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

Iv6e started going through my very extensive jewellery. 20 tarnished or broken items to bin today. Going to see if theres anything worth donating tomorrow

280 items down

6 eBay sales in the last 24hrs which has made me very happy. 3 of the items were pretty large and required 3 equally large boxes to send them with the courier. One box had to be hashed out of several smaller broken up boxes but finally used the last of the thick plastic wrap my mattress was delivered in (3 or 4 years ago )
I've filled another box with kitchen stuff yesterday - including an ancient set of utensils that belonged to my grandmother - I have kept two things from the set but only because they will be used.
I was feeling like I was getting somewhere with the kitchen until a day of not keeping on top of it today and chaos has resumed

Made my first Vinted sale! Parcel sent.

I have nearly finished shredding my huge pile of papers that have been sitting around for about six months. I have filled four massive binbags.

I am still running around the house filing all paperwork - sometimes I’ll pay a bill and might leave it somewhere else. I’ve nearly finished this, my paperwork now gives me so much joy, I have probably got rid of 2/3 of it gradually over the last four years.

I am also printing out and filing information on dc - school reports, health reports etc. As part of this I have deleted a few hundred emails.

ziffit have collected four boxes of books.

I am going to add some empty ring binders to the charity shop pile. I now have a stupid amount that needs to go so I might take three bags today. Also dd1s memory box is just an ugly black box file so I might look for something more attractive.

Binned the dregs of last summer's foundation which no longer suits my skin. Total is 300

Oooh shredding. Every now and then I take some of my paperwork into work and dump it in the secure bin. Not loads every time. But enough to clear it out of my house.

during lockdown when I was working from the office everyday (when the dc went back to nursery I asked to do this so I didn’t have to so much to and fro) I took all of our paperwork and dumped it. The shredding bins were getting emptied once a week as normal. So figured why not. Work in the end said we could because they were paying for a service whether it was used or not.

Gone today. Total is 315

• 1 envelope to recycling
• 2 leaflets to recycling
• 4 photos binned
• 7 cards to recycling
• 1 baby hat to donate

@ememem84 I find shredding very satisfying.

I finally cracked open a storage box and went through some stuff. Off to the charity shop went:

5 jumpers
10 pieces of costume jewelry
20 CDs
Plus a pair of holey socks in the bin

316 items now. If I have any time tonight, I'll continue with box 2

Stuff has left the house! Since Monday I have got rid of

4 huge bin bags of shredded paper
4 boxes of books picked up by ziffit
4 bags of stuff gone to charity shops

Its a complete coincidence those are all 4s

i also scanned 19 books for webuybooks and threw away crap from a Lego box - dolls shoes, pom poms, the top half of a ballerina from a music box I decluttered years ago.

I also emptied 6 drawers from my bedroom into a big carrier bag. It is all stuff that can be recycled, put elsewhere or thrown out. So lots of pictures from dc, badges, electronics, an old phone contract, phone boxes, old unused wires and cables, a broken mp3 player, lightbulbs and batteries (these have a drawer in the sitting room). I’m just going to spend a few minutes a day tidying these away.

Also today I need to finish the shredding and have a massive hoover of the room of doom because there are shredded bits of paper everywhere.

Pair of old and stinky cheap kids trainers
Outgrown pair of kids trousers
Sweatshirt of mine which has started to wear thin
Broken coat hanger
Bag of Tupperware returned to MiL
Bits of paperwork from the living room windowsill, including a brochure and receipt for a sofa from Harveys, who no longer exist and the sofa is in landfill so fairly sure it's no longer needed

Going to assume 15 bits all in all, so 260/2023

I’ve not been very well since my mammoth attic session and organising my shoe cupboard so minimal progress here I’ve had to mainly rest . Now feeling a bit better so did a bit of cleaning and tidying to stay on top of things . Laundry is just endless always in this house . Gardener should be coming tomorrow . DH listed two more things on Olio ;a lamp and selection of baskets and they’ve been requested right away . I’m emptying my snack drawer in my bedroom since I’m loosing weight . I don’t eat out of it anyway now but it can all go except for some mints . Out just a few bits of clothes of mine .

-1 wool poncho I never use
-1 shrunken jumpsuit I didn’t realise was dry clean only
-1 brand new skirt I won’t use
-a bunch of snacks out of my bedroom drawer

Hopefully I’ll be well enough to go back into the attic soon since there’s still work to do there !

@stealthninjamum that's really great going, well done! I cracked open another storage box with books and after a bit of deliberation, decided they could just all go. My mum chose one then kindly took the rest to the charity shop immediately which was fab. I also made 8 piles of paperwork according to type and DC was thrilled to do some shredding. So out today:

26 books
8 wads of old documents such as a typing test from 2002 and a Vodafone bill from 2004...
6 empty photo albums
Another old pair of socks in the bin

316+41=357. Feeling good! Two boxes totally gone. Although I might actually need to buy socks at this rate. They're all giving up on me at the same time.

decluttered probably a bag of unrecyclable misc from DD's room, put away 2 boxes of unloved clothes in an 'amber' situation, cleaned a bit in there but I think I've thrown out her reusable straws which shouldn't have been in there so I'll check bin in daylight

Gone today. Total is 320

• A magazine I'd finished reading recycled
• A random magazine article that I'd ripped out from somewhere recycled
• A falling apart pair of shoes binmed
• Two empty cardboard boxes recycled

I've started a slow declutter of physical photos. It is hard for me but I had a quick look and binned 10 from my travels which were just blurry/duplicates. I need to be a bit more ruthless as I'd love more curated albums. Shredding/binning photos feels somehow v wrong.

367 gone now.

Another 3 eBay sales posted yesterday - and I had to scrounge boxes from my friend's work for one of the parcels as I've run out!!
2 kitchen benches will be out on Sunday when they're rehomed to my sisters.
3 boxes will also be out on Sunday to my mum for Mother's Day - they've been hanging around since January with nowhere to live.

pigtailsandall that’s a good start. I think I’m a bit ahead of you with this decluttering thing as I decluttered my photos about two years ago. I got rid of loads but as usual got bored and didn’t finish. They’re now stored in a plastic case with plastic boxes to store them. I’d love to display some of them somehow.

Today dd2 added some old pyjamas to the pile. I have seen a scarf I’m going to buy, I might throw away two to replace it.

I’m also thinking of buying myself a plant for Mother’s Day. An easy to look after one with a nice pot. My autistic / adhd kids usually forget. I sent them a message that Mother’s Day is coming up but it made the younger one cry because it’s too much pressure. So I’ll make myself better with a plant and scarf!

Does a bin bag full of shredded paperwork no longer required count?

As in filing the most soul destroying job in the world give me a cluttered spice drawer any day of the week!

I recycled a whole pile of paperwork from a difficult time in my life, so that was draining skim reading through it to see what I needed to keep.

Also gone from the chest of drawers is -

• 5x thongs from bra sets, I don't wear thongs
• 3 pairs of winter socks that have shrunk
• a hoodie that's seen better days
• an unlined rain mac type coat that I've never worn because I can't see the point of them

Total is 331

Not much decluttering going on here. I’m in the middle of my busiest period at work (end of the financial year) meaning that it’s full-on until after Easter, and I have little energy left for everything else!

Last weekend I gathered all of DD’s old shoes together (there were three plastic bags full in various places), so this weekend I’m going to try to go through those. I know I already have her first shoes in a memory box, so I shouldn’t feel that I need to keep any of the others 🤞

@stealthninjamum I was actually doing ok - I've been decluttering for years and really want to get to a very small number of belongings. It all went a bit wrong when my mum moved house during the pandemic and I couldn't visit; she shipped 8 huge boxes from Canada to me and I haven't opened many yet. I'm slowly going through them- she just sent everything as she couldn't or didn't want to shift through it.

So today I got rid of 17 piles of paper, mainly from high school, and 16 more blurry photos from early 00's. Total is an even 400

Efforts here very minimal as work has been dreadfully stressful and we’ve had some work done on the house. In fact I was feeling very maudlin last night and had a little cry into my wine.
Lots of excess cardboard boxes that had been kept as potential for eBay packaging have been collapsed and will go to the tip later. Simply cannot face trying to get rid of the million Lego sets at the moment so they have been stuffed back into cupboards for now. Few masks from Halloween costumes found and out - couldn’t find them when I moved the actual costumes on 🙄

Bin bag of stuff to the textile recycling bin this morning. Item gone via Freecycle.

Outs today:

pair of socks of mine binned because of a hole
two birthday presents (ds went to a party)
bag to charity shop
finished an emerald green sparkly liquid eyeliner
finished up a shower gel
two calpol syringes.

gassylady I reached a selling fatigue a few years ago. I was fed up of dealing with all the questions from people who were really only browsing with no intention to buy and arrangements from people who didn't always show up to collect. So I stopped. There's a clothing bank nearby so all fabric items go in there. A friend sometimes has a pile of books. Everything else is recycled or binned. I'd put your Lego in with all the other plastic recycling if you can't face dealing with it to sell or give away

I want to go under the bed today see what's there