Anybody want to join me in a mega, whole house declutter?

[LilllyLovesLife]

I am desperate to have a clean and tidy home. It's always ruined my life and I always feel very lonely, partly because I can never have anybody over without a week or so notice to clean up! I am fed up of being like this and want to make a change for good. I know that the biggest step is to declutter, as it will make it so much easier to keep tidy.

I have delcuttered lots of times before, and I then end up filling it up again! I don't want to do this again! I want this to be the last time!!

Anybody up for joining me?

I have already done my girls room (They share a small double and it was always so full that they couldn't ever have space to play in it!). It is so much easier now, I finished it about a week ago but have actually kept it tidy!

I am now moving onto my Son's room. It's a TEENY box room with just a cotbed and one chest of drawers in, no spare space and I have an extra baby to fit in their soon as we are expecting again. Baby will sleep in our room for as long as possible but no idea where the baby's clothes etc will go! So iv culled his clothes and now have 2 spare drawers, and got an under bed drawer now which I can use although not really space to pull it out!

Anyway, would anybody like to join me in my mission? We could support each other and keep each other going? I have also strarted looking into flylady and hope to use some bits from there, but not follow it fully as I like to do my own thing a bit.

Right I had a day chilling yesterday and then went to bed at 7.30pm! Well needed though after several sleepless nights!

This morning iv got kids ready and older 2 to school, done one load of washing and hung it outside and now about to crack on with clearing and cleaning in the extention and cleaning the second fridge which is pretty minging. Hoping my lables will stick inside the fridge so then I can get the fridge organised too so we stop ending up with food getting lost and going mouldy! we can't afford to waste food and I hate cleaning it up!

I've finally labelled up the nct stuff too. Ran out of labels in the end too. Won't get much done now till Thursday as DH is working and DD1 is a whirlwind who wants to help (destroy) everything

Done a wash and hung it out
Made some flapjacks in between emptying dishwasher and tidying kitchen
Just had a cup of tea now i'm going to tackle the utility room and sort out the coat rack and shoe box then do my ironing and put some laundry away

Petalsandstars - when is your NCT sale? Iv got an extra 20 or so extra labels to use now as I got my unsold stuff from last time out of the loft and we want to keep some of that now that I am pregnant again so pinched the lables and will re use for some other stuff tonight.

Iv just loaded the dishwasher AND washed up the bits that didn't fit (totally unheard of for me!!). As I wanted to clean the kitchen while DS is sleeping. And iv done the first shelf of the big fridge (doing one shelf at a time so I don't have to empty it and can do it properly instead of rushing to get it back in.)

Just having 5 mins sit down while I prioritise the next thing to do.

My local one is Saturday, am aiming to get in early to see if I can pick up some pjs for my DD as my sister has my old baby clothes but DN hasn't grown out of them yet.

I hope I have priced to sell. I don't want to get lots back.

same here. I'm volunteering for the day so get access to the volunteer sale so get first dibs on anything. really going to have to be strong and try not to buy too much! I do have things I need though.

Iv been a very busy lady today iv gutted my living room. just cleaning and decluttering ready to put things back nicely. have also done the washing already and other bits and bobs. just hoping DS behaves while I get this finished as need it to be done before the school day finishes really. then plan to spend the evening listing more stuff for sale. got several bin bags of it piled up on the sofa so really need to get cracking with it!

I'm wondering if I need to do some car boot sales if this stuff hasn't sold soon. but hate them really! Going to try really hard to get sold on Facebook but then I guess I need to decide between ebay, a car boot and a charity shop. DDs birthday is next month which will no doubt bring in more crap :-/

I was looking in asda today eyeing up garden toys for DDs birthday - at least they stay outside

i've been trying to think of outdoor stuff we could get for her birthday but really can't think of anything! She is going to be 5. She already has a Playhouse, swing, slide, balls, swing-ball etc and between the kids they got an 8ft trampoline for Christmas, which hasn't gone up yet. Any ideas?! lol.

I finished putting the living room back together. Have moved stuff around and knackered my back. But it's all clean and tidy. Have still got a big Expedit unit to declutter but that's last on the list as it's only been here this year - already overfilled and cluttered though

I have the biggest mountain of stuff I intended to list for sale tonight. Still hoping to at least get it off to a good start, but got to pick DD1 up from beavers at 7.45 so by the time she goes to bed it's likely to be getting on for 8.30pm. And DH will be shouting at the TV as the footie is on - so maybe tempted to go to bed and hide! Lol. Will be dissapointed with myself if I don't get at least some of it done though!

Hi can I join in?

I / we've decluttered a lot lately especially toys but I really need to sort dd's room as she's getting her new bed in a few weeks and also the kitchen cupboards - they are jam packed.

The decluttering we've recently done has focused on playroom (garage conversion) , cupboard under stairs and living room. Oh and dining room. Now....just the rest of the house to do!

I'm out most of tomorrow and Thursday but am hoping to get back into it on Friday, I've 'fallen off the wagon' lately as we've had a 2 week stomach bug in the house.

Well done to you all.

Lilly
Re your dd what about an aquaplay set? My kids love them. Or a swingball?

BeaWheesht - what's aquaplay? Never heard of it? Is it like Aquadraw etc? She already has a swingball that she got for her birthday last year and has played with about once or twice!

Of course you can join us! The more the merrier! Iv got toddler group this afternoon and then got school run straight from that so need to fit as much into the morning as possible. Doing well so far though, have put dishwasher on and tidied up generally. Put rubbish out as it's bin day and had time to quickly run round the house collecting any additional rubbish/recycling that was hanging around. Felt good to be on top of things (ish!) before I even did the school run! Just having a sit down while DS eats his breakie then will put him up for a nap and get on with stuff. I didn't list my stuff for sale last night as my back was hurting so much and I was knackered so decided an early night would be more beneficial.
I did however get the kids new book storage up and filled it with their reading books. I LOVE it, so much better than on a normal bookshelf as now they can see/find the books so easily without making a mess.

So my plan for the morning is:
One load of laundry
Get myself and DS bathed before toddler group
Pack/Sort nappy bag
Empty dishwasher
Clean kitchen
Tidy living room
Hoover downstairs
Clear and declutter the downstairs hallway and stairs - it's embarrassing when I Have the front door open and somebody looks in!!!
After school:
Clean and declutter bathroom while girls are in the bath - get rid of anything that doesn't fit in the current storage!

After kids gone to bed:
List mountain of stuff for sale! No reason why I can't get it done tonight as no clubs on for the kids.

Then hopefully I will be able to get on with decluttering the next room tomorrow!!

Iv done my morning list and more! Except hoover as DS is still asleep from his morning nap! Hoping he wakes up soon as he needs lunch before toddler group at 12.40pm! And needs to get changed!

This is aquaplay

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B003MB2GMY/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?qid=1395233194&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX110_SY165

wow that does look good!! Although quite pricey. but will certainly be looking Into that.

decluttering wise I'm a good half way through my mountain of for sale stuff. And going to sort through the summer stuff from the loft when DS has his nap.

We have been to baby music class this morning. It's great that he had had fun but does mean iv got nothing done and it's messed up his sleep :-(

Well, small progress here. I listed some items on the free ads section of my local paper. Only managed to sell one item so far. (Paper was printed yesterday.) Fingers crossed some more things go...

I have also been inspired to register as a seller at the next NCT sale (5th April.) Just waiting for my labels to come. I've been in the loft to check what I've got to shift. Scary stuff! I've also printed off some posters to promote the sale as I want to make sure there are plenty of buyers.

I've got a growing bag of old (unsaleable) clothes for the cash to clothes place too. I'll wait until it builds to a reasonable amount and then get OH to cash it in. (It only fetches pennies but at least it is something and the stuff is getting recycled.)

Well done. Can you list stuff on your local facebook selling groups? £20 worth of clothes I listed today have already been reserved. I don't find many people use the papers for buying and selling nowadays, although I maybe wrong if you have sold something already. Or Netmums also have a Nearly new board on local groups.

Iv sorted through the summer stuff from the loft, got some more stuff to list for sale tonight and put the stuff we are keeping in the girls wardrobe. Not got as much done today thanks to baby music this morning meaning I missed out on the 2 hours that he would of slept for. But still achieved some stuff.

I have to go and pick the girls up from school now and then get DD1 to rainbows and then dinner so busy really till kids are in bed, then I will get back to the selling :-)

Well, I've just had a call about a different item so there must be people still reading the paper. (Although the caller decided it was too far to collect in the end.) I don't mind listing on there as it's quick, totally free and I don't have to bother with pictures. (I hate downloading pics!)

I'm not really a big user of Facebook. If I listed something on a sellers page would it show up on my feed and sent to my Facebook friends? Do people normally add photos of items for sale on Facebook?

I still occasionally list in the local paper. In the past couple of years I have made sales of large kids items to various Grandparents, and also sold schoolwear with the school logo on it. I think it is good for local pickup of large items and you can reach people that don't use Gumtree, Facebook etc..

I have joined our local "Facebay" group but haven't got round to listing stuff yet. People do add photos.

oh ok, fair enough. maybe I should be giving it a go then as iv got loads to shift. I hate talking on the phone though for some reason. I'm weird about phone calls, no idea why! Lol

as for Facebook selling. depends what type of group you use and it's privacy settings. I wouldn't ever use an "open" group as yes, then it would appear in news feeds and your friends will see it. But the groups I use are all either closed or secret. meaning nobody who isn't in the group can see it. and obviously the people in the group are in the same boat. There are thousands of members just in my very local area (there are also national groups but would rather sell locally and have items collected then be bothered with posting). so stuff sells pretty quickly if it's priced right.

Iv got 2 bundles of clothes being collected tomorrow so that's some more space gained

keep forgetting about NCT sale on Saturday. Hoping I'm feeling better as Iv been very sick this afternoon. Hoping it's just pregnancy sickness but I think it's actually my gallstones which often results in hospital admission but will avoid if at all possible.

Thanks Lilley. I've had a quick look and there are a few sellers groups on FB locally. Good tip about joining a closed group. I did wonder why there were some closed and some open. If my items don't go on the NCT sale, I might give it a go.

See, I don't mind phone calls but detest taking and uploading pictures of things which is why I don't like ebay (plus the fees of course.)

I don't mind uploading photos on Facebook as I take say 50 photos at a time, from my phone and have it set up to automatically upload to drop box, and then my laptop automatically downloads them so I don't have to faff about transferring them or anything. Then I have an album in each of the 4 selling groups and literally upload the whole lot at once and takes about 2 mins. but then have to add all the details obviously but find iv got it down to a fine art now! Lol. X

I will join!

My kitchen cupboards are jam packed with crap! And I need to do an all round clothes declutter as I have a cash for clothes collect booked in two weeks

I have been up since 5 am with DS and already have totally cleared my hallway, which is always a mess. Iv swept it and hoovered it, ready to be mopped when DS has his nap, which won't be till later than usual as he had a nap before the school run.

also had a bag of clothes collected already this morning, and another bag ready to go.

Iv done 2 loads oof washing that I'm about to hang out on the line. Then for a sit down with DS and have our late breakfast and then tidy up down here. Once that's all done I'm off to tackle the bombsite that I call my bedroom

I was up at 6

Aside from getting 3 dc fed and dressed, 2 school bags packed and doing the school run I haven't done a great deal but you have now motivated me to get off my bum so thank you!