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.

Just plodding on here. Was trying to re-clear a surface and managed to bin a few bits. Why is it that some surfaces just collect clutter? And what can I do about it?

If it gets really bad, Flylady suggests removing that flat surface. For example, a table next to front door.

Just dropped loads of carrier bags & bags for life at a food bank & they were thrilled - warmed my heart. Have another 4 bags to go to the charity shop, including several throws given to me by DD15. I may clear out the bottom of my wardrobe later if the weather changes. I was looking for my beach bag earlier & there’s such a lot of stuff shoved in there!

I have this problem. It used to be our kitchen table, now it's a shelf in the kitchen that just collects junk. Suppose that's slightly better. I tidy it every few days. I have put most of the junk down there because it's handy and I'm busy.

I did put a vase on it for a while but junk just collected round it so I've resigned myself to regularly revisiting it.

Outs: Two unexpected sales on Vinted and the associated packaging.

British Airways is trying to declutter my sanity as they’ve cancelled our flight due to weather which isn’t their fault I know but how they’re trying to deal with it is doing my head in.

Jobs:

1. Hang up framed pictures
2. DS2 paperwork: blue badge started
3. my British passport application (have an Irish one but life sometimes easier with a UK one and I’m allowed both) - waiting to come back from holiday before getting on with this

Not quite outs yet:
3 x old duvets to find a home for - emailed local dog charity place
Running leggings to go to a friend - Need to message her to meetup
spare tap left from building works - on FB
pile of unwanted files - on FB
spare Taylor Swift poster from DD to neighbour’s DD
bag of bags - on FB

Out:
dd clothes too small x 3
1127+3=1130

Sorry to hear about your flight @LivingInaBuiltSite I hope you get it sorted quickly. That must be so stressful.

I used to have the problem of surfaces collecting clutter and so they’re always the first areas I tidy. In my experience it gets better when you have a home for the stuff which happens when you’ve decluttered loads and have spaces in drawers. So my post table used to have huge piles of post until I’d tidied my study. Now I spend a couple of minutes a week clearing it as I can file a bill or bank statement in a couple of minutes. My house is worse than normal at the moment because dc are off but I can generally clear the surfaces downstairs (that a guest would see) in a few minutes and I do upstairs every couple of weeks and the surfaces largely stay clearish.

yesterday I went to Currys to get rid of some old electronics that had been in my boot for ages.

dd2 has got rid of more clothes so they’re in the car now, I’m hoping to get to the charity shop this afternoon. I’m also intending to spend my evening doing more Lego.

4 pairs of too small knickers

7 books

Total is 2704

Out of the house today are the four crystal bowls, a bedside clock radio, a pair of my boots that I’ve barely worn, a pair of sandals and two pairs of kids beach sand shoes. The sand shoes were the ones I couldn’t find when I took the wetsuits! Sadly the double blow up mattress was rejected as very reasonably the shop said they didn’t have the room to blow it up and check it worked ok.
Another more modern set of four crystal dessert bowls has been rehomed into the kitchen. Not sure whether they will get used much but at least I choose these. They were just very sensible to have around when the kids were small.

Also found in one of the attic cupboards a bunch of school trousers all now washed will unpick the embroidered logo off before taking them to charity shop or dropping in to school. Because of course the logo is no longer required by school. Hate to give mean kids something to tease about so off they need to come.

7 more books
2 more shrunken knickers

Total is 2713

One travel size shampoo used up. Total is 2714

On behalf of kids everywhere- thank you 🤩

Right, a bag of 21 kids clothing items to a friend. All outgrown and I'm happy that they are going to a good home. Also nice to see said friend.

Sold a kids coat on Vinted, decluttered a dead plant, 2 huge bags that came with DC's birthday catering that "could've been useful", a kids book

Also out a pile of dh papers as he tidied up, and the paperwork for my old savings account shredded

29+1276=1305

Took two bags to the charity shop yesterday and promptly filled up another two for textile recycling - in the office tomorrow so will try to remember to take them with me to the bins at the station. Some new PE kit incoming but hopefully balanced out by donating the old stuff to the PTA uniform shop.

Oh, and one small shower gel used up on holiday, plus a travel shampoo which I think has one more use in it, so I'll finish it tomorrow.

I’m still sorting through the crap dd2 removed from her wardrobe. I have had to throw out two games because bits are missing. A teacher friend would like a science toy. There’s also a bag of rags - mainly old underwear and a bag she made herself. I still have to sort through a mountain of jewellery and craft bits, papers, school notes, dolls and animal characters- many broken. I set dd1 the task of clearing out a pile of schoolwork - her bedroom is so untidy, and has no clear surfaces I can’t bear to go in it - but her latest adhd obsession is knitting so I might have to sit with her later and do it while she knits.

i also cleaned my garage door for the first time in about 5 years. It’s white and loads of the crap won’t come off so I’m thinking of sanding it and painting it black. I have the white paint I last used to paint it. I am throwing that away. In fact I have about ten tins of paint in the garage I will be throwing away.

I’ve just dropped off a package of 6 books that I have sold to Ziffit.

My new rule with books is that if it’s not a 4 or 5 out of 5 — it goes!

So £5.70 back and 6 books that won’t be taking up room on my bookshelves.

57 + 6 = 63

@SagittariusUprising that’s great. I have lots of books. Is Ziffit easy to use? Thanks.

Five pairs of DD’s leggings that she’d outgrown have gone into the charity bag, but I bought six new pairs of leggings to replace them, so a slight increase overall. But I was glad to see that when I went through her leggings with her, she was happy to get rid of the too-small ones. I’m trying to make it a regular thing that we check her clothes and get rid of anything that she’s outgrown.

Also bought some school uniform in the next size up - skirts x 2, shirts x 3, and a PE hoodie. There will be some to go out, but DD didn’t want to try on stuff from last year so we’ll do that closer to the start of term.

So easy!

Download the app. It has a built in scanner so you can scan the barcodes. Under a certain value, you have to drop it off, but over and they’ll even collect the box from your house.

One damaged top gone. Total is 2715

I went round the house with a bin bag and got a whole bag full of rubbish and recycling. Slightly embarrassed that was in our house.

Need to manage a few other types of outs too!

Recycling trolley-
More out-of-date forms and junk mail. I’m getting more focussed and ruthless with that stuff.

One jamjar in glass recycling.

I brought some more toys in from the shed. They’ve been wrapped in bin bags and just needed a quick wipe down so that DD can take them away for gumtree or similar. Also DVDs that I looked out last week, and a few children’s books.

I looked on eBay and she might get a few pounds for some of it, which would be nice because she helps a lot with the decluttering.

Two badly scratched DVD's binned and one leaflet recycled. Total is 2718

I’ve had a couple of days on my own as DH and DD are away, and have got some more decluttering done. I went through almost all of my clothes (still need to do dresses and underwear), and found 12 things to get rid of, and took them to a charity shop yesterday (along with DD’s old leggings), so they’re actually out of the house. I used one of my many bags for life to bag up the clothes to donate, but still have loads in the under-stairs cupboard.

I also did some more shredding of my mum’s paperwork and have another bag to put into the recycling, and cleared out the freezer and put a few things had been at the back for a while in the bin.

In the next few weeks, I’d like to deal with some larger items:

• DD’s old bed - currently dismantled behind the sofa
• The two boxes of baby clothes
• DD’s old bike
• The stuff in the corner of DD’s room (mostly bedding to be stored elsewhere)
• Finish the box of paperwork
• The box of our books / stuff underneath the box of paperwork
• The two bags of fabric recycling.

Posting here to try to be accountable!

I plan to get as much as possible to charity shops and the dump today.

I'm working my way through a mountain of accumulated/inherited stuff (4 cluttered households ended up in one house and garage). Fortunately, after a lot of slogging through boxes and general heaps, I can see a difference and things feel calmer and more manageable.

I think I need to have a regular 'dump day' when I don't do any sorting, just concentrate on getting donations and dump items to their next destination. I've been doing ad hoc charity shop drop offs every couple of weeks but I need to completely clear the backlog of stuff that is not good enough to donate and various broken appliances.

I'm definitely getting better at deciding what not to keep and enjoying space where once was stuff.