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 sold a dress on Vinted - probably my last sale of the year - but very happy as it's something I hadn't worn in years.

Found one more pen that had ran out - we probably had over 100 pens at some stage (not including kids' pencils and crayons and colouring pens etc)

Also a packet of frozen avocado, completely shrivelled and best before 2020...

total is 1970. Target feels so close now but so busy before Christmas that I don't have much time for decluttering!!

Well I was about to take 48 items out of the house to the charity shops yesterday, I was putting my shoes on when I got called for a family emergency and had to shoot off to deal with that. Best laid plans and all that. Trying again this afternoon after lunch.

last day of my course tomorrow thank goodness.

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: Made bed and have someone coming tomorrow to fix the broken bit
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 DONE & she’s here
8. last wrapping session this 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:
1644

Doing a pre Christmas clean and tidy. Got rid of the instructions for an old stereo.
I was quite pleased we got all the cardboard into the recycling box earlier in the week. The place looks less cluttered.
I've put everything I have for sale online/Vinted into one box so it looks tidy at least!

Still keep finding items to be decluttered but have boxed/bagged them up and they can stay in the garage until new year.

Been pondering a target for next year and 1000 items does seem rather a stretch that I may regret but I'll give it a go.

Thinking of some 'rules' for myself:

If an item comes in, then it must be a need, not a want e.g as a replacement for something broken or no longer fit for purpose (this will help with my 'cutting down on spending' goal too).

Acceptable levels of consumable 'stuff' (e.g. shampoo, mascara etc. but not food!) will be one in use, one as back-up.

'Outs' are anything removed and not replaced.

I may come up with more, just thinking aloud really.

@vroc81 thanks. We went to Waterstones as we had £40 vouchers from there and £20 of the national book tokens. The lady at Waterstones put them into her system and I think topped them up but dd1 ended up spending £45 of them. The remaining card is now on the kitchen noticeboard so I can look at it whenever I go shopping and hopefully it’ll get used.

Feeling like I’ve almost caught up with xmas organising so I can start to enjoy the season.

yesterday I took two bags to the charity shop. I also took some old electronics to curry’s.Dc will spend a lot of time in their rooms so I’m probably going to put Xmas music on and spend the next couple of weeks organising my photos and Lego.

Used up a wash-in colour enhancer thingy from Superdrug and am nearly at the end of a bottle of shampoo as I have a couple on the go at once.

I took a couple of rag bags to drop off at the textile recycling bins at the station on the way to work, only to find that the council have moved them so I have had to lug them with me into central London . Debating whether I can be arsed to google a local site or take them back and dispose of them tomorrow at home.

@Vinorosso74 I always try to get as much cardboard recycling out as I can pre-Christmas to make way for the wrapping paper and packaging that comes with having children still young enough for toys as presents. Unfortunately this year the cardboard collection was last week and the next one is delayed until after Christmas so I might have to shove it all out on the balcony until then...

8 cards
1 vinted

2024 Total - 1961
Just clearing as much as we can before Xmas

One pair of shrunken leggings into the donations bag. Total is 3044

Cleared out kitchen cupboard today. Decided to get rid of all the bits of tissue papers, bubble wrap and cardboard envelopes. I'm not selling anything else right now, and new packing materials will eventually come in

Packing materials (counting as one thing)
Remnants of a paper napkin packet (we don't use cute paper napkins)
Handful of sauce packets (counting the lot as one, I always forget they are there)

From junk drawer:
Correction fluid
Calpol syringe
Kids keychain, broken.

Total is 1976

9 toys /bits of old duplo
3 Tin, bag, elastic
9 Sticker book, paper bag, magazine, pile of leaves, kids artwork

Total for the year 1982

I'm going to take lots of boxes to a storage unit today. The plan is to bring back one box a week to empty and sort out without the stress of my eldest not having a bedroom. It's not ideal but here we are.

I might still get to throwing out the same number of ins this year. I think I have about 57 items to go.

Once the kids rooms are all sorted I can see another huge raft of kids outgrown clothes for ds12 and dd 10 to go. I'm not replacing them either which will leave them tight for some type of clothes but I'm OK with that right now.

The 48 items are now gone! 🎉

Storage unit has been set up and has five boxes and my mums chair in it. So now I can finish clearing put the dinning room. I know its not ideal but I have said the unit will be empty by March or June so it it's not forever, the size of a small shed and gives me physical and metaphorical space to breath.

I wouldn't have needed this if ds21 hadn't gone to uni and immediately dropped out. Not sure where his boxes of uni crap will live but thats not my problem.

The relief is immense

Well done @IncessantNameChanger and @JaneandtheLaundry

i won’t be doing any Decluttering now until the new year once everyone is back at school/college.

DS1 is home from navy college, yey! Went out to the pub and clubbing last night. Out with friend in London this evening. Prob won’t see much of him tbh.
MIL also here although tonight is away with a friend.
I’m back at work Mon-Thurs so will be a weird Christmas anyway.

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: Made bed and have someone coming tomorrow to fix the broken bit All 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. last wrapping session this weekend DONE ☑️
8. 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, need to bump up after Christmas.

Out:
1644
Not a bad total for the year. Need a new plan for next year I think. Tackling the jobs that I never get round to would be a good idea!

Wooooo!! Huge charity shop run! 111 items - mixture of toys and clothes

I just made myself get rid of a load of the stuff, not trying to optimise, not trying to sell, not trying to send to exactly the right person, just getting it somewhere it can be used.

2024 Total - 2093

🎉🎉beaten my total. Probably would be half that though if I counted “ins”

Yey! Well done @Realfastfoodie I'm possibly going to have to start ditching and not selling next as this time is impossible to sell.

Must be nice having your son back @LivingInaBuiltSite I really missed ds in that first week but him actually returning after bombing out made me realise I should have been happy. He is successfully adulting which no one in my house can boast about.

Anyone darling to think of next years targets?

I'm already eyeballing some things to go out (clothes mainly) but it;ll need to wait a bit as most of the Charity Shops will put a stop to donations after Christmas .

I am inspired though to keep a total - not things thrown out , but things recycled -so I can stop buying random items that I don;t need .
Photo on he phone will be enough I reckon.

I have washed and dried clothes from a short break , the evening clothes will get put away till next holiday .
I have some trousers that I need to look through .
And scarves - I keep telling myself "Oh that would look nice with a plain jumper" but IRL , I;m not a scarf wearer . Maybe next year ?

Best tip I got (I think on this group) with things you “ought to” like/wear like scarves or clothes etc, is to make yourself do it - ideally for a day although sometimes you can tell after a minute or an hour). If it made you uncomfortable or even you were just not keen to do it again, then you will know.

I’m kind of realising @IncessantNameChanger, that keeping stuff so I can optimise where it goes is just another kind of hoarding. I was pleased for various secondhand clothes we were given, it wasn’t life changing. No one I know is going to be so overjoyed by the secondhand clothes and toys that I need to keep them back.

Yes, we talked about hanging onto stuff to give to 'the perfect home' on my hoarding course.

The perfect home for it is out of my home.

Once things are calm, sparce and tidy we can find the perfect homes at our leisure. But until then.....

I have the new team coming out in the new year. They will take my kids stuff and give to another team that helps kids in need of clothes and toys.

I need to buy even less next year. Also I'm going to wear everything at least once that I own and decide from there to keep or ditch

Another CD binned. Total is 3045

DP went to the dump yesterday. He took our deceased TV and stereo and all the packaging from the new TV. Also got rid of a bag of shredded paper.
After he got back, I realised he forgot the bag of textiles!