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!

@powershowerforanhour your post really made me laugh!

Outs were a pile of home schoolwork completed in Lockdown 1. Some of it is quite sweet but I don't associate it with happy times so I've culled two thirds.

I'm trying to follow The Organised Mum Method (anger that it is Mum, not Adult or Parent, but whatevs). Today's focus is the bedroom so will try and declutter the tops of the wardrobes and get the floordrobe sorted.

lots of storage tetris yesterday. Office/cupboard is now mostly cupboard. Nothing decluttered from there.

Kitchen tidy every Monday for Tuesday recycling trolley. The only wasted food in the food bin was a misplaced bag of bananas which had turned black. Supermarket shopping-lists are working well.

To echo what a PP said about spending less. I'm enjoying being better organised wrt food shop. Not wasting time and fuel on top-up food shopping three or four times a week. Not buying replacements for lost stuff.

Living-room needs a thorough tidy, sort, declutter. Today, before it takes on a life of its own.

Got a little kick of happiness when I opened my underwear drawer this morning easily and pulled out a wearable pair of pants without a tangle of old bras coming too. Result!

@kitschplease - yes also angry that the mental and most of the physical load of it is deemed to be ours. Tried to discuss with DH last night, got the usual "I'm too tired to talk about this now" , then he dragged himself up and did the washing up and a bit of pushing crap behind the living room sofa to clear temporary floor space.

Hey ho. I'm annoyed that my girls are going to grow up thinking women do everything just like the sun rises in the east and ice turns to water when it melts but the alternative is that they grow up in a tip and think that's normal. Will try not to simmer with resentment- as negative emotion for me and not as if DH exactly wracked with guilt into epiphany moment so pointless. Even if he never ever changes, at least if one of us does that's a big plus.

powershower 🤣🤣 at your description of the toothbrushes. Sounds like you are off to a flying start but remember if you run out of steam even one thing a day is progress. I still take delight in my tidy cupboard under the sink every time I get something out.

weneedmusic could the sentimental loft items wait a while or do your DPs need the room themselves?

In annoying news here our boiler needs to be replaced. Not only will this mean two or three days without heating in early November it also means that afterwards I will only have half the shelves in the cupboard

Morning all. Managed a few minutes of decluttering yesterday and put an old handbag in the charity pile (after removing and binning a load of old receipts).

powershower I love your description of the underwear drawer. Mine was a bit like that at one stage! Hello to all of the other new people.

Have sorted all of the outgrown shoes from the cupboard. Need to decide what to do with them. Some are very tatty but others still have quite a lot of wear in them.

A busy start to the morning. Lovely to read all the updates.
Inspired by the drawer tidying I have resorted my tee shits and have 3 for the charity shop bag, plus 2 pairs of jeans I haven't worn in years and a blouse that will no longer fit. Bag will be dropped off at lunchtime when out and about.
Also added 2 dressing up outfits and an unused, enormous wash bag - we have several that hold all that we need and fit the suitcase neatly.
Finally, with my early start to the morning I decluttered 4 pieces of paper (reminders of deliveries), an old lip balm and a 'to do' item that has been on my horizon since Christmas 2019 which took less than 15 mins and I enjoyed the task too.
Enjoying the autumn colours and wonderful light here.
1766/2020

Hi everyone, I feel like I've been gone for ages, but I think it was just a few days and feels longer because the thread moves so fast.
A very annoying out yesterday, as one of my favourite plates broke. Hoping to do something more constructive today but dd2 won't let me put her down, sigh.
Ellieq and Gassey sorry to hear about your broken appliances. Over summer we had to replace both the dishwasher and fridge freezer after the inherited with the house ones packed up. The boiler we replaced just after we moved in last autumn, and I think it damaged our relationship with our new neighbours. Apparently the neighbour had done a lot of work on the old boiler and there was nothing wrong with it -appart from the internal water leak which fried the electrics-.

Ha, strike through fail. Oh well

Welcome to the thread anythinglegalconsidered. Thanks for the tip I will try to overtype my name for the rest of this thread.

miaowse I agree with alex about flylady. I stuck with her for about six weeks and finished decluttering my utility room which was a Big Project, the main bathroom and most of the kitchen. I am now bored with her but for about six weeks I was super motivated.

powershowerforanhour that made me laugh, glad you can open your draws (pun intended).

I also used to keep toothbrushes to clean and never did it. About a year ago dd1 said her art teacher was looking to use old toothbrushes and I instantly found about 10!

Welcome weneedmusicandtheatre.

gassylady it sucks about the boiler but try to see it as motivational. When ours died I knew the plumber was going to go in the loft, airing cupboard and utility room and it was the catalyst to tidy all three areas.

I know what you mean ghostofglumy the thread does seem to be going really fast at the moment. I can’t remember what I last posted but dd2 has agreed to give away a jacket, I have decided to throw away my second pair of scruffy boots I walk in (they leak as I discovered on a walk yesterday), and I found a box of dressup hats and wigs that belonged to costumes I got rid of a few weeks ago so I guess they’ll have to go.

Stealth you are right as we don’t have excessive amounts of linen/towels so I’m sure other homes will be found. Access to loft may well also be required but had a tidy in there yesterday as needed to retrieve the bits that DH dropped to charity shop. I’ve shredded yet more old tax records today.
My next big project is to tidy the dumping ground in the corner of the kitchen. I can then put up some new shelves to store some extra bits like soft drinks etc and staples if I can only buy 5 or 20kg bags again when the COVID/Brexit s*show hits

I’m going to buck the trend and confess that I do use old toothbrushes for cleaning. I used two to clean my toilet seat with pink stuff the other day and it’s super clean now.

The only problem with new boilers gassylady is its such a depressing way to spend a lot of money. With furniture or storage solutions you can get pleasure but boilers just aren’t pretty. I don’t even think we have saved a significant amount of money in our subsequent heating bills compared to the cost.

miaowse that’s interesting, maybe I should try it?

@stealthninjamum what fresh he'll is this? An art project made from other people's toothbrushes?🤮

Day 25 here:
Recycled a load of cartons and pots that I'd recycled to use as plant pots this summer.

An old pyjama top in the rags bag.

Two dresses in the attic pile to be stored until I'm not pregnant.

Running out of ideas here but I reckon I could find more out of date medicine and if I was brave I could go through the kitchen cupboards this week. One a day could be done I suppose.

Another 4 eBay sales posted. And hooray I had a charity bag through the letterbox today so I have two days to find plenty of stuff to ram it full!

footprints I can't remember, I'll ask. It's possible it didn't happen because covid closed the school.

Testing my old user name.

Good to have you back, Stealth!

I've got more bits of paper out today.
1 old railcard.
1 vase. I was going to sell it but I think I'll give it to charity. I feel I need to speed things up now.
Dinner is leftover bolognese from the freezer.

I'm debating chucking a box or storing it flat. We'll see.

Inspired by you I’ve thrown away one of the two “cleaning” toothbrushes in the cupboard next to me. I do use them for cleaning, but I only need one in each cleaning store.

Tried to put a fabulous frock from the 1990s which is really not age or body-shape appropriate for me any more into the charity bag but DD snapped it up.
But a) she looks fantastic in it and b) we did a deal whereby she could keep it if I could bin her knackered old umbrella (she has another working one). So that worked out well.

It’s been a while since I visited this thread as I’ve been busy having a baby!

Now I’m out of the newborn fog I’m keen to restart my decluttering mission again. Today I cleaned the downstairs of the house from top to bottom while baby was napping. I wanted to get everything in order first so I can see what needs decluttering!

Living-room floor now clear.

Much tidying and sorting. Spaces starting to appear on shelves.

Decluttered - Two outgrown garments in the donation/rag pile.

Congratulations on the baby wondering7777

Did a bit of sorting and washing of things that are good enough to be removed but keen to have an actual out and luckily found an easy one- a really manky old ironing board cover (mystery as to why not chucked when DH bought new one) plus 3 more toothbrushes that escaped yesterday's cull in the manner of wild brambles hiding in the bush to evade the round up. Sorry, Thowra. Into the recycling* you go.

*are you actually meant to recycle toothbrushes?

@wondering7777 congratulations on the baby!

www.google.com/amp/s/lifehacker.com/how-to-recycle-toothbrushes-and-toothpaste-tubes-if-yo-1828798695/amp

Oh. Bit crestfallen. Sorry, recycling people. What does everyone else do? Keep a manky toothbrush box till they have enough to be worth posting to the special recycling place? Sounds like clutteryballs to me.

*good enough to be removed

*wild brumbies, not brambles.

I hate the predictive text input on my new phone.
....
Right just googled it. It was shitey auto replace function.

Just wondered onto the NI direct recycling, which was good and linked to recyclenow.com which was even better and you can very quickly search by item and postcode...turns out there's electrical recycling (busted hairdryers etc) within 3 miles of my house , about 5 seconds off the beaten track! The nearest place I had noticed was 10 miles away at a big centre and I thought you had to go there. Fab!! I feel some easy outs coming on soon.