Help your elderly relative or neighbour to downsize without heart break.
Clutter… we all have some, unless you’re a tidy-freak and keep your house in pristine order.
My aunt Mary had more clutter than most people. She was on the verge of being a hoarder. I gave an inward sigh when she told us she was going into sheltered housing and she needed some help to sort out her belongings. I knew immediately her life-time collection of books, cd’s, trinkets and collectibles would not fit into the new sheltered housing.
After some discussion I encouraged her to let go of the things she no longer needs or uses and to hold on to what is important to her. We took photos of things she was letting go, so she’d still have the memory.
Of the hundreds of odd things she’d kept over the years ‘just in case’, not to mention the forty-five wine glasses, Aunt Mary was brave and gave them away to a charity shop.
The garage was full of my late Uncle John’s tools and equipment. We had a good clear out and let go of most of the tools. It left us with lots of odds and ends that were no use to anyone. We sold a lot of his stuff, and small items of furniture.
She was thrilled with the cash; it meant she could go on a trip once she was settled into her new place.
We emptied her loft and put everything into her spare room. I bought some large clear containers. For weeks I could not move in there. Slowly, gradually, we got rid of things. I filled up the containers with all the important things she wanted to keep, put stuff aside for the charity shop, the rest will go into the skip hire.
Why hang on to stuff when you no longer need it or have forgotten it’s there.
How can you downsize your possessions?
– You can put photographs onto memory sticks or online, on cloud.
– You can type up diaries and store them online.
– Books: read them again, then let them go. Keep only the ones you really love. Let go of those cookery books you’ve not looked at in years or copy the recipes you’ve enjoyed and paste them into a special keepsake book. Paperless society, clutter-free society?
– Let go of all the CDs and DVDs you’re hanging on to but haven’t listened to or watched in years. Music and films are available online. Do the same with family videos, convert them to DVD or store them in cloud, forever accessible.
– Sell what you can on e-bay, Amazon, FB page. Place ads in shops, take items to car boot sales.
– Give the items you don’t need to family and friends or charity.
Clearabee Skip Hire
For everything else there’s Clearabee skip hire or use Clearabee’s Beebags, a great way to dispose of the rest of the things you no longer need.
The dross of your life can go into a skip hire.
It’s easier than you think. You can get in touch online.
https://www.clearabee.co.uk/skip-hire/
How about your dross?
Helping Aunt Mary has inspired me to do the same. I want to spare my daughter the huge task of sorting through my things.
So, how much of it have you accumulated over a lifetime? Fast forward a few years… will I have even more stuff when I turn 70 80, 90?
What of the emotional side of things? Will my daughter get upset when she trawls through my stuff and finds things that were kept secret all those years? Those old letters I’ve hidden… Oh dear… Why not dispose of it now or put it on cloud? If it’s important for me to hang on to, it’ll still be there for my eyes only and no-one will ever see it.
Yes, I will sort through my things now. One room at a time…
Clearabee
It makes sense to order a skip hire. Clearabee is now the best skip hire service in the UK. You can rely on them to help you in your decluttering efforts, whether they are a necessity because you have to downsize for a move.
Clearabee divert ninety percent of what they collect from the landfills.
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