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!

Got rid of 2 bags of clothes that wouldn't sell yesterday. Then realised I should have kept an old jumper to line the cat's house

I should be getting rid of a small toy today if buyer collects, but will probably get a load of stuff in as PIL are probably coming to visit & they always bring crap things with them thinking we will want them (we rarely do) & DH will not tell them!

Is it wrong that I am slightly excited by the pile of bags in the hall waiting to go to the charity shop today?

@Weneedmusicandtheatre maybe wrong but not uncommon. I actually did a little dance when my boxes of books were finally collected.

Everywhere is looking reasonable now, except the kitchen, which has reached official 'of Doom' status. Will try to muster up the motivation to have a go at it later, but first I have to -procrastinate- get a casserole in the slow cooker

@confusedofengland

Got rid of 2 bags of clothes that wouldn't sell yesterday. Then realised I should have kept an old jumper to line the cat's house

I should be getting rid of a small toy today if buyer collects, but will probably get a load of stuff in as PIL are probably coming to visit & they always bring crap things with them thinking we will want them (we rarely do) & DH will not tell them!

We have inlaws like that. I've turned it around now and take crap things to her house.

It's a pain isn't it, footprints? The thing is, they think they are being kind & I can just sell anything I don't want. Which I do, but it can take ages & not all stuff will sell, so i have to find another way to get rid, as charity shops aren't taking donations here. DH very much treats them with kid gloves as MIL has dementia & FIL is her carer, so he doesn't want to upset them (doesn't matter so much if he upsets me, of course ).

Anyway, they have not come today as MIL is having a bad day & now we are moving to Tier 2 (Essex) so not sure when we will see them & I feel bad for having those thoughts

That's tough confusedofengland. Have you tried gently telling them what the children like or that they have a savings account. Try not to feel bad - maybe the children could colour a card or a picture and post it to them or do a video call.

I dumped an old shade from the utility room and replaced it with a nice fresh one. I'm finding it easier to see what needs to be done now I've created a bit of space.
I have two jackets in my charity bag and will try and drop them in tomorrow.

vinorosso74 I am laughing at you binning manky conkers. I frequently do that too.

weneedmusicandtheatre I love having that pile of clutter waiting to go to the charity shop. It’s such a visible display of your hard work. That and in my case big sacks of paper I’ve shredded that go out with the recycling.

confusedofengland I’m sorry things are tough with the inlaws.

Well I’ve done no decluttering for a couple of days other than opening bags / parcels of xmas presents I’ve bought and chucking out the packaging. I feel awful that the amazon packaging takes up a whole sack for some really quite small items. Normally I try to buy more locally but I haven’t done much shopping this year. I’m going to bump the things I put on facebook the other day. I have had no interest in anything. I’d like to take them to a charity shop but I’ve heard that our local charity shops are ‘full up’ at the moment and not accepting donations.

Tip and charity shop run done. Even found an extra bag of DH old clothes to add in at the last moment. At least 14 large carrier bags to charity and 7 bulky items to the tip. Brief elation hanging on in the face of the pile of scarves and other clothes I still need to sort. The amount of stuff I needed to keep for the stage was doable before dc. Fairly impossible now. Will have to pare down and get used to sad looks as you tell designer/costume department that “no, you don’t have a scarf/ costume jewellery/bag/shoes” in some random colour...

Checking in. Not huge progress, but a bit of systematically using up ageing food supplies for lunch rather than going out to grab a pasty from the bakery, a small bag of clothes to go to Help The Aged tomorrow and a bag of souvenirs from an ancient holiday which were going to be scrapbooked either recycled or filed on a bookshelf rather than on the floor (Marie K would have told me to bin the lot, but I’m settling for 50% binned and 50% tidied away for now).

I also told DH that if he was going to go for his normal lunchtime walk to get his step count up, he might as well walk to Tesco and recycle the single used lightbulb which was hanging around and annoying me. He accepted this suggestion quite well I thought.

I've been naughty. I have just ordered two dresses in the boden sale so decided to get rid of two that I never wear. So not quite 'outs' but at least not 'ins'

Out-tins for school for the harvest collection. Not really an out but I'm counting it as such as I raided the food cupboard rather than buying in stuff.

@stealthninjamum I have done the conker culling for a few years now. I think this may be the last.
I haven't really achieved much this week. About to do our final online school tour then we can finalise school order over the weekend so I can get this secondary application decluttered!

Thank you for the in-law sympathy. Didn't mean to unload quite like that

Well done to those that have done charity shop runs & stealth I don't blame you for buying Boden dresses in the sale, I would too!

A few outs today

• Sold 1 small game
• Gave a friend 2 swimming hats from DSes' earlier levels (they get a different colour hat each time they go up a stage)
• Gave back 6 books to Infant & Junior school

I spent an hour or so decluttering our 'school box' (large ottoman inside the front door where we put all school stuff & swimming bags), which was rather satisfying as it had got full of junk.

Day 28:

One more kitchen cupboard cleaned and a courgette spiralizer put on Facebook freecycle.

One bag of hangers given to family who actually wanted some.

Made some passata to freeze to use up some more or the tomato glut.

@Vinorosso74 do you also have to declutter twigs and stones? Your post made me realise that dd3 isn’t filling her pockets with nature, maybe she’s growing up? I’m a bit sad about that even though I used to hate emptying her pockets.

No twigs but we have had lots of stones over the years (at least they don't go manky). Yes, DD is growing up too, I had to buy her bras this week and she's only 10 and not much shorter than me.

We have a stick that I daren't get rid of. It has a name and everything.

Five chairs are now in the back of my van, to drive to DS's new flat tomorrow.

Pair of holey socks decluttered.

@MrsTidyHouse - that’s brilliant, five chairs leaving must make a big difference to your space.

I also have a pair of holey socks for the rag bag, but they have just been washed so need to dry first.

My outs for today: 3 used up, essential oil bottles.

Made a trip to the dump with just 7 items but it is the only place that takes lightbulbs locally. I was late there (by 2 hours!) but was still let in.
Otherwise just one out a day - papers, junk mail etc.
Will try to tackle the spare room - still 'of doom' - today to at least sort the remaining bedding in to 'keep' or 'dispose' and then get the keep items back in to the loft. At least that will clear the bed and most of the floor.
1773/2020

Went through the cutlery draw today, and threw out some ancient plastic picnic cutlery (probably from the days before everything was BPA free), and some baby feeding spoons dd2 has moved past (we have loads more).

@footprintsintheslow

We have a stick that I daren't get rid of. It has a name and everything.

Hilarious! I love this. We've had that too.

And I swear the last time we went to Brighton a child snuck half the beach into her rucksack. She must've really struggled with the weight but I had told her I didn't want to take the beach so she did it without telling me.

Note: Halloween name change. So subtle I didn't think anyone would notice.

I've decided to go through a couple of kitchen drawers. I have kept some plastic children's plates for picnics or eating outside but we have some stuff like curly straws and scruffy drinks cups that I think can possibly go without being noticed.

Today I charity bagged a couple of kitchen gadgets given to me years ago which seem nice but haven’t been used for years (vegetable sharpener and lemon juice squirted). Someone else should get some use of them. I should have started a tally!