Decluttering and organising thread 8 – it’s nearly summer

[stealthninjamum]

These threads are accountability threads for mumsnetters who are decluttering and organising our homes.

We’re all at different stages of decluttering from the beginning to the maintenance phase and use different techniques. Join us for support and chat .

We discuss all things to do with decluttering, the things that stop us decluttering, how to get over them, where to dispose of our clutter, how we can encourage our families to join us, and pretty storage solutions which is the fun part.

I’m doing one last big push to get rid of loads of stuff before the long summer holidays when it’ll inevitably turn to chaos again.

Useful tips
Some of us have found the Toss app (on apple) a great place to start with decluttering.

Many of us love Dana K. White (A Slob Comes Clean) on youtube and podcasts.

Many of us at the start just take a timer for 5 or 10 minutes to just make it seem less daunting. I used to start by clearing surfaces.

If you want to make a big impact quickly then increasingly charities will pick up your furniture, books and clothes so you don't even need to leave the house. Or if you have hundreds of books / CDs it's really easy to use the Music Magpie, ziffit or We buy books apps to get them taken away and earn a (very) small amount of money at the same time.

The BBC TV Program Sort Your Life Out is particularly inspiring.

When I do housework I listen to podcasts from a Slob Comes Clean, Clutterbug, the Declutter Hub and The Art of Decluttering. If you think you have ADHD then Clutterbug talks about this a lot as she has ADHD, and Amy from The Art of Decluttering did an ADHD season about 8 or 9 months ago which gave some good tips. My dc have ADHD so it’s something I’m very interested in.

I bought a new address book ages ago and never finished putting people's addresses in it. I finally finished this afternoon! The knackered old one can now go.
Feel like I'm getting things organised which is good.

OMG have been helping in laws tidy their attic and garage. So much stuff and we brely scratched the surface. MIL seemed to find it impossible to let anything go. Is there such a thing as a tidy hoarder/hoarder lucky enough to have lots of storage. Just a couple of examples a bag with what i thought were leather belts. “I’ll keep those they are straps for securing suitcases” But you don’t travel anywhere with a suitcase now, yes but someone else in the family might need them. But no one knew they were there and no one has needed them in the 15 years they have lived in that house 🤷‍♀️ They did not want to join us on a UK holiday last year and passports have expired. But still she dcided to keep the 20 holdalls/suitcases of various sizes “just in case”
At least I feel better about our own stuff now. I am anout 90% of the way to my goal of knowing what i have and where it is.

@Gassylady my in laws are like this! They also bring an Aldi’s bags worth of stuff to ours every time they visit. They helped us move house, and MIL claimed half the stuff I was sending to charity - including an old kettle when they already have 2!

Only 2 outs here today - a chair I’ve been meaning to sell for ages, and a pair of shorts sold on Vinted. The chair was big so I’m pleased to have it gone.

Sadly the mouldy chair is still with us, but DP has agreed it needs to go, after we brought it in the house and it immediately made the conservatory stink of damp.

another 5 items listed on Vinted today, I got jackets on Toss - went through the wardrobes last week so had a quick look through the DC’s wardrobe - a couple of nice bits to store for my youngest, and a few bits on the pile to list on Vinted.

Slowly but surely scaling the mountain! 339 outs so far. Upstairs is in absolute chaos as we’ve had to pull furniture out of a bedroom to paint - have stripped all the wallpaper, sanded, and finally done two layers of primer. Two more layers of paint and then the woodwork still to do and then it can all go back in! Watching the match with DP and then may try and make a start on the next coat before bed. I will tame this house!!

Please put the mouldy chair out - the mould spores can really affect someone with asthma and make it much worse. Does your local council offer free collections of large items? Ours does one free collection per year, with a max of 5 items.

Not much decluttering but I did sell a thick jumper on Vinted (that's summer for you this year, hey) which made a nice dent in a storage box. I also rage-purged all the cardboard boxes (again) as I have such few items to sell on Vinted anymore and they take up so much space! Also binned some shapewear which I can't see myself ever using (think the last time I used it was at our wedding 7 years ago), and 2 pens that had dried out

I'm also looking more and more about decluttering non-physical items, and spent some time yesterday deleting stuff from my YouTube - subs, watch later -lists, downloads. Even those make me feel a little anxious when they get "crowded".

Total is 918

In the recycling trolley -
Four fairy liquid squeezy bottles that they used as water pistols.
Four small cardboard boxes that I was keeping just-in-case. In case of what, I don’t know. Intend getting rid of some more boxes soon.

Huge parasol to kids’ school
bag of clothes to charity
summer dresses to friend
2 boys coats to friend
broken clothes prop out for scrap men
pile of books donated to school

Total items 30

We did a tip run, I love a tip run. Lots of large boxes and packaging gone, a load of old plastic tubs and lids that don't match and a carrier bag of textile recycling.

Also gifted the old play kitchen on the local free site.

Binned a broken inflatable thing for the pool.

DD had a sort out and binned a load but I didn’t count other than a broken basket I’d asked her to bin.

DS2 sorted through some clothes, so some of them into fabric recycling.

DS1 promises he will tackle his room one of these days. Or I’ll do it when he leaves!

Jobs:

1. Hang up framed pictures
2. DS2 paperwork: started blue badge
3. my British passport application (have an Irish one but life sometimes easier with a UK one and I’m allowed both)

Not quite outs yet:
3 x old duvets to find a home for - need to contact local dog charity place
craft stuff listed on FB; colouring books due to be collected soon?
Running leggings to go to a friend
2 x family tree certificates to a friend

Out:
inflatable, basket, 2 shorts, 6 socks
1037+10=1047

Thanks for the encouragement @stealthninjamum and @Pigtailsandall. It’s a combination of existing work and flood-related but at some point we will actually have to move out for a while which is sort of good, sort of scary.

I keep pushing forward, challenges large and small. A few items of furniture and kids stuff gone now. Trying not to be sad about this being the last baby, and just enjoying each stage. But I do feel like I’m drowning in the house.

July so far doesn’t look bad when you add it all up, and I’m over the 1000 mark now for the YTD.

July - 97
1 vinted sale top
1 ice lolly mould
1 frame
1 pile junk mail
1 pile broken bits of toys
1 pair broken sunglasses
18 kids clothes
1 newborn dummy/ box
1 rusty tin
1 hosepipe splitter
1 snuzpod
1 toy arch
1 big bag plastic
1 dressing table
66 kids clothes to charity

I've just been at my mum's house, so coming home, mine feels amazingly uncluttered, tidy and quiet. I reckon it'll take about 24 hours for me to start noticing all the STUFF again, just because it's not scattered over every surface...

One dress with a difficult zip.
Too small trousers.
Broken shredder.

Total is 2390

gassylady yes organised hoarding is a thing

Binned - one ancient lumpy duvet.

Note my username -everything is neatly categorised and boxed and labelled and on shelves. There are a couple of hotspots of things I use frequently, and I tidy these regularly, but the rest is unused for years and I struggle to let go.

@Worryingme i agree with everyone, get rid of the mouldy chair.

i don’t know if you follow Dana k. white but she has the ‘container concept’ whereby you store items in an area and if the area is too full you have to remove one item to add another. You can use it with any item but she often uses it to talk about family members so kids know they can only have as many toys as fit in the toy box. I had a hoarder husband and wasn’t familiar with this concept but it might help you. My exh improved as the whole house improved (but it was an effort to get rid of broken computers and broken washing machine!) - and many of us have found that men get better at this as we do.

@Gassylady i would say my ex in-laws are tidy hoarders. They never throw anything away but they have furniture and storage everywhere so their nice-sized dining room has sideboards and dressers on about three sizes full of china from dead relatives that they wouldn’t sell / donate. I found the room oppressive with large amounts of dark wood furniture. I think this type of clutter has a sunk cost fallacy whereby the owner’s had it for years and moved house with it and won’t get rid of it in case it’s valuable (it wasn’t).

I’m still going slowly here. I have been making Lego sets with dc but not managing to finish any recently. I am currently going through a container of CDs/ DVDs that I found. Annoyingly there’s a Simpsons DVD that was part of a box set. I gave the rest away years ago.

Two carrier bags taken to the textile recycling bank at the station on my way to work, and a bunch of cardboard and paper recycling which has inexplicably sat in the same corner of our bedroom as the two bags of textiles for months. Instantly that corner looks much better! Bracing myself for an influx of clutter though as it's DS's birthday today and party on Sunday, so more toys will come flooding in 😩

@stealthninjamum my MIL has a big house with loads of storage, in which lurks:
Her parents China
Her inlaws china
Her uncles China
The set she had as a student
The set FIL had as a student
The set they got when they were married
And a set for best

We once had 63 people round, not enough chairs but plenty of plates.

Yeah, um, the only reason I know you aren’t talking about is that I don’t have a SiL or DiL and I am not a MiL. My china and glassware cabinets are chockers. ☺️
I could entertain 50+ if I mix and match dinner services.

@Jellycatrabbit dont even talk to me about the china. They have two kitchen cabinets full of everyday stuff (and I do mean full) maybe 40 dinner plates alone plus salad plates, dessert plates and several sizes of bowl. Then there is a sideboard crammed with the best set -they started collecting that when they married. I think they have a service for twelve and huge variety of serving dishes -used to entertain a lot before relocating. Due to young children it hasnt been out at Christmas or other occassions for about 15 years. Why not use that as your everyday set now and enjoy the thing you love? 🤷‍♀️ as there only the two of them!

My FIL was a hoarder and not a tidy one He died earlier in the year, the house was full cellar to loft and an outside cupboard. We seem to have got rid of a lot but we've hardly scratched the surface. There is so much stuff. DP's siblings want to pass opinion on stuff so we're stuck, they need to get themselves over there. That is a whole other thread though.
Anyway, a box full of kids paints and brushes went this morning. I put it all in a trainer box so 2-4-1.

This is definitely a generational thing. I feel like even my parents generation had different China sets etc, whereas DH and I have one. My mum still thinks it's odd, because "what would you use for fancy events". I always say restaurants 😂 if you love something, use it! Its meant to be enjoyed, not to be a burden to the next generation (who will undoubtedly hate it anyway)

@stealthninjamum definitely getting rid of the chair!!

Just read up on the container concept - it sounds so simple but I’d never thought of it like that! Definitely one I’ll share with DP.

Not much more to report here at the moment, listed another 10 things on Vinted and have sold quite a bit this week - pricing things low to just get them moving and setting deadlines for the charity shop if they don’t sell within three weeks. We’re on a big savings push so want to try and make something if I can! I had somebody coming to collect a piece of furniture from Facebook today but they haven’t turned up which is frustrating. Finally finished painting in one room and hung curtains that have been sitting waiting for 8 months (we do have blinds so only decorative really, but may as well be decorative instead of sitting in a box being clutter!).

Workmen were due today for the bathroom but have rescheduled for tomorrow so hoping they turn up - it’ll be messy but has needed doing for months so will be brilliant when it’s finished. Finally finished stripping, sanding and base coats in the other bedroom and have started cutting in with the actual colour. Going to try and get the first coat finished tonight, then we can wrap up the last coat on Sunday and finally move all the furniture back in there, and hang my other set of curtains and the blinds which have been lurking in a corner for months. Slowly but surely tackling the pile of DIY projects, so more focused on that than proper decluttering, but finishing the projects will relieve a corner of the room that will be the playroom so will be a big step when it’s all done!

@SydneyCarton we seem to end up with piles of cardboard occasionally too - makes such a huge difference when it all goes! Birthdays are the worst for an influx of things - I was really strict at Christmas this year and operated a one in one out policy for all the bits I got, and donated anything DD got that wasn’t suitable straight away (she was only 2 so had no idea, but I don’t think I’ll get away with that this year!)

I inherited my parents wedding china when I moved into my own flat. I vaguely remember it coming out at Christmas and other high days and holidays, but now it’s used every day, definitely more in the last ten years of its life than the first thirty 🤣. The quality is great actually, the cheap supermarket stuff shatters if you breathe on it but the 70s Royal Doulton just keeps on going.

One shampoo used up (loads left). Strongly resisting the urge to buy new fancy toiletries. Total is 2391

Decluttered :

Frying Pan
Baking tins

Some clothes to recycling bins

I have some small electricals to go out so I need to find somewhere to take them .

Recycled - one bashed biscuit tin.

Four jam jars.

One small cardboard box.