Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

Decluttering question

6 replies

AngelDog · 21/07/2011 13:36

How do you declutter if you have a very low income & know that once you get rid of stuff you won't be able to buy an alternative in future?

We are a no-regular-income household (DH is a student and I'm a SAHM) and once DH is working again he will almost certainly be in a low-income job. We plan for me to stay SAHM'ing and then maybe home educate so I expect we'll be skint for years.

That's fine, and it doesn't bother me - but we have loads of stuff that we're not currently using but which I can see us using in the future. e.g. I have lots of PJs which I can't bf in but which will be fine to use when my 18 m.o. finally stops feeding (hopefully at some point in the next 10 years Grin. I feel very twitchy about chucking things since the likelihood is we won't be able to buy more.

We'd like to have more DC so all DS's stuff and anything suitable for children is being kept for them.

OP posts:
savoycabbage · 21/07/2011 13:43

I think that you have to look at the quality of your life NOW. If you and your family are living in clutter and/or chaos NOW just so you can keep some PJ's that you may or may not use in the future, then it's not worth it.

If your 18 month old does not have space to play now, today or a nice bedroom now just so you can keep things that you might or might not use later - then that is not the best thing for your baby.

I have got two girls and when we got out the baby clothes we kept from the first one we realized that they were in fact rags rather than clothes.

ragged · 21/07/2011 13:47

We are not on anything like a low income, and I wouldn't chuck all of the unused stuff either just because it's unused right now, I hate spending money unnecessarily!!

That said, friends in your situation (household income under 14k/annum) just do it anyway (barely keep anything they don't use) and mostly seem to manage, not mind spending again as long as it's expected yrs in future. The space is more important to them than the pennies for new clothes. Jumble sales & carboots are excellent places to pick up more clothes for a pittance, btw.

You could ask yourself if you really need that many PJs... are you likely to get so bored with them you won't wear them again anyway? And make sure it's a realistic expectation to wear again -- certain clothes styles will not come back into fashion in less than 20 yrs, for instance.

Oh, wait, I've got some 21yo plaid shirts I dug out recently because PLAID IS BACK. Blush

I loathe all my "stuff" but I loathe spending money even more :).

LemonDifficult · 21/07/2011 13:47

Wherever you can, don't chuck but sell on ebay. What you get for it you can spend for now or keep to rebuy when the time come around.

You're right about making the environment nice for now, SC. So much more important than keeping 'just-in-case' stuff.

Original poster
AngelDog · 21/07/2011 18:27

That's a good way of thinking about it - thanks. I can think of some stuff I'd be happy to get rid of on that basis.

You're right, ragged, I had the same problem even when we had two full-time salaries!

OP posts:
notcitrus · 21/07/2011 19:48

Or consider it a donation to charity (charity shops love clothes, Ebay tends to be lots of hassle unless you sell kids bundles of one size)

Seriously, does anyone need more than two pairs of PJs?

Fuzzled · 21/07/2011 20:50

Sucky bags are your friend here.
And labels/lists of what is in the bag.
Decluttering is good - but there is comes a point where you have to make the decision that things aren't clutter, they're just not in use atm.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page