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

305: my Mom has done a trip to a clothes bin so out went a cardigan and a scarf, and a little purse to my niece

I've rescanned the failed Ziffit collection and ended up sending most of them to WeBuy for Thurs so that's good

I have a day off work but not achieving much as the DC start screaming at each other the second I leave the room!

Just found an outgrown bib in the drawer so am going to put that away in my ever growing stack of clothes to off load. I also sneaked a couple of Christmas cards DD was hoarding into the recycling as well as her school handwriting book from last year.

I'm taking that approach with the 6 almost empty bottles of furniture polish we have ememem. DH tends to go for the fullest so we also end up with ones that are 90% empty!

@RaspberryBlonde it’s infuriating. We have 3 toothpastes on the go now.

My aim is to have one of everything open and being used with one in spares.

@ememem84 just been reading up on the snowball method and I like think I may get on to the finances tomorrow.

I’m fed up of the whole house being a mess and things moving from room to room so this week I’ve decided to deep clean and sort out bedroom. I’ve already filled a bag with out of date toiletries and another ready for the clothes bin. I’ve empty all my drawers and the kalax that just had stuff in it.
Have also hoovered under the bed and decluttered a lot of dust!

Now just need to work on getting things back to where they should be in our room and everything that doesn’t belong put in the room it does belong. After I’ve finished our room think I may move on to the bathroom upstairs as there will are toiletries to go away in there.

I also like to have one open one in the cupboard. I have 8 bottles of zoflora half full so aiming to use all up before buying anymore! Toiletries are a nightmare, we have so many shampoos half open as we are trying to find the right one for dd1s hair, dd2 is easy so is using up the rejects but its a slow process!! Ive got loads of soap bars, we use the liquid soap as the bars end up making more mess (dd2 can't be trusted alone in the bathroom)

Today's outs, we sorted the dds room. Dd1 got rid of a few toys (straight to dd2!) But dd2 has gotten rid of a big bag for life of dressing up costumes/accessories and a bag of build a bear clothes. Ive promised her the money they sell for to save towards a new moana costume as hers is now too small and she's really upset about it 😔 so that will be an in (once I can find one!!)

Dd2 got rid of a box with recycling and a small carrier bag of rubbish. The last of the christmas stuff has all been gathered ready to put in the loft, gift boxes and tins I would usually recycle Ive folded down to reuse next year for gifts. Ive set a reminder on my phone calendar in November not to buy more!!

In today a box of hairdye as DH messed mine up and need to touch up the parts he missed!!

Going to list up some xbox and PlayStation games tonight :)

Talking about decluttering on bbc five live now. Just finishing but iplayer it

@toomanyhobbies oh I’m so good at decluttering the finances. Right out of the account...... !!

It’s a decent method for repaying debt.

Day 161:

Emails and photos
One toothbrush

Mentally earmarking a few attic items to get rid of on the weekend

2 manky handcreams
An old storage tin
A lot of old paperwork
A non-working Biro

@footprintsintheslow

Talking about decluttering on bbc five live now. Just finishing but iplayer it

Sounds interesting!!

I had a really busy day, so as a result have hardly done anything in the house. Toss wanted me to go through stationary, so I spent ten minutes getting rid of a few old pens, as well as an old birthday card and more useless post its. 10 items, so now my total is 308 things out!

Recycling done
Also ditched a full up notebook and some reciepts. And some old post.

Dh also used up loads of the wangy veg in the fridge, some plum hoisin sauce and a whole pineapple for dinner. Spicy pineapple fried rice. Yummmmm

Got rid of an empty (why were we still storing it?) toothpaste and some more medications have been added to the medicine recycling (and their packaging recycled). My streak is hanging on by a thread. (17-day streak)

After my early positive start, I lost all motivation. A useless hairbrush binned.

2021 day 48 update:

General decluttering: More A Level notes (sorted through about a year ago) went out in the recycling.

Had a fairly lazy day today as I’m off work, but couldn’t get motivated to do more decluttering!

Sorted out the empty take away plastic boxes and have offered them to someone on Facebook who wants them. I hope she will collect them tomorrow.
DS broke a pint glass - one of the nicer ones, but we have so many it's not a great loss.

I'm feeling all 'urrggghhhh' tonight at all the bits and bobs in my house. They seem to be everywhere!! Lots of things, which have been brought out to use or to remind me to deal with, and then left out. Laundry too. So, I've been on a mission to clear things away.

My latest outs include:

A jar of Popcorn - I burnt most of it. (It was also out of date but that's just between us.)
2 business cards.
1 note.
1 plastic bag.
Some unwanted Christmas nuts. (They will be going to feed wildlife.)
1 jumper. (Not mine but I'm still counting it.)
2 home-made napkin rings which I still haven't tidied away from Christmas and I'm sick of looking at. (I didn't even use them then!)

The good news is that my lounge and dining room have been looking good at the same time (!!!) for quite a while now. My fridge is also keeping really nice since my big sort out of that. But, my upstairs really needs some attention.

Outs today - DH filled a carrier bag with clothes that no longer fit and I had a half hearted sort through the fridge ahead of the grocery delivery tomorrow.

306-7: I've gone through an old photo album of Sri Lanka when cameras and films were a thing. I think I put every single photo I'm the album so I've just halved that and threw away one album and a ton of photos.

308: Have also gone through two muddled albums of mainly DS photos plus tons printed out and "slimmed" them down. Some got rid of, some put in album several photos deep if they're similar. I've run out of album to finish and it's nearly 1 am (the twins first witching hour) so I'm conceding defeat for tonight but for a start all the lose photos fit in one sealable box so that'll so until I buy a new album. DS is obsessed with photos of babies ATM so he can look through his own tomorrow altho I do worry how upsetting they are for him as so many are from hospital.

309: gone through DSs papers and chucked some damaged ones / anything with Among Us on

310: also chucked a few lidless felt pens

am listening to the decluttering bit on 5 live on bbcsounds (its at around the 2h12m point) if anyone wants to listen.

so far today i've got rid of some of the dis artwork.

cleaners are coming in today, and i need to do a quick whizz round and tidy so they can clean. this is lunchtimes job though.

@footprintsintheslow

Talking about decluttering on bbc five live now. Just finishing but iplayer it

Thanks for this, I'll listen a bit later on!

Today started slow on the decluttering front, but picked up momentum. Outs:

• another dead pen
• a large box for a lightbulb
• a small cloth bag
• a giant pile of A3 leaflets, easily 100 out of date, so off they go (I'll only count as one it but it was a big stack!)
• 2 CDs
• a small toy
• an iron on patch
• a handful of fabric samples
• a bag of plastic file filler things... what are they called? Anyway, it was almost a full bag but they were really poorly made so basically useless

So adding ten items to my total makes 318. The initial clear out was much easier, as I go along I'm starting to find it much more challenging and I keep second guessing myself.

In:

Nothing.

@lazyakita that’s a very impressive list!

My DH has gone through more drawers and is getting rid of a stuffed bin bag full of clothes. The stuff he actually wears these days should now fit in the drawers rather than being dumped on top in a jumbled mess. We’ll see...

Unexpected trip into town today so I grabbed a bag of stuff for the clothes recycling bin; some outgrown pyjamas, old shoes of mine and the DC and a jumper that doesn’t fit and always makes me feel stressy and cross when I wear it because I’m always tugging and pulling at it. When I got to the bins there was still some space in the bag and I looked under the buggy and saw some bits of spare clothes I’d stuffed there when DS was still tiny so I chucked those as well . Also got rid of a bit of junk mail for the previous owner, which from previous experience I suspect is a payment demand from a debt recovery company

Day162:God toddlers and baby combo is shit. I can't stand any more of today.

Toothbrush in bin
Two calpol syringes
My love for parenting
Two books to a friend
One Avon book given back