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

Out with an ancient cleaning product bottle. No idea why we've kept this as it was broken near the lid and had no product left.

Out: 29
In: 16

The great mug sort out is done ✅ I have kept six including two I use in work. DH has eight. The others have been put onto a less accessible shelf for workmen etc. The freed up room is storing tea and coffee so they are not out on the work surface. (I do still have four Christmassy ones in the loft with the plates etc 🤫) Three work magazines culled and post dealt with. Toss suggested bathroom so three empty tablet strips into bin.

So 'just do it' is working well for me at present. The two boxes of summer shoes I have passed at the top of the stairs for at least 2 months have been put away. In doing that, I have chucked:
3 pairs of canvas shoes - all well worn/loved and in the wardrobe 'just in case'. Not sure what for, as there are newer versions of all 3 pairs there too.
For charity, when I can get to them again,
one pair of DH shoes he will never wear again
2 pairs of lovely, excellent condition ankle boots that I enjoyed in my pre children days but too small now (middle age spread in my case seems to mean my feet!),
2 pairs of brown loafers - again too small for my feet now, and
2 pairs of 'event' shoes that I haven't had cause to wear again, even before 'events' were off the agenda due to Corona Virus. One pair was for a family wedding at least 17 years ago (based on age of the couples oldest DC).
Planning on more time in the room of doom this weekend. Have re-positioned and emptied a cupboard unit. Now need to fill it with items I need to keep - personal documents etc - that are in a much bigger metal cabinet. Once that is done will empty and sort the metal cabinet and then relocate that cabinet to shed. Some urgency to do this as DC will return to university in mid Feb and will need their help to get cabinet out of the house.

139: bin full of general rubbish boys from sorting
140: some small ornaments etcgone onto charity bag
142 : very old but water damaged dictionary
143: some old stationary and old notepad etc binned

Major declutter today, dd1 moved out and into a flat with her boyfriend. Even though she hasn't taken all her stuff I suddenly have an awful lot of space! I took her to Aldi and B&M to stock up so decluttered my bank account as well. We had to empty the car boot to transport everything so there's stuff to sort through, mostly to be binned.

I have to tackle my books eventually but that's going to be very hard and I'm not ready for it yet. Well done to those that have done it.

The books have been done in cycles really. We moved stuff around and emptied book case 1 for toys and books went on old cd bookcase. Cleared a load and sold some. Now bookcase 2 is dead and carries mainly non fic and heavy they need to go on bookcase 1 so toys off, move and books in and books filtered. Will find place for toys next... I found with the books slow is better. Get rid of obvious drift wood and then see what's still not used.

I lost a pandora charm DH brought me, felll and I was convinced into the charity bags. Emptied them but it never turned up so I borough on I'm secret... Moved some books on the upstairs bookcase today and voila!! So that's DEF got to be sold.

Sounds like everyone is being productive today. I’ve had a good day too

2021 day 23 update:

1. General decluttering: went though more of the Mountain of Paperwork and shredded/ recycled nearly 2cm worth. Also added three Xmas candle holders to the charity bag.
2. Toss app prompt: Today’s the pantry prompt came up again, and I have thrown away two cartons of UHT milk that had gone out of date.
3. Mum’s stuff: Made a start on sorting the bookcases, and as a result I have put all the children’s books that I brought home together. Tomorrow I’ll make space for them in DD’s room.

We have a lot of books and not enough bookshelves. They do need to be reviewed, but I’m not up for that yet. However, by double-stacking books on a shelf, I’ve made some space for the new books that don’t have a home. Tomorrow I will start shelving the new books.

I had a dream last night that I did some decluttering and I was thinking “yay I can finally report some progress on the thread”

The dream was in no way based in reality 😳

inthetropics I find things like empty, broken bottles too. Why???

I persuaded dd1 to get rid of 4 books today, one was the screenplay of Fantastic Beasts which I'm intending to read tonight before it goes in the charity shop pile. I loved Harry Potter and am distraught that I had two children who hate it.

I have started a new thread for when this one finishes and once again wonder why I still haven't finished decluttering after 15 threads.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4144854-Decluttering-one-item-a-day-and-having-nowhere-to-put-it-thread-number-16

singtothesky

BBC sounds app has a load of audio books for freeeeeee!!! Just FYI.

Nothing out today really. Monday thiugh.

@EllieQ how lovely they you've brought some of your children's books home for your daughter X

144: sorted through the felt pens of the 5 yo who can't put a bloody lid back on. And he wonders why he's not allowed near my new felt pens.

145: random clutter of Christmas decs loitering in dark places have been gathered up into a Christmas bag to go under the stairs

Welcome, new declutterers!

threeitchyfeet The 20-20 rule sounds great. I might have top start applying it, though it won't help me to get rid of the old phonebook DH wants to keep to show DD someday.

sleeping "Oh yeah 119: picture frame in skip" In my head, I read that as "Awwwww yeah!! ::fistpump of celebration::" but maybe it was more of an "Oh, I remembered"

Got rid of some out-of-date spices, used up another mini toothpaste (why do we have so many), and did some shredding.

Ooh thanks em will check that out for DS who loves audiobooks. I have only listened to one myself :o

Have found a curtain holder which has gone out, a pair of shoes and a Christmas sack to my nan. Have been going through baby clothes and sorting for my friend with a younger baby, but I won't count this until I get it out. Have also been listing on eBay, and will hopefully get some things out tomorrow. Feel like I've basically just been moving things around today

Need to catch up on the thread but my update is:

Day 137:
One stitch marker abs one row counter clicker thing given to eldest for her crochet projects. Also packaging dealt with and email and photos.

Hope everyone is doing well.

@UnlimitedChipsAndSalsa haha sadly just a oh I remembered lol

146: just gone through all my paperwork and chucked anything out of timeliness
147: just gone through DSs medical folder and thrown anything out of timeliness Inc all his discharge letters bar the two big ones. Lots of development reviews that I can't read without crying. All gone.

About 8 cm of paper and down from 4 folders to 2.

@KateF how you feeling about her leaving the nest?

Not really gathering steam here, charity shops are all closed and refusing donations so I can’t donate anything. Got a big bag of children’s clothes for a family with littler ones than mine but never organized enough to take it.

6 and 7: two pairs of children’s trousers.

threeitchyfeet could you put the bag of clothes for the other family in your car boot so that you’re ready to drop it off?

There are some charities now that will pick up some things - I think bhf might be one. Or you could put on Facebook to see if there’s a refuge that would want your clothes - or you could try freecycle, sadly covid is causing a lot of hardship.

Toss has asked me to get rid of books. It will be easy to get rid of one so I might do that and then some painting.

So as the puppy steals anything on the floor I had to get rid of the hat box - that’s become the dog toy box. Got sick of waiting for dh to get a picnic basket out of the loft to use for hats & gloves so have used the one that was full of craft supplies.

It was full of felt and material that came with a magazine for making a patch work blanket have kept the felt but all the fabric is going for recycling. I feel bad as paid for the magazine but I don’t know which bits went with which issue to know which pattern to do and I’ve had them for 4 years so have decided to get rid.

I’m sorting of the spare room at the moment as the bed was piled high with stuff to stop the dog getting it. Found a bag that was for stuff to go downstairs so while ds was playing yesterday I sorted that out and binned as couple of bits of paper work.

Think my count is 3 out.

I’ve just had a shower and cleared a whole huge ball of hair from the drain. That counts Doesn’t it?

Got an interesting one for you all. How can I get rid of some coal/smokeless fuel? We have an old coal bunker in the garden which we keep plant pots etc in. I binned a few broken ones yesterday and found two sacks of fuel underneath which must've been left by previous owners! We have a log burner now so can't use them. They could just go to tip but it seems a waste. Will probably try Liam FB but wondered if anyone else had any bright ideas as not many people user coal these days!

Waiting for the snow to stop her as the DC are desperate to get out in it!

Well done to everyone who is having a productive weekend. I think I need more of pollyanna's 'just do it' attitude!

Finished a clarins face wash. And a method rhubarb anti bac spray. Have loads in the stash so am counting it.

raspberryblonde that sounds like a job for Facebook or freecycle, I’m sure someone will want coal.

I just found a towel that exmil bought me so that’s another one going that I can add to Toss’ Friday ‘towels’ challenge.

Tossed some hangers today. And have reorganised the cleaning product stash. All half open things are in a caddy for using up. All 8 cleaning sprays are in a basket with the other spares.