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

Welcome pandemic palaver do you have any particular problem areas? It can be like one of those puzzles where you tidy an area but move clutter to another area, tidy another area etc etc. If you’re struggling some of us are liking an app called Toss which make sense us clear one small area a day.

Hi @PandemicPalava I think most if not all of us start with that feeling . Slow and steady seems to be the method that is working for us all on here.

117: dress sold and posted
118: wellies sold and posted

Ben a show day but hopefully we'll have lots of outs over the weekend when DH is around

One top and one pair of knickers out.

Toss told me to clean the nightstand, no outs from it but it's nice and tidy for a change. Today's out was a bag for the charity shop, my friend arranged for a charity pickup and I dropped off bag at her door. She is having a massive declutter and has had a few pick ups. I didn't realise they did it, not sure which charity it is.

Welcome PandemicPavlova

Stealth Sorry about the uncooperative children. I hope next week is easier.

Glittery The extra washing line is amazing. Bless him, does he have extra for everything?

sleeping, thanks for thinking of me re trousers but we are not in the UK at present. I think I must have misread something as I thought you have five children plus twins!

Red does seem very hard to find. I was excited to see that H&M had some nice bright boys’ trousers in various colours, but they were all sold out in the younger sizes.

Some impressive decluttering today, especially from ice.

1. Long sleeve t-shirt that DS9 had chewed a hole right through. He is ASD and chews holes in all his clothes. Not yet found chewelry that can stand up to him!

Forgot to say I love the idea of an emergency washing line. I read somewhere (The Minimalists?) about a 20-20 rule—if you haven’t used it but don’t want to throw it away in case you might need it one day, it’s probably ok if it can be replaced within 20 minutes of your house for less than £20 (or $20 I suppose). Not that I’ve managed to convinced dh to apply the rule.

Pair of dds trousers thrown away. Holes in the bum.

Minimal decluttering this weekend but Monday - oh Monday is going to be the day.

Monday morning I’m sorting our room and my wardrobe. Will be ruthless.

2021 day 22 update:

1. General decluttering: Threw away a Xmas tree decoration I got from a charity that I support, as it wasn’t my style - it was made from cardboard so it went it the recycling. I also did some more paperwork shredding.
2. Toss app prompt: Skipped this today as the only one I could do from the three options was kitchen cupboard/ pantry, but I didn’t have a chance to get into the kitchen between work, spending time with DD while DH cooked dinner, then bedtime.
3. Mum’s stuff: Think this will become a weekend-only thing, so I need to decide what to do this weekend.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Day 136:
One top ruined by Lansinoh and one pair of bobbly tights. Also emails.

@toomanyhobbies I understand, I finished a cross stitch last month that I started 22 years ago!

@AlexTheLittleCat it's only this thread that keeps me going. I'd have given up months ago otherwise.

@stealthninjamum can't believe you have homework on top of all the day to day work at home work! Craziness.

@Iceisnice happy nesting

@threeitchyfeet sorry think it's cos I wrote ds5, I meant he whom is 5 not number 5. DH wasn't going to let have a third let alone any more
Just the 5 yr old and two 1s. One of whom keeps shouting in his sleep but you walk into their dark room, he goes silent and you can't tell who it is. Buggers.

Oh yeah 119: picture frame in skip

Got rid of 3 expired veterinary medications.

Out: 28
In: 16

haha sleeping, I read that wrong every time. Even though I wrote it myself, DS9, and absolutely do not have 9 children!

pollyannaperspective I am trying to do the same thing and keep repeating “Don’t put it down, put it away” about 47 times a day. I find washing up and laundry sorting so bad for not finishing the job as I invariably get interrupted halfway through. Maybe small chunks is the answer, get ten things washed, dried and back in the cupboard rather than a rack full of clean but wet dishes hanging around.

Actually I think the answer is a dishwasher, but not in this small kitchen

You’re all doing well iceisnice excellent decluttering.

Minimal decluttering today. Toss has suggested the fridge door. My fridge door has some cranberry sauce from Xmas that I will throw away rather than wait til next December! It also has pesto so dd2 is having that for lunch. There are five different mustards, I love mustard but I’m less keen on the whole grains so I might chuck that out.

I’m intending to paint some of the landing today. I did two coats before Xmas and it’s looking patchy in places so I might do a third coat on a couple of walls.

Quick fire round. Best place online to sell second hand books?
My books case is in the skip....

That’s so exciting about the bookcase.

What sort of books? I’ve always been lucky with collections on Facebook but someone in the last thread made a reasonable amount of money by installing two or three apps - think it was ziffit and we buy books (might be in the second post) and taking the highest price for a book from each app.

I have painted a small wall but dd2 sat at my feet like a puppy and refused to move so I have now stopped. Slow progress but I might do a bit more after lunch.

Mainly fiction, we buy is being naff today, ziffit better. Just wondering if I missed anything.

Sad about bookcase, it broke and it was full so it's a major job to sort and work out what to do next. Replace or try and shift stuff and clear stuff

I've chucked lots of "classics" that I felt I should read - Dickens, Eyre etc. I barely have the time to read what I love let alone reading War and Peace because I feel I should. But still have lots of old like turn of the century books I've brought and lots of non fiction stiff like etymology of words and evolution of humans etc which I do intend to read....

sleeping Until Thursday I hasn’t read a book for such a long time. I had the day off on Thursday and sat and read a book from cover to cover. Kids at nursery. Dh working from home. I stayed in bed for most of the day. It was bliss.

Thanks for the cleaning recipe Woolly, I have found my tea tree oil so going to try it later. I am ashamed to admit that we did have an Emergency Washing Line in the garage for a bit until I realised that in an actual washing line emergency the airer would probably do!

Glad to hear the painting is progressing Stealth.

Gassylady I think that was the programme that inspired DH. Think we'll need more than 3 mugs each too!

Yesterday I got out a pair of holey socks and a top that was literally falling to pieces. Not sure why I had it still!

On the subject of classics, because their copyright has expired, there are free apps where you can read a lot of them or listen to them in audiobook form. I refuse to buy from kindle because I want to own books and like giving money to booksellers but I feel slightly differently about the classics. A couple of years ago I read anne of green gables to dd1 from a website and I listened to Jane Austen to get me to sleep after stbexh left. I have lots of them in print and feel reluctant to get rid of them although I probably should do - I started reading Little Dorrit - the day after my first date with the stealthninjaboyfriend and that was 20 months ago and I’m still only on about the fourth chapter.

I’ve also got lots of book stuff on politics, history, psychology that I’ve never read but last year I finished two novels that had been sitting around in my bedroom for about seven years.

I’m intending to spend the afternoon doing a bit more painting but dd2 gets jealous of me doing things without her so I’ll see how it goes.

120: bookcase in skip
121-3 rubbish bags lurking in the garden bin die to lack of bin space
124-134: various items from garden / piles of rubbish awaiting skip
135: box of books for Ziffi
136: box of books for Magpie
137-8 two bags for charity shop

It's probably in excess of 50 books.

I need a new bookcase