Here you can discuss all things to do with decluttering your home!
What is your next or current decluttering mission? What tips do you have to make decluttering less stressful?
Lets get our homes organised!
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Here you can discuss all things to do with decluttering your home!
What is your next or current decluttering mission? What tips do you have to make decluttering less stressful?
Lets get our homes organised!
Ebay is a great place to get rid of the "cr@p" when I decluttered our space in the roof alot of it went to ebay and 90% of it sold.
Every once in a while we also get in a small miniskip to clear the sheds, cause we declutter the house and put it in the shed LOL.
Love
My demon is the kids "stuff"........all of their birthday cards, their little certificates from school, the bits and bobs that I can't part with.
I currently have little piles of such precious tat aroud the house.
I do have a plastic crate for each of then, but stuff never makes it that far........
Some of it I want to keep out ready to scrapbook, but it just lurks, making me feel guilty!
Oh Lucy I have a great resource for that........ MUM !!! She has 2 spare rooms so I brought 3 large crates on wheels and when the kids make stuff, I keep the best of it and give it to her PMSL. The daggy stuff I ditch.
Love
Next decluttering mission = the whole house :lol:
I suppose the shed, it needs to be a lot more organised so we can put most of the spare room into it so we can renovate it into Maggie's room.
Just can't sell on ebay, I just need to get the stuff out when I have decided it has to go. If I hang onto it to sell it, it just gets in the way. So off to charity with it all!
Tip: use old green bags in boxes for storage. Great with loose things like cables, power boards etc. Helps keep different items separated, without losing storage space.
My SIL used to get into the habit of a major clean just before the pest guy was to come each year - yes she did this with 4 children + me (they're now DS 29, DD 27, DS 25, DD 23 + I'm 37). She doesn't do that now that the kids aren't at home - ok while her & my brother are in Europe visiting the DS 25 the 23, 25 (+husband) & 29 year old have moved back home.
We've just moved so I've taken it as time to go through things, I did do a "bad" and moved all the boxes that were from Mum's place when we sold it after she died to here unopened - I'm gradually getting ready to open them & sort through them.
I have saved all my decluttering targets for my upcoming mat leave - I figure they are all things I can do "sitting down" and will keep me from doing crazy things like trying to wash all the floors in the house in a single day. I plan to declutter:
my kitchen cupboards and excess bowls/cooking gear
the "junk" drawer
my wardrobe
the bathrooms (too many perfumes and creams I am keeping out of guilt but never use)
Flynn's clothing (too many hand-me-downs I am keeping out of guilt)
my craft boxes (too much material/scrapbooking stuff I am keeping out of guilt)
Funny how guilt figures so much in the things we choose to hoard LOL!!
My next job is the spare room which will become the new bubba's room. There's lots of just *stuff* in there, plus Zander's old clothes. Though I have gone through the sizes up to 0 & have packed a whole pile into a bag to go to the Salvos already.
Ok, tackling the shed today. OMG the amount of brewing stuff DH has, he really needs to sort through it, all I can do is consolidate it on one lot of shelves in the shed. Actually the shed would not be too bad if it was not for DH insisting that we hold on to the boxes for the TV etc "just in case" we move. I am sure if we do that removalists these days will have boxes to accomodate flat screen tv's. I have to drag them all out before I can even get to all the other stuff.
So now back to me trying to be ruthless :lol:
Astrid i so sympathise on the beer brewing and cardboard box hoarding - my DH used to be exactly the same!!!
Oh i REALLY need to wave a magic wand around here to get the house decluttered and organised!
Every now and then i get motivated and start throwing things out and organising cupboards and sorting paperwork into portafiles and im always stuffed by the end of it and think i'll do some more tomorrow, well tomorrow never comes and after a couple of weeks im back to square 1....
I really need an extra room on the house to put all the toys and stuff in and shut the door on it when we have visitors.
our lounge/dining is filled with toys, the kitchen is tiny and Archie constantly pulls everything out of the cupboards and onto the floor.
I reckon in another 12 months Archie wil be happy to go to his room to play during the day so i can get all his toys out of the lounge and keep them in his room (wishful thinking), i cant wait to turn the lounge dining room back into a sophisticated adult space!
Starting to feel motivated again.......lookout house!!!!!
Finding more and more brewing stuff - it is neverending :doh: Half of the stuff is coming back inside, I can't make a decision on it, so I have to wait till DH is back this weekend. Most of it is old computing crap (floppy disks, cover cd's from 10 years ago, odd cables). I would turf the lot, except DH would crack it.
Pity this type of thing cannot be done in 15 minute bursts, but it just takes 15 minutes to open the shed and get to the stuff. I am going to be exhausted by the end of the day.
OMG - were they twins separated at birth?? There are PCs hanging around downstairs that DH won't turf so he can use them to do something with his telescope (pointing it in the right direction automatically or something) and one of the drawers in Flynn's room (that could be used for his clothes grrr!) is full of old computer boards and bits!!:
Most of it is old computing crap (floppy disks, cover cd's from 10 years ago, odd cables). I would turf the lot, except DH would crack it.
Maybe, especially if he has old scuba diving gear that he refuses to part with, even though he has not been diving in 13 odd years and won't be in the forseable future.:
That is freaky - DH has scuba gear but its only been about 2 years since he dived!!!!
Very freaky! Well I made some headway in the shed, the amount of bottles for brewing is just plain ridiculous! Told DH of my progress as I thought he would be happy, but of course not, he wanted me to clear out the spare bedroom. Slight problem with that, unless more space is made in the shed, there is no where to put the stuff from the spare bedroom. My back is beginning to hurt now :(
Today I took 6 garbage bags of baby clothes and toys to the st vincent's bin!!!
It was kind of bitter-sweet because I was keeping them just in case I ever needed them again but that's not going to happen so I've got rid of them.
I did keep one shopping bag full of favourites for my grandchildren and also some of the clothes that were once my nephews to gift back to him when he starts afamily (including the outfit he wore home from hospital).
kitchen pantry done today - and OMG! the amount of space we've ended up with! i'm in such a great frame of mind about decluttering again now that i've seen some results - just have to get DH in the same frame of mind and we can start on the next room!
Not quite in the home but I have spent a better part of the weekend decluttering and cleaning the car, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders, It was getting a bit embarrassing. My car seems to be a magnet for dust, all things sticky, lost socks and hair dressing apparel.
WELL DONE!!!!
I desperately need to do my pantry, especially as I'm having a tupperware party soon and plan on doing my pantry over all anal style with modular mates so I need to know what I need and what I don't need.
I spent thurs and fri deculuttering bedroom, study, spare room and lounge! Gave a heap of things away to friends and brother and a heap to charity and a huge amount to tip!!!!
I so thouraghly cleaned that i was crawling around doing skirting boards!!!!!
Now just have to do laudrey cupboards and ktchen ones and all finished yeah!!!
That's EXACTLY what we've done today Cailin!!:
You're having a pantry makeover with tupperware? WOOT! I'll be jealous, you'll probably get yours before me, I'm having my party at the end of November LOL
already delivered and in place - and loving it!:
I did the "plastic pot cupboard of doom" today..........DH cracked teh ****s as he says he can never find anything, so I pulled EVERYTHING out, re-sorted the pantry as a result, found my Tupperware jug that I thought was lost.......so I am a happy bunny now........
Major Declutter going here as we are getting ready to get the house ready for sale and to finally move. Getting rid of stuff, but not quite as much I would like. We just have too much stuff!!
Woo Hoo for hard rubbish collections!!! Not only did I get rid of stuff inside the house that has been broken, not used or just plan annoying but we now have HEAPS of room again in the garage!
Hi all,
I am currently trting to de clutter my 9 yr old DD s bedroom. It is a constant mess and i am forever telling her to clean it, the thing is she just has too much stuff.
I have been in there all morning, I have gone through her walk in robe and taken out about 2 to 3 garbage bags full of clothes,
She only sees her Dad occasionaly, mainly once a fortnight if she is lucky and he always buys her bags and bags of junky little bits and pieces, I have asked him not to. I even suggested he save his money and buy her a big thing every now and then if he really feels he needs to.
Im sure he is trying to buy her affection.
In the meantime how do i de clutter her stuff
I have some pics of her room in my gallery under emmas mess
I had to laugh when I found this thread- at least I'm not the only one with a serious clutter problem and a badly hoarding magpie DH!! YAY!! I feel much better now...
Need to tackle the spare room, cupboard under the stairs, sort out all my clothes, the kitchen... ah the list goes on and on... don't even like to think about the double garage that we can't fit the cars in...
did anyone see Peter Walsh on oprah today? how inspirational!
Yep, I watched it! Luckily I decluttered while I was nesting last year LOL! The worst area was our double garage (just like LoriRae's ;)), I finally decluttered that a couple of months ago. Now I can fit my car in there, yay!!
Lol Trish I kind of miss those nesting urges... all that extra energy directed solely into cleaning...
i have 3 BOXES of stuff that needs to be taken to an op shop!
does anyone know how i go about it? do i just take it there? or should i ring them up and ask if they want the stuff??
Krystal Ball - It depends on what it is. A lot of op shops don't take electrical goods. They happily take clothing. It's probably worth ringing them first if you are unsure just to save you a trip out.
the Salvo's will often take electrical goods - not for their family stores, but more for their clients in crisis. we basically gutted our house of a lot of excess about 18 months ago - and because friends are involved in the salvo's, they bought a ute and trailer out (three times!) and took stuff away to store ready to use when they had someone in need of it. we had to get rid of heaps when we combined everything from two houses into one - and realised that it just wasn't going to fit!
BG - Really? My BIL used to be a truck driver for the Salvos for donation pick ups and they changed their policy while he was there, but maybe it varies from store to store? The op-shops I have spoken to won't take electrical in case the item is faulty and causes a fire. They can be held liable. It's such a shame in a way because there is probably some great electrical stuff that people don't need any more.
Yeah some op shops do take electrical stuff and they test it before it goes on sale.
(I'm an op shop junkie ;))
When I moved into my house, I had half a flat full of furniture that I tried to give to Vinnie's- and they told me they didn't want it. Apparentley, they run their op shops as a business now, using the profits to fund their other programs, they're not 'charity stores' anymore, so they will only take stuff that looks like it hasn't been used. And they are so expensive to buy from too!! When I moved out of home, we fitted out our lounge room for under $100. Can't even get a lounge there for that price now. Dh laughed and laughed at me- you know your furniture is in bad nick when even Vinnies doesn't want it!!
i dont think theres anythign electrical in the boxes, mostly clothes, some photo frames and some stuff from the kitchen.. :)
ill gove them a call tomorrow :)
How many pots of "elephant grey" Playdough does one family need??! SERIOUSLY, I sorted out all the Playdough today.......and binned all the grey, all the dried out crunchy bits, washed all the cutters & rolling pins and boards etc.......
The Playdough stash is a fave of my kids so I have to hide it on top of the freezer out in the laundry.....which is now beautifully clean and decluttered and makes me smile......LOL!