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!!

Hope I’m not too late to join in.

I’ve just found out we’re moving next July. Seems ages away but the house is absolutely rammed with stuff and the less to pack the better!

Welcome @Jaberwockky and @Floralgizelle - I’m new too and it is really helpful to start the counting thing and post here!

@IncessantNameChanger - I’m so sorry to hear about your mum. Thinking of you.

@IncessantNameChanger Im so sorry about your mom ! Big hugs 🤗!

@IncessantNameChanger my condolences. That's so sad. Wishing you strength and calm.

@Jaberwockky welcome, always room for more keen declutterers!

I finally dropped off a bulky plastic toy to a playgroup. Been meaning to do that for ages. Also got rid of a magnetic board thing and a broken toy food bit

889 items down

@IncessantNameChanger I hope you’re as well as can be in the circumstances. If taking clothes to a recycling point is easier, go for it. I feel in times like this you need to make life as easy for yourself as possible

Thank you @Pigtailsandall and @Realfastfoodie for the warm welcome 😊

I’ve decided at the moment that taking a room at a time is probably the best approach for me. I’m attempting to sort the bathroom first.

Today:

13 empty bottles in the recycling
6 shower gels/lotions/sheet masks I won’t use - these will go in the food bank trolley when I next pass or my friend who works with a women’s charity.
And uses 1 foot peel thing. My feet stink of nail varnish remover.

Need to work through all the remaining toiletries.

Total is 20 so far 😁

Oooh @Jaberwockky -unneeded toiletries to the food bank - amazing suggestion. Will get on that!

@IncessantNameChanger so sorry to hear about your mum.

Just ticking over here as some refurb works are ongoing but taking much longer than we had thought. Im certainlyfed up of dust and noise.

@Realfastfoodie it’s an easy way to get them to a person who will appreciate and get some use from them

If anyone fancied the extra leg work charities that work with women on probation like LAT and Advance generally are really appreciative of unwanted toiletries, baby/children’s items, women’s clothing etc.

@IncessantNameChanger I'm so sorry to read about your mum.

DP's dad was in hospital for a number of weeks and he's a terrible hoarder. He has finally convinced his dad that the house needs organising. He took 5 bags of books to charity yesterday, filled the recycling bin and took some stuff to the dump. A couple of bottles of booze came our way.
This spurred me on so have stuff ready to go. Old towels which I will take where I volunteer and a couple of games/puzzles to a 2nd hand toy shop which I need to book an appointment to drop off.

well I've decluttered Twitter, only ever used it for arguing with strangers pre-Covidjust went on it for help now then it locked my account 🤬goodbye Twitter 👋🏽

Sad news Incessant, RIP to your mum. Stay strong. The numb feeling helps you get through the practicalities

I'm getting rid of Facebook tallsmall it'll be a relief not to feel sad about people who have left my life every time I look on it. I don't use it now and haven't for years now that I've fallen out of love with buying/selling second hand

Welcome to the newbies 🙂

One out yesterday, a stained shirt. Total is 458

@IndianSummer78 hard relate. as I've said in another thread the negative of being off social media's is I don't get to do my hobbies in a group anymore but the positives are I don't have to see "whatshername is free she just doesn't want to meet up with me " I just don't need that 🥺 I did look back on FB accidentally a few times when you get signed in to stuff via FB and I nearly looked at my "memories" but I didn't fancy being triggered.
in a sling for DC's arm too small going straight back out

Thank you for the welcome.
Sorry to hear about your mum @IncessantNameChanger.

So technically I havent declutted my house today MIL father died a few weeks back and the wake will be held at her home. So been there to help tidy/clean up... now wondering why I can't apply the same motivation to my own home. Although with small children running around making mess as they go I'm using that as my excuse. Going to have a chip away at one of the boxes that needs doing in the dinning room and have listed an old pushchair on selling sites to hopefully get more space when that goes. 😀

I think facing the reality that I'm soon going to have the task of clearing my mum's house, I need to wake up that if I was die suddenly no one would find anything. I'm dreading clearing mums house but hopefully there is no rush as she owned and we have taken a good 90% of anything valuable or sentimental in case it gets broken into. I wanted to leave all the photo frames etc as the kids want to go down again.

The boys pjs was a nice visual win so I'm sure this will be a good distracting time to make another big push.

@IncessantNameChanger forgive me if it's insensitive but have you thought of using house clearance?

We bought from an elderly widower who couldn't face clearing his house and left it all for us to find on completion day. Thankfully we weren't planning to move in on the same day! He ended up paying for us to get house clearance in - they were excellent, kept to one side anything that looked like paperwork/photos etc, sold anything that could be (this was deducted from the amount we were charged), anything that could be was sent to a charity shop they had connections with or was recycled, and anything left went to the tip.

I don't think I could face a house clearance. I'm a bit of a hoarder so either me, sis or dh will have to eyeball everything. I think some of the furniture will have to go via house clearance but I'm going to swop out everything I can keep. My house is furnished with nearly everything second hand so it's no biggie to throw out say my daughters dressing table our Tennant left to make room for mums. It will reasonably painful but I can't take too long either. My sister won't tolerate me being hoarder ish. But to allow that I'm going to have to brutal with my own stuff. My mum wouldn't move to a more suitable house due to her dinning table so I have to keep that. My own was bought off my mate so that can go on free cycle

@IncessantNameChanger - I’m a bit the same way. If it’s old and with memories, especially family, it’s special.

Sounds like you’ve got a balanced approach and really sensible. I will just say, try to set yourself free from obligation. The table inconvenienced your mum, that doesn’t mean you are obligated to have it, it means you should consider really carefully if you want it. A really hard job, I’m thinking of you.

Pretty successful declutter yesterday.

7 cardboard boxes. No idea why I’d kept them.
A pile of shredding I’ll count as 1.
4 gifted baby outfits and a photo frame - all unused. Feel bad donating gifts but they aren’t to our taste at all, and white clothes for weaning DS who only currently likes broccoli just seems to be creating work for myself.

I debated getting rid of a couple of really nice ceramic jars that once had candles in them, then a quick Google showed me it was actually quite easy to take some cuttings off of one of my house plants so they’re being used as (assuming that the cuttings take!) plant pots.

Slight slip up yesterday - I ordered a dress for me, and the kids three new books. I’m trying to be one out/one in, so will have a quick look through the kids books today and I already have a black bag of pre-DS2 clothes upstairs to go to the clothes recycling point. I’m attempting a capsule wardrobe and need to massively slim down what I have.

Total is now 32 😊plan to sort the wardrobe and standard Sunday stuff and playing with DC garden. Hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine.

Well done @Jaberwockky, great stuff.

I didn’t do any decluttering today, but just normal stuff taking the bins out and a small jobs. However I did have a big success and managed to avoid buying anything this weekend despite there being some temptation!

No extra ins is almost as good as more outs, right?

I didn't realise it was so long since I'd posted on here. A series of busy weekends have left me little time for decluttering and I seem to have had more ins than outs.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could do with old bottles of perfume? Obviously I could pour the perfume away (where - down the drain or is that not eco-friendly?) and put the empty bottles in the recycling, but does anyone have any better ideas? Two bottles are 30 years old or so and the other is much newer but one that I no longer like. Perhaps the old ones just need to be tipped away, but any suggestions for the newer one?

I've started a bag for the fabric recycling bin - just some old socks in there at the moment but I'll add to it over the next few weeks.

Nothing's actually left the house this weekend(!) but I have now got a bag labelled 'rag' with torn, stained etc clothes to go in, a pile of coat hangers to go to the hanger recycling bin at M and S (now just have to remember to take them!) and a pile of outgrown kid stuff to sell or put on Olio.

I've got some bits sorted and out this weekend including a bike and some clothes. Been having a sort through the conservatory so we can attempt to actually use it this spring/summer.

SIL took an item for her kids today. Her kids also used some stationery bits DD has outgrown and finished one thing. Only small but some outs as I've not had time to do anything.

Dumped two expired SIM cards today. Total is 460

Well of course I didn’t manage to do any proper decluttering while DD was gone . One if the tree days I had a self care appointment after which I had hope to be meeting a friend but she couldn’t so I went to movie by myself for a change and it was good for my mental health ! Then another day sadly my other friend cancelled my long awaited for lunch which was a bit depressing especially since they always get cancelled it seems . While she was gone I was just doing the daily housework, mountains of laundry and some admin plus the dog and DS was still home of course . We had his last school year prize giving in the weekend , so proud of him . Now it’s the serious studying for the exams starting in 2 w eeek !!!! The pressure is immense to get the grades he needs for his first choice . Results day in mid august can’t come fast enough but first a month of exams and then a graduation and road trip with a friend who’s moving far away for his Uni .
DS has promised to go through his room once exams are done so hopefully there’ll be some outs then .
Some jobs around the house are getting done but others have been delayed of course ( to me this ties in with the decluttering really since it’s metal decluttering of my to do list which makes me feel as good as the physical !) DH managed to finish putting up shelves into the second one of his garden sheds the bicycle one and ordered some hooks to hang bikes from as well . He’s installed the garden T watering hose system as well so that’s two thing done and scrubbed the outside of the veg boxes that were muddy and cleaned the car again that he just washed last weekend . We’ve washed most of DD stuff from her school trip but still need to clean her bag and wash the sleeping bag and a few other bits . One pair of shoes went already the second possibly or I’ll keep them for another dirty activity . Last week we received a broken replacement toilet seat so had to email about that and reorder one ,a bunch of broken plates I had to complain about to but have yet to reorder , also a wrong type of replacement kids handheld shower cord so have reordered a different type so these jobs are pending still annoyingly , need to still change the sofa covers and wash the spare set of them to store in attic . I have 5 clean laundry baskets to fold and we have all the weekly cleaning etc to do and managed to finally slip in my shower today and hurt the back of my leg so I’ve been out of action today . It’s not too bad thankfully nothing broke but it hurts to bend etc so can’t do everything so much now . Basically even more poorly that before when my hernia had just started acting up again so have finally booked my surgeon . DH also has constant issue daily so I’m hoping I’ll get him to go get a referral to a specialist . Thank god we have done our two moves etc since the daily life is now hard enough to manage with both of us struggling. I guess I’ll just have to prioritise and do most important bits for now .

A few bits going anyway :
-1 DD finished book
-1 my finished book
-1 used up mini hand cream I found from a handbag
-1 pair of old trainers
-1 DH stained pyjama shirt
-6 broken plates
-1 broken new toilet seat
-1 old toilet seat earmarked to go too
-1 old handheld shower head earmarked to go when the replacement arrives
-1 more DD bath bomb from our stash used up
-1 unwanted dog treat
-1 present for DD friend