Spring de-cluttering

I've been working quite hard on de-cluttering our house, over the last few days.  Although the house generally looks reasonably tidy to me, apart from the study, which tends to be full of pieces of paper, I've realised how much junk we have accumulated over the last few years.  This is I think one of the disadvantages of having a reasonable amount of space, and not having moved house for seven years.  I've also realised that as we've bought replacement kitchen equipment, bedding and so on, we have often not got rid of the items we were replacing, hence our increasingly full home.

Now, I am trying to imagine that we are about to start packing for a move, and to try and picture what we would want to take with us, and what we would want to give, or throw, away.  This has been quite effective so far.  I've managed to de-clutter several kitchen cupboards, including the baking tin cupboard, the worst, which has now been thoroughly cleaned, pruned, and organised.  We've also identified a pile of clothes, books, saucepans, bedding, and other miscellaneous items which need to go.  At the moment, I've put everything we no longer want into one room; the next stage of the project is to determine what is worth giving away or selling, and what is just rubbish.

As part of this project, we've also decided to buy a few new things, where we were using things that were unsatisfactory or didn't work properly; a new cake tin, as I was using one with a lid which didn't close properly; a new duvet cover; and a new filing cabinet.

The filing cabinet is needed for the next phase in our project, which is to sort out our office; at the moment our filing system is so complicated, having grown from one concertina file to several plus two lever arch files and several box files, that I only catch up with filing very occasionally, and with gritted teeth.  What I am aiming for is one central system so that things can be easily filed as soon as the post arrives.   (I would be interested in comments on how others manage their filing, by the way....)  I've added the Unclutter blog to my reading list, as well.

Using up odds and ends in the bathroom cabinet

Partly as an exercise in postponing buying anything, and also in the interests of de-cluttering the bathroom, and the cupboard under the kitchen sink, I am trying to use up all sorts of odds and ends before buying new toiletries or cleaning products.

I keep reading frugal tips suggesting that all you need to clean your house - and possibly yourself?! - is a tub of bicarbonate of soda and some white vinegar, but I haven't reached that stage yet.

I do, though, avoid name-brand house-cleaning products, and buy supermarket own brand instead, often from Lidl, and in as large a pack as possible. I also try to buy a small number of fairly generic products - i.e a cream cleaner, multipurpose cleaner, bleach and glass cleaner, but despite my best efforts the cupboard contains various other odds and ends. My aim is to use, or throw away, all these, and try to replace only those that are really necessary.

On the toiletries and cosmetics front, I tend to buy those things that I think I need, but pick up a lot of freebies on my travels. I often think that I'll use them next time I travel, but of course then I pick up more, so it is time to use up the odds and ends, and make a fresh start. I also sometimes buy extra bottles of shampoo on 'buy one get one free' offers, and it is time to catch up with those, before acquiring any more. I've emptied out the drawer containing these bottles and tubes, and begun to work my way through them, throwing out those that are no good to me.

I don't expect to save very much money doing this, but it is better than nothing, gives a virtuous feeling, and will clear some space.