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

Just popping up to say merry Christmas everyone!

Merry christmas! Yesterdays nearly out was some old packaging that was repurposed as wrapping paper after we ran out and didn’t want to make a trip to the shops. Will fit in nicely with the kids eco wishes I hope 👍

Merry Christma

Feeling sad that the presents off both parents are liable to end up on the charity bag imminently. Nothing like feeling like they don't know you very well / aren't that bothered about it being something you'd value

I don’t have time to read the thread but I wanted to come in and wish everyone a Happy Christmas! Let’s hope 2021 is better than 2020!

Day 108: merry Christmas everyone.

Haven't read anything but doing an update and will catch up tomorrow.

🎄H found a box of jars in the shed earlier so they went straight in the recycling.
🎄Skanky bath book of toddlers gone in bin.
🎄2 gifts in charity bag
🎄3 gift in the present box to regift one day.
🎄1 pair of new tights in bin that I burst out of earlier and split in every direction.

Hope everyone has had a good day.

Gift bags regifted - Dm will keep these and will use them.

Slippers out - although new pair in

Couple of bottles of bubbly out.

Fallen off the thread again. Pre-Christmas tidy netted a declutter of five toothbrushes and four dried out felt tips.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! We had a nice day - just the three of us, but we Skyped with family during the day. DD was thrilled to see Santa had been, and loved her dolls house. DH and I are not sure where it will live... My presents were mostly books and cosy socks, which has made me happy

No actual outs yesterday, apart from food, but all the packaging is in the recycling ready for the next collection. Had got rid of one gift bag, but gained four new ones.

I actually feel quite ready for a clear out and able to get rid of things. Can I keep that going as we head into 2021?

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope you all had a lovely time even if it was not a big as normal!!

Just a quick tip with what to do with all your Christmas gift bags that you have received , pack them away with the Christmas decorations on the 6th January, plus any Christmas wrapping paper and Christmas cards u pick up in the sales. I also but in the Christmas cards I have been sent, so I can make sure I don’t forget anybody next year!!. So they are all then stored away till December with all the Christmas stuff all together.

That is a brilliant tip Nanalisa60 only possible problem for me this year decorations not put up until 19th in this house and wrapping not done until 24th. Mine live down the side of a bookcase in the study under the shelf all the wrapping stuff lives on.
All the recyclable wrapping added to the bag. No other outs unless you count Xmas nibbles

Like lots of you, we zoomed family which was lovely, but not the same. DH missed DC who remained overseas due to restrictions both ends on travel and quarantine and added Trump visa related concerns. Much food decluttered nevertheless and went to bed stuffed, but you have to have a turkey and stuffing roll, don't you?
This morning my presents moved from sitting room to proper homes - usually achieve this many more days after Christmas, so a result. All wrapping etc in the relevant bins.
Have decluttered 2 paracetamol in to student DC who appears to have decluttered, in the last 48 hours, most of a bottle of rum plus coca cola (based on the sticky patch on the kitchen floor I cleaned up) but seems to have had fun with uni friends online.

Oh dear poor head of PollyDC

As we have no present rubbish, I'm hoping we can use the extra rubbish concessions to clear some rubbish away
Need to check the rules on how many bags we can put down

Slight toy storage problem but all chocs in fridge and selection pack wrapping etc in the bin. DS helpfully decluttered a Freddo into me today. Books will go onto book shelves.

The big issue is the new keyboard and huge plastic truck eldest DS had.

Have decided that all the large Christmas bags I've not used are going on recycling. They're largely sat under the wardrobe for years. We use the all ones but the big ones are too big.

Chucked a t-shirt with marks on and two vests

Managed to declutter an old holey tea towel. Replaced immediately by two new ones through! Nearly all packaging recycled/discarded and busy working through the Christmas treat stash which will leave half a cupboard clear in the kitchen once gone.

Do I start my 2021 things today post Christmas or wait until New
Year? Have a tip slot booked for Tuesday a knew our communal bins would be chaos and they are. Completely empty the way to midnight mass, overflowing by lunchtime Christmas Day...

We're just home from MIL's having been there since yesterday morning. House is a tip, so looking forward to really getting stuck in to decluttering tomorrow.

Hope you have all had a good few days

We tidied the presents away today and are continuing to declutter food and drink. So much for the recycling and it doesn't go until Tuesday....

Thanks, Nanalisa60. I'll definitely be using the cards tip. Great idea!

(Almost) All of the packaging from our new gifts is already in the recycling. Normally I would hang onto boxes for much longer than necessary, but this thread is helping me to pay better attention to that kind of thing. Thanks, everyone!

Can I ask whether you declutter by item category, or by room, or by whatever is in your line of sight? Do you have a system?

Day 109:

🎄all packaging sorted and outside.
🎄gifts away to their homes
🎄face cream to be given on as it burns my face.
🎄emails and photos.

Hope everyone is having a good Boxing Day.

mog sometimes I have a system and I tackle one room at a time. Other times my system is wander around the house and just pick up stuff and get rid.

If I’m folding laundry and see something which is ripped stained etc and is beyond fixing it goes immediately. Otherwise I’ll forget.

I don't do a room at a time. You could do one kitchen drawer whilst dinner is cooking, sort out socks whilst you're putting washing away or the bathroom cabinet whilst running a bath so it's small targets initially otherwise it can be overwhelming.
I also found getting things together which can be used up is good. I had various moisturisers which I didn't like under makeup so kept them together and used them up at night. It's less of a quick win but it organises things.
Paperwork, I would sort into keep, recycle, shred piles. Recycling would go out straight away, keep put in file and shred I would do whilst watching crap TV.
You may have some large items which are a quick win eg. Freecycle, dump, charity ( obviously this depends on your current tier).

Well I’ve not been decluttering for a while it seems! I think I missed a couple of threads!

Merry Boxing Day!

I sorted the DCs paper shelves tonight, and binned a bin full of paper. The shelves are still full... I also found every single pencil I thought I misplaced, but it was my eldest who had been squirrelling them away.

I’m a bit worried about my eldest, as they are very protective of their things and hide a lot of resources that are meant to be shared. I don’t know if it’s normal or if I should be worried about it. We have to deal with a lot of behavioural issues with them too, so it’s very tricky to know what is something an average child would do, or if there is an underlying problem. They’re only 8, so I don’t want to make a bigger issue about it than needed, but I am concerned. They have tantrums daily and are rather mean-spirited towards their siblings, both things I thought they would have grown out of by now.

This week, I really to do a massive push to sort out the house before the new year. DH is making the right noises, but there’s severe lack of action, so I think I’ll be the one pushing for it to happen.

We’ve also got 2 more birthdays coming up, and everyone is already struggling to find room for all the new Christmas presents, that I’m a bit worried the birthdays will create even more chaos!
Luckily most of mine are consumables, so I don’t have to find permanent homes for them!

mog how I do it changes over time. I started out just at the age where Dd2 was at preschool so could chuck out lots of big items - high chairs, cots, toddler toys, jumparoos and then started to focus on rooms and then as I started to have empty storage spaces it became easier to bring items together to sort. I am terrible in that I get bored and rarely ‘finish’ an area however in 2020 (three years after I started this) I finished the utility room which was the second worst room in the house and did half of the Room of Doom (the worst room in the house).

Anyway, my update is that I have done no decluttering other than mince pies, pigs in blankets, chocolates! I have chucked all the wrapping paper into the recycling bin and moved half the presents to their new homes which is much quicker progress than normal.

Unfortunately the house is a mess still because of stuff spilling out of the Room of Doom that can’t go to a charity shop. I tried to sell most of it in Facebook and so might put it on freecycle tomorrow to give away.

Not a great deal of progress recently. Today I finally used up the last of a body lotion and made some sweet treats which used some (just) out of date ingredients.

@Times10 are you able to talk to your child's teacher to see if they display any behaviours in school?

We don’t seem to have had that big an influx of gifts, although my in-laws usually go a bit OTT and we haven’t seen them yet (tier 4). They only live five minutes away so may do a socially distanced present drop off and then we’ll be swamped

Lots (tho not all) of packaging and wrapping paper into the recycling as we managed to nip in quick before the neighbours! DP usually insists on keeping the boxes for everything “just in case” (in case what???) so a few still to get rid of.

He’s also making noises about getting rid of our horrible cheap sofa (only five years old but deliberately got a cheap one when I was pregnant with DD2 knowing it would be trashed by at least two toddlers, and it turned out to be three) and moving the equally horrible but much less trashed recliner sofa into its place. This might mean an armchair coming in, as the recliner is a two seater and Horrible Sofa seats three, but I think it would be a better use of space overall.