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

@AColdDuncanGoodhew

How about listing just one item?

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba thank you, i’ve done it. Listed one of my planners. Haven’t sold for years on eBay so had to set up mew details etc but all done!

@AColdDuncanGoodhew welcome and well done on your first listing! Do you ever save a listing as a template it can then be much quicker to list the next handbag or whatever.
I have sorted out my handbag and got rid of lots of receipts and shopping lists.
No other outs but have rearranged a cupboard and it is now much easier to see what is in there. So quite satisfying in its way

Ahh I didn’t know you could save a template, that’s brilliant!

Good on you for sorting out the cupboard, I find that really satisfying too.

@AColdDuncanGoodhew
hurrah!

Two of dsis bags sold on eBay. Just have to post them now but that’s tomorrow’s job.

Yesterday DH and I moved about 100+ paving slabs off of our driveway and into a small shed. And he started taking down an old mostly dead fir tree from our front garden.

Today who knows!

Three more things out yesterday - two school jumpers and a pair of waterproof trousers have gone to one of the school mums, as her youngest starts reception this year.

Husband is taking the kids to the park for a bit so i’m going to work through all their toys. They have so much that’s broken and that they dont play with anymore so i’m going to bag it up and put it straight into the car.

Bath mat is in the bin, new one in Amazon basket. No more dwelling on it!
@AColdDuncanGoodhew that sounds a good plan, easier when you have the house to yourself.
@ememem84 that sounds a massive job!

Yey for a new bath mat @Pineappleapple

I’ve just taken a full car load to the skip, cleaned out the rubbish in the car and am home to clean up the mess I made decluttering.

I cant remember if i’ve said but we live with MIL at the moment and i’m sure she’s bordering on hoarding, as soon as I open the front door I want to scream at the clutter.

Thankfully I can go straight up the stairs to our floors where I can try to make a difference but blooming heck, I cant wait until we move out

Outs today.

A handbag that wasn’t fit for charity shop so that’s gone
Four pairs of pants
A load of packaging
More recycling

We are in the depths of the topfloor storage cupboard mess on the landing trying to get the contents organised for moving so decluttering and then boxing up the rest and labelling . We are going to have an overlap so as soon as we get the keys hopefully on the 2.9. these things can then start going over . We are both half dead with migraines etc and haven’t done dinner yet although it’s nearly ready though but we are getting this cupboard done tonight except I’ll have one assorted crap box to look through later I might be able to get rid of something still. Will post what’s the total going out once we finish

I might start again this week. I still have a bag ready for the charity shop.

Ideally I'm just doing paperwork and then the kids clothes and toys again once they go back to school.

I feel a bit lost if I carry on doing nothing. I really dont want to slip back into old ways

Going out recently from the top floor storage cupboard and otherwise :

• box mountain with the recycling tomorrow plus packaging from two pieces of new furniture that arrived lately
• several old duvets
• a few pillows
• a few old mattress protectors to rags
• a bed skirt to rags
• yellowed sheets to rags
• a broken storage box and two lids
• 2 wooden magazine holders
• a dog car harness
• a too big dog coat he will never grow into its now clear
• a dog blanket
• a couple of board games to charity
• an art kit to charity
• a few more books
• an empty puzzle box to recycling I think we already recycled the puzzle when we earlier couldn’t find it’s box ( it was on the puzzle board we got rid of earlier )
• a useless bad quality puzzle DS gave up on a while ago
• a too small thermal top
• too small ski gloves of DS
• too small ski mitts of DD
• a few pieces of worn out crockery

I’m sure I’ll add more to this as I remember things and look through more but I’m very happy the cupboard is all in order ,the contents of it boxed up ,labeled and ready to go to the new house as as soon as we get the keys .

Another impressive list Nordic!

I know what you mean about keeping the momentum going, Incessant. I’ve noticed that I have a couple of days where I get stuff done, then nothing for a few days because I don’t have the time This can leave me thinking that there’s no point in trying again. It’s hard when it’s a struggle to find the time, though.

taken two eBay sales to the post office and have bagged up some of dds baby clothes to take to the office with me tomorrow. colleague and his girlfriend have a new baby girl, so i offered them some sleep bags and random clothes i found in dds room. He's not back off Paternity leave until the end of the month, but i'm taking hem into the office and will leave them on his chair.

the bags are in the car now. yay.

I’m back from my holiday! But we’re going away somewhere else tomorrow until Saturday so I have a night to do all our washing and packing.

zingdrama well done on ds’ GCSEs. And well done on your sewing, it must be amazing being so close to finishing your blankets after 9 years. I feel like my photograph organising has taken a similar amount of time but one day I’ll finish.

nordicmom well done on your ds’s GCSEs. I hope you’re feeling better and you manage to get someone to help your dd with her alopecia, that must be awful for her.

keiki I was going to suggest what raspberryblonde did about grouping things together and get rid of the extras. It took me ages to start to get rid of storage boxes / furniture. I found by grouping things it was easy to get rid of the ‘useful’ things. I also found it just got easier to get rid of sentimental items as I learnt that I just didn’t miss them especially if they were stored in a box somewhere.

ellieq I’m glad you sound so much more positive and well done your dh on the top run.

Welcome pissedoffneighbour2 I think you need to handcuff your dh to the new desk so he can’t pick up anything else. Failing that I have an old mouldy desk in the garage your dh can collect from me

Well done on your listing acoldduncangoodhew I hope it gets sold. I hate the chore of selling things so it’s a great effort.

I forgot to say that all my decluttering / organising is paying off. I took tiny bottles of toiletries and soap that could be left behind and a bag of beach toys (I can’t tell you how many buckets and spades I’ve bought over the years), disposable cups that were cluttering a cupboard, water bottles. As well as toiletries and an old toothbrush we decluttered one drawstring swimming bag that broke. The only ins were sodding rocks that dd1 had to take from the beach. She’s a teenager, surely she should be past this phase?

Hope you enjoyed your holiday Stealth and get everything sorted tonight before you go away again.

A few more outs today - I put one of my summer dresses in the charity bag as I don’t wear it anymore. I’d bought another one at the weekend so trying to stick to one in and one out.

I also sorted through more of DD’s clothes and put 5 tops and one pair of PJs in the charity bag.

My youngest son has had a positive PCR result, there goes my plans until next Monday!

I was going to keep some of the youngest two outfits for their disability holiday club. However, due to this news they will only get three days so I might as well get rid now. I have nothing else to do after all. I need to then swop out dd clothes from storage into use.

I have a charity bag on the go

Our old house sale is now due to complete end of September so a tentative Yeah ! Our buyer has a chain free buyer so that’s great but I’ll celebrate when the money is in my account .

Incessant sorry about your sons positive test

Thanks Nordic. I think he picked it up on a UK holiday last week. I was being careful until I noticed my dh wasnt wearing his mask all the time wasnt seated so it seemed pointless. It was inevitable at some point. He was only visibly unwell for about three hours on day 1.

Good news about your sale! I have only bought empty houses and then done up and rented them ( twice as it was at the time, the best way for us to own a house) I'd hate to be in a chain that's really long.

I have done nothing today. I will get my paperwork out now. I hate starting things

We were very lucky we could buy our house before selling our old house so it didn’t stop that happening but will be nice to close that chapter finally when it happens . We’ve never had a chain before . We’ve bought two new builds before and moved before selling to a chain free buyer last time . Now it took so long to find this buyer that seems good otherwise that we’ve stuck with them .
In my nervous state waiting to hear from our puppy after his neutering today I got a lot of admin done inc booking the Alopecia doctor for my DD . Signed her up to her new school activities too . At her new school there’s a shooting range so she will try air rifle ! She did it at a sports park in Finland once I now remember . I’ve been to shooting range once in New Zealand and I really enjoyed the challenge of hitting the far away target .
I had an estate agent call me in the middle of making all those calls and ask me about starting viewings early ! I was horrified and told him they can start them after end of September as per our contract . We have this house until end of November . I’ve now decided we need to try to move the last week of September in 6 w before any viewings can start . Will find out about moving company availability for the one we’ve used twice now tomorrow . Need to make some final decisions about furniture and order some tonight ditto rest of DS school clothes . Need to make some serious lists now and crack on and start packing . Praying we will actually get the keys on the 2.9. like we’ve agreed and after that we will start moving things in . I have booked boarding for our puppy twice Oct halfterm first week and pre Christmas but don’t now know how realistic travelling right after moving is . We’ve done it before and it was super stressful. But on the other hand we’ve had no holidays this summer thinking we’ll go in Oct . DH has located temporary curtains on John Lewis and Amazon so hopefully that’ll solve that issue . Feel tired and headachy but I need to get more stuff done !!!

Yesterday’s out. A finished face cleanser.

On to the next one!