Decluttering Thread 6 - hit those targets before New Year!

[Pigtailsandall]

So the last thread got filled up and I think I seem to have taken it on myself to start a new one every time, lol! I hope everyone finds us because I'm too lazy to tag everyone, but here's few who spring to mind. It also doesn't let me add some people, for some reason

@realfastfoodie
@IndianSummer78
@stealthninjamum
@cornedbeef451
@EllieQ
@Gassylady
@IncessantNameChanger

@nordicmom
@Vinorosso74

Now it's the last push until the holidays to get it all out and done (before new cr*p comes in)

BTW all my kid Boden stuff was either second hand or bough in a sale 50% off. Still doesn't male it easy to part with.

A little early morning decluttering. One worn out bra to recycling and a baby vest that was never needed into donations pile. Total is 1862

I agree with @IndianSummer78 , the (slightly) longer days make a difference.

Especially with clothes or craft stuff - sometimes you need to be able to see the colours in daylight.

Also, I tend to find myself thinking that if it is dark it's basically nearly bedtime, so not worth starting something.

A local church is collecting for women's refuges again, so I'm having another purge to see what I can find.

I'm bad for hanging onto stuff "just in case", especially bags & clothes, so hoping to get rid of a few more.

I also have a pile of books that I've finished, so going to decluttering those to my friend's house next time I see her.

@ChampagneCommunist totally agree re the dark!

have exchanged some too small clothes for DS2
bought a new storage box for dog food
researched frame sizes for DS2’s posters - think I’ll give in and go with amazon
hoovered and stripped bed on spare room - bedding is washing, need it for MIL tomorrow
and bought some new Christmas lights lol -
🙄😂 - been looking for ages and they had some at the range when I was getting cat litter and storage box

Nothing out though, sticking at 213

@Gangshow I heard something on a podcast or YouTube a while ago about "just in case", which I adopted.

Amazon now looks and stores after all my "just in case" items for me. They will deliver them to me, for a "fee" the next day, when I need them.

Helps me!

Thanks guys. With all that helpful input about whether it’s worth keeping and selling later, I went on a rampage and got 39 things out of the house to go to charity I had been worrying about how to dispose of (selling, charity, olio). There is always part of me that worries about giving things to charity in case they end up in landfill, or the shop volunteers think they aren’t good enough etc, but I just bagged up a load of stuff and got it out. 39 things!! And there’s more to go. I’m going to list a few bits and get rid of anything that doesn’t sell quickly. Feeling really good thanks all!!

1 scooter
1 chesta draws was a neutral tho
1 broken lamp out to dump
that's about 19 bundles/items out this year

Returned an electric throw to Amazon (DP's unwanted Christmas gift), and used up my airfryer box to send it back in. The throw box was quite a bit smaller than the air fryer box so I also used some of the plastic wrap from our new mattress to pad it out a bit - double decluttering!

Collected new glasses - not really an in as I have two pairs on the go and one has broken, so it's a replacement.

Sold 4 more things on Vinted. Another hard day for me in the life of SEN parenting. I'm trying to numb everything so I go through the motions and hopefully we survive the week

Thinking of you @IncessantNameChanger.

@IncessantNameChanger thinking of you, I haven’t had to go through what you have but I totally get how stressful being a parent of a SEN child can be. I’m expecting as my DD hits puberty and has to navigate secondary school in next couple of years things will get worse before they get better.

on the decluttering front I’ve had a good few days, decided to make a start on the play room and filled bag for bin of damaged toys and a bag that my mum took to update toys at her house (for when mine visit) and rest go to a friend who works at a school with a lot of families who will make use of items.

also 20 DVDs and books to charity shop. And lots of odd little bits got rid of.

total is now up to 781

still lots to do in play room to ensure toys are accessible and played with bit was a good start.

@IndianSummer78 I’ve been feeling like spring cleaning myself (not that I really do it in the way our parents did). I noticed my front door curtains looked dirty yesterday and was thinking they need to go to the dry cleaners soon. I also can’t remember when I last had our duvets washed. Before exh left I used to have more time to do that sort of more deep cleaning stuff.

my organise / declutter app keeps asking me to do the same bits I’ve already done and I am delighted with how quick some of it is. Today I got arts / crafts / stationery again which was great as I hadn’t finished it the other day. I threw out 13 pencils and pens and half a craft set. Tomorrow my job is to tidy the table we have in the crafts space which is good. We sort of have a library - at least I wanted it to be a library before my dc invaded it with arts and crafts so anything I can do to make it nicer makes me happy.

A few bits out :
-2 DD books
-1 my book
-1 old store loyalty card
-1 broken pen
-1 old hand gel
-5 grubby dog toys
-1 pair of DD small sweatpants
-1 pair DD leggings
-1 DD small hoodie
-4 DD small T-shirts
-1 DD crop top
-2 pairs of small pants
-3 pairs of old socks
-1 DD bath bomb used up

i have had a great day. Cleaned / tidied crafts table and decluttered 24 craft items - pens, pencils a cheap plastic pencil sharpener that is rubbish (we have three others now in the same drawer so I don’t know what I have kept it so long). I also found a robot money box. It gives a balance of the money that goes in and says it out loud. It needed new batteries that meant I had to find a screw driver and batteries. I think the battery drawer has had a load of used batteries so I ended up testing them in the robot and think I have some to recycle.

i also found an old fashioned wooden music box with a sticker for £3 and a charity shop. One of dc has bought it and taken it apart and painted it so we now have an ugly, large, broken wooden music box in the house!

so outs include 24 stationery items
1 robot money box
a few batteries that don’t count in my total

Total is 327. I’m delighted. Given that I’m ‘maintaining’ I still have crap appearing everywhere. I have enough for another 3 or 4 bags for the charity shop.

Decluttering over the last couple of weeks:

Bag of toys (previously counted) out to charity shop
4 more toys to donate after sorting another toy storage box
3 pairs too small leggings to charity bag (already have the next size up)
29 baby/ toddler board books to charity bag

Toys and books were sorted with DD, as I’m trying to involve her as much as possible and get her used to doing a regular declutter.

My January total is 337, which is high as I did two boxes of baby clothes and counted each item of clothing as one item rather than counting bags. It’s been interesting to read about other people’s decluttering ‘rituals’ - mine involves taking a photo of everything that leaves the house and counting individual items.

Finally did the sideboard I've been putting off instructed by Toss (only the top of it - it's been a busy week!) but got 11 things out. I do like the Toss app. It's not the order I'd planned to do things but they're such little jobs they're hard to resist. Wiped down a lamp that looked really dusty and did a tidy up too since I was on the phone whilst I went through it so thought I may as well.

Want to try and get the kitchen finally finished this weekend, but how many times have I said that now

Did two cupboards and one drawer.

(27, 28 &29 on my count).

I'm in awe of you guys!

Forgot my total . It was 487 for Jan and now 25 more so 512 now .

Thinking of you @IncessantNameChanger

In less important but still vary aggravating news, my MIL is here for a few days. I will be at work most of it thank goodness. But she has brought ‘stuff’ with her. Clearing out her house and filling mine 😡 giving random shit to DD who can’t resist. And asking DH if he’d like this or that. I don’t want any of it.
8 random little Chinese bowls she doesn’t need. Do I????

drives me nuts 🤯

out:
2 x holey pants
1 old DH jumper falling apart

213+3=216

I also decluttered the fluff blocking the washing machine filter, gross. Blocked by a pound coin and 2 reusable makeup wipes.

A pair of too small knickers binned. Total is 1863

Oh and MILs new thing seems to be, I shall leave this here for when I visit. Err, have you asked ever?

7 x socks from the odd sock basket binned/recycled with permission from said sock owners 😂

216+7=223

Toss gave me bedside cabinet. I emptied out the drawer and it is clear I have not done so for 10+ years.

About 8 straight to bin. Got to separate the recycling stuff next.

Found some writing I did at a really low time. Nothing has really changed; I just block stuff out better now.

Out today

• old pine bedside table
• old pine under-cabin-bed drawers

YTD Total 291

Been a while since I've updated as I've been ill but we've managed to get rid some bits. My DP also discovered that we owned 4 tumble dryers 🤦🏻‍♀️.

Out:
2 tumble dryers freecycled
8 eBay items sold and posted
Baby play centre sold
4 winter tyres sold
Set of drawers
Karaoke kit
Novelty headband
Doll
Belt
Large storage box
2 rolls of wallpaper

Total 220