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’m ill as hell here others getting better now all of us testing negative relatedly so probably just a bad cold , DD didn’t seem to even get it . Puppy was groomed the other day poor thing had to spend hours there being de- matted and finally cut very short and shaven completely on his tummy after his hair got knotted when roughly towel dried at his doggy daycare . Now a nice short summer cut for him though to keep him cooler so it’s all good .
Only two outs :
-old bed

• a crate mat after a particularly bad night time diarrhoea incident . They were past cleaning . We generally wash the mats regularly though . Lucky it wasn’t his new bed that just arrived !

Don’t except to get anything done until I’m better . Laundry is being done and cleaning I’ll delegate more to others . I can probably fold the clean stuff at some point . Decluttering will have to wait

nordicmom hope you’re feeling better soon. We all keep getting colds here and poor dd2 was up half of the night last night with an upset tummy (diarrhoea is apparently a common covid symptom for kids). There’s nothing else wrong with her except she slept til 11. We keep doing tests and getting negative so it must just be a bug.

Anyway I used the time she was in bed to paint the hall. I didn’t intend to but the landing looks so lovely I have been feeling that the hall looks scruffy. I’ve done a coat by the front door where it gets scuffed. I’m only going to emulsion the hall to freshen it - although I do wonder if I should get decorators to gloss the wooden bits.

I have stalled a bit recently. I was working on getting rid of a piece of furniture so was reorganizing and decluttering but I have managed it so efforts have dried up. There is plenty I should do still, need to get back to one a day. I know I have a winter coat that is far too small but feels funny giving it to a charity shop in this hot weather!

Finally managed to look through DD soft toys and with great difficulty she was able to give up 11 out of 46 . It caused lots of tears for her and a headache for both of us but we had a conversation and I also took a few pictures of the ones we are getting rid of . Hoping more could possibly go when we move . I didn’t consult her on about rest of her room when I did it ,but she saw us going through it in the process ,or it would have never gotten done . I kept most of her toys and treasures anyway just threw away the junk . Rest she isn’t missing so far .
So gone today :

• 11 soft toys

And DD room is fully decluttered inc all her clothes elsewhere too !

Earmarked to go when the next dump trip happens ( there’s a furniture collection point )

• a little livingroom side table that’s served us well for about 15 y but we don’t now need anymore in our new house

Day from hell here.

I got got some of ds old uniform.out but bought some more in a bigger size. Didnt declutter his wardrobe as he went to wetherspoons for lunch. The caught him crying. I think his group of gaming school mates are being groomed. Police tomorrow.

I cant take much more. Hopefully the police will take over and I can distract myself.

That’s horrible incessant !!! I hope the police get to the bottom of it all soon . How old is he ? My DS school was found to have some historic abuse cases and a few more recent teachers fired too they had nothing to do with my DS but I was worried about it at the time of course .

He is 13. Sorry I'm dyslexic we was at the pub having lunch together. Re reading it it sounds like he went to the pub alone 😂

He is in a SEN school and this "person" has been told they have SEN and now the name of the school. Why would a kid ask for that info? In the normal world I would tell our family disability SW but i had a hours meeting with the SW yesterday for not doing his job. God I cant even trust my SW that he would deal with this.

Only heard via my mum so second hand that this person is using a voice changer, joined their little school group server, paying another kid in game credits for get their personal info, sending them porn.

I have told dh to just take it all to the police today. DS is beside himself that a friend would so easily give over his info as doesnt use his name online

Mot via my mum - via my son

I’m sorry incessant , it’s a scary world out there online . I do worry about it with my two as well . It’s really good that he told you though . That’s the main thing .

incessant that’s awful. I’m so sorry you and poor ds are having to deal with this. It sounds like your ds is sensible and knows that what’s happening is wrong so you’ve done a good job with him. I hope the police are helpful.

Sending hugs.

that's awful @IncessantNameChanger

poor him. hugs to you all

bit of good news: bumped into a friend the other day, got chatting, turns out she's happy to take all of our old baby, toddler & infant age books that ours don't need anymore.
DS2 is almost 7 and going into y3 so that's a lot of books we won't need anymore.

they also need baby girl clothes from age 6m to 3y (and can pass them onto another family after they use them) so that's another load off my mind.

really happy about books. they take up so much space but charity shops don't need them and far too good to chuck. yay!

Another day of just sleeping all day long and feeling like hell . I have asked DS to clean first floor in my behalf this week and tomorrow he’ll do the top floor since sun going to F1 . DH will do ground floor

• earmarked to go all DS old uniform which I’ll wash and put aside until we’ve replaced it with the other smart clothes for school but it’ll come out from cluttering up his wardrobe anyway ditto his old school shoes
• putting aside some more too small and worn out clothes to rags and clothing bank from the clean clothes pile
• earmarked to go also tens of box files DS has had for all the school GCSE subjects he won’t need for A levels anymore that’ll free up a lot of space . Will box up the notes for now but the box files take up several big drawers of space in his room so will be good to clear them out of there

@IncessantNameChanger I hope the police and social worker can help, that's awful for your son to have to go through.

Stealth Congratulations on finishing your hallway! It must be nice to be finished. I think we started at a similar time last summer, I still haven't finished ours, youngest is a toddler now and it's getting harder to get things done.

Ins today: toy for the little one and coats for the winter

House is a mess, I have a job interview next week and no time to prepare and even less time to fix the house. I'm going to start after that and resolve to sort it over the summer holidays.

Thanks for the kind words. The police said they take a statement in the next few days so I'm going to put it out of my head until then.

Good good with painting and uniforms and finding homes for baby clothes!

Again not much going here. However my Ebay bits have bids so those 40 are going. I bought myself another bag off vinted to ease my stress. It's the perfect bag with size and pockets for days out with the kids so a less practical bag will go.

This week I'm still doing lists of dd clothes to grow into.

Do the boys uniforms and joggers to see what's out grown. Then for the first time in years I am set up for kids draws and cupboards with contained clothes that all fit. But got to do these last few jobs. There will be a lot of outs this and next week.

A long way to go but this is my biggest barrier and I'm watching it shrink feels so good

alexthelittlecat I wasn’t clear, I haven’t finished the hall sadly. But i have mentally split it into sections and I’ll be doing a small section a day until it’s done. So far I’ve done about a quarter. The bits by the front door and stairs needed two coats as they were scuffed but I’ve just done a bit outside the dining room that only needed one coat to refresh it. It’s the same cream that’s all over the house. The bits I’ve done look lovely.

incessant that sounds like great decluttering progress. I hope it goes well with the police.

Decluttering today will just be shredding some of the mammoth pile of paper I have.

Stealth It sounds really good! Great progress. It's hard when it's a big job, it's hard to start, good to break it up. I haven't touched mine in about a year, need to start again..

Incesscent That's a lot of decluttering, don't feel bad about your progress.

Nordicmom Hope you feel better soon.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything today, it's all the planning and noise from the kids when I'm trying to work. I think I've decluttered my brain along with the toys etc.

Good work everyone .
Slept in the afternoon again for a few hours while DH took DD to her last swimming lesson . She’s next swimming at her new school . End of an era ,she started with this company at about 3 y old at nursery . Then we got the dump load together which DH took there ,now DS is cooking us risotto for dinner . I’m trying to have him cook once a week for the last 2 y or so at home before leaving for university so he’d have the basic skills . Then a late dog walk / tennis for DD and DH he told the kids it was too hot to do it this aft . DS has to clean in the topfloor after dinner ,again was too hot earlier . We have aircon in this rental house in the kitchen / dining room downstairs and in the master bedroom and livingroom in the first floor but not in the topfloor 3 bedrooms so it gets very hot there in this temp despite the fans in each room . He helped me by dusting first floor yesterday, I still need to clean in my en-suite bathroom and DH will do my shower . This will be another day ,I feel too sick atm . Tonight me and DH will watch a movie ,it’s been a long time ! There’s also
an enormous clean laundry pile I might attack tomorrow when I’m on girl and dog duty while boys will go to Silverstone to see F1 .
Out to the dump and to the charity shop pile today ,some of which has been counted before :

• 5 new box files to charity from DS room
• an old dog bed ( replaced already ) and a crate matt ,that got destroyed the other night to the dump

-12 books to the collection at dump -2 large + 8 small plastic strapping storage baskets to reuse area at dump

• a rattan storage basket to reuse area
• a little side table to reuse area
• clothing to rags and clothes bank
• a holey sheet to rags
• 6 old worn out box files
• a plastic storage box not needed ,I’m

using clippy lidded see through ones now instead

• puppy’s outdoor ball the damn foxes had s…. all over 😡, I’ve replaced this
• general rubbish ,recycling and cardboard boxes rest of which going on Monday with regular bin collection
• a fan remains on the earmarked to go list until this heatwave is over, DH said he might want to use it in the study if it’s too hot in there he already has one smaller new one there

I’ve got my DS uniform baskets out of his wardrobe .I will remove any too small sports kit and get what we’ll keep ready for next term . I’ll also remove all his uniform , anything worn out will go to clothing collection / rags at the dump the rest I’ll bag up until we’ve gotten his “smart office wear “ that’s required for A- levels instead of it sorted since he doesn’t want to use uniform anymore then it’ll go too . Also keeping shoes until they’ve been replaced . Glad to see the back of all this but feel like there’s so much more left before moving in the fall and like it’s just never ending . How can there be so much stuff ?!!!! Starting to feel like I want to be more and more minimal and other peoples piles of stuff are getting to me I don’t want to keep any of it !!!! Also the stuff in our storage locker next headed to our attic room is getting to me a bit . I feel like that also needs to looked through and I won’t have time before moving I don’t think . I’n theory it’s all in order and labeled but I don’t want to take anything there without looking at it first at least quickly .it’s hard not being able to buy furniture yet either when I can’t be sure about when the house is ready and some of it will have to be made to order . Trying to not get more stressed about this but the move will be horrible especially since I’m so unwell . I guess we’ll live in middle of boxes for a while . My bedroom will be one of the few that has all the furniture since I just got it when we moved here . Feeling so sick and tired I’m hardly getting anything done here !

When do you move nordic?

I also am being to crave a minimalist life. This is the last of dd clothes to go into here.

Look at it! OMG. I have bought it down to put it into the "to grow onto xls"

But sheesh! This is just a section of it. After this there are some boxes under her bed but I think they in reality are just shoes and too small now ( please God!)

Best to be honest with myself and share this because I never ever want to go here again.

Sorting through it now while we watch a film

Three boxes, two bags of shoes and one wardrobe left to go through.

As I was going through the mountain of things to put in my xls last night I found this pilewhich are 5-6 and either needs to fit into this wardrobe or go to charity.

So in reality I clearly wasnt very aware of the sheer number of clothes dd has.

Still confident that come end of summer holidays / end of September all her 5-6 clothes will be gone so I refuse to get overwhelmed. I most definitely have this.

Dispite the reality that clearing this has created a huge mess while its recorded, sorted before going back again.

At least I hope so!

Hope you are feeling better soon nordic, you still seem to be making great progress.

Good luck with the interview Alex.

How scary for your son Incessant. I hope the police are able to help.

A few ins here as it is almost DS's birthday. We have mostly managed to get him small things and he is thankfully mostly past the 'giant piece of plastic' phase!

I threw out all the broken crayons yesterday which was at least half of them as DS upended the box onto a tiled floor! I'm also pushing on with sorting out the baby bits. I've cleaned up my pram and found all the bits and will give it a go on Facebook. It's an expensive brand, but well used and old as I have a reasonable age gap between DC. But it's been looked after and its easy to get spares so hopefully it will do someone another baby.

Also have two bags of assorted clothes too go to my sister. She's said she's happy with any hand me downs but I don't want to overwhelm her with my clutter!

Not sure yet but our new house is due to be ready early September so thinking October / early November since there’s things to do there before we can live there . I e got some time left.

Rather excellent declittering today.

Finally got rid of ds’ old car seat by giving this to friend along with an entire laundry bag of stuff for her baby.

Other friends came round and offloaded some books and a sippy cup on them for their baby.

And. Sadly. Sharky paddle pool had to go. He sprung quite a serious leak.

@ememem84

declitteruing?
🤣
I mean it's apparently already almost impossible to find but now there will be zero chance😉