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

I've decluttered my Scout admin by ordering badges and starting to parcel up the achieved badges.

Day 195:
1 pack of national geographic mags given out
Photos and emails.

398: finally sold the bouncer and the spare cover. It's about the 5th person who's said they'll come so just glad it's gone.

399: couple of pairs of tights that are holey

I should do that @motherwol with 4 1/2 years but I can't bear to have to re buy it 😂

Sleeping I must have been ill slightly with this cold going into the vaccine it wasn’t from it . I only got the sore arm for a few days . I had such a bad cough I got tested but negative . Still feel sick but cough hopefully improving a bit .
Stealth the last move about a year ago nearly killed me I was sick then as well . Thank god I had been decluttering slowly for years and gotten a storage locker about 6 m before we had been carting organised boxes to so had a head start . The month right before the move was hellish though and I still have nightmares I don’t want to do it again ! And because of it I missed on going to see my family in Finland on last y feb half term so now haven’t seen them since august 2019! We have much less here now though but I just want to excess out why should it be here cluttering up our house if we don’t need it anymore things like too small clothes etc that can just go . Since I always feel so crap the last year having been especially bad I have a long list of doctors I’ll need to see it often seems other than some admin etc I can do sitting down or from my bed nothing is getting done on the decluttering front when I have days I can hardly move I’m in such pain . It might be a possibility that I can get some help with this pain eventually I have found something out a while ago but that’s about specialist to get a referral to atm don’t want to go to any more hospitals than I’ve had to so far during Covid until I’ve had my second shot .
In the meantime trying to keep it all moving here with two kids one in gcse y thankfully doing super without our help and one upset about soon leaving her current school and our housetraining puppy who is such a good boy in general but puppies are a lot of work which I have to admit mainly DH has done until now . And I can’t sleep at night either often like now and the sleep half the day ...

Not a lot going out here but I did manage a bag of outgrown stuff for the textile recycling and remembered to take the used batteries as well; there’s an electricals recycling bank there as well with slots for low energy lightbulbs and batteries but I always forget to take them.

School finishes for Easter next week and after that they have to go back in summer uniform, so a holiday job will be to get rid of any outgrown winter things. Once it’s too small for DD2 it can go as I doubt DS will have much use for navy tights and skirts 🤣. I’ve bought some new shorts and T-shirts for PE but the old ones will be recycled or passed on via the PTA.

dead pens & more dead pens. Ragged a favourite shirt full of holes.

More outs recently
Easter eggs sent to my parents in Finland
Easter gifts , some toiletries , a dog bowl and dog toys to MIL house
Returns of wrong size jeans for DD , wrong colour gift bags , too small dog bowls and a dog harness + lead I didn’t like
A too small dog raincoat
50 m dog training lead we won’t need anymore now that he’s learned recall
Soon end of April will have some more Ins due to DD 9 th birthday but like I said my goal isn’t minimalism but just to get out the useless stuff nobody needs and to organise what we keep . From where I started from years ago we have so much less even with regular ins as kids grow out of clothes and have Christmases and birthdays not everything is being replaced but is permanently out like dvds and CDs , baby equipment like buggies high chairs travel cord and bouncers ,DH uni notes ,guitar books that can be found online now ,videos , a DVD player etc etc we’ve thrown out in the years past

Got rid of another box of random tat from the DCs room. The new hoover upstairs is life changing (ok, slight exaggeration, but it really does help.) I can’t believe how much dust it’s picking up every day! I knew we didn’t hoover often enough upstairs but I didn’t realise we needed to do it daily, especially as we don’t wear shoes upstairs.

The house is looking so much better, as we’ve decluttered quite a lot this last month, but I’ve also managed to get the baby to nap in the cot and the older DCs have been back at school so not making mess all day long. They’re also pretty tired in the evenings, so aren’t getting loads of things out.

I've been through my sewing box and have managed to clear quite a bit. I don't think it's the first time on here that I've done this so, I was surprised to find I'd kept quite a bit of clutter last time.

Anyway, my outs are:

2 paper bags
3 plastic bags.
4 plastic sealable bags.
4 Monsoon pouches with various spare beads & buttons.
1 tape measure.
1 pair of childrens scissors.
1 packet of hemming stuff.
2 unused pieces of fabric.
A strip of velcro + instructions.
Some weird wool.
73 Buttons.
1 very old spool of thread.

And, a lot more emails.

Been prepping stuff for DH to drop off at PILs today (MIL and her friend swap stuff between them for their various grandchildren at their houses).
Two toddler chairs
One high chair
Out grown clothes
A box of games and puzzles

Plus an Easter egg for my niece

Decluttering still largely at a standstill here! I have made the effort though to sort the bags of stuff for charity shops by type of item as lots seemed to only accept certain things (if anything) when they reopened last time. Not sure when I'll manage to drop anything off, as the one in our village has now closed down.

I've got a couple of books that can go, need to see if there are any more so I can do a package for Ziffit. We've also got a bunch of winter uniform to go as it won't fit by September.

My house is also much tidier now there are no DC there during the day Times10! It's all going to be downhill now the holidays are starting...

Hope you are feeling better Nordic.

Day 196: yesterday

Posted two items I'd sold
Returned some school uniform to marks and Spencer via post

Thanks Raspberryblonde , I think my cough is a bit better and I can sleep lying down so grateful for that !
I fell asleep around 10/11 pm which always results in me waking up at about 3 am and not going straight back to sleep so I on impulse cleaned my bathroom cupboards which did take me a few hours since I wiped everything down as well and washed bottles for recycling etc but I hadn’t done it since moving in properly and I won’t before we move out again so happy it’s done . Quite a lot of outs:

• 5 conditioners
• 3 shampoos both I don’t like anymore
• 1 large hand cream don’t like the scent
• a few of travel size hand creams and shampoos etc
• a dog conditioner
• always pads I don’t like now that I’ve found

their new cotton range ,the old eventually always gave me a rash because of the plastic but they were unscented and otherwise good at least All these unopened ones going to foodbank and will check my other stashes for more of these pads and the hand cream and hand wash in the scent I hate.

• a bunch of old toiletries to trash ( creams,don’t want to block the drain ) or rinsed and to recycling

A few items to homes in other rooms

• a dog finger tooth brush to bin and changed his proper one to a new one

Found another beard trimmer I swear DH has a few more upstairs so I’ll check if this is still needed I can’t keep up ... Also I’ve forgotten I recently cleaner out my bedroom snack drawer and there was quite a lot of old food in open packets so they went to bin ( or food disposal )and packaging to recycling . Also out -A kids dress up wig for Hermione looked more like Hagrid it was so tangled and beyond rescue so to bin

• a pair of old too small grey Ugg’s now that I got new bigger ones i can get on easily from the winter sales to shoe bank
• a pair of old slippers of mine I have 2 brand new pairs and one little used ones

I will try to do more this weekend and keep the momentum going

Yesterday’s outs:

Toy shopping basket till and a bunch of toy food to dparents so the dc can play shops/cafe etc when they’re there.

Today’s out

Finished a clarins cleanser but replaced with a full size one.

Dish brush out as we’ve had it two years and have probably never cleaned it. Replaced with a new one.

After talking to DH two more outs:

• a useless beard trimmer
• a kindle fire DD never uses anymore she’s got a newish iPad and a Nintendo switch

I’m about ready to declutter the dc. Everytime I tidy a room they mess it up again. I know they don’t really get it. But so frustrating.

Aibu to throw them out in the rain?!

Also taking glass to the recycling place today.

DS released from self-isolation today & has rocketed out of the house to go collect something. Funny. Don't think the rain would have stopped him, either.

I'm annoyed with myself - I've gone on at DP many times about not mixing colours and have accidentally gone and done it myself; and a navy nightie has run into my loveliest, pink nightwear. One nightie in particular looks awful now and when I looked closer, it's also got loose threads with edges about to come down. So, it's time to say goodbye to it.

Another out: a really nice oven mitt which I just never use and had forgotten about - I found it at the back of a kitchen cupboard entangled in carrier bags.

Slow, steady one item or so daily progress here.
Dump run last Thursday with the remains of the furniture packaging. Carpet due Tuesday so hope they can take the various carpet samples away when finished, as the shop is closed for now.
4 bikes collected last Monday which clears a space in the storage shed so may spend a bit of time in there tomorrow to start further clearing and cleaning.
This coming week will see a bit of progress on the Room of Doom as I can return DC's pictures, cleaned, to the newly decorated walls.

I've been through my wardrobe this afternoon and have a large, heavy pile of clothes to go out. I haven't counted but it really is a lot. It's so much that I will no longer need any space saving hangers! (Quite a few of those going out too.)

Two of the dresses are hopefully going to a rag bin very soon. I'm going to try to sell some/all of the rest.

Day 197:
15 cloth nappies picked up.
Toy cars, Baby Oleg, expresso cups listed on freecycle.
Some repeat offenders unsubscribed from on email.

Wow Nordicmom, you did loads!!

I... ragged another sock (only 200 to go...) and am about to use up some travel hand lotion DD had.

I decluttered a whole bottle of red wine!

I continued after sleeping and did my bedside drawers again now only really have one drawer to organise a bit more in my bedroom then first floor is all done .
Then in the evening after dinner cooked by DH I stayed in the kitchen and did 2 tall main food cupboards and it took me hours but did get rid of a huge amount I hadn’t done them for the past y while here except kids snack candy and biscuits. Now looking lovely .we do clean the fridge weekly and I did organise the freezer a while ago . I have one more tall pullout unit to do then going through freezer looking at all dates carefully this time .
DH emptied 3 large moving boxes of paperwork and books that had been in his study cupboard and got rid of most of it inc some file holders and magazine holders he doesn’t need now that there’s proper lockable filing cabinets . Have booked a slot at the dump again tomorrow and I’m hoping He can also take stuff to foodbank while doing a food shop ...
I’m in agony and still awake about to have a nice hot shower hope I can move tomorrow at all I am in such agony now but I will force myself to do more mon / tue because I can’t do so much in one go I’ve got to keep on going ...