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

@ifiwasabutterfly - No one ever gets slated on this thread - we're all friendly here. I mostly clean with a home-made spray cleaner: vinegar and water with a splash of washing-up liquid. On top of this though, I recently discovered magic erasers and have rejuvenated several walls, doors etc very easily with it. (£1 in Poundland.) Some of these, I honestly thought I was going to have to redecorate as I couldn't get the marks off with other methods.

SandandSea what sort of vinegar do you use and how much compared to water? I think I might copy you with that idea although I am very depressed at the state of my skirting boards. I think I am going to have repaint them all because they have lost their whiteness and gone cream. I love white skirting boards.

3 bags of stuff despatched to one charity shop. Other bags still to go to other shops.

I came to this part of Mumsnet looking for solidarity in decluttering, and it looks like this might be the place, if that's all right.

My house is superficially tidy but the cupboards are verging on anarchic, and I just find having too much stuff oppressive. So, I want to start chucking stuff out. Clothes mostly. I have too many, most of which I don't wear and wouldn't miss.

Welcome pipistrelle my house was a bit like that. Lots of full storage space. It does get better. The drawer I took my unwanted apron out of this morning used to be a 'general shit' drawer with keys, buttons, old batteries, tea towels, aprons, string, bin bags, unidentified broken / plastic things. Now it only has nicely folded tea towels, takeaway menus and bin bags. Life is so much easier.

Cupboards are used only for their set purpose, but there's just too much to be used. Less is definitely more.

I'm not helped by the fact that my daughter is seriously into crafting (and she has creative and interesting ideas) but she leaves a trail of embroidery thread and little bits of felt and paper on every clear flat surface - mostly the dining table. I am constantly clearing it, but she always claims she's 'just about to use it' which, to be fair to her, she often is.

Ooh, I have just had inspiration for my first clearing task. There's a set of shelves which contains my make-up and other beautifying products. I can easily go through that tomorrow and chuck out unfinished, unused stuff.

I did a tip run today. The car was fully loaded with 12 bin bags of rubbish/recycling plus a large box of broken small appliances.

I still need to take down the Xmas decorations and get them up into the loft. DD has a friend coming tomorrow so we also need to tidy/clean at least the living room.

@StealthNinjaMum - I generally use cheap white vinegar (it looks clear). You can buy it in Tesco (? I think) for about 30p a bottle. (You can pay much more though.) Try about 30% vinegar to 70% water to start with. Then add a small squirt of washing-up liquid. You can always add more vinegar if you need it. Do take care though - I believe it can corrode some metals (brass fire place bits, TV stand etc).

Today's items: I'm helping my mum again today. We've been going through her bakeware etc and have a whopping TEN containers to go out, including 2 giant Tupperware containers and several large casserole dishes. Her kitchen's pretty small so this will make a huge difference. I've also managed to sort out her storage containers, matching lids to bottoms - she's always short of them and was going to buy a load more but it turns out she's got more then enough.

Thanks SandandSea I'll try that. Of course first I'm going to carry on decorating and decluttering to get the house ready to sell.

I have just been on the external hard drive again and found all my photos and lots of documents / funny pictures / copies of emails that I'd forgotten about. I can't think of anything on my old computer that isn't on the hard drive so I think I can throw it away. Then I can also go through the hard disk drive organising files and in particular photos and moving them over from my other two computers. It's such hard, boring work!

Yes it is, Stealth. I've got more of that to do too - loads of photos all over the place. It'll happen.

More items going out today: 10 wine glasses and 6 sherry glasses. (Leaving full sets of just about every possible type of glass.)

One tip run completed today, a couple of large unused kids toys off to the charity shop too

A really busy day but not much decluttering done. I did 3 jobs from my 'to do' list which all involved making phone calls. I have issues with anxiety and I find phoning people incredibly stressful which I know is ridiculous so I'm pleased to get them done.

Only one thing out today - last years calendar into the recycling along with an out of date school letter that was tucked in there. I've sorted out a couple of things to go on ebay so I'm going to do the photos and list them tomorrow.

4th January:

2 half empty bottles shampoo/conditioner into bin; I don't like them and they won't be used.
Half bag of stir fry veg from freezer into bin.

I'm just like you with phone calls @bobgoblin, so a big well done from me

I think I might be doing something wrong. I did some sorting out in the kitchen, and I’ve realised I need to buy more plates (we’re down to 4 dinner plates at the moment, and there are 4 of us in the household).

I’ve also tidied the wrapping paper, but not actually thrown any out.

In fact, I’m not sure I’ve actually managed to get rid of anything in the last 2 days

Just sat down after doing more clearing - my old mum has been a really good sport and is getting rid of loads of stuff. We've now got specific places for everything in the kitchen and big - big! - gaps in the kitchen cupboards. It's starting to look really lovely.

The outs now include a Denby tea set, baking trays, a fancy serving tray, a vase, some loose tea, instruction leaflets and some old, inherited serviettes.

We've booked a charity to come and collect everything next week so we're blitzing it.

I'm also chucking 5 pairs of old knickers.

Everyones doing so well!!!! Good effort on tge kitchen sandandsea must feel good to see the nice clear spaces appearing!
bobgoblin in with you on the phonecall anxiety so well done on that!
awesomedragon glad you got your tip run complete Is a satisfying trip isnt it!!
To many to catch up since i last checked in but just well dmdonecall and keep going!!
I got the decorations put away, have made the front room look pretty good just been focussing some effort upstairs tonight but made more mess than good for now but il carry on tomorrow have thrown a few bits away atleast!x

Hi all
I've adopted this new way of grocery shopping today. I thought I'd share it as it seems a great way for our kitchens and pantries not to get overstuffed with food we never buy.

There's a link to an Excel shopping list which you can download and adjust. I've done it and I love it. There has been some resistance from DH who loves buying up the supermarket, but I've tried to console him by letting him add his favourite dinners to the list. This post sounds a bit spammy but I think you know me by now

PenelopeFlintstone I try to avoid DH going to the supermarket for just that reason! He once (pre DC, so just the 2of us) came home with 30 sausages.

I also hate phonecards but have a few jobs round the house that we need someone in to sort so will be taking next week. Includes getting council to collect defunct fridge in the garage.

Christmas decorations down yesterday, they'll go to the garage today. Have binned the cards that can't be made into gift tags and will cut up the rest this weekend. Also threw away an empty bottle of squash which had been left in the cupboard for some reason. I've also started to look at my clothes and sorted out a load of bras in the wrong sizes... I have loads after being pregnant and BF but some are never comfy. Can they go to charity shop like any other unwanted clothes? Most are barely worn.

Well done to everyone, sounds like there's some great progress being made!

Agree on the phone calls, I hate it. DH hates it more so I end up doing them. Despite his job being the person at the other end of the phone

The video was great Penelope, I watched the FAQs too. Thinking of everything as inventory, not just food really puts it right in my head. I don't know why I didn't think of it this way before, I have inventory at work (physical and digital) that I have to maintain so this makes so much sense!

I don't have a printer, but actually wouldn't want to print it out all the time anyway so I'll probably make a master list in the same way and then write into my phone the shopping list and add the meal plan to the calendar.

DD is distracted now so I think I'll pop some laundry in, not really sure what to tackle today. What's on every else's agenda?

I so need to do this. I’m goung to start today (5th) by getting rid of 5 things and then one thing each day for the rest of the year. My dp and me have spoken about moving in together so hopefully this will be a good way for me to create some space for his things!
I have a triple built in wardrobe that’s full of my stuff - not just clothes but things I don’t have anywhere else to put them.
The kids are growing up so I can get rid of some of their games and toys that are no longer played with.
I’m excited to be joining you this year having lurked a bit last year.......

My plan is to attack the bathroom today, we have so much stuff in there, bottles of half used shampoos etc, so going forward I want to use up everything before we buy more, not just bathroom bits but seems like a good place to start... going to make a list of all we have got and probably shock myself in the process... once it's all out and organised I'm going to give it a deep clean and throw out some stuff in the process