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=

I'm awake too! Everyone puts their phone on silent at night. Well if they don't that's their problem ☺️

I don’t put mine on silent in case someone needs to get hold of me but I don’t get notifications for Fb, Gmail, Mumsnet, etc. The phone would be pinging all day!

Anyway, add to my list for the day/ week: 2 ugly vases and some artificial flowers.

@SandAndSea’S duvets and someone else’s five cans of oxtail soup reminds me of my sister texting to say they’d discovered the Never Ending Fountain of slippers at mums house.

I might just go and pack another box while everyone’s occupied.

It's funny what you find you've stashed, isn't it? We found 4 spare duvets, 2 of which are 2-parters, and decided to hold onto them - one good flu / sick bug can still leave us in dire straights.

I went hunting for photo-printing paper yesterday which I found in the second filing cabinet, along with a huge box of DL envelopes we'll never finish in a million years, and discovered we still have a binding machine and combs! It is not 1996 anymore, so I shall speak to DH about getting rid!

I think I need to step away from actual decluttering for a day and create a plan of attack between now and Christmas. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all and can't see the big picture at the moment. I need to stand in every room in the house and actually look at it.

But! I did finish Hogwarts, and it's brilliant. Brutus (I think), your DC is going to have so much fun building it, all the more so if he's saved up for it himself. I'm now hunting for fairy lights to illuminate it from within over Christmas (yes, I should get out more).

Sorry for posting very late/early/middle of the sodding night.

No need to worry about this, Three. We're not all on UK time and anyway, I'm sure people can turn their notifications off if they want to. Please post away!

I think I need to step away from actual decluttering for a day and create a plan of attack between now and Christmas. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all and can't see the big picture at the moment. I need to stand in every room in the house and actually look at it.

Same here @IWillWearTheGreenWillow just when I think I’m getting somewhere, I see something else that needs doing.

Although the back bedroom is now ticked off and done (and looks like an actual room for once) I need to write a list for the rest. And leave it for another time. It’s getting a bit tiring. But good.

I know, I don’t even know why I’m apologising re: the late nights etc I should know people turn em off !! 😯

I am now concentrating on putting stuff on EBay, and will go round the house to make a list for the remainder.

Still done a lot though.

I need to stand in every room in the house and actually look at it.
Taking photos and looking at those helps me see things objectively.

greenwillow I have a drawer of greetings cards and I put a load that I would never use (e.g. wedding invitations, really awful cards, old dl envelopes with no stickiness) into a bag and was using a few a week for my to do lists and shopping lists. That bag's now empty. Of course I still have about 20 notepads to work through but it's good to use things like old stationery.

On an earlier thread we talked about bullet journals and I considered buying one but obviously have procrastinated for about two years! I definitely need to do a big Christmas to do list. Having said that my house is a million times tidier than it was when I joined thread 1 and looking around now I reckon it would take me 20 minutes to have the 'public areas' tidy. I need to think about more long term projects and will be interested to see what the rest of you are doing to get your house ready for Christmas.

Today dd1 tidied up her socks and discarded a carrier bag full. Normally I'd pass them to dd2 but there are so many, maybe I should give some away. How many pairs of socks do everyone's children have?

Please may I join you all? I really need to sort my house and I think some support and accountability might really help. We have a smallish house with not a lot of storage. It's always a mess. Right now I can barely see the floor in the living room. It's hard to clean because of the mess. It's so depressing and I just don't know where to start. I know we have too much stuff and if I'm being honest we are all a bit lazy. I think a big declutter would help because it's too much effort to put things away when the cupboards are full or there are boxes blocking the cupboard doors. I have tried to declutter many times and failed because I do lots in the first couple of days and then run right out of energy and give up. One item a day seems manageable and I hope that it will make a difference eventually.

I keep falling off this thread!

This weekend we’ve taken a large box of assorted stuff to the charity shop, and I’ve replaced some socks (me) and pyjamas (DD) so some ins but also some outs to the bin/charity bag. I also found two pairs of my shoes and a few items of clothing to add, so I think it’s a net ‘out’.

My kids all have around twenty pairs of identical ( yet unique to each child) socks. Makes sorting and loosing them easier. Ideally they have no more than about ten pairs of fun socks too. We have a lot of socks but i hate sorting them.

I am back from holidays, the house is a tip now! We are unpacking and sorting as we go but maybe it’s being in a clutter free cottage to come home makes it seem bad? Anyway it’s getting slowly better.

I sold one bundle on eBay for just under £5 but that was the nicest Next things. I keep being asked about bundles in FB but people only seem to want to know if I still have them, not asking to have them! I’m going to fill a bag for charity this week. I can do this, I will be hard but if I do I it will be a game changer in attitude for me.

Welcome custard! Try take a before photo of one area. I was told in CBT to never more than five minutes. Any longer and you will burn out. I can do 30 minutes every day easily now but start smaller but daily. Have a weekly total so if you do five things one day and only do two more days of one thing, you have hit your weekly target. It helps to see the overall progress

medway yep, definitely staying in a clutter free place makes you “reset” your vision, so you see the mess more. But interestingly I found staying in a more cluttered place than ours had the same effect, as I could see how hindered it was.

We are having lots of ins, as I’ve had to stop being in denial, and realising the baby is due in about 2 months time and we still don’t have much of what we need. I’ve bought a cot and bath off fb marketplace, and ordered a new mattress and sheets off amazon. A neighbour has said they have some unisex clothes we could have, so I need to chase up on that.

My wardrobe is rather full, but that’s only because it’s half full of normal clothes and half maternity, so I think it’ll stay that way until baby is here, and then I’ll get rid of the maternity stuff.

Got rid of dolls cot today. We dropped it off as the woman wasn't able to come yesterday due to weather and I realised we were passing near where she lived. She insisted on giving me more money!
More clothes for recycling and a charity bag ready to go tomorrow.
Unfortunately FIL gave us some bits today-most of which is edible so we can declutter that. However, he gave DP a tub of 600 Vitamin D3 tablets!!!

staying in a clutter free place makes you “reset” your vision, so you see the mess more. But staying in a more cluttered place had the same effect
True! I’d forgotten about the second part of your statement. It’s true for getting into a messy car too; I was shocked at all the rubbish in someone’s car once, and went straight home and quickly sorted my own! Mine wasn’t bad at all but had always had no rubbish in it at all. I saw myself heading towards a slippery slope!

Thanks Medway. I have made a small start today. I've finally put two baskets of clean laundry away. I matched up a lot of odd socks while I was doing that and found a box to put the rest in. I managed to get rid of a few socks with holes in and a couple of tops that DS complained were uncomfortable to wear - so I've now got a charity bag and a textile recycling bag started. I did tidy up the towel shelf in the airing cupboard while i was putting the towels away.

I have made sure school/nursery bags and clothes are organised for the morning which is something else I'm pretty bad at doing. I really struggle to get organised and the cluttered mess doesn't help much. It's a work day tomorrow so I need to keep some motivation to get something done when I get home.

Great start, Custard and good job on getting things prepped for tomorrow morning. I always aim to be prepared but something always escapes me.

Today was a day of ins here - new seeds for the cold frame and some Christmas bits (advent calendars and DS1's book from Father Christmas). Also 2 new baking trays but they don't really count as the 2 old ones went out.

I used to love staying in hotels when I travelled with work. Now I like visiting my boyfriend's flat because it's so tidy and after a shower he hangs towels up. penelope I was going to ask if it was my car you're talking about but then I remembered you live down under!

medwaymum you must spend half your life sorting socks. My dds have identical socks for school and I have recently stuck labels in one of them but the labels unstuck in the washing machine. It's the bane of my life and if I won a large lottery win I would throw away all our socks every month and replace with new ones. I wouldn't want a new car or luxury holiday, just a more pleasing sock system.

Welcome custardcreamfiend. I think decluttering is a bit like dieting you have to find a way of doing it that suits you to stick to it. The advantage of this method is that I rarely do just one a day and after two years it is ingrained as part of my routine so when I'm cooking I look for items in the kitchen to go.

In terms of where to start I used to set a timer for 15 minutes and would sometimes really get into it and spend hours but obviously I'm a stay at home mum so have that time during the day. Personally I would advise you to start on an area that will give you a real boost so in my case it was getting rid of big baby / toddler items (highchairs, cot beds, baby baths). Or maybe you can aim to clear your sitting room floor to have a useable room? You'll start the declutter tetris whereby you look for homes for things and empty cupboards for them and look for homes for those things so in the short term you might even create more mess but once things have 'homes' it'll get much easier I promise.

Stealth. I never pair socks up, hence having hundreds of them. They are either paired as they come in from drying or me and dh play sock bingo once a year. I have discovered that the youngest three are quite good at sock bingo too, so it’s a rare treat 😂. If you have enough of anything you can always find it ( was my last thinking, I need to apply that to socks one day)

Oh my God medway you seem so laid back, I spend hours pairing socks. I am actually wondering whether to buy these sock pairers but dc tend to discard the socks in whatever room they're sitting in so when I invite people in I show them to a lovely room with a clear dining table other than a dirty small pair of socks. Or they use the toilet looking at dirty children's socks!

www.amazon.co.uk/MiracleWorksTM-Neat-FeetTM-Sock-Pairers/dp/B0144L9IYY?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Out - one bin bag of old clothes. Very pleased with the space left, looks so much better

Stealth, is there no leeway in school socks at all? DS1 had solid coloured toes and heels on his black school socks (all the same once a shoe is on!) and DS2 has stripes. DD has patterned soles (and a much smaller size) and DS3 has grey. DH has stripey socks and mine have owls on. I've not paired a sock unless I want to in years!

As to not getting them in the basket - can your DC do a Sock Sweep just before bed? Or can you pick them up and take them away but not wash them, to prove a point??

Glad you've found more space Rosey.

My pet hate is odd socks. I once refused to buy a house because the vendor was wearing odd socks, it honestly gives me the heebeejeebies.

A special out planned today, I am starting a new job, my collection of note books is going to live at work and reach their fulfilment. Also out is a mug that a friend gifted me, that wouldn't fit in my mug cupboard, that too is coming to work.