Unclutter 2014: days 11–20

[nou]

As previously noted, I'm doing Unclutter 2014, which involves getting rid of 1 thing per day in 2014, plus an extra thing for every thing that comes into the house. I thought I'd also keep track of where the things go (landfill, charity shop, recycling, etc). I'm planning to post once every ten days, giving a summary of how I'm doing.

Days 1-10: 32 out (6 landfill, 3 recycled, 19 charity shop, 2 gifts, 1 Freegle, 1 used up), 8 in, net total out: 24.

Day 11: 5 in, 12 out: A box of candles and 4 boxes of matches in. Outs were: 1 half-empty bottle of "friendly bacteria" tablets (old, not been kept in fridge as advised on label, no longer needed anyway - tablets in landfill, bottle in recycling, counting as 1 in recycling), 1 collection ticket (2 pieces of A4 paper, recycled) for a duvet I already collected months ago, 8 non-working disposable pens (landfill), 2 obsolete connectors (landfill).

Day 12: 3 out: bag of scrap material collected by a Freegler, old Clas Ohlson catalogue found in a drawer and recycled, old edition of What's Brewing ditto.

Day 13: 10 in, 2 out: Bought 10 wallet folders (needed for filing historical research), took a pair of baby slippers (wrong size) and a baby bib (wrong type) to the charity shop.

Days 14-17: Nothing in, nothing out.

Day 18: 5 out: a few stickers that have been hanging around for a while (stuck them to stuff), handful of dead hairbands (landfill), plastic bottle surplus to requirements (recycling), handful of no-longer-needed instruction leaflets found in kitchen drawer (recycling), plastic packaging with nothing inside, also found in kitchen drawer (landfill).

Day 19: 6 out: 5 items of jewellery and a 2014 calendar taken to the charity shop.

Day 20: Nothing in, nothing out.

• Total out so far: 60 (18 landfill, 9 recycled, 27 charity shop, 2 gifts, 2 Freegle, 2 used up)
• Total in so far: 23
• Net total out at day 20: 37

(Update, 31 Jan: corrected figures — I'd miscounted my "out"s and actually had one more than I thought, though my net total out was correct.)

Comments

[lydiabell]

Go, you! I did this for 2012 and it felt SO good!

[nou]

Thanks! It's such a simple idea but it works really well for me.

[peaceful_sands]

You're doing well *\0/* I shall wave my pompoms in celebration of your achievements.

[nou]

Thank you! The cheerleading does help, and reminds me to keep pushing :)

[moonreviews]

You're making progress :D

I'm mostly reading+getting rid of books at the moment. Found quite a few books in my bookcases that I'm not going to read again.

[nou]

I am! The hard part is going to come later in the year when my progress slows down because I've done the easy stuff.

Good for you for getting rid of books you won't read again. That can be hard!

[moonreviews]

Yes, books are the hardest for me - but my bookcases do become prettier without all the horizontal books :D I think I've done all the easy stuff last year...
And not having to fill as many boxes with books next time I'm moving is motivating too. I like (re)reading, so most of my books probably won't leave the house anytime soon, but to my surprise I've been able to fill a bag full already. At the end of the month I'm going to try and sell them at the secondhand-bookstore (they'll sell the books for more money to other people, of course, but it's a quick way to free up space in my own bookcases). It helped that I looked at my cooking books and got rid of "duplicates" (books about the same topic, but getting rid of the ones that aren't so good/I've never used).

[nou]

I'm hoping to never have to move house again, so I don't have that motivation! Good reminder re cookery books — I rarely use them, so should think about getting rid of some.