been touched for over a year.
Comments
🕯 for you
A few minutes a day, one table or shelf at a time and you will get there.
Helpfully that foul mood is Ideal for decluttering!
Mr Alba is finding my desire to watch our Westminster leaders bewildering and so has escaped upstairs.
But the recycling bin is filling nicely.......
My goals are a clean kitchen bench and floor before Christmas day. I refuse to beat myself up about it, but I will celebrate when I achieve it (thinking positively here).
My decluttering of fabric stash by making a quilt with it is on hold until new kitty can cope with the noise of the sewing machine (I can no longer sew by hand).
It really is!
Each little area is an achievement. It’s easier to keep places clear than to clear them up.
Well done - onwards and upwards! 👏🏼
I still have some drawers and cupboards to go at - but we are getting there slowly (it’s taken two years so far!)
Three boxes of kitchen stuff going to the thrift shop in a couple of hours. And that's just a start! (Most of my meals will be provided, so there's no need for a lot of things.)
Mercifully I have a decluttering list, so today felt half way sensible enough to try something as an alternative to sleeping.
One huge bag of papers has been sorted into recycling or to be kept in a file. But in between two very random pieces of paper .....& almost thrown out.....I Found My Birth Certificate !
It had been lost for about two years.
Then I decluttered some jewellery, and wrapped it to give to my granddaughter for her birthday next month. I wrote a letter telling her under what circumstances I was given the pieces( a necklace for being a bridesmaid and a bracelet when I left a certain voluntary job).
The upshot was that several things got left behind that I either have had to, or will have to replace, as they're not as dispensable as I might have thought. Small things like an apple slicer; a colander and sieves; skewers for baking potatoes; corn-cob prongs ...
Thanks, Piglet. I'm getting rid of things I haven't used in a loooong time. I'm taking my time doing it, since I have several months. Anything iffy will not be donated at this point. I can do that once I've settled in. I will have plenty of kitchen cupboards and drawers.
But, best of all, once I move they'll be providing most of my meals.
There is another clothes cupboard to be de cluttered.
Today I think
Clothes: gone through and "tired" socks and underwear bagged for recycling. The lodger has had his pick of those garments I don't think I'll wear again, the rest have gone to the Clothes Bank.
The linen was sorted through earlier in the year so no throw-outs, just a few things to be fixed.
I've a pile of mending for the next week to keep me busy: the lodger is going to be taught how to sew on buttons and do simple darning/pulling through stray threads 😀
Tomorrow I'll tackle the books ... 😯
Is this even a thing?
Truly?
I “decluttered” some books a few years back and felt dreadful afterwards. Sincerely wishing that I had not......
We got new shelving/storage units which actually match and got rid of 75% of the old items.
This morning I dragged the remaining chest of drawers down to the garden and ascertained that, as I thought, that the drawers can be recycled as shelving in the shed. I then set about the frame with a hatchet and reduced it to fire bowl fodder.
But old “blue books” i.e. books of reports from past General Assemblies of the CofS and old year books are definitely clutter and are going t9 be gradually introduced to the recycling bin. The novels stay.
@Firenze - <notworthy>
I thought of you @Piglet as I was pondering if now is the time to declutter back copies of Church Music Quarterly and Sunday By Sunday (this year's copies look sadly pristine) as I've been doing a "Hymns we would have sung" feature on the weekly newsletter and used previous choices based on the last time we had those readings. So, it's just been a case of going to the Complete Hymn List document and looking them up.
I've not ever had many piano students, not since I stopped teaching piano/clarinet self-employed full time in the 1980s, but as there currently are only 2 of them, both under 14. and both working towards grade exams we've deemed it a mixture of childcare and formal education - both of which are allowed. And true. For the last couple of years, the lessons have on the one evening a week that childcare is hard, so one parent drops them off on the way to an early start night shift, and the other often not yet home (both work in the NHS) - so I had regularly kept them with me until the collecting parent could get here, and they do homework whilst they wait! They are the only two people who have been in my house, other than the person who services the boiler and does the gas checks, since March.
I decluttered a massive amount of books a few years ago - 2 sets of utility shelving with 7 shelves each, all packed full - and haven't missed anything. I got rid of almost as much when I moved a few months ago, and again have no regrets. I kept only books with a lot of personal meaning to me and books I haven't read yet.
I helped my mother downsize from a five-bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment 7 years ago, which was quite a task for the two of us, and now she's moved into a single room in a memory care unit. Sorting through her remaining stuff in the apartment, I saw how much was never touched. Once I have the mental energy, I'm determined to set up a regular system of decluttering. My mother is a wonderful person and I love her, but just sorting her belongings prior to moving to storage has been unbelievably taxing. (Post-pandemic I'll have my brothers' help, and we'll divide up what we want and get rid of the rest.) I'll get a third albeit smaller round of going through her things and figuring out what to do with them when she ultimately dies. So I don't want to make anyone deal with an enormous amount of my stuff when the time comes, including books.
YMMV, of course.
We got rid of a lot, including books, when we moved from a 5 bedroomed house to 3 bed, but the loft and the garage are full, and DH’s stuff spills out of his study. Mine is minute in comparison, and will be thrown out by my children.
There’s no-one to distribute my stuff when the time comes, so I’m trying to gradually let go of my more precious things when the right opportunity arises.
I wish I had the energy left to finish his garage and the things that came down from the loft. Then I might be able to sort my own stuff and undertake the downsizing move I am more than ready for.
And after emptying 5 wardrobes full of clothes, plus assorted shelving, I now look at all my clothes (neatly folded or on hangers) and reflect that when the time comes Miss S will just be able to whisk it all off to a charity shop.
@Puzzler when we finally cleared the Dowager's house it took three skips, gradually increasing in size, numberless trips to charity shops - and the house clearance people took a full day to empty what was left!
I'd like to think that I strike a reasonable balance between having the possessions I need or want and being uncluttered; having limited storage space helps, as I feel I have to justify the space that things take up
Result: we are all fanatically tidy. The bonus was finding a couple of shoeboxes full of jade, origin unknown, which sold for a tidy sum and, since the siblings had declared it all mine, I used to give the boys a nest-egg 🙂
* there's a setting on windows that allows them to be locked shut just cracked open.
I, on the other hand, feel horribly cluttered with all the new Christmas stuff. On the plus side, that feeling pushed me to tidy up 2 cupboards and chuck out some stuff which hasn't been touched for over a year.