clean sweep

August 8, 2019August 8, 2019 ~ Gillie ~ 4 Comments

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I started this blog in order to be transparent about our decluttering journey. That was six years ago. We have a lot less unnecessary stuff now than we did then and are quite a lot better about what we let across our threshold in the first place. But one area where I have always had a problem is my studio.

It doesn’t usually look like this! This is the “I have pulled everything out and now need to sort it” photo. Which is the method that works best for me – get it out, sort it. I know it doesn’t work for everyone but each to their own and if I had to give advice I would counsel choosing one area (a room, a cupboard, a drawer – the size doesn’t matter) and emptying it all out. It does look a mess, it may seem insurmountable, but seeing it all in one place both shocks you into action and, strange as it may seem, is easier and quicker to address than pulling out items one by one and considering them individually. You can make sweeping sorting decisions and then tackle each pile in more detail. Also when you see it all in one place it is easier to spot multiple duplicates and far easier to let go of the ones you don’t need.

But back to craft rooms/studios/cupboards. For me this is always an area of rapid accumulation because I can always justify keeping fabric oddments, clothes that are past repairing but the fabric is gorgeous, yarn ends etc. because I may be able to use them in a project later and hey I am upcycling/reusing so that’s good isn’t it? No it isn’t because nine times out of ten those oddments never do get used by me. They (a) take up space and (b) could be taken by somebody who actually will use them.

Taking up space: my kist was full of fabric and yarn. Not only was it a nightmare trying to find something I knew was in there, half the time I didn’t know what was in there. I found both distressing and stressful and made me feel terribly guilty.

Somebody else will use them: I hope that the people who did take them (via Freegle) will use the yarn and fabric and it won’t just fill up one of their cupboards, but I can’t police that. I hope that somebody gets some pleasure out of them, I hope that they find a new life and new use and are appreciated.

A couple of samples of the oddments that went to new homes.

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Everything from cashmere to acrylic. Including several balls from the same dye batch.

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Hi-Vis to Harris Tweed.

My kist is now half as full. I know what is in there and am shocked by how much yarn I have accumulated and didn’t really know about because it was buried under bags of stuff . I went to a wonderful wool festival last weekend and had a fabulous time admiring the indie dyed yarn and batts. I attended two extremely good workshops and had a fun time with friends at the evening event, but I bought nothing. I have started to allocate my yarn stash to specific projects and not only do I not need any more yarn, actually I don’t want any. I want to use and appreciate what I have first.

My studio now

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Finally fired up by success in my studio I spent a day whizzing around the house and removing the stuff that had been in my eyeline for departure for far too long. My friend’s charity is very pleased to have received all this, and my house is breathing a little more easily now.

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Love Gillie x

making room

January 1, 2019January 1, 2019 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

I love the period between Christmas and New Year. I am fortunate enough to be able to spend that week gently chilling at home. After the hustle and bustle of the preparations for the festive season I enjoy the sameness about each day and forgetting which day of the week it is. Many years ago when the girls were still at home we had a huge blackboard (about 3 x 2 ft) in the kitchen upon which we wrote shopping lists, messages etc. After I we had eaten Christmas lunch I would ceremoniously wipe the board clean and write in capital letters “MUMMY’S DAY OFF – FOOD IN THE FRIDGE!”

I don’t need to put the message out quite so clearly now, but the message is the same. For the next day or so meals are assemblies of existing preparations, Mummy is going to knit/read/walk/watch old movies. Because I am more still, there is less running around, I have time to have a closer look at my surroundings and notice how they have changed over the year. What has gone, but more often, what has crept in. Time for a whizz round. Not a deep declutter of the kind that takes a couple of weeks at least, but a focus on one or two areas where accumulation has taken on epic proportions.

A few years ago whilst I was visiting my father in the States the girls and the Boss arranged for some beautiful waxed pitch pine shelves and bookcases to be built in the the sitting room as a Mothering Sunday present. Because of the weird shape and history of our house (the original dates back to the 13th Century and bits have been added on all over the place over the years) we have a lot of doors and a lack of window sills and wall space for shelves. For the first time ever I was able to display some of my precious carvings, silverware and photographs. Books could come out of the dark and DVDs and CDs no longer made tall skyscraper skylines behind sofas and chairs.

However, as we all know, stuff expands to fill an empty space and as I was curled up with my knitting last night I knew that the DVDs and books in one corner of the sitting room just had to be cleared.

Two bin bags later it looks like this. Not exactly minimalist (there was some discussion over some of the DVDs – they are now on a secret watch list and may yet have only a short time left in the house!), but there is now order and some space.

Why not give a small corner a quick makeover, you won’t believe how much better it makes you feel.

If you are struggling to decide what should stay and what should go, then turn to William Morris, he always has the answer;

“If you want a golden rule that will fit everybody, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

Love Gillie x

virtual decluttering

December 28, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

At this time of year as the last of the turkey is finished and the empty chocolate boxes and biscuit tins glare accusingly at you across the kitchen most of us say “ENOUGH – there is too much stuff everywhere. I need a sort out” And indeed we probably all do, however there is one kind of sort out you probably haven’t done for a while, if at all, and I guarantee it is the easiest and quite the most satisfying.

We were away for Christmas. I took my phone and iPad but I left my laptop at home. Consequently when I turned it on this morning there were thousands of emails waiting to download. A goodly number went straight into the spam folder but my inbox was still full of stuff I didn’t want to read. Most of the emails were newsletters from companies I had bought from online or somehow seem to have indicated that I was indeed desperate to receive their regular missives, when that could not have been further from the truth. The rest were those that had slipped through the assorted spam filters.

So armed with tea and toast and honey I began the process of gutting my inbox.

There are two options to inbox de-cluttering. The simplest is to block. In Outlook (which I use) you simply right-click on the email and select the “block” option. There are, however, downsides to this option.

If you have bought something from Company X and they have automatically put you on their mailing list and you block them, the next time you want to buy from them you won’t get any confirmation emails etc.
It doesn’t work for automated mailing lists.

So you have to go for option two. A little more cumbersome and time-consuming (hence the tea and toast) but much more effective.

Where you have an email from a company or interest group they will most likely have used an automated bulk mailer such as Mailchimp. Somewhere deep down in the bottom of the email and in a font so small requiring excellent eyesight or very good glasses you will find the unsubscribe option.

emails

Click on this and a hyperlink will open. Sometimes the message is an automatic “you have been unsubscribed”, sometimes you have to go through a few hoops such as inputting your email address, confirming your desire never to hear from them again. Almost all ask you to say why you are leaving, this is usually optional and I never bother. Frankly the options they give are so banal and similar that if there is somebody analysing them they have a very boring job and I’m not going to add to it.

You will probably find your junk mail box suddenly fill up with emails from all the companies who you have asked to remove you from their email lists asking if it was a mistake! Oh yes, my favourite was from Vintage by Hemmingway (which I like but I don’t need a whole bunch of emails telling me when all their events are around the country when I only want to go to the Festival of Thrift) who asked me if I had perhaps forwarded the email to a friend so that they could share the love and the friend had clicked on the unsubscribe link and inadvertently tried to unsubscribe me by mistake … Really?

Now I have a lovely relatively empty inbox containing only the few emails I need and want. The added advantage is that when a spammy email sneaks in you can easily spot it and zap it at once!

reclaim your garden

June 6, 2016June 6, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ Leave a comment

Excess photo alert: the sun doesn’t often show his face around here!

Here in the UK the sun has been out for three whole days. That is little short of a miracle and in true British fashion, the weather is pretty much the number one topic of conversation. It is wonderful, I am a summer person, I hate wearing lots of clothes and can’t wait to be in flip flops loose tops and cut off trousers and leggings. It certainly makes deciding what to wear in the morning much easier when you only need to wear two items!

Yesterday I took the day off, no work whatsoever. I lay in the hammock all afternoon and read. At the perfectly appointed time The Boss came out with a large glass of Pinot Gris. At this point for fear of wasting the Pinot by inadvertently watering the grass with it I moved to the table and continued to read, sip and listen to the birdsong.

What has made this year in the garden so wonderfully easy is that we decluttered all the outbuildings two years ago. We no longer have half a deckchair hanging around just in case. Boxes of garden toys that the girls have grown out of have gone. In fact yesterday morning the trampoline frame (the pad had long gone) was picked up by a chap who is going to use it to make a polytunnel (Freegle is wonderful for letting things go to new and better homes). We now use our hammock and deck chairs, I sit out in the courtyard with a cup of tea, we play ping pong in the meadow.

Dolly enjoying a doze in the sun.

It is so easy to stuff seasonal things away where you can’t see them out of season, but then come summer (or winter and where are the snow chains?) and the effort of digging through all the rubbish is so depressing that it is easy to be tempted by those special offers and just go out and by some new chairs or ping pong bats.

Remember the Hanging Gardens of Brancepeth? Now look at them.

It’s lovely out there, take advantage of that, clear out one bit of one garage/outbuilding/shed. Reclaim your summer.

Love Gillie x

the maybe box

May 27, 2016May 27, 2016 ~ Gillie ~ 3 Comments

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Over the years I have read a lot of decluttering books, blogs, articles. I have listened to people talking about their own journey and heard people give advice. Almost every single person, regardless of their methodology, rationale or philosophy advised people to have three piles: In, Out and Maybe.

I have never had a Maybe.

When you are decluttering a drawer or a cupboard you are examining not only physical stuff but also your emotions. Even if the drawer is in the kitchen there will be an emotion attached to they stuff you are putting through your hands. The meals you have cooked with that whisk. The kind thought behind the gift of spiraliser you have never used. Examining your emotions is part of the process. Accept the emotion, accept the memory and unless it meets the pre-Raphaelite code of “do you believe it to be beautiful or know it to be useful” then let it go. There is no inbetween.

So why have a maybe box? Because you haven’t completed the journey for the item. You haven’t decided it it is either beautiful or useful and so you put it in the maybe box. I can guarantee that almost all if not all of that box will never make it out of the door. The mere fact that it has gone into Maybe is proof that you are not ready to let it go. So why pretend?

Furthermore, you come to the end of the declutter that day and feel great because your drawer is now clear, neat and ordered. There are things that have been thrown away and some put in a bag to go to charity (tomorrow not sometime next week….!) and then there is that Maybe box. You have to find somewhere to put the maybe box, probably somewhere you can’t see it so you forget about it until the next declutter.

Over the course of the month, things from the Maybe box will work their way back into that drawer and it is no longer neat and ordered but reverts back to its original state. All that work for so little return. That wonderful feeling you had when you first decluttered that drawer comes back to haunt you and worse you tell yourself that decluttering clearly doesn’t work, at least not for you. And you give up.

All because you had a Maybe box.

Be strong, let it go or keep it. The important thing is to not only make the decision but to know why you have made it, in fact once you have done that the decision is not only easy but becomes a no-brainer.

Love Gillie

decluttering changed my life

July 1, 2014 ~ Gillie ~ 19 Comments

One year on. Remember this?

and this?

Well now it looks like this.

In fact that is a mere fraction of what has gone. As I write I have six more bags to go to charity and the Singers have been dispatching some of the Boss’s clothes on Ebay. So what next? What have I learned?

What next? Well there is still a huge amount to go. The Boss is slowly working through his wardrobe and I will have to work at his pace. The study still has far too much in it and there are a few black holes around the house to which we have been turning a blind eye. The videos and CDs are a case in point. But as the house has emptied we have begun to turn our attention towards the garden. I have plans to turn our garden into a mainly physic garden where all the plants are either medicinal, edible or have other practical uses. Meanwhile the Boss has finally got on top of the meadow and is planning the wild flower border around it. Currently it’s mainly vetch, poppies and cornflowers, but give him time.

What have I learned? How long do you want me to go on?

Don’t give up Like learning to play a musical instrument it is hard at first. You can see other people knocking off a snazzy sounding concerto whilst you are still struggling to coordinate your left and right hand sufficiently to get three notes out in the correct order. But everybody has to start at the beginning. Everybody has to practice, practice, practice before they are a master of the art. Decluttering is no different.

It does become easier. Trust me, you will come to a point when you are instinctively picking up things that you don’t want or need and putting them in the charity bag or recycling.

Let go of guilt. Just because it was a gift or a family heirloom does not mean that you have to keep it. Offer the latter to somebody else in the family to caretake if it will cause a ruction. So you bought a dress and have never worn it but keep it because you feel you must. Don’t. Let it go. Sell it on eBay BNWT!

Space is beautiful. The things you love can shine when they are bordered by space, space in itself is something to love and cherish.

Don’t clutter it up the space. My entire summer wardrobe fits in less space than my shirts used to take up. My bookshelves contain books I want to read. I know every shoe I possess, I no longer open a shoe box and look at the contents with surprise.

As I decluttered my belongings I decluttered my mind. Now I can’t promise that this is true for everyone or that the two were actually connected. I suffer from acute and severe depression, the kind where all is well and suddenly for no apparent reason the lights are all turned off. I made an active decision after a particularly nasty attack that I was going to think differently. Thus it is quite possible that my mind declutter is down to that. Either way. This year I have gone from unsure what to do with my life stay at home mum to published author with a second book in the works; professional tarot reader; workshop facilitator and have plans for a small handmade toiletry collection. As I decluttered I became more focused. The things I focussed on were not those that I had expected but I am loving life and have big plans for the future.

Not everyone likes it. A bit like losing weight and discovering that not all your friends are as keen on the new you. I have been told all sorts of reasons why “they” can’t do it; why “they” could never let go of books (heaven forbid!) and so forth. Maybe they really can’t or maybe they are jealous. Whatever the reason it has nothing to do with me so I shall continue my path.

I have discovered my own style. As I have let go of things that I didn’t like, need or want I have discovered a style that is mine and I like it.

I have made some amazing friends and some incredible business contacts. I have discovered crossovers and potential joint projects with people I probably would never have met had I not started, and gone public with this journey.

I have more time. I can’t explain this one, I still live in the same house, I still have the same family. Perhaps it is more that I am more mindful of my time, I don’t fritter it away. As I am only keeping things I cherish I am learning to cherish my time as well.

And finally, I did it because I wanted to. You have to want to.

101 things you could let go of right now

June 11, 2014June 11, 2014 ~ Gillie ~ 6 Comments

I love lists. Don’t you? That immensely satisfying feeling as you cross off the things you have done. Decluttering is perfect for list makers. You can break up the clutter by room, by cupboard, by person, by subject area. Oddly enough, I have done none of these things. I have just started in one part of the house and worked my way round, over and over again. Then I came across this blog by Joshua Becker 101 Physical That Can Be Reduced In Your Home . Oh the joys, I am so doing this today. I have already crossed off those things I have already reduced to the bare minimum or we don’t have. But so much more to go. I’m all fired up and ready to give the remaining clutter the heave ho.

Could you take this list round your home? How much could you cross off today?

Glassware
Cookbooks
Kitchen gadgets
~~Kitchen appliances~~
~~Pots / pans~~
~~Mixing bowls~~
Tupperware
Water pitchers
~~Magazines~~
~~Newspapers~~
Books
Over-the-counter medicine
~~Make-up~~
~~Barretts / hair clips / ponytail holders~~
Cleaning supplies
~~Personal beauty appliances (hair dryer/curlers, electric razors)~~
~~Bottles of shampoo/conditioner~~
Photos
~~Photography supplies~~
Sewing supplies
Craft supplies
Scrap-booking supplies
CD’s
DVD’s
Decorative items
~~Candles~~
~~Figurines~~
Crystal
~~Vases~~
~~Audio/visual components~~
~~Audio/visual cables~~
~~Computer equipment~~
~~MP3 players~~
~~Furniture~~
~~Video game systems~~
~~Vdeo games~~
~~Video game accessories~~
Shirts / shorts
Pants
Coats
Dresses
~~Hats~~
~~Clothes hangers~~
Shoes
Winter gear
Jewelry
~~Purses~~
~~Coins~~
P~~illows~~
~~Towels~~
~~Linen set~~s
Candle Holders
~~Televisions~~
~~Items on your bulletin board~~
Magnets
~~Artwork~~
~~Mirrors~~
~~Home office supplies~~
~~Pens/pencils~~
~~Old batteries~~
Tools
Hardware
Rolls of duct tape
~~Coolers~~
Manuals
~~Phone books~~
~~Coupons~~
Sporting good supplies
~~Sports memorabilia~~
~~Aluminum cans~~
~~Glass bottles~~
~~Automobile fluids~~
~~Automobiles~~
~~Scrap pieces of lumbe~~r
Brooms
Rakes
Shovels
Garden tools
Plant containers
~~Empty cardboard boxes~~
Board games
~~Puzzles~~
Decks of cards
~~Unused wedding gifts~~
~~Baby clothes~~
~~Baby supplie~~s
Old schoolbooks/papers
~~Army men~~
~~Bath toys~~
~~Toy balls~~
~~Toy cars/trucks~~
~~Toy musical instruments~~
Stuffed animals
~~Plastic toys~~
Childrens’ old school papers
Suitcases
~~Soda~~
~~Alcohol~~
~~Processed foods~~
Christmas / seasonal decorations
~~Cable channels~~

life is easier without clutter

May 3, 2014May 3, 2014 ~ Gillie ~ 4 Comments

I was talking with my mother earlier today and the conversation inevitably came around to decluttering. The area in question being her wardrobe. She maintains that there is nothing in her wardrobe that the doesn’t like nor anything that doesn’t fit. On the other hand there is enough in there for her to have just taken out several boxes of clothes because the wardrobe was full. It is not a small wardrobe.

That freaked me out. The idea of having that many clothes was scary. I love the fact that it doesn’t take me ages to get dressed in the morning. I love the fact that I have discovered tops and bottoms that I would never have thought of putting together look fabulous. I love the fact that I am much better at layering and thus don’t need so many jumpers (even in the north of England).

So I began to think of other areas where decluttering has actually made my life easier.

The kitchen. I never have to clean a finickety garlic press, it’s long gone, I grate garlic now. I am seriously wondering about keeping my Kenward Chef. I rarely use it. Today I made Bakewell tart and homemade custard for supper. I did the whole thing by hand and with a hand held beater. I would never have bothered to make pudding if I had to get out the Kenward and then wash all the bits up. I make bread by hand because I enjoy the process. The yoghurt maker died and I discovered I could make yoghurt just as easily without it. The kettle died so we started using our stove top one on the aga and/or the hob. Just as quick. Leave it on the side of the aga and the water is always warm and there is a nice space on the kitchen surface where the kettle used to be.

The knicker drawer! I cleared out every single item of underwear other than recently purchased bras that fit and knickers that I wouldn’t mind being caught wearing if I was run over by a bus. To the latter I added 4 pairs of bamboo knickers that I adore and with which I will be replacing all current incumbants as they wear out. Early mornings are so much easier when there are only five pairs of knickers and a couple of bras in your drawer.

The compost bin. The kitchen compost bin has been replaced by a smaller one and the garden compost bin moved closer to the house. Net result nobody minds emptying the compost. That is a BIG result in our house.

Books. Having got rid of books I had held onto for all sorts of reasons, but books I was never going to read again I have discovered some gems that was hidden behind all the rest. Books I had forgotten I had bought but have loved reading …. and passing on.

Oddly enough the area I was most scared about decluttering. The area where I thought I needed all those bits and pieces was the kitchen. That has proved to be the area where decluttering has been the most productive.

“oops I seem to have decluttered” method

April 29, 2014 ~ Gillie ~ 8 Comments

Following my earlier post about Marie Kondo’s top ten decluttering tips it seems that the world falls into two categories. I suppose you could call it the Decluttering Marmite Test. Those who do it all at once (me) and those who need to do a bit at a time.

Once you have been decluttering for a while you realise that you can be both. This was brought home to me today while I was putting away the washing. After a while it becomes almost impossible to do anything without culling a few items here and there. It is lunchtime, I have spent most of the morning removing copious quantities of malware from my laptop and resetting it and arranging for my new oven to be fitted. In the meantime I decluttered:

my husband’s sock drawer, when you can no longer fit the clean washing in the drawer something has to give.

my hair accessories bowl, I put back my cleaned hairbrushes and noticed a few things I never used.

the dump zone by the iron, it seems that several things that nobody knew what to do with (because we didn’t need them) had taken up home behind the iron. Yup that’s an empty space – doesn’t it look good 🙂

I wasn’t actively decluttering but merely noticing what was there when I put things away. Mindfulness is much in vogue these days, and for good reason. However, if you are mindful as you tidy up at the end of the day or as you put away your clean washing it’s amazing how much stuff you can pick up in 20 minutes and put out for charity or recycling.

And just because it is beautiful this is the view from my bedroom window right now.

finding the want not the need

April 25, 2014 ~ Gillie ~ 7 Comments

Decluttering is a bit like giving up smoking, taking up exercise or trying to lose weight. We all know we need to do it but it’s just not going to happen unless we want to do it. There is absolutely no point looking around your house and thinking “I must get rid of some stuff” unless you really have a burning desire to do so. I gave up smoking over 20 years ago after various futile attempts, when I knew I was only trying to give up because I ought to not because I wanted to. Fortunately I had that eureka moement and really wanted to kick the habit. I managed it quite quickly, less than a month of patches and am now one of those holier than thou ex-smokers 🙂

I have been decluttering for years. I regularly took bags and boxes to the charity shop, various things to the skip and put quite a bit on Freegle. But as fast as I was taking things out I was happily bringing more things in. I wasn’t decluttering, I was merely tidying up in order to bring in some more clutter. I was a frightfully organised clutterbug. I knew where everything was and regularly sorted out cupboards and drawers. I had to. There was so much in them!

The decluttering eureka moment for me was standing in the Gin Gan, watching the mud and water pour under the door and feeling completely helpless as there was so much stuff to move that I didn’t know where to begin. Suddenly I wanted all that rubbish out of my house and I wanted it out now. Clearly “now” wasn’t going to happen, but over the course of the year it has. I imagine if you turned up at my doorstep you would be shocked to see how much stuff we still have. I am not yet a fully signed up minimalist, but we have come a very, very long way. That would not have been possible if we didn’t want to do it.

You have to find your own reason to want to reduce the amount of stuff in your house. Not the reason that you think you ought to have. For example “we want to move house”, that is a plausible and common reason to declutter, but it rarely hits your heart. A practical reason is better than none, but it will never be as powerful as an emotional reason. For example, a secondary reason that only came to me several months into our clearout was that I didn’t want to be 80 and living in a house like my mother. She and my stepfather live in a large 5 story house. There are only the two of them and they had planned to move many years ago. Now it is too late, there is absolutely no way they could clear that house, they no longer have the will or the strength. It is packed to the gunnels. Some things are beautiful, some are essential and some hold great sentimental value. Most is rubbish.

Find your reason and you will enjoy the process as well as the result.

I would never have managed this if I hadn’t wanted to do it, and this was just the beginning 🙂