Saturday 22nd September - De-Cluttering/Re-Cluttering

This has been a fun (if strenuous) day!

My parents are in the middle of moving from a three-storey town house (tooooo many stairs) to a very attractive 2-bedroom flat. Luckily they have down-sized by stages over the years, so although the garage and the cupboards and the bookcases are all pretty full, the task is considerably;y smaller than last time they moved.

Also, blessing upon blessings, though they do have a spacious integral garage, the house HAS NO LOFT.

Today was "hire a van and take things to the tip" day. Or the charity shop. Or wherever.

 

Rather than load everything into the van, piece by piece, we had the bright idea of stacking it all on the grass verge outside their house, with a notice saying "help yourself - everything going to the skip this afternoon". Their house is on a fairly busy road with a constant flow of traffic and pedestrians, and we were soon attracting a regular stream of visitors to our "shop".

As we sorted through, we piled all kinds of things on the low wall. To begin with, we were a bit selective about the quality and type of things we put out; various small chests of draws and bedside cabinets, a spare dining room table, a little bookshelf. We grew bolder; a ball of string, half used bottles and packets of gardening things, a tin mug, a child's whistle (we heard that going all the way down the road), a bag of mixed food storage boxes, vases... In the end we put out a bag of spare carrier bags for people to load their "purchases" into. A few people offered us money, (which we accepted!) most were cheerfully happy to rummage through and take what they wanted. 

By the time we needed to wrap things up (about 3pm), there was only real rubbish left. We had been rather worried about having to "skip" the table, as the local charity shops had already rejected it, but when we went out to size it up for the van, it had disappeared.

By the end, all that was left to take to the tip for skipping or recycling was the "real" rubbish; two horrible old kitchen cabinets from the garage, the bag of carrier bags, and a black bag of odds and ends.

Result! We have seriously de-cluttered, (and the rest of the word has acquired more clutter, it has to be said.)

I think that this is how we will deal with clearing our own garage and loft in due course. The only problem is that we live in a quiet road with no through traffic. I have already ear-marked my friend's house as a suitable venue... if you know who you are, you now have due warning to prepare evasive manoeuvres!