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

Thanks StealthNinjaMum. I'm trying to stay positive about progress. I would also happily declutter your vodka - make mine a vodka, lime and soda please!

Glad to hear all are making such good progress. Bag to charity today with bird feeders in. Four books added to the clothes bag - will take to another shop tomorrow. Second shop has appealed for male clothes so happy to oblige👍 Four eBay items posted - waiting for payment for another, so will have to keep looking at that a little longer.

today I'm throwing out a stairbasket that has moth.

And I'm hoping I can throw out some of dh's hideous Primark Shorts. that he bought in a rash moment before going on holiday several years ago but is now keeping just in case. When I say throw out I mean charity shop. The basket will be binned though, or possibly turn into a flower pot.

things are still quite bad I hasten to add. My hall and landing looks awful and there is dust everywhere from having pulled things out. It is certainly not a quick fix, and you have to grit your teeth when you start disembowelling things.

The good news is I have found another blackberry charger and I have successfully charged my second blackberry and seen lots of cute toddler photos. I'm not sure how to get them onto a computer but it's progress. All the wires / cables in the bedroom are labelled now and I have added a couple more to the 'recycle' pile. I'm feeling pleased as this is one of those really boring, time consuming jobs and soon I'll be able to chuck out old phones and wires and keep the others in the sitting room drawer I have allocated to them. I also have a very big box of them in a cupboard somewhere that need to be gone through. That will probably have printer and computer wires for printers and computers we no longer own and dh will want to keep them 'just in case'.

Not doing well this week. Taken over by germs and have been asleep by 9 every night for the last 4 so no time for decluttering! Hopefully the germs will declutter soon and I can get on with my list.

so, finally dropped off the uniform batch to charity shop.

washed some sheets, and put some clean curtains away in the cupboard.

Hoping to throw away some of ds's pre-teen books this afternoon.The ones he never read so it has no sentimental value. Except perceived value because no-one ever read them so I feel guilty getting rid of them!

I put two new things on eBay last night and have sold one already!

I now need to make a list of all the things I was putting off advertising until nearer Christmas... or I will miss the boat again .

Keiki hope you feel better soon.

I have spent about an hour emptying out the bloody Chest of Drawers of Doom. I wish I hadn't bothered as there is even more stuff on the floor than yesterday. I have found an ancient Nokia phone and charger so I'm hoping that'll be more photos of dc.

So far I have put a game of dominoes (suspected xmas cracker toy) in the charity shop pile and a clock and some broken scales in a binbag.

I have started to organise cards too and am still working on wires, cables and chargers

I can see the landing floor now. Bad moth problem underneath everything. Have moved piles of A level papers and odd bits of wood that belong to furniture needing to be mended.

Now about to hoover the new territory!

ninja I'm not going to even attempt to deal with cables and wires this side of Christmas. It is terrifying. Hopefully the electrical objects will find a home and then people will claim charging cables and slowly but surely there will be unclaimed cables and I CAN THROW THEM AWAY

Nettleskeins I didn't really intend to but found a couple in my bedroom that I knew were obviously not usable (breast pump cable was one) and found myself going through them all. I have now just found an old Siemens phone. It's never ending and I feel like putting them in a drawer for another twenty years.

I know what you mean. I've a few old laptops that malfunctioned from when I first started using a laptop, then upgraded but never really understood how the memory worked etc. but how do you get rid of a laptop when you don't know what information is possibly on the harddrive or memory? Especially when you cannot plug it in, because you are not sure which cable or password fits it..I think all the laptops are sadly going to end up in loft and my descendants can unravel that one! At least you can burn or shred paperwork.

I've decluttered a few A level papers, mostly revision handouts from the school which ds wrote in. Not much further with that, because the other two might need some of the same revision material. -this is hoarding isn't it?-

Today hasn't really been more than rearranging hoarded stuff, and cleaning under it. I need to try harder to actually throw things away tomorrow, too many things have ended up being washed and put back in cupboards, when they need to LEAVE THE HOUSE.

When you start picking up individual paperclips and returning them to the paperclip pot (these are 10 year old paperclips from the back of drawers) you know you have a hoarding problem. The same with pennies. I need to be more ruthless when I find old pens, old pencils old rulers and old socks. And newspaper cuttings.

@Nettleskeins - I know exactly what you mean. I used to have loads of paperclips which I'd stopped seeing in my desk drawer. I kept a few but put the bulk of them on freebay. Someone came and took them away. Re pennies - you can use them in the self-service machines in supermarkets. (That's what I did with our jar of change.) Old pens and pencils I now keep in a nice tin, with a few on the fridge and desks ready for use. Our old socks go into the rag bin or the cloths container.

Newspaper cuttings? Unless they're about close family members, I would chuck them in recycling.

• paragraph fail. (It wasn't meant to look like that.)

Second bag to charity shop - threw in a DVD for good measure. Spotted some outgrown trainers to start the next bag. @Stealth fantastic that you’ve been able to retrieve all those photos

Thanks gassylady I'm very pleased about the photos.

nettelskeins yes I have millions of paperclips and drawing pins that I don't use. Slowly they're being put in one place while I declutter.

You could probably pay someone to remove your laptops hard drives and save the files. With dh's desktops it was surprisingly easy to remove the memories but laptops are harder.

iwillwearthegreenwillow three boxes? That would drive me mad. It is such a horrible job I feel really satisfied. well done on the tip run.

Tonight dh let me throw away (well put in the recycle pile) one of his three battery chargers. I can't believe how many duplicates of things like that we have. I also found two old Bluetooth headsets, in their original packets unopened. They were so old I couldn't find them for sale on Amazon or eBay.

grenwillow dh has a study that has no visible carpet and piles of crap (and he has empty filing cabinets and storage!) but the leads have somehow ended up in family furniture which is why I'm sorting them. I am pushing dh's things back into his areas whenever they escape.

Today I have got rid of an empty box and I am getting rid of a serving bowl that I never use.

ninja your story about eating the out of date olives cheered me up. I do that.too poisonous for others but cannot be wasted..

My positive news today is that I managed to bin some A level bumpf and reduce the pile down so the entire batch can fit in one storage box, instead of a large laundry basket.

However, I would say the "churning" still continues in this house. Reallocating items is not going to solve my clutter problem, I need to tell myself this several times a day.

I am determined to get rid of some men's shirts. Had a conversation with dh about all the thousands of shirts and he point blank refused to consider reducing his hoard. So that leaves the boys'/young men shirts. only beautiful and useful then. surely 6 shirts eachis plenty? -dh has nearly 4 shirts

that should read 40 shirts not 4. 4 would be too too easy.

Oh God did I mention the olives? I think they were 8 or 10 years out of date. Dh ate some not realising and got really angry when I told him. I wouldn't let dc eat them.

Coming back after grinding to a halt at the end of July. The garden still looks so much better after all the weeding. I just need to keep on top of it.

Paperwork became a bit overwhelming for a while. It was easier once the schools started back ( third week in August here).

My decluttering habits have more or less stayed in place - clean outgrown clothes are bagged up immediately, and from time to time I recycle extra plastic containers.

Yesterday I binned a broken motor and some parts from a children's game. Kept some of the bits for bath toys.

I think I'll relax this afternoon by catching up with reading this thread and decluttering a leftover curry.