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..

@Pigtailsandall I collected all of my candles into a (big) box about two years ago and I've been working through them since. It made a noticeable difference to clutter levels because they were scattered all over the place! Have been working steadily through them but no end in sight yet.

Actually it was a bit depressing having them in one place because I really couldn't buy any more once I realised how many there were.

On my own decluttering, we went to a Christingle service and I've got through another 6 prior year Christingle candles in this year's orange.

Also a few dried up pens in the bin, they've all finished at once this week.

1 579 for the year which isn't a very satisfying number, but not much prospect of getting more out any time soon.

I too have a candle box, but erm... I've no idea where?! :s

New years resolution: declutter enough that I don't have wonder where the candle box is?! :s

Today's out was a reused gift bag, taken to a birthday party with a nice new gift in!

@stealthninjamum sounds rough with your youngest especially if help is not forthcoming. Lots of areas seem to have home schooling groups these days but if you need to work then it isnt as simple as just take themmout of school is it?

Here tree looks festive rest of the house not so much! But I’m off this week so will try and balance a bit of chill time with trying to sort one or two small areas

W/E 8th December and 15th December
Decluttered
Study
The room of doom! Various things ended up here as we worked our way through the house. It is at least tidy now and everything is in a cupboard or drawer but it will need properly pulling out and fettling in the new year. I have done a first pass on my patterns, fabric, and yarn but need to be a little more ruthless.
Everything in the house is at least now in the correct rooms and they can all be revisited in 2025!
I think I might set myself a target as there is still plenty to go at.

Donated
6 x tinsel, 12 x baubles, wrapping paper storage bag, 2 x Christmas jumpers, 1 Christmas hat, 2 x pair reindeer headdresses, pair Christmas bedsocks, 2 x seat cushions, various bits of yarn, various remnants of fabric, duplicate knitting needles, unwanted knitting and sewing patterns.

Binned
Loo brush, cardboard packaging from various parcels.

Recycled
King size mattress, king size quilt, large empty cardboard boxes, shoe boxes.

Heading into Christmas feeling much more organised and relaxed.

Thanks @Gassylady . I stopped working a few years ago because both girls had various appointments and dd2 couldn’t get public transport to school. I’ve been trying to get an ehcp for a year to get her into a special school but in my area you have to fight for a special school. I am so tired of fighting. So I’m looking potentially for tutors or online learning. At the moment she’s not talking to me, just making animal noises. She has selective mutism and if she can’t talk to me is really overwhelmed. I think we’ll ‘enjoy’ Christmas and look at our options in the new year.

Yesterday/ today I have had lots of deliveries of items and yesterday I took dd1 shopping and to my delight I think I’ve got about 75% of the gifts. So I got up early and wrapped a load and i feel I’ve almost caught up. I haven’t done a food order but dp is going to get some frozen bits. I have thrown out another decoration and advertised dd2s uniform on Facebook and the parents WhatsApp group. I’ve also removed the name tags from about 15 pairs of school socks and will be donating them as rags along with a dressing gown of mine that is really shabby.

Thinking of you @stealthninjamum , it’s not easy fighting the SEN fight.

I spent most of today hanging around outside dance exams with DD so not as much free time as I’d hoped for.

Jobs:

1. Hang up framed pictures: approx 10?
2. DS2 paperwork: blue badge started
3. my British passport application - need to ring the helpline re my Mum’s passport during the week
4. DS1’s room: Now just needs me to make the bed then it’s done and ready for him to come home at Christmas. Put a little tree up, needs decorating though. Tree DONE ☑️
5. DS1’s gaming, PC, nerf collections to go through and tidy away;
6. IKEA wardrobe for DD to order; sort her clothes, her wardrobe to my room; having issues with the IKEA website so it won’t let me order.
7. spare room ready for MIL visit
8. christmas present wrapping DONE the stuff I had, a couple of deliveries to go then last wrapping session next weekend
9. orchestra folders to unpack, new music to sort, then put in folders- By Jan 7th

Not quite outs yet:
scooter hooks x 3 onto FB

Out:
one set of Christmas lights passed along on FB
one knackered saucepan out
loads of cardboard boxes piled up to go on Friday
1642+2=1644

Binned 2 CDs. Total is 3026

I'm giving a SEN nightmare too. My LA is all over the news right now so it's the perfect time to kick up a fuss which seems to have worked. I also have a complaint in with the LGO so I'm feeling overwhelmed.

The house is a mess what with the tree up where the toy box should be. Hopefully sorting that all into boxes tomorrow and driving it to storage for Christmas. A cop out I know but it is what is.

Went to Bath Christmas Market this weekend. Had a few ins. A new leather backpack. Nothing really in the scale of things I'd normally buy. Not ready for Christmas either

My kids book declutter isn't going well as DC doesn't want to relinquish anything :D After much wrangling, we dropped off further 3 French kids books. We have about a thousand.

Out this weekend
3 books
1 bouncy ball, mangled by the cat
bath salt container, finished and will not repurchase
2 travel mini beauty products. Made the choice to use them up as have no travel planned for ages and have so many products open
coaster from a set I decluttered ages ago

Year total = 1947

I got rid of a whole IKEA bag of good toys that my kids have either grown out of, or we just had loads of. Plus a balance bike, baby activity mat, bike seat adaptor, seat attachments for a Tripp Trapp. 43 items in total to my neighbour and the charity shop.

Two packs of nappies I found that the little one has grown out of and 7 toiletries we won’t use to a beauty bank.

650 + 52 = 702

I had declutterred a whole load before I started counting. I’d say I’ve maybe got rid of almost 2,500 items in total now — and what’s crazy is that a. my family have barely noticed and b. it’s only just beginning to make a real difference to our day-to-day life. Cleaning and looking after the house is so much easier now there’s not so much stuff to shift around before getting started!

Feeling really proud this morning, managed to get 15 old baby toys earmarked for removal from the house.
Spent last night planning storage systems for all our rooms, and it felt like such a big step because DH and I both agreed on where to create built-in storage for the kids rooms, and now we just need to sort out the niggly question of what to do in our room.
Ours is in the loft, so we have sloping ceilings and weird angles to negotiate, which is why we haven't got a quick answer to storage in our room.
Still... progress!

I have done a bit more of dd1s wardrobe. We found about £50 of book vouchers - I’m hoping we can still use them. Out go some puzzle books, scraps of paper, receipts, drawings from primary school, ink cartridges for a long list pen. I also decided to declutter three books from my bedroom.

Bought my Christmas food shop today. The fridge and freezer is Tetris'd to the max now and there's bottles of fizzy pop cluttering up the drainer 😁

Out goes-

One DVD nobody watches
One top that just isn't me
One dress that's too big

Total is 2029

We have two new charity shops opened recently, and I already have a couple of bags sorted and ready to go, and so although I'm not technically starting to declutter until January I'm quite pleased to have made a start!

@stealthninjamum if they’re national book tokens and they’ve gone out of date then they’ll reinstate them (well they did a couple of years ago when I found one in a drawer)

Ive not posted in an age but read what you are all doing for motivation thank you! I was pausing for Christmas but sat sorting through a box in the office today and put a bag for life of junk out for the bin (floppy disk anyone?!) and vinted sales are still going.

Last pushes before Christmas.
15 things to the charity shop
20 baby things posted to a friend
13 bits out of the door from my present drawer in various directions

So that’s 133 for December and 1944 year to date.

I’ve also got 3 big bags in the boot of the car to go to a different charity shop, and a big bag of kids clothes for my friend to look through.

There is a chance I will make it to 2024, but I will say that I’m sure we’ve had nearly as many ins…

I was thinking I'll aim to do the 2025 as a "new years resolution", but was worried about the faff of keeping count. And slightly freaked out when I worked out I'd need to average 5.5 things per day! Seems worth a shot, though...

I'm on leave today (dentist trip, DC GP trip, Christmas present shopping) but I started strong and went through the basket of stationary things on my home desk. I went through even pen to see if it worked! We have so many.

Out:
12 markers
tippex pen, dried out
pack of small crayons (probably from Nando's)
5 paper sets
small gift bag, ripped and pushed at the back

The drawers close better and the top of the desk just has a few working pens and markers in a neat jug.

Total for the year is 1967

1 vinted
2 cardboard box and tube
3 broken decorations /streamers
1 badge

Total for the year is 1951

The stress of keeping count is much less than the motivation it gives, in my opinion. I had a panic in November when I was way off the 2024 target and literally pack up a room full of bags of stuff to go to charity etc. I have found it worth it!

We're overwhelmed with stuff here - I don't feel like it's a medical hoarding thing, just lack of appropriate executive function skills, built up over years. I'm absolutely desperate to get it under control - I've started & stopped, or failed to even start, so many times. One of the other things I want to focus on is better sleep routines, so maybe writing up the day's 'outs' would work as a kind of closing ritual as well as accountability, and the annual target might provide motivation...

That makes sense to me. I will also say I’m tempted to try to track “ins” because it’s not very helpful getting rid if I’m bringing more in. But that might be too much work.

I do like the Dana K White method too. Her approach seems to work well for me and doesn’t cause as much chaos as some!

We're doing a No Spend year - I'll replace broken things that we really need (and food etc of course 😂) but the aim is very limited "ins" so that should be doable here too 🤞

Mistralli it's easy if you're only getting rid of a few things a day. Just put your total on the post and when you next click on the thread it takes you to your last post, so check it then add what you got rid of that day to the total after you've finished reading through. If you're planning to get rid of lots all at once I can see how you'd lose count though.

14 unneeded Christmas baubles.
Total is 3043