BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!

Subject: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:03 PM

A couple of other Mudcatters and I have been sharing our efforts about de-cluttering our lives/living spaces. It just seems there are a lot of us who want to do this or are trying to do so or have actually been doing it! One mentioned they thought a de-cluttering thread, like the holding ourselves accountable thread, might be helpful and fun, so...here we go! Post your goals and or when you have done something positive to meet them. Depending on how it fills up, we might do it on a monthly clean-up the thread basis, or just leave it all to see how we've progressed. Let me know what you think, okay? I'll post my goals in the next one.(Is this the Year of Organisation?**BG**)

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:06 PM

Goals for now:

Clear books out of office, pass them onto children, friends, and/or sell. Decide where to sell and/or give away books.

Go through one bin from storage every other weekend. (Not more often as I have to figure out what to DO with it once I go through it!)

What I have done, so far:

One big bin of books waits for kids to stop by this week. Have three boxes ready to fill up with more books.

Have a stack of books to list for sale.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Emma B
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:08 PM

i don't have too many books, I just don't have enough house :(

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:18 PM

LOL...I used to have the same affliction, Emma!

I think I may list the books my kids don't want, here, as I'd rather give them to friends than strangers. Mind, I don't know if there will be anything Mudcatters are interested in and I would have to have help with postage, but if folks are be interested, I may just do that.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: GUEST,LilyFestre
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:25 PM

No time to post goals but I have decluttered my closet by sorting out clothes that are now much too big. I will have a yard sale later this summer to get rid of them once and for all. Many of them are now 5+ sizes too big! It's nice to go into my closet and be able to find something that actually fits instead of searching and searching. Pants that require safety pins are now all gone! YEAH!

I like the idea of this thread. More soon......

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: GUEST,LilyFestre
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:26 PM

As with the weight, I am trying to get rid of the excess. Who needs it?

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Becca72
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:27 PM

I have the same book fetish. I also have a touch of OCD, so what I'm doing is reading each one (the ones I haven't already read, that is) and deciding if it's something I want to keep. If not, I list it for sale on Amazon. Anything that won't make money on Amazon I bring to work. We have a neat little system at work...there is one table in the lunchroom where people leave the crap they don't want anymore. Sure enough, someone somewhere in the building takes it off our hands. It's a great system and I've already unloaded a bunch of stuff that way.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:32 PM

The only problem with clutter is when it comes to moving house; the more the clutter, the bigger the job. However, we've been renting now in Lytham St Annes these past few months until we get our house sold over in Durham. Fortunately our seaside flat in LSA is just about big enough to store all our stuff, most of it in boxes, but from time to time the need emerges to seek something out.

Can there be any greater fun than opening a box of goodies unseen for six months and exploring therein? Last week I was looking for my copy of Where Beards Wag All by George Ewart Evans, and in so doing I turned up a cassette copy of Gong Live 1974 bought at the Glastonbury Festival in 1983; 25-years-on it and played like a dream, and my heart soared afresh!

I suppose it depends on the quality of ones clutter; personally, I couldn't live without it.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: peregrina
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 12:54 PM

I'm joining this one!

goals for next two weeks: 1. fill a charity bag with clothes from the giveaway box and actually get rid of it. 2. Get council to collect fake sofa-chairs that give everyone a backache.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 01:15 PM

We're putting our CD collections onto an external drive at the moment... I thought it might be an opportunity to clear some stuff but duplicates are few and far between, and if there are any, they're with other stuff to keep (up to 4 versions of Mozart's Requiem) that isn't duplicated elsewhere.

After this concert on Saturday, there's going to be a clearout of craft stuff... possibly.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 01:20 PM

I have been busy at this for quite some time. I tried to hold a garage sale for several years but something always got in the way--some kid activity came up that I couldn't avoid or the weather turned nasty. Last fall I had to put a new roof on the house and after exploring the bank options (expensive and long term) I took money from my IRA and turned around and documented and donated a lot of functional high-dollar garage sale items to the Goodwill. They will offset the tax hit on the IRA early withdrawal. It felt good to move that stuff out.

My sister had sent boxes of books that I left unopened because I had no room for them. Finally in the late fall I unloaded all of the front room of bookshelves. This is a 15' stretch of shelves floor to ceiling. From their comingled place on the shelves I arranged them alphabetically and by fiction or nonfiction on the tiles in the living room (worked like a grid--very helpful.) As I worked I set the books I knew I wouldn't read or no longer wanted in books on the other side of the room. Those that I thought I could sell easily on eBay went in one box, but a lot of them simply went out the door. I rolled a book cart full of boxes into Half-Price Books and got about $30 for them. Not a lot, but the shelf space is worth it. I rearranged the shelving, moved the television and associated electronics, and was able to shelve what I wanted to keep from the five boxes of books my sister had sent.

I also donated a lot of clothes. I have a love seat in the living room where clothes are set that have been purged from closets and drawers. It has piled up since my daughter cleaned out her closet a couple of weeks ago. My house is still messy and cluttered, but I can't afford to just donate all of it. The stuff that I can ship easily and list reasonably on eBay will go that way. I sold an antique music box last month. 1890s, but missing a couple of important pieces. Someone in my great aunt's family decades ago had taken it apart and didn't reassemble it. I wasn't going to spend $1000 to $1500 to restore it, so I sold it to someone else to restore or use for parts. It was beautiful, but absolutely useless. And funny thing, it didn't bring me any closer to the family I didn't know very well. One less thing to collect dust.

And an interesting convergence of events--at the used book store yesterday I picked up a copy of Aslet's Clutter's Last Stand. I have one of his other books and read through it periodically, use it like a cheering section to move on to the next mess. This thread can serve as a tool also. I won't ever resort to the agony of one of those television decluttering programs--what a nightmare that would be! It was never so bad here that (except for when I wrote my thesis) I couldn't see the floor. That seems to be the tipping point for the television purge episodes. My goal is to have a lot of this out of here by summer so I can do the things I want to do in my spare time and not waste time addressing clutter. It really is a black hole, but you can turn it into deductions and cash and sometimes put it to good use by giving it to others.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 01:51 PM

Great ideas, folks!

I had a momentary pang of guilt in wondering if I would be an "Enabler" (Oh no!) if I offered books to other Mudcatters who are trying to de-clutter. **BG**

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Sorcha
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:09 PM

I'm down to the garage...and I don't DARE touch it! It's Man Stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: LilyFestre
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:18 PM

<-----stays away from garages, workshops and mole holes!

I always knew you were a smart woman, Sorch! *G*

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Sorcha
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:28 PM

Well, I have 'threatened' that if HE doesn't get it sorted and cleaned up before Labor Day...I WILL!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:29 PM

Goal #1: Get my friggin' back fixed...

Goal #2: Plant spring garden...

Goal #3: Complete above goals...

Goal #4: Figure out womenz...

Whew... Better stop there...

B;~)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: GUEST,Tinker
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:47 PM

I will join on this thread as the clutter issues are multiplying in direct relation to the size of the house.

Goals:
One bag of clothing per week out of the house and donated. (tax information appropriately logged)

One box per week in Dining room actually sorted of various miscellaneous papers and at least 50% added to recycling.

All all work materials moved to office and sorted there.

Spend 20 minutes per month with each kid til their clothes/rooms are also sorted.

Okay that's it for now. I have filled a large recycle bin in the dining room so now it's on to the clothing....

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: bobad
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 10:18 PM

I've got two tennis elbows to get rid of, anyone need 'em?

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: GUEST,strad
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 06:09 AM

You people are giving me a guilt complex!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: GUEST,Appaloosa Lady
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 08:11 AM

Is it my imagination or is this thread mainly full of women?



"I have a love seat in the living room..."

Goodness Gracious! I'd hang on to that if I were you...


"Goal #4: Figure out womenz..."


...Bobert may want to buy it. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: maeve
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 08:44 AM

A Decluttering Shanty

We are clearing out the clutter
All that space makes my heart flutter
Sell old clothes to buy some butter
Time to make a cake.

Books collect in piles and boxes
Some to give to friends- those foxes
Who have fed us books and loxes
Now must take them back.

Where'd I get that old recliner?
We don't need the mismatched china.
Sell it: fly to Asia Minor
Or Sascatchewan.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: gnu
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 08:46 AM

Hehehee...

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: maeve
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 08:46 AM

With credits for rhyming suggestions to Giok and gnu, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 09:22 AM

We Freecycled a box of magazines, three bags of wire and wooden hangers, four boxes of books, and a large dresser.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Alice
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 10:01 AM

For over two years now, I have had a job that keeps me working out of town most of the year, so I have not had time to be home.
This is my third week home, and I've been able to declutter. I cleaned the closet, filling a box with old clothes. I purged filing cabinet and stacks of papers, and filled THREE large black trash bags with papers, not counting all the papers I shredded.
It feels great to be home and to be able to do this.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 03:14 AM

I suppose a day home sick today could be filled with sorting papers... at least the shredder can double as a DSB*.

LTS




































* Designated Sick Bucket - you had to look didn't you!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Tinker
Date: 07 Mar 08 - 03:59 PM

Okay I spent 20 minutes in Zach's room today and hey there actually is a floor in there. --- but I really don't want to look in the closet....

I met my Dining room goal for the week and returnt one box of stuff to my church office.

Now if I can just get a bag of clothes out of here tommorrow.....

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Mar 08 - 04:11 PM

Way to go, Tink!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Mar 08 - 04:44 PM

I have a couple of piles of clothes that should be sorted this weekend. It would be nice to clear up that seating area, even if it is my designated staging area for moving stuff out of the house.

I found a place that recycles fibers, so I'll be taking my garments, good and worn out, to Thrift Town in Fort Worth. I already recycle paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, aluminium. All of that fibre can also be recycled and doesn't belong in the dump. Thrift Town has a contract with a rag broker. They sort clothes so that what sells in the U.S. stays here, the clothes that are good but too redundant (in the printed message) go to places like Africa (baled by the ton--that's why all of the Nike shirts and such in the photos of African refugees in particular) and those clothes that are worn out go into bales to go to paper mills, etc.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 02:54 AM

I'm still in two minds about my local council's committment to recycling.

We used to have two collections, one took recyclable stuff and the other ordinary garbage. Now it's one collection and although they ask you to put the recycleables into orange bags and garbage into black bags, it all goes into the same truck. So... how does the garbage truck know which ones to crush and which ones to recycle?

I did managed to offload one bag of unwanted papers... hey, it's a start!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: peregrina
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 03:30 AM

Took the current project's book piles out of the living room and moved it all to the study. Back to writing at a real desk!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 04:59 AM

Since my Step-daughter and her family moved back to their place we've painted a little but due to extreme laziness we still haven't opened all the cardboard boxes full of 'stuff' that we brought up here. Mind you when we open them and wonder how we managed without all the 'stuff, none of it will get thrown out, so we'll have just as little room.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 05:58 AM

If Bonnie succeeds in rehoming my adoptive harmonium, I intend to buy a cupboard and christen it the Interim.

The Interim will be for things that I use every now and again, and can't find when I need them: the plug-in timers for when I go off travelling and need lights and radio to switch on and off; the minding-a-cat-for-a-week food bowls; the Union Jack purse for sterling for when I'm in England.

Meanwhile, I have St Anthony plagued to find that Feliway plug I unwarily unplugged to give to a friend, and lost. How many places can a Feliway plug hide?

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 08:25 AM

Perhaps it's eloped with a travel iron?

St Anthony must be on overtime - the amount of stuff I've lost over the last few months... I'm thinking of bypassing him and going straight for St Jude - most of this year is a lost cause!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: freda underhill
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 08:32 AM

this is the thread for me. Like alice i've been working away from home (3 years) and am now back. I live in a co-op, + have renovated so I now have my own place (downstairs). going through 30 years of memories - keeping the good ones!

Boxes of books to go through, I take them up the road to second hand shops and give away the others. have been giving away clothes, shoes and music.

and discovering a lot of artwork, beautiful things, materials and dreams.

what's left feels lovely, but there's still about five boxes to go through .. aaargh!!!!!

freda

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: maeve
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 08:40 AM

Freda it seems you've made lots of progress already! Welcome back to your home, and enjoy finding the treasures.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Becca72
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 08:47 AM

My next project is to go through all the sheets, towels and extra blankets and pick out the ones I don't use anymore for whatever reason and donate them to my local Animal Refuge League. They are always in need of these things. My only rule is when I drop the stuff off I'm not allowed to go into the cat room...3 is enough!!!
:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: maeve
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 09:53 AM

I just packed a trunk full of things to go to the recycling shed in town. What's that I see: open floor space? Ahhhhhhhh. Keep it that way!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 09:39 PM

I have tons of towels from my Dad's house--I'm not sure what he used them all for. I kept it figuring that when my kids get ready to move out they will take some of this great usable stuff. So far my daughter has some, but she's at college in a house with four others and can't store anything, just keep what she needs now. What she takes to her own home later may still be residing in my cupboards.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 09:56 PM

Maggie, I've given up on keeping orinary stuff like that for the kids. When they do finally get married, move out for real, whatever, they want All Matching New Stuff so I just take that kind of stuff to the animal shelter (towels are good there) or the 2nd hand store.

The only things I keep for The Kids are the family heirlooms.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: open mike
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 12:29 AM

hooray for freecycle..i got rid of a stove that was in the yard for ages, and also an ancient, well, sort of old flat bed scanner that was given to me. www.freecycle.org is a great resource.

i also scrubbed the floor in the bathroom....or at least part of it...
it is good to go thru papers when the wood fire is going, so i can put them in there and they are gone...here is an e-mail i get occasionally
from www.OrganizeYourselfOnline.com

You know you deserve to be clutter-free. What you may not be sure of is how to get there.

So to help you, here is a quick list of ten great steps you can start taking right now:

10. Know what you want to do - Everything starts with your goals.

9. Work with a friend - You will be amazed at how much more you can accomplish.

8. Track your progress - Make your successes count.

7. Stay curious - The more you want to know, the more you will learn.

6. Seize the day - Each year gets underway only once!

5. Give something back - Sharing with others motivates you to accomplish more.

4. Take small steps - It will not happen all at once.

3. Keep at it - Finish what you start.

2. Inspire yourself - Plant seeds today that will blossom for you in the future.

1. Put it all together - Try your own customized program with the Organize Yourself Online service.

If you have ever considered getting your Organize Yourself Online program underway, now is surely the time to take action.   This is the only program you can find that allows you to combine all the steps you need to truly get organized - now!

The demand for the program can be overwhelming this time of year, so do not miss out.   
www.OrganizeYourselfOnline.com

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 12:07 PM

The usual procedure for Freecycling is to pick up what you want, not expect (or offer) delivery. However there was a recent opportunity to do some real good AND get rid of a bulky, unwanted item in a way that honored one of the kids it had belonged to long, long ago. So we made an adventure out of a day off, and delivered it, and helped get it into the home we gave it to when it turend out that the recipient would not be able to handle it, physically-- we already had it on a dolly so it left the van still strapped on to that, and went neatly up the stairs and into the kitchen.

I like other flexibilities that Freecycling offers, too. We belong to several regional groups that are beyond our home-range but within our travel-through range, so dropping things off is actually helpful for us because that way we can get rid of more stuff. :~) And more quickly.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Thompson
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 04:50 PM

Surfaces. That's my current obsession. I've realised that the reason I don't dust and polish is that dusting any surface requires taking 20 things off it. So I'm clearing all the surfaces.

Whoah, it's going to look strange without all that beautiful but blinding stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 05:08 PM

I have an antique metal and enamel table in the kitchen that usually lives under an extended counter edge. I pull use it as smooth surface for pie crusts or to make poteca. Today I moved it beside a different counter and set up one wing and moved the microwave from that counter onto the table top. We'll see how well this works--if my son will slow down enough the first few times through the kitchen to not smash the table in its new position. It isn't in the way, but it does narrow the corridor a little. He's 16. This may be a bull-in-the-china-shop experiment, but I do love having that counter top cleared.

There was a box on the kitchen floor that I've dealt with. Little things sometimes can be the biggest hurdles. It was an old cardboard wine case full of old grocery receipts (in monthly envelopes) and check registers and flimsy copies. Over the last few weeks I shredded and recycled and today I finished shredding and even burned some of it (got tired of shredding). That box is flattened and in the back of the pickup to drop in the paper/cardboard bin down behind City Hall next time I go past.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Thompson
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 05:30 PM

No, no, no! Clearing one surface by filling another is *cheating*! The Curse of the Adolescent Stumbler will strike you.

Wow, why shred grocery receipts? Are your soybean buys secret?

But well done on that box!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 11:26 AM

No, they're not secret, but until a few years ago account numbers used to be on the receipts. Even without debit card or credit card accounts listed there is still often personal information present. I want to remove temptation to go through the trash if someone spots receipts before it gets picked up. It gets shredded and commingled, junk mail, receipts, etc. The income tax formula for subtracting state and local sales tax is sufficient so I don't keep them for that (except one year when I bought a bunch of computer stuff, then the receipts saved me a lot of money). I put them in an envelope for each month based on past experience--if you don't save it then you'll need it later. For some silly little thing. But after a while they don't need to be kept. These had been set aside (out of sight. . . ). Now they're history.

Space next to stove is good thing, and using a table is okay (I dropped a few words in that last text, (I pull use it as smooth surface for pie crusts or to make poteca. should have said "I pull it out to use as a smooth surface"). What I need to observe is: is this the best table for the space, the best way to use the microwave and the table, or do some or all of these things need to go? I have lots of kitchen gadgets I inherited, so some purging there makes sense. I have two microwaves. Two bread machines. Etc.

I was reading Clutter's Last Stand again and identified a couple of more things to go through--in particular, the yardage that my sister sent from my Mom's estate. It was set neatly in drawers in a dresser I use for sewing stuff, but I didn't look at it critically. I could probably pull at least half of that out, and if I don't make room for sewing again pretty soon, probably more than that! In a clutter quiz at the front of the book one of the questions is "I can save this old pilly blanket for a quilt bat"--he got me where I live there! I have way too many blankets here. Some are truly interesting antiques, textiles worth preserving that can still also be used. But a lot are the indeterminate-age fuzzy double-sized blankets that should probably be donated to the Goodwill or next time there is a tornado.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: mrdux
Date: 10 Mar 08 - 02:29 PM

My promise was to clear out the basement storage area/utility room this winter. Well here it is, almost the beginning of spring, and I'm pleased to report that the project is almost completed. When I was single and living alone, I have thrived amid massive, almost legendary, material chaos and clutter. But once into the thick of it, even I was amazed at how much stuff can accumulate in a mere eight years (when we joined households), and how fairly uncomplicated the sort vs. dump process has been. I found my kindergarten class picture (c. 1957) and my old stamp collection, and the braid cut off during my wife's first childhood hair-cutting event. Definitely keepers. I found an old 12-string guitar (a West German Cordova -- see thread above the line), status at present unclear. I also found a box of bank statements from 1990 (two banks ago); a bag of dead batteries; a large bag of broken coat hangers; a pair of analog cable converter boxes; a severely wounded CD player, a dead televison, and an even deader computer box -- a burned out motherboard and no hard drive; several boxes of clothes that haven't been worn since the Reagan administration. . . Our neighborhood association is having a clean-up day in a couple weeks: bring out your dead electronics and difficult-to-recycle plastics, and they will do the recycling for us (I got a reprieve from the end-of-winter deadline to take advantage of the service). . . between that and Goodwill, I should only have to make one trip to the dump. And, nearing the end here, it looks like I've managed to do this with room to spare for everything that actually needs room.

Wish me luck on the dash to completion.

michael

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: Thompson
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 02:49 AM

I have a lovely old 1960s table I have to find a loving home for. It's inch-and-a-half-thick parana pine, a rectangle with rounded edges, with a central pedestal - a beautiful table that just doesn't fit where I'm living now.

Must put it in one of the Irish sales papers - Buy & Sell or the like.

And then there's that harmonium. If I found a home for that, I could put a cupboard in its place.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: freda underhill
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 04:50 AM

Clearing one surface by filling another is *cheating*!

well I've been doing a bit of that. Last night I went through two boxes of old drawings, projects, magazines and threw out two large bags full of stuff. Now I'll be putting new things in the boxes and putting them under my bed. I also spent time matching socks, and threw out some singles, and going through tangled necklaces and sort them into two boxed - clunky beads and small beads.

the architect comes tomorrow for his final inspection so I'm doing some more polishing tonight. I told him not to expect a Vogue environment. I hope he likes magenta, lilac and electric blue.

And I have several enormous old books - Grimms fairy Tales, Oscar Wilde, Australian Bush ballads etc. They might end up under the bed too!

freda

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering accountability - heave ho!
From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work
Date: 11 Mar 08 - 08:32 AM

Freda, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

You have committed the ultimate sin... throwing away single socks... now all their partners will appear mysteriously and be bereft of companionship and you'll be left with another drawer full of single socks again.

This is the reason I gave up wearing socks much of the time. Couldn't be bothered matching them up. The pair I've got on now only match by the grace of the Deity, I just grabbed two out of the pile.

LTS