uncluttering one day and one thing at a time

As part of my 'what else can I clear out' jag I'm on (goal: get it all done by November), it occurred to me that I've been putting shopping receipts ad similar in shoe boxes, and putting them in the roof space for over a decade. In which time, I have *never* pulled them out. Today, I pulled them all out, and various small boxes that won't be used for their original items even if we ever move again (eg. the ones the kettle, the skillet set, and a tea trio came in). 

About half the receipts have gone in the compost, layered with soil, and several buckets of water poured over them. The rest will go in through the week, as eldest adds a bit of soil each morning. And about two thirds of the boxes are in the recycling bin (flattened). The rest might go in for this pick up cycle, but we'll see the night before we put the bins out. The rest will go next week. 

I've also identified a handful of children's books (Bobbsey Twins, Trixie Belden) that I don't think any of my kids read, and I don't love enough to keep. Still to run those past the rest of the family though!

 Despite the fact that we have sequentially gone through their clothes in recent months (season by season), the kids have managed to find *more* outgrown clothes to rehome. At least we seem to be running out of winter clothes in this category.

And in the last week, I have continued the purge of paper. My 'really can't deal with that' pile is about 1.5cm thick, and I have filled our little bin (say, 10L) about five times. In addition, I found a box of old convention books, did the legal deposit thing (because there didn't appear to be copies in the state archive, even though I thought I had done this already), made sure the relevant community archive had copies, and ditched the rest. One box-o-stuff completely gone! And I have been completely ruthless with old newsletters and community magazines. If none of the family feature, and I can't find something else that makes me smile in nostalgia as I flick through, out it goes (the one thing that really made me nostalgic was a Student Guild Elections book which featured two people who later became Guild President, and one person how is a current federal politician. They were *so young*)

I'm still approximately managing rehoming one thing per day, although it is still more like 7 things on a weekend - this last weekend gone I took some small person items to a friend with a toddler and an infant; today I emptied a small box of rehomeables into an op-shop collection bin. 

In the last week, I've found two skirts (one outgrown childrens, one unloved adults), multiple too small coat hangers, jars (many). Tonight, I'm going through printed journal articles left behind when a co-worker went to more interesting pastures, determining whether full text pdfs are readily available through the work library, and then gleefully ditching them. I started with about half a ream of paper, I'm a bit over half way through, and I've only had to keep three!

Other items in my list of rehomed since Mar 7 - old mobile phone, 7 craft books, 2 dozen plastic container lids, more coathangers, 8 pieces of unloved clothing, 4 scarves/light shawls, cocktail glass, more paper, child's table and 2 chairs, 6 old phone books, and some more outgrown kids clothing. 

As a result, the music room floor is clear, the shelf I've been planning to use for display is clear (although there is a small pile of paper to still sort through, and some other items I've no idea how to rehome), and I have an 'empty' bookshelf ready to move to the study, just as soon as the study has space. Also, the front hall has been clear of Stuff! for about a month, and we are back to using it for forward planning.

And on the topic of knitting - I'm slowly working through the donated yarn, although a new donation means I'm above where I started at the beginning of the year. But I've been loaned a knitting machine, which I plan to use with scrag ends of yarn to make blankets for the Cat Haven, so I might actually get back one of my plastic tubs by the end of the year!