Decluttering one item a day (and having nowhere to put it!) – thread number 16

[stealthninjamum]

Once again this tireless group of mumsnetters are decluttering our houses by getting rid of one item a day. Of course this year I’m just piling the stuff behind the settee because the charity shops are all closed but luckily noone’s allowed to visit me to see my clutter mountain.

This is an accountability and general chatter thread and newbies and old hands are always welcome to join in the conversation while we keep working on our houses making them clearer, organised, and clutter free.

This year some of us are trying to get rid of 2021 items and some of us are working through the Toss app that tells us what to get rid of each day. Then we report back on the thread with an update.

Previous thread here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4105255-The-countdown-to-Christmas-but-still-decluttering-one-item-a-day-Thread-number-15?pg=1

Today’s outs

Pink roses
Some of the dcs toys. Small ones that they won’t miss.

Everyone is doing so well!

Here is Apartment Therapy's 20 day challenge with decluttering and cleaning tasks:
www.apartmenttherapy.com/features/january-cure

Outs: ebay parcel, cardboard, cleaned the windows.

Sing Glad your three a day challenge is working well.

Sand I'm going to try the soup maker.

Oh and a gigantic santa bath duck. Which I forgot to put away with the Christmas things and which has now gone a bit mjnging.

Ten new dishtowels into the charity pile. They were a gift but not our style so decided to let someone else enjoy them. Also used up a sample pot of stretch mark cream (as foot cream).
(6-day streak)

2021 day 37 update:

General decluttering: nothing today, apart from putting a delivery note from yesterday into the recycling. I’ve had a duvet day and spent most of the day in bed, as I just couldn’t face doing anything. It has helped. Hoping to feel better tomorrow.

@EllieQ Hope tomorrow is a better day for you

I just went through a kitchen cabinet and threw out some rusty ancient pots and pans, plus found two brand new bowls I forgot I owned that will go in the ever increasing charity pile. Another six items (total 126).

Glad to read that, Alex! Let me know how it goes. Initially, my DP would never have soup or stew for a main meal, but I think the soup maker converted him and I'm sure our meals are much healthier as a result. We have much less wasted food now too. (I don't have one anymore but it got us into it.)

I haven't done much today, as I'm still waiting to hear from my charity lady so I can get rid of my pile. I did enter the books and DVDs into a site but I would only have earned £3.90 from 4 of the books. I'd rather give them to charity.

Almost forgot, I visited a rag bin today and got rid of approx 1 bag4life of old clothes. It feels good to be free of that bag.

Had massive ins of a ton of nappies and other items so sorted out immediate in the hallway and chucked all rubbish. This is good for me.

224: extra stash of hangers in the charity bag
225: chucked a set of bedding that's past its best

Ellie a rest is as good as a declutter. Hope you feel better tomorrow

Day 150:
Sold a pram for £30 and picked up already.
1 book gone on freecycle
Some lemons and pesto given to eldest from theBrexit stash
Photos and emails

Hi everyone, this thread is inspirational. Is anyone familiar with olio? I've only just discovered it, seems a nice way to get rid of things including in date food for free
www.olioex.com

@EllieQ my toddler is exactly the same. I've started two new prongs of defence now. When she shouts and screams I tell her she's using her outside voice which is fine but she needs to get her shoes on and go in the garden.

Also I've had a calm chat with her her about listening to instructions and doing as she's told as basically she's adverse to doing anting I say. (Which is all new as we've had an Angel child for 2y 9 months). So now if she can't listen to me I have to take a toy away for the day. We don't have loads of toys out as we rotate. She normally won't listen as she's playing with something so it seems like a reasonable and relevant deterrent. I've only had to put two things away and she definitely doesn't like it and the threat keeps her in line.

I'm sure it will all wear off and I'll have to think of something else. If you find anything that works please share it with me!

@lljkk I'm also keeping things for grandchildren but only things that I think I can't replace easily or cheaply. So vintage bouncy horse that I've never seen anywhere else...keep

Standard baby grows and vests...get rid.

Expensive magnetic toys, small to store...keep.

Baby dolls that are big to store..:get rid

I'm going to attach a picture of the vintage horse incase anyone is imagining a beautiful Victorian thing. It's actually a monstrous furry thing I bought in Oxfam 22 years ago for £10. I cleaned it up and made new accessories for it. My two have loved it and I've loaned it out to 3 children. Who knows who enjoyed it before us as it was old looking when we had it. You can bounce like a total maniac on it and I'm sure it wouldn't pass Heath and safety rules now so it really is wild fun.

@EllieQ sounds like you needed the rest hope you feel better after your duvet day.
@PurpleFrog turns out my cutting mat fits in a divan drawer - a marvellous discovery Fabrics will stash into one of the cupboards but only after some Tetris!

@SleepingStandingUp

Had massive ins of a ton of nappies and other items so sorted out immediate in the hallway and chucked all rubbish. This is good for me.

224: extra stash of hangers in the charity bag
225: chucked a set of bedding that's past its best

Ellie a rest is as good as a declutter. Hope you feel better tomorrow

This drives me potty. Deliveries come in and we just leave them in the hall instead of sorting immediately. Must get into the habit of putting away immediately.

@lljkk

I'm having a wobble about giving away some kid toy things.

It could be 15 years before I have grandchildren & those imaginary D-GC may not like these toys. I could replace or buy new for inexpensive price.

Any one want to encourage me to let go (!!)??

I kept and so glad I did. Yes, a few ended up being too old, and books date more than I realised. But boardgames in particular cost a lot to replace, even if you can get them now. It means the kids get different toys to play with, and less of their own toys needed for mum to pack for a visit. Best things I kept.

Ive listed loads on ebay this weekend - some clothes, an old ipod and a handblender - which is getting interest already.

Threw another 4 pairs of old shoes that are ruined, plus one trashed handbag and makeup bag.

My mum is coming round later to pick up a few bits - some homeware and a couple of lipsticks i’ve not used (she is my single person support bubble for the record!).

Ive burnt through another handful of scented tealights etc too.

Feeling really productive!

I’ve been lurking and not posting. Sleepingsrandingup (think that’s right) you had a run of bad luck with the washing machine and stuff. I know how hard it is to get rid of kids stuff. I found it harder with the baby bits.

I’ve been working on the room of doom (sore room) so I can start wfh again in there. The quilting magazine (2 large binders full) and all the material bits have beef passed to a friend so don’t feel so bad about getting rid now. Got rid of a dog harness that was to small on fb but had to replace it so not sure that counts.

Last weekend I declutter a large amount of hair from the shower drain and got rid of all the bottles from the shower. When I popped to the shops yesterday I stopped myself from buying more shampoo as have some to finish.
This morning I’ve used a hair treatment mask and tonight I plan on using a face mask and foot peel (little things but still outs )

I made some crochet harts for a friend and her children as she’s got terminal cancer so that’s a bit of wool used up. I’ve also forgone through the crochet magazines abs taken out any patterns I want abs binned the rest.

The room is getting there as can now use the bed and the desk is nearly cleared. I do find I am moving stuff around rooms but I’m putting things that don’t belong into the room where they do belong. I will get

I haven’t had any time to declutter as my boyfriend’s staying for a few days. He’s my single person bubble but we haven’t seen each other because we’ve been busy homeschooling and working. He commented that the house was tidy, I did have a mad dash of tidying and shredding yesterday as I would hate him to see how it was Friday.

Minimal decluttering today - I will try to find one thing but I’ve had such a good January with areas like the kitchen and dining room and bedroom that I’m running out of things to go.

I went to Sainsbury’s this morning to look for cardboard boxes and there weren’t any. I thought I’d ziffit some books and DVDs / CDs and the only thing stopping me is lack of packaging.

@ememem84 tbf we have 400 nappies, two large tuff tables, an outer of baby wipes and a small hall. There wasn't much choice 🤣

@footprintsintheslow he looks AMAZING

@stealthninjamum decluttering sexual frustration counts 🤣🤣

226: Just gone to open a pack of top trumps and they're damages from the flood so that's on the bin. They're Macdonald's ones so won't be replaced

Walked another two loads of washing to my Mom's and hopefully mil will be down Tues to collect more. I don't know how I ever did this much washing 😂😂😂

When I said I’m running out of things to declutter in my previous post I meant things that are in areas close to where we do homeschooling. My house still has too much clutter but If I spend more than a few minutes decluttering the homeschooling stops and I find dc on YouTube.

Today’s things out are an unpleasant smelling moisturiser that my skin doesn’t like and a notepad. Like a pp I have lots of notepads with to do lists. This one has useful notes that I made when I had job interviews in 2010 and I thought I would type them into a word document and then throw the pad away.

Toss has asked me to get rid of kitchen utensils. I did that drawer a few weeks ago so I’m not sure I’ll find much but I’ll give it a go.

I sorted my pan cupboard again and this time I’m going to get rid of a massive cast iron pan/casserole dish as I just don’t use it. I have also recycled one of those semi-disposable metal trays you get with some meat/ready meals etc. I had 4 of them so I’m recycling the most battered one.

Sorry Stealth 🤣🤣🤣🤣

227: Fish tank clean and waiting for DSis along with pump and plants
228: dinosaur in bin from fishtank.

DS now wants to know what heaven is like and other awkward questions. Bloody fish.

Cleared the sideboard the fishtank was on and rearranged to fill the space.

229: So half a dozen candles and similar, wire shelving repurposed for the kids money boxes and some memory jar bits that were arranged around so not much out bit generally looks much clearer.

I have tons of notebooks and really want to use them to be more organised / butter note pad thingy but I don't really know where to start. Maybey life just is too boring for one lol

A few hours after I listed them, two eBay items have sold! The hand blender generated a lot of interest.

I’m going to list a couple more items tonight - and old Alexa that I unplugged as I find them creepy and a pair of Dr Martens that I have admitted are too big for me. There seems to be a huge resale value on these - I think mine cost £110ish brand new and they sale on eBay for about £70-90! They are in good condition as I only wore them two or three times and couldn’t endure breaking them in.

I have also decluttered three half rolls of wallpaper - why did I keep them?

Productive weekend as I also tackled my dining room for cleaning.

@SleepingStandingUp - I have had to admit defeat and buy packaging this week 😫 i’ve been repurposing as many bits of packaging as possible but finally run out of reliable bits - hate spending money on this stuff!

Out:

• A 2020 planner (that was useful )
• A reusable face mask that basically disintegrated
• Two books to be returned to their owner
• Two cardboard boxes
• Three more scruffy tshirts
• A decrepit cushion full of holes discovered under the sofa

Ten items today, bringing the total to 136.

In: nothing, although a very kind soul announced today that they're sending me some surprise gifts, which is terribly thoughtful, but the possibility of impending clutter is making me a bit anxious Is that normal?

@Aroundtheworldin80moves great repurposing of ood seeds! Someone has hung bird feeders in our local woods which was great to see.

@toomanyhobbies sorry to read about your friend. Not sure how anyone copes in that situation. You included.

Day 151:
20 bits of art and artefacts down form attic and either binned/recycled/listed on freecycle and actually picked up. All from my daughter from the ages of 7-18.

All we needed was some time to be able to emotionally detach from the stuff.

1 candle burnt out.