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

Jesus woman you're gonna give birth over the mop bucket at this rate. I get you're nesting but you're not going ot get any bloody peace once baby is here 🤣 enjoy it. Cute robot.

Happy New Year everyone!

OK - this is THE year that I will get the house sorted, get the garden under control, lose weight and start an exercise regime...

But... now that lockdown is under way, I don't feel very motivated. Sigh!

Over the weekend I made a start on sorting out the spare room. (I guess I should really call it the Room of Doom ) It has been a dumping ground since we moved in, but it has got steadily worse over the past few years. I hauled out all the boxes and bags, a section at a time, clearing the piles of loose stuff teetering on top, as I went. A lot of the loose stuff went into drawers that I was at last able to access, the rest went into boxes and bags. I hoovered as I went, and cleaned the window. Most of the stuff now is back in the room, waiting on a proper sort-out, but at least I can now remove things a box or bag at a time, without being hit with an avalanche of bits. I now know what is there, and roughly where it is. I also managed to find a few bits and pieces that I had been hunting for. Unfortunately, the landing is now covered in bags of stuff from the spare room that originally came from my mother's house - I am taking advantage of being in the house full-time with the heating on to wash the remaining clothes, bedding and table linen, before deciding whether to donate it to a charity shop, or for rags.

30 outs for me today:

Papier Mache church model to charity bag;
Cosmetic bag and 10 hotel-travel type toiletries to charity bag
Hot cloth cleanser used up
Binned: 2 tubes of nappy cream and manky moisturiser, 2 mascaras, a concealer, 4 old make up brushes, 3 old razors, 4 broken / mismatched bath toys.

Still lots more in the bathroom to go through, but will look at again another time.

Hi all!
Just been catching up on the thread, all doing really well and amazing how we all find different things to get rid of when we all probably have the same stuff in our houses!
@Inthetropics it is shit. I hope your DP has better success with the photo reclamation. Is there any way that the offer of making a photo book would relinquish the tight grip your MIL has for the photos? The bonus being that you could make two so that you guys have copies as well?
@stealthninjamum thank you for the welcome and condolences, I have heard about Swedish death cleaning and it is definitely a better mindset to have with regards to special items that are passed on and used so that they are not a burden on those left behind.
@footprintsintheslow thank you, I am trying to crack on before March because in the haze of sleepless nights and children demanding I am likely to get rid of not very much! The only thing is that the items getting decluttered are small and the stuff coming in e.g a moses basket etc are large although only temporary. The skirt is really nice and ordinarily not something I would have purchased a year ago but gut instinct said go for it and I am glad that I did.
Outs for yesterday and today; 59 these include:
5 Tupperware lids
1 Tupperware box
Some Calpol spoons
An old calendar now all info has been transferred.
A science book that was unread.
2 ribbons
1 dvd box set
31 dvds and CDs that are scratched because my 2 year old moves quicker than me and devised a new game of toss across the living room.... She is cute but one day..... And also 14 storage wallets that are not needed because of the above being no good.
Ins are 10 tea towels (DH purchase) and 2 exercise books because we have the joy of home learning

Ins:
2 X wellies
4 X slip on shoes
12 X vests
1 X pajamas
1 X light coat
2 X snow suits
13 X t-shirts
5 X trousers
2 X rompers
4 X cardigans
On top of an already full wardrobe

2021 day 5 update. Back to work (at home) today. Much harder to focus with DD at home, even with DH on childcare duty.

Category 1 (general decluttering): Shredded a bit more work paperwork.
Category 2 (Toss app prompts): Had to skip the first two prompts (freezer and jackets) as I’d already done them. The third prompt was ‘empty your pot of receipts’ which I also had to skip as I have a pile of receipts and going through them would take hours
Category 3 (mum’s stuff): nothing.

A few ins today: new set of plastic plates (I melted one in the microwave and couldn’t buy an individual plate to replace it), a new phone case (for the new phone I got in the summer), and a learning pack from DD’s school with her mini white board, reading books, exercise books etc. Homeschooling starts tomorrow.

ooh, glad I refound this thread.
Started decluttering in Dec. Cant do any this week. But will be back!

Oh everyone has been really busy! I did a bit of clearing on my desk and managed to fill half a carrier bag with old scraps of paper, empty packets, treasury tags, tissues etc but strangely the desk looks just as cluttered

I managed to make space in my under sink cupboard for two of the bottles of cleaning stuff that usually live on the windowsill, so I’m enjoying the extra visual space.

I also seem to be down to my last two pack of kitchen roll and now have a completely empty under bed drawer. I’m resisting the urge to add another bulk order to my subscribe and save...

39:3

I'm not counting the god damn clothes. I did however put some straight into the charity bag - an Xmas jumper, kids dressing gown, pair of trainers in their current side so not suitable and a few other bits of clothes, plus some robin's I didn't decorate with

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly You have a better memory than me! I had completely forgotten about that, so although we may be birthday twins, I guess I must be a lot older than you!

I have organised to take Friday off work, and since we can't go out for a nice meal, we have a pre-prepared delivery box coming from a posh restaurant that just has to be cooked. Happy Birthday when it comes. I hope you have organised to do something special.

Spent the day today working frantically at home whilst luckily DSis had a lighter day and had the DTs - who mostly played Roblox so probably weren't much hassle. Hopefully this has cleared my schedule for tomorrow- first day of senior school home learning... Didn't manage more than some packaging from Christmas presents, but also got all the kids stuff into a bag each and into their rooms, plus got DH to de-Christmas and pack away into the garage, so a big impact. Dinner was yet more Christmas food so also cleared fridge space.

Welcome back, PurpleFrog! It's good to see you on here again. Happy birthday to you and Will for Friday!

I've got quite a few things earmarked to go out soon, but I'm not counting them until they're properly on the pile or actually out. (Several are in the laundry.)

So, my outs are:

1 DVD.
1 Christmas decoration.
1 hat/scarf/gloves set.

Just a quick update as homeschool starts in ten minutes but Toss made me do a bathroom cabinet so I chucked out some gloves you’re meant to scrub your body with an a bleached old flannel.

Thank you to whoever recommended the app it is so good to do something amongst the busyness of homeschooling.

purplefrog you say you’re not motivated but it sounds like you’ve made a fantastic start. Once a room hits Doom status it’s a massive job. It always gets worse before it gets better but just go slowly if that’s all you feel motivated to do.

Welcome lightand what are you decluttering at the moment? Do you have a plan or are you being a bit random?

I just remembered Christmas cards, they’re everywhere, how did I not ‘see’ them before?. I don’t count them as clutter as they’re only temporary but they’re going in the shredder pile.

todays out - a longline vest which has absolutely seen better days. bought from Primark about 10 years ago so have absolutely got my moneys worth from it. it has holes in it now. I was wearing it when i went running but ditched it after my run this morning.

Used up a tube of hand cream. Very baby steps here at the moment but I'm dutifully trying to find at least 1 thing every day.

Today’s toss prompt was bags and purses. Have few of those but interpreted it to chuck a few receipts and post tracking labels etc
Also delved further into storage drawers in bathroom to get rid of lots of opened for far too long face masks etc. Also found calpol melts that were six years out of date! No Calpol syringes though- May finally be free of those

Face masks of the try and improve your skin type NOT the reduce your viral load in case of COVID exposure type!

No other outs here today.

but also no ins. so that's a start.

Hello, managed 12 outs today: 5 ribbons to the charity shop bag that is now full. 1 box of random craft stuff in the bin as it was beyond salvaging, 1 instruction manual and registration for window vac (registered online completed last night), 1 small toy dog that went up to the hoover and cannot get clean as it has felt fur on it, Rawl plugs that came with some contraption that were surplus to requirements, a toy dinosaur with a broken foot, 1" of children 'art' recycled and 1 colouring book completely coloured in also recycled. Ins are a mattress for cot bed, cot bed, 4 filters for prep machine and a sponge for baby to lay on in bath.
Out:12
In; 7

@SandAndSea Actually I never left - I just posted very intermittently in the past few months as I hadn't done anything! I have been keeping up with everyone else's successes, though. I am intending to try to post at least a couple of times a week this year.

@stealthninjamum The majority of my efforts were actually made before lockdown was announced on Monday - the motivation waned after that!

We have our landfill bin collection on Friday. I have a large bag at the top of the stairs ready to go into it. It is mainly bits and pieces from the spare room which includes 2 bike helmets (which we replaced a number of years ago), some plastic ducks, and a few old squashed ringbinders. We currently have a lot of space in the bin, as the last collection was a few days late due to Christmas, so I hope to sort out some more bits tomorrow to take full advantage of it.

Day 120: having a grumpy exhausted day. Could have happily decluttered toddler somewhere today.

😤 photos and emails
😤 dried onions from dehydrator jarred up
😤 someone wants marble run so I need to get it from active.

*Attic obviously now active.

How did homeschooling go @stealthninjamum? Today was tough - DD (who is 5) was reluctant to do any work, and there were tears and shouting, all while I’m trying to work

2021 day 6 update:
Category 1 (general decluttering): More work paperwork shredded today.
Category 2 (Toss app prompt): Today it was stationery, so I tested all the pens in the two pen pots on the desk and found four that didn’t work, so they’ve gone in the bin.
Category 3 (mum’s stuff): Nothing. Still trying to find a storage box for the things that belonged to my grandmother. I have some nice cardboard storage boxes, and the company does a larger size that would be ideal, but it’s not available in the same pattern as the ones I’ve already got, which is annoying!