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.

One pair of uncomfortable knickers binned and one face toner used up, bottle recycled. Total is 2728

Clearing out the tall cupboard where I keep the hoover and ironing board (along with about 4 million other things) has revealed that I buy far too many of the big IKEA blue bags. This is excellent as I now have several to fill with stuff for the charity shop. One has been filled this morning and will be departing later today (hopefully). I really need to do clothes but I can't face it.

I'm still posting a few things a day on Vinted. Little pile building up for charity. I have fallen behind on the one in ten out by thirty things now. Ds12 needs new school shoes but apart from that I think we are sorted.

Took ds20 to ikea yesterday snd bought tons of stuff for uni but I'm not going to count that as its not staying here.

Got a load of broken hangers going to the tip. Chucked out some out of date drinks.

Want to tackle the cutlery draw at some point. Lots of kids and baby spoons that can go.

Not sure if I want to pack away AND thin out dds summer clothes today. Or just pack them away ( not all of her summer things, just enought to rotate her Autumn clothes back in).

@IncessantNameChanger i would thin out dds summer clothes, it’ll be one less job for six months time.

@SqueakyDinosaur i noticed last week that I have a big blue ikea bag that I don’t use. I wonder if I should give it to a charity shop too. I only ever use it to take my big duvet to the launderette but that would probably fit in a bin bag so I think I’m going to follow you and get rid of the ikea bag.

i had a decluttering success yesterday. DDs wanted to see Coraline in 3D and thanks to me organising accessories I found the 3d glasses we last used when we saw another 3d film about 5 years ago. That saved us £6 in new glasses.

Today I’ve been doing more gardening so have half a bin of ivy and I’ll spend the afternoon decluttering Lego.

Stealth I think your right. Dd has 100 items hanging in her wardrobe ( how I don't know as I thin regularly and not bought her anything not essential this year either). I did a list of what she needs in reality and it comes to 86 items ( excluding pjs and underwear) so I could easily get rid of 10% again right now.

Plus do I really want to store it just to give it away later? I'm only one storage box away from not needing to rotate for each season.

Will take before and after pics

52 items of kids clothes gone today. There's a few more things in the wash that really need to go but I will deal with those later. I'm listing about three things a day on Vinted and donating if they get zero views after two days. The rest I will leave up for a week I think. Don't want to be selling or listing when it's back to school. Still a bit behind really.

Total for 2024
1288 out
126 in

Sunday - adult DD took two bulky children’s toys to sell/donate Keep if she wants, but never bring them back here

Got to get rid of about another 62 things this month to stay on target.

Forgot to take a bag of textile recycling when I left for the station this morning, which is annoying. There's a bag of old uniform waiting to be donated to the PTA uniform shed once school goes back, but most of the stuff in it will be replaced by new shoes, new PE shirts etc so not much of a change. Hopefully last term's summer stuff will last them until after half term when they have to change over into winter uniform which gives me a bit of time to sort out shirts, skirts and trousers.

Bought new shoes for DD1 and DD2 so I have a better idea of their current size, which means I can go through existing shoes and get rid of anything too small. DS has worn through his PE trainers and needs new ones as I don't think school would be too keen on flashing Lightning McQueen ones....

This thread is just what I need!

Retired end of July from very demanding job with 80% of time working from home so full office set up in the house. Have no idea what I am going to do with myself long term but first order of business is to remove all work related stuff from the house and reclaim the space.

I have a fair amount of smart clothes that were needed for when I did go into the office, and for frequent work/social events; don't plan to get rid of all those outfits yet as who knows what I may end up needing in the future.

If I update weekly on here I hope that will keep me accountable and focused on my first goal, which is to get rid of things I definitely no longer need and get some semblance of order in the house (it's clean and tidy but there is a lot of 'stuff' tucked away in drawers and cupboards).

I'm pottering about at the moment, attacking some obvious areas, but once I have skimmed those, I hope to do a more methodical room by room declutter.

I had planned a 'do nothing' August, but found I was itching to get cracking. I'll post my progress so far over the next few days to avoid making this post even longer!

Some of DH TShirts to recycling
Tub of wax that is past its best , gone that horrible sticky but not sticky enough to hoik out hairs like its actual indended purpose !

My holiday clothes are in the process of being washed , don't think I need to get rid of any but some will go into storage for next year .

Up to 300 now since end of July.
4 work jackets gone today and boots, trousers, books, dress etc
A shirt I have had for years but not worn. It's nice but I can't see me wearing it now. I'm giving a couple a chance to see if I wear them in next 6 months but again, been there for at least 5 years unworn.
How long do other people give unworn clothing?

I'm not counting (kind of wish I'd started!) but I am noticing that I feel better about my home, and I'm just trying to get rid of stuff that I have previously dithered about. I think it's easy to discount just how much headspace it takes to have too much stuff and be bothered by it.

1 x uncomfortable knickers
1 x plastic spatula
1 x catalogue

Total is 2731

@IndianSummer78 is that Total from the start of the year? Your doing so well

Thanks Incessant, it's my overall total. I want to know how much ends up leaving by the time I decide I'm done and have reached maintenance level. I'm a long way off that! It also helps me keep focused on decluttering because I can be quite competitive and I like to see that number ticking up.

I had about a year of toying with the idea of decluttering seriously. During that time I got rid of some things like old, misshapen, holey, clothes. Also had a clear out of the under stairs cupboard containing sports equipment, to sell off things nobody used or were likely to use. Started using up a huge, huge stash of toiletries. Then afterwards I found this thread and started a serious declutter, that's when I started counting from, so around February/March 2023.

It's not going to be a totally accurate number because I'd got rid of lots before I started counting. It still means something to me though because shortly before I got to the point of starting my serious declutter, at that moment in time I believed I was basically finished, I was expecting to fill a couple of binbags from all round the place with stuff and be done, which I can now see was complete madness. I'm also a shopaholic, so things are always coming in to some extent, although I'm trying to work on that, with some success.

I'm a wannabe minimalist. My home isn't hoarded and I want to keep it that way, but I do have a lot of stuff and most of the unnecessary things here are mine or things I'm responsible for. So I shall be keeping on decluttering for quite a while yet. IDK whether I'll ever achieve minimalism. I like the idea of Swedish Death Cleaning though, so perhaps I'll only attain minimalism when I'm really old and staring death in the face, assuming I live that long of course. I love the peacefulness of minimalism but I have a maximalist attitude towards life. I'm constantly at odds with myself.

As per my previous post, I said I was itching to get cracking so here are the results of my first week of retirement. Mainly work stuff but came across some notebooks that belonged to my parents in amongst it all so they were decluttered too.

w/e 4th August
Decluttered
Office
Emptied work bag and relocated contents

Donated (charity shop or local FB free group)
4 x monitors including power leads etc.

Recycling centre
Freeview box
Sky box
Humax box

Binned
Notebooks x 4 (parents)
Shredded work papers and stationery (loads and loads!)
Business cards (to go in log burner when next lit)

Well done on makingva start on yourcwork stuff IDareSay. I personally hated getting rid after a big life change.

I have taken photos of all the stuff I want to Vinted. I have boasted the best dress so that's a timely reminder 7 days is up when the boast ends. It's nicer stuff so I will donate it to a charity shop rather than the local clothing bank ( helps local family's with free clothes) as I doubt they will need little girls bridesmaid type dresses.

All that's left of dd to sort is the area her school uniform is in, in case I have overlooked anything there.

1 vinted sale, 7 items to rags

Well done @idaresay. I love all the old technology going, we have a 17 year old telly that has a video recorder and dvd player attached to it. I keep meaning to buy a smart TV as we watch Netflix and prime on my iPad but my TV still works as well as the day we bought it so I can’t justify it.

You’re doing some great updates @IncessantNameChanger you must be making such a difference.

A few outs from me today

• a pack of cards
• a Princess game
• some cardboard folders that aren’t particularly useful
• a bucket
• a Pom pom
• two brand new key rings dd2 doesn’t want.

17 old and expired bottles/packets of medication taken to the pharmacy to dispose of safely.

8 items to the cloth recycling including one rucksack, two too-small toddler shoes and some old clothes.

72 + 25 = 97

I’ve gone through my wardrobe. Outs include two dresses and a cardigan. I used to love them but realise they’re too scruffy so they’re in my big blue ikea bag with the other stuff I found yesterday.

Wow - you are on a roll @stealthninjamum!! Holidays here and no extra progress but feeling a bit motivated for when I get back.