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.

I need to keep coming back to this to encourage me to keep going. Threw a broken yoyo out today. Everyone else seems to be doing so much better!
I'm still a bit stuck as can't get the stuff out between the charity shops being shut and not being able to get a time slot at the tip.
After having an abundance of shampoos and conditioners I have finished those I was rarely using.
I didn't realise quite how many pens, pencils and rubbers DD has. These are being used with the home schooling. I have organised them in the hope some will get used up/run out soon. Notepads have been used up which is good.
I put some stuff on our front wall the other week and all of it went apart from two items. Might have another attempt when we have a few more things.

Well that’s embarrassing. Just reorganised the clothes we are keeping for toddler and decided to ditch some of the “not sure if too small” ones after all (compared them by size to ones that do fit)...

And then realised that I had a small pile of the few t-shirts we had actually bought or been given new that I’d put away for when she grew into this size. 😳 So I’m pretty sure we really do have enough and have added almost all age 2-3 t-shirts to the getting rid pile now. The difficult thing is a couple of the new things are soooo cute and new and lovely - I’ve not been that fussed about clothes this time round but still I will struggle to put her in them just for a normal day... I’m very much stuck in the “save for best” mindset still which frankly right now is more ridiculous than usual! She’s barely been further than the park in months and it’s daft to save things.

I think we can get away without buying anything now (only got a few t-shirts and leggings/cycle shorts recently) other than her next shoes and some PJs. Socks and a bigger hoodie possibly but it should be easier to keep up with the laundry if there’s less to wash... right?!

LaneBoy your post made me go and check the stash of stuff we have for DS to grow into which means I now know he has loads of trousers to grow into but not many tops. It's his birthday in a few weeks ago I can now point people in the right direction if they want to buy clothes, so hopefully his wardrobe will not be too overstuffed!

Keiki I'm also stuck in that place where I'm being sentimental about baby clothes. In my head I'm fairly sure we are fine with babies but I can't quite get the stuff out of the door.

Today's outs are from DD''s room from which I have removed many tiny pieces of paper (who knows what they were for) plus a broken toy and bracelet. Going to tackle her cupboard next!

Laneboy I used to be the same - keeping things for good wear or a special day. I try to buy less now so that they get to wear most things. I used to give away things with tags and things that had little wear🤦‍♀️I would try and use up the nice stuff if you can - dress the toddler up for no reason - it cheers me up when I dress mine up.

Today is our recycling day so got rid of the amazon packaging. I put two dresses with tags that will never fit me again into my charity bag.

Guess what?

We have now got the new carpet on our hall, stairs and landing! They came and fitted it yesterday, exactly 10 weeks after our original date was scuppered due to lockdown.

We were a bit surprised to get the call from the shop on Monday asking if we wanted to book a date, as I didn't think carpet fitters were allowed back to work yet, especially in Scotland. Anyway, it is now done, and we are just waiting for a joiner to come today to shave a bit of the bottom of various doors.

The bookcase and the DVD storage unit had already been moved before the original fitting date, along with some other largish bits and pieces, so it didn't take too long to clear everything for yesterday morning. The space looks huge! I am hoping not to put all the junk back there. I really have to decide what needs to live in these areas.

By the way, I got an email from Oxfam today which said that their shops in England will be opening from 15th June.

Excellent! It’s good that jobs are starting to be done. We’ve been cleared by the council for a hand rail on the stairs (DH has osteoporosis and we only have the bannister) and social care have said they can either do it ASAP or they’re happy to wait if we aren’t comfortable with it yet. Not actually sure - presumably it wouldn’t take long?! And really I’m fairly sure we have had the virus and obviously we can stay out of the way and clean everything etc but there’s no guarantee.

But also, I’m very aware how difficult it is to fit extra stuff in under normal life, I get so easily stressed by changes, so I’m wondering if it’s better to get it out of the way.

No decluttering today or yesterday, I am wallowing with period pain😳

Thank you both for making me feel less alone with the stalling on baby clothes! I'll put them in the loft when I next go up, which needs to be soon as that pile is getting rather big. I think by the end of this year DC1 will have outgrown most of their clothes so I am hoping to streamline that a bit. Tonight I tidied the lounge a bit and did some filing. Small to do pile involving phone calls and forms to fill in as a result, and a bag of things to put away properly tomorrow.

I have stalled abit for the past 2 days.
I had been doing so well. I have washed all the baby blankets we have and fold them. I am going tie them nicely with string and put them on gumtree or send off to the charity shop.

Its great to hear the charity shops are hopefully opening up. Phew. My car is stuffed full.

I would keep any baby clothes if you think you might have another one. Yes pop it into the loft, so it there if you need it.
By a miracle i had 2 children close in age...so everything got worn again. I was glad as I thought its better for the enviroment.

I sold a brand new in box smoothie maker yesterday and some lovely scroll design metal chairs. They were like new.
So, so happy these things are leaving the house.
My childrens room is so full of clean washing baskets, bedding, beds and toys. Three people in this house nearly fell over trying to get into the room .
Going to sort the blankets of the sofa. Then bag them to go. I need to let go of them.

I need to put the nappy changing mat into the bin. Its not been used for a year. Its ripped so not reusable.

I have put 4 years worth of credit card statements into the shredding pile. May be a while before I get round to it mind you. Still have the last two years. Trying to close a bank account too in admin terms.

Hope everyone is well and navigating the gradual re-opening of 'life'.

Just a steady one item a day out for a while. However, have just visited the local recycling and waste centre where there is now no queue. Did drive by at the start of the week but there were 50 plus cars queuing. The dump has dropped from 10 parking bays to just 3 with metal barriers so that there is social distancing. The sort of door opening clearance that would satisfy my very 'car proud' DH, which is good as I am now using his car, having decluttered mine having reached the end of our lease.
701/2020

Fantastic that the queues have reduced! We won’t be able to get rid of anything big for a long time as no car. But thankfully there isn’t much to go anyway so there’s only a bit in the garden.

I’ve reorganised more shelves today, not properly, it’s more just making the use of the space more efficiently for now and gathering all the random bits and pieces to sort later. Again I was tempted to sit and sort through books as I went but I’m waiting to gather all of them. So not much has actually gone out other than a bit of recycling but still a little progress overall I guess.

So glad it’s the weekend, DD1 does have school work that’ll need supervising but it’s not as much now and DH has taken over most of the English work anyway so hopefully I’ll feel a bit more motivated to declutter.

DD is having a bedroom re-decoration . So we emptied her wardrobe (couple of things to recycle)

Emptied the boxes under her bed (which will go on top of her new wardrobe) they are really pretty. She can store surplus random things .

She went through her make-up and toiletries .
3 draw unit has been re-cycled to DS for his under wear (DS is really untidy and needs all the organisation help )

I have 3 carrier bags of glass to recycle
About 8 of DD handbags to recycle

I'm going to sort what can go to the clothes bank and anything good can wait for the CS to open.

I restacked more Kallax shelves today. Still didn’t get caught up in making decisions about books, but started regretting it as I felt I really should. Instead I just filled this Things To Use Up box.

This is a few half done puzzle books, those choose your own adventure books, a jigsaw, a science kit, some books I want to read but won’t keep after, half used notebooks, and some old magazines we can take pictures out of for toddler to cut and stick. So everything in there we can use and then chuck or give away. There is definitely more lurking on shelves but this was the easy to grab stuff that I am fairly sure at least one of us can enjoy, as opposed to sticker books that might be too young and I could just sell etc. We’ve got some quiz games that can go in the box too as they’re the kind of thing we wouldn’t keep after playing through the cards. I’m not envisaging heaps of whole-family fun with all this stuff especially as DD1 really hates most games and puzzles now. But if it entertains one or more of us during lockdown and then leaves the house then that’s two wins! So I’ll make an effort to actually finish those puzzles books (also keeping me off screens more), use those notebooks instead of grabbing printer paper to write on etc.

I really like the idea of the 'Things to Use Up' box LaneBoy. I should do subverting similar to get us through DD's mountain of craft kits! We have dozens of colouring books too and I actually went through the shelf yesterday and removed lots of the almost complete ones to the garage for recycling of they aren't missed in a few weeks. Don't like to waste them but think having the space back is better than completing every picture. I did recycle all the comics as they are never looked at after the plastic tat has been taken off the front!

Dancing that sounds like amazing progress and think I will take your advice on baby clothes as even if I don't need them any more would quite like to give them to someone I know. Much as I would prefer not to I think I'm going to have to give in and spend money on some proper storage bags. It's all in carrier bags at the moment and looks messy as well as taking up loads of space!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Definitely agree on the colouring books, sometimes it’s better just to get rid of unfinished stuff! I recycled some (some were freebies) as the toddler just doesn’t like colouring at all, only drawing (mostly endless circles 🤔) on normal paper. We’ve been putting scrap paper on a big clipboard for her as that’ll be used up. I do need to collect the other colouring books though and see if the older two want any (Harry Potter etc), and any unused nice ones can go in the donate pile. But that would involve a more detailed look through all the shelves and I don’t think it’d be worth it just yet as it wouldn’t give much more space.

Not sure what I’ll attempt today, hoping this is the last weekend of DD1 having lots of work to finish which takes up a lot of time and energy. But hopefully I can at least clean and restack more Kallax shelves today - 11 remaining - so everything is packed in more efficiently, which will get stuff off the floor/out of random boxes, even if I don’t actually make any decisions. Any random crap will unfortunately be added to boxes and I’ll have to sort through those soon as they are building up big time!

I do also want to sort the home ed shelf. We have six weeks left of term (we’ve always stuck to school dates even before DD1 went back) and for the most part I’ve already planned what we are doing (much of that is also aimed at using up stuff like workbooks we already started).

I have a plan to organise that shelf a bit better and take out anything else we definitely don’t need until September to go in with the normal books. It’s really embarrassing how often we lose books DS needs even after having used them the day before 😳 so we need a temporary system! Then hopefully during the summer holidays I can gather absolutely all resources and decide what to keep and how to organise it properly.

Someone I know mentioned they were getting their hospital bag ready and needed cellular blankets. I had four that were in a wardrobe so I washed them and delivered them yesterday with some bibs, grow bags and other small bits. She was delighted. I like when things can be reused. Baby things get so little use.
I was listening to the radio yesterday and a lady was talking about her great weight loss - she said people say she must be so motivated but she said she had created good habits and that led to her being successful. We are creating good habits by trying to declutter and get rid of items each day - it motivated me to dump a few more items yesterday. Every out is a win!

That makes total sense both with the decluttering and the weight loss. Small steps build up!

I couldn’t sort the kallax yet as DS was in the living room on zoom for tae kwon do 🥋 but I sat in our room for about 90 mins and went through loads of boxes full of random crap. It was easier than I expected. A bit thrown away/recycled, lots of other things to rehome in the proper place (stray lego bricks, pens, hair bands etc). There are a couple more boxes in the living room and I can grab those now his lesson is finished, but I’m taking a break first. Need to save some energy to actually put away the stuff on the bed 🤣

Ive had a fairly productive day today.

Managed to clean the family bathroom and threw away some outer packing to some items that were half used. Not really decluttering as they would be binned eventually however its some more stuff gone now and not in the future.

The big win of the day was getting the fridge freezer in the garage gone as the little bro needed more freezer space at his house. Lots of extra space for us now

Glad to hear all the tips are opening and not that busy from when you guys are going. It means i can actually think about getting rid of some more rubbish DH is keeping in the garage like tiny off cuts of carpet, random plastic plant pots etc.

I'm totally stuck. I'm back here to get myself motivated. Enjoying reading all the posts. Been rather aimless since running out of steam mid-May, and have spent the past three weeks doing very little over and above the daily basics. Tbh, I think I'm having some kind of existential crisis. Finding it very hard to make decisions.

So I must get back on track. My clutter is tidy, and in the place it would stay if I decide to keep it. I know that tidy clutter is still clutter, but I have like-with-like in most cupboards and on shelves.

Outgrown children's clothing is washed and put in donation bags as soon as it's worn for the last time. I tried on a lot of my own clothes this week, and sorted them into decorating/gardening, comfy casuals, smarter stuff that fits, and everything that's a bit too tight is in the other half of the wardrobe until I lose a few more pounds.

Sorry if I'm being a misery amongst such positive posts. Just a bit despondent today. Thanks for reading.

A decent few days on the decluttering front here. Had a chair picked up, gave a few items away, sold some stuff on ebay.

Also finally put away winter clothes and brought out (some) summer clothes. Dug out a few more things to photograph and try to sell on ebay.

Inspired by reading other people's successes here :)

Very quiet here until today when three box files of paperwork have been sorted and about 95% either recycled or shredded. Loads of too small hangers removed from youngest’s room, not sure what to do with those - seems a shame to put them all in the plastic recycling. A t shirt for fabric recycling and some that I’m going to try as a bundle on eBay.

Aww mrs don’t apologise. This is a really tough time and TBH I find decisions exhausting. Decision Fatigue is a thing (I keep meaning to write about it on my little blog but, ugh, confidence is lacking) - I think burnout is natural after a period of decluttering, especially as there are fewer distractions under lockdown. And they say clutter is the result of thousands of unmade decisions. So so true. Today I suddenly had to stop halfway through the final box of crap - I just got really grumpy and Could Not Make Another Decision. 🤬

I am doing well with the decluttering bit at the moment, but I hear you on the low mood - it’s ok to vent and not be happy all the time. I’m pretty much withdrawing from everything but a few cosy MN threads at the moment, I’m just wishing I could hibernate until we can go back to some sort of normal.

Hi Mrstidyhouse, sorry to hear you feel like that. Sending you a big hug.

Thank you Lane and Dancing for your kindness. It made me shed a few tears of comfort. I got a couple of pillowcases folded, and having an early night now. This is a good thread to be part of. Tomorrow will be better

Plodded on with a few random bits out. Looks like DP is being furloughed (fingers crossed he will have a job to go back to) so we'll share the home schooling/learning. In theory this should free up some time to crack on with some decluttering and also a dump trip as we may have more luck with a mid week timeslot.