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

Hope there's ice-cream or wine Kate

Stealth can you not just fold them up together after washing?

Icollectclothes are coming tomorrow so after the kids are asleep I'm hanging out in the freezing cold garage and wondering if there's a limit to how much they'll take...

I've ordered 4 wooden boxes - blaming whoever mentioned memory boxes - and some wooden letter to label them. They're big and DH will think I've finally cracked but I think it's the best solution and will help with the garage stuff long term

sleeping I did google underwear storage and I concluded my dressing table drawers are deep and small and I need to put them in a big shallow drawer. I have a nearly empty big drawer so I will fold them up and put them there.

It might’ve been me who talked about memory boxes, although someone else on the thread inspired me. I should’ve done it years ago as I keep tidying things into them from Drawers of Crap.

Been a bit awol but managed to throw a facecloth that was falling apart.

I went through my child’s clothes and found 6 pairs of pyjamas that are now too small (some never worn), nine t shirts and 1 pair of shorts. There’s definitely more that could go but I ran out of time so will have to revisit another day. I also decided to chuck out a couple of microfibres cloths.

Uh oh!! Think the memory boxes might have been me.

I still haven’t done anything with the ones I bought though!

This evening I put Dd to bed and while dh was reading with ds I tidied a cupboard in the kitchen. Did a spice jar refil and managed to get rid of some duplicates by filling up jars. Am now in bed with an eye mask on. And took packaging off some beauty products so they fit in my “spares bag”

[quote ememem84]@FiloFaxx I think if was me re the home edit.

Two towels which have seen better days in the car to take to the stables to dry the horses.

Two microfibre cloths which dh used to clean the bbq yesterday. These are too dirty to even think about washing. So have binned.[/quote]
Aww thank you, I love watching it!

Sounds like a lot of you are powering through despite not feeling your best. Hang in there!

I had a big, juicy out today--a countertop combination oven and its stand picked up by a freecycler! That means I can drop the side leaf of the table it was on and free up quite a bit of space.
(8-day streak)

I’ve managed a bit more - a scoop that came with protein powder, an old hospital wristband from one of my child’s inpatient stays, a mini chopper (a few key bits have been missing for years so it’s just been cluttering up the cupboard), 6 Christmas and birthday cards, a diffuser that I received as a gift years ago, but my husband hated the smell (binned it as it has now gone off), another unopened diffuser in the charity shop box.

2021 day 39 update:

General decluttering: No actual physical decluttering today, but I did go through my inbox and delete a lot of junk/ marketing emails - I’ve been trying to do this every few days to keep on top of it. Also used up the last of the icing sugar to ice the cakes we made yesterday.

ememem84 the memory boxes are an amazing idea. I’m just using old box file boxes temporarily but I had so much crap lying in drawers like letters to Santa, tooth fairy, Mother’s Day cards, invitations for dc’s parties, certificates, swimming badges etc. These things were just homeless.

Anyway I am now going to organise my knickers.

231-3: one bag of clothes and two boxes of books boxed up for icollectclothes
234: one box ready for ziffit to collect

Had a pretty miserable afternoon and cleared out the under stairs cupboard to try and make myself feel better. Got rid of a decent number of items including some old cushions, sewing supplies, unused bunting and a couple of books. I also finally finished a bottle of conditioner from my stash! So about nine items. 173 bits and bobs out so far.

@stealthninjamum I bought pretty box files for the dcs memory boxes. Have some things to go in them already. Their hospital bracelets, some cards we were given, scan pics etc.

A new day.

Today I’m going into the office and need to do the weekly declutter of my desk and inbox. Seems to be much easier to do when I’m there (desk obviousky because it’s physically there too).

I bought each child a plastic box with lid and have packed baby book, first babygro and toy, "artwork", nursery reports, baby cards, certificates and school exercise books. They are both pretty full so from now on it will be one in, one out. Feels good to have it all in one place - and managed to get shot of a lot of papers while doing it!

Hi need to catch up on thread - been super busy with home learning, thank goodness half term is almost here! Have managed to declutter:
1x broken crystal
1x knee support
Ood paracetamol
Ood orajel
Broken glass
3x paint your own kids pottery projects
About 100 photos from our trip to Australia 9 years ago.

Placemarking so I have accountability for a huge pile of DS’s old school work on my desk which I’ve needed to file for months.

Well done all!

Welcome strangerheremyself

My life is just so rock n roll at the moment. I found two Ikea boxes and folded my bras into them. I found a smaller box for socks. They’re now in a wide drawer and I will fold knickers into another box tonight.

Toss suggests I do spices today. I’m a a bit reluctant to throw out something I haven’t used so might leave things out with a mission to find something to do with them. For example I bought some asaefatida which is quite a distinctive Indian spice for my ex about two years ago. I’ll be downloading curry recipes that use it rather than chucking it out.

Early post today.
Day 153:

Glass jars recycled
Old old cookery books recycled that no one wanted. Can't believe I'm recycling actual books.
Giant jigsaw box recycled and jigsaw abs picture put into a ziplock bag...so much smaller to store now.

I thought I’d found all the felt tip pins last week and would start sorting through pencils. Well I found a big box of more pens and found 63 to go. I am adding to the existing Toss total of 106 bits of writing equipment to go so that’s 169 now. I still have hundreds of pencils to go through so I haven’t really cleared any space.

Coincidentally dd2 has been going through a phase of breaking pencils and will only write with a broken pencil. This is sooooo annoying but she will finish this phase and will have helped me declutter a dozen pencils.

need to do a cull of ds's clothes today. i bought him new jumpers so need to cut his old ones.

Have spent the morning huffing because a charity volunteer who’s going to pick up my double buggy hasn’t got back to me to confirm whether she’s coming today, only to realise it’s because I never sent her the text to say today was ok to collect . It’s still reasonably snowy here and she’s not keen on driving in it so we’ll arrange a date when it melts a bit.

The buggy is downstairs in our storage cupboard so its removal won’t really impact on the living space but it’s still good to get rid of it. Plus there’s two bags for life full of bits like the raincover, the cosytoes, instructions etc which are in the airing cupboard so that will free up some “proper” space.

So home learning was a disaster after the zoom lesson, just constant battle so have had the afternoon off from it and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. Concentrated on decluttering to relieve frustration! Outs:
3x hair bands
1x DVD
1x pen
1x learning book completed
2x photo albums emptied
2x photo frames not to my taste
Organised photos for my DB and DS and also shredded in the region of 100 that were blurry or unwanted. Now had an initial pass through all my photos and will have another go through when I can order some photo storage boxes.
1x award from college which I now feel able to get rid of. Lots of conflicting memories and feelings from that time of my life. On the one hand I absolutely adored the course but the amount of aggro I got from my parents for wanting an education rather than settling down has tainted the memories too. (Wouldn't mind but I was 17 when I went to college). Anyway I have never displayed the award in the 20 years I have had it so off it goes.

A good day. Sat with dc and tested and sharpened hundreds of pens and pencils. I threw loads away. I am also filling an old bag full of pens, pencils, notepads and pencil cases to leave at stbexh s flat. I also have a load of crayons and pencils that I might give to a lady I know who works at a preschool. So far I have got rid of 150 but I’ll finish this tomorrow.

Not looked at spices yet as Toss asked.

Another quiet declutter day for me. Couple nore ebay sales, so I have five parcels to take to the postie tomorrow!

The only things I have decluttered is a couple of paper bits and a massive box from my hoover, which is about to go out with the bins.

I will also nip to the car when putting them out - I’ve got a chunk of papers in the door, I am going to drag them in and sort through tonight.

Out: Just two things today, an old curtain rail hidden away in the corner of the spare room, and the plastic protective case for a pillow. Not sure why I still had either of those things! Also did some general sorting of paperwork and recycling. 175 items out so far. I did check my spice rack after a couple of you mentioned it and was disappointed to discover everything was well in date. Was hoping for some easy outs there as I (luckily) don't get sentimental about condiments :)

In: two new vases. I couldn't help it. So 4 items in since the start of the thread.