2021 MISSION DECLUTTER and CLEAN

bit_by_bit

Wow, all these posts are making me dizzy.

I have been away at my Sister's for a few days. She is a certified hoarder. She hopes to move but the housing people won't even put her in for new housing if she doesn't clear out. This leaves a woman with various medical related things wiith her chest in a place with three different types of mould. Her daughter also l;lives with her and she isn't much better hoarding wise.

Anyway. After a visit last month nothing more had been done. She was obviously physically and mentally exhausted after the last time. This time was much gentler. I spent 5 hours going through bags and boxes in her living room and used my neices bedroom for all the completed boxes. Getting everything out of the working room was a of bit hard work and I had to be careful not to overload boxes.  There were at least 15 boxes, not small ones either. 

We got rid of 2 bin liners of rubbish, put all electricals that we could find in one place and did a box for diy, gardening, selling and medicines. Each ongoing. I came a way with one box for the charity shop, one bag of out of date medicienes and some old paint and some other bits. I was hoping for a car full. 

Every time I gave anything to either of them to do I found them moving stuff from one box to another, unable to make decisions or just hanging on. I need at least 6 more visits to get the flat cleared I think. There are still two bedrooms and the kitchen. I am going for a few days in August and I have given them a project: to get all fabric and clothing into one room, their lounge, and go through it thinking charity shop and rags, and keep. I hope they do that, it would help enourmously.

I have a sense of how things got like this, with tendencies of my own. Each time I come away I sort my own mess out more and I also get to spend time with my family. We had rock music going and had a few laughs. Once it is complete I am taking them away for a few days 

So car being serviced today. It deserves some TLC as I have been working ot hard lately and there is more to go. I am bringing DD home from uni properly on Friday and she will finish her course from home. It finishes in August.

later today I am taking all the rubbish and waste from my house and the two clearouts I have done this week to the recycling centre. I also have three bags to drop off the the CS that I didn't do Wednesday, but not  counting these as they were in and out.

I have kept a few things back to sell for my SiL so she has money for Christmas.

I have cleared DD room today  It looked messy with my stuff but took 10 minutes to do. Even her bed is made up.

We have set up my desk in dining room so DD has her space back. For the last two weeks DH has been workiing on an antique desk which is now my work space.

I have sold my first item on ebay, yay.

Happy_Kitties

323.   Plate broken by cats-binned
324.   Perfume left behind by DD used up-bottle recycled
325.   Item sold on bay of e
326.   Toner used up. The spray bit was faulty, managed to transfer into another bottle to use

327.   Bag of toiletry bits DD forgot-handed over last night

328    Belated birthday present handed over

just packing up a box of neutral items to be sent, rather than packing them away only for them to be pulled out and sent in a couple of months 

i hope everything goes well for Mr SD, Mrs SD.
The body lotion was Philosphy, really lovely, brand new just left in DDs stash unwanted so I swiped it!

TC77

Mrs SD,  hope all goes well for Mr SD
@bit_by_bit gosh sounds like you've got a plan and putting it in place for your sister. It's helpful to have insight into how it happens.
Abit here - sorted out a couple of fountain pens, replacing cartridges (have prob 100 cartridges of various sorts) and less effort on my hands and can never find my other pens 1142-1143
Found shirt that doesn't suit - will count when washed and in CS bag. Pink but so is my face so unflattering!
1144 - 1147 2 blinds and battens that go with them freecycled
1148 bookcase sold - cheap but out of house 
1149 trying to throw out paper from old lists and use up scrap paper for shopping list and day to day to do list
1150 ood food

3secondmemory

More graph paper! Today I found another neat, hidden stash of paper 😂😂 but it was easy to put it in the charity shop pile.

 State of the house - getting there 😃

my bedroom is sorted, apart from new furniture. I’m looking forward to doing a deep clean tomorrow – I actually enjoy cleaning when I can get on with it. 

My bathroom is always immaculate – I have never been one for clutter and since the children left home, there is never more than one bottle of anything on the go. It’s always been easy to keep clean. 

My spare room is full of sellables ranging from household items to collectors items. Nothing worth much but, in total, not an amount to be sniffed at. Needs a deep clean – I’m amazed at the formation of cobwebs in just a short space of a year and a half 😂😂 miss Haversham springs to mind 😂😂

My sitting room looks amazing. I just need to get a couple of Corner shelves to go behind the sofa and a few more soft furnishings. I need all my pictures moved because with the new layout, none of them are central. 

The kitchen is nearly finished. I culled most of my cookery books, a lot of cookware and I took stock of my food prep. I’ve been rotating nicely and only had three tins which are on or near their date. 

I have just the sideboard (budget tardis) to sort out. It’s covered in junk which needs condensing and sorting. 

The garden is looking good and the landlord has approved my plans but hasn’t said about starting any work yet. I sent the agent some footage of my gutter which started pouring out water onto my neighbours porch. I can actually update him and tell him that I managed to get it fixed for the price of a few cups of tea! 

I asked the contractors who were working on the house behind me if, while they have their big ladder, they would take a look at mine. They replaced the rubber seal and refused to take any money from me 👏👏👏

Just a few bags to go to the charity shop, and a good clean all the way through and I should be on top of things. 

It doesn’t look like I’ve done much this week but I was in a limbo state because of the psychiatrist appointment this afternoon. I  came home and fell asleep for 5 hours.


It’s the final push. Clean slate/blank canvas 

Floss

@3secondmemory it all sounds fab - you're very welcome to come & deep clean my home when you have done yours!

3secondmemory

Floss said:

@3secondmemory it all sounds fab - you're very welcome to come & deep clean my home when you have done yours!

😂😂 I do a good job but it takes me a lot longer than everyone else 😂😂 

i’m just really loving how bright and fresh everything looks. So much more spacious without piles of stuff needing to be sorted out everywhere. All my surfaces with minimal clutter so I can literally walk through with a duster and it’s done. Beautiful bright paintwork. It’s a joy - for a change. Plain old domestic dopamine!

leelad

Morning MrsSD and fellow declutterers, been quiet this past couple of weeks on decluttering. Listed two items today on the local online buy and sell group. Was not tempted to go further afield as I ended up from experience receiving messages from time wasters who live outside of the local area, so am dipping my 'small toe' into online selling again. Container gardening is coming along great, successes with courgettes, carrots and salad. Weather is starting to cheer up here in East Lancashire, so I hope that a couple of sunny and hot weeks will give the sunflowers one final push to bloom. Changed energy provider two weeks ago and saved some money, so that's a win. Needed to be done. New contract starts beginning of next month. Daughter is now in a protective air boot for her broken leg, so is hopefully on the home stretch before she regains fill mobility. Let's hope so. Fracture clinic appt next Wednesday. Going to count this afternoon how much money is in the sealed pot I have been saving up for over past 16 months. Hoping this will form the decorating fund for our bedroom in August. Not spoken to my wife yet to firm all this up, her mental health isn't great at the moment. Aaah well. Just plodding on.attic needs decluttering again, my daughter's friend was playing up in this room a few weeks ago and it's so messy again. So that will need a push in July. July is looking like it will be an interesting month on a number of fronts 😉. Cheers 🙂

nannywindow

Hello all, been MIA for a while because of the timings of DH's treatment ( 8 down 12 to go, yay !! ) but yesterday it was an early appointment so I was able to get my act together and declutter something.

I emptied out 2 bedroom cupboards ( still 5 to attack ) dusted them and sorted things into keep, bin or recycle. I really don't understand how things can get dusty though while lounging inside a closed cupboard, it's one of those mysteries of life I suppose, like where do the odd socks go 🤔 I also attacked the spice/ condiment cupboard in the kitchen.

My list from the bedroom :-

1doz brand new paperback books which were either gifted to me or I inherited from my late DM, they are not my type of reading but perhaps someone will enjoy them. CS

4 broken gift bags binnned

Several drawings that DD did while in infant school, she's now almost 40 ! Binned

My list includes from the my spice and condiment cupboard  :-

Almost empty bottle curry sauce, now washed and in recycling

Almost empty bottle brown sauce, now washed and in recycling

Honey jar OOD and sugared

Large bottle caramel sauce OOD washed and in recycling

Tin of black treacle dated BBF 2012

I tin of opened sweetener powder OOD, washed and in recycling

Tin of golden syrup sugared and OOD

4 spice jars washed and recycled

Other declutterings:-

Wallpaper border from the bedroom, now I've finally removed the last of it and I have decided the wall behind the bed needs to be a feature wall, the other walls will be painted in a different colour from what they are now. Now that's all ready for when the appointments stop and we can draw breath again.

Empty tissue box

Mouthwash bottle

Men's deodorant tin

Unwanted leaflets put through the door

Several paper lists, now defunct

3 paper medication bags emptied and the meds put in date order.

My birthday flowers that lasted 3 weeks  🎉

A father's day card.

1 more kindle book.

........... 🎵 And a partridge in a rear tree 🤣

I decided to weigh myself this morning and was pleasantly surprised shocked to find that I have lost weight too, no time to get my hand in the cookie jar I suppose 😂

Take care all, happy decluttering

nan

newlywed

Sorry to everyone stressing and struggling with illness, or life changes, moving etc.

Kitchen:
cardboard box used as storage. Recycled
Empty plastic containers inside repurposed to store teabags and oats.
Limescale tablets I never use, binned.
small bags for washing tablets pods, binned
garden fertiliser pellets (I forgot about) binned (don’t want any furry visitors feeding on that!)
All kitchen food waste/scraps into communal bins every night.

Old unused pipe covered with metal mesh outside.
floor fully cleaned.
Base of plasterboard behind cupboards (no skirting board) filled with wire wool.

Bottle of cream Sherry (fake make) emptied and recycled - it’s several years old and doesn’t taste great… or else my tastes have changed

bottle of champagne opened (could be 15 years old) so decided to open it just for the sake of it!… again doesn’t taste great or my tastes have changed.  There’s still another bottle as old


and this morning there was no new poop in the kitchen… hopeful that’s it … though not completely convinced yet. 

bit_by_bit

Hi all. Popping in to claim one bag for the tip yesterday. Also gone is a pile of other people's stuff I helped clear out. I planned the tip trip before I even had their rubbish.

Today I have sent back a toolbox, some documents and other stuff that came with me from Manchester on Sunday.

DS3 has taken it away so another space made. So feeling good at the moment but need to get a lie in tomorrow as I have been up early (for me) every day this week.