Help me organise my house!

[onadietcokebreak]

My boyfriend has moved in and I have had to think about my cluttering habits!

Can you tell me if any of you have lists for how many of each items you have?

Every area of my house is overflowing!

We are a family of 2 adults ,1 DS and 2 stepchildren.

My sons toys need sorting...do I give to charity shop or hold onto for my sisters newborn/best friends unborn baby?!

How many towels do we actually need?
Do I really need 10 Double duvet sets? No I didnt think so...now reduced to 5.

My sons wardrobe is overflowing with current clothes which I feel are too good for nursery so hardly get worn on the two days hes soley with me....I have a huge box of new winters sale buys.

I also need to ban myself from buying presents in advance. I have Christmas and birthdays sorted for this year. Great for saving money. Not so good when there is no space.

The big dilemna when I finally decide to ditch it is do I ebay it/ have a car boot or just head straight to the charity shop!

I have 3 duvet sets if that helps, 1 on and 1 in the wash. In practice the 3rd one never gets used, but its good to have for emergencies. I used to have more, but like you found that theres no point having lots of them gathering dust!

If the spare clothes etc you have are good quality then a car boot would be a good way to earn extra money - you have to actually do it though, otherwise its just an excuse to keep the clutter!

I love de-cluttering! You need to be ruthless though or you end up with the stuff you have decided to get rid of hanging around.

Have you got an attic? I would keep buying presents in advance to save money just limit yourself to one box, once it is full you stop. Same with the winter clothes buys. Same with the toys you want to keep for friends. So that 3 boxes.

Toys I sort into piles, still in use. Toys I could get some money for. Toys pregnant friends would like (they?d have to be pretty special though as most kids get loads of toys anyway and unless you have a mansion you can?t store them). Toys that are not worth selling but are good enough for the charity shop. Toys for the bin.

Then for the toys that are being kept you could get those clear plastic stacking boxes.

For the toys being sold you could put them into the NCT sale or find one of those second hand shops that sells them for you or do a garden sale. I might do one in the summer, leaflet drop up and down the road a few days before the weekend to advertise and sell away!

Omg, I'd be in heaven helping you declutter!
Books are great for standby presents, as they take up no room.
Ask sister etc if they want anything, tell them its now or never cos you have no space to store it.
Do a car boot; only a fiver or something, none of the faffing with ebay fees, and its all over in a day. You'll get les s than ebay, but more than if you charity/bin it. And ime, people buy all the shit at car boots and leave the good stuff!!

my advice is get some wear out of the clothes! If you save 'good' clothes for 'best' they will be a complete waste of money as they will have grown out of them in five mins. Well if my two are anything to go by.

Car boot / ebay when you are done - or charity shop if you are not bothered about the cash. I am not one to give advice though as have a whole cupboard upstairs filled with vacuum pack bags of childrens clothes that I am 'going to ebay'. hmmmn. Better just read this thread from now on and stop contributing!

If you do carboot, make sure you drive straight to a charity shop with what's left so you can make a clean sweep.

Have a look at Flylady for day-to-day organising.

Hi ya.

Great advice from all. Keep it coming.

Am going to be ruthless and gather stuff for a car boot. Anything that doesnt sell will be straight at the charity shop when it opens the next day! Going to do one in two Sundays time. So enough time to have a good declutter but not too long for it all to be under our feet!

Have already taken some stuff to the charity shop this money....but rescued one sheet before I did- old habits die hard!

Ditched the cot, broken chair and TV unit yesterday at the skip so thats a start.

My DPs spare TV is under the stairs. There is nothing wrong with it and mine is going to die sooner rather than later so suppose I should keep it.

My best friend is only 8wks pregnant and know she will take all my baby stuff in attic- Just not for another 12wks...

Toys I will ask my sister if she wants as she is visiting at the end of month.

Not buying any more clothes until worn through!

Also am wondering how many towels does one house need! Thats another area for improvement!

2 bath size per adult. One for guests?
3 hand towels.
3 for DS. Plus 3 for all the childrens swimming.

Do you reckon thats enough?

I?m not so ruthless with towels?I?d have 2 for guests (in case a couple stay), 3 for the children plus swimming then as many hand towels as possible as they always seem to end up on the floor or soaking wet..I?m not sure why.

The old towels I keep in a box under the stairs or somewhere as they come in handy if you have a leaky pipe or want to dye you hair or have a plumber round.

Yep towels do seem so wasteful for throwing away.

What I really need is a bigger house!

Now moving on to the various bit and bobs in the kitchen cupboard...the fondue set that has never been used can go. The knackered old steamer can go and I could open my own chinese with the plastic containers I have stashed away!

May need to downsize at this rate! LOL