Decluttering fiesta
Part of my to-do list project is to clean, tidy, organise and declutter all my stuff. This page deals with all the stuff that I decluttered.
Some bedroom stuff
I tidied my room and decluttered the bedside table, the dresser, the wardrobe, and the storage boxes beside the bed. I donated two sacks of clothing to charity, by the time I was done. They were mostly things like sweaters that had shrunk in the wash, stuff with stains that won't come out, things that need repairs that I don't like the item enough to take the time to do, things that I never wear (like leggings!), and items made of polyester. I dislike that fabric and I resent that a lot of plus-size clothing is made of it, purely because the manufacturers have a captive audience. The charity probably won't be able to sell the clothes I inflicted on them as second-hand clothes, even the ones in good condition, but they can sell them as recycled fabric to a company that makes carpet underlay. So nothing's wasted.
There were a couple of things I couldn't bring myself to get rid of: a raw silk dress that is too beautiful to give away, and a tablecloth embroidered a century ago by a relative. I put the silk dress in my sewing basket so the material can be reused. I may frame the embroidery and put it on the wall.
Now that I've decluttered this far, I'm looking at the storage containers beside the bed and thinking, do I really need those? The more decluttering I do, the more I want to do. :)
Dressing table, before:
And after:
Dressing table drawers, before:
And after:
Bedside, before:
And after:
Wardrobe, before:
And after:
Downstairs bathroom cupboard
I decided to declutter the cupboard under the sink in the downstairs bathroom. This is really embarrassing, as the pictures will show that although I did declutter the cupboard, I didn't bother dusting it because I'm lazy. But what the hell.
Before:
This bathroom is used by everyone in the house, so there was plenty of my stuff in the cupboard, but also plenty of other people's stuff. I did check with my housemates before I decluttered anything that belonged to them. Interestingly, some of the items weren't claimed by anyone in the house, leading me to believe that a Phantom Hoarder had been at work.
I threw out quite a few items. Starting with a dozen half-used bars of soap. One of the guys I live with hates using a small bar of soap, so he frequently chucks the used bars under the sink and unwraps a new one. I always mean to melt them down or something and make new bars out of them, but haven't ever got around to it. I may still do this in the future, but figured it was best to start fresh. So all the used soap went in the bin.
Other things I chucked in the bin or the recycling bins included some random crap such as empty or virtually empty shampoo bottles, something unmentionable that someone had wrapped in tissues and left to biodegrade (eww!), and several exfoliating mitts and puffs that I never actually use.
I recycled two hair-dryers, since I never blow-dry my hair, and moved a hot water bottle upstairs where it *cough* belongs.
There was a bottle of shower gel that I put in the shower where it will get used, and a bottle or two of mouthwash that I put in the upstairs bathroom, where I keep my toothbrush.
After:
I ended up with this slightly more organised but still dusty space.
It now contains only new bars of soap; a couple of bottles of glass cleaner and bathroom cleaner; a clean bathmat; a package of toilet tissue; and various replacement parts (shower fixtures, globe lightshade, and floor tiles). Probably I could store the replacement parts in the garage or sheds, but to me, it makes more sense to keep them in the first place I'd look for them.
I then scrubbed the bathroom with Vim and a vengeance, and took a long hot shower. Yay!
Bags
I've always had a thing for handbags. But even so, when they're spilling out of cupboards, when once I lost my keys for a month because I changed bags and left them in some pocket, I realised that I had a few too many. I even had the same bag in several different colours, including three Mulberry Mabel bags, one in gold snakeskin, one in blue, and one in purple.
Sometimes I think that the only safe place for an item in the universe is in my handbag. I really use it as my security blanket, in a way. As long as I know where my handbag is, I can find my purse, pen, keys, notebook and phone. With those items in hand, I can go pretty much anywhere the day takes me. I can't even sleep unless my handbag is in the room with me. I have handbag issues!
Part of the problem was that although I adored my bags, many of them were made of leather. Being a vegetarian, I would never buy a new leather handbag, but despite this, just carrying a leather item, even one I'd bought second-hand in a charity shop, wasn't terribly ethical.
So putting 'deal with my bags' on my to-do list was a big deal for me. As was putting 'get rid of leather items.'
I dug all my backpacks, handbags, purses, clutch bags, and messenger bags out of cupboards and from under the bed and the depths of the wardrobe. I piled them on the sofa, and suddenly couldn't see much of the sofa. Check it out. There are a total of 37 bags there.
Not counting the two pencil cases that are making a break for it on the bottom right of the picture. I haven't used a pencil since I was in school, please note. There were also two wallets. Ironically, I had been thinking that I needed to buy a new wallet, not realising that I already owned two perfectly serviceable ones.
Anyway, 37 is quite possibly too many bags, don't you think? :)
I decided to declutter any bag that wasn't vegan and any bag that I didn't use. I gave one bag away to a friend, donated one to my local Oxfam shop, sold a couple locally, and so far I've put 15 up on eBay. Happily, all of those sold. Unhappily, although I staggered the timing of the auctions' ends, all the buyers paid at much the same time, so once I'd wrapped up all the parcels, which took a full four hours, and put them in a box to take to the post office, I couldn't actually lift the box. Conveniently a friend dropped by then, and I shamelessly used the poor guy as a pack mule to transport them to the post office. It then took the poor post office staff half an hour to get them all in the mail, which made them late going home. So basically it was an epic saga of inconvenience for all concerned, which could all have been avoided if I'd just been a bit more frugal.
The upside is that I made enough money from selling my bags to pay the carpenter to convert my bus into a campervan.
As I type, I have more to do on this topic.