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

Binned one tea-stained doily.

@Iceisnice

Hello everyone! Hope you are all well, have been keeping up to date with the thread but have not been decluttering because baby Ice arrived on Mother's day and it has been a blur since then! Going to sort through the children's books and will post later.

I fell off again, struggling with school holidays and energy and motivation but saw a comment about baby snuggles so scrawled back to see I missed this. Welcome to the world baby Ice

And massive congratulations to Mama Ice

iceisnice that’s a lovely post, I remember feeding and snuggling my newborns, it was the loveliest feeling in the world.

No one wants my books so they’re all bagged up to go to a charity shop. Having said that I’m about to download the we buy books app because I remembered they will also buy old DVDs and i have a few of those to go too.

Thank you @stealthninjamum and @SleepingStandingUp I am really enjoying him.
Had a really good day for decluttering:
1x baby pyjama suit outgrown.
1x pencil case
3x kids paints from kids craft sets
1x used up a4 notepad
1x wooden game
1x unwanted book
1x card game
1 pair of gloves
1x cushion inner
3x cuddly toys
1x fairy lights that are broken
1x kinder egg toy
1x paint pen
1x set of paint sponge shapes
Some freezer food that had freezer burn on it
1x dress up Elsa outfit
1x kids stickers that just caused nothing but fighting over which DD was going to use..
1x hairband
Some birthday candles
1x kids nail file
4x kids paint your own eggcup6
1x dress up ballet skirt.
So yesterday's outs were 109. Total to date is 187/2021.
Got some incoming items today: 2x jeggings and a lovely trench coat for me.... super excited to be able to get rid of my maternity coat, didn't like it at all!

Congratulations Iceand that's an impressive list. Hope baby snuggling is your main occupation for now.

DC home briefly so sorted through two drawers of papers etc and I now have one bag of rubbish for the dump, some bits for electrical recycling and 3 torches for the charity bag. For context, much of the papers was from university open days and he is now near the end of year 2 of the one he decided upon.

Well that’s about 25 items of jewellery off to the charity shop when they reopen. Glad to have had a quiet house so I could go through everything carefully.

Hi again everyone. I’ve decided to come back to the thread and do daily updates again. It was my birthday last week and I turned 44, and I realised that I don’t want to get to 45 with the same house full of clutter making me miserable

Today I sorted through DD’s drawers and took out the stuff that doesn’t fit her. I then sorted through the bags of age 3 and age 4 clothes, and found two pairs of leggings to go in the fabric recycling. I also started thinking about which clothes I could keep as my favourites from each age, though I’m not quite there yet.

I’ve also listed a couple of things on FB marketplace, and got rid of all the packaging from recent deliveries into the recycling, so I feel quite productive!

Congratulations, Ice! And well done on that list too!

I've been doing some diy today so have a couple of empty packets of sandpaper and a used up roll of masking tape going out.

Day 211:
A good day for outs.
Two bin bags of baby clothes given away for forever.
One baby swing chair given away hopefully for forever.
One pair of boots given away.

Now I have a whole empty drawer and more floor space.

Happy weekend to everyone.

Nothing new to add just checking in really. More Lego sorting and a few old medication boxes in the card recycling. Still just bobbing along no energy for a big project. Really hoping I’ll be able to get a bag or two to the charity shops in the next couple of weeks

Also just checking in. Not much out here but we had a park playdate the other day and the other mum might want DD's outgrown uniform. So need to check sizes and send her a message.

Happy birthday Ellie, nice to see you back. It sounds like we are in a similar place on outgrown clothing.

Congratulations Ice, baby ice sounds adorable. It's so cute when they are at that chunky stage.

I'm also hoping to get a load of stuff to charity shop Gassylady. None were accepting donations here last time they were open though and I doubt I'll be able to go before the holidays end, so expect they will be full again by then!

iceisnice you've been working really hard, I'm impressed. And well done for your maternity coat. I used to hate maternity clothes and it was a great feeling when they were gone.

Great to have you back ellieq remember those thoughts and it'll be good to hear in a year's time how much better your house is - you could take photos? (I will obviously still be here as I will never bloody finish decluttering).

I haven't got rid of anything recently but I seem to moving books around. I tried a few books on We Buy Books and they offered more than ziffit for a couple. So if I get time today I'm going to go through all of my books again and some DVDs to get the most from both apps.

Someone has shown an interest in some David Walliams books so they might be about to go.

Room of Doom update. Opened and emptied the last storage bag brought down from the loft last summer! I have moved it around the RofD, stepped over it and tried to ignore. Turns out it was mainly bedding (cot/pram) - youngest DC 21 - so bag ready for charity donation, sheets for rag collection at dump and just keeping a Christening gift blanket each for DCs as memory. Visiting DC also sorted various IT bits so have several dud headphones and cables for dump recycling along with a very dented metal bin (also RofD) and the bin bag of stuff sorted from drawers so dump slot booked for this week.
Here's hoping this minor victory will encourage more progress.

polyanna I’ve been following your ROom of Doom efforts and I suspect yours will be decluttered before mine. I was intending to finish it before Xmas but stopped with Novembers lockdown. That will be my priority when dc go back to school.

Not very good progress on objects, but... we have a lot of scavenged wood I have processed today (chopped up) so it will get into the woodburner. This is definitely decluttering activity :).

I am going to pop into charity shop(s) this week (hoorah!!) to ask when they are ready to receive donations.

5, cardi
6, toy potty
7,toy tin can
All to charity bag
8half a tin of chocolates to ex
9box of biscuits to ex (delayed Christmas Present excavated from understated cupboard)
10 board book to recycling
11 bag of recycling from the heap (rather than kitchen stuff that gets done regularly)

Everywhere is the room of doom here....ok every room has a section that is the corner of doom. Well done on reducing the doom levels...

That takes me up to about 1st April. Catching up a bit! Though not with the thread I think. Daren't refresh or will lose the post...

Omg , I finally made it to the kitchen to declutter more yesterday and after a lovely dinner made by DH and some Jenga with the kids I got on with it .
It took me pretty much all night to go through the damn chest of drawers with 5 drawers while also cleaning and tidying rest of downstairs except DH study which was remarkably tidy just piano needs dusting which I did last week so he can do it . He’s just attached new monitor holding arms and went through rest of his paperwork of 300 letters so has also cleaned his desk properly for once . it’s amazing ,you should have seen the study in the old house it descended into absolute chaos once I stopped nagging and cleaning there so I’ve learned I can’t trust my family members to keep on top of any of this without me unfortunately! I also did laundry and washed all our new crockery and got the old damaged ones out and ready for dump . Today DH took my medicines to pharmacy while getting my prescription then headed to dump with a chock full car . I’m getting rid of too much to count everything individually but here it is roughly ;

• lots of cardboard boxes
• other paper and plastic recycling
• last small dog crate to metal recycling
• scratch proof small crate mat
• an old nokia to electronics recycling
• it’s charger
• clothing and teatowels to rag bank
• kids clothes to clothing collection
• 2 pairs of worn out kids shoes
• lots of old stationary chewed up pens rulers rubbers broken sharpeners
• stickers
• endless colouring books , etc paper from DD art drawer to recycling
• couple of maths workbooks for younger kids
• 2 water pistols
• soap bubbles bottle
• 3 movie 3 d glasses
• sello tape remnants , old glue, a couple of kids scissors
• phone book , manuals , random envelopes other bits of paper from junk drawer
• lots of damaged plates , bowls and mugs
• lots of glasses
• dried up play dough
• 2 monitor stands
• medicines to pharmacy
• a bits of paper to do with our old house

Might have forgotten stuff . Am now half dead slept all morning while DH did the pharmacy and dump . Haven’t had my lunch either . Can hardly move my pain is very bad if I get up and I can’t move my head so I’m having a rest today and taking maybe tomorrow off as well then do have to continue kitchen . Display cabinet bottom next it houses everything from cookbooks to barbecue tools . Then a few cupboard of water bottles ,bowls and oven dishes etc will be low deep cupboards so hard for me I’ll have to sit on the floor and getting up might be a problem ! Would be nice to finish the kitchen though . Then it’s onto utility with it’s messy cupboards of too many bottles and wipes . Again I can’t bend over into the cupboards and it’s hot in there so I think I’ll need DH to pull the bottles into a box for me to go through sitting down in the kitchen . After all this it’s finally topfloor with 2 kids rooms , a spare bedroom and 2 bathrooms and a storage cupboard . Then I’m hopefully done before our now delayed move ( moving day now end of august and school start beginning of September so in reality DD will be taking the school bus and we will move September/ October ). This is not counting our rented storage space but that is all labeled boxes plus a buggy and a changing table . Boxes can go straight into new house attic room , we’ll get rid of the changing table and maybe the buggy if I have the heart to do that . I have boxes and boxes of good condition baby and kids clothes we were doing ivf for a third before the pandemic but I think I’m past it now due to my age and bad health . Might not be ready to let go of the beloved bugaboo buggy and the clothes yet though and since I am throwing most other things out and our new house is big with a big attic room for storage I am allowing myself time with those .

Oooh and yes hoping DH can take charity shop stuff away next weekend finally we’ll see ...

-A dress up costume

DP has declared he has nothing to add to the stuff for the dump run tomorrow. More likely he can't be bothered to sort anything out, I despair! I then discovered he'd put some bubble wrap DD had popped into the cupboard rather than for recycling. I do worry in case he's inherited his dad's hoarder genes!

Oh no I remembered another place I have to do downstairs !!! How could I forget the under stairs cupboard of doom ?!!! Just will have to think it’s not half as bad as in the last house and DH will do it with me I can’t alone . There must be something in there we can toss like every time we look into an area there is surprising amounts!

Fell off the thread.

Today’s outs:

Unicorn potatoes
Winter coat
Trainers
6 items of dds clothing outgrown
Decanted three open bags of peas in the freezer into one
Same with sweetcorn

I’ve also used up a few beauty products in the last week:

Dry shampoo
Two sample sizes of 8 hour cream
Clarins sleep mask
Micellar water

Day 212:
1 very dull children's book in the charity bag

What are unicorn potatoes @ememem84 ??

Today I went through another bag of outgrown clothing (age 2-3) and put another six things into the textile recycling bag (leggings with holes, bobbly tights). I also listed another item on a FB selling page, but haven’t had any interest in any of them so far.

Good idea about taking photos Stealth !

I’m going to ask DH to do a tip run this week to get rid of some things that are broken and have been hanging around for ages. I suspect he will come up with excuses not to go... Very frustrating!