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1/6/11 Very dusty, slightly blunt & rickety, but
trusted kitchen foil/paper towel holder | | |
Oops - I meant to post this on June 8th to give you my first week's de-cluttering progress as promised
here. But as you know life gets in the way of blogging sometimes :P
Now with the start of any project you have a choice - begin with baby steps that build up to a grand finale - or - start with a big blitz & risk peaking too soon. I chose a baby step for Day 1 (as it was also a family celebration day and I had other things to do). I was saving our tried and trusted kitchen foil/paper towel dispenser just in case I couldn't get on with the new ones hidden inside cupboards in our new kitchen. I can, so it can go ... 18 months after it was "saved".
Normally I just shut the door and ignore the state of my kids' bedrooms, but as No.2 Son was about to return from Uni I decided to tackle his room before he could stop me! Envelopes (empty), Christmas cards, bank flyers, Easter egg boxes, pop bottles all went out without a second thought!
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2/6/11 Worst culprits = permanently bent flexible ruler, cracked & dusty plastic glasses,
crumbling headphones and sweets that expired in 2008! |
Unfortunately I couldn't de-clutter without doing a major clean so that took care of my afternoon - shame that his room has reverted to its former state of midden after a week of occupation!
The next day, I made a very small dent in some craft magazines, saving just a few articles for future reference.
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| 3/6/11 Another baby step - discarding some magazines from 2002! |
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"Rescued" from the attic. It may take
some time to go through them all! |
Day 4 was another baby step - chucking the pile of charity collection bags into the recycling - I know I should be filling them up with donations, but there will be more through the letter box in no time!
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| 4/6/11 |
Guilt began to set in after day 4 so I decided to tackle another decent project - the space above one of the cupboards in the dining room - a dumping ground for all sorts of things:
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| 5/6/11 Before & After |
I consolidated various tins of sewing notions, packaged up some fabrics and threw out broken glass ornaments, a "How to Tell the Time" poster, scraps of fabric, some old biscuit tins and most of the rucksack clips and elastic straps that I keep saving every time a bag wears out - "just in case" I ever need a rucksack clip or an elastic strap. I haven't ever needed one ... so I certainly don't need a dozen of them!
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| 5/6/11 Out, out, out!! |
That was another good hour's work - so I had a day off, but having read
Stacey's post about her medicine cabinet clear-out I went to tackle ours. I smugly thought there wouldn't be too much to chuck as I do remember clearing the cupboard out a year (or possibly two) ago ... whoops!
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| 7/6/11 - Medicine Cabinet clutter |
It would seem nobody bothers to remove empty packets of pills as there were a stack of those. There wasn't a date on the mosquito repellant, but as it is named from No.1 Son's days in the Boy Scouts I think it may well be a bit past it! I also didn't realise plasters had a use-by date (although the Jurassic Park themed ones were so old that they no longer had airtight packets - the glue having perished around a decade ago). No.3 Child looked at me with a withering expression and muttered something about silver and disinfectants and parents today! The worst offenders? These two from the beginning of 2003 - so maybe it has been a while since I cleared out that cupboard!
So there it is - my first week of de-cluttering - nothing remarkable, but a few baby steps in the right direction. Off to buy new plasters now!!!
12 comments:
I am very impressed with your start! doesn't it feel great? :)
Well done indeed Jemma. I better get on with mine too.
It takes up so much time doesn't it. Sometimes you start with a 'quick' task that last hours. Well done on starting.
Alright, that's it, there isn't anything else for it: I'm going to have to start decluttering here too! I think I probably need to pretend that we are moving house and can't take it all with us.
You are doing a fantatsic job!
well done! It was inspiring to see what Mel achieved and you are doing great too! I have done a few little things but not getting as much as you done!
looking good, making me feel very guilty !
Oh, good for you :) That's an excellent start - I'm suitably impressed xx
I've seen Mel's progress and I know I really should do this too. Keep on posting and you may be able to achieve what my Mother's nagging has failed to do.
I had to laugh at the bedroom cleaning. I did my daughters just before the holidays and her excuse of it being a hovel again was all the stuff she had to bring back from uni. I can't even get to the window to let some fresh air in because of dirty laundry etc etc etc
Wey-hey! Great start! Looking forward to seeing the next 'baby' steps: they look quite big ones to me!
Well Done! I am inspired to get cracking on my clutter!
So did you buy new dinosaur plasters? I put a pack of 'fancy' ones in my teenagers stockings a couple of years ago as joke pressies. But I was tickled pink when I gave one to a builder who proudly walked off announcing to the rest of the gang he had a dinosaur band-aid ;)
Congrats on your decluttering - did our first aid box when we did the bathroom this year. Amazing what you find at the back.
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