2020 - banish the clutter

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

Friday started overcast again & chillier than it has been. Had a fairly good night’s sleep - the bed was comfortable, darkness & silence reigned. Went down to breakfast - DH had a full Scottish, I had scrambled eggs & mushrooms on toast + half a slice of toast & marmalade. Bags loaded into bike & then had to wait 20 minutes to pay, as the landlady’s husband had gone off to pick up the young waitress. We set off just after 10:00 a.m. - chilly ride so stopped in Golspie intending to have fish’n’chips in the local fish’n’chip shop. 
Unfortunately only doing takeaway & I needed the bathroom. Went across to the pub (The Stag) & had filter coffee & lunch & use of the facilities 😉 DH had a hot panini & chips whilst I had a baked potato with cheese & beans + a side salad & coleslaw. Very tasty & warmed me up nicely.  Brightened up considerably after 2 p.m. - the sun finally broke through, the clouds cleared & by the time we arrived at our hotel - The Mansion House, Elgin it had turned into a pleasantly warm summer’s evening. The Mansion House is as grand as it sounds but no dinner or breakfast available ☹️ We showered & changed then wandered across the road to Tesco & bought sandwiches, biscuits & a few cans of beer & had a picnic in our room 😉

Sign of the day “CAUTION OTTERS CROSSING”
Two strange sights today - Two scarecrows dressed in mechanics overalls working on the engine of a rally car - very effective 👏 BUT the strangest sight was the statue of a seal that some wag had put a face mask 😷 on 😆 
Wildlife today: sheep, cows, horses, ponies, butterflies, seagulls & even more seagulls ☹️

1482 Bag of detritus - Binned

Nicnak, as you can see above Down to Earth with a bump on the fine dining front 😉

Black pudding & Gorgonzola - yummy boazu. Definitely with you on the brawn though - the thought of it gives me the heebie-jeebies 😟 Good luck with the wardrobe cull 🤞 
Which recipe do you use for your tomato chutney, boazu - if you don’t mind me asking?

It will be a big change EnergyShifter - but at least he will bring back tons of dirty clothes for you to wash 🤣 & your cat will appreciate the undivided attention from you 😉 Well done on the decluttering 👏

I do love Scotland bit_by_bit - not so much in the rain but touch wood we are being very lucky with the weather this year 🤞

Maybe a reward for decluttering could be a mini break TC77 😉  I am very impressed with the decluttering 👏 & the fact that you have trained dd2 from a young age 😉

Great work StickyTheStickInsect 👏 I especially liked that you helped your FIL & considered it getting away 😉 Keep up the good work 👏

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

MrsSD ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  🏅

1482/2020

Willowtree222

you can't beat a Tesco sandwich though x

basketcase

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Sounds like you're having a good time.  In the nicest possible way, please give Aberdeen a miss!  We're under lockdown.

In fact, you're seeing more of Scotland than we are.   I've just had to cancel a few days away on Skye with DD, because we've been advised not to travel more than 5 miles for leisure.  DD's depression and anxiety have flared during the virus and she's been holding herself together with the thought of this holiday so it's not good.  But we don't want to spread it, so what can you do?   The pity of it is that we were only going to stay in the cottage, take walks and chill out but the Western Isles have been virus free for a while and nobody wants to break that.

TC77

Mrs SD - a miracle DD2 did anything. Have DD1 staying who never puts a lid on anything and leaves a trail of distruction

1575 - 1576 large bag to CS and small bag to H &M to get £5 off a spent (thanks for the post reminding me they are doing this again)

1577 mug which has been left so long by DD1 in DD2 room that can't be cleaned so binned

1578 some paper filing,

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

I was obviously so distraught about no sit down dinner that I forgot a couple of things from Friday’s travels ☹️  So here goes 😉 1) a potted history - delivered by the biker who is currently the custodian - of Whaligoe Steps. Very informative & had to laugh at his description of the women who carried 100 lbs of salted herring up 365 steps, then walked 8 miles to Wick 😱 He reckoned they had beards down to their knees - presumably like female dwarves 😉 2) Does anyone remember ‘One Man and his Dog’? I had the pleasure of seeing an elderly shepherd leaning on his crook at one end of a large paddock, a younger shepherd standing tall with his crook at the other end and in between them a sheepdog herding a small flock of sheep into a pen. I couldn’t hear the whistles or calls - crash helmets tend to block out a lot of sound 😉 - but watching brought a huge grin 🙂 to my face & happy memories of being glued to the TV watching ‘OMandhD’ 3) seeing a pied wagtail

Anyway on to Saturday - a croissant & a cup of coffee just does NOT set you up for a morning’s ride especially when it is overcast & rather chilly 🙁 We also had no success in finding the 1st three landmarks ☹️ - just happy that they were previous years’ landmarks 🙂 One success - the packaging from last nights picnic & this morning’s breakfast were disposed of appropriately - some recycled & some binned 😉 so
1483 Cans/plastic bottles & packaging - Recycled
1484 Non recyclable packaging - Binned
About 1:00 p.m. we found a cafe in Kirriemuir - unfortunately no facilities but fortunately the public toilets were open 🥳 Returned to the cafe & had mugs of coffee + DH had a bacon & egg roll & I had a 2 fried eggs brown bread sandwich. Revisited the pt & put on my warm top & we set off feeling fully human again 👏 Surprising how hot food, hot drinks & a relieved bladder can make riding in cooler weather so much more pleasant & bearable 😉 Found & photographed several landmarks & ended up checking into our hotel Stirling Court Hotel on the university campus at 6:50 p.m. Regrettably 😡 we could not book dinner - there was a wedding - but made sure we were booked in for breakfast. The room is functional with the smallest double bed I have ever seen 🙄 Anyway DH ordered a large pizza, garlic bread & a small drink from D*min*s. Safely delivered within 30 minutes & thoroughly enjoyed. Then we decided to make ourselves a coffee & watch a bit of tv. Fat chance ☹️ - the power bank didn’t work so down to reception, receptionist came up & checked to see if she could get it to work whilst we waited in the corridor. No joy so we were moved to a new room - electrics tested before we moved all our stuff 😉 Now enjoying a cup of coffee 🥳 & watching NA World Championships 2018 (Pipe & Drum) Loving it 😂

Signs of the day: ‘SLOW DOWN FOR RED SQUIRRELS’; ‘PHEASANTS IN ROAD’ (sadly usually dead 😭); & the very best one “DULL paired with BORING, OREGON, USA”

Sights of the day: 2 sets of 3 metal cattle - dad, mum, baby; 
Wildlife: cattle, sheep, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants, an osprey (waiting for the cars to pass so it could feed on a dead deer), rabbits & a bonus when I went out to smoke my last cigarette - a hedgehog 🦔- I cannot tell you how inordinately happy I was 🙂🙂🙂😊☺️

Nicnak, the sandwiches were good 😉

Oh dear basketcase ☹️ what a nightmare - lockdown & a cancelled holiday 😠 I have no idea what to suggest especially as you are restricted to a five mile radius. I am sending good wishes to you & your DD & hugs 🤗.

Good work TC77 👏  Minor miracles can brighten your day 😉 maybe there will be another one soon 😉😉

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

MrsSD ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️  🏅

1484/2020

Willowtree222

Loving reading up on the travels. You are on a lovely adventure right now. 
Shame about the food though. Hope the pizza was nice. 
Ex took my kitchen units out of the garage and some bits of wood and pieces. It leaves me with a big space now, which sounds great, but actually I wish I could have kept the storage now to put all of my garage things in. I offered it to him thinking I would be converting the garage but that is not an option anymore. 
I have a skip coming a week today so a lot of things will be removed. x

[Deleted User]

Hi Mrs SD, I've tweaked a recipe from a book of preserving by Alison Burt to the spice mix we like, I can post you my version of the recipe if you'd like?

Not much by way of actual decluttering here today, but a big tidy up in the kitchen and a steam mopping of the floor.  I went to the store yesterday and consolidated all my food stores (tins, jars etc.) and have made quite a lot more space to top up for the winter/brexit/covid continuing so I shall carry on getting a few odds and ends with every delivery from the supermarket to grow my stocks but only of things I know we use.  I think punting on brands we don't know or usually have is just wasting money because they're usually cheap for a reason.

The weather here is better because the heat has gone but worse because it's grey, dull, humid and going to be randomly very wet through the whole week according to the TV forecast this morning.  Where we live the roads flood easily leaving us cut off from the world which is OK if it happens when we're home but not so good if it happens when we're out! we tried to go for a drive on Friday morning and it started raining as we came off the drive and carried on getting heavier for the entire time we were out, we'd thought to hop over into Wales and have a picnic lunch somewhere high up with one of the amazing views we have here but the rain was so heavy we turned back for home and had to drive through roads awash with inches of 'run off' from the fields and getting to the village meant having to drive through lanes of the road under several inches of standing water, lesson learned, we will be careful to mind the weather from here on.

The evenings are beginning to draw in now aren't they? by 8.30 it's very much dusk and we're having to put the lamps on.  This winter I think might be a trial if we're (as we inevitably must be) still under restrictions because of the vagaries of being alive in a pandemic so to make it more bearable I'm going to embrace the concept of Hygge English Style and start using some of the candles I always keep for 'in case', light the stove and warm the room when it get's too chilly, get a couple of proper snuggle throws to huggle up in and invest in a whole winters worth of low cal hot chocolate along with a whole bunch of books to read, make vast vats of home made soup and always have home made cake in the cake tin so when we come back from our walk in the afternoon, cold and needing to be warmed up I can flick the Hygge switch and make us cosy and contented in minutes, that appeals very much in the bleakness that has crept into life of late and is a need rather than a want.

bit_by_bit

Aah TC77, I feel for you. My DD is 21 and grown into a lovely young woman but I always enjoyed the stage she was at and never wanted her to move on.  Still don't LOL 
I had a great day yesterday. I went over to the refugee centre. They were so pleased to receive the blankets and other things. So I am counting 5 bags of my own but actually took 8. My garage shelves are a lot clearer and DH is going to clear the camping stuff next as he is wanting to clear the garage. 
I feel a bit lifted. There are some things they couldn't accept so I am going to find homes for those things next.
Worked at the CS yesterday afternoon. Nice and cool and no grumpy people. I love that all sorts of people come into the shop. I am having little chats with the regulars now.

Gem-gem

Made approx 55 Christmas cards for hubby and I to send in December. Also made some Christmas tags. 
Recycled:
Couple of plastic containers from the shed.
shorts
vest top
uu deodorant container  
Binned:
T-shirt 
unwanted bits of previous years' Christmas cards

elsien

I have ground to another halt now work is ramping up again.
Yesterday was interesting. Neighbour is moving away, didn't do any sorting and very little packing in advance then booked a removals van that was far too small. Took them till 10.30 pm to be out of the house (luckily no one was waiting to get in) and a large part of their clutter is now taking up most of the downstairs of my house while they sort things out.

The amount of stuff that could have been recycled/gone to a charity shop and is now in a skip is quite sad. After the skip was full, the rest was left in the garden.

If anything is going to incentivise me to carry on, it'll be this.