Posted                       

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Originally posted by Nenya:
... I got partway through my dressing table the other day and lost interest.

Nen - showing some symptoms of attention deficit disorder.

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Posted                         

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Originally posted by Huia:
I have just discovered that listening to a talking book while I clear the debris of my life keeps me on task.

It sounds so simple, but has made a huge difference to my life

And yes, I do know I lead a boring life.

Huia

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Posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by Smudgie:
Meanwhile I'm still in Christmas mode - one day to go

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Indeed. It all begins in earnest tomorrow.


Nen - ignoring the piles of paperwork and wondering how much of the unopened box of Quality Street can be consumed before the end of the day.

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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.

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Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Serious decluttering needed here. One barrier, if the whole place is a mess, where do you put stuff to sort? Where do you pile stuff to garage sale? That requires an non-cluttered space before you start!

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Sniff sniff sniff (Boogie the bloodhound) - do I detect and excuse here

Find some bits of floor to mark out as declutterig zones

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Garden. Room. Walk

Posted                      

quote:

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Originally posted by Boogie:

quote:

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Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Serious decluttering needed here. One barrier, if the whole place is a mess, where do you put stuff to sort? Where do you pile stuff to garage sale? That requires an non-cluttered space before you start!

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Sniff sniff sniff (Boogie the bloodhound) - do I detect and excuse here

Find some bits of floor to mark out as declutterig zones

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Start by throwing away everything that can be thrown away. You can take stuff to the recycling or charity shop if you can manage this, but you can also give yourself amnesty from this. The priority is to get stuff out of the house.

Don't overthink it, if it's hard to throw something leave it for now. Concentrate on clearing stuff out. That should clear some space.

Put stuff in the room it is supposed to live in. Then you will be able to see how much stuff there is for each room and it will be easier to sort.

Ask yourself if you are really going to make enough money from the garage sale to make the effort worthwhile? If not, get rid of the stuff as above. If the stuff is worth serious money a dealer will come and value it and take it away for you. Or place some individual small ads in the classified section of your local newspaper.

I have decluttered my shoes and cleaned out the bottom of the wardrobe. The survivors are packed in plastic boxes and shoe bags.

Embarrassing moment yesterday. I had stashed some boxes in the fitted wardrobe in the attic in an effort to make the room look more room like and less like a storage area for our prospective buyers.

The man opened the wardrobe doors and a large box fell out onto him.




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The Church in its own bubble has become, at best the guardian of the value system of the nation’s grandparents, and at worst a den of religious anoraks defined by defensiveness, esoteric logic and discrimination. Bishop of Buckingham's blog

Posted                       

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Originally posted by Thyme:

quote:

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Originally posted by Boogie:

quote:

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Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
if the whole place is a mess, where do you put stuff to sort? Where do you pile stuff to garage sale? That requires an non-cluttered space before you start!

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Sniff sniff sniff (Boogie the bloodhound) - do I detect and excuse here

Find some bits of floor to mark out as declutterig zones

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quote:

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Start by throwing away everything that can be thrown away. You can take stuff to the recycling or charity shop if you can manage this, but you can also give yourself amnesty from this. The priority is to get stuff out of the house.

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But I also need to face "my own clutter is bad." Always has been. I need some attitude adjustment towards insecurities and sentimental attachments and "might come in handy sometime" etc clutters. Decluttering my mind would have a side effect of less clutter in the house.

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:

My current dilemma is a huge dolls' house, the size of a chest of drawers, that I was 'lent' over 60 years ago. The idea was, it would be mine until the woman who owned it had children, which she never did, and now we have lost touch entirely. It has enormous sentimental value but nothing financially, and it is so big I can't imagine Miss S - assuming she has a daughter, please excuse gender-specificity - ever having room for it even if she wanted to.

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Would taking lots of photos of it and putting them in a lovely frame help? (And then the thought of a child somewhere - who did have the space - enjoying it?)



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Garden. Room. Walk

Posted                       

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Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
(Always easier to ditch someone else's stuff! We should trade houses and do it for each other.)

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:
And the other side of it, of course, is 'if you haven't used it in ten years what in the world makes you think you ever will?'. Its space is more valuable to you than its presence.

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Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:
NO!

Not never! Not no now!

I HATE other people messing with my books - it gets me really anxious! Herself moved a few today, or I thought she had, and I got all strange about it - then I saw they were still there and she was only dusting them - PHEW!

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Posted                      

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Originally posted by North East Quine:
And I've finally found the Important Piece of Paper!

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That's great news! The loss of Important Pieces of Paper can dominate your life, glad yours is found.

I've had to do a re-think about books; always they've been a non-negotiable with me. But when we were clearing my mum's house out in the autumn we just had to throw quite a lot away. It was absolutely heartbreaking but I had to be realistic about who was going to give them house room (me) and whether they were going to get read or just collect dust. In most cases the answer was the latter.

I will always have loads of books, and they collect wherever I am... bedside table, desk, workstations, bathrooms... but I really am committed to decluttering them this year.

Things that have sentimental value are always really hard. When we were clearing my mum's house I learned from my brother that there had once been a boxful of letters that my grandmother had written to my mum, but my dad had thrown them away years before. I never knew my grandmother and would love to have read some of her letters. Just the knowledge that there were some that are now lost to me makes me sad.

Nen - who wouldn't want anyone, even (or perhaps especially) Mr Nen, decluttering on her behalf.

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They told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn.

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Originally posted by The Intrepid Mrs S:
The trouble is that, in and of itself, it isn't well proportioned; only having four cube-shaped rooms means that it takes up a lot of space for its play value. But, I loved it so much - sixty years ago when I were a child, toys were a lot harder to come by and accordingly much more appreciated!

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Posted                       

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Originally posted by tessaB:
I recently de-cluttered three bookcases full (double and sometimes triple stacked.) I took the path of picking each one up and if I wanted to open and re-read it then and there it went back on the shelf. If I didn't, it went into a bag. About 400 books ended up in bags and went to the local dump where there is a book container which goes to the British Heart Foundation charity shops.
I now have three single stacked bookcases with room for a couple of ornaments and pictures. Very pleased with myself, now to tackle the rest of the house

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Applause!

When Master S moved out for good, he only took two carloads of Stuff with him, leaving a large-ish bedroom basically FULL. As the Intrepid Miss S wanted the room (a powerful incentive to her to help!) we took 3 months - I'm not kidding, THREE MONTHS - to empty it completely. Half the problem was that he had simply swamped our four bays of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, double and triple stacking them and laying books on the tops of others (a pet hate of mine as an ex-librarian!) so we had all our books hidden behind them.

I packed all the books, lecture notes etc up into crates and heaved them into the attic. Now 7 years later they have only just come down from and been sorted. Most of them went. But I think perhaps he *needed* that interregnum to come to terms with the fact of leaving home properly.

As to the dolls house - thanks for all the helpful suggestions. Day care centres tend to be in shared 'accommodation' and need to pack the toys away. But what I *could* do is put a photo on the noticeboard at the back of church where we can offer things for free (part of our green credentials!)

Mrs. S, very grateful for all your support!

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Don't get your knickers in a twist over your advancing age. It achieves nothing and makes you walk funny.
Prayer should be our first recourse, not our last resort
'Lord, please give us patience. NOW!'

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Originally posted by Polly Plummer:
Some friends of ours moved recently into a retirement complex where there is a communal library, which contains a wide range of books donated by the residents, on all sorts of topics. I wonder if it would be possible to create something like this... I wouldn't mind setting some of my books free if I were sure other people could enjoy reading them, but could read them myself when I wanted.

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Posted                       

quote:

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Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I am gradually reusing illustrations (and associated text) from fairly dilapidated childrens story books by turning them into birthday cards. It is tough because some of the books were my mother's but no-one else will be interested in them and it will help me declutter, even if very slowly. And hopefully they will give joy to the recipients.

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Posted                         

quote:

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Originally posted by Belle Ringer:

quote:

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Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I am gradually reusing illustrations (and associated text) from fairly dilapidated childrens story books by turning them into birthday cards. It is tough because some of the books were my mother's but no-one else will be interested in them and it will help me declutter, even if very slowly. And hopefully they will give joy to the recipients.

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I have seen people buy old books and tear them apart to sell as separate art objects the illustrations. You aren't the first!

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quote:

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In 2005, Schlie became somewhat of a controversial figure among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she announced plans to sell pages from the book for $2,500 to $4,000 apiece. She estimated she has sold 40 of the book's 588 pages, each mounted in a wooden frame.

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Posted                         

quote:

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Originally posted by Belle Ringer:

quote:

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Originally posted by daisydaisy:
I am gradually reusing illustrations (and associated text) from fairly dilapidated childrens story books by turning them into birthday cards. It is tough because some of the books were my mother's but no-one else will be interested in them and it will help me declutter, even if very slowly. And hopefully they will give joy to the recipients.

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I have seen people buy old books and tear them apart to sell as separate art objects the illustrations. You aren't the first!

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