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.

Hi to all the newbies, welcome and good luck with all your Decluttering.

@Gangshow - my DD is doing gang show next week, maybe your name is nothing to do with it though.

Electrician came round, couldn’t fix what I wanted him to without extra help but did take away a box of about 20 things left behind from the building works to get rid of.

I’ve hung up a spare lampshade in DH’s office and put the old knackered one in the exit pile but it hasn’t gone yet.

Have also finally framed 2 posters for DS2 but haven’t hung them up yet. Have tomorrow off then working a lot so won’t get much done I don’t suppose.

244+20=264

Thank you for the new thread.
Emptied DD's room as we're decorating it. She's binned a few things and we have a pile of stuff for Freecycle/charity/selling. Place is in chaos.
On top of that FIL died a few days ago. He'd been ill for a long term and was generally getting weaker bit still a shock. He was a hoarder so there will be a lot of things to go through there.

@LivingInaBuiltSite Gangshow is great fun, hope your daughter has a fabulous time!

Little to report here. Husband has still been plodding through the Lego, rearranging attic room cupboards to put complete sets up there and create more space in toy room. It is looking so much better in there. A crate in one of the cupboards contained some serving dishes that are not to our taste and haven’t been used since we moved here, charity or eBay for those. Also unearthed a blow up double mattress I swear we had got rid of about five years ago 🙄🤣

One old magazine that's been hanging around for almost 10yrs has gone into recycling. Total is 1879

Kitchen is finished! Bathroom is finished! The Great Cull of 2024 can really commence now 😂

DH was going to go out for a coffee earlier so I told him I'll put his beloved Aeropress coffee thingy in the cull pile. He didn't go out for a coffee. 😂

We've unloaded a few boxes into the new kitchen, clearing and we go. We're going to bin or charity shop it rather than sell as it's too much. Anything out of date has gone straight to the bin.

So out today:
18 jars of spices/herbs, out of date.
4 bottles of Asian sauces rarely used
1 jar of jasmine tea.
Half finished out of date desicated coconut.
2.5 bags of nuts (various) for baking
1 empty bag of sugar.
4 unused water bottles.
Plastic mug plate and bowl set (mouldy).

YTD total tbc... I'll edit to add.

I sold my old pram. Well, DC’s pram, really. And for more than I expected so I am pretty pleased about that.

But I am now preparing another wardrobe cull. I swear that DC grew three inches overnight!

@KCSIE I’m seriously impressed with your kitchen clearout! It is on my list of things to do but keeps getting bumped down as other things take priority.

I’m sorry for your loss. Please encourage your DH to take his time to mourn his DF rather than rushing into clearing things out. I know several people who have jumped straight, probably as a distraction technique, and regretted it afterwards.

@DifficultBloodyWoman thank you. He's not done much, just cleared a few things while he's been looking for paperwork. It will be a long job.

@Dostadning i just had to Google the meaning of your name, what a great choice for this thread.i hope you had a productive trip to the tip, have you taken photos of your clutter to remind you how well you’ve done? I’ve done it a couple of times with my worst areas.

school starts again Monday so I am currently decluttering my emails reading the relevant ones about events at school and GCSE dates (eek!) while updating the family diary. I have been unsubscribing from lots of companies email lists but I’m still getting hundreds.

@Vinorosso74 im sorry for your loss, hope dh is ok.

@stealthninjamum GCSEs fast approaching here too -think of all the space when the school books can be culled once results are in! @Vinorosso74 sounds like it was rather sudden in the end, I always find a funeral quite therapeutic. Hope your FIL place doesn’t add too much stress to the decluttering process. I still have lots of photos from my parents that are lurking in boxes upstairs. Did like the look of the photo storage box linked up thread -could finally be a project in my next week off work.

@Vinorosso74 my sympathies. My FIL died suddenly just before Christmas. MIL has been clearing out, but also dumping crap on us which is unhelpful.

I also have massive photo albums, all in date order, from my mum, for all out childhoods, no idea what to do with them longer term, they are like a family archive. Pretty sure my DC won’t want to be lumbered with them in years to come.

Emptied the rubbish from DS1’s room 😮 not pretty. But not really Decluttering as such.
Hung up 2 posters in DS2’s room, annoyingly found one more poster he wants to keep that needs a frame.
Hoovered a lot.

Did not crack on with the PIP form, sigh.

264

Oh and we have A-Levels & GCSEs coming up in this house. 2 year age gap not a good idea lol.

YTD 375

Can't seem to edit!

@DifficultBloodyWoman we've been without a functional kitchen for 6 weeks, it's been stressful 😂 the old kitchen had a lot of issues including damp and mould - partly to blame was various leaks and water ingress, but I'm also convinced that partly to blame was the overcrowding of 'stuff' in our kitchen cupboards limiting airflow. And the builder agreed! So, out it all goes.

I got loads out today it feels like too:

5 packs of dried chipotle chillis (mouldy)
2 cider growlers (4pts each)
Bamboo steamer
Advent calendar
Measuring jug (melted)
Roasting tin (rusty)
Roasting tray rack
Oven grill pan and rack
Teppanyaki grill (rusty)
Basket
Thermos x 2
Flan tins x 4
Large glass jars x 3
Jam jars x6
BBQ fish griddle
BBQ smoker
Mugs x 3
Camping lantern (someone left the batteries in!
Expired pregnancy test (I've made my babies now I'm done!)
Side table
Net curtains

YTD 414

Decent amount of stuff out this week:

Heavy baby walker (sold)
Jumper
Baby hat
New 2 pack of tights
Baby reins
3 pairs of kids' shoes
Cat toy
11 baby toys
2 cot bumpers
Baby bag
Bath mat
Rain coat
CCTV disc
Bag of coat hangers
Annoying slippers
4 tier cat tower
Goggles
Hot water bottle
Large broken storage box
14 random items from the study.

Total 294

I've also cleared out the main freezer and some of the kitchen cupboards. Lots of out of date baby food thrown out plus a bottle of fish oil vitamins that expired in 2021 🤢.
Not counted as it all just went in the normal waste.

Can I join you? Could really do with advice…

should I aim for a bing bag of junk out per day?

@milkingtime - welcome. That sounds great, you will make a lot of progress if you do that! But if you want to you can tell us a bit more about your challenges or what you want to do?

For example, one thing this thread taught me is that I have a bit of an issue with children’s clothes! Another issue is that I often pile stuff up until I can work out how to dispose of it! Working hard on those issues!

Wow @PissedOffNeighbour22 - that’s an epic list!!! A lot of those are big items too. @KCSIE - you are also clearly on a massive roll too!! You guys make my little charity shop endeavour look so small!

@LivingInaBuiltSite - going round collecting rubbish 100% is decluttering in my book!

@Vinorosso74 - so sorry, that must be really hard on you all

@Vinorosso74 sorry for your lost

Sounds like everyone is doing great.

It's been half term here and lots of illness/a hospital trip so not managed to do much.

I did randomly find a giant poster from years ago stuffed down the side of the wardrobe which I promptly recycled 🤣

And I managed to get DS5 to say goodbye to some books he'd outgrown and choose which remote control car to keep (some how he had ended up with 3!)

Thanks for the photo storage ideas. They are something I'm keen to tackle.

@Realfastfoodie Oh I have a charity shop 'bag for life' size of stuff collecting too, when it's full I'll take it and list it here as gone 🤭 Decluttering the kitchen to this extent I'm finding quite cathartic, a bit 'Sort your life out' I suppose!

I have a difficulty with children's clothes too. Youngest is about to outgrow 9-12m stuff and it makes my heart hurt that my baby isn't a baby for much longer. I can't even think of clearing the 0-3m clothing out yet! But I will in time.

Welcome @milkingtime aim for whatever is manageable for you (and your soul and emotions)! Good luck!

@CKMondlerlife dare I ask what the poster was of?

I've (backed up and) deleted 198 photos and videos from my phone this evening. My phone storage is almost maxed out so my apps are stopping! Need to declutter digital life as well as actual tangible things as well it seems.

Not sure I should include them in my count? If I do then YTD 612 (otherwise 414)

@KCSIE it was of the tv show friends as I have a soft spot for it.

I know what you mean about kids clothes, it's so tough. I've kept hold of some that bring back the memories and gave away all the generic ones. I'm hoping to use them to get a teddy or cushion or blanket made eventually.

@CKMondlerlife There's lots of Etsy sellers that make blankets from kids clothing. I considered it (DH was keen to do it just to get the clothing out the house!) but it felt so wasteful to cut up clothes with lots of life left in them so I didn't do it. And if they all got ruined or lost in transit, I'd be quite sad! So I started a keeps bag for each of my 2 children and I've been adding to it just 1 item of clothing for each child in each size as they outgrow them now instead and donating the rest. I just can't face the teeny stuff yet!

There's a local mum and baby charity to me that I've supported with our outgrown baby things. It's a wonderful charity and I absolutely know our things will be really appreciated and loved all over again. That helps motivate me and takes the emotional edge off too, I think.