Fifty-Five Bags - Week 8

Another week of minimal de-cluttering for me ... and a photo fail with what little I did manage!

As part of the preparations for last weekend's Bloggers' Retreat (organised by Lizzie) I have been setting aside patterned papers, embellishments, mini-albums and stamps that I have no intention of using.  I stuffed a deep pizza box full with assorted papers as well as filling a bag with extras to give away or sell ... including two Clippy-Kit bags.  I had bought three at once to save on postage and have yet to finish decorating one!!!

The front pockets of the bag were completed late in 2006 I think, but the back of the bag still has nine empty pockets!  There's a matching 12x12 layout about my shopping addiction for my new (at that time) hobby.

Spiral, stamp, Corner, chipboard, Rub-on
Alcohol ink, Punch, patterned paper
Photo {Pete (Duel)}, Eyelet, embossing, Ribbon

That's a real working mini-pizza box in the centre ... and it opens up to reveal journalling and some miniature bills from my early purchases (sadly quite a few of those shops have now closed)!

I was not the only person to arrive at the Bloggers' Weekend with unwanted stash and, on the basis of one scrapper's tat being another scrapper's must-have, we enjoyed a good root through each other's cast-offs.

My thanks to Julie for these photos

There was still a fair bit of stash left afterwards (see the bottom right photo), but Sandie has connections with Brownies and took all the papers and stickers that nobody wanted ... so everyone managed a great deal of de-cluttering despite picking up the odd sheet or two of paper to bring back home again!

Fifty-five Bags - Week 7

Welcome back to a little more de-cluttering.  Alas, prompted not by renewed enthusiasm for my Fifty-Five Bags project, but by my inability to put the week's shopping away in the kitchen cupboards in a sensible manner - and, if I'm totally honest, by my inability to *delegate* the chore to No.2 Son and Child No.3 who are being encouraged to help out more while I earn more.
No matter - I knuckled down and cleared out several of the cupboards on my list of 55 locations and discovered all sorts of out-of-date horrors for the (bin) bags!

Eeek - coffee in an open bag from 2007 out of one cupboard and brown rice, lentils and quinoa from 2010 found in another!
  

I tried to emulate Sandra's thoroughness with recipes, but that will have to be a work in progress; meanwhile I was ruthless with cookie-cutters and lolly-makers!  The hall coat cupboard also got a thorough sort-out and we no longer own 5 plastic ponchos for theme-park water rides, a couple of out-grown coats, a bulb bought in a shop that closed 15 years ago and ten, yes TEN baseball caps!!!

Thank you for last week's support and encouragement while I had an "off" week - it is really good to hear about your efforts and it is keeping me accountable.  Ladykis reckons she is still not de-cluttering but we know better, poor Stacey is doing her best but as fast as she boxes up the rubbish, her hubby brings more home!  Lesley, however, wins the prize for the biggest single item of de-cluttering and maximum help from hubby: 

"... I'm decluttering! I've sorted the camper van which was being used as a garage so we can now use it and I've also persuaded DH to get rid of his much beloved motorbike which means I'll have half a garage with nothing in it :)"

I know from chatting with Lesley that the motorbike is already gone and that garage space has been freed up!  Well done you!!

Fifty-five Bags - Week 6

*sigh*
It had to happen :o(
A whole week with no de-cluttering.  Last week, I complained of a reduction in enthusiasm and wondered what the effect of a surge in work might have.  Hmmmmm working every day including 24 hours out of the last 53 really took its toll.  By the time I got home and did my normal chores I just needed to slump in front of the TV before hitting the sack!

Never mind, I am actually still on track to make my target of 55 bags by Easter as several locations have yielded multiple bags ... 30 filled so far, from 21 of my 55 locations. Week 7 will be better *honest*

In the meantime, Ladykis is still having to keep an eye on Mr M to make sure that he doesn't bring more clutter into the house, Missus Wookie's working week has far exceeded mine, de-railing her efforts somewhat, but Chipper has outdone us all on the shredding front:

I just shredded almost 8 years of paperwork the other week. Boy did it feel good! The local tax laws only require that we keep 7 years worth so I finally disposed of the rest (15 years old!) :-) Amazing how much space that stuff took up!

Fifteen year-old papers - well done!!  Sandra also popped by last week and got ruthless with her recipe book/cuttings hoard - also a job I need to tackle as I use the same 2-3 books all the time, yet own about 20!

Fifty-five Bags - Week 5

These posts are getting later and later in the week :o(  It's entirely symptomatic of my loss of enthusiasm with what I am tackling!  However, today, being the first day of lent i.e. when the original 40 bags for 40 days is meant to take place, I am determined to get back on track.  Whether two nine-and-a-half hours shifts at work will allow this is another matter ... check back next week to see!!!

This week involved a LOT of shredding.  I tackled some piles of paperwork lying around, but discovered that before I could file it away I had to make room in the files.  There were at least 3 bags of shredded bills, insurance documents, and bank statements in our recycling last week.

The other major de-cluttering was clothing, curtains and bedding.  Child No.3 is off to Nicaragua & Costa Rica in the summer and part of her team's fund-raising efforts is a charity bag collection - supposedly for collection this week.  Hubby and No.2 Son also got involved (along with Granny & friends & neighbours) ... only to discover that we now have to hang fire until March 7th.  We are now extra-cluttered with piles and piles of clothes, curtains and bedding on our landing plus other people's bags of clothes, curtains and bedding in the guest bedroom!

Are you (still) playing along?  Stacey seems to have the same problems with her towels/Hubby as I do but  Lesley has tackled her make-up at last! {There was so much that I reckon she could have opened her own beauty shop with it all}and Melissa had a great idea for sensible wardrobe de-cluttering:

I haven't done much with the new job, but I am decluttering my wardrobe as I choose outfits each week. I'm working my way through all my slacks & blouses & shoes - if I can't/won't wear them, they immediately go in the donate box. If I wear them but it turns out it was uncomfortable or I just didn't like the way it looked or fit, it goes in the box. That counts right?

It certainly does Melissa :o)

Fifty-five Bags - Week 4

Hello again :o) Last week I had Hubby home on holiday and I had great plans for all the de-cluttering that we would do together.  Our study/computer room has 4 IKEA "Billy" bookcases, a desk, 3 shelves, a cabinet, rolling toolbox and a floor ALL covered in "stuff".  About ⅔ of this "stuff" belongs to Hubby and I therefore cannot safely touch it!  However, as he pointed out to me, he was on holiday ... and I shouldn't be making plans for him!

So I tackled (some of) the bits that I could do along with a kitchen drawer and our towel cupboard, hoping that he'd feel guilty and join me.  Not 100% successful!  But we did end the week by taking two crates of ancient computer parts and cabling to the tip along with all the hair-driers, telephones etc that I set aside earlier.

My personal de-cluttering has resulted in piles!  Not the hemorrhoid sort, but the what-was-I-thinking-hanging-onto-all-this-for-so-long sort!

That'll be 15 years (5") of old theatre programmes (donated back to the theatre for their archives), excess plastic tubs (commandeered by Hubby for his electronics organising), excess padded envelopes, excess ancient towelling and piles of children's handwriting & multiplication books, spelling tests and notes from my teaching days plus ... the notes from a course I attended when I was pregnant with No.1 Son ... 24 years ago!!

Thank you all for your continued support and company:  Lesley, Mary & Ladykis are wondering whether they really need their old make-up, CDs and videos respectively.  I don't have much make-up to cull, but we have a stack of CDs, videos and cassette tapes and while the CDs do get played, the videos and cassettes do not.  Perhaps they should be this week's target?

Fifty-five Bags - Week 3

Three weeks down - approximately eight to go - with my de-cluttering for 2013.  That's two whole weeks more effort than 2012!  While I'm still on schedule (17 down 38 left), the number of bags has reduced each week ... I think being ruthless is wearing off!

I had more support and funny comments from you guys last week , including Missus Wookie who reckoned her friends were de-cluttering by sending their offspring to her house!

And do you remember Ladykis who was determined not to de-clutter, leaving her children with plenty to sort out once she was dead and gone?  Well she relented a little and managed to give her boys a taste of things to come:

I was inspired by your determination and "did" the cutlery drawer. I then shared out the - wait for it - 59 medicine spoons. No wonder there was a fountain of plastic every time Mr M opened the thing. My two sons will be getting a very strange packet in the post in a day or two - a brief note that says "this is your share of the cutlery drawer booty, love Mum" and some plastic spoons. Wicked? Me? you betcha!

I think our medicine spoon stash was dealt with in 2012 and we have since taken care to avoid storing them in pairs to stop them breeding.

So, what did I manage this week?  I know you are agog to hear about the contents of two of my bedroom drawers!  One was relieved of three unused sets of diary pages (2007/8/9), some out of date and unused tablets and several empty ring boxes plus four pairs of spectacles that went back to Specsavers for their charity bin.  The other no longer contains several old hair-driers, a broken in two hairbrush, a number of un-wanted gifts (I hope Auntie M doesn't read my blog) and some left over Christmas gifts from when I was training to be a primary school teacher and needed 30+ presents for my Year 5 class!  All bagged up now.

My utility room cupboards revealed that I never need to buy another bottle of Flash again ... ever!  If money gets short I may open a shop selling Flash myself!  I did dispose of four yucky sponges and consolidated several part used containers of detergents.  This week's biggest surprises were two bottles of orchid food and one of ceramic hob cleaner - we don't have any orchids and we have had a gas hob for over two years now!!!  Out! Out! Out!

My family are impressed with my dedication so far, but not enough to join in (yet)! I think the biggest problem is that not everything has a place to be put back in.  Next week's motto will have to be "Put it away or throw it away".  How are you doing?

Fifty-five Bags - Week 2

Last week labelled my de-cluttering post "Fifty-Five Bags - Week 1" and I wondered if I was being optimistic?  Would I have enough backbone to manage a second week (and keep going even further than that).  Was I setting myself up for a fall?  Or making myself accountable?

Well, thanks in part to all the lovely, encouraging  comments I received last week, I have made it to Week 2.  Some of you were already de-cluttering and others were inspired to play along - do let me know how you that's going - but one comment in particular had me laughing out loud:

You go girl!! I'll watch from here and shout encouragement. I thought a lot about decluttering and decided that if I do that what will my children have to do when I am gone? They won't need to get together and divide up the spoils so, no de cluttering for me! I want them to open a drawer and say "Good grief! what the h*ll did she need fifteen printer cables for?"

Thank you Ladykis for giving me the best reason for NOT tackling the clutter (and I certainly regretted throwing away those 16 airline headsets last week - perhaps I should have put them into a "special" box in the attic for a laugh).

I was working for part of the week and my daily de-cluttering fell by the wayside but I made up for it over the weekend.  On top of that a couple of my 55 locations didn't produce any bags of rubbish/recycling/redistributing (they still benefited from a deep clean and a tidy up though)..

The saddest thing that I addressed was a set of drawers housing the children's old art & craft supplies: felt-pens, "magic" pens, psychedelic papers, crayons, pattern pads, hand-writing books, Christmas card stamps, pipe-cleaners ... As Child No.3 is now of an age to start learning to drive a car, the contents of these drawers haven't been used for a while.  I regularly used to test the felt-pens and throw out the dried up ones, but this time they all went into the rubbish bag.  Child No.3 now has her Pro-markers for colouring!  Her scrapbooking stickers went into my bag of stash to donate and the local charity shop will benefit from several unused craft kits.  The tin of wax crayons has been saved (for now) as I'm sure I saw a tutorial somewhere about melted wax backgrounds :o)

The bottom of the mountainous ironing basket was also tackled this weekend: Child No.3 will be taking her still-wearable old school uniform items back to lost property now that she no longer has to wear a uniform ... {don't tell, but I'm pretty sure she "rescued" a P.E. shirt from there during her final term rather than ask me to buy a new one!}

Running total 12/55 which is still ahead of schedule (just!)

Fifty-five Bags - Week 1

Somewhere in my recent surfing I came across the idea of de-cluttering using 40 bags for Lent's 40 days.  Filling a bag each week day with rubbish/recycling/stuff-to-freecycle/sell is a great idea for steady, bite-sized clearing that would culminate in a clutter-free Easter.  Every year I resolve to make a start with de-cluttering but lose steam/enthusiasm after about a week and the clutter starts building up again.

It never hurts to try again though, so I thought I'd give this a go NOW without waiting for Lent which is only an excuse for pancakes for us!  I started making my list (OK I admit it, my spreadsheet) of 40 locations (drawers, shelves, cupboards, surfaces etc) that need a purge and a clean ... and erm ... discovered that 40 locations doesn't even begin to cut it in our house!!!  So I settled for 55 locations (excluding kids' rooms and Hubby's side of the bedroom) to fill the weekdays in the eleven weeks until Easter, and got cracking.

First off, rather than just taking down our Christmas decorations and putting them straight back into the loft for next year, I purged the stringy tinsel, wrong-colour baubles, faded candles, dated garlands, bent fairies (!) and unwanted mini-trees.  Score 1 bag for the local charity shop and 1 bag for the bin!

Another day's effort involved a 3 drawer chest in our hallway: filled with junk plus a much-used dumping ground by the front door/at the foot of the stairs, covered in books, homework, pens, catalogues, laundry etc etc etc ... too shameful to take a "before" photograph ... but an hour's work resulted in a stack of 16 airline headsets, 2 phones, 1 answer-phone, 3 walkie-talkies, 2 walkmans, 1 broken-in-two-but-somehow-still-working-calculator, 1 picture in frame and a ceramic oil burner all for the bin/charity shop!  The drawers are still full of games and jigsaws but the surface is now completely clear - and, more importantly, is staying clear!

I won't bore you with ALL the details, but it's already been a week and I have tackled at least one drawer or cupboard or shelf every day (I need to get ahead with my bag count as I know I'll be away for some of the time before Easter).  Some locations don't result in much of a throw-out but get a good clean instead.  So far I've made up for that with shredding old paperwork or recycling Christmas cards or sorting through some scrapbooking stash.

By posting today I'm hoping that you will keep me accountable and that my target of 55 bags is achieved.  Wish me luck!

Declutter Report #1

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!

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.

3/6/11 Another baby step - discarding some magazines from 2002!

"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!

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:

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!

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!

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!!!

White Rabbits White Rabbits White Rabbits

Nijntje & Pals (aka Miffy in the UK)

That's what I always used to try and say first thing on the first day of the month - before "Good morning" or "Toast please" or whatever it was that first used to leave my lips on a normal day.  I didn't normally manage to get my brain into gear to actually do it though.  It is meant to bring luck I believe - perhaps something to do with white rabbits being witches?

I did usually manage to join in with the "Pinch and a punch on the first of the month" though - and added the "And no returns!" very quickly or I was likely to get both back in spades from my brothers!

Anyway - Happy June to you all, may it be lucky!

I already consider myself pretty lucky - I have reasonable health, a safe and secure home, a family to care for (me), and I have plenty of great life experiences to look back on (and hopefully forward to too).  Not all girls/women are so lucky and it was lovely to read that Shimelle was doing her bit (with scrappers' help) to raise money for Plan UK's Because I Am A Girl campaign.  Unfortunately I was too late to promote this yesterday, but my blog-buddy Mel has put a Shimelle charity class up for grabs on her blog - you have until 5pm today to try for that and arrange a donation in some other way.

Mel has also been inspiring me with her de-cluttering in May.  That's another side-effect of being fortunate ... we have TOO MUCH STUFF.  It also makes it harder to keep tidy and organised.  So here is my declaration (please help me keep to it): I'm going to copy Mel and try and do a month of de-cluttering; with weekly updates so that I can be held to account!