Decluttering Thread 3 - Decluttering on bit at a time

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Just realised we filled up Thread 2 without a way to link to this one, can’t see that anyone else has started one?

I did drop back the borrowed boots, go me!

didn’t tackle the umbrella pot/dumping ground though

@Nordicmom my DD is exactly the same, she’s always ‘tidying’ her room yet it’s walls a mess of scraps of paper, hair bands, everything you’ve said.
Ive asked her to properly tackle her room this weekend after I had a look in there earlier.

Mine is 10,5 and there’s no way she can do her own room , tidy yes as in put out of sight kind of thing but she would not get rid of anything so I did it without her . If I asked about everything it would never happen . I consulted her on the activity books that’s it ! I don’t throw away bigger stuff or things I know are important to her just crap I know she wont miss or I can make a reasonable argument for not keeping for . I’m now physically and mentally so tired but will fold some laundry , do her school bag and declutter a few greetings cards then watch a program for a bit downstairs. In the morning we’re meant to have a shed arriving and being built but we’ll see . DS should be home still hopefully to help deal with them since DH has to go to the office . I’m keeping the dog home after he came back all muddy on Wed when DH was here to wash him thankfully .

Everyone went back to school today!

I sorted out all the things I bought in the sales
9 things for me
2 for dd
Lots more put away as gifts so will count them tomorrow. I feel reasonably confident I have no need to buy any more clothes at all now for this year. Let's see if I can stick to that! I'm even going to mend my jeans tomorrow rather than binning them.

Having a bit of a nightmare panic again about secondary schools but actually felt better just tidying and cleaning today.

I will add my other ins tomorrow and then join the 31 day decluttering on Monday!

Yesterday’s outs mainly from DD room :
-1 colouring book
-1 broken poster
-1 wall calendar
-1 little notebook
-1 large notebook
-4 glitter paper clips
-a big pile of loose paper
-1 broken yo-yo
-a couple of plastic little toys
-1 Christmas head band
-1 Christmas hair band
-1 broken bead bracelet
-1 little ball
-2 half finished word search books
-30 hair bands
-a hair clip
-a couple of old cards
-40+ pieces of loose stationary
-box of colouring pens
-a couple of magazines
-a wooden box
-3 pencil cases
-scented markers
-lots of loose papers inc more 11+ practise papers
-17 unused greeting cards
-1 body moisturiser to food bank
-1 mini present shower gel used up
-old mints

Nordic, you can't have anything left in your house now surely? 😄

Your doing so well, being very consistent.

I have redownled Team Tom and starting bootcamp so that should help. Going to try the pack up room by room, storage, decorate, unpack method after that. We have lived here for about two decades and I think that's part of the problem. Moving focuses the mind. Just got to source small packing boxes. We have large ones and I struggle to move them. Might get a shed size container for 6 months. Or half shed sized?

One shrunken dress to the charity bag.

@IncessantChangerOfName its amazing isn’t it ! I don’t know where it all comes from , it’s like a bottomless pit but I guess there’s several rooms with hardly anything in them by now . We had a bunch of stuff in a storage locker from our old attic for two years while selling / buying houses and i decluttered 2/3-3/4 of that for instance which took time and a lot of effort . I have had trouble letting go in the past and kept too much so it all accumulated when DD was small and I was far too tired and busy to do this regularly but now for the past 5 y I have been on it on and off and moving twice did help since I’ve always really decluttered when packing yet there always seems to be more . I get depressed because I feel like we’ll never get to the maintenance stage but what other option do I have than to keep going when no one else here cares as much . Looking at / into DD desk this morning made me feel excellent 😊so it’s all worth it !

I’m up after DD left for school and the bike and garden sheds are currently being put up so although half asleep I’ve gathered up and remembered a few more bits from yesterday
-DD too small school cardigans to the uniform collection
-1 finished book of mine
-1 duplicate present book
-1 little net bag from DD room yesterday
-1 packet of old tea bags we had for MIL in our kitchen cupboard
-3 lip and eye masks I won’t use ( I only have one more face mask left from last year’s Christmas present set of them )
-2 little ornaments from DD room
-2 pairs of DD small jeans

hopefully more will be added during the day …

Today has been surprisingly successful on the decluttering front, mostly as I decided to go through the spice drawer.

Today I’ve got rid of:
1 pair pf DS’s pants (actually 6 pairs, but there were 5 new ones in!)
6 cotton napkins (we have two sets and don’t need that many!)
13 expired things from the spice drawer
2 almost finished rolls of wrapping paper with only a small amount left that was too small to wrap anything in
4 items of packaging I’d been hoarding “in case they came in useful”
And an unintended out of a colander that DD dropped and broke!

27 items today, bringing me to a total of 73/2023. Just 1,950 to go!

I've put away the Christmas decorations and thrown out any that are broken. I've also tackled the chair (sofa actually) of doom in the bedroom which just gets used as a dumping ground. Thrown out all the rubbish on there.

I've also decluttered a pack of 4 liquor shots we were gifted for Christmas and a packet of fudge :)

put away the Christmas decorations yesterday with the help not of 16yo nothing to cull this time, just tidied the top of living room really today few bits of rubbish/packaging out sat in the dry recycling bin to fit more in 🤣 been refunded for dead e-scooter haters gonna hate but it's had to go in shed until dump run can be done. better than nothing

I’ve decluttered some hair by finally making it to the hairdresser! I had my head shaved in august for charity and have let it grow since then, it was looking a bit shaggy dog tbh. I want it to grow, I think, but it was just a mess.
will see how it looks after washing it tomorrow but happier so far.

not much else in the out department, last Christmas lights down. Flu jab done. Lots of laundry. DC promising great things over the weekend in terms of their bedrooms…..

Have been doing more furious cleaning , tidying and decluttering now feel dead and still have wet laundry to fold . in the morning DD has the second of 3 post Christmas 11+ exam days luckily just two subject and only a few hours long . DS has a driving lesson since his test is coming up end of the month hopefully . He went to practise with DH again they’re doing daily now .
Here’s some more stuff we’re getting rid off ( DH is going dump tomorrow so a lot of boxes and bags to rag bank etc .

-30 packets of old food ,packaging recycled
-10 packets of food to food bank
-1 sticker book to charity
-4 more old dog toys
-6 packets of coffee capsules I can’t use in our machine because of DH chocolate intolerance
-1 random pen
-a bunch of paper from art drawer that wouldn’t close ( yet another area I’ll have to organise and throw stuff out of again )
-a craft kit from the art drawer
-1 more face mask I didn’t like
-1 old wooden spatula
-dd old shin pads from hockey
-1 kids magnetic picture frame
-1 support thing from DH car building project that wasn’t good to dump

I got back from a 5-day mini break today. I've decided to start clearing out a bit at a time over the next three months. I don't do New Year Resolutions (arse end of the year, not a new year at all, that starts in spring as far as I am concerned) but thought if I do this, then by the time the new year (as in the wheel of the year, spring) starts then the house will be sorted.

I began with the cupboard under my stairs. It looks like Armageddon. I have a shelf unit in there that has things rammed on it. I've sorted the top two shelves - three baskets stuffed with candles and wax melts. Sorted into scents and plan to actually BURN THEM. Then just buy two or three at a time, and use them, not have a stash of 40 different candles and forget about them.

Also another basket full of shoe cleaning stuff, different colour polishes, and another with bits and bobs. Cables and stuff I have no clue what they are for - been binned. Two touch up sticks for the car - dried up and ancient. Batteries and light bulbs have been sorted and kept.

The next shelf really is FROM HELL so I need to psych myself up before tackling that tomorrow.

The logic with starting with cupboards is that I might actually free up space to put other stuff away.

The great food declutter continues here. No major outs, just using things up. Appointments and job applications are hindering any major progress.

A ragged and not fit for purpose scratching post has gone in the bin. I tackled the shelf from hell to find the one underneath it is worse! That is for later today or tomorrow. I found loads of chocolate wrappers in the cupboard. I think they were in a bin bag and the cats dragged them out! And more bloody candles, I found at least ten more candles. All different scents. Ranging from a Diptyque fig one to a Glade Pumpkin Spice!

And two DVDs, Love In The Time Of Cholera and The Miniaturist. Don't think I will watch these again. I got them to watch when we had the books for book group.

Still no outs for me, I'm still putting stuff away from Christmas and re-organising things.

16 ins for far for me
3 for dd in the sales

Just sorted some of ds10 draws out and put a few things aside that are too small, but not got rid of. Still can't face parting with some of his outgrown things.

In good news, he has been offered a school place that I love! So, so happy. I need to find out the exact costs but it's extremely expensive so there will be fight to get finding. But I think it really could turn his life from sheltered living into independent and working. So happy.

Decorations down today a few bits that were broken or not used thinned out. A box of very out of date chocolates one of the kids overlooked into food waster, I might declutter the last of the Sherry later too!

out:
Old tatty shirt of DH
ragged Christmas toy
old metal badge
holey pants x 1 (I seem to have a lot of these and trying to filter them out as I do the laundry!)

20/2023

wemt through lots with Ds2 and have lots ready to go but not declaring them out as yet as DNephew might want some. Plus I need to get onto Fb marketplace to sell some I think.

DD has not managed to tackle her room, yet!

I’m sure I posted my list for today earlier on, but it doesn’t seem to have worked. I’ve probably posted it on some random thread elsewhere on Mumsnet!

Anyway, this afternoon was unexpectedly productive where decluttering was concerned. I got rid of:

Approx 10 small items from the junk drawers
2 vases that I hardly ever use
1 small fabric bag
1 broken foam rocket
3 face cloths into the fabric recycling bag
15 pens that had dried up or run out
A Spirograph set DD never uses
16(!) used notepads/colouring books in the recycling bin
1 bottle of face toner I never use and has been open so long it’s surely unhygienic
2 mini toiletries from a hotel
1 diary given to a friend
1 scented candle
1 bottle of flavoured gin that was so vile no one was ever going to drink it.
The rest of a bottle of the Aldi version of Baileys - not much left and I need to lose weight!
A lunchbox DD never uses
A drawer insert thingy for tidying spice jars
4 random small toys

So 62 items today, bringing my total to 135/2023

I am following a 91 day declutter challenge on Facebook and this week was Kitchen, which has been fruitful, 48 outs so far and lots in the porch limbo area to go eventually.

Next week is Bathrooms, they expect you to have four but i only have one so this may be less productive!,

Some expired guarantees, total is now 6 for 2023

I had fatigue from previous days efforts so minimal decluttering and cleaning yesterday. DD did her exams and I actually went and had a selfcare app which made me feel better . Then had a nice dinner with everyone and watched the very good new movie “ The Menu “ highly recommend it ! DS really liked it when he recently saw it with a friend at the cinema . DS had a driving lesson and a mock driving test which he passed which is a promising sign at least . Kids stripped the tree for me I’ll try to put away ornaments tomorrow or the following day . DH is chopping up the tree for garden waste bin as instructed by council . He was trying out the trellis against two sides of the sheds to hopefully camouflage them with climbing plants . A couple of things gathered to go :
-1 broken dog toothbrush ( apparently he gets through them regularly since he bites down when we try to brush them pretty much daily )
-1 stained kitchen hand towel
-1 Christmas mini cocktail bottle used up ( this is rare since we don’t really drink , it was clementine with fir tree flavoured whisky or something ,DH liked it and finished mine ,I didn’t )
-1 elderly cocktail bottle that had gone old
-6 packets of old Christmas food from the larder down the disposal, packaging recycled
-1 more pair of old pants
-1 extra case for a new PlayStation game
-2 kids old water bottles to recycling
-1 bottle of ancient nail polish

Out
old bit of metal that probably belongs to something but has been on the side for ages
old top of DDs

(hoping she’ll tackle her room today 🤞)

22/2023