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

Results here also good so reached required grades for chosen sixth form. Sign up day next week

You are all doing so well! I don't have much going on here - dc went back to school yesterday and I de-cluttered the garden of some weeds last night, ready for our BBQ this weekend. I have a couple empty totes that I want to use in my closet for some of my keepsake stuff (Not quite ready to go through that all though).

Will have a couple ins tonight though as dd needs gym clothes and supplies for school (always find out 1st couple of days when in high school).

My charity turned up! Woop-woop!!

I've also quickly returned a big bag of clothes which I'd ordered online. They've refunded me already so that's all done. Little things like this really help me to feel like I'm on it.

Oo! And I've re-housed a large, indoor plant! That's another big space created.

One small out here's folding table sold on Fb, just picked up. Big de clutter coming up as oh car has died & cost to fix is about 5 x it's value so it will be scrapped

Fab news Iwill & Gassy on the results too!

Well done greenwillows ds, I'm glad he did well.

A few dribs and drabs here. A school play script from 3 years ago hidden in the bottom of the binbag, hopefully dd1 won't see it and want to rescue it! I also found an old biff and kipper book to go and I am dithering about some linen trousers that are very faded.

Fantastic news for all those with kids getting gcse results 😁 well done all!

For some reason I have a ridiculous amount of toiletries that take up 3 storage racks! So I am going to sort through them all today and put most of the unopened ones under the bed until i’m ready to use them!

I have around 3 bags of washing left which I am hoping to get done today. I am off to Wilko soon to buy a washing line as I don’t have one, so going to attempt to put that up.

I love this thread, my house is looking so much better already, and I’m no longer panicking that it won’t be done by the time baby arrives in February! 😁

Hey everyone, been offline for a couple weeks - sorry! Also haven't done much in the way of decluttering, in fact the very opposite and been on a spending spree with money I dont have!

Its payday on monday and I need to get my head screwed back on.

Going to book in getting a new front door soon as we got our quote so we'll be on our way to redoing the hallway. I work better to a deadline so I'm going to make it tough on myself so I get it all done quicker!

Enjoy the bank holiday weekend everyone!

Have fallen off the thread a bit this week - mainly because I haven’t been decluttering much! Our spray mop broke this week though so that will be going. Summer holidays have been very unproductive for us and we’re off on holiday next week! Going to start packing today and hopefully find some outs as I go.

Great news on the GCSE results, well done!

Sounds like you are on a roll Omnia I just don’t know where all the laundry comes from. DH blames washable nappies but that is two loads a week these days.

Sorry didn't see your post gassylady well done on dc's GCSE results!

I was feeling a bit fed up with the state of the house after my last post and ended up doing housework and proper tidying til about 4am! I suspect I'll forget to mention everything but I

• recycled a load of old school prospectuses and random bits of homework / spelling lists
• went through my post actioning a few things - need to file a load though
• did a tiny bit of Christmas shopping
• tidied out all my recently used handbags
• threw away, recycled and shredded lots of old receipts and online shopping packaging
• threw out some old magazines and catalogues
• put some old school book bags into the recycling pile
• organised my toner cartridges -this is riveting stuff but I have about 15 black and only 2 yellow so it's nice to be able to see instantly what I'm going to run out of.
• cleared the kitchen surfaces
• ironed all unironed clothes (the ironing pile is empty!)

The 'public' bits of the house are tidy with clear surfaces and window ledges! My bedroom is also getting there as I have been spending a couple of minutes a day putting things away. I just need to hoover.

Wow my head is hurting after reading everyone’s lists. It is indeed a £1 selling weekend on eBay so my prepared listings will be made active. I have also found several bits of school swim kit and trainers that might be worth a punt if I can find time- we have family visiting so they may have to wait.

Not strictly decluttering but a possible one in one out scenario. Has anyone here got the small hang up ironing board from Lakeland. I have a really big board and once it’s out it tends to be furniture in the living room for ages Partly because it is a pain to fold and stash in the cupboard which is in a room that is normally a Lego assault course! As I try and iron as little as possible thought the smaller one might be enough

Freegled a chair with a tapestry seat my aunt had done. Very mixed feelings about it but it's another bit of clutter. A lovely young man has taken it and now I'm so glad I decluttered it. Hoping this will encourage the decluttering again.

I have filled my car up with a few bits of wood from the garage and when stbexh has the dc tomorrow I'll go to the dump. I also have some electronics to recycle - a couple of wires and a broken TV that's really old.

I decided to treat myself today by buying 3 lovely things which are, tbh, what you might call, knick knacks. I normally hate such things but these brought me joy as soon as I saw them and now they're home, they're still bringing me joy. So, no regrets (though I obviously feel the need to confess my sins to you all with my head down).

Hi all, can I join? I live in a 4-bed semi in London that needs some work (mostly a bit of layout change and new kitchen downstairs, but also thinking about a loft conversion. We also have leaky and hence mouldy conservatory that needs rebuilding). We have 2 young DC and while we have a reasonable amount of space we seem to be drowning in clutter! Kid clutter, craft clutter (me), kitchen clutter (me - but to be fair I cook A LOT and our kitchen is disproportionately small for a family home, hence the need for layout changes) and collector’s clutter (dh - books, CDs, magazines).

At the moment I actively hate my house. Shuffling the clutter is taking me a lot of work and time I don’t have (I work in quite a high pressure job and one of my DC has SN and needs a lot of support). I am sociable but I hate inviting people round at the mo because of the work that needs doing - it can be tidied to look respectable, it’s not beyond that, but the fundamental work that needs doing is pretty evident, especially the mouldy conservatory. But until I declutter a bit I can’t get an architect round to start planning the work, even though we have the money to do most of it. I need inspiring and holding to account, so would love to join if I may.

Having family over on Monday, and today is haircut and errands, but I’d like to make some progress tomorrow. I sent o be able to sort stuff to go but then actually getting it out of the house is another matter altogether! One bit of progress I’ve made over recent months is giving up on the idea of selling things - decluttering my life is more important than future bits and bobs of money back, especially as I doubt it will ever happen! I have got rid of almost all of my baby stuff (youngest recently turned 2) and have given all the baby stuff away, regardless of value. Only thing left to go is a fancy pram. Currently
In the garage, which is so cluttered I can’t actually get it out to take a Photo!

Apologies for waffling but I feel better already just for saying all that!

Hi @ChristmasSeacow and welcome! I've found that one of the secrets is to just keep going. There might be times when you're overwhelmed or relieved or even, full of grief. It can be an emotional business but you just have to keep going and trust that you're going to start seeing results, even when it seems like you're not. Do keep posting and if we can help we will.

You’ve all been busy!

Hi christmas, I’m new around here too! I know your name from lurking on the frugaleer thread.

Didn’t manage anything yesterday or today. must get back to it tomorrow. Really getting somewhere with the baby room....must keep on!

Hi all!
Not done much decluttering today as I had my gender scan, i’m Having a handsome wee boy

Tomorrow’s plan is to hide inside from the heat and crack on with my bedroom. My spare room which will be the nursery is completely clear, so I’m getting somewhere!

Off for a lovely soak in the bath now, I hope everyone has a wonderful bank holiday

Welcome ChristmasSeacow. Also thanks to gassylady for the heads up about the ebay weekend. I was going to update on the thread yesterday but saw your post about this and went off to take photos of my selling pile. Everything has now been listed and some things went into the charity pile because I didn't think there was much point listing them.

There's been some more school bits in over the last couple of days although I found some more of DD's clothes for the rag bag. I had to go out today and buy a pump so that we could actually blow up our paddling pool that I bought earlier in the summer. While I was looking for a suitable pump in the cupboards I did find that for some unknown reason we have two pumps for blowing up balloons - I'm definitely getting rid of one but possibly even both.

I started on the filing cabinet this afternoon and now have a huge pile of shredding and I've barely started. I'm trying to get all of our paperwork properly filed so I'll try and do some more tomorrow.

Willow I can relate to this in so many ways - in fact I'm sure I posted about feeling similar a couple of weeks ago. Stealth gave me some good advice at the time about just trying to clear one surface and it did help. I know what you mean about normal house tasks not been done as well. I just said to DH I'm going to clear/clean the lounge today as it's totally out of control. DS asks everyday what day it is because there's no real routine, bedtimes are a bit all over the place and, as much as I'm not looking forward to going back to work, at least the start of term will mean there will be less chaos (I hope)!

Morning!
It’s too hot here, so I did the food shopping early and now I’m hiding inside where it’s cool, about to start a day of decluttering!
I figured the more I get done now, the better as I imagine it won’t be so easy once I have a huge bump!

@IWillWearTheGreenWillow thank you, I’m so excited! I already have a name picked out thankfully, it’s just me and my boy as his dad walked out on us when I fell pregnant, so I don’t have to compromise lol! I’m due 7th Feb which doesn’t feel too far away! Good luck for the kitchen, you can do it!

Today’s plan is to eat now then I’m going to put a wash on and start to tackle my bedroom. I have lots of wrapping paper stored in a wardrobe, so that’s going under the bed so I can have a free wardrobe for little mans clothes! I’m waiting for one of my brothers to come round so he can help me move the tv and stand from the nursery into my room! Bins have been emptied so I imagine there will be lots of outs today, fingers crossed!

Have a lovely day everyone!