A graphic of a party with a table with a cake and lots of decorations and balloons
Episode 350 – 10 party supplies to declutter from your home today

We are 350 podcast episodes old and would love nothing more than to celebrate at a face to face party with all our lovely listeners, but alas that is not possible. So instead we’re going to flip the celebrations on its head and become real party poopers. In this podcast we are going to talk about the 10 party supplies you might have in your home that are not bringing the fun factor.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Speaker 1  00:00
We are 350, episodes old, and we would love nothing more than to celebrate at the face to face party with all our lovely listeners. But alas, that is not possible. So instead, we're going to flip the celebrations on its head and become real party poopers. In this podcast, we're going to talk about the 10 party supplies you might have in your home that are not bringing the fun factor.

Speaker 2  00:36
You're listening to the declutter Hall podcast bringing you tried and tested no nonsense, tips and advice from the leading experts in decluttering and organizing your home. Now here are your hosts, Ingrid, Jansen and Lesley Spellman

Speaker 1  00:59
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

Speaker 3  01:19
you'd like to get involved in conversations relating 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,

Speaker 1  01:39
start to celebrate, and it's time to sing. Celebrate good times. Come on.

01:49
Oh my gosh. I love 70s music

Speaker 1  01:50
as well. I love a party. Talk about being party poopers.

Speaker 3  01:58
Exactly, it was, yeah, we were taught trying to go down the party theme. And actually we are a decluttering website, so we need to declutter the fun out of everything. But actually, what we're going to talk about today, we're going to hope that by decluttering some party supplies that are not fun, the parties that you do have are going to be more fun. That's the rationale that sits behind it. But thank you for doing your little sing song, and congratulations on being 350 podcasts, not years, even though it feels like that some way old Ingrid, 350 keep on going. And it's like, why was it 50 since the last time we celebrated? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1  02:36
You know, it's so funny. Every kind of 50, we're like, wow, that's another year, right? Let's be because we do a new episode every Friday, so every 50 we're like, that's another year of podcasts that we've done, and we still are talking about it, and we love it, and we're just so grateful before we talk about anything else, listeners, thank you so much for being here for listening in to us. We are so grateful, and we're so loving it that you tune in Week in, week out, to hear us talk about decluttering and organizing, because that is everything that we love to do. Yes,

Speaker 3  03:17
good job, really. It's good job that people are still tuning in. But anyway, we are the 10 things podcast. If you've not been with us before, we love a 10 things podcast. It's a little bit of fun, really, more than anything else. So today we are talking about those 10 things that are lurking in your party, supplies that might be just a little bit like me. So let's go number one. Number

Speaker 1  03:39
one, please just get rid out of anything that looks a bit meh. And what are we talking about? We're talking about, for example, all those kind of tangled banners, those kind of decorations that look a bit crumbled and a bit greased and a bit have just been used that one too many times and have like, 25 bits of sticky tape on them.

Speaker 3  04:06
There's something a bit weird, isn't it really England, because we kind of like, they're quite expensive, aren't they, when we buy them? And so we kind of, there is an argument that says you can reuse these things. And I've got loads of party decorations that, of course, that I bring out for different things, for birthdays and all that kind of stuff. But so we're not talking about ditching everything, but we are talking about looking and being evaluative about what you have got and whether it actually is enhancing your celebration or whether it just looks a little bit tired. So definitely those faded old ones, old fashioned ones, just mean all those kind of things need to go so we'll keep it simple. If it's old tattoo crumpled, let it go. Yeah,

Speaker 1  04:45
I agree. I agree. Let's go to number two. Then Lesley, oh my gosh, I we have we see this so many times when we are working with people in their houses, when we talk about this with our membership, I'm. Membership. Get rid of all the left over disposable tableware, right? So you got paper. So if you have a party, let's just randomly say you've got a 40th birthday party. And you think, Oh, let me get some cops, and let me get some plates and some napkins and things. And I can actually now look at myself because and I we might need to do a telly on this Lesley. Because I'm not thinking, Hmm, there is still napkins from when Max was 18 last year. That's what we're talking about. You're not going to use it now. I'm not necessarily saying throw it away, because if you've got a nice amount of them, because if you accidentally overboard a little bit, if you got like, two napkins left, you're okay to let them go, right? But if you can, like, a whole stack of them and things, put them on a on a giveaway app, because other people will snap this up unused, obviously,

Speaker 3  05:57
well, you can just use it. So you can just pretend that today's Max's 18th birthday and just using napkins as a matter of course, it's an interesting one, really, because we're talking about disposable tableware, actually. And a few years ago, I must admit that when we do have a party, which is rare in the house, I actually prefer to use actual plates and actual glasses. I'm not really a big fan of paper and plastic and things like that, but there was one time I think it was, like we said to Nathan that he could have some friends around for like, a pre prom, you know? And it's when it was his prom, and then all of a sudden, somehow we ended up with like 80 people in our garden with food. And we're like, how did that happen? Because we always have, like, small gatherings of friends, and invariably, I have enough plates and glasses. I was given a load of glasses from a from somebody who owned a borrower was going into that and get rid of all these glasses. I was like, that's great, because I do, like, you know, like, kind of, like, Prosecco glasses and things like that, because you do use those kind of things. A lot of them get smashed quite a lot, but I've got those, and I've got those, and I've got a lot of them, and I've got a space to store those, and I do bring them out for parties, because it's kind of nicer, isn't it, to drink out of glass than plastic, yeah. And so, but for this, I was like, you know, I need some plastic cutlery, because I didn't have enough cutlery. And so chatted to one of my friends, and she's like, oh, you know, we had a party recently. I've got loads of plastic cutlery. And so I'm talking like hundreds of plastic cutlery and because, but you wash it like you're not going to throw away plastic cutlery. So when I was doing my utility room, I was redoing my utility room a few weeks ago, it came up and I was like, Oh, I don't know really whether I should get rid of that, because it seems wrong to get rid of so much plastic for a start. So I would just that should probably go on a giveaway site, but are you then going to need to buy it again? This is the question, if it's good quality. These were really good quality. Like, kind of Costco quality, you know, get good quality stuffed over from Costco, kind of plastic knives and forks. And I was a bit like, do I don't I? Do I don't I? What do you think?

Speaker 1  08:03
Yeah, I love a party as well, and we've got, at least always one big barbecue every year for our friends and their kids and the other people show up. And we've got, you know, we like to celebrate the birthdays we've got. You know, we love having people over. So if it's good quality tableware, I would probably keep it because I wash it too. But I think there's a is this a one off event that you never I would maybe then keep a small percentage and give away the rest, because you don't need to have hundreds, but you could probably do with 50 knives, some forks, if you know what I mean, right?

Speaker 3  08:37
Yeah, yeah. So maybe, yeah, getting but they're all there, nicely contained in a box. That's the problem, aren't they, and so then I look, I'm like, Why have I got like 120 plastic knives that I've not used for like, five years? And so yeah, the tally on that one is definitely, I definitely still have those, even though we are recommending that you declutter them. So that's our number two. Now number three Ingrid is all about fancy dress, really. So parties are, you know, quite often involve fancy dress. What do we do with fancy dress costumes?

Speaker 1  09:11
I am not a very much a fancy dress kind of person. I actually, I don't know why, because I think I would actually love it, but no, I do have a few bits, especially like Dutch stuff, obviously,

Speaker 3  09:24
like, what, like clogs in a like, wow,

Speaker 1  09:29
I know, like orange T shirts and an orange polo shirt, like a red, white and blue flag and some kind of, you know, those things you can put, put around your neck with, like, flowers in orange and in different Colors. I think I once had, like an 80s party, but I get that stuff because I thought, you never know. I think when it's a bit like out of the blue random, then I would say, give it a second lie, because it's going to be up in your attic or basement or loft for like, years and years. But like an 80s party, those things have come in hand. You know, the beads, yeah, and the the things you put around your ankle, the ankle warmers and the little hand, you call it proof of skirt or whatever, yeah, what

10:09
do you call, um, do you know what? It's

Speaker 3  10:17
interesting, actually talking about fancy dresses, my daughter is going this weekend to a bridgerton themed party, and she's got a lot of stuff, and it looks incredible. She tried it along for me last night. It looks absolutely fantastic. And then I did have, like, so she was like, What am I going to put on my feet? So she's got, like, she got, like, a big underskirt thing, you know, like a big flouncy underskirt with like a net skirt over it. She's got like, a, like, what, not a bodice. What not a bodice. What do you call them? Like, um, thing that you strap up, you know? Like, a, yeah, it's like, a bodice, corset, corset, corset. And then she got some pearls and all this kind of stuff. And then she's got my boots on, which look a little bit I've got some boots that would definitely lend themselves to being a bit bit more Victorian. They look like they're laced up at the front. So it's absolutely fantastic, you know what I mean. So, but would you keep that stuff? You know, do you keep fancy dress items? Because, you know, particularly if you're an adult, you know. So you've definitely got to go through fancy dress costumes for children, because they probably have grown out of them, unless you've got all the other kids that are younger. But once you get to an adult, you know, you really need to look at whether you've got mileage out of that fancy dress costume, and look at whether you've got space, because fancy dress costumes take up a lot of space. Some people love a fancy dress. I've got a client, Joe who absolutely loves dressing up. Do you know what I mean? Any excuse, it's dressing up. And so if that's you, you're going to recycle those things. But you need to look at how often you're doing this, whether you would want to go with something completely new every time, whether these are things, you know, we're both in rock wire, right? So we have 80s parties all the time, and so we can kind of drag these things out. So there's some things where you know that you're going to reuse, but it's all about that realism, isn't it? So, but do dig out those fancy dress costumes. Make sure that if there's two gloves you've got both of them, you know, make sure it's washed and ready to go things like that. So it's worth having a look and just paring down a little bit.

Speaker 1  12:06
Yeah, and like you mentioned, Lesley with kids, you know, that's a job that needs to go through probably at least once a year to see, you know, are the costumes still complete? Have I got everything? Can I have that outgrown it, because some of the sizes they put in them very clearly. Sometimes you kind of have to guess for the best and go, of course, how long have I had this? Do the kids still fit this? And indeed, what can you reuse? Because sometimes they have blood school book Days like forever, they have to dress up as characters. And then you can kind of the Harry Potter one comes back time and time again, but at some point you have to go, okay, that's not valid anymore, especially when they go to secondary school. That's normally it isn't it makes me fancy

Speaker 3  12:47
dress, though, in good is it's highly sentimental, yeah, when you dress your kid up, when you're a little child upon and they look super cute, I know, and you have those memories. And so it becomes sentimental, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's a tough one. I've still got a cotton What do you call it? A caterpillar costume that I put Lear in when we lived in America. So she was, like, two, three years old, still up in the cupboard. I just can't, I can't, and she could still wear it when she was 12, because she's so tiny. Leah, right? So she still had it on when she was 12 years old. And, like, it's just, was this super cute, again, from Costco. There's some great things, right? And it's a nightmare to go to go to Costco if you're a cluttery person, you know what I mean, fantastic things. And so they are highly sentimental. So this is not easy. No, we go on to number four.

Speaker 1  13:37
Yes, look at your balloons. You know, if you like, bought a pack of balloons like ages and ages ago. The thing is, what you don't want to do is actually go, oh, I have some old balloons left, and them all kind of popping in front of your face because the latex is so worn out and old that it's no good anymore. So you need to check those things as well. You know, the balloon pumps. Let's talk about balloon pumps as well at the same time. You know, do they still work? Or has, have you overused them over the years? Or is one bit missing? You know, these are things that just happen along the way. Check out those supplies and just go, okay? Or if you still have balloons when you're you know, 59 from your 40th party, you might think yourself, okay, we're not gonna do the 40 balloons anymore. Let's see if, you know if they still work, or otherwise, if they're worn out because the latex is gone, get rid Well,

Speaker 3  14:38
you know, because not, not all balloons. So that you've got the latex balloons, and then you've got the foil balloons that you buy, typically. So sometimes you inflate them yourselves. Sometimes you buy them from like a balloon shop or something, and then they kind of go a bit sad, because they're quite cute, right? So you buy them for a party, for an 18, for 20 or 34th, whatever the celebration is, and then you keep them because they're nice. They bring joy, right? And so you keep hold of them, and then they sort of start to deflate a little bit, and then they get a little bit sad. And then we quite often see that these deflated balloons with like a tiny bit of thing, you know, like under the bed or whatever, yeah. But I think what's really handy, and what you see a lot on, like giveaway apps, um, nowadays is people sharing those balloons out and going, do you know what? I've got a fourth birthday balloon that I use my son's birthday this weekend. Does anybody want to use it? Fantastic to do that kind of thing and to sort of share the love. It's not great for the balloon shops, because I'm sure they don't want to hear this, but, you know, great to sort of share the love with those balloons, because these things are expensive, you know. So if you feel like somebody can have a second life out of your balloon. You know, use those giveaway apps and put them on. Somebody will snap your hand off together, because it's a real great addition to a little child's party, right? And I think, as well as, yeah,

Speaker 1  15:50
I think we all know that the foil balloons part, but the foil balloons are really bad for the environment. So on the one hand, like, I love a balloon, but I'm so conscious that my husband is like, Why do you keep buying balloons? I'm like, because I just love a balloon. And it's like, once a year, please give me the one balloon. So if you can, then at least give it to somebody else who can make use of it. Then I don't know. I've got balloon guilt, but I just, I don't know. I just love a

Speaker 3  16:21
balloon. Yeah. No, yeah. So yeah, look, because she's lamenting the loss of her balloon, aren't Yeah, I know I do give away whole balloon arches and individuals. I mean, I love that when I do love that, when I say it, when people giving away things that they have, you know, because that's just so fantastic. You know, it's yeah, it's sharing at its best, really. So let's go to number five Ingrid,

Speaker 1  16:43
yes, unused party favors. I think this is mainly, is this mainly from like a wedding Lesley, when people have, like a wedding, or anything like that, and you get, like a lovely little party favor at the end, and then you always buy more. And I think also party favors from when the kids are lit. So I'm not thinking, would I as an adult, do party favors? Hmm, good question.

Speaker 3  17:06
I think anything goes these days, you know, I would imagine, I mean, it's a long time since I've done this kind of thing, you know? I mean, but certainly I had favors at my wedding. I think people probably have favors at like bridal show, bridal showers and baby shower and all that kind of thing, because everything's kind of gone crazy nowadays, isn't it, in the party world and so, but what happens? Like, if you've got 30 guests, for example, you're probably going to get 35 just in case there's, like, a, you know, somebody comes last minute or whatever, because you don't want anybody without and you might just have those four or five. Often, we keep a party favor as a sentimental reminder of a party that we have had, but we probably don't need to keep four or five, and so if there were any that were unused or left behind, things like that, then they can go somebody actually, I was, I was reading, you know, what's it called, mum's net. You know, mum's net, where they talk all these mums talk about different things, and somebody, oh, no, no. It wasn't mum's net. It No, it wasn't mum's night. It was a post from somebody who said she ran it. She runs a party company. She did a baby shower, and she puts these little, cute, little furry elephants in, put in amongst the, you know, for the decor for the party. And the guests had taken the cuddly toys home with them, thinking that they could so they were part of the kind of branded, you know, thing. And so it was all about different nationalities. So some people think that party favor is a fair game and you just take them away. And some people are absolutely not. You have to wait to be asked. So quite I, in my world, I think that if you, because we've you and I both done lots of events that we've run and stuff like that, like charity balls and stuff like that, over time, I think it's up to the host to say, We want you to take the favors with you, right, rather than to just assume that people are going to take them, right? And so, but there was this big debate on this, I think was on an Instagram channel or something, and people were and different people. I think it was like, Italian or something, saying that's just part of our culture, that you just take the favors, you know, like you just take them, because you don't just go to waste. And so I'd be really interested to know what your thoughts are on that kind of thing. If something is a table centerpiece or something like that, a wedding or event. Would you just think that you could take it? Or would you wait to be asked by the host? I think it was really interesting. I really, I was, I was fascinated by the comments basically on that. Yeah.

Speaker 1  19:32
So I don't think I would. I would not take that unless it was like, when somebody went, like, when you leave and somebody gives you a bag with something like, here's something to take away. I would go, Oh, you know, I would, of course take it, but I wouldn't randomly pick stuff up from

Speaker 3  19:47
people. Do, you know, a lot of times people do give them away because people don't want to say those kind of things home with them, particularly if they're like, fresh flowers and stuff like that, or fun. So, you know, people are using, like, you know, natural sort of foliage and stuff like that now, and it's nice. To take them home. And for somebody, particularly if it's fresh flowers, for somebody to enjoy it after the event and stuff, yeah, but it was more about, do you take it without being told that you can take it? Yeah? Like, and then, of course, once you say it, sometimes, like a fight over who gets because 10 people around the table, which nurse is gonna get it. It's like, like, some kind of, you know, like, problem at a party. So, yeah, shall

Speaker 1  20:21
I? Shall I tell you what my party favor was from my wedding? I know totally, of, well, a bit on topic, but totally kind of, yeah, go on. So I had, as a party faith, we gave everybody a candle. But there was a reason, because at the time me and Yan lived in Gouda, which is famous of two things, cheese, obviously, and candles, because you got Gouda candles, which are very good quality candles. So we actually went to a candle maker in the city center of Gouda when we lived there, and we had our kind of the with the flowers that we had on, like on our wedding card invitation and our thank yous and everything. We had them pressed onto candles, like, really nice, like, not like thin, but nice, and we had them all wrapped up. And I still have one in the original packaging, and I can't make myself to to burn it. I just want to keep one. You need to

Speaker 3  21:18
keep hold of that, don't you? I mean, I had. I've still got mine as well. So mine was, like, a little net thing, which was a bit more traditional, where you put, you would put almonds in them, like, like, sugared almonds in them, and stuff with little ribbons and netting and stuff. So they were quite cute in the colors of the wedding. But, I mean, party favors are like, that's like old school, isn't it? You know, back in the 90s, now they've gone like, up, like, 5000 levels. Like, I don't think a couple of sugared almonds would cut it anymore in the favor zone, but I suppose what we're saying, and the reason that we've kind of gone off track a little bit, but what we're trying to say is, if you've got, you know, left over favors, and you don't have to keep all of them, there's no point in keeping five, because you can get that sentimental feeling from one you don't need to keep all of your leftovers.

Speaker 1  22:03
I know. I know. So Okay, before we go to a breakdown, Lesley, come clean, what have you got from this stuff? Have I mean, I've already told you my 18th birthday from Max napkin, so that's definitely one. I don't have any outdated costumes or props, no old balloons and on your Sparky favors. No. I cleared it all out. All the kids stuff was all cleared out when they kind of done so I've got one out of five. One. I've got

Speaker 3  22:30
the same so I've got the plastic knives and forks that I've got a little bit too many of so that. So I'm going to, I'm going to tackle that. I'm going to tackle that. Okay,

Speaker 1  22:38
I love it. Let's go for a break. And we've got five more after Well, everyone, welcome back. I loved a doing a 10 things podcast, but talking about party supplies makes me insanely happy, and I'm really glad that we've got some parties coming up as well. So, but I mean it, it makes me want to clear out any random bits that we have. So let's go to number six. Then Lesley duplicate things like trays and drink dispensers that we kind of buy for a big party, or we see them in the shops and things that is so cool to put lemonade in with the little tap that people can, you know, put their own glasses on it, and it looks amazing. And then we have a party and we completely forget that we bought the thing, and there's lurks in the cupboard somewhere, right? Or we buy loads, and kind of realize we've overdone it a bit, and now I can't find anything in my kitchen anymore because it's small to the brim with all this stuff that I never use. I know. I

Speaker 3  23:40
think the problem with these kind of things is they're typically quite big, aren't they? So any it's a party, supplies like trays and drinks dispensers and all the things that you're talking about can be quite big. And what we've got to be careful of is that if we don't have extra space, sometimes I've got extra space in like garages, lofts and all that, that we keep these things if we are going to do parties. But if we're trying to keep it in the main body of our kitchen, are we willing then to give a whole cupboard over, for example, to party type wear, party wear, let's call it that, rather than, you know, and take it away from our day to day stuff. And so that's what it's about. All about compromise, really, because you may use these drinks dispensers. Ultimately, it all boils down to how often you have parties and entertain in your house, and whether that's still a thing. It might be that you did in the past, and you no longer do that and so and actually, whether or not you can borrow from somebody else, also possible. You know, whether you can rebuy if that's what you want to do. You know, sometimes we have to go, you know what? I'm probably not going to have a part for another 567, years, but I don't want to keep that stuff for seven years, but I'm willing to, you know, to take the expense of paying that again in seven years if ever I need it again, or borrowing it or whatever. Yeah. So, yeah, you just have to be realistic and honest with yourself about what actually happens in your house, don't you? Yeah? Yeah,

Speaker 1  25:00
I think so too. I mean, we had an amazing wedding from my brother in law a couple of months ago, and they actually, long story short, they needed, they had, they had lots of chandeliers, but they didn't want to buy the new so they, for months, like, scoured charity shops and Facebook marketplace and bought all these second hand chandeliers to decorate a hole, and it absolutely looked amazing. Wow. And the next day, when we helped kind of break it all down, they were like, Do you want a chandelier? I'm like, No, thanks.

Speaker 3  25:30
Don't be and they were like, here's take a take a table favor chandelier. Home with you. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But that would have been really easy to get rid of back on to the same place that they came from, from Facebook, marketplace, from earlier, from giveaway sites. Yeah, somebody might have wanted a chandelier, but definitely you would be able to pass them. But what a lovely idea to do that. But it looks stunning. Yeah, it was amazing. If not, sent me a picture that,

Speaker 1  25:53
Oh, I definitely need to do that, because they did an honestly, but my, my sister in law has got amazing taste. Anyway, they've got all this. She's got this lovely style about her. And, yeah, it was, honestly, it was lovely that, like drinks trolleys. And, I mean, it was amazing. But she got, she borrowed stuff from her sister. She had some stuff from herself. She She scoured the charity shops for things like that, because she just didn't want to buy it all new. And, and I really see that with my son, Max, for example, he is like a Thrifter. He loves going through stores and charity shops, and he called me the other week that he found a vintage pair of jeans somewhere that he absolutely loved. So he because he's like, I'm a student. I don't have money to buy all these expensive things, but he still wants to look smart. So yeah, that

Speaker 3  26:39
much better than the sort of Gen Z, as I would say, are much better at thrifting than we ever were. So Leah never, ever pays full price for anything. Actually, to be fair, she did pay full price for bridgerton costumes and everything, because that's very specific, but her clothes that she buys, but that's only you can only do that if you a certain size. And you know what I mean, not everybody could do that. It's not as simple. But she simple, but she does that, which is brilliant. And Nathan buys most of his stuff second hand as well. So they are really good at that kind of thing. I think Gen Z is because, well, a, because it's quite cool, I think, you know. So they like that kind of look, and B because, it's because there's much better places nowadays, you know. So I think you've got second hand shops, then you've got thrift stores that are a bit that are a bit more cool and edgy. So it's like different types of ways to repurpose things, right? Yeah? So yes, that is our number six.

Speaker 1  27:29
Yes. Number seven, get rid of all the stuff if you've ever thrown like a certain party at your house back in 2012 or even if you still have decorations from the millennium, when we went from 1999 to 2000 and you still have the banners and the things and the napkins and the and the hair things and all of that, you know, look at that and go, what realistically am I still going to use from this stuff? You know, if you once did an amazing Hawaiian party. But, you know, I'm never going to do a Hawaiian party ever again. You know, donate it. Give it away. Don't let it clutter up your cupboards. There is actually such a thing as there's a, you know, too much too good of how do you say that? Too much of a good thing going right? Just don't keep everything. It's

Speaker 3  28:20
funny, you know, you talk about the millennium, because we were talking about the kids. We were trying to explain, like, the hype around the millennium, right? Because they were all little. Because, I mean, Leah was 1990s was two, and Nathan, where Luke was five, and Nathan wasn't even born yet. And so we were trying to explain, everybody thought, like, the world was going to come to an end. There was going to be some like, computer glitch, didn't they, and the whole place was going to implode in 2000 and I was like, yeah, all of the kind of cons, well, not conspiracy theories, but theories that there was going to be this massive computer glitch. And it just kind of went, Oh, go, 2000 fine. And so I was trying to explain to them. Everybody was like, but anyway, but it was, you know, certainly once in a lifetime for most people to see a new millennium in so it's nice that we went through that process. Yeah. But anyway, yes, absolutely you've got, you know, just things from a certain event. Just really evaluate whether or not you're ever going to use that again. One thing that sort of finds its way, and this is our number eight into our party supplies, is random candles half burnt tea lights, you know, party candles that are half burnt down. And we feel, I think we spoke about this a few weeks ago Ingrid on our junk drawer podcast as well. You know how far burnt down is too far burned down to keep for next use? You know what I mean? It's like, you've got to, kind of, it's got to weigh up, haven't you? Like, yeah, you know, if you're doing a cake for somebody, and you've got, like, little birthday candles that are, like, one centimeter high instead of four centimeters high, does it look a little bit plebeian? Do you know what I mean? Or is that okay? And you know, that's what I don't know. So yeah, it's about evaluating that and the hopping. Tea lights, you know, take the half burnt ones out and use them before you use the new ones. We're not suggesting that you throw those away, because they've still got life in them, you know. But make sure that you use the half burnt ones before you use the new ones. I think so. Look at those candles.

Speaker 1  30:19
Yeah, definitely. And if you're thinking to yourself, hmm, I see a lot of kind of half burned candles in people's window sills close to the sink. Yeah, yeah, we had a party, and they still need to be washed up. But you know, if you got cake and sweet stuff stuck on them, it's just never really great, right? Or the little plastic thing is where the little candles go into and it's like, oh, there's like, this, this random little tray of kind of stuff that you think, okay, you we're either gonna wash it up now and put it away, or we're just gonna have to let it go, because we can't let this lip on a window still to deteriorate even further. So be, be, you know, get that job done. If you got a party, and you gotta have a candle that's like three seconds, used immediately, you know, wash it up, put it back in the little box, put it back with your party supplies,

Speaker 3  31:11
and immediately, because you're enjoying the party.

31:15
But okay, okay, it's time

Speaker 3  31:17
to wash the candles now, to have another glass of Prosecco celebrating with my friends and family. But she wouldn't do that, though, because she's quite weird. Anyway, one year, I know she'd be like, need to sort candles out right now. Do not deny in it. Everybody denying it, then

Speaker 1  31:40
just do it the next day, but just don't leave it. That's we don't want stuff growing on it, right? That's just not good. I'm just gonna quickly move on to number nine. And we, because we were talking like, how big of a party, you know? Do you do? Because I remember from when I was growing up. My mom was one of six or seven, and so when we had birthday parties at our house for my mom's birthday, my father's birthday, that's when we would see all the family. So the chairs would like come from everywhere, right from all the bedrooms, all the chairs got dragged down. And there were some chairs in the shed, and there was some we didn't have a garage or in the shed they were and at some point you kind of have to go, is this furniture still like, can people still enjoy sitting on this furniture for like, longer than 20 minutes, right? Because it gets a bit rickety. It gets a bit old. You don't want people to fall through and hurt themselves, you know? And of course, maybe you've come to realize, wow, yeah, we used to do kind of big parties, but we don't anymore. We now either meet up in a restaurant or we always go to my daughter's or son's house, or I'd rather have everybody come downstairs in the local, I don't know Starbucks or Costas for, uh, for a coffee

Speaker 3  33:06
I'm sorry. Why are we going to Starbucks for a family party? No, no,

Speaker 1  33:10
no, not the family party. But if you kind of want to do a coffee or something with your friends that you maybe know from, like, your like a

Speaker 3  33:16
coffee morning, yeah, like a coffee morning, you know what? I'm 40. Let's go to Starbucks.

33:24
That's kind of

Speaker 3  33:26
like fun. Sit on a chair that was about to break in my garden, then go to Starbucks from

Speaker 1  33:30
40 or 35 No, I know my head, my head went, my thinking went quicker than what was coming out. But you see what I mean, those just don't keep all of the stuff, if you don't do big things in your house anymore, why you still have all the furniture and the standing tables and and all of the glasses and all of the cuddling, all of the things we talked about before. But it also goes for furniture. It

Speaker 3  33:54
does. It does indeed. So before we get to number 10 English, I just want to just hop back to our little party that we have. We had. We had a joint party, didn't we? In February, we didn't have to bring any of these things because it would, yeah, we did. We celebrated. We did a really nice, kind of a classic thing, didn't we had all the canvases. So it's our book launch party. Ingrid was not Ingrid loves a party. Right at the beginning. We're like, are we going to have a party for the book launch? And Ingrid was like, I don't care what you think, we are totally having a party for the book launch. Like, basically, it was a non negotiable. So we went to this beautiful Hotel in London, and it was all put on, and we so it's very classy, wasn't it? We're very classy party so, and we were very well looked after a hotel that Ingrid's husband works at. And so it was, it was an incredible thing. What was nice to celebrate a party together, wasn't it? Ingrid, I

Speaker 1  34:48
know, I really, you know what, honestly, it's, it's was a highlight. It's good. It's not going to only a highlight from this year. I think it was, you know, from a highlight so far from us working together in the. What Rob But I think it's been in highlights for our careers as well. You know what I mean? Just to celebrate with what our family, our friends, our fellow professional organizers, our members were there, and just to be able to celebrate the fact that we, you know, wrote our book and you know, it's, it's coming out soon as well in the rest of the world. So we're excited about that. But I look back on that party with so much, you know, just I loved it. It was honestly a highlight. And we didn't need to sort out tables and chairs, because they really took care of them. But we had the canvases. There we had we we got 12 easels, and we had canvases of the beautiful illustrations that are in our book. We had them blown up on canvases, and, yeah, it just looked amazing. It

Speaker 3  35:51
did. I wish we could go like, bless our party in every country that the book's out in. One day our party in Australia and New Zealand and another part in Canada. But no, sadly, we are not able to do that in the same way that we are not able to celebrate our 350th podcast episode. But one day we will go, we will go global, and yes, celebrate over there. But anyway, let's go to number 10. It just, I was just being on nostalgic. Then we would talk about parties and thoughts about me, and it was nice about was nice of a party together. I conceded that it was a good thing to do. We had a lot of fun together. It was nice. And

Speaker 1  36:27
we, you know, let's be honest about it. We are professional organizers. This was like the best organized party,

36:36
definitely. So yeah,

Speaker 1  36:39
number 10, outdated or unused party games. Lesley come clean, do you have party games? And if so, like, what? What do you think? Well, I think maybe, like, maybe for a party there's two kind of different things. I think maybe one time, like, more garden party games, like maybe, I know Joe the bull or croquet or, you know, kind of those kind of things for like, when you do a garden party, and I know some of my clients have stuff like that in their Guerra, in their sheds, and stuff like that as well. And on the other hand, I'm thinking maybe, like a pop quiz, or, like, when you've got a smaller party with friends and you want to do, like a pop quiz or a music quiz or something like that. So that's what I think of when I think of party games. Do

Speaker 3  37:29
you know my favorite party game is what taking a tub of something like roses or quality street or celebrations and getting everybody to line them up in their order of preference. It's literally, if ever you want to do anything, it's like the best game, because people love it. And everyone's like, Oh, I can't believe you put bounty at the top. Like, bounties are horrible, and, oh my God, why have you got cream eggs at the top? You know, that kind of thing. And these are all, like, British chocolate things, really. So if you're anywhere else in the world, but those kind of combination boxes of chocolates, where you've got different types of chocolate in them, and you rank them, and everybody's got different it's very, very it's a great party game. Just saying, I

Speaker 1  38:14
want to do this party game with you, because I know we're going to be like, so different. Yeah,

38:23
yeah, yeah,

38:25
I bet you're so nut.

Speaker 3  38:26
And aren't you coconut? You? Do you choose, like, coconut and nuts and toffee, wouldn't you? Yeah, caramel, caramel. And I'm a cream gal, so I'm like, coffee creams, orange creams, strawberry creams, no

Speaker 4  38:40
cream, eggs, no, yes, even though we knew that we'd be different.

Speaker 3  38:46
Hellos, are you a topping nut that kind? I mean, you know coconut? Like bounties?

Speaker 1  38:53
Yeah, that's my husband's favorite bounties. Favorites.

Speaker 3  38:57
People love the note, don't they? I can never do it. I can. I just, it's just like, No, just, I don't mind coconut adult, I put mine coconut milk, but just in a chocolate it's a no for me. It's a no for me. My favorite, my favorite chocolate bar is a fresh chocolate cream. Have you ever had one? Because you're not from here, are you No? So, I mean, you have lived here for 20 years before, so you might have seen one around in the shops at some point. Um, but yeah, it's like old school fresh chocolate cream and they have peppermint, original orange, beautiful, dark chocolate, perfect. I

Speaker 1  39:28
mean, anything with chocolate and orange should be banned, or chocolate and strawberries, or chocolate with Why? Why? Never, ever give me a chocolate orange, because I will not be happy. Bunny. I love

39:41
them. I love them. Do you like white

39:42
chocolate? Uh, less

Speaker 3  39:44
bit too a bit too sweet for me. Yeah, I prefer milk chocolate, actually. But I do like dark chocolate as well. Yeah, so agree. But anyway, I don't think this was part of the podcast, but that is the best part. Again. Game. You just literally get about a sudden, you get everybody to do it, and everybody looks and you line them up, one onto the other. So I'll show you next time. Let's well, and we know now what you're going to choose anyway. So, yeah, yeah,

Speaker 1  40:09
but maybe there's some rogue ones in there. We'll have to do this now. But anyway, if you've got party games that you think, oh yeah, we did that. We played it when the kids were younger, or when we had kids parties, and we had some party games for the for the garden, and the kids are like, now 16. You might think yourself, hmm, I might have to let this go or but you have, like, a kids bouncy castle, and all the kids are like, 20 now, right? Let it go. Don't keep it it's going to take a valuable space. So I know we've talked about lots of other stuff beside party things, but we hope you enjoyed this podcast. And of course, that makes us wonder, have you got a party coming up soon? And you think, after listening to this whole kind of crazy podcast, I need to do some clearing out. I need to check the stock on some of these things. I need to look at the quality of some of these things, because if you don't use it very often after a party, you kind of just put it all away quickly, and you kind of never think, oh, I need to sort this out and have a look at it. So that's, that's your job for this weekend. Once you've listened to this podcast, let it go and sort it out. So yeah, Lesley, I think that's that. That's it for this week. I think that's all we we've got time for. It

Speaker 3  41:24
was quite a celebratory because we talked about things that. Because even though it's our 350th podcast, which we couldn't celebrate, we celebrate. We talked about our weddings. We talked about your 50th party with the things we talked about our book launch parties. So in a weird kind of way, we've gone back into the archives and we and we've retrospectively celebrated some of the lovely things in our lives Ingrid

Speaker 1  41:44
well. And on that note, thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.

Speaker 2  41:54
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. I will see you next week.
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Recent Posts
Episode 395 – Don’t Fade by February – Keep Your Decluttering Momentum High

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Episode 392 – The clutter advice I’d give my 30-year-old self

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Episode 350 – 10 party supplies to declutter from your home today

Episode 395 – Don’t Fade by February – Keep Your Decluttering Momentum High

Episode 393 – How a Clutter-Free Home Strengthens Relationships – A Valentine’s special

Episode 392 – The clutter advice I’d give my 30-year-old self

Episode 391 – Hosting kids’ parties without clutter

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