Decluttering and reorganising - January

I've said many a time how I want to declutter things and have less visual 'noise'.  Now, I am a fan of stuff  - I like my home to look lived in, I like books to be lying about, I like there to be pens here there and everywhere so I never have to go and search for one.

But Ben and I do have too much stuff - I know there are boxes which still haven't been unpacked since we moved last summer and I think there might even be boxes we haven't really looked in since we moved in together two and a half years ago.  This implies we might not really need whatever is in those boxes!

I also love Gemma's posts about minimalism - whilst I am never going to be at her minimalistic levels (and that suits me fine) I think it is important to think about what I have and to use and make the most of these possessions.

Part of my 101 in 1001 project is to declutter and be more organised.  This month I think I've made a good start on that...

We moved a clothes rail

Now, this doesn't sound like a major thing.  But it really is.  Living in a rented, unfurnished flat we haven't wanted to buy too much furniture as we know we're not going to live here forever and we don't want to buy something that may not be suitable for our next home.  Unlike our old flat, this one doesn't have in-built storage, so we needed wardrobes.  However, they're expensive, so we went with the bargain option of two £15 clothes rails from Argos.  They're not terribly attractive, but they do the job.  Ben put them up, and added in our two chests of drawers.  His clothes rail was jutting into the doorway, meaning the door couldn't be shut, and you had to brush the clothes aside whenever you walked in or out.  This was annoying.  However, there was nowhere else for it to go, so we put up with it.  Earlier this month, though, I'd finally had enough.  We spent a couple of days reorganising stuff (yes, more stuff) in the spare bedroom, so that now Ben's clothes rail is in there.  Okay, so this means now that bedroom door doesn't shut, and there's nowhere for a guest to sleep (as there isn't enough room for the futon to be laid out flat) but we will address that when we next have someone to stay!  In the meantime, our bedroom doorway is obstacle-free and I am very pleased we finally got round to doing this.

Space!

I downsized my biscuit cutter collection

Last month, I couldn't find my collection of Christmas-themed biscuit cutters anywhere.  I eventually found them (typically after Christmas) in a bag of craft stuff - clearly I'd just chucked them in there when we were moving flats and reached the stage of couldn't-be-bothered-to-pack-properly.  I used this as an opportunity to sort through all my biscuit cutters and donate to charity any duplicates.

I owned: 6 nesting pastry cutters fluted, 6 nesting pastry cutters plain (now downsized to a set of 6 which is fluted on one edge and plain on the other), 6 nesting flowers, mini alphabet set, a 4-pointed star and a little star, a Christmas tree and a little Christmas tree, 3 nesting reindeer, a snowman, a bell, an angel, a 6-pointed star, a 5-pointed star, holly leaf with berry, smiley face cutters, 2 3D dinosaur sets, 6 nesting hearts, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, £, $, Euro sign (can't find that on keyboard!), 3 nesting penises (yes, really), a dinosaur, penguin, frog, rabbit, a cat sitting, a cat walking, lion, a little duck, a large gingerbread lady, a large gingerbread man, a little lady and a little man, 3 nesting monkey faces, an oval, elephant, a set of 3 gingerbread men but with head/arm/leg 'bitten' off, lips, another duck, another large man and lady, 3 nesting hearts, a teddy bear, a tea pot, a chick (which looks just like the penguin), a right foot, a musical quaver, another rabbit, and finally some rabbit ears.

A lot of them went off to charity, I don't need that many heart cutters the same size.  Or even that many heart cutters at all.  Now my cutters fit neatly in two cake tins on top of a kitchen cupboard and there's another box where the sets are.  We made biscuits at Brownies last week and Brown Owl asked me if I had enough cutters to bring - yes, Brown Owl, I am confident I have enough! (The theme was animals, so I only took the animal cutters - I am aware my entire collection is not suitable for small children!)

I sorted out my earrings

I love earrings - they're my favourite accessory and I have over 300 pairs.  I think they're a sensible thing to collect, as collections go, they don't take up much room and make me an easy person to buy presents for.  My earrings are vaguely sorted into boxes, so I tipped each box in turn out on to the bed and sorted them out further. Quite a few earrings were thrown away, ones which had gone old and green with time and any which were broken and I didn't like enough to bother mending.  Others have been put aside to be mended and/or cleaned, a few lone earrings have also been thrown away (realistically, I am never going to find their twin) and 50 pairs have gone in the charity bag.  I've rediscovered some favourite earrings I'd forgotten I owned and I will definitely be making the effort to wear different ones in the future.  Sadly I couldn't find any Australian-themed earrings to wear to Brownies for Australia Day.  Must try and find some kangaroos or similar.

So, a gentle start made, but a start nonetheless! Two bags have gone to a local charity shop and I'm still smiling every time I walk through the bedroom door unencumbered!  It really is the little things that make a difference.