Decluttering Thread 3 - Decluttering on bit at a time

[LivingInaBuildingSite]

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

Yuck yes clutter magnets. I have one surface by the door which when it's clear stays clear; but if I put a single item on it, dozens more suddenly appear. It's like I've given everyone in the house permission to put things down.

50 items of kids clothes out, some sold, some to friends. 1,800 for the year!

Reactivated my ebay account to try to sell some specialist items that haven't gone on Facebook marketplace. We will see how that goes.

Todays is more of a tidy up and put away than an out. I’ve finally folded the clean laundry and am taking it upstairs and putting it away instead of having it clutter up the garage.

for me that’s a huge part of it. Just putting things away.

I put sticky hooks on my hallway wall. So the kids don’t dump their coats on the floor or over the end post of the stairs when they come in.

because it’s just me at home with the kids right now and because dm has been feeding us (she’s been doing school pick ups) the kitchen is clean and tidy. I’ve been putting everything used in the dishwasher to stack it so it can go on tomorrow. DH leaves things in the sink.

Two outgrown baby sleeping bags out this week and I've been chucking a few bits (books and a couple of cardigans etc.) into a bag. I might take a small bag to the charity shop tomorrow!

ememem84 can you send your dm to me please? I’m really struggling to keep up with basic housework.

I sat with dd2 after school and she decluttered her room again. There is a mountain of books and cuddly toys ready to go to the charity shop. I’ll put the bags of them in the car for a few weeks to see if she misses anything.

My old chest freezer got collected by a local homeless charity today, yey!

The front room reclamation project can begin!
Still have the shoes and bags in there until the builders finish the understairs storage though.

Have hoovered and moved furniture around and binned lots of paperwork already.

Also trying to finish the endless scout badge sewing onto blankets. Finished DS2. Have DS1’s ready next to me for this evening to at least start. They all went to a jamboree in the summer and collected loads. DD says she’s started sewing her own but I haven’t seen the end product yet!

Have so many piles of stuff in the front room though, will be a long project….

Phhheew the decorators finished yesterday , well very nearly since I found two small areas we’ll have to get them back to do ; one thin crack under a bathroom window and a bit on the coat cupboard shelf but otherwise they did a lot and all kinds of little and a few bigger cracks were dealt with from the house settling in the last year , also a lot of scuff marks on walls that I couldn’t remove from kids and movers etc. Definitely an improvement although I know there’ll be new ones in no time . Windows got cleaned outside today too but insides need doing after half term . Still don’t have a cleaner so DH has to do it . Have hopefully sorted out DD school run in the afternoon so that will help me a lot . Have to schedule all other maintenance jobs to Nov and Dec .I have 5 things that need doing plus the decorators need to come back . Next have to try to get ready for our trip and do a bunch of admin and appointments etc . Our dog turned 2 so we celebrated that and this weekend DH will take DS to see his last university option because of the train strikes . We didn’t manage to get rid of the charity shop load yet ,the store was closed last weekend but then I found some more things that had been put in the wrong place in the attic . Have to take them next weekend since no time this weekend annoyingly . DH will list the cupboard on sun and I’ll ask him to do the lamp then too . I should try to do something to the utility room stuff in that dining room so I can get the table ( and a sideboard ) once the cupboard is gone . Ooh and another thing on the jobs list ; I’ll need an electrician to put the ceiling lamp in the dining room so 6 jobs that I have to book people to do for me plus the decorators . Only a few bits decluttered in the last few days ;

-2 pairs of old socks
-4 scruffy dog toys
-1 DD stained night gown

Hello Jumping in.
I cleared out a bag of children’s clothing (did a black sack last week also) and one huge wheelie bin bag of my own ore pregnancy clothes and also some household items. Also sorted through my other old things in a memory box.
feel good and a bit less guilt about how much weight I’ve put on. Stuff even with labels has gone
when I lose more weight I will treat myself to new stuff.

What do you all do with the things that are waiting to be collected/dropped off? My poor car is full to the brim of old school uniform for the PTA, old toys for a drive from the local social workers, etc etc. It seems like my car has become the mobile doom pit although my house is looking nicer!

I give the clothes to friends with younger dc and drop to clothes banks at the recycling centre

It is the weak point in most of our systems from what others have said. Bag up all the stuff to go and have it loitering about for ages. All the good intention energy gets used up!
i do try and put them in the way by the front door which is annoying but spurs me on, sometimes.

bag of tinned food and bag of apples from inlaws garden dropped off for food bank.

That’s so true livinginabuildingsite. I have crap all over the house waiting to go. I have two bags of dd2s stuff in the car waiting for a charity shop run and I found a bag of old tights and crop tops that I must’ve put aside as rags. My main problem is toys, I have boxes of some big ones that I’m sorting through and slowly selling. I’m just going to have to freecycle the ones that don’t sell.

This morning I spent two hours sorting through old school work. I have a small bag of paper to be recycled and maybe a box of binders and plastic folders to put away. The house doesn’t look tidier. I find it hard to throw school work away - especially dd2s as I know she struggles academically and it feels wrong to throw away her hard work. She has told me she wants it all to go so I’m going through it keeping the more personal stuff. So I went through her spelling test book and found funny sentences she’d written and thought I’d keep them. Likewise in the middle of her science book was a photo of her doing an experiment that I can’t throw away but everything else is binned. I think primary school stuff is more personal so I do find it quicker and easier to chuck out dd1s work especially for subjects she won’t be doing at GCSE.

Now that we have a bigger house it’s easier for me to store the stuff going out .
Stuff to dump like delivery boxes that won’t fit in the recycling ( although we’ve ordered a second recycling bin ) , bags to rag bank and generally things heading to dump go into the double garage ( our cars are outside it atm although soon DH will be building another one in it once the bikes and garden stuff are in the sheds he’s ordered ). The dump is near us and no app needed so he goes quite often while we continue to clear / receive new furniture etc . The food bank items go into a labeled storage box in the under stairs cupboard , anything for charity shop or to sell go into labeled boxes in the attic . I haven’t sold any smaller stuff yet I have to get around to it but there’s not that much only few of the more expensive things ,we’ve been selling the bigger ones first . Charity shop load is taken by DH normally when there’s 2-3 big storage boxes of it . Atm there’s about 1 + but I think I’ve just decided to give away 3 big bedspreads and 2 matching pillocovers , 2 knitted blankets and 3 knitted cushion covers since I had them for years and now they’re just in boxes in the attic for no reason . Think I’m ready to let go . I’ll check them and most will go to charity maybe one to ragbank . Also once the sheds come DH is planning to sell both the mowers 1 little electric one and 1 petrol one that keeps on stopping working after not being used for a while so is a pain and getting just one bigger electric one instead now that we have less grass after landscaping the back .
I’m trying to motivate myself to go deal with the utility room stuff but still don’t quite know how to organise them so I feel stuck but I do want them out of that dining room . DH says just get rid of all of it , we haven’t used them while here but it’s not strictly speaking true they’re mainly back stock for things used regularly and I’ve already gone through most of it earlier just need to organise them back into the cupboards .
I have another box of school stuff to sort from the storage locker I think . There were 4 more boxes I didn’t manage to go through yet so just put them straight into attic to wait after I did rest of the contents of our storage locker in the spring and got rid of about 3/4 which I’m very glad about ! So happy I pushed DH to get on with carting it all here for me to look through and then declutter most of it . I want to finish projects and tick things off although the other part of me is a procrastinator where as these things don’t bother DH he’s messy and hundred times worse about not getting around to things although he’s always very busy with work and everything else . He was saying what does it matter if we don’t empty the locker right now but after 2 y of having it and always intending it to be a temporary measure I didn’t want to just leave it forever which would have been easy to do and keep on wasting all the money for paying for it too . Now he still has an old little sailing boat at a sailing club he needs to sell as it is and not start repairing or anything ,since he will not use it anymore . Of course he has no time atm where as I think he needs to just do it and draw a line under it ! I often feel like getting anything done here is like pulling teeth I have to be the sergeant major all the time which is so annoying and exhausting.

I’m going to fill up the car again today with everything that’s being donated, just to see what I’ve got left to work with. I have so much space I’m generating but it’s not looking any better because nothing is leaving. I have no garage/outbuildings/shed which is annoying. I also need to start clearing the loft at some point 😂. If I can get the house sorted maybe I’ll start on the loft!!

Dc went out today and I got on with tidying. I have gone through piles of papers and schoolwork. As usual I have created tonnes of mess but I have filled three bin bags of rubbish and papers. I think I have pretty much gone through three years of dd2s schooling and dozens of sheets from homeschooling. I now have a huge pile of

• sheets from her schoolwork I felt was personal so wanted to keep
• art
• stationery - folders, unused paper, notepads
• special things for the memory boxes - certificates, yearbooks etc

I’ll sort through that later in the week and find homes but I am so delighted. The paperwork in the playroom bench has now been sorted and the dining room is almost able to be a dining room again after lockdown. It will make a huge difference to my house to walk in and see a usable dining room ahead - although I’ll probably keep my laptop there rather than my study.

Have shredded lots of old governor papers & returned unneeded stationery to the office cupboard.

summer hats tidied away, some into charity box.

nothing massively impactful but every little helps, thanks tesco!

A few things going out :
-1 broken spray mop
-2 old buckets
-2 pairs of DD old pants
-3 big bedspreads
-2 /3 matching pillow covers
-3 knitted cushion covers
I’ll have to check if I’ve already gotten rid of the 2 throw blankets I’m thinking about in the attic . DH also listed the cabinet so I’m
praying it’ll soon be out of here like the other things we’ve successfully all sold . Need to ask him to put the lamp on Olio tomorrow so that leaves too …

I gave an unwanted ornament to a friend who has long admired it.

An empty box has been dismantled and put into cardboard recycling.

Couple of school uniform headbands passed along yesterday, and some school stuff Dd was meant to give back before she left was given to friends to take back. Nothing big though but just annoying loose ends.

About to declutter my bank account taking itchy balding cat to the vet. Have tried various things before but want to get to the bottom of it as I feel sorry for her.

But will help the bank balance by cancelling DS2’s swimming as he doesn’t want to go anymore.

more like tidying today, still having to put up with some olio things hard for me to take them to charity shop with no car cleared some non/recyclables out of one cupboard and put the olio stuff in there so that air coolers could move off landing, I can access some ' bits and bobs' toys to go through and an extra airer, also discovered an empty drawer- bonus!

Out- roughly 1 bag of recycling
1 bag junk
wellies for NDN
2 pairs of unusable goggles

discovered- decent bucket
empty drawer
2 brooms
light bulbs
wellies for 14yo

in limbo- 1 old print, of an area I love, it's not antique or anything, but I do think I like seeing it...I'll think a bit more

I chucked out more paperwork and also some old birthday cards: I gave a bag of workbooks to a friend who’s a teacher / tutor who might use them.

I also started to make some old playmobil that I’m intending to give away on freecycle.

I was going to sort out stationery but can’t find my beloved label maker. Will turn cupboards upside down tomorrow to find it.

So tomorrows job is to finally clear out the dining room and then start reorganising the stationery.

I pop in and out of this thread for motivation because sometimes I just feel so guilty or have constant obsessive thoughts about whether I should really get rid of clothes.

I've decided
3 x dds socks stained and very thin
2x pants that are very thin and stained
1x leggings that have holes
1x jumper that is too small now
2x polo shirts faded
1x scarf with holes
1x T-shirts that dd has grown out of and is very thin.
2x perfume bottles that just needed using up (had a small amount).

Also gone round the house and got rid of any Creative stuff my daughter did. She's in hers one now and it's just building up. Mom guilt is there but what can you do.

not old hand blender went 'pop' in my hand and started smoking when I was trying to part-blend soup so I guess that's an out then? 🫠

Oh my God, looking back to my last post and I did none of it. There is a pile of stationery that I haven’t even looked at.

On the positive side I got rid of a bag of jars (everyday decluttering), cleared out my car (everyday decluttering) and took two bags of dd2s stuff to the charity shop.

OK if I join you to share an idea?

I've been through the ctlraft cupboard, back of drawers, bottom of toy box etc and collected together a box of unused craft kits, novelty gifts that haven't been touched, unopened gift sets etc and made a box of stuff suitable for the Scouts tombola at the local Christmas fayre. Its nearly the time of year that schools, Clubs etc have tombolas/raffles so it may be worth a look!

Good idea @PuttingDownRoots

i have gone through loads of tat in the front room aka room of doom atm.
loads in the bin/recycling/into kids rooms.

now going through the box of dvds - boxed up pre building work and haven’t been mentioned since so I think all could go, but DC are less keen. Have a pile ready to go, just need DS1 to agree.

have dismantled the freebie table I had in there, may try and Freecycle it.
then need to get my grandad’s bureau repaired (cats & age have knocked the desk part off) and into the front room.

slowly slowly the house may start to settle down again now. Builders nearly finished…

also recycled a load of those plastic bags that came with covid tests, kept them in case they came in handy, have kept a takeaway box load for running snacks but got rid of tonnes.