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 find it hard to get stuff out in the week and actually had some ins in the shape of Halloween costumes for the DC (a day before the Asda sale started, typical).

I did get litter out of the car and pass on an unused face mask to a friend.

Plan today is empty, bathroom cabinet, clean it and refill with essentials, and list some jeans on ebay.

I also have some recycling and sale-able stuff for the charity shop, but also need some new/new-to-me jumpers so I'm not sure if we'll get a net in or a net out total!

I tried to do the Big Bag of Big Bras to the recycling point yesterday, but felt so unwell I had to come home again & go to bed, so yesterday was a bit of a write off, and so has today been.

I almost had an in (a beautiful wooden carved plate, in the sales) but resisted! The thing that made me put it down was having to type in on the thread.... ha.

Old tatty bit of Lino that has been downstairs for years, GONE.

Today is a good day!

Thank you so much everyone for your encouragement and advice. I am starting to have a preliminary tidy up today while my mother has the children. It's such an overwhelming mess of much too much stuff. I really think we will all feel so much better when we have got rid of some of it.

Tidying first, and then tomorrow I'll start choosing things that can go!

today I am doing some positives which come from having decluttered (wouldn't have bothered before )
I've washed the windows from the study and opened the curtains fully, never bothered when room was a junk room silting up with stuff all the time...
I've been in the back garden and moved some stuff into the rubbish pile. I can see the patio now, what a lot of sweeping required...

Out: two black plastic pots
some old snap dragons
an old sock
recycling
food compost

today I am going to tackle the garden as it is not raining, and it is so slippy already..

Yes @Nettleskeins! I’ve actually started going into the spare room because it actually looks nice, and is a nice place to be!. Not for long mind, since we’re about to start packing to move and that is going to be the box home.
I am about to get up and I think I will finish the shredding, and possibly pop a bit of plaster on a wall. Still quite fatigued though.
I have decluttered some Netflix in the last couple of days, does that count?

Thanks for the sock tips. I did actually buy all black socks for myself, a while ago, but haven’t sorted the DCs socks yet.

Once again, more ins than outs. My bank account is not looking happy!
Although these are all big purchases that we hopefully won’t have to repeat any time soon.

On Monday, we’re getting the bunk beds, a sofa-bed, a spare mattress, new duvets and sheets delivered. We’re hoping the old sofa will be taken away by a family member. We’re also going to have to find a way of storing one of the old bed frames, as we will need it again when baby is older. And I’m hoping to go through our current stash of sheets and downsize them once the new sheets are here.

We’ve realised the DCs don’t play with a whole selection of their toys, so once their room is sorted with the new furniture, we’re going to have a little experiment of emptying some of the kallax boxes and seeing how long it takes them to notice it.
And they still seem to have far too many clothes! I’m not quite sure how to solve that, as one of the reasons is that they don’t put their clothes away properly, so it takes more room, and whether I should do it for them or just go with the mess. The problem is that they can’t find what they need, the way they put their clothes away.

IWillWearTheGreenWillow you are actually quite right! I have managed to bin seemingly endless pieces of broken toys and old notebooks. It feels good. I still need to tackle the toys and clothing though, as well as my huge amounts of "filing" (more like a pile).

I think it's one out! It felt like a lot of ins but these were mainly presents for upcoming parties for the DCs so will be outs soon enough! Tried to find things that would be useful to save other parents having to declutter them!

Out - a whole bin bag of rubbish from the drawers of random crap. It's given me a huge sense of calm. I discovered 6 pairs of scissors... I keep replacing them as I can never find them 🤦🏼‍♀️

A couple of ins today - beyond my control as they were belated birthday gifts for DD.

Great progress all! Old clothes in recycling. Washed some things old things of DDs for charity bag which I will drop off on Monday.
Chucked out an old bra and some knickers of mine yesterday.
A large in however-Zooplus delivery of cat food and cat litter yesterday but his lordship needs to eat!

I had one out so far today - my watering can for outside. It cracked earlier in the summer, but never did anything with it. I'll still need to replace it but figured instead of putting it away for winter, I would just throw it away!

I'm hoping a cake gets de-cluttered from my fridge tonight when we have company over, it's got to go!

Coldhandscoldheart - That’s a big list. I’m torn

I know that feeling. I saw a YouTube video which said when you are faced with a big list, choose three things from it; the three things that if you only got those done it would still feel like you had had a successful day.
I’ve tried this and I liked it. Less overwhelming.

Quiet here but have probably managed 7 outs for the week. Several kids books into charity bag and will drop that off this week. Several lots to be listed on eBay - not many £1 selling fee opportunities left before Xmas. Posted two eBay parcels yesterday.

Just a quick check in as the thread has disappeared from threads I’m on!!

Doing ok today. 4 pairs of shoes out 👍

A few toys and some colouring books out.

Well the cake was all de-cluttered last night, as well as a bottle of wine I also cleaned out the fridge to make more room in there. No outs today, yet, although helping PILS with their back garden today so they can have 2 trees de-cluttered next week!

Willow- great work!! 🌟

I did well with thr shoes; lots more out and some moved upstairs so our shoe cupboard isn’t overflowing. I’ve been busily removing bits and bobs from everywhere- hope it lasts!

This thread is inspiring me! Thank you 😊

Another bag of outgrown clothes, old bedding & blankets out today. Few toys put away for a charity drop off in the next few weeks & a broken plug in binned. Worked an extra day this past week so today has been my only day off & focused more on doing something fun with the dc’s than house stuff. I’ll be decluttering the copious amounts of grey in my hair shortly too!

Bunk beds are arriving this morning, so I’m trying to create some space for them, and the hoover will be in full use today, as we’re basically moving every single piece of furniture around the room!

I’ve listed the bed frame online, so hopefully someone wants to buy it. DH needs to dismantle all the beds, and we need to find storage space for the frame we’re keeping.

I can’t do too much myself though, as the bump is getting quite big, and the furniture is heavy.

Well done, everyone! You're all doing really well!

Willow - Seeded crackers sound interesting. (I'm wondering if I might need to do that too. Do you have a good recipe you could let me have, if it's not too much bother?)

Cold - Hope you're feeling better now.

Sally - Well done on resisting that plate!

I haven't got many outs to report but I have got one huge one: a king size bed which we have decided to swap out for a single bed for the spare room. The base has already been sold and collected and the mattress is being collected later this week. I'm not sure how we're going to cope with the reduced, under-bed, storage space but we shall see.