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

Rosa, you might find the book Atomic Habits helpful. I listened to it on audio book and it was really helpful. Some downloadable resources as well.

Hi all. Haven’t done much over the weekend or this week. Having a pj day at home with ds today so have started on the living room. Have sorted the top of a shelf / display unit while ds trashes rest of room with toys. Got a bag of dvds and cds to go as well as some school creations that I’m sneaking out!

I’ve been ill recently (June) and still recovering as still get tired. Back to school and work 😞 next Thursday so hoping to be on top of things and want to be organised for school run etc.

We will also be ordering a bed for the spare room so will need to get some space cleared in there. I’m hoping that having a bed will give the room more purpose and will mean it’s kept tidier

I've got sidetracked from the decorating again!!! I received some post which I wanted to action but the good news is that I've consequently, sorted out some of my financial filing. I've shredded/recycled a pile of papers and emptied a large ring binder. I've also cleaned the kitchen.

I'm just having a cuppa and then I'm going back to the painting. (Probably.)

Lots of bags to the chazzer today. Yay!

No promises but, I might have finished the bathroom ceiling! I will know tomorrow when there's more light.

I've been taking books to charity 5-10 at a time - no car, so it's combined with whenever I walk / bus into town. I've photographed each little stash as it's identified and stored in computer. The other day I did a rough count of how many I could see in the pictures. Over 300!!! That's about 1/5 of the books.

I have sold the nappies!

Woman gosh, well done. I have absolutely no patience for that! I wonder if a charity would come and pick them up. Maybe, maybe not.

Woman - Well done on the books! That is really good.

Cold - Good news! You must be pleased.

Well, my bathroom ceiling is going to need another coat, sadly. But, the good news is, I've squashed up 8 cardboard boxes for recycling. Yes, eight!!

Good work on the boxes Sand we’ve collapsed quite a few today, some Lego bought on eBay came very well packed - it took me back to the pass the parcel years A lunch bag deemed not suitable for year 7 has gone into charity bag. Kids have had a book sort out so have two piles to pass on to nephews and nieces.

Can I hop in on this? I've lost weight lately and it's escalated in a massive urge to purge ALL THE THINGS!

I finally got rid of a load of solar lights that don't work.

Thanks IWillWearTheGreenWillow, you’re right. I’m amazed by how much you have going on!

Thanks also SandAndSea, I have form for being unnecessarily hard on myself so that was a nice reminder! I hear you re the prepping to sell. Marketplace can be brilliant for some things but yeah a lot of people are flakey or can’t/don’t read the listing properly. I really have to hold back my sarcasm when responding . Well done on the filing.

Good work toomanyhobbies I do find that having small people about really hampers the decluttering. I barely keep on top of daily life when I have both at home!

Hello to everyone else! On Thursday I got a black bag to the dump along with a broken air fryer and two garden toys that were wrecked. Also had a sort thru of the freezer but out a hold on putting some things into the food waste bin until closer to next collection day.

Yesterday I put a bundle of baby clothes on marketplace,...let’s see how that goes!

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

Welcome, @cheesenpickles!

Willow - I've had that happen too - v annoying.

Well, today is going to be about decorating and furniture. I'm going to see some (2nd hand bargains) so might have a temporary 'in' before I sell the old pieces. But, it'll look better in the long run so should be worth it.

Hello everyone

I have been sorting kids books today. I have several bags to palm off on a relative .

I have also put five enormous bags of kids clothes from the loft in my living room to start sorting through for charity. A friend wants the size 4/5 boy clothes. Result. Now I need to sort DS’s wardrobe out...

DH went to the loft. Goodbye broken garden toys!

Willow wishing you well with this term. A friend had a similar issue - a year of homeschool later the change in him is astonishing.

(DH went to the tip, not the loft!)

...you have to capitalise on how you're feeling now, not hope the urge will still be there tomorrow!

^^ So true!

I agree re capitalise in how you are feeling now. I think it's also important that it doesn't have to take big chunks of time. Say 15 minutes may be enough for my underwear drawer. I may do a single shelf in kitchen while waiting for something to simmer for a bit while cooking or just open the kitchen drawer of gloom and bin or move a few things
It so much harder when DC are small though

DD back from her travels with a pile of new stuff (mainly from American charity shops as far as I can tell) and I'm going to have to be strict and get her to dump some old stuff
I sneaked a bag out while she was away - she's such a magpie she retrieves stuff from charity pile

So definitely at least 1 thing gone per day this week

Will need to tackle garage again at some point but need DH as not safe to do alone

I'm looking forward to the new school and uni terms - I like September for a fresh start. Doing C25K with DD1 which I hope to have finished when she's back at uni in a month

Sorry for joining this thread and then disappearing - the past couple of weeks have been so busy that decluttering has taken a backseat. In fact, the house looks worse than ever!

InOmniaParatus13 I’m due on 3rd Feb so we’re almost due date twins! Let’s hope we manage to create lovely calm and clutter-free spaces for these babies to come home to!

Yesterday we moved my dad out of his care home back to living independently so I decluttered our spare double bed and mattress to his place (we’d been planning to sell it in a couple of months to allow DD to move into that bedroom and I managed to convince DH it could go a little earlier than scheduled), plus a box of his paperwork that we’d been storing at our house.

However that has revealed the pile of crap that was stored underneath the spare bed. Today I’m going to attempt to sort that out and find homes for it all (hopefully some of it can be added to the charity pile!)

I've had a bit of a slow week. I wasted a couple of days when I had child free hours faffing about doing nothing in particular. I might start to regret that when I'm back to working and school runs again!

There have been a few outs since I last posted - a pair of shoes and a few clothes of DS's (every time he complains that something is too tight or uncomfortable it goes!). A charity bag came through the door so all the decent clothes went in there although I still have a huge pile for recycling that I need to deal with. We were going past the tip so put a set of broken garden chairs and some broken garden toys in the car and dropped them off. A few of my ebay items sold so I've used up some old packaging.

I'll have to catch up with the thread properly later because if I don't start doing something now it'll be another wasted day. I hope everyone else is making good progress.