31 days of decluttering update...and a bit of wishful thinking.

I've continued to work on this project off and on, but not as focussed and determined as perhaps I should could have been, due to a few other things happening. Luckily I didn't say at the onset that it would be 31 consecutive days, lol! 

So...the medications storage box was checked but after a big clean out earlier this year, there wasn't much to declutter. I also keep the packet of Eduardo's flea treatment in that box and seeing it reminded me that he was due to have a drop or two on the back of his neck, much to his disgust! 

I removed 2 bags of rarely worn clothes from my wardrobe and sent them off to the charity bin at the local school. Lifeline gives the school a small commission cheque for every load they take from the bin, so that's a win win in my estimation. 

One morning I tackled my bedside table which had become piled up with half read magazines and finished novels?? The magazines and the novels all went to the Lifeline bin as well. Another morning I tackled the tea towel drawer, which means I 'jumped' a number of days...I just felt like doing that! lol. Well that drawer was an eye-opener! I actually iron my tea towels so that they fit nicely into the drawer...so they were neat...but some of them had seen much better days! There were a number which had holes in or were thin or frayed...I now have some nice 'new' rags in the laundry ready for those 'dirty' jobs. The next declutter area will be kitchen utensils...another scary area! (well perhaps admittedly not as scary as the yarn and fabric stashes' areas) 

Sometimes I hear people joke about having a place like Dr Who's Tardis to store craft stashes...just imagine how much you could fit in that thing! 

A little while ago, a knitting friend of mine did some 'jiggery pokery' to show how she stores her yarns! lol

Last month I wrote a couple of posts about the day that DH and I went to the Museum of London and the British Museum. Well after we left the British Museum we were just walking through the streets and we stumbled across another UK icon...the BBC building...
We just walked in the door...

In the foyer was this bust of Henry Wood, the first conductor of the Proms which was taken over by the BBC in 1927...

In the foyer we noticed a sign about tours of the building, so we enquired at the counter in the foyer...you had to have booked a tour, but once again the Aussie accent helped. The lady kindly suggested that we proceed down the hall to the room where the bookings office/booth was and enquire if there were any vacancies that afternoon.
 Now to go into the room where we could enquire if there were any vacancies ,you had to go through a security check...so jackets and vests off, bags and knapsacks ready to be scanned and wait in line for a check just like at the airport. When we were allowed to go to the bookings booth we found there were 2 vacancies for a tour in 3 hours...DH declined and we walked back to the entrance. Despite feeling that our every move was being observed, and that armed SAS officers could emerge at any time, I got DH to take my photo with some BBC props...one near the bookings booth and one in the hallway outside...

Goodness! Even a Dalek is taller than me! 

A little while ago I found Soma's blog and became an email follower. Soma is so generous with her free patterns including a section devoted to Dr Who. My DsD1 is a big fan of Dr Who and has in the last year become a quilter...so guess whose link I sent her! :-)
I think there is little chance of ever finding a Tardis so I had better plan to keep decluttering and to keep sewing and knitting to use my lovely stash items.

Old sayings...and more on the decluttering project...

My mother was a great one for idioms...(a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (e.g. over the moon, see the light ); many of her favourites live on in our family through my usage and at times, also my daughters use such sayings as well. 

So let's see, what's an example?

How come when the tomatoes being sold in the shops are between $8.98 and $9.98 per kilogram and my homegrown tomatoes are stubbornly green? When mine ripen you can bet that the shops will lower the prices to as low as $1.99 per kilo! 

Even though I do realise that probably the farmers' crops aren't ripening quickly either and supply is low, forcing the prices up, that's surely an example of Murphy's Law, a saying which is used a lot ...' a supposed law of nature, expressed in various humorous popular sayings, to the effect that anything that can go wrong will go wrong.' lol

Now one  saying that my mother didn't use to my knowledge is 'there's an elephant in the room'. Its meaning, '... is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is either being ignored or going unaddressed", is quite relevant to me I think...I'll try to explain. I've decided to work through Forever Organised's 31 Days of Decluttering, with a few changes to suit my circumstances. 

So far I've decluttered shoes, appliances, magazines (and some paperbacks) and some chipped mugs and glasses...

The gardening mags were in a crate in the built-in wardrobe in one of the spare bedrooms and I can honestly say that since I put them there a few years ago now, I have never gone back to refer to any of them! While I was removing the mags from the cupboard I noticed a wire hanger on which several men's belts were hung. A check with DH revealed that none of the belts fitted him any more...so out they went too!

Now the items that I've been sorting out in the last few days were not really that cluttered because at various times over the last few years,I've had fairly ruthless 'purges' of unwanted/unnecessary items. But there is definitely 'an elephant in a number of rooms' and it's  my craft stash. At various times I have worked at sorting out the room that I call my sewing room, especially when it was needed to be used as a bedroom for extra guests...I've given away fabrics that I know I won't use, but...well you probably know how it goes :-). Being empty nesters means that I've spread my craft materials into other spare bedrooms...

IKEA Expedit shelves and cubes in one spare bedroom...

 The shelves in one half of the built in in another bedroom aka sewing room...

 Another IKEA set of shelves in the sewing room...

More shelves with cubes of mainly yarns, plus colour coded mohair stash in striped bags on top of the shelves...

Same room's built in...yarns and fabrics are in one half with Christmas decorations and DH's excess shirt collection in the other half.

So during this 31 days, I would like/need to decide on some targeted areas of my crafting storage and then decide what I can realistically use...you know it's all about the SABLE principle...stash acquisition beyond life expectancy!

Day 6 on the decluttering poster is 'Guilt Clutter'...my next post I will write about my interpretation of that.

One coffee mug that will be repurposed as yet again I couldn't part with it. Given to me by a friend one birthday, the much used and loved mug lost its handle after a year or so of use...ahem...that was possibly 13 or so years ago. It has survived 2 house moves and a number of decluttering sessions and survived yesterday's too. But now it will be half filled with pebbles, then potting mix and then I will plant one of my new succulent cuttings in it.

So next time...guilt clutter...what do I think it is and yes I do have some! lol