Hey hey peeps,

So it’s been a few months, but I’m back with a long overdue update. One of the items that’s been on my previous 101 lists, and appears very high up on this one too, is

2. Declutter my possessions properly.

Over the years, I’ve accumulated a LOT of stuff, and having moved house a number of times for uni and new jobs, I’ve realised each time that I have way more stuff than I need or will ever really use. As such, it’s become a goal to reduce the amount of clutter I have in all areas of my life. This was a lot of my cr@p taking over a fair portion of my parents’ loft…

Living for some time in a small single room meant that I was often short on space and stepping over boxes and bags to try and find anything!

At one point, I secured a good deal on a storage locker…

…but that was just hiding the problem, and once the charges started to rack up, I ended up bringing it all back again!

For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to sell, give away, donate or recycle as much of my stuff as I can, and it’s actually been going quite well.

Through my decluttering efforts, I’ve noticed that people will buy the strangest and most unlikely things, as long as you put a little bit of thought and effort into advertising them properly. Gumtree has been useful for the larger stuff, and I tried to avoid eBay as their charges are pretty ridiculous. That said, eBay is probably the largest marketplace on the planet, and with that kind of exposure and being able to leave things on there for months at a time until the right person sees it, I’ve come round to the idea that their fees are worth putting up with.

A few years ago, UK chain Woolworths closed down, and when they did so, they held massive sales on their closing days. I went to a couple of these sales, and brought home a car full of super cheap stock, so a lot of the items I sold were from that. These were all part of my Woolworths hoard…

To help motivate me to list my stuff for sale, I’ve set a rule where any profits made from my sales can go towards treats and new things I wanted, rather than towards bills or rent. I realise this isn’t exactly in the spirit of decluttering, but the things I’m buying are either small, or things I would have eventually bought anyway. The two items I’ve treated myself to so far are a new iPod (and I’ll be selling my old one once I find the box), and a super powerful vacuum cleaner!

So, onto what’s been decluttered. As well as the stuff from Woolworths above, here are a number of the things I’ve sold, donated or given away on Freegle (the UK version of Freecycle). As you can see, it’s quite a sizeable amount of stuff…

So, as you can see, it’s a lot of stuff, although it’s probably only about a quarter of what I’ve got rid of. I’ve also had things that I haven’t been able to sell nor take to the charity shop, and these things have often been taken when advertised on Freegle, the UK’s version of Freecycle. Perhaps one of the more unusual items I’ve given away there is a set of vegan mozzarella cheeses, which were won in a competition…

I’ve also started to attack things that can’t be sold or given away. Although almost all of my photos over the last decade have been digital, I took and printed a lot before that, a number of which were duplicates or just not very interesting. I set about to get rid of anything along those lines, and ended up with quite a sizeable pile to go in the bin…

It’s not only the physical stuff I’ve been trying to declutter. I had a look at the folder containing all my digital photos and videos, and this was the monstrosity facing me…

That’s right…. 101Gb and FIFTEEN THOUSAND files! I went through every single photo and video, deleting anything out of focus, repetitive or just plain boring. It’s still a work in progress, but I think I’ve got rid of about 30Gb so far, with plenty more to go 🙂

A real space-taker was my old university PC. A relic from the time before everything started getting thinner and flatter, I finally got round to buying a cheap monitor and keyboard, taking any old files off of it, and then sending it down the recycling dump. Look at the size of it though…. so much space reclaimed (except now I have the monitor!)

So that’s where I am at the moment. The battle is far from over – I still have plenty more to sell, donate, give away or recycle, but I feel I’ve made excellent progress so far, and to be able to treat myself to things like a new iPod makes it worth it. The real bonus though is having the space back. The flying training books and magazines were sat in the boot of my car for months and months, and to finally reclaim that space was worth so much more than the money I got. I’m sure my parents are thrilled with my decluttering too as the rest of my stuff is filling up their cupboards and storage spaces… they keep saying they can’t wait for me to buy my own house!

If you think you have too much stuff and want some space back, try and sell what you no longer want – like I said earlier, people will buy the most unlikely things, and it ‘ll give you a few extra quid to treat yourself to something (smaller!) that you really do want!

Until next time!