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?

I've got one car seat for each age group, and even though I don't own a car, occasionally we go out with other childminders and I need one. The question is, do I use them enough to jusitfy keeping them? And is there such a thing as a car seat that fits all ages? I think I need to do some research. If I could sell all my seats and buy one new one that fits all, I could save some space.

I sorted out DS's clothes today. I've got a basket full to go on ebay, and a black bag full that I would like to car boot, but might have to go to charity. Done the same with my clothes, just need to convince DH to sort out his...

Am thinking one of these www.mothercare.com/Britax-Evolva-1-2-3-Plus-Seat/dp/B004L4BDP2?ie=UTF8&ref=sr_1_2&nodeId=44453031&sr=1-2&qid=1311528037&pf_rd_r=0FCMQQSJDVW70HNKC3Q9&pf_rd_m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=44453031&pf_rd_p=231490867&pf_rd_s=related-tab-3-5

Have started decluttering this morning. I have let my house get in a bad state :( I had just given up but now I'm determined to sort my shithole out kids are being really helpful and they have filled a few black sacks of toys that they want to go to charity shop/bootsale.

It's going to take me a couple of weeks to sort out but I'm a woman on a mission

I've left my house in such a mess and gone away for a few days .

I did a carboot sale yesterday and made £35 but didn't get rid of anywhere near as much stuff as last time. It's all progress in the fight against clutter though!!

Littlepurpleprincess - I did quite a bit of research before choosing my carseat and looked at the evolva but decided against it as the back isn't detachable and I wanted that option for older mindees. I bought a mamas and papas one but can't remember the model. It has a 5 point harness and takes a baby from 9kg. At 18kg the harness comes off and it can be used as a high backed booster with normal seat belt then the back can be removed and just the base used as a booster seat. I looked at quite a few and they varied quite a lot in price. The m&p was in the middle of the price range but the quality is excellent and it looks very comfy. The only slight downside to this type of chair is that it doesn't recline but I'm not in the car long enough for mindees to sleep so it's not really an issue and the positives far outweigh this slight negative. If you'd like any more info I'd be happy to bore you share my findings!

Ds is going away next week and I've got the week off work so am planning to get my house in order. I'd need to do about 100 bootsales to properly get on top of the clutter so maybe I should find other ways to try and get rid of it all sooner.

Hello.

I did 15mins (timer) in the sitting room yesterday. Chucked out a large argos sized bag full of rubbish, very pleased with myself x

Thanks for the tip Mogs.

I am hopping to do a car boot sale this sunday. My step dad said we can borrow his landrover and fill it up! Anything that doesn't sell will go to charity first thing monday morning. The down side to all this is that I now have 5 days to sort our ALL the clutter in my house so that we're ready. GULP!

thanks for the reminder about the 15 mins timer. It works so well, I don't know why I don't use it more often....

Hello all

Isn't that funny that we're all looking at car seats around the same time?! Need to make an appt at our local store to have our next one fitted. Bit complicated with my car it would seem.

Take my hat off to you lot doing boot-fairs. I really want to do one but I feel kind of- nervous, I reckon I'd end up selling everything for 5p! What did u find Sold well & didn't sell well?

Decluttering has been a bit on hold with DD being unwell, she's now made a recovery (woohoo!) but I've got a cold-boo!

How are my fellow clutter bugs? Or has this thread gawn n' died?!

I'm here! Doing a little at a time. I have started trying to follow flylady and one of her things is to grab a rubbish bag and chuck 27 things. Don't know why 27 but that is still less things in my house!

We are going to IKEA next week to get a ceiling height bookcase for our room, some more trofast for our sitting room, and a couple of other bits and bobs so will go through the toyboxes next week (big job) but needed as we have ds's first birthday coming up.

I'm still here too! I got an unexpected day off so this morning I'm going to whizz round the house and get as much sorted as possible, then this afternoon I will do something with DS.

Right, this is my moment to sort out the mess! I have 3 days at home with no children or distractions. I have a list of what needs to be done and I really hope I can get lots of it completed.

Re boot sale - I found the things that sold were bric-a-brac type things. Only one person looked at the children's books I had but I didn't actually sell any. At the first sale I did, I sold lots of toiletries - they were unused ones that had been hanging around my bathroom for a very long time.

I'm hoping to get a couple of boxes filled ready for the next boot sale next month.

Hello, glad to see this is still going a bit.

Yesterday I chucked two carrier bags of junk from my bedroom, and a load of broken pens/pencils/crayons (again) from dds play corner.

Tomorrow is IKEA day (hooray!) I love IKEA

my house has about 2 housefuls in (as in double or triple or just millions more of things that I need)

and my loft has another houseful of stuff right down to saucepans, clocks, bedding, towels, clothes

feels good to admit it

I dont know where to start

help

I am very good at organising other people :o

Get a bin bag and 2 boxes, as described above - bin, give away, keep(put away)

Set a timer, 5mins to start with, go through one room/pile/corner (depending how bad) and split the stuff into the three.

Just do 5 mins at a time to start, 5 mins is nothing, the time spent making a cup of tea, or getting dressed.

When your bags/boxes are full, take the bin stuff straight out, put the give away stuff somewhere like your car (so it is out of the house) and put the other stuff away.

Something that is said on flylady which I have to repeat to myself a lot is "your house did not get this way over night, it will not get better overnight, change it one babystep at a time"

Hth :)

thanks deladus

still seems ever so scary

and how do you choose what to give away when at least 5 times more than you NEED, you still LIKE, WANT whatever

how do you choose

and if I get stuff out to sort, the kids fall on it and WANT it all over again

arrrrgggghhhhhhhhh

Well, I still struggle with this, but if it is broken, has bits missing, is neither beautiful or practical then it is chucked.

If you have not worn it, used it, opened it in a year then it can go. The best way to think of a lot of stuff is that if you charity shop it then someone could love that thing. This is good for outgrown toys, tell your children that these things will go to a little child who will love it so much and make them so happy. Also if there are birthdays coming up, say that there is no room for new toys, so some of the old stuff has to go.

Start with a 'hotspot' (a place where crap just gathers)

We get lots of charity bags here and I try to put at least one item (usually a book) in each one.
I also have what I call "The Dead T-Shirt Corner" in the airing cupboard where I put anything the kids have grown out of/are not wearing any more. Then when a clothing collection bag comes I just scoop up the whole lot, put it out and hey presto!
I've always been a hoarder but having the DCs has forced me to become a chucker-out. Otherwise we'd have no room for us and live on top of a heap of junk.
We do de-clutter and put stuff in the garage, then once a year we sort out the garage. By that time the kids have forgotten about the stuff and we whisk it away while they are in school to avoid tears.

dead t shirt corner lol

love it

yes whisk it away while they're at achool is a good idea
the littles one will be full time come the end of setember

so a gradual garage withdrawal till then is good

also lots of the stuff has negative emotions stuck to it ( the stuff n the loft anyhow) so maybe chucking it would be cathartic

how crazy is it to frame dd2s t shirts that no longer fit her
I'm only talking about two particular ones that her dad bought her from brazil?

she doesn't want to get rid of them

How about making them into cushions? Does that sound daft? :o

I used to have my own little business decluttering, homes, shops and offices.

I was ruthless and you could almost hear the building purr with happiness afterwards.

Soooooo satisfying.

hmmm cushions sounds less daft than framing them lol

seriuosly I will pay you
I will feed you, wine you, hugs you, rub your feet
name your price

Trin

But I am ruthless, Granny gets sent to Oxfam and I shred all your old love letters.