New Year, New Plans

Liz Shankland has some enterprising thoughts on sorting out her new smallholding

- Liz Shankland

Almost a year ago, I set myself a challenge – to have a massive de-clutter of unwanted items, either loading them in the trailer and dropping them off at the skip, or giving them a bit of pampering and tidying up and selling them off to other compulsive hoarders.

Yet here I am, getting ready to tackle another year on this smallholding, and I’m still surrounded by what I affectionately refer to as ‘useful items which might come in handy’.

In fairness, I had a big, concerted effort at clearing out stuff last spring. I spent days washing, cleaning, polishing, and painting things and then even more precious time staging photoshoots, positioning each piece in a suitable place around the farm yard or in the house, so that everything could be photographed in the perfect setting.

I managed to shift quite a lot of items on eBay and on the ever-increasing number of local Facebook pages catering for people with smallholdings and farms. Facebook was once regarded by many as a place to waste time, a site for sharing happy snaps with family and friends, where you could have a good old moan about your life and the state of the world, brag about your latest exotic holiday or new relationship, or boast about the achievements of your amazing children.