2021 MISSION DECLUTTER and CLEAN

short_bird

The Minimalists published this over the weekend and it's definitely food for thought! 

Changing Your Life Won’t Change Your Life | The Minimalists

mandy47

Dismantled old broken vacuum  cleaner. Put motor and lead out for scrap man to collect. Plastic parts binned.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. KITCHEN WILL CONTINUE TO BE LEFT CLEAN & TIDY EVERY NIGHT

2. JUST DO ONE THING EVERY DAY (courtesy of bit_by_bit) OTHER THAN DAY TO DAY CLEANING & DECLUTTERING 

3. CLEAN ONE ROOM (TOP TO BOTTOM) EVERY MONTH (hopefully 3 weekly by the end of the year)

Sunday & Monday deceptively sunny still rather cold. Sunday I did 3 loads of washing which all line dried 🥳 Dinner was bacon, eggs, roasted tomatoes & oven chips.
Builder is here but has been let down by brick supplier - new bricks not arriving until this afternoon. He is using the old bricks to rebuild the small portion of ndn’s wall that was taken down to put in a support post. DH has moved the bird feeding stand, filled all the feeders & with DSis’s assistance has watered all the plants. He also phoned the dentist - appointments are 20th May, but we both had a telephone consultation & will be getting antibiotics. Just waiting for the call to pick up the prescriptions. Weirdly DH & I have a problem with the exact same tooth 😱 
I then retired to the bathroom & had a long soak, a deep scrub & washed my hair. Unusually I didn’t drop off so the book I was reading didn’t get a bath 😉

811 - 813 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, cardboard packaging - recycled 

814 - 816 Kitchen detritus, 2 Uu bath gel sachets - binned

Yippee Vulpix 🥳 Your hard work has paid off 👏 I agree with Thrifty_Taylor - fantastic news 👏 Here’s to a swift sale from start to finish 🤞🤞 You sound like you are looking forward to lots of flinging 😉  

Fingers crossed for you too moneyonmymindsam 🤞

Nice to see you leelad 👋 ‘Plodding on’ is a good way to describe decluttering 😉 You & your daughter obviously have green fingers 🙂👏 I must admit to a tinge of envy re your tomato plants 😔 We planted loads & might have just one seedling ☹️ Not too sure as labelling was rather neglected & woeful 😔 Keep up the good work & hope you enjoy the sunshine 🙂

Elsien, I did smile at the fold up bike debate 🤣 Hopefully someone gave you the nudge you needed 🤞

Thank you so much mothernerd 👏 Now I just have to ‘encourage’ my DSis to clean her CPAP regularly 😉

Anyway I need to get dressed, so I will love you & leave you & come back later to finish cheerleading 😉

MrsSD  🏅🏅🏅🏅 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Decluttering Target: 2021    816/2021

2021 Savings Pot:  £41.00 to end of March

P.S. DH has gone out to pick up our prescriptions & will do a detour to get one of his Round Britain Rally landmarks. 

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. KITCHEN WILL CONTINUE TO BE LEFT CLEAN & TIDY EVERY NIGHT

2. JUST DO ONE THING EVERY DAY (courtesy of bit_by_bit) OTHER THAN DAY TO DAY CLEANING & DECLUTTERING 

3. ONCE A WEEK LEAVE THE HOUSE (e.g. Go into city centre for bank & butcher;  go to local town for cs dropping off or buying; visit the pub with DH 😉😉)

Now fully dressed at last including a bra 😉 tmi 😉. Took my time combing out my hair so the clump wasn’t too large 😥  The sun is still shining & it is slightly warmer 👏 
I am biting the bullet & replacing no.3 from “Clean one room etc”  - as each time I copy it out it reminds me I am failing 😭 To encourage myself I am amending it to once a week leave the house 😉 

817 Sunday knickers binned

Now back to cheerleading 😉

Excellent work GrannyKate 👏 One Gold Star ⭐️ for persistence in swapping out computers & a medal to each of DS2 🏅 & DB 🏅 for helping you 👏 By the way, I thought everyone knew that cardboard boxes breed when you don’t need them but vanish when you do need them 😉😉😅

How right you are moneyonmymindsam 🙂👏 Really good karma & the warm glow of being able to help someone 👏 Well done on continuing to declutter even though your will was faltering 👏 One medal 🏅 to remind you that you can do it 🙂

Great work Mandy47 👏 especially dismantling a vacuum cleaner 👏

Excellent work nannywindow 👏 both inside & out 👏 

Oh dear Gers ☹️ You embarked on your quest with the best intentions 😌 but at least it is done 🙂 👏 Such a shame about the foodstuffs that were kept for a special occasion but I do know that I have been guilty of that in the past 😔 The only items kept for special occasions now are clothes - roll on the day when life resumes properly & I can get dressed up 😉

Hopefully there will be lots of treasures in the air raid shelter, elsien 🤞 & lots of cash will be generated for some sort of treat 🙂 You are doing well elsien - seems more like one in, two out 👏

Well done newlywed 👏 after all this is a decluttering & cleaning thread 😉 What a lovely surprise newlywed - the walk sounds lovely & far more interesting than your previous route 🙂 

How nice that life has resumed a bit of normality for you D123456789 👏 How long has it been since you went swimming? You must be giddy with joy 🤩 What a result with the handbag 👏 it must have been the exact bag someone wanted 🥳 Fortnightly cs collections - what a great incentive to declutter 👏 medal 🏅 on its way 🙂

Good work EnergyShifter 👏 steady progress 👏

Great work oceanspirit 👏 Having space to tidy things away is a testament to successful decluttering 👏

So exciting vulpix 🥳 Shame about the non local viewers ☹️ maybe just a trip out now that restrictions are lifting 😉 With all your projects, you are obviously a dab hand at logistics 🙂 so I do not foresee a problem with all your gardening equipment 😉🤞 Must have been a lovely ‘moment’ planning the chapel project 😉😉 

What a great post ruby_eskimo 👏 & great t-shirt decluttering 👏 I have to confess to owning several 25 year old t-shirts - mostly Fruit of the Loom & like you they have lasted because I don’t wear them often enough to wear them out & because they are good quality 😉 

“I keep seeing videos on youtube of people talking about organising stuff and what they're actually doing is buying more drawers / cupboards etc. to house the increasing amount of stuff they keep buying and it made me feel a little weird.  One girl I watch regularly did a re-organisation video a few months ago and then was doing another one last week because she had bought more stuff and now needed MORE organisation "tools" to hold the new things that she bought, like 4 new makeup bags that she loved but had no use for at the moment and I couldn't understand why you would do that.  Not to say I haven't done similar things in my youth but now I'm seeing the problem that consumerism has played in my life - and I haven't even watched the Minimalist documentary yet!  

Apologies for getting a bit deep there, I think the past year has (like many people) made me realise what is truly important in my life and the fact that I don't want to clutter up my house with rubbish.”
No need to apologise for getting a bit deep, ruby 🙂 in fact it is a timely reminder that ‘organising is NOT decluttering’ & as such I am awarding you a Gold Star ⭐️ Confession time - I was one of those who thought buying more organisational ‘tools’ would help with decluttering - but that was 30+ years ago 😱 With all the devastation caused by the pandemic it is rather uplifting that we can find something positive to focus on 🙂 

Thanks short_bird 👏 will investigate that later 🙂

Yippee I have caught up 🥳

MrsSD  🏅🏅🏅🏅 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Decluttering Target: 2021    817/2021

2021 Savings Pot:  £41.00 to end of March

moneyonmymindsam

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Thank you for my medal 

Lamb kofta type things for tea in celebration of the job    

No other news, place is a bit of a sty but have left it for now and put feet up after work. 

Remembering that my jobs purpose is to pay the bills is helping so I'm not overworking - let's hope I can stick to it.

No eboy at the moment as taking a 2 week breather. 

Ordered oil for the house before price shoots up! 


Sam x

Gers

You've hit the nail right on the head MrsSD - buying more storage to keep more stuff that doesn't get used.  The cupboard I'm clearing out is an extra one bought years ago as the pantry was full, as was the shelving in the kitchen recess.  Now that most of the unused / too old food is gone the pantry is still now full and the other cupboard can be removed, if I can persuade someone to do that! 

It's a good lesson for me, I may have some small tendencies towards keeping too much though nothing on the scale of my DM.  My deceased DF was the complete opposite.  I think that his days in the army ensure that he was able to move quickly and only keep the necessities.  When he died he owned practically nothing beyond furniture and clothes.  He didn't need knick-knacks or loads of tins or jars.  I paid all his bills by DD so he didn't even have any paperwork.  I wander along the middle ground!

One more food waste bag filled and more glass jars washed and ready to go out.  I'm nearing the end of the food nightmare.  By tomorrow the extra cupboard will be empty and I'll be much happier. 

GrannyKate

Thanks for the star Mrs SD.  No decluttering to report and cleaning halted by dead vacuum cleaner.  I have been out today though.  GS4 and GD4 had an extra day's holiday so we went to the coast - very quiet but they had fun on the beach and we had outdoor lunch at favourite cafe.  Unplanned pit stop for loo at newish MrL - children insisted we needed to go round store and get things for tea and pack-ups as they are spending much of the week with me as dad still on course and mum working some long shifts.  So decluttered extra on groceries.  

mothernerd

Not sure if any of this is decluttering but it is progress and helping towards a tidier house. Lots of things on my list for yesterday did not get done because I painted the first batch of boards from my recycled plastic raised beds and just as I was packing up for the day, mum's cousin arrived with the 3 raised beds he has made me. I still had an inch of the correct paint left in the tin (I have experimented with a couple of complimentary colours because I don't like paying a premium for a particular shade just because A T!tm@rsh has that colour) so hauled one of the beds onto my work table and painted as much as I could (about a quarter of an inch left but would have had to move the bed and was too tired to do that). 

Mum has agreed that I can have more but it will be 2 or 3 weeks because cousin is sorting his garden out, aided by grandson doing the heavy stuff next weekend. I overheard her on the phone to her friend this morning and she said she was feeling so unwell, she would have agreed to anything - missed my chance to ask about the greenhouse (she did offer to buy one last year but was going for the tiniest option).

Aching quite a bit today and acquired another couple of minor injuries (and declutted most of my remaining fingernails). However turned to yesterday's list and most urgent were washing (took of the bottom sheet and added that and yesterday's clothes to what was already in the machine and set it going). Mattress wasn't quite right. Wondered where all my pillows were disappearing to and found the mattress was not completely on top of the base. So cleared what was on it, rolled and folded all the top bedding and rolled it off the end of the bed and up to the drawers, giving me enough room to stand. Noticed several items between the bed base and the skirting boards. Used fingers, feather duster, mum's grabber stick and my trusty metal ruler to get all the bits out.

Pulled two notebooks out last week but there were several pieces of paper (some binned, some saved), good pens, and Kondoed carrier bags, even pulled out 2 feathers. Best of all £1.05 and a full foil of one of my pills (have been chopping the big ones in half for two weeks). The problem was that there was a 3" gap between the two halves of the base on the wall side and I must have pushed the mattress in line at the bottom of the bed leaving a gap at the top. As pillows fell/ slid into the gap they pushed the mattress further and then more pillows fell in. Took lots of effort and several rests but is much more comfortable. Had my shower next and used the hot water to eases some of my aches. Put the washer on a ten minute spin before I went in.

Finished my book, used a variety of creams (found a small face suncream which is 3 + years old - remember finding it very useful to slip it into my handbag for topping up protection during the day, that would have been June 2018), then took my washing out to the line. Had toast for lunch (thought it was second breakfast but found it was lunchtime, still wanted toast).

After lunch I tackled the brown bin (tins, glass, plastic). I had two bags of extras which were waiting to go in once the bin had been emptied. I took everything out of the bin (put as much as possible into my trolley and sat on a chair to do it). Every soup, beans and similar can had a drink can put inside it, more cans were squashed, plastic containers were grouped and nested and then I made it all fit - full bin now has two more bags worth of stuff in. Very glad I did it because horrible man who visited last week had put 3 cigarette stubs in there (the rubbish bin was alongside it - why put them in there?).

Had a phone call asking could we accept visitors - mummy of twins had licorice for mum but twins were on a teacher training day. Set out garden chairs and a bench cushion so they could play on the floor, made up sugar free vimto cordial in a large jug and put out a pack of paper cups (couldn't get the ones I wanted when it was mum's birthday so when they came up as back in stock I added them to my order). Got out the tiddleywinks and a magic painting book, brush and water. The 3 yos were very good but I was exhausted by the time they left to do the school pick ups (I even had to fish out the potty as no-one has used it in months). We've had conversations through the front room window and either side of the gate but they haven't been inside the gate for over a year.

Sat outside under the shade of the tree, reading my book. The chicken breasts needed using up so I put them in the oven. Mum ate a proper meal for the first time in days although I kept her portion small. No points for today but needed to put down what I had done.

TC77

@vulpix hope you're feeling ok after your jab. I've been missing 
for a few days, partly as felt v ropey after 2nd vaccination, and also v busy workwise.

Added 4 items the other day so 783

784 unsubscribing
785 emails decluttered
786 paper declutter
787 - 790 tech stuff to CS
791 - 796 items returned - some from extra xmas presents and a faulty item /

Now I've taken the CS bags feel I can start another one
797-799 2 books and DIY things in CS bag.
800 - 1 important email sent
801-802 food discovered at the back of the fridge binned.

balabooberlies

Hello All

have been away, tried to catch up on posts, literally cannot remember what I have read but I know I read them.  Goldfish !  

Hope you are all well.

Went to see folks and took HUGE suitcase full of gifts gathered over the last year.  Was also hoping to leave suitcase as it is/was my Dad's.  Nope, not to be.  Came home with a full case of gifts coming this way.....all useful.  The case was so heavy that at least 3 young handsome gentlemen offered poor little me (I am little....and very round)  help.  Also, I heard clanging twice..............suitcase falling apart, dropping bits behind me.  I came home on a wing and a prayer.  Exhausted for 2 days.  I picked up the bits............aaarrgghh.........

So, am still on 13/104

Hoping to declutter a car over the next week............how many bags would that be ?  

bala

x