The Great Declutter Part 2

Sequeena

EllieMarie wrote: »

Hi everyone, just wondering if I could ask a question.

My DD is now 10years old and I now have 10 years of all her birthday cards, lots of drawings and momentoes as well as a few toys/books and even a few clothes from each stage of her life that she loved. Whilst I don't really want to get rid of it all the amount of 'stuff' seems to be growing and I'm running out of cupboard space to keep it all and there is less room to store day to day items. I'm just really interested in what other Mum's do or am I being too sentimental and in the interests of decluttering do you just get rid of it all? I guess I should also add none of the items ever get looked at but I was keeping it all for her for when she was older.

Any suggestions greatly received.

You could put everything into scrapbooks? If you're feeling really ruthless you could pick out the pieces you treasure most and recycle the rest.

camelot1001

Perhaps you could take photos of everything and then add them to a photobook for her when she is older?

You could sort through and keep one or two cards/pictures, etc from each age that seem very special. It's always lovely to look back at all these things so I would probably keep them anyway!!

Megs_mum_2

Morning All - Just read the article link posted - personally found it quite helpful (in the "you are not alone" category) and especially the guilt at waste aspect of throwing things away.
Just wanted to share the best "out" of the year so far for me : 7lbs since New Year :j.... I am sure its linked in my head to decluttering and not buying stuff and being much more careful with food shopping.
Have a good day all - I aim to finish the wallpapering today so better get on with it!:)

Yorkielass

Well done Megs mum!

EllieMarie I have the cards my parents, brother and grandparents sent to me each birthday saved in a box and Christmas cards too. I'm so glad my mum kept these (she's not sentimental and doesn't keep hold of loads of stuff so I'm lucky to have these!) as I have 2 Happy 5th Birthday cards signed Nanny and Grandad and 2 Happy 6th Birthday cards just signed Grandad as my Nans both died when I was 5. Now I keep all the cards I get for a birthday, Christmas etc for a year and then the following year I go through and 'weed' out those I don't want to keep from the year before and recycle them. Hope that makes sense (this is something I'm a bit behind with - need to do this with my last Birthday and Christmas cards). Having said that I do have all my 18th birthday cards and engagement and wedding cards and I'm not going to get rid of any of them!

Yorkielass

Right not doing too badly:

In:
Make up order from e.l.f. - mainly brushes and things to sort out my make up regime.
2 little hooks.
1 piece of post.

Out:
Rubbish and Garden waste bins emptied first thing this morning.
Pile of music which we had printed to our music group - which means at least 1 ream of paper has gone out our stash.

Pending:
Out of date/no longer needed pills to take to the pharmacy tonight when I collect my prescription tonight.

Planning a trip to Ikea tonight - so there will be some ins but we have a list and know what we want!

Emptynester

Hello, I've been missing for a few days but I am still chipping away. Today I took the charity bags (that I had filled last week) to the drop off bins in the supermarket car park and managed to get rid of all the clothes, shoes and books, just left with a few toys which will have to go to charity shop.

I have emptied one box file, several to go but I've started on the paperwork :j

Yet again I would like to thank everyone for posting as this thread is definately keeping me motivated. I am sure I would have given up without your encouragement.

I have lots more decluttering to do so please keep going everyone.

Thanks

Empty

Janebo12

I managed to get a few things done today.

IN:
Post
2x parcels: jeans for the girls (with a free mug!) and a Hannah Montana doll for DD1 - all will be stashed away for presents.

OUT:
I cleaned out one of the kitchen cupboards and after repairing the back of it :cool: I found 7 bottles with varying degrees of alcohol dredges left in them - none of which we drink - they must have been from a party long long ago before we had kids (so, at least 8 years!). Dredges poured away, bottles into recycle bin.

1x bag of rubbish into dustbin.

Keep up the good work everybody!

toochoosey

Hello, I have been MIA the last couple of weeks(well the action part only started this week!!!), but
IN
Just groceries
Oh, maybe a couple of tops for me
And school cardigans for DD

OUT
side table
grassy reed things
5 bags of recycling
2 boxes of old toys
3 carrier bags of clothes

I' having a "pretend I'm moving2 sort out......If I was to move, what would I not want to take with me.....then it gets charitied, chucked or given away.....let's hope it lasts.

I'm sure you are all doing really well and I will try and come here more often as it really does help xx

chuggingtongirl

Its a hard one re-what to keep for children

My parents didnt keep anything like that for me...whereas Ive gone overboard and kept alot for my children........Until...we moved recently and I saw how many boxes I had kept! I had a huge box of wedding things!

so I was ruthless and went through it chucking all cards except for first birthday/1st christmas ones.I kept the first outfit and most of the other things I got rid of except for a few'special' things which meant alot.they now have one box each.I kept my wedding dress/tiara and a small box of things but chucked cards.etc out and I have to say that was a few years ago and never looked back or missed them as they were in the loft and we never looked at them

My main reason was seeing a few years ago my 25 yr old friend being given boxes of momentoes from his loving mum....then he stood by the wheely bin throwing most of it away! so I now keep that in mind!!

Havent done much at all today as not feeling 100% and just want to sit and play on the internet and not do anything useful! but I cant get into my paperwork drawer so I 'must' sort two drawers out and throw at least one carrier bags worth of rubbish!

ThinkingOfLinking

In: 1 bag of shopping from Home Bargains including 2 sets of food storers for the big batches of cooking I am doing at the moment in the slow cookers. No mail.

Out: Another 2 bags of rubbish in addition to the 2 I took out this morning (declared yesterday).