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!!

Dumped the stuff. Woop.

well I've sort of 'turned over' some things while away;
bed and mattress gone and replaced
2 dishwashers gone only 1 coming in
1 pair of boots not the runners going to family but will be replaced
I did refuse to buy unremarkable toy bits today so that's good 👍🏽

A few more bits out:
-2 pairs of trampoline park socks
-2 more travel toiletries
-1 packet of expired vitamins
-2 more broken pyjama bottoms of mine

I need to get back to proper decluttering. This week I looked out earrings for pierced ears which I don't even have, and gave the cheap and cheerful stuff to adult DD to wear or donate as she pleases.

I've set aside about a dozen ancient pairs of glasses in the hope that they can be donated at the optician's.

Also bagged up expired meds for pharmacy.

Really just skimming the surface atm. But I'm planning to start shredding the old vehicle paperwork later when the noise won't bother anyone. Maybe that will give me the impetus to keep going.

Morning, can I join please? I'm constantly drowning in clutter, but struggle to get stuff sorted/out due to time constraints and not having a car. Current goal is to sort out my bedroom, as my patents have just moved and returned to me 2 boxes of my old crap that I need to sort through.

New joiners welcome @GlumyGloomer ! I don't have a car either as I live quite centrally in London, so I put things on freecycle/FB buy nothing groups, and take a small bag to charity shop at times. It is doable but just over a longer period - and sometimes not having a car is a good thing because then it just ends up sitting in the car for ages!!

I've not done much decluttering recently, but apart from a few more big boxes I'm more at a maintenance level now. Out went another item sold on Vinted, a ragged colouring book, a sample face balm and 2 lots of papers - one to recycling, another to shredding. I'm at 655 now and I need to start on the problematic storage spaces next. Vinted sales have definitely slowed down too.

Well, Thursday came and the Warden visited. To my surprise she said I had done well, though still much to do. I had managed to chuck a bathroom scale that was under the bed and also the one in the bathroom had stopped 5orking ages ago so I chucked that as well. Trying to be tough on clothes and chucked some .

She is coming next week to see the progress and give me some info on storage companies.

Hi @Pigtailsandall , thanks for the welcome. I've just signed up for vinted, will hopefully have better luck than on gumtree, which I got throughly fed up with last time I was on a decluttering drive.

I've discovered amoung the stuff from my parents house 2 pumice stones I nicked from my college geology department 😳. Wondering if I should anonymously post them back (it's been 20 years, lol)

I‘be been too busy to actively declutter but I am very mindful about clutter these days and am much better about putting things away straight away or throwing them away so they never become clutter. we went away and as soon as we got home I shredded hotel, flight and travel insurance documents (these usually sit in a bag for 2 years!), shredded post, locked the passports away, moved the contents of my rucksack back into my handbag etc. I’ve just about finished the washing so tonight I’ve got time to sort through some Lego and playmobil. I’m going to set a timer for 30 minutes. I put a few sets for sale a few weeks ago so I need to take them to a charity shop. I am finding hard to give them away because in the past they’ve always been easy to sell at a good price.

I am also intending to collect up all our winter accessories to declutter them, then put them away from for the summer - or if I do that will it mean we get snow?

A small but significant win for me today. Received a gift catalogue from a charity I support. Usually it sits around while I ponder what to buy and eventually spend £20-100. This time I looked around, realised I didn't need anything at all, so I read the newsletter and recycled it with the gift catalogue, envelope and order form. I feel a little guilty for the charity but I already support them regularly anyway and my home doesn't need any more stuff

Total is 494

A few more:

• one pair of too small jeans
• one pair of faded leopard print jeans that were never really "me"
• one hoodie that drags back against my throat making me feel constricted

Total is 497

Sold the pram bassinet on Marketplace! It's been listed since last summer and I'd almost forgotten it was up - its an unusual one so needed the right buyer.

Listed 2 big bundles of kids clothes (the size below the size dd has just grown out of) but a few stained items went straight in the fabric recycling (about 5 out of hundreds).

Loads of pens are running out and going straight in the bin as soon as they stop working. This is a big thing for us!

Bundled up some toys and books to go but can't let go of them yet. Giving it time.

Progress has slowed, up to 586 for the year compared to 500 at the beginning of March.

Keep on chipping on everyone!

I've started weekend 3 of decluttering.

So far I've filled a few bags of recycling, started going through the kitchen drawers, and plan to do one kids room and bathroom today.

Getting the next load ready for the tip/some for charity etc. Will update later with my list!

4 listings on vinted so far, we shall see. More things to upload. Bit depressing thinking about how fat and boring I am, but if I can actually shift the pile of clothes that will be an improvement.

3 large items gone out via freecycle plus a small boxed item.

370/2023

Can I join in? We recently moved into our 'forever home' and consequently there's quite a bit of detritus from previous houses to declutter!

I am trying to list a few things on FB Marketplace, Olio or Vinted each weekend - struggle a bit with juggling work with getting stuff posted.

@RidingMyBike I'm suffering through this too. Even though we moved in 2yrs ago it's still horrendous (renovation project) and looks like we moved in yesterday.
I can't believe we didn't de-clutter before we moved. We didn't even know we owned so much stuff 🤯.
We're slowly going through things as we get time but it doesn't seem to go down.

Good luck with your decluttering!!

Oh dear! We did declutter before we moved - both times as we've moved twice in 18 months but there's still loads of stuff! At least our renovation was before we moved in...

Partly DD has grown (this really shouldn't surprise me - but she was still playing with DUPLO before the first move!). Partly big change in lifestyle and we weren't sure what we'd need in our new location. Partly DH doesn't like clutter(!) so tends to shove things into cupboards without sorting them. So a lot of cupboards got emptied into boxes, which then got stored during the first (temporary) move and have now re-emerged.

So far I've sorted out all of DD's outgrown clothes, put a load on Olio in size bundles and these went really quickly. I have a plastic box of the 'better' brands ready to sell once I have the energy. And I haven't done outerwear yet.

I've also got rid of most of the emptied boxes from the move and done a trip to the charity shop with unwanted crockery type stuff.

Ds bike was sold on Fb the other day also shelves that were listed for free were also collected. More went in to the charity box including some dvds and the box, bag of clothes and duvet all went to charity shop today. It’s nice to see bits going out.

4 out of 13 things listed on vinted have sold!

We did 3 moves in 2 years, with zero decluttering, so all the crap just got shuffled. Been in our current house for three and a half years and still drawing in crap. Doesn't help that we have minimal furniture and everything just lives in stacks on all available surfaces...

I wonder at what point I'll notice a big difference? I'm amazed I've got rid of 518 things since the start of the year. So why does it not look any clearer?

I also can't believe the things I bother to bring with me when I move. I unpack them and think why?

Out today is 3 pairs of too big trousers, a curtain rod and 17 empty boxes

We also moved twice in about 18 m which was exhausting but it did help with the decluttering . I did start going through our attic etc a few years prior and sifted trough everything really both times but we had also put a bunch of baby and kids things etc we weren’t going to need short term into a storage locker while we lived in a rental , sold our old house and waited for our new one to be built . Once in this new house for a while we emptied the storage and I threw away about 3/4 at least. Now I still have 6 boxes left in the attic to deal with ;4 from the storage of kids school books and memory boxes and 2 of China and crystal in moving boxes that I will repack into plastic storage boxes . Otherwise the attic is all sorted and labelled . Sure I can reduce it in the years to come when I feel ready to let go of more but I’d say we are now into the maintenance other than for those 6 boxes , and this is a life long thing. I will try to keep on removing things we don’t need as I see them on daily bases ( and thinking about things more before buying anything ) and going through whole sections once or twice a year to keep on top of it .

A few things today:
-2 travel toiletries
-1 pair of DD old trainers
-3 old water bottles to recycling
-1 DD engineering box used up
-4 old pillows
-1 old microfibre rag

One thing that has really helped was during the hideous period when we were paying rent and mortgage and trying to keep outgoings as low as possible. I worked my way through all the toiletries and used them up rather than buying new. Think I only bought a deodorant in that time!

It's cleared out some stuff, saved us money and made me think what I actually need to buy in the future!

I'm back now, relevant question; what am I doing wrong with vacuum storage bags? I tried them 12 years ago following all instructions to the letter with the help of then-husband, few hours later the bags are full of air again

fast forward to now I order some on Amazon and try again myself different new hoover same result

I JUST DONT GET IT????

it would be so useful to use them so any ideas? thanks

Separated that's frustrating with the vacuum storage bags. I've never used them so I cat help, sorry!

Riding it's amazing how little you can live on when you have to. I'm working my way through my toiletries stash too.

Nordic I'm in awe of how much you get rid of and yet you're mostly at maintenance decluttering. It's making me realise why I've got so much stuff. It's built up because I haven't been doing the maintenance decluttering for a log time. I'm understanding now how I need to make decluttering a way of life, not a one-off project, otherwise it'll build up again.

Going today is:

• one empty box to recycling
• one pair of no longer needed sports boots to donate
• two bits of paper from the front of the fridge

Total is 522