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?

I'm another who didn't get anything done yesterday or the day before. Ah well. It'd be nice to review what's needed, and to make a "how I want it to look" list.

Decided to have a "snow day" here yesterday and did NOTHING to do with clearing up - the dcs and I went for a really long walk in the morning, then spent the afternoon carving pumpkins. Had fish and chips for tea cos I couldn't be arsed cooking and the house looks like a bombsite [hgrin]

But a good time was had by all and thats priceless

Anyway on to today and the plan is to re-boot the kitchen and scrub the pumpkin bits off the floor and cupboards, then do another couple of hours in the dcs room, before I have to take the dcs to a halloween party

Hope everyone has a productive day.......

DD's clothes done

I am actually quite enjoying this

Done nothing for ages as had loads of paid work on, plus half term. Determined to do some today. Took a few baby toys to argos and got a 5 pound voucher for my troubles which then came off a present for christmas. Didn't seem any records/ limit so I'm guessing you could do a few trips. Feel as if I should try to sieze the momentum, but don't know where to start again. Kitchen cupboards still tidy!

Just reading through this fab thread.

Just me and DS in a small 2 bed and thankfully our bedrooms both have BIG built in wardrobes which are fab for storage. I'm quite minimal but DS is a hoarder in the making, and because of his special needs he still plays with a lot of the toys that an NT child would have grown out of by now, and is hugely attached to it all. If anyone has any tips that'd be great. His room looks okay but come Christmas there will be not on jot of space to put his new stuff so I need a plan of action.

Someone mentioned their kids wanting to spend the carboot money on new stuff. If I ever sell anything on we have a rule that we DO something nice, rather than buy something nice. Less consumerism and hoarding, more nice experiences. I use it for something I normally put off due to the price like bowling or softplay.

Happy Halloween, Clutter Sluts! [hgrin]

I am still down with the inevitable chest infection [hangry] but hopefully am over the worst due to begging doctor for antibiotics very early. Signed off for another week as due to underlying health issues I mustn't push myself too early.

Anyway - we have the window people coming tomorrow, we are massively unprepared and it'll be so embarrassing letting them see our room and the kitchen [hblush] but I'm really looking forward to finally having a warmer drier house!

Not done much else at all except send a few more bits to the dump, and have emptied a couple of cupboards in the kitchen and one in the living room ready for reorganising. Deliberately not doing anything other than trying to move furniture away from the windows today, and possibly putting away all the clean clothes that've been on the stairs for weeks [hblush] so the window men don't trip over!

I bought two items off eBay this evening... The iPad app is just too easy to use!! Not for me though and not clutter - a gilet and set of plain t-shirts for the boy.

Looking at writing desks and dining tables too. Only allowed to buy when we have vacated some space though. So for now I am doing that annoying (to sellers!) thing of watching lots of items to find out what they go for.

I got as far as opening drawers and then settling down with cup of tea and biccies. Tomorrow is another day [hgrin]

I felt bad about the ebay buying, so I sorted through three boxes in the spare room, making two into car boot sales and one for the rubbish. Very small number of things are allowed to stay but will be kept in a 'memorabilia zone'. i.e. the loft. I could be doing car boot earlier than expected...

yourhandinmine does he remember it all, or is he just attached when he sees it? If it's just that he's attached when he sees it, box up the least-played with things or the back-most layer IYSWIM and have it sit in your room/boot/whatever for as long as it might take for him to notice that something's missing. Then if he doesn't indicate that he thinks that something's gone, the box can go out the door. This won't work if he knows EXACTLY what he's got, of course.

I guess my main tip would be to buy what you have space for- if he hasn't had it yet, he won't be attached. Make up the filler with nice fun clothes and books for him to get attached to.

I am, of course, talking out of my arse about this, as i've only experience with NT children... maybe the folks on the Special Needs forum will have experience with decluttering around the children. I just didn't want to leave your question unanswered.

I'm still very cluttered, very sluttish here :(

Well, I did nothing yesterday as we went out for DS's birthday. We only got up an hour ago so when I finally have enough caffeine in my body I will get cracking on some kitchen cupboards.

Have fun de-cluttering all!!

MrsMuddyPuddles not talking out of your arse at all! I appreciate any advice.

Unfortunately his long term memory is extremely good. (It' his short term memory thats shocking!) As an example before I realised this I cleared some toys out when he has about 2.5 years and he still remembers and gets upset about them and he's 8 now!

I did earlier in the year do as you suggested and clear some stuff out of his room. He didn't notice after 2 months so I car booted it in the summer and we did something nice with the money. However he is now down to much loved toys. Which would be fine if there weren't so many of them! He still loves the Thomas trains and tracks he's had 6 years, the planet protectors, the Wall-e toys, the toy cars, etc. He plays with everything and enjoys them.

I was thinking I might make each group of toys a little smaller if I can, kind of pare them down.

This thread is very inspiring! I may try to pare stuff down and ebay I think!

Would getting him to pick toys to sell to go somewhere he'd like to visit work? Or would he just not get that at all? SO, like "we need to sell 1 Thomas, 1 Wall-e, etc so we can go do X"...?

Otherwise, just give him experiences for Christmas, maybe? So he'll open a box and in it's a ticket to the Train Museum or whatever he's interested in. If he is happy with what he has he has a rare gift that should be treasured and encouraged then why add to it?

Aaaaargh the window people have postponed AGAIN! Possibly a good thing as we weren't all that prepared and it meant I could stay in my jammies but annoying too as I would like a warm house.

Parents took the DCs out for a bit (a very rare treat) and we are trying to get the odd bit done, DH is clearing out the hellish load of shite under our bed.

Does de-cluttering the garden count?!

Garden has to count ! I did ours a month ago, see I did something

Been in the New Forest today and took the dcs to the beach - much better than decluttering not trying to avoid oh no

In my defense it IS half term so I am playing spending time with the dcs - and I will get cracking next week when they go back

Morning alll hope you're all well and not too cold! today I will......declutter my knicker drawer as I cant find anything

Bugger all done chez tipsy due to work and ending up doing a flying visit to Scotland as MIL has been poorly.

Have been thinking about my kitchen though and how I would like to organise it. Hope to get a bit of time this week. In fact I think I'll do bits in here in the evening. DH has a long commute so he's never home till half eight. If the DD's are in bed at half seven I should have an hour to whizz round.

ShipsCat I could do cluttersluts badges! I have a badge machine at home. I make fabric badges as a little extra to put in my Christmas orders. My busiest time of year is oct/nov/dec so I think my decluttering will have to be little bursts.

Doing my workroom first though has made such a difference especially for packing orders and I'm not tripping over the DD's bikes and scooters all the time.

I'm off to have a fry up now cooked by my lovely Auntie. Her house is really homely but calm and clutter free. It's gorgeous but then her DC's are grown up and have left ome so there's no toy mountain to battle through.

Hope you feel better soon Fuzzpig

Actually managed a fair bit yesterday (well a fair bit for us), going to try and do more today. We just have so much crap! I'm almost tempted to just chuck our entire house in the bin

I'm waiting for DS to go back to school on Monday and then I'm going to pull out loads of toys and list them on ebay. Am already making a mental list of things that should sell, and have checked some completed listings too. If I can clear a few toy boxes/drawers that would really help with his bedroom. My room and the living room aren't too bad.

I do currently have a huge tardis tent in the living room but it kind of works!

I don't have a lot of kitchen clutter but seem to have collected a huge amount of kids cups, beakers, bottles, plates, bowls, etc. As I only have one child it's a bit odd!

Ive been reading this thread on and off for weeks now and it really inspired me to get off my bum and clear some stuff, have done lots of e-baying, bagging stuff up for charity, giving bits away and been sorting shelves and cupboards.
Its suprising how good it feels knowing that certain things are done, i never realised how much leaving things dragged my mood down. De-cluttering my house is really helping de-clutter my brain!
I also have to agree with making lists, im a bit obsessive with it though and like to make lists for everything.
Good luck ladies.

I've convinced DH to do a car boot with me tomorrow morning!! He was totally against the idea a while back, so I thought I would have to do it alone, but he said he has noticed and appreciated the decluttering efforts and is therefore happy to join in the boot-ing. I suspect he is a little scared of going there and finding lots of tempting tat on other people's stalls, which would be his parents' genes shining through...

ps tis Lexi here.

I've done the office! I now have a space I can work in AND space to leave my sewing machine out so I might finally get the blinds made before Christmas - I've been meaning to do them for the last 8 years

Tomorrow I'm planning a huge cook up so that the meals are made for the week, as well as biscuits and cakes for a charity thing on Thursday.

kids room will be done on Monday I swear

I've seen this thread pop up in Active Convos a few times and it's spurred me on!

Today I had a good sort out in the DCs room (3 & 6 yrs). Cleared out some rubbish and weeded out a few toys. Have also been clearing the top of the kitchen cupboards - for some reason we've been storing a broken bubble machine and an assortment of mystery bolts up there for abt 3 yrs...