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weekend check-in
Hello! Today is another weekend where I'm trying to work on decluttering. My theme this weekend is "getting things to leave the house", and I seem to have discovered a side-theme of "timewarp".
First: five bags of my mother's things that I sorted out for giveaway last August and left in the garage awaiting carriage to the nearby charity shop. This morning I finally labelled them, realised I couldn't carry all the bags on foot at once, and loaded them into the cargo bike instead. I got in before the rush at the charity shop, so they are all GONE. That's a huge relief.
Also with them: a bag of books that have been waiting on my "goodbye reads" shelves for probably nine years to reread and decide if I want to keep them or not. Turned out, the answer was "not".
Finally: a cardboard box which I helpfully labelled "FREE: PLEASE TAKE". I think I last put it out when we were last in lockdown, so uh, about two years. It was surprisingly full of things I had forgotten about! (But definitely don't want to keep.) I added a few things that have failed to garner any interest on freecycle in the last few days, and have put it in the usual place at the end of the road. (My house is too tucked away to get passing foot traffic, but the entrance to the road we're on gets a lot, and there's a little spot where I can leave the box without blocking anyone.) Hopefully it will be emptier when I pick it up again this evening.
How are you all getting on? Share your success, failures, aims in the comments.
ugh, emotions
So having taken those bags of my mother's things to the charity shop, the four large plastic crates that still need sorting are looming both emotionally and physically. I'm going to try tackling them, while it isn't too cold and isn't raining, and I can sit outside and not bring anything inside that I don't actually want to keep. Maybe 15 minutes at a time. Hmm, if I do 3 rounds of 15, that'll take me to when I need to leave for my gym class today. Ok, let's GO.
Re: ugh, emotions
Right well the first box took less than 15 minutes to empty and was pleasantly lacking in emotional devastation. The second box is mostly paper, ranging from "easy to bin" to "I'm going to cry now", and just needing a lot more attention per unit volume. I got half way through it before it was time to go to the gym (writing this from there shortly before my class starts).
Currently planning to do at least another 3x 15min "hour of power" when I get home again, and see how far that gets me, and how I feel afterwards.
Re: ugh, emotions
Came up with an even better plan: Eurovision semi-finals on the tablet out in the garage with me. HERE WE GO.
Re: ugh, emotions
Semifinal 1 got me through to the end of the second box, and nearly all the way through the third.
Semi final 2 has got me to the end of the third box and I'm currently taking a breather and contemplating the fourth and last box while watching Romania and Estonia. It will be awesome to have emptied the last box, but I am pretty tired now. Maybe a snack first.
Re: ugh, emotions
I've always found playing not-too-demanding TV (or listening to a podcast) is a good way to make going through boxes of stuff easier, so it's great you found something fun to use.
This weekend, my focus has been on digital decluttering, working my way through clearing out a couple of inboxes. Not quite done, but feeling less overwhelmed by what's left.
Re: ugh, emotions
Yeah I took the path of self-care yesterday and had a nap and then watched Eurovision rather than tackle the last box.
I got through the last box in a couple of rounds today, this time watching Smallville episodes on the tablet (my brother's doing a watch-through and I thought it'd be a great idea to join in but have some catching up to do). 3.5 episodes to get through it all. Well, that was the first-pass sort, but it is DONE and a lot of the contents are in the bin or paper recycling, and there's one much smaller box to re-sort, which I brought indoors, and a bag of things to give away, which I left outside. Oh and two bags from yesterday: one for the charity shop, and one for the nearest Little Free Library.
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(Also need to post these billy bookshelves to a Buy Nothing Group, which honestly, I'm dreading hard. Every single time I do this, I end up getting a bunch of no-shows. It really kills my drive.)
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I am no interior designer, and my go-to is the IKEA catalogue (we have a LOT of IVAR wooden shelving in this house). Would the KALLAX white cubes be along the lines of what you are after?
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