Things that have Gone – 17

I’m back on the decluttering bandwagon again! Now that summer is over, it’s time to get my house in order again. I’ve always got more clothes to get rid of, I’ve admitted before that I have far too many. But this year, I have made a real and concerted effort to address this. A lot of my clothes are vintage items and although I love vintage clothes, I think it’s time to admit that most of the time they are just not as practical to wear. They tend to be the ones left hanging for months and years, and that just makes no sense. So, I am trying to downsize my collection. The other area of weakness in this house is the acquisition of DVDs. So we have resolved to try not to buy any more, without watching some of what we have.

In the last couple of weeks, I have sold 13 items on eBay.

 

1. Jasper Conran Applique Cord Skirt
2. Vintage Laura Ashley tea dress
3. Vintage Laura Ashley gypsy skirt
4. Underwear set
5. John Rocha T-shirt
6. Vintage Laura Ashley tea dress
7. M&S leather skirt
8. M&S cashmere cardigan
9. Thor DVD
10. Vintage Laura Ashley tea dress
11. Maleficent DVD
12. The Skeleton Twins DVD
13. Phase Eight Sequinned T-shirt

I plan to get ruthless this time, I’m giving myself a deadline and if things don’t sell – then they’re going to the charity shop. I’m not keeping things going round and round on eBay for a year, before they sell. My space is more valuable!

Are you decluttering? If you care to share, then I’d love to hear your stories in the comments.

I got rid of 15 pairs of shoes!

I don’t feel proud about that title, let me tell you. But I have continued my serious declutter. I am certain that I still own more than 15 further pairs of shoes and that number also needs to decrease. However, this is a MASSIVE step forwards for me and it’s truly been enlightening – look at all these shoes I had and there was absolutely no way I could use them all. Let’s just say that these 15 pairs that have gone are the ones that have had the least use, or even that I no longer wore at all. I don’t have pictures of them all, as I only started saving my images recently. Here is just a fraction:

I calculate that I have put £157.45 (gross figure) back in my pocket. Considering that only 2 of the pairs I had owned from brand new (and both of those were bought at around 70% off), I calculate that I am in profit despite my careless ownership. None of the other pairs cost more than £10 second-hand and most a lot less! However, that is not an excuse for me to go and buy more!

It might be optimistic, but I hope that I can one day get down to around 6 pairs of shoes. I’m envisaging:

1. Knee high boots
2. Ankle boots
3. Trainers
4. Sandals
5. Work shoes
6. Smart shoes

And really that would be more than enough! But I will admit that I have a slight weakness for shoes, probably more than anything else. Still, I can try.

Things That Have Gone This Week – 6

Here we are, week 6 and the clear out continues! I took 2 of those massive charity plastic sacks to a charity shop this week- they contained yet more clothing, from both me and my OH. Plus board games, footwear and a whole stack of books. These were all things I hadn’t been able to sell, so I hope the charity shop will have more luck than me! I also took another big plastic sack of clothing that was too worn to a textile recycling bank. I had been planning to hold onto it for rags etc, but at the end of the day there was more than I was ever going to re-use and we don’t have the space to keep it all for years. I understand that it can be recycled into padding for car seats and the like.

Add to all this the 8 items I sold on eBay this week and I’d say it’s been a pretty good week 🙂 I got £92.45 for this little lot which I am pleased enough with, for stuff I don’t want the responsibility for anymore. This is the net figure, not minus postage etc but it’s still pretty good. I didn’t buy any of these items new and I ended up in profit on most of them.

1. 2 sacks to charity
2. 1 sack to textile recycling
3. Turquoise Monsoon Skirt
4. Vintage Laura Ashley Velvet Ballgown
5. Vintage Laura Ashley maxi skirt
6. Laura Ashley shirt dress
7. Clarks Silver Ballet Flats
8. Tu Pink Dress
9. Juicy Couture Jeans
10. Ice Skates

Another 2 items have bids on them too, so they’ll be included next week. But this was probably my best week so far for getting rid of stuff! Are you decluttering? If so, how’s it going?

The Lies We Tell Ourselves

I have a very personal catalyst for wanting to minimise some more. It’s spurred me on to addressing the sheer amount of clothing, shoes and bags I have amassed. It’s not until I have started to purge, mostly by selling at this stage that I have understood the truth of the situation and realised the lies I’ve been telling myself. I find it so hard to let go of these things, so I am aiming to get rid of the items least used first. If I think the item has any value, then I am eBaying it. Otherwise it is being donated to a charity shop or given to a friend. If the items don’t sell on eBay after 3 attempts, they are also being donated.

I’ve shared these pictures before, but here they are again. This is not a minimalist wardrobe, I repeat…this is NOT a minimalist wardrobe! It’s not just a wardrobe; there are bags and boxes of unloved items.

Since I posted these pictures in September 2015, things have not really improved one iota! I was and still am a clothes addict and buying clothes cheaply, either in sales or charity shops is an easy way to mask the true cost of what you are spending. In just 2 months of selling, selling, selling on eBay I have sold around £500 worth of items. To date, I have shifted 45 items – by clearing out cupboards, wardrobes, boxes and kitchen cupboards. I’ve even sold several items of furniture! However, a significant proportion of this was clothing, bags and shoes. £500!!!!! I am horrified to realise that is only a part of what I own and I don’t miss a single thing.

I love to get a bargain, or a good deal and it’s easy to kid ourselves that if something is only costing £5 then it doesn’t really matter. But if you times that by say 1 purchase every week of the year and before you know it, you’ve spent £240 in a year. Imagine the compound interest on that over 10 years. A quick calculation at 1% interest shows that I could have £2615.55 if I just stopped buying and saved this money instead.

I’d also fallen into the pitfall of believing that buying a certain, expensive item would make me happy. Let me tell you know that it’s not true and owning an expensive bag or pair of boots has bought me more guilt than anything else. Guilt about the cost, how little I’ve worn or used them, or even because they did not make me happy like I’d thought they would. There’s so much truth in the psychology that we get the thrill from buying an item and that it quickly wears off.

I hope I learn these life lessons finally and I would love to have a capsule wardrobe! I will share some more pictures after I have completed my down-sizing. I am reforming and I’m going to be accountable on here.

Now it’s over to you – how have you managed to successfully down-size your belongings? Did you particularly struggle with an item or area of your home? Did you have an event that was a catalyst to down-sizing? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section!