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

I’m afraid I would have eaten the chocolates even if they were ones I wasn’t too keen on! Maybe that is why I am also going to make an attempt to permanently declutter some weight this year.

2021 day 18 update

1. General decluttering: No actual decluttering, but I did put DD’s rain coat away as we’re in winter coat weather now, which has freed up space on the coat hooks.
2. Toss app prompt: Today it was a bedside cabinet drawer, so I emptied mine, gave it a quick clean as it was very dusty, and threw out a few random things including old loyalty cards, an Amazon voucher I’d used, and some receipts.
3. Mum’s stuff: My new storage boxes arrived, so I’ve emptied the last things from box 3 into there - stuff I’m not sure about keeping but can’t decide yet/ photos and cards to sort through etc. They look very smart.

A productive day

No Briony I'm judging you until you admit what they are. Em I'll declutter coffee creams for you, they're by favourite revel

Bids on my eBay things!!!! Wahooooo!!!!

I've forgotten to pop by yesterday.

Day 132:
Packaging straight out after a few parcels have arrived. Items put away and packaging recycled.

Last night I managed to accidentally cancel our shopping arriving today...so there will be much decluttering of the freezer this week. Luckily we have food levels fit for an apocalyptic event. So this is it, our chance to see if we can live.

Toss suggests under the sink. I’m homeschooling so have tested some biros and 4 didn’t work so have gone. I’ve added them to last week’s toss to writing equipment. I’ll see what’s under the sink later.

Btw In my house ALL chocolates get eaten which is why I’m now decluttering my weight!

oh strawberry creams. i love them. i am also partial to orange creams. yum .and caramel.

its just the coffee ones that get me hopping. ick. yuk. why.

i also cleared out my desk at work and my in trays (been in the office this morning). so have shredded loads, have brought home my "emergency kit" (hairbrush toiletries make up painkillers etc) and have ditched everything that was out of date or empty.

Back off Glittery I claimed the coffee creams first.

The only ones I'm not keen on are the toffee pennies where there's no Chocolate and they're hard. But I'd still eat them.

104: someone just brought a baby bath seat so £5 in and 1 seat out.

105: also had a quick rummage through the crap cupboard and pit some old receipts and bit and pieces in the bin, some leads on the lead drawer etc.

Skip comes tomorrow!

one ebay item sold. wahoooo £38.50. wooooo

@ememem84

one ebay item sold. wahoooo £38.50. wooooo

Whoo hoo that's a good in.

Aaarrgh! I want some chocolate but am doing Veganuary. I ordered some hot chocolate for DD's birthday from Hotel Chocolat and they didn't have the nutmilk batons I wanted for me
Onesie posted off. Several bags and plastic packaging in recycling at supermarket. Al

An unexpected big item is going, dd1 broke her globe while teaching dd2 where China is for geography. Secretly I was pleased it takes up lots of space.

Toss told me to declutter The cupboard under the sink. It’s full of cleaning products but I’m not too bothered.When lockdown happened I couldn’t find cleaning products in shops so whenever I do a shop i pick up a bleach or flash. There are load so I guess I’ll just use them and not buy any more.

stealth we have stash of cleaning products too. dh bought loads and i then went and bought loads of the rhubarb method spray when it was on offer. so we have enough. (although dh seems to now think we don't need to clean as the cleaners do it every other week.....wrong!)

stuff like the cleaning product stash my make up stash and toiletries stash are just getting worked through and will report as and when i use up.

ememem glad it’s not just me with the full cupboard. I probably will attempt to use the emptiest bottles first to tidy a bit but I was pleased that there were no ten year old bottles. I’m sure at one point we had a ‘jif’ that was at least a decade old.

I have done this with all of my stashes. moved everything but the closest to being empty out of the cupboard and will use things up in order of emptiness.

so currently have a bottle of coop stuff in the under cupboard sink and one bleach to do the whole house. instead of a million bottles kicking around.

on my dresser in the bedroom i have the things which are already open and am working my way through them.

same with food. things which are open get used first. i have just convinced dh to have a "eat first" box in the fridge. for the veggies etc. so we don't waste anything

I’m sure I remember a Quality Street from days gone by that was basically a chunk of barley sugar under the chocolate and it was like biting into splintered glass . Possibly called Montelimar, or is that one of the missing lords Prince Caspian goes to find?

Toss told me to do writing supplies but that needs more than the limited time I have at the moment, so I skipped it and got socks. DD2 seems to have loads and I have a few manky pairs so I might be able to get that done tomorrow.

Sounds like mental mint cake @SydneyCarton which is AMAZING.

106: I've put Toss back on, it suggested books so I've cleared two.
107: cleared out my favourite boys trousers as they're quite short. Beautiful hand made (not by me) thick fleecy things with horses on. O adore them but the bloody kids are to tall. Couple of tops too that are a bit snug

108: picture frame with the pegs on, ones broken, it doesn't really fit anywhere in my house

I've cleared the sides of junk into one bag to tackle. No rubbish or junk in there and hospital letters moved into my organizer. Found more photos which will need to be put into albums but there's random ones from over years ago so will go through them and maybe filter out photos that don't mean anything to me anymore

@SleepingStandingUp

No Briony I'm judging you until you admit what they are. Em I'll declutter coffee creams for you, they're by favourite revel

It's a box of Dairy Milk and the unpopular chocolates are the ones like Raspberry Kiss and Rose Bliss. I haven't got rid of them yet. I'm hoping DH will eat them then I won't have to bin them

I do like a Toffee Penny - there are just a few of the Quality Street left, but they will definitely get eaten.

No decluttering done today (yet), but a jumper of DH's which he'd left downstairs has gone in the washing basket. DS has picked a couple of old towels to clean his bike. The rest can go to the animal shelter. I will up-date later if I manage to do anything.

@Vinorosso74 what you need is a Vego bar from holland and Barrett or amazon. If you like wholenut you'll like them.
And if you need chocolate now you can use Cadbury drinking chocolate with whatever plant milk you use and it's vegan.
Other things: Bourbon biscuits, Tesco dark chocolate digestives, bournville chocolate fingers abs Jammy dodgers are all vegan.

Day 133:
A calpol syringe. It's been that sort of day.
More packaging recycled and out immediately.

8 baby items sold today (mix of clothes and pram accessories) should be picked up tomorrow. Been a bit lax over the last week so need to make up for it. Much easier when DC is at nursery and not underfoot...

Got the recycling trolley out last night, along with the food waste caddy. I had to throw out a couple of things that were going off. I hate doing that. Am switching some things from fresh to frozen, and expect to avoid this kind of waste in future.

More tidying and more empty boxes. I labelled them "empty", and put them on a high shelf. Sigh......

Ooh recycling went out today. Cardboard. Which was overflowing because we missed the run a couple of weeks ago. Sigh.

@LifeOfBriony where do you stand on Turkish delight? I love the stuff. But dh hates it. He also hates the strawberry cream type chocs.

Another eBay thing sold. So that’s £12.50 in. Just have to post the things now.