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 need that rocket up the arse ! I failed to sort knicker drawer Mon and Tues so Wed brought it down to the front room where it would get in the way and have to be sorted (for decencys sake if nothing else!) It has found itself a snug space in the corner of the room where Dh is now piling crap on top of it ! Upped my hrs at work next week to six a day so not holding out much hope for anything getting done anytime soon ! Good luck this week everyone !

We're in the 'middle' of sorting when it is ten times worse than before you started

Yes!

Think of the end result!

Well we had no Internet yesterday which meant that DH and I tackled the walk-in wardrobe. I emptied baskets that had just been dumped there when we moved in last year. Two bags of clothes gone. Am going to take them to the clothes bin today. Summer stuff in storage boxes. Current stuff hanging nicely.

DH even got rid of a load of ties! He is a nightmare hoarder.

There is so much more space now. Def worth doing.

DH even put a couple of pictures up for me. Hoping to get a few more up today.

May need to disconnect the Internet to do so though! It is brilliant obv but such a time waster.

Ive done the drawer ! got excited and started to wonder if I can completely paint the house as I declutter. Oh dear

We got new bedside tables! They match and everything!

The old one that I had (bought for a fiver at a charity shop 7 years ago) has been moved into DD's room who is well chuffed at having a "cabinet", and DH's old "table" was a couple of boxes from when we moved in 4.5 years ago

In prep for this momentuous event, I cleared out mostly, there's an empty ice cream tub of junk that i couldn't face my old bedside table and the aisle between my side of the bed and the wall.

we will ignore the fact that only basic cleaning got done in the lounge, which HAD been this weekend's goal

Please may I join? I know I'm late but I'm not just starting out, I began a while ago. I think I actually saw this thread ages ago and it clicked something in my brain to start. I set myself the challenge of decluttering and decorating the house for a party in mid december.

So far I have:

Decorated the living room
Cleared out half of the cellar (took loads to the tip, will do the other half when dh has a day off)
Sorted out our DVDs, CDs and books and got rid of what we no longer wanted
Gave our bookcase to fil which he wanted for his greenhouse
Put all my cookery books on top of the kitchen cupboards
bought a lovely dresser in a charity shop and put the remaining books in the cupboards and displayed nice things on it, also made space in the utility and put the bread maker in a dresser cupboard
Bought two lovely wicker baskets to put sticks in for the fire that were just lying around
Got rid of the CD and DVD stand things
Decorated the dining room
Put up 3 floating ikea shelves in the utility room for storage. Bought loads of jars from ikea and filled them with flours, sugars etc and put them on the shelves. This cleared space in the cupboards and it looks nice.
Put another shelf up in the kitchen to get things off the small work surface
Got rid of loads of utensils/glasses/pots and pans I never use
Got rid of all the mismatching mugs and replaced with matching naice ones
Bought this worktop thing from ikea so we have more space to work and more storage space, and it matches our ikea kitchen perfectly
Painted the utility room and half the kitchen, still got 2 walls to do
Hung up all the pictures that were lying around for ages in the kitchen
Sorted out and got rid of loads of toiletries in the bathroom
Sorted out our underwear and pj drawers. Got rid of any that had holes/ were old etc
Painted our bedroom
And in-between I've made some bunting that's now up on the dresser

I think that's all I've done, probably will think of more though, I've been on a real mission. Still to do:

Today I'm decluttering the kitchen, so:
Sort out and tidy cleaning product cupboard
Sort and clean all cupboards
Clean out fridge and freezer (so full I can't even open 2 drawers and need the space for christmas food gifts I'm making)
Clean oven
Clean dishwasher
General deep clean
Sand and oil worktops
Paint remaining walls
---------
Then left to do is:
Paint bathroom
Sort out dh's wardrobe
Paint dh's wardrobe, our large chest of drawers and 2x bedside tables
Sort and tidy cupboard at the top of the stairs that's full of my craft stuff as you can't even shut the door
Sort out the spare room. I have 9 rails and 1 wardrobe whose rail is about to collapse, full of clothes I need to get rid of what I no longer want and actually hang up the clothes that are all over the floor
Sort out/get rid and tidy my shoe cupboard
General white paint touch ups around the house that need it
Borrow my mums steam cleaner and use it on the living room carpet
Clean tiles/grouting in bathroom that are looking a bit grubby
Buy and put chair covers on the dining room chairs and put new cushions on (gingham ones from ikea) Between me and the cat, we've ruined the chairs. He's scratched them to within an inch of life and I've covered them with multiple paints

Then I should be at the stage where I can get everywhere gleaming so:
Clean all windows
Give the wooden floors a good scrub
Etc. then I will have a hopefully perfect cottage for Christmas and the party

I might put some photos up on here when I'm done to spur me on. Already do have a little living room pic up though :)

Sorry for the massive post!

I can't wait to collapse with a baileys at 2pm Christmas eve

Now I've caught up with the rest of the thread, I should have motivation to go into the kitchen but I can't face it! Sigh. Off I go.

Wow Pratting! That is amazing. You have done loads.

Put the rest of us to shame. Prob because you got on and did it and we just posted about doing it, then got caught up in stuff on here and didn't actually do it. Or is that just me?

Right. Today I will:

Do a load of washing.
Clean kitchen.
Wash kitchen floor.
Nip into town and finally take clothes I am selling to dress agency.
Take the clothes we cleared on Saturday to clothes recycling bins.
Take DH's suit to dry cleaners
Xmas decluttering: airing cupboard - started it months ago but never actually finished it.
Finish sorting my desk.

No it's not just you Buda

You defo deserve a gold star pratting . at least one of us will deserve a Baileys on Xmas Eve!

Today I have cleared out 3 food cupboards. Thrown away one carrier bag full of odds and sods at the bottom of packets that I have never got round to using and are now a suspicious colour and I have put aside some tinned foods to take to the food bank that we are NEVER going to use. I have no idea why I bought them. So wasteful.

I will tackle the fridge next and clear out the countless number of jars with a spoonful of stuff left in the bottom. I am not looking forward to this job. I have my suspicions some of the jars will have blue fuzzy stuff in

21

That is the number of glass jars I have emptied from the fridge.

21

Some will be recycled. Others will be returned to the jam makers who donated them to us - which is how we managed to have so many jars. My dad got into jam making this year, but it was shite. It just tasted of sugar and not fruit, and he gave us loads of the stuff. I even tried it in cooking and it was shite.

Hehe thanks

To be fair, I don't work and have no children so I have loads of time.

I've cleaned out the two food cupboards that I was dreading doing. There's a bin bag full of rubbish.

Can't be bothered to do anymore today though. It's so miserable outside that I just want to wrap up on the sofa and do nothing

I won't though :( I'll have some lunch then paint the small wall in the kitchen. Then make dinner, and that's all I will do

AndIfATenTonTruck

Thanks for the advice. We spotted the joist stilts earlier in B&Q, where they have loft boards on a 3 for 2. There is a bulge in the bathroom ceiling where DH thinks there may be a broken joist. We need to have a look ASAP really, but I think I'll buy the boards now, whilst they're on offer.

I love your name BTW, we played it whilst we signed the marriage register

We've got a slight amount of work done here. Had a couple of freecycle collections, which make me want to freecycle a lot more. It's so little effort .

I only managed to clean out the fridge yesterday. I hate that job. Don't think I'll get to do much decluttering today.

Going to have a quick tidy downstairs then write some Christmas cards and wrap some presents. I'm waiting in for some parcels so I need to stay downstairs because if I'm not quick enough to the door they go really quick.

Once they arrive, I may have time to sort out dh's wardrobe, we'll see.

How's everyone else getting on?

ITS FINISHED!!!!!

Finally I have finished the dc's room - over 25 black bin liners of crap and rubbish taken to the skip, 8 bags of clothes to the charity shop and 2 boxes of stuff to go on ebay when I can be bothered Its looks wonderful!

Back to accounts today - VAT return due by the 19th and 4 tax returns to sort out for the accountant

Mind you my fridge needs cleaning out too - may use that as some light relief from the books

Still to do

Finish office,
Clear spare room (ebay stuff dumped in there at mo)
declutter bathroom upstairs (clean carpet)
Sort out my bedroom
Clear crap from kitchen sitting area.

Good luck to everyone - keep going - only another 6 weeks until the 2pm Baileys

Yay! Well done Who :)

Good work Whojamaflip! You have earned that Baileys already!

Pratting - writing cards and wrapping presents already? You are organised!

I still haven't done the airing cupboard or the desk.

I have done a couple of other bits that are on the list though so don't feel too bad. I need to get my head around my Xmas shopping so far. Think I have gone overboard on some nieces and nephews and nothing for others!

I love an organising blog called Iheartorganizing. It's by am American girl and is very inspiring. Anyway... She posted a link to another blog where someone had set up a nice box for storing wrapping bits and bobs when you are using them a lot and don't want to out them all away each time. I am going to get one going with my Xmas cards and stamps etc in too. Then I can leave it all out but it will be tidy.

I have all my wrapping stuff organised on a door courtesy of an idea I found on her site too. Picture is on my profile if anyone is interested.

I am having a day at home today and as well as washing, changing DS's bed, vacuuming downstairs and doing some ironing I WILL do the airing cupboard. I WILL.

Right. Off to get started.

whojamaflip - that is an impressive amount of black bags from your dc's bedroom

I'm going to have a look at those blogs Buda. Storage solutions defo keep me in line when it comes to keeping tidy.

DH andi have been working on the layout of our new kitchen and we worked out that we will have 50% more storage in there. Hurrah! That means nothing on the work surfaces apart from the kettle and toaster. All of the appliances will be integrated too. In my mind this all means less to clean I am such a lazy cow.

Anyhoo, that won't be happening until the new year. So I need to focus on the Decluttering. I need to sort through the last few kitchen cupboards and tidy the airing cupboard up. If I have any linen that can be disposed of I have found a home for it - the local messy play group would like them.

Onwards and upwards let's get to it clutter sluts

I don't know about the amount of black bags being impressive - I call it embarrassing Its the fact that the dcs have accumulated so much tat, crap and broken toys and that I haven't done anything about it up till now.

Iliketo - I thought that about my new kitchen. It's huge. And I have a utility room bigger than some people kitchens. It's still all constantly covered in crap!

Fuzz pig must still be ill. Hope she is ok.

Wow,whojamaflip, wish I could be that productive ! Cider, I love that door tidy - it appeals to my inner tidy person. I just have a drawer I chuck stuff in. I have made eight to do lists today. Fat chance of completing them as I normally work 20hrs, this week Im doing 30 and next week (for the first time in almost six yrs since dd arrived) im Doing 40, full time. I will try and sort chest of drawers on landing as I need Xmas cards and wrapping paper !

Wow everyone is doing amazingly!

We've managed to get a lot done today, as our landlords are visiting at the weekend - not for an inspection, but still. I was a bit worried we would just shove everything in cupboards but to some extent we have actually been sorting out as we go - got rid of 3 more binbags of rubbish, plenty of paper recycling, and about 6 bin bags to charity shop. Now about to tackle all our clean clothes which have been waiting a horrifically long time to be hung up.

Hi fuzzpig - are you better?

Well last couple of days have been productive in some ways and not so in others.

I DID get the airing cupboard done though! Finally.

I also cleared off a cupboard on the landing that has become a dumping ground. Need to put a lamp and picture frames etc on it so that we can't dump stuff on it.

Today was a bit of a shopping day! More clutter. I popped into town to pick up a book for DS and had a good mooch about. Bought some Xmas bits for DS. Then did Sainsburys and Home Sense.

Tomorrow and Saturday won't be productive either. Am off to hairdressers in morning and then going away overnight to see some friends.

On Sunday DH and I are tidying up around the front of the house and porch etc. We have a funny covered sort of porch area to one side of the house as well as the actual porch and the side on gets used as a dumping ground for recycling etc. I want to clear it all out and put a bench in it so that we can't do that and also so that when we are putting up outside lights etc we can make it look nice and xmassy also.

I'm a bit better thanks, at least the chest infection has cleared up! Still in pain but it looks like that's the status quo now. Seeing specialist next week and expecting to be officially diagnosed then (with ME), also seeing someone from adult social care to see if there's any way they can help.

We did get the clothes done! Our stuff last night, DCs' stuff this morning. That's the first time all clean clothes have been away for several months

I still need to go through them and try and get rid of a few more things (I did do some a couple of weeks back) - but I'm not doing that until after the landlords have been, as the bags would just clutter us up more (no car so can't take them to charity yet).

Can't believe this thread is halfway full! Go Clutter Sluts! Less than 40 days to go... :o

I know its very late..but please may i join??
i need a very big clearout of
Kitchen cupboards-all of them
clear out airing cupboard
sort out kids toys and clothes
empty drawers of crap under our bed
decorate hall,stairs and landing
sort out our wardrobe.