Decluttering notes**

Another week over and another one beginning... as I get to be older and older, I feel that the weeks are just running away hell bent for leather...weeks that are gone forever, and no way of slowing them down. When I was young, the weeks seemed to take forever to reach the weekend when we could stay at home and not go to school. Now it takes a breath of air, and we are seemingly again, at the end of another week. What have I achieved this past week? I have been deep into trying to declutter the rooms. It is a thankless task, because all the things I have accumulated were saved because they were or might be of use to me. How, is not the answer, but maybe in the future, might be** I have to be totally ruthless with myself and if I have not used the item, or clothing in the past year, then it has to go, despite any need in the future. so far I have decluttered two cupboards and taken the several black bin liner bags to the Charity shops locally. What will I do with all this extra space? I must not fill it up again, and for that reason, I have barred my self from buying any more in the Charity shops. This is a hard rule, as I have been visiting the local ones on a daily basis for all the 17 years we have lived in this area. Quite a ritual, getting out to the shops to see what new things were in, and whether I thought I could use them, and then buy them and they joined all the other things that I might have wanted in the future. Of course I had a valid reason at first for visiting these Charity shops. Moving into a much larger house, being a Georgian Rectory, I had to find furniture and decorating items for the house. It was great fun seeking them out, and I generally made a good deal of great choices. Gradually over time, filling all the spaces in the house and making it into a cosy home. Now I have got the house right, I need to declutter and make just the very best things I have, be used, and all the rest recycled back to the Charity shops or the Dumps. I never thought that I had anything of value that I had accumulated over the years. Then, looking at back stamps on china I realised that what I h ad chosen for its colour and usefulness, was generally a good well known name, and so these Items became even more precious to me. Then I discovered the amazing world of Ebay and started to sell a few bits of china, and clothing and furniture. Gradually over the years, I have been happy to see my chosen items going to newer and happier places all over the world. It is difficult to know the lines that sell the best, but I generally stick to china and teasets. These have been very useful and decorative as well as managing to give a good return on what I had spent originally. I see that I have been with Ebay now for almost 9 years, an amazing chunk of time, where did all those months go to? Now I am retired and getting rid and decluttering my house because it is highly likely that in the near future, we might consider down sizing now that we no longer use the house as our place of work. Originally we bought it so both of us would have space to have an office and work from home. Now we dont need all the space, so this is a real consideration in the future.