2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

QueenJess

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81875292#Comment_81875292

I air my clothes for a bit on that chair everyone has and then I do put them back in the wardrobe/drawers. I tend to try to use most things multiple times in a row until they need washing though.

Im not always great at putting them away I have to admit, but I am getting better at it. On the plus side having less of everything means less of a mess is possible…

My parents also religiously went to clear up the kitchen at night after the last coffee/tea was had (no dishwasher) so everything was spotless for the morning. I love it. I can’t stand coming down in the morning to a messy kitchen or worse, having to hand wash one thing I need. DH always leaves it till the morning to sort out 😬

retiredinfrance

TC77- I have an old fashioned coat stand in the bedroom- inherited from MiL which takes those worn once clothes and my two winter coats. I would recommend using these as the lower hooks take my two winter handbags as well. Or hooks on the back of the door.

TC77

@QueenJess I have 2 chairs and then find other places to air. I do have a shelf i try and put already worn clothes but I think the quantity of everything is an issue.

The abundance is overwhelming at times. Cleared the dining room table and put away the leaf that has been out since NYE when I had friends round. Less space for stuff and more room to manoeuvre.

Xmas card I needed to take information from out, other paper, some ood food and lots of dust etc.

daisy_1571

Tc77 I have a vast flat topped trunk/chest at the bottom of the bed where things get chucked if they are to be worn again.

I tend to wear light cotton trousers in the house and change into jeans when I go out. The jeans are aired on the floor for a while (snigger ie dropped where I took them off) then hung back up. The trousers go on each day until washed. Sort of like a uniform I suppose. If you ring my bell unexpectedly you'll generally find me in trousers, tshirt, sweatshirt cardi. Like that little video said, I always changed into 'playing clothes' after school, I carried that on when working and I suppose I do the same now except I get straight into my playing clothes until I'm ready to go out the house 😆.

Skirts would usually get hung straight up and put back in the wardrobe. A dress would be put in for washing unless it was worn for only a very very short time when it would go back in wardrobe.

Cardis lie about wherever I take them off until they get rounded up to go back where they live so the only other thing that might lie about for a while would be a going out top if I've gone out to something I wouldn't wear whatever tshirt I've put on that day. A lot of my tops are hand wash only as they are Indian cottons and aren't fast dyed so I try to throw them beside a sink so they get washed the next day but occasionally its only been on an hour or two so I might wear it again if I'm going out in the next day or two.

It sounds like you are either half wearing too many different things during the week or getting things mixed up what piles they are in? If you simply can't bear to put a part worn thing back in the wardrobe and you aren't going to wear it tomorrow, or the next day at most, then I'd say just get it in for washing. There no law saying you can't do that even if someone else would do it differently. In the great scheme of things it really doesn't matter if some of your clothes get washed slightly quicker than someone else might wash it, each of us are different with different priorities. If youre keeping it out the washing because its difficult to wash or dry clean only then unless you absolutely love it id say get rid of it, life is too short to own clothes that are off putting to launder.

You could put rubber bands round half the hangers in your wardrobes to ensure you don't wear those clothes just now and concentrate wear on the other things thus limiting the amount of half worn things you create each day/week ? Things last a surprisingly long time when you are concentrating on wearing them out but they do eventually go

Dxx

Floss

@TC77 I hang things on their hanger on my wardrobe door knows, then put them away the next day. Jeans etc lie on my ottoman until folded / worn again. Jumpers get put on the spare bed, the put away in that wardrobe.

vulpix

Happy Birthday Queen Jess,you twin with my daughter.

Oh dear I seem to be a 1950's housewife. I don't like getting up to a mess so I do tidy the downstairs before I go to bed,I liken it to closing a shop so it's ready for business the next day. Similarly I tidy the upstairs in a morning before I go downstairs. Even when I had kids at home they got ready for school the night before with the exception of DS regularly declaring at 7 am, he had food tech that day and needed xyz and a size of baking tin that we didn't own! My Mum was quite organised but Nursing from the 1970's instilled a lot of routines in me. Back then nursing was still quite military with routines and uniform. I sound militant, tell em I have a homely home Liverpool Anne and Floss!😂

One thing I just won't have is shoes and coats in the hall. Coats have to go away in the wardrobe and one pair of shoes swapped for slippers in the kitchen. D'ya know I think I hardly ever wear a coat cos I am too lazy to go and put it away! I think that if the place is tidy you can get away with a lot. It automatically looks cleaner than it probably is and always looks bigger and calmer. From nursing again I insist on stairs and exits being clear. We used to have to watch these graphic health and safety films of evacuating patients in case of fire. It obviously struck a cord with me still, 50 years later!

You might wonder why I am here on the thread cos I have a tidy house. I am here because I still think I have slightly too many belongings. I don't want things to die in storage or leave a huge clearing job for my children when I am not here any more. I also don't want to over consume, I want to tread lightly on the planet.

TC, Stuff like evening clothes that have been worn a couple of hours, I leave out on a hanger over night and then it goes back in the wardrobe. I get confused if I have too many everyday clothes half worn so I will wear them twice and then wash.

Case in point about over consuming. Yesterday Mr V went to a shop in Sheffield to buy a "thing" for his DJ equipment. They didn't have one. He has just been in one of the sheds to find a paint tray for me and he has found just the thing he was about to re buy. Despite him sorting his stuff very regularly he has so much he doesn't know what he has got.

When we get some better weather we will have to empty the various sheds dotted about the garden and see what we have. The removal people shoved stuff anywhere so for a start it needs sorting to like with like.

Today, I will mostly be (😂) getting all the stuff needed for decorating together, batch cooking and knitting.

Vx

2Scratters

@TC77 I think re the clothes and us having too many is we are in the UK. It has all to do with the weather whereas most other countries do not have the need to worry too much about suitable clothing. There clearly aren't too many that have so many variants of weather. I'm trying to reduce the amount of tee shirts that I have as I do tend to overlay in the winter. If a garment is not next to my skin I will wear it another day. I have dresses that I have worn up to 4 times and have not been washed. I hang the items up. As it has not been worn that amount of times in the same week. Wool socks are a great cheat too as they are a natural material they do not encourage sweaty feet and they too can be worn more times than you would expect with no fragrance. Sorry if this info curls anyone's noses. I am trying to get items that can double up in its use to reduce the need for more.

The only decluttering from here is the plaster DH is taking off the new kitchen walls (old bedroom too). We will be loading the car today for a tip run or two otherwise we would have to book the van in. As it fits in the car it will save a booking in case we need to use it for any bigger material.

Well the kitchen design is coming together. We had first lot of plans drawn up before Christmas but was definitely not inspired by it. DH and I had a mini meeting about needs, wants, ideas and compromises. We were never far apart on this which made it all so much easier. Don't know why we didn't do that in the first place 🙄 We have had a subsequent meeting and things have turned around and are happy with the current results. We were both tempted by an expensive hot water tap and the designer said too overpriced 😊 how's that for service, not trying to sell what is not essential. (an excellent non declutter 🤩)The difference between salaried and bonus wages and that's a national company. Just waiting for the other company to come back with design and price.

@QueenJess happy birthday.

What a difference a day makes with no miserable grey skies and rain. Have a good sunday

2 Scratters xx

London_1

I watched the video with interest as I grew up in the 1940s-50s.My late Mother always started the day as I do with a cuppa. :)

I have a fairly large bedroom with a kettle and a tiny fridge for the milk and tea bags so I'm usually awake around 6,30-45 a.m. I've always been an early riser.

I first put the kettle on make a cuppa, throw back the duvet to air the bed than while the tea is cooling have a shower (I have an en suite in my bedroom.) Then once dry, I make the bed and drink my tea and tidy the bedroom and when I go downstairs I take any clothes to be washed which go into the laundry basket in the kitchen

I always make surer the kitchen is tidy, and the dishwasher empied before bed, as because I'm always first up in the house and I hate a messy kitchen.

I'm a fairly tidy and organised person, I lost my OH almost 23 years ago, so until 18 months ago I lived alone

I now share a house with my DD and son-in-law, as either he or my DD make my dinner every night, I'm happy to keep the kitchen tidy.

DD does the house cleaning chores, and I only now just keep my bedroom tidy, and my little sitting room, which is a doddle, after having to keep a three bedroomed house clean and tidy :) She does the rest of the house and also does my en suite floor as I'm not very good at bending (Old bones :) )

They have two dogs, but the dogs don't venture into either my sitting room or my bedroom, I think the dogs and I tolerate each others space :)

I used to have a weekly rota, but now as I have less to do I am out and about more and lead quite a busy social life . DD and I both enjoy gardening when the spring and summer come on

I'm like my late Mum I do all the work needed in the mornings, and the afternoons are my time to read,knit ,do my jigsaws (although the killer one on my sitting room table is taking longer) Weather permitting I also like gto have a stroll down to the beach for a coffee (its only 10 minutes away)

DD gets the food shopping, so I no longer have to traipse around the supermarkets:) and we share filling the washing machine as the basket fills up . I do pop to the local big tescos now and again and buy some goodies for us all though

It works well for us, I go to a games afternoon on a Monday ,she goes to craft on Tuesdays, I go to stitch and b***h on a Wednesday,

We both have started learning to crochet on a Thursday morning, and Fridays she goes to aquaswimming as she loves swimming at least three to four times a week. I also have my various coffee mornings and the occasional quiz night (I'm off to one tonight )

Our lives are nowhere near as regimented as life used to be, and we do enjoy living here, and like to go for a drive around to different spots in the nice weather.

The video was interesting but you can see watching it the women rarely went out to work, but worked mainly indoors, cleaning without all the new gadgets that are around today

I'm quite happy to have labour saving stuff around, and certainly wouldn't want to return to those days I'm enjoying life far too much to be slaving over a mop and bucket. :) :) :)

JackieO xxx

TC77

@2Scratters agree about the weather.

I know people who have those hot water taps and seem to love them. Being accident prone i see them as another risk.

Sofa being collected for upholstered Tuesday hoping the fabric I've chosen will work as expensive and I'm not good as envisaging it on a large scale and with other things... hence little in my house going with other things!

Belated happy birthday @QueenJess

TC77

Just read all the other approaches to slightly worn clothes , thank you. I think i would hang more up but have little hanging room now - dismantled extra hanging rack but will rethink.

@daisy_1571 I try and change into my play things as when little, think things get hidden under others on the chair so I get out more. Also a very cold house so where layers which mean more out.