Operation Clutterbust is back!

Goodness, I didn't realise it was so long since I had posted!  And perhaps it is just as well as for the last few days I have been like a rottweiler with toothache.  And not in a good way.  I have not been fit for company. 

However, being in a temper (no idea why, btw, but it has been foul) has worked wonders on my work rate.  On Wednesday I got rid of a shopping trolley full of clothes to one of those shops that buy second hand clothes.  I was so nervous they would pick on every microscopic mark and loose thread.  Actually it got tipped on a heap and I got £3.15 for 6.3 kilos.  I am glad for that money.  Not only is it nice to have money coming in instead of money going out, it was a sort of enablement for me to get rid of things that I couldn't put in the bin.  I also posted out a box of clothes to where I hope they will be useful.  This cost me money and I do not begrudge a single, solitary penny.  Not only do I think it a worthwhile thing, but also it enabled me to get rid!

It is now Friday lunchtime, the shopping trolley is full again and I have nearly filled two more small boxes.  It makes less than a dent than you would think, as I have mainly cleared a large mound on a table, but there is still a shedload of stuff that has slipped down the back and sides of furniture, and a lot of stuff that I want to keep but need a home for.  However I am aiming to have this house rid of excess clothing by the end of the month.

I am not very firm on this.  There are bound to be bits, bobs, odds and ends left over.  They can go to the shop as and when.  Or a charity shop, or the neighbours' young grandson, or for rags.  The important point is that there should be no big piles of clothes that need to be sorted out 'when I get round to it'.  I am getting round to it now!

And I am insisting OH gets rid of any clothes that he is unlikely to wear.  Apart from meaning that there then may be places to put my clothes, it helps the room breath and sort of lightens the house.  I also think that if there are less clothes then it is easier to keep on top of things, as you know where things are and there aren't enough things to overwhelm you.  If you only have half a dozen shirts, then you can't put off doing ironing until there are none left ironed and then suddenly find yourself faced with ironing thirty shirts.

Poor OH - I hope he doesn't feel picked on.  However I have made him promise that he gets rid of all that he doesn't want.  He can keep anything he likes without having to justify anything.  After all, he is the one who wears the things. 

All in my head

Today has been earmarked for clearing out little bear's old clothes, which hasn't been done for a few years and is very much overdue. In fact, little bear's old clothes are clogging up a lot of the dining room and it will make a massive difference if I can get rid.

Tomorrow I plan to start taking stuff to the places that buy clothes/charity shops/donate to next door/ebay/pass on as appropriate. Timing is important - an all day bus ticket, bought after 9.30am, costs me £3.80. If I buy one of those it will eat into any money that I make from the clothes (and I am not sure I will). And while it is nice to get out, spending £3.80 just to be disappointed and trudge to a charity shop is less good. The one I will be able to walk to is not yet open (darn!).

However, on Wednesdays little bear goes to piano lessons. I will need a ticket anyway, so I plan to make tickets bought on Wednesday work for me and do all the out-of-house running around. Or even just go into town and go to the museum/library/hot chocolate shop etc.

Except yesterday I nearly fell over and thought I was going to pass out. I have been feeling like this since the weekend - light headed and queasy. I feel sleepy and lethargic - rubbish in fact.

I can mutter about a virus, as darling father has suffered for weeks. I can mutter about lack of iron, lack of food - I still can't eat that well. I could grumble about daylight saving and stress and all the rest. However I have noticed that any time I make any headway in doing anything I seem to become ill. And I am making headway! There is more and more space and less and less ironing, as I managed to get quite a bit done yesterday. Once the dining room is clear and working then I move on to reorganise the kitchen, and so on. I am not giving up!

So I am going to continue plugging away, working on the assumption that it is all in my head. I may not get as much done as I would have liked, but I refuse to get nothing done.

Thoughts on clutterbusting

Morgan - you are absolutely right about how I feel burdened by the clutter. I will probably be a wreck tomorrow, as I have been on my feet a lot more today than normal. Also all the stuff passed on will be going to good use. A lot of cot sheets - flannel and lovely and soft from washing - have gone to someone who is expecting a baby in the next few weeks. And I feel so much better for it!

It was a real breakthrough - unless I have a place for it, I am not keeping it, no matter that it may come in useful. I think that is part of the problem. I have some rags, kept to one side, but I rarely use rags. I don't want to keep stuff 'just in case' and then things mount up and mount up and I have nowhere to put stuff and I can't find that particular bit of baby blanket I kept back because it may 'one day' find it useful for polishing. So when I do get round to the polishing, I have to go and buy something anyway. Clutter can cost you money, as you have to keep buying things because you can't find the original - scissors are a big culprit here. And if there is a load of STUFF piled on top of things, they get damaged and then need replacing.

Wean - please don't take offence at this, because it all obviously works for you. If I was better organised, and used rags like you, then it would be worth doing. However I feel more and more that this huge pile of STUFF around me is stopping me from getting organised. I think I will start saving stuff once I get organised so that then I will have places to put them and be able to find things I need. Until then I need to work on being ruthless.

Morgan, I really identify with the holiday cottage. I remember coming home from a lovely, clutter free holiday cottage last October, and nearly crying, because I could see the contrast between the holiday cottage and the free and light feeling and my home. I was too poorly to do much about it, but I am getting a lot better now! Today darling father was talking and he looked around the study and said sadly, 'Every room is full of stuff'. I think Morgan hit the right word - burdened.

If you haven't had the battle, then you don't know how hard it is. I often feel defeated, burdened, weighed down and suffocated. All I can do is keep trying, and know that if I only do five minutes, or get rid of a handful of STUFF then it is better than doing nothing at all.

I am considering taking some of little bear's clothes to a place that buys second hand clothes, like this. It is a little walk away, so it will be good for me to make a few journeys, I may make a few pennies, and it is a lot less stress than ebay (though less profit!). Some things I may try and put on ebay, but if I feel that they are mounting up 'until I get around to it' and I am not getting around to it, then I am passing them on, taking them to the shop, passing on the tattered ones for rags for next door etc

The advice Wean gives is good - if you do not suffer like I do from clutter. I have used 'feel' a lot in this post, as it is so emotional and difficult for me. Just getting rid of so much has made a massive difference to me, and no fabrics to landfill (which I hate!). I feel lighter. I need to concentrate on that feeling and keep going! Though I am always ready to hear advice, please feel free to comment! I just am not always able to take good advice : (

Operation Clutterbust stuttering around

Little bear is out. I paid a fortune for him to go to the out of hours/school holiday club, so that he could have a good day with his friends in stimulating surroundings. Ha! None of his friends will be there. However, knowing little bear, that will not slow him down. Any time I have taken him anywhere he has usually managed to make friends, play and enjoy himself.

Today they are going along the canal to look for mini beasts. I sent him out in clean clothes. I am not expecting him to come back pristine. All I can say is that to take a mixed bag of mixed age but under 10s along a canal must take nerves of steel.

So I am tackling the so-called dining room in very easy stages while he is out. The 'dining room' is a huge heap of fabric, lots of towels, sheets, ironing, socks and blankets. Also four tyres. Normally I approach the room by (attempting to) clear a lot of ironing, in order to make room. That so far has not worked. So today I am piling up the ironing (fearsome proportions already) and pressing on past where the ironing board normally stands to a place where there is an alleged table. I say alleged, because there has been no sighting of it for some time.

A lot of it is linens from darling father. Some of it is stuff I just don't know where to put as it used to live in darling father's room. There is a large drift of clothes that are too small for little bear. Some of the stuff just baffles me. I have found several packets of chocolate angel delight. I can eat that at the moment. I think that some things work for the best.

At the end of today I shall add to my tally. I have already taken the equivalent of several bin bags next door. What the family can't use, and the sons setting up house can't use, and the daughter who may be possibly setting up house soon can't use, can be used my Nice Mr Next Door as rags while he fixes cars.

I have also had a little bit of a breakthrough. I have decided that though some of it is really useful stuff, I am not using it. And instead of saying, 'that could be really useful, I shall find a place to put it.' I am saying, 'do I have a place to put it, if not then I need to pass it on.' Also nice clothes that little bear can no longer fit in can be passed on, for some sizes. We have been given so much over the years, it's nice to continue the chain.

Operation Clutterbust stutters on

Darling father will be manning a stall at the Methodists next weekend (or the weekend after - I am not sure when I think of it) and he will be covering the bookstall. It was time to go through our books.

The way we work is that we take all the books off a shelf, then we take it in turns to put the books back on the shelf, but only the ones we actually really want. We don't have to justify or explain, and we both get a say in what is kept.

OH and I filled one large shopping trolley and one very large suitcase on wheels and took it to the Methodists after service. Then there was another stint which easily filled the shopping trolley again. I have also filled a few more bags with old knitting magazines. Interestingly, since I started culling them, I have found it easier to resist buying them. I remember my late grandmother with a room filled with stacks of Woman's Weekly, kept in case she needed a knitting pattern or a recipe. To my knowledge, she never did.

I have also filled a few bags of stuff that need to be sent to other people. Next week will involve parcelling things up and queuing at the post office.

Depressingly, we need more bookshelves and we have nowhere to put them. Most of the books currently on the shelves are ones that are unlikely to make it to kindle, and many are quite hard to get hold of. I think I shall have to work on this.

Operation Clutterbust limping along

I may have had an epic fail with it last year, but I am determined to keep going. Nice Mr Next Door got a swing bin liner full of old socks yesterday, mostly OH's. They are really, seriously, desperately past their best and I had already provided replacements.

I have to add that Nice Mr Next Door uses a lot of rags with mending cars, and I can see old socks being v useful for all sorts of things. I am not keeping any back, however, as I am sure any old socks we need will emerge over time.

I also sent two carrier bags of knitting magazines to the Methodist's Knit and Natter (the one I am too scared to go to). I have no idea what they could do with them, but it was either that or the recycling.

And I managed to wash out a load of old jam jars on Monday. They are currently in a carrier bag in the garden as I don't know where to take them, and the car isn't fit to take anything to the tip. However they are not in my kitchen waiting for me to do something. Okay, they are in my garden waiting for me to do something, but it could be a lot worse.

Darling father is running a bookstall on 31st at the Methodist Fair. I am determined to go through our books and we should be able to make a contribution. Not a large one - we have had a cull relatively recently - but we should be able to get rid of something!

Hoarding

I need to get more sleep, it's starting to get to me. I found myself looking at some yogurt pots and thinking, 'they are really cute little pots, I bet they would be useful if we wanted to plant seedlings.'

Problem one - darling father is in charge of the garden. The garden is so tiny that we don't have anywhere to put pots with seeds, even if he didn't get all his plants from the lovely lady down the road.

Problem two - I HAVE NO ROOM

Problem three - where does it stop? We can easily get through a dozen yogurts in a week if we put our minds to it, if we decided to plant seedlings after all.

And I can just see the expression of any children's group faced with a mad woman holding fifteen bags of yogurt pots and saying, 'I'm sure you can find a use for this...'

That way lies madness, and possibly a documentary on Channel 4. They went in the bin. And the cute triangular glass jar is going to the recycling for exactly the same reason.

Glass half full - I finished a throw at the weekend. It was yoyo yarn which was absolutely foul to knit, but it is lovely and warm and when the next cold snap comes (probably mid April with our current weird weather) it will be perfect around my shoulders, it is a lovely generous length. That is one project out of the way, and as it was so awful to knit, it took ages. I feel really relieved that it is gone. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Surprise Clutterbust

The kitchen is a health hazard, and we have just had people in servicing the boiler. After they went I looked round and my heart sank. And there is nowhere to put everything.

Once upon a time I used to be really good about clearing stuff out and watching sell by dates, but that is a while ago. So I started pulling stuff out of my 'flavours' cupboard. It has dried veg, herbs, spices, sauces, pickles, gravy granules etc. I have only done half a job so far, just a swipe over the shelf and a rummage, but I have already cleared out a load. Some things I am not getting rid of regardless of the sell by date, because for example chilli powder loses strength rather than becoming mouldy. Other stuff I threw just because I was sick of looking at it, and it was time to get rid. Jams keep regardless no matter what the date says, but if I haven't used it in two years, I am not going to use it now.

One thing I have done, which I quite like, is use a glass jar that looks like an old, squat sweet jar and put a lot of loose stock cubes in. I stocked up on the stock cubes ages ago when there was a sale on at Approved Food. All the red beef, orange and gold chicken and green vegetable cubes look almost sweet like. The jar is a substitute for a kilner style jar which I wanted from an Asda delivery for rice, but I am not confident of how air tight it is.

I am about to go back and tackle the herbs and spices jars, which I keep together on the shelves in old plastic biscuit tin boxes - which I seriously would recommend to anyone! I have spices in an orange box and herbs in a green box and when I am making a dish I can just pull out the box and rummage. However I think I need a really good rummage tonight.

As for tea tonight - darling father has requested meatballs, the ones he brought back from IKEA. So meatballs it is.

Choices

I am clearing out a lot of little bear's clothes, as he is growing like a weed and a lot of stuff that is still very good doesn't fit him. I am not thinking about the stuff fit for rags (Nice Mr Next Door has those) but the stuff that is in good condition (I have been lucky with my ebay purchases).

There are a myriad of choices.

I could pass them on to someone who I know could use them for good purposes. This will cost me convenience and money, but is a good thing to do.
The lady a few doors down, the one who was raided by the police, has been hinting about little bear's old clothes as her son is the next size down. There isn't much money in there, as far as I can tell, and there are four under eight. On the other hand her children aren't very nice to little bear.
I have just received a bag through the door for a local hospice. The hospice could probably do with all the help it could get as I was once privileged to sit in on one of their fund raising committee meetings. As much use as an udder on a bull. But the hospice will pick up the bag.
I passed along a bus route that is quite convenient which has on one side of the road a charity shop for a really good local homeless charity.
On the other side of the road is a shop that buys bags of clothes at 60p per kilo.
And there is always ebay.

I have no idea what to do. I suppose identifying and sorting is the next step, and that has to be done by Monday if I am giving to the hospice shop. I'll never get it sorted in time, so that option is out. I have no idea about the rest.

I'm tagging it under clutterbust, as it is a real incentive to sort out the clothes.

Power of Dreams

Last night I dreamt that the kitchen cupboards fell off the walls. This is not entirely unrealistic, they are stuffed to the brim!

And I only have half an idea what is in them - goodies from Approved Food, baking supplies when I haven't baked in years, sauces that have been pushed to the back.

So this afternoon I had a clear of the surfaces under the cupboards which were more or less piled with stuff in a sort of mound. Out went all the unsuccessful wholefood stuffing (experiment from Approved Food) and the packets of white simmer sauces - what was I thinking with those?! I can manage a white sauce, it is one of the things I am good at, why did I think it was a good idea to get them? The kiwi jam that darling uncle got for little bear that was so unsuccessful has gone, and the red currant jelly that frankly was never fit for purpose went with it. I won't say it is clear, but the stuff is now more organised. Tomorrow the cupboards.

Operation Clutterbust is back in action!

So far, one bin sack of stuff and a determination to actively use up all the stuff that is there.

Fighting the Clutter Monster

Anyone who suffers from hoarding instincts or clutter monsters will recognise this, I am sure.

I have a pair of jeans where the seam has split all the way down one thigh, the material next to the seam has gone and I lack the skills or inclination to repair. But deep inside me there is a huge impulse to Make Something Useful Out Of Them. There is also the 'Do Not Waste' and 'Do Not Contribute To Throwaway Society'.

Now, if I cut the legs off and cut the seam along the length, then folded them ankle to thigh and re-sewed them, I could stuff them and have them as cushions, they'd look great. In fact I could get three cushions from a pair of jeans, two from the legs and one from the seat.

1. I have a zillion projects like this around already, none of them have been done, and I have already committed to ironing on red patches to the knees of little bear's jeans. When exactly am I going to do this?

2. When you see these things on the tv, there are always the cute little transfers or stick ons or pretty buttons that add to the cuteness of the cushion. I don't have a store of these, I don't want to acquire a store of these things, I want less things in my house. And unless I fell lucky in a charity shop or on ebay (my friend), the notions would cost more than a cushion from Matalan.

3. I have a wodge of cushion covers - nice, soft and nearly new cushion covers - waiting to be stuffed with unravelled woollies when I next get a chance. I don't need to add to them, and currently we have more or less enough cushions. I would like more, but I have the cushion covers ready to be stuffed 'when I get round to it'. This brings me back to point 1!

So I will wash the jeans through and give them to Nice Mr Next Door for rags for his mechanicking.

Is it Spring?

I seemed to have got a lot done today. There is a lot that needs to be done, the house is getting silly when it comes to clean/tidy/uncluttered and the Health Visitor cometh on Tuesday. This means that five minutes before the Health Visitor cometh I will be putting the finishing touches to the sparkling porch and living room and closing the doors on everything else.

However I have the room that was formerly a dining room in my sights. Before last night it was a sort of indeterminate fabric heap with an ironing board in the middle. Now it is a slightly more organised and smaller fabric heap with an ironing board in the middle. I have ironed for four hours today, and I am not nearly half way through. I have been ironing as and when for months, and I can't bare it any more. I have ironed thirty shirts for OH, darling father and little bear. Tomorrow I return to the task.

I have also been throwing many things out. There has been too many bits and bobs abandoned in there, and now they are going but I have one particular item that I am targeting - little bear's socks. Little bear has dozens and dozens of pastel blue socks, which I used to hate matching as some had a line round the top and some didn't but had the matching different coloured toe, and some had one of a pair shrunk in the wash or washed with something vividly red. They are all going. I suppose I ought to feel all sentimental and nostalgic about his little toes in the socks. Perhaps some would save a pair. I can't imagine me saving a pair, nor what I would do with them if I did keep them - frame them?

Hint of clutterbust

Very lacklustre effort, but at least something.

I found a bottle of toilet duck, dated 1998. I tipped that carefully down an outside drain. After the next good downpour I intend to pour the other drain cleaners I have found of around the same vintage, well spaced out. I am not sure if they ferment, but I will be wearing strong shoes and gloves and standing well back.

I have pulled all the items out of the drinks receptacles cupboard, where glasses and mugs are kept, and given it a wipe over. It isn't a huge cupboard, but with one thing and another it isn't well organised. So I have rinsed all the glasses, including the dozen extra glasses that darling father brought and wouldn't fit in. Mugs are going in a different cupboard and all glassware is going in this cupboard. All surplus mugs and glassware are going in the cupboard under the outside steps, for the next charity shop run/bring and buy sale. I am still in the process of sorting that lot, but will post total of discards in the box.

I have thrown away the electric fairy cake maker that I really couldn't get to work. I was a bit upset, but I can live with it.

I have gathered most of the cake bars/flapjack bars that came in vast quantities from Approved Food and stacked them in the plastic cracker boxes I have just emptied the crumbs out of. I enjoyed the crackers, but bought the huge tubs from Approved Food mainly for the containers.

I have reluctantly thrown out the rye bread mix that I have not really had the chance to try since it expired 18 months ago.

I will be doing a further potter later on, but at least I am a bit further on.

Clutterbust revisited

Finally revisited the clutterbust.

It was quite nice really, I got rid of half a tray of jars of olives which had developed suspicious black splodges (bought ages ago from Approved Food) and some instant lemon tea that I fancied back when little bear was a baby - six unopened jars with an expiry date of August 2008.

Actually, I think one of the best clutterbusting things I can do is just not buy stuff.

I am passing the lemon tea jars on to people who make jam at darling father's church as they are lovely, but the olive jars are going to recycling. I was tempted to keep the tea jars myself, but consoled myself that I would be acquiring other jars in the future.

Operation Clutterbust - a bitter step

A Dyson has gone to the tip. It is a sore point with me.

First of all, I didn't want a heavy upright. It has always been too heavy for me, but OH insisted that we got this particular model because he was going to do the vacuuming and a small one would hurt his back. He has never vacuumed since. I have always struggled with it, and it has become a real niggle - if I had got the one I wanted... etc.

A few weeks ago I considered how often we used it especially now that we have a light weight one that I got for a quarter of the price of the Dyson. The Lakeland one is not as efficient as the Dyson, but I can actually use it. So I wanted rid of it. I checked with OH. He agreed, but the sooner we were rid the better.

We have been tripping over it on the landing for some time now.

Darling father asked at the Methodists if they could use it. They sat on their hands for a fortnight. I can never work out how to use freecycle and I am nervous about people coming to the house. Most charities can't take electrical goods. I didn't know anyone who needed it, so as OH lost patience a perfectly good Dyson went to the tip.

So something that is very good but I didn't want, but ended up spending a lot of money on, and then couldn't use regularly, although in perfectly good working order, went to the tip. It is all so, so wrong.

Big Note To Self - buy the right thing in the first place.

Rewards Programme

Lesley - you are brilliant. Your comment has stimulated a train of thought. Actually it has stimulated a Clapham Junction of thought.

Just typing out loud to try and get some ideas into shape.

1. Need to save money. I finally have permission to get the flooring in the living room and study updated, both large rooms. It will need to be done professionally and will cost a lot of money. Also I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a stove. That would also be expensive.

2. Need to declutter. The house is far too full of things.

3. Need to get routines and processes in order. The dr has muttered about ME and while I have not been confirmed with a diagnosis (and I am not chasing it), I can fit most of my reactions to most of the ME stuff. This means that I have to get things set up in such a manner as to make things easy for me to do no matter how bad and achy I feel.

4. Need to clean house as little bear now wants to invite people in and I would be mortified.

So, these are all big things, and the decluttering, cleaning and routines are strongly interlinked.

Thoughts on rewards

1. I don't want to spend a lot of money

2. I don't want to bring a lot of extra stuff into the house

3. A reward can be something other than physical

4. Rewards should feel good and be unnecessary, otherwise they are not rewards but necessities and I would need them anyway.

The titanium scissors are a great example of a good reward. They are unnecessary, they are small and will not take up much room, they are earmarked for a specific purpose (my craft) and they are inexpensive.

Other good rewards I think should be a long bubble bath, reading a book amid the chaos and not feeling guilty, taking an afternoon out of the house when little bear is at nursery, listening to music (rarely manage that).

I shall have a long think about this. The other thing I need to do is break things down into small steps, so that it seems achievable, and that can be nice rewards, like starting a scarf before finishing another one.

Lesley, thank you.

Clutterbusting continues

Actually, at this moment, I am hiding in here hoping little bear will nap as he carries on getting better - and hopefully well enough for nursery tomorrow!

But this morning I removed two random cupboard doors left by the previous occupants in 1994. They are meant to go on the cupboards in the kitchen, but should we need to replace them we are replacing the entire units (on a case by case basis as funds allow) from B&Q. They have been sort of part of the background for years, it was odd taking them out.

I am also keeping my fingers crossed that the zombie apocalypse doesn't happen soon as I am getting rid of some bottled water. I plan on using it up in the kettle etc if it is fit. Back when little bear was really tiny there was a disruption to the water and I wasn't able to make up bottles for him. He was only a few months old. Yorkshire water dropped off a dozen two litre bottles of water and then the water came on. Little bear is now a boisterous four year old and I am not sure how fit they will be. I mean, does bottled water go off? And how much plastic will it have absorbed? Once they are out the way I can clean our microwave and put it on that shelf, put darling father's much better microwave on the counter instead and then put the motorised golf trolley in the space in front of the shelf with our microwave on. That will be a start!

Morgan - I am holding on to the hope that I can have that uncluttered feeling with both hands.

Operation Clutterbust

Yesterday I did quite a lot. The walk in cupboard and the dining room are absolutely and completely jammed with 'stuff'. Unfortunately that is where they are fitting a new gas meter on Wednesday.

So I have updated my totals, which includes 15 litres of fabric conditioner. Just before little bear was born I stocked up with non bio powder and gentle fabric conditioner, on offer at Makro at an extremely low price - I didn't know about white vinegar for conditioner in those days. Previously I had always used Bold 2 in one, so had never bothered with a separate fabric conditioner.

Well, as soon as I realised I did switch to white vinegar, and little bear switched pretty seamlessly to biological powder early on. I forgot about the fabric conditioner hiding in the back of the cupboard. Yesterday I found it again. I thought about it, then tipped it down the drain. The stuff came out in lumps, with the sickliest artificial smell.

I found all sorts. Sigh. There is still so much to do. But the house is feeling a little lighter.

Accidental clutterbust

Last night was 'get all the bins out before the binmen come tomorrow' night. OH did the downstairs bins and I was doing other things. This morning I noticed a very large bin sack missing. Originally it was split, which was great because I could see that the bedding was in there. But OH put it in another bin sack and tied it up tight. He put it next to the kitchen bin because then it was out of the way. And last night, with awful inevitability, he threw it out, convinced it was rubbish that I had inexplicably failed to take to the bin.

It was very full of good quality bedding. I don't need bedding, quite the opposite, but Nice Mr Next Door could do with all the rags I can spare. However it is not to be.

Also there is another bedding question hovering over the clutterbust. Nearly thirty years ago my late great aunt bought me a snuggle blanket. It was unheard of then, it was one of the first bits of fleece I had ever seen and it sort of buttoned up here and popped up there and you cuddled up in it - much more efficient than the current snuggle rugs because it covered your back, and then it goes out flat to become a blanket. The cats used to fight over it as it was so warm. It now shows a great deal of wear. It is pulled and fluffed and tired looking. It is still warm, and I am sure it would make a great lining for a throw, but we have lots of throws. We have warmer blankets of a more suitable size. There is lots of use in it, but I don't know when we would use it. And it is far too battered to sell at a charity shop. But really it is too good to throw out.

I think the way I feel about this blanket is a good way of understanding why I NEED to clutterbust

Clutterbust creeping on

OH went twice to the tip today.

I have just spotted across the room a stack of cardboard, the backs of A4 writing pads. I thought the cardboard would come in useful. That can go when I've got off the computer. It is the continuous tug in me - saving things 'just in case' against trying to empty my home of clutter.

I will get there, I will!