Decluttering one thing a day part 8 - the one where we de-tetris the cupboard of doom!

[WoogleCone]

Welcome! This is thread 8 of the declutter one thing a day challenge!

This is just holding the discussion open until @stealthninjamum gets her computer sorted and back in action :)

Everyone is welcome here, new and old. We implore you to join us on our mission to clear the cupboards, swipe the sides and declutter all debris!
We recycle, reuse, give away, donate or just plain chuck it out to help clear our spaces.

If you're new, start with a small mission - can you tackle one small area at a time? Be it a bedside table, a bathroom cabinet or The Kitchen Drawer?
Just one thing a day is all we ask and report back here with your outs for the day, or week at a time. It's very easy to get the bug when you start small and have success!

Will we find any more big bags of change? Can we sell more big ticket items? Will the school books all get returned? Will the happy meal toys ever stop multiplying and just how many books can we say goodbye to?!

Previous thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3525812-Part-7-of-the-decluttering-challenge-can-you-get-rid-of-one-item-a-day?msgid=87790915#87790915

I've got a box going out!!!

I've also put away the boxes which were on the stairs and ticked off quite a few other jobs today.

motherwol I aspire to a capsule wardrobe! I'm so bad at shopping and being anywhere near fashionable haha. I resent spending money on clothes but I will need a fair amount new when I go back to work, feels counterintuitive to the decluttering effort!

aroundtheworld, that's some huge progress, well done! Always a plus too when you dont need to spend money on extra clothes because the old ones are still good! Glad that lot gets reused for your younger DD. I look forward to doing that with my two.

sand huzzah! With the boxes away they cant get filled again!

stealth, sounds like a wonderful evening! And that is the only acceptable method of decluttering alcohol!!

WoogleCone it's made work clothes a bunch easier - I just have 5 basically identical dresses and a couple of cardis. I'm not really a fashionable person, and I work in academia where no-one really notices what you're wearing, so I figured no-one would notice that my clothes aren't very varied. Weekends I have jeans & t-shirts, and some sports gear. I just ruthlessly purged everything else.

Today's outs: a surplus waterproof (Freecycle), a moth-eaten jumper (textile bin), two old t-shirts (my mum's going to sew them into toddler dresses).

Does it count if you look for one thing a day to get rid of rather than tidying at the same time ?
At the moment i cant face tidying. i have thrown batteries, children's paints. odd socks and a heating tray thing. Still looking and thinking what else to throw..

Welcome typewrriter!
Absolutely! Tidy is something I think most of us aspire to (I certainly do!) So getting rid of the things you no longer need or want is the key point to getting to whatever state you want to be in. Theres no hard and fast rules, we just try to keep it going slow and sure.
Those outs are brilliant so far! Also tidying is sooo much easier when theres less to put away

Welcome, typewrriter12! Yes, this thread is largely about getting rid of stuff. Many of us have found that by aiming for one thing a day, it takes the pressure off whilst keeping us focussed and we often end up throwing away much more than one thing. You just keep doing it and in time, you'll find that there's a lot less to tidy and everything is easier to manage.

Thanks WoogleCone i will carry on until i have more space to tidy

Can I join here please? currently attempting to find the opposite sock to about 50 pairs. Why do they disappear?! and does anyone have an ingenious way to keep them together?
My goal for today is to sort through the toy box in the living room. Just reading through this thread has got me motivated, so thank you!

Welcome, Omgyouatetheprincess! The only idea I can offer you re. socks is to buy all the same colour. That way, you've got more chance of being able to keep pairing them, even when some have died. Other than that, it's all a mystery.

When I updated last week, I forgot to say that I had just taken delivery of a large order of plastic boxes, baskets and trays. (Shh! Don't tell Stealth!)

Instead of sorting out stuff to sell at the weekend, I ended up deploying 6 of the new boxes and tidying the spaces. One has gone into my plastic bag, kitchen foil and greaseproof paper drawer in the kitchen. Hopefully it will keep the small stuff organised and stop it diving down the back into the drawer below. I washed out the drawer first - it was amazing how many crumbs had found their way there. I did throw out a pile of wire ties which had gone rusty! The bag clips are now split between a tub at the front of the drawer, and a tub on the work surface above the fridge. I have also put a deep tray on that work surface, with all the pet medication and supplements in it.

My stain removers are now all neatly arranged in a box, which I can pull out of the cupboard to find the right one. Previously, if I raked, nine times out of ten something would fall and bounce into the sink - usually into a basin of water!

Another box has gone on to the table beside my chair in the living room. It contains odds and ends including paperwork ready to be dealt with or filed. Hopefully, that will stop me having to pull everything out and fish down the back of the table to find things on a regular basis.

Hmmm - I can't remember what I did with the 6th one. (The tub for clips in the drawer is an old carryout tub, not one of the new ones.)

I also mended a pillowcase at the weekend. It is one of my Mum's which is destined to go to the charity shop, but there was a hole on one of the seams where one side of the fabric had not been caught in properly. Tonight I plan to wash it along with the rest of the bedding set and get them in the ongoing charity pile later in the week.

Welcome omgyouatetheprincess! Glad you're feeling raring to go!
My DH pairs his socks when he takes them off, the only thing that drives me mad here is that they often dont get unpaired before they hit the washing machine. But when they do get unpaired at the point of washing they more than likely stick together for the duration of the task and dont get lost as much. That's the theory anyway. I should also mention we completely caught up on laundry the other day to discover that he only has one pair of black socks left from about 15 pairs. Who the hell knows where the other 14 pairs went?!?

Today has been more food related for me, we had lots of Greek yogurt going off so I made blender muffins. Guests tonight so we've cleaned and had a tidy around enough to not look like total scrubbers. Recycling about to go out and I got rid of a few bits that had crept back into the car earlier.

Oh and whilst this isn't decluttering I'll mention it anyway, as I put money saving and decluttering in the same brain feeling space. I got a new gas/electric tariff (with British gas) and itll save around £300 a year. Supposedly. It's the Energy Plus protection green June 2020 tariff and can only be gotten through MSE, not direct if anyone interested.

Well done purplefrog, that's some awesome sorting out. I'll keep the boxes secret from stealth
Do you have lots more stuff to sell?

DH gave me some old hardbacks to try sell yesterday but looking on Ebay theres already loads about so they're barely worth it, after fees I might be lucky to see £1.

I still have quite a lot to sell. Some of it should be advertised now, other bits I'll keep until nearer Christmas. Thanks for the gas tip. Sorting out new fuel contracts is perpetually on my to-do list. We don't have a dual fuel deal and are on standard tariffs, but the goal-posts keep moving. I just need to bite the bullet and choose something!

One thing I have been doing lately is improving my green credentials. I bought a Brita water filter jug a couple of months ago, and have been taking a reusable bottle of filtered water to work each day, and having it with my dinner as well. It is not quite as nice as the Evian I used to buy, but much better than tap water. I have also been participating in a trial recycling scheme for Nescafe coffee pods, which is making me feel a lot better about having a pod coffee machine.

Yeah it had been on my to do list for about 8 months, it's only because I caught sight of the deal on the MSE weekly email thing so it was just a click through thing and took about 5 mins. Definitely a spur of the moment getting it done type affair!

I keep thinking about a brita filter, we used to have one in our old house but the water here doesn't taste so bad. I may well do it though as it's still not the best or my first choice for a drink. Perhaps if I do that il feel the health benefits vs a more sugary drink! We used to buy bottled water from Costco (super cheap, works out about 9p a bottle) but we would just burn through them and lthoigh recyclable, that's still so much plastic I could definitely just not use to begin with. I didn't realise there were pod recycling places either, that's really cool that they exist.

Has anyone else got any green tips?

Some bedding, towels and coats in doorstep collection basket
Badges for entire Scout group (6-13yos) in named envelopes

Welcome to all newcomers!

Hi can I join?

I’ve been lurking on the threads for a while and been getting rid of a few bits here and there but thought it was time to make it official.

The house isn’t too bad but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. There’s definitely stuff lying around not being used that we should get rid of. It doesn’t help that we’ve had builders in since the start of May completely redoing our en-suite and now they’ve moved onto our family bathroom. DS (3) is currently getting bathed in a laundry basket and our dining room is full of bath stuff. Once they’re done there’ll still be quite a lot to redecorate upstairs and having a big declutter before this will help loads.

I’ve been trying to use up loads of hotel toiletry samples and am listening to all my CDs with a view to putting any songs I like onto a Spotify playlist. I’ve certainly had a few “what was I thinking?” moments for some of the CDs I purchased 20 years ago. So today’s item is a CD!

Also plan on decluttering a stone in weight so I can properly declutter my clothes but that’s a whole other thread to join!

Welcome gillster!
Redecorating is definitely a brilliant opportunity for some good decluttering. Doing our living room up last year is what spurred us on to do a huge chunk.
CDs and DVDs that we thought we might use again that weren't worth anything we threw away the packaging to condense down the space used. Or you could go one further and rip the disk to a computer/back up on a hard drive and dispense with the disks entirely!

I'm with you on the weight loss too! I'm looking forward to getting back in the gym soon, I need to wait for my 6 week check though as I cant drive yet to get there!

Welcome, Gillster!

So far today, I've identified a top and a mug to go out. I've had them both for many years and have realised that they are definite joy killers, so they're going.

Wow! How did I not know about this declutter thread back in Jan/Feb?! I started decluttering my entire house back earlier this year, and it’s taken until now (5 months later) to say I finally have one thing left to declutter - the cupboard at the top of my stairs (which has loads of towels, old bed linen, etc) - I will get this done tomorrow morning!

Since January I have done:

• my attic (high chair, pram, jumperoo, all my daughter’s baby clothes from 0 months up to 3-4 years that were all bagged up) - sold pretty much everything “baby & toddler” related and have made around £500 in total from all the baby items I had (plus extra stuff mentioned below...) I have done this by selling through Facebook marketplace and car boot sales.

• my bedroom - went through all drawers and wardrobes and asked myself - have I used this at all in the last 6/12 months? If answer was no, it was sold or donated to charity shops. My husband did the same with his wardrobe 👍

• my daughter’s bedroom - went through all her toys, books, etc and sold/donated toys she no longer played with.

• living room - DH and I went through all DVDs and daughter’s toys, and again we sold or donated what we no longer needed or used in last 6/12 months.

• kitchen - we have gone through all kitchen cupboards and sorted through all cooking utensils & accessories, etc. Again, sold or donated items there that were re-useable.

• conservatory (which was used as a dumping ground!) - we cleared it and tidied it all up. Made it into a joint conservatory (with a small settee to sit on and relax) and other half of the conservatory into a fitness part with bike and exercise mats so we have a place to exercise 👍

• utility room/tool cupboard - we have an “outhouse” attached to our house, as opposed to a garage, where our downstairs toilet, tool cupboard and utility room are located. Again the utility room became a bit of a dumping ground, too, so my DH (inspired by me decluttering) went and sorted the utility room and tool cupboard out - really tidied it all up and it looks great!

We have pretty much done the entire house (apart from towel cupboard) and it feels great. We have only lived here 5 years but it was astonishing just how much we had accumulated, and we knew it needed to be done.
It’s taken a good 5 months to do it all, but it means we have kept on top of keeping our house tidy. I guess having a decluttered house makes us feel more “with it” if that makes sense? We feel more in control and more organised. Plus, bonus is we made a bit of money too!

Wow, I do apologise the long post! Just wanted to share, I guess. Well done to those of you who are also decluttering - keep it up It really does feel amazing when it’s all done

PS - this “tool cupboard” sounds extravagant - it really isn’t! It holds other stuff like our car wash buckets, outdoor broom, hose for outside in the garden (when not in used we store it in the tool cupboard) - I re-read my post above and had to clarify the tool cupboard, haha!

Well done Llioed!

Today's out... Massive bag of cuddly toys
Also impressed with myself as when I went to check bathrooms for empty bottles I only found three .. which included my shampoo and conditioner that both ran out at weekend.

I've been lurking this week as decluttering has largely stalled chez Raspberry. I've been trying to sort things out for my return to work which has been complicated by the fact my team is being restructured. Anyway I've managed to negotiate not going back until school restarts in September which saves me a lot of childcare juggling (and gives more decluttering time!)

Welcome to New people. Llioed I can only dream of your productivity!

Stealth I'm so pleased to hear that you have met someone and are feeling positive about things. I'm sure it's been tougher than you have given away here!

Woogle my current green effort is trying to cur down on cling film and foil use. I've sorted through all my tupperware and am trying to use appropriate sized tubs for leftovers etc. Not really in the declutter spirit but I haven't bought any new ones so think it's OK!

Thank you Around the World and Raspberry (I don’t know how to tag people on here) I appreciate that

I feel like the past 5/6 months has taken forever (I did feel incredibly overwhelmed at the beginning, couldn’t see how I would get it all done) but I managed to do it alongside work, childcare and life in general. Honestly, if I can do it then so can you. Good luck with your decluttering 👍 and thank you again.

Welcome, Llioed! And well done on all that you've achieved. I hope you will keep posting with your ongoing decluttering.

Loads going on here today. The rain here has led to a huge laundry backlog so I'm blitzing it with a view to going to the launderette to dry everything later. I've also got people coming round tonight so I'm going to try to clean and tidy everything in between other jobs.

I've got a charity coming to collect Saturday so I'm going to try to add to my pile there too. I'm also hoping DP is going to mow the lawn as we're doing a tip run tomorrow.

How's everyone else doing?

About 50dvds/CDs on discard pile.
I also sorted a bag of outgrown dressing up clothes yesterday.