Organising our homes, 1 day at a time!

[Mommabear20]

A thread for anyone wanting some company and motivation to get those pesky messy corners cleared and tidy!

Bring your organising hacks and let's do this!

Sounds like a good sort out. Shame about the charity shops not taking donations. You can't give the stuff away!

Well done Quamora it's hard letting go of stuff. But so good when the storage looks ordinary-full instead of overstuffed-full.

I'm aiming to get everything stored then gradually thin it out further until nowhere is overstuffed.

I'm thinking very carefully about what I bring into the house in future because of there being almost no market for second hand things. I don't like putting useful things to landfill, so I think the only way forward for me is if I don't get rid of things until they're worn out, used up and only fit for landfill/recycling. That means no upgrades until there's a definite vacancy for one. As someone who loves shopping for a hobby, it's going to take a bit of getting used to.

Three areas sorted today:
A basket of console controllers, steering wheels, games etc put into the drawer in tv unit. The ridiculous thing is I only had a pack of wet wipes in there anyway so not sure why they didn’t just go in there to start with.

A pile of swimming towels and a pile of old towels put into containers rather than looking like messy piles on shelves in airing cupboard (they are all different sizes so never stacked nicely). Double win for using containers I already had instead of buying some for the purpose.

Charger box tidied and sorted. Was forced into this one as could smell melting plastic in that general area yesterday so unplugged it all but was putting kids to bed so didn’t have a chance to properly investigate. So lucky I did unplug it as today when I finally investigated one of the cables was all black and burnt. Lucky escape.

Sheesh Quamora that's scary! Lucky you were home and in the room at the time, these things escalate fast.

Had another go at the messy corner again today. It's getting there.
Got some pretty storage boxes for spare bathroom toiletries, goodbye messy looking cardboard box!

Sounds like good progress @WildPoinsettia

Does anyone else have these little pockets of mess and clutter that build up? We have a storage case thing for batteries but there are invariably some on the kitchen sides waiting to be charged, often along with whatever train/other toy/remote they came out of and a mini screwdriver. I’ve tried various solutions but we still seem to have a constant cluster of batteries sat in the kitchen! Any ideas?

Dp empties his pockets onto the bedroom windowsill which annoys me as it’s the first thing you see as you walk in the room so I’ve put a box on his bedside table and have taken to dumping it all in there. Makes me feel better anyway 😳

Is there anywhere you can put a small shelf, near a plug socket and the chargers/dead batteries/box of charged batteries lives there permanently?

TBH I'd put the toys back in the toy box whether there are spare charged batteries for it or not. When someone comes to play with it and it's apparent there's no batteries, that's the point at which to put fresh ones in if there's any charged. If there's never any spare charged batteries then you need more batteries.

The screwdriver could be tied via a long bit of string to the shelf so it's not lost or get one of those magnetic strips for the wall where the tools just stick to it because they're metal.

@WildPoinsettia thanks. I find it really interesting getting fresh eyes on things like this. The storage case is wall mounted under the stairs, annoyingly not by the chargers and no sockets there to move the chargers. I’m trying out a little box to at least contain the uncharged batteries. I think the issue with the things waiting for batteries is that toddler ds will have a few days on the trot where he’s obsessed with playing trains and the batteries barely last at all in them so we can’t keep up with charging them. We do in theory have plenty of batteries just not when he drains 15 of them in one go.

Yesterday I sorted out my shoes, today's challenge is the dumping ground in my wardrobe. I keep my yoga kit there, all the birthday presents etc get stored there until they’re given, there are a few boxes I’m saving to reuse and it’s all a big mess!

Another go at the messy corner. Some boxes from there into the kitchen, there's room because I decluttered. Looking better.

I would really like to see some photos of things that have been decluttered and organised so I can see how to do it!!
I have a loft heaving with stuff. Far too many books and nowhere to put them. A linen cupboard that’s so overpacked I cant find anything. The kitchen is a cluttered mess. I don’t know where to start…

Also what do I do with two old computers!

OneSwallow I'll PM you to preserve my anonymity. Old computer can go out with the paper/clothes/electronic recycling box on bin day. If they're dead.

If they're working either take to your local tip, donate to the shop part so they can sell it. Or ask any local charity groups if they're in need of one. They might not mind if it's out if date if it's just for eg typing letters and printing them, or running a basic "here's the on/off button" type computer course for deprived people or something like that.

I feel like I've found my kindred spirits!

I'm on yet another round of decluttering. I find I get more and more ruthless with each cycle as I realise that I'm yet to miss any of the stuff that I've let go of previously. There's also no escaping that things I 'needed' to keep in last year's cycle haven't been touched in the year since.

I'm trying to focus on a room at a time. January was the master bedroom, and this month I'm in the study. I'm at the point where it's getting worse before it get's better. I want to get rid of some furniture, which means serious purging of stationery, old uni notes and sentimental keepsakes so that whatever remains fits into the cupboard we want to keep.

Popping on for a quick query. Has anyone got the Tatay Baobab storage baskets? Im looking for something to organise food tins on open wire shelf unit in kitchen. Need to have straightish sides and preferable two layers of 400g tins, would the Tatay ones fit the bill? Not able to pop in and check thrm out

Organised the media area today to make things more accessible. Removed some things to the areas they should have been in.

I’m still slowly pottering along in the background. I really like reading all the updates and getting ideas. I think I need to ask DH to go into the office on my days off for a while (he doesn’t mind going in), as it really helps me get on more when the house is empty. I tried to go to IKEA for a few things recently, fortunately I had a quick look in the website before I left and saw that the things I wanted weren’t in.

Whilst ideally supervising children in a park today I mentally emptied my kitchen cupboards and cleared out a few things. The DC want to go to the charity shops this halfterm with their pocket money so I can drop off whilst I’m there.

Those boxes look really good Grassy, I’ve not used them but assume anything sold by John Lewis and Lakeland to be of good quality!! This is perhaps why I have too much stuff in my house

Spare side table going into the kitchen to provide a bit more workspace. Just need to clean the old glass chopping board for on top so the hot things won't damage the surface of the table.

Any tips on decluttering kids toys? Our daughter has just turned one but I'm at a loss where to start on getting rid of some 😊

@OddSocksSparklyDocsandDungaree you can either sell, donate or store the old toys depending on if you're having another baby.

"Popping on for a quick query. Has anyone got the Tatay Baobab storage baskets? Im looking for something to organise food tins on open wire shelf unit in kitchen. Need to have straightish sides and preferable two layers of 400g tins, would the Tatay ones fit the bill? Not able to pop in and check thrm out"

I don't have those but I do have the ikea variera which are similar although with slightly sloped sides. I love them! They are perfect for herbs and spices and I can pull a box down easily from higher shelves which is useful as I'm not very tall. You could fit a few tins in them - not sure how many though, they might get heavy quickly if you put too many in one box. I think they come in different sizes. Very easy to clean too...

OddSocks Maybe start with anything that's broken or spend a week paying attention to which ones she plays with and take away some of the ones she doesn't use. If she hasn't asked for them back in a week or two, declutter them.

Bought some more pretty boxes for bathroom storage.

How’s everyone getting on?
I’ve organised the laundry area, drinks area and dd1’s clothes since I last posted.Got rid of three carrier bags full of dd1’s clothes and folded everything neatly for her. Her drawers are already all muddled and a mess 🙄

I made some curtains

Ooh well done!

The curtains went up yesterday. Today I found a small spare plastic box. I'm using it for the scattered sanpro in the bathroom, it's now on top of the cistern instead of randomly cluttering up shelves.