Weekend uncluttering

[fred_mouse]

What have you found to unclutter this weekend?

I have rearranged my clothing in the tallboy, and taken the opportunity to throw out a number of items. Most are going to the op-shop, but I have started cutting one pair of black leggings where the elastic is all failing into useful fabric strips (possibly for crochet, possibly for tying stakes in the garden). Several pairs of dilapidated underwear have been thrown out and replaced with nice new underwear with no holes!

The stack of throw out items in the hall is getting rather feral. I need to work out where/when I can take things *somewhere*. And I need to advertise dance items, given it is the beginning of the year. I did manage to sell one skirt though, so I'm pleased with that (accidentally. It had been there so long I had forgotten about it, and the advertised price had rubbed off the plastic bag!)

Comments

[kalloway]

There's quite a bit of stuff in the hallway to go, mostly leftover from extensive utility room cleaning. One box of craft stuff for a coworker, a few things I brought home from work to tinker with and can go back as I'm never actually going to tinker with them, and some other random things to donate.

Utility room is a mess, but it's... a mess made of a lot less stuff. I've got another box of craft stuff started for coworker and I'm doing a lot of good sorting. Put at least one shoebox of containers in recycling, and realized I don't have one shoebox of greeting cards but two. I either need to start writing notes to everyone or just remember that I Never Need To Buy Cards Again.

Actually, I've removed one copy-paper box and a larger plastic tote entirely! (I know I'd wanted a plastic tote for something, but now I can't remember what. Bedding, maybe? Something for when I fix the bedroom closet?)

I also sorted thru some notebooks the other night, tore out pages with fic scraps and put them in my binder, then put the notebooks away. Eventually, it won't be 'I wrote some of that, it's in a notebook' but instead all in one place.

It's been a very good weekend.

[peaceful_sands]

Well done - you've been really productive!

[kalloway]

Writing it all down, it really was a lot. I was feeling like I didn't get much done because the utility room is still really messy. Hopefully I can keep working on it during the week.

Thank you~

[fred_mouse]

I sympathise on the not feeling like much has been done because of how much further there is to go. It is so easy to focus on the 'to do' not the 'ta da', isn't it.

[peaceful_sands]

Sounds like you're getting on really well.

I've added things to the two 'boxes to go' - one is for a friend who works in a school, the other is for 'donation'. Another couple of DVDs, books, a jigsaw and a pair of shoes that I can't wear (they look great but are seriously uncomfortable - very strangely shaped arch that means I can't walk anywhere in them). Today a visitor had a rummage through the box and took several DVDs and a book. I've been trying to keep better track of what's in the fridge and find uses for it before it hits the best before date - resulting in the freezer being full of soup at the moment! (Does the fridge count as decluttering?)

[kalloway]

I think the fridge totally counts as decluttering. I've been trying to do better with mine as well~ That meant eating a lot of chocolate I'd tucked away 'for something special'. Having a tidy fridge = definitely special.

[alexseanchai]

I got my laundry folded and away. For the first time in months.

There are three loads of my laundry waiting to be done.

My dresser is overflowing.

Clearly it is wardrobe cull time!

[fred_mouse]

I sympathise on the overflowing dresser, but congratulations on getting all the laundry folded and away! May the culling of the wardrobe go smoothly.

[alexseanchai]

I now have two loads of laundry done and one in the washer and a fourth waiting.

/o\

[fred_mouse]

That sounds like my weekend just gone. I still haven't done the towels, because there wasn't line space, and with Eldest starting their uni transition course, there isn't anyone home during the day to bring everything in.

[vae]

I've been through the mug collection and identified five to get rid of, now just to decide how to do that! There's a table lamp that needs to go on Freecycle, too.

[fred_mouse]

Well done on spotting that many mugs! Good luck with getting them and the lamp out the door.

[yukonsally]

It was a good weekend! I put 3 things in the donation bin, and actually donated the bin!

I sent 15 things to friends! Ten of those are reusable shopping bags, of which i must have 50. Thankfully friends said they could use some. I have something offered in fb now, though I doubt anyone will take it.

We SOLD two things. Yay!

I put two things in the handmedown box.

I was planning on just cutting up a big box in the garage for recycling, but due to an unexpected broken glass lawn decoration, I had to clean up a few more things there and added some things to the trash. Earlier in the day I had visited an estate sale and found two lawn decorations so it's not a total loss, but I really liked the glass one. Oh well.

[fred_mouse]

So much progress! Very impressive.

Sorry to hear about the lawn decoration though.

[redsixwing]

Well done you! New underwear is underappreciated as a luxury.

Star and I started going through the craft supplies. At least some fabric remnants and costuming bits and bobs are headed out! It looked like we'd made no progress until we moved the 'keep' boxes back into the storage area. Even if they're in a messy stack right now, we can see how much we have left to go, and it's encouraging to watch the to-do piles dwindle.

I found new bookshelves to lust after, which is good because books in boxes == sad. Now to save up for them.

I found a couple of small repairs I could do quickly and did them. That's not uncluttering, but it makes me like my home better.

[fred_mouse]

New underwear is definitely one of the good things in life.

And I think that repairing things is uncluttering -- it moves things back in to circulation, so you can see whether you need them (or something that replaced them) in your life.

Congratulations on getting some of the fabric remnants out of the house. I have to do the same, and I'm just not happy about the idea. But I want to get my craft down to one specific set of shelves, so it has to be done.

[redsixwing]

Thanks. ^^

I think you're right about repairs - I've been trying to do a bunch of little projects as part of the uncluttering, five- and ten-minute tasks that somehow got away for maybe months or even years. It's been an interesting twist.

Good luck with your craft shelves, too. It's not easy to end a project, but sometimes it has to happen.

[fred_mouse]

The getting those little tasks done is surprisingly effective. I went through and itemised my repairs, and for the following bit of time, would go in to the sewing space and pick the next thing on the list. And then I had to buy a thing, and it fell in a heap. But for that period of time, I could see the change happening really obviously.

The craft shelves isn't so much about ending projects as never having started some. There are fabrics I've inherited from family members, and they are lovely, but I don't know what to do with them. And a collection of tulle that I've been picking up from remnants baskets for so long, but haven't used them (there were ideas, but few of them have ended up happening). And so much yarn (family members and older friends clearing out many years worth of stash). And if I had time, energy, and opportunity to craft, I'd be getting through it all, and it is so frustrating.