Less than 3 months to go! It's the DECLUTTERING FOR CHRISTMAS thread...

[fuzzpig]

My house is a state! I am absolutely determined to declutter in time for Xmas this year. I have never managed it before

My main wants are:

• to clear out our tiny kitchen (it's a galley style, so small you can barely swing an atom let alone a cat!) so that cooking is less stressful and we will be more likely to do festive baking etc - another thing I've never managed to do...

• to do a massive sweep of all DCs toys, books and clothes. They have WAY too many, and especially with toys it means that new things don't really get appreciated because they get lost among everything else.

• to completely sort out our living room so it actually looks nice when decorated and there is room to play.

I am unable to do much ATM because I'm not very well, but this could be a long term thing so I don't want to just leave it - I want to do a tiny bit every day. Yesterday I collected a laundry bin full of recycling stuff - mostly pieces from some orchard toys games - some of which due to clutter have never really even been played with properly

I can't be the only one who needs to declutter for Xmas - who's with me?

Same here Fuzzpig, caught up on washing mountain today plus work. On plus side have made roughly £ 100 from ebay sales.

Hope you are better Nishky. Migraines are awful.

Think I'll try and tackle toys this weekend if DH can take the DD's out somewhere.

Hello everyone - sounds like a few productive days out there! I cleared out a bin bag of clothes from my bedroom yesterday & today went through the kids craft stuff - we have a couple of spare pipeliners too, 3durracelbunnies....

Glad we're not the only one equiped for pipecleaner emergencies! Done no tidying today, went shopping took ds swimming and decorated cake for DF's birthday tomorrow. Away all weekend too cider but at least the house doesn't get any messier that way!

Hello all- I'd quite like to join :)

What I need to do: declutter toys, books, magazines, tupperware have to mop kitchen first for that one, go through my and DD's underwear drawers. I also want to clear off our shoe racks and convince DH that we don't need 2, find the top of the filing cabinet by catching up on filing, convince DH to clear his desk (gotta do this one late Nov, though or it'll be a real mess again for Christmas!), tidy my side of the bed which is my fav dumping ground , sort through the projects (knitting, sewing) I've started, and re-organize our snacks cupboard.

Dear lord that's a lot! and doesn't even include everything some things can wait until after Christmas--

Welcome MrsM, if it's any consolation we bought a filing cabinet at least a year ago and haven't actually used it yet :o

I confess I haven't read all 12 pages

But if you have toys/books/games your DC have grown out of, would you consider donating them to your local Women's Refuge? thread here

Thanks

That's a good idea :) I think we have one near us as I donated stuff after an NCT sale.

I have done so little :( only a tiny proportion of laundry. It's taking so long to dry that it is a very slow process!

I've thought of a few little ways of organising stuff like toys, so at least in my head I am getting sorted, now I just need to find the energy to catch up in real life!

Back to work tomorrow so not holding out much hope of success, but I hope we can keep this thread going.

Not making as much progress here and am also slipping back on regular housework as I want to de-clutter every spare minute!!! Need to achieve a balance

The thread is a massive inspiration though- let's keep going!!!

Failing miserably at casa oreo. My kitchen has reverted back to a bomb site.

I have ordered myself something else bulky to clutter up the place no doubt a filing cabinet. 3 draws, 1 for home, 1 for work (do a lot from home) and a drawer to use as an in/out tray. So it will all be in one place, not in several piles.

Just can't get going, and when I do get something sorted I go to work and come back to find it worse than before! It isn't all DP and DD, I'm falling into bad habits too.

Currently sat on the kitchen sofa, with an airer of dry washing in front of me, and I moved 3 piles of clean clothes to the other end of the sofa to sit down. Thats been here all week.

And I'm not going to take it upstairs, I'm tired and cold and am just going to sit here and play on the computer.

Will rest up today, and give myself a stern talking to tonight ready to start afresh tomorrow.

Absolutely nothing achieved over the weekend

BUT what I have done is still looking wonderful - tho the dc's are a bit cos for the first time in their lives I am insisting shoes and coats are put away properly! Still it will be good training for if when they leave home.

Tomorrows plan is to do what I haven't done yet - dvds, clothes away and deep clean downstairs loo.

I'm joining you all. Pregnant, due in Dec with on DS already. Christmas presents sorted and wrapped (never been this organised before), a chest freezer full of homemade meals (big mission that was) and now to tackle the house which has become a hovel with crap I've left everywhere, I am self employed, work from home but am now on maternity leave yey!

I have been through DS's toys, scaled down and ebayed. Been through most of my clothes, charity shopped etc, just need to get organised now, the house needs tlc. DS is finally getting his own room ( 2) so that is the next big project....

woohoo got some decluttering done, the boys toys have been sorted and a box of tat chucked, lots of clothes and outgrown shoes recycled or passed on. I have cleared out the under stairs cupboard so it doesnt resemble monicas junk cupboard... now ive run out of steam

Naff all was achieved over the weekend as we were out for most of it, but somehow the house still needs cleaning?!

Anyhow, not sure how much will be achieved today. Both boys are here all day so we are going to go out this morning. I think I will be starting again tomorrow. I will have more EBay parcels to despatch, more things to sell on FB and the kitchen (still) to tackle! Oh, and some clothes and toys to drop off at the woman's refuge - but need to sort the toys first ....

thank god it's not just me being a clutter slut! have read all the threads and now it's a case of "let's clear this mother of all messes up, bin bags and charity bags are go"!!

I managed to get through what I had intended yesterday, by crying off going to a match (DD was working up to be a pain if we all went). So the study is now clear again, DH can do his packing in there, DD can make her lists, and I can do my crafting - and we can all clean up after ourselves!!!

Oh, and I got rid of another bag of papers like filled in wordsearches and colouring sheets of DD's.

Hope everyone is making steady but still making progress.

I have just cleared the shoes, have a bag for loft (dd1 grown out of but DD2 not yet grown into.) and a bag for charity shop and loads thrown away.

Am going to start on the finishing bits in the front room/dining room.

Mixed experiences over the weekend I see!

Nothing achieved here as predicted. Have DS home from school with a bad cold today and I ended up sitting watching tv with him for a while this morning. Am tackling the laundry mountain today and am going to clear out some shoes from the cupboards in the hall and find the worktop in the utility room. I'm sure we had one once. It must be there somewhere!

Then I am doing some ironing.

I have to get organized for decorator this week which means getting as much clutter cleared from dining room as possible. And main bedroom. That will be a challenge.

And I still haven't picked colours or wall paper!

Am feeling out of control as everywhere I look there is stuff to do and I am getting none of it done.

Ooh, wish I had seen this thread before. I have been on a massive Ebay blitz for a year because it's the only thing that motivates me to declutter properly. Sadly I regret one of the sales, may need to replace in next year after all! But most things I know it will be good to see back of.

We badly need carpets replaced & the only way we can get it done is to get a storage container, rather annoying! But I want to reduce what we have as much as possible first.

I have a target to donate to charity 2 baby books/month. I end up buying that many other books each month for the DC, anyway.

Other side is to try to reduce how much comes into the house, esp. at Christmas. I have moved in last year towards encouraging DC to have smaller gifts (expensive electronics & accessories).

We also have 2 birthdays before Xmas & one soon after, I'm hoping people will give cash. :)

Has everyone seen George Carlin's routine about "stuff"? :)

Hi All, This weekend was the start of my decluttering/organization... I managed to find a laundry basket full of toys I didn't think DD needed anymore (mostly unloved toys, some really tatty ones or total "baby" toys), only to have her reclaim about half! I also bought a magazine holder to contain her magazines previous storage method being "small, messy mountain in lounge"

How do others go through toddler toys? Do you give your child a chance to reclaim things you think she's outgrown? How do you decide which of the 100s of wee figures/cars/plastic tat from magazines/happy meals stay and which get moved on?! Ditto books- we have some that she's not looked at at all/hardly ever- should these go?

blondieminx do you think we could dump donate perfectly good/useable baby items there as well? e.g. pushchairs, playpens, etc? Part of me would be keen to resell these, but another part is too lazy, and a donation where it's going to someone rather than being sold on like a charity shop will do would be a nice compromise...

MrsFuzzy what's your list of things to declutter/organize for Christmas?

Personnely I throw magazines and their tat away every month or so. I don't keep them.

I also go through dc toys/books when their not around so I can throw stuff out.
But then I'm only getting rid of stuff I know that they haven't touched/look at and won't miss.

If you let them reclaim stuff then it never going to leave the house.

Have you tried your HV they may know of people who need baby stuff. Or you could try 'womens aid' for baby bits/clothes. I can't be bothered with Ebaying stuff as I think you just end up with bits and pieces which you are going to sell but never get round to it. So for me It's either bin, charity shop or DC school/nursery.

I love the name clutter slut

I have called the Womans Refuge and they are happy to take my toys and clothes. The lady mentioned that they have a pg lady there at the moment so I am going to really sort through my things and see what I can pass on. It has really made me think about the woman who need the refuges.

I know what you mean about feeling out of control Buda. Everywhere I look there is something else to do ......

Most Woman Aid refuges take baby equipment muddypuddles, google Womans Aid and your local town and you will find a contact number and/or email adrress. You can then ask them if they would like the bigger things.

I clear bits of tat when the kids aren't about, that way I don't get 'where has that been? It's my favourite toy ever'. I do it and they don't get a say in it , but then mine are younger.

I have'nt read all 12 pages of posts but if anyone needs some help with decluttering ( when the aim seems to be getting in order by Christmas ) I run my own decluttering business if anyone would like some help.

Achievements so far:

Decluttered cupboard under the stairs (stuff taken to dump/charity shop)
Decluttered bathroom cupboard (work in progress) (stuff taken to dump/charity)
Posted boxful of baby/toddler clothes to Afghan Women's charity for shipment to Kabul (freezing camps, babies died last winter)
Boxed up clutter from kitchen ready to sort out
Hid breadmaker in cupboard (does this count as decluttering? )

The more I do, the more I want to do. I just want all the clutter out of the house, so we can get on with our lives.