Preparing for a Loft Conversion - time to clear out the junk

Sunday, 7th December 2008

junk cleared from loft Work is due to start work on our loft conversion in the new year, before we can start there is a very important job that we need to get completed - remove all of that old junk from the loft! Its one of those jobs that you always put off for another day, well that day has come and its time to get the loft ladder down and make a start!

Our loft is very typical, it's full of a mix of old junk, treasured items, photo albums, unwanted gifts, childrens toys, CDs, books - you get the idea. Our loft was so full that there was barely room to stand, this made life rather difficult when it came to sorting out the mess as there was no room to move. As the garage is used to keep the car and the shed is full of garden stuff our storage space is limited so we took a tough line when clearing out the loft.

When you come across items that have sat up in the loft for ten years without ever being used you have to ask yourself if its really worth keeping. For each item (or maybe junk is a more appropriate word) we asked ourselves the following questions :

  • When was it last used?
  • Does it have any value (monetary or emotional)
  • How much space does it take up?

Once we had sorted out the loft we were left with lots of 'stuff' that needed to find a new home. For some things the only option was send it off to landfill, some stuff was given away via the freecycle website and a few items that had some value were sold on Ebay.

Clearing out the loft turned out to be a rewarding experience rather than the chore we expected. It felt good knowing we had 'decluttered' our lives, found some great photos that we had forgotten about and even made some money from selling a few bits and pieces on ebay.