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 got some more!

1 pair of slipper boots which we've been keeping here for a family member, for years! They've finally worn out! (I'm going to try not to offer that service again.)

2 very old bottles of essential oil - I found 3 the same so, I'm going to mix them together to make 1 bottle, for burning.

I did the Tupperware shelves yesterday. It's so hard to stack and store
Everything now has a lid that fits
So at least 10 items there
An old decorative tin for another utility room cupboard
Sorted gloves inc gardening ones
2 water bottles that have been superseded by chilly/contigo
Chipped mug
4 useless microfibre tea towels- no idea why these were so useless as I usually like microfibre for dish cloths
Old shoe cleaner

Late on I did bathroom and DH is now using up some travel sizes and I've put small soaps with travel stuff upstairs.
Out were fatigued hair bobbles and ancient tooth whitening pen

Slow cooker meal tonight so optimistic of doing a bit more later

It feels like such a fresh start with back to school

Tupperware is like socks isn’t it? How you can end up with so many mismatching sets I’ll never know!

Wishing you positive news today @Vinorosso74.

Big bag of clothes not good enough for charity shop out with the recycling today, including two pairs of DH's shoes. Also got rid of 4 odd socks that won't fit their owners even if the pair does surface!

Must get on with some work now!

Another small moisturiser gone. Wahooo.

Best wishes Vinorosso hope appointment answers all your questions.

Steady progress here. Birthday cards in recycling and flowers, including the last few Valentines roses, binned. Clearance company booked to take away bedroom refurb stuff as cheaper than a skip and have relevant waste licence.

As always, progress is stop-start here, but with DD back at school I've made a few steps forward this week. Big stack of old magazines has gone out for recycling, I've got someone picking up a bag of books today, and an old power tool of DH's has gone in the new electrical recycling bin.

If anyone has an old (working) android phone they don't want, I saw this today www.instagram.com/p/CLwS1QsLkQi/ - St Martin's homeless charity in Norwich is appealing for old phones they can give to homeless people in need to help them access services. If you're in Norwich they can be dropped off, or you can donate via post. Address details on their Instagram.

I've got 2 more items at least to go this morning:

Another DVD.
1 eye shadow pencil. I bought this thinking it would mean I could get rid of my normal eye shadow set and long brushes and I'd save room in my make-up bag and cut down on cleaning jobs. But no. I find it hard to use and it often seems to end up in the wrong places on my eyelids and just doesn't look that good. Overall, it's annoying, so it's going.

I think my dishwasher might be going out soon too. This will be replaced though.

I'm on a roll!

I've resisted this for a long time but I've finally bitten the bullet and taken (most of) my remaining DVDs out of their cases and filed them in a wallet. I already had the wallet sitting there with spaces in it, so this has cleared another big space on the shelves. I'm also letting a few more DVDs go out completely. This means that I've now got many of my favourite films in one, easy-to-access place.

Outs:
12 empty DVD cases & inserts.
1 loose disc.
2 full cases (3 DVDs).

I just need to convince DP to do the same now.

Just need to write this down.... 2 suspicious lumps in breast, likely cancer. Had biopsies done and go back in a week to find out results and next step.

@Vinorosso74 thinking of you

@Vinorosso74

Just need to write this down.... 2 suspicious lumps in breast, likely cancer. Had biopsies done and go back in a week to find out results and next step.

thinking of you and sending good positive vibes your way. whatever the result remember you are strong and you got this.

vinorosso I’m so sorry to hear that but I will be keeping my fingers crossed that you will get a positive result next week. Sending hugs and .

Awesome day today. Noone is in. I'm working (can't you tell 😂) from home and I have managed to clear out two carrier bags of old, broken or otherwise unecessary toys, mant 'works of art', an old shoe box the children claim was needed for their well being (I can 100% guarantee they will not notice it's gone) and am about to chuck a pair of jeans with a hole in. Feel like a new woman!

Day 182:
3 books
1 jigsaw
3 pots of the playdough

All gone to MIL's

Thanks people. I know it's not definite until I see the dr next week. The lymph nodes in my armpit look ok so that's good.
Decluttered a lot of tears when I got home, thankfully DP can come to the appointment next week. I just hope it fits around DD's school timings.
The drs and radiologists were all lovely.

vinorosso I’m sorry, I can imagine that there would be lots of tears. To give you a positive story my one friend who had breast cancer was treated and about ten to twelve years later she is ‘better’ ie it has not come back. I think she has checkups or blood tests every six months but the NHS is good at this sort of thing. Anyway hopefully your biopsy won’t show cancer.

The dr was very positive about any treatment saying it doesn't look like it's spread and it's the easiest cancer to treat.
It was overwhelming but good to get all the investigations done on one day. I feel a long week ahead.

...spread to the lymph nodes

So I had a good day. I painted three doors, the frames and some skirting board. It’s going to take a few weeks to finish if I just do a section a day but hopefully it’ll be done by Easter. My outs are two clothes hooks that sit on the top of the door and have rubbed a bit of the old paint off the door. I might replace them with a screwed in hook or I might just stop hanging crap off a hook!

Ooh... go you StealthNinja. I did massive amounts of interior painting in Lockdown 1.0 but not enthused to repeat.

Today for me,
In: some crockery, Facebook freebies
Out: Man's shirt (ebay sale, now posted it)

Teen DD has piles of half-used potions & lotions I am trying to figure out how to work thru most quickly.

@Vinorosso74 I hope the biopsies are clear and everything is ok. Thinking of you

@ememem84 Mine are 5 and 1 and are tiny little hurricanes. I've never cleaned so much in my life and it feels relentless.

Outs: emails

Welcome Slothkin

Sorry it wasn't better news vino but hopefully next week will being better or at least a strong clear path forwards xx

I need to declutter frigging mice.

Sorry to hear your news Vinorosso. I hope you have some support at home.

Oh no on the mice Sleeping! How did you find them?

Well done on the painting Stealth, are you still working on the landing?

Managed to bin a completed colouring book, and found a few others that have only a couple of pages left that I'll donate to DS who isn't fussy what he scribbles on yet and then bin. I should probably get rid now but we get through so much paper I don't want to waste it.

I have finally remembered to take the bag of batteries with me to the shop for recycling! I have had shorter relationships with human beings than that bag. On the upside I’ve discovered my shopping bag has a handy zipper pocket so I’ll put them straight in there in future!