Getting rid of one thing a day decluttering challenge Part 5

[StealthNinjaMum]

We’re still here!

For 4 threads a group of mumsnetters have been getting rid of just one thing a day. We’ve been throwing out, selling, recycling and giving our stuff away.

But we're still not finished.

Newbies are always welcome to join us. Just get rid of one thing each day and come back here to discuss your progress and get support when it gets hard.

Previous thread here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3298777-Getting-rid-of-one-thing-a-day-decluttering-challenge-Part-4?msgid=81434878

Facebook Marketplace: I tell them that I will leave the listing up until they collect it. I've had way too many no-shows to believe they will actually turn up. If they give me a definite date and time for collection AND it's within a day or so, then I will tell any new prospective buyers that it's sold STC but will be available after (date/time) if it's a no show.

I sorted out our coat rack today, five coats and NINE hoodies. Five of them are mine. How many hoodies are reasonable?

Thanks oops - I have sent something along those lines back, buyer gave a day and a time so I hope they do turn up.

Today I have got rid of a pen and a folder because the dogs ate them while I was at work 😬

also have problem with shower! luckily it is not leaking, just we cannot use in winter when it goes hot and cold randomly, (cartridge and the problem has been there since last winter and the same issue trying to get someone to bother to fix it, too small a job. But now we have a plumber builder booked in, to do something else as well. Dusty large chaotic job just to fix the shower!!!

Today I have decluttered: 5 envelopes that I opened
an old jar of sage leaves
some old soy sauce
some vegetables by cooking them in soup
various plastic bags

I will promise this forward to use any holey sock to do a quick dust of picture frames tops or door frames and BIN. very satisfying. Rags tend to linger a bit longer as they have too many uses, as do old teeshirts, making my life that much harder as I can never remember they are meant to be rags and start using them again as teeshirts/items

unfortunately about 4 towels have gone back into circulation. And there are now too many towels again. But before there weren't enough...hey ho, you cannot win. Everyone needs a dog towel, bathmat in emergency towel don;t they? And the snorkelling kit has devilishly sneaked back in to the living room again

tomorrow I will press on. The mattress in the hall needs to go somewhere sensible.

oopsslate dd has an addiction to hoodies. I cannot put them over my head easily, for some reason I panic putting them on, so it hasn't been my particular vice, but she has about 11. And each one she says it very important to her, serves a different function, and makes her feel cosy. At one point I put half of them in a sack and rotated them seasonally. Today she couldn't even find a hoody to wear to Spain, and ended up wearing one the cat had been lying on. So it is impossible to know how many are too many!!!

However, if I am thinking in cardigans, rather than hoodies, 3 very beautiful coloured cardigans of varying weight and one dark one, would be my idea of just right.

whendoIsleep It's difficult about marketplace. I would probably have done the same, and send a reminder on the day they're due to come to check they haven't forgotten.

nettleskeins that's a really good idea about the holey sock. If I use every one before I throw it away I'll probably dust about once every 3 weeks.

I have done a bit of filing and shredding. I am listening out for a delivery so just quietly going through the post pile near the front door. I'm loving all my stationery tidying as I have been giving dh and dd1 plastic folders to keep their important papers in and yesterday I also allocated a spot for my sewing kit and dd1 did some sewing. After ten years of moving around the house it now has a home. Dd1 is on board at the moment. The decluttering is going slowly but it always does during the holidays.

Back again! Decluttered lots of jobs off the to do list. So I have shelves up with pictures, ornaments I had bought, a spice rack, plaques I had bought up, banister back on the wall, coat hooks and door handles replaced, mirrors put up and a new bathroom cabinet.

My room have new wardrobe and chest drawers from my mum which is much better storage wise so my room isn't as cluttered (need to sort clothes though)

Today have decluttered 3 empty paint tubs, lots of recycling, receipts from my bag and a muffin 😂

I've ordered some photos on free prints app to put in the photo frames I've put up.

stealth I've kept a pile of the duplicate lego cards (with elastic band round) in my handbag for going to cafes/trains with the girls - they play dominoes/rock paper scissors with them or other random games. Some are kept at home for book marks too. We only need one more for their book (sodding number 26!)

Sorted ds’ toys. I’m off work this week. Signed off sick until Friday and Friday as holiday to move house.

Have a bag for the charity shop. So will drop them off tomorrow.

I've cleaned out the kitchen cupboards and have chucked a whole bag of out of date stuff. Yesterday chucked some folders and more paperwork plus a couple of things in fridge.

ememem84 I'm hoping to sort toys this week - I have 2 boys and the amount we have is insane. Fortunately we have Christmas Fairs coming up at school / scouts and they will take good quality toys for tombolas, etc. so I'm planning on seeing what can go to them.

Thanks stealth - I will send a reminder on the morning she is due. I've never used Marketplace before, looked it up on the back of some previous posts, but it seems straightforward enough, guess it's just getting people to turn up when they say they will.

Had 2 people round about the shower issue this morning, first one just keen to give a quote for refitting the bathroom asap. Second actually looked properly and we have established the leak that alerted us to the shower problems is actually not down to the shower after all, but something else and as it seems to have stopped at the moment, finding the cause will be tricky - so a wait and see job on that we think. We are looking at having to replace the bathroom (gulp), which we were intending to do at some point next year anyway, just maybe a little earlier than we had anticipated. I did say to the second chap I was embarrassed by the state of the house and he commented that he saw a lived in house, just one with a bit too much stuff. Given how much has gone out in the last 6 months or so, I'm fairly ok with that.

In between trying to find plumbers and refereeing my DC's arguments yesterday, I managed to get to the tip - took a child's table that we had in our old kitchen, which was damaged plus one of the chairs that went with it. Also, 2 old tvs, a roller blind we replaced earlier in the summer, plus a number of old small electrical items that have been stored in the shed for a while.

Also, it's probably a bit strange, but I quite like our local tip. I only went for the first time a couple of weeks ago, but it is well laid out and when you park up you are on the level with the top of the various containers for different items, so minimum hauling about to do. We used to live under a different LA, and the tip we used then meant having to get items up metal stairs to get to platforms to drop items into the various containers - not great when you have lots of different kinds of things.

I love our tip. You get to fling stuff into the gigantic skips!!! I almost overshot the slip last time we went and I rather over vigorously flung the iron.

Ohh, the flinging is so cathartic and satisfying.

Been distracted by an attack of obsessive crocheting other very important things, but took a fat blue Ikea bag full of DVDs to the RSPCA shop just now, and have made some inroads into a little shredding. Even more importantly, the DVD purge means that DH is getting on board a bit with the decluttering vibe.

@WhenDoISleep Wandsworth is fantastic. Well laid out, helpful people in hi viz, take nearly everything. Love 'em. You just have to watch out for Boden-clad drivers in 4x4s, but they see my battered old Mazda coughing over the horizon and take cover.

today I decluttered some meat from the freezer,and a half of jar of spice paste which had been hanging around in the fridge(made a curry)
and the recycling
also the compost

nothing else. I managed to buy several more books from the Oxfam shop , well at least they are easy to send back where they came from in due course, unlike books you have paid full price for.

Finally got the excercise bike moved (to the shed not thrown out)

I have a bag of clothes including a dressing gown to take to charity shop
Pair of DH boots

Couple of kitchen items.

I recycled some old towels to the guinea-pigs.

How have I not found this thread before....
I literally have a whole house to declutter and constantly feel so overwhelmed by it. I try little by little but then don’t get it past the door. i try to reason that I’ll be no worse off chucking it all, but then I argue that even if I just got £1 for each thing I’d be at least making something.......

Today is the day. The great declutter starts.

Storage locker is being emptied and we are a go. I need to buy bin bags and take boxes with me to the new house (no doubt I’ll have boxes but they’re full...)

This will be a long process. I’m hoping that by decluttering whilst unpacking this is the most effective way.

I’m rejoining you all. I really need the accountability of this thread as life seems to have got in the way of decluttering. We are moving in just under two weeks and there is still so much stuff to sort. Even worse than that I was admiring a very nice decluttered area of the house to realise that we still have all the stuff that was there but it’s now in boxes in the corner of a room in our new house. We have moved clutter. 😭 As our ‘new’ house belonged to PIL the loft there is full of their things which we need to deal with at some point although I think more of them belong to DH than he would like to admit! I think we could be decluttering for years...

So far this week I have done one tip run and decluttered the ebay pile into the charity shop bags. Most of it has been ready to ebay for months and I still haven’t done it so I decided to donate it all instead. I figured the money went when I bought the things and I haven’t made the effort to sell it already the charity might as well benefit. I wouldn’t make a lot from selling it anyway.

Today’s plan is to tackle to loft in our current house. I have no idea what’s in there but I don’t think it’s a lot. I’ll report back later.

I don’t / can’t go in ours. I dread to think. DH says we are going to do it this year😳

Paperwork sorted and used to start fire.
Charity bag in car ready to go later.
Re cycling I swear it breeds at night. Need to take it to centre. We have one in next village and primary school get some of proceeds so we take it there as small country school. We get pick up but only paper and card.

Started unpacking today and have so far done one tip load - mostly cardboard boxes and bubble wrap.

Also decluttered a tree from the garden and a pair of slippers.

Today I have bagged up all the washed and folded tea towels from Cub camp to take back to the scout hut tomorrow.
I will also be decluttering a folder tomorrow and have a load of health forms to burn tomorrow day time.