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

About to bloody collapse. I’m finally sitting and going to eat my dinner . The boys are wrapping the giant wafer thin tv . I still have stuff to do but feel like I can’t do one more thing. Maybe after more meds . A few bits Kitchen furniture to still take apart

Nordic mum you have done amazing, sounds like it is move day tomorrow so you are nearly there.

Good luck with the move @Nordicmom

I fell off the other thread so catching up tonight.

Our roof leaked really badly a few weeks ago so major repairs are going on now. There is dust everywhere and scaffolding at the front and back of the house. It’s exhausting.

Tip run booked for tomorrow plus some picture frames given away via free cycle.

It’s slow progress.

A couple of silicone waffle moulds into the charity bag with a pair of outgrown wellies and three outgrown t shirts. Five books also put in, should be dropped off later this week. Plastic tableware packed into a box to put into loft don’t plan on using it next year so will take to a charity shop or list on ebay in the spring. After a quick break plan to rearrange kitchen drawers

Day 2 for me: some broken headphones and bath salts got rid of and some shorts.

Not much out here, a pair of leggings but that may have been yesterday not today! Need to keep going!

Welcome dollypartbaked i agree little and often is definitely best for me.

I’ve had a fantastic day, dd1 let me take 30 items from her room - books, CDs and a doll to go to the charity shop.

incessant I just felt judged for not having finished decluttering during lockdown but .... erm home schooling?

catrin sorry to hear about the leak. It sounds like you’re in chaos.

I survived the move and I’m in my nice new bed with a pizza although It’s cold by now I had to had a shower first and unpack and sort things out in kids rooms ( although both had done a lot of it themselves especially DS thank god ( we just need to get DD chest of drawers and toy trunk and DS extra wardrobe shelves and night table to organise better ) I was dying for one . Poor DH went back to the old house after making my big poster bed even putting the bedding on it for me then eating dinner and making his moms bed ,he’s soon home . Bedrooms are in good shape considering we only just arrived but downstairs is a mess of box piles ,a sofa in pieces ( DH did put the chair together with a new covers at least tomorrow after work the sofa ) , flat packed dining table waiting to be picked up and missing furniture so it’ll take a while to sort out . Mil has been a saint helping to unpack the kitchen tonight after DH left and kids went to bed since I had to throw the towel in after weeks of packing and cleaning and 3 h of sleep . She has offered to drive dd to new school by herself In the morning ,she went past today so knows where it is . I am in so much pain that I might just have to take her up on the offer .
We decluttered a big amount today I’ll do a list later now too tired to think

Nordic mum phew you are in! You can.do.all but the essentials bit by bit, so do have a little breather and that sounds a good idea to take up your mil's offer. Hope you get some good sleep tonight

@Nordicmom hope you feel able to slow down a little now and appreciate your new surroundings. Rearranging of kitchen drawers and cupboards will continue today - hopefully encourage us not to dump so much stuff on the work surface if they can be put away properly

No new outs here but 1 in that I'm loving! I ordered a Christmas bauble storage box! It's kinda sad how happy storage solutions make me but hey! They're all sorted and safe now and it looks so pretty 🤩

nordicmom I hope you had a big lay in and enjoyed someone else taking dd to school. Well done - don’t be in a hurry to unpack too quickly, just relax. (Or do you still have stuff in the old house to move?)

I have spent the morning tidying. I have got rid of loads of papers, leaflets, magazines and generally cleared surfaces and tidied. I have a couple of charity shop bags now from stuff in dd1s room yesterday. I also went through the Xmas decorations (inspired by someone upthread - was it mommabear?) and got rid of 30 pink decorations. It is slightly annoying that I still have three plastic boxes of decorations and even this bag isn’t enough to completely clear one of those boxes.

Thank you @stealthninjamum, sounds like a very productive morning!

I'm torn because getting more 'organised' or just decluttering as I come to each thing. For example, there have been three books floating around our bedroom not being read for at least 6 months - torn between putting them back on the bookshelf and actually getting rid of them as at least two of them aren't long term bookshelf material!

I put them back on the bookshelf but now I know sorting through our books will be a much bigger job that I'm not sure I'll ever get too.

Nothing decluttered yet today!

dollypartbaked I know what you mean. I used to have a superficially tidy house with lots of stuff shoved in a drawer, so there would be books on the bookshelf that I never read because I would forget about them. Over time I changed my view on decluttering to be less about having fewer possessions and more space (although obviously I would love minimalism) to be more about saving time. So I am a lot more in tune to whether I will use something or whether I will waste time not using it and moving it to get to the stuff I will use! So this morning I decided to get rid of 30 pink xmas decorations and I also got of natural woody /pine cone bits I'd saved from a wreath a few years ago that seemed to shed. The next time I look in my xmas decoration boxes I won't spend 5 minutes sorting through the ones I don't like and I wont' need to hoover all the bits of sparkly pinecone. I'm not a naturally organised person but I have got rid of so much stuff now that my daily life and chores are considerably easier and quicker than 5 years ago.

That's a load of waffle, but what the 2021 me would do now is to just put those books in the charity shop pile and not think about them again!

I have been a hoarder since childhood, at 27 I'm finally at a point were I can't stand mess and clutter! I want a better environment for my DC to grow up in. It's still hard for me to post with things but I'm forcing myself, just keep telling myself it's for them!

Hello! I massively need this thread so hope you don’t mind me joining. Our house is still an absolute state after lockdowns/homeschooling/working/caring for chronically infirm parents and relations during it all.

I’ve reduced my hours at work recently so should have at least one day a week that doesn’t get sucked into parent helping. Determined to get house more under control so could have DD’s friends for play dates, ashamed to say haven’t wanted to invite parents round who I don’t know very well as house is so bad

Filled a whole box for charity shop today as well as chucking loads of little bits of plastic tat (I don’t know where it comes from, feels like a never ending tide) that was broken or bits missing.

Also managed to agree what in the shed and garage can just be chucked (I hate throwing things away but this is stuff that really is only good for the tip) with DH who will go and sort that later in the week, so that will be a whole load more big bits gone.

I did better here today. Got rid of some more baby clothes that were passed down but just aren't things I would pick. Looked at some vests that lo has grown out of, though I couldn't give away but I read something about reducing by half. Two had duplicate prints so decided I could manage to get rid of one of each.
Also a book has gone and some toys - need to make room for dare I say it Christmas.
I used a gift bag recently, found myself getting a carrier bag out to take presents to a friend and remembered I have a drawer of gift bags. Must use them for every birthday!

Stealth - that is so true about saving yourself time.

Momma bear same here my house was cluttered growing up, I want it to be better here but it's hard isn't it.

Country diary I am quite new here too but welcome.

Not doing brilliantly with getting rid of anything out of the house.

But two ballet leotards & ballet tights got passed on today so taking that as a win!

And no new stuff came in so double win. Oh I lie, I ordered a new deodorant thing that is plastic free and you get a refill thing every month or something. Will give it a go in another step away from plastic usage.

Hello all, especially new people!

Glad to hear that you're finally in nordic. You definitely deserve a couple of days taking it easy!

I'm annoyed as a courier was supposed to collect the parcel of maternity things yesterday and didn't. I've had no contact from then since the confirmation email so am concerned they've lost the booking. If they don't come today (not hopeful) I will have to chase or just take it to the drop off which is not that convenient. I thought this was going to be an easy win!

Had a rummage through the freezer last night and binned a few things that had been there ages and got freezer burn. It needs doing properly as there's probably more!

Have just gone through DDs pens and pencils (highlighters, novelty pens, etc). Binned a pile of run out ones & pencils that just won’t sharpen as they keep breaking.
Correctly filed the rest in the correct storage boxes.

And binned small piles of random plastic tat that had ended up in with the pens.
Small steps but still progress!

Welcome countrydiary. Bits of plastic tat are the worst. I'm so glad that there's a big push now to reduce plastic and places like Mcdonalds have stopped. Anyway well done for getting rid of them.

At one point I had about 35 bags for life (I kept buying them forgetting I had a load in the Room of Doom) so over the last year I have been putting my charity shop donations in them with a view to getting the numbers down to 5 or 6. Yesterday I found a pair of teeny, tiny 12-18 months socks in one. They have presumably been there for about 8 years so it shows when I last used the bag! I mentioned it to a friend in fun and she collected the socks this morning to give to her sister who's had a baby. I now have just 13 bags in the kitchen and possibly a couple elsewhere.

I also have a unit in the TV room which is almost empty so I'm going to sell it. It has a pile of crap on top which I will remove and rehome.

raspberryblonde that's rubbish, maybe they just ran out of fuel? But they should have told you.

livinginabuildingsite my problem is always getting stuff out of the house. Do you have a car you can store it in? Or some stuff like books and CDs/ DVDs will be collected if you are getting rid of enough. I have sold 49 books through ziffit and about 15 through we buy books which is about 8 boxes. My bookshelves are beginning to look emptier.

Storage unit is now empty. 9 cuddly toys/ puppets and a cushion can go to the charity shop. I need to play tidy up tetris with the remaining things eg video tapes, an old fashioned videocamera, nintendo DS games and empty boxes, a face pack which I will be putting on myself later, a cheese grater - how does that even get in the TV room? Will either sell the storage unit or when the petrol crisis is over take to a charity.

Was really hoping to sell most of what we're getting rid of as we're saving a deposit for a house, but after waiting for someone for nearly an hour at our garage only for then to turn up late and then say oh I'm not sure if it's what I want now, and leave without it, I'm considering just phoning a charity to come pick it all up and just be done with it!

I've just been catching up on all you declutterers. Good to see progress being made! I've been absent for a few months following my surgery for breast cancer and am a reasonable way through my chemo now, 6 more weekly sessions to go. The chemo I'm on now doesn't drain my energy (gives me aches instead-joy!). Still more treatment ahead but slowly getting through it.
Anyway, I was feeling inspired to get back on this. We were stuck at home on Sunday awaiting results of DD's PCR test (negative) so I helped her sort through 2 drawers of her stuff in the lounge. She's outgrown a lot of it so got rid of quite a few things and have organised the stationery. She found some sketching pencils which she put in her school pencil case for art.
I really need to sort her clothes out but that's quite a big job as I think there's a lot of outgrown stuff to go.
I have a bag ready with a few books, a Xmas jumper and a top for a charity shop. Binned the socks I wore yesterday as I realised they were holey.