Still throwing an item away a day – part 13

[StealthNinjaMum]

One of mumsnet's friendliest corners this is the 13th 'one item a day' thread to inspire and motivate a group of mumsnetters to declutter their houses, gardens and lives bit by bit, one step at a time.

Each day we get rid of just one item and report back. We’ve all got different challenges and problems and it keeps us going to discuss them and work through them together.

Newbies are welcome. It’s not just decluttering, join us in the chat about recycling, organisation, grumbles about hoarding family members and obviously our many successes.

Previous thread here.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3913755-The-decluttering-one-thing-a-day-thread-part-12?msgid=99387987

And for 2020 some of us are also aiming to get rid of 2020 items!

Tonight I decided a top needed to go. I was given it a couple months ago, I thought I would wear it, but I keep skipping over it. I tried it on again tonight and saw that it just wasn't me.

Slow and steady this week.

Two pairs of outgrown and very scruffy trainers in bin.

Tidied fridge-freezer, four or five small items ended up in food waste bin. This is good. I'm determined to reduce all actual waste to as close to zero as possible. Although net bags of oranges have one piece that goes mouldy within days, no matter how careful I am.

Emptied understairs cupboard, aka my office, and replaced neatly everything that actually belongs there. Then I looked through paintings and crafts from nursery and early primary. Managed to reduce it by one box. Now down to two large tubs.

Nothing out yet, but inspired by Hazel and Wellies I've gone for a seasonal name change
Dd2 is decluttering her nose of large quantities of snot, so it's hard to get much done at the moment.

ellieq that was a lovely update. Glad you’ve made progress.

A friend popped in this morning to return something she’d borrowed but it took just 5 minutes to tidy away enough stuff for it to look clean and presentable. A good result.

It’s been a slow week here. I have tidied a couple of things into my newly organised utility room cupboards and generally been doing lots of floor cleaning and hoovering. I also seem to be doing much more washing than usual as dc wear sports kits into school so I have to do extra washes so they can wear them sometimes the next day. Suddenly they’ve got hygiene conscious and get upset if I suggest they wear socks for two days.
I said a couple of days ago I need a new project. I’m still intending to empty the drawers in the sitting room again to tidy them but maybe I’ll do that tomorrow as I’ve got some admin to do today.

Congratulations EllieQ, that's great progress. Are you finding it is making life easier yet?

Decluttered some baby weight and bigger clothes, determined not to go back into them again.

Well I have spent this rainy morning in my wardrobe, I have not got rid of much just one fall charity bag !! it still have far to much stuff, but as I might have mentioned in the past I really love cloths!! And know it’s not a capsule wardrobe, but I think I have managed to get a lot in!! It really need and good hoover and sort out . I would also like to mention that this year I have not bought any cloths!! And I’m going to carry on going cold Turkey on the cloths shopping front for the rest of the year. Was also very good last year and only bought a few things. But I still managed to find one dress this morning that I can’t remember buying, and did not know I had!!

Clothes not cloths

I have made some progress removing sad vegetables from the fridge (what DO you do with kohl rabi?) and manky satsumas from the fruit bowl - I had missed the inevitable dodgy one in every packet.

Good luck with the bookshop Wellies. Am still carrying charity bags around in the boot here and really must try to get rid!

Love the wardrobe nanalisa. May make that my next project as I have loads of office clothes I don’t miss and might get rid of.

Need to do a bit of a tidy as SIL is coming over tomorrow. Don’t think I will be quite as quick as you Stealth!

I managed to sell a Trunki today (actually sold it the other day but it was collected today). Should have somebody coming later for 2 pairs of stilts (don't ask!)

Also started sorting through beach bits as we have lots of bags of them & I have thrown away 3 broken buckets & a broken float.

Pretty pleased with all that.

Another coat sold on eBay now posted. Also have someone picking up some Scalextric tonight. Nice to see some of the bulky items going.

I found myself with half an hour to kill stuck in a car park - I’d left my phone at home so instead of browsing mumsnet I sorted through my purse and binned a whole bunch of receipts.

Well done everyone and thanks for the fresh ideas of what to do in the coming days.

Day 13: airing cupboard sort out, and put a bin bag full of bedding sets for the charity shop.

Also tidied the the craft paper box up so recycled a pile of bits that are too tatty to use.

Tomorrow: fabric sort out (gulp). I'm planning on making some face masks so need to get my fabric sorted and hopefully cull some.

Enjoying reading the successes, big and small, from everyone.

Bad weather due here Friday and all weekend so decided to spend an hour this afternoon planting bulbs and plants to save getting soaked. Still have one pot to finish as ran out of time. Happy to have got most done and 13 empty packets, boxes, compost bags and one dead plant binned/composted.
Hoping that the rearranged charity furniture pick up happens tomorrow.

Today I sold one large item that has been in the way for ages, and gave away a small item.

Dh got three large bags down from the attic and I sorted out two smaller bags for charity, and some items I'd prefer to sell. I will list them tomorrow and if they don't sell over the weekend give them away. One of my weaknesses has been holding onto things with a vague plan to sell them, but not actually doing it, or if they don't sell just keeping them. We aren't short of money, but we are short of space, so holding onto stuff doesn't make sense.

I do find life a bit easier @AlexTheLittleCat - not having space taken up by the stack of boxes from my mum’s house is much easier, and I’m not sure I would have pushed myself to sort through so much in September without the encouragement of reporting back on here.

I also think it’s made it easier for me to let go of things - in my first post, I wrote about how I was reluctant to get rid of any of DD’s old clothes and baby things, but over the past week I’ve sold some of her toddler waterproofs and wellies, and this weekend I’m planning to put some of her old coats up for sale on FB.

No real outs today, but DH had an amazon package (large box for a small item), and he put the packaging and box straight into the recycling, which I’ll count as a win

I need to sort tomatos too - thanks for the reminder!

Sorted through the shoe cupboard and have 5 pairs to go (not out yet as in my boot!). Also put the sandals away so it looks a lot clearer.

Ins: dressing gown for DS and a set of skateboard pads for DD. Plus 3 jumpers for DH and a couple for me.
So ins and outs are about even.

I've been trying to keep up with the Team Tomm app and the house does feel much fresher. Still lots to do though.

Nice weather yesterday, after very cold nights. Spent some time in the garden, ccutting back frost-damaged plants. I'll continue with that today, weather permitting, after school drop-off.

Have hit a bit of a plateau in the house. It's tidy enough to know where things are, and easier to keep clean, but I don't have the courage to drill down to the next layer. It would take a whole different mindset, and I don't know how to achieve that.

MrsTidyHouse

I know what you mean about drilling down to the next level of being organised, I am now doing that is you walked into my house you would think it’s very tidy, but now I’m at the stage were I am organising all the draws and cupboards. I’m doing it at a room by room giving a deep down sort out, yesterday it was the wardrobe got another sort out!! two bags of clothes and shoes and bags in the car to go to the charity shop today.

Really pleased with the out come all sorted In to categories. Then I went on and started on the bedside cabinets. Today it’s the chest of drawers which I’m Going to sort out Marie Kondo style (did it earlier in the year but it all needs done again) And the biggest job of them all the dressing table, which has three draws of makeup and cosmetics.

I’m going to be ruthless!!

raspberryblonde I hope you have a nice morning with sil. My house actually looks like a bomb's hit it today. I think it depends what I cook the night before. If I do baking or something that involves lots of pans then I spend ages the next morning emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the hob / floor (I'm a messy cook) and washing up and don't get round to doing anything else.

So today's job is to clear the clutter that has appeared overnight (mainly coats, homework, washing up) and then declutter the sitting room. I'm also going to empty the fridge because it has an odd smell. I only emptied it about two weeks ago so I don't know what it could be.

nanalisa60 mrstidyhouse I'm sort of at the next level of being organised. I think it's why I'm struggling a bit. I know I need to finish jobs like paperwork, children's school books /paintings, photos, computers, electronics but they're so boring.

Well the saga of the furniture collection continues. Beds and mttresses were rejected but they did take the bookcase and two chairs. Have now arranged a council collection of mattresses - and parked the idea of moving them outside on my own for now :). The beds were rejected because of one broken slat and they do not have anyone to repair at present. I have e-mailed a local charity that are still able to repair to see if they will take the beds. Failing that, will try Freecycle/'Nextdoor' adverts.
Bit demoralised but will get back to decluttering at the weekend.
1714/2020

Sold a handbag on eBay that I hadn’t used for ages. Only £4 but it’s one less thing taking up space.

Another one who's hit a bit of a wall and needs to get to the next level. We need to have some different furniture/storage to fully get there....
I have several things to go which I need to advertise and find out if charity shops are accepting donations again. After several months without I discovered we have new textile recycling bins which are in use so can drop some things in there.

Out today a small bottle of baby oil (I never did work out what to use it for) and a two year old pot of body butter I don't much like.
I have a load of stuff to list but just not getting round to it...