Grab a crafty bargain!

I'm having another clear-out, and have posted lots of leftover craft supplies, stitched project samples, and other bits and bobs at bargain prices over on Instagram.

Head to lauralupinsells to see all the details!

The UK postage shown for each item is for it posted solo. I'll combine postage for items bought together - you can send an approximately shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2kg by 2nd class post for just £3 in the UK, so most packages won't cost more than this to send (yay!). If you're elsewhere in the world, let me know your country and I'll check the postage for you.

Don't have an Instagram account but spotted something you fancy? Send me a message via my contact form.

Destashing & Decluttering Sale: Coming Soon!

I'm having another Instagram sale!

I'll be listing craft books and supplies, stitched samples, and a whole load of other lovely bits and pieces over at lauralupinsells on Saturday 29th September (starting at 10am, UK time).

Here's a sneak peek at some of the things I'll be selling...

 

 

 

There are also a few things left over from previous sales, which are now listed at totally bargain prices (hurrah!).

I'll list the price and UK postage of each individual item, but I'll combine the postage for each parcel and only charge what it actually costs to post - in the UK you can send a roughly shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2 kilos second class for just £2.95. I'm also always happy to look up international postage prices - just ask!

When the sale starts you can leave a comment on an item to claim it, but if you don't use Instagram don't worry! If you see things you want to purchase, simply send me a message via my contact form to let me know what you're interested in and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. 

Destash & Sample Sale: This Weekend!

I'm having another Instagram sale!

I'll be listing craft supplies, stitched samples, lots of craft books, and a whole bunch of other lovely bits and bobs over at lauralupinsells this Sunday (11th February) from 10am, UK time.

Here's a peek at some of the things that'll be available:

 

I'll list the price and UK postage of each individual item, but I'll combine the postage for each parcel and only charge what it actually costs to post - in the UK you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2 kilos second class for just £2.90, which is a total bargain. I'm also always happy to look up international postage prices.

When the sale starts you can leave a comment on an item to claim it, but if you don't use Instagram don't worry! If you see things you want to purchase, just send me a message via my contact form to let me know what you're interested in.

More Stuff Added to My Insta-sale!

At the weekend I added lots more things to my destash and declutter sale over on Instagram.

There's fabric...
 

 

 

... lots of other crafty supplies...

 

... and a few other lovely bits & bobs:

 

I've also reduced the prices of a whole bunch of items left over from previous sales, including craft books...

 ... cute snowflake buttons...

... and these mouse and cheese brooches:

Prices start from just 25p (minimum spend £1). Click here to see all the available listings, with lots more info and photos. 

You can leave a comment on an item to claim it, but if you don't use Instagram don't worry! If you see things you want to purchase, just send me a message via my contact form to let me know what you're interested in.

I've listed the price and UK postage of each item, but I'll combine the postage for each parcel and only charge what it actually costs to post. In the UK you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2 kilos second class for just £2.90! I'm happy to post internationally, too, just get in touch and I'll look up the postage costs and get back to you as soon as possible.

More Decluttering = More Stuff for Sale!

I've added a few more things to my Instagram sale, including...

... a white perspex bird brooch:

... a gigantic (25cm) wooden button (actually a trivet / cheese board, but I think this would also make fab craft room decor):

... and some felt mice and cheese brooches:

There are also lots of craft supplies still available...

... plus some craft books...

... and some decorative bits and bobs as well.

 

Click here to see all the available listings, with more info and photos. 

You can leave a comment on an item to claim it, but if you don't use Instagram don't worry! If you see things you want to purchase, just send me a message via my contact form to let me know what you're interested in.

I've listed the price and UK postage of each item, but I'll combine the postage for each parcel and only charge what it actually costs to post (in the UK you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2 kilos second class for just £2.90).

My Insta-Sale Continues!

After a busy few hours of typing, I finally got everything in my Instagram sale listed over at lauralupinsells this weekend - hurrah!

Plenty of items have been snapped up already, but there are still lots of things still available, including...

Craft books:

 

A copy of Mollie Makes magazine (unopened and including free gifts):

Crafty supplies like buttons, ribbon and beads:

 

 

Samples stitched for tutorials on my blog:

 

Plus some samples I stitched for other sites, which are free to a good home (you just need to pay the postage).

Then there's also a couple of art prints I don't have room for:

 

And a clock in the shape of a teapot!

Click here to see all the available listings, with more info and photos. 

You can leave a comment on an item to claim it, but if you don't use Instagram don't worry! If you see things you want to purchase, just send me a message via my contact form to let me know what you're interested in.

I've listed the price and UK postage of each item, but I'll combine the postage for each parcel and only charge what it actually costs to post (in the UK you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2 kilos second class for just £2.90).

Destash Sale: This Sunday!

Hello! Just a quick post to let you know I'm planning an Instagram sale.

I'll be selling a whole bunch of craft books...

...plus some craft supplies, project samples, and a few other bits and bobs as well.

I'll be listing everything over on Instagram - lauralupinsells - on Sunday (1st October) from 10am (UK time).

You'll see the listings pop up if you follow my sale account (Instagram's algorithm permitting!!), but I'll also be posting about it on my main Instagram account - lauralupinhoward - so you'll be able to click over from there.

You can leave a comment on an item to claim it, but if you don't use Instagram don't worry! You'll still be able to browse all the listings, then you can send me a message via my contact form to let me know what you're interested in.

I'll be listing the price and UK postage of each item, but I'll combine the postage for each parcel and only charge what it actually costs to post (in the UK you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2 kilos second class for just £2.90, hurrah!).

Decluttering Tips: Listen To Your Feelings

We all have a complicated relationship with our stuff.

There are things we keep because they're useful, things we love, things that make us happy, things we've inherited and adore, things we've inherited and keep out of a sense of familial obligation, things that are treasured gifts from beloved friends, things that will "do" until we get a better/nicer/not-falling-apart version, things that spark happy memories, things we keep as reminders of people and places and other times in our life, things we bought that we thought we were going to love but now feel lukewarm about, things we panic bought for a particular occasion, things we bought to treat ourselves when we were stressed or unhappy, things we bought because they were cheap, things we think we might need someday... and so on!

Our posessions are all tangled up with our feelings and our memories, with what our lives used to be like and what we hope (or worry) might happen in the future. Because of this, I think the starting point for any decluttering you're doing is to pay attention to your feelings about the things you own.

Feelings can be complicated, just like this chart!

Being honest with yourself about your emotional relationship with your stuff will help the decluttering process in three ways:

1. You'll have a much clearer idea about the things you really love and want to keep - and you'll also identify items with negative associations which you'd definitely be happier without. 

For example, a few years ago I got rid of a whole load of letters from when I was a teenager. I wrote so many letters as a teen and kept all the ones I received from friends, and I loved the idea of having boxes of them to reread as the years went by... But in reality, re-reading them stirred up all sorts of angst and teen drama which was no fun to revisit. I sorted through the boxes to find a few special cards and letters to remember the friendships by and shredded the rest.

If you're dealing with really raw emotion - say, from a recent break-up - it can also be helpful to put the associated items away for a while (in a box under the bed or in the back of a cupboard) to come back to when time has worked her healing magic.

2. When you're clearing out a "collection" of things, like books or clothes, paying attention to your feelings about each item will help you spot the ones you're least attached to and can do without.

For example, when I was clearing out books from my childhood, the ones which overwhelmed me with heart-bursting happy memories as I looked through them went on the "keep" pile. The ones which I remembered fondly but which didn't have a strong emotional response to were all candidates for possible decluttering.

3. Asking yourself "why do I want to keep this?" can help you pin down why you still own each item, whether you still want to and what's getting in the way of you getting rid of it.

For example, people often talk about getting rid of clothes you haven't worn in the last six months or a year. This is a very practical, sensible idea! But I could never actually manage it - there were always things I never wore but still couldn't bear to part with.

Thinking about why I wanted to keep each of these items made me realise that there were things I felt guilty about getting rid of because they'd been an expensive purchase, things I associated with happy times when I used to wear them all the time, and things I liked the idea of myself wearing (and the stylish, professional person I'd magically become when I did) but which actually didn't fit in with my life or my personal style.

After being honest with myself about why I was hanging onto all this stuff it became a lot easier to let them go.


Are you a ruthless and logical declutterer? (Declutterer is totally a word, OK??) Or do you find  - like me - that you've got all sorts of weird feelings going on when you sort through your stuff?


This post is part of a new series I'm writing full of tips and tricks I've found useful during years of decluttering. Click here to read all the posts in the series. 

Decluttering Tips: How I Discovered the Joy of Decluttering

Let me start this blog post by admitting straight away that I am NOT a minimalist. I own a lot of stuff, I'm sentimental about the things I own, and my stuff makes me happy. I also have absolutely zero interest in living in an all-white home sparsely furnished with a mere handful of posessions. I do sometimes ooh over beautiful minimal spaces on Instagram but while they can be dreamy, they're just not my cup of tea.

Over the past decade though I have discovered the wonderful, home-improving magic that is decluttering. Not a Marie Kondo style intensive purge of everything that doesn't spark joy, but a gradual (and ongoing!) sorting and sifting and whittling down of my belongings.

Here's a photo of some very un-minimal scrapbooks because I like my blog posts like I like my stuff: colourful!

About ten years ago I started giving a few things away at Christmas to balance out the commercialism and excess that can feel a little overwhelming in December (maybe you feel a bit overwhelmed by that at Christmas too?). This turned into an annual challenge to give 30 things away in the run up to Christmas. Then in 2010 I set myself a 100 Things Challenge to (yes, you guessed it) give away 100 things that December.

I was surprised by how easy it was to find so many things I didn't use any more or didn't even like any more... and I was very pleasantly surprised by the effect getting rid of those 100 things had on my living space. My space was tidier (and much easier to keep clean and tidy!) and I had more room to display the things I really loved.

So, in 2011 I quietly (without blogging about it because I felt sure I would fail) set myself a Less 365 challenge: get rid of one thing a day, every day for a year. Okay so it didn't work out as one thing a day (instead there were great flurries of decluttering enthusiasm followed by fallow periods when I thought I'd never ever find another things to get rid of) but by the end of the year I'd cleared out 365 things. Three hundred and sixty-five!

I did a little more decluttering after that as a natural part of moving house, then did a second Less 365 challenge - the second time it took me a year and a half to complete, but I got there in the end. Now each year I keep a list of the things I've cleared out of my house. Every year I think "well, I'm sure I'll hardly get rid of anything this year!" and every year I find more things that I no longer need or use or love.

In 2015 I cleared out 168 things, and in 2016 I cleared out 102. Big things, small things, single things and collections of things. Most of my stuff is packed up in boxes at the moment, but even so I've managed to cleared out 9 things already - including a DVD I watched and thought "yeah, I'm never gonna watch that again", a pair of trousers I tried on and realised are now waaaaay small (and also have a small hole somewhere, ahem, not ideal), and a dress I unpacked after my move and thought "have I ever worn this? where would I ever wear this?? why did I even buy this???"

After doing so much decluttering I've been meaning to write a blog post with some handy tips for years. Years and years and years. Have I ever actually done this? No, I have not. I've tried to write about it before but always failed, my word count rapidly getting out of hand as I tried to squeeze years of thoughts and feelings into one blog post.

So I've decided to write an ongoing (occasional) series of posts instead. Whether you're an aspiring minimalist or just want a slightly less cluttered home I hope you'll enjoy them!

Before I start though: are you a fan of decluttering? Do you dream of a minimalist home or do you have a house bursting with beloved possessions?

Flash Sale: Grab a Bargain this Weekend!

Psst - this weekend only, everything left in my Instasale is now half price!

Handmade felt goodies, craft supplies and other lovely things... all 50% off the price shown (excluding postage). Bargains galore!

Head to lauralupinsells to see all the details!

The UK postage shown for each item is for it posted solo. I'll combine postage for items bought together - you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2kg by 2nd class post for just £2.85 in the UK, so most packages won't cost more than this to send (yay!). If you're elsewhere in the world, let me know your country and I'll check the postage for you :)

You can leave a comment below the item(s) you're interested in, or send me a message via my contact form. This half price offer ends midnight tomorrow (UK time, Sunday 17th July).

My Insta-sale is now live!

I had a busy day yesterday getting all my destashed and decluttered bits and bobs listed over at lauralupinsells, and sorting out the first batch of invoices for the sold items.

If you missed the flurry of listings yesterday, don't be sad! There are still dozens of things available, including...

Craft supplies like... vintage buttons:

... beads:

... fabric:

 

 

 

...glass paint:

... and postage stamps:

Handmade things like... felt crowns:

... coasters:

... brooches:

... and pompom gift-wrapping packs:

Plus other lovely things like... tea towels:

 

... wrapping paper:

 

... colouring books:

 

... art prints:

... and more!

Head to lauralupinsells to see all the details! The UK postage shown for each item is for it posted solo. I'll combine postage for items bought together - you can send a shoebox sized parcel weighing up to 2kg by 2nd class post for just £2.85 in the UK, so most packages won't cost more than this to send (yay!). If you're elsewhere in the world, let me know your country and I'll check the postage for you :)

Leave a comment below the item(s) you're interested in, or send me a message via my contact form.