Decluttering By Date And Design

Bless, a blogfriend for many years, is doing a declutter-by-date this month. That is, on 1st of the month you declutter one thing, on the 2nd discard two...until the end of the month, when 465 items should have left the home

.She has given herself permission to stop when she reaches 300 items [that should be 24th Sept] unless she gets carried away, and manages 500 in the month. 

After Liz sorted out the kitchen for me the other week and said I did not need to keep every empty glass jar, so she'd put them in recycling, I decided I needed a concerted plan of action. I would attempt to declutter in categories.

one belt. I have a lovely leather belt for my jeans, using my M&S tokens. But it got mislaid when the jeans were washed. I grabbed this one [roiled up it the drawer behind my pjs. Why?] I wore it for one day, till best belt resurfaced...but it is cheap and old, and disintegrating. It has gone [ok I admit the buckle is in a tin with other fastenings]

two potato peelers. Both brand new [bizarrely they arrived with other online kitchen purchases] They will go to CS, and thus free up kitchen drawer space 

three cracked terracotta flower pots from the back garden. They were stacked up, waiting to be smashed and used for drainage in other pots. But I have plenty of shards in a bucket in the garage already. My Grandad used to refer to daft people as "crackpots" which always made me giggle when I was little. Binned

four brown cardboard boxes. Not flattened into recycling bin, as usual, but torn into small pieces and added to my compost as a layer of "brown waste" [recycled into garden]

five out of date make up items. I don't wear a lot of 'slap' - and I had a load of freebies which were old, half used, and not exactly healthy looking. They have gone. Since the Dundee fall, and my lip developing an interesting paler patch, I do wear lipstick more. But those will get used up quickly. Bin 

six plastic Huel bottles. We both have these protein drinks occasionally. But as I am not making any more Technicolor-Joseph-models at a Holiday Club, I don't need to hold on to all these bottles! recycled

seven magazines, all freebies, which were cluttering the coffee table, recycled

eight glass jars with lids. There are still some in the cupboard, because I will be making marmalade shortly- I'm down to my penultimate jar! recycled

nine split, cheap plastic flowerpots. Horrid thin things which had been in the greenhouse - with equally pathetic tomato plants inside.  No recycling triangles. Gone into regular bin.

ten cardboard egg boxes. Intended originally for seedlings. Unlike Carol Klein on Gardeners' World last week, I do not spend every other moment propagating new plants, I won't need 120 little cardboard 'eggcups' this autumn. Another layer of brown compost 

So that was 10 groups - 55 items gone up to Tuesday evening. 70% purposefully recycled. I have decided to start this again for the next ten days.Thank you again, Bless, for your inspiration!