The countdown to Christmas - but still decluttering one item a day. Thread number 15

[stealthninjamum]

Thread number 15 of the ‘declutter one item a day thread’ and this bunch of mumsnetters are still decluttering our houses slowly by getting rid of one item a day.

It’s always challenging at Christmas for declutterers, as we fill our house with more presents, food and children’s toys. This thread should give us a bit more accountability as we keep plugging away slowly while we making our homes more organised and decluttered.

Obviously Christmas won’t be the same this year and the stealthninjahousehold won’t be having any visitors but I’m still keen to spend the last couple of weeks making my house a nicer space to spend time in.

Newbies are always welcome. We just get rid of one item each day and report back on the thread.

Previous thread here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4053749-Getting-rid-of-one-item-a-day-thread-number-14-where-we-extract-precious-autumn-leaves-rocks-and-twigs-from-our-children?pg=1

Pleased to report I've decluttered 5 items from the shower room. Appreciate the thread as it acts as a reminder & encourages me to keep at it!

@EllieQ I love the app "Get rid of it". It helped me a lot in the last years.

Glitterywoolly, sorry about your foot. You now have a good excuse to take a rest.

Today I finished off a mini toothpaste. My plan to try to use up excess stuff seems to be (slowly) working.

@EllieQ ooh, that’s interesting - I didn’t get rid of any bedding yesterday. It was still showing me the bedding option today so I wonder if I’ll get the socks prompt tomorrow or if it shows everyone different/random prompts.

I will now check out “Get rid of it” as I need all the help I can get

Ouch @IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly that sounds very painful. Hope the painkillers kick in soon.

Tonight I used up a pack of noodles and some cashew nuts. They borderline count under my consumables rule as I have multiple spares and they had been hanging around in the cupboard for a while. Stew is ready for tomorrow.

Well done @AbbieLexie that’s good going to find 5 outs! I’m very close to finishing a hand cream that I’ve been using as a body lotion.

Well I managed to clear all the shelves in my wardrobe and repurpose them for sweaters and jeans / leggings; clear out my clothing rail and rearrange it; clear out three large drawers - and it all resulted in one large charity bag, one bin bag and one recycle bag of paper and boxes. I ran out of steam - I did it yesterday but it was very cold and wet here so hard to get into cleaning.

I hope to do the one remaining drawer and get started in DS’s room tomorrow.

BTW - how to people manage to get those fabulous looking wardrobes on Pinterest? Even cleared and arranged by function, my wardrobe looks like a mish mash. But I really cannot see what else I can cull if I want to keep a mix of work and non work clothes, dresses, trousers, skirts, formal wear etc.

@Annasgirl I think they just have less clothes. It’s sad because I’d love my wardrobe to be like that.

Other outs today are a happy birthday bunting - Dd grabbed it and ripped it so it’s irreparable so has been binned.

And about 50 million reciepts.

Happy new year, everyone!

Mog - I'm with you. I've had quite a break from it all over Christmas and am just starting to get moving again.

Will - Sorry to read about yr foot. As a fellow foot pain person atm, I can empathise. Hope it eases off soon.

My item for the pile today is 1 CD. I played it tonight for the first time in many years. It was nice but I got fed up with it about half way through. The one song I really like on it is easily found online.

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly

Only a few outs today as DS2 went round his room collecting packaging and recycling.

I am now decluttering painkillers down me (sensible doses, fear not). I damaged my foot in mid November, was advised to stay off it in mid December and got over excited this evening and helped DS2 with his room then hoovered. I now can't put any weight on it at all, because I am some kind of idiot.

A mask basket is something we could Def get behind @SingToTheSky I'm a bit jealous 🤣

10:3

@Miaowse I started using the app today and my first prompt was jackets, but I skipped that (I didn’t have any old ones to get rid of) and the next one was socks. I like the way you can record what you get rid of!

@MogTheSleepyCat I use Stocard and it has a red icon.

@SleepingStandingUp same for tall women abs tights. Now I'm tall, fat and pregnant so it's a disaster for me and tights and I really only wear dresses.

@Miaowse I love a stew as you can use so many sad vegetables.

@EllieQ do you knit or crochet?

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly rest all day today if you can.

@footprintsintheslow can you tell me what you mean by 'red icon' please?

Oooh not for long eh @footprintsintheslow. Man I miss pregnancy tights. It's the only time stuff vaguely accommodated my stomach 🤣. H&M ones were great but it's probably a bit late for you now ☺️☺️

@MogTheSleepyCat

Can anyone recommend an app for iphone which stores all your loyalty cards? I want to get rid of all individual cards from my purse.

I like the look of the Stocard app - has anyone got any experience of it?

I'm normally a lurker round here - I tend to do a big declutter every couple of weeks rather than more regularly - but wanted to pop in to reply to this because I have the stocard app and i love it.

It's super easy to use - most of the main companies are already preloaded into the app so all you have to do is choose the card you want to upload, scan the barcode/qr code on the back of your card with your phone camera and then it is stored in the app. When you're in the shop you just open the app, click the relevent loyalty card image and then it pulls up a barcode for the staff member to scan like they would do with your physical card.

I also like the fact that I can add my own cards too if they have a barcode to use/redeem - eg the card for my local library obviously wasnt preloaded but I could add it and now I dont have to worry about losing mine and DDs library cards.

I use android so idk if this is a universal feature for Apple too but I also have the app set so that when I'm in a store the app will use my phone's GPS to recognise I'm in Tesco (for example) and show the icon on my phone lock screen so that I can just click on it and my Tesco clubcard will open directly, rather than having to go through the menus etc. It helps a lot when I go into places that I dont use very often because it reminds me of the loyalty card - eg I dont use The Body Shop very often, I just get one or two items there but I bulk buy them so I only go in maybe once or twice a year, but every time I go in I use the loyalty card via my app and half the time theres a birthday voucher or some sort of promotion for loyalty card holders and I end up getting things cheaper. If I had to remember the physical card I would never get those discounts as I never have it in my purse as I go in there so rarely.

@melj1213 thanks for that - you've sold it to me!

Happy new year everyone! I’m back.

I’ve had a busy few days. I have just about decluttered the last of the food and other than that the house is a complete mess. My decorations are still up because unlike the last two years I had a nice Christmas and I don’t want it to end. Not least because from next week I have to homeschool for two weeks. I’m hoping it will only be two weeks but cases are so high in my area I can’t see how anything other than a lockdown will help.

Anyway, welcome to any newbies. I am going to catch up on the thread now.

I think I have caught up, you’ve all been so busy.

Welcome back singtothesky

Welcome iceisnice, annasgirl, lovely to meet you.

iveisnice pinksands1 ememem84 2021 is an awesome targets. I love seeing threads where people post “day27” or “230 / 2020”. It’s weird a group of complete strangers keeping each other on track.

iceisnice sorry to hear about the recent deaths of your mum, grandad and mil. I think it’s a big thing in Sweden to declutter so that when you die you don’t pass it on. That’s quite a big motivator for me, I would hate my dc to spend weeks sorting through my possessions at such a difficult time anyway.

sleeingstandingup belated happy birthday.

sleepingstandingup my 12 year old dd still stains her clothes. She still can’t eat bolognese without ruining her clothes whereas her younger sister just got the hang of eating neatly as a toddler. You can always tell where dd1 had dinner because dd1s chair is sitting among bits of pea and carrots.

sleepingstandingup what is it with men and their socks? My stbexh used to have such pointy gnarly toenails that they wore holes through the toes and my boyfriend wears socks that are completely seethrough in places.

glitterywooly sorry to hear about your foot, I hope you can get some rest now.

So my update. Other than wrapping paper, boxes and packaging (which I don’t really count as clutter) I haven’t had time to declutter and I am seriously worried that I won’t be able to. With dc home next week I think I’m going to be too knackered. Today’s aim is to tidy and hoover and do a big online shop with food that requires minimal cooking.

ACtually having said I have done nothing I have been in the Room of Doom sorting through old computer games. I had lots but also many empty boxes and CDs in the wrong boxes so they’re in an ‘unfinished crap’ pile. sandandsea I think you asked about games and their codes weeks ago. I have found, in the Room of Doom, a set of special pens to write on CDs so you could write a code on your cd with one of those and it won’t damage it.

Happy new year everyone! Not really achieved much so far this year. We're going to get the flat cleaned and tidied over the weekend including taking the tree down.
I have no idea how home learning will go this time so may struggle to do much...

Happy new year to old and new declutterers! I can’t commit to counting my outs and 2021 seems like so much.
Spotted a few more outgrown kids tops and coats for the charity bag. There will I’m sure be some books that could go from youngest billy bookcase but no way to get rid at the moment. But will bear in mind for an easy out if needed. This morning I’ve flattened some medication packaging and have put away new toiletries from christmas

Hello declutter club,

I'm going to try to join this year. Threw some old slippers out yesterday - they are coming apart and are cheap (so not reusable materials) so I thought dustbin the best option unfortunately. If anyone thinks differently then let me know! I am not very knowledgeable yet about sustainable decluttering.

Today’s out will be a top, noticed a hole in it! Still wearing it as I have a jumper on anyway but will get rid tonight

I’ve lost count already...

But have packed away the Christmas decorations (into two huge under bed storage boxes and these will go up in the loft)
Christmas tree is in the garden
I’ve had a delivery of new socks for the dc and have ditched some of their old ones
A spare seat for the pram and two bags of hangers are in the queue for the loft too

Thrown away two minging pillows.

Some time in the Garage of Oooh I need a word. Garage of doom doesn't work as well as room of doom.

Anyway,
Charity Bag: set of birthday candles, folders, more ribbon, plastic sleeves a plenty, stand for paper that I don't use with a PC, more ribbon, gift bag.

Bin: gift bags that look knackered, an empty book from the baby shower I never had 5 years ago,

I've got some larger baby bits I hoped to sell but I think when the charity shops open I'll just slowly take it all, it'll do more for my MH to clear than the extra bit of money.

I've always kept cards, Christmas, birthday the lot. Just fine through them to thin then out in the spirit of decluttering and come to get well cards from an od nearly 19 years ago. I mean what's that even about?? They don't lift me up, in fact I've had a sub in the garage. It's just made me realise that so much of my holding on to stuff isn't about holding on to the best of times but hanging on to the stuff that pulls me down too.

Not counting individual items as I reckon there's about 100 cards I've thrown.

20:3