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Decluttering support thread

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  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    You should get together ... :mrgreen:
  • We are having such fun turning out the store in the garden (as distinct from the garden store, of course). We have a slot booked at the tip tomorrow :grin:
  • Piglet wrote: »
    You should get together ... :mrgreen:

    I don't think that the petrol bill would be worth it!
  • I am an amalgam of Pendragon and Cathscats.

    I have both tubs without lids AND lids without tubs.
  • Recycling collection tomorrow, so while Mr Alba wasn’t looking I took the opportunity of doing a bit of decluttering in the Random Lids Department.

  • It's amazing how much cleaner the house is staying now that LC is away at college.

    It now looks merely as if we had just moved in, as opposed to looking like a hoarder's nightmare. Onward and upward...
  • Our local castle is being renovated (rather delayed because of the pandemic) and they're looking for volunteers to make medieval costumes for the opening, for visitors to dress up in.
    Here is my opportunity to donate all the medieval re-enactors' kit I have left, including an authentic gambeson, the padded jacket that goes under chainmail. (My days of wearing chainmail are probably over, but I'm not quite ready to give it away just yet.)
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    It's amazing how much cleaner the house is staying now that LC is away at college.

    It now looks merely as if we had just moved in, as opposed to looking like a hoarder's nightmare. Onward and upward...

    If you declutter too much he might think he is in the wrong place when he comes home for a break.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    edited September 2020
    Yes indeed. I fear his father has already taken over the computer desk, and we can actually see the computer again. Poor LL!
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    LC--

    If it previously looked like "a hoarder's nightmare", then surely it was very minimalist, with no personal stuff at all? If a true hoarder, anyway.
    ;)
  • You could take it to the opposite extreme, surely? -- something so bad even a hoarder would have nightmares. :lol:
  • Long-term (and I mean that! this must be three years ago at least) readers of this thread may recall that I was asking for advice on what to do with a very large dolls' house that I thought I might have to dispose of when we moved. I had been 'lent' it when I was perhaps 2, almost 70 years ago, it had been my daughter's, and my niece had borrowed it, but it had returned to me as it was too big for my brother's house.

    Luckily I didn't dispose of it, as we moved to a larger house than we really meant to and there is room in my bedroom for it. The Intrepid Grandson, TIG #1, played a lot with it, rather to my surprise - we used to have tea parties with the small bears which inhabit it - and now I have TIG #2 and the Little Welsh Cousin (female).

    So, back in April when lockdown really began to bite, I decided to renovate it (The Repair Shop has a lot to answer for). We took the doors off, stripped off the paper and paint and took out all the electric lighting, and eventually when the summer drew to an end I began to paint it. Now it is all re-painted and papered, with quarry tiles on the kitchen floor, blue and white tiles in the bathroom and parquet flooring the the bedroom, and it is a joy to behold. The two bits of topiary in pots either side of the front door are the crowning glory!

    I've decided to keep all the precious furniture like the grand piano and the writing desk back - I used to spend my pocket money on it - and just furnish it with more robust and sturdy stuff, given the age of the likely users (they've just turned one as I write).

    Mrs. S, not looking to go into dolls' house refurbishment as a career :grin:
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    How lovely @The Intrepid Mrs S 💕

    I haven’t done any decluttering for a while - and it shows! I shall start in earnest in two weeks time when we get back from Germany.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Wow, Mrs. S. - that's impressive! Have you got any photographs you could link to (preferably with the Small Bears in them)?
  • Excellent @The Intrepid Mrs S. Glad to hear that TIG#1 is intrepid in multi-dimensional ways.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    Wow, Mrs. S. - that's impressive! Have you got any photographs you could link to (preferably with the Small Bears in them)?

    Not yet - but I will!
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    @The Intrepid Mrs S, you might even want to invest in some plastic furniture until the young'uns attain the age of reason. The Pater built a gorgeous castle for his grandchildren, having done extensive research on several genuine Scottish same, and then purchased a used cardboard model to hold them for several years. He never regretted it.

  • Well yes, Ross - apparently when I had the dolls' house entrusted to me at (probably) less than 2 years of age, it was equipped with furniture made from chicken bones (!). I have no idea why, or what it must have looked like, but my mother the Dowager very sensibly declined the loan and I ended up with some much sturdier stuff!

    In spite of that, I managed to stick my head into every room and knock each little light off the ceiling *blush* We now have no lights in there at all...
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    You're an explorer, Intrepid Mrs. S.!
    :)
  • I think this fits into decluttering, or a least it feels like it. Mr. Image has for years emptied his pockets of change each day into canning jars. As he has been ill and we are hoping to move soon I have started the great purge of the closets. Low and behold 9 full jars of coins. Mr image has no interest in counting and rolling them in papers for the bank, so as it is annoying me, and will need to be done, it has become my job. Two jars separated by coin type and 7 to go. Now to finish in a week and start the rolling process. I have informed Mr. Image if I take the rolled coins into the bank they are mine. He agrees. At least I get a reward for the tiresome labor. I have also threatened Mr. Image with bodily harm if he saves one single coin in the future. We had a laugh over that as he is pretty much walker and wheelchair-bound at the moment, but thankfully improving.
  • Um, lots of banks have machinery that will do the sorting and tallying for you--for a small percentage.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    What LC said. There's also Coin Star.

    FYI: I've occasionally used a Coin Star machine at a grocery store. The fee charged seemed a bit much to me--but then I was nearly broke, which was why I was cashing in coins, and it seemed like a huge amount.

    If you use a CS machine, *make sure you carefully read and understand the rules*. For instance, if you choose the option of a receipt you can use as a gift certificate in that particular store, *you may have to use it that day*. There are other options, like Amazon gift certificates.

    FWIW, YMMV.

    Oh, and you might also check to see if any of the coins are collectible (e.g., wheat penny). There are sites and books that can help you figure it out.
  • I called both of our local banks, you must roll coins. One grocery store in the next town over does indeed have a coin machine, but I do not like to go there. They do not enforce masks and distance is not adhered to. Not worth the risk for the convenience, but thank you both for the suggestions. I am doing one jar a day so not so bad. Finding collectibles is something Mr. Image has done from time to time. I just want to get this over so I can work on other things.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Boogie wrote: »
    The next in line is one in the utility room, full of silly nic nacs (sp) I’ve no idea why I’ve got them. Tea light holders etc etc etc

    🙄🙄🙄

    And do you also have special brushes for cleaning them?
  • JapesJapes Shipmate
    Thank you for the reminder to sort my loose change coins out. Luckily, in the UK, ours are bagged in plastic rather than rolled for the bank and I have plenty of bags provided by my church, as these coins go to the "penny jar" (Oh, how I hate that jar - for so many reasons. My penance is to do my own bagging and counting, then give the equivalent amount in notes to the treasurers for banking, as I use the actual coins for a different fund-raising activity with my students. But we won't be doing that this year.)

    I have far fewer coins than usual at this st because I often pick loose change up as I walk. Whilst the schools were off, I picked up nothing, and most people have been using physical money far less anyway.
  • Recently I found a stash of old and commemorative coins. Sixpences and threepences are not a problem, I know they are no longer currency so have gone to a charity shop who welcomes coins. But is the 50p still UK currency?
    The commemorative coins will all go to that charity shop: one for the Queen Mum’s 80th, another for our Queen’s silver jubilee, a £2 coin commemorating the 300th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights, a Charles & Diana Crown and, from the other side of the pond, a Kennedy half dollar and something from the San Francisco mint. Hopefully they will cheer a collector up, raise some real money for the charity (every little helps) and (very importantly) are no longer cluttering!
  • EigonEigon Shipmate
    Yes, the 50p is still UK currency - there are some lovely ones with Paddington Bear on them!
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    edited October 2020
    I think this fits into decluttering, or a least it feels like it. Mr. Image has for years emptied his pockets of change each day into canning jars. As he has been ill and we are hoping to move soon I have started the great purge of the closets. Low and behold 9 full jars of coins. Mr image has no interest in counting and rolling them in papers for the bank, so as it is annoying me, and will need to be done, it has become my job. Two jars separated by coin type and 7 to go. Now to finish in a week and start the rolling process. I have informed Mr. Image if I take the rolled coins into the bank they are mine. He agrees. At least I get a reward for the tiresome labor. I have also threatened Mr. Image with bodily harm if he saves one single coin in the future. We had a laugh over that as he is pretty much walker and wheelchair-bound at the moment, but thankfully improving.

    Well done @Graven Image .

    We both do this coin saving thing and in three different currencies - eeek!

  • Decluttering here received a major boost after listening to a radio program, explaining that some UK hospices will in all probability go to the wall during Covid.

    As most of these hospices sell online to collectors, maybe now is the time to part with some of what is basically my clutter.........
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    We used to do the coin-roll thing when we were in Canada, and when I was clearing out the house after David died I found several envelopes of sterling coins, each marked in his writing with the denomination.

    I brought them back with me, and the £1, 50p, 20p and 10p coins are proving very useful for bus fares.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    I had to google ‘coin rolls’ we use bank bags. 🙂
  • Our last church used to do Funny Money - we'd collect up small change, foreign coins and notes, out of date currency and when we had 5 kilos, send them off carriage paid to some company who would then check through the parcel and make us an offer. If we accepted (we always did) the money would be in the bank account that day.

    Free money, really - we used to make a few hundred pounds a year from it :wink:
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    My eldest brother would always use paper money when shopping, saving all his change in an old (greasy) hat. When we cleared his flat after he died I took the coins to my bank (it had one of those counting machines p) and it amounted to several hundred pounds. :astonished:

    My decluttering efforts have ground to a complete halt and with other things going on I'm at present of the mindset that Life's Too Short.
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Purgatory Host
    edited October 2020
    The Quinie and her young man are about to set up home together. I see this as a marvellous opportunity to declutter gift them useful and attractive items from our house. It appears that his parents have similar decluttering gifting plans.

    The Quinie and her beloved have told us that if they need anything they will ask for it.

  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    Good luck with that, NEQ. We still have some of our daughter's stuff and they've been married 8.5 years!
  • I'm hoping that, at a minimum, we can clear most of her stuff from her room.
  • Good luck with that, NEQ. Mother Knotweed has finally lost patience with a loft full of the Knotweed's shite stuff, which is now filling our front room. It's only 13 years since she moved in with me...
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I remember being horrified when David's parents brought several bookshelves' worth of organ periodicals dating from the year dot over to him in Belfast. Despite having survived without them for the previous 15 or so years, he insisted that they were quite indispensable, and would have to come to every subsequent house.

    When he died, an elderly and rather eccentric gentleman who came to his organ recitals happily took them off my hands - I can't tell you how grateful I was.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    It sounds like he was equally happy to have them. I love those times when everyone wins. 💜💛
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    I really am going to take some time during this next lockdown to do some sorting and tidying...
  • I’m having another attempt at decluttering my fabric stash - the plan was to do a patchwork cloak, and I’ve made 3 squares of the 128 that I reckon I need. It’s a bit of a Lockdown project, but I suspect it might become a lap rug instead. At least in Lockdown I can’t go out and buy extra fabric, so the stash should shrink.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    My sister-in-law's quilting group say, Whoever dies with the biggest stash wins. :wink:
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    ;) And a quilter really *could* take it with them! Nice and cushy. ;)
  • We are going to look at a small mobile home this Saturday, from what I have seen online, and report as viewed by my son, we may very well be making an offer. I think this will put some real fire under the sorting and unloading of the house. I am not looking forward to the moving but will welcome the move to be 12 minutes from our younger son rather than 2 hours. Also, it appears it is 5 minutes from a medical center and 15 minutes from a hospital, sounds great with Mr. Image's medical issues. Fingers crossed.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    {{{{{{{GI}}}}}}}

    Oh, cool! Best of luck!
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    GI, fingers crossed it ticks all the boxes.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Best of luck, GI!

    Our house in Fredericton was a mobile in a rather nice development just inside the city limits, but really almost out in the country. It had a view to die for over the Saint John River, and we loved it. Its lack of size (IIRC it was 16' x 75') was well disguised: it was very cleverly designed, with easily as much storage space as we needed, a bathroom at one end and an en-suite shower-room at the other, and all mod cons - even the laundry equipment was hidden in a cupboard in the hallway.
  • We made an offer on a mobile home. Interior living, dining, and kitchen area are great bright and light. Two bedrooms are very very tiny. Adjustments must be made. Lovely little sitting porch. The yard is a bit of a mess but that will be fun to restore. When the deal is closed a lot of measuring tape will be required to know what to keep and what needs to go. Mr. Image and I have decided we may each choose one favorite piece of furnishings that we must find a place for. I am choosing an antique bin table that his mother bought me for my birthday many years ago when we were first married. It is now in the kitchen but may end up in the living room with a lamp on it. I am trying to think this will be a fun adventure.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited November 2020
    May it indeed be a fun adventure, GI!

    You're absolutely right to keep things that you've got a "keeping" on; when I moved back to Scotland from Canada after David died, I sold virtually all the furniture along with the house, but the two Orkney straw-back chairs (rather like this), and the mock Charles Rennie Mackintosh chair (like this) were most certainly not negotiable, and although my new place is anything but big, they actually look very good in it, and I'm glad I brought them with me.

    eta: I'm trying to imagine what a "bin table" is, and Mr. Google is no help at all. :confused:
  • @ Piglet, try Mr. Google using the words a picture of a bin or baker's table. They have pull out bins to put flour and sugar and such in. Mine also has built-in pull out cutting boards. No room for such in our new kitchen but it holds happy memories for me, so even if it ends up in the living room holding a lamp I am using it. I could not get a link to work. I see why you kept the chairs. They are wonderful and well worth the trouble.
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