This week we move our attention to our littlest family members, our pets. Let’s get their “houses” decluttered and review bowls, leads, coats, carriers, medications and all of those other little bits and pieces that they have.
So how do we decide what stays and what goes?
If items haven’t been used for some time, belonged to a previous pet (excluding maybe a sentimental treasure), don’t fit, don’t work or are no longer fit for purpose, it is time to move them out and on. Equally as important are things that your pet doesn’t like to won’t use. Although if my pets had a choice they would want me to discard the pet carriers as they usually only come out when there is a trip to the vet planned!
If you are new to the challenge, you can see our Week 1 post here where we have provided some background and useful tools to help you in making these decisions.
What do I do with the keepers?
They definitely all need homes, and ones that minimise the chance for damage and enable them to be accessed easily when they are needed. You also need to work within the physical limits of your allocated storage space. If you can’t fit everything, you need to go back and review and make some further decisions. We don’t want anything homeless or of no use in our homes!
I have a small tub allocated to storage of pet items – makes it easy to find things and contains them all nicely.
What do I do with the ones that no longer have a purpose for me?
If the items are broken or no longer functional they are just taking up valuable space in your home and need to go in the bin (recycling whatever you can of course!).
If they are still in good condition but no longer have a purpose in your home, you can also consider some of these sell/swap and donation options.
- Sell or Swap:
- Swap with your friends or family.
- Gumtree
- Facebook Marketplace or any of the myriad of Buy/Swap/Sell groups
- Garage Sale
- Donate/Gift options:
- RSPCA or your local pet shelter or rescue group – do contact them first though to see what they need and use.
- Freecycle
- Ziilch
- Trash Nothing!
- Green Shed (Mitchell or Mugga Lane)
- Let’s Recycle Canberra (Hume)
- Your local “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook.
How did you go? Feel free to share your successes, challenges and tips on our Facebook page.
Happy decluttering!
Melissa x