Declutter, declutter, DECLUTTER!

[SupersonicDave]

No more messing, my house is full of piles of stuff that I don't need, I am going to be ruthless (i really am!)

Does anyone want to join me? Anyone have any tips or advice?

Dd goes on hols with her dad in July for a week. I'll be studying for the most part, but def need to get a decluttering session in too!

I did my kitchen recently- had bin bag and a few boxes - keep, belongs in diff room, give away to specific person, sell and charity. I lifted every item (except large appliances, obv) and placed in one of the boxes. At the end, I put back about 60% of what I had orig had and there's nothing ive missed. I hope to do the same with my bedroom when dd is away.

I think a lot of my stuff is there cause thats where it's always been, so it's like I don't see it!

I try to do little bits often- when putting away clothes, I'll consider if the stuff at bottom of drawer (so not been worn recently) is worth keeping. When waiting for kettle to boil, I'll quickly look over any clutter on top of fridge (my kitchen clutter hotspot) and grab a few bits to put away or bin.

My craft room needs gutted- I've decided that being craft-y is not a good hobby for a hoarder like me cause I use it asan excuse to keep lots of bits of stuff. However, I'm arranging a craft evening with a few friends who are v creative and we will hopefully work through most of it and just leave a few bits for mindees to create with... Or just enjoy a room without 100 toilet roll tubes/egg boxes/ ribbons etc!

Good luck to everyone whichever method you choose!

I am pretty ruthless about getting rid of stuff, but when I have the dilemma moment, you know, will I keep it/wont I, I always think of the benefit to someone else, ie the use/pleasure that someone else will get from the item, for eg. with the kids toys, I think of some little boy or girl playing with the toys when they might not have much else - makes it much easier to part with things that way.

I've got to sort out DS room this weekend. Will you hold me hand because I think I may be attempting the impossible!

i found out 3 weeks ago that in 6 weeks(from then) me and my dp would be moviing our 2 3 bed houses into one 4 bed house! cue massive clear out, i threw out about 40 bin bags, 5 car trips to the tip, a van load to scrap man, bags for the cash for clothes people, and about 6 bags to charity shop! my house feels so empty is echos but wow i love that there is no crap anywhere.....love a clear out, shame i hadnt done it in like forever!

That's some good going dusty! I remember when me and DH moved in together we both seemed to bring all of our tat with us!
Now I've started de littering I'm finding it a lot easier. Def good when you can think of the help/ pleasure that things you no longer need might give others. Recently took a huge amount of second hand children's clothes we had been given which would no longer fit DD (or she had similar things so didn't need more iyswim ) to a local women's aid charity. Will be doing exactly the same with any other good quality toys/clothes we have.

But Beryl, what if you neither need it nor love it but your dear family can't part with the wretched stuff. Drives me up the wall!

And having seen Mary Portas on charity shops I am even more careful than I used to be about what I give them - but I hate putting stuff in landfill. Aargh!

I am careful about the stuff I take to charity shops, but the poster upthread is right about Freecycle - people will take anything.

I advertise pre-ruined clothes for playgroups/nursery and you would not believe how many responses I get. Anything with tears and paint splatters couldn't be sold in charity shops but people who are pissed off about their DC wrecking new outfits LOVE bags of worn-out clothes.

As far as decluttering goes, I find little and often does the trick. It came into your house one shopping bag at a time, and that's how it should go out. I do try to do one in, one out, too.

I never even thought about donating clothes to nursery! Will remember that. I gave them loads of old books (our main issue as mum is a librarian) as they didn't have many, and when I pick DD up sometimes I see the children all poring over them. I also gave her other Playgroup some old magnets to add to their big board.

Totally random things can be of great use to people - we have over 30 old CDs (mostly from previous OU courses) and were going to chuck them, but I asked the Playgroup and they are excited about having them because they use them for junk modelling and making Xmas decorations!

It's nice to give things to somewhere you know they'll be used, although I think I you're in a hurry to declutter (like my fellow Black Books fan dustycups :o) it's better to just cut your/their losses and get rid of stuff in the easiest way. I think to myself "are we going to donate/sell this obscure thing in the next month?" and if it's no, it goes. Same with craft stuff - mum gives us lots of little sets of photocopied templates from her library sessions but I've decided to clear out our collection.

Working in the charity shop has really speeded up our decluttering as I take stuff in each time I go!

You are all putting me to shame!

A friend has got some empty storage space in old outbuildings so I am going to empty pretty much everything out of the house, and just put back stuff I need. I can then sort stuff from there (without the kids 'help')

I have a table booked at an nct type sale soon, so helps to have somewhere I can organise and store it all, especially as I am trying to start decorating our room, but too much stuff is in there waiting to be sold.

ok ladies! today is big clearout day, im starting at the top of the house and will progress downwards thus ensuring all shit goes out of the door and isn't snuck upstairs when im not looking. my room loks like a clothes bomb has hit it, as does the kitchen so need to do a shed load of ironing tonight. will be back later to report.

huge black books fan fuzz, we r a rare breed!

This.afternoon I have:

Sorted out bottle steriliser, used bottles and unused bottles.
Sorted a box full of jars to be put away (posh jars for chutney etc)
Possibly found someone to take the Moses basket.

Oh and chucked out a load of magazines, some broken bits of toys and some more cardboard boxes.

your a freak bernard fuzzpig

How did you get on itshappenedagain ?

Just finished a big decluttering session - have three big boxes of nice stuff to go to church sale, and loads of stuff for the recycling plant / skip - will talk my dad into doing a few trips in his pick up truck this week. Also, two boxes of stuff Im going to try to sell...maybe. Ive put a date of October 31st on them - if not listed on ebay (or wherever) by then, they will all go to charity.

Ive created a list of "projects" that I can do while sitting in front of tv - like sorting photos into albums and frames, deciding what paperwork I really need and borrow a shredder to sort out the rest, going through the "bits and pieces" box to reunite game pieces with the rest of game..then work out if anything else is missing, sorting odd sock drawer..etc

Also need to go begging for some more big cardboard boxes....

Not going too badly here, a bit slow as DD is smothered in chicken pox and DSD is staying.

I like this thread, nice motivation. I woke up hideously early today and have loads I want to do (before going to work in aforementioned charity shop at 11) but I'll wake everyone up if I do, so I'm just planning in my head for now. Mostly involving laundry - problem with doing the proper 'deep' tidying is that all the day to day stuff gets neglected! It's a bit of a vicious circle.

I totally agree about the day to day stuff getting neglected when on a decluttering session. My kitchen is a tip this morning!

Feeling motivated though! I've just finished studying for the day, so about to go on treadmill for a half hour (my daily minimum) then showered, kitchen cleaned and then planning to sort my bedroom using the box method ( I think I described it above? Can't see on iPhone app) but basically by this evening everything in my room will be in a box.

My dd is unwell also, but thankfully not chickenpox ( bath with porridge oats is a great help for that btw) rather some weird bug that has no symptoms other than a v high fever. So basically she slept for 2 days solid...

Sorry to hear about poorly kids, lots of it about atm, i suppose because getting towards end of term.

Yes to rest of house getting neglected! I had a good sort out of bottles/steriliser stuff the other day, has made a lot of extra room in a cupboard, but there is still boxes of stuff all over the kitchen and i am behind with the laundry. DH had a good tidy of the dining room yesterday while the dcs and i were out.

Have got rid of loads of run out felt tips aand a big pack of floor underlay that has been sat on the landing for a year

My dad is coming over this afternoon, so hoping he will help me put up new mirror and stairgate.

Marking my place. Bloody local children's charity shop is shut ATM so large bag for them has been sitting in my hall for weeks.

Have slowly started to declutter. I have so much crap I don't even know where to start.....

I will be doing a bootsale (for the first time) within the next month so hopefully get rid of a lot of it that way better get sorting.....

Dad not coming today now, so I had a little nap while ds had his :o

In our local whsmiths they have got these cardboard drawer units half price which I want to get for all dd's art stuff, hopefully will mean an end to pens and paper all over the house.

I am 'aiming' to go through the toybox this evening while the dcs are in bed and chuck any crap.

Woohoo finally stuck a load of stuff on eBay last night! I see light at the end of the tunnel (and the back of the wardrobe!)

Ooh good stuff! I've finally signed up to eBay, only made my first ever purchase a few weeks ago. Selling on there seems like a real minefield, but we decided to do some stuff on there as we have a few collectible items. I think we won't end up bothering selling much else though. We will lose a bit of potential money by giving it away, but it's a balance between money and time - I'm sick of having stuff hanging round now and I just want space!!!

I had a fab day yesterday - hung up virtually all our clothes which had been shoved (clean!) in laundry baskets, sorted out bags of rubbish/recycling and got more stuff for the charity shop.

It's going to continue to be messy for another week though - for the boot fair on Sunday we are using the Ikea Trofast buckets to display babyclothes in, so they are all packed up with stuff and the DCs non-hangable clothes (jammies mostly) are all in a basket until Sunday. I'm using some big Really Useful Storage boxes (hurrah for Hobbycraft sale!) for some clothes now, and after the boot fair they'll be used for games/puzzles etc.

We are really hoping to finally clear DD's room more and build DS's bed so he can leave our room (he's nearly 2!) and we can actually access the whole of our enormous built-in wardrobe again :o

good lord this task is never ending! have sorted the lounge, half of my bedroom...ehich for somereason becomes a dumping ground, especially for toys, but only have nine boxes to open now from the many thousand amount i started with. had 77 boxes of kitchen stuff alone. i have an hour before i have to go and do the nursery school run so am determined to do the hall. on the plus side i can see more of my lovely carpet and have found my nice bedding i bought for my new room!

how is everyone else getting on?