Decluttering thread 4 - progress rather than perfection

[Pigtailsandall]

Thread 3 got filled up so decided to start a new one - hope everyone can find it!!

I have 4 vacuum storage bags

2 (1 ineach pack) never worked, leaky valves or something I suspect

2 worked for a bit and then I got them out this morning to find they've both ripped open!

So I am currently off the idea.

Anyway I decluttered 8 sets (we won't say pairs) of PJs from the storage bags.

My experience with vacuum bags is that the cheaper ones don't work but the ones you get from places like Lakeland do. Even then after a few years they can be less effective.

I feel like I’m maintenance decluttering when I’m mostly getting rid of outgrown / worn out clothes , toys , books , magazine piles ,old food , dog toys and other paraphernalia ,extra toiletries etc everyday items after going through all our stuff multiple times when we moved twice within two y and emptied and went through the short term storage locker too . All our rooms are pretty empty except inside the storage and those aren’t full either . The only place with lots of stuff is the attic which is organised and labeled except for the 6 boxes left to sort ,and my husbands double garage where he’s building a car although maybe that’s just to my eye he does have lots of garage storage and racking where most things are housed but we have different idea of tidy and I itch to blitz the place with some help 🙄. Everyone here thinks I’m crazy with my demands even though I’ve really lowered the bar after 2 kids ,a dog and poor health …

And yes it’s like maintaining your weigh after you’ve lost a bunch . It has to be a daily constant effort , new habits that become automatic and hopefully changing what you bring in in the first place . I’m pretty merciless nowadays but sentimental is my Achilles heal . I’m not aiming for an empty house though and we have space so things in kids memory boxes that tug my heart strings and I want to still look at and hold in my hands I’m years to come can stay and useless crap nobody cares about or needs can go … it’s hard work but gets easier when you’ve made the initial purge but I do think you kind of need to try to do lots quite quickly or you’ll end up living in clutter forever just chipping at it little by little not really making a big difference but maintaining that level of the clutter . So if you want a clearer living space you’ve got to do a proper sweep through whole areas I find just empty the whole space you are doing look though every item in it , clean the space and only put back what u really want to keep . This work for me anyway …

I've had mixed success with vacuum bags. You really need the little plastic clip thing, just pinching it closed won't cut it. They also fail fairly promptly. Useful when storing masses of baby clothes, but now I'm past that I won't bother buying any more.

I went through the colouring box and got rid of the run out felt tips and some crayons that were just useless.

I can't drive either so I am also limited for bulkier items. I should try listing on a buy nothing group actually, that's a good idea. We have a bedside cot which needs to go. Here in Germany, there is 1 or 2 days a year where you can put all your crap outside on the pavement, the neighbours pick out anything they want and the next morning a big rubbish truck comes and takes the rest away. It's absolutely brilliant but ours is always in January and the weather is crap! I've got rid of some of the bulkier baby items that way, though.

I am struggling to pass on baby clothes because I don't know anyone with younger children and for whatever reason I can't bring myself to donate them. I was vinted-ing them all but it takes forever. It is fun though and I like getting the money so perhaps I should start that again. I've now seen a local Signal group for baby and children's stuff, thinking whether I should join that? I don't have Signal so I am loathe to introduce a new (clutter!!) app.

@IndianSummer78 hmm which areas of your house are you decluttering? If you are doing lots of papers etc it's a bit of a never ending swamp because more will always come in - and it's quite thankless work unless you do big folders in one go etc.
When I first started in 2019 I focused on the areas that bothered me most and where I spent most of my time in. For me, those were the kitchen and my wardrobe. It made a big difference fast as pots, pans and crockery are big and take up a lot of space. I left paper and storage items last. After kitchen and clothes, I did the bathrooms and I really felt a difference. I did the 30 day decluttering challenge then and almost all of mybitems came from my bathroom. I was pretty shocked.

Do you have any large items to get rid of, furniture,furnishings, big winter coats or boots, big games/kids toys etc? Those make a visible difference fast

@BertieBotts you can always download the app and delete it if it doesn't work for you. Or delete another app in its stead

Try bundling the least favourite baby items you have and donating them online. I think Germany has great recycling systems and a second hand clothes market, and that might make you feel better. See how you feel when a bag of stuff leaves your house in one go - the relief might give you the push to let go of some of the other items. Do it a layer at a time. Bet you have some baby items you didn't much like in the first place!

Interesting thanks

the bags had a big clip which you ran along the top like a zip lock bag, it didn't seem to be doing much to be fair. is that what you mean?

I have already got rid of so much stuff that I actually found it stressful. In February and March I basically went around and collected up all the old clothes (I have 3 DC, 14, 4 and 1.5) and outgrown toys and a load of other stuff - board games, DVDs, books, dressing up stuff, the bedside cot, the newborn buggy, my old clothes from before the last 2 pregnancies. I sorted it all and did a flea market hoping to make some cash. Got DS1 to do it with me. But it turned out that there was another, larger flea market happening on the same day and the one I did wasn't well advertised so very few people came. I sold probably about 8-10 things and made about €25 which was better than nothing, but I was left with basically everything. I had thought that whatever was left over, I'd just stick it all in the car and get DH to drive it to the big donation centre but even though I put the 2 binbags of adult clothes directly in the clothes recycling bin and the books in the book share box, there was no way everything else would fit in the car. We have a big SUV/estate thing with a huge boot and managed to get everything but the cot, buggy and clothes, it was about 6x blue IKEA bags full, and I kept back the English language DVDs and books. So we dropped it all off but I couldn't sleep that night thinking about things I could have/should have kept to get rid of another way, a camera that I could have sent to my mum, toys that I had only taken to the sale as a way to make extra money that I could have sold elsewhere. I still have thoughts/pangs about some of them occasionally! Like today I went to declutter an English-speaking musical toddler toy and I remembered that I'd at some point had a plan to offer all the English speaking musical toys on the local English speakers' site. This is ridiculous because we still have plenty of English speaking electrical toddler toys which will be outgrown in time.

It wasn't so bad. When we moved to Germany I had completely procrastinated on clearing the house and was in denial about how much stuff there was. After clearing some to my mum's and doing a car boot, paying for furniture clearance and packing/shipping 25 boxes, we still had 60 bin bags that we just ended up leaving out on the street (our former neighbours informed us they did get taken by the binmen thank God) and as we were driving away at 3 in the morning to catch our flight I saw a man rooting through the rubbish bags with a torch. That just felt so so awful. I had nightmares and stress dreams about it for 3 months until they went away.

I cope much better with getting rid of small amounts of things little and often and will continue to do that going forward, it's getting rid of mass amounts of stuff in one go I find really really hard. I think the stress and upset about it for a few days is probably just the price that I have to pay for the stuff getting out and it is worth it ultimately.

I do have a plan for the clothes - I will sort them into sizes (which they mostly are already, so won't take so long) and create bundles. Anything outside of a bundle can go to the clothing bin (they get sold and recycled depending on condition) and the bundles I thought I'd offer on the nursery chat but ultimately either Vinted them or clothing bin or take to the donation place.

It's a messaging app like Whatsapp and I know once I'm on it I'll end up having to join the local community groups and it just opens a can of worms I'm not sure I even want 😆I don't know.

Nordic and Pigtails thanks so much for the words of wisdom, I really appreciate it. My biggest issue is being a shopaholic. The main thing that'll make the biggest difference to me is to stop bringing stuff in. I'm tackling that this year and I think it's all tied in with decluttering too. I'd previously thought of them as separate things but now think they're the flip side of the same coin. So I'm not just decluttering, I'm actually having a major life overhaul and trying to change my mindset. Thankfully it's slowly working! That's why it's so useful to hear how others go about their lives and to see the lists of what's jettisoned and why. It challenges my perception that I should keep everything.

The other thing it's all tied in with is kindness. I'm kind to others but less so to myself, I've realised. Eg I can now donate too small clothes. Previously I'd have felt compelled to wear them for a season at least, even if they were uncomfortable and I had others that fit, purely to justify their purchase by getting some wear out of them. Sounds crazy, I know! If I focus not on the item's purchase price but on being kind to myself, I'm not going to make myself wear uncomfortable things.

Pigtails it's the whole place, every category of possessions. You're right about the bulky items and I have got rid of a few. One thing I've done is to make peace with not selling anything. I'm recycling, binning or donating now. It speeds up the process and takes away the stress of selling. I do feel better when a donation bag is filled up and I can drop it off.

Bertie I'm the same as you. I've done cluttered to minimalist in one fell swoop before. I loved it! Ultimately though, all that happened was I repurchased it all over the next few years. Not the exact same things, but similar. Subconsciously I wasn't ok with it, I can't have been if I repurchased and ended up back in the same situation as before. So I've had to accept that I'm a minimalist-with-collections. If that isn't a thing I've just invented it! It's why I can't do a massive sweep of an area in a short space of time like others can. I have to think carefully and do a little at a time. I have to be certain decluttering an item is the right thing to do. I've found it does get easier with practice and I'm a lot more ruthless than I used to be in many areas and less ruthless with sentimental items after having past regrets. I keep adding new rules all the time eg clothes that are bobbled or stained can go, clothes too big/small can go, toys where they've not been played with for a year can go, where there's multiples of the exact same item the least favourite one can go etc.

Yes, you squeeze it and run it along the top, it makes a crackling sort of noise.

Sorry, that was meant to be for @seperatedmum

I need to go through my food cupboards again but atm not feeling great and can’t do bending or lifting so it’ll have to wait . In general have to rest while kids still at home to help me . Tomorrow they’ll go back to school . I have a feeling I need to declutter more but I’ll just have to try to do admin etc less physical stuff for now . Maybe I’ll do the clean laundry folding tonight or tomorrow then there’s some outs from that I’m sure .

See, I am not minimalist at all, I have no desire to be minimalist. I actually follow a group on FB called Maximalist Home Design - it's funny and colourful and fun and I really enjoy it.

I don't really have an aim to get rid of as much stuff as possible, but I do need to get my stuff down to a manageable level.

thanks. all I can do is try them a third time 🫠
funnily enough eldest and I just did a DIY vacuum storage bag and it lasted over a week 🤔

Yeah, I think the root cause of the clutter needs to be tackled first...I say that and I've just brought quite a bit of stuff to my house!

Decluttered over the weekend:
Handful of broken pegs
Kids puzzle
Sticker book, full up
Plastic cup
Roll of low-tac tape
Gift bag of kids treats for a party
Expired candy
Unidentified plastic toy
Broken coathanger
6 outgrown kids tops to a friend
Plus sold a blanket on vinted!

Total of 671

Tackled some paperwork today.

• 10 leaflets to recycling
• 3 water bill accounts for old addresses shredded
• 4 electric bill accounts for old addresses shredded
• 1 investment account that was closed years ago shredded
• 1 pension account weeded and shredded the unnecessary bits
• 2 payment cards cut up and binned

Total is 543

Handful of small plastic bits and pieces from the DC's bedroom in the bin, plus one of the bags for textile recycling has actually left the house. Two to go still sitting taking up space in the hallway. More stuff coming in as the girls need some new gingham dresses for school (have actually opted for gingham playsuits which are much more practical), DS needs some new polo shirts etc, but that's life.

I changed the duvet for a lighter one on Sunday and put the winter feather one into a vacuum storage bag - so far it's holding, although I did give it the full suction power of the Henry so I should bloody well hope so! When the summer one was in storage it did explode after a few weeks, so maybe it needs to be topped up every so often.

Very long day and I got annoyed at uncomfortable knickers so into the bin they went. 672.

Actually I got annoyed by a lot of stuff today: a moisturiser which had a third left but smelled off; and a lush soap bar which felt sticky and had annoying seeds in it. Finally chucked both. Really tried using them but just couldn't get on with them.
So 674.

A few things today :
-1 old medicine
-3 DH trousers he never wears are finally going
-1 DH old shirt
-6 pieces of old stationary
-2 metal boxes from stationary to recycling
-1 bookmark
-1 pair of DD old school trainers
-2 old wooden spatulas
-2 broken hand soap dispensers
-1 old toilet brush
Earmarking a bobbly woolly blanket , I think it’s time for it to go , unpractical with kids and a dog since it can’t even be hand washed just dry cleaned and we have others .

Oh and an annoying faulty remote control is gone although will be replaced . I’m still celebrating seeing the back of it , I don’t know why I haven’t looked for a new one before .

A large mirror gifted and a item of kids clothing posted off via Vinted.