Decluttering thread 7 - as the days lengthen we’ll feel more motivated to declutter

[stealthninjamum]

Sorry for the long thread title, I’ve just seen that the old thread has reached 1,000 posts.

For newbies this thread and the old one a day threads are for a group of mumsnetters who are decluttering. We’ll share tips and advice and inevitably the conversation moves on to organisation tips, pretty storage solutions and persuading our families to join in.

We’re all at different stages of decluttering so join us for support and chat.

I've tidied and cleared the bedroom over the last couple of weekends and it's looking so much better. Most of the things I've thrown out I haven't bothered counting.

I've also cleared a corner of the kitchen that seems to get used as a dumping ground. I've done 3 rounds of shedding too but there's still a huge box to do.

Also out:
A Christmas doormat I was fed up of seeing
Christmas lights that I had to prise out of DP's hand as he was going to 'rewire' them 🙄
A funnel for a dishwasher we got rid of
A picnic basket

Box of stuff packed up to be dropped off for we buy books: 8 dvds, 2 games, 1 book and 3 CDs.

Box of stuff packed up to be dropped off for music magpie: 18 CDs, 1 book, 1 Blu-ray, 9 dvds.

Total 515

After a great start in January (got rid of 337 items), my February total was 7. In my defence, it’s a short month and I was ill for about a week of it.

Had a clear out of the medicine cupboard (actually a drawer in the wardrobe) today as I was moving it to another shelf, which also had to be cleared/ reorganised. I’ve put an inflatable bath pillow in the charity bag as I never use it, threw out an old purse and some gel insoles that I never liked, and reorganised what was left to make space. Also got rid of 3-4 half used dressing kits (bin) and 5-6 out of date medicines (in bag to take to pharmacy).

This cleared one shelf in the side of the wardrobe I use to store linens, so my next task is to reorganise those and make it easier to get to the stuff we use the most.

I hope you are feeling better now.

One pair of trainers and two pairs of gloves gone. Total is 1928

i broke another wine glass. so that's gone.

took glass recycling to the place on Friday so that's another space cleared in the garage.

yesterday we planted out our potatoes and i tidied up in the garden for a bit. three huge buckets of weeds gone.

also bunched the bamboo canes together and moved a lot of tools and gardening things out to the sheds we have at the "back back" of our garden - we have a fence then have land of about another 3m behind that. we can't extend our garden as the land is used by all the other houses as shared back access. and we're the first house.... but we have used it nicely. bins and garden storage. and all secured on our side by a gate with a code (which all the neighbours have).

Thanks all for the documents tips, I think different things work for different people but in the end I got 5 files of stuff down to:

-one folder of current bills (it's a document folder with different sections so labelled for Gas & Electricity, Water, Council Tax, TV Licence, Car Insurance and Misc)

-one folder of all product manuals and receipts for big items relating to the house

-one lever arch folder with dividers for everything else. I have 9 categories: Health/Medical, ID docs (birth/marriage certs, driving licence, passport copies etc), Payslips and work docs, Pension docs, Tax docs, Mortgage, Qualification certificates, Finance & Misc

I also did a charity shop run and got rid of 3 hats, one tote bag, 2 black bin bags of clothes, 2 pairs of curtains, an unused mug, some flower hair clips, 2 hanging shoe racks, 3 books and 3 scarves. Haven't been counting this year but have got rid of a lot of stuff so far including 16 old photo albums and countless old photos as well as old scrap books and more sentimental items that were just hidden away. We are lucky to have a lot of storage in our house but I don't want to fall into the trap of filling it with stuff for the sake of it so having a big blitz now and it's so nice that everything has a place and is easily accessible but still more to do!

This morning I got rid of one pair of holey socks to recycling and one bottle of scented oil for an oil burner (which I don't have!) to donations pile. Total is 1930

I was owed some leave and as I know how to have fun on my day off, I have tackled the linen cupboard... I have filled three bin bags (am I the only one with more pillowcases than sheets?) and taken everything to Dunelm. Unlike my local textile bank, they accept duvets and pillows.

Also dumped some prehistoric electrics at Curry's. Overall, a good day's work, but nothing like what @BeanWriting is facing...three houses sounds like a nightmare!

I have 1 A4 arch lever file for me, for daughter, for partner & for house.

For the current year bills, documents, whatever, go into the relevant file in the right section.

At the end of the year, most get scanned onto Evernote and the originals destroyed.

Works for me

I wanted to thank @DifficultBloodyWoman for the recommendation of GeniusScan. I scanned a book cover earlier and it removed the shadow and looked fantastic. I’m going to see how it copes with some of the artwork I want to chuck out.

I’m still waiting for people to collect things, the main one is a charity to collect my old bookcase next week.

I’ve just spent half an hour chucking out art stuff and cards dc did like Mother’s Day cards. I was going through a box from the Room of Doom and I found loads of photos to file and things like a school report that could be filed, various certificates that can be thrown away, party invites that can be chucked and a few things to be saved. The box is a big cardboard one so I’ve taken it apart for recycling.

Out: 1 rotting pumpkin I found decomposing in the corner of the kitchen under some boxes, where DH left it after Halloween 😫😫😫

Finished Toss, so have restarted.

Got Bathroom Cabinet today & had a brainwave.

All the hotel room toothbrush/toothpaste sets and the razor/shaving gel sets went in the Food Bank box at the supermarket.

I took a huge bag of electrical recycling and batteries. 9 items if I count the batteries as 1.

I’m struggling to keep up with the thread a bit. Well done everyone. Really great progress from lots of people. Welcome new people - this is a really supportive thread.

I have found a good thing about selling stuff on vinted - it makes me pickier about what I buy so my balance doesn’t go down too much!

Thank you for pointing me to Dana K White, I'm getting so much from her ideas!
I'd be really grateful for any wisdom on the following dilemma. I could easily have missed a sensible answer.

DKW says "I'm decluttering not organizing" but I've come up against, I think, an organising question I need to answer in some fashion.

When I ask "Where would I look for this first?" about some things I come up with a place where I need to change the storage. Not because it's too small but because it's the wrong thing in the wrong place.

Marie Kondo advises to finish sorting ie decluttering first then think about storage. I like DKW's method because it stops my whole home becoming a series of piles for however long decluttering takes (about a decade so far...).

Is this a familiar thing? Is there any tried and trusted answer?

🚮 🗃 🛍 🚮 🧹

I think a lot of us are trying to work that one out @BeanWriting. I’m currently doing a mixture of

1. Buying new storage solutions as infrequently as possible, but a few more functional pieces of furniture (and getting rid of some bits that weren’t helping) have been a godsend. Some storage solutions haven’t helped much though.
2. Using really useful boxes (and similar) when I don’t have an exact plan yet. So cables etc are currently being collected in a box from all round the house. Same with possible memory box contents - I’m storing too much but the boxes aren’t full yet. I know where to find them, and I will be able to downsize once I declutter more…
3. Someone above recommended ziplock bags - I have been doing more of this too.

Nice one @ChampagneCommunist. I have downsized my collection of mini toiletries, but I really aspire to be the kind of person who has a lovely little welcome kit for visitors. I am not really living this way but it’s aspirational, so I don’t want to get rid of them. Is that daft?

I had mine for aaaaaaages. And no-one ever used them when they came to stay. So now they've gone!

Does finally getting round to cleaning the mud of DDs rugby boots count as decluttering?

I'm struggling to find time at the moment. New job, plus the kids and everyday housework to do, DH not around... I need more hours in the day really!

@PuttingDownRoots I am the same, not getting much done at all atm

one holey sock into fabric recycling.

have done some well overdue admin jobs, but still dodging the PIP form 🙄

290+1=291

Thank you so much that definitely helps.

I realised today that I was intending to solve one of these areas by using some perfectly functional furniture I inherited that I don't like. It would replace some barely functional furniture that's completely wrong for the space (some also inherited). No. I have a pretty good idea what I would really like that would fit the space and do the job properly. Even if I can't afford it yet I'm going to measure up and start looking. I might get lucky in a charity shop or something.

The other place with the wrong storage might work with really useful boxes until I know what to do. I think I can do the basic switch around in under an hour.

Awesome, that sounds like a plan. I think give yourself permission (especially given your task is a bit more mammoth than some) to do iterations, rather than all or nothing?

@BeanWriting i keep writing this and losing it so I’ll try again. I love Dana, I just think Kondoing is too much for most people. There are too many hard decisions to make at the start.

The thing we have talked a lot about on this thread was TidyUp Tetris where you put something in a place where you think it should go and often end up moving the thing that is there to a better place and so on. This is where I use temporary storage like bags or shoe boxes or biscuit tins just while I put the objects together. So at one point I had a sandwich/ food bag of foreign coins and a food bag of keys and I hung a bag for scarves and gloves on a hook by the door. These are examples of those items that popped up all over the house so whenever I found a coin in passing, for the first time ever, I knew it belonged in a bag in my bedroom. Eventually I took them all to oxfam. Now I don’t need a place for foreign coins because when I go on holiday I take the coins to oxfam within a couple of days as part of the unpacking process. Today I threw out a large biscuit tin and enough nail varnishes that the remainder fit in a small cosmetics bag that I was going to donate. Now I know how big my container of nail varnishes needs to be I’ll probably buy a box or find one I already have that fits the space.

Today I started on the playroom again. This’ll be slow as I’m doing all the Lego. I found missing parts from a board game that can now go to a charity shop and lots of bits of plastic. I have a box of stuff for dc to sort through. It includes a couple of handbags that aren’t their taste these days, a purse, some toys, toy money, a Barbie dog, a magnet. I also found two unopened Lego sets that I’ll sell. I also advertised a scooter for sale. I also put two pairs of gloves in the charity shop bag and a scarf.

Big bag of train-related stuff went to the kid’s nursery today too, I’m counting that as 1 but there were probably 30+ items.

A couple of old magazines into the recycling too. Stashing another bag for charity also, just keep on going with that every week I think - @Gassylady i think said hers was under the stairs, mine is now hanging up in a helpful location so hopefully that helps.

March - 12
2024 Total - 502

You’re welcome!

<preens, takes a bow>

Have reused a couple of unwanted picture frames for some kids posters, need DD to bring me anything else she wants me to frame before I give away the pile of unwanted ones.

not quite outs:
7 items into fabric recycling (will go on Friday so counting now as I’ll forget)
10 DH ties into charity bag, well actually into an unwanted gift box
approx 15 other items into charity bag
approx 25 books to charity

hoping DH will go to the charity shop in next couple of days so counting them now

291+7+10+15+25=348

This afternoon’s main job is PIP….i WILL get some of it done and report back to hold me accountable!