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

this is why i rarely list on FB. sometimes its just not worth the hassle.

i thought i'd sold a dvd a while ago, said to the person that i'd meet them before work in town to hand over. i said i'd be there at 845 and would wait until 850 as had to get to work. all good. this was agreed. they'd be there.

then on the morning, they sent me a message and said that they'd be there at 930 and that i had to wait. i said no, because work. i said i could drop it at their work (in town) at lunchtime if that suited? but they never responded.

then sent me a shitty email saying that i hadn't delivered the dvd to their workplace as agreed and that they would report me to facebook for theft, and also to the police.

they hadn't told me where they worked, hadn't paid me....

nightmare.

Oh elieq I share your pain. My bug bear is when someone wants something but can’t collect for five days and then never turns up and either ignores any messages you send afterwards or says ‘I’m too busy’ or I changed my mind. This has happened twice recently. Meanwhile other people have shown an interest and could’ve collected it have vanished.

I had a complete pain in the are last week. A woman asked if I could deliver a £2 toy. Er no! She then said she would pick it up ‘tomorrow’. I asked for a more specific time because I’m generally home might be in the garden or a local shop. So she said ‘just tomorrow, is it ok?’. I waited in and got a message at 1 o’clock saying she’d be around ‘this afternoon’. Obviously. In the end I picked dd2 from school, went to a shop etc and she collected at 6. But it’s so bloody rude and inconsiderate.

Ooh ooh the reverse is I drove ten miles last week to look at a rug described as almost new and was £75 but John Lewis. It was so manky I wouldn’t put it in my garage. She seemed really uppity when I said it wasn’t as described and said ‘well someone else is interested’. I note it’s been still being advertised the same way.

OMG ememem84 that’s so annoying! Why are people like that?

I have to say after my rant that I have earnt lots from Facebook recently so the majority of people are lovely.

I have a quandary.
Someone brought some clothes. I put them in a box. She didn't check it.

I realised I'd missed a pair of shorts of messaged her. She said she hadn't checked but she'd grab it when her passed at the weekend. Then she messaged and said there were lots missing.

There's no way those bits are in my house
The box was full and if all those bits were missing it wouldn't have been.

But she's claiming she Def doesn't have them. She seems lovely, I'm not sure she's trying it on as such but not sure what to do.

That is awful ememem, especially for something like a dvd!

Well done with the painting Stealth. It's great when you can see the improvement from decorating.

Not much of a fan of David Walliams books here either. I don't think we have any though they seem to read them at school a fair bit.

Sudocreme is good for other random skin rashes and dry skin Chips. DH finds it good for eczema as well.

Not very much going out at the moment here. Am mostly finished with wrapping presents so quite a bit of packaging has gone. Unfortunately our spare bedroom looks like a disaster zone because I've been wrapping in there. Hoping to finish it in the next couple of days and then get it properly sorted!

She probably is trying it on but for an easy life I would say you will refund her for the money but you want the box back. You can then see for yourself how empty it is.

This is why I spend ages making and photographing the insides of boxes. I made some jigsaw puzzles at the weekend and took photos before I posted them for sale just so it was in the advert. There are some very dishonest people around.

Yeah I wish I'd gone through it at the door, she collected on the twins birthday so was a bit frazzled

Did you do it from a selling page or marketplace? I usually sell from one of the local selling pages and while it has several thousand members often I recognise a name from my mums group or see that the person buying / selling is a friend of a friend. I know that they can still be dodgy but also I know the names of the admin so would complain about a buyer who lied. I’ve fortunately never had a complaint (as far as I know) but I have sold so much over the years I would hope that the admins would take my word for it.

Glad it’s not just me with the David Walliams ick factor . Not a big Dahl fan either tbh, we were always more of an Enid Blyton household (equally problematic )

Last day of term here, with a couple of Zoom sessions for the girls (YR and Y2) crashed by DS shouting about taking his nappy off 😬. Christmas cards almost all written (we don’t know many people!) to be posted today hopefully. Couple of outs from the freezer to get the Christmas snacks in

FB but she's fairly local and a twin Mom so I was hoping we could be friends 🤣😭
She's going to double check the car. I was thinking of just offering a refund on those items, it's £8 and if I'd dumped them in the charity bag I'd be no worse off. Really not up for the aggro.

Well the last tub of formula is empty for I've scrubbed the Perfect Prep and wil list that, and the Milton cold water steraliser can go for free. So that will massively declutter my kitchen side. Feel a bit sad, Ds was a baby for so long but the twins seems to be shooting away

footprintsintheslow not to put you under any pressure but I’m waiting for your update......

Re: david walliams.
Back in the old days the radio one breakfast team used to rate the guests after they had been on the show. After David Walliams there was a stony silence and no one could give a score as he was so vile.

ah road dahl. i have recently re-read some of the books. i particularly enjoyed Boy and Going Solo. and also the Witches.

and Enid Blyton- a bit problematic now, but i still love reading them.

I loved The Twits

@SleepingStandingUp that's a tricky one, I wonder how you can resolve that? I have no idea unless you are 100% sure then you can stick to your guns?

@ememem84 I loved Boy so much. We read it in year 7 and it was the first time I experienced the desire to not move from the spot until I read the whole book. Brilliant. And I love the bit where his father would take his mother out for beautiful walks when she was pregnant so she could soak in the beauty for the baby to enjoy in the womb.
I also love the advice of his mother where if you are going to the dr you must definitely wash the bit of your body you think they want to look at but you must also wash all the other bits just incase. I still live by that advice now!

So Day 100: 🍾🍾🍾
Two jars
Used up a trial conditioner
1 dead boring child's book that plants the idea of being scared of the dark.
Managed to drop the charity bag off on the third attempt.
Photos and emails
Found a hideously gone of yoghurt in fridge.
VR headset picked up from us after two no shows by other people on fb freecycle.

About to wrap final (please god let it actually be the final) Christmas presents.

Amazed to get to 100 days of decluttering. Aimed for 31 days at the beginning. Think I'll carry on now and see how Christmas goes and then baby time.

Really love this thread. Thanks for the ideas and support everyone.

Yay! footprints did it! Your house must be so much better!

I found Roald Dahl books a bit hit and miss. My favourite was George’s marvellous medicine - especially when Rick Mayall read it on jackanory and I loved James and the giant peach. But I found fantastic Mr Fox annoying and wanted the farmers to catch him!

My out isn’t David Walliams but it is a child’s book. I have found a book that Santa gave us about 8 years ago with a compendium of winter and Christmas stories and I think it was just to traditional for dd2 so she never liked it. I don’t know why I haven’t held on to it for so long.

Just a quick one for me:

• I've managed to use up another couple of travel-sized bottles from the bathroom.
• My car's been fixed so I was able to move my clutter pile to the car boot and drop some animal bits at a rescue centre today. (More still to get rid of but at least it's out of the house.)
• I've almost finished writing my cards - should finish them tonight and have them posted tomorrow.
• A while back, I bought myself a load of dresses online, in the hope of finding something nice for Christmas. They arrived today and they all look awful, but the good news is, I've packed them up already and they're going straight back tomorrow!

Well I broke a Peppa pig bowl and another little ceramic one today, both dropped on the floor. I'm so tired. So whilst not overly helpful outs, actually we have plenty so it's probably good.

Well she said she'd check her car and get back to me so awaiting a message... I DID miss tow brand new shirts that were in a different bag so she needs to contact me to arrange collection / delivery of those. I think I'm just going to offer the refund is she says she's not got them and learn my lesson

Wooly The frog is amazing!

Welcome to everyone new, this is a great thread! Pinksands I have the lack of storage problem too. I'm never sure whether to buy more storage now, or finishing decluttering first.

I need to catch up with the thread, only on page 1. Decluttering has taken a back seat with the kids and Christmas planning. Today's out was some present wrapping that has been sitting on the sofa for ages. I'm determined to try and blitz the house before Christmas, small children are stealing all of my will and headspace.

Well done on your 100 days Footprints!

Today’s update: A bit of shredding done. More cards posted.

Lots of ins - several present deliveries, Christmas crafts brought home by DD including gingerbread men (now eaten) and reindeer food, and some boxes and bubble wrap bought for the weekend. I’m going to be spending a few days at my mum’s house clearing the last few personal things, and needed boxes to pack stuff up.

I’m dreading it, to be honest - stressed about the drive, miserable about seeing the house half-empty, and sad that it will probably be my last time there. So there probably won’t be any updates for the next few days, and I’ll be bringing more stuff back to sort through!

Sorry to hear the FB horror stories! I would have loved to hear the phone call to the police though, ememem84.

Thanks, RaspberryBlonde. I think I'll add all this cream to my lotions and potions that I'm trying to use up.

Great job, footprints!!!

My out today was another pair of holey socks. I have quite a few clothing items that are barely one step away from the rag bag, so this might become a theme.

Aw, EllieQ , be extra kind to yourself this weekend.

@EllieQ

Ellie - I'm so sorry, that all sounds really tough.

Alex - I know what you mean about catching up with the thread. I've been struggling to keep up recently too.

I've now written all my cards. DP is going to take them and the dresses to the PO tomorrow. Actually, there is one more card to buy - a special, family one - but hopefully, he's going to get that tomorrow too.

I sort of finished wrapping all my presents tonight too. I say 'sort of' because I feel like I need to get DP something else but we've been struggling to find anything and don't want to get something just for the sake of it. That's the last present to think about though, which is a relief.

I've been going through my stationery box. Even though I've got rid of loads, I've still got far too much. I know this as a lot of it goes back decades. Eg. A packet of stickers which I might have had at school. And, a packet of blank postcards which I'm pretty sure I bought to put an ad in a newsagent's window. I'm thinking that either I should get rid of them or, maybe I should put them in my crafts stash??

Outs:
1 packet of sticky fixers (from the days before command hooks).
1 piece of card.