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.

Same, Sidney. I'll recycle most but knickers binned.

No idea about freezing wax. I decide whether the thing is mostly wax (binned) or mostly jar (recycled), I don't do anything to separate it, life is too short.

One face wash used up. Total is 2280

I'm also in the bin the pants -camp, even though I try to be green.

Not much out. 2 big sets of investment paperwork stuff for dh and me, and a plastic car to school toy drive.
Total at 823

This afternoon it's just one pair of trousers that are too small. Total is 2281

Have completed and submitted the job application, yey!
also taken DS (18) to buy alcohol in prep for the end of exams party 🥳 (4 left)
and mostly ready for tomorrows very (stupidly) long run 🤞

carb loading for dinner and an early night needed.

Jobs:

1. Hang up framed pictures
2. DS2 paperwork: started blue badge
3. clear out/check through shed contents
4. Application for training course at work: DONE! ☑️
5. 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:
Vinted stuff: 3 items to post tomorrow 2 posted ✔️✔️
21 items in a Music Magpie box but waiting for password reset email to actually confirm sale - system is not working for me - need to try this again: tried again, think I need to set up a whole new account… will try Ziffit next
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?

Out:
2 Vinted items
broken takeaway box
956+3=959

DH has been doing some other bits too but I haven’t counted what he’s been getting rid of, he did say soon he thinks he’ll be the only thing left in his office 😂

For those binning children’s pants my DD grew like a bean so hers weren’t very worn and the local playgroup welcomed them (as did the infants when she was there) because not all children had spares in their bags when they are potty training or when there’s the occasional accident at school… somehow I find it better handing them over to someone like that than charity shopping them..

Also you guys have been motivating me to clear and I’ve been going along with you since thread 6 - it wasn’t my plan to have a first post about pants 🤣

Got off the sofa to get rid of the last sold Vinted thing. I have about 4 things still listed but one more week then I’ll delete them I think.

Jobs:

1. Hang up framed pictures
2. DS2 paperwork: started blue badge
3. clear out/check through shed contents
4. 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:
Vinted stuff: 3 items to post: all done ✔️
21 items in a Music Magpie box but waiting for password reset email to actually confirm sale - system is not working for me - need to try this again: tried again, think I need to set up a whole new account… will try Ziffit next
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

Out:
959+1=960

No decluttering done but I painted the downstairs toilet on a whim, using old paint. I managed two coats of emulsion in 6 hours and dds didn’t notice after school although they did complain that it was cold as I’d left all the windows open.

Few tops that havent been worn in ages into the next charity bag. Begun to rearrange furniture to accomodate all the stuff that’ll be coming back with eldest from uni town. Went to visit end of last week and brought about half the stuff back. Currently still in the car whilst we try and juggle things around

I'm getting rid of a free-gift box of collagen supplements. These ones don't taste bad and have good reviews but something about the whole concept of collagen drinks gives me the ick. I've also only got a month's supply and it says you need 2-3 months to see a result, so I feel there's not much point in bothering. Total is 2282

Welcome to the thread Vroc 😊

Exam season has finished at casa ninjamum. I gave dd1 a day off and then started on decluttering with her. Today we bagged up two bags of school uniform and sports kit for the school’s shop. Given that she has enough clothes to last the summer holidays and Xmas there’s no real urgency to replace it with home clothes. I’m not sure how smart she needs to be in sixth form but we bought a couple of jumpers and trousers when she did work experience so I think she’ll start sixth form with a capsule wardrobe.

We also chucked out the school books she isn’t doing for a level, sorted out her school owned books to take back and I have a stack of text books to sell online.

dd2 needed attention so also decluttered her wardrobe. A binbag of scruffy hoodies, leggings and jeans are now in my car. We then went shopping and bought her one t shirt and one pair of jeans, I promised dd2 we’d buy more online. She was really pleased that dd1 gave her an old hoodie.

I think dds have probably stopped growing now so I don’t have to do the twice a year declutter. I guess things can go when they get scruffy.

Today's top is annoying the heck out of me, all the openings are somehow just wrong, so that's going. Also used up a face cream, loads left. Total is 2284

Progress last week: Did more sorting through the toy cupboard and found two unused craft kits and three jigsaws to donate. They went to the charity shop at the weekend along with the games I’d sorted out previously.

There were also two part-used craft kits that I’ve put on the local freecycle group, but no interest yet.

Also cleared off the coffee table in the living room that had become a dumping ground for DD’s stuff. Some things were moved to the toy cupboard (to be reviewed in future), some art supplies went up to her room, and I have about half a bag of small plastic toys to be donated. It now only has a small (A5-ish) storage box holding a few small toys, and a couple of coasters, and looks so nice.

My sister is visiting this weekend, and I feel stressed and sad about the state of the house. We got new dining room chairs at the weekend and everything else in the room looks shabby in comparison, plus everything is messy because we don’t have proper storage space and the room (which is quite small) is crowded. Including the old chairs which need to be disposed of!

We’re planning to get a new sofa but the one we’d agreed on (reluctantly as DH loves our old, hideous, sofa and only agreed to a new one as the springs are going) is too big for the space. so the old sofa will still be here when she visits. Her house is lovely and my BIL is the complete opposite of a hoarder, so I feel self-conscious about our house. I suppose all I can do is keep plugging away and do the usual last minute tidy up on Friday before she arrives.

I recycled one old journal. Put into donations bag one shirt that doesn't hang right, one skirt that looks hideous on me and a too small t-shirt. Total is 2288

Not much out since I came back from holiday last week. Ditched a pair of slippers, sold 4 items on Vinted and sold 14 items on eBay.

Also gone are 6 CDs, 1 dvd and 4 books to ziffit and 3 CDs and 7 books to we buy books. This included 4 large textbooks of my DPs which were taking up a lot of room.

Total for year 1161

hello everyone! Can I join in? I got so depressed last week I decided a declutter was absolutely necessary and I have binned SO MUCH! I feel better already.

I am getting a bit stuck on having extra baskets I bought to store stuff in and now wondering if they encourage me to keep more than I need!? Does anyone have any opinion on this kind of storage box clutter? I do worry if I chuck it out if it will be needed again.

Oh and blenders. I seem to have about 5 or 6 that all do different things - mini, large, food processor, hand blender, nutribullet etc etc. If only there were one amazing one that did all these things really well!?

Welcome @orpmoa this is a lovely community of people.

I haven't done any big item declutters, but I did sell a top on Vinted for £15 which made me happy. I also went around the house and binned rubbish - my dh is terrible at putting stuff in the bin. Also binned all the disposable cutlery, sauce packets, all the terrible hairbads that pull your hair, almost all the packing material (as I now have very few things left listed on Vinted - few dresses though and I hope they sell soon). Also spent 15mins deleting and reorganising digital pics. Going to count each of these categories as 1 item each.

Also out a cat toy, a freezer tray and a skincare sample I used up. Doing well with using things up.

Oh forgot - total for year is 832.

Also, question for those with pers - how do you store their toys? I feel like there's cat toys everywhere. I'm thinking a little basket by the fireplace?

Welcome @orpmoa . I think I went through a phase or buying storage solutions to organise myself but I have decluttered so much that I’m now getting rid of them.

i think it is good - if you’re doing a slow approach like many of us on this thread - to use storage when you’re at the ‘grouping things together’ / organising stage but accept that your ultimate goal might involve not having them. If it’s just temporary they don’t need to be pretty or expensive. I have often used a food bag, shoved all the batteries / bulbs / wires / crayons/ greetings cards as a short term fix while I carried on decluttering other areas.

Also do you have an eventual goal of clear surfaces or pretty surfaces with decorative baskets/ jars? I decided I wanted clean surfaces with nothing on them so I have some plastic trays or boxes inside drawers.

im finding it hard to declutter as I’ve done so much. Dd1 and I did a Lego set together yesterday and we finished off two hot chocolates that were in a box left over from Christmas. It’s so lovely having dd1 at home to help, when she’s ready we might tackle her wardrobe.

Hiya, sorry I dropped off the thread a bit. Looks like lots of impressive progress guys, and welcome to the newbies 👋 I joined about a year ago but we’ve had a new arrival, some upheaval in the house and it feels like I need to give myself a boot up the bum.

I also need to declutter a good few kilos of weight but that’s for another thread.

Good news is that June looks to be my best month since January, so hopefully I’m back on track a bit. 100+ items to charity, mainly kids/maternity stuff, a few things listed, a few more given away. And some good old-fashioned throwing in the bin for various broken toys etc

total YTD = 929

Ooh I’d love to join in!

I’m totally overwhelmed with our house at the moment. We moved 8 months ago into a bigger house - we’ve now got a double garage and a loft, and about double the kitchen storage, extra bedroom etc. When we moved I thought about how much extra space we’d have, but we’ve filled it!! DP also has a shipping container of stuff still to come in, and things stored at his parents which makes me want to weep!!

The actual house itself/surfaces really aren’t too bad, but every cupboard or drawer is rammed full. The tipping point for me was this weekend - we had some flooring fitted in the conservatory, they turned up unexpectedly and so we shoved everything in that room in the garage so they could lay it. I could barely open the garage door and had to climb over things to get to the tumble dryer and the chest freezer and officially decided enough is enough!!

I’m desperately trying to pursue minimalism. DP on the other hand is absolutely terrible. He has loads of stuff and hates getting rid of anything - even ‘easy’ stuff like broken things, that he insists we could maybe fix, but never get fixed. He will fish things out of the bin!! I have been quite firm and told him I’m really overwhelmed with what we currently have. He keeps insisting we need more storage and I’m trying desperately to explain we need less rubbish!!

He also hyperfixates on the best way to get rid of things which I used to be guilty of - maybe we could give that to distant relative who lives four hours away that we see once every couple of years etc etc.

it all feels a bit defeating as I feel like I could get rid of all my things and the space will just be consumed by more of his stuff! Every time I clear a space it seems to be refilled with other things from around the house.

we also have ‘projects’ everywhere - curtain poles to be hung, mirrors/pictures, bathroom fixtures that need putting up. How does everyone else deal with these types of things? Do you stop and just do the job there and then? What if it’s a job you can’t do yourself?

I’ve got a 4 month old baby and a 3 year old so progress is likely to be slow going, but today baby had a 2 hour nap which is totally unlike her so I got a lot done!!

Pulled things out of the garage and into the conservatory - set a timer for 30 minutes and started working from the far left side of the room. Made keep, sell or donate, bin or recycle piles and went at it. After 30 minutes I stopped pulling things out and moved on to the piles.

Then I started with the bin pile - loads of cardboard, a stack of old Laura Ashley catalogues my grandma gave me about two years ago, lots of old plastic lids, empty paint pots etc etc. Sorted all those into the relevant big bins outside.

I found so so many things and managed to get rid of 143 items!! A good chunk of those were from charity shop bags I’d sorted in the past but never actually took so they got reabsorbed! In the past I’ve got caught up with selling everything so was strict with myself, but listed a few things that I thought were worth doing - took photos and listed them straight away. I’ve sold a very pretty sideboard/plate that doesn’t match our decor at all anymore and a jigsaw puzzle on Vinted and made £30! They sold within about an hour of being listed so I probably could have got more for them but priced low to sell ASAP. I listed the other things and will reduce the price of anything that hasn’t sold by 50% this time next week, just to get things gone. A couple of things I’d listed on Facebook months ago and had interest in but got overwhelmed and never replied to messages so I’ve renewed the listings on those.

I then went through the keep pile - was chatting on the phone to a friend and asked her opinion on a few things which she told me she’d bin so ending up getting rid of some more things. Then it was a lot of organising - putting suitcases into other suitcases, sorting through toys. I’ve now started a bag of toys that are told old for my eldest at the moment, toys that are too young for her that I want to keep for baby, and then toys she likes now which went into the toy rotation box. I found some things that can now live in the conservatory since it’s been floored - the plan is for it to be a playroom. Got everything sorted out and put back in better places, and it looks so much better now!! I can get to the fridge, chest freezer and dishwasher with plenty of space, and made room for some things that had ended up in the conservatory post flooring that needed to come back in.

Then to finish off I packaged and posted the two sold items from Vinted before I lost momentum, and dropped off the charity bag into the clothes donation box on a car park.

still need to:

1. list a toy ride on car on Facebook - was unsure whether to give it to nursery but have decided it’s worth trying to sell it first.
2. Get DP to pop a couple of seasonal items and the box for our baby carrier in the loft - he insists on keeping the boxes for when we resell!!
3. spray paint and hang a mirror.
4. hang the new curtain rod in the living room that we bought when we moved in…8 months ago!

feeling very accomplished today, though I definitely won’t be able to achieve this much every day, it took up the whole day with feeds in between. But hoping to chip away at it and gradually get things clearer and calmer before the shipping container gets emptied into my house!!!

Welcome worryingme that's a fabulous start! I recommend little and often, just chip away and it will get better bit by bit. Also look at what you are bringing in - hard with tinies.

Got rid of the last of my reusable nappies. They were taking up a lot of headspace so I freecycled them in the end as second hand market is dead atm. A shame as I paid a fair bit for them but I did get my moneys worth through use.

Decluttered my makeup, again a big bundle on freecycle and quite a lot in the supermarket recycling bin.

842 out, will be 857 when the postman picks up tomorrow's parcels.

Thank you @Jellycatrabbit i definitely won’t have that many out every day but it feels good to have done a decent portion of the garage today - still a long way to go in there unfortunately but have to start somewhere. Downloaded the toss app so will try and do that every day - have done a couple of the tasks from there so far and they’ve been nice and not too overwhelming thus far!

Cloth nappies gone sounds great I know they can take up a lot of space. Frustrating to have to free cycle them but at least now you have the room and you’ll still have saved £££ compared to if you’d used disposables instead so that’s a win in my book.

842 out is amazing! Great that the postman will take parcels too saves you going out to post them, I need to work out how to arrange that!

842 is since January not just today haha.

I use royal mail home collection, through the app, and "bring my label" so I don't even have to print. It's brilliant and our postie is lovely so I'm hoping it is helping to keep his job safe.

I don't have an iPhone so can't use toss - I am loosely following flylady which is a similar concept, one or two areas a week. It helps to have some structure doesn't it!