Decluttering one item a day thread number 18 – quickly stashing our clutter in charity shops now we can let people back inside our houses

[stealthninjamum]

Here we are again, still decluttering and still chatting and sometimes getting rid of some clutter.

This is a group of mumsnetters who aspire to live in a lovely clutterfree environment, usually scuppered by husbands, children, dogs and in my house ‘valuable’ bits of twig and stone or origami versions of aardvarks and komodo dragons.

We are slowly decluttering our houses, chatting and updating each other on our slow progress as we go. We only aim to get rid of one a day but often manage more. Newbies are welcome to join us.

Since the last thread charity shops reopened and things got closer to normal. I’ve now invited friends over for the end of June so have a month to get the house ‘guest ready’.

Previous thread here.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4183135-Decluttering-one-item-a-day-and-counting-down-til-the-opening-of-charity-shops-thread-number-17?pg=38

I forgot to mention the really good news that I found a maternity leave card with a gift of theatre vouchers. Seems a strange choice to buy theatre vouchers for an 8 1/2 month pregnant woman but it turns out they never expire so I have just bought theatre tickets - let’s hope the theatres are open by the end of the month.

My final job of the day is to put the pile of charity shop stuff on the settee into carrier bags. I’m going to try to take them to the charity shop tomorrow lunchtime.

I was on the last thread but been waylaid really. I got to 488 items since the start of the year.

We've brought new storage so that's kinda kick-started me off again.

489: box full of rubbishy bits from DSs room
490: some car tracks have come out of DSs room, bypassed the toy cupboard and gone into the Charity box
491: have filled the box with ball pit balls and the rest have gone in the charity bag
492: an assortment of other bits and pieces, toys etc into the charity shop bag
493: another box full of rubbisj, broken bits etc into the bin
494: have sorted through the books and cleared the ones too easy for him which has given us some space on his shelf

I've moved and sorted through the box of random toys that's been in the garage. DH would prefer I bin it all but I intend to sort through and filter it out

Recycling out tomorrow thank god.

just got rid of a whole bunch of stuff that's been accumulating in the laundry room.
broken bits of toys, empty spray bottles, heaps of lint, over a dozen detergent dosage caps and so on.

I filled big 2 washing up bowls with them (to bring downstairs) so it created a bit of space on the worktop.
very pleased with that progress

I have just totted up and have done 301 put in two weeks so smashed my 70 a week for 4 weeks.

Now the hard bits start I guess.

I need to get ds some new bits for his one night a week boarding but I will sit on hands and get that at end of August.

Feel slightly good now

@IncessantNameChanger I believe next will have their sale in august. So might be worth holding out for this! I tend to get most of the dcs clothes in next sales.

Threw away 2 of the dcs Tshirts yesterday. I’d washed them 6 times and couldn’t get the stains out because I think Dh washed them and then threw them in the dryer setting the stains in. Annoyingly there were a lot of stains. Thanks Nursery letting the kids have spag bol!!!!

Used up the dregs of a million different cereals this morning. The dc had “magic cereal” ie mummy was sick of having bits of different ones in the cupboards. So threw them into a bowl and added some raisins.

Ememem84 good idea with the cereals! I have about £45 left on Next gift cards so I will definitely sit on my hands.

Plus I will see what he has out grown then too

I'm about to go off and do my charity shop shift so one quick sweep and that's the last of the 301 items out. Woop woop!

ememem84 that's a good idea. We have a couple of spoonfuls of shreddies in a box and for some reason (the crumbs in the bottom) dd2 has deemed them not good enough and opened the next box. I'm just going to add them to my yogurt breakfast.

Today's out is one of my vest's that I discovered had a hole in it. Also I put into recycling last night lots of scraps of coloured paper that we had been saving but are too small to do anything with. I have really organised stationery / arts and crafts drawers but as dc get older they do less stuff so after I've done the room of doom that might be a project with them.

i ordered more notebooks. from Shien. i've seen loads of people using them and things being hit and miss. £3.15 for 5 notebooks seems ridiculously cheap, but they're pretty and i will use them....

@nordicmom I'm the same with kids clothes. I declutter and keep looking in the bag again. I feel guilty about something.

Do you guys keep clothes that look like this...? Or declutter straight away? Pic attached...

I hope I can join u guys. I've got rid of my daughters nursery uniform (skirt, polo shirts and tights). I keep thinking about making her wear them in the house because I have some guilt. The school has changed the uniform so she cant wear them in September. I'm just going to buy 2 pairs for September and see how she gets along. Also decluttered hubbies Nike trainers and a pair or Primark flats that really have gone flat....

It’s like Christmas!

Dd2 has given me a huge sack of stuff to go. It includes

• a pair of binoculars made of 2 toilet rolls
• home made ghosts that were hanging from her curtains with with green garden string
• 10 fairies and their furniture
• a ‘dinosaur’ made of cardboard
• I think an alien and a princess made of cardboard
• a deflated balloon
• a cuddly rabbit
• a cuddly pink monkey
• a cuddly owl
• an Elsa doll
• a blue toy monkey from Gibraltar
• a leopard
• a minecraft pig
• a rapunzel doll
• some socks she made into toys
• 2 awful, garish t shirts that she loved
• lots of bits of card and scrunched up paper

I can now hear banging in her room. It sounds like she’s getting rid of more.

For anyone having problems with hoarding dc this is evidence that they can change.

Welcome faithfulbird20

Oh new development- dd2 is emptying her bedroom. INTO MINE! While she decides where things should go.

Oh crap. I need to parent don’t i?

She’s just asked me for the hoover! I should put her to bed but she’s hoovering.....

...and a partridge in a pear tree?😉

Stealth your DD2 is doing great being able to give up all that on her own accord ! How old is she ?Mine is 9 ,DS 16 .
I went upstairs yesterday and discovered the awful mess the three others here had made on the landing and to the spare room no wonder they happily carried all DD crap down rather than had me up there raging ! I haven’t even gone into DS room properly yet just looked in from the door ,I didn’t have time doing the rest took it all out of me we finished after midnight . it didn't look bad but needs work never mind his bathroom .I’ll first wait for my DH to go clean the shower etc hopefully tomorrow so I don’t have to scrub that too since it cripples me . Once I got up there I completely lost it and made DH help me tidy all the crap away and re-clean the landing bathroom that was filthy after DS cleaning efforts in the weekend . Also had to finish DD room but now it’s good except for maybe a few little Lego’s on her shelf I might move . So still need to go do DS room and bathroom or I can first do the easier spare room which just has a linen cupboard I have to rearrange and my storage cupboard I already tidied a bit and removed some stuff from to charity and recycling yesterday . After all that I ate my meal and had a shower and watched tv so went to bed in the early hours again and slept late this morning while DS went to school, DH worked a bit and DD entertained herself . Despite feeling half asleep we’ve gotten a lot done today thanks to DH . He took DD to the new school uniform shop For an appointment and got very nearly everything this is something I’d normally do so great that he could this time . Then I managed to arrange for him to be able to drop of some brand new uniform I found after school closed for the summer and 3 library books to the old school the office lady was still there luckily .he also took two giant storage boxes full to charity shop plus 3 new pairs of kids shoes still in their boxes and picked up my meds too . I managed to book our puppy a grooming next week he really needs it after having to cancel when he got sick . Also booked his neutering end of the month that we had also cancelled . Had a call with DD swimming she’s quitting since the new school has a pool and regular swimming , sorted out something with the doggy daycare , ordered school shoes and a pencil case. I’m trying to get all next term new school stuff sorted ASAP and out of my to do list which will now have name labelling added onto it . Thank god for wash proof sticky labels ! I looked through a tub of science etc kits from my spare room storage that some of are now going to charity and a few moved to a drawer to be used in the holidays . Tonight I was going to do more online shopping for things that we need to replace and also will look through two big boxes of dog paraphernalia that we can definitely get rid of a bunch small puppy things at least . Also getting rid of some wet food that he seems to dislike I’ll ask DH to take it to the food bank in the supermarket .
Out today or soon going :

• 2 big storage boxes of stuff already counted to charity shop one plastic box we didn’t need left there too
• 3 school library books returned

- knackered uniform and an old school duffel to clothing bank

• new uniform dropped of at school
• wrapping paper scraps to recycling
• fake garlic necklace that went with a costume
• a spare book and national geographic kit going to DD friend
• 6 science and activity kits into charity that we don’t think DD would care for and one is full of loose glitter I will not use in this house ... she’s got lots more making and science sets left .

-a hideous unicorn alarm clock of DDs she got as a gift I’ve looked at now for the past 6 m and had enough she’s got another kind of one too -Some glass jars from DD room to recycling she had lots of them and about a hundred empty toilet rolls in her room before the clear out

• a few DH magazines from spare room to recycling
• more books into charity
• a baby blanket and muslins

I’m tired but I feel like I’m on a roll so I will keep going since I know I will hit a wall eventually and need a break or we’ll have other things to do and then it’s time to start packing for the move !

zing

nordicmom she’s 10. We did a big tidy in the first lockdown and since then she likes a tidy bedroom with a clear floor to play on. Often she shoves things under the bed so doesn’t really tidy but I think she’s getting better. Both dds own far too much stuff but it’s much, much better than it was.

Bless her stealth how old is she?

incessant she’s 10. Her bedroom looked kind of tidy, but she still owns too much stuff. She got rid of stuff that at one point had been very valuable (to her) so I’m glad it’s gone.

I got up at 5 to file pension papers and car papers. I need to start paying into them. I’m now going to do more of my shredding pile.

I've just put the stuff from yesterday in the charity shop bags. I also added about four books. So I have 5 big bags with pyjamas, rags, ring binders/ box files, cuddly toys, fairy toys. I also filled a big recycling bag with shredded papers and paper / cardboard animals / crafts / crap that dd2 threw out last night. Am slightly alarmed that she moved some of crap in other rooms in order to make her bedroom tidy. So the spare room has a shoebox of hair bands and I have some lego sets on my bedside table.

Decluttered -

Two bags of books taken to DS's place. Fairly certain that's the last of them. I fervently hope that I don't find yet another neatly stacked pile.

Downstairs cleaned today again , lots of laundry done , DD bed and top floor plus ground floor towels changed ( just did the first floors ones ) , stairs cleaned again by me and DS he also did his daily vacuuming and 2 giant dog paraphernalia boxes weeded through . Still a few items pending and might go as well but have basically decluttered one big wheelie storage boxes worth of stuff which is a lot of space freed in the top floor landing storage cupboard! I took out a few toys to use soon .
Next tonight either trying to reduce the soft toys which is the last category to declutter from DD room but are tricky and / or folding the clean laundry .
Out today ;

• a dog drying bag too small
• car harness too small
• travel bowl don’t need
• a rubber toy too smelly
• dog blankets unused so to rags don’t like the colour
• dog hair dryer stand we don’t need
• under food bowl rubber mat now smells like the awfully smelly toy not sure of the colour as well
• puppy heat up toy don’t need
• padded kids hangers

Going out tomorrow and Friday so not sure what else I’ll get done but top floor cupboards are falling my name and need to clean DS room . I’ve asked for the boys to do that en-suite bathroom for me before I go there so I don’t need to waste my little energy reserves there instead of organising and decluttering . Need to organise DD million new shoeboxes into her wardrobe there too . Then that is done with and just 2 of DS to do . I’ve been steadily getting rid of his too small clothes so hopefully just a matter of folding etc .

Well done everyone. Most impressed with the DC involved too.

Ds3 socail worker came today and I could turn round the living room in 30 minutes! Ok so it wasnt perfect but it was clear sofas, clear floor and clear ish table.

30 minutes of ds room.in case SW wanted to eyeball it ( normally doesnt as its disability team not child protection) and that too passed to quick eye. A more lingering eye and nose says the bed is overdue a wash so that's tomorrows jobs. Dd new trainers turned up and it's nice that her old pair are just about to fall apart.

My fingers are twitching for a buying fix but I'm planning to buy myself a bunch of flowers if I'm still doing well at the end of term

Amazing work here in the last few days! I am lucky with the DDs' clothes as I ha r friends with DDs a couple of years younger so I manage to pass most onto them, which I agree with a PP is much easier. I often see my favourites being worn again!
After a productive weekend I unfortunately came down with a stomach bug on Monday and have been laid low since. I was lying in bed balefully eyeing the wardrobe shelves that I'd targeted this week. Feel a bit better today and tackled some smaller jobs - discarded some OOD food and cans of drink and sorted through my baking paraphernalia reducing by a whole storage box. I posted pictures on my local Fb group and left outside for people to collect and when I took in the box at bedtime more than half had gone. Will pop out again tomorrow.

I've created a to do list on my phone and when I think of something to sort through I add it. I'm finding it really helpful as when I'm in the mood for a short clearing job I can choose one and do it and then tick it off.

I have the phone to do list too.

Today I’m going to tackle my work inbox and smash it down to under 20 emails. Currently there are almost 100.

Stresses me out when it gets over 50….

Decluttered last night before bed -

One extremely annoying large bath toy.

tweenwrangler hope you’re feeling better now.
Today’s out is my very scruffy driving shoes. I always have a flat pair in the shoes to drive in when I’m wearing flipflops or heels. Well one of my normal pairs of shoes is now so scruffy (but super comfortable) it can go in the car and I can get rid of the other pair.

I’ll be having a long outdoor lunch with friends today as dd2 breaks up tomorrow. Then decluttering will be tricky but one a day should be doable - or seven a week if I don’t manage one a day.