Throwawayathon and a simple How-to.

I mentioned in my coffee & paste post from a few days ago that we had been on a major decluttering spree. I think even that phrase 'a major decluttering spree'   doesn't comes close the the wholesale removal, recycle, rehome and throwawayathon we have undertaken in the last few weeks.

We did start quite reluctantly - knowing that we should tackle our accumulated 'stuff' but dreading that first step. We have *whispers in shame* unpacked boxes from when we ORIGINALLY moved to Africa in *even more shame* 19.....96 - oops. Never mind about the unopened boxes from our return to the UK in 2000 (avoids eye contact) and the boxes from Himself's mother when she died in 1997.....

Then having spent a glorious week up in Northumberland in a cottage with the right amount of bare minimum - Himself was spurred on.

If we could live with just that - the bare minimum AND SURVIVE A WHOLE WEEK!! then we could at least get rid of some of our 'stuff'.

So we started to open the stashed away crates and boxes - out went college books, out went surplus mismatched china, out went cross-stitch and tapestry kits - Himself's mother bought dozens and dozens to do in her retirement and was never well enough to even start, out went lace making kits and hundreds of hand made bobbins, out went pictures that never made it up on the wall, out went belts and bags and unloved ornaments that collected dust and out went wedding dresses and old fashioned antimacassars.

Sealed wooden chests revealed bags of fabric which was shared out between crafty friends, unopened artist's canvas and oil paints were passed on, tents were rehomed to friends who are counting the pennies, toys - outgrown but still loved were carefully selected and some adopted by new children and others kept and cuddled even by Eldest......

Then....then..... I opened the airing cupboard and my heart sank when I startled a handful of clothes moths. Oh dear, we thought we'd been getting on top of the problem but our holiday away and the cats staying at a cattery holiday prison camp had allowed the moths freedom and they had made the most of it.

We stripped out the cupboard and checked everything for chew holes and grubs. Moths fluttered haphazardly around as we sprayed and slapped and vacuumed. Everything that seemed to have been rejected by the moths was shoved into the washing machine the rest tightly bagged up for disposal. Our airing cupboard has not been this tidy (or empty) in years. But don't feel sorry for us - it was ever so 'slightly' over filled with years of 'stuff', inherited, gifted, loaned, collected and occasionally bought.  It is now tidy.

Our house is now guarded by the delicious scent of cedar sachets liberally stashed and by a clever little trap called the mothbox which, as I assembled and arranged around the house was attracting over-sexed male moths and within an hour all 5 boxes had trapped 2 - 3 moths each - mwhahahahah!

I also made lavender, mint and clove bags and hung them up - their scent is a mixture of festive warmth and old fashioned soap - quite yummy!
I searched the tinter to see if there was anything I make to help keep the moths away from our clothes and found several suggestions. I chose to mix three ingredients to make a veritable nosegay.

Each little scented posy bag has:

• A lavender bloom and stalk, folded up to bruise and release the scent.
• Handful of mint leaves.
• Tablespoon of cloves.

You will also need:

• Netting - cut into 'rounds' I used a side plate as a template
• Ribbon - quite long, both as decoration on the bags and to be able to tie to a rail or hook
• Elastic bands
• Scissors

These were placed into a circular piece of netting and tied - initially with an elastic band then with a ribbon which was then used to tie in the cupboards.  The boys were quite taken by the scent - happily proclaiming it to smell like chrimbly cake, old fashioned soap and toothpaste - now that can't be bad :)

Now - you don't have to suffer a case of the moths to have these tasty scented little tussie-mussies  in your cupboard so why not try making them for yourselves?

So - 

Have you had a clear out recently?

Have you 'stuff' stashed away - out of sight and out of mind?

How is your declutter challenge going?

How jam-packed is your airing cupboard!?

Have yourselves a splendid day and thank you so much for all your lovely comments - I do love reading them, they may me go squeeeeeeeee :)

hawthorn xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx