New home for the new year - still getting rid of one item a day part 6

[StealthNinjaMum]

Here we are again!

Little by little a group of mums netters have been decluttering our homes by getting rid of one item a day. Whether we eat it, bin it, recycle it, sell or give it away we are slowly tidying our homes.

Is this the thread where we finish? Probably not

As usual newbies are welcome to join us. We get rid of one thing and come back to update everyone on our progress and get support when it gets hard.

Previous thread is here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3381702-Getting-rid-of-one-thing-a-day-decluttering-challenge-Part-5?pg=1

MotherWol - what I've done so far is set up a Pinterest board called 'recipes' and when I find a recipe in the magazine that I'd like to keep, I search the web for it and pin it to the board.
That's a great idea!

Asian cookery shelf today. Threw out 2 mirin, one sesame sauce and made 3 sushi soy into 2. And made sushi

I'm stunned by clear recycling bags!! What even is that about?? i am thankful for our wheelie bin or the neighbours would see all the chocolate rubbish
A non productive week in my household. DS is recovered and sleeping better than he was, but I'm just so zonked by the evening that it takes all my efforts just to get stuff ready for the next day, let alone do much decluttering
All I've achieved this week is charity shopping my old clubbing heels - 4pairs. I've kept my less high token wedding guest/christening guest shoes, but they're nude so go with everything, and some black "work heels" for client visits, interviews, court etc and some strappy sandal heels - because you never know
Also threw out a moisturiser that i was working through because it haven't been that keen on the smell, so wondered why i even kept it. Took one out of my to be used stash... Cocoa butter smells much better!
Threw out some 'body scrub' because i just don't use it.
Also recycled an old iron box that DH had filed in the loft instead of the recycling and a collection of glass coffee jars that have come home from work with him and ended up in a carrier bag

Do you all end up with masses of cosmetics? People love giving me moisturiser... I do think that decluttering a few unopened ones into the charity shop bag would be a quick win, but then it make a conscious effort to use it a lot me in vast quantities when pregnant over my belly, thighs and boobs, coz y'know, stretch marks so i wouldn't want to throw it out, to have to buy some more...
Although on the other hand, pregnancy was helpful in decluttering a tub of fake strawberry smelling body butter last time boak.

Busy weekend ahead so i shall make a conscious effort to do some tonight. Although being back at work full time seems to be taking it out of me, so who knows!

This link is good for paper clutter - 15 minutes and done!!!

mumof1ds I have definitely decluttered several part used tubs of moisturiser this pregnancy!

So I put a brand new sheet and duvet set and a touristy tea towel that dries nothing into the charity shop bag last night. Also threw a few stained, threadbare flannels, oven gloves and towels straight out.

More clothes sorted this morning- they're going into the loft for younger ds so not exactly out but the drawers are clearer

Bookcase sorted and so pleased with the result, got loads for the charity shop and a whole bag of paperwork that needs shredding filing cunning etc

Cunning should have been binning

@Keiki ooh how exciting, do you have long left? I'm impressed with your energy, all i wanted to do in pregnancy was veg on the sofa.

I like the idea of being able to file cunning: that way, you always know where to find it when you need it.

Wardrobes are what I really need to focus on now. The fundamental issue is too many clothes: fat clothes, thin clothes, winter clothes, summer clothes. I really need a radical cull. It won't be this weekend though as I'm away. But that's my next serious target.

As a stop-gap, I've got my eye on the cutlery drawer which also seems to house some novelty straws, a variety of bottle-openers, chopsticks, corn on the cob holders, strawberry hullers (yes, plural), amongst other pointless things.

Not much to report on the decluttering front here other than daily bits like recycling although as part of that I did go through the fridge and find a couple of jars that had lingered a bit too long.

Thanks for all the tips on recipe books, I will check out Pinterest. I have been saving things on Evernote and Keep and I have lots of sticky notes to bookmark things. Part of the problem is that lots were gifts from DH and he gets a bit funny about me wanting to get rid of them (or indeed anything he's bought me) as he takes it as a judgement on his present buying abilities. As a result I'm hanging onto loads of stuff I don't really want! Mind he doesn't help himself, I asked for a warm but thin coat for Christmas and showed him one I liked. He bought me a light weight spring jacket which I needed but don't especially like. Sigh.

This morning the state of the house was getting on top of me - I knew our cleaner was coming and everything is just so untidy! Probably a subject for a separate thread but it feels like there are just not enough hours in the day and any weeks where I'm not 100% on it things just degenerate. Am I missing some trick here?

Going to try to book 3 consecutive days off (throwing caution to the wind as I save my holiday days in case DD is ill - she was in hospital 3 times last year!) to try and get a chunk done.

So I had 3 years of old family calendars - keeping for memories of what the DC said and did when. I took a photo of each page and put in a folder and emailed it to myself. Then I chucked the calendars. Just 8 more to go 😉

I think I pretty much stopped being tidy when I was pregnant and it took me 6 years to start again! (By which point I had hundreds of bags of shit) so I am also impressed with Keiki

It's interesting about that filing. When I moved into this house I went through a phase of putting all paper in a ring binder each year but found that didn't work and so went back through folders putting like minded things together. I think I must just have a complicated life because I have lots of things I have to keep. Maybe I could put everything in a box file and spend two hours emptying that file on the 31st December? Will think about that.

Anyway today I have carried on with schoolwork shredding and chucking out lots of stuff. I have chucked out a pile of papers that started to live in the kitchen and ended up with four recipe books in the charity shop pile.

I also bought some coathooks that hang over the playroom door. I'm hoping that dds can hang their sports kits bags and coats on them. I used to get sports kits ready on Sunday night and want to go back to this system and have an actual home for them.

battenburg my house is a mess too because I am chucking stuff out and have emptied boxes and drawers but I know that if I were to focus on tidying it would be done quickly. Also dc and stbexh know where things go and are better at putting things away. It might be that if you focus on decluttering and finding homes for things it'll just get better on its own.

What sort of untidiness? Is it things that don't really have a home or is it just people can't be bothered to put things away. I'm pretty lazy but even I put things away more now.

DP and I are both off work today and are 'doing jobs'. We're replacing the sealant in the porch and sprucing it up generally. The garden bench has come inside for oiling. The bathroom grout has been scrubbed. A downstairs cupboard has had a sort out, making room for the vacuum cleaner. I've sorted out the garden chairs for selling/charity. The Christmas stuff has been put away in the loft. An old sheet and an old pair of shoes are going for recycling and we are now going out for coffee, via the post office to drop off a box. This might sound like more than it is, we're actually pacing ourselves - so long as the porch is finished this weekend, we'll be happy.

I feel the ssne most days Battenburg. DD has a friend coming this afternoon after school so have spent a load of time making the place presentable. Our big problem is lazy people not putting things where they belong so I find myself riding constantly before I can clean anything. I'm going decluttering will help with this...

I have a huge amount of beauty products too mumof1ds. I’ve decided not to buy anything this year until I’ve used up all my stash, the only exception being if I don’t have any replacement.

Sounds like a busy day sandandsea, well done!

Good luck with getting the kids to put their own stuff away stealth. My two oldest walk in the door and throw their coats, hats, gloves, scarves and shoes on the floor. I’m going to start training them to put the stuff away. Let’s see if it works.

I’ve cleaned out another 3 of the kitchen cupboards and DH took a small bag of scarves and clothes to the charity bin today. I also have a pack of size 1 nappies to my midwife to give to another family as my chunk of a baby has grown out of them!

Thanks - good to know I'm not the only one! I think it's a combination of

• things not having a place
• Lots of 'stuff'
• not much storage in terms of cupboard units, sideboard etc and no spare cash to purchase at the moment
• a toddler (!) plus working full time.
• laundry

We've been guilty of being bad at putting things away and have been making much more of an effort, but there's still so much and I guess it just got to me this morning, I had hoped to do more but have been coming down with a cold/sore throat all week so motivation has been low.

battenberg I'm a stay at home mum and lived like that for about six years so had no excuse. The first three of those reasons will pass and things will get better slowly. Also toddlers take up lots of space with buggies and big toys so one day you'll clear that stuff out and notice the difference.

My dc are getting better at putting things away. They say they prefer living in a tidy house. If someone announced they were coming over tomorrow I could probably get the house presentable in half an hour. Whereas in the past it would take hours and I would end up just putting things in a bag and hiding them somewhere.

Sorry that isn't meant to sound like I'm showing off.

It's meant to sound like I'm a naturally lazy slob and it has taken time but we are getting there.

Few more work journals into recycling bag. Christmas cards ditto. Yet another honey sock for the rag bag! Bedside chest of drawers has had its top sorted and dusted.
One thing nearly in I’ve ordered a jewellery cleaner as discovered some very dusty and tarnished necklaces discovered today

Holey sock! I swear autocorrect hates me. I did spot “ tat I shed” for tarnished which is actually very apposite

I'm sorry to hear that greenwillow

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by school stuff! Practically done with sorting through dd1s work stuff but have found about 2 boxes and 2 big bags of artwork. It's overwhelming so I think I am going to have a break on it til Monday.

I am currently decluttering photos from stbexhs computer as I will need to copy them somewhere before he moves out and I am backing up my laptop. I should've decluttered the laptop first because it is so full it has been backing up since 5 o'clock yesterday and is now 85% done. I have a good camera that takes millions of massive photos so I should've deleted half of them but the last time I backed up my laptop (2012!) it didn't take very long.