A graphic of an open jewellery box with various items inside
Episode 278 – 10 No brainers to declutter from your home

It’s time to get back to basics with a brand new ten things to declutter from your home podcast. We’re focusing on absolute no brainers. Things that just hang around your home with absolutely no purpose. How many on the list do you have?
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Transcript of this podcast episode
00:00
It's time to get back to basics with a brand new 10 things to declutter from your home. And we're focusing on absolute no brainers. This podcast episode thinks that just hanging around your home with absolutely no purpose. How many on the list Do you think you have?

00:27
You're listening to the declutter home podcast, bringing you tried and tested no nonsense tips advice from the leading experts in decluttering and organizing your home. Now here are your hosts, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

00:50
Hello, and welcome, listeners. I'm Ingrid. And I'm Lesley. If you're new to the declutter hub podcast, you're so welcome. What you'll find is that we try and find a fun factor in the serious business of decluttering. And if you've been here for a while, you know exactly what we mean. So thank you so much for listening. If you'd

01:10
like to get involved in conversations related to this podcast, it all takes place in our Facebook group. So come and join our lovely, warm, supportive community. To find the Facebook group go to declutter hub.com forward slash group to find out more, or you can search for the declutter hub community on Facebook. Well, Lesley,

01:30
here we are yet again with a 10 Things podcast, and we love recording attendees. But guess what, you never know what's going to happen and come out of our mouths, right? By

01:41
the way, you have approved the list today. So basically, when we do a 10 Things podcast, but come up with a list, and then England imagines that she doesn't even know what's on the list when we're going through them. So, but I I don't think today, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, you won't have any of these things.

02:02
I think I might have one or two. But I think overall I'm going to be really really I'm going to do really well today, Lesley Okay,

02:10
we're gonna go up against each other. I don't know I came up with a list and then I need to think about it when we actually come up with them. But yes, 10 things podcasts, and these are absolutely no brainers. Now, there are some things in life that are difficult to declutter, and there are some things that are easy to declutter. And so we're going to give you easy wins. But some of these things are quite voluminous. There's a few of them hanging around. So go for it. Yes,

02:30
I've got to start with number one. Ha, I have a feeling smug already, Lesley, because I have nothing of this in my house. By

02:41
the way, before you feel so smug. Your children are 15 and 17. Okay, so it's not really a surprise that you don't have these things in your house. So we're going for people with young children or grandchildren that will undoubtedly have some of these things in their house.

02:58
But the thing is, I don't think I've ever had any of these in my house. But anyway, so number one, let's complete what it is. It's Happy Meal toys. Now it happy meal toys are normally from McDonald's, but it can be whatever toy from any fast food chain, right that do this kind of stuff.

03:18
Yeah, I mean, Ingrid doesn't know because she's probably never been in a fast food chain in her entire life. And so this is where we have problems. So she's feeling smug. I think he's like, it's bordered on child cruelty to not tell you they've taken your children's about Donald's at any time in their actual life can

03:37
count about two or three times I think the last?

03:41
Honestly, honestly, I Yeah. in touch with modern culture, embrace us through life without going to McDonald's.

03:49
I know. I mean, I do like a big, big mac every like once a year. I can't see.

03:55
changes it up. So we get like once or twice in a lie. Now we've gone to

04:00
Oh, in the last five years or so in the last five years. Okay. Yeah, about once a year or something. We have McDonald's. So that's about it. I just, it's enough.

04:09
Yes, it is enough. You are right. I'm only joking, because it's absolutely not child cruelty. But what is bad and what is cruel for many, many things, including the environment or happy meal toys. Now, if ever, there was something that was a momentary kind of adrenaline hit for a child, it's going to be probably a Happy Meal toy. Now there's not there are some that are great people. There are collectibles within there. There are some that are really cool. But there's in 52 I think that I think they change every week, right? Or every week. Yeah, so So whilst we first had a Happy Meal toy, there's a load of tat isn't there as well. But most of the timing, was there a complete load? It's hardly right. And kids get very, very attached to Happy Meal toys, don't they? And so we find ourselves I mean, when we're doing toy declutters in in client's homes, we literally sometimes we have to find a category for happiness. Your toes. QUESTION Right. And so, yeah, so I don't know. I know is it for us to say you should get rid of Happy Meal toys? I don't know, for me, they are definitely on the list of things that were not intentional. You know, kids not going there wanting them. But then there are some people. Well, that might be the only time that that kid gets right. And so, but for me, they're up for debate, Happy Meal toys up for debate. Ironically, last week, it was this random thing hanging around my house in a living room. And I was like, What is that like some little tiny thing. And Leah said, oh, one of my friends, it was what it was. It's a happy male tie when my friends, you know, so like students and kids, if they've got no money, even though they're all 25, they should be able to afford an adult sized meal at McDonald's our job. It was like a Happy Meal time. And it was in my house. And so it just went in the bin. And

05:52
that's why it ended up on the list, probably because she does good reason. I think only once. I thought this is actually very good. They had Smurfs as happy meal toys.

06:04
You've only been in once. How can you make?

06:09
I know but but a friend of ours collects verse and he told us he was like, You need to go into McDonald's with your kids and take a happy meal because they're doing submerge. And that's actually one that I could stand behind. But all the other stuff. I don't know. I think we need to move on. We're getting in dangerous, that dangerous territory here, I think.

06:30
But it is irrelevant. It is a very relevant thing. To me. It's a no brainer. Yeah, I think the problem that we've got is, it's to mean to tell your kids not to take the time because that I believe that is an option. You can say we don't want the tie. But then you would feel like a really super mean parent, right? Yeah. Yeah,

06:49
that was when the kids were older. They just couldn't eat in full size meal yet, but they were old enough not to want the plastic thing. So but we had to have it from the picture. We ordered a happy meal for one of the kids or both of the kids. And we had to have the Happy Meal toy now. And but we don't want the toy. My kids are like 13 and 12. We don't want to have to have to actually gave it away to somebody else. And then I felt bad because he

07:13
gave it to somebody else so that they got two toys. to declutter both. Yeah, that was That was clever, isn't it?

07:19
Anyway, better than throwing it into bed? I mean, oh, my Wow. Anyway, I think we need to move on to number two. And also, as always, we're going to be forever literally, number two earrings that don't have a back to them or that are not in a pair. Yes,

07:37
we lose earrings a lot don't wear you know, when we go out. You take them off, they fall out sometimes you just generally lose them, they're very little so they can get lost quite easily. Yeah. And what happens is we find our little lone earring or the back has gone missing because backs fall off as well if they're not snug, you know, yeah, all earrings are not the same. Right? There are some good quality earrings or some they've got great backs. And there are also parts of earrings that fall off as well. Because now earrings getting quite intricate. And so there's bits of earring that fall off. And so we keep hold of them, because we imagine that the other part of the earring is going to turn up. Yeah, how long should we keep hold of them Ingrid?

08:26
I think that possibly might also be determined by the value of the area Yeah. I mean if it's like a cheap pair of earrings apples like six quotes from a you know, your local accessorize is like then it's easy to get to go oh, I've lost the other one don't know where it is. Haven't seen it in ages. It can go but if it's like a diamond earring.

08:47
Oh, yeah. You know, diamond diamond, diamonds. I missed the we are talking about costume but like

08:54
more more expensive earrings, then you kind of want to give it a bit more time I think to keep everything crossed. It's gonna show up. Hopefully at some point. It never does. But you add though doesn't

09:05
cause it says you say it never does. It does absolutely does. Like we find them all the time with clients. Gentlemen, I think that's the thing, the nice. The only way you're actually going to find I mean an earring back you can replace right but opposite, you know, a pair, part of a pair or whatever it is the second one of a pair. You know I'm saying? You can find those in a standard Declutter. And they do turn up not taking up loads and loads of space, but I do think we need to evaluate it. So this would be done as part of a jewelry declutter where you go in and you go, right, okay. Now's the time. And I'm either intentionally going to go around my house and try and find it in obvious places. Or hold it to one side, put it on a list of something. This is something that I really need to find. There's different things that you can do, but at some point you need to go. That's a bit of a lost cause. And it needs to go

09:54
Yeah, I think I think what we can definitely agree upon Lesley is that a jeweler Usually clutter like this needs to be done later in the process. When you've got a whole house full of clutter, you can go, let me start organizing my jewelry. That makes no sense. Because indeed, if you start missing, it's probably somewhere around your house that you've put it down somewhere, you can't remember that you put it down. So you have to kind of put it all together first. And then when when the clutter has kind of gone down or everywhere, then you can add one go point go in an afternoon right now want to get all the jewelry and all the litsen. But some books that I've just gathered, gathered together, and now I'm going to sort it out. And now I can actually say, actually 95% or 80% of whatever it is for my house has been done. If I do find it now, then it's just I don't know, it can't be helped. But then you can kind of almost certainly say, I've decluttered the bulk of my house, it's not going to be found anywhere. Some

10:53
people would would feel that it gave them great joy to a jewelry declutter the problem that we've got. But so what we're saying is, evaluate whether or not that jewelry declutter is a sensible thing for you to do at this stage in your decluttering they have got your whole house to do because it takes a long, long time to do a jewelry declutter doesn't Ingrid?

11:14
Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to move on to number three, Lesley. burned out candles.

11:22
If there's something that you absolutely 100% have not gotten your house. It's burnt out candles. You've not even got nice candles in your house because you've got some weird thing that you don't like them. If you don't like the smell of nice candles. I think I honestly, maybe better candles wherever you got your nice scented candles from.

11:41
I mean, we had a like a nice one like a no. My husband doesn't like the smell of scented candles. I do like little wax. You know the little ones that you can just you know to live? We don't? Yeah, we just don't like scented candles. Right? Okay. The scented candles is the problem with the house. But when they're burned out, they're being thrown away. Yes,

12:01
absolutely. We are talking about burnt out candles. And so we leave them that the thing is about burnt out candles. We kind of like them. Some people think that the scent still is there. They get full of dust. Don't they like candles? It's not something that people typically get around to dusting. But they do gather dust. And then they look really grim. I think dusty candles are just so not what they ought to be, which is something to enhance your home. Yeah, just a bit rubbish. And the cheaper the candle, you get a little residue on the side of it. You know, but we can't all spend 60 quid on a candle can wish I mean, that's gonna go in like a couple of weeks or whatever. Yeah, and so but cheap candles, yeah, gather dust, gather residue about the outside and just look a little bit messy. But if your candle has gone, as soon as my candle is burnt down, it's gone.

12:55
Yeah, I know, I think some people then think they're gonna try and chip the old candle wax that's left over out, they can clean the bolt. And unlike There are beggars, there's other fish to fry. You know, there's other things to do. If you're super super duper organized, then that might be something you can do to reuse some of the craft project blah, blah, blah. But if you're overwhelmed with clutter, if the candles gone, it goes.

13:22
And then the problem isn't work because what we talked about a lot of times when we talk about these things is the barriers that stand in our way. And candles does have a barrier involved which is that very thing of potentially recycling the glass element of that candle. And obviously it can't be recycled if it's got wax on it because that's gonna contaminate it and all that kind of stuff. And the bottom line is a lot of certainly where we live a lot of the glass with candles can't be recycled anyway but we're not quite sure we're a bit unsure about recycling rules and the different everywhere and all that kind of stuff. I think that's the barrier is I want to recycle the candle I need to spend time to get the wax out of it because then you've got to I think you can put hot water in then you kind of pour the wax out into when it's melted into like some kind of sieve or a piece of paper or something like that and then it's not to me Yeah, that's the kind of thing that gets people with a lot of clutter in their house completely stalled. So as English says sometimes you need to go okay, I probably need to do this for the environment but also I need to do this for myself. Sometimes you need to put you need to let go of some of your kind of perfectionist things that are involved in that and just go it's good enough I just need to let go of that burnt out candle. Absolutely.

14:40
I couldn't agree more. Let's go on to number four and Lesley tight with holes in them. Yes, I think I think you're either a tight lover or you're not really a tight where I mean I don't wear a lot of tight I wear a lot of socks but I don't wear a lot of sites so I don't have that many, but I've seen many, many clients with an absolute mountain of tights. And then you start to look at them and then one after the other has holes and is unsuitable to wear. And then you're like, what's the situation with the tides here? Oh, I'm not completely sure. But they've all gotten muddled, and they didn't throw them away when they had a hole. And it had, they were taking the types of they didn't immediately put them in the bin to go. It's as a whole if used to go, they kind of got back into the pile, and then things get confused, doesn't it?

15:31
Well, we're talking about barriers again, hearing, because the problem is, yeah, so let's see this room. So you get apparently get a hole in your tights, you think I need to throw those away, but you can recycle them? Right? You can put them into rags and they can get recycled ties. Yeah. So then you think with a lot of recycle got to wash them, certainly put them through the wash. And then you can't immediately see a hole unless you do a tight check. And so that's how it ends up back in the water. And so you've got this constant recycling of holy tights. Yeah. And so how do we fix that problem, then?

16:06
I think you just have to actually know when it's daylight, don't try to do it at night when it's dark, right? I mean, it's dark. So early. That was well, it's a long dark at the bowl with where we are. So you want to do this with a bit of daylight. And you're going to have to just very carefully gently slide your hand in, make sure you take any jewelry and rings off. Because otherwise you might snag a perfectly good sides. And then it has to go anyway. But you kind of have to work through them and kind of see and kind of probably do a holes has to go types that are fine. And then at the types that are fine Golka actually, which ones of these are going to wear. But that's the second phase, I think it's first holes are no holes,

16:48
I have real problems my tags will touch because I do wear black opaque tights, and so does my daughter all the time. So every now and again, I end up trying to put on my daughter's tights and it's not a good sign. But we'll see. Like a little tiny. And I'm like, oh, okay, not my tights. Is that literally just coming above my knees? So yeah, you definitely need to do a tight check every now and again. I think don't you so tight with holes, absolute no brainer. Number four. And now we're going to go on to number five, Ingrid?

17:24
Yes, old toothbrushes. I mean, having an old one or two old toothbrushes is helpful for when you want to clean or when you need to polish something or when you but you do not need 18 Old toothbrushes.

17:43
I know that's the thing. That's our barrier. Again, that's the reason why we have these around. Because we want to give things because we were in that mindset. So as people who have clutter, we can constantly see a use in something. And that's why we retain things longer than we need to. So that's why we are constantly if we throw a pair of tights away thinking that's going to be good for a cleaning rag, for example, that's another thing that we do. Or if we throw an old toothbrush away that's in its you know, that's past its best, then we think that would be good for cleaning the bottom of the tub, or whatever or whatever that might be. But as Ingrid says, we keep too many of these things. And so we need to be intentional about if we are repurposing things, which is a great thing to do. We need to be intentional about these things, and not keep too many, you know, there comes a point in life where we have to let something go because it has it's done its job and it's time to move on. You know, we're constantly on toothbrushes, we're constantly recycling toothbrushes and getting new. Unfortunately, it's one of those things in life that you buy you use for six months or whatever, you're used to two foot four, and then you let go off, you know, and we have to kind of move through that process. There are things in life that just don't have a second life. Yeah, and this has a little bit sometimes. But you know, a toothbrush it used for cleaning, you could probably use for five years of cleaning. Do not mean but your your three pots of old toothbrushes and a whole family is going to be much more than that. And so, yeah, old toothbrushes.

19:10
Good ones. I've enjoyed it so far. Let's do what I'm going to pick up. Yeah, exactly. Let's do a tally up. No, yes. No, no, no. One I probably have an earring without a back because it's been an eight or a pair because it's been agencies of Dhamma jewelry so I probably have one of those but I'm not certain but the rest. No.

19:33
I do not have any.

19:37
Okay. Winner guy. No. Hey, Ingrid's minus one. Oh, yeah, well, let's go for a break and then after the break, we'll talk about the other five and then we'll do another check. See you soon. Hi everyone. Welcome back to your 10 no brainers to declutter from your home as soon as you can. And We are back with number six. This is a very we've talked about this before, but we keep seeing them. So we thought, let's put it in the podcast again, to remind everybody, and it is manuals. Yeah.

20:14
Now we've put this under the kind of no brainer category. Manuals themselves are not really in the no brainer category. But the the kind of peripheral things that come with a manual are. So we're talking about things in different languages we're talking about, this is where you find the international I mean, what even is that? I know when it goes, here's the international service like place for Mila? Yeah, it was gonna do it was gonna go to Dortmund or whatever to look for them in Germany, maybe. But you know what I mean? Like? Do you see what I mean? I get these things like it. Why is that?

20:55
I don't know, there's always some sort of sticker with an NG rating. I'm like, great, but do you want me to put it on my washing machine?

21:06
So there's a load of stuff. That's obviously legal. requirements may be set around it. So yeah, we need to think about so that all that can go. In my opinion, we don't need the energy rating sticker. It's just gonna look messy on your washing machine. We probably don't need the service center indictments for Mila. You know, that can go as well. We don't need the Italian, Dutch unless you Ingrid. You know, Spanish, if you have maybe if you speak those languages, that's fine. But generally, we're just going to need our own language of things. So we can chop some of that down as well. Because there's a huge booklets right with all the different languages. Yeah. And then we need to really look at the manual itself and go, what would we do? So if that washing machine isn't example, broke down? What would we do? Would we ring? Not the guy in Dortmund, the guy in Manchester to come and fix it? Or would we go on to YouTube? To find out how to fix it from those clever people who put all those how to do things on YouTube? What would we do? Or would we in fact, our go to thing be to find that manual? Online, which they all are now that you know? And never even look? Or remember that we've got the paper copy? Yeah. So it's all about analyzing your own behavior, when something needs to be fixed. And different people are different. I'm the kind of ring the guy in Manchester because we always get people to fix things. Because we've got nub, dry bone in our body, you're probably more get down the DIY yawns gonna look at it and see if we can fix it. Yeah.

22:43
Call the guy if you really can't do it.

22:47
Exactly go through the motions of trying. And so you really need to analyze and because we're going more online, are we using the online versions of things to you know, either the YouTube side of things where they're telling you how to do it or the online manual? Yeah, analyze your own behavior to see whether or not you need to keep that paper copy of a manual and there will undoubtedly be people out there who feel competent by having that paper copy for sure. Do not mean Yeah, so so it's not an absolute no brainer, but it's about looking at your own behaviors that sit around that Yeah, and I think I've been through your manuals, you can really make a difference in grid. Oh,

23:22
absolutely. And I think you know, one manual is not the other like I would not keep the manual to my kettle, I know how my kettle boils my water but I will keep the the manual for my washing machine because it has instructions about settings if you're going to setting or if you want to wash in certain levels and things like that so that I would keep so for me also one manual is not the same as the other one so before you kind of go oh, this is a manual it goes into the drawer have a look at it and see if you a can declutter it or be let it go completely. I love this one I think it's a very good one very good so practicals

24:00
and seeing which I know and we'd love as a practical one doesn't love candles because there who wants a candle who wants nice things like that and we need a manual so we can fix things because

24:12
I know you know inside outlets the I love it. Right next one

24:17
debate you've never done this either.

24:22
This is a restaurant source packets and like salts and peppers and napkins. I think napkins go into the same guy. Yeah, well, when you order something or you go to a restaurant, I mean I remember it from the days when I lived in America when you go to a restaurant you get these all these takeaway containers because they give you so much food you can't eat it all. So you have to put it in a container and then it gives you the shakin in this in this paper buy all this stuff. And I'm like, I don't even know what you just put in there but I don't need 25 peppers and five salts and three sauces and all that stuff, but they do it. Yeah, it's very wasteful, actually, oh,

25:04
it's very wasteful. There's our barrier. It's wasteful. So we then want to not be wasteful. So we get these things. It's mostly a fast food place, right? Yeah. But English has never been to perform wants to McDonald's because she likes a Big Mac. And and so you get, but these things just get thrown in and depending on who's serving you they throw more and more in like some people are a little bit more cautious about what the Senate is should absolutely be. And you should just get one straw once soul one pepper, whatever. But I would never sprinkled pepper ever on a fast food dinner. Yeah, I mean, like, what, who would do that? Like, I just don't know whether that's like a thing. I mean, but we get and like barbecue sauces and stuff like that, that you get at McDonald's, we can think oh, that might be quite nice, I might be able to quite kind of use that, or mayonnaise or all of those things. And then so we find them with clients and fridges and loads of them there. And if you are intentional about that, and you can bring that into your cooking routines and everything. That's absolutely no problem at all. But you need to evaluate your own behavior. And look, if those source packets are still sitting there six months down the line, then you're not going to really want to open them and use them because you're going to feel a little bit icky about them because they've kind of been there a while. Yeah. So you can use them. And we're not saying don't because, you know, stops the way some people go, I use I take them I use them and all that. But think about it. Yeah, I think and

26:29
I think if you've got if you now realize by listening to us, actually Oh, yeah, I've got that. I've got a fridge. You know what talking about this peppers made my nose or sniffly. I feel like I'm have to sneeze. Talking about temporal. I'm like itchy nose anyway. But if you're thinking about I actually got a lot of this package in my fridge. And I never had the best intentions of using them, but I do not. Maybe then the point is okay, I need to stop to set the source. I need to not grab those extra sources when I collect my take away or when they drop it off and say do you want extra this or that and go? No, thank you. I'm good. So I think once you realize that it's stopping a data source to help you your future sell by not having to keep on decluttering these items.

27:11
Let me ask you a question. It's a little bit off topic about ALM it's gotta always know it's kind of on topic, but it's a bit of a diversion, right? So we went to a nice restaurant a few weeks ago, like a real kind of fancy restaurant or something up in Manchester called sexy fish. There's one in London, there's one in Miami, there's all fancy schmancy Japanese stuff. It was gorgeous. Right? And so they had it so it's all Japanese had those chopsticks and stuff. And so they had, you know, those little chopsticks thing where you put your chopsticks on like a whole nother holder like a stamp. They call them you know what I mean? Like, thing that pops up your chopsticks. And they were in the shape of a fish. Right? And they were absolutely they were so cute. Oh my god, they be so lovely. Turn them over. And it says on the bottom of the of the thing which are made out of like proper metal, not cheap things like a nice What do you call it? Like, you know, like a metal saying like a heavy metal thing. What what the material will be and it says on the bottom stolen from sexy fish. They've done that within the branding of the restaurant, because they know that people are going to knit them like people take, you know, napkins and all that from sort of branded restaurants like that. Right. So would you that? Do you think that that's free rein then to take that home with you?

28:25
Oh, absolutely not. I would never i i know. First of all, it's

28:30
stolen from sexy fish. So for me, that is part of the thing where they're saying, Yeah, but

28:36
why would you want to have a chopstick holder thingy in your house? Unless you're like a sushi person and you eat it all the time. That would be just clutter in my house, I would cultivate it immediately. I mean, I've worked in hotels, Lesley, people, honestly, over the years when I'm back in the day when I worked in hotels, but I think that people just think if it's loose, you can take it with you people to do raise pillows, TV. Like it's loose, you can take it and I'm like, you know, this is crazy. You know? Yes. If you've used the shampoo have, you can take that whole but not like Bibles and phones.

29:17
I agree. So the point I'm trying to make, yeah, you're missing my point. Yeah, I think my point is, if they were effectively giving you free rein by saying that on the bottom of a thing stolen from sexy fish. Yeah. Would you think that that was a kind of permission to take it home as a souvenir?

29:37
I would think it's funny, but I would still leave it in the restaurants. I would not take it. But yes, I think when it says like that, I think they might have made a gimmick about it. Because they probably know that people are like, Oh, that's so funny. And it's could easily go into bursts. You know what I mean?

29:56
Exactly. I just thought it was really interesting. It's a

29:58
market. It's I lend marketing ploy. Yeah,

30:03
exactly. So but do you want to know whether I took it or not?

30:07
Actually, yes. I think I know the answer. But why?

30:11
What would you say? Was the honest I've already given you the answer now, but what would you say yes or no?

30:16
I would say no, you wouldn't have taken it. No, I

30:18
didn't take it. No. Because like you say, I don't need chopsticks. I don't need that. It's just gonna be clutter. But I just thought it was really interesting. You know, and in the context of the kind of hotel people nicking stuff all the time. But you know, the restaurant sauce packets that we were talking about before I went off piste slightly. And they give you those things. Yeah. But you can take them yourself as well. Sometimes you can't. So people can take salts, you can take napkins, content straws, and all that kind of stuff if you want to. Yeah, interesting.

30:48
Okay. All right. Let's move on to number eight, then this is an interesting one. This is ties, ties.

30:57
Go on, then what you're going to say about it, you're just going to say, well, when she says this is an interesting one, because I've got an incident and say, Oh, I think it's

31:05
No, I was very worrying about it. Because I think it's changed a lot over the years. I think in the past, mainly men would wear many, many more ties. I think a lot of the companies have loosened their dress code. I mean, of course, there's still whole industries that are tie suit shirt, heavy. But I mean, I've seen even with not my own husband, and when he started out in the hotel business, it was suit and tie and booted and suit, and then the whole thing, and it has become a little bit more relaxed over the years. So he will now very rarely go to work without a tie. I think he hardly has any ties. And he

31:44
likes to dress up. Yeah, he likes to properly like I've never seen him like in a pair of jeans or whatever. He likes a shirt and jacket. Right? Yeah. It's kind of it. Yeah, but he doesn't wear a tie to work.

31:55
No, not anymore. But some of the times because, of course, Maxim went into sixth form, he certainly had to have suits and a tie in sixth form. And I'm like, Well, before we go all out, just have a look at your dad's thighs. Because there's like a whole thing of them. Because John is not good about letting them go either.

32:12
Yeah, that's the point I'm trying to make. Yes. You know, whether or not we need ties, now is a different thing to me too. Like if you were in a tie wearing thing, people just keep hold of them, and never ever declutter them, right? It's a bit like belts as well, similar thing kind of keep hold of them. So I think ties should be fair game to look through, and you don't just keep them like forever because there is fashion like they go thinner, and they get fatter, and they go longer, and you know, all that kind of stuff. And so, and the material and the patterns, and everything really changed. And so I think ties old ties that you've not worn for a while to meet are no brainers and you don't just keep a hold of them for like, till the end of time. Yeah. Yeah. Which is what I've seen. I see it with Steve. I've seen it with loads of clients. And then when you go through them, you get you get rid of 75% of them.

33:03
Yeah, yeah. I don't think I don't think yawns ready to do that. But he he doesn't have a lot of clothes to survive with. So I actually actually have to price like a shirt or a thing. I'm on honey and really let it go. Let it go. So I haven't really dared to go into the Thai universe yet because that's I think a step too far. So

33:26
you're going to say that you've got that? Yes. Okay. Alaska. Yes. Even though it's not me. It's Steve. But

33:34
yeah, yeah. Okay, well, let's go to number nine old pillows. Please just let them go. The problem is they're difficult to get rid of that's the prob I think why they hang about in homes but oh, hold pillows are just pit grind again. Yeah, literally. Mingan Yeah. on there. Yeah.

33:58
I mean, thankfully now we can wash pillows. I've just done a pillow wash and it isn't ideal. Yeah, isn't it isn't ideal to wash pillow and get it dry? Yeah, it's not easy. No. So but I've just managed to get get mine done. It's just like a three day I mean, you know, you know I shouldn't have but I've got duct down pillows. And then but you know, that it takes three days for them to dry. I put it through the dryer or something on a radiator. You know, it's like it's like a big deal right? But yeah, old pillars once you've made the decisions. I will even go so far as to say it's something that we would really highly recommend that you buy new if you've not got washable pillows so there's a there's an earlier stage which is where like the old ones and Mingan but you know definitely look at them before they get too horrible sleeping on those and sweating all night and yeah, they need to be changed with regularity or washed right?

34:53
Yeah, absolutely. I've got some new pillows as well because Max was like I still have got my like my pillow from ages. Go and get him some new ones and it makes a massive difference. Absolutely your sleep as well. But when you get some new pillows just declutter the old ones don't just put them somewhere in a cupboard where they smell and yeah,

35:14
I made that very clear. We made that clear.

35:19
Right. Okay, let's move on to the last one then. And then we could do a bit of a tally again. coupons with expiry dates on them, or coupons from stores. You don't even show Pat's that happens as well you do you know, here in the I think when you go to Sainsbury's, Lesley, or even I think boots, these things come out of the cash machine and give you a coupon to get more money off or a discount next time or, and then they've got an expiry date, we find them all over the place.

35:49
Yeah, exactly. So you've got to be on top of your coupons basically, don't you? You really need to have you know, if you're a coupon person, and honestly, you know, I don't know about loads of other countries around the world. But in the States, the coupons are like, big business. Right? Yeah, they are a bit more here to be fair now. But like, you know, if you went to a supermarket shop, and you didn't have a coupon, it would be more the exception than the norm. Right? Yeah. Got that. Right. Whatever way around, you'd always show up with a coupon. Yeah. Because that's just the way that it goes. And, you know, I think it's becoming a little bit more like that. Now, it's the same with having maybe it's gone off coupons, and it's gone on to reward cards and stuff like that, like Tesco has completely changed the way that it does things now. And you know, all your discounts are sitting on a Clubcard with Tesco supermarket here in the UK, a lot of people use. And so you, but if you are a coupon person, you've really got to be on top of these coupons. You got to have a strategy, you got to know what you've got. You've got to have them with you at the right time. You know, don't you I think you can actually put coupons onto some coupons on to store or what do you call Apple wallets and stuff currently always like gift cards? I've got that wrong as gift cards. Yeah, yeah. So you do need to have a real strategy because the amount of times I've gone anywhere and I do I have them with me. I don't actually go shopping that often. But when I do, you know, go on a walk. I'm like coupons, and then my other expired. Shame. But that's fine, because I didn't need to use them because I didn't buy anything. So that's, you know, there's 100% Save and if you don't buy something that's a good thing as well. But yeah, have a have a coupon strategy on top of everything else. You need to have a process for couponing couponing. Do you ever seen those? Like there's no shows like extreme couponing? Nobody's ever seen that? Yeah, they'll go and buy it's $300 worth of like, stuff. And then get it like $15. Yeah. I mean, that's like a, that's impressive.

37:44
I know. It's impressive. But I'm like, I'm like, I can only kind of do that. If it's really stuff you need. Yeah, because that's the thing, right? Because when you get a coupon, you think, Oh, I have to go to that shop and use it. Even if you cannot think of anything that you want to have. And I think that's the trap with a coupon. They lure you in with a discount or the money off. But if you don't need it in the first place, like, if you don't buy it, you get 100% discount, you know what I mean? I think

38:14
a lot of it a lot of the which are completely fascinating programs. So no matter what your alternatives are, I've got better things to do than watch extreme couponing. But I have caught it a couple times. But it's mostly food. And so if you're like, I'm happy to eat anything at a good price. Yeah, you know, or I've got I need to, you know, really spend $30 a week on feeding my family or wherever that is, then go for it because of that food. You know, that's going to feed your family for X number of weeks and stuff. But yeah, but with other stuff with clothing and stuff. It's more intentional, isn't it? Yeah. Interesting. So

38:49
Lesley, come clean. How many in this second part? I mean, you had none in the first I had one. Which I think earrings without a back or a pair. I can't even think but I think I'm Yeah, probably. One. How are you doing in the second loss?

39:09
I've definitely got manuals that I don't need.

39:13
Me too. Steve's got

39:15
ties. Yeah. Me too young. Yeah. Then. I actually did. I actually went through my coupons yesterday, and got rid of them quite by chance. So I do not have coupons. I definitely don't on old pillows. And I don't have any restaurants sauce packets. So I'm gonna say yes to manuals. But to be fair, they are intentional manuals. So maybe not maybe I'm not going to say Yeah, so the ones that I've got are, but do I think there's maybe one that's snuck in there? Probably. So I'm going to take manuals and I'm going to take Thai so I'm going to take two Yeah,

39:46
me too. At the same no restaurant packets here to be seen. No old pillows, and no coupons. So I've lost I've got earrings Without a backhoe repair,

40:01
I won. I won. Yeah, you sound good last. And I think there was there was, you know, yes, our list of 10 things that can be a little bit random, but hopefully there's some learning in all of them, you know about coupons and about barriers. And about all these things. You might think we come up with a random list, but we try and educate you around that with some of the tips and tricks that you need to declutter your home successfully.

40:24
Yeah. So if you're watching this on YouTube, and you're like, oh, my gosh, I've got like six of these. Tell us in the YouTube comments. We would love to know which of these no brainers have you got, and maybe you're now considering letting go. So, that is it for us done today. Lastly, I joined us. Yes.

40:43
So I'll see you next week.

40:46
See you soon.

40:52
Thanks so much for listening to the declutter hub podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to us in your podcast player, so you don't miss an episode. And we'll see you next week.
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Recent Posts
Episode 390 – 10 changes that make the biggest impact in your home

Episode 389 – Overcoming mobility challenges when decluttering with member Rory

Episode 388 – Start as you mean to go on – plan 2026 for decluttering success

Episode 387 – Our 2025 year in review – the big Declutter Hub round-up

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Glorianne says:

26 January 2024 at 2:19 PM

After listening, I'm motivated to look over my manuals to see which ones are necessary to keep. I agree the washer manual stays because it has troubleshooting and code definitions, but maybe the foreign language pages can go. Also, in my 'coupon' drawer I will toss take out menus because it's all online as well. Thanks for the motivation!

Reply
1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  29 January 2024 at 10:44 AM
  
  Thank you Glorianne for letting us know and well done on taking action!
  
  Reply
Episode 278 – 10 No brainers to declutter from your home

Episode 390 – 10 changes that make the biggest impact in your home

Episode 389 – Overcoming mobility challenges when decluttering with member Rory

Episode 388 – Start as you mean to go on – plan 2026 for decluttering success

Episode 387 – Our 2025 year in review – the big Declutter Hub round-up

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