Thursday 21 May 2015

Decluttering and Treasure-Hunting

I am sloooooowly recovering from a horrid bug which has left me feeling quite wobbly and rather foggy-brained... and without a lot of energy for working or making (or blogging). 

It is very frustrating not being able to charge through my To Do list like normal. In the meantime, to make myself useful I have been doing lots of time-consuming-but-not-terribly-complicated tasks like properly filing stacks of paperwork and tidying up boxes of supplies in my studio. My workspace is going to be wonderfully well organised by the time I get back to my regular working schedule!

 
I've also slowly been doing some more decluttering. After struggling to finish my Less 365 Project last year I've been amazed by the amount of stuff I've managed to clear out this spring (or, at least, add to the pile in the corner of my room that'll be getting charity-shopped once I've recovered from this bug!).

I've been keeping a list (because I am a giant nerd and I love a nice list) and have decluttered 73 things so far - some big (cushions, double-bed sized blankets, stacks of magazines, etc) and some small (brooches, toys from Christmas crackers, fridge magnets, etc). As always, it feels pretty fantastic to realise "I don't need/want/love this anymore!" and to be finding new homes for all these unwanted things.


As well as sorting through my own stuff, I've been helping my mum sort through boxes of old books, toys and trinkets tucked away in the attic years ago. These boxes are like timecapsules and going through them has totally transported me back to my childhood.

I couldn't resist taking some photos of these She-Ra: Princess of Power books - I read them sooooo many times! My sisters and I were big fans of She-Ra (and Jem & the Holograms, of course).


It's been fun revisiting these old favourites, but also weird re-discovering things I loved as a kid but had totally forgotten about until this week. Like these guys:

 

Keypers! Remember them? They came with a key and had a "secret" compartment to keep your treasures safe. Such fun.


My sisters and I each had one of these - mine was the snail. Here are the "treasures" I had hidden inside when it got packed away many years ago...


I'm rather looking forward to sorting through the rest of the boxes in the attic - I wonder what other long-forgotten treasures we'll find?

6 comments:

Claireabellemakes said...

OMG I had Keypers too! Ah the 80s were the good old days!

findingflapjack said...

Ah I had forgotten all about keypers! I had the purple one and thinking back, I'm sure I took it everywhere with me. Hope you're feeling back to normal soon!

bairozan said...

Finding new homes for unnecessary things is great but sometimes decluttering is hard if you have to throw away something, especially if it belonged to somebody else! Anyway, it is absolutely necessary because we need to free our minds (and space) from useless stuff :)

Bugs and Fishes said...

Claireabellemakes - yessss, there were so many great 80s toys :)

Becca - thanks! It's funny the things we forget about that are still buried somewhere in the back of our brains!

bairozan - oh gosh yes, having to throw stuff away def makes decluttering hard! It's much easier when you can pass things along to people / find new homes for things. Gotta be done though, as you say it frees us from useless stuff... Some of the decisions have been hard to make but overall this decluttering project has been fantastic and I have so much more space now for the things I actually still use/love (and to live my life!)

Claire said...

Awesome books! We need to introduce the girls to She-Ra!
I had a snail keeper too. The 80's were quite good!

Bugs and Fishes said...

Claire - yessss, so much good stuff in the 80s! :D