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

@SleepingStandingUp wow your socks comment...you're a maverick!

Thanks for all the good wishes from everyone for Monday. I will of course let you know when I've decluttered the baby.

@Inthetropics it's so hard having a tiny house. We are the same here but I get inspired when I see those minuscule homes the size of a shed. Although it shows I have too much stuff.

Bar soap used up.

Also ds broke two side plates after breakfast. Dh has asked him to carry them to the kitchen and he dropped them. Oh well. Less washing up I suppose.

He was a bit wooley but I told him it was ok. And that he was a good boy for trying to help.

Sorted washing and have thrown a too small top of dds which was stained beyond repair.

I didn’t get around to posting, but my out yesterday was two bits of ribbon cut off a top. Things like that get kept for crafts but we so rarely use them and they weren’t even with the craft stuff.

@SleepingStandingUp a few places now seem to have the sock size marked in the pattern, it used to be just M&S but I’m sure our Asda socks now have this too. Makes it a lot easier.

We always have to cut the labels off clothes (child has sensory processing issues) and also often buy the same stuff in the next size or two up if we find something comfy. Makes it a nightmare for sorting and clearing items that are too small though. It’s probably tricky at the charity shop end too as there are no age/size clues for them.

Were you also the poster that a few weeks ago threw away all singleton socks once the clock struck midnight? I thought that was brilliant but I have not yet been brave enough to implement this myself.

Coincidentally this morning I sorted through my singleton socks bag and threw away a slipper sock (I think the match was discarded a little while ago) and a single very-past-it’s-best pop sock.

Tropics I don't have toss either. Either it twice but I'd done all those bits. Tbf cos I have lots to declutter, I don't need so much help 😂

footprints the poor babies have sooooo many socks and I don't know what size they are. It's like try and meh they'll be fine. And it would be 10 times worse for the charity shop, they must just bin them

Oh bless him Em, at least they were dirty

moose confession time, I said it but backed out. However I'm near to empty kids washing basket again so I'm going to do it this time.
Some socks like the Little Bird ones do but lots don't. I will bear it in mind when checking the babies socks

Inthetropics Some of the Toss prompts don’t chime with me either, today’s was about candles in a sideboard in a dining room, and I have none of those! I deleted it and skipped to perfume which I’ll keep hanging around until I get through my cheap (but quite nice) M&S fragrance which should be some time this week.

Decluttered the last of a bottle of blood orange gin last night (delicious), and today have made a bolognese which used up some frozen onions, the dregs of some Worcestershire sauce and a half pack of pasta. Some Happy Meal toys have been opened while I was out running, which I am less than thrilled about

Best wishes to footprints for Monday.
Managed to tackle the pile of newspapers and magazines yesterday evening and 20 now out and all bins emptied too.
Room of Doom has been on hold as there was a possibility of a more wholesale room swap upstairs. However, DH has decided (as of yesterday evening) to keep as is, so hope to restart in there this week. I had got as far as deep cleaning the area to move the desk to and clean the desk. So although there are more piles of stuff, the room already looks more spacious. I have thrown bits away as I go, too.
Today's more urgent task is to deal with the laundry pile.

Half a carrier bag of rubbish cleared from the car. A bag for life carrier bag. I found ds’ missing hat, dds sippy cup, five dummies, some duplo, a toy car, a dinosaur (which I’m reliably informed by ds is a parasauralophus...) and my lost credit card (which had been cancelled.

The things have been washed/put away/binned as appropriate. Should probably also Hoover car but cba.

I am on a roll.

Laundry put away and the dcs socks have been sorted. 4 pairs thrown away and some moved from ds’ to dds room.

Have also ditched 18 hangers. I’m slowly replacing the ones we have for the kids so they all match. Have done dh’s and mine.

Also 8 pairs of undies of ds’ which are too small for him will be donated to nursery for spares. So they’ll go out on Tuesday.

My lovely friend had a baby boy yesterday so I can now go through the stuff in the loft and sort it for her. The more unisex stuff of ds’ I’ll keep for Dd but the more “boy” stuff will go to her. She has an older Dd so will return the favour....!

footprintsintheslow Laughed out loud when i read your decluttering the baby comment! Sending good energy for monday! My home is not small per se, but we have little storage and we'll have to buy a new wardrobe and chest of drawers eventualy (but not this year as we're saving for a car). We don't have a lot of stuff, but we have more than we can storage.

SleepingStandingUp Well, i guess i need help! I get used to my clutter and then become blind to it, if you see what i mean? So prompts help me sometimes. I remember when i had so much stuff that i could just tackle any place and i'd fill at least a bag to donate/trash.

SydneyCarton This exact prompt is a good example!

I've organised my clothes like I do the babies.

Their cupboards are bundles of two tops, two bottoms and two vests that coordinate so each day I grab a bundle, two pairs of socks and were sorted.
In my room there's Def a lack of space Vs surplus of clothes. So I've done the same. Every cost hanger has a skirt/top or dress etc. Leggings are in a pile in my cupboard. So I need one cost hanger and depending on length, a pair of leggings/tights. Instead of rooting through likes to find a shirt that matches etc.

67. In the process I've sorted a bag of clothes that are too small. My stomach is not the same shape after the twins, fact. So that's mainly jeans that have gone, a skirt that's torn but is also about 15 years old so probably deserves a peaceful death, some tops I'm not keen on, a once white bra and some socks of mine plus 68. A pair of DHs socks

69: also reduced the babies sock stash as they do NOT need that many

70: chucked a broken coat hanger (have loads so won't replace and some general rubbish)

71: DT2 just broke a photo frame but it will need replacing, but whilst throwing it out I remembered a piece of glass I put safely to dispose of

73: for rid of a temporary hair dye leaving me with a permanent one to use

Sounds like you've had a really productive day ememem. That's actually a good idea on the spares for nursery, we are not far outgrowing some pants so will ask if they would be useful as DS has come home in girl's knickers a couple of times!

Lost my decluttering mojo totally here as I'm so fed up of not actually being able to get anything properly out of the house. DH doesn't want me to ebay stuff or sell on FB during lockdown and of course shops are all shut. Any ideas of stuff to go through that might be binnable gratefully welcomed!

Today I finished a sample size moisturiser plus threw away a cardboard box of paper snowflakes made by the DC. The resemblance to actual snowflakes was superficial at best!

Good luck for tomorrow footprintsintheslow!
Two outs this weekend: the box for my electric toothbrush and a spray moisturiser finished.

@RaspberryBlonde I have a few ideas: anything that food, wrther it's in the pantry, freezer or fridge; makeup that's gone bad; anything that's paper and can go on the recycling bin.

17 - An off-shoulder top that's meant to show both shoulders and that i'd been wearing the wrong way for the past 2 years. It looks ridiculous. Yep. Will be donating it to shoulder-showing kind of people.

Out: 17
In: 12

I’ve gone through the sideboard again and thrown out more placemats and coasters. It brings the Toss total of sideboard items to 52. Obviously 12 placemats will come back but I am really pleased with how empty drawers are.

Today Toss wants me to look at games and puzzles. I’m not sure if I’ll have time as I’m just putting washing away and getting organised for another week of homescshooling.

In trying to think outside the box somewhat with getting stuff out as charity shops are closed. Dsis is on a declutter mission too and is dropping some towels off tomorrow so I can take them to the stables so horses can be dried.

I’ve also in the last hour ditched a pair of Dhs pants. They had a hole. So out they went.

Ooh and some vosene kids shampoo has gone. I’ve washed ds’ hair twice this week to use it up. And it’s finally gone.

Good luck for tomorrow's big decluttering @footprintsintheslow but an even bigger in!!

I did manage to get rid of the large bag of stuff from the spare room in the landfill bin collection on Friday.

In the past few days I have washed and dried some more bedding that came from my mum's house. I also emptied my handbag on the bed and fastened together all the receipts with a paperclip for filing. I put some new cards into my card wallet and got rid of some that had expired.

Early this morning I did the weekly shop at Tesco. I took a large bag containing a wool coat and jacket of mum's to put in the Salvation Army clothing bank in the carpark. I didn't want to take more today as I haven't used it for almost a year and couldn't remember how big a bag it would take. (I also thought it might be jam-packed after the holidays!) Anyway, I discovered that the old green bank has been replaced by 2 black ones which were easier to use, and crucially not full and overflowing. I will take some bags of bedding and some other clothing next week. We also got rid of a large jute bag of bottles and jars in the bottle bank.

For those people who are frustrated that they can't get rid of stuff at the moment - an advert for the British Heart Foundation popped up in my Facebook feed yesterday, and apparently they can send you a freepost label for CollectPlus to post them donations. More information here.
Let me know if anyone tries it.

@footprintsintheslow Good luck for the baby declutter tomorrow...

I haven't caught up with the thread but my update is:

DY 124:
❄️ taken a Christmas present from our house up to my dads land. Some big wrought iron fire thing.
❄️photos and emails.
❄️toss says laundry but I only gave a few products and I use them.

I have given up trying to get rid of stuff, I have a mountain of stuff bagged up in front of the patio doors. I am trying to be positive that the rest of the house is clearer and it’s evidence of how hard I’ve worked but it does annoy me.

I put 3 games aside and a pack of cards. We had two draughts, two packs of cards, two jengas so it was easy.