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'm taking my Vinted stuff to charity so that's 21 more things gone. It's just really quite now selling stuff but I don't want to store lots while the pile of things out grown keeps growing. I have room for one bag for life but I'd rather just take it all off then have another sort in Autumn. Otherwise I need to keep Checkng it.

March
Total out 97
Total in 3
---
Total for 24
651 out
19 in

got rid of a parcel today that was taking up space in our entryway. its for another house - we are both no 6 but there's a difference in the dress - theirs is "6 little....."

so that's taken that away. hoorah. had it not been an enormous package and heavy i'd have walked it there myself. as it's sort of on the way to the dc's school. but it was huge and heavy so post happily picked it up.

i need to finish some laundry - just putting it away will make all the difference.

Person came and collected box of hangers, approx 20, spare after DH went through his clothes.

Posted off some recyclable toothbrush heads that have been sat there for ages (6)

263+20=283+6=289

spare table being collected tomorrow hopefully.
busy few days coming up so prob won’t get much done, then on nights for 3 nights so sleeping mostly during the days.

Thankyou so much for replying with such fab ideas.

I have come home from work and dd has blitzed her room and it feels so nice and fresh.

I am working tonight but will start the 5 minutes in the bathroom to give a boost.

@Sunshineandrainbow just start anywhere. Literally does not matter, just start. Personally I'd tackle the area that bothers you te most, or that you see frequently. Maybe bedside table, as it's the first thing you see when you get up? I did the kitchen, followed by my wardrobe as those hindered my day-to-day most.

Get a bin liner and fill it with rubbish. Kids junk, drawings, broken stuff etc, sll the low-hanging fruit.

Anything that leaves the house is a plus. It doesn't have to be perfect and you don't need hours. You can do a LOT in ten minutes. A shelf, a drawer,a window sill.

Blitzed utility room today

75. Box of covid tests (out of date)
76. Out of date drinks
77. Worn out, stinky slippers
78. Box of washing powder put on DHs work pile (he washes his works clothes in his work accommodation
79. Lots of packets decanted, combined etc
80. Axe removed to shed. No idea why it was in the utility room
81. Unwanted drinks bottles binned

I now have counter space and floor space in there.

I'm late to the party and arriving in a desperate state!! I make plans but forget to carry them out, I stop noticing things right in front of my eyes, I get overwhelmed easily. I need accountability!
If I can average 7 items per day then I can still hit the 2024 target. I'm going to try the 5 minute timer idea every day and another slightly longer session on unfrantic days. All I need is to remember to do it and not sabotage my own plans 🙏

Thanks to the inspiration and advice from this thread (including pointing me to Dana K White) I have 'decluttered' the absolutely worst and most upsetting corner of my kitchen. A scary heap tamed! I had to work up to it by doing other things first and practicing Dana's trash, take there now, donation sequence.

The fundamental reason this is working for me is the 'not making things worse' rule. I know if I just spend 5 minutes throwing away rubbish I'll see an improvement and invariably I discover things I can immediately add to a donation bag.

Having a weekend away.

Just had a message from MIL that DDs (11&12) have gone through all their barbie stuff and quite a bit has been taken to the charity shop. Very proud of them... they've been a bit reluctant to let go.

@Sunshineandrainbow amazing news about DD's room and hope the first 5 mins went well! ❤️

I dragged some boxes out of the cupboard of doom, and some plastic storage boxes arrived today as I know there will be items I want to keep that deserve proper storage, so this evening's task is to at least start having a look at what's there. Going to try to use Dana K White's method as much as possible so I don't make a total mess but genuinely unsure about half of what I'll find too as it's not day to day stuff, so maybe finding outs will be harder. Who knows though!

I spent an hour trying to sort through Lego and got nowhere. I might spend this evening doing it.

i also advertised some stationery on trash nothing yesterday and no one was interested.

So all in all not a great day for decluttering.

Oh sorry hear that @stealthninjamum I feel like sometimes it's so hard to make progress and other times it comes naturally! I've only just decluttered weeds in the garden but will do some cleaning tomorrow which always yields some stuff. Also ironic as niw I actually need some stationery - well, notebooks. I did a good job using them up and gifting some and now I'm finally on my last one. I hate the ugly standard ones at work so always buy my own.

@Pigtailsandall - that’s v good progress about the notebooks, means you can just get one & maybe a spare that you really like.

DD has had a good blitz in her room too.
as she’s moved to a double bed, she’s brought down all her single bedding. I’ve listed some on the local eco FB site so not out yet.
some to fabric recycling though.

DH has done a little bit too.

Out:
2 x single sheets to recycling
1 x old duvet cover to recycling
old suit bag to charity

289+4=293

waiting on table collection any minute.
plus hoping lots goes on FB
plus a bag of bits hoping to give to a charity auction thing

Table collected, yey.

293+1=294

Finally started on the cupboard of doom which feels like a pretty enormous task as lots of sentimental items in there from people no longer with us, plus my childhood stuff and DD's baby bits.

But managed to go through 2 (dusty old) cardboard house moving boxes and got an unexpected bin bag of bits out - hurrah! - and the rest organised into proper plastic storage boxes. Going to try and do little and often this week with the remaining 4 boxes I've pulled out so far (don't worry, there are plenty more!) and fingers crossed I can get through them by this time next week.

This is the stuff that I really reeeeallyyy want to just shove in a cupboard and forget about, but I also know I'll never feel truly finished decluttering unless I've at the least re-organised everything neatly. Plus, sentimental things should be vaguely easy to access and enjoy, otherwise they may as well be rubbish. That's what I'm telling myself anyway whilst I dig deep to get through this section 😬

Today is a big day - free parking means I should be doing a lot of charity donating - my car needs loading up with donations and a box full of stuff to take to CEX to exchange for vouchers to see if I can edge towards upgrading my iPhone 8 (suspect CEX will loot no more than a tenner but it won’t be taking up space here 😂)

One pram suit that's seen better days.
One stained baby dress.
Two outgrown baby pants.
One body lotion used up (lots more left).

Total is 2001

I'm still struggling to accept I had so many unnecessary items in my home. And it's still cluttered so I'm keeping on looking for more.

@IndianSummer78 you broke 2000! Well done!

We have had a quiet day (and quiet weekend) so did some tidying. I have a junk-ish drawer which isn't too bad atm but I did organise it. I got a kitchen utensils organiser for it and it makes me happy to see all the pens in one sections, all the glues, batteries etc in theirs.

So out today:
Small stained flannel
Shopping bag
Pile of school art work
Too-small school jumper
Pack of dried handwipes
One of those heated oat pillow things
Expired covid test
Sandwich bags with broken zip locks
Kids name badge thingy
Manual to my watch
Small travel soap
Dh's book

Total is 378

Hello everyone. I've been lurking on these threads a while but really do need to start decluttering and so am joining in! Name change as a mark of seriousness.

Today I went into our bedroom and found a whole bin bag of junk... old jewellery, years old pots of moisturiser, clothes that are really shabby. Have gathered it up but I'm afraid to say that looking at the room you barely see a difference!

So here I am, going to chip away at clutter in a serious way over the next couple of months. Looking forward to it (sort of!)

A good day here: 3 bags to the recycling centre, 2 bags and a shedload of eurocents to the charity shop.

Still a lot to do though...off to watch Dana K White for some inspiration.

old chewed dog ball in the bin.

waiting for someone to collect 2 x duvet sets…

294+1=295

82. Barbies

83. Barbie accessories (both mentioned yesterday)

84. Odd gloves.

1. 380 emails
2. 92 photos
3. Water bottle - broken lid already gone, I was hoping it would fit the lid of a different broken bottle, but it doesn't
4. Box of out of date COVID tests
5. Last year's sunscreen
6. A holey sock
7. A bag of out of date medication

I made a playlist last night of songs lasting about 5 minutes and powered through a few this morning.

Out today: bag to charity shop, some coloured pencils which kept breaking, pencil sharpener and more soft plastics. Two pairs of holey socks were worn then binned at the weekend.
Posted some things on various selling places but no takers.

Has anyone got any tips for going through sentimental/less sentimental but still old items?

I feel pretty confident decluttering 'stuff' now, and have even learnt to let go of 'what if' items e.g. clothes in a smaller size, things that cost a decent amount of money etc etc.

But when it comes to sentimental and older items that meant something once upon a time (think: my old school work, memories of my past) it just feels way harder. Everything I pick up is a big decision, there are way less quick wins from finding and chucking out rubbish and it's just a lot more time consuming and requires more effort.

How did you manage it? Little and often? Let go of everything? Keep everything but organise it neatly? I now have a bunch of boxes in my living room and I feel like shoving them back in the cupboard of doom and slamming the door quite frankly 😂