Decluttering one thing a day part 10 - the countdown to a clutter free Christmas

[StealthNinjaMum]

It’s the 10th thread and we’re still here!

We’re a group of mumsnetters who aim to get rid of one thing a day to develop good habits and gradually declutter our lives.

Newbies are welcome, those of us who’ve been here for some time have all seen dramatic improvements in our homes, the way we organise ourselves and even mental health. So if you’re new just check in and update with your progress and join in the general chat about recycling, housework and ways to be organised.

Previous thread here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3711883-Decluttering-one-thing-a-day-Part-9?pg=1

I love bags and consequently have loads - off the top of my head leather bags - two black bags, two brown bags, one oxblood, one tan bag, one green bag, one purple bag, one pink bag. Non leather nine (red, brown, green, navy, khaki) and then three large totes. I also have three rucksacks.

I do love new bags but have decided I am not having more this year as it is ridiculous to have so many.

I rotate them all regular so I feel they can stay in my house for now. They live in the bottom of the wardrobe.

Stealth - I just read your last post and it occurred to me that maybe having so many bags creates more work for you? It's also more places for things to hide. Just a thought.

Stealth I think it depends if you actually use the bags or not. If they are 14 bags you would use and they are different from each other that you couldn’t sub one for another then keep them, if not then cull (IMO). I have 2 small handbags, a medium handbag, a handbag I use most days, a fabric summery handbag and two handbags I probably should get rid of. I also have a couple of rucksacks.

Yesterday wasn’t much progress as v busy day but going to put a chair on Freecycle today so that might be a big thing to go.

I have a box of electrical leads and our local tip takes them. How do I take the plunge and stop thinking I may need them one day?

I think I’ve got 10 bags. Although tend to use the same one all the time.

Yesterday I took back two pairs of socks which dh was given for Christmas and also some gym stuff he was given. So that cleared a small space.

Finally I had the time to catch up with this thread. I've thrown out a few bits here and there (I don't count, because a lot of it is old paperwork) and have re-arranged a lot, too. My room and my corner of crap are getting increasingly tidy and I have made an effort to file and tidy as soon as something new comes in.

Occasionally, it still is difficult to motivate myself after work, but it is almost routine now to get home and spend half an hour or so in my room sorting things. The aim is, simply, a tidy home.

Sayitbeit - just bin them! I ditched a whole carrier bag full yesterday. I checked with His lordship and Neither of us knew what they were for. I think the majority of them probably came with us from out last house 3+ years ago and haven’t been used so I don’t think they ever will.

Gosh, bags are clearly not my thing! I have My Handbag (brown leather, goes with everything, goes everywhere with me) and a leather shopper-type effort for days out when I need diary, pens, meds, other people's crap (so sick of "surely you've got space for my....?". No. I haven't. Use pockets or get your own receptacle). A work bag that takes the laptop and research files for client visits. Um... an evening bag that holds lipstick, phone, bank card, cash and hasn't been out since 2010. That's it. Feeling quite restrained now.

Did the bookshelf shuffle last night. Two floor-to-ceiling Trofast units out to the garage. Waist height bookshelf moved from living room to landing. Both spaces feeling much more open and usable now, and 17 more books into the charity pile!

I also found DS1's room and have moved his stuff around on shelves enough to be able to use the room for other things. There was carpet there after all!

The charity shop run yesterday failed, due to two closed roads locally - hoping to get a second go today. Also another tip run with "out of date" car seats and crap from the garage.

Getting there slowly. Appear to have lost count on my total, so went back to when I know it was last correct!

379 after socks and earrings. Plus 17 books yesterday equals 396/2020. Really hoping I can breach 400 today!

Thanks sandandsea having so many bags does seem to create work and reastie I don’t use them but do like them. I think i’m just lazy but in the last year I put my makeup in a makeup’s bag (I only carry a few bits around) and decluttered my wallet so moving over is quicker now. I think i’m going to attempt to actually use them more and then be brutal at the end of the year if I don’t. I will also ask a friend’s advice as I have no idea of fashions and while I don’t want to be fashionable I don’t want to be frumpy.

seeitbeit i’m the same as you. I have lots of leads and wires. I sorted through loads last year and put tags on them to say what they are for. I’m going to do that again in the next couple of weeks as I probably only did half and many are in my bedroom. I think I am going to go round all my electrical devices and check they have the correct wires and when they do i’m Just going to throw the others away / take to tip. I think many are for old desktop computers and I don’t have any now.

@StealthNinjaMum can you do something with the bags to mark the ones you've used? It'll change with the seasons, surely. So... When a bag has been used, put it back in a particular way or somewhere else? I find my memory is awful for "oh but I never use/so xyz" when it's been barely a month...

@SayitBeit the only way to de-guilt the electrical cord chuckery for me is to take one cord at a time and then take it to each electrical thing you have. So you have a sense of "probably used to be for a printer we no longer have" or "this was for an old mobile phone". Sometimes that jogs my memory, but it is hard. I do keep leads for connecting pc screens together, that sort of thing, but I do often find them incredibly useful! If you don't, get rid, I say!

I'm so impressed at everyone else's lack of bags. I have trouble getting rid of things if it's the last of that "category" IYSWIM. So I have one "daytime, small" handbag for the summer for if I'm in a dress with no pockets basically, but it barely holds my current phone. But I do the endless "what if" : the size of phones change, or I have my phone in one pocket but need the bag for other stuff. I might use this year to sort through my own bags to see the ones I actually use!

Hmmm this reminds me I don’t really have a summer bag. One of my everyday ones would be nice for going to the beach but my other summer bag was a bit scruffy last year so I gave it to a charity shop. One of my bags has quite small straps so isn’t great as I prefer should straps so maybe that can go. I do like the leather though.

How many handbags I own is currently unknown as they all live alongside my shoes and all the gift wrap in a small wardrobe which locks with a key. A key that has been missing for several weeks and cannot be found despite extensive searching, tidying and decluttering. So if anybody knows where a three years old might hide a large metal key, let me know! I mostly just use one enormous leather tote which fits all manner of crap in it including my lunch so I probably don’t actually need the vast majority of handbags I own.

I have 3 handbags. One everyday, one small and one glitzy. I could do with an everyday summer bag too...
Discovered some Katcor cat litter from when we had our dear old Vinocat-she's been gone over 2 years. It's not very environmentally friendly stuff plastic balls so you can obtain a pee sample.
DD's room is finished so shelves are up and some books and her bits and pieces on them ie. out the way!

Quick list of items taken to the tip or charity shop just now and not previously counted (please assume all broken or beyond use, and appropriately recycled etc or I'll be here all night typing!):
A door mat
A loo roll holder
A multi-coloured lamp
A toy pinball machine
A plastic crate
2 booster seats
1 high-backed car seat
A pair of pyjamas
A shirt
A pair of pants
A pair of socks
A griddle frying pan
20 wire coathangers
3 AA batteries
A log from the fishtank
3 damp pieces of conti board
Multiple cardboard boxes from DS2's computer
A football
Polystyrene packing shapes from the computer boxes
A wooden birdhouse that fell off the fence and snapped in half.
A remote control car with bits missing
A Next bag of toy cars (40 ish?)
A broken monitor stand
3 boxes for displaying Funko heads

The garage is looking fab and you can get in there without hurting yourself!

Meanwhile, we have also decluttered chili and winter salad seeds into pots / the cold frame, and sprinkled hollyhock seeds with wild abandon. And DH dug up the roots of the gooseberry bush, so that's another thing.

I am sitting down with a cup of tea now, before I fall down have to start roast things for dinner.

Decluttering 2020 things in 2020
486/2020

Pickled did the 3 yo swallow the key?! 😂

Not productive today. Chair gone on Freecycle but no takers yet. Got a baby bouncer I need to get rid of too.

My current handbag is annoying me because it has too short a handle to go over a thick coat .
But my better one had a stuck zip. And it has a velcro fasten whereas a press stud would be better .

Got DH to unstick the zip (lining had caught) and ordered some nice chunky press studs to sew on.

So nothing decluttered there .

But a bagfull of DS clothes (he's 20). I usually ask him if he has anything to recycle , he says "No"
I weed out any scraggy looking clothes in the washing and replace them.

So I bought him new tops and went through his clothes with him.
He was all "Oh but I wear that" ..... (but you don't and I do the laundry young man so I know this item has not been worn for months )

My DMum hoards things and says she has worn or used xyz recently when she hasn't . She doesn't want to throw anything out . (Most infuriating is when she says Oh I;m going to sew that or fix this . She doesn't . She cannot even hold a fork so why keep all these bits of material. Most is things that started off as proper clothes and she takes apart !)
So I am well armed against DS .

I don't have anything to add as an out yet today (12:15pm where I'm at and slept in late as not feeling the greatest) but wanted to add what I have in bags. I have a large fabric bag I use for overnight in hotel (if not taking small luggage), small fabric bag for makeup and toiletries. I don't use a handbag, my phone has a case that fits all my cards, ID and cash (I don't use a lot of cash and in the US, so don't have pound coins or equivalent over here). But if a bag works best for you, keep what you really love and use. I kept mine for a long time before I realised I was just taking up space with the bags I had so got rid. You may get to that point another time, or you may not, but either way no need to beat yourself up about it! Just enjoy them while you have them, and keep them until you don't enjoy them anymore.

I’ve got some ins because I ordered some of the heavy duty plastic crates to go In under stairs cupboard because I’m fed up of the mess in there.. DH did chuck out a pair of shoes today though and when I take the journey to the centre of the cupboard I’ll put all the rest of his out for him to go through...

Did a couple of folders of the 2 drawer filing cabinet as it’s too much to do in one hit and then wondered round the house with the bin bag and found a few more bits in boxes to chuck in to fill it up so not a bad day..

And a piece of garden equipment left our garden so that’s another thing gone.. but not from the house.!

Ooh on the handbag count :

I tend to use a black one for winter , brown one for summer .
But I also have a plum (medium) and a terracotta (small) with a zip in the flap over bit that opens into a deep pocket .
Really useful for keeping things safe . (All Kipling)

Just bought myself a purse/wristlet with a long strap (Mai Tui)

So that's 5 ?

Other ones off the top of my head is a black flat work style bag (I bought over 15 years ago ) from M&S (non leather) for if I need to look smart at work .

And a red one (M&S again) holiday bag .

That's enough I reckon.

Reastie, he couldn’t have swallowed it, it’s a massive vintage style key. You’d think it wouldn’t be hard to find given its size but I can’t find it anywhere! I’ve even pulled his bed out to see if he’d squirrelled it in his room but no sign of it!

Pickled is there another lock in a door he might have put in into?

When my DS was little we stuck stamps onto letters (making sure they were in the correct corner , the right way up) and he posted them.

He then decided to stick some stamps onto my debit ,credit and store cards and post them down the back of the sofa

Little Boy Logic

Hurrah! I finally have had a chance to read to the end of the thread. A very belated happy new year to you all!

I'm a bit behind on things as I had a relative staying with me. We had a lovely time and she is has now been decluttered to the airport. It means I get into the spare room and do some intense decluttering in there.

I love the 2020 things out this year. I don't have an exact total so I'm guessing 104/2020.

We have reached an age where we get mugs for Christmas. I have instructed that DH takes them into his work.

I decluttered a whole boot full of stuff to the charity shop including a plastic washing basket. I have a lovely fabric folding one that takes up less space.

So glad to be upto date with you all.

First week back to school has been really hard just catching up with housework. However I need to save some serious cash so no more buying for at least six months for me. That will help!

Lots of outs so far. I just need to get back into some kind of routine. I find just staying on top of putting things back in their right home helps most days. Everything is everywhere right now still

Posting before I fall off the thread again! I’m now up to 131/2020 over the last few days;

Almost finished roll of sellotape (have a new one on the new tape dispenser)
3 bits of paperwork
Calcium tablets (won’t be replaced as I have a multivitamin now)
Ps2 game (DP’s, been hanging around on top of the microwave for AGES, I just grabbed it and threw it in the charity bag )
Nice Boden pyjamas and joggers to charity
Dressing gowns and other old lounging/casual clothes for recycling
Lightbulbs for a friend, I bought the wrong ones but she can use them
Old library card key fob
Slime ball and notepad

I threw out a plant pot today, trying to revive a dying or dead plant and came across a cracked and broken pot in the shed. Used it one last time for somewhere for soil to go for a couple of minutes, then tossed out. Not really too much out has gone this week although did finally make it to charity shop this week with 2 bags of stuff, mostly clothes from my wardrobe. I'm ready to de-clutter this cold crap that I have though.