Getting rid of one thing a day decluttering challenge: Part 3: Are we nearly there yet?

[StealthNinjaMum]

For 2000 posts a group of messy mumsnetters have been chucking out, selling, recycling and cooking weird cakes.

Are we free of clutter yet? Sadly not.

Thankfully we're here to get support and be told off when we have a relapse and bring more clutter into the house, garages, sheds, gardens.

Newbies are welcome to join us, it's easy we literally just get rid of one thing a day and report back.

Previous thread here

Since the beginning of last week I have done quite well. Nowhere looks any better, but I know I am steadily getting rid of things. I cleaned the soles of the slippers I mended the previous weekend, and have chucked the ones I was wearing which had developed holes. I found my Mum's iron in its box under a pile of stuff in the Dining Room and tested it works, and it is now in the loft beside the other electrical items. (BTW I am not just hoarding this stuff that belonged to my Mum before she went into a nursing home, I am keeping it in case the teenager moves out in the next few years! It is all fairly new.) I have cleaned some more of Mum's kitchen stuff including a stainless steel frying pan that has been sitting beside the sink for months. That is now in a box for the local Charity that takes furniture and household goods. I am hoping to continue to fill the box this week and deliver it along with a shoe rack and plastic bin this coming weekend. I have also cleaned some jewellery and some silver plated items for my other charity box. Some were things I had been keeping to eBay but have decided just to donate them instead.

Grey it's not a money or time issue really. It will be done eventually, we don't really have a deadline of when it has to be completed. And the money will just be spent as it comes. We aren't saving or budgeting to have it done instantly. I'm just sick of having it half finished. I would like the living room completely done by the time it's Christmas as it would be a nicer day (well only for me as it wouldn't matter to the kids) however it would also be nice if the kids could take their toys up to their bedroom on Boxing Day and have somewhere to put them.

Purple the furniture isn't a problem, it can be moved by myself when and if needed. I do plan on decorating before I have the 'final-this-is-staying-because-it-all-matches' furniture delivered. I'm just desperate to have it all finished and I'm trying to figure out if I'll be happier with the downstairs of the house completely done with half functional bedrooms OR have the entire house functional and then go through room by room decorating and adding the new furniture/other homely things.

Buffy I have white walls everywhere (new build) so it will definitely be getting papered and painted over! Feel like I'm in a psychiatric unit

Sounds like the nice downstairs by Christmas would be a good option NaMa.

I sold three things today including a big bundle of nappies, so that's 32 items ready to leave the house tomorrow.

Do you get many visitors at Christmas Namajestsy? Or any time in fact? I would always focus on bits that people (i.e. guests) see first and then do the other bits. The rooms that our visitors use i.e. dining room, sitting room and hall were decorated first and are also the rooms I spend the most time tidying. I also decorated dds bedrooms and bought nice storage furniture as they have friends in there too whereas my bedroom and ensuite are awful.

It feels like I haven't been on the thread for a while but it's only two days. Yesterday I didn't declutter anything because I was doing lots of cleaning after inlaw visit on Sunday. Today I have put a pair of child's flip flops and a pair of child's sandals in the charity shop pile. I also sorted through my table cloth / napkin drawer to see if I liked everything still. I did so won't be throwing anything away.

Bagged up badges this evening for cubs on Thursday so 30+ badges will be leaving the house. Chest of drawers for bedroom will be collected tomorrow after work so I can build it and put away all the junk in my room finally!

Stealth nobody will be visiting for Christmas. I sometimes have people over but they don't give two shits about how my house looks. It's presentable and liveable but it's just very basic. It doesn't look homely or complete and it's driving me crazy. The kids and visitors really don't care, it's just me

Tossed out a pair of (now leaking) swim goggles & sold something on Ebay. 2 items into charity shop pile.

In that case namajesty I would just think about ease of moving furniture out to decorate and practical issues. I'm in the same boat of being the only one who cares about my house. It does look tired but things that will improve it - mainly new floors - are costly so I have decorated where I can and we have nice furniture - although some of that is more than 12 years old now so maybe I haven't noticed it being tired.

One old and somewhat knackered cycling glove was snuck out under DH's nose yesterday :D

Well, long story short, I'm back home. Heading back on Thursday/Friday instead.

I think a bit of decluttering will cheer me up. So I'll have a catch up on here and get cracking!

I’ve been a bit rubbish lately. Need to get back on track!

First things first, the sky box has less than 10% left. Panic inspired ! Reduced it up to 35% again.

Got rid of a bit of leftover wrapping paper wrapping DH's present.

I've just posted quite a few things for sale but I'm so cynical now, I'm thinking of putting them straight in the charity bag rather than waiting. I might give it a few hours.

My favourite, very elderly, John Lewis sheet has finally given up the ghost (get it?!). I've put it in my dustsheets sack in place of 3 others which are now in the rag bin.

Still haven't tackled those boxes...

Since giving up on the selling, I've heard from 2 buyers and have them booked in for collections!! See what happens when you let stuff go!! (Assuming they turn up of course.)

Ohhh Sand! That's be fab. Fingers crossed they come and get their stuff!

Sold the wardrobe! Just arranging collection. Not ended up doing much today. Feeling a bit shite. I'm decluttering my uterus after my auntie fitted my coil yesterday

Thanks, Carpet and well done on the wardrobe.

I've just got another buyer!!! I'm giving them all a free carrier bag too!

I have a chest of drawers in my bedroom!

A small amount of kitchen debris and cot mattress gone courtesy of some excellently kind refuse collectors. I was expecting to have to hire a car to take it to the local tip so that's a total bonus.

More Gumtree-ing and eBaying things done. Got DH to bring his stupid huge box into work. The pile is receding really well and we are closer than ever to being ready for Little Brother to arrive.

Yesterday I put another pair of child's socks in the charity shop pile. My children's footwear really seem to reproduce.

Today I have been going through dining room drawers again and have decided to throw out some of the napkins that I decided to keep on Tuesday. This was prompted by having inlaws over on Sunday. We have some lovely napkins sets and table cloths / runners but I realised we probably only use them a couple of times a year. I was going to throw some out, emptied the drawer and realised I liked them all. However today I decided to iron them as they were a bit crumpled. I have realised actually that about a dozen of them iron effortlessly and 8 are a pain in the arse to iron which is why I never use them. Anyway they're going to a charity shop with a matching table cloth that is also hard to iron. Life's too short for unnecessary ironing.

I have also emptied out the drawer with candles and it had some odd bits - like a box of plastic circular things (have no idea what they are) and a metal popper. They're in the bin.

Also I have an old Tesco bags for life (a thick jute one). The handle has broken. I'm wondering if Tesco will replace it or recycle it.

The wardrobe is GONNNEEEEE it's buggered off in a van and DH is looking incredibly sad.

@StealthNinjaMum - Well done, Stealth! Now, I'm just wondering (she said gently)... unless I've misunderstood... do we need to have a chat about the dozen table sets??

I still haven't done my boxes.

I was a bit vague @SandandSea. I owned about 20 napkins rather than table sets, 5 runners and 1 big table cloth. I am about to give away my single table cloth and about 8 napkins as I don't use them because they're hard to iron. So I'll only have 12 napkins and 5 runners.

This is kind of a procrastination effort as I have plenty of storage in my dining room and it fits well (stuff isn't crammed in furniture anymore) - although one drawer now looks really empty. I really need to be selling stuff or taking it to a charity shop or doing more paperwork. I also haven't updated my log of what I get rid of for about two weeks so I have got a bit complacent. I might aim to actually get rid of 100 items tomorrow or some really ambitious target. Or maybe 5 carrier bags of stuff? Does anyone want to challenge me for one day's decluttering?

Well done carpet there's nothing as satisfying as getting rid of something really big.

@StealthNinjaMum - Oh that makes more sense. I thought you were talking about whole sets.

It's nice when you start to have spaces in cupboards but I've found that there's an urge to fill them. I'm constantly having to monitor our kitchen cupboards - dp seems quite compulsive about filling them.

I love the challenge idea. How do you feel about filling 2 sacks?

Can I join? Took an impromptu trip to see some show houses last week and decided we need bifold doors our life. We're about a year away from affording it (self employed accounts are so annoying!) and majorly need to declutter and get the house ready to sell!

Started by cleaning out the kitchen junk drawer, and then the cupboard underneath and cupboard under the sink along with a quick sweep of the rest of the cupboards. Then listed some house plants and have someone coming for them tonight. Not bad considering I have two smalls at home with croup.

I'm a little concerned with the amount of beauty products that are hoarded like gold in my wardrobe. I'll save that for another day!

2 sacks! Hmm. Tricky one. I probably have about 3 or 4 sacks of stuff I intend to sell that I could get out of the house to a charity shop immediately. 2 new sacks from scratch would be hard.

Hmmm. Yes I'm going to do it. I am going to fill the car up today with the 'charity shop' pile, some of the 'for sale' pile and then I am going to create a whole new massive 2 sacks worth pile tomorrow! That's huge.