Decluttering one item a day thread number 19 – running out of ideas for original titles

[stealthninjamum]

Another ‘one a day’ thread. We’re still here.

This is a group of mumsnetters who are slowly decluttering our spaces and organising our lives, chatting as we go.

We all want to live in a nicer, emptier, clearer more relaxing environment and this is our space to talk and moan about our husbands and children who often do not share our desire for such a peaceful, decluttered haven!

We only aim to get rid of one item a day, when we have time, although often we manage more. Newbies are always welcome to join us.

Previous thread here.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4259830-Decluttering-one-item-a-day-thread-number-18-quickly-stashing-our-clutter-in-charity-shops-now-we-can-let-people-back-inside-our-houses?pg=1

Welcome nuffaluff, don’t worry about moaning, lots of us have found that our other halves got on board when they realised how much nicer the house looks.

Minimal decluttering but I did finish a lovely moisturiser that I had been ‘saving for best’, I’m almost through my historic stash of toiletries. Also I put another three pairs of child socks into the charity rag bag.

On the other hand my car boot is full of Xmas presents that I’ll unload when dc are in bed. So far it’s all not too much plastics tat - mainly onesies and pyjamas from me and Santa.

londonmummy that sounds like a productive day, I didn’t know Royal Mail will collect, what sort of things will they collect? I’ve never sold on eBay because I can’t be bothered to go to the post office but it would be good if I could get stuff collected.

Have spent hours rebuilding Lego sets, and listing them on FB.
First one being collected on Monday. I’ve probably underpriced them but Dd will be happy with any £ and I want them out. Still working on the grand hotel, trying to find all the missing bits.

Tomorrow we can get rid of Halloween sweets lol. But then DC will go out and get more, hmm.

@stealthninjamum Roayl Mail collect parcels from you for 30p each (until 1 November) after that 70p I think but if ebay you can just add 70p to the sale price.....

send.royalmail.com/?collect&PSID=Google_PPC&cid=CD_FY2122_SM_71700000074441770_58700006435820139&gclid=CjwKCAjw2vOLBhBPEiwAjEeK9jH9kOjT0h3xXFtA39TU9h3pq4tugR_dJ0uBbIFUiNBfh90CzhKuKBoCk54QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I agree it makes a big difference to what I cba to sell on ebay...

@Nuffaluff

When does it count as actually ‘getting rid of one thing a day’? Is it when it leaves the house?

I count it as when I’ve made the decision to get rid of something, so if it goes in a bag to go to the charity shop/ recycling/ the tip etc. I often don’t get stuff out of the house until a few weeks after its gone in the bag.

Cleaned front room windowsill yesterday and decluttered dust, cobwebs, plant leaves, and one spider It hadn’t been cleaned for months, partly because there’s a cupboard in front of the window that makes it tricky to reach. It looks much better now!

nuffaluff I used to count it as one item out every day but it's not convenient to go to the dump / charity shop the day you get rid of something so I now count it as the decision to get rid of it and put it in a bag to go.

londonmummy thank you, I have a few things I've thought about selling, maybe I'll finally get around to it.

Last night my laminating machine broke so that's something in the out pile. I'm not going to replace it, for some time I've thought that laminating was probably bad for the environment.

Have survived the sleepover 😁 and realised that it is the first time I’m ages that I haven’t felt sick at the thought of people being in the house

Slow progress here but I'm feeling like that's because so much has now gone, there's not as much that I think can go so that's definitely a plus!

My main problem now is the massive pile of teddy's in DD bedroom, they're all ones that we want to keep as are one people have given them DC were born 🤦‍♀️ but space must be made as DS is moving into that room with her when he turns 6 months at the end of the year!

One full bin bag and a few other bits to the charity shop. A boot full to the tip. It feels so good

Sounds as if everyone has had a productive weekend.

For me the biggest "out" was DD going back to school this evening but at least she took 1 large suitcase and 3 bags of stuff with her so that is a lot less upstairs than there was. DH is driving her there so whilst he's out I've tackled the hall table which was piled with old post, programmes for school concerts etc from years ago. So a huge box of paper in the recycling and a lot of bits and pieces - hair clips, jewellery, random hats and gloves etc in a bag for the charity shop tomorrow. I was able to put a big fake orchid on the hall table (on its own) in the hope DH won't just come home and dump his car keys/dirty mask/house keys/wallet etc where I've just been tidying.

Today I put some stuff on eBay. Feeling really good about that as I know it’s stuff that will sell. Stuff will be gone by next week plus some cash for Christmas presents. Lovely.
Cleaned front room windowsill yesterday and decluttered dust, cobwebs, plant leaves, and one spider blush It hadn’t been cleaned for months, partly because there’s a cupboard in front of the window that makes it tricky to reach. It looks much better now!
Oh @EllieQ I have a shelf just like that in the diner complete with web and probably dead spider! You’ve inspired me to sort it tomorrow!

Plus my friend wants the massive bag of toys that I’ve sorted for her so that will go this Wednesday.
DH cleaned and tidied the living room today. And my 6 year old sorted through the bookcase to extricate a pile of books that are too babyish for him.
I can feel my stress levels going down gradually. This is great! Honestly, all the clutter makes me anxious and vaguely unhappy. I want it gone.

Fallen off thread somewhat.

In the time since my last post I’ve managed to do the following:

Binned a cup of dds - it had a crack in it and all the water fell out
DH broke my mug so that’s gone
Charity shopped another mug and a 2 water bottles
Put all the dcs “baby” cutlery into the car boot box
Three dresses in charity shop bag
Finished two books - into charity shop bag
Ds broke a very noisy plane toy. Binned as it was unrepairable
Used up a lot of beauty products from my stash.

I have got my decluttering mojo back! We had 3 big boxes of Halloween decorations. I have now decluttered one. Many were unopened craft kits and decorations so can go to the charity shop - I wish I'd done this last week!

The rest of the house is a mess. I need to tidy away the remaining decorations, hoover, clean bathrooms and think about putting up the Christmas tree.

I seem to have accidentally decluttered the hairbrush, which was vexing, to say the least - especially with it going missing ten minutes before leaving for school and having to tackle two sets of long, wet hair with a crappy comb. The problem now is do I wait for it to turn up, and struggle with the comb in the meantime, or go and get another one for convenience, but which will add to more clutter..... and will guarantee the return of the missing brush as soon as I get the new one into the house

Couple of outgrown Halloween bits can go in the charity bag, plus while pulling out the costumes I found a bag of maternity clothes in the bottom of the wardrobe which I had put together intending to sell on FB, but never got round to it, so that's a ready-made charity bag all set to go out.

@RaspberryBlonde and @LivingInABuildingSite Can you sign up for automatic pre-overdue notices via email? We also have the scan and lend machines with the receipt, but the email reminders are v handy. Or e-books via the Libby app, which are automatically returned?

Today I will also declutter two pumpkins into the composting and a third will be cut up and frozen.

The composting ones have been carved. (I took all the “meat” out of them when I hollowed out and used it up).

Today have taken a load of notebooks into the office which I got from the conference I attended and have distributed out to colleagues. Yay

Doing well at the moment, was driving in the direction of the tip so finally got rid of my fabric recycling. I had pulled out a bag of clothes from under the bed to look through so took a glance before I went. 3 things for the charity shop, 3 for the tip. They never should have gone under the bed really. One top had a uni logo on so I kept it thinking it's sentimental but in reality I'm not sentimental about it, I remember I went, I don't need the top.
Need to do some tidying today - though I kind of prefer decluttering.

Doing well everyone.

Out:
Moses basket DD got for free for her dolls, passed along for free
One Lego set collected and paid for
Lots of sweet wrappers both from Halloween and having a teen sleepover (no sleep was involved!)
Some broken Halloween decoration bits

Rest of Halloween stuff packed up again ready to put away.

Have managed to declutter the builders keys though which isn’t helpful.

I’d vote for another hairbrush tbh as they always seem to walkabout in this house.

Quieter day today but I managed to drop off the bag of stuff decluttered from the hall yesterday at the charity shop. A local mum came by and collected all the DCs old lunch boxes and flasks now I no longer have to make packed lunches.

ONe of DCs old toys has sold on ebay so I'm going to pack it up and book a Royal Mail collection for tomorrow.

Just seen that the Royal Mail have extended the introductory 30p offer to collect a parcel until 14 November and that there is now a link on ebay to book it once you've bought the postage label. So definitely the time to be selling parcel sized items.....

sydneycarton perhaps it's because I have unbrushable hair so don't bother but I would say don't buy a brush. My house is full of hair brushes that we bought when we can't find them.

Today's decluttering is 3 pairs of much loved socks that don't fit dd2, in fact I think she grew out of them about 5 years ago and they resemble tiny trainer socks with the heel in the middle of her foot! I have mainly spent today cleaning and shopping. I have bought a few xmas presents so to tidy them away will be putting the xmas trees up today / tomorrow.

No Xmas stuff bought, up, or in anyway thought about yet here.

Have decluttered the idea of santa finally as my autistic son admitted he did know santa wasn’t real. We’d been holding on because of him!

Attacked my eldest’s room and his ‘xbox room’ (a glorified loft storage area that he has to himself). Omg, that was a mission!
So much rubbish, and broken/chewed nerf bullets (he’s a chewer!), and drinks bottles.
Found his two (!) missing house keys down the side of a chair. And managed to Hoover in there too.

Haven’t managed to put away the Halloween stuff yet, the last step always seems to take the longest.

Post man collected my ebay parcel so it is finally out of the door.

I took a mixed bag of books and old garden games to the charity shop. I just caught them in time as they were closing early this afternoon.

Tomorrow is vaccine clinic day so all I'll manage to get rid of is another bag of teaching materials to the music centre as I couldn't take them last week as they were closed for half term.

I have to say that I am enjoying this method of decluttering much more than previous industrial scale clear outs where I get incredibly down about mountains of stuff and rooms being in a state for days at a time.

Hairbrush has now turned up inside the dolls house, where my three year old had thoughtfully placed it . He isn't a fan of hair brushing so it might have been deliberate.

Outs for today - a few dried up pens. My parents have a pot of pens on the kitchen table for crosswords and sudoku, and my dad will pick one out, discover it's dried up, replace it in the pot and take another one, as if it's magically going to rejuvenate itself, which drives my mum mad, so she has started chucking them away while my father witters on about maybe getting some refills... I'm guilty of doing it too but determined to check myself and actually bin the things rather than put them back

Love the hair brush in the doll's house - I had forgotten how often things got put in ours......

Found the baby Jesus from the nativity in the dolls house bath one year.