Seasonal decorations

[fred_mouse]

6th January is our traditional date for packing up the seasonal decorations. This year, I sorted through the boxes of items that hadn't been put out, and made the kids comment on the value of keeping them.

• The stash of pine cones went - this hasn't been used except when I've been in charge of putting out decorations. That was half a (medium sized) box worth of space!
• almost all of the 'artwork' that came home from school/kindy/daycare/etc went in the bin. I kept a few that had photos on, but there was a lot of plastic tat
• several items in poor condition with no sentimental value* went.

Now, all of the decorations fit into two boxes! Mostly what went on display were the items I've been buying each year at the Oxfam shop (pretty, and they usually have items that can be identified as Solstice, rather than specifically for religious ceremonies). Many that didn't go on display came from my childhood, and while tatty, you can't get decorations like that any more. My guess is that when the kids leave home, we'll do a split of the decorations, and then I'll have to decide whether I want to keep those for the nostalgia, or whether they are too tatty, and throw them out.  

[there has also been quite a lot of movement of Stuff! from other parts of the house. The 16 yo and the 12 yo have both managed to come up with a washing basket full of unloved toys and bits; the 16 yo has also managed about the same volume of outgrown clothes. The front hall now has a teetering mound of Stuff! to go elsewhere, although I've had some luck with passing it on to visiting friends]

* there are a number of quite tatty ones I can't bring myself to throw out -- these are the type that were thread wrapped around a ball, and they went fuzzy quite easily. I also can't bring myself to throw out the tinsel, even though I hate it and it mostly doesn't get put out. That is for No Good Reason at All. Maybe next year. 

Turbo decluttering for January

[fred_mouse]

I'm noticing a small trend, which is that January is the time of year where I actually have the time, energy, and motivation to declutter. As such, I've spent quite a lot of time on it today, although I'm not convinced that I've made much of a dent. As I mentioned briefly in the last post, kids have been identifying things that they don't want. I've sorted through ~1/2 of it, throwing a significant amount out, boxing up a significant amount to take to the op-shop, and putting a small amount aside for reasons not yet articulated, including but not limited to 'is this the last one of these, or should I find the rest so that they all go together'. Monday I should make it to the op shop, and the teetering mound of 'to be donated' should be about halved. 

I've also been in the study, and sorted a few things. I've flagged a set of items (unused baking equipment, carry bags, craft materials) that the family might be persuaded to let go of, and I've also chucked a set of craft magazines that were gifted to me, but aren't my kind of thing (I did keep one - it has an actually useful quilting pattern in it). 

And now I'm sitting in the games room, looking at the big bookshelf, and wondering about the sanity of taking all the books off one shelf, and only putting back those that make me want to sit and read them *now*.