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.

@stealthninjamum thanks ds20 my pfb was an ideal perfect toddler and young child. So smart, so happy and funny. He was talking in sentences before 3. Everyone adored him and strangers praised me in the streets on his manners. He even played the cello in infants. I was oblivious to SEN. Slowly in year 5 the wheels came off. The Head told dh in the last week of juniors he thought ds had asd. 100% attendance in year 7. In years 8-11 it was 60%. I just watched the happy kid vanish. He has no diagnosis. He is so so smart he told the ADOS assessment what they wanted to hear.

Luckily just before Christmas in year 11 he realised he had to stay in education until 18 and to do his alevels he needed his gcses. So he went back every day 9-5. Stayed late every day. Got good mocks. Then covid. Then gcses was based on his mocks. Only went in for 50% of his A levels and said the only reason he didn't jack it was in was for me. Two A grades. One B one distinction. Then medically unfit for work for last two years. Found a direction and wants to be a virologist but will only go to Russel group uni. Got accepted for Liverpool.

It's been really hard. So much judging from school. From family. Threats of fines and prison ( which at points I would have welcomed which I said). However I never got fined. It was horrible and he is my NT smart one. Its been never ending and my mental health has suffered but you never know. No time for a breakdown and no one would notice anyway. But it just goes to show, not only did we survive. He turned out good. It will be interesting to see how he copes at uni. But it's all their own choice after 16 and that helps.

I have every sympathy as its not something people understand. The realisation one day that there was nothing I could do if he never went in again. School saying drag him in in his pjs at 5,6 and 14. Delusional. Telling the attendance officer I had two kids in SEN settings and her telling me to forget about them and focus on him. Ludicrous education system.

32 items out on Vinted today! 😁😲 very happy. I think Vinted is replacing my dopamine fix. I did say I was going to sort some out for charity this week.

My 2024 target is looking healthy with 551 out this year. Happy dance.

Most of its super cheap but I'm still happy. Its not the money, its a pain free exit from my life with low guilt. Dds bedroom is looking so good too. Omg I'm so happy. Ds1 has praised my efforts again too.

20 dvds, 5 games and 37 CDs collected by the courier for music magpie.

Total 468

Wow @IncessantNameChanger that's a brilliant total for the year so far

I have just thrown out some old pants. Carrying on from yesterday's good work I'm going to sort out dds pants and socks. I'm going for less stuff so have exactly the right amount and easy to find. I think she has about 30 pairs of school socks? But I can't right now find the type she wears daily. So want to 7 of those

53. One mug decluttered by DD dropping it.
54. Box of empty bottles to the tip

@IncessantNameChanger i have a feeling that at one point I donated all of our school socks to a charity shop as rags because I was taking too long to sort them and pair them. They were navy but of varying sizes and colours. Sometimes life is too short to bother with this crap. Now dd2 has about six pairs of school socks. Dd1 wears trousers so doesn’t own school socks so I find it so satisfying matching her pairs - they’re all different colours.

Just when I think I’m close to the end more crap appears.
4 wires are in the small electronics recycling bag
some specialist paper advertised for sale
A craft set thrown away. It was missing a piece about six years ago and as it’s never turned up I’ve had to throw it away
A craft set to go to the charity shop
Several paintings and chalk drawings have gone

Second trip to the tip this year, mainly recycling old electronic stuff and metal. Books boxed up and sold on ziffit. Charity bag of clothes picked up. Second thing 'freegled' this year. That's about 0.1% of the total, but it's a start!

One bottle of rose water from the fridge down the drain and bottle recycled. I didn't like the taste of it and was never sure what I should do with it anyway.

One Christmas card I'd kept but really I don't need to, not sure what I was thinking. Into recycling it goes.

One jacket that's a tad too small and has an iffy zip, into the donations bag.

One jumper with too short sleeves I'm forever pulling back down into donations bag.

One pair of joggers in a colour I don't like into donations bag.

Total is 1912

Tackled two bowls full of bits and bobs. Dumped 7 IKEA pencils, a broken keyring, a USB cable and a dozen drawing pins.

In the process, found £0.07, 2.61 euros and one Nigerian coin (never been there!!)

I keep on loosing Euros, one day I will cash in too 😆

Sold 3 more things on Vinted. Sorted dd socks and pants and no surprise she has more than enough. I dare not count. She is a size 12 foot and I have dozens size 9-12 so once they no longer fit I'm going back to putting then in a shoe rack over the door. Such a handy way to store kids socks as you can see them all.

Pants and socks into charity bag ( will give to disability club as spares) so not counting until they go

Ended up decluttering at work today. Our office is moving. The line manager asked me to have a look in the hidden cupboard behind the lift shaft (1930’s architecture). I found:
sandals - definitely mine

a casserole dish and a storage jar - items donated for a tabletop sale that didn’t sell

various Christmas decorations

party supplies- enough plastic cutlery and IKEA straws to start a shop

Took it to the charity shop on way home

Spurred on by decluttering at work I tackled gift wrap part 2. Pleased to say I’m now using a gift wrap storage bag I bought. This evening I culled the wrapping and gift bags. The young child appropriate stuff is off to the charity shop. The glittery messy and not recyclable stuff is binned. Everything else is in the storage bag or one of those Amazon sack wrapping things and divided into Christmas and Other categories.

Tomorrow I’m in the solicitor admin zone but maybe there is a small sorting job I can do too.

One recipe book donated. I never use it. Total is 1913

May I join this thread? Family changes mean I'm amalgamating and decluttering 3 extremely full households into one. I feel overwhelmed by boxes and decisions and I'm taking inspiration from Marie Kondo's way of tackling things by category. I'd love to get the hang of Vinted or other ways to recoup a little cash. It might make me feel a bit better about the huge amount of time and effort I'm putting in!

@IncessantNameChanger what's your trick on Vinted please? Do you post regularly? Super cheap? That's such a great result!

@Pigtailsandall re the books, have you tried Olio to give them away? Or there's some 'preloved for postage' type groups on FB

I'm determined to 'make a difference in March' so rereading and getting myself prepared to get rid of stuff!

Good morning everyone, does anyone have a good method for sorting documents? As in categories (I already have files and plastic wallets). I have 4 files worth of stuff to go through and not sure whether to have bills in one folder and things like house docs and old tax return info in another. Then another for misc stuff like instructions, warranties and receipts for big purchases.

Or have everything in one file using dividers and in alphabetical order...

Anyone have a preference that works well?

thanks!

This is a great question. I cannot find a way of doing this which works well. I feel like I’m either keeping too much or too little…

I sort by type, so we have:

• household folder with utility bills & any paperwork for house improvements
• Banking folders - mortgage, bank accounts (though these are mostly paperless now)
• Payslips and P60s folder.
• Health folder as I have arthritis so have various checkups to keep track of.
• Vet folder for all cat-related paperwork.
• A set of drawers called the ‘useful drawers’ - instruction booklets in one drawer, lightbulbs and batteries in another, random useful stuff like drawing pins and glue in another.

I find it much easier to separate by category rather than having alphabetical order.

There’s no great solution for documents but I’ve gone from a phase of having masses of unopened letters and piles to a system whereby I aim to file and shred papers the day they come in.

A very rigid one folder system that I have to go through wouldn’t work for me so I have

• a small ring binder of annual / subscriptions / regular payment things. So gas, electricity, water, home insurance, council tax, burglar alarm service, school fees. I only keep two years worth. So I file the bill as it comes in and throw out the oldest one. I don’t file mobile phone bills, for some reason I find them very easy to shred the day they come in
• a larger ring binder of one-off household jobs - plumbers, bathroom, tree surgery (with planning permission for work on preotected trees), carpenters, windows. So the warrantees relates to these and things like fensa, electrical work or corgi certificates (whatever they’re called now - gas smart?) are kept here with their invoices. When I move house I assume I’ll be asked about these. There’s no organisation, it’s in date order with the most recent one at the top.
• a box folder where I chuck in instruction booklets for random items - scooters, furniture, TVs, dishwasher, washing machine with their warrantees. Every couple of years I go through and chuck the old ones out.
• finances are kept separately. My finances are easy so I have two folders one for each bank account, two folders one for each pension (I am currently combining them into a third so might throw out most of this), my savings accounts are online so I just have the ‘welcome to your Egg / Yorkshire Building society account and nationwide’ letters.
• i also have letters on school information, deposits, applications, offers etc.
• a clear plastic folder on child benefit and stamps paid for my pension. I think this folder only has three or four pieces of paper in it but they’re important
• a historic folder of p45s and p60s. Some women my mum’s generation had to fight for pensions because of admin errors and as I worked for about 25 years have a folder with this in.

I hate this stuff so speed of filing is my priority and once or twice a year I will spend an hour shredding old bits

Yes! I put it in the shredder!

Seriously, I have opted for online everything, and have found that I don't need most other things that come through the post. I have one ringbinder with birth certificates, passports, house deeds, marriage certificate etc. and a few other things that are in paper only.

DH has a bit more as he is self-employed, but most stuff is with his bookkeeper.

You can always request copies of bank statements, payslips etc if you really need them

I'm exactly the same with organising. We haven't hoarded anything by any stretch, but there's bits piled everywhere, so getting it sorted through, organised and put away (in the correct place! And labelled!) has been massive for us. It just makes life so much easier to know exactly where everything is and see what you do and don't need.

I just needed to get a battery out for example and felt chuffed I didn't have to rummage around. The small things in life eh

Hello declutter team!

i've managed to declutter the following:

• another bag of clothes or charity shop;
• a load of pens and pencils of the Dc's
• i cleared out the bathroom cabinet the other day and ditched everything that was out of date.
• used up a shower gel (which i hated)
• used up a concealer
• finally finished a mascara
• completed two jigsaw puzzles which have been listed on local jigsaw swap facebook page.

we also got a new car - so cleared out a beanbag of crap from the old one.

Someone finally came and got that mirror, gosh people can be weird on Facebook but 3rd time was the charm in the end.

Also gifted some old games but have a lot of toys to sort through still.

And the paperwork still looms, I can't find my shredder, its probably under all the paperwork :/