Decluttering - lessons learned

The declutter of The Barrow Bunker was completed this weekend with a final trip to my Storage World unit and Trafford Recycling Centre.

More photos below of my new work environment. I do have a new futon on order and that will occupy a space behind the Wattbike when it eventually arrives. Some prints and a collection of marathon medals have also gone off to the local framing shop and will take pride of place in due course.

I've invested 4 consecutive weekends into the project and have lost count of the number of visits to "the tip".

Here are some of the lessons learned along the way:

1. The psychological effect of decluttering is an order of magnitude higher than the simple physical benefits;

2. There's a lot of decluttering going on during the year of lockdowns - my weekend trips to the Recycle Centre have necessitated patience as the traffic queues to simply get in have required waiting times as long as 30 minutes. With time and money on their hands, folks are improving their environments (DIY and garden centres sales 30% up on the same time last year);

3. There's a lot of stuff we don't need;

4. There are other items that can be hard to dispose of because they have sentimental value. Hence Storage World - I'm very fortunate to have a huge facility 10 minutes drive away with 7-day access and for £50 a month I think it is excellent value;

5. There are other areas of our lives that can be decluttered - otherwise known as tolerations. Situations, things and relationships that hold us back. It is always a good idea to either remove them or move away from them.

Monday morning - here we go again for another groundhog week.

There's not much to look forward to nowadays - holidays, movies, concerts, day trips, dinners and a host of other breaks from the demands of our working life. They used to be the little oases that we journeyed between.

For me, this year has been enlivened by a series of declutter projects - earlier in the year it was my personal wardrobe, then the garden shed during the summer - this latest Autumn campaign is now complete and I'm looking around to see what I can do next.