As I continue to declutter my toy/wargames room as part of the process of preparing our house for sale, I am amazed at just how much wargaming stuff I actually have ... and this is after undertaking some serious downsizing over the past few years.
It's not just how much stuff that I have painted and organised that has astounded me: it's how much stuff I still have to make or paint or finish! This has created something of a dilemma for me. Should I just move everything into storage and sort it our after we have moved into our new home, or should I do it as I declutter and dispose of what I don't need before I put the rump into storage?
In some ways I am too far down the former path to stop taking that course of action, but part of me feels that if I am sorting stuff out to put it into storage, why not get rid of the surplus as I go along. I suspect that I am going to end up doing a bit of both, with the very obviously surplus stuff that I am never, ever going to use being disposed of if only to ensure that the storage unit doesn't end up full to capacity.
Oh, the joys of moving house!
One thing that I have discovered as I was decluttering my toy/wargames room and packing figures into Really Useful storage boxes is a substantial number of very bad cases of lead rot amongst the figures in my Del Prado pre-painted 25/28mm Napoleonic collection. I estimate that at least two hundred figures are showing signs of the dreaded rot and I had to decide whether or not to triage the figures as I packed them away or leave it until we have moved and to do it as we unpacked. In the end I chose the latter option, otherwise it would have taken me far longer to pack the figures and move them into the storage unit we are renting.
Decluttering is not always an exact science. Judging whether an item should go is always a mix of various factors: encumbrance, usefulness, sentimentality, memories, ...
ReplyDeleteBut in many cases it helps if one abandons the idea of the need of having a lot of items. Especially if items have been sitting unused in one's garage, is it really "your" item? It's not because you bought it so many years ago, and then it sat unpacked for so many years, what is stopping you from getting rid of it? Existential questions, I know!
Phil Dutre,
DeleteThey are exactly the questions I am asking myself as I go through this process ... but to declutter properly takes more time than I have at present, so unless something is very obviously no longer needed, it is going into storage and will be properly sorted when we have moved. When that happens, expect to see quite a lot of stuff go on sale or be given away!
All the best,
Bob
Well I think ideally do it before, unless the time pressure is so great that you can't. I have moved loads and it is reasonably disheartening to do a big cull after you have boxed, moved and unpacked stuff. And unpainted/unfinished stuff is yet another set of tasks on the implied 'to do' list - sort of the same as an unread book.
ReplyDeleteJWH,
DeleteThe problem is that I sort of tried to cull my collections last year … and the effort petered out. Now we need to get the house move going and we have to declutter before we can. Packing up what we have is taking more time than we expected and trying to cull as we did just wasn’t feasible.
All the best,
Bob
Always tough Bob. Downsized and stored stuff many years ago due to a major move but have accumulated twice as much since!
ReplyDeleteFor the lead rot, I'd recommend the gum turpentine and mineral oil treatment.
Neil
Neil Patterson (Neil),
DeleteAs I’ve been decluttering, I’ve been making a mental list of what I will eventually keep and what I will get rid of.
Thanks for the suggestion regarding the lead rot. As I intend to reduce the size of my Napoleonic collection, the lead rot is - to a limited extent - sort of doing it for me.
All the best,
Bob
How old are the Del Prado figures?
ReplyDeleteNigel Drury,
DeleteThey are probably about thirty years old.
All the best,
Bob
Been sorting my library shelves out - very liberating once you get started - Ooh how much stuff we gather over the years ! , Tony
ReplyDeleteThe Good Soldier Svjek (Tony),
DeleteLooking at my bookshelves is the next task on my list and I fully expect that I will be disposing of quite a few books that I no longer need.
All the best,
Bob
Urgh. Best of luck with it. I loathed moving house and God willing I will never have to do it again.
ReplyDeleteConrad Kinch,
DeleteI wish that we weren’t having to move, but I’ve got to accept that my body can no longer cope as well as it used to with the steep stairs in our house and trying to keep a garden with a 1-in-10 slope neat and tidy. Better to move now when I can still do it than wait a bit longer until it will be far more difficult.
All the best,
Bob
Which ever route you choose Bob, I wish you the best of luck! We had to move some stuff around whilst we had new windows installed and that was bad enough. The thought of having to move leaves me cold! It has made us realise that we really do need to have a good Spring clean as well as a sort out and cull, including my gaming stuff, which I've at least already sorted out for disposal. I've tried to shift some stuff already but to no avail, so some might simply be given away or sent to recycling... :(.
ReplyDeleteSteve J.,
DeleteOnce we’ve declutterred, we intend to do a deep clean before we put our home on the market. As far as I’m concerned, the sooner we get the whole thing done and dusted, the better!
All the best,
Bob