Sewing, stitching, baking, cooking, gardening, shopping and general homemaking.

Tuesday 31 August 2010

Deciding What Is Clutter

While my computer is out of action I decided to tidy up all the wires at the back of my desk.  It took two hours because it all needed a good clean too.  Doing this has spurred me on to do a bit more decluttering.  But what is clutter and what is stuff I know I'll be using - sometime!  Last year I gave quite a lot of craft items to a friend's daughter, things that I knew she would use.  I don't want to give things to people who I know won't use them because then it's just shifting the clutter to someone else's house.  This oftens happens to me, someone will think that I can use some item that they can't bring themselves to throw away, often I end up throwing it away for them!  I have a storage box (or two) full of rubber stamps.  Most have been used well but rubber stamping is something I don't do anymore.  Ok, they can go, but where?  I'm thinking of selling them at a car boot sale but where do I keep them until I have enough stuff collected to make it worth while.  It needs to be out of my craft room.  I have an almost full set of Lace (pronounced Lassie) cutting templates, they cost me getting on for £100 - how much would I get for them?  But if I'm not going to use them why keep them?  Then there is all the backing paper I've accumulated.  Some I'm just sick of the sight of, but who would want it?  Should I try to sell it too?  It goes on and on.  I might just end up throwing it all in the bin.  That's what I do when I feel totally overwhelmed by clutter.  My craft room is embarrassingly cluttered.  I don't think this type of hoarding applies to me because the rest of my house is quite organised.  I think the first step is to take out of my craft room all the things that I know I don't want to do anymore - like those rubber stamps for a start.

3 comments:

Peggy said...

Hi Ann, my first time on this in nearly a week!We are making the most of the fabulous weather as the kids go back to school tomorrow.I will have to get back into action later this evening and upload a post.
Car boot sales are OK but you may not get a lot for your items as they tend to haggle quite a lot.Why not try Ebaying them, hand craft supplies are usually good sellers have a browse around what is selling first it may give you some ideas.

Melissa Price said...

Ann, I'm right there with you. I have serious trouble with clutter in my craft room. I find myself unwilling to let go of supplies I *may* use one day... and so the piles become unruly. I'm not sure what to do either!

Berit said...

I think maybe you have to do it all bit-by-bit and not at once. When you start thinking about value or "getting it all gone through and sorted" in one shot it's (IMO) now perfectionism which is an exhausting joy-robber.

If you can't immediately think of a person to whom it would be manna from heaven, then set an interval (Once a week? Once a month?) to take it to a charity shop/thrift store. Set a timer and spend 15 minutes gathering the stuff to give away (touch it once and make the choice about its future). In the states those places will even come and collect your "donation" from you, so you don't even have to cart it in.

As for the "I paid good money for this" syndrome, just consider it a seed that you're sowing for someone else to find and love (hopefully at a good bargain and to benefit a worthy cause). It's been my experience that more good things come your way than you ever "lost" through this method.

At any rate, best luck! I'm feeling that "Fall declutter Itch", too! I've let things pile up a bit--ugh; sale circulars in the mail pile in the entry--and not even from this week--egads!