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

Is toss an app??

iceisnice you’re doing really well at the moment.

oohmama yes Toss is an app. I love it as it tells me to do a smallish area every day. With all the homeschooling and cooking I’m doing my brain just can’t think about what to do. I have found I expand on it a lot. So it asked me to do jackets, shirts and electric wires in the last couple of weeks and I have actually ended up reorganising my bedroom as I looked in drawers and just kept emptying them.

Welcome hagqueen I can relate to what you said, recently I have been decluttering things I don’t actually like (rugs, placemats, tea towels this morning) and I am slowly replacing them with things I do like.

I have a break now while dc have their afternoon registration and form time. So I have been going around the house with a bin bag, recycling bin bin bag and bag for life chucking things away and rehoming them). Some of my decluttering has involved me taking things out of a wardrobe / cupboards and just leaving them on the floor so I’m now running around tidying those things away. It’ll be nice to start the weekend with a tidy house.

Just popped on to say thank you for recomending icollectclothes they took 8 binbags of clothes, books, dvds & toys yesterday 🥳 will definitely use them again!

Hi gang. Ive got rid of quite a few bits the last 2 days. I’m working from home and keep getting up to stretch my legs and finding bits and bobs that can go.

More nail files, a small elephant ornament, a photo frame, cushion cover, a salad dressing I didn’t like, a key ring, dead battery, some old cotton thread that isn’t very good quality so I won’t use it on a project, a small tub that had lost its lid and now has a crack, a hair clip that hurts my head every time I use it, some egg boxes have gone back to the chicken lady to reuse for more eggs, a belt, some contact lense fluid (why do I always have so many bottles on the stuff?) and some nail art stuff which just doesn’t really work.

2 of the storage boxes I got rid of the other day have made a reappearance in the garage for storage, but that’s my husband’s area and nothing to do with me lol

Wow ice, you got rid of loads! 😀

In today - some noodles (around 8 packs) and chickpeas (7 tins). Dm was having a clear out and won’t use them apparently. We will do no probs.

@stealthninjamum thank you just trying to keep momentum going but it is strangely addictive! @RedLlama plenty more to get rid of trust me! I hope to end the year a lot better and clearer than the start!
I would really love to start an OU degree next February, so my main motivation (quite selfishly) is to be able to get the house as clear as possible, as decorated as possible and as easy to maintain as I can so that I have the time in the week to dedicate 16 hours to helping my future self. I am a sahm and once DS starts school...in 5 years... I really would love to have at the very least a job that I enjoy and hopefully it will develop into a career.

People are getting on so well. Fairly slow going here, I decanted 3 nearly empty hand wash bottles into one and popped the empties in the recycling and also used up a mini bottle of bubble bath.

I recycled a small stack of paper - what a waste, I printed an activity from the virtual classroom without double checking and it had the same activity three times with minor variations - easy, medium and hard, plus answer sheets for each version.

I recycled a handy looking plastic bowl that came with a Christmas pudding. Realistically it would just sit in the cupboard unused but it was surprisingly tricky to made the decision.

And I hoovered under my very messy desk getting rid of multiple treasury tags, rubber bands, dust and paper scraps (my hoover does not like eating treasury tags).

Day 142:
One Tuppawear pot
Photos and emails

Wakes I from the garage to find the kitchen 2 inches under water and half the living room the same. Consequently I've thrown out some stuff, an drying stuff on the radiator and will read this properly and catch up later when I have access to alcohol. Did make me go through a cupboard I wouldn't otherwise have gone in because it too was flooded. Joy.

Oh no Sleeping, what happened? I hope there's not too much damage and you can get everything dried out.

I did a bit of a fridge clear out and got rid of a couple of forgotten bits of leftovers.

I used to always keep the plastic bowls from Christmas puddings Miaowse and also never used them! I learnt my lesson this year and it went straight into recycling!

Hope there is not too much flood damage 😞

I have just decluttered the last of a bottle of Malibu, and we had a takeaway and I didn’t save the tubs it came in, so that’s progress!

I suggested gently to dm today that when she next goes up in the loft (they have a slow leak in the roof) to bring one thing down with her to Chuck

I happened blondie. Me.

I was testing to see if the drain had stopped flooding. Threw the tap on high, popped to garage. Got distracted..... Heard DS shout but he's always bloody screaming so it wasn't the sort of scream to suggest a severed limb. He screamed again. I came back. The sink hadn't drained (DH hadn't cleared it...) And it had just poured over the sink and into the kitchen and then the living room.

So:
178: 1 large water damaged cushion along with some smaller customs that I don't fancy washing
179: carpet tiles from the little cupboard under the stairs that got flooded
180: ironing board frame
181: random piece of wood from that cupboard and an empty box
182: couple of little board books that can't be saved
183: cardboard book things that fold out into a train / rocket etc. Kids had them for Xmas, we've never used them properly but they were properly water damaged. 3 of them.
184: mattress protector that's just old
185: found the last box of clothes and put a few random bits into the charity bag
186: random crap from behind the freezer when I had to pull it out to dry under it

187: my outdoor slippers, ruined by the floor

Sorry to hear about the flooding, Sleeping I hope the damage isn’t too bad.

2021 day 29 update

1. General decluttering: Shredded more work paperwork.
2. Toss app prompt: Today was Tupperware, but as I don’t have any missing lids/ boxes without lids, and don’t have very much of it (including plastic takeaway boxes I used for freezing food), I marked it as ‘Done’ with zero items tossed.

Hoping to get actual decluttering done at the weekend. I need to make space for some books on DD’s shelves, tackle more of the Pile of Paperwork, go through a bit more of mum’s paperwork, and I’d like to go through at least one of the shelves in the wardrobe and see if there’s anything I don’t need to keep.

Outs today were a present to my nan, some sanitizer I keep meaning to give to her, and some jewellery.

Hoping I can get more done this weekend

@SleepingStandingUp oh no, that is such a pain for you. Hope the damage wasn't bad and that you are ok.

sleepingstandingup oh no! What a nightmare. I hope things aren’t too damaged.

This weekend I am going to carry on tidying as I know that while I do it I’ll find clutter. Firstly I am going to the loft. my ex babysat once so I hid a load of private papers there. It was just random stuff shoved in a big blue ikea bag. I’m going to sort that out. I am also going to organise the schoolwork with dc. I might also try some Room of Doom.

Sleeping what a nightmare! Fingers crossed the damage isn't too bad.
Plodding on with small outs here. I'm reluctant to do anything bigger until I know the stuff can actually leave the premises!

Thanks everyone, a few smaller items tossed Inc my new planner annoyingly but nothing hugeunless the laminate goes. Thankfully my Mom has a vacuum cleaner that eats water so she came down and helped whilst DH entertained the kids upstairs.

So yeah, 188: planner 😭 but unlikely to be anything else as I have to wash and dry all the stuff we used to mop it up yesterday

Day 143: getting in early today
Maternity pads and disposable pants being passed on to a pregnant friend.

Hopefully there will be more added to the list later as I want a quick sort out of the baby wardrobe as things starting to not fit her already.

I’ve sorted my socks and underwear today - got rid of at least 15 items, if not a little more.

Chucked an amazon box thats been on my landing for weeks.

Also about to empty the bins, and in it I am going to throw three pot plants that are beyond rescue. People give me them a lot and I can never get them to live beyond a few months. One of them has a pot so will be putting that in the charity bag.

Hope things are looking a bit dryer Sleeping.

Threw out the box for a gadget I no longer own which I found while hunting for the blutack plus yet another pile of homeschooling stuff and a notebook that was full.

Out- a pair of ds leggings I had saved for dd but got them out today and the elastic has completely gone
Proud of myself because I would normally keep anything the kids have worn
But I have put them in the bin!
I keep telling myself I have the memories

(Yes I am THAT sentimental 😭)