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.

Not read full thread - can I join please?! I have been reading the Dana K White books, and have found them very inspirational… so have started working my way through the house. Been doing my daughter’s room with her today (her school was closed due to polling), cleared out lots of clothes and and a few other bits. Am aiming to reduce stuff generally around the house so surfaces are clearer, and there is less dust, and it is easier (and quicker) to clean… (we have some dust mite allergies in the family..)

Welcome @Stoufer I always recommend Dana K White and often reread when I’m flagging in my efforts. Not much to report here. Sold two serving dishes on eBay will try one of the china matching/ replacement companies for the others. Lots seem to only want complete sets now - I wonder if that is due to courier costs or due to overwhelm from all the keen declutterers.

Well, it actually an extra day than but planned but I got the Ikea bag full to the charity shop, old furniture to the curb, and a huge bin bag to the rubbish.

The living room is looking good!

Possibly because a lot of stuff has migrated to the stairs. On item per step for 9 steps. Where is the head slap emoji when you need it?

Today’s job is the stairs, and hopefully also the family room.

The only decluttering I've done this week was to list a jumperoo on a freebie website. And it was snapped up really quickly in principle, but the person hasn't collected it. So that hasn't gone well.

Well tomorrow is another day. Onwards!

hello- got rid of some school shorts last week i think - three pairs of Ds' which had been outgrown went to a by in dd's class.

hav also put some more pictures up on the walls.

yesterday i managed to a quick 15 minute declutter of dd's clothes - she's 4 almost 5 and is growing like a WEED! so she needed new stuff.

ds lost a pair of swimming goggles

i'v e added a pair of work trousers to the charity bag and am ditching ds' old scooter (third hand to us and super battered).

May I ask for advice on this thread please?

I'm decluttering a horrifically full box room but am progress.

I get distracted easily and think "I could maybe sell that?". But I am not organized enough 😅.

Also what do you do with soft toys? I have tons and dd (15) is loathe the let them all go.....

Thank you

Also millions of dd's pens and felt tips...... 🤯

Dana K White has lots of ideas round this. I have just finished her book ‘declutterring at the speed of life’, I recommend it.

Thank you I'll look for that.

@Allshallbewell2021 and @Stoufer wecome!

I love Dana K white. She has the container concept. So you decide on the amount of space you have for a category of stuff and only keep what will fit in there. So I have seen storage for cuddly toys, I bought dd2 hanging net bags for hers. It means that your daughter would have to chose her favourite ones to keep.

with stuff to sell I have a deadline. I decide that if I’ve had no interest in a week or fortnight then it goes to the charity shop. Sometimes I’m too lazy so it just goes to a charity shop or freecycle.

I also put loads of stuff in the boot. I might drive around with it for a few days but it clears the house and when I go shopping I’ll take the bags out and donate them.

i have loads of pens too, they go to a lady at a pre school. She recently took all our beach toys for their sandpit and mud kitchen. We have a great local mums group on Facebook where you can advertise this sort of stuff for free.

Thank you stealth! 🙌

Dana K - 🫅 already a big fan now! 🙌

One box of vile tasting collagen supplements down the sink. Total is 2138

Decided to tidy a sitting room chest of drawers that I have decluttered a dozen times before. Despite that I found old style stamps worth £24.25. It turns out there’s a form on the Royal Mail website and you can’t get your money back for the stamps but if you send them back they’ll replace them with new ones. So I have done that.

ive also put a skirt into the charity shop bag. It’s a pencil skirt size 8/10 and even if I dieted into it I can see it’s old fashioned.

Finally I have thrown out a tiny child’s padlock and keys. I don’t know what it’s for but I look at it whenever I go in those drawers.

This morning's efforts are one regular blanket and three baby blankets. Total is 2142

Hello, I'm about to start up again. April seemed to be the month of buying but I have now started on my wardrobe as I need to fit everything back in after some building work. Everything is sorted by type with the hangers backwards now so I will know what I have and haven't worn. I'm going to try to wear everything this year and get rid of what I don't like.

Total April
In 34
Out 56
-
Total for 24
796 out
42 in

Hello, I've been a bit awol too. Last weekend took dc to Legoland, and Thursday (polling day) we went to the sealife centre. So busy week! Today we're at home and I managed to get dh to look through his clothes. He's pretty minimal anyway but had some stuff that no longer fitted him. We took them to the charity shop on the way to the playground.

Out this week:
11 dh clothing items
My holey leggings
Hair scrunchie
Cat care book
2 small plastic toys to bin
2 gift bags recycled

Total is 708

Not a lot of progress here either, but managed to get rid of two bulky items on eBay. Meanwhile, DH's contribution has been to eat a couple of tins of food past its sell by date...

I pushed myself this afternoon to go through a couple of boxes and drawers. I now have a pile of things to try on and see what I think.

Also, out goes:

• One bobbly jumper.
• One hoodie that doesn't suit me. I've been hanging onto it for ages because it's cotton and well made but I never choose it.
• One dress that's not good quality and I never reach for it.
• One cardigan that I end up wearing because it's cotton but it's not a good look on me for some reason and makes me look massive.
• One jumper that I've never worn because it's the wrong colour.

Total is 2148

@Realfastfoodie i think it was - I didn’t even start trying to declutter with such young kids. Not saying give up entirely but just be realistic with yourself. They grow so quickly and once they’re out of ‘toys’ the clutter can clear quite quickly too.

Spent most of today hanging round a&e as Ds2 decided to have an asthma flare up - not had one for years, so out of practice. Didn’t get any jobs done, or any chilling out done either. Running tomorrow, then back to work.

Jobs:

1. hang up as many pictures as poss/get rid of some
2. decide about the shelves we used to have as cat shelves/put up or get rid - DD doesn’t want them so will prob get rid
3. Take sentimental broken wooden box to a friend who says he’ll try and repair it
4. Massive sort of mountain of bedding we now have in the house (duvets, pillows, covers, sheets, pillowcases…)

Not quite outs yet:

1 big cuddly toy to drop off at a friends DONE ☑️
more stuff on Vinted - taken some stuff off there to donate to charity instead
21 items in a Music Magpie box but waiting for password reset email to actually confirm sale - system is not working for me
pile of Allen keys - someone due to collect on Tuesday

668+1=669

I went through five carrier bags of my quilting materials. Just unpacked it all in my quilt specific kalax storage. Once it's all Unpacked I will sort it out. I need to finish my quilts this year before I start a new one. Thrown out about 50 bits of tat but will count them as ten. Quite happy it's made some room. Also reminded me to stop buying material!

Ryman shops have special bins for pen recycling. Better than chucking them in the bin.

I am watching all the 'take your house back' course. I think it is actually life changing. I am basically brainwashing myself! 5 extra bin bags left our house this week.

Oh and 'dishes math' is definitely real!
It's taken me from 1st Jan to now to really see that doing the dishes every single day is key to a house under control.

And a place for shoes means the hall isn't a mess.

DD’s loft bed has been delivered and constructed, but I feel like we’ve made a terrible mistake. It’s too big for the space we thought it would fit in, the room has an awkward layout so I’m not sure we can rearrange it, and it seems much higher than it did in the shop 😭 I keep thinking that we should have got a cabin bed with drawers underneath and a desk attached/ pull-out desk, and got rid of a chest of drawers to make space instead. DH (much less prone to panic than me) says it will be fine, but I feel so stressed about it.

Plus all the stuff that was under her old bed and in her room is now all around the house and needs to be sorted. Having all that around the house is also stressing me out. We don’t have a spare room or garage to hide it in (which is probably good in terms of reducing hoarding), but that means the house is in a state.

We’ll see what today brings…

We made big progress last weekend - had a table at a local nearly-new sale, priced to sell, got rid of a fair bit and made almost £100. Some other things (puzzles etc) we left outside our house and lovely people took them. Put some books in the local Little Library. The remaining clothes went to a clothing drive at DC's school for the PTA!

We are now on a committed "use up" mission on the foods, sauces, toiletries etc that have been hanging around for ages.