Feeling low with clutter

jeffgeorge

Hi all,

I am wondering if it is only me who gets stressed about clutter. I have a 4yr old and the toys, games, teddies and rubbish she has is unbelivable.

I get so annoyed by all the stuff and just think why cant I chill and just enjoy my daughter. My house is clean and could do with being updated but its cosy and home to us.

Someone said why have you still got a stair gate she is 4 and to be honest I hadnt noticed!! Also the string around the tv stand so she wouldnt put toast in it when she was toddling and to be honest again hadnt noticed it. Funny the things you get used to.

Right best go declutter do you all get annoyed or is it just me

xxxxx

jellyhead

clutter is invisible to me - I get stressed if I bump into a pile of stuff or tread on a toy, and sometimes I feel overwhelmed by it, but it's me who causes the clutter really, by not decluttering.

I find it so hard though, I'm not organised and I have no spatial awareness. Our house is tiny and has no dining room etc. so the sitting room is full of toys. There are stacks of them that should have gone to the bedroom after christmas though, and I haven't done it yet because I'm so disorganised.

My husband would do it for me but I get stressed and confused if he moves anything. I think I'm a bit bonkers really.

Courgette

my house is full to bursting too Sometimes it stresses me out so much that it makes me cry but I have a full time job, a DS and am pregnant; I just do not have the time or energy to spend my weekends tidying up. God knows what'll happen when the baby arrives though

MERFE

yep, about a year ago we decided we had had enough and all the kids toys went up to their rooms and now they are only allowed the toy they are playing with downstairs and have to take it upstairs when they are finished or it goes in the bin. Not had to bin anything yet but it'll be a way to declutter if they dont tidy up after themselves. They are 5 and nearly 4 now and actually play better now there isnt toys everywhere.

Next clutter problem is to get OH to deal with his paperwork and file it or throw it out grrr.

pigpen

I am the queen of clutter!!

I have 7 children at home, baby due in august and there is me and OH.. there is not one 'minimalist' room it is all full of crap.. and three sheds.. and the loft!!

Teddy bears.. I binbagged and charity shopped the lot!
Toy boxes I try to go through regularly and throw out anything broken, bits of paper and often fill a binbag for charity shop of stuff which is no longer played with.

I gutted the kitchen last week in an attempt to get it paintable... it lasted 2-3 days at best. This week I am full of cold so nothing is getting done and I know the house will have devolved into something uninhabitable by Monday after the grubs have been home all weekend.

I think at 4 you should be getting her to help clear away her own mess BUT when it comes to getting rid of stuff do it while she is at school/nursery. Fill a binbag and bin it immediately or drop it at the charity shop on the way to pick her up.. 1 bag a week should get it under control in no time!

I never had a stairgate at all with DD and TBH after she knew she could get up the stairs she never bothered trying any more.. I also taught mine to come back downthe stairs as soon as they could go up so I knew they wouldn't fall. I don't have a fireguard either.. especially after we ended up at hospital after DD5 burned herself on a radiator!! It seemed a little pointless!

I think you are looking at it as a big picture.. break it into small chunks.. count the toy boxes and depending on size organise them one or two at a time.. same with clothing and suchlike.. nurseries are always desperate for more spare clothes for the piddlers so you have somewhere to dump stuff until she is about 6.

There is a declutter thread and the flylady thread over on the old-style board which you may find really helpful in removing clutter!

onlyroz

What works for me is to have two plastic boxes in the living room - one for each kid. They're only allowed to have a box-full of toys downstairs at any one time, and at the end of the day all toys are just scooped into the boxes. Decluttering time has reduced by quite a bit since I started doing this.

mrcow

I've been getting rid of loads of stuff (at least it feels like that!) recently - but there is so much more to get through.

I'm so reluctant to remove toys that actually still get played with (three children - so they tend to play with everything).

eg. Good example - I've got a (large) play kitchen and a mass of play food/plates etc - they have been in my front room now for 6 years. The children still love playing with them. They are too bit to fit in their bedrooms - so what do I do? At the moment, I just sit and look at it everyday when I'm relaxing. I hate it, but the children love it. If I moved it into the garage (aka sprawling mess) they'd never see it again.

That's just one example - there are loads more like it.

I've got a big house, but it's just full of stuff - and it's stuff I don't know what to do with.

I'd love my surfaces back - it just never seems to last.

pukkamum

With decluttering it's always best to take it one step at a time ask yourself do i need it, does anyone else need it, does it make me happy.
If the answer is no get rid.
Try this grab a binbag and go and find 27 things to throw away only 27 and don't think too carefully about it.
Do this everyday when you have a spare ten mins and you will get there.

pukkamum

Also try having 3 bags one for throwing away one for putting away and one for giving away.
Everytime they are full put the give away one in the car of outside ready for the charity shop etc, put throw away in bin and put the putting away stuff away!!!!!!
Once you are clutter free you will feel so much better, life will become so much easier as you will be able to find things with ease, cleaning will become easier, and you won't have to buy duplicates of tings because they are lost in the clutter!!!!!!

Bubby

I am another one:o, I hate clutter, my children have organised boxes in their bedrooms, our paperwork is filed and our dvds etc are all shelved neatly. I only allow them to play with toys in their bedrooms or some bigger items in our front room:o:o
I can't relax or go to sleep if everything isn't in its place at night and could never rest with a messy house:o
Not really the best way to be if you have children;)

sarahs999

WE have a cupboard in every room that's just for kidsstuff. That way at the end of the day it can all be swept in there and you can relax in an adults-only zone. I'm also very strict about toys not coming into my bedroom. Any that do are swiftly hoiked out again! (not while he's playing with them of course, but if he dares to put them downa dn leave them there....). I think it's really important to have your space so that you like it. If you can live happily in clutter, great, good for you. I can't and neither can my husband. When we were doing up our house we made sure that we factored in storage space.

Have a chat with your DD about charity and explain how nice i is to give your old toys to children less fortunate. GEt her to help pick some things out and put them in a bag to take to a charity shop. Good habit for her to get into.