Decluttering one thing a day - Part 9

[SandAndSea]

Welcome to our 9th thread in the Decluttering One Thing A Day series!

As you might imagine, we aim to get rid of one thing a day (or the equivalent, if we miss a few days).

The idea is that aiming low in this way prevents us from getting overwhelmed. It's also sustainable so helps us to develop effective clutter clearing habits which last.

In reality, many of us have found that once we start, we often get rid of far more than just one thing. (But if we don't, that's OK too.)

Everyone's welcome! We're a friendly and supportive bunch, from aspiring minimalists to full-on clutterbucks! We're also pretty green so you'll find lots of recycling, freecycling, donating and selling.

Previous thread here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3612006-Decluttering-one-thing-a-day-part-8-the-one-where-we-de-tetris-the-cupboard-of-doom?pg=1&order=

Thanks, Salem, that's really nice to know. We've had some lovely, long-term members over the years.

I've placed a For Sale ad tonight. No biters yet.

I've also got a big, plastic sheet going to recycling. (I'm holding back my sheet jokes. Not for the first time on here.)

I'm loving my new wm now. I take back everything derogatory I ever said about it
Brutus - have you clicked Watch This Thread? Instead of just Threads I’m On.

@SalemSpellman bath toys here need sorting, I may tackle them today.

Just checking in briefly to say I love my super-shiny kitchen this morning, and I brought everyone back after tea last night to finish clearing up properly because I'm not a House Elf and I'm not doing it again!

Now, can I preserve the kitchen in amber while I work on the rest of the house??

After an hour in the DCs room, we’ve sorted through toys, and filled a laundry basket with ones they no longer want. I’ve also sorted through their bookcase, and managed to empty a whole 2x2 kallax, which might get used in our bedroom.
The good thing about tidying their room is they find toys they’d forgotten about so hopefully they’ll play nicely for a couple of hours now!

Can I share something from my favourite YouTuber?
Things to ask when you’re struggling to get rid of things:
Have I used it in the last year? (We all know that one.)
Is anything going to change that will mean I’m likely to use it in the coming year?
An original thought here! (By her, not me.) I always think that the coming year will be different but if I ask myself why it is likely to be any different, so that I might take up knitting or use that Christmas decoration that I haven’t used for years, it is hard to find an answer. The answer is likely to be that this year won’t be any different.

Would I part with it for money? If the answer is yes, then it means that I don’t really love the item I just feel guilt over the money that I’ve already spent on it. Let go of the guilt by passing it on to someone who will actually use it and maybe can’t afford to buy it new.
That’s all, folks!

I spoke too soon about playing nicely...

Penelope Yes, I think I heard her say that we’re creatures of habit so if we’re not using now it’s unlikely that we’ll use it later!
And I can’t remember if it’s her, or on this thread, or the many blogs I’ve read about decluttering, but the “keep only things that are useful” mantra should be “[...] useful... right now”. Not could be useful, or were useful a while back, but right now, do you use it?

today dh voluntarily produced a big bag of thrillers he didn't want to keep any more. He hates throwing books away, so I was quite touched. I've ranted and raved so much about how hard I find it to make room for all the "stuff" and I think he is seeing some rooms have improved for moving stuff out, so it makes more sense to him. Anyway. I still have to get them to the charity shop though...
He also said that a certain antique bookcase (very small) could go too.

I've decluttered the food compost
The recycling

Ah, siblings. You got a few quiet moments, though Times.

I totally understand the need to change mindset from "might it be useful" (an antique asparagus peeler? Yes it might) to "is it useful now, and does it suit our life?" (but we all hate asparagus!).

I've found in the last six months or so that if it will be useful in our life and we love it, I will find a way to use it (inherited wooden tea caddy? Lovely, and now full of tea!), whereas if it won't it can go (inherited rusty chestnut roaster, when we only light the fire 6 times a year and don't buy chestnuts? Out it goes).

This morning I have cleaned more muck out of the kitchen (cupboard doors and kickboards), found a way to tie up the utility room blinds so we can see out (and cleaned the windows) and taken a leaf out of Nettle's book and put an offcut of blind up in the cloakroom to get it out of the way. Feeling very virtuous!

Also moving a redundant cabinet (we have two, they don't match and one has no legs) out of the bathroom.
Also some old rubbish from the airing cupboard (plastic bags mostly and old socks)
Some polysterene
Some empty shampoo bottles
milk bottles in crate
A lamb bone from the fridge

Yes, I did, and they’ve finally gone back up to (hopefully) play for a little bit before lunch.

I have an issue that I can’t decide on, and DH either. We bought a sofa bed, but still have the old sofa and an armchair in the living room. We do not have space for all 3, but we can’t decide if we should get rid of the sofa or the armchair... The sofa doesn’t have a fire resistant label, which is surprising as it doesn’t look particularly old, so we can’t donate it, but I can’t decide if it’s better to have more seating (and get rid of the armchair) or if the armchair would be better once the baby is here, as I could sit on it alone, when breastfeeding.

Well done nettle you and your DH are doing well!
And yay to a sparkly kitchen willow

Can the armchair go in a bedroom corner?

I was hoping to do that, but it doesn’t go through the door frame easily, so there’s no way it would go up our stairs. I thought it could be nice in the DCs room for bedtime stories, but the stairs are the main issue.

Hmmm. I didn’t think of stairs- probably because I don’t gave any...
It doesn’t come apart, does it?
I’ve got two recliners (hate mine) and when they were delivered I was very surprised to see they were in parts! Yours doesn’t, does it?

Have you got a shed that the sofa could go into until you finish needing the armchair?
Then you could get it out and get rid of the armchair.
I expect that if that was a possibility you would have already thought of it. Sorry!

@RoxytheRexy are you still going back to work this week?

I imagine it is a bit like starting a new year at school, any chances of decluttering anything?

penelope unfortunately neither ideas work, it’s all one piece, and our shed isn’t big enough.
We’ll have to figure out something soon!

You can breastfeed fine on a sofa(lots of pillows under your arm)...and it is quite useful for toddlers to jump on! I would keep the old sofa, if it goes with the new one. Tbh I think two sofas in a sitting room is always great as long as one is a two seater and the other a two seater or three seater. Two three seaters might be a bit extreme in a medium room.

I'm sitting in the tv room atm the moment and wishing I had a second sofa so that everyone can see the telly at optimum angle.

On the other hand manky old sofas are just a state of mind and need ditching even if they seem to have a few years left in them...you can find yourself slaves to them trying to fit them into an overcrowded room.

I've got rid of many armchairs in my time. And never regretted anything except the time I wasted trying to squeeze round them

Times

I've found that in situations where I can't decide, it can be because neither is ideal. Could this be the case here?

I'm also remembering my friend who bought a special chair especially for breast feeding and never used it. On the other hand, sofas are always going to be useful. (We've got 2 and still have to pull up a dining room chair sometimes when people come.)

Could you post on freecycle/fb/gumtree to see if anyone would like to do a swap with you? Maybe you could swap the chair for a fire retardant sofa and then, separately, get rid of the other sofa??

Wow there's some serious decluttering going on with you all.
Nothing major here. Another empty cat food back in the Terracycle recycling, returned a skirt yesterday which was too small for DD. Put a dolls cot up for sale-someone wants to come tomorrow so.am just waiting for her to confirm time. Have some other things to try sell but I find it easier to only have one at a time.
We need to have some ins-a blanket box/ottoman would be good for our bedroom to keep duvets and pillows in. I also need some new winter clothes.....

Sand I think you’re right. Neither really work with the room, but are useful seating, so will be tricky to convince DH to replace perfectly functional stuff, although I do like the idea of trying to swap them!

nettle with our size/layout, the armchair would be best for tv viewing, so maybe that should make the decision easier. The old sofa is leather/leatherette and doesn’t go with anything, but it is handy having the seating space. Maybe I should put it in the garden, just to try the different layouts, without it being in the way.

I haven't tackled the bath toys yet but just v lol eared two big bags of toys from DS room. He was very matter of fact about outgrowing them and happy to give them to charity. In my car now, I'm not going to try to sell them as it's too much hassle.

My outs today are 2 bottles which were under the sink, some stains and a fair bit of cat sick. (Nice.)

I've also taken a bag-for-life to the rag bin.

Venorossa I bought some cheap fold down velvet blanket box’s in Wilco. But I do look look around the furniture charity shops for old antique ones. I got one for £20 and one for £25. Both are amazing old dark wood chests. My favourite has a draw too. Bonus is that as they was cheap I won’t be too precious and will enjoy them.
Went to H&M and bought ds7 lots of new funky clothes. He mostly has hand me downs from his older brothers. But he is hard on his clothes, lots of getting down on the floor outside due to his ASD. I try not to stop him as it’s not ideal but in the past if I stopped it and he didn’t get that physical feedback he was more likely to run off. It just got to the point where he could outrun me. So stopping him rolling around for a second a few times in a trip out is tolerable.something to tackle at a later date.

Out today:
One old bag of (vile) hemp protein powder
One old pair of trainers.
Fabric scraps

All loaded in car ready to go - I just need to make sure it goes now!