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=

So yesterday I cleaned out my two hall baskets for scarves and gloves and hats - and found a much missed hood from a child’s winter coat!!!!!! The coat is now too small for DS but at least the full coat can be passed on with an essential hood 🙄

Isn’t it amazing how you think it has only been six months since you cleared out something and then you find it has been about 2 years😱

Just flying by to wish everyone a lovely weekend!

I've got quite a few things advertised for sale, including 3 big items, with some interest. And frankly, they will all be leaving the house soon, one way or another.

Haircuts are also going on today. (I count everything!)

brutus it always gets worse before it gets better. I have been doing paperwork this morning and instead of having one pile now have half a dozen piles that will probably stay there for a while as it'll take longer to deal with them and file them. I don't really mind this kind of productive mess -as long as it doesn't stay there so long that I end up putting it back in one pile again!

greenwillow thanks for those words, I was feeling a bit low yesterday and needed to treat myself. Boyfriend is lovely but I'm missing all the attention I got at the start. He's also busy so I don't want to seem needy. Also my child with SEN has had a couple of meltdowns recently and I don't feel I can talk to bf or exh about it. Exh just blames me. My oldest daughter is lovely and does treat me (if asked!) but I feel that she's really had to mature a lot in the last 12 months and just want her to have an uncomplicated childhood like her friends without worrying about me.

I don't mind doing the washing, the 3 of us probably generate about 7 or 8 washes a week but it's the pairing of socks that I hate and putting clothes away!

Stealth, a lot of us have DC with SEN on this thread - can you at least let it out here and pool ideas? The pressure of feeling you're the only person dealing with it day to day can seem huge and just sharing that somewhere understanding has been hugely beneficial for me.

As to pairing socks - just don't! I only pair my own, because I hate wearing odd socks. Everyone else gets a pile and they pair or not, according to their needs. I don't think DD or DS2 have worn matched socks in the last year!

Stealth I feel for you, I've also got the distance boyfriend and SEN child, and don't want to pour out my woes to him but Exh is useless. My bf has an SEN child himself though so he gets it when I do unburden. Sharing and using him as a sounding board has been so helpful for me, hope if you don't feel you can do it here you do have someone irl to share with.

I'm away this wkend but thinking about a few big items I need to shift. I've got a play kitchen that is largely in great nick but friends DS managed to break a door off and break the shelf behind it. It feels too good for the dump but I'm never comfortable with the idea of selling damaged stuff, although reckon it's redeemable. As it's a kids item I'm thinking it's a dump job but feels a waste. Same with a couple of lamps, they're really nice but one has no plug, not sure a charity shop would take them and don't know about selling them but again dumping them feels a waste. What do I do with them? This is my problem, figuring out the best way to dispose of things!

Thanks greenwillow I love mumsnet as a support. I think we have good routines and generally cope well but the other night just threw me. She can just have a meltdown and nothing can prevent it. She's actually much better than she was 3 or 4 years ago when she was quite violent. Exh used to say I was a bad, shouty mother but he was never around, so he'd get home after I'd just spent 12 hours being patient with her and then when I exploded he said I was in the wrong. Strangely enough now he's gone the house is more harmonious and I rarely shout at her.

The problem with socks is the dc would get told off at school for non matching socks. And my SEN daughter likes them to match too. I have bought little sock pairer clips I linked to ages ago so that should make things easier.

Thanks sleepingsoul I don't get to see my bf very often, but so far he is amazing. He knows about my dc but I think like a lot of people - especially people without kids - might assume that I pander to her a lot and don't give boundaries when actually I do but I choose my battles selectively. That sounds bad, actually he's lovely, I just think until you have a child with SEN it can be difficult to get that they really don't want to have the meltdown or inflexibility or defiance but it's just in their brain and hard / impossible to reverse.

Just stepping in quickly to report that the dolls house has finally gone, as has the easel, and we've emptied the puzzles cupboard entirely into the toy bank. Apart from a really uncomfortable moment when Age Concern looked at our lovely wooden dollshouse and said "we can't take that", all was pretty straight forward. When Age Concern refused part of the donation, we rescinded the whole lot and took it to Scope instead, who were delighted. It left a bit of a bad taste, tbh, and it's sealed my feeling that Age Concern won't be getting anything from me in future. It's not the first time they've been sniffy about good quality things.

So, now I have an empty cupboard to retetris things into and a warm feeling of things well disposed of. Oh, and I found some origami paper and instructions that I can cannibalise to go into Christmas crackers (totally fed up with plastic tat bottle openers, mini skittles, hair slides etc). I am feeling very frugal and environmentally friendly, as total cost of crackers for 18 has come to £15 and they're all totally recyclable and should (crosses fingers) be fun without filling the house with tat.

Everyone is going well, shifting even large items which is always air-punchingly pleasing
My outs are small things: 2 bags of rubbish from dds room. Two pretty bras to charity, 3 socks, 2 knickers and a bra to the bin. A broken nail varnish bottle binned and 3 nice colours into my handbag from a container of loads in dd’s room. She won’t even notice but my toes will look pretty!

Plus a pair of kids leggings, a straw hat and also stole more pantry items from my husband

Thank you for this thread, found it at 2am when I couldn’t sleep. Got up at 7 and attacked my clothing shelves. 3 carrier bags for the charity shop, one for the rag bin and and entire bag full of hangers to go out too! All the remaining clothes have been Kondo-folded and lined up neatly on the shelves. Have been feeling very overwhelmed by life lately and gaining control back in this one small area feels great!

The past few days have been mostly tidying and sorting, tackling paperwork, cleaning fridge,. Generally, just trying to keep my head above water.

Decluttered - three dud lightbulbs. Junk mail.

I have re-tetrised the former puzzles cupboard as my wider Christmas / birthday stuff, got Lego Hogwarts onto the shelf and lit up and have got DH to agree to stash the extra-large picture frames we're not using in the loft. That means the corner of the study by the fire is now useable! Hooray!

I've just written a long post and lost it. I haven't been on the thread for a while because I haven't done any decluttering. We've had some work done on the house and I've been busy with work so I've just been trying to keep on top of the day to day things. I really need to get back on track with Christmas coming. We're hosting and we definitely need to clear space for the DCs new toys.

This week I have binned some old sun cream and sent DS to school with two boxes for a DT project they're doing. I have also put some curtains up in DDs room. This is an achievement because I bought them over 2 years ago. They needed to be cut to size and I didn't get round to doing it then we decided to move so I thought I would wait. We moved a year ago . She has a blackout blind anyway but the room looks better now.

I haven't had chance to catch up with the thread properly but I hope everyone else is doing better than me!

Hello Custard, great to see you again. Remember, 1 thing a day... You're not behind, just pitch in!

A good day here unexpectedly!
To charity shop - a massive mantelpiece Christmas decoration that's been waiting for years to go as doesn't suit current house.
Various clothes, books to charity shop
DH been in garage and after only 15 mins a space cleared and lots of stuff away and boxes binned
A wooden wine crate to a friend
Later on DH and I will do his wardrobe- he always wears same couple of jumpers as their the ones on top and I'm pretty sure he'll get rid of at least a few items

@Custardcreamfiend congrats on the curtains it’s a great feeling getting things like that off of your mental list
After the initial success of my own clear out this morning I moved on to DS’s room (age 4). 7 carrier bags of clothes removed that he’s either outgrown or are knackered. 2 storage boxes of next size up
Clothes decanted from the airing cupboard into his drawers and cupboards, so now all his drawers/wardrobe etc are neat and tiday, airing cupboard is emptier and 7 bags are going to people who can use them.

Vaguely successful weekend here - have a bag of clothes out for charity collection, and managed to put MiniRums outgrown clothes into vacuum sealed storage bags for DH to take up the loft tomorrow. Also bought a wrapping paper organiser so all the wrapping stuff and cards, bags etc are now neatly stored away. Feels so good to get even a minor bit of organisation in my life.
This weeks target is to finish sorting through all my clothes as I'm currently wearing the same few things constantly thanks to bfing and post pregnancy body.

Hope everyone has had good weekends!

Sorted DH stuff for first time since house move 5 years ago
Lots of stuff to charity - sadly things he has never worn which were presents in wrong size and a suit. 6 pairs of shoes (binned as worn out)
Great thread

I was just catching up with the thread, feeling guilty for not decluttering myself when I remembered I had! There were a couple old and in not so great shape water bottles that I tossed out this morning. It's not been one a day, but I'm exhausted right now with working 2 jobs. I know we have a stack of anniversary cards to get rid of, but want to make sure dh doesn't want them (he doesn't usually, but you never know!)

Welcome to the thread to the newbies I may have missed (I can't remember your name(s), this thread is great support for getting things gone.

Yesterday I put a few old child's vests into the charity shop pile. I also put a few unused toys onto Facebook and apparently someone is collecting a big one today. I hope they turn up as I'm staying in for them.

Are they coming early, Stealth? Have they said what time?

DP took children out for a couple of hours on Saturday morning so I had a chance to blitz the house - housework and filing done, got everyone involved in a tidy up on their return. Went through the box of clothes I sorted out last week and split them into bin/give away/put in loft for DC2. Cleaned the kitchen twice on Sunday, I really want that tidied up there is just too much stuff and not enough storage space.
House looks much better (except the bathroom, which is a holding space for loft stuff!). It won't last long, but I must bear in mind that it didn't take long to achieve, I think.

penelope |t was a bit vague just 'the morning' but it's gone now. It was behind the settee for about a year then got moved to the Room of Doom which I am now clearing again.

Another couple of people are apparently coming to pick up toys. I put the money into a pot and every so often will give dc £10 each to spend in sainsbury's or Tesco on toys so they often tell me to sell things they don't want now.

Hello everyone, have read the posts for so long and now I have to stick my head above the parapet and be accountable!

This weekend, I flung out several old moisturisers that were well past using, bundled up a bag of stuff for a local tombola fundraiser and took 5 bags of clothes to the dump.