The decluttering one thing a day thread - part 12

[AlexTheLittleCat]

For StealthNinjaMum

We’re still here.

After 11 threads my house still isn't tidy!

So join me and a lovely group of mumsnetters who simply get rid of one thing a day and report back. Gradually we’re developing good habits, reorganising ourselves, often improving our mental health and having friendly chatter along the way.

So newbies are welcome, just check in with your news and join in the general chat about recycling, organisation and housework.

Previous thread here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3799710-The-decluttering-on-thing-a-day-thread-part-11?pg=1

ALSO many of us have set a target to get rid of 2020 items this year and will report on that.

Out - some games and LOTS of dust. We’ve been painting our living room walls, and have been moving heavy furniture around to be able to do so, so we’ve found a lot of dust during this process! We’ve also got rid of some ornament type things that just made clutter instead of looking intentional.

Now for the cringe factor... Facebook showed me a photo I took when my eldest was little, and the amount of clutter all over the floor is rather shameful... the baby was cute, the rest, not so much! Now we’re onto baby n3, the background of the photos is much neater, thankfully! Not perfect, but it’s at a croppable amount before I would have had to cut most of the baby out of the photo to hide the clutter, now it’s mostly the edges of the photos that might need cropping... yes, I hear you thinking maybe I should tidy more, but it’s definitely an improvement!

Hi everyone! I'm creeping back in nervously after too long away. I can't believe you're already on the 10th page! You've obviously all been busy.

The good news is that I'm still on it! I'm not going to bore you with my full list but yesterday's items were:

1 travel ticket.
1 cat collar.
1 used eye-liner.
1 too small bra.
1 holey sock.
1 broken, plastic pot with lid.
2 old hair bands.
1 piece of card.
2 bits of old soap.
1 broken glasses case.
= 12 items.

I've got a load of stuff to take to charity but it seems that they're either closed or not taking any more atm. I need to find one which is taking stuff but until then, it's in the car boot.

I've been away from home for quite a while, living out of a case, which I always find really inspiring when I come home. I've delayed unpacking so that I can see more clearly what I really need/want in the house. Most of my clutter is still boxed-up sentimental items, mostly coursework and other papers. They're all organised but there's just too much of it. I also have a box of inherited stuff which I have been avoiding looking at due to avoiding the feelings and issues which could arise, as per. I really must get down to this soon!

Anyway, it's good to be back. Welcome, @alltoomanyhobbies and any other newbies I've missed! Hope you're all super well.

Today's D/C -

One dried out sharpie. I used to keep them in the hope of them becoming less dry.

One holey sock, before it went into washing machine. I don't know whether that's good or bad. I'm starting to think I should have washed it for the rag bag. That's a very uncomfortable thought.

The contents of a plastic tub which DH had filled with actual garage rubbish, eg oily cloths,which is good, then left on his workbench for maybe a year, which is not so good. I was thinking of throwing out the filthy old tub as well, then the rubbish wouldn't get stored. It could be put in the relevant bin on the way into the house, or put in the back of the van to be dropped off at the recycling centre. That might be a bridge too far for us just now.

I also binned a carrier bag of rubbish from the back of my car and the floor of the garage.

Took a bag of electronic "bits" to the garage from the utility. For the dump, eventually.

That filthy plastic tub is getting binned tomorrow.

Tip run today tons of cardboard, several
broken electronic items, batteries, light bulbs, polystyrene a couple of storm damaged plastic garden chairs. We can now move in the garage again Two more travel sized shower gels used up and bottles in recycling.
There are definitely parts that are starting to look better

Loads of stuff left my house forever today!! Final count was 10 bin bags of stuff to a charity shop (my mum works there, she could take it straight to their quarantine zone), 1 bag of school uniform to the uniform bank and 2 bin bags of actual rubbish into the bin. That's taken all week to get this stuff sorted out, but it's a good start. Dd2's bedroom is now sorted and clear for the stuff she actually uses 😁

Next task is to finish the living room. We did start the living room, as we stored a lot of dd's toys in there (she's in the boxroom so not much space for toys). Now we've got rid of so many of the toys we can start to look at the rest of it.

No outs yesterday, just a direct replacement for a broken door handle so that student DC wasn't locked in their bedroom again.
Adding door handle repairs to my short list of DIY skills. DC and I did it between us to save DH (poor mobility) from having to go upstairs more than usual. DH has a very well equipped tool store so was relatively straightforward once we found a file and the screwdrivers.
Aiming for some time back out in the shed of doom today. Need to extract some wooden dining chairs that are going to Sue Ryder next week - they collect furniture for some of their shops.

lljkk I have hoarded lots of children’s toys with missing bits waiting for that but to appear. It usually does after i’ve given it away.

I took another five bags of stuff from the Room of Doom to the charity shop. The room is looking clearer although dd2 is now playing with a toy she had said I could get rid of!

I have also put more toys and books on Facebook to sell. If they don’t go in a week they’re going to the charity shop.

I’ve been sorting out the dinning room this week. Only been able to get little bits done between play dates. Need the table clear and room usable for tomorrow.
Today I have sorted through 3 drawers and re organised the hamma beads. Just need to finish the craft cupboard. Got rid of a few beads one bead creation and spray bottle. Have also found 2 lots of game instructions ready to go back in their boxes. Have also washed the candle holders and cleaned the windows.
Tomorrow I need to take the suitcase upstairs and empty and put the rain coats away

Just have a bit of tidy in my room before Ds goes to bed and I have 22 body lotions to use and probably about 10 hand creams!!! How long to use all of those up . But once they are used I will have a drawer back. I am determined to use them all

Welcome toomanyhobbiea it sound like you’ve had a great start and tackled lots of areas. I was the same with body lotions and hand creams. I tend to leave one out on my sink so I remember to use it.

times10 when I look at old photos I can only see the clutter too! It usually makes me happy to realise how far I’ve come. Also - and this sounds really bitchy - I notice clutter in other people’s family photos. It’s not in a judge way, I understand how hard it can be to be tidy. Having said that when I was online dating I wouldn’t conceive of dating someone whose photo had clutter in it or mess.

Welcome back sandandsea I noticed you weren’t around and wondered if you’d finished decluttering!

mrstidyhouse I have a confession. I don’t always wash things that go in the ragbag. Dd2 gets holes in her clothes and I found I’d wash them and somehow they’d get put away in a hurry and she’d wear them again and again but always in front of judgy grandma. Sometimes you need to end that cycle and put it away when you see it.

So I came back to say that this week flylady made me finish my bathroom and utility room. I’d been aware for ages that both needed better storage and it was a ‘to do’ for a couple of years to buy a cabinet. Anyway inspired by someone at the start of the week (was it sing or jigolo?) I started to look for a small storage trolley for my bathroom. I couldn’t find one but Homebase had a tiny unit for £12 which clears up my main bathroom. Yay! It looks so much better. I’m so pleased.

I've not done much this week, but I've been reading everyone's progress.
Went through a box of miscellaneous crap which had ended up in the kitchen this morning. Some stuff in the bin, assorted screws, spanners and Allen keys into a tin, electronics into a smaller box. Ordered padlocks for the under stairs cupboards so I can keep tools in there without worrying about the kids getting at them. Currently the toolbox lives with the lawn mower in a tool store, but I always find it a pain having to go outside for them if the weather's bad.

Stealth your bathroom unit sounds like a good find. I need something for the kitchen but can't decide if I want to get the biggest unit I can fit, or go for something smaller on wheels which I can put out of sight when I want. Be a few weeks before I can afford either so I have time to think.

I'm really annoyed at hermes right now because they keep failing to collect my sold books, and pretending that I was out (I've been home all week, and tellingly no cards through the door). Dd2 is treating the boxes as a climbing frame in the meantime...

Thanks, Stealth. Thanks too for the vote of confidence. No, I'm not finished yet. I'm sure you would all hear about it if I was! One day...

Hello, I recognise some names from another thread!

Am doing a de clutter:
One box of books ready for WeBuyBooks
One t-shirt and some Playmobil sold on eBay, posted today
Car rubbish chucked, including RAC cards from which I stopped being a member 3 years ago
Four coats/jackets listed on Depop

Trying hard not to do too much and end up with nothing really finished.

Hi Wilderness!
I'm waiting for a we buy books pick up (and ziffit, and music magpie) but Hermes keep failing to show up. It's really annoying me now.

My whole house cleaning program died in dd1's room. Rather than get bogged down I'm adjusting my criteria and carrying on. My cleaning goals are currently: washing up finished every day, bathrooms cleaned every week and bedding changed every week. My next decluttering target is the cupboard under the stairs, which is mostly occupied by some broken furniture I'm ambitiously hoping to mend.

Ah, I got confused about which thread I was on. Ignore my rock bottom cleaning standards confession!

I've hit a wall with this decluttering. To be honest I'm annoyed with DP as he needs to do something about all his stuff.
I mentioned a random booze assortment the other week, the mango liquer is now finished!

Bagged up a few more outgrown items, including teeshirts that I had put in a cupboard and lost for a year. Now much too small.

Other than that, trying to keep sorting and tidying.

Trying to start on decluttering children's books, but it is a struggle as many of the books were mine originally and so familiar and part of the scenery. I can see that they wouldn't be considered suitable nowadays, but what to do with them?

Thanks Jigolo that made me feel better. Well done for letting go of the curtains. We have four spare pairs of curtains. Three are pretty ones which were replaced with practical black outs and one set of black outs where we bought the wrong size. Do charity shops even take curtains? One pair I'm planning to use in my box room, but other than that I have no idea.

MrsTidy you might be able to sell the books. I know I bought some second hand out of print books for dd because I loved them as a kid, and never thought that they might not meet today's standards.

Glumy I thought your cleaning targets seemed immensely practical and achievable for me. I'm going to steal them as my targets too 😁. I do find it difficult to keep my house clean because it takes so much time to move the clutter to clean around it.

I defrosted the freezer today!!! And got rid of the stuff we batch cooked, froze and forgot about. So that's my out for today (I then went shopping and filled the freezer up again, but at least all the food in there now is likely to be eaten within weeks rather than years.

Tomorrow's plan is to do the last 3 "toyboxes" which are mostly craft stuff and stationery tbh

glumy any targets are good, this is long term so don’t feel you have low standards. It’s been more than a week since I changed dcs beds. Sometimes you just can’t clean and declutter at the same time but as someone who grew up in a spotless house with a mum who never spent time with me, I’d rather spend time with dc and not have such a clean house.

vinorosso74 sorry you were having a bad day yesterday, do you want to talk? I found that as I decluttered my stbexh started to get on board with it.

I did no decluttering or housework yesterday. I think today is the day to do my bedroom so I might clear the surfaces then take dc to a new cafe i’ve read about which is next to some woods.

Hi all, my out is a bundle of work clothes! We're WFH and since lockdown I've outgrown most of the anyway...

Stealth thank you. He is a procrastinator which is the issue. He actually works doing project/programme management so I think he likes to plan out everything rather than just going to clear out a drawer. I do worry as his dad is a serious hoarder.

Jigolo there wasn't loads left of the mango liquer which we originally got to make mango margaritas. I tried it with sparkling water; put it with a splash of pineapple juice and soda water; also did the second with a dash of vodka. They were drinkable but I wouldn't make them as drinks for people.