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Here are 29 things that I have recently decluttered – things that you can probably declutter today yourself to free up more space.
My name is Madeline, and I am on a mission to become more of a minimalist.
I don’t feel like I’m necessarily quite there yet.
It’s not something that just happens overnight.
But I feel that, once I’ve gotten more into this mindset of “I don’t actually need all of this stuff”, it’s gotten a lot easier to get rid of things and to simplify my life.
It makes my life so much easier not to have too much stuff to manage, clean, tidy, and store.
I’m really excited to take you along on this journey because I can already feel what a massive difference it has made in my life.
I started this decluttering process around December of 2022 and I have definitely gotten rid of a lot of things along the way.
I made a whole series on YouTube about it, called Messy to Minimalist.
But here are 29 things that I have gotten rid of recently.
I decided to share this in case it sparks something in you to get rid of maybe something similar that you have and don’t actually need in your home.
I will also make a note: when I get rid of things, I try my best to get rid of them responsibly, because I don’t want to just chuck them in the household waste.
If it’s something that’s in really good condition and can be used, I will try to either sell it on eBay or Vinted.
If it’s clothing or baby stuff, I sell it on Vinted, which is a really helpful platform and it’s super simple to use.
If it’s something like electronics or a large item that needs collection, then I will put it on eBay.
29 Things I’ve Decluttered Recently
Feel free to watch the video or keep reading below.
1. Bread bin
I had this large bread bin where we would keep all of our bread, bits and pastries.
It was always on my kitchen counter.
We have quite a small kitchen (not complaining though, our house is a good size for us) and the counter space in the kitchen is not necessarily massive.
Going through this minimalism journey made me realise that I had so much stuff on the counter that was taking up space.
Just by clearing it out and getting rid of the things that I don’t actually need out, it has made it look and feel a lot more airy.
And it also makes it so much easier to clean and wipe it down at the end of the day.
Now that I’ve been decluttering, I have a lot more space in the kitchen cupboards, so I have this little shelf inside my cupboards where I can keep all the bread things.
So I don’t actually need the bread bin.
For a lot of the things I bought over the years, I didn’t necessarily just have function in mind, but I also had aesthetics in mind a lot.
I think it’s fine to want to decorate your home and make it look nice.
But I also feel that if you get too many of those decor items or those aesthetic items that are not necessarily functional, or they just take up a lot of space, it will eventually make your whole house more cluttered and harder to manage.
2. Lego sets
My son has a lot of Lego sets that he accumulated throughout the years from birthdays or just gifts from us.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but he did accumulate quite a bit.
We had three massive storage bins in our garage full of Legos.
We have now narrowed that down a bit.
He still plays with Legos a lot, so I don’t feel like I’m at a place in my life right now where I want to get rid of all of them – and they’re obviously not mine to just chuck away insensitively.
But, going through those Lego sets, I realised that there are quite a lot of them that he hasn’t played with in a long time, and he never really gravitates towards them.
He has a few sets in his room – just kind of random pieces that he can creatively build with.
And we have a couple of storage bins in the garage, where we keep some complete sets in there, with their instruction booklets.
We definitely kept the ones that he really, really loves and plays with.
But we certainly didn’t need as many.
And when it comes to Legos, I think it’s good to sell them too – they hold their value quite well.
Even if, let’s say, a year from now my son realises he wants a specific Lego set that we got rid of, we can always check Vinted or eBay and buy it again secondhand.
It doesn’t have to be new, and that can save on the budget, as new Legos can be quite expensive.
3. Soft toys
Honestly, how do you even accumulate so many soft toys?
He doesn’t play with all of them.
He has quite a few in his room – I didn’t get rid of all of them obviously.
But I did put maybe about half of them that he never really touched into a storage bin in the garage.
They’ve been there for a few months, because I wanted to see if he’d ask for any specific toy, but he never did.
He didn’t even notice they were gone, to be honest.
We did a decluttering together in the garage, and my son went through all of those soft toys.
He even said, “Oh mummy, I think we shouldn’t buy any more soft toys because we have quite a lot already.”
Going through this process makes our kids realise that it’s so much easier for them to tidy their toys and just enjoy them if they don’t have a whole bunch that overwhelms them. It helps them appreciate the ones we keep even more.
I also think it’s because he’s a bit older – he’s going to be six soon and he understands a bit more.
Kids definitely don’t need as many toys as we think they do.
4. Electronic toys
Number four is some electronic toys that my son never played with.
He has a toy basket with train tracks, wooden blocks, building blocks, Magna-tiles, a few animal figurines, a few vehicles, and things like that.
And those are the things he actually plays with on a daily basis.
He loves those; he always gets them out.
Everything else that was in there? He just chucks them on the floor and never looks at.
It’s just because he’s looking for something, and he needs to look under all of the toys that he has in there.
So it’s just making a big mess, but he doesn’t actually play with those.
Another thing are those electronic toys with buttons to push.
My son had an electronic little kid’s laptop.
He wanted it for Christmas, so we got it for him (second hand, as I expected him not to play with it for long).
As I expected, he opened it up, he was really excited on Christmas Day, and then it’s been in a storage box ever since.
I don’t think he touched it once since then, and it’s been over six months.
So those kinds of toys? We just got rid of them.
5. Entryway papers
Next, let’s talk about the items in our entryway—entryway papers, flyers, and letters.
These seem to accumulate so quickly and we’ve set up a little inbox in our entryway.
It’s really important to establish a system to prevent overflow.
So I place items there that require my attention.
For example, if I need to book an appointment or take care of something, I’ll put it in that inbox.
However, if it’s just a flyer, restaurant takeaway menu or similar items that come in the mail, they go directly into recycling.
I no longer keep those or let them pile up.
When I receive a birthday party invitation for my son’s school friends, I respond straight away if I can.
I find it best to tackle it right away, otherwise it lingers in the back of my mind.
These little tasks tend to accumulate and contribute to our mental load as mums.
What I do now is, when we receive an invitation, I check the dates, and if we’re available, I reply to let them know we’re available to go, and note it in our calendar.
I also take a photo of the invitation on my phone and file it in a folder labelled “birthdays”.
This way, I have all the essential details, such as the location and date. After that, the invitation goes into the recycling bin.
It’s a process that takes less than 5 minutes – it’s a game changer.
I’ve realised that there’s no need to keep and store all these birthday invitations.
6. Baby next to me crib
I also decided to let go of some baby items.
The “Next to Me” crib, along with its mattress, fitted sheets was among the things I let go.
My little one had outgrown them, and since we’re not planning on having any more children, there’s no reason to hold on to these items.
I decided to sell them on Vinted, which was really helpful and easy.
Not only did I declutter, but I also gained a bit of money in return.
With Vinted, you can choose to withdraw the money into your bank account or keep the money on Vinted.
I usually choose to keep this credit on Vinted, which I can then use to purchase other items we need—like kids’ clothes.
7. Baby clothes
I also decided to get rid of a lot of baby clothes.
As my daughter has outgrown them, I’ve started getting rid of them straight away.
I’ve held onto around three special clothing items from her newborn days (I keep those in a memory box in the garage).
Everything else goes.
I know it can be really hard to get rid of baby clothes, because we have all these memories and emotional attachment to them.
Sometimes we don’t want to let go of this phase of having a tiny baby.
But I’ve realised that keeping an entire wardrobe of baby items isn’t practical and it can get really stressful and overwhelming.
We have photos and memories captured on our phones, so it’s enough to keep a selected few baby clothes to look at them and snuggle them.
Keeping a large pile of baby clothes is simply unnecessary.
8. Baby nest
She used the baby nest up until about she was 3-4 months old, and then we just sold it because we weren’t using it anymore.
9. Baby changing mat
I also got rid of a baby changing mat that we had on top of her dresser changing table.
She was definitely outgrowing that, because she started wriggling around, and I felt like it wasn’t safe for her anymore.
Now we just have one of those little portable changing mats.
It’s easy to use, I just put it on the floor or on the sofa when I change her.
10. Extra portable changing mat
I also had an extra portable changing mat for my baby.
I got a new changing bag recently, and it came with its own changing mat inside, so I got rid of the other one because I didn’t really need two of them.
I already have a few little ones that I use in the house, and then I have the portable one in my changing bag, and that’s plenty.
I don’t need so many extras.
11. Cardboard boxes
I also try to stay on top of getting rid of cardboard boxes.
You would be surprised by how many cardboard boxes you get into your home.
Anything like nappies or Amazon deliveries – so many things come in cardboard boxes into your home.
I try to put them in the recycling as soon as possible.
No need to let them clutter up your home.
12. Plastic cooking utensils
I’ve also started getting rid of my plastic cooking utensils.
I had quite a lot of those spatulas, ladles and other kitchen utensils, all made of plastic.
I’m trying my best to replace all of that with things that are healthier for us.
I replaced our non-stick pots with stainless steel ones.
I also replaced the utensils with stainless steel ones as well and some wooden spatulas.
These do the trick just fine.
I don’t need any of the plastic ones, and I definitely feel that it’s better for us.
13. Old paint samples
I had these little paint samples that I used for a little DIY project for my kids’ room.
These are one of those things that you really hold on to sometimes because you think, “Oh, I might use it further down the line.”
But realistically, I probably will never use that again.
So, there’s no point in keeping all of those little things and storing them for years and years.
And then, when you actually need them, they’re dried up or you can’t use them anyway.
14. Chipped vase
I also got rid of this chipped vase that I had.
I had three vases, but only two of them I actually use.
One of them, made of glass, was always in my cupboard and it was chipped at the top.
I pretty much never used it.
I realised that, if I do end up getting more flowers for some reason—like when I gave birth to my daughter and we got a whole bunch of flowers—I have other things I can use to put flowers in, like the little pot where we keep our wooden utensils.
There’s always other things you can use instead of vases, so I don’t need to have all of these vases in my home.
15. Soft box lights
There are also sometimes these little hobby things that we keep or things we used to use but we no longer use.
In my case, I had these soft box lights that I really loved because they gave a really nice light.
But realistically, in my job on Youtube, I regularly use just natural light or my ring light if it’s a darker day.
And that’s it.
The soft boxes never got used, mainly because they were quite bulky and they would take a while to set up.
They would probably work nicely in a little studio where you film and you can just leave them up there all the time.
But I used to keep them stored and I would have to take them out every time I filmed.
It wasn’t realistic for me.
I’m a busy mom.
I try to film as quickly as possible.
And that extra step of setting those up is just not worth it for me.
It was hard to let go of them, as I felt like I had to hold on to them for some reason. But I haven’t used them in years.
So I just sold them to somebody who will probably make more use out of them.
They also were stored in the garage, where it can get quite damp and humid during the winter.
And in a few years’ time, they might get mouldy and wouldn’t be of use to anyone anymore.
Keeping things in storage for a long time is never a good idea if you’re not going to actually use those items.
16. Hair dryer accessories
I let go of some hair dryer accessories.
I had those little accessories that come with the hair dryer, but I realised that in 30 years of my life, I probably never used those hair accessories.
I just use the simple hair dryer, but it comes with a diffuser thing and a few little random things.
I always keep those, thinking “maybe I want to use them someday”.
But again, in 30 years of my life, I’ve never used any of those, so I just got rid of them.
17. Drawings and artwork
This is something that we actually do constantly: getting rid of drawings, artwork and crafts that my son brings from school.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t get rid of them straight away, he doesn’t see me chucking them away.
I do have a folder that I keep the recent things that he’s done.
But then in time, once he starts forgetting about them or not caring about them anymore, I can just throw them away.
I do keep some of them, usually the more sentimental ones or the ones where he wrote his first words and things like that.
But sometimes it’s just a piece of paper with a line on it, and I don’t want to have a cupboard full of papers.
They can easily go in the recycling.
18. Knick- knack toys
Another thing we got rid of: the little knick-knack toys that kids get at birthday parties.
Decluttering these made me realise that when I do birthday party favours next time for my son’s birthday, I’m not going to put these types of toys in the birthday bags anymore.
I’m not sure what I’m going to replace them with though, so do let me know if you have any ideas.
I did this in the past, I got plastic little toys and bubble bottles as party favours for his last birthday, but I realised that they all end up in a toy basket.
Nobody ever plays with them, and they just end up becoming clutter.
19. Crayons and pens
I also got rid of extra crayons and pens.
These can also accumulate so much.
Sometimes you buy or they get gifted a new set of crayons, and you just keep the old ones as well.
But I try my best to go through them and get rid of any that are dry or have almost run out of ink.
My son has two pots, one for crayons, and one for felt pens, and that’s it.
He doesn’t need 200 options.
Less is more.
20. Cleaning products
I also got rid of cleaning products – a lot of them!
That’s because I recently switched to Purdy & Figg (you get a 10% discount through my link), and then a few other brands like Bower Collective.
I wanted to switch to more natural non-toxic cleaning products.
I have had a few health issues, and it made me realise that all of these cleaning products that I was using probably had a negative effect on my health.
It’s known for a fact that those products that have a lot of fragrance and a lot of toxic things in there, can affect your hormones.
We all know this, warnings are on the back of the packaging, “Don’t let it touch your hand”, or “It’s toxic for the environment”.
So we know it’s not good for us.
For years, I kind of knew that, but I never actually took the plunge to change them.
But I changed most of them now to Purdy&Figg.
I have one surface spray that I use for pretty much anything in my house, for any surface you can think of, including windows.
And then I have the bathroom spray from Purdy & Figg, which is very good for limescale, showers, toilets, everything, including the sink.
These are the two main cleaning products that I use, and they have replaced the multitude of cleaning products you usually find in stores: one for a mirror, one for wood, one for kitchen, one for toilet, one for bathtub etc.
You end up with so many cleaning products in your cupboard.
I had so many products in the past too, and it made me feel like I needed extra storage because I couldn’t fit all of my cleaning products.
In reality, I just needed less stuff.
Now I just have so few cleaning products. These do the job perfectly fine, and it also reduces the time I spend cleaning.
I timed myself, and I used to spend over an hour cleaning all three bathrooms in our home.
Now it takes me like 30-35 minutes to do all of them because I just take my one spray, one cloth, and I go all around.
It’s super quick.
21. Glue gun
I also got rid of my glue gun.
This makes me laugh because of all the memes about DIY projects that are out there.
But I got that glue gun years ago as I needed it for one DIY project in my home, some little lamps in the bedroom.
But that is the only time I ever used it.
It’s been in my garage for probably like three years, and so I just sold it (really cheap) on eBay.
When you’re selling these products, you can’t really expect to get a lot of your money back; it’s not how it works.
That money is gone, but it’s nice to maybe get a little bit of something back or at least make sure it ends up with somebody else who will actually use it instead of in the landfill
Sometimes it’s hard to get rid of these hobby things, isn’t it?
But realistically, I just never use it, so there’s no point in me keeping that.
22. Old throw pillows
I had one of those fluffy pillow for about 4 years and it just looked so ratty and awful now.
The filling inside was also all messed up, so I got rid of that.
I’m slowly getting to the point where I’m reducing my throw pillows.
I feel like I was definitely a hoarder when it came to that, often feeling the need for more and more patterns and different ones all the time.
But I’m learning to be happy with what I actually have and to not buy those so much.
23. Old towels
I also got rid of old towels.
I had so many of them, and they were really old and scratchy.
I think you can do certain things to make them fluffier (like wash with vinegar), and I tried that, but to be honest, they were just so old and they just needed replacing.
We actually keep very few towels now.
We have two hand towels in the downstairs toilet, for us or guests.
Upstairs we have three towels for grown-ups – big ones.
So, we have one for myself, one for my husband, and then one spare, and that works fine for us.
We don’t need any more.
Then we have two kids’ towels, one for each kid, and that’s it.
Those are all the towels that we have, and I never find myself needing more than that.
Similarly with bed linens.
I don’t know why I was keeping so many spares, because I always wash the bed linen and then I hang it to dry or I use the dryer, and I put it straight back on the bed on the same day.
I never used the spare one that I had, so there wasn’t any point in keeping that.
24. Duplicate measuring cup
I had two measuring cups, but I would always use one of them.
So I just got rid of the other one, which was also a plastic one that looked awful.
The one that I kept is a Pyrex one, made of glass, and it serves more purposes as well because you can put hot water in it too.
25. Extra oven tray
I also had an extra oven tray that I rarely used.
Oven trays tend to accumulate in the kitchen, and you feel like, “Oh well, maybe I will need it or maybe for Christmas I will use it”.
But I realised that I have so many other things I could use in case I do need an extra platter or cookware, so I got rid of it.
Now I have two Pyrex oven trays, and then I have a round stainless steel one for pizza, and that’s it.
26. Platter I barely used
I also had this extra plastic platter in the kitchen.
I used it maybe once or twice before, for my son’s birthday and maybe he played with it once.
Never used since.
I just kept it stored.
It was quite big as well, and you keep thinking, “Oh, I might use this for some event,” but you never do.
If I really need extra platters, I have so many other things I could use, like the wooden cutting boards or little wooden platters.
I don’t need to keep a lot of extra ones.
27. Sandals that didn’t fit quite right
At the beginning of the summer, I bought these sandals on Vinted that I really liked the look of, but they never actually fit right.
I tried them on, and I’m not sure if it was the size or the fit, but they were just not right for me.
And I managed to sell them back on Vinted.
That’s a good thing about second-hand items, if you get something, you can always sell it back for pretty much the same price.
There’s no point in keeping something that doesn’t fit you right and that you’re not going to wear.
28. Spices and spice jars
I also got rid of so many spices and spice jars.
This is one of those things that I bought more for the aesthetics, I think.
I had this huge cupboard for spices with really narrow shelves, so I thought I needed to fill it with spices.
But I didn’t actually need all of those.
I probably used half or less of those spices regularly.
I realised I’m not very adventurous when it comes to cooking.
I like to cook the same things that we routinely eat as a family.
I know what we like, and we usually go for quite regular spices, nothing too crazy or exotic.
So I just kept those spices I actually use regularly, and that cleared up so much space in my kitchen.
29. Rug
We also got rid of an old rug.
We had it stored for probably like 3 years.
We had it in our previous flat, in London.
When we moved to this house, we didn’t have space for it because we have carpets in the living room and upstairs in the bedrooms.
There’s no space for a rug.
We kept it, thinking we might need it.
But realistically, when we do move, that specific rug might not fit the space or be in great condition after being stored for so long.
So we sold it on eBay.
Those are all the things that I got rid of recently.
I hope this gave you some ideas on what you can get rid of.
Let me know what you think in the comments below!