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Original poster

Getting rid of one thing a day decluttering challenge Part 5

984 replies

StealthNinjaMum · 01/10/2018 17:18

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

OP posts:
Chunkymonkey123 · 03/12/2018 16:06

Yesterday four cardboard boxes went in the recycling and today I threw away a pan lid that no longer has a pan.
Need to get in the study to do some serious sorting but it’s so packed I don’t know where to start. My DH has so much stuff in his garage that it has overflowed into the study which drives me insane but he’s not changed in 9 years so I don’t think he’s going to start now!

SandAndSea · 03/12/2018 16:16

'Course you can, @tofupanda ! Welcome! Smile

tofupanda · 03/12/2018 18:28

Thanks for having me :) I will try to add one thing daily to my charity bag. I won’t be able to take it to the shop till the weekend, but it’s a start...

Keiki · 03/12/2018 21:12

Oops, nearly rumbled. Decluttered an empty box of DP's into recycling from the kitchen but forgot to fill the space, which he immediately noticed. Hopefully I managed to cover it up.

Gibble1 · 03/12/2018 22:31

We came back from the market with a bit of stuff gone- enough that I was actually able to condense all of the stock into 3 large boxes and the wheely tin that the stuff usually lives in. Someone asked unthread what we were selling- we had packets of flame colour changer to sell (sold 6- but 1 was to me to put on the fire on Saturday night 😂). And DS and DH have been printing mugs, enamel mugs, aluminium drinks bottles, pencil tins and money boxes to sell. All personalised with whatever prints people want. Everything that they make has been going into ds’s Jamboree pot. He has another market on Sunday so hopefully more will go then. As soon as people see the stuff being printed, it piques their interest and they come over to look and tend to buy something. We’ve priced things fairly low as we just want to sell everything. I think that if he manages to sell all of his stock, he will have enough to pay for his jamboree trip 🤞.
There were lots of lucky dip items left but we left them at the village hall and have offered them to the village hall committee for their party next week. They are not coming back to my house!
Emptied the bags of clothing out of the cupboard under the stairs so I could put away camping gear properly and put away the boxes of mugs. Now need to list them on Facebook and try to sell some more bits.
We still have £870 to raise and only 6 months in which to raise it 😬

SandAndSea · 04/12/2018 14:18

Today's items include some biggies (for me):

  1. A box. It might not seem like much but it was one of the ones I've been keeping which was on the stairs for over a year. Since I moved that pile, it's been on the floor in my bedroom. I've got a curious attachment to it. It was more than a 'just in case' box. It actually had a purpose which was to store some beautiful glassware which I inherited. Half of that, I took to charity a while back. The other half will be used at Christmas and is so fragile, it probably won't last long. I've scrunched it up now so it's done. I certainly feel freer without it hanging around.

  2. A necklace. It was mine but I gave it to my mum (when clutter clearing) about 30 years ago. She recently gave it back to me (apropos Swedish death cleaning). When she showed it to me, I had a sudden rush of nostalgia and love for what it represented. But, the fact is, there's a reason I wanted rid of it 30 years ago - it's just not 'me' anymore - and I know that if I don't pass it on now, I might end up keeping it forever more, which I really don't want. It has to go.

Original poster
StealthNinjaMum · 04/12/2018 14:19

Hello newbies.

whatamessitallis I saw your thread, you seemed so down. Flowers Is there one single area or big thing you could do that could give you a kickstart? For example, could you bag up all the random clothes and just put them in a binbag in the shed? Or is there a big item like a toddler toy you can just put on freecycle to give you instant space . There's a lovely freecycle app and I put loads of stuff on it and it takes a couple of minutes.

My hall still has bags and bags of stuff to go. About three have been donated and I have cleared out lots more books and some plastic glasses and bowls. I am wondering if I have time to pop to the charity shop before school pickup.

I have also decluttered my makeup but only got rid of one eyeshadow. I am going to wear makeup more often to declutter the mascara.

OP posts:
SandAndSea · 04/12/2018 14:28

@StealthNinjaMum - I love it when you're on it, I find it really inspiring. Star It's reminding me of last year too though which must mean we've really got to get on it a bit more! Smile

Original poster
StealthNinjaMum · 04/12/2018 14:59

Thanks sandandsea I'm still very embarrassed by the amount of stuff we had. I have now got rid of nearly 800 bags of stuff!

I have just dropped another six bags off at my favourite charity shop.

It must have been hard for you to get rid of that necklace - another inspiring example to the thread!

OP posts:
SandAndSea · 04/12/2018 15:04

Thanks, @StealthNinjaMum . It's in the charity pile atm so not quite out yet. I think it will go though.

800 bags really is amazing. I'm sure all your stuff will be benefitting many other people along the way and your story helps many more too. It's all good! Flowers

Keiki · 04/12/2018 15:09

Bag of toiletries donated to the women's refuge. Bag of cat toys donated to a cat charity. Two small bottles of shampoo used up and binned. Haven't made it to an actual charity shop yet to get rid of those 2 bags. Good effort everyone else!

SandAndSea · 04/12/2018 15:45

It's all go here! Smile

The car has just had its mot so I've emptied it and binned loads of rubbish including drinks bottles, receipts, tissues... There was even a wedding invitation from 2013! (I honestly don't know how this is even possible since I'm sure I have cleared it several times since then, but hey-ho!)

I've finally found the new cable for the satnav which means I can get rid of the split cable which is held together with tape and prayer. I've also found the car torch which was in the car but without batteries, so I'm rectifying that. (Again, I don't know how this even happened.)

I'm getting rid of 2 plastic things which apparently fix plumbing pipes to the wall and 2 tops.

I've also decided to bin another box. It's a nice one too. I'm feeling the pain and doing it anyway! Grin

I've sorted out 2 lightbulbs which DP had left on the kitchen side in the wrong boxes. They're now properly boxed and put away. (It feels good to have dealt with this before we forgot why they were there.)

I've also shredded quite a few papers: bank docs, receipts, breakdown cover docs etc.

RaspberryBlonde · 04/12/2018 16:35

Has been a few days of incoming items here for Christmas and DD's birthday. All the party bags are ready so that will be a big chunk out at the weekend. Have added a few things to the latest charity bag and DH took a bunch of boxes etc to the dump yesterday.

SandAndSea your car sounds like mine!

SandAndSea · 04/12/2018 17:36

Haha, @RaspberryBlonde - I'm sure there are many much the same. Grin

I've been on a bit of a frenzy today. I've just been through our main bedroom, dusting and putting away allsorts of things which have been out for ages. I've been meaning to buy a long dress bag but ended up finding one in the wardrobe which I didn't even know I had. (Smh)

I've also found another pillow to get rid of. I'm going to try the local dog rescue place, see if they might like them.

whatamessitallis · 04/12/2018 18:01

I've identified 3 coats for the charity shop and 1 to post to my cousin for her DC.

Haven't taken them out the house yet though...

whatamessitallis · 04/12/2018 18:50

StealthNinjaMum thanks :) I tackled the coat mountain today! We had 3 places for putting coats, all overflowing. I found all kinds of weird things there that weren't coats at all - a dressing gown, towels, a swimming costume, bag of random crap... All gone, now have 1 coat space and a new space just for outside accessories like bags & umbrellas etc.

Feeling like it's a good start...

tofupanda · 04/12/2018 20:52

I'm struggling to part with things for sentimental reasons, like baby clothes & toys, favourite books. Things that belonged to my (now deceased) mother and grandparents. Any tips?

SandAndSea · 05/12/2018 00:01

@tofupanda - I struggle with this too sometimes but have also cleared a lot. A good tip is to take a photo of the item. Another is to move it out slowly - live without it for a while and see how you feel, knowing you can always bring it back in again. (You could put it in the car boot or somewhere.)

Another tip is to sell the item. It might sound weird but somehow, getting money seems to help ease the pain. (You could use the money to pay for something special.)

My favourite tip though is to leave it and go for easy wins - it builds your clutter clearing confidence and abilities. Also, as you clear more, the old stuff starts to notice more and look noticeably bad. Eventually, there comes a time when it's easier to let the thing go.

SandAndSea · 05/12/2018 00:05

Another tip: Remember that you still keep your memories. They are not the item.

RaspberryBlonde · 05/12/2018 09:41

Agree with SandandSea, quick wins before anything sentimental until last. This is what I'm planning to do.

Sounds like good progress @whatamessitallis. I keep trying to do our coat cupboard. DH currently has six suit jackets in there, of which he currently wears 2 and not that often as he works from home quite a lot. I'm tempted to relocate them all to his wardrobe but he will probably forget I've done it and be late looking for them!

Full day at home today so should hopefully have a few items to report later.

Original poster
StealthNinjaMum · 05/12/2018 09:48

tofu I think it depends on what you're hoping to achieve. I have never aimed for minimalism so have always kept some sentimental items

However....

By my gradual chipping away I am changing my boundaries of what I can let go and am just far less likely to hang onto them for two reasons.

  1. I am feeling so much more positive about my home and actually my day to day life. I don't get stressed these days because I can't find anything. So I like this feeling and just feel more positive about the benefits of owning less stuff and having a more organised life.
  1. I have thrown so much away and learnt that I rarely regret it. For a long time I kept my grandfathers old crt tv. He died 20 years ago and it was the only item of his I had. It sat quite neatly in the spare room and wasn't obvious clutter but I took it to the dump 18 months ago and now never think about it. Also with children's clothes and arts and crafts stuff. I have taken gradual baby steps and got rid of things I never thought I'd get rid of.

You don't have to get rid of the stuff today. Declutter around it but just chip away and you'all get there.

OP posts:
SandAndSea · 05/12/2018 09:55

Today's items: 2 plastic parts from the old dishwasher and some leaflets from the new one.

PurpleFrog · 05/12/2018 10:37

Well, I did actually manage a Charity Shop drop-off this morning. DP gave me a lift in to work and we dropped off a large wine box of books, 3 large carrier bags of mixed items and a large poly bag of bedding. These were shared between 4 different shops.

I ended up spending almost all of yesterday evening sorting everything out. In the end I put in a lot of books that I had been thinking about selling, but decided that I just wanted them gone.

@tofupanda - I agree with the previous posters about getting rid of sentimental items. We emptied and sold my mum's house 18 months ago after she went in to a home, and I am still dealing with her stuff. There were lots of things that I could send to charity immediately, other things have gradually gone as I realised I wouldn't actually use them or display them. Over time it becomes easier to separate the memories from the item.

MotherWol · 05/12/2018 10:45

Netflix have a new show called Consumed, which features Canadian families who have problems with clutter and hoarding; they have to put all their stuff in storage for two weeks and learn to live without it, and at the end decide what they really want back. It's a bit trashy but very entertaining and I'm counting it as a form of vicarious decluttering!

Original poster
StealthNinjaMum · 05/12/2018 13:54

Well done whatamessitallis hopefully you'all see an immediate benefit by having a tidy coat area and it will help motivate you further.

Still have no landline and I amnot enjoying mumsnetting on my phone.

Today's items to go will be crap from my handbag. So old receipts mainly. My wallet resembles a sort of volcanic explosion with cards and receipts cascading out of it. I have so many loyalty cards I am wondering if I can get a special case for them but I might start by putting an elastic band round them and just keeping the 3 or 4 essential cards in my wallet.

OP posts: