Decluttering challenge

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I feel ruddy fantastic tonight. Because today I got rid of a ton of crap - unwanted/old/ damaged stuff from my kitchen presses and hotpress, followed by a thorough clean and reorganisation of both. They are now positively stunning. I keep opening them to admire the fruits of my labour !
This was a massive achievement for me, as I'm a hoarder by nature - likely due to having grown up in a large family where things were often tight financially, and we treasured what we had.
Anyway, im now having a large measure of alcohol to celebrate my 'achievement '. 😄
 
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I had a large spare bedroom, which became a dumping ground for mainly clothes.
I am a hoarder for clothes, always thinking I will fit into them again!

In the end, I employed 2 local ladies that I found on FB or IG.

They went through everything. Filled 10 bags for the charity shop, several bags for the dump, a couple of piles for Ebay.
We also found some t-shirts from my late sibling, so they created a memory box to put them in.

They were wonderful. For the 2 of them, they charged £180 for 6 hours work...so only £15 an hour each.

I wrote an amazing review for them afterwards, and they got lots of work and put their rate up to £700!

I now have a beautiful spare bedroom, that friends can stay in when visiting.
 
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What do people do with products that are open but they're not going to use up? Is it ok to empty them in the sink then get recycle the packaging or is that not very environmentally friendly?
 
Thank you for sharing! I’ve just started clearing out some beauty products that I didn’t like and this is a great idea!
Usually find them at the back of the store.
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I'm nearly at the end of my clothes decluttering. I've had to try everything on and it's felt never ending. 😁
Thought I'd finally finished today, then I found some rogue items.
I also unearthed boxes of clothes put on one side to alter e.g. they were too big - now they're too bloody small!!!
I've put them on one side for my younger relatives to look at as they are gorgeous. 🤔 Tempted to go on Ozempic for them if it wasn't so scary 😁
I also found lots of gorgeous material I must have bought to make dresses etc, but never got round to it (out of sight out of mind).
Next to be tackled is all my paperwork including things I've pulled out of magazines - lots!
Then I'll have to do a digital detox.
I've decided once I get to the end I'll just start again from the beginning and work my way through one room at a time as there's always something!!!
 
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I looked on the beauty banks website and it says they can't accept opened products for hygiene reasons, only new and unopened,which I expected to be the case.
I don't think they would be able to tell with the stuff I put in. Some of it was brand new and the one I'd tried was a squeezy bottle used once.
Thanks for the info though. I can understand why they would say brand new as people can be disgusting with what they donate.
 
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The decluttering isn’t going particularly well I have to be honest!
But has anyone ever found a version of those vacuum sealed storage bags that actually work?
I want to pack my winter clothes away and pretend we’re having a summer!
 
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Have found the Declutter 5 things a week is working for me, have a basket I put things in during the week & Friday they're binned- no pressure for big Declutter.

Thanks to whoever suggested it on this thread
 
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The decluttering isn’t going particularly well I have to be honest!
But has anyone ever found a version of those vacuum sealed storage bags that actually work?
I want to pack my winter clothes away and pretend we’re having a summer!
I bought different brands and all I can say is that some work and when they do they are fab, but sometimes they don’t and I have no clue why and the expensive ones are not automatically better
 
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I need to do some de cluttering/optimising organising in the kitchen this weekend to make room for a ton of outdoors plates and cups and I’m absolutely dreading it 😱 it might finally be time to say goodbye to ancient chillies bottles I’ve lost the lids to!
 
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The decluttering isn’t going particularly well I have to be honest!
But has anyone ever found a version of those vacuum sealed storage bags that actually work?
I want to pack my winter clothes away and pretend we’re having a summer!
I bought some from Argos last summer and they were good. Nice and thick and the screw on lids where the hoover nozzle goes tightened up well. Clothes do need a press when you take them out but that's to be expected I guess.
 
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I haven’t been on here much recently but I think I mentioned I joined a decluttering membership thing. This week I posted in the chat group to give myself accountability and did my son’s bedroom. Bag of stuff for charity, couple of bags for the bin, a bag of bits I’ve listed for sale and I’ve tided/sorted his whole room including the toy cupboard of doom. I do still need to do one more cupboard. I’ve also cleared my desk area (again).

It is a never ending cycle but it must get to a point where the decluttering is minimal and quicker… as long as you work on what’s coming into the house too. I think that’s key… buying less, being more mindful and not just replacing all the stuff you declutter with fresh clutter.
 
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I was once quoted a speed declutter tip, which did actually work.
Putting a charity bag in each room, then going round each room individually and putting in the bag anything that you didn't use or find beautiful. Then putting each bag in a corner of that room till you had a moment to go through it.
When I first sat down to go through a bag I could easily see what had to go to the bin or charity, and I was left with things I'd actually just bought, which made me try them out, rather than immediately sticking them in a cupboard and forgetting about them.
It breaks down the declutter process into more manageable chunks I found.
I've nearly finished decluttering my house, but I'll use this to do another sweep as I've left tapes, music, books and paperwork, which really needs to be gone through, to decide if I really still want them.
By sweeping them into one container in each room, I can have my shelves/cupboards as I want them immediately, and then I can go through the bag in my own time.
This tip doesn't work if you have a helpful relative/friend, who decides to take your charity bag to the shop without asking you first!!!
 
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I went to sort some laundry last night , an array of clean washing has been dry and on hangers in the back bedroom for weeks!
And I keep going in there and just grabbing something to wear from the recently laundered stash!

So I immediately went into main bedroom & emptied all my clothes from the walk in wardrobe on top of the bed! And sorted it all into piles based on type.

Removed a batch of work dresses I tend to wear A/W and vaccum packed those away! Then put everything back tidy including the mountain of stuff from spare room.

I also have two jumbo packing boxes of shoes boots & bags in the walk in wardrobe from when I moved house 3 years ago!
So the mission for this weekend is to open those & potentially bring them all to the charity shop as I evidently don’t need them!

With them out of the way I can then look at some more shelving to add to the lower area to make better use of space.

Felt accomplished ….but was also beating myself up a bit as what I done in less than an hour last night could have been done ten times over in recent weeks & months 😜
 
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I had a HippoBag skip delivered yesterday. Once I get a few days off work I'm going to go through the house and be ruthless. If it doesn't have a home, or isn't useful, in the skip it goes
 
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Does anyone else have the problem that they can never seen to get rid of enough? I try to be ruthless but there's still always too much stuff, and I don't think I have a lot compared to some.

It feels like a neverending slog. I need some motivation.
 
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