Decluttering Thread 5 - Slowly Does It

[Pigtailsandall]

We filled the previous thread quickly! I'm still in the middle of my annual leave and working through my old sentimental items so I need to keep the momentum going! It's taking ages.

@incessantnamechanger
@EllieQ
@nordicmum
@IndianSummer78
@Realfastfoodie
@nordicmom
@CornedBeef451
@thingshavegottogo

@stealthninjamum
@pissedoffneighbour22

Sorry for anyone I missed! Hope you find us!

14 more cardboard boxes recycled. Total is 1112

Some great progress everyone. I’m starting to let myself bin things a bit more, and not just obsessively try to find reuse/recycle options. So my totals have gone up a bit as I did a big tidy and sorted out some things. Some things are better, some are worse, but at least the number is going up!

6 kitchen declutter - let myself bin some ramekins rather than finding new homes
9 general rubbish and broken things
1 sold shelf (not needed)
Plus a few bags of general rubbish and bits and pieces that I’m not going to count as they should have been binned before now.

141 total for august
983 total

Two or three bags of stuff for charity / recycling from the loft now piled up downstairs too for taking out tomorrow.

Well done @IncessantNameChanger @IndianSummer78 @PissedOffNeighbour22

Thanks for that. Yes really useful.

I liked watching the Marie London method on TV but I don't have time for that. I need to be able to do a little bit at a time like a drawer one day or one child's clothes one day, the next a bathroom drawer because working full time and three kids and managing everything takes over.

At the moment I would love to declutter but summer holidays with kids at home and working defo ain't the right time! I started working today at 11 am until 11pm!! So manic work day and will be for the next two weeks so maybe I should get my work stuff out of the way and delcutter my to do list at work first!

Gosh so much to do in every area of my life.

I tried selling on Shpock and loads of scam artists trying to get you to email them.

Do you have to post via Vinted or can they collect?

Has anybody done a car boot sale to get rid of everything?

I want to see what I can sell first before giving to charity because when on maternity I managed to get rid of loads and make over £2k!!

But that was 2017... Seems harder to sell these days even though there is a cost of living off crisis you would have thought people wanted to buy second hand

Vinted is all posting I'm afraid. Have you tried FB market place?

Carboots can be fun but be prepaired to make peanuts ( I would just buy more toot so not for me. I love them!)

Vinted is posting but mostly by Evri - we have an evri shop really close by open 6am-9pm so I have turned off Royal Mail as a posting option - we only have a post office van that visits for 2 hours a week. Or royal mail collection is really easy too these days.

Big things sell on marketplace round here but slowly. Have had things listed for 8-10 months that sold eventually - e.g. parts for specific pushchair.

Reached 1,006 outs selling a few baby clothes BNWT on Vinted. Don't think I'll hit 2,023 this year but i keep trying.

Also meant to say manicmum have you looked at A Slob Comes Clean. She has a technique for decluttering without making more mess. It's worked brilliant for me.

Can’t remember if I have posted on this new thread yet but decluttering has taken a bit of a back seat for now as we’ve been on holiday. I did take an
old swimming costume and some holey/stained nightwear with the intention of binning them, which I did, but we have an overseas holiday booked for October, so a lot of the outgrown summer clothes which I would usually chuck at this point will be hanging around for a while longer.

I got rid of some outgrown uniform bits when school first broke up but need to see if September is warm enough to carry on wearing summer uniform when they go back. If not there’ll be a few gingham dresses I can get rid of which won’t fit next year.

In this type of situation I would just try and set yourself up with a bag for sell and one for charity/recycling on each floor and work towards filling them.

One of the guys in this group recommended trying to find just one thing each day. You don’t need to spend long, just find one thing. You can increase that to 2 or 3 if 1 becomes easy.

I don’t count anything until it actually leaves the house, otherwise I’m at risk of just collecting junk.

I can’t be bothered with selling much to be honest @ManicMum2023 @Jellycatrabbit… it’s not usually worth it for me. But I use vinted and Royal Mail collect service when I do.

FB for big stuff /furniture is good though

When I first started, I just donated stuff- used to put it up by the roadside or take to the charity shop. Sometimes I'd list a ton of stuff on local FB groups to give away for free.

Now that I have less stuff and more headspace, I sell. It takes longer but obviously you make money (though not much) and I feel like it's more sustainable as things are actually going to use. But when I first started, I started with the "low hanging fruit" which was less great stuff anyway. Now I have the higher-quality stuff left over.

It's easy for stuff to just linger in boxes and bags after you make piles to declutter, so make an exit plan for your stuff. I used to pass our local charity shop on Thursdays as that's when DC had their swim class, so often I would pick up stuff on a Wednesday night and it gave me a little push to find a few more items to take

As for decluttering, I let go of an eyeliner I didn't like (Finally, It had been in my makeup bag for ages) and a very ragged play tent in DC room. It's a big out - I hated it and it wasn't being played with

Total is 1404.

I have a few furniture items to sell too, plus our pram but I need to find the time to take decent pics and list them. I find the big items so hard to declutter, it's such an effort, whereas a bag of charity stuff is comparatively easy

I dropped 5 bags of stuff off to the charity shop today. This included a sleeping bag that had been sitting in my hallway for ages and I didn't know what to do with it. The shop could always get rid of it for rags.

Does anyone find that they have a charity shop that they always donate to?

My dad very kindly dropped 3 charity bags for me this AM - loft clearance handmedowns. Another 35 things. 🎉🎉🎉

176 total for august
1018 total

Kind of cheating, but getting things out of the house

116 out today. So 288 so far August. The goal will be beating July's 500 outs. Its looking doable I think.

I still have multiple bags of hand me downs I was hanging onto from the kids to sort. One they are done I have three draws in one of kids rooms I have no idea if it's hand me downs or to grow into. Just going to concentrate on these last get areas.

Then it might be going area by area which I'm less fond of, so I might do the coats instead.

Doing well now, still hating the desisions!

@IncessantNameChanger you are doing incredibly! Has your declutterer come back? Sounds like you didn’t need one after all. I’m sorry that you still have hard decisions even at your mums.

I haven’t really done a huge amount of decluttering and stopped carrying The Bag of Crap around with me so the house has got a bit untidy. Dd1 had someone over for a sleepover about two days ago so there is a pile of extra washing that I am stepping over rather than doing!

I have found two of my summer dresses to go. I haven’t worn them all summer. Also a pair of trousers that dd2 doesn’t like and one of her t shirts. This morning I sold a big craft set that had been sitting in my wardrobe for about 5 years as I think my cleaner must’ve put it there to hoover and I never moved it. I’ve also chucked out a dead plant and put its pot in the charity shop bag.

Every time I post I say I’m going to do the playroom but I just can’t be bothered. I think I’m going to buy some ready meals for the next few days because I’ve been spending a lot of time cooking and tidying up afterwards so perhaps if do ready meals or even pasta and ready made pesto it’ll save some time so I can declutter.

Wow wow wow @IncessantNameChanger that’s a seriously impressive daily total.

Yes @stealthninjamum - ready meals are a godsend as is batch cooking!

One jacket too tight and one pair of jeans won't even do up. Total is 1114

Did a quick sort of the DC clothes - a mini one before the proper autumn one. Immediately everything clearer. A pile for the loft. a pile for the charity bag.

Decided to let go of two more pairs of fabulous jeans. They're only a little too tight so I may well fit back into them. I have so much though and they don't fit now so after a few weeks of dithering I've added them to the charity bag. Also out is two more empty cardboard boxes. Total is 1118

Do you get deduct items from your grand total when things come into the house like post or leaflets or clothes and grocery shopping if you are not replacing an item which has finished.

@ManicMum2023 - no I don’t, but I don’t count things I’m directly replacing, nor do I count ordinary rubbish that should have been binned, long standing piles of crap are different though. Some people are doing outs minus ins though I think.

There’s no competition here, do what works for you. My suggestion though, is if you know you have a problem with the number of things coming in, then maybe counting them will spur you to get rid as they come in and/or buy less.

This is brave. I think there is a genuine sense of peace for me coming from only having things that actually fit me in my drawers/wardrobe. The peace is worth more than the future option of jeans or anything else.

That really is a shift in mindset @IndianSummer78 I do need to look again at my wardrobe. It's for the life I want. Not the life I have. I never got out expect for coffee or walks with friends. I do a craft club. Cooperate job but not worked in years.

I might be brave and rather do the entire wardrobe, look just at my "out, out" clothes. I never go out since covid. Not one evening at a pub except school mums Christmas drinks and a 50th birthday meal. What kind of tops do I need really? 5? Less?

Might do that today.

I could do my Christmas sparkly jumpers I was joking my sister I have a glittery jumper for every day in November and December. How many do I need? I wear one volunteering at the school Christmas fair. One on Christmas and boxing day. There's no Christmas works drinks for me