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

How have I only just stumbled on this thread? Is it ok for me to join?

We're slowly doing up the house (only on the second room so far) but there's just so much stuff. How is it possible to have so much?!

I have gone through the kids wardrobes today and removed uniforms that are too small (bigger stuff put away, and smallest dc stuff in the charity bag)

Just feels like an uphill struggle tbh but the one thing a day sounds manageable

Forget to say thanks lljkk for the sugar comment. I usually eat anything past a sell by / use by date but am obviously more careful with guests.

Welcome wobblebean I find I nearly always get more than one thing but it's nice to have an achievable target each day that I didn't achieve on Saturday

kokoloko are any of them on YouTube? If so get rid of those. Also are there any least favourites you have? Could you get rid of just one or two to begin with? I am terrible at hoarding things like books, CDs, DVDs, but get rid of a couple a time. Then I return a few weeks later and seem to then find it easier to get rid of another couple. I probably got rid of half my cookbooks in this way last year. It takes time but psychologically I just can't get rid of everything at once.

My bedroom's got really messy recently with me just chucking stuff on every available surface / the floor and then too tired to tidy. I have just found some energ to tidy a bit. I have found another handbag that I am going to get of. It's still a mess but when school starts I'll work on it.

Someone coming later to pick up a bike we’d sold on. Yesterday I tidied under sink decluttered several bottles of cleaning stuff by decanting duplicates and recycling bottles. Found 24 new dishcloths still in packets hidden in the mountain of clutter

Ooh that's good. I need to clean under my sink too. I think we have some very old barbecue cleaner but we don't have a barbecue so I wonder if it would clean my oven?

I have put a toy in the charity shop pile and a board game in the to sell pile. I am dithering over some fuzzy felt ballerinas which we have had for about 9 years. Dd2 is nearly 8 and we have 1 other dressup ballerina set and two other fuzzy felt sets. I wonder if i should get rid of it? These decisions are hard. I have such happy memories of my children playing with thee games. But I guess it's like books, part of my job to move them on developmentally? Someone agree with me. and I can chuck 100 picture books

I have put aside some clothes for the rag bag. Someone was supposed to be picking up a shower rail today but they again haven’t turned up.

I think the thing is kokoloco that I am going to have to be brutal and throw away 'favourite' toys and books. My dds would play with baby toys if I let them but we'll run out of space. And we had a playdate last week and other peoples kids emptied all the boxes and got toys out. I know kids do that but I end up tidying up because I am very anal about how these things go away. If we have fewer toys I am hoping that job will take less time!

I might see if that book is in the library. (Months ago I vowed to not buy any more books and to use the library) We actually have lots of storage but still don't put things away so my solution is to get rid of stuff and change our habits and just live a simpler life. I am struggling with clothes at the moment and never get round to tidying my bedroom because no-one else sees it (other than dh who is blind to mess).

Today's one item I am getting rid of is an alarm clock with noisy ticks that keeps dd1 awake.

Kids back at school today. I have bits of admin to do. I am feeling lazy/ tired so maybe I'll take these three days off and relax and just chuck out one item a day. I do have a mountain of stuff on the spare bed so I am going to bag that up for the charity shop and I thought I might watch a couple of DVDs and then donate them e.g. I have a Sex and the City boxset. I suspect from mums net threads it hasn't aged very well and I might hate it - at least I'm hoping so.

Well, we are now at least halfway through the boiler installation. They might finish later today, or it may be lunchtime tomorrow.

Needless to say, I didn't get as much done as I hoped over the weekend, so our bed is currently piled with stuff from our bedroom and the spare room to allow access to both ends of the radiators in these rooms. I did completely fill a black bin bag that has gone to the tip, but that is a drop in the ocean. I had to completely reorganise the stuff in the spare room to avoid anything falling on and burying a heating engineer. That is the room that is most cluttered, as it has always just been used to store stuff. In the process of doing this, I did discover some "precious" items I had "lost" and obviously haven't seen since we moved in 13 years ago.

This morning I had to empty the cupboard under the kitchen sink. I noticed there are a number of bottles of cleaning solutions with a centimetre or two left in the bottom. I will keep these out and try to use them up in the next couple of months. They are all different brands - some came from my Mum's house - so I don't want to pour them in together just in case I have a large chemical reaction!

A decorative serving plate today. It came with some baklava a couple of christmases ago. Thought it had gone to charity shop at the time 🤷‍♀️🙄

Today’s decluttering:

A few cloth make up wipes which have seen better days.

A skirt listed on eBay (and if it doesn’t sell I’ll regift to dsis)

2 onesies that the kids put in yesterday and the legs were half mast.
Some receipts from 2014.
A little card game that has never been played with and is unlikely to be.

Love this thread. I'm obsessed with clutter.

I did Marie Kondo and it was fab but I have 3 DC and a very messy DH so I still find myself dumping stuff.

I had put my youngest DS's wooden train set in a box to try the 6 month method (if it has not been missed for 6 months you can get rid). I was about to give it to my DSIS for her DS. I cleared out the playroom and tidied away all the lego from the train table so that I could clean it. DS comes home from school and says "that's great mum, now I can play with my train on my train table" and proceeds to open the box and take out the train set!!!

Still the train set looks tidier on the train table in the playroom than the million pieces of lego from about 20 different sets and it will be easier to clean.

But sometimes, a declutter can backfire!!!

So we've had a couple of days where nothing has been sorted out but we're going to get a new bathroom unit today so I think we'll be going through that stuff to see what can go.

I know I have a few boxes of hair dye that aren't going to get used

This morning I used up a child's Hello Kitty shower gel. Tomorrow I have a shower gel in the shape of a duck to use! These have been hanging around for years and are now 'too babyish' for dc to use.

I have got a headache so am tempted to do nothing. I've taken a paracetamol and if I feel better I will take some of the 5 charity shop bags I have in the car to the charity shop. I have more stuff on the spare bed to bag up too but can't be bothered.

Old photo frame joined the charity bag today and the bag has been dropped off. Also posted some books that have gone via eBay.

Well, I've taken the plunge and booked my skip!! It's coming at the end of the month and I can't wait!!

Now just have to get off mumsnet and get sorting...

Wow, that's exciting news Buffy. What are you putting in it?

I took four bags to a charity shop and I thought I'd watch a box set while sewing name labels on school uniform. I can't work out how to watch a DVD so I will have to ask a child later. I feel like my mother!

I have put 6 DVDs and one book I the charity shop pile.

Stealth your pile must be huge do the others in your house not fish things out of it if they notice them. We’ve had a phase of that where things are rescued then promptly ignored again

A pyjama too that was hanging around since I was pregnant (2 years ago!) and is far too big for me now.

Also 3 gro bags going to a friend as I think my littlest is too big for them now sob

I have some shoes to go (DS outgrown trainers, some summer shoes)
And I need to go through the kitchen cupboards, I have a splatterguard ( from Costco) , but I've never used it.
If I do fry things, I've got lids.
I might give it to my DParents (more for safety for them) But my DMum is a hoarder so I don't want to enable her.

Hi, can I join? I'm a little bit obsessed with decluttering. Did the whole KonMarie thing last year and then since then have been doing further weeding. Me and DP live in a tiny flat so have to be quite ruthless. It seems I keep finding more though. Yesterday a decluttered beauty stuff in the bathroom and reorganised the medicines etc., also put an old pet cage on Freecycle and took a bag of DVDs, clothes and assorted crockery to the charity shop. Oh and recycled a load of paper. I still have an ironing board I need to get rid of and still too much bathroom and kitchen stuff.

Does anyone else have a ridiculous amount of stuff in their kitchen? Like spices, teas, glassware etc. There's so much, I'm sure we don't need it all.

Hello all, is it ok if I join? I’ve been lurking for a while but think I’ll bemore accountable if I actually join in!

I’m so sick of having a cluttered house. I only moved here 2 years ago and managed to keep it fairly uncluttered for a while, but it’s awful at the moment. We don’t have a lot of storage room, so everything is very “visible”

I’ve got 2 hours now before I need to go and collect kids from school so going to make a start!