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 had a good day - decided to get rid of a set of coffee cups and saucers, several tiny spoons that went with the coffee cups, a recipe book, an unused toiletry set, lots of papers and vouchers, some pens.

I also took another 3 bags to the charity shop.

I can’t believe I’m up to 502 items this year - although a lot of that is bits of paper.

@BestZebbie 34 bags?!!?

You win!!!🏆

Just bobbing on to say I go mad every few years and throw out everything! My car is jam packed full of black bags for the dump. I could sort stuff out for charity, what have you, but when I'm sorting, I'm sorting and it has to go!

I joined the Vinted FB community and evidently March is a better time to list stuff. I listed a few things today anyway.

I have got reams of boys clothes to get rid of. Still wondering if dd will ever wear any of it. I asked if she would look at them but she hasn't. Some are blue / black joggers which she could use for PE. I'm loathe to get rid of it

@LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand tell me more about your Swedish death clearing. I guess its not possible while you still have primary age kids? I have just cleared out my family home and thankfully we jointly threw out tonnes when my dad died 20 years ago. There wasn't too much to clear and I definitely don't want to leave a hoard for my kids to dump either

Tbf it contained a big clear out from a child growing out of bulky toys and two full sizes of clothing, and a sizeable chunk of knitting stash inherited in bulk myself and only just gone through properly - the 'normal declutter'/round the house bric-a-brac type portion was only about 3 bags over that time.
Hopefully even in another year and a half there will just be one size of clothes and 3 misc bags to go!

IncessantnNameChanger I couldn't have done it with small children! I retired early five years ago and downsized from a large house to a small bungalow. I realised that much of the stuff in my house actually belonged to other people and I ended up storing it. So my first project was to get rid of everything that wasn't mine, then get rid of everything broken. Then I started on my stuff. Clothes I hadn't worn in two years were given away, jewellery likewise.
The idea of the Swedish Death Clear came about because I had read about leaving little for your children to have to sort through once you are dead and I liked that notion. I sorted through photos and gave the children the ones which were of them and some of them both, keeping a few for display. It was very freeing getting rid of stuff which I didn't need or use. Once I'd moved into the bungalow I had limited storage and had to use it cleverly. I have only one bookcase and the rule is, if a book comes in, one leaves. I'm working up to getting rid of cds and dvds which I no longer use-streaming frees up clutter. I've found a home for my stash of wool and it'll go today. Paperwork is filed alphabetically in a concertina folder but updated every year. I throw out statements etc from two years ago. Most of my admin is online anyway. Every spring I go through my belongings and throw out more. People will insist on giving me ornaments as gifts though! I'm not a knick knack person so I'll hang on to them for a year then give most away.
I think that if you have young children, you are not in the right age group for a Swedish Death Clear but you could adapt it for your situation. All the best

Thanks @LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand I did think it was something for when the kids are older. My eldest is off to uni ( hopefully) in September so there will be a big clear up then. We are rammed into a three bed during the week for dhs work so once ds has gone we can decamp another ds to his room and really get into a clear that shared kids room.

After ignoring the art work in the house since dd2 had a meltdown about it I ventured back into the pile of it in the sitting room. I think I’ve chucked out about 50 bits of paper today but I’ve found another two boxes in a cupboard. I have got rid of loads and the remaining stuff is neatly going into A2 folders while I decide what to do with it.

Wow that’s brilliant @stealthninjamum. You are giving me real food for thought with the (as yet still relatively small) kids art collections.

@LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand - it’s a really kind thing to do for the next generation I think. Not our phase of life yet but I hope I will be both brave enough and have the longevity to do it!

I am feeling pleased with myself - 8 too small packs of nappies (they grow so quickly don’t they?! Not the best time to have done a bulk buy) to families in need. One more vinted parcel sold. Another 13 things for the charity shop dropped off so that’s Total - 473
February - 32

I’m also feeling a bit happy about this new vinted strategy thanks to all your suggestions. Limited size box, move things into charity if they don’t sell quite quickly, only sell things that are worth it time/money wise. I have a balance of nearly £50. Now at least £10 or even £12 of that is probably postage, but still, that’s not nothing!

I've been interested in the Swedish Death Clean for a couple of years. I can't do much about other people's stuff, but I'm trying to at least deal with my own. So far, I've only managed to put like with like then label the boxes or shelves. I can picture my life with much less stuff, but haven't yet summoned up the courage to let go.

I've made some headway with paperwork and bank statements. There are carefully filed receipts going back twenty years or so which can be disposed of.

Apart from that, not much has shifted. Oh, and I got the landfill bin out before dark.

Mums house will be sold tomorrow. I went down and got three of the nicest victorian hooks. Just need to clean them up. No idea what to do with them, but they are part of my home to keep with me forever. I feel more at peace with that now. Ds16 was cursing like a troper trying to get them off and berating my hoarding. Beans to show the size

Good thread!
I'm pretty good at decluttering but want to do more, partly as preparationfor old age after clearing out my late mum's house.
DC have left home though one still renting so I have a lot of his stuff.
Some years ago I went through all the sentimental baby / childhood stuff and got it down to one box.
I've got rid of 80% of my very large book collection.

I'm working on clothes at the moment. I have clothes dating back 30 years that I still wear occasionally but also a lot of more recent rubbish clothes.
Took 3 bags to the charity shop today and she turned me away! I hadn't the energy to traipse to another shop so they are still in the car.
The garage is a dumping ground of "useful" stuff but I need DH on board for that.

@IncessantNameChanger All I kept of mum's was a stone house name which she loved and it was from her favourite place. It's now stood in my garden and I think of her whenever I walk past it.

Thanks for the new thread @stealthninjamum :)

I'm currently trying to work out a solution for the coat cupboard which looks like it's exploded every fortnight no matter how organised I try to keep it. We had run out of coat hangers though due to some breaking so bought a bunch more. I'm always happy with an in when it means getting things organised and easier to tidy away :)

Toss has given me fridge so I'll have a quick look through but there's not much clutter in there tbh.

Not much progress in the house this week but I took 3 packages to the post office the other day. It's my most hated job doing the charity/post office drop (no real reason, I'm just not great at that last 10% of jobs!) so I was pleased with that. Got a bag for the food bank, a couple of packages to return and a couple of bags for the charity shop so will see if I can get them all out the door tomorrow.

It's half term here so I have a bit of time to declutter.
So far I've ditched all my old professional journals - copies spanning back to 2019! I've cheated a bit by downloading the pdfs "just in case", but I've created a bit of room nonetheless.

I feel quite good about it!

One pair of holey socks to recycling. Total is 1878

Please can I join?
I had a massive clear out several years ago when I thought we were moving house, including taking 200 books to the library 😳
Now I accept that I’m not going to slim down 2 sizes, or use my huge yarn stash, I am decluttering again!
50 books -> charity shop
5 black bags -> kerbside charity collection
1 office chair -> recycling centre
Next stop is sorting through the airing cupboard, I honestly don’t need 12 bath towel's, 10 duvet covers/pillowcases.
I think I’ll do the Marie Kondo ‘If it doesn’t bring joy’ route…. 🤞🏻

@Realfastfoodie after I last posted I got rid of another 224 bits of art. Probably only half were art but the box was mixed with old letters, Christmas cards, school forms etc. Anyway I started with 5 big boxes. I am now sorting through the last. I would advise you do A Slob Comes Clean’s container concept for artwork and decide how much space you can give to it and then just pick a few items a year. I wish I’d done that. I think I’m going to end up with two A2 wallets of art, two A3 wallets of some of the schoolwork I liked and photos of dc at school. Then it looks like I’ll have a big box of things like - Easter cards, Mother’s Day cards, Xmas decorations, letters to Santa / tooth fairy. It’s still a lot of stuff but will only take a quarter of the space. So I had a pile of boxes that was 5 foot high! Now it’ll be one box a foot high.

Thanks for new thread, will catch up properly later.

Welcome @Tiddlywinks63 You seem to be doing so well already! That's impressive. Books are my hardest category. Both my husband and I are academics and we really struggle to let go of books.

@stealthninjamum wow, you are doing SO well. That's brilliant. You've really learned to flex your declutter muscle! I have a child who is not very into crafts etc, so this is less hard for me. I am keeping a few select things every year, or anything particularly sweet or sentimental. I have a large A4 folder for these bits.

Out this week, one eyeliner from my makeup bag which I didn't like. Also out 9 more photos. I feel quite emotional decluttering pictures so I can only do about 5-10 mins at a time.

Total for the year is 262

I don't think I kept any of the DC art work apart from footprints done at nursery when they were tiny.
One thing clearing my mum's house taught me was that what was sentimental to her was of no interest to me. So I assume the same for my DC. She had mountains of photos of me and sis, many, many dogs and holidays. Lovely for her but not for me. The ones I was interested in were of ancient long dead relatives and I have kept a few of those.
Which leads me to our photos. My DC were born in the 90s so pre-digital and I have photo albums which date back to 1976 of me, DH and later the family. What to do with them? DH digitised the old camcorder footage which is a joy to watch 25 years later. But we never look at the photos.
Perhaps if I take them out of the albums and keep a handful for each year but file them in a box rather than albums?

@soupit I had thousands of old style 35mm photos and threw out about half of them and a few albums.

i put them in a box like this - sorry for the long link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Photo-Storage-Box-Organiser-Photograph/dp/B0C6LT3KZM/ref=mp_s_a_1_5_sspa?crid=2NLZ763475JAC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.EfmrpESvI4Ryo_Oe_c0YnPuDh3o7MEblQfym0rguB7KlbQ4NKfHRaqfRQbNg6CwFEIRbVUwhVaQY7_1iJXW62KyGGZHtUiYOmhoywgMpSuepRlEtD6RuZfjvSIuaDLJ3Q14jVAc_wMciRJCLdZ6ADqzH7iZTJOhNe4y7b9dpHVqmGxDuAIAnLzJmVS3pGGGGmoAG0GWM-12WiU11_tQP4Q.-ExkDG0ilyMhaYN4r8SfvaKKx6TEuu2rmIdMARLX8dU&dib_tag=se&keywords=photo+box+storage&qid=1708091483&sprefix=photo+box+%2Caps%2C102&sr=8-5-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1

The negatives are in special sleeve to look after them. This all takes a fraction of the space of when I had photo albums.

Also the smaller plastic boxes are labelled so that when dc want to throw them out they can read the label and just chuck out the whole box. Most of my dc’s photos are electronic so ill have to organise them at one point - although they’re not as sentimental as me so might not care.

My eventual aim is to throw out all the artwork and scan some to put in a photo book. I know dc don’t want them but I’ve enjoyed looking at them. Maybe when they’re adults and I downsize I’ll throw them out but I’m not ready for that yet.

I’d love to do a Swedish death clean and my way of doing it is to make sure everything in the house is so well labelled that my dc can effortlessly throw things away that aren’t important to them.

@stealthninjamum That box is a great idea, I have done something similar with a few more recent photos. I like the idea of everything being well labelled. I do that up to a point. I have the household wire collection all labelled in stackable boxes.

Inspired my name change thanks LadyM
I need to do more than declutter.
I need to be able to see the floor.
I am taking some bin bags to the skip today.
Trying to make myself more accountable.
to everyone x

Placemaking, progress in my house is so slow this year, 66 items to date. Hoping I will get my mojo back soon, inspired by you all!