Getting rid of one item a day thread number 14 – where we extract precious autumn leaves, rocks and twigs from our children

[stealthninjamummy]

Well I never thought I’d still be here, on the 14th thread where a bunch of mumsnetters get rid of one item a day while we slowly declutter and reorganise our houses.

It’s autumn and some of us have commented on our children’s beloved treasures that are coming in like conkers and precious twigs that have been named. This is the thread where we focus on sneaking these things out and getting the house ready for Christmas even if we don’t know what Christmas will be like this year.

New joiners are always welcome, just get rid of one item and let us know. We’ve all different issues and challenges and it’s nice to have a friendly chat with a fellow mumsnetter.

Previous thread here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4003927-Still-throwing-an-item-away-a-day-part-13?pg=1

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

an old dried up pen
and a long sleeve t-shirt which has seen much better days.

also posted my nephews christmas presents out to nz so that has cleared a shelf in the cupboard. and cleared £100 out of the bank account. sigh.

Sorry it's not a wanted move @KateF , hopefully sharing your decluttering stuff here will help with some emotional decluttering too

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly he's 5 and not been operated on since 18 months so long may that last. Were still toilet training and awaiting reviews and appts for that but it's obv harder given the pandemic. Can't wait to hear the excuse he comes up with when he's older for his scar. He's a few weeks in age to Princess Charlotte so I used to tell him he rescued her from sharks 🤣🤣

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly takes me years to fix poo up books too and then when I do it I think why didn't I just do that it took me one minute!!! Trying to get better at fixing stuff immediately.

@Weneedmusicandtheatre
The hooks are amazing and they feel excellent quality and durable and safe.

The link is below:

www.toughook.co.uk

We bought a pack of 10, 7 in the dressing up corner, 2 by the front door so toddler can get and hang up her own coats and 1 by the back door for her wellies. My plan is that she can sort herself out and go in the garden if I'm stuck feeding the new baby when it comes.

Plus I'm a teacher of reception children and I just want the world to send me kids who can put on their own coats and wellies and hang them back up again.

katef I sympathise with you about getting rid of books, that’s a tough one. I have bought lots of classic books for my dc that they weren’t interested in and even though they were second hand i can’t quite get rid of them, but it is getting easier.

Today’s time in the Room of Doom - I got rid of a huge valentines card from stbexh, various sales and unnecessary information sheets from banks and utility providers, a whole folder of stuff on a school holiday when I was 16, information and photos of a penguin that stbexh adopted for my birthday one year.

I sorted 90% of my paperwork out about two years ago so didn’t think this would be as time consuming and boring as it is.

Yes stealthninjamummy the books will be my stumbling block. You did well today. I've set dd1 on our own 'room of doom' aka the spare bedroom to sort out her overflow of clothes and shoes. Her own room is spotless because she dumps everything in there! However I need to reclaim it as dd3 is coming back to live with me since her father is moving away. Dd2 may also be returning as things are not going well with her boyfriend. I can only afford to buy a 2 bed terrace so things could get interesting to say the least!

I'm onto the last crate of craft stuff which looks to be mostly headed for the bin. Trouble is bin is nearly full and not collected til next week and you have to book ten days in advance for the tip. Tomorrow and Wednesday are my last leave days this year so want to get a lot done.

[quote footprintsintheslow]@Weneedmusicandtheatre
The hooks are amazing and they feel excellent quality and durable and safe.

The link is below:

www.toughook.co.uk

We bought a pack of 10, 7 in the dressing up corner, 2 by the front door so toddler can get and hang up her own coats and 1 by the back door for her wellies. My plan is that she can sort herself out and go in the garden if I'm stuck feeding the new baby when it comes.

Plus I'm a teacher of reception children and I just want the world to send me kids who can put on their own coats and wellies and hang them back up again. [/quote]
Great, thank you!

Welcome @KateF & good luck with the house move. It sounds tough I find it incredibly hard to get rid of books, but try to hang on to just sentimental or must-read ones, knowing I can borrow others from the library or buy again or download on Kindle if needed. I would recommend putting them on Facebook sales as bundles - either for a small amount of money or for free if you are happy to do that.

Somehow I ended up with not much decluttering time again today- between errands for my grandparents & getting through to Vodafone to change contracts (which took an hour!) there wasn't much time. But did get rid of 3 pairs of child joggers & 2 large unread books I knew were going. I also managed to tidy the kitchen & lounge, throwing away 1 magazine & 1 used puzzle book. I won't get much done tomorrow either as volunteering at the library until 1pm.

@KateF there's always people posting random craft stuff on our local freecycle Facebook page and it gets snapped up. Might be worth a try.

Day 69:
Emails and photos.
Two free baby magazines recycled.
One pretend food toy recycled.
A big box of leaves mulched on garden (so glad they are out of the house now. We are very much over autumn playtimes).

Thanks for your suggestions. I've not tried selling on eBay or Facebook before but could give it a go. Certainly any extra cash towards Christmas would be great.

Not quite so hopeless a day.

Bag of clothes for charity, smaller bag put aside for the twins when they're older, and a bag of stuff advertised for sale. All to go in garage to wait

I've found Sphock isn't great for books.

Anyone want to buy some Jasper Fforde books? Or the True Blood Series?

I've also remembered re: books. A lot of people in our village put them outside their houses, on a table or in a box, for people to help themselves to. That could be an option if they don't sell.

Again, nothing much achieved today, although I did declutter some left overs from the freezer and threw out a very yucky dust pan and brush from the early weaning days.
KateF I did a major book cull over summer. I found webuybooks and Ziffit paid the best, while zapper will take everything, including the ones of no value for recycling.
It was really hard, but I definitely appreciate the space more than I did the books on a day to day basis.
Sorry you have to move, it's miserable at the best of times, let alone when you don't want to.

I cant wait for that tipping point! I just want to be able to walk into a room and not be tripping over something!

I've added a pair of kids gloves to the charity bag and a broken freezer draw went in the bin.

*drawer

Not much for me today.

I have collated most of my clutter pile and bubble-wrapped the fragile stuff.

I used up quite a few old apples testing a couple of my chopping/blending gadgets and found that one of them doesn't work properly. I was ready to get rid of it but am now thinking it might just need a bit of tinkering? Not sure what though.

Other than that, I've finally used up a cheap raspberry jam and have promised myself that I won't buy that again.

Dinner was frozen leftovers: bolognese with rolls turned into garlic bread.

@SandAndSea why are you up at 3am? My husband woke me up at 4am and I've been up ever since.

Monday is my long day and so I was pleased I managed to declutter one of the kids rooms of some books. Small win!

Impressive results here

sandandsea would you really want to fix your chopping device and keep it when you have others? I would get rid of it.

strangeaddiction did you mean it literally when you said you walk into a room and trip over something? There’ll be no judgements from me if that’s the case. How about you really focus on getting rid of that sort of clutter first? Like maybe set yourself an objective to get your sitting room clear and ready for Xmas?

I am about to do half an hours Room of Doom again. Sorry for boring updates, I know that I’m going to be filing some paperwork and just shredding bits of paper.

I know it doesn't work for everyone but I found the best thing with the little bits of clutter lying around of many homes was to bag it so I could get surfaces cleaned and decluttered and then work through the bags one at a time. I felt having all the big stuff on the right place made it easier to get the little stuff in the right place.

sleepingstandingup I would largely agree it’s good to bag things up and have nice surfaces then declutter. My problem used to be I’d bag things before my in-laws visited and would never empty the bags.

Anyway I have done 45 mins in the Room of Doom. I have filed 2020 bank statements and utilities. I have also chucked out all utility statements before 2015 and all credit card statements before 2010. This is a big step as at one point I had credit card statements going back to 1995. I also filed some instruction leaflets and threw away old instruction leaflets. I have a box file of instruction leaflets that I always forget I have! I know there are instructions and fuarantees for various products around the house, I must remember they actually have a home. I also threw out some old receipts and dcs artwork.

All in all I probably have about 2 inches of papers to shred. I still have lots to do but an ikea blue bag that was full of stuff is now nearly empty. I can see progress.

Where do you suggest for recycling old mobile phones? Doing the drawers of doom

I just found my old A level exam papers from 30 years ago so I really am delving deep in my crap. I should throw them away but they feel like history. I wonder if anyone or organisation would want them? This is the kind of stuff I procrastinate on and it stops me ever finishing the Room of Doom. If I had thrown them out in 1990 I would have forgotten about them and it wouldn’t be a problem now.