Need to sort my dysfunctional house out after 15 years of having a toddler at home

[Welltroddenpath]

Not the same toddler of course, but have four kids all space do out so that once went off the school there was always another at home.

My last baby starts school this Friday which has me in massive conflict of feeling broody and wanting a fresh start. My house is a tip after summer. I couldn’t keep on top of it with four kids, one of whom has quite severe ASD.

I need to go through everything. I need to throw so much out but I’m a bit of a hoarder. I’m worried I’m going going to burn out fast. Any tips?

Do I start now or wait until my youngest starts school?

The declutterers all seem to agree that a bit at a time is the way to go, especially if you're worried about burnout.

If it's just Stuff hanging around, I suggest you work on a small area for maybe about half an hour. For each thing that's in the way, decide whether it needs to be kept or not. Deal with it there and then. (This may mean that you end up only moving one thing that day. This does not matter.)

If things need to be Organised and Sorted, spend half an hour doing that - get all the paperwork in one place rather than in those important piles. Put all the loose jigsaw pieces into one pot. Then another day you can sort all the paperwork into chuck, archive, deal; then another time you can make a start on actually dealing.

I'm not a hoarder but my mother never lost that post-war thing of "we might need it in ten years' time" so I feel guilty throwing anything out. One thing that helped me was to realise just exactly how much of the stuff that got put in the loft "for the grandchildren" ever got played with, now that the youngest of said grandchildren is fourteen. They all got new toys and even at grandad's house there was new stuff. Apart from a few plastic cups it was only the lego that paid its rent (the Meccano went rusty, sadly). Unless your children have emotional attachment to them, you will never need those toddler toys again.

There's a declutterer's thread in the housekeeping section - very supportive and friendly.

(ha, just noticed that we are IN the housekeeping section... I just pick threads up on active)

Yes I think 30 minute chunks is the way to go. I already set the timer on my iPad to wash up, hoover etc just to get through it without getting distracted. I was on the decluttering threan under another name so I must go back.

Decided to start once the youngest is at school as she’s started howling at some broken tat I threw in the bin, now fished back out.

It seems insurmountable today, not to mention out grown clothes etc

My tip is not to have piles of toys for the tip or the charity shop lurking in your hall when the kids get back from school.

Cos suddenly they will decide those toys they haven’t looked at in years are their absolute favourites and they can’t possibly get rid. Get everything gone and they probably won’t notice.

Obviously not advocating you bin their favourite teddy without telling them.

Clothes are time consuming, but actually should be an easy decision type job. We bought those foldable boxes with lids from the works, and basically pack them up by age (I assume your oldest’s clothes go to the next child etc...) it takes ages, because of the amount, but once it’s done, it’s sorted until the next growth spurt. And I usually end up throwing away quite a lot due to stains or rips.
The other thing, but it involves the DCs, is to give them a limit of how many clothes in each category they are allowed to keep. For us, it’s 7 (but that’s actually too many, I just haven’t managed to decide on a lower amount). So 7 t-shirts, 7 long sleeve tops, etc and then get rid of the rest. I try and avoid keeping the rejects for the younger children or else we’re still not getting rid of anything, and the house overflows.
Good luck!

Yes I keep the boys things to hand down. I do get rid of the youngest twos things but that’s a bit hard as it’s my last baby. I will do it though.

Yes I need to pencil in charity shop day each week where I sort in the morning and drop off straight after.

Ha ha cross posted OP.