A graphic of a person sitting in a chair looking overwhelmed with a lot of boxes and decluttering to do
Episode 80 – Ten areas to declutter when charity shops are closed

In this podcast we talk about decluttering when the charity shops are closed. Many of us are in lockdown and it provides the perfect opportunity for us to declutter our homes. But, there's a problem - the charity shops and recycling centres are shut and so we have nowhere to take our stuff. So, how do we deal with our decluttering when charity shops are closed? Let's give you some ideas of things you can focus on.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The declutter hub podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:32  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 80 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid. 

Lesley  0:37  
And I'm Lesley.

Ingrid  0:38  
If you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is the podcast for you. Now, Lesley, I'm already we haven't even started yet. And I'm crying laughing here because I feel like I'm in Groundhog Day. This is the second time we've recorded episode 80 with a completely different topic, what's going on here?

Lesley  0:57  
We're trying to respond to what our lovely listeners need, aren't we Ingrid? So yeah, I do. Honestly, we have been laughing our heads off for 10 minutes, because she's like, I've done we've done an episode at like three times. And then we keep shoving them back and shoving them back. Because we want to bring something that's going to be super, super useful. So we've had to sort of ditch our normal podcast schedule, haven't we? And start from scratch. And so we're here with a topic that we think is going to be useful to you. So what's happening out there at the moment, we all know what's happening out there, out there at the moment. But in the decluttering world, Ingrid and I like this is an amazing opportunity for everyone to declutter, but little stumbling block, our normal outlets for our stuff are gone. We can't take stuff to the recycling centre anymore. We can't stick tech stuff to the charity shop anymore, which does pose a difficulty in some instances. Now Amy and I are still completely convinced and committed to you carried on with your decluttering. And just having a holding area in your house for the stuff that you declutter. That stuff was in your house before. And in bags, it's still in your house. And so it's not more stuff. It's the same amount of stuff just in a slightly different format. So please don't be discouraged from decluttering. Because it's important to be able to use this time, positively. But having said that, some people are struggling to do that. And I'm not even going to bother, because I just can't. So what we wanted to do today was to talk about things that you can declutter that don't involve going to the recycling centre and don't involve going to the charity shop, didn't we? Ingrid?

Ingrid  2:34  
Yes, for sure, Lesley, because we were all let's be honest, we were a bit shocked. Last week, when we saw all the papers or the photos of people who dumped stuff in front of the charity shop, all this charity shops aren't even open. So you can't do that, you know, we can't just drop stuff there. Because there's nobody, there's no volunteers in the shops to take the stuff in. So it's all going to be thrown away. So we thought, okay, let's be smart here. There are people who have rooms in their houses or cupboards in their houses they can use to put the stuff in, they want, they have decluttered. But we also need to think about the people who do not have the space in their house to put items. So we have thought about 10 things you can declutter when the charity shops are closed. So that's handy, isn't it, Lesley?

Lesley  3:19  
is so let's start with a see what's number one on your list, I think we need to build up to that end grid. So I'm gonna shoot straight to number two on your list, which is we don't want to upset people right from the start here. With a job that's at hand. So let's go to number two, let's go to an easy one. Yeah, number two on you're no one else can see this list, and they don't know what I'm talking about. So we'll, we'll keep the suspense go into later in the podcast about not what number one originally was. So now for number one we're gonna go for you can declutter your magazines.

Ingrid  3:49  
Yes, now is the time to have a look at that magazine rack and next to your sofa or next to your bed, or in your home office where you have the magazines or maybe your kids have tonnes of subscriptions to magazines. And they've all kind of gathered in random places around your home. And of course, magazines can go into recycling and the recycling is still being collected. So magazines is a perfect first step to start with your decluttering.

Lesley  4:22  
So with magazines, I think it's about taking it back down to first principles as well. So there's people with just standard magazines that they're just to have for a couple of weeks or a few months. There are other people who have kept magazines for years and years and years. Now is the time to think about what you're doing with those magazines or you're looking at the magazines. Are they doing you any favours? Do they fit your current life? Are they out of date, and as Ingrid says, if you do have subscriptions to magazines, take it one step further. And look at your subscriptions as well, to make sure you've not got things that are just cluttering up that you're not using anymore.

Ingrid  4:57  
Yes, because if you have magazines I mean fantastic. Stick. But if you've never had the time to actually read them and enjoy them, why did they keep coming into your house, you know, if you've only got time to quickly flick through it, but don't even have time to read the articles, or you never get around to it, then it is cluttering up your house. Or maybe if you just have a magazine, because you've kept it because there's a lovely recipe in there or one article you still want to read. maybe now's the time to go, I'm going to take that out of the magazine. I'm just going to have a folder with articles that I want to read. And I'm going to slim this whole massive pile of magazines down just to a couple of cutouts that I can just easily read when I'm on the go.

Lesley  5:38  
So number two on the list, Ingrid is what

Ingrid  5:42  
receipts, oh yes, people have drawers full of them boxes full of them, purses bulging at the seams with receipts, this is the perfect time to have a look at those receipts.

Lesley  5:55  
Yeah, go through your purses, drag out what you don't need. Look at those receipts that you've been keeping in those box files just in case you want to return an item. You don't need to keep receipts for very, very long. Unless number one, it's a very expensive item that you want to have a record of for insurance purposes. Or number two, if you are self employed, or if you have to submit expenses as part of your job. Those are the only two reasons why you need to keep receipts for any prolonged period of time. But if you are self employed, or you do need to do expenses as part of your job, chances are those need to have been submitted already. So you may have missed the boat.

Ingrid  6:33  
Yes, let's see, you're absolutely right, just one word of caution with receipts that they are normally printed on thermal paper, which is very shiny, and you can't recycle that. So if you need to get rid of receipts, you probably want to throw them away. Or maybe if you want to shred them, shred them separately to all of the rest of your normal paper and you can then put the thermal paper in the bin with your normal rubbish.

Lesley  7:01  
A really useful point and good and it's not something that everyone knows. So let's go on to number three is very exciting, isn't it? Number three on our list, we should have built it up like a top 10 really shouldn't wait. But maybe this can be a top seven. We're building up to the biggie at the end, aren't we?

Ingrid  7:16  
So yes, Lesley. Number three on our list is emails, you definitely want to have a look at your emails and see if you can declutter some of those.

Lesley  7:26  
To be fair, not everybody has got lots and lots of time on their hands at the moment. And we absolutely understand that. But if you have, then this is the perfect time to get your email inbox under control. So we just recently went through a for today's 40 items challenge, didn't we in our Facebook group, if you're not a member of the Facebook group, by the way, please come and search us out. Because there's loads of fantastic inspiration and motivation from our members in there. Just search for the declutter hub community, and you will find us there. But one of the things that people really did focus on and part of the for today's challenge was emails wasn't there. And we have people that that will literally getting their email inboxes down from 20 25,000, down to a few 100, which is fantastic. And it makes you feel so much better and so much more in control of life.

Ingrid  8:13  
Yes, for sure. And the first step, what you can do with email decluttering is already start unsubscribing from all the emails you're not even reading, if they don't come in, you don't have to declutter them later either. So maybe that's even step number one in your email. decluttering is unsubscribing from all the emails, and then sorted by sender, and delete sender by sender, which is much easier, and you'll save yourself a lot of time. So if you

Lesley  8:38  
feel unsure about how to actually take control of those emails, you can listen into a podcast called that very thing taking control of your email inbox, and that is episode 48. And we go through step by step exactly how to do it in the most efficient way. We don't want you to be deleted one email at a time you need to do this in bulk and we'll tell you how.

Ingrid  8:59  
Perfect Lesley. So what is our fourth thing you can declutter?

Lesley  9:05  
So we're actually going to go on to physical items now, but we are going to focus on things that are reasonably small that tend to go straight into waste anyway. And that is stationery.

Ingrid  9:17  
Yes, for sure. stationery is a perfect thing to declutter. And it's just so satisfying. You know, if there's one thing I actually read don't like Lesley is grabbing a pen from a holder which then doesn't work. There's nothing more frustrating isn't it? So if you can look at your stationery and in specific your pens and just test them and get all the pens out that don't work anymore. Unfortunately, it's very tricky to recycle pens, so they have a lot of times to have to go into way so maybe this is the perfect opportunity to find those pens that are working and that aren't working.

Lesley  9:57  
There are some recycling schemes out there for pens. If you're in the US Crayola do a recycling scheme and if you're in the UK called for a TerraCycle recycling scheme, that's probably not going to be available at the moment but you can keep those pens to one side and it's not going to make or break your house at this moment in time because those items are very small.

Ingrid  10:16  
Yes, Lesley and if you want to have more inspiration on how to declutter stationery Have a listen to podcast number 36 where we talk about all the things involved with decluttering stationery

Lesley  10:29  
you can really make some good inroads Can't you into stationery and it is as Ingrid said, it's highly satisfying to get your stationery under control. So that is number four. And now we're gonna go on to number five.

Ingrid  10:41  
Yes, one of our favourite things to do actually Lesley, isn't it? It is the bathroom decluttering your bathroom is very, very satisfying because it's a room that you spent quite a lot of time in. Every morning every evening, you're in the bathroom. So having a nice decluttered and organised bathroom is just essential for your daily life, your daily routine. So a lot of items that you declutter from a bathroom will be empty bottles or near empty bottles, and they can all go into recycling. So it's a perfect room to tackle while we're all in lockdown.

Lesley  11:14  
So talking about the bathroom. If you want some advice on how to declutter your bathroom, the bathroom forms part of our eight week declutter boot camp, which is available at the moment. So if you do want to tackle your whole house while we're in lockdown, our boot camp is the perfect way to do it. So we're going to tackle one room at a time one week at a time. And we will tackle the kitchen, clothes in the bathroom, the hallway, garage lofts and basements, toys, books and laundry. So if you feel inspired and you're like oh, you know, I really want to spend this time productively declutter my house, but I'm not sure where to start. Common listen into our bootcamp is done by video with Ingrid and is all very light hearted. So it's quite fun. You'll get access to a live q&a to ask lots of questions. There's a forum so you can ask other members what they have done is a brilliant way to get yourself kick started. So our eight week declutter boot camp, you can do that whenever so it's not already started, it will start when you purchase it. It's available for the full course for $39, which is about 34 pounds, I think isn't Ingrid. And if you don't feel like you want to commit to the whole eight weeks, then you can pay week by week for $7 or five pound ish a week, it will convert currency to your local currency on checkout. And you will get to keep that content for whenever you want to do it. If you'd like

Ingrid  12:39  
to know more about our give declutter bootcamp, go to our declutter hub.com website and have a look into shop. And there you can see all the options that are there, including the declutter hub bootcamp.

Lesley  12:50  
Okay. So let's now go on to number six. Now, this is a really, really lovely project to do. So, our sentimental items, what we always advise you to do is we advise you to keep sentimental items in a box by family member. Now, sometimes the passage of time means that things become less sentimental over time. And so it's a really useful exercise for you to go through the sentimental boxes from time to time. And really keep just the things that really do give you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. Now, if you want to do the sentimental boxes of your children, or even yourself, this is a really, really lovely project to do. Because now you've got the time to really enjoy all those memories.

Ingrid  13:36  
Yes, Lesley a sentimental items is such a lovely thing to do. But be mindful, it might take you down a very long trip to memory lane. So do schedule a bit of time, if you're going to go down this route. If you'd like to have some inspiration, do have a listen to our podcasts, 32 and 59 If you'd like to know more about how to do sentimental items.

Lesley  14:00  
Okay, so we've had a lovely time now decluttering our sentimental items with our family or for ourselves. Now we're going to take it back to something that's not going to be quite as exciting at all, but very necessary and a great time to do that. So number seven is file folders on your computer sounds a little bit dry that

Ingrid  14:19  
I know is like oh, do I really have to do this, but oh my gosh, it's going to be so nice to have those folders, all thinned out sort of decluttered to not have a desktop full of downloads and screens and icons but have it all cleared out a little bit. And that will be so helpful for future proofing your computer as well. If you ever have to find something in your computer, it's so much easier if there is a structure there.

Lesley  14:50  
So if you're not on top of the file folder structure within your computer, now is the perfect time to do that. Boring, boring, boring but hugely Saturday. find at the end of it. And we'll help you long term.

Ingrid  15:03  
Yes. And if you find some random USB sticks in your drawer or amongst your stationery, now's maybe a good time to have a look at those as well and kind of go, Oh, what, what is all these things and kind of check that and copy paste it or delete it or deleted memory sticks. So all those little jobs that you've been meaning to get around to, now is a time you can do all of that. And oh, boy, it will make you feel so much better.

Lesley  15:30  
Absolutely. So now we go on to number eight, which is a little bit more contentious, because this is a little bit more personal. So we're still digital, but this is a little bit more personal. Now is the time to get ruthless with our contacts. And contacts come in many different forms, don't they? Ingrid?

Ingrid  15:47  
Yes, you know, it can be your Facebook friends, it can be the contacts in your phone, it can be acquaintances on LinkedIn, it can be the people in your address book. I mean, we are we have contacts everywhere. And even just to start by your phone, you know, I recently went through all of them. And it was not an easy job to do. Let me tell you this, but you find out that people are in there double. There's people in there that you haven't been in contact with for a long, long time. You don't need the numbers anymore. Me as mum and you're like, I don't even know me eyes anymore. You know, all of those people that you think why are they in my phone. So quite a tricky job to do. But again, a very satisfying one as well, Lesley?

Lesley  16:31  
Definitely. So go through the contacts on your phone. As Ingrid said, if you've got a paper address book where you've got things and you've been meaning to transfer your paper based address book to digital, now is the time to do that. Facebook friends is a tricky one. But people certainly are looking at Facebook friends at the moment. You know, if you're that person who gathers random Facebook friends along the way, then maybe now's the time to declutter some of those from your feed. So you actually get to see the things that you want from the friends that you really truly want to see. Following on from that you can unsubscribe to some WhatsApp chats as well, if they are long gone. So they can come out of your phone and out of your whatsapp because sometimes our WhatsApp gets filled up.

Ingrid  17:11  
Yes. And going back to address book for just another moment, Lesley, what I see a lot in my clients houses that people are not ready to put their addresses in their phones completely. They had this beautiful new address book laying around for ages they meet because for birthday or for the holidays. And they've been meaning to write down all their contacts in the new address book and they haven't gotten around to it yet. This is now the perfect time to get that off your to do list.

Lesley  17:39  
Okay, so we said we were going to build up to some biggest didn't we Ingrid? And so now we're going to hit you with the first big one, which is paperwork. So now is the time to declutter your paperwork and get that into some kind of order. This does not need to go to a charity shop, it can go straight into recycling or they can go straight into shredding. So it's not going to be a problem to that the charity shops are closed because this is going to get collected with your regular paper recycling. So take the time to start looking at your paperwork. If it seems completely overwhelming to you take it one category at a time or one pile at a time. However you do it. Be ruthless, declutter what you no longer need really think about what you have gone paperless on what you've gone digital on, and take the time to declutter all that excess paper that you don't need from your home.

Ingrid  18:33  
Yes, you know, start by taking out all those envelopes started taking out all of those little booklets that are cluttering up our filing cupboards. even have a look at your filing system. Is your filing cabinet working for you? Are your lever arch files working for you? Or would you rather go to another system to box files or to hanging files, thin it all out 80% of paperwork never ever gets looked at again. Or maybe you've realised that you do want to keep some of the paperwork but you don't need it in all your current files. Maybe you can create some archive boxes that can put away into long term storage. This is the time to do it. This is the time to get it all sorted. And maybe now's the time to go paperless with your bank statements. So you don't have to deal with all that paper coming in all the time. So lots of different jobs to be done within PayPal, you can break down this project and a lot of small projects. So don't overseed as one giant thing to do break the project down but it's a big one

Lesley  19:38  
is a big one. But again, it's a very satisfying one because to sort your paperwork makes us feel so much more in control. So if that's something that you want to focus on, we do have a couple of podcast episodes are going to help you. Episode Number six is from your doormat to interest so it's how to make sure all that paperwork gets from your doormat and gets to a place where you're going to action it Episode number 15, which is going to be really useful to you for this project is a How long do you need to keep certain bits of paperwork? So double check episode number six and episode number 15 for some inspiration.

Ingrid  20:12  
Yes, Lesley. And last but not least in our list of things, too, you can declutter what a charity shops are closed, is photographed. And I feel like I need to do a drumroll here, photographs.

Lesley  20:27  
Again, this is a big project. And this is a project that's on our to do list for years and years and years. And we're always like, I'm gonna get round to doing that I'm gonna get round to photographs. I'll do photographs, when I retire. I'll do photographs when I go on sabbatical. Do all those things, I'll do photographs. Once a week, I'll make everything digital. There's so many things that we can do. So you're going to have physical photographs, and you're going to have digital photographs. We'll leave it up to you to decide what photographs you want to declutter, if you do birth is a huge job. digital photograph. decluttering is immense, because we all take multiple photo after photo after photo to get the right shot, don't we? So physical photographs, the volumes are much smaller than digital photographs. But again, both of those projects are fantastic things to do while being locked down. And again, jumping back to the sentimental projects, really, really lovely things to do on your own or with your family to evoke those memories, what a nice time to be able to sit and devote the time to actually look into things and enjoying them. When we're not in that rat race of everyday life.

Ingrid  21:31  
Yeah, and connected to photographs could be maybe you've got some photo frames, you've been meaning to fill with photos, you've printed the photos, you have the frames, but you haven't taken the time to actually sit down and put the two together. So you can actually hang those frames up of or display them on your shelving in your living room or around your house. So that could be a fantastic project to do as well. Or maybe you've been meaning to make a lovely photo album of a special trip that you've made or when the kids were little or from a wedding, or a special occasion from when you turned 40 or 50 or 60. All of this project you probably already have the album's you have the photos, if you still do it with physical photos, now's the time to sit down, dig all of that all that stuff out and sit down and get it all done. Or maybe if you've been planning to do a digital photo book for certain years, or for a special occasion, this is a perfect job to get started on that and take the time to figure it all out. And people have said to me, I have not made a physical photobook myself, but they've said to me, once you have one standard elbow, and you figured it all out, the second, third or fourth album are much easier to create, once you've got the layout, and you're happy with all of how it looks. So photographs can be a really tremendous project to get done. So

Lesley  22:53  
I think we've done our 10 things in grid.

Ingrid  22:56  
Yes, for sure. Let's see, then things that don't create a lot of clutter, physical clutter, but are so lovely to tackle and our help gonna help us to a less cluttered home.

Lesley  23:10  
So we still firmly believe that you should declutter anything and everything in your home while you've got the opportunity to do that, to create a positive vibe we see we are seeing it so often in our Facebook group, people are loving the positive feeling that decluttering brings, we know it because we've worked with it for years and years and years with happy clients who suddenly feel like a weight is lifted off their shoulders. And just because something is digital doesn't mean to say that it doesn't give you that same buzz. There's something very satisfying about taking control of emails or file folders or contacts, or photographs, those kinds of things. But equally, if you're struggling for space, you can work on the things that are small. So think about things in your home that just have general day to day items, bathrooms, kitchens, that kind of thing.

Ingrid  23:56  
So listeners that's it for this episode. We hope you've all enjoyed listening are inspired to take action have We inspired you to keep the clutter and when we're all in lockdown. We really hope so and that we've given you lots of tips and ideas of items and things you can do. So thanks for taking the time to listen today. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review and tell us what you think about the show. And if you'd like to get more tips and advice please follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook is at declutter hub, and we've got a lovely Facebook group called the declutter hub community. We would love to see you there and take a look at members declutter hub.com To find out more about our membership. And you can also find details about our bootcamp on the declutter health.com website when you're looking to shop. If you don't want to miss the next week's episode, subscribe to the declutter hub podcast on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and iHeartRadio. And it will pop into your notifications each Friday. See you next time.

Outro  25:00  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the declutter hub podcast. Check out declutterhub.com for more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week.
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