2020 - banish the clutter

short_bird

elsien said:

Please can someone give me an incentive to declutter a load of essential oils that I "might" use, even though I haven't in several years. Do they go off once opened? 

Yes they do and will be as much use as a cat flap in a submarine...
You have my permission to bin them. Yes, straight in the bin, not to the recycling. 

Gem-gem

Back from the boot fair. 

Sold £112.04
Made £99.04 profit after pitch. 

Was busy and had a continuous stream of people throughout the morning. 

From 6:30 - 10:00 sold at normal prices. 

10:00 - 10:30 Everything was either 50p or 20p.
Then I removed a small box of books and a couple of items - Put into my boot. These I will sell next time. 

Everything became 20p. 

At 11:00, whilst I was clearing away - everything on the floor was free. Some people did take a few books. 

When I got home, one bag of books have been allocated to go to my SIL for the animal charity shop. The rest have just been binned. Boxes have been recycled. Any charity bags that can be used as bin liners will be used. 

Now sitting down. Have just had hm soup with a cheese roll and a bag of crisps. 

Mrs SD, you were getting excited because so much of your dinner was home grown. I am the same. Friday, I said to hubby. Everything on this plate is home grown except for the lamb chop. Which came from the farm up the road. 

Re move - we haven't started house hunting or the house is not on the market yet. But doing all the decluttering now is the ground work for then. I am adamant that I am not going to move with any excess. I do not want to have to pay for one box more than I have to. 

garden_girl_2

Gemgem, im surprised car boots are allowed, there not where we live...i dont think!! How did people self distance and were people wearing masks?? Well done on making so much money!! Pitch was a lot, ours are £5 or 6...

[Deleted User]

We've just deforested the side of the house we don't use to access the garden where the shrubs and ivy from next doors garden have grown through their fence and turned out side patch into a jungle.  No more! all trimmed, cleared and swept and the clippings into the green waste bin to go tomorrow morning.  Tea is made...xxx.

Gem-gem

garden_girl_2 said:

Gemgem, im surprised car boots are allowed, there not where we live...i dont think!! How did people self distance and were people wearing masks?? Well done on making so much money!! Pitch was a lot, ours are £5 or 6...

Hi Garden girl 2,
They allowed open markets to open a few weeks  ago. They diD their first one last week but I didn't go. Some were wearing a mask others didn't. (I wasn't as it was open air and warm). 

They made the gaps between the cars bigger and the rows wider. Social distancing, I wasn't aware of it. I was one side of the table for 99 % of the time. Only one time was I the other side then very aware that I had lots of people round my stall, I quickly went to the other side.
i only heard one cough in the distance. 

Yes, the pitch is expensive. But you do get the buyers in. It is humongous. I wish the ones round here were only £5/6. 

I normally share a car with a family member or friend and the split the pitch. 

bit_by_bit

TC77. Try not to stress. This sort of clutter doesn't collect in a day so it is never easy to clear.  Roundtuit has the right idea. Be kind to yourself.   My phrase is 'just do one thing'. A strategy I developed when recovering from cancer and similar to Roundtuits's move one piece of paper.  My first one thing was to make a cuppa. After that it was maybe just clear a few things of a  pile, move something to its home. I built up to 5 minutes at a time. Also, when things get really bad I start at one corner of the house and clear and clean that. May be a bathroom, the porch or by the back door. The main thing is to stick at it. Last year one of Mrs SD's mantras was to do just that. So I have cleared the Room of Doom this way, 5 or 10 mins at a time. It took 6 months but it did get done.
I let go of another bag today. This time to go to Africa and full of medical supplies from when I had treatment they didn't want back. They are out of date but my friend who is sending them says it is better than nothing. She is from Malawi and they will go to  the main hospital in the capital where they had only 5 ICU beds for the whole country in 2017. I don't think it is much better now.

TC77

bit_by_bit  Thank you so much, must have been so tough for you and how good that the medical supplies will be used. I have been decluttering for years, but joining this last year was really helpful - great cheer leading from Mrs SD and. positive encouragement from everyone.  I do have some half empty shelves but just a muddle on show as haven't a system. I've been run down so much easier to be overwhelmed, and good advice from you and others.  Met some friends in the park so that was good.

Left v large cardboard box outside hoping someone will use it 1383

broken seed tray  1384

used up old veg in risotto 1385

Take care everyone, and lovely to be in such a supportive place, be kind to yourselves x

Marpau

Hi all just checking in for an update
637/648 magazines recycled
649 catalogue recycled
650 book passed to friend
651 dress returned
652 bra sold
653 birthday card posted
654/655 cardigan sold and packaging
656 top to CS
657/658 2 items to textile recycling
659 tax return completed 
660 broken frame recycling
661 photo album to CS
662/663 2 boxes recycled
664 broken hanger binned
655/667 3 balls wool used up
668/670 3 pictures to CS
671/674 4 t shirts to textile recycling
675 large piece of furniture sold on f***book
676 tablecloth binned
677 packaging from stash uu

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. WRITE AND USE “TO DO LISTS” - MINIMUM 30 MINUTE BURSTS OF ACTIVITY AT LEAST TWICE EVERY DAY

2. KITCHEN WILL BE LEFT CLEAN & TIDY EVERY NIGHT

3. I WILL ENDEAVOUR TO BE NICE TO EVERYONE & TRY TO SEE THE FUNNY OR PECULIAR SIDE TO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
4. DAY TO DAY DECLUTTERING WILL CONTINUE

 Sunday has been a lovely, sunny & warm day. DH pottered in the garden & garage including a clean of the air filter cover on one of his motorbikes. DSis spent most of the day in her room watching TV with occasional forays into the kitchen for drinks or outside for a smoke. I pottered in the kitchen - finished cooking the hm soup, zizzed & taste tested. Tasty enough for a bowl for my lunch. I also filled up sugar bowl, teabag & coffee jars + raided the freezer for a couple of slices of lo apple pie + a bag of hg rhubarb & a bag of crumble mix. Cooked the rhubarb & the one apple from MrG. The crumble was cooked & left to cool. DH & I harvested the current crop of rhubarb which was washed, cut & frozen - 7 sticks = 320g. MrG called round & collected the 5 tomato plants. Called back later to return the pots & the garden tools. We had a chat about herbs & I popped round later with packets of really ood seeds 😞 - garlic chives, oregano, sweet basil & coriander. He might be lucky 🍀😉 I gave our tomato plants their weekly feed & watered the rest of the garden.

Dinner was white fish baked in foil, the rest of the hg potatoes (boiled) & garden peas from the freezer. Fish was a bit bleugh but the hg potatoes were delicious 😋 😆 

DH & I had the apple pie with custard about an hour later. (I also used a Madeira cake (in place of sponge fingers) in strawberry jelly. I had enough custard left to put on the jelly. I see a trifle in our future 😉

1289 - 1291 Kitchen recycling, large glass jar & metal lid, cardboard packaging - Recycled

1292 - 1293 Two lots of kitchen detritus - Binned

Clear work surfaces are such a boost roundtuit 👏 WW is doing well, perhaps WW might take over Monday and become LWW (long Weekend Willi) 😉 but do keep it secret from SB 😉 Sage advice to TC77 re completing one task at a time & taking time out to be kind to yourself - one medal 🏅 coming your way 🙂

Oh dear TC77 🙁 sounds like Stressy Bessy has abandoned roundtuit & visited you - but hopefully only for the day 😉 However you still managed some decluttering so Well Done 👏 Ooh, strawberries 🍓 😋  Meeting friends appears to have cheered you up TC77 - GOOD 🙂 perhaps you could make it a regular event? something to look forward to when the decluttering isn’t filling you with excitement 😉

Good work boazu 👏 I will come round later in the year for a pot of blackberry jam - might have a pot of tomato chutney for bartering 😉 Great work on the deforestation 👏 do you have space for a small allotment now? 

Wow garden_girl_2, you & your DD have been busy 👏 & you seem to have got hubby on board too 👏 Now that you have taken down cherry tree branches, your vegetables will probably grow like triffids 🤞😉 No car so unfortunately boot fairs are out - you can’t get much on a motorbike 🤣 

Nice to see you bigdaftkid 👋 I hope that your absence was through choice rather than anything bad 🤞 The Decluttering Bandwagon has several carriages, so welcome aboard 👏 Is there anything in particular you need to declutter or is it just a general declutter? Please let us know if we can do anything to help (only virtually Unfortunately 🙁) 

Great work Noaidi 👏  Maybe the deep cupboard space can be used to stock up on tins & dried goods 😉 prepping for Brexit/winter/COVID spike etc. By the way this does NOT count as clutter 🙃

Now, now nannywindow - where is the wagging finger emoji when you need it. Every bit of clutter out is a WIN 👏

Elsien, think of all the space you will have 😉 does that help 😉

Good work Nicnak 👏  I really wish wagging finger emoji was an option 🙁 but take as read 😉 You now have a tidy garden 👏

short_bird said:

elsien said:

Please can someone give me an incentive to declutter a load of essential oils that I "might" use, even though I haven't in several years. Do they go off once opened? 

“ Yes they do and will be as much use as a cat flap in a submarine... 
You have my permission to bin them. Yes, straight in the bin, not to the recycling. “

I nearly fell off the sofa short_bird 🤣 “cat flap in a submarine” 🤣🤣🤣

Absolutely brilliant result Gem-gem 👏👏  It is so exciting using hg produce - glad I am not the only one 😉 A really great incentive to declutter & think how easy packing will be when you do move 👏😉 The boot fair sounds as if it was pretty well organised.

bit_by_bit, what a lovely post, helpful (& mentioning me doesn’t go amiss 😉😆) - so good that I am awarding you a Gold Star ⭐️. 

BE KIND. STAY SAFE. BREAK THE CHAIN. SAVE LIVES.

MrsSD ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

1293/2020

villagelife

A bit more done
1017 pair of shorts that are too large
1018-1019 magazines recycled
1020-1021 broken umbrella and cover