2018 - No Clutter To Be Seen

basketcase

I've missed this thread - been away for ages and ages. Sneak back on and what do I see?

Mrs_Salad_Dodger wrote: »

Hopefully all our 2018 posters will rejoin - especially basketcase & edwink - even if it is just to report that they were successful in their decluttering :rotfl:

My decluttering has come to a complete standstill - still have crates/boxes in the dining room & the spare room - I am just about keeping up with the day to day tidying & housework & will start afresh in 2019 - seem to have lost all my enthusiasm in the Christmas season
MrsSD

Now I feel really guilty. I haven't caught up on the thread yet, but congratulations retired. I'll read the rest later.

Sorry to hear that you've run out of steam, Mrs SD - but I think your record for the rest of the year still puts you on the winning side. I feel your pain, though. Especially since my mojo's gone missing...:o

Went on holiday (lovely time in Milan and Venice) and came back to find that DS had been inspired to clear out his room. (Good news, you say). All over the floor of the Room of Doom. My mojo ran down the road screaming and went back to Italy. Don't blame it! (On the up side, it added a respectable sum to my total!)

THEN, I got offered a job for a couple of weeks. (I'm officially retired, but will take anything that looks interesting.) This was followed by a full-time contract for 6 months at my old firm. Nice, but tiring. Needless to say, my mojo saw that the books were still there and fled.

I'd only been working a week, when I developed "multiple infections", which put me flat on my back for the first week and took a full month to get over. (On the up side, I lost half a stone in that first week and haven't put it back on! :j )

The biggest hassle is that my computer died and I've only just got a new one. And that, ladies and gents, is my Sad Tale of Woe. :rotfl:

I have been decluttering as and when energy allows. We've just cleared all DS's books out of the RoD. Just in time for the upstairs flat to get a leak in their boiler. A third of the bedroom ceiling was on the floor a week on Saturday. :eek: (Again with the upside, that's 39lbs of plaster that is no longer cluttering my floor. Yes, I weighed it, And yes, I'm counting it! )

I've got a hard drive and managed to retrieve a lot of my files, but I haven't updated my spreadsheet for ages. As soon as I've dug the relevant envelope out of the paperwork pile I'll put all the stuff on the back of it onto the list and update my record!

I'll have to get a move on. DD (who got a proper full-time, permanent job at last :j:j ) is coming home for Christmas on Friday _party_. I've ordered a bed from Ikea, which we'll build - hopefully - on Saturday. I do want to get a load more stuff out of the way, though. Not convinced I'll make it to 2018lbs, but you never know...

Think that's it. I'm moving stuff tonight, but will be back with my update ASAP.

:xmastree:

PS: What are we doing for 2019? Anything?

retiredinfrance

On the Third day of Christmas decluttering

I decluttered three scarves which became recycled as wrapping paper for presents
.I read about this yonks age as a way of reducing reusing and recycling to avoid spending cash on wrapping paper. So a small branch has also been saved.

See you all tomorrow for challenge 4.

Rootle

48/52 - a pair of slippers into the bin and some packaging used up for gift giving (mentally trying to ignore the amount of packaging coming in at this time of the year as I do a lot of my shopping online)

retiredinfrance

And on the fourth day of Christmas decluttering, I decluttered

4 lots of cardboard( more will arrive soon to replace it, no doubt!"

Wanna_Bee_Free

Ooh, RetiredinFrance and BasketCase thanks for coming back and posting.

Well done VillageLife, HappyKitties, Stellata, Rootle and Frogletina, lots more out of the door!

Xmas challenge day 3 - 3 badges to the CS
Xmas challenge for day 2 yesterday - 2 books to CS

I don’t think I have 12 of one thing to go - can we mix and match Retiredinfrance?

215/630 for me so far.

retiredinfrance

Yes, Wanna Bee Free, go ahead, all decluttering is good
In fact, as I was sitting doing my jigsaw while DH was on some site or other, It occurred to me that this Christmas challenge is not a good idea. All very well at three or four or even six , but I think the going is going to get tough. So I will take your brilliant idea about mixing and matching in the later stages.

retiredinfrance

Basket Case, you have been having a time of it and I think at this time of the year everyone's mojo thinks about scarpering off to Italy. I hope you are feeling better now and ready to declutter. I loved reading your story of what was happening while you were away from this thread and hope you have an enjoyable time over the Christmas holidaytime. I must admit that being retired every day is a holiday, but I still havn't grasped that I had better come to a decision about what DH and I are eating on the Day and that I need to do some food shoppingsoonish.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. IF I NOTICE SOME SMALL TASK NEEDS DOING - I WILL DO IT IMMEDIATELY

2. I WILL LEAVE A ROOM TIDIER THAN WHEN I WENT IN - WITHOUT HIDING THE CLUTTER EXCEPT for the wardrobe room which is currently the storage room (sr)

3. THE LAST WASHING UP OF THE DAY WILL BE DONE & PUT AWAY WITHIN AN HOUR OF FINISHING DINNER

I don’t think we are going to get snow for Christmas have had a couple of cold days but mostly bright & chilly or rainy & relatively warm.

Re my 3 mantras: bed aired & made; washing up done; sugar bowl refilled; tea bags jar refilled; cs bag delivered - last one of 2018; general tidying

Re the cs bag - DSis hoiked out one of the framed Egyptian cloth pictures - head of a pharaoh BUT did replace with 9 DVDs & a boxed set of 5 DVDs :T Not quite sure where she is going to put the picture as the last time I looked she had no wall space at all :rotfl:

basketcase, you have really had a rough old time - no wonder you haven’t been posting Glad you are finally on the mend + well done on the half a stone decluttered :rotfl: especially as it is still decluttered Also :T:T well done to your DD :T:T - a permanent job in unsettled times.

We will definitely do something for 2019 - I have been practising starting a new thread & am hoping that not only our ‘decluttering band’ gets back together but that we gain more like minded souls :rotfl:

retiredinfrance, sprouts I hope :rotfl: I don’t think the French are quite as manic about Christmas as the Brits :rotfl: I must admit that one of our favourite Christmas dinners was sausages with all the roast dinner trimmings - mashed potatoes & mashed swede, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, sprouts, carrots & at least 3 other veg + gravy. (Only because the duck breasts had actually ‘gone off’ - the smell was so bad that we almost didn’t bother eating at all )

Well done stellata, Frogletina, Happy Kitties, retiredinfrance, villagelife, Wanna Bee Free, Rootle & basketcase :T keeping the decluttering going in the last days of 2018. You are putting the rest of us to shame

Never mind, 2019 is almost upon us & we can encourage each other to continue our decluttering journeys. I have been skim reading the whole of the 2018 thread - trying to summon up the mojo for a last mini push :rotfl: but no joy so far - although we have all been quite amusing throughout the year

Week 3: Kitchen detritus one lot per day + Monday - old bathroom tiles binned + Tuesday - delivery packaging recycled + Wednesday - CS bag delivered - RUNNING TOTAL = 6

MrsSD
6/10

retiredinfrance

On the fifth day of my Christmas challenge, I decluttered

5 items of worn out clothing to rag recycling one pair of DH's trousers, one holey cardigan and three pairs of bobbly tights. I haven't worn that thickness of black tights since I came here and they were past it.
Tomorrow as I will be out shopping I will move to mix and max.

Yes, very true, Mrs SD, in France Christmas is definitely not manic , so restrained, in fact, that I would quite like a touch more of the UK manic panic but the crowds and hunting for a parking space I don't miss at all. In fact as things are quieter, I don't spend as much as I am not frazzled into an overspend just to get home.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

retiredinfrance wrote: »

On the fifth day of my Christmas challenge, I decluttered

5 items of worn out clothing to rag recycling one pair of DH's trousers, one holey cardigan and three pairs of bobbly tights. I haven't worn that thickness of black tights since I came here and they were past it.
Tomorrow as I will be out shopping I will move to mix and max.

Yes, very true, Mrs SD, in France Christmas is definitely not manic , so restrained, in fact, that I would quite like a touch more of the UK manic panic but the crowds and hunting for a parking space I don't miss at all. In fact as things are quieter, I don't spend as much as I am not frazzled into an overspend just to get home.

Retiredinfrance - :T on keeping up the momentum :T

Now a mini tale of woe I fell asleep on the sofa - as I didn’t want to miss the Recycle men - still had their Christmas boxes Anyway, woke up in time to catch them :T So feeling fully awake (or so I thought) I made myself a cup of tea. Unfortunately I dozed off while holding the cup & spilt tea all over myself (which was fine ) but also all over the sofa. Then spent the next 40 minutes using my ‘specialist cleaning stuff’ for the sofa. Time consuming but it worked a treat - no sign of my clumsiness :rotfl: That spurred me on to vacuum the whole of downstairs

Last night (Wednesday) we had a full English for dinner, with enough lo for DSis to have same again Thursday. DH & I had hm curry flavoured pumpkin soup with naan bread.

I need to menu plan for Friday through to Tuesday & will be sending DH shopping tomorrow for Christmas vegetables & a few bits. Lucky him :rotfl:

Off to bed now - as milk has been delivered

MrsSD