2015 - No Clutter To Be Seen

happytails

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Everyone is doing so well, I'm in awe:A.

Please can anyone help with an urgent problem I have. It's mice in my food cupboard:eek:. I say 'mice' in the plural, there may just be one with a hearty appetite,but I have discovered lots of nibbled bags/boxes and some shredded paper from a paper bag that was in there. This is very recent damage as I know exactly what food is in there and don't have big stocks of 'old' stuff. Most of what's in there is eaten by the end of each month. It/they have nibbled through a couple of plastic packs of pasta shapes and a new huge plastic bag of porage oats but the holes are not massive so I hope I can salvage most of the contents as the packs were new and unused. Being very strapped for cash and finding even providing food each month from a very tight budget a major problem I can't afford to toss away edible food:o

To be honest, you cant scrimp on health, mice can carry all sorts of diseases, id chuck all the food that has been in contact with the mice. If there are no droppings you may be lucky in that it was just the one mouse that your cat has brought in, however, they are creatures of habit so im guessing it will be back. Check around your skirting for mouse droppings as they run along side walls etc and they can fit through the tiniest gaps!

Hope you catch them! We had 3 last winter, it was awful x

happytails

Ok,

Sunday saw me go through the food cupboards and i threw out about 15 out of date items. Only replacing the necessities.

Monday i threw away 2 broken kids toys and moved a toy into the for sale pile, i had a bit of a tidy up in the toy boxes as well.

Today i have got an appointment for speech therapy with my son so not sure what time ill have after doing that and getting lunch before picking kids up. Hopefully ill get something done

Sarah x

cupcake-queen

I'm going to start a list to keep me motivated. I read an interesting article on BBC News about living in clutter.

1. Huge box of clothes & toys to charity shop
2. Huge bag of clothes to charity shop
3. 2 big bags of clothes to my 2 year old nephew
4. Cot mattress to UK2Rom
5. Enormous bag of baby and childrens clothes to UK2Rom
6. Big bag of baby items to UK2Rom
7. Broken pushchair sold £5
8. Dirty old double buggy given away
9. A load of broken items, tat and cardboard gone to the tip
10. Joseph Joseph gift set (free with fridge/freezer) eBay £17
11. FCUK dress (never worn, bought with hue staff discount 10 years ago!) eBay £10.50
12. Oasis skirt (hardly worn) eBay
13. Fleece blanket (never used) £6 eBay
14. Vintage toy (car boot find £1) eBay £22!!!!
15. Various baby items eBay
16. Puppy crate £15 Gumtree
17. Baby monitor £15 Gumtree
18. Old toiletries and empties cleared from bathroom
19. Ugly big Noddy toy eBay £6

Not bad for a months work!

cupcake-queen

happytails wrote: »

Hi all, please may i join in?

I am a mum to 3 little ones, the eldest is 6 next month. We have a dopey dog & a hard working husband/father. But we have so much stuff in our average 3 bed semi and i think it would be much easier to clean & keep tidy if we had less stuff!

Im currently trying to sell anything decent i get rid of, so far ive earned £19 this year and after a while i will take things to the charity shops.

Im aiming to have sorted the entire house by the end of the year, seems a long way a way but the 3 kids make it such hard work and ive got a business too, i work from home making sewn gifts, the front room is full of fabric etc!

Anyway, i hope i am welcome

Sarah x

We sound like we live in similar situations! I just have the 2 children (5 & 3) I work 2 days a week else where and have a home business too!

We've earned around £100 this month by selling through FB, eBay and Gumtree so keep up the hard work

Good luck with beating the clutter this year, I aim for the same.

Billie-jo

Despite not really feeling like doing much this morning I bit the bullet and have turfed out -
183 -179 Old sheets - son for dust sheets for when they have kitchen ripped out and re done.
184 - Old birthday cards - recycled
185 - Envelopes - daughter
188 -186 Cross stitch sets unopened c/s
190 -189 Pillows - bin
192 -191 Blankets - c/s
195 -193 Dishes still boxed - c/s
196 - Hand cream (allergic to it) - daughter

CantSwingACat

I’d love to play. The main things I’m guilty of hoarding include tights, underwear, toiletries and paperwork. I just let them mount up and never throw them away. Time to get binning my tatty old knickers and shredding my old essays and unnecessary documents & receipts!

calleyw

Nothing out today unless you count the stuff I put out in recycling and it was collected today:rotfl:

I have 3 old mobile phones they are worth nothing but have no idea where to get rid of them too.

Yours

Calley

Saver-upper

carbootcrazy we have had a couple of mice just in the last 2 weeks also.They haven't got into the house yet,but into the utility room,which really does have lots of access for mice.Only surprised we haven't had them before this.I did have to throw out a mostly-full bag of flour.I decided it really wasn't worth the risk.It isn't only their saliva,(and droppings,which you can see),but also urine,which you wouldn't be able to see once it has dried .

Because they have an extremely soft skeleton,they can squeeze through a gap the size of a 20p piece .If there are any gaps they could have crawled through (where pipes come through walls/floors,around kick-boards,under sink etc),you can fill these with steel wool to stop mice getting through.

You can also buy "sonic" mice deterrents.They plug into electricity point,you can't hear them,but mice hate the sound (doesn't affect cats,dogs,etc).If I remember,they take a couple of weeks to become fully effective,but then they are supposed to be very good.I think you can buy them at B+Q.

Just had a thought?Does your cat have a bell?Would that give the mice a headstart on him?

calleyw

Saver-upper wrote: »

Because they have an extremely soft skeleton,they can squeeze through a gap the size of a 20p piece .If there are any gaps they could have crawled through (where pipes come through walls/floors,around kick-boards,under sink etc),you can fill these with steel wool to stop mice getting through.

I think it's smaller than that.

I believe its the diameter of a pencil they can squeeze through.

Mice like rats wee all the time as they move around. I know from rats wee you can contract the deadly weils.

Best to chuck everything they have chewed. You might want to chuck everything out. But you need to find out where they are coming from and seal it up.

And wash down all the shelves with a bleach solution.

Yours

Calley

tooties

hi everyone,

i got a pack of 3 sonic repellers from b&q for £20.00, my house is now rodent free!!!!!

Yesterday yielded 2 huge black bags and 2 large boxes of un needed stuff from the attic, still got loads to do.

Keep going everyone