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

Chalk pen out.

Thanks for asking @EllieQ it must be hard for you to listen to a reluctant child homeschooling. Things are ok here, I haven’t shouted yet but neither dc really want to homeschool. Their schools are really organised with live lessons but every time I leave the room when I come back dc are on YouTube or Skyping friends who are also not working. I can’t really complain because I know working parents have it much, much worse but as well as supervising them I am knackered from the extra cleaning, cooking, printing, scanning, filing of schoolwork etc and they have literally just gone to bed so this is the first moment I’ve had to myself today. I’m desperately hoping they hurry up with vaccinations so we can end this quicker.

In other news I have decluttered another pair of child’s socks that had a hole in the heel and decided to throw out an adult board game.

Oh glitterywooly that sounds so stressful. Poor dd.

Home schooling is evil. My condolences to all blighted by it. This time round my DC are in Y7 and have a full day of live teaching, so as long as I had food ready at breaks and cajoled them outside for a bit it wasnt too bad . Today the 🌲 left the building, plus a money box of DD1's.

I am doing the bare minimum at the minute and have been very sidetracked by the news from the US.

Today my mechanical pencil ran out of lead in a meeting. It’s not refillable unfortunately, so that’s an out. At some point I’d like to get a quality refillable mechanical pencil as I like writing with them, but I’m not in any rush and I have more of the disposable ones to use up first.

Also out, a small handful of bent staples, bits of pencil lead, treasury tags, mangled paper clips and stubs of chalk. And a flimsy plastic ruler that I saved from the front of an exercise book, but it is very frustrating to use and I do have another just the same (I am keeping that til one of my better rulers turns up).

Sympathy for anyone working and homeschooling, thankfully I only have a yr1 DS bit he's not a fun of the 16 maths questions where submitting the answer takes longer than working it out. We also had dance (you tube Sonic the Hedgehog songs) and art (reasonable and sonic for the window to replace the snowflakes.

Have electricans dining tomorrow so Had to move stuff for access and decluttered:
40: 2 foil sheets for sensory play
41: Lots of wet paper from DSs desk where he's spilt something
42: Some badly printed photos DH did ages ago
43: 3 ink cartridges from the old printer
44: Lots of other rubbish boys of paper, empty a sticker sheets etc
45: Two pairs of wellies and two pairs of shoes from a the garage. Cannot get size 4.5 on them so presumably by the time the can actually walk, the size 5s will be no use.
46: Some mismatched stockings we didn't use this year.
47: A cup the handle being off. We're a house of miss-matches personal mugs so I won't replace it, I have loads

I've found a local charity online that will take clothes etc once lockdown had ended and they redistribute to people who need them. Might be worth checking FB for similar locally for anyone who's struggling without charity shops

Tomorrow is residual bin day ie everything that can't be recycled. Fallen so far behind with declutering, but at least things are reasonably tidy. Fallen behind with reading thread, too. ☹️

Cleaners are coming today. So need to pack things away so they can do their best cleaning and make my house shine!!!

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly I remember the joyous feeling after filling tax returns and getting rid of accounts. Well done and congratulations.

outs so far:

• two old t-shirts of dd's which are a bit hokey and stained. . . should really keep on top of this!

• winter/christmas bedding in the rag bag. it ripped beyond repair. i've kept the bottom sheet, pillow cases though. so can just replace the duvet cover next year.

clothing labels which were all over dd and ds' room - i think both dh and i are guilty of taking labels off and just leaving them on the side...bad habit!

and finally....a kids coat hanger.

i've been replacing the kids ones so they all match. this was one from next. so that's gone in my hanger bag so when charity shops are open i can drop off loads of hangers .

The Toss app gave me areas I had already had I was relying on being able to blindly follow it without using my own brain power to do anything other than organise the children. So I am going to empty my handbag and hope that tomorrow’s a better day for the app.

purse emptied and receipts and old expired vouchers have been binned. have also added two amazon gift cards to my online account so have ditched the cards.

Just did a digital declutter of my crap old laptop and got rid of I think 7gigabytes of files. It was full up. Anyway there are about twenty years of files and photos on it and they’re not very well organised so that makes a project to do in the same room as dc during lockdown. In terms of a physical declutter I am throwing away some receipts from my handbag and a Christmas card I didn’t deliver to a neighbour before Christmas.

i have started on the digital declutter. i did photos on my phone the other night and managed to delete around 1500 pictures freeing up space.

tonight's declutter is videos.

should also get rid of some unused apps.

i'm also ditching the next catalogue which arrived - i don't want this but it keeps arriving. have emailed them...

Inspired by other posters I cleared the receipts and membership cards from my wallet.

I found this blog with ideas for what to do with expired cards -

www.zerowasteweek.co.uk/reuse-and-recycle-old-credit-cards/

Including scraping bits off saucepans and baking trays!

have also just emptied some make up from its boxes and put into the "stash" bag i have.

also finished a mascara.

I gave ds my old credit cards so he could use them in his shop

I am terrible at remembering to digitally declutter, so I have just put a page in my journal to encourage me :o (because I am a nerd for colouring in tiny squares )

I've finally caught up on the thread .

@NemesiaPinkLagoon
I bag the rags up separately from the saleable donations then ask the charity shop if they take rags.

I don't have enough storage for our stuff, but I'm holding off getting any more as can't spend decent money on storage for things that are mostly rubbish. It seems a bit silly to spend £100 on storage for something that is worth about 50p .

Thanks for the Minimalists documentary tip, I watched it then went on a decluttering rampage by clearing out my bedroom and coming out with a whole giant bag of things when I thought it was pretty much done. Day before I went through kids bedrooms and got rid of some toys that are broken and baby bottles etc. Friend is collecting kids toys, clothes and books for a charity so I'll sort through the rest and give them to her.

@SleepingStandingUp I'm holding on to all my pre-baby clothes until I fit back into them, which may be never as I've been decluttering the Christmas chocolates and now I am homeschooling again I might need to declutter some wine. Finding it very hard to lose the baby weight this time. Last time I did it, I got pregnant again a month later. @StealthNinjaMum is right, old clothes never look the same when you fit back into them. For a start, there must be wardrobe gremlins that subject them to wear and tear as they are never in as good condition as when you store them away.

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWooly Sorry about DS A Levels and the confusion with DD's GCSEs, it is a nightmare situation for teenagers.

@footprintsintheslow The robot is adorable. Have a rest before baby comes!

@EllieQ I have DC who is a similar age and they don't want to do any work either. It's hard. They have a lot of meltdowns (similar to yours @Times10) and I'm finding it hard to motivate them. @stealthninjamum I'm also SAHM at the moment and I'm struggling too, I have a toddler and their routines clash. It must be very hard for working parents.

@SingToTheSky Welcome back! I have fallen off Flylady and need to get back on it.

Last time I did it, I got pregnant again a month later. Jeez I'm Def not losing it

@SingToTheSky i've not started decluttering my notes....adding that to the Digital declutter list!

Em I am absolutely terrible for writing a quick memo on the notes app and then leaving it. So many random lists that are probably irrelevant now. 😳

I also need to get rid of some lists on the reminders app for the same reason!

sing i'm currently sitting at dining table and am listening to/watching a seminar for work. its a bit dry so am going through my phone and have deleted all lists and reminders, most notes, and have started going through videos and photos again.

have managed to delete loads.

ins today - daffodils! lovely daffodils.