| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| chez |
Decluttering challenge, Nov 09Right then. What do people want to declutter or tidy / throw out? Shall we each post a list of five small places / areas that we want to knock off and then attack them one a day?Mine are: 1. Towel pile - waaaaaay too many baby towels now 2. Area under stairs - needs some kind of storage putting in, too 3. Underwear draws 4. Basket by phone 5. Books - select five a day for a week to give away |
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| welsh veg grower |
oooh what books have you got?
see I'mnot good at getting rid I end up adding to my stuff. |
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| frewen |
Oooh - I need towels for children's felting workshop  !
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| Jo S |
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeep
*runs away and hides behind the numerous piles of unpacked boxes since the move in August 08....* |
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| frewen |
Ooops - that's the wrong way round isn't it...
Getting rid of things Frewen - not getting more things 
(although I do need towels  )
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| Cathryn |
 I can't manage one a day (I'm in work, can you tell?  ) but I am working my way around the house.
Priorities are Put away clean clothes! They just keep mounding up and it's no use thinking at least they are all clean! Arrrgh! Check out toy chest in upstairs bedroom before Saturday 
Break up the nest that daughter creates in the sitting room and reclaim it as the room for us all to use.
Clean and tidy and wash everything in students room before he returns home in a few weeks. Keep on pushing outwards aiming to reach end of house before the winter ends.
I emptied under the stairs at the weekend and found some treasures and a couple of wicker wine holders, you know the sort, seventies classic. I can't bring myself to throw them away, especially the one edged with gold wire... Help!
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| gz |
joins you there
Every time I think I've cracked it, more boxes of stuff appear 
Then it is all a mess again
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| Jo S |
That's why I never started
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| gz |
On the other hand I just imagine it when it will be done....
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| chez |
A box at a time, ladies. You know you want to!
Get the box out. Go and make a cup of tea, coffee, etc. Take beverage in to room and put down beside box. Sit on floor. Open box. Take drink of tea. Go through box and divide in to things that you will use in the next twelve months and things you won't. Put first section away somewhere. Put second section back in box, ready for the tip or the charity shop - whichever seems best. |
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| Jo S |
Hmmmmmm. Or .... just do what I do: close the door and pretend you don't have a living room
Is ok, it's just rented and I fully intend to win the lottery before I *need* anything in there
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| chez |
Well, Judith more or less helped me go through our 'room of doom' before we left Wales. The one box at a time approach really works - you can take a box out and shut the door on the rest.
It was surprising how much we just decided we didn't need any more and simply got rid of. |
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| gz |
It is the Black Hole aka the Room of Doom.!!
It is second on son#3's List- first is my workshop so that I can use it properly
(He has even been sorting his room  )
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| Bebo |
OK. Can I include outside as well?
1. Clear all of the remaining tomatoes out of the polytunnel and do something with them. 2. Ditto chillis. 3. Sort out the clean clothes pile, iron and put away 4. Finish sorting bookshelves into alpahbetical order 5. Get some box file thingies and sort out the pile of magazines that is verging on being structurally unstable. |
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| Jo S |
Or ........... Reach for a box Fall over the OH's bike, bang leg on coffee table, knock over opened box of books, swear profusely as they all fall on head Clear up mess, pick up the first box that comes to hand Take to bedroom as there's no room in living room Make coffee, put down next to box Open box Gasp at the contents (so that's where that is!) Make a 'to keep pile'. Shoo cat off said pile Cat knocks over coffee Jump up, swear at cat, run to get cloth Come back to find cat missing, dog's run off with something important Close box, take back to room Still can't find cat Return to living room, open box, rescue cat |
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| SandraR |
I was told at the week end the attic needs sorting/emptying The 'attic' is an extension built several years ago as a shower room and ensuite bedroom. It was never finished for several reasons - money, time, circumstances but now it is going to be done. Being a dormer bungalow (with little storage space) and having three offspring return home from uni it's full of stuff with nowhere to go. Chez you timimg is perfect but I'm dreading it...one box at a time, one box at a time.
What to part with though? I think I'd rather see the children leave home than part with my dolls cot from cough cough years ago. |
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| welsh veg grower |
ladies ladies your not making me look forward ot the moving and unpacking bit at all are you.
I now have boxes in old house Boxes in rented house stuff in both houses and garage all needs to be in new house next week and most needs to be unpacked quick as I have guests coming soon |
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| judith |
Or my own personal technique, which is to efficiently sort box, corner or whatever, putting everything into the relevant Chuck, Donate, Keep boxes. Then to get tired, shove ALL the boxes into the other half of the Room of Doom where I can't see them and then forget all about them for another 6 months.
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| chez |
We are addressing that on Friday afternoon, aren't we? I have wine as a reward when you are finished. And maybe cake. If I can do it, anyone can. Honestly. It's just a case of being sensible about it. GSHP, can you give your dolls cot to someone who will appreciate it, rather than letting it languish? |
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| judith |
I love it when you use your Head Girl voice.
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| alison |
I'll play
sort out 5 drawers in filing cabinet find workbench near toaster clean book shelf in lounge and sort books |
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| SandraR |
Up until a couple of years ago it was used by the minded children, now I think it can go along with everything else that fits into the 'if not used in the past year ' category. I have only just finished sorting my late mother in laws house....admittedly several boxes from there have crept into our house. I'll start tomorrow !
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| marigold |
I had quite a good sort out in the front bedroom a couple of weeks ago, but haven't got the stuff for recycling out of the door yet, 'cos I'm waiting for a friend to come and pick it over first in case there's anything she "needs" in the pile.
I also need to sort out: books for recycling WIP arty/crafty projects getting eBayable stuff listed filing cabinet photos (prints and digital) |
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| Fee |
Ooh, I like this, my decluttering has subsided lately, I was doing so well in the summer.
My main priority is that we're going to move my office into the larger spare room so we can create more of a library rather than piles of books everywhere, so with that in mind... 1. Computer books (we really don't have the need to keep a Windows 3.1 manual other than for prosperity  )
2. Filing cabinet (I'm scared of that one, and it only has 2 drawers!) But, before we can move them, we need to: 3. Clear out wardrobe in spare room #1 (which mostly contains things that were put in there when we moved here 6 years ago)...which can be broken down further by: 4. Empty/sort cupboards inside wardrobe which appears to be full of cables that were so needed 6 years ago that they weren't chucked, yet haven't been touched since
And I suppose we need to sort out the understairs storage issue, might pick something up in IKEA on thursday for that. |
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| joanne |
I'll play too - I want our dining room which was all lovely and perfect last Yule (admittedly it wasn't actually finished until 7pm on Yule but hey!) back to the way it was and the bits that were never finished finishing - I also want to get to the corners of the dumping ground we laughingly call the conservatory as I'm sick of looking at it
Tidying these 2 areas up means I'll be able to move the PC back downstairs out of our bedroom and reclaim that space as well |
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| chez |
Ahem. Are we talking an Ikea trip on your way to Wales? Just askin', you understand ... | ||||||||
| SandraR |
 If I sort out /empty out the' not yet unpacked since moving boxes ' in the under stair cupboard, I could put boxes from the attic in there ..yes?
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| Fee |
No, before, do you need something? I'm going on Thursday! |
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| chez |
GSHP, yes, you could. And then, ahem, sort them out another time
Fee. Maybe. Yes. Please. I want a thingy to put stuff in ... I will go and look at their online catalogue. |
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| Fee |
I'm planning on getting one of these for under our stairs, they come in many sizes with many options on drawer types:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/S29862951 |
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| SandraR |
Sitting room:- 2 drawers sorted 4 to go.
Not the attic but I thought I'd start gently. I'm sure I no longer need a poultry auction cat. from 2004 do I ? |
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| mochyn |
OK I'll do every drawer in the house, one a day, for however long it takes. Starting tomorrow. | ||||||||
| Nicky cigreen |
ok:
1. clear stairs of all those things meant to go up or down that just got put on the the stairs themselves 2. one box from moving cough years ago 3. the pile of books and magazines to give to my mum im not commiting to anymore just yet... |
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| gz |
I now have a carrierbagful of paper for recycling and the bank statements and various house bills are going in ring binders instead of wallets, so that I can see which is which on the shelf
cuppatime 
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| Fee |
Not just me then I contemplated one of those stair box things, the people we bought this house from had one, but I decided it'd just be one more place to stuff stuff.
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| Green Rosie |
Aug 08 - nothing - we moved here in Aug 07 with unopened boxes from our previous move in 2001
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| Green Rosie |
Regarding previous post I think I should join in.
Swap summer clothes for winter ones and downgrade anything horrible etc to duster pile. Clear through boys drawers Declutter feed/garden shed |
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| SandraR |
boxes under stairs since move in 1998
Don't think I'll be needing anything from it. I have done 4 drawers now though and sorted the feed shed last Sunday. |
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| gz |
I have been unpacking books and pots, over the past six months, that have been packed for moves made in 1989 and 1998, moved twice in 1999 then to here in 2004.... thankyou Tanwen!! (daughter) and Malc (SIL)
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| mihto |
Now for an interesting observation:
Unless I'm much mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong) every entry but one in this thread is made by women. What does this tell us about division of labour on Downsizer? Is this a wasp's nest better left alone? I have several lists on this rather bothersome topic. 1. Lately a lot of general clutter, mostly uninteresting mail and things that can wait, has been put into plastic bags. They now live in a spare bedroom. Some of the stuff is important
2. Boxes have kept coming up from Bergen. My stuff. Never expected to be brought back after a failed move 8 years ago. Saved for 40 years or more. Partly also my parents stuff, salvaged from wrecked lives and important to no-one except myself. Heartwrenching stuff. 3. Photos. Big boxes with zero system. Goes back from before my birth. Will take years to even make copies of hundred of negatives. 4. Paint buckets. I like the colour of my library. Just happened to buy the double of what I needed. Same goes for lounge and outside of house. I need help 
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| Ren |
I'm in - as much as I can be.
The summer challenge didn't quite make it!! Since dogsitting 2 weeks ago, we tidied the living room so that he could sit down without 'disrupting' all my carefully discarded piles. The down side being that the Room of Doom is BACK with a VENGEANCE!! 
And spreading. And I have family coming soon and no room for blow up mattress!
I have books to get rid of, fabric to make into something, same for yarn, and and and.... Isn't there a magic decluttering fairy that knows what to do, the best things to get rid of and sell and can maintain at clean levels? |
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| chez |
Judith.
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| SandraR |
Whose the bloke?? |
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| Ren |
I have listed some books on the book bus thread! | ||||||||
| frewen |
I am not decluttering this, despite never using it and only just having unpacked it
Prize of self satisfaction to the person who can tell me what it is ! |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
Ooh, bout time that was bumped...
A. |
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| frewen |
Never! It's pre electrickery and everything
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| mochyn |
I know. It's a wossname. You know, thingy. Oojah. | ||||||||
| Hairyloon |
It is strange. I am great at decluttering other people's sheds/lofts/cupboards, but I can't seem to do my own.
I find that doubly odd, because I know out of mine what is crap and can be binned, but with somebody else's crap, there is no way of knowing if it is of some deep sentimental value, so an appropriate home for it needs to be found. The basic trick is de-randomising the junk. |
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| frewen |
Close very close
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| chez |
Is it some kind of sewing machine?
HL - I think that that's what is great about having a de-junking partner. They force you to examine if you are genuinely emotionally attached to things or just think you are. Arvo freecycled my grandmother's clock instead of his grandmother's. I was emotionally attached to it, but it's been good to let it go. |
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| sean |
Barograph? | ||||||||
| frewen |
No - but I can see why
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| chez |
Do you stuff stuff in the top and it comes out of the bottom flat? | ||||||||
| frewen |
No - stuff goes in the bottom
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| sean |
Is it something to do with music? (I'm thinking player piano type thingies.) | ||||||||
| mihto |
It is a beard-rolling machine. Men with long beards stumbled when they walked and needed this machine to make the beard more compact. Now if there are any German speakers around you would know what I mean
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| frewen |
@ Sean - No - and it's smaller height wise than most of HFW's books !
Mihto
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| Hairyloon |
A good way of doing that is to take it all to a car boot sale. When you see it on the stall and decide you must keep it, you can just take it off. |
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| Cathryn |
This decluttering thread is becoming quite a challenge. I am considering taking the pickup with me to the gathering on Saturday. However I will be bringing it back (nearly) empty.
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| mihto |
Das ist so alt und hat so einen langen Bart, dass man die Bartwickelmaschine im Keller aufsetzen kann. Sorry Sometimes my rather sick sense of humor cannot be contained
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| frewen |
My German is rubbish - so all I can discern is about something being old and a cellar
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| Ren |
That is so old and has such a long beard that the beard winding?
machine can sit (stay) in the cellar Many years since I did any german
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| mihto |
well done!
just silly, I'm in hte silly mood corner today. Honestly, whatever it is is so old that it could probably live in the basement
Is it a stencilling machine? |
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| frewen |
No it isn't and it would never have been any good in a cellar period 
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| judith |
Does it have anything to do with wool? | ||||||||
| sean |
Bandage rolling machine? *Tries to remember Frewen's entire career history.* | ||||||||
| frewen |
Nothing Nada Nil
I know - I am shocked too
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| frewen |
No - nothing to do with that - unless keeping pestilence at bay is a tenuous link
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| mihto |
something to do with smoke? |
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| frewen |
No - smoke can't be contained
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| sean |
Does the big cream bit rotate? Or does it act as a container? Or both?
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| sean |
Oooh, do you burn herbs in it or something like that? |
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| Hairyloon |
Is it for logging something over time? Humidity? Temparature? | ||||||||
| frewen |
@ sean - Smoke is nothing to do with it really
The cream drum rotates - that is the purpose of the mechanism, and the drum is spread with something *sticky*
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| frewen |
It doesn't measure anything ! |
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| Bebo |
Is it a fly trap? | ||||||||
| sean |
Is it a 'Gentleman's Patent Rotating Fly-Paper Machine as used by the Crowned Heads of Europe'? | ||||||||
| frewen |
Yay - claps for the last two respondents 
Now show your workings gentlefolk
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| sean |
It revolves and it's sticky and it keeps pestilence at bay.
Does it work? |
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| frewen |
It does - last time I tried (when I was about 10) | ||||||||
| BethinPA |
FF, it's a wonderful-looking device! I think you should keep it IF (oh, it's a big if) you can recycle/freecycle/donate the same number of books it displaces on the shelf. Deal?
I want to be excused from this exercise until December. I've been talked into hosting Thanksgiving (next Thursday), and am in a full blown panic about it. I thought it was going to be 20 people, but my Mother won't stop inviting people (to my house). Help!
Though, it might be a sort of productive way of procrastinating. I need to load up boxes of books for small children to give to my brother (who has a very tiny child), box up clothes my children have outgrown (and pass them to cousins or charity shop), and weed out threadbare towels (to put into draft excluders). Maybe that'll happen before T'giving, probably not. |
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| sean |
Move house? Or knit an enormous house-cosy very quickly and claim that it's one of those fumigation tents and no-one's allowed to enter the building for x* days?
*Where x is a number that would take you safely past the festivities. |
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| Jo S |
Phew! Some of the unpacked boxes are from when I was at uni... No idea what's in them, but it's good to know that the sellotape I nicked from the students' union has lasted the best part of a decade
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| Green Rosie |
Thank goodness for that - I thought I was the only one with unopened boxes from previous moves. Mine contain books and I will one day have a shelf to display them on and maybe even read them again. I also have my family history research in several large boxes and one day I'll get back to doing my tree and sort through everything ......... honest ..... |
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| SandraR |
Today so far so good. I've sorted out my house plants..not really de cluttering but threw out those beyond recovery and tidied up the others. Sorted more drawers and found £25 worth of gardening tokens and a really tacky Mother's Day card that sings my Mum's the greatest Mum that made me smile !
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| marigold |
Going to make a cuppa and shut myself in the front bedroom for a while. If nothing else I must measure up the CS curtains that I'm going to remake for the living room, so I can buy the lining material... | ||||||||
| judith |
That's what I call a result! |
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| SandraR |
I've come to a standstill now...just sorted envelopes full of photos...took ages I can't believe how skinny I was in the 80's and how fat by 2000
Also how dreadful the house was when we first moved and although I thought we hadn't done much to it ..we have !! |
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| Nicky cigreen |
thats a good exercise to do - its easy to forget how far you have come! |
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| Nicky cigreen |
well I emptied a box from moving - paperwork - I killed my shredder in the process, but it recovered once it had cooled down.
I have sorted out the books to give my mum - just need to actually hand them over before that piles becomes something I get used to looking at. just have to deal with the stairs now... |
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| SandraR |
Well done.
I've done all the drawers in the sitting room and the hall and the drawer in the kitchen. Tomorrow my bedroom
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| Jo S |
*whistles* | ||||||||
| mochyn |
I did all 5 drawers in my fabric dresser: didn't throw anything out but I found stuff I need and now I know what's in there. | ||||||||
| gil |
Not seen this thread before, but today I had another 'trip to the tip', and came back without
a manky old single mattress old fishing net that rats had nested in some disintegrating black polythene defunct old hoover old bald mop Still loads of old black poly sheet in the shed - I have no idea how it got there. |
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| gardening-girl |
My decluttering started in the garage, we got rid of the woodburner and two belfast sinks, other things are promised, and the Help for Heros pot is growing.
My new task will be to keep the end of the table tidy.Think large pile of paperwork, books, knitting, egg boxes,lists
If anyone IS going to Ikea, could they get me something (could be passed on at the Devon meet)They do a pack of 10 basic white flannels, very usefull for dishcloths and can be boiled. Oh won,t let me go  to Ikea
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| marigold |
I just did half an hour's worth in the front bedroom, but managed to shift quite a lot of stuff. I think short bursts rather than specific goals might be best for me. | ||||||||
| frewen |
All I managed was a good go through my merino drawers
Didn't actually throw anything away, but it is nice and tidy
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| judith |
They sound rather cosy.
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| frewen |
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