All I Want for Christmas is a tidy house - Decluttering thread 9

[Pigtailsandall]

New thread!
Hope you all find this! It's not letting me tag people..

I had the morning off to go to the dentist and took an extra few hours off to pick up some Christmas presents. I pickeda few extra things that we really didn't need and now have the equivalent of a shopping hangover and feel a bit...depressed? Like the rush wore off and now I slightly regret my actions 😅

Decluttering related;

A few days ago I noticed I hadn't seen a particular piece of art lately which I kept in the glass cupboard in the kitchen dresser so I could see it but it was safely behind glass until the kitchen was painted. It's an irreplaceable original so I was getting into a bit of a lather over the weekend as to where it could be and why I had moved it, as the kitchen was finally painted months ago, but promised myself I would find it today if it was the last thing I did!

Well, there it was, in a box under the desk in the study, the last room on my decluttering list. I now recall stashing it in there with some other pieces that needed hanging once the kitchen/diner was finished. HUGE sigh of relief; I have been racking my brains as to where it could be and actually felt quite sick at the thought that it might have ended up in a charity bag in the last few weeks

It's going up on the wall today!

Eldest came back from uni yesterday in a foul mood. Ignored me. Ignored his siblings. Had a series of arguments with dh on the 200 mile drive home. No thank you. Just moaned there's no room for his boxes.

I asked him if he was going to say hello to me and his reply was "no I'm not in the mood, I don't want to be here" he is an entitled rude twat and feel like a utter failure of a mother raising him.

Did so much tidying today. Chased up dds DLA renewal from July! It's not been looked at yet! Her ehcp now says ASD specialist and the first one I consulted said no way would they have her!

Going to take 2 bags of toys to the cs today, can't wait to get them out of the house! They seem really noticeable in the space I have cleared already!
Got some errands to run but should be done by 10 30 so will have 2 hours to catch up/declutter.

I totally get the shopping hangover after spending money! Almost instantly sometimes.

3 bags to the school uniform collection out mostly new and too good to give away free but no one wants to pay for them 🫠

W/E 1st December

Decluttered
Spare bedroom

Donated
Various items to local foodbank

Binned
3 x used up scented candles (working my way through quite a large stash!), 2 x broken baubles

Recycled
Large bag garden rubbish, king sized bed base with drawers, 3 x sky boxes

Spare room now clean and decluttered and our old bed has been moved into there with the previous one going to the tip. Upstairs is done in terms of decluttering though DH still has stuff in the loft and the cupboard in the spare room so once Christmas is out of the way I'm going to go through the schedule again as there is definitely more to be gotten rid of. New bed arrived Sunday afternoon and all set up; the new mattress is much more comfortable.

Just run through the dcs clothes - 3 bags for life for clothing bin at school, 1 bag for charity collection and 1 for clothing recompiling at the tip. 2 duvet sets also removed from washing pile for fabric recycling.
I want through the dcs clothes when they went back to school but there was loads more I felt could go now 😀

The small bundles dotted around the house are finally starting to shift! I have hope they all go before Christmas.

23 0-12m size baby clothes to a friend who is expecting her second. I'm glad she chose almost all, the rest can go to the charity shop
2 martini glasses, 2 espresso cups (both gifts and never used) to charity shop
1 ice tray
1 cookery book
1 kids top, outgrown
1 set of DH tax return docs. I've hope he gets through more before xmas.
handful of party bag tat from kids' parties
plastic folder
2 expired meds
1 plastic airport liquids bag
1 giftbag that ripped when I tried to put something in it
1 jumper sold on vinted

Did a charity shop drop today. Feeling good.

Year total, 1862

I seem to be the harbinger of doom/voice of reason on here; the sold sign is up! but I can’t find a dressy dress I don’t recall decluttering. I think once I look in the loft for it I’ll have to start labeling boxes clearly at the very least 🫠

Got rid of the last of the out of date tins yesterday. Now that the bin's been emptied, I can hopefully get rid of the manky old dish drainer that followed us from our old house but we don't need. I'm not sure what to do with DCs' old clothes that I've sorted out. There are so many. Would a charity shop really want lots of very stained and faded clothes? But I feel so guilty just binning them. Is there a third option?

@JaneandtheLaundryclothes recycling bin for stained and faded stuff I’d say

@Riverswims Good idea, thank you. I'd forgotten about those, I think our local recycling centre has one.

Washed and sorted outgrown dds uniform. Got some to hand down to ds when he starts school in September. Only have to buy polo shirts, pe t shirts and school shoes for ds closer to the time.
Also cancelled tv subscription effective from January so that is some more money saved.
Ds is loving nursery so that is a huge weight off, going to spend some more time decluttering while he is there and am going to tackle even more clothes tomorrow.... eventually they will all be done and I am clinging to the hope that life will be simpler and easier once I am finally on top of the clutter.

Buyers remorse, pigtails.

Glad the pic is back on the wall dare.

Hope you find your dress river. I keep losing things knowing I've put them in a box then moving the box and forgetting where it is/what's in it.

Wow incessant that's something else. Congratulations on not laughing in his face and telling him you don't want him there either like I would have done. Hope he mellows a bit or at least stays in his room. DH must have been frazzled after 200 miles of arguments.

Threw out a piece of artwork that's been hanging around collecting dust for ages, an old manky canvas complete with spider (rehomed that on a bush), a face serum all used up and a storage box with an unidentified bug on it just in case it had 100 of it's mates lurking unseen in the corners. Total is 3014

I binned 19 online shipment order and the associated tags. I have developed a habit of keeping online receipts and clothing tags for ages because I've had issues in the past where clothes I had washed/worn a few times just disintergrated. So now I've kept all the labels and shipment orders until I've fully used and worn all the items several times. These were all from 2023/early 2024 and clothing stuff for me, DH and DC. I thought it was safe to let those go.

Also out a lip balm I used yesterday and then noticed it was best before 2021. No wonder the consistency was a bit off!

Year total = 1882

That's amazing @Pigtailsandall . I'm not counting because I don't think I'll keep track of the numbers very well (dyscalculia) but I got rid of the dish drainer, rounded up the empty egg cartons from the kitchen (we did omelettes and cakes last week) and took them out, and am getting the 12 pages of forms out of the house that I was given by the school for various reasons. I've also been around the house and rounded up all the errant cardboard lying around from various purchases since we moved in.

The house is still feeling quite cluttered and hard to tidy and I can't work out why. 🤔

Jane I got rid of 1500 items before I saw a noticeable difference and this is a tidy household. Keep chipping away at it.

One book finished reading today so that's in the donation bag. Total is 3015

I have a bag of clothes to go in recycling ( not fit for Charity Shop)
I did put a bag into the Charity Shop today ( household things)
Had chilli for dinner ( from the freezer it was really nice )
Cleaned the bathroom , I used my JML rotating brush and some Dr Bronner liquid soap (almond) . DD and DH both said Why can I smell marzipan ?
Loads of washing done -and still doing . I might see the bottom of the laundry baskets at some time !
Empty shoebox gone ( I wore the boots today and really like them )

I have washed my Christmas Jumpers in readiness

Oh , and still unreasonably excited by my Shark vacuum , it has amazing pick up It has a cannister , my old one had a bag so it is scarily visible what comes off the floors .

@JaneandtheLaundry

When my two were at Nursery they asked for any old but wearable clothes as spares for painting or mucky play , or even if a child needed more changes than they had in their kit bag.

One DVD into the donation bag. Total is 3016

Spent yesterday sorting our spare room of doom... managed to get out in one piece!
While in there I went through my present/gifting box i have been adding to for the dcs party presents when invited to class parties etc. Kept about 6 things in there for when ds starts school (paint a moneybox type things) and managed to clear 2 huge carrier bags full. I have contacted the salvation army and I am going to take them to the local shop for their Christmas gifting for children who wouldn't normally get anything.
Cannot wait to get them out of the house tomorrow and have a warm glow that some other children will benefit directly in just a few weeks.

I sold a set of 9 figurines (peppa pig, who I hated) on Vinted and very pleased to be out of the Peppa phase.

Also out:
2 more tall candles used up
Journal read and recycled
Kids Halloween jumper
DC art project for Diwali from school
Sticker book
Xmas tree stand for a dmsll tree
Baby xmas picture book
Sweatshirt of mine, sold on Vinted

Total is a nice round 1900.

My last update was nearly a month ago 😱 This is mainly due to having problems reading MN on my phone, as it loads the website then freezes (an ongoing problem for a few people, from some other comments). I’d love to say that it’s made me more productive in real life as I’m wasting less time on my phone, but that’s not true 😀

Since that last update, I had a sort-out of DD’s clothes and found 20 things to go to charity, and DH dropped them off the following weekend so they’re out of the house. I had a quick sort-out of a couple of kitchen cupboards and found 6 OOD items to go in the bin, and have organised our pasta and rice shelves more logically with the stuff we use the most at the front. And I’ve done one more shredding session (counted as one item). My total for November was 29, which brought my yearly total to 615.

This week DH did a tip run and got rid of two Moses basket mattresses, a cot mattress, an old lamp, some random junk that had built up in the kitchen, and a doormat that came with the house.

I’m feeling frustrated as I put DD’s old collection of Paw Patrol toys (about 25 items) on a local freecycle group on Friday, had someone say they were interested and wanted to collect them yesterday, but then didn’t turn up and didn’t have the courtesy to message to say they couldn’t make it. I wouldn’t have minded if they’d told me! This has happened before with stuff I’ve offered on this group, and it’s so rude.

I find it very frustrating that when I have made the decision to get rid of something and the effort to sort it out, I then struggle to get it out of the house. I still have the two boxes of baby clothes that I sorted out last January because the charities I’d offered them to weren’t taking new donations, and the large charity shop that can accept large donations was also overflowing and couldn’t take them. I’ll need to try again in the new year.