Anyone got any tips on the best way to do it, 20 years of memories are a hell of a lot to go through. Been trying to declutter, but just seem to be making more mess !!!

Head is splitting as well.

Cheers

yep, do one room at a time. Take your time. Have a break after a set time and have a cup of tea.

In each room, start at one end and bin all the rubbish first, newspapers, etc. Then have some different coloured sticky lables, red, green, yellow...and identify each object as skip, a maybe or a keeper and denote it with a label. Maybe get someone objective to help you...memories are distracting.

Use Ebay, Gumtree and Freecycle to recycle as much as possible, I think it's good karma - all those things you have collected with love don't then just end up in landfill. There are often furniture recyclers too and Bethany Christian Trust and other charities collect.

Of course, you can also reclutter by buying one of the many books on the subject..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_...0&Go.y=0&Go=Go

Syndol or a neck massage for the headache.

The best thing ever if you have vinyl records - it was my hubbys b'day on Sat and I brought him a turntable that converts your records to digital for mp3 or make your own cds. Had a fun evening listening to them all last night - so easy. We have carted a full tea- chest from uk - ireland - adelaide - uk we are NOT taking back to oz with us. £80 to buy and people are selling them for the same price when they have finished with them on Ebay.

Sounds amazing ! What are they called and where do I get one ? Can you also buy a tape to convert cassettes?

Hi the one I got was made by Ion (on web been given best write up) and are called USB Turntable. I got mine in Maplins (went to store but are on-line) I've seen them in HMV and Dixons. Maplin had tape to digi players as well. They come with all the leads and software. Good luck

You don't need anything amazing to do this. Just connect the headphone (or better, the line-out) output of your tape/record player to the line-in socket of your then start recording with your favourite freeware audio program. Something like Audacity would probably do the job. Post-process to remove pops and clicks, then divide up into the different tracks (if you want). If you want to be clever, you could try using something like MusicBrainz to automatically identify the different tracks.

One tip I had that worked for me is never pick up the same thing twice. When you pick up something make a decision what to so with it and do it. You will be done in half the time.

clutter = energy. Take it a room at a time, and do a 'gross' clean out first. Dump absolutely grim and awful stuff, recycle what you can or freecycle it, charity shop what you can.

Ask yourself 'have I used it in the last year' 'do i have more than one and if so, is this the best one' and 'do I love it?'. if you haven't used it in a year, you don't love it or you have a better one, get rid of it.

That will get rid of at least 50% of your stuff that way.

Then, if you still feel you need to get rid of more, tackle clothes. What is ill fitting, stained, missing buttons etc? Dump it.

What is electrical and not worth a transformer? What will need to be replaced to be safe?

and last but not least...what costs less than 8 quid per kilo to replace? as thats the price of excess luggage for a used item vs a new item you could buy there.

Good luck! and remember, you're storing up excess energy in clutter. Get rid of it and feel free.

Deb

The USB Turntable as I described is the answer if you do not already have a turntable - if like us you 'upgraded' to a cd player many years ago but refused to get rid of your beloved vinyl.good luck

http://www.flylady.net/pages/FLYingLessons.asp

can't do that with most turntables - the signal sent by the pick-up is much weaker than a line level signal, which is why amps have (or had) a separate phono stage. Now that most stereos no longer have a phono stage and loads of people have a stack of vinyl they can no longer play, a USB turntable is often the best compromise option. Not that the quality will be much good compared to a decent turntable/amp, but for a few quid at least you'll be able to listen to your music again.

Dead right for tapes, though: line out --> line in, and away you go.

And dont forget the good old, 'car boot,' pile. Might as well make a bit of money out of what youre getting rid of. Remember, one mans trash is another mans treasure!

Hi there,

Ha-ha, decluttering. We thought we had decluttered with all our efforts just prior to leaving the UK in 2005. It still ended in tears/abondonment/bonfires. And we've moved regularly in the past 5 years!

Anyway, I've copied in my "leaving UK in a hurry timeline" for a few ideas. Good luck!

Leaving the UK (how not to do it).

6 Months to Go

Mentioned to partner that moving to Canada might be nice. Job found on internet, interviews arranged.

4 1/2 Months to Go

Job offer confirmed. Began sorting through cupboards with realisation that the amount of clutter we possess is equivalent to the Isle of Wight.

Completed forms for work permit. Submitted applications for my professional licensing equivalences.

3 Months to Go

Had numerous car boot sales, and sold life on eBay. Mentioned to family that that we're moving to another country.

2 Weeks to Go

Arranged Yard Sale at home. (This included educating our UK neighbourhood what a Yard Sale is).

1 Week to Go

Work permit received. Air tickets booked.

5 Days to Go

Got some quotes for shipping and picked one. Booked a part container as already sold most of belongings.

4 Days to Go

Took last of our American cars to a buyer in Loughborough. Took a rental van back to house, picked up remaining furniture to drive to family in Swindon. (Realise that we can't lift our piano into the van, and break down crying sat in the front garden - everything getting too much by then).

2 Days to Go

Arranged first 3 months of medical insurance - to cover us before the BC system kicks in. Arranged mail redirect to new work address in Canada. Repainted kitchen of rental house 'cos it looked dingy.

1 Day to Go

International Movers arrive to wrap & pack remaining belonging. Used Pink & Jones in Kettering. (Part of Brittania). The 3 guys were surprisingly unfazed by the frantic look of fear permanently fixed on our faces by then.

Have a bonfire in garden when we notice that there's a load of paperwork we'd forgotten to pack.

Cleaned rental house & handed keys back to agent.

Driven to Gatwick to stay in hotel overnight.

D-Day

Realise that you've got far too much stuff in your suitcases and dump it all on your relatives who are at the airport to see us off.

This is an example of what you can achieve in the minimum of time. It certainly helped that we were in a rented house, and don't have kids. However the process did leave us on the verge of a nervous breakdown. However, it is still stressful no matter how much notice you have. The task of preparing for the move will always fill the time that is available.

I hope this info helps. I'm just getting over it now.

All the best,

Sarah

Get a B L O O D Y big skip

or 2 like I did