Every bloody year - Christmas tidying/declutter.

[Bemyclementine]

I long to live in a clutter free house. Every year I get to December, contemplate putting the tree up and realise there is stuff everywhere.

Too much stuff.

I used to have a much much tidier clearer house, even when the dc were baby/toddler.

Despite being in almost constant declutter mode the place is still a tip.

The last few years I have been ABSOLUTELY DETERMINED not to have another year of it, yet here i am.

Any help/tips on keeping a clutter free house, other than rehoming the DC?

(Disclaimer, single parent, working, exhausted, few health conditions causing tiredness. )

And don’t buy anything on an impulse, if it comes in now, it needs a purpose and to be thought about

It's not so much new stuff, a lot of existing stuff. Also I'm useless at putting stuff away, days out/weekends away, bring back bags, put on floor, start sorting, then stop.

It's hard to bin stuff when you have no money. And when you have kids who like to keep every little thing that ever enters the house!
I'd start with the things you are unemotional about - like the junk drawer that everybody has! Match up cables to devices and bin all the random duplicates for phones you got rid of in 2009!

The easy hit is to go through all the rooms with a bin bag and get rid of the 'obvious' junk - anything torn or broken.

With your clothes, put anything decent that doesn't fit on Vinted. If it doesn't sell in a few weeks, then straight to a charity shop, unless it's a really expensive thing that you might wear again one day or pass on to your children.

It's the DH with me, as soon as I say I'm going to sort the stuff over there, he will say I'll do that, but he doesn't. I say I'll put this stuff away, he says I want that, it will still be untouched a week later. I used to just wait till he was out, but he's semi-retired now so always sees as soon as I go to sort out any of his 'heaps'. His idea of tidying is putting things in even bigger heaps rather than sorting and putting away! He re-occupied the place where the Christmas tree goes probably in January and I know when I say I need the space back, it will be you're not putting the Christmas tree up yet are you? Always comes as a total surprise!

The Minimal Mom on YouTube is good. She refers to things as Inventory, which helps me to depersonalise things.

I was boxing stuff up to car boot, but I want it out now, so Charity Shop or Tip!

Yes my sister always wants me to car boot with her, the thought fills me with horror tbh. I coukd get it ALL gone in the time I'd maybe make £20!

But it wouldn't be cluttering up your house if you did the car boot thing.
DH is a nightmare too for not binning stuff - why do we need to keep hold of his uni notes from 1999? And we have loads of stuff from his parents house in storage that he needs to go through. I can't do that for him because it's emotionally loaded (they are both no longer with us) but I can't keep it forever and make it into a problem that our kids have to deal with!

I have been going through the house though, ditching all clothes that don't make me happy, sorting drawers, reorganising the cleaning cupboard etc. it's so nice when you want to use something and know where it is instantly and don't have to clamber over tons of other items to access it! It becomes quite addictive when you start.

Oh every year. Come early November every year I think to myself it's about time I started sorting things out, and every year it gets to early December and I've done sod all.

Start selling stuff. It's addictive. Totally changes your mindset. It becomes "stuff out" rather than "stuff in", and because you get a buzz from selling an item, I find it removes the mental block to getting rid of stuff. If you don't have them, set up vinted/ebay/gumtree accounts and just start listing, listing, listing. Anything that doesn't sell within 3 months goes to charity shop/is binned.

I'm slowly but surely decluttering. Rather than having new stuff coming in, I find myself wondering into rooms and looking for stuff to sell. I caught myself mentally pricing up the cat the other day... obviously she's not for sale 😂!

I know the feeling all too well!

Moved into my current flat 4 and a bit years ago...I'm physically disabled and live on the 1st floor (had to move in a hurry due to former neighbour assaulting me and resultant court case, it was all the HA could offer at short notice). Keeping on top of the recycling and other rubbish has been very difficult. Constant promises from ex husband (who I am on very good terms with) and current partner to dispose of it went on for years...recently I couldn't stand it anymore, and borrowed the money from my partner to have professional removers licenced by the council to come and move it all, along with some furniture, old bedding etc...£500 quid it cost! It was so embarrassing, the recycling was up to the ceiling of my small pantry...

Best part of it was I did it when no one else was here, so nobody to go through my rubbish and say 'why are you getting rid of this' - something my partner is particularly bad for!

I'm thinking of just getting a skip and filling it up!

I thought the Weasley House was the cosy, gently cluttery, relaxed and homely ideal tbh!

Too much stuff makes me anxious but I've still got too much!

Ive moved 3 times in 4 years.

The last one was from a 3 bed house to a 2 bed apartment and I got rid of so much stuff! I got rid of stuff I was never going to use, multiples of things so I only had 4 water glasses etc. I had a bag of ribbons for a Christmas tree I no longer owned! It was a combination of charity, skip and giving away for free on FB. It is a process though and it took a while.

It's also not bringing stuff back in. I've stopped buying things for the most part. But some of the existing stuff is still here because of doing up this place.

I sometimes think I could walk away with a small case and the cat!

No good for this year but someone on another thread said, 'Throw out 1 thing every day for the next year. Imagine your house having 365 fewer objects in it this time next year.' I liked this as it sounds doable.

Feel sorry for me - DD wrote her letter to Father Christmas yesterday and asked for a tidy house 😅 I promise it's not that bad here; we just seem to have friends who manage to keep on top of everything 25% better than I do!

I usually have a bin bag going. A good thick one. As soon as there is stuff that I want to get rid of, it goes in the bag. Mainly clothes the kids have outgrown, tops I'm not going to wear again. As soon as the bag is full, it goes to the charity shop. But I feel your pain OP, it seems to never end!

Pile everything up you can sell on one corner of your bedroom, you live in the living space how much time do you spend in a bedroom really?

Make a promise you will start to list and sell to yourself.

The rest bin.

I can't express how much calmer life is with less stuff and we are not minimalist by any means.

Anything broken/incomplete can go that is a good start.

Our house is not Hinch, it doesn't have to be, and still the teens mates prefer to be here, costs a fortune in food!

@frozendaisy I had already de idea my bedroom needs to take the bulk of the stiff so the rest of the house is better. It's a work in progress and will be for some time!

The only thing that works for me is five minute cleans ie one fridge shelf whilst waiting for the kettle to boil, one carrier bag of kids junk into the bin while I'm cooking dinner), one bag of too small clothes (mine) into car and on to charity shop, and so on. If I waited to have the time/energy to do a big blitz it would never happen!

Same. I'm quite minimalist naturally and love having a clear out (not so keen on tidying) but DH doesn't even care what the house looks like so it's hard to get him helping. He just acquires more stuff. I've pretty much given up for now. We're moving next year and will be having a massive clear out. I've already primed DH that there will be a skip and we will be ruthless, because we will be moving twice in a year (relocating to another rental then buying) and I am not taking anything we don't have to. He hates moving and we can't afford to pay £3k+ for removals so we will be doing it ourselves. So he knows he has to make it easy as possible by getting rid of as much as we can.
It's going to be so much work as we've been here 12 years and have a loft, garage and storage unit full of stuff (most of it things he's collected over the years!).
I'm loathe to do much before spring because we'll be having such a huge clear out. But I'll be starting on some things in the new year. Until then, the house is what it is. The teens still bring their girlfriends over, so can't be too bad! It's very far from Hynch though.

I'm very excited about getting a skip. Driving a half hour round trip to the tip really puts me off getting stuff gone. It sits around getting in the way instead!

A few years ago I hadn’t got round to clearing the surfaces so just chucked it all in the boxes the decorations had come out of 😳

I actually think that's quite clever, force's you to sort it in the new year.

I've been out all day , usually Sunday is my "get stuff done" day. In reality I do a lit if faffing. So I've been home an hour abd have been like a whirlwind!! Dc bedroom is amazingly tidy!

You have to stop the stuff coming up. Perhaps too late but if you have to be rude, say no in advance to physical gifts.

A slob comes clean is brilliant! She's very no nonsense, no excuses but very kind.

Her thing is very small daily tasks so things like do the dishes and a 5 minute tidy. Eventually doing them every day really helps.

I've decluttered the whole house in 15 minute chunks. So one shelf in the bathroom, one kitchen drawer, one bedroom drawer.

Once you've removed enough stuff you can reorganise and make things easy to put away. Now I can tidy all of downstairs in 30 mins and usually just in 10, it's life changing!

You go have to get things out if the house though. The money is already wasted, keeping junk in the house won't bring that money back.

Also getting rid of things affects what you buy in the future as you can't help but see everything as future clutter.