Weekend Uncluttering

[fred_mouse]

How goes your weekend? Are the unloved items sneaking out of the wood-work, or are they perfecting their camouflage?

I'm back in the salt minesspare room, sorting paper again, although I've done a few other bits and pieces of sorting as well. I found yet more kid sized coat hangers (I swear, they are spawning under the kids' beds); made the kids look through a basket of bits and pieces that were pulled off the shelves for being inconveniently located (they kept one pack of cards and the twister game, which means about a dozen items of assorted sizes will go, including a kids microscope and a game of Buckaroo); moved the contents of shelving around in the games room/library, resulting in about 20 books that I want to get rid of (one vetoed so far) and four damaged items thrown out.

I've also moved several items out to the car to be dropped at the op-shop in the morning. I'm hoping that they open at 9am, because the current plan says groceries (which are on that street), op-shop, shopping for bulk staples, and if the middle part doesn't work, the car will be too full for the last part (plan: one carton each breakfast cereal, soy milk; at least two 2L tubs of peanut butter, and multiple 2-3kg jars of assorted pickles).

And I've made a promise to myself that when one particular artistically minded family member passes on (possibly within the next decade), the kids and I will do a thorough inventory of all the things that that person has given us, and work out which ones we actually love, and rehome the rest (so many items on the display shelf - I really had forgotten how many dust collecting knickknacks are attributable to this one person). Rehoming them now would be an unkindness, but oh, I hate dusting them.

Comments

[glinda]

I've had a decent weekend for the decluttering. My blender has been on its last legs for a while now, and I got a new one the other month for my birthday. Which finally motivated me to find where the recycling centre is so that I could take it there. (Electronics can't go in the recycling bin.) And since I was going there I had a clear out of the wardrobe and found a bag of clothes that needed taking for recycling (jeans that were burst at the seams, shoes that had been worn to death and other stuff that wasn't suitable for donation) and cleared out some other items that ought to go too (socks with holes, a scarf that got caught in a zip and tore in an unrepairable manner).

So now I have space to store my new blender and the bag of old jeans and shoes no longer taunts me (or occassionally attacks me) every time I open that part of the wardrobe. Also I got a good walk - four mile round-trip in a lovely Autumn morning - taking my two bags of junk to the centre.

[peaceful_sands]

Wow! Well Done!

[fred_mouse]

Many wins! I hope the new blender is a source of much joy and simplified cooking.

[peaceful_sands]

Well done on your progress and fingers crossed for delivery details.

I have continued to add dvds and books to bags and managed to sit with someone and go through two of the bags of which they then took one with them. I then repacked a number of books etc more efficiently resulting in two boxes and two bags stacked in the hallway to be taken to a charity shop, a printer that no longer works to go to the recycling centre and I've started a new bag to collect items to go in in the area where I am finding stuff (once it's full I'll take it down to join the rest, so far it had two dvds in it). I also have another bag and box for donation in the bedroom to which I am continuing to slowly add things but it's a slow process.

I have also come to a decision that the exercise bike which I acquired about 12 years ago from someone else is going to go. I tried moving it to a more prominent place to encourage myself to use it but it isn't working (each time I do try and exercise I drag it out of the way and use a video or the stability ball instead) and so I've made an initial approach to someone else to help me move it at some point (I can't manage it down two flights of narrow stairs on my own as it's too heavy and awkward, but the decision has been made and it will be going). Appropriate action to follow!

[fred_mouse]

The op-shop was indeed open, so I have passed on the many items, at the cost of one book (italian novel, to practice my reading on) and one audiobook.

Glad to hear that some of the DVDs that you have identified to go have gone to a good home, and well done on the decision about the exercise bike. I hope you find a new home for it easily.

[yukonsally]

The consignment store bought all but 1 thing, so it's added to the donation bag that I hope to drop off today. I have a thing for sell that several people are interested in, hope to have that settled in the next few days--I wanted to have a shop sell it for me on ebay for commission but their hours are horrible, so I'll have a go at it myself.

I'm off to a consignment sale today with the firm goal of bringing nothing extraneous home. Just a few things per kid, clothing-wise, and a quick glance at the books for a series I collect, but no other books. We have plenty and we have a great library.

[fred_mouse]

That's fabulous news about the consignment store! I hope the item for sale goes easily.

[rmc28]

I am turning our spare room into a child's bedroom and so much stuff has to be moved around! I am culling things as I move them. Moving things off the shelves for child's clothes, I filled a box with paper recycling, and a carrier bag with empty plastic bottles for recycling (why? Why were they just accumulated there instead of taken downstairs to be recycled?)

Moving clothes into the room, I filled a bag with torn or worn clothes for recycling, and a storage box with clothes to send on to smaller relatives later.

Also I found a cache of Christmas presents from last December, when I decided on Christmas Eve I'd bought really too many things for the children and hid a bunch that could wait another year. I wrapped and labelled about half of them and hope to finish the rest next week. I've identified somewhere I can put wrapped presents which is out of the way but not really hidden - but that's ok if they're wrapped! And hopefully being able to see the stash of wrapped gifts will stop me going so overboard this year.

[brigid]

Nice!

[fred_mouse]

Many wins! Wonderful that the motivation to get the space sorted is flowing on to sorting the Stuff! rather than causing you to just move it elsewhere (which is my go to sorting method).

[rmc28]

I find it's straightforward for me to sort out the obvious rubbish (like, ancient newspapers or magazines in which we have no interest, torn paper bags, etc) when moving things. Also things for which I have an obvious route out - to the charity shop 5 minutes walk away, or into the clothes-for-smaller-relatives box. It's the stuff that "needs a home" that lingers, or gets piled elsewhere to "sort out later".

(I was commenting to a friend that there is a stash of bags under a table in a room in my house which has been there over TWO YEARS. I was clearing a set of shelves in order to dismantle it in order to make room for a new sofa in our living room. The delivery guys rang to say they'd be there in 20 minutes as I was halfway through carefully removing and sorting things, and everything went into bags in a tearing hurry and I shoved them under the table in the next room. And there they've been for over TWO YEARS, waiting for me to "have time" to get back to them. The bags are biodegradeable plastic bags from the supermarket and I half-expect them to disintegrate when I touch them now.)

[fred_mouse]

I sympathise on the bags under the table. Some years ago, we cleared out space by putting things in the garage, with the plan on slowly sorting things so that everything got dealt with. Three years of not being able to put the car in the garage later, we had one dreadful session of attempting cleaning everything up and bringing it in (where I asked partner to not obsess about dealing with every item, so that we could get everything into the cool of the house, rather than the 40degC outside, and they only managed to do that for half an hour), and then six months after that I moved things in on my own. Those piles are still in the games room, but every now and then I deal with one or two items.

[brigid]

I packed up & moved out several trash bags worth of items including toddler-appropriate board games and tub toys my 8yo hasn't played with in years. Next week he and I are going to winnow out his book case and pack up books he's outgrown. I've already donated several grocery sacks worth without him knowing. Once the current ones are packed up I'm going to sort them into toss/donate and keep. I was really happy to be able to share books from my childhood with him... few were left because my parents' basement flooded with sewage several times. I'm hoping if he has kids he'll have that same thrill of sharing his (and my!) books with his kids. I'm going to pretend that's not a form of hoarding. Shhh.

[fred_mouse]

Keeping the good books is not a form of hoarding, it is saving the important things for the next generation. I have heard too many stories of people being unable to replace a beloved book when a youngling comes into their lives to think otherwise.

On the other hand, good on you for getting rid of the extras! I get my kids to go through our picture/small kid books on a semi-regular interval, and we still have many shelves worth.

[finch]

I weeded through a lot of the kid's clothes since it's properly autumn now, and the stuff she didn't wear much or will definitely be too small next summer is packed up for a clothing-and-toy swap next week. My spouse and I reorganized our closet and went through our clothes as well and I've got two bags to see if anybody in my buynothing group wants, otherwise they'll go to a thrift next weekend.

I need to rotate Kid's toys and it's really time to cull the board books... I'm hoping to get that done before the swap as well.

[fred_mouse]

That is a remarkable amount of work, going through that much clothing. Well done.

[redsixwing]

Wow, well done you!

We bought three bins and filled them with sorted items - two bins for the yard sale, one for a special event this winter that will have an opportunity to sell some rather niche items. (It's an anime con; it has a 'fandom garage sale' that generally becomes a massive nerd-themed swap meet. Some items that won't sell in our yard sale will be hot commodities there.)

A book pile that I'd thought was dealt with is evidently Not Dealt With. Now I need to figure out how to deal with the books. /o\

On the up side, I found several items I'd been wanting to read, but couldn't find. They were just on the wrong shelf, so I now have a hefty reading list.

[fred_mouse]

Thanks! And well done you on the sorting items-to-go into boxes, from which hopefully they will not spill and be hidden with items-to-stay. I, too, put specific items aside for the local (SFF) con, where people find things that they love that the rest of the world Does Not Understand.

And yay for finding books you were looking for! I managed a few of those this pass around the bookshelves (I now know where *all* of the JK Rowling books are, for instance).

[redsixwing]

Hopefully not!

And yay for finding books! I should build a list of things I want to buy on Kindle...

[fred_mouse]

\o/