Re: Decluttering the Tortoise crate again
Posted: January 22nd, 2017, 5:31 am
The boxes have arrived chez TJ and he is pleased with his new possessions. Though slightly dismayed by additional volume of stuff. I am confident that as a disciple of Marie Kondo, though, he will deal with it competently . All I have here now is one box of paperwork and treasures, which I don’t mind keeping safe for him, and the inevitable Lego and Brio being saved for the hypothetical grandchildren. Might have to thin out the latter at some point.
The bedding is all sorted . The surplus has gone to charity or TJ. Two complete sets of single bedding are shrunk into Lakeland vacuum tote bags. Again that might be subject to further thinning in due course, perhaps I don’t need two, but it is clearly separated out so further discards would be easy. The pillows are down to six. The double bedding is on the beds. It’s a great feeling to have so little. I have never lived in a house where there weren’t stacks of linen in the airing cupboard, but really, what was is all for? Illness and wartime shortages, I suppose.
I have dealt with the shoe problem by using one of the drawers under my bed. The one farthest from the door. All the shoes I don’t seem to have worn recently have gone in there. The few pairs I do wear are in a convenient drawer in the chest of drawers nearest the door. The idea is that the unworn ones can rest peacefully for a while, and any needed can be retrieved. Eventually the ones that are left can go.
I made myself thoroughly miserable with Mum’s diaries the other day . Reading about when my older brother died, and so on. I do find all this old stuff very depressing anyway. I am puzzled about what to do with them. It seems so drastic to throw away 50 years of detailed records. They aren’t journals, just ordinary diaries with a few words about what happened each day, but over the years it adds up to everything. I had the idea of reading one each day and then binning them, but as I say it made me very sad. I hesitate to have another go. If anyone has any advice about this I should be interested to read it. What should I do with them?
I realised, when I cheered up next day, that I am taking a very tough approach to all this. One normally puts it all in the garage, cupboards and attics to deal with later. I am not letting myself store any category of thing away until it has been properly decluttered. The result is going to be good but the process is hard. I can understand now why my Dad still had drawers full of my Mums stuff. It is just easier to leave it, indefinitely.
T
The bedding is all sorted . The surplus has gone to charity or TJ. Two complete sets of single bedding are shrunk into Lakeland vacuum tote bags. Again that might be subject to further thinning in due course, perhaps I don’t need two, but it is clearly separated out so further discards would be easy. The pillows are down to six. The double bedding is on the beds. It’s a great feeling to have so little. I have never lived in a house where there weren’t stacks of linen in the airing cupboard, but really, what was is all for? Illness and wartime shortages, I suppose.
I have dealt with the shoe problem by using one of the drawers under my bed. The one farthest from the door. All the shoes I don’t seem to have worn recently have gone in there. The few pairs I do wear are in a convenient drawer in the chest of drawers nearest the door. The idea is that the unworn ones can rest peacefully for a while, and any needed can be retrieved. Eventually the ones that are left can go.
I made myself thoroughly miserable with Mum’s diaries the other day . Reading about when my older brother died, and so on. I do find all this old stuff very depressing anyway. I am puzzled about what to do with them. It seems so drastic to throw away 50 years of detailed records. They aren’t journals, just ordinary diaries with a few words about what happened each day, but over the years it adds up to everything. I had the idea of reading one each day and then binning them, but as I say it made me very sad. I hesitate to have another go. If anyone has any advice about this I should be interested to read it. What should I do with them?
I realised, when I cheered up next day, that I am taking a very tough approach to all this. One normally puts it all in the garage, cupboards and attics to deal with later. I am not letting myself store any category of thing away until it has been properly decluttered. The result is going to be good but the process is hard. I can understand now why my Dad still had drawers full of my Mums stuff. It is just easier to leave it, indefinitely.
T