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

Lots of impressive lists.
Hope those under the weather are feeling better.
Bit stop start here. Finally did a dump run with misc bits and pieces and have just dropped two bags to charity shop - DC returning from university had a thorough sort through clothes that were left here.
Have also, on 3 different days, deposited 3 Covid tests in collection bin for same DC as they returned from overseas. Nearest collection point is at a Service area and involved a 4 mile round trip! All tests were negative so DC is free to roam.

That's a 40 mile round trip.

It's coming up to the end of term.and ds3 finished tomorrow. So the pressure is on the be "good enough" to tick along slower over summer. I cant do much with all four at home but luckily I have booked quite a lot of clubs.

Feeling very tired right now. I felt like this about 18 months ago before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea but I have a CPAP machine so not sure what's wrong now. So rather than declutter I had another massive tidy and clean then went back to bed.

On a posting note I popped into the dreaded primark today to get Dd some active wear leggings. They didnt have them in her size so I only got one, yes one tshirt for her.

I almost feel cured ( almost!) I cant wait to do the next part of getting rid of the youngest two outgrown summer clothes in October. I reckon I will able to comfortably get their clothes all in draws and cupboards easily for the first time in about 4 years.

@IncessantNameChanger how long does the Primark stuff last? I'm so glad you said summer clothes and October because it's given me an idea where I can save money and time. Instead of getting rid of her summer clothes in august. I'll do the same and declutter in October. That means I won't have to do extra shopping and the clothes will get more wear out of them. Fingers crossed they don't shrink or she outgrows them.

Feeling better now thank you but was pretty rough for a while. Gained some decluttering time yesterday when I was well enough to potter but not allowed into work because of 48h rule. Went through 2 kitchen cupboards and 2 drawers and wiped shelves. Discarded some very out of date baking ingredients and tea bags, plus a few utensils. Also sorted through DDs' hair accessories and reduced massively keeping only the things they actually want to wear in their hair. Today I'm going to sort through spare bedding and duvets etc.

91 photos deleted from my phone.

Dd2 finishes school today so I’ve been running around madly tidying. She wants to have a friend over next week. I can never seem to declutter and have a tidy / clean house at the same time and I’ve been focusing a lot o decluttering. Anyway it’s looking better but I’m going to spend a lot of the weekend tidying.

I have fallen off the thread I think .

School holidays started yesterday here, the DC have spent the day screeching at each other while DH sighs loudly because he is working. We did try the park but it didn't stop the bickering so I feel like a lot of my patience and sanity has been decluttered today!

DD has brought home two huge carrier bags of school work so think I'm going to try to weed through it before it vanishes into her 'collection'. To be fair she does often get things out to look at but there is just so much.

I have sorted out another big pile of paperwork to shred so will try to find some time to do that.

Love the idea of 'driving shoes' Stealth.

That's quite a trip pollyanna, you must be quite rural? Or are there just not enough collection points?

Great to read about lots of decluttering - it’s very inspiring!

Friday evening update: I haven’t done any physical decluttering this week, but I have been going through the 2,000+ emails in my personal email inbox! I’ve deleted some, and filed others into folders. I’ll then go through the folders and review them again.

DH has done more sorting and shredding this week, and put one book into the charity bag (we struggle to get rid of books so this is an achievement!).

I’ve got someone coming tomorrow to pick up a couple of things I put on freecycle, and I’ve decided I am going to sort through DD’s summer clothes from last year on Sunday. Wish me luck!

@EllieQ I’ve been clearing down emails too. I have a few email boxes and went though one last week and must have deleted over100 emails!

Not got much done this week. Took the car to be cleaned Monday and while there got rid of the clothes and battery recycling. Now just need to keep the inside of the car clean.

Need to get a cover for the seats to stop the dog marking them.

Continuing the bath toy declutter. Each time I'm in there, I look at the pile and try to remember what they do and don't guddle with.

Binned - three leaky water pistols from bathroom.

Recycling trolley - two plastic squeezy bubble bath bottles.

Feel strong enough to tackle boxes of nursery scribbles and creations.

Binned five more broken/mouldy bath toys before I came downstairs this morning.

I have to admit I have 46,000 in read emails.

Stealth I'm the same. I cant do decluttering and housework at the same time. I guess the goal is that the house becomes so clutter free it just all falls in together. I cant see that for a while! Unexpected visitors freak me out.

I haven't got rid of much more. I am going through dd clothes to grow into and writing them all down. Type, size, location so that I never buy duplicates again.

At some point I will be whittling down her and youngest ds clothes into x amount of each. Maybe that's a job for over summer as I think lots more overgrown things will be going after the summer holidays. As long as I can resist buying anything I'm doing well.

incessant it actually works as my house is a lot quicker to clean / tidy. I’m feeling a bit fed up at the moment as home schooling / isolating has taken a lot of time and dd2 has become vegetarian so I’m cooking more and struggling with meal plans. My house has lots of crap out at the moment - stuff I’m trying to sell, painting stuff, home schooling stuff. In the past I would put this crap in the Room of Doom (where it would stay for years) but now I never put things away temporarily, everything goes in its home.

That's the ultimate goal. Once everything has a home and it all fits in that home your winning.

The biggest problem for me is six people in a six bedroom house. I really think the time is approaching for a massive life rethink. We bought a detached house in another county, extended it but we need a address in this county for our sons EHCPs. Loath the idea of building a dream house then selling it really but we are only there weekends and school holidays.

Pretty hard to fit three children's clothes into one bedroom that really isnt even a proper double

Into Recycling trolley - 19 Which? Magazines. Kept only this year's issues.

Started nursery and school artwork. Discarded ten items out of two enormous piles. Not much, but I could feel myself getting into the right frame of mind. Will attempt more tomorrow.

Some actual decluttering today. The steriliser and half a pack of party bags were collected this morning after I put them on a freecycle group yesterday.

I took DD out for the day to meet a friend and her DC, so DH had the house to himself and did more sorting and shredding.

I ended up feeling annoyed with him, though. I’d had a lovely day and felt really happy when I got home. But 15 minutes at home and he was in a miserable mood because DD was grumpy (she was tired, we were home later than expected), and he hadn’t got as much done today as he’d wanted (I expect he took a few ‘short’ breaks on his phone that lasted a while). He really dragged my mood down. I am trying to support him, as I know he’s struggling with the job-hunting plus some family issues, but today I just felt really pissed off that he spoilt my happy mood

Opps I have dyslexia and just realised I dont have a six bed house at. Its six of us in a three bed cottage 🤣 I wish.

EllieQ that's a bit annoying of dh. I dont get much support from my family. They know I hoard and it's a MH problem but it's always very much been my issue not our issue. So not the same but no one at all seemed interested in why I did this. There seems very little ability to see beyound how it effects them will no interest in changing the situation. Dh is is good bloke. But he does feel indifferent and very unproactive to change our situation.

@IncessantNameChanger

That's the ultimate goal. Once everything has a home and it all fits in that home your winning.

The biggest problem for me is six people in a six bedroom house. I really think the time is approaching for a massive life rethink. We bought a detached house in another county, extended it but we need a address in this county for our sons EHCPs. Loath the idea of building a dream house then selling it really but we are only there weekends and school holidays.

Pretty hard to fit three children's clothes into one bedroom that really isnt even a proper double

@IncessantNameChanger

referring to your first sentence my biggest issue is not finding the space or organising stuff!

the downfall here is that other family members misplace items and so my efforts seem futile because of accidental sabotage.
I feel like salmon swimming up river.

I have found 5 bloody dessert forks in the wrong place yesterday, again.
I only bought them a few months ago so they've only ever lived in one place.
how hard is it to just put them back???
I despair.
I can either nag or get mad. I don't know how to make people listen and keep everything in place.
I just want to cry.

Just checking in, everyone's doing so well! My illness has left me very tired so decluttering is only happening intermittently as a day at work wears me out. I've also been sorting out dd1s old room for dd3 to use which did involve some chucking out but also building a IKEA double bed. A little ambitious for my first flat pack build but we only put one bit on upside down! The room looks lovely now and dd3 is happy which is the main thing. She's not getting on with her dad and wants to spend more time here.

Yesterday I went through a couple of drawers hunting for old school uniform for the Children's Centre. Sorted out a bag for there, a bag for textile recycling and a bag of dance stuff. I have so many costumes, shoes, leotards etc so I'll ring the dance school and see if they want them.

I just totted up last week and 12 ins for 50 outs. So net 38 out which isnt too bad.

I am itching to go to the next sale but I know that's a bad idea. But it will be lovely and quite with the football on.....

I have done a spread sheet of all of dds clothes to grow into here on my phone so that feels amazing. No more will I think "that a bargain I can put it away for next year" then find out I have bought her 15 tshirts already.

I have also tentatively done a list of sensible numbers of each item. It feels very sparce and scary. But unless I go on a two week summer holiday the kids just dont need the volumes they have. Not sure if its sensible or achievable to have say 8-10 tshirts and 6-8 pairs of leggings? Is that too little? I honestly don't know.

She has about 30 tshirts now, 20 pairs of leggings. It's only doable as each item is relatively tiny.

I feel a bit overwhelmed and clueless really. Feels easier to just get rid as she outgrow it then have a set number of the next size up.

Anyway just resorting things and taking note really focuses my mind. If I do this regularly and keep the spreadsheet surely I cant get into that mess of 30 tshirts again?

zingdrama I have organised most things now - in theory - and if everyone followed my rules we’d all be happy. Generally when dds ask where something is I refuse to tell them as they should know and if they have put it in the wrong place they suffer. Accidentally last week dd2 wore the wrong trainers to school (she put dd1s nearly identical but three sizes bigger trainers on) because she hadn’t realised hers were behind the settee. And I refused to help dd1 find the print sticks for art or buy new ones so she spent ages looking in the wrong places to find them.

Anyway it’s been a really crap week with them so yesterday I switched the WiFi off and today we had a family meeting. To my surprise dd2 put her clean clothes away - this is the first time she’s ever done it - and dd1 put away her pile of clean clothes that had been on her bed since Thursday and merged with her dirty clothes on the floor.

Declutteringwise we chucked out several dried out pritt sticks and underwear that dc don’t fit into.

80% off fees on Ebay so just listed 36 items in four bundles. If they dont go for the peanuts I have priced them at they can also go to charity after the auction ends.

I said I wouldn't sell any more, but its quick motivator to get rid of some more bits.

I've fallen off the thread again and have 10 pages of decluttering inspiration to catch up on. I attacked the back room storage last week, only a few outs and I'm putting the rest in the room of doom temporarily as it's full of things we don't use, whilst everything we do use sits out. We spend all of our time in there with the kids, and it is constantly cluttered due to lack of storage.

Thanks for the ebay tip IncessantNameChanger, I have baby things to sell.

Before the football I spent two hours in the Room of Doom. I have now nearly finished filing the paperwork. This has been going for years and so it’s a big achievement.

Last time I did it I created a box of historical paperwork which is in the wardrobe. All the conveyancing paperwork for a flat I bought in the 1990s, a building society account I opened and closed in the 80s, some kind of account in the 00s, shares I sold. I should be able to shred them all but something stops me. I also reached the box at the bottom of the wardrobe which is full of letters from friends. It’s probably the most sentimental stuff I have.

I also found 6 books to go to ziffit / charity shops.