The Cupboard Under the Stairs ... in Numbers

Will my life ever be done with de-cluttering ?

I should seriously NEVER EVER EVER go near another shop for the entire rest of my life.

Always good to start a new clearing out project at the end of a long day when you're tired and hungry and at your most irritable although that might extend to most of my waking hours at the moment. So I decided to tackle the cupboard under the stairs this evening. Here is its contents in numbers :

• Thermos Flasks - 5
• Insulated cool bags - 17
• Those blue plastic bags from Ikea which you never remember to bring and so have to buy another - 9
• Shopping Trolleys , I was old before my time - 2
• Hideous laundry bags - 16
• Not quite so hideous red vinyl polka dot bags which may or may not come in useful when moving house but in the meantime occupy about 50% of useful cupboard space where I could be storing things I actually use and need now - 23
• Picnic sets - 5 , for goodness sake , what was wrong with me ?
• Metres of bubble wrap - 20 but never any when I needed it or could find it
• Tool kits - 2 but do either ever have the right tool, screw or nail ? No
• Rafia style beach bags - 7
• Canvas Shopping Bags - 14 A veritable archive of shopping through the years ranging from Golden Jubilee souvenir bags to long defunct department stores

The only real find were two delightful navy blue and cream stripey fleece car blankets which came in their own fleece bags embroidered with a bright red fleece star - one for each of the boys when they were little and accompanied us on every day trip and holiday. Those will be going in the boys' trunks which are in the loft and hold all their childhood mementoes - heaven help them.

Most of these are now bagged up ready for the charity shop. When they receive this lot , they'll probably think they all came from a closing down camping shop. We only ever went camping once. Once was enough in my book. It wasn't the outdoorsy bit I hated , it was the fact that every other camper seemed to bring all their indoorsy stuff with them to the campsite. I couldn't beleive that people would go to all the bother of erecting a tent then whip out a telly and watch East Enders of an evening . What on earth is the point of communing with fresh air if you're just going to bring all the misery of London with you ? That and having  to listen to every other camper snoring through the night . Never again.

So we now have a huge space to fill under the stairs and what will I be putting in there ? Everything I've just cleared out of the living room ... which in numbers amounts to :

• Bags of 200 Ikea tea lights - 3 If I lit one every day from now on they'd still be going in 2 years time
• Tea Light Holders - mercifully less than  the above
• Dinner Candles ( such a quaint old fashioned term ) - 23
• Packs on incense sticks - 6 and they all smell horrible
• Incense stick holders - 4 the last vestiges of my hippy youth

... and here's the difficult one ....

Arts and crafts projects from the boys' primary school days - countless. Oh my , a whole new hornet's nest of indecision. What to keep and what to turf discretely in the bin bag ? There are only so many pottery owls, ping pong ball headed choirboys and balsa wood models you can make room for. I have left it to husband to decide but will wait until he's gone to bed to resue what he will inevitable throw out. They area a heartless bunch husbands.