Getting rid of one thing a day decluttering challenge: Part 4

[StealthNinjaMum]

And the decluttering continues…

For 3,000 posts we have been slowly transforming our homes from hovels to palaces.

We’re not quite there yet some of us are further than others but we won’t give up until we have a decluttered existence.

We just get rid of one thing a day and report back to showoff for support and to be told off when we’re naughty and bring more clutter back into our homes, gardens, sheds, garages.

As ever newbies are welcome to join us.

Previous thread here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3243987-Getting-rid-of-one-thing-a-day-decluttering-challenge-Part-3-Are-we-nearly-there-yet?msgid=79207142

@grumpypug I'm having a stand off with Father's Day cards. They are still up. It's killing me.

Grumpy pug good luck with the stand off do not give in!! Even though the bottle would annoy me sooooo much id have to leave it.
Shame u cant fill it with silly string as a nice suprise.....

Stay strong grumpypug! 💪🏽
Had friends/visitors all day and evening so no time to myself to do anything today. They left about 10pm (finally! Don't let the door hit your arse on the way out!) so I've just sorted some old work stuff that was bugging me using space in a drawer and put a wee pile ready for shredding tomorrow (I'll wake up DS if I do it now) but that's all. Oh and I tidied my "tops" drawer this morning as I was getting dressed, none going out so far but now all rolled and stacked vertically so they are easier to see and maybe I'll decide to get rid of a few I don't use so much when I can see them better!

May have managed to declutter the last slice of the red velvet cake just now to make up for dealing with people all day

I've decluttered the coat cupboard today - got rid of a few old winter coats that DS has outgrown. Sorted the shoes and now everything has a place. I've impressed myself

Also given the air fryer a good clean. The metal trays were horrendous but they're sparkly clean now.

DHs empty bottle is still there....

Keep updating us grumpypug, who will bend first?

or you could just have a conversation with him

Have had some progress with dd1 this morning. There are lots of little flies on her window ledge and she's scared of them. I think they're harmless. I had a conversation about how I wouldn't get rid of them unless we attempted to clear the window ledge which is full of dust. So far we have got rid of 3 dogs she made from a craft kit and a bit of lego marketing. She had some crappy bits of material that she treasures and I have told her to put them in a drawer or I will put them in the bin. It is such slow progress.

It is about 2 weeks since I last checked in properly. That weekend we moved a large item from the back sitting room upstairs. That involved temporarily clearing lots of stuff from the stairs and the landing so it could be manoeuvered into one of the bedrooms. I discarded a few items then, and also found some bits for a larger item I need to sort out and sell. The rest of the stuff just went back again, but slightly tidier!

We have just had storage delivered which will fill the new space in the back room. Once it has been built, that should house a lot of the "animal stuff" which is currently in the kitchen. I should regain 2 shelves of the larder cupboard and a chunk of work surface.

I took the day off work yesterday. In the morning I did some much-needed ironing as it was cooler, then some gardening in the afternoon. I filled the garden waste bin and 2 large garden bags destined for the recycling site.

In the evening I had a quick look through a kitchen cupboard and ditched some well out-of-date stuff into 2 of the compostable food waste bags for the garden/food bin. I got rid of flour, stock cubes, gravy granules, cake decorations and microwave rice. The oldest item was BBE Oct 2008! There was also a half-brick of ready-to-roll icing from 2014!

Our landfill bin went out today as well as the garden/food one, so even though my binbag from the landing was only about a third full I just got rid of it.

I really need to get back on the selling wagon. I have some larger items to go, that will make a big difference to the available space upstairs.

It's raining so having a day in. How much can I declutter and list for sale on eBay today?! Who wants to set me a target?? 😁

Nocuts I have never sold on eBay so don't know how long it takes. So I am going to say 15 items on eBay!

I am reading a book! The hundred year old man who climbed out of a window and disappeared has been on my dressing table for about five years. I have taken dds to soft play. I was about half way through the book so I'm hoping to finish it and donate it!

I can typically do about 4 listings/hour on Ebay (am slow). Maybe 6/hour if I really concentrate. Takes a while to get good pictures & I rarely sell loads of identical stuff so keep changing category & types of info to include. Plus time to research what a good BIN price could be.

My hoarding self not happy. It was painful taking picture frames (maybe 12?, and at least 6 more to get ready) to charity shop today. I'm being very silly b/c the frames have sat gathering dust in my laundry room for YEARS. But some are nice quality wood. Not nice enough to sell, but good quality. Oh well, release to the ether so can benefit someone else, right!? I got rid of a carboot full of things & brought home about a carboot full of other stuff (all food though, so will all disappear, too bad in so much packaging, mind).

I have been plodding along reading the thread and getting rid of one thing a day - mostly rubbish/recycling bits but I have 2/3 bags ready to go in the textile recycling and 3 bags in the boot of the car to be dropped off to the charity shop tomorrow. I have also just cleaned some toddler bits and will bag those up to go to the charity shop when dry. I have also temporarily decluttered one child and most of his clothes and the camping kit for the week - he is having a fantastic time on camp. I'm having a lovely time not having to referee between my DC and the noise in the house is reduced by 100%.

The big progress I've made is to start on clearing the spare room, in order to move DS2 in. It is currently about half-done in clearing out terms (and am procrastinating on here rather that getting on with it). I have found a few bits to sell (2 beautiful children's rugs and 6 pairs of shoes) which I am setting aside to list in September as I will be away before then. The project is turning slightly bigger than expected as DS2 wants a new bed which means taking out the very dated built in wardrobes which completely dominate the room and redecorating. The carpet needs to be replaced as well, but I want it to match the landing/other bedrooms and DH has vetoed just going back to the same carpet shop as he thought they were expensive and didn't do a great job with the fitting. So instead of being a simple task, I need to find another shop selling the same carpet. I agree to fitting wasn't the best, but the price was fair - it was an expensive carpet + VAT. There was a lot of offcut though from the stairs and landing.

I used to be really fast at eBay listings as I used to group similar items to sell so it was easy to reuse listing templates. I have just started selling on there again and now I'm very slow as the items are very different so I need to start from scratch each time. Also, I now find it a complete faff as I prefers to list via the website but I take photos on my phone and currently have no way of transferring them to the laptop so end up editing the listing several times to get the photos on. I might have to borrow DC1's camera so I can just lift the photos from the memory card directly onto the laptop.

Good progress whendoisleep, it'll be good when the bedroom is done although it does sound like a major project.

I didn't think I needed to come back but I read 50 pages of my book. Then I helped dd1 clear her window ledge. She had three very old jewellery boxes full of crap jewellery and she has probably got rid of 90% of the contents - either in the bin or the charity shop pile. I am hoping she sees the benefits of finding things. I am also on eBay looking for jewellery storage ideas as she never actually wears any of her jewellery because she can't see it.

I have completely run out of steam tonight after a difficult day at work including more driving than usual so my back is sore. So no major efforts from me.

Did use up a mini shower gel and finish a bottle of face serum this morning. Did the shredding I prepared last night. Threw out a very dead plant that was lurking on the windowsill. So I guess that's my one thing a day?

Am not at home this weekend but will follow thread to hopefully feel inspired for next week!

Good progress everyone, well done on the window ledge it will make a massive difference to the room having a clerer window space hopefully willl inspire dd to continue :)

I got rid of another bag of textile recycling yesterday. A black bag of throws and some clothes to family.

My hoarder problem for today is a broken tumble dryer... it used to live in my bedroom (long story kitchen layout didn’t work) but its broken now so after weeks of it jus sitting there i managed to get it downstairs where its now just sat im the front room. I bet if i just left it on the driveway the scrapmen that drive round would have it gone by midday.... but no iv been looking up does it have scrap value i coukd cash in.. should i turn the drum into a plant pot... should i keep the filter etc incase anyone I knows breaks. I could probably have it looked at to be fixed but will probably cost same as buying a new small one and i want a small one now i can easily pack away into storage cupboard as my room feels so much nicer without a giant appliance by the bed.... why is it so hard to just let go 😂🙈

betsy just get it gone! you will feel better I'm sure. It won't take up any space in your house OR mind - thinking of all those "what ifs" sounds exhausting compared to just gone and done!

stealth quite ironic that you should say that as the room is the smallest bedroom (about 2.5m x 2.5m). Once it is clear it should be very quick to redecorate, it is just DH making a fuss re the carpet had made it into a bigger project than necessary. I've picked the new furniture for it already, but I have decided to get it in stages so if it starts looking too crowded the plans can change.

Betsy I'm embracing the mantra of 'go with it and get it done'. I've had to get rid of two tumble driers in the last few years - on both occasions I just got rid, once via the council bulky waste collection and once via the electrical recycling offered when I bought a new dryer. If you buy a new one could the old one be collected at the same time for recycling?

Doing this! I read the crazy Japanese de cluttering book years ago and to be fair removed an awful lot of crap from my home. But this is great because it will hopefully stop it building up again. Which it is!

Another bag to charity shop today with a few dressing up outfits that are too small for the kids and some clothes that do fit but they won't wear (someone is going to get a nice joules sweatshirt for a bargain price ).

Have boxes up yet more random electronics that I have no idea what they are - need to force DH to go through said box...

Also realised we have things from the baby days that we don't need any more (steriliser, stair gates etc). So they are next on my list to shift

Listed 10 things yesterday and packaged up 19 that had sold. Not quite the 15 I was challenged.

Today I have sorted out under our bed. Found 12 water bottles, 23 socks (now in wash hopefully will find their pairs!), a dog bed (I don't and never have owned a dog), 3 empty boxes for random toys, 2 empty biscuit tins, and loads of other random junk. All is now in bin/recycling/charity pile.

Also did a big cabinet in our room - sorted out and put random crap in proper homes and now they're empty. So have brought downstairs. Unsure whether to repurpose the unit in the front room or just get rid.

Our room feels much clearer - still have a drawer unit to sort, a box of crap and our clothes. I'm glad I've held off buying new furniture as I don't think we will need as much as I originally planned. I am going to order our lift up bed as planned as it will make storing things underneath much easier to reach. (Our room is tiny you can only get under the bed from one side) just need to sell a few more things on eBay then I should have enough money 😁

halfahunner omg i know i dont even know why its still sat by the front door and now im alone cant lift it over the ridge to get it out 😂😂 its going this weekend il flag down a scrap van or get a scrap collection done i looked and there some free ones around lol.

whendoisleep your right just let it go!! Have done that with many things the past few days so not sure why im clinging to biggest thing in my way 😂 im probably going to just buy a small dryer from argos that will fit into my car so il let the scrapman have it.
I pledge this dryer will be gone by subday afternoon.... x

nobutts never even owned a dog sorry that made me lol

Betsy, hope you managed to get rid of the dryer!
Today I have got rid of a camping kettle, a set of camping pans and a Witney wool blanket.

Today someone is coming for our old Sky+ box (no idea why we kept it) and an old stair gate. Woohoo!

(Father's Day cards are still up... DH is blind I think... I haven't cracked yet).