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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

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949 replies

educatingarti · 02/06/2013 15:47

This is the new minimalist/decluttering thread! I hope everyone likes the minimal title!

OP posts:
MinimalistMommi · 13/08/2013 15:10

Bother! Just decluttered one of my four Denby mugs by mistake, one of four in entire house by dropping it on floor and it just smashed everywhere Angry

Now we will be short with PIL come visiting Angry

educatingarti · 13/08/2013 16:26

SadMM
I always break my favourite mugs rather than the ones I don't like as much! Can you replace it?

I want to know how to declutter my brain! apart from not coming on MN that is!

OP posts:
JimmyCorkhill · 13/08/2013 19:35

Hi all Smile. I have been reading these threads for inspiration - I even posted way back at the start!

Since these threads began I have had my DD2 and she's now 5 months old! Even though a lot of baby stuff is now out and about, once it has served its purpose it is gone! The Moses basket, tons of clothes, maternity clothes...all down the chazzer (love that word!). I had a little pang of sadness when I dropped off some stuff and saw some of my baby items on the rail, but I have kept the very first outfits and know that's enough. It really struck a chord with me when someone posted about passing on a lot of 'stuff' to our DCs when they haven't asked for it and then they have to deal with it.

My DP is 90% on board with minimalism. I was really impressed when he collected 6 cardboard boxes of books/CDs/DVDs that had been stored in his mum's loft (when he moved from a house into my tiny flat years ago). He sat down and sorted through them all, getting rid of 3/4 straight away. The rest fit perfectly onto our shelf unit due to the decluttering we had already done! I can't convince him to use the wallet file thingies though but one step at a time Grin.

Our problem area is our bedroom. Our downstairs is practically completely open plan and our DD1 likes to invite any visitors to her room so the only place to hide things (!) is in our room. We've lived in this house for 2 and a half years and our room has basically been a glorified store room. My next mission is to have a room which is a sanctuary.

Anyhoo, just wanted to delurk and say keep up the good work everyone, you are definitely inspiring me Flowers.

MrsPennyapple · 13/08/2013 19:44

Hello everyone! Not been online much the last few days, due to FINALLY HAVING MY BABY! I had a little boy on Thursday, it was a very quick and easy labour, and was home Friday lunchtime. He's lovely, all the family are smitten with him.

I'm now in a position to get rid of all DD's outgrown clothes, I can't wait to get started decluttering them!

educatingarti · 13/08/2013 20:16

Welcome Jimmy and well done with everything you've achieved so far. Congratulations on the arrival of DD2!

Congratulations MrsP on the arrival of DS

Flowers to you both!

OP posts:
iWillDoItInAMinute · 13/08/2013 20:32

Congratulations MrsP on the safe arrival of miniP how exciting !!! FlowersBrew

Glad you are both doing so well!

brightermornings · 13/08/2013 21:09

Congrats MrsP!

No decluttering for me I'm back at work and it's hectic to say the least!
I will be getting rid of some mugs tomorrow co as the advert says every little helps!

starfishmummy · 13/08/2013 21:16

Just checking in. No de cluttering to speak of here due to it being the school holidays so I am plotting and planning for sept !!

I plan to sort out ds's clothes. There literally isnt enough room to put them all away and he has had a growth spurt so I hope to get rid of most of them in order to start again!!

hobnob57 · 13/08/2013 22:04

Flowers all round!

Sokmonsta · 14/08/2013 04:54

Morning! School holidays still buggering up a decent de-cluttering. However I'm now officially a sahm! Work have dismissed decluttered me due to medical inefficiency.

Am now making proper plans to turn me into a domestic goddess when the dc return to school

iWillDoItInAMinute · 14/08/2013 07:49

Sok making the most of a bad situation Flowers

If you discover the secrets of domestic godessness (??) please let me know

I am going to de-clutter 2 DC to activity morning, hoping to get DC3 on board for a bit of toy culling...

MinimalistMommi · 14/08/2013 08:52

Congratulation MrsP! How wonderful!

MinimalistMommi · 14/08/2013 08:54

Sok congratulations on being SAHM! I'm sorry about your work Sad
I'm a SAHM too.

hobnob57 · 14/08/2013 13:59

The SAHM domestic goddess thing has eluded me this mat leave. Not even a spring clean this year. And now my 10mo crawls and climbs and escapes and generally can't have two eyes taken off him for 1 sec Life As We Know It is over.

I tried to declutter a light fitting for the en suite which has been cluttering the top of my chest of drawers for ages uncountable years and have had a two day epic trying to fit the thing. MIL to the rescue today, only to find that the sodding thing takes screw in bulbs. So now I have to go bulb shopping and I have a bayonet bulb to add to my already large collection of never ending never dying low energy bulbs. sigh.

ArtemisatBrauron · 14/08/2013 14:14

Flowers for miniP and for sok - I'd love to be a SAHM, sok, I hope it works out for you and money etc is ok.

We are just about getting sorted in the new house - our de-cluttering paid off, all our stuff fitted into the van plus a couple of sneaky car loads Grin and I've been unpacking for days, and am really noticing how much less there is now. A certain high street catalogue store seems to have stopped selling those case logic things for DVDS Shock just as I located the 2 lurking monster boxes and tried to order some cases.

I also noted some blind spots - too much linen/cushions/bedclothes still and I need to clear out another lot of clothes. They just about fit into the built in cupboard but it's totally stuffed and not nice to use.

Now we just have to de-clutter the mice that seem to be under the stairs... we have seen some droppings there, so traps go down tonight. Fingers crossed they are historical artefacts!

ArtemisatBrauron · 14/08/2013 14:15

humane traps, btw! Smile

harrietspy · 14/08/2013 14:47

artemis I don't have caselogic cases, I have these from Muji and they're great if you need more. I think Muji deliver but I've only ever bought them in store. www.muji.eu/pages/online.asp?Sec=14&Sub=58&PID=421

fuzzpig · 14/08/2013 15:19

YAY MrsP congratulations! :o

Hello Jimmy, glad you have delurked, this thread is fab. It's amazing you are already decluttering baby stuff - I was barely functioning when my two were babies let alone sorting out outgrown clothes! Blush

Glad you are settling into your new home Artemis, sounds like your hard work is really paying off and that you've hit the ground running rather than leaving stuff in boxes for years months like, erm, somebody I know I get the Caselogic things from amazon.

Sok, sorry to hear about your job. I was very close to having a medical dismissal whatsit too, I've only managed to work consistently since reducing my hours further and further, now at 12hrs (was 37... hard to believe how I was over the moon when I got a FT contract last year) although I still find I have very little life outside work. I think even if I recover in the near future I won't go FT.

I am in dire need of elephant repellant lately - I think now we've got rid of so much, it's harder to find heaps of stuff to throw away and therefore progress is slower. I've been feeling a bit melodramatic and woe is me about it and it all feels rather insurmountable.

That said, we had two different chazzer collection bags, one marked today and one for tomorrow, and I've managed to fill both with the books I'd put aside earlier and a few toys and random stuff, so not all bad I guess. I'm just getting impatient especially as the summer is disappearing ridiculously fast.

iWillDoItInAMinute · 14/08/2013 15:35

Artemis you were in my RL thoughts today as I unpacked a box from the loft -which hadn't seen the light of day for 6 years-

Glad the move/house is coming on well!!

iWillDoItInAMinute · 14/08/2013 15:37

Fuzz where has the summer gone?

We're on holiday next week and then 1 week until its back to school Sad

iamadoozermum · 14/08/2013 16:45

Artemis - you will be my inspiration when we move. I still have a box in my loft from when I moved in 1995 which hasn't been fully unpacked yet. My guess is that I don't really need the stuff in it!

Sorting through DC4s baby clothes today. She's 7 months but still in 3-6 month clothes so I'm decluttering her newborn and 0-3 things and trying to be strict with myself and not keep every little, tiny baby grow etc.

Also hoping to do a toy cull tonight - wish me luck on not being discovered (I feel like the anti-Santa) Grin.

Congrats MrsP and Jimmy on little people. I hope to all works out for you, Sok.

iamadoozermum · 14/08/2013 16:47

I will add that the 1995 box has moved house with me four times so far - I think of it as a member of the family now Blush.

MinimalistMommi · 14/08/2013 17:40

I did a fair amount if decluttering yesterday and our house felt so much better for it today. So much so, I've decided, onwards and upwards, more is going (even though there is not much left)

I would like to see how much we can live WITHOUT even though we have two children.

LoisEinhorn · 14/08/2013 18:29

House is just about tidy. Had someone come and take a selection of the boy's cars that they no longer play withe. Someone else wants to come and look too. Will soon be able to condense them into one box :)
Waiting for someone to come and look at our treadmill currently used as a clothes horse

MinimalistMommi · 14/08/2013 18:54

Just thought of an interesting to me question: 'what do I really need to live?'
Sorry for just writing random stuff! Blush