Decluttering one item a day (and counting down til the opening of charity shops!) – thread number 17

[stealthninjamum]

This is an accountability and chat thread for mumsnetters who dream of living in an uncluttered haven of calm and tidiness.

Bit by bit we are slowly decluttering our houses and keeping our fingers crossed that charity shops will open on 12th April – although we’re also adding to the list of places in the second post that will also take our clutter.

The aim of this thread is to help us get rid of just one item a day or 365 a year. We just report back on our progress and then chat about anything and everything. The thread is for anyone so newbies are always welcome.

Previous thread here.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4144854-Decluttering-one-item-a-day-and-having-nowhere-to-put-it-thread-number-16?msgid=105205665

Sorry I also meant to say hello to blackeyedsusan it is definitely a lifetime commitment but after four years of doing it my life has definitely got easier.

sandandsea yes I love those ‘why didn’t I see that before’ moments and that sums up really well how I felt about my decision to reorganise the playroom to get rid of a bookcase. MInd you that realisation will probably take a month to happen.

Had quite a productive weekend - an old metal gate and a broken dri buddy base out to the scrap man, and two Moses baskets, two stands, a new pack of sheets, a baby bean bag chair, maternity top and jeans, 4 baby sleep bags and a breast pump out to a lady on Freecycle. Another Moses basket thrown away as it wasn't usable anymore, an old bottle and some cereal that seemed past its best, and my old car mile counter sent back. House still a tip! Hope everyone is doing ok

Back again! I have realised that now the youngest DC is mobile, I can’t do anything during the week re:decluttering, as I need to use their 1 nap time to do work, but between DH and I, we have made a good dent during the weekend. I have finally set up a donation box and found a space for it that isn’t in the way, so when we get the time or see anything that needs to go we can finally do that straight away! I’ve been telling DH that we need to get rid of much more stuff as our house is still full to the brim.

On another note, I’ve bought a new hoover for upstairs as I keep putting hoovering off as I don’t like lugging the bulky one up all the time. But we’ve got rid of quite a bit so it’s more like 1 in 10 out.

I just dug ... 7 ? dusty little moisturiser tubes out of (adult student) DD's 'spare' toiletries basket. New pile of lotions for me to use up.

I've been deleting emails. I've deleted approx 1100 unread emails and have about 2000 still to go.

I'm sure there are probably thousands more 'read' ones which I've been storing unnecessarily for years.

All this email maintenance is starting to seem like a real waste of life. If anyone knows a better way, please tell me. Would it work better to open a new email account every year??

@SandAndSea I set up a new email account and gradually changed my email address.

I delete anything which I can’t get anywhere else. So order emails from amazon. I have the orders on my account. So those get deleted. I also filtered by sender and unsubscribed to so many mailing list it was unreal.

It does take time. But worth it.

I have thousands of emails and it really annoys me. I have started to get into the habit of deleting unwanted emails every day and filing wanted ones but there's a backlog of loads.

Today's out is a biro, I had hundreds of old ones and they never seem to last very long, I wonder if they just dry out over time. In my continuous quest to find a to do list system that works today I'm handwriting the list before I enter it into my usual word document / planner. Already I have two pages of to dos. Dd2s school finishes for easter on Friday so I have a lot to do this week.

Can I join? Am a big fan of decluttering and really find that getting rid of shit clears my mind, but I struggle to get started.

We can book 1 trip a week to our local tip so I booked one for lunchtime today last week with good intentions. Come this morning, I was thinking that I could not be bothered and would just cancel but then I happened upon this thread and even reading your posts about throwing things away motivated me.

I've now filled the car with crap from the garage - shedloads of cardboard that was waiting to go, 12 bin bags of various stuff, a load of DVDs and books for the charity bins whilst I am there and I feel so much better!

@stealthninjamum

I have thousands of emails and it really annoys me. I have started to get into the habit of deleting unwanted emails every day and filing wanted ones but there's a backlog of loads.

Today's out is a biro, I had hundreds of old ones and they never seem to last very long, I wonder if they just dry out over time. In my continuous quest to find a to do list system that works today I'm handwriting the list before I enter it into my usual word document / planner. Already I have two pages of to dos. Dd2s school finishes for easter on Friday so I have a lot to do this week.

Re to do lists - i have two on the go - a home one and a work one.

my work one is in a notebook and in this i list everything that has to be done for the month - the monthly tasks, and then the things that weren't finished from the last month etc.

i add to is as i go along.

the home one is also in a notebook - i can't seem to get on with a planner... and its similar. heading of March to do's and then list everything that i want to get done in that month. and cross off as i go.

today's outs include the census form - which i completed online so have thrown the paper copy in the recycling.

Ugh thankfully our kids have another week at school, breaking up Maundy Thursday as they don't go back until Wednesday m. I think I'd cry if it was for two days and I still have an adapter bonnet to make!!

Thanks ememem84 its useful to know how other people organise themselves. I like the satisfaction of ticking things off and do like a nice notebook but I have so many reminders that are the same each week I don't like writing them every week. So my to do list in Word has a column for each day of the week and the first half a dozen tasks of each day are always the same routine tasks eg 'take rubbish out' on bin day, 'get swimming kit ready', 'empty fridge'. Then each week I copy the old list, and add new tasks to the routine ones. But I tend to write the new tasks when I'm having a coffee not at the computer. I seem to just think better when I'm not at my desk. Then I retype them in.

Anyway I have done most of today's tasks which is fantastic as I have two hours left. I don't have much decluttering at the moment. It's mainly going through photos. I did chuck out one of those puffy shower body cleaning things and replaced with a flannel. And I finished a body moisturiser and started on a new one.

I have re-joined Freecycle or, 'trash nothing' as it seems to be known these days.

So far I have given away:

An old rug
A no longer used photograph digitising thingy

I promised some old cooking pans, an old microwave, a bag of clean but used tea towel to someone but they didn't show up.

Never mind, someone else has shown an interest in them and they also want an old small book case and an old writing desk that I want to get rid of.

I've donated a bag of old clothes every time a charity bag comes through my letterbox. I accept it's a scam but I just want rid of my old clothes.

glad i coud help!

i'm planning on going through the airing cupboard this afternoon - or when i finissh work. whichever comes first.

I have been unusually motivated today. I have done all my to do things other than tidying photos and I can do that when dc are in bed. I am so ahead of myself that I have even started on tomorrow and Wednesday's jobs!

Also I had two people ask about a scooter I listed on facebook sales before Christmas. One of them actually picked it up!

And I put some toys on freecyle / trash nothing so let's see if they go. (That was one of Wednesday's jobs).

chickensforthehound well done. That's such a good start.

I am so Jel of many of you. Making no Progress here but want to encourage you to Keep Up the Good Work.

Day 193:
Photos and emails
Listed a balance bike on marketplace which has sold straight away.
Listed various nappy bundles to sell

Thanks em. I definitely need a new system. I've deleted more today - over 1000. It's very tedious.

Other outs:

2 amateur haircuts.
2 booklets of discount vouchers.

The dress is packed up for return - hopefully tomorrow.

And... my buyer turned up! I'm so pleased to have got a few quid for something.

A really good day - listed half a dozen thing’s on eBay, one sold immediately and has been posted and one’s already got bids. Put some plant cuttings on the Facebook plant swap page and they’re all spoken for. It feels so good to see stuff going out again!

Bedroom refurb rubbish collected today. 4 bikes also picked up by a charity that supports young people. Finally, cardboard from two new bedside tables out for recycling bin day tomorrow. Just left with one bin bag of protection etc that is not recycling that I have booked for a dump run.

Still need to get back to Room of Doom. Have formulated a plan to re-use a small chest of drawers from DC's room for storage as I sort through the large metal cabinet.

Moisturiser gone.

More emails out here. I'm down to around 170 unread emails in my inbox. But, I've discovered many, many more in my folders. And, so many drafts!! And, thousands of 'read' emails which I've barely looked at and probably don't need to keep. I've unsubscribed from a few more places.

This all feels like such a waste of time!

Sand - can you bulk delete. So filter by sender and just get rid of all but the last one then unsubscribe. I did this. It took a while. But eventually I had a nice tidy inbox.

I've started early today and have some outs already!

• 1 atlas.
• 1 waste management leaflet.

em - Thanks, yes, I finally finished my first run through of my inbox and have zero unread emails in there now. But, I've got loads more to go through. (Too much subscribing.)

handsoffstrikesagain sounds like you've had a goood morning. I'm at the 'will I use it' stage with lots of my stuff. For example I have 5 small coffee cups and saucers that I like but we never use them. I look at them every day as they're in a display.

I'm kind of up to date with the to do list but bored of the photos. I have been looking at old film to work out the age of some of the photos and generally putting film in special wallets and I've been labelling what is on the back of the photos. There are some really crap photos and it's so hard to work out what to get rid of. Like photos of zoo animals and buildings that I've forgotten what they are. Or streeets. For some reason I take photos of streets and they have blurry cars in front and strangers!

Anyway despite that I have got rid of about 40 photos, a couple of bits of film and wallets that the film were in. I am really bored but my bedroom is such a mess I feel I need to actually finish it.