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'd definitely warn against immediately filling the decluttered space with more stuff... I'm also working through a lot of beauty products, and plan to just have one of each going forward, not a huge stack. They also go off!

DC and I went through some school art work and papers which had came home at the end of school year, and put quite a pile in the recycling. There's still more but I'm feeling a little unwell today. I sent DH to drop off a few unsold Vinted items which I finally took off the site, plus a bag of textile recycling stuff (mainly DH old t-shirts and some ripped/stained pyjamas). Productive morning considering I didn't leave the house.

Out today:
Pile of school work
10 items to textile recycling
3 of my tops to charity shop
Pepper grinder
Water bottle
Small broken toy

Total for the year, 1341.

Found four broken lids for storage tubs in the shed. Mended two of them with gorilla tape. Now I have two tubs with proper lids again, and two beyond repair and going in the bin.

Actual declutter - Gave adult DD a construction toy to sell/donate.

DH took a folding ironing-board up to a friend’s flat.

Back early this morning from holiday (was lovely but had its ups and downs like lost luggage and cancelled flights).

Need to find my old list way back in the thread somewhere.

Ds2 starts college on Monday, DD a new school on Wed, and still waiting to hear from the Navy about DS1, maybe Tuesday.
I've got a work shift tomorrow then a few days off to sort out the DC before I can even think about the house.

Found my last post.

Jobs:

1. Hang up framed pictures
2. DS2 paperwork: blue badge started
3. my British passport application - need to get on with this
4. kids pool to be put away for winter
5. garden generally tidied for end of summer

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
knackered suitcase to put on FB

Out:
broken pool toy binned
Brothers bag given back to him
1130+2

Post hurricane travel update for those that might be interested:

BA direct flight cancelled
hours spent on phone to reroute us
went via Ireland and the States
Nearly missed connection in Ireland due to US visa paperwork issues including sprinting round the airport and being escorted via back corridors to make the plane
night in US hotel
4/5 suitcases lost in transit
nearly a week to be reunited with all luggage
(luckily we were staying with family so could borrow some stuff as well as busy some basics for £££)

return went as intended lol 😂

This sounds so stressful! I've had to do a few similar things in the past and it's incredibly stressful. Hope you got some nice new clothes with the airlines money!

Just finished up 2 travel mini beauty products. They were tiny - but they lasted ages! Also got rid of a cleaning cloth (I have a million), an expired medical dressing, some disposable cutlery lurking in the drawers and an old certificate when I managed a bit of tidying up today. Pretty convinced I have Covid.

Anyhoo, year total now is 1347

Oh that's stressful @LivingInaBuiltSite every flight to the states seems to be cancelled if its BA which reminds me to check if ds ever tried for compensation for his cancelled flight.

I have a black bin bag full of clothes to donate but also just seen two bin bags full of kids clothes under the stairs when looking for a rucksack. I swore I'd got rid of them but maybe there's just more than I realised?

Might look at dd winter boots. She said not to buy more as she will just wear her trainers. This is first year she's got nothing to really wear with winter boots. I might look on Vinted but not buy them.

Still not looked at the uniform cupboard.

@IncessantNameChanger ive just had that happen to me. I wanted to do a bit more of dd1s wardrobe and found a tonne of stuff like sainsburys Lego card books and minecraft annuals that I thought had gone but this must be stuff I missed.

Stuff going includes

• 4 sainsburys card books
• a load of maths worksheets
• 3 annuals
• a Lego magazine
• a puzzle magazine
• a colouring book
• a notepad
• an activity book
• a thank you card

and two more Amazon vouchers worth £35. Their expiry date is 2027 but I want dd1 to use them now or they’ll just sit around her bedroom for another 3 years until they expire as they were from 2017.

i thought we had thrown dd’s school work for the subjects she wasn’t studying at a levels but it turned out she has 3 large boxes of school work in the bottom of her wardrobe. So I’ll be going through those over the next couple of weeks.

Somehow ended up with a DVD in my collection that's the wrong region and won't play, so that's been binned today. Total is 2736

Two half-empty bottles of weedkiller, which basically symbolises why we have so much clutter. Used up one on the weeds then threw out the empty bottle. The other has some kind of sediment in it. If the weeds aren’t dead in a couple of days, it’s going to be disposed of. Garage is full of crap like this.

Went through school uniform with DD yesterday and tried on all her new uniform. Her cardigans and PE kit from last year still fit (probably because I bought them just after Easter when she’d had a grown spurt), but she’s grown out of the rest. Three skirts, six polo shirts, three pairs of tights, and two cardigans (not decluttered when I got her the new ones!) bagged up to be donated to school, and the new things are in her drawers rather than being in a overflowing bag at the bottom of the wardrobe.

Today I need to take photos of her old coats and figure out how to sell stuff on Vinted. Got a bag of coats that I’d like to try selling first, as we could do with the money.

Couple of Disney Princess fancy dress outfits in the charity bag as they’re now far too small for the DDs. Would probably fit DS actually but not really his thing 🤣. Need to go through wardrobes and see what else is too small. Most of the children’s clothes are in two chests of drawers so I tend to forget what’s hanging up in the cupboard.

My week 3 results. Really starting to see a difference now and it's very satisfying when things leave the house!

w/e 18th August
Decluttered
Kitchen & utility room drawers (some)
Garden path at side of house

Donated
Useable stationery
Scone cutters, silicone chocolate mould, oven mitt, measuring spoons and cups, birthday candles, coasters.
12 x cake forks, 7 x wooden spoons, peeler, chopper, corer, spatula, serving spoons, grater, mandolin, slotted spoon, small frying pan.
String shopping bag, fur hat, fur headband, baseball cap, ear muffs, 3 x wooly hats, long knitted scarf, bucket hat, 8 x fridge magnets, 2 x baby hats, short knitted scarf, apron sewing kit, chain and clip, multi-hanger, teapot.
20 x large decorative plastic plant pots.

That is a good amount @IDareSay !

Back again after a lengthy session going through the kids wardrobe. I now have two bags of outgrown uniform for the PTA second hand shop, two bags for charity and one for recycling. Also went through the bookcase and culled a bunch of books which they’ve either outgrown or never really enjoyed.

Feels a bit dispiriting as it took ages and there’s no huge visual difference, apart from a tidier bookcase, because it was all crammed in the wardrobe, but I know it’ll make a difference in the long run.

Also took down a blow up “Happy Birthday”
sign which has been up on the wall since April as all our birthdays are done now, and burst the giant inflatable numbers we used to decorate when the DC had their birthdays.

Feel like I could/should do more but I’m totally knackered and have thrown in the towel for today!

Living on a built site, that was our holiday last year, cancelled flights and missing luggage. This year we stayed in the UK and had high winds and several trips to A&E. At least both are memorable.

At 1,135 to the end of August. Got lots of stuff earmarked to go which hasn't actually left yet.

Binned - one manky tupperware, greasy from years in garage. One lid with no tub.

I went through my desk and found about 4 laptop chargers for laptops I don't own anymore, so they're in a bag with a broken reading lamp waiting till I can get to the dump (or somewhere else I can recycle small electricals).

Small stepladder went to DD’s flat this evening, along with a clothes drying rack for over a caravan door. Also a child’s counting jigsaw for sale or donation.

One tatty novel into recycling. Total is 2737

Hi all, does anyone have any good tips on decluttering toys? DD (4) has far too many but she loves them all. I've tried suggesting she could point out any she doesn't play with anymore to pass on to another child who maybe doesn't have as much, but it all ends in tears when she considers 'missing them'. She also has the most incredible memory, so on the rare occasion I've thought 'oh, she hasn't played with this in months and months' and donated something, she will inevitably ask me to help her find it.

Feeling so overwhelmed! Has anyone dealt with similar?

Try a trade in at Christmas. If she leaves the toys she doesn’t play with any more under the tree, Santa will replace them with new toys to play with.

NB - I haven’t tried it myself as DC is too young but have heard it works for others.

PlantDoctor I have the same. DC are 5 and 2. We've got rid of the very babyish toys by passing on to friends. However we have e.g. three different ice cream sets, duplicate jigsaws, which are proving harder. Colouring books with two pages left. Etc. I'm focusing on these years being "peak toy" witch I'll miss when they are 8+ and only playing Minecraft! And trying to keep on top of other areas, particularly clothes which is my bugbear.

@PlantDoctor my dc were like this at that age and now they’re teens they’re fantastic at decluttering. I started by offering them the money I got from sales on Facebook to spend on new toys so we’d go to the toy shop with our £10s. Obviously the price of a new item is more than the value of several second hand items so we could clear quite a lot of space before buying a new toy.

These days nothing of theirs leaves the house without them being happy and if they want to keep something I don’t argue with them. Luckily they are happy for most of it to go.

Still skimming off the easy tasks to begin with as technically I gave myself the whole of August off but weather hasn't been great so might as well potter along in the house when the mood takes me.

w/e 25th August
Decluttered
Bathroom & dressing room
Bedside tables
Wardrobe 1, 2, 3

Donated
4 x spectacle cases, pencil case, sunglasses, new make up bag, bandana, 2 x T-shirts, silk top, wrap,
4 x jeans, 1 top, 1 jumper, pair slippers, 2 coats, 2 x trousers, 2 x dresses, linen waistcoat, belt, storage hanger

Binned
Old make up
Unusable toiletries
Out of date meds (taken to pharmacy)

You're probably right in that I'll miss it when it's gone! I just feel like we're falling over it all the time. She really does play with it all, which is sweet, but the amount means she doesn't play with any one thing very often!