GrumbleSmiles

Once upon a time we all had one small rubbish bin which was emptied by the Council every week.   No fuss, no guidelines and no worries.   It just happened.

Now that’s all changed.    We are all environmentally friendly and expected to save the world from sinking under the weight of all out waste.     Who could possibly disagree with that ?

So now we have 5 bins !    One for food waste, otherwise known as the “pig bin”, although I doubt if the pigs get to eat any of our left overs.   Two for garden waste, because bonfires in the garden are not good for global warming, nor the nextdoor neighbour’s washing on the line.    Then there is the most virtuous bin, the recycling bin.     This is the one that Councils are most proud of.    So much so, that they display big signs saying what percentage  of waste they have recycled each week.    Finally there is the bin you are now almost ashamed to put out on the street, the general waste bin.    This is only collected every three weeks, though I don’t doubt that someone in the Council is already thinking about extending it to annual collections once the populous have been fully re-educated about the evils of waste.

There is just one niggle in my mind about all this effort we are putting in to sifting and sorting the rubbish in our lives.   What exactly are the Councils doing with all this rubbish?

• This is my first progress report on my 2019 decluttering plan.  The first thing to say is as of yet I haven’t decluttered anything but I need to start out with a strategy and a plan.  So here goes:-c

Strategy

• We only need a maximum of one years supply of anything;
• But, we don’t need a years supply of everything;
• Nothing should remain in a box for more than one year;
• That will give us lots of storage space and lots of boxes to throw away;
• Then we will have more space in the home.

Plan

• Empty wardrobe boxes of clothes not worn for a year;
• Turn around winter / summer wardrobe, taking stuff off rails and into empty boxes;
• Give away clothes not used in the last year to charity shop;
• Throw last years’ paperwork away, one file at a time;
• File in-tray paperwork into now emptied files;
• Burn old bank paperwork and invoices.
• Throw yesterdays papers away TODAY

FIRST PROGRESS REPORT.  “NOT MUCH PROGRESS”

1 am obviously better at talking about it than doing it.   Still I have a chance of catching up in the next few weeks

P. S.    I have got rid of all the Christmas wrapping paper and a heap of cardboard before it had time to become clutter.   That’s ‘preventative de-cluttering’ I suppose.

Happy New Year!

I obviously had a moment of de-cluttering breakdown with my last post “Learn to Love Clutter”.   It’s not a strategy that will ever work for me.

Seems  like almost a year has gone by since my heroic efforts at de-cluttering fizzled out.   I ran out of steam, but sadly I didn’t run out of clutter.   (See all my earlier efforts by clicking on “Clutter” in the Tag Cloud).

Now that the days have already closed in, I need a new project for the indoor winter months.    I won’t let this clutter mound beat me and I have yet another idea of how I might get on top of it.

How do you eat an elephant ?      Answer…….. One bite at a time !

So my project for 2019 is to De-Clutter one thing a day every day for a year.    Three hundred and sixty-five things less should make a hole in the clutter and one thing at a time shouldn’t be too difficult.

There again what do you do when you have close to 365 socks with no feet to walk in ….and 365 shirts hanging lifelessly on a wardrobe rail unworn for another year ……and 365 bits of important papers piling up in the office waiting to be filed …….and 365 ties untied, longing for a meeting or a day out ……and 365 plantless pots in the garden sheds ……  and 365 books read and unread  ……….and 365 photographs waiting for an album ……and 365 of so much more unused, days-over, dust gathering, nobody loves me former treasures?

I will write a progress blog report every week using my new Clutter Elephant logo.   That should keep me under pressure to continue de-cluttering.

Maybe there is an alternative to continuously unsuccessfully de-cluttering.    Perhaps I should become a hoarder and completely reverse my thinking about clutter ?

Become a collector of EVERYTHING 😀😀😀😀😀🤡

Starting with SOCKS.   Why not, it is as good a place to begin as any other and I have a drawer full already to get me started.

Then I could move on to CUSHIONS,  you can never have too many cushions !    Scatter cushions everywhere and you can be reassured that when you keep tripping over them you will have a soft landing.   More cushions for everyone could save the NHS millions !   They should be on everyone’s next prescription.

PAPER.   Now there’s a thing to easily collect.   It comes through the letter box every day.  No longer think of it as junk mail, just something to add to your collection.    One day it may become valuable and think of all the post people you are keeping in work.   Forget about the trees in the Amazon rain forest.

BOOKS are another overwhelming thing.   Once you have read them you are unlikely to read them again, but why throw them away.   Stack them on shelves so they can gather dust.    Or use a few of them to level up uneven table legs.    They will also help to insulate you outside walls which should save on your heating bills.

In just a few decades your house could become a museum and you could charge people to come and view your junk 😀    Or you could apply for planning permission for your house to become an antique shop.