Getting Rid of Stuff and Organising....again

Recently I've been getting that nagging feeling that I get when I feel like I just have too much stuff.  Stuff that I'm not using.  Stuff that's gotten disorganised and that is maybe making me feel a little bit stressed.  Admittedly I do use most of the things I own or at least have set plans for it in the future, but there are still a few things here and there that I could get rid of. 

There are quite a few books, but they're staying as I will be reading them in the future.  I just need to dedicate time to do so.  I'm also leaving our board games as we need to play them more before we can decide if we want to get rid of them or not.  And we tend to go in cycles when it comes to what we enjoy playing.  Although Exploding Kittens is always going to be a favourite game.

The camping gear is also all staying but clothes is an area that I can downsize in.  Either because it is an item I haven't worn in ages and am unlikely to in the future (like my thermal trousers), or items that are just not comfortable (like my sandals that I love the look of but just feel uncomfortable walking in), or that I genuinely don't fit in now that I've put on weight.  Unfortunately, the last items are clothes that I've made so rather than get rid of them I'm going to put those to one side so that I can alter them.  I'm also moving my winter things, like my thermals, out of the way so it's easier for me to use the rest of my wardrobe.

My stationary box was a quick one as we do use most of the stuff in there, but there were a few things that I was keeping just in case but never actually use so I've gotten rid of those.  My craft boxes also have a lot in them, but as I went through each one I realised that they were all items connected to projects I have planned.  Once I've completed those I'll go through the boxes again and get rid of anything that is surplus and no longer needed.

It's only a small declutter this time, not like some of my previous ones.  However, for some reason, even this little clearing out has made me feel so much better.  As I read more books and work through more projects everything will naturally get smaller as well, especially as I've put no buys on these two areas as I work through what I have.  Maybe I'll get to the point where I don't feel the need to declutter anymore.  Admittedly that does seem pretty unlikely.

Decluttering Again

We were pretty lazy over the Christmas period when it came to keeping the flat clean, tidy, and generally free of stuff to the point where it did actually get a bit out of hand.  We're finally getting back ontop of it now though, with my husband doing a good general clean and me getting back into the zone cleaning.

One of the tasks in zone cleaning is decluttering an area before you start the deep clean and usually you would only do this once you'd gotten to the specific zone.  However, I didn't want to wait before getting the cleaning done and it felt like I needed to do a much more in-depth decluttering this time round, especially after Christmas.

I know this is something I've written about many times before, but I do think this is something worth doing on a regular basis.  Especially as we tend to collect things and what we need or think we need changes over time.  For me it makes sense to have our home be in keeping with how we are now rather than how we were in the past.

So, I've been going through our kitchen cupboards, clothes, my crafting box, our camping box, etc to really work out if there's anything we're really not using now or won't be using in the near future to help keep our flat clutter free.

I do find I've become more realistic with myself every time I do these decluttering sections, which means I am able to get rid of more things each time.  It also feels right decluttering in January as there's something about the start of a new year to make you feel better about getting rid of the old.  Though the same could be said about Mondays.

Unplanned Tidying and Decluttering

You know that thing were you have a whole lot of things you should really be getting on with, but then you suddenly have an indescribable urge to declutter and organise some areas that, up until that moment, you've been doing a very good job of completely ignoring.  Well I had that recently and normally I would just push through it to get on with what I was supposed to be getting on with, but this time I decided to just go with it.

I wasn't entirely sure how much I would actually find to declutter as I had already done a couple of big purges and I tend to go through my things as I clean.  However, I was nicely surprised by the number of things I was able to add to the decluttering pile.

The first big category was a number of electronics that no longer work or don't work well particularly well anymore no matter what I do.  I have been keeping a hold of them thinking I might get round to fixing them, but I won't and I know that so I've decided to just let them go.  Though I now need to go through them, move any of the documents I want to keep and wipe their hard drives.  I might try and get some money from them, but I can't imagine it'll be much.

I also pulled out these shoes that I brought for my wedding but which ended up not going with my outfit at all.  I love Irregular Choice shoes, but I don't really see myself ever wearing these now and there is a part of the shoe that rubs the side of my foot even though I've only worn them indoors.  So I should probably enjoy how pretty they are one last time and then sell them.  A little bit of extra money would be good.

Then there was this book that I keep holding onto because I like the idea of being able to use it, but which I know I won't.  At least not until I actually have a garden of my own and who knows when that will be.  I also finally went through my socks and pulled out all the ones that had holes in them.  I'm not entirely sure why I've been keeping onto them, probably because I just couldn't be bothered to get rid of them.

Lastly were all these little things that I found here and there.  Some gloves which, amazingly, were too small for me.  A little clutch bag I've used but which I actually have a nicer one I want to use more often.  A travel jewellery case which I do still like but don't actually need or in fact use most of the time we travel.  It's time someone else got some uses out of these.

Weirdly once all of this was done I was able to get back to all those others to-dos I had and get through them pretty quickly.  It took away the distractions and I was able to concentrate again on what I needed to get done.  Maybe I knew, somewhere in the back of my mind, that those things were there and needed to be dealt with.... and now they are.  Next time I won't ignore it.

On a side note, I was watching a documentary on cats and it talked about how, a long time ago, there were women who were known as wise women who knew that keeping your home clean, tidy, and free of vermin ensured that you remained healthy.  So they brushed their home with broom sticks and owned cats to kill the rats and mice.  However, the men in the church decided that there was something bad about these women so they persecuted them as witches and killed vast numbers of cats.  And then we got.......the black death.  Keep your homes clean and tidy people.

Decluttering and Tidying 2022

I try to do a declutter and tidy on a regular basis so that nothing ever gets too out of hand.  This has been especially important recently as most of the places I've lived in haven't exactly had a lot of space to them.  I had planned on doing this after all the wedding preparations were finished, but I have been finding the clutter very distracting.  So I've decided to do a mini declutter over a week and then I'll do a larger one later, along with a deep clean.

Wedding Fabric Corner

This little corner contains all the fabric that I had collected to make our wedding garments.  Some of the fabric I didn't need any more and I have to admit that I probably did over buy just a little bit.  Thankfully all the fabric was brought second hand so I don't feel too bad about it.  I'll be sending some of the fabric to the charity shop (the bedding) and I've put away the extra dyed blue fabric I now longer need for wedding sewing for a future project I hope to do later on this year.  All that's left there now is the fabric I need to complete my outfit and the accessories.

Stationary Draw

This draw is meant to just contain all the stationary/ electronics I use at the moment.  However, it has really just become a catch all draw now and I can't really find anything in it.  First thing was to pull everything out to see what I actually had.  A couple of items could be moved back to where they actually belonged, mostly outdoor stuff I'd thrown into there, and others found their way to the charity shop bag - for some reason I had quite a lot of bookmarks.  Paperwork went into a pile to be sorted later and I really need to remember to deal with it as soon as it comes in rather than just shoving it into the draw.  I then put everything else back into the draw in a way that meant I could actually see everything.

Wardrobe

There isn't too much for me to do here as I tend to get rid of any item of clothing I'm not wearing anymore pretty much straight away.  I did double check to make sure there wasn't any items hiding somewhere, but my main focus was on the towels and bedding that we also store there.  We've changed our duvet size so now we have some duvets and duvet covers that we no longer need, so they'll be finding a new home.  There's also a towel that I've had since I was about 7 and is completely falling apart.  It's finally time to say goodbye to it and I'll probably cut it up into cleaning cloths.  Obviously I didn't touch any of my partner's things, however tempted I might have been.

Kitchen

This was a pretty quick one as it's only the cupboard which has our reusable containers and Tupperware that needed a look through.  I got rid off some food containers we aren't using anymore, a water bottle we don't use, and a whole lot of takeaway boxes which I'm going to use to sort out our outdoor gear (once wedding stuff is done) and then recycle what I don't use.

Paperwork

I normally do this at the end of the financial year, but as I need to put a whole lot of paperwork into the folder I decided I might as well do the decluttering at the same time.  It turns out there was quite a lot of paperwork I should have gotten rid of a while ago, so this turned out to be a good decision.  A whole lot of shredding will be needed.

This was quite a quick declutter this time as I don't really have a lot of time to go through everything properly, but I already feel a lot calmer and happier about our living space.  Once I have a little more time I'll definitely go through everything properly, but this has been enough for now.  A big spring clean will be happening though, as soon as I can make it.

Tidying and Decluttering: Kitchen Cupboards

You know that thing where you're hoping that the few walking trips you have planned will mean that you can completely ignore the areas in your home that need sorting, but then one of you gets injured so that you now have extra time on your hands and no excuse not to do it.  There are two cupboards in my kitchen that fall under this category and, whilst getting a catch practise every time I tried to pull out something is probably quite useful, it really was time to get them sorted.

Before I started I brought some storage items I knew I'd need.  They're not ones that I really wanted, but those would take a while to find and I didn't want to give myself any more excuses.

I also finally brought a stool as I can't actually reach the top shelf, and even the middle shelf is a bit of a push.

The cupboard above the sink where we normally keep the food containers was the one that needed the most work, especially as it has become a catch-all for things that didn't really fit anywhere else.  First thing first, pull everything out and then sort them into categories.

Then get rid of (recycle) anything we hadn't actually used in a while and didn't seem likely to use again.

We had been storing the cooking outdoor gear in the kitchen, but it actually made more sense to store that in the outdoor gearbox in the wardrobe as we never use any of it at home - not surprisingly.

I also moved some utensils, colander, etc into more suitable places.  Which, of course, led to a little tidying up of those areas as well.  Though I tried to keep that to a minimum so that this didn't turn into a mammoth task.

The plastic food containers were organised into the storage bins I'd gotten.  

And everything was placed back into the cupboard in a way that meant it was easy to see where everything actually was.  It looks so much better now, hopefully, we can keep it that way.  One of the great things about those containers is that even if you just throw the stuff back into them you still know where everything is and it doesn't then take up the rest of the cupboard.

Next was the food cupboard.  This didn't really need too much work as we use the items pretty often, but we had gotten into the habit of just throwing the food back in.  We also had some glass food containers we use to use so we could contain the items better actually see what was in there but had stopped using recently.  As before I pulled out everything I could fit on the counter and then organised it into categories.

I used the containers we already had to store our most used items and placed them near the front.  Everything else was then put back into like for like areas.  In the future, I want to get some more storage solutions to keep them more contained, but as this cupboard is less of an issue it wasn't completely necessary right now and I can just pick those up from charity shops as and when I find them.

And that's it.  A pretty quick project really but I now don't feel so bad every time I open up the cupboards and I also don't have to worry about anything falling on me which is a bonus.  Now all I need to do is the same thing in other spots in our home........multiple times.  I'm going to loosely use the word 'fun'.

De-cluttering - Quarantine version

 

As I've been self-isolating at my parents house it seemed like a good time to go through the things I had stored in their attic to see if there was anything else that I could get rid of.  It didn't go quite as successfully as I had hoped as there's still quite a few boxes to take to my next home, but I did manage to get rid quite a few things.  The biggest issue this time round is that I'm not certain what the future is going to bring or even what work I'm going to be doing so I'm not sure what items I should keep and what things I can get rid of.

With that in mind I've kept all my outdoor/work gear as, even if I'm no longer working outside, I'll still be going outdoors as a hobby, all my warm gear, and all the kitchen stuff I've acummilated and which survived the last purge. 

The easiest thing to get rid of was all the books I'd read in the digital form during my lockdown in New Zealand and just needed to pull out of the box and put into the charity bag.

Clothes were also pretty easy as I'd gone through most of my items whilst I was in New Zealand and there were just a few that I had left here and either didn't miss or knew I wasn't ever going to use again.  I also added a hoody and an outer fleece to this pile after I had taken the photo.  There's some fabric I'm never going to use and an outer casing for a wheeled suitcase I don't even own.

I'd already gone through all of my make-up brushes and gotten rid of the ones I knew I wasn't going to use but I completely forgot about these eye curlers.  I compared what my mascared eye lashes looked like after using and not using the curlers and noticed absolutely no difference.  I also can't be bothered to do this extra step, so they're heading off.

There were also a few pieces of jewellery that I either haven't worn in years or am bored of wearing now.

There's a few bags which are either falling apart or that I've tried but just haven't liked using.

Now for the more difficult items.  Firstly, I decided that I would actually let go of all my David Attenborough and Disney DVDs.  They've survived previous purges as I'm emotionally attached to them, but I've come to the decision that I'm not really going to watch them again, especially as I haven't had a DVD player for the last few years and it's very unlikely I will have one in the future either.  So, it's time they went somewhere were someone is actually going to get some use out of them.  I also got rid of a few other DVDs that I won't watch again any time soon.  I have kept some DVDs which I'm not ready to get rid of just yet and some to watch over the next few weeks whilst I have a DVD player, but they will probably go after that as well.

Secondly, is the soft toys I've held onto, mostly because they were gifts from people and even ones that had been made for me.  I did get rid of more than these but my nieces have already headed off with a few of them.  I kept my first ever soft toy, a bear, and another older soft toy both of which I'll probably keep out, but it seemed a shame for the others to just be sitting in a box unused so they're off to where someone will give them the use they should have.

And that's it for now.  I'll probably keep getting rid of things over the next few weeks, but this is at least a start and it's funny how much easier it has become to let go of things that I only have an emotional attachment to since I started decluttering a few years ago.  I haven't regretted anything I've gotten rid of so far either.  However, this is really an on-going process and I see a lot more decluttering in my future.  I usually just have a bag which I fill up with items I find, but every now and then I'm in a situation like now where I have the chance of doing something a bit more thorough.  Definitely worth doing this as a regular thing.