2019 - A Clutter Free Life

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. SMALL TASKS WILL BE DONE ASAP
2. I WILL LEAVE A ROOM TIDIER THAN WHEN I ENTERED
3. KITCHEN WILL BE LEFT CLEAN & TIDY EVERY NIGHT
4. WHEN DEALING WITH CLUTTER I WILL USE ‘Daisy1571’s idea of ‘WHAT WOULD I DO WITH THIS ITEM IF IT WAS SOMEONE ELSE’S ?’
5. IF I WAS STARTING FROM SCRATCH, WOULD I BUY THIS?
6. BE LIKE A POSTAGE STAMP - STICK TO ONE THING UNTIL YOU GET THERE

Wednesday has been dry & bright & quite warm - perfect weather for our motorbike trip to Kent :T:D First stop was DH’s SisiL (a great great grandmother for the 4th time) - tea & hm cheese scones & hm coconut cake whilst having a good old chinwag. We were going to drop off the knitted baby clothes but were rewarded by a visit from the new parents with baby G. in tow :T:T
She is 13 days old & is absolutely gorgeous but so laid back - we must have been with her for an hour & she opened both eyes once & one eye once :rotfl: Her mum is happy to let the baby be cuddled/held - I had my cuddle & then passed the baby to my rather reluctant DH (he believes babies are made of spun glass & are very fragile ) However having been gently persuaded to hold his great great niece, my DH was reluctant to let her go :rotfl::rotfl: he was besotted :rotfl: Baby G’s mum is a young lady after my own heart - she tears paper off gifts :rotfl::T It was very gratifying that she absolutely loved all the knitted garments - a cardigan, a matinee coat, a blanket, 2 pairs of mittens & the christening gown - (which looking back on my previous posts have not been counted :T:j) We then went on to DH’s sister to drop off a bag I had knitted for her granddaughter & were rewarded for our visit as our great great nephew R. (14 months) was with his granny :j. Spent several happy hours chatting, watching R. who calls EVERYONE nanna :rotfl: & drinking coffee. I also managed to raid the brother-in-law’s garden - I have 3 huge sticks of rhubarb, 6 conference pears & a dozen Bramleys :T:T:T All in all a wonderful 6 hours & we managed to see 10 family members. No rain & no traffic plus the most glorious sunset on the way home Sometimes I really wish I was an artist 👩!🎨 :rotfl:
Sandwiches for dinner. DSis finished her Chinese & was busy tidying her room - her new mattress is being delivered Thursday.

3217 - 3224 Cardigan, matinee coat, baby blanket, 2 pairs of mittens, christening gown & petticoat, knitted bag - Delivered to family
3225 - 3238 Seven newspapers, magazine, plastic bottle, 1” paperwork (all from DSis), 3 drinks cans - Recycled
3239 Bag of kitchen detritus

Sounded very painful IrishRose12 - I hope you are properly recovered now.

Well Done Deni, you are definitely heading in the right direction :T

whmf00001, I wish you every success in your pea shoots project

TamsinC, you are very lucky - half the battle is won by not being married to a hoarder :rotfl:

Well Done Barny1979 :T

Keep up the good work everyone :j

MrsSD
3239/4038

sweetpea26

Morning all
This week I took a car load to the dump..cleared out part of an old shed on our property. Its amazing what you find when clearing out..broken items that should been disposed off at the time rather than cluttering up another space.

Intend to fill bin this week with smaller items that cannot be recycled.

The battle continues!

[Deleted User]

I have a load of old newspapers(wrapped Mums stuff in when I emptied her china cabinet) and kept it for when (if) I managed to sell some of the stuff, well, dd asked today if I have any newspapers for ds-i-l to wrap apples in YAY now straigtened out and in basket to take to her this lunchtime, and will still ahve some left if needed. Sometimes it is not all bad being a clutterer.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. SMALL TASKS WILL BE DONE ASAP
2. I WILL LEAVE A ROOM TIDIER THAN WHEN I ENTERED
3. KITCHEN WILL BE LEFT CLEAN & TIDY EVERY NIGHT
4. WHEN DEALING WITH CLUTTER I WILL USE ‘Daisy1571’s idea of ‘WHAT WOULD I DO WITH THIS ITEM IF IT WAS SOMEONE ELSE’S ?’
5. IF I WAS STARTING FROM SCRATCH, WOULD I BUY THIS?
6. BE LIKE A POSTAGE STAMP - STICK TO ONE THING UNTIL YOU GET THERE

Thursday has started off dry & bright - although lots of cloud & quite chilly Busy morning so far - DSis stripped her bed & she & DH packed & sealed her old mattress in the plastic bag she had been given. The new mattress was delivered & unpacked, old mattress taken away - all done in less than 5 minutes :T Ten minutes later our plumber turned up & is currently servicing the boiler - with the news that next year it will be a bit more expensive as he will have to change all the seals Oh well at least I have a year to save up :rotfl: every cloud has a silver lining Plumber now gone. DH is off out shortly to pick up cement, compost, top soil & a single solar light. Will then start on the 1st section of the low brick wall around the flower bed :T
I need to deal with all the produce I purloined yesterday :rotfl:

3240 - 3241 Newspaper, small plastic bottle - Recycled

Well Done:- short_bird - moving along nicely :T; choille - excellent work on the toiletries :T - I have a big tin of hotel sized bath gel & shampoo bottles but am the only one trying to use it up - DSis is sensitive to lots of products but DH is not so no excuse but after all he is a man :rotfl:

TC77 - I think Paperwork is a bugbear for a lot of us but it looks you have more than most to contend with However I admire your resolve in sorting it out as you go along :T & because of this I am awarding you a Gold Star ⭐️ Hopefully all your ‘projects’ will be satisfactorily resolved by the end of the year.
Now as to the ‘issue’ of moving things back & forth - let’s see if we can brainstorm
Do you have space to have a smallish box in each & every room? If yes - label the box with the room name & put in place. In my experience you need a clutter free haven - it could be an area in your living room or your bedroom, but somewhere you can sit & relax & always keep clutterfree :rotfl: Next have a rubbish bag, a recycling bag, a donations box/bag & a ‘relocation’ box/bag + some sort of timing device Now pick an area/shelf/table but most importantly only somewhere with ‘visible’ clutter.Set your timer for 15 minutes, deep breath & start Try to pick up each item only once & make a decision - bin, recycle, donate or relocate.When the alarm goes off STOP ✋- empty the rubbish & recycling bags into your outside receptacles, if your donation box/bag is full seal & put to one side or in the car (if you have one) & lastly deposit each of the relocation items in the appropriate room’s box. Rinse & repeat :rotfl: After 2 or 3 15 minute sessions - REWARD YOURSELF :T A cup of tea & a sit down - read a magazine article, phone a friend, go for a walk - whatever it is take the time to enjoy yourself & DO NOT FEEL GUILTY OR PRESSURED INTO JUST DECLUTTERING - after all the clutter has taken years to accumulate & will take time to sort
Only when a room’s box is full should you put the items away - this will count as a decluttering session

Apologies if I am coming across a bit ‘preachy’ but I agree that the whole decluttering challenge is often overwhelming & depressing However I have faith in all of us :T We will get there & the new challenge will be to avoid ‘the creeping in of more clutter’ - it is very devious :rotfl:
By the way, the above is a combination of various ‘Decluttering ideas’ offered up by lots of different posters - there is a wealth of decluttering experience on these threads & we all have one thing in common - we have all decided to tackle our clutter :T:T

sweetpea26, I like it “the battle continues” - it does feel like that sometimes, doesn’t it :rotfl: Well Done on getting rid of the broken stuff - you do know you kept them for Justin - he can be very persuasive :rotfl:

Anyway I need to get my ‘arris in gear :rotfl: so see you all later

MrsSD
3241/4038

choille

Thank you Mrs SD - Your cheering us on is invaluable. Much appreciated.

Happy_Kitties

Not much decluttering going on, it's more a case of me breaking things!

172-184 the last of the neutral items x13 shipped out ready for Christmas fundraising

General decluttering
352 -one of my favourite mugs binned after I broke it
353 - pen binned
354 - paperwork shredded
355 - wire from charger, reused outside
356 - packaging for neutral items

Very slow from me at the minute
Cat head from broken ornament-still missing!!

Barny1979

Barny1979 wrote: »

921-923. Three recipe books given to friends

924. Unused face cream to charity
925. Four recipe books to charity
926. Packaging recycled.

IrishRose12

No decluttering from me tnus last 2 days and none for the foreseeable future either. My mouth us healing well, no problems so far *touches wood*, although I can't yawn properly now onto salt rinses and going to start to try to eat solids again :rotfl:

This bite on my side is actually what is stopping me from doing anything, I'm literally just about making it to work, and when there I'm sitting at one table of kids and not moving till snack time lol. Thankfully the teacher I'm working with is understanding why...only because she's has seen my side :eek:
It's very red/purple angry looking and looks like it's about to explode, I just wish it would even start to ooze, as I'm hoping it will give me some relief:(.
Day 3 of 7 of antibiotics, and they seem to be as useful as a chocolate fireguard:mad:
I really think that if theres no improvement tomorrow I'll have to go down to A&E as its very painful.

Hope everyone is doing ok.
MrsSD glad you have got to meet the new addition to the family.... I'm sure they were very much appreciated.

Rootle

32/52 - a computer game sold and posted. Just a few pennies made and it hasn't covered the loss of my previous endeavor. Still mad. Some packaging from stash used up too.

oceanspirit

IrishRose12 - you have very good reason to be looking after yourself and not decluttering! Good to read the tooth your mouth is healing well. Hope the antibiotics do their job and get that bite on its way to healing too.

Lots of tidying and getting niggly jobs done here. No physical clutter going at the moment but the tidying is making everything feel so much better. Can't wait to get a proper clean done but not at that stage yet. Did do the bathroom sink this morning - have been admiring it everytime I go in there. Looking forward to the rest of the place being all sparkly too, but it's a way off.

61 more old emails deleted. I've been looking at a few each time I sit down for a rest so it doesn't feel like a huge job.