2019 - A Clutter Free Life

choille

Happy Christmas to all de-clutter people everywhere.

Barny1979

Barny1979 wrote: »

1551-1554. Old A-Zs recycled.

1555. Cardboard box recycled

notmy1sttime

Merry Christmas everyone!
2:30 am Christmas day and I can't sleep! My 12 yo DS no longer gets excited and we aren't doing anything this year, but going away for a week on 27th so looking forward to that. Advantage of DS being 12 is no need for plastic bits of crap and other clutterry toys, just one main present he actually wants and a couple of smaller token presents of things he needs like clothes to replace ones grown out of etc. No pressie between myself and OH as we put money towards holidays and days out instead - we value time together over material gifts.
I must say I haven't even tidied up because I have been supporting a friend with something important and haven't had time.
Hope you all have a good day

[Deleted User]

Something happened to me.., learned a few home truths about an ex. My chest of drawers and wardrobe were crammed with clothes. I needed to get rid of anything associated with the relationship (which after 14 years was almost everything), I suppose its Klon Marie style decluttering. So my chest of drawers drawers now close, drawers are half empty, wardrobe even more so.

And it feels good. Should have done it a long time ago.

I've got rid of a lot of other things as well, been far more brutal with disposing of things than I would normally be. Lot more storage than I had a couple of weeks ago lol.

Time for a new start.

My 13 year old has just come down the stairs (its 5am) asking to open presents. Bouncing all over the place with excitement (he is autistic). Sent him back to bed. Firmly.

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.

Christmas Day has been a bright, crisp & sunny day - a lovely winter day but no sign of Christmas DH was on vegetable duty :rotfl: Peeled carrots, potatoes for mash, swede, sweet potatoes, parsnips, cauliflower, cabbage & sprouts. I peeled & cut the potatoes for roasties.
Exchanged gifts - DH liked the wallet I bought him (very surprised 😯 as he had forgotten that he had mentioned it a few months ago ) I had already worn my coat but DH bought me a decluttering book to unwrap :rotfl: (Declutter by Deborah Robertson) DSis bought us both a t-shirt - mine says Gangsta Wrappa + one for herself ’A Whale in a Manger’ :rotfl: + biscuits & sweets + a mulberry coloured fiddlers hat for me & a gift box of 3 G&T flavours. We gave my DSis a Sudoku book, a rotary candle holder (reindeer) + a hand written voucher for a full body massage on our winter sun holiday in the Dominican Republic.
We started cooking about 4:15 p.m. - parboiled potatoes, parsnips, carrots & cauliflower - all for roasting. Cabbage + potatoes, sweet potatoes & swede were boiled for mashing. DH then seared the wild boar & apple sausages for roasting + the duck breasts & venison steaks lastly fried the turkey steaks - Thank heavens for 2 ovens & the warming drawer :T Then we parboiled the sprouts which DH then fried in the meat pan with a couple of rashers of bacon & a bit of venison & turkey. Lastly DH made gravy in the frying pan. The table had been set Tuesday night.
Bottle of prosecco to accompany dinner. It was absolutely delicious 🤤 & there is loads left for bubble & squeak for at least the next 2 days . Later we each had a mince pie with a dollop of Baileys Cream All 3 of us have had a lovely day - DSis even had a couple of snowballs but unfortunately not enough to stop her earache The washing up took me ages
I had a quick chat with MrT - he showed me photos of the 4 scarves I knitted which were allocated to the 4 homeless ladies - 2 of the ladies wore them all night
Our fox had a treat - a bit of venison & turkey as well as her usual hotdog + dog treats + an egg

4831 - 4845 Five x cardboard packaging, 4 beer cans, 2 large glass bottles, egg carton, 2 mini glass bottles, polystyrene tray - Recycled
4846 - 4852 Bag of kitchen detritus, coffee tin of kitchen detritus, 3 x plastic packaging, wrapping paper, Christmas crackers detritus - Binned

Sounds like you both had a great Christmas Day deannatrois & notmy1sttime :T

Well Done on decluttering the reminders of a toxic relationship deannatrois - I am assuming your son is the one good thing that came from the relationship You are more than welcome to join us on the ‘2020 - Banish The Clutter’ thread Decluttering can be very liberating as you have found out - it was obviously the correct time for you :T

I hope everyone has had the Christmas Day they wanted & didn’t get too stressed out with the cooking

MrsSD
4852/4038

IrishRose12

Mrs_Salad_Dodger wrote: »

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.

Christmas Day has been a bright, crisp & sunny day - a lovely winter day but no sign of Christmas DH was on vegetable duty :rotfl: Peeled carrots, potatoes for mash, swede, sweet potatoes, parsnips, cauliflower, cabbage & sprouts. I peeled & cut the potatoes for roasties.
Exchanged gifts - DH liked the wallet I bought him (very surprised �� as he had forgotten that he had mentioned it a few months ago ) I had already worn my coat but DH bought me a decluttering book to unwrap :rotfl: (Declutter by Deborah Robertson) DSis bought us both a t-shirt - mine says Gangsta Wrappa + one for herself ’A Whale in a Manger’ :rotfl: + biscuits & sweets + a mulberry coloured fiddlers hat for me & a gift box of 3 G&T flavours. We gave my DSis a Sudoku book, a rotary candle holder (reindeer) + a hand written voucher for a full body massage on our winter sun holiday in the Dominican Republic.
We started cooking about 4:15 p.m. - parboiled potatoes, parsnips, carrots & cauliflower - all for roasting. Cabbage + potatoes, sweet potatoes & swede were boiled for mashing. DH then seared the wild boar & apple sausages for roasting + the duck breasts & venison steaks lastly fried the turkey steaks - Thank heavens for 2 ovens & the warming drawer :T Then we parboiled the sprouts which DH then fried in the meat pan with a couple of rashers of bacon & a bit of venison & turkey. Lastly DH made gravy in the frying pan. The table had been set Tuesday night.
Bottle of prosecco to accompany dinner. It was absolutely delicious �� & there is loads left for bubble & squeak for at least the next 2 days . Later we each had a mince pie with a dollop of Baileys Cream All 3 of us have had a lovely day - DSis even had a couple of snowballs but unfortunately not enough to stop her earache The washing up took me ages
I had a quick chat with MrT - he showed me photos of the 4 scarves I knitted which were allocated to the 4 homeless ladies - 2 of the ladies wore them all night
Our fox had a treat - a bit of venison & turkey as well as her usual hotdog + dog treats + an egg

4831 - 4845 Five x cardboard packaging, 4 beer cans, 2 large glass bottles, egg carton, 2 mini glass bottles, polystyrene tray - Recycled
4846 - 4852 Bag of kitchen detritus, coffee tin of kitchen detritus, 3 x plastic packaging, wrapping paper, Christmas crackers detritus - Binned

Sounds like you both had a great Christmas Day deannatrois & notmy1sttime :T

Well Done on decluttering the reminders of a toxic relationship deannatrois - I am assuming your son is the one good thing that came from the relationship You are more than welcome to join us on the ‘2020 - Banish The Clutter’ thread Decluttering can be very liberating as you have found out - it was obviously the correct time for you :T

I hope everyone has had the Christmas Day they wanted & didn’t get too stressed out with the cooking

MrsSD
4852/4038

Glad to hear you had a lovely day yesterday Mrs SD.
We had a lovely day here. All parents were gratefully received by Sam recipients and I received some lovely gifts myself.
Lots of bits and pieces lying around everywhere but hey ho, its Christmas, its tradition for the house to be a mess these few days of the year :rotfl: as long as the kids are happy, adults are spot and we are making wonderful memories playing with toys, standing on Lego and other plastic bits that hurt;) who cares, life is too short.

I've managed to declutter my bank account aswell as clutter up my credit card this past few days with the sales, but I'm done now, so no more spending, and focus on getting the card paid off for good.

To be honest everything I have bought hasn't been rubbish, I've bought a load of half price gift sets for gifts, we've a deal here where each of us in the family have a list of things we would like. We make it in the run up to Christmas, then once the sales start on Christmas eve, we make a beeline for those requested, then that does for birthday gifts etc throughout the year. So I've got a lot of items from the boots sale on Christmas Eve already on the way.
We hit Lush this morning, spent over £200 in there, but we'll not need to go in until next year now, and again, a lot of Birthday gifts were picked up by request of nieces etc. They don't care that they're wrapped in Christmas paper or if they are Christmas bath bombs in April/June etc:rotfl:
They send pictures of what they would like so their quite happy, as it usually means they get the and something extra:T

Toiletry sets bought from boots too for the house so were ok on gat front, loads of lynx sets ordered, and we picked a few more up today in store.

Then have ordered some much needed new trainers for myself, as a few others for gifts for birthdays and next Christmas too.

Also found an online photo printing company that were dojng half price printing until tonight, do over 500 photos ordered for around £28:T

Its very wet here today, so it's a PJ day now I'm back in from shopping. Shall have another cup of tea then see about removing some of the gifts I received from the packaging and put it into the recycling which has to be put out tonight.
Might contemplate having a declutter of the cupboard in the bathroom do I can put the gifts from lush and boots etc away.


BTW MRS SD, regarding your DD's earache, instead by the white tiger balm for earache. Just a little bit rubbed onto the bottom and back of the ear works a treat for me.

TC77

778 - 788 old batteries recycled
789 recycling
790 - binned some of my dad's food - lea and perrins 1997 and baking powder and 1998 so only counting as one as not mine
791 - 796 socks and tight in draught excluder

Have a few more things and will make sure out in the next few days

Catcrazy

Well I have been decluttering, slowly but surely.
Took a slight break over Christmas but before the -Martin 489 - 498 -magazines to Dr's surgery waiting area.
499-520'-itemsto charity shop.
520 broken Christmas decorations in the bin..

notmy1sttime

I did:
- return of 2 amazon items, refund of £35 to hit my account once processed - I don't mind money clutterring my bank account.
- couldn't drop a parcel of books I sold on one of those sites as all the drop off points were shut. I must therefore remain in my car for EVEN longer tidied my wardrobe and put a few items in my CS bag ready to drop off next week
- left a few dresses/skirts in wardrobe but might try sell them before donating as were very good makes.
- took Christmas decs down and threw a few the cats had damaged or were looking sorry for themselves. Tree is currently clutterring the landing, lets see if it makes it into the loft this side of summer.

I am away today for a week, so back onto the declutterring in January and will be posting on the new shiny 2020 thread.

Have a great New Year everyone.

Gem-gem

Mrs SD good to hear that you had a good Christmas. In the Gem-gem house we had a lovely Xmas day were we hosted and Boxing Day were my brother hosted. It is great to make happy memories.

Mum loved her box of surprises, cashmere scarf and mother of pearl trinket box, both bought in last years Christmas sales for half price. Her Clarins were all freebies that I gathered over the year.

All the recycling have been collected by the bin men today. Just the scrunched up and ripped up wrapping paper and Christmas unrecycleable waste waiting to go. I have managed to save some wrapping paper to reuse for next year, along with the ribbons. (It will go into the Christmas box so won't be cluttering up the house!)

Yesterday, I took up a homemade blackberry and apple crumble up to my brothers and left the dish with him. He had recently broken his lasagne dish so was well happy with the passed on gift. (I had received the dish from one of my aunts). Brother hinted that he was getting low in jam. Must remember to declutter a jar or two his way.

Have stripped the guest beds and our bed this morning. Off to remake the third bed back up.

Post script... Did out my airing cupboard, found that one of my old fitted sheets has 'gone home' - the elastic has gone ( haven't used it for years). Have been googling how to upcycle it. Think I will make food storage bags - shopping for loose veg or reuseable gift wrapping bags. Will give myself a month to cut the templates out. Otherwise the sheet will go to the RSPCA for them to use as animal bedding.
Binned scraps of unwanted material from the airing cupboard.

Went through my Christmas card box. I have enough homemade Christmas cards for next year - for both hubby and I to use. So won't be buying any cheap cards during the sales.

Hubby finished off the turkey today for lunch - turkey salad. I had a little Stilton with my salad. Finished off the chocolate pudding after.
Apart from biscuits and chocolate received as presents the only Christmas bits left are two big bag of crisps and a little cheese and crackers. All other things bought have been eaten. So well judged.