Declutter November – end of week 1
So last week we kicked off our Declutter November challenge – 22 of us have pledged to get rid of one thing every day in November (and possibly other things in the weekly mini-challenges too), with the hope of making our homes a little bit tidier and, more importantly, changing how we look at all that junk.
Team Declutter: how has your first week been?
This is my first six days pile:
I thought this week would be really easy for me and John – the obvious stand-out “get rid of me!!” stuff – but I’ve been distracted with my hardcore start to NaNoWriMo (32,104 words in 6 days!) so I’ve copped out a bit (since they’re not really a clutter problem for us) and included three books. But the top one was a pure clutter book: I’ve only read half of it and didn’t like it, but John bought it for me as a birthday present just before we got together so it always had a special meaning/been a memory. Then this week I realised that we’ve been together for nearly ten years now so plenty of much better memories together: sod the book I didn’t like!
The other things are:
- a food cover/umbrella thing – it’s nice but doesn’t collapse so always been a bit in the way.
- a never-used-for-anything ginger jar.
- a little souvenir Russian/matryoshka doll. This was one of those “completely blind to it” things: it was a souvenir gift from someone else that had got mentally bundled in with the matryoshka set we selected for ourselves while in Russia a few years ago. I’d stopped seeing it as a separate thing that I didn’t like. Gone!
I took this picture before John selected his Sunday item but he’s mostly getting rid of books too:
The glass (salad?) bowl is just about the most inappropriate thing clumsy people like us should own. We were too scared to use it so just filled up half a cupboard and was never used…
Declutter your greenhouse, garden or shed mini-challenge
I set the first mini-challenge on Tuesday – get rid of five items growing-related items, however that applies to you.
Over the weekend, I got rid of a broken plastic bucket and a got-another-just-like-it rake from the space near the chicken coop. And from further up the patio, I got rid of a rusty old waste bin which had been sat near the outside tap for a year? two years? and its contents (an ancient dustpan brush, a slightly snapped cat tray scoop – all counted as one thing), and also a plastic plug tray which we must have stood on half a dozen times. I also sorted through my seed stash and got rid of some things I don’t think I’ll try growing again: cauliflower, watercress and some Real Seeds pepper seeds (we just don’t have the sun for them – but my dad does, so I’ll send them to him).
All in, I liked that I actually got rid of some trip-over-it clutter from the garden and vow to try harder to get rid of stuff like that from the house this week too.
Team Declutter: what have you been getting rid of?
-
Taking Stock – May 2015
-
Making a little more progress at the allotment
-
Allotment, end of round 1 (ding ding)
-
Yay, allotment!
-
Taking stock – June 2014
-
Do it better
-
Stitching etc tips from the Knitting & Stitching Show
-
No Spend November
-
My winter to-do list 2013
-
Taking stock: a ‘what I’m up to in my absence’ meme
-
Plummy solid square crochet blanket
-
Attack of the Crochet Claw
- Jetpack plugin with Stats module needs to be enabled.
-
My low-spend '11: buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011
-
Cold smoking cheese - taste testing the first batch
-
Using up the glut: Marrow cake recipe
-
How I line dry clothes in winter: my top five tips
-
Spicy marrow chutney recipe
-
Washing in winter: ideas for reducing laundry?
-
Foraging for wild food: do you forage near roads?
-
Your favourite fiction books with simple living characters/themes?
-
How I spent my Tuesday afternoon
-
We *heart* books too (warning: picture heavy post!)
-
Portion control
-
Baking things that'll last
Oh, I meant to mention about the seed stash – I found some sweet cicely seeds which apparently need sowing now. I’d have forgotten them if I hadn’t been decluttering! Thanks Decluttering! ;)
A good first week haul, go you!
My first week has included:
A clothes airer, a small travel/work bag, some clothes that don’t fit (actually 10 items but I’ll be brave and lump them all as one and hope I don’t run out towards the end of the month!), some toys that Joe’s grown out of playing with and a brand new silver-coloured light switch plate.
It’s fun! Hope everyone else is enjoying it too.
I must I must get into the garden for a declutter- thanks for the reminder. It is amazing what lurks among the flower beds isn’t it! I have been decluttering my wardrobe floors and and now onto the actual shelves. Also my computer desk is more of a midden..
I’ve decluttered 30 things! More clothes, some I’d taken just because my sis offered. Stuff my mom gave me after clearing out my aunt’s house. An old, still in the box shower curtain, one of those glass things you fill with scent a niece gave me, I found a rear view mirror that had snapped off the car about three cars ago! 50th anniversary glasses we bought for the parent’s party 15 years ago, mom gave them to my sis when she turned 50, then sis used the same excuse to pass them on to me. I’m breaking the cycle and sending them to Goodwill!And added a few more books to the bag-a trip to the used book store is in my future. Sadly, I always end up coming home with something, even when I vow I’m just stopping in to sell. I’ll look for anything that would be nice for a christmas gift when I go, instead.
Didn’t tackle the garden, need to. House has a little built in shed, about the size of a closet, meant to hold a lawn mower. But the shelves, narrow as they are, have a ton of crap on them. Old paint, pesticide, ect ect. Some was there when we moved in years ago! I need to haul it all out and make a trip to the hazardous waste collection. It’s been there so long because I won’t irresponsibly toss it in the trash, and I’ve been too lazy to haul it off.
Oh, and I decluttered 5 things yesterday. Clothes, again-and a new backpack I bought for my daughter. I bought it on sale, tucked it away, forgot it. She’s hard on backpacks, and they can be hard to find when it’s not back to school season. But it’s too young and girly for her now, so out it goes!
Ah, fall and the cleaning out of closets!
I’ve got rid of quite a lot and I’m hoping for a spell of decent weather tomorrow (for photographs) so I can blog about it!
slazza: good range of stuff! I nearly got rid of a clothes airer too then actually used it as overflow on Monday night instead – thinking about decluttering it reminded me of its existence, yay!
Simple Miss P: it’s amazing what we get blind to! if I ever actually look at my desk, I can’t even think about typing another word before tidying it up!
bookstorebabe: good effort! another good range of stuff – bet you’ve freed up lots of space. I feel really bad about picking three rather lazy choices (the books) this week!
Lynsey: Another fab range of things – bet your charity shop will really like you for them :)
My stuff includes – a pressure cooker that I can’t get to work properly (no instructions, can’t find any on internet…),a lampshade, 2 basket things, a glass baking tray (hardly ideal given that my kitchen floor is stone flags) & a pair of boots.
From the garden category – a pH monitor & 2 sets of garden tools (how many sets does one person need?). I would never have thought of this category so thank you for the suggestion.
My finest bit of decluttering however is the 3 (count them, 3!) cat carriers that I gave to the animal shelter.