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

Wow gibble you should be so proud of your son, he is doing really well.

well done greenwillow it's lovely to decide you don't want something but when it's actually out of the house you can sometimes feel the extra space.

After school yesterday I took dds ice skating and then played board games. They're still in bed so I think I tired them out!

Today I'm waiting in for someone to buy a toy I sold on Facebook. I also have a mountain of pe and sports kits to wash so not sure how much time I'll have for decluttering other than the usual bits of paper and old post which never feels that satisfying.

I'm just about to wrap up some presents which sort of counts as decluttering. Last year I realised I had about 20 rolls of wrapping paper - many I didn't like - so I didn't buy any and used the ones I don't like. This year I was down to 9 rolls and I bought two brown paper ones as they're more environmentally friendly. My aim is to only have 5 or 6 and wrap as I go each year rather than stay up til 3am on Christmas morning annoyed with myself for not having wrapped sooner!

DP and I have been 'preparing for Christmas' which, so far, means that my entire downstairs area is now trashed! I wish this was a euphemism for something lovely but sadly, I'm surrounded by mess and laundry. Washing the curtains was a good idea; washing the sofa covers...? Not so much! It's been raining ever since and I daren't tumble dry them. The good news is that I've got all my presents now. Well, I've ordered them and I'm hopeful.

Overall, nothing out today but lots of movement in a positive direction.

I managed to move just a few plastic boxes of decorating stuff off that table yesterday (Woop de doo = sarcasm at my pathetic effort), but spent too much time scrolling online. So, I'm going to block myself off my laptop today (I don't have a mobile phone) using the Cold Turkey app, which I highly recommend to anyone with the same massive addiction bad habit.

2 bags of Christmas presents gone from the house today.

SandandSea things always get worse before they get better. From my laptop I can a pile of rubbish on the dining table, a pile of wrapped presents, a pile of unwrapped presents, lots of wrapping paper, all the school PE kits and bags, homework, various bits of artwork they brought home. Just have to slowly work through it. I'll try to today but might take dds to the cinema.

Yesterday turned out to be a good day for decluttering. Dd1 emptied her schoolbags and threw a lot of stuff out. I also spent an hour in the Room of Doom chucking out old Christmas cards and a few bits of old work. I also threw away some cassettes, installation CDs and floppy discs. Someone collected some toys too and dd2 didn't get upset which was a bonus.

Today I will be listening to some old cassettes. If they're mine I will throw them away but if they're dhs I will let him decide what to do with them.

I am finding Marie Kondo a bit very annoying. I have read about 70 pages on her and the basic premise but not anything useful. Having skimmed forward I just don't want to do my declutter in the same order that she suggests. And I may have missed it but I see no reference to the jigsaw puzzle with one bit missing or the My Little Pony collection that takes over a whole bedroom. I flicked through the paperwork bit and it's just not realistic to throw away each payslip as you get it. People do need evidence in case there are pension problems. I think that's potentially harmful advice.

Bag of excess bedding ready to go to our local Refugee Action charity. Some is fine to use, those with holes I think are used to make sanitary towels from. It's certainly more environmentally friendly to use fabric ones, where there is access to washing facilities. I can't imagine how hard it must be, but am not involved in the charity to really have any idea of how difficult conditions really are.

Thanks, Stealth. Today, in the interests of encouraging myself, I've been focussing on easy wins.

I found part of a zip in my make-up bag - I have no clue where it's from so it's gone.

A card and presents have left the building.

I've uninstalled several apps from my phone. (The few shortcuts which I have built-up since the recent accidental declutter were also accidentally removed in the process.)

We're finally, I think, putting the tree up today which means we'll probably get into tidying my downstairs area again. Relief all round I'm sure.

My tree's not up yet either. Was that on yesterday's promised list? Or was it the day before? Aaaargh.

IWearTheGreenWillow I'm embarrassed to say that I do have every payslip ever! That's since about 1988. But at the start of the year I found them all from lots of folders and put them in the same place with the intention of throwing everything out apart from the p60s and p45s and someone recommended March payslips just in case I ever need to prove my pension. But now the government has a website in which you can see your pension contributions one of my to dos for the new year is look it up and throw away my old payslips. It was a November to do, I set up a government gateway account but couldn't get it to work!

My tape player is broken so I couldn't test any tapes. I threw three away that were definitely mine. The problem is I have a small shoebox with about 30 tapes in. It was obvious 3 were mine and about 10 were dh's but the rest were blank - so without listening to them there's no way of knowing whose they were. I would gladly throw them all away but dh would probably be unhappy if I did that - even though he clearly hasn't listened to any for at least ten years since they've been in my study!

Maybe I should throw my tape/ CD player away and buy something more modern? But I still have hundreds of CDs.

2 ends of bars of soap used up today. That’s all 😩

At least you're nice and clean, Gibble

Do you have a DVD player Stealth? Could ditch the dedicated CD player and use that instead. That's what we did although no idea if it works for all of them. I did digitise all my CDs a while ago but then we got a new computer.

Christmas tree went up at the weekend and have earmarked a few decorations which can go... They are ones you have to attach a string to so they can be hung. It is fiddly and the strings keep coming untied.

Get well soon GreenWillow. DH had something similar a few weeks ago and took him about 10 days to feel himself, there's some nasty bits doing the rounds.

Stealth I've been wondering something similar. Do people still use iPods? I need an efficient storage method which means I don't have to re-buy the DVDs I've already got.

My tree is now up and the presents are wrapped. I'm now surrounded by bits of paper, packaging and sellotape. It's a right mess!

Today: 72 mugs in. 10 printed and put in car to go out tomorrow. 10 thermal mugs arriving tomorrow.

Today, I am finally parting with a really bad can opener - it let me down for the last time. I've also binned quite a few bits of paper, rail tickets, envelopes etc.

Apart from that, I'm all about the laundry, cleaning and tidying at the moment. (I'm trying to clear everything so I can properly rest up over Christmas.)

From my kitchen today: 3 beer can holders, a microwave fish cooker, a drink bottle (never used), 2 insulated cups (never used). I also found a bag of knotted supermarket bags - they're a bit like gold now that they've been banned - useful for taking decluttered stuff to the charity shop too. Oh, also threw out half a box of Earl Grey and condensed another three little boxes of tea into the one tin. So four into one.

Morning everyone.

We had a busy weekend with a bday party for DD. Had a major and very speedy clear out of the kitchen before allowing any guests anywhere near the house haha and immensely proud of getting it all out! Granted most is upstairs but a lot went in the bin and is awaiting a tip run. At least it's been sorted through.

For those with CDs and DVDs, we just got rid of all our packaging, put each dvd in a little sleeve (£2.25 for 50 from Wilko's, and a £3 box holder thing) and we had looooooads. These dvds were what were left over after two previous culls that went to cex so we knew we were keeping them. Seriously the amount of space saved on that one thing alone is staggering.
Especially when you think the thing you actually need is paper thin and the rest of the packaging is just air!
For CDs were going to put them all on the laptop and copy onto an external harddrive and cex the discs. Also the cd player was tipped a couple months ago!

I have some time today but also have a mega load of crochet to finish as a Christmas gift so need to get on with that! Maybe I can tackle a drawer when I get hand cramp haha.

Have a great day everyone :)

Raspberryblonde are your CDs just stored on a computer then? How do you listen to them?

SandandSea I suppose this is why people have Alexa's and spotify accounts

Morning all! One thing out today - a box of Christmas cards! I've used up the ones that I bought last year, and I'm very tempted to stop doing them next year.

We went away for the weekend and I've tried to limit souvenirs to food, which will be a nice reminder of the holiday while it lasts, but not forever. Living out of a suitcase for a few days is a nice reminder of how little I actually need on a day to day basis, so I'm going to try to keep that going.

WoogleCone I've put all our dvds into a plastic wallet (Muji), and recycled the cases. I actually prefer browsing through the wallet to browsing on Netflix, because I'm more likely to find something I want to watch! It takes up very little shelf space.

Just about to get going today. Keep staying up too late at night now I'm off work and because it's so dark in the mornings I am turning my alarm off not waking up. Tree is up but not decorated. Teen DD says she wants to decorate it but doesn't. So have it twinkling with lights but that's all.
Need to do a huge tidy up and will gather some stuff for charity at the same time. I have found another shop that has parking so that will make things easier.
Still can't seem to sell my old washing machine so it's still in the way, I have reduced the price several times and had some interest just not sold it. Will wait till after Christmas now and accept it's not going to be gone before.

I feel like I'm always waiting for something, and then I will be sorted, but that day never comes. It won't ever will it! Need to accept that life will always mean I have stuff that comes and goes.

SandandSea we stream via Sonos speakers from the laptop or use Amazon Music as DH has Prime anyway. The CDs are still in the garage though. MotherWol can DVD and CD cases just go in regular recycling? We have loads in the garage that are rarely watched but DH wants to keep. I think I have some disc wallets so that could remove a big item and actually make it accessible!

Also quite interested in Simply Clean, I'm eternally in search of a good cleaning system! I was actually doing OK with the Organised Mum but then DS stopped being a tiny newborn who slept half the day and I'm not good at doing stuff in 5 minutes shots.

Have decluttered cupboards a bit by wrapping some Christmas presents, pretty sure I will be finding stuff in February as I tried to be organised and start early but didn't have one space big enough for it all.

Thanks, @RaspberryBlonde , I'll look into that.

I'm still doing laundry - 3 loads today.

I've decluttered 2 tea towels that I've always disliked and should have got rid of ages ago.

I've discovered a hole in a fave T-shirt and haven't got rid of it. I'm breaking my own rules here but I'm sentimental about it. I'll have to think a bit more about it.

@StealthNinjaMum - I agree with you and also don't know what Spotify is .