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

Not much out today. a couple of empty loo rolls and a used up aerosol from the bathroom and some old dog treats.

Thank you footprintsintheslow I have a Holland and Barrett 5 mins walk away so will go tomorrow. Some vegan chocolate is awful. Today's craving was settled by a Naked bar.

Hi I would quite like to join as my house is chaos and want to get on top of it. Bit hard with a toddler and 3 month old but I need to try.

I've downloaded Toss after reading about it here. First day ticked off - socks!

Welcome, Briony and Filofaxx.

Thanks, IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly! We definitely have some mould to declutter, and the anti-mould spray (have at least three brands) is so harsh and chemically yet doesn't seem to do much.

Got rid of another holey pair of socks today (I'm prioritising the ones that are just about to give out). Also threw out two baby feeder things with netting (not sure what they're called). DD hasn't really figured out how to use them and then we noticed today that despite a good cleaning effort they still had food stuck in the rim. Too much trouble, so out they went.

I would like to join too, declutterers, if I may.

1. a pair of holey socks (only about two years old)

@LifeOfBriony consider yourself judged 😂

@IWillWearThatGlitteryWoolly no deal, I'm fat, I don't share 😂😂

106: a candle holder for the charity shop got broke and binned

107: uploaded a ton of clothes onto Vinted and someone brought a corset immediately. So we'll post that when we're out in the week for hospital.

So much money's wasted over the years on clothes, they all still have the label on. It was like conversion therapy or something

Welcome *filofaxx and threeitchyfeet socks is an excellent start.

Three more outs. Two pairs of child’s trousers with a hole in and a child’s book.

Chucked an empty caddy that had held peanuts and some crisps that have gone OOD because the DCs have gone off them. Used up a can of flavoured water that I won't replace as I'm not keen but it added to my fluid total.

2021 day 19 update:

1. General decluttering: More shredding of old work paperwork
2. Toss app prompt: Today it was receipts. I have a large pile of old receipts to sort through, which would take too much time. but threw out a few old bus tickets (from December, when I did some shopping in actual shops).
3. Mum’s stuff: nothing today, which is fine as it’s all stuff that needs more time and thought than I can give at the moment.

Feeling annoyed with DH for his hoarding ways. We’ve been working our way through a tub of Quality Street, and he’d been letting a pile of the plastic parts of the wrappers build up on the dining table (the foil goes in the foil recycling). He mentioned that it felt wasteful to through them out, and I said that normally we could give them to school to use for crafts, but obviously can’t do that now. The pile disappeared from the table, because he’s now putting them neatly in a resealable bag that he’s left on the side in our tiny kitchen. Why???

Ellie, that would drive me up the wall because my dc do more than enough of that sort of thing!

Thanks for the welcome stealth.

1. 4 x pants that are too small for my DS. Counting as one item because I will have to buy a pack to replace them.

Hours that's accidentally fall in the bin stealth. Is it an environmental thing for him or an attachment to stuff thing?

Why are my babies still screaming periodically. We are to be decluttering my chance of sleep

Today’s toss prompt is books. I have earmarked a few on the shelf to charity shop. So will pop them in a bag or a box today.

EllieQ That is so frustrating! It’s also the sort of thing my partner would do. I made packet noodles for the children’s lunch at the weekend and used two packs between three of them, but only one of the flavouring sachets because of the salt content. DP picks up the second sachet and declares that “we might as well keep this just in case” . Quite what sort of flavourless noodle emergency he thinks might happen is beyond me.

Unfortunately the sachet was accidentally gathered up with some other rubbish and put in the bin.....

ellieq that’s annoying, my dc do stuff like that, bin them.

Toss has given me wires so I have a broken phone charger wire that’s been next to my bed since Xmas that will go. This is potentially a big job as I have lots of wires dotted about the place. I have spent hours over the years testing and labelling them and I’m probably half way through. I’ll see if I have time to go through some of them but I think that’s unlikely with homeschooling.

Dinner tonight is lasagne. We have four boxes of dried lasagne, one is still in date, the oldest was 2018 but that should be ok? As it’s time consuming I have found a recipe with chicken that should take less time

stealth i'd use the 2018 lasagne. if its dried, frozen or tinned i'll use it way past its exp date. the only things i'm really sniffy about are meat and milk (and off veggies - but those are easy to cut the mouldy buts off...)

i can probably get rid of at least 8 books from our bookshelf. there are others i'm going pack away i think, but that's a monday job. i have the day off on monday and am determined to do some packing away up in the loft type stuff so i can clear out the storage in our room.

@FiloFaxx @threeitchyfeet welcome along.

@SydneyCarton my H has done the same thing. I've never faced an emergency that can be solved with a dose of salt and MSG but who knows in the future?!

@stealthninjamum I'd definitely eat that pasta too.

Thanks for confirming about the pasta. As some of the longer posters here know there is very little ood I won’t eat - the ten year old pickles were an experience I won’t repeat - but I’m always careful with what dc eat. I don’t like pasta so it’s purely for them.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm looking forward to getting stuck in! Unfortunately I'm more of a planner than a "do-er" at the moment 😂

i'd still feed it to my dc.

Oooh chicken lasagne sounds good, with spinach. Mmmmmm. I've just released I've not had breakfast.

Yy to the pasta

Possibly have a pair of Christmas shirts sold if I can fit them in a normal envelope...

My DP keeps things "just in case" too. I have tried to prevent this of just get rid of things myself.
I would and have eaten out of date dried lasagne sheets with no ill effects.
No outs yet today. Just been looking ing at cake recipes for DD's birthday cake. I'm quite glad there's no party to organise this year!

agree chicken lasagne sounds ace!
my fave though is a butternut squash spinach and ricotta one. so yum. add loads of nutmeg to it for additional yum.

im currently decluttering the last of a pear and chocolate cake i made on Monday. yum.

dh also keeps things that would be useful. i just throw them out with the recycling because he doesn't have a "these could be useful" section. he mainly keep things like yoghurt pots and food tubs for the garden. but just leaves them hanging around in the garage. so i sweep them up and recycle them.

sleepingstandingup that’s a coincidence it is a chicken and spinach lasagne but dc won’t eat spinach so that’s the only bit of the recipe I’m missing out. I haven’t done it before and have chopped carrots, onions, grated cheese, measured flour and done the prep last night so I’m feeling organised.

With the wires I am not throwing any out but I am getting organised. I have one organised drawer of labelled wires and cameras, phones etc that I have been working through for a couple of years. This morning I identified a BT / landline type wire and a wire for a blackberry phone. They’ll be labelled and put in the organised drawer. I also found a kindle plug with no lead or kindle. That will be put in a labelled clear food bag waiting for the kindle and lead.

Plodding along slowly here, though the house should be going on the market soon so I really need to up my game.

Had an unexpected out over the weekend when the DCs broke DS’ bed by jumping on it. However a replacement was sourced so I can’t count it as an out.

Running total 343/2021

@stealthninjamum wires and cables is a great idea. I’ll have to do them Kondo-style and gather them all together as I don’t think we have that many, but I suspect once they’re in one place I’ll realise how ridiculous it is.