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.

Ah, my house is in great condition because we are away and dc is making a mess at my parents house 😂 but I did hoover the house here today and helped as my parents both have a bad back.

Started going through old clothes today and did find some gems. So far I have a pile of 16 items. We're driving into town tomorrow so will take all the donation stuff to the charity shop then. Didn't get too far as we had friends and family visiting which was lovely. Interesting to see how far we'll get.

Total for the year is 598.

DP did a tip run today:
Brand new bike that I was fed up of being messed around on freecycle with
Jump leads
Box of drill bits
2 garden tools
Composter
Extension cable
Rusty power tool
Tool set

Total this year 620

I'm not having any luck any more on Vinted.

Omg the cooking and washing up with kids off! They do not stop eating. The dishwasher has been on three times today. Ds20 went into London so I went into his room. I got about fifty hangers out. He is like a vampire and nocturnal so it's rare I can get in there. His room smells of death.

The play date mum also has 4 kids and her house was immaculate. Clean. No clutter. No toys everywhere. I'd need my house to be consumed by a volcanoe to be that clutter free. I'd love to be even 1/10th like that. I'm.going to die of embarrassment when I return the play date

109. Holey leggings and jeans (mine)

His room smells of death.

😂 Hope you could open a window!

One uncomfortable bra gone today. Total is 2037

He had left the window open! I left him home alone for a week over Christmas, and the whole house smelt so bad I thought he had died.

He shower every day. Clean clothes every day. Unfortunately, his dirty clothes are everywhere, and periodically he brings down two tones to wash it all.

He can be very judgemental of me being messy. I'm not sleeping on a bed I haven't changed in a month. Bless him. I will probably fumigate when he goes to uni. He is going to study microbiology. He could start his studies on his festering bin.

He is going to study microbiology

🤣🤣🤣☠️ Maybe he's hoping to prove clothes can clean themselves?!

One sweatshirt that has shrunk and is uncomfortable is going to be donated. Total is 2038

Ive just taken my winter coat out of the cupboard under the stairs and the scarfs, hats, gloves. There are a couple of summer hats like baseball caps. I’ll get dd to look at them all later. I can’t imagine they’ll want to declutter anything other than the caps because we have pruned our winter accessories down so much and didn’t even buy any this year.

ive also done a couple of drawers in my bedroom. Two small cardboard boxes have gone and a pot dd2 made. I also found a football that was part of a playmobil set so that’s gone. When I go shopping later I’m going to take two bags to the charity shop and some shoes to a shoe bank.

Also tackled coats today!

Dd2 has passed on both her winter coats as they won't fit next year. And claimed one of DD1s. Also a waterproof has gone.

DH has tossed one of his coats too.

110. Coats

Well done everyone, some great decluttering progress! I like your category counting method @PuttingDownRoots - I’m not going to change my counting method now but might be good for any newbies who want a simple approach.

I’ve had a big sort out of some piles in my DD’s room - taken a bunch of photos for vinted, and made my peace with a bin bag full of too small sizes going out the door. A couple for keeping and 8 more things out the door straight to fabric recycling.

2024 Total - 671
April - 39

A bag of kids hangers gone via Freecycle.
I would love to live in a lovely organised 4 (or 5) bed house where we had space for things rather than a cramped 2 bed flat!
DP brought a box of things back from his DFs, some stuff has been binned but the box with remaining contents are still on our lounge floor.
I can reassure myself that nothing is as bad as FILs house. His partner is clearly quite overwhelmed with it. I've been up a couple of times to help and am again tomorrow but it feels like we're nearly scratching the surface.

One damaged pyjama top goes today. Total is 2039

Aaargh half losing my mind with vinted, keeps on crashing! In some ways I’m really not sure why I’m bothering!

Why are they trying to give you your sisters stuff?!

Someone in my family kept trying to do this to me. I got so sick of it I took the lot, plus extras to 'excitedly re home'. Binned the lot immediately, it was all complete tat. They're happy I'm enjoying the stuff, I'm happy I no longer have to talk about it all the time. Win win!

Could you take it all and share how much you've loved looking through it and even made an album of the best bits (that you've securely stored away somewhere inaccessible for safe keeping of course!) and enjoy the freedom of never having it mentioned again? Just a suggestion 😃

Forgot to add - minging old oven glove and spare oven mitt out, new oven glove in.

No other progress due to Easter holidays, hopefully can continue rifling through cupboard of doom boxes this weekend.

What a day - 9 pairs of shoes out (!) and 3 dresses that haven't fitted me in 2 decades.
One more bok and 2 sets of old papers.
Took a huge lot of stuff to a donation center too.

It was a nice day but I also ended up doing a bit of shopping which feels counterproductive... it was mainly for dc, few books and some new, very cute clothes next size up, but also 3 new clothig items for me!

Total is 612 now

I’ve had the house to myself for a couple of days as DH has taken DD to visit his parents, and it’s remained tidy and clean, which actually feels quite strange!

Haven’t done any decluttering though as I’ve been very busy at work and don’t feel up to doing much when I get home. I did throw away a mini bottle of hand sanitiser from my locker at work which I think I bought a few weeks before the first lockdown!

Finished up another hand cream. (7 left). Total is 2040

Hi to everyone here. I'm enjoying reading this and have to say I'm really nervous to post so please be gentle. I'm only asking for any advice or input please. I'm v organised and decluttered myself, and have decided to try to set up a wardrobe organising / kitchen cupboard organising / decluttering business.

If anyone is comfortable doing so, can you please tell give me any pointers over what you would be looking for if using someone like that? (assuming the cost was fair and any other pointers or suggestions. I'm very unsure of how to start but apparently in my area there is huge demand so I feel like I'd like to at least have a shot.

If anyone here is in South Herts, I'd be really happy to come and help with some decluttering/organising free of charge in order to gain a recommendation/photos (not of you, just of the cupboards!).

Thank you in advance for any help or suggestions x

Because they want rid of it but my sister won't take it so they keep trying me! She lives in a wee flat and doesn't have space. She won't let it be thrown away. I live 300 miles away and it is not my responsibility to store her stuff!

Another 12 things sold on Vinted. I've made £16 in the last week 😊

I think there are probably a couple of things to think about:

1. Making your process and costs really transparent - I just wouldn’t begin to know what to expect from a service like this, how much it would cost, and that would put me off even enquiring
2. Thinking about the emotional side and the shame or stress a lot of us have which is driving all of this clutter. How would you support that?

Sorry these aren’t suggestions, but I hope they are helpful.

Well done @Jellycatrabbit. Vinted seems to come in waves for me. I just sent a few things to the charity shop that weren’t selling, it feels worth it.

@obessedwithorganising I have paid a professional organiser before. The best thing about her was that she didn't put any pressure of getting rid. I knew there was a option to not bin anything. That took pressure off. She would either tell me what to do, or do it with me.

I'd get some before and after photos and testimonials for a website.

Got rid of 25 items of kids clothes to disability holiday club yesterday. Now anything I upload to Vinted gets only a few views. Not sure why? Only kids tshirts are selling. I had so much more luck last year wit it

@IncessantNameChanger @Realfastfoodie thank you both for your comments, really greatly appreciated. I'm just trying to think about the price structure so that is really helpful, (atm, I'm just hoping to do some for free to see how I handle it and get photos to put on social media etc). That's a really good idea re the 'no pressure to bin' and I will take that on board. And, @Realfastfoodie you are absolutely right about the emotions behind a lot of this, and I'm trying to think of a way around that in a kind way, eg a way that things that are hard to get rid of for emotional reasons can go to a 'relegation zone' (I need to think of a better name), rather than just being chucked out/donated, as well as all the other sorts of emotions and shame or stress causing/associated with all of this. I would really hope to be able to help people very much with this.

@obessedwithorganising there are training courses that help you become accredited / it might give you some confidence to go on one.

i would agree that looking at the emotions behind the clutter and disorganisation is important. I see parallels between my clutter and weight problems. Lots of people with clutter might’ve come from poverty, awful backgrounds and two of the declutterer podcasts I follow are by women with adhd (including the clutterbug lady) so storage solutions need to suit how people look at things. The ideal I aspire towards with my organisation is everything put away, often in storage that’s in storage, and completely clear surfaces - but some people need things out to remember they have them.

If I had a declutterer I would love it if they had a list of all the places locally where I can recycle things or get them collected. I’m helping dp declutter and he thought he would have to pay to get the council to take some large items away, he didn’t know that some charities take things away until I had a bookcase taken away a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve done more Lego decluttering, trying to make some of our bigger sets. I have two or three complete sets but can’t find the boxes.