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

stealth, I have a drawer full of single socks and recently started just wearing them as odd pairs (wfh, so no one around to judge). When one gets a hole, it goes to the rag bag. I'm hoping to slowly wear out my stash of single socks this way. I feel like then if I ever do find the twin for one that's been thrown out I'll at least know I got some use out it. I also used a few colorful single socks to store baby socks (baby socks paired, stuffed into an adult sock, then pinned closed with a label saying the size).

We did a big clear out of outdated spices and condiments today--37 jars out with the recycling! We also started a system now to prevent having more than one of the same spice open (in theory).
(10-day streak)

2021 day 41 update:

General decluttering: Shredded the last of the work paperwork, hurrah! Brought it home last March when we were asked to WFH, right before the first lockdown. Seems so long ago now.

Very little progress here; I feel very deflated and fed up.

I got to the end of my jar of rice this evening so have refilled it from the stash, making some space in the cupboard. I also used up two tins of tuna (I have loads so they won’t be replaced).

@oohmama

How do you guys sell your old clothes? I find bigger items and baby stuff sells well on Facebook market place but clothes don't And with eBay fees I'm not sure it's worth the hassle But then I have some really nice stuff that's just too good to charity shop! Any suggestions?

Vinted for me. Hermes or post office, but the former is normally cheaper so a better sell to the customer. I sell my kids clothes and mine on there, and I buy the same so posted a parcel today 238: baby clothes and collected a parcel with two tops for the babies and a bracelet (River Island, not proper altho o did lost a Pandora charm on there).

You can tell people you'll only post on a Friday, everyone understands ATM and you can specifically lost it as new with tags

239: 3 pairs of DHs socks. I'd have been embarrassed to take them to my mother's for washing!! She'd have probably darned them 😂

Not done much (had covid jab yesterday and head a bit wuzzy) but my lovely boxes arrived so hopefully that's a job for the weekend

Ooh I forgot I did have a proper out today - a tuna drainer.

unlimitedchipsandsalsa I wish I could be like you but I just couldn’t wear odd socks and I doubt my dc could either. I am thinking of throwing the odd socks away just because it annoys me that they just sit in a bag causing clutter.

Anyway I found a pair of dd2s socks that is probably too small and put it in the rags bag. She has said she doesn’t want any socks to go but I’m sure it can’t fit still fit her.

I also found four more pens that don’t work so that was 5 items yesterday.

I also hoovered in the dining room yesterday for the first time in a week. The three snacks a day clearly get scattered under the table because it was pretty disgusting.

Today Toss has suggested purses and wallets. In my house these are homeless items largely got free with magazines, party bags or stocking filler. I am hoping to just open a drawer and find one to go. I think I will maybe buy a nice one for dd2 online and then throw away / donate any I see from now on.

miaowse a tuna drainer? I never knew they exist. We eat loads of tuna.

outs for me this morning:

three beauty products - a mascara, a day moisturiser and a body scrub
and a small plastic tupperware pot which i was using to wash the kids hair and also to soak my retainers in - put water in it this morning and it all fell out the bottom so i guess that's had its fill...hte dc have been playing with it in the bath and dd has a habit of smushing it.

Charity volunteer turned up unexpectedly last night so I am out one double buggy and two bags of accessories! No real space cleared as everything was in cupboards but it’s great to have it physically and mentally removed. Only my old warhorse of a Maclaren left for DS and hopefully he’ll be done with it by the end of the year.

i too long for the day when we can get rid of the prams.

i'm down to just one kid in nappies now, and while ds wears pull ups at nighttime, i bought reusable ones which take up much less space than the single use ones and are cheaper in the long run.

i'll be happy when we can get dd into pants and bye bye nappies. then that will clear out the nappy bin too from the bathroom...!

So far today... A pile of Amazon delivery boxes, and the lid for a pan we no longer have.

Yesterday DD decluteeed a bottle of soy sauce for us by dropping it on the floor. I don't recommend this method.

The feeling of baby equipment is great... How can such small creatures need so much bulky equipment?

Haven’t decluttered anything yesterday or today, which sucks. I did however post 6(!) parcels yesterday, including one gift, one donation and ebay sales. One more item sold late last night so that will go tomorrow. I have two higher ticket (eg over £30) items to go up on ebay tonight. I also have tomorrow off, so I am gonna try and smash out a bit more. I have two clothing bank donations, plus a bag of glass/broken electricals that can go to the banks too, so will get them gone.

I really want to tackle my wardrobe a bit more - I’ve got some unrealistic stuff sitting around there!!

Slow but steady one item or so a day here. However, I have decluttered/shredded a whole file of paperwork from an old volunteering activity (ended in 2012!) from a nearly empty filing cabinet. The aim is to completely empty this cabinet which can then be moved from the room of doom to the shed of despair (although now mostly tidied with DC having sorted boxes (and boxes) of modelling kit). Once relocated I can use it to hold DH's unsorted stuff from the room of doom, until he gets around to it - we've had it untouched in this room for 12 years so unlikely he'll need any of it in a hurry. This will help me in my aim to return RoD to a bedroom!

Have ordered a new car seat for ds, so the old one will be sold on fb i think. if i can get £80 for it then that'll be a bonus.

he's almost at the weight limit for his existing one so a necessary in.

I remember the bulky baby and toddler equipment, my house seemed to double in size once we got rid of it all.

I haven’t found any purses to get rid of but chucked out a biro earlier that didn’t work so that’s my single tIny out for today.

If you buy Royal Mail postage online, you can use parcel post boxes to save going into the post office, if you have one close by:

Locations:
www.royalmail.com/d8/parcel-post-boxes

I have three prams, I'm looking forward to the space when they are gone.

Decluttered some gardening with the littlest and some bubbles, they love watching them fly up in to the sky.

I think I got it in Lakeland about 15 years ago @stealthninjamum and it was ever so useful. Unfortunately the brands of tuna I usually buy have sneakily become smaller so it no longer fits into the can properly - see pic (tuna can taken out of the recycling to illustrate so no label). If you bought one today they’d probably have updated the measurements to account for shrinkflation.

miaowse you tease!

I love it, my dc love tuna and could eat it every day but I have gone the last 30 years of my life without one so surely I don’t need one now? This thread is supposed to help me get rid of stuff not buy more!

Just found this thread - fantastic!
Today, four pairs of overalls.
(Our tuna drainer is fantastic and gets used often; if the tin is too small the tin gets squeezed until I can get at least one side of the drainer in. It drains all sorts of other bits too.)

Bag of outgrown shoes ready for clothes bank. Why do children's fret insist on growing?

(The school shoes we bought in November were nearly on the pile... I think they will be outgrown by Easter!)

@stealthninjamum resist temptation, don't do it .
Managed some outs today:
Bathroom scales
1x expired eyewash
1small artificial xmas tree
4 cuddly toys
1 swimming costume
6dinosaurs- chewed
1 toy baby bottle chewed
5 toy cars - wheels broken
2 unwanted hair clips
2 reindeer antler headbands chewed
1 toy from magazine
2 broken crayons
7plastic figurines- chewed
1 dress up hat
2 balls unwanted
1 laundry basket - broken after a vigorous game of row row row your boat...

I don't know how so many of the toys have been chewed.... the only time I am not in the same room is when I am in the bathroom or cooking dinner....

Outs:

30 new baby cards
20 christening cards

I’ve finally started sifting through the sentimental stuff for the dc. Started with ds.

His box has the cards from grandparents great grandparents aunts and uncles. First sleep suit. Hospital bracelets. Christening candle and godparent cards. And first teeny weeny pair of shoes.

Dds so far has nothing because I can’t remember where I put the same stuff for her (cards and bracelets:...haven’t had her christened yet).

@forgetthehousework I hadn’t thought about squishing the tin. I am now resisting the urge to put the drainer back in the cupboard so I can try your clever solution. I used to spoon the tuna into the top of the drainer then push down with a spoon but it didn’t work that well.

@stealthninjamum sorry for leading you into temptation

@AlexTheLittleCat that’s a good tip about the parcel post boxes.