2021 MISSION DECLUTTER and CLEAN

Liverpool_Anne

@vulpix, the logs could be used for loads of things in the garden or to make things like bird feeders etc if you don't have a log burner but if you don't want to use them I am sure there will be someone nearby who would love them. I have been known to follow the local tree surgeons around to get a couple of carloads of logs for the logburner . Can I ask are you making the star from fabric? That sounds very interesting, I have only seen paper versions
@Blackberrycurved, well we might be recycling in the same place but I do hope all tips would recycle like this.
Car passed the MOT so a big sigh of relief there.
Off to have a quick coffee over the fence with the next door neighbour while the sun is shinning

skogar

Happy kitties - I read your "356 presents delivered today" and thought "That's an awful lot of presents to deliver".

Short bird - I've just read something on the Philip Glass website which explains why I was so confused about it.

https://philipglass.com/films/satyagraha/

" There is no plot; the audience is only given a vague sense of the historical facts which are overlaid by philosophical and political statements, interjected parables and the recital of the sacred Sanskrit text."

Although I had seen a number of modern operas at that time there had always been a fairly clear story which is probably partly why I struggled to follow what was going on. Also probably explains why ENO are not doing translated surtitles. The guide on the ENO website looks quite informative re the historical events.

https://www.eno.org/operas/satyagraha/#guide

Now I have read that (and what Philip Glass' website says about the opera) it would be very interesting to hear it again. Sounds like a sit back and enjoy the music and the spectacle. Hope you have a great time.

Well back on the tidying and decluttering waggon now - slow progress is being made on the kitchen and freezer sort out. Have got some apples that need decluttering into something else.... what will they become?

bit_by_bit

I haven't done anything for a few days. My SiL in Manchester took seriously ill on Monday and has been in hospital in Critical Care. I have been fielding calls for the family. She is the mother of my 'sons' and despite all not living with her for a looooong time they still care for her. Anyway. Good news is that she is being moved to a medical ward once there is a bed. Huge relief. 

Glad the tree is gone and your house is safe @vulpix. Always sad to see a tree go but sometimes safety comes first. I am planting 6 oaks locally and away from houses this month so I will dedicate one to you.

@Blackberrycurved: what an excellent idea re swimming time. I got so used to being in in the evenings I never thought to go swimming later. Once our new pool opens I will do that.

Today I tackled the sheds at the allotment and at home as i plan my next lot of sowings, I ant winter lettuce and plus start some seeds off for wildlflowers. I harvested the seed myself. Also taking some cuttings.

Two bags of rubbish have gone and I found a wheely bin very useful to store compost sacks in. I reuse theme as liners and to transport plants, soil and manure in but they took too much room in the new smaller shed. Right time for a cuppa.

Happy_Kitties

357-358 ceramic pots x 2 taken to garden centre recycling point. Good excuse to see their Christmas display
359  last of one of many DDs perfumes used up. Still working thru DDs bits, she has left half measures of everything to be used up
360  moisturiser of my own used up. Pot in recycling
361  moisturiser of DDs used up. Bottle in recycling
362. Christmas stocking of DMs very worse for wear-binned. Still sorting out DMs stuff
363. Paperwork, destroyed.

Skogar- Even I would have been very impressed if I would of delivered 356 presents yesterday, my record of present delivery has been shocking this year!
Many thanks Mrs SD and Vulpix. Normally I’m a very strong, solid character who dispenses advice and information but worry was a serious one involving intimidation and court. But turned on its head, with talking about it, I am the one who has been in control all along. Sometimes it just takes that extra nudge and help to get u over the finish line that I needed and it has worked

skogar

Food cupboard in kitchen sorted and cleaned and a few bits of significantly OOD stuff has been binned. Also a few things found which I need to use and I have plenty of dried fruit which should be good for any cakes / mincemeat etc.

skogar

Why do I have 2 open packs of cornflour and icing sugar?

TC77

Slogan, I have 6 pots of day moisturiser with 2 open! 
@Happy_Kitties sounds a big worry and so glad you talked to friends. It can be so easy not to 
DD1 has done alot with 2 bags of rubbish and 2 bags for charity shop.  Managed to restrain myself from  fishing things out to keep or sell. Added a few of my things so counting as 10.
Went to ike× and similar with her to get things for new flat but know these are only home temporary. Nos for my things feel small but do feel I've moved to the next layer of decluttering - Still many more to go !

vulpix

Hi,

 Firstly, I omitted to say ,fab news about Mr SD's ticker.

 Liverpool  Anne, don't encourage me! I assume someone will collect the wood as the trees weren't on my land. If not, my friend has a log burner. I am tempted to keep some as garden seats. The Moravian star is fabric backed with card, a bit like English paper piecing patchwork. I will post a pic when it is done. It doesn't have lights like the paper versions .

 Happy Kitties, great result, that must be a great feeling.x

 Bit by bit, oh my goodness about your SIL.xxx  Thank you for my oak tree .x I found a tiny leaf poking out of an acorn when I was clearing the back of the shed a couple of months ago. I potted it up and it grew another leaf. If it survives the winter I will grow it on for my son and DIL as it must have germinated about the time they got married

 I have done plenty of not much today. I have made 5 trick or treat bags. Need to sew the handles on. It has taken me hours and they will make a tenner. Not the best use of my time. They are nice though.

 Vx

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 😉

4. CLEAN & EMPTY SURFACE AREAS - DAILY

Friday was another crisp & mostly bright autumn day 🙂 DSis did more washing & drying. 

DH watched the practice sessions of the MotoGP, filled the bird feeders & did a bit of office tidying. Friday frogs - made soup; more paperwork; couple of ood items from fridge binned 😔 Had a long relaxing bath 🙂 Dinner was oven baked salmon, boiled potatoes & peas from freezer. Wudupa.

1995 - 1998 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, brochure, plastic bottle- recycled 

1999 Kitchen detritus - binned

Liverpool_Anne, what a great idea for electrical items 👏 You are a woman after my own heart - lists have to be very specific 😉

Vascodakarma, from technophobe to techno lover 🙂😉 Great news that your flu jab & booster jab were reaction free 👏🙂

You are welcome vulpix 🙂 Hopefully my old company are treating you well 😉 (I think that airing our concerns/worries here can be a starting point that might lead to sharing with a friend or family member 🤔) I am sure the cut wood would be useful for something 😉 At least you are trying to deal with frogs - even if you are being thwarted 😔 Shame about your Doctor’s surgery - it seems to be a common theme that we are not able to see our doctors face to face & that the receptionists are becoming less & less helpful. Unfortunately this attitude will make it easier for the government to sell off our beloved NHS unless we all fight to keep it - patients & doctors alike. Great decluttering 👏

Off to bed & will cheerlead later 😉

MrsSD   🏅 🏅 🏅🏅 🏅 🏅 🏅 🥇🥇      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️

Decluttering Target: 2021    1999/2021

2021 Savings Pot:  £466.45 to end of October

mothernerd

Not read through to catch up yet. Have been avoiding you all (me not you, you're lovely). I have been ill for a while and still am to some extent - feel as though both my mental and physical health is rock bottom. I don't even know where the line is between being depressed because I can't do things and where the depression is sapping my will and ability to do anything.

I have started taking a multivitamin which (roughly 3 weeks in) does seem to be making a slight difference, been cheating like mad on food - I had a sore throat so ordered some soft sandwich filling on my last two orders and had them on bread or wraps with an equal amount of veg (egg mayo and watercress was delicious). I am having a face to face appointment with the doctor on 1st November.
 
According to my diary, I was last here on Sunday 5th September and my total was 1761/ 2021. Yesterday we had a waste collection (went for the man with a caged truck option - they do all the lifting and will even ferret it out for you) rather than having a skip and me having to move it and haul it into the skip. So the things that went were-

1)   between 120 and 150 kg of mainly concrete chunks (small supermarket trolley loaded and heaped) plus 2 buckets of small chunks of concrete, mortar, quarter and half bricks. I am awarding myself 100 points for this because I
1a)    first of all dug it out from where it was. Mum wanted a rockery, someone said they had rocks and ferried them to us a few at a time and rock owner and I put it together, last year. Mum has fiddled with bits of it and then decided she didn't want it because they were lumps of concrete, not rocks. She wanted me to plant three rose bushes in the space (now she has stopped accusing me of killing them, suggesting I bin them and has accepted that they are thriving).
1b)    moved them on my trolley a layer at a time and stacked them on the old dining table behind the shed (shed is only 4' x 6')
1c)    moved them on the trolley one layer at a time for mum to inspect them and select any that could stay. Left them in the trolley until the man came (I can't easily pick things up off the floor)

2)    2 small filing cabinets with 4 drawers (originally 6) used in the garden and broken into pieces 6 points ( had to use the bolster chisel and a hammer to free some of the sides and then dig out the soil and potatoes - man with the truck helped a lot)

3)    old dining table 5 points (5 pieces, used in the polytunnel, then for painting buckets, tubs and wood and then as a surface for assembling raised beds)

4)    small steps, a kitchen chair, garden swing seat (kept the A frame for growing thing over), toaster (fused the lights twice last week), broken plastic toybox (DS3 is 31 so we've had our money's worth), a ripped potato growbag. 6 points

5)   7 small pieces of bathroom cladding (all < 3' long some 1' wide, some thin strips) including the one I've been using to mix sand and cement. Kept 2 full length pieces for shelving (my idea) or boxing in pipework (mum's idea - 4 workmen have shown zero enthusiasm for the task, lovely Mr Builder said it was much more complicated than she realised)  7 points

6)   Assorted pieces of wood, metal (bits of garden chair and an old container), and plastic (broken legs and feet from shelves)  - 
10 points (toybox was full of upright pieces)

Over several weeks I've dug out 12 x 10 l buckets of soil, many many roots including two main pieces over a foot wide, planted 3 rose bushes, and used 19 edging stones, 11 pretty stones and 4 bags of sand and cement, to enclose the  tiny side garden and edge the front of the front garden (to stop stone chippings falling onto the pavement) and the side of the path. Mum is very pleased with the result - she paid me a £100 for the tiny garden (this is were all the cement lumps were) and another £60 for the front edging. She also asked last Sunday if they were firmly cemented in as one of our 4 y o visitors decided to walk along the top of the stones (they didn't budge). 51 points I must emphasize that this was done very slowly. I came to a complete halt (mentally and physically exhausted) mid September and have since been reading, pondering and letting things settle. I try to do one thing each day. So one day I moved two edging stones, dropping them onto the dolly, using that to move them next to the channel they were going in. I also put the 2 largest concrete lumps on the dolly for the return journey. I had a chair by the gate and a chair in the yard (drop off point) and sat every time I reached the chair. It took me 40 minutes of which about 10 minutes was actually working, the rest was sitting down.

Today I have totally emptied the brown bin, squashed all the cans, grouped all the yoghurt lids and other small bits into one container and when I put them back I had another 1/3rd of a bin. I went round the garden and added 9  squashed flat 2 l bottles and then collected the 26 cans I had saved because there was no room in the bin. I removed the bag of green waste mum had mistakenly dropped in and will go round the yard with the kitchen bin bag until that is full. 42 points - I'm counting them all because even at my lowest I've tried to keep removing recycling, at least one bagful a day and sometimes multiple visits.

Five toiletry items went to the food bank, 6 books to the charity shop. (Running total 238 points, year to date 1999/ 2021.

I've done mum's tax return and sent it off (never ever been so late). I've sorted a pill problem for myself (one item missing from last order, can manage by splitting the larger pills but still need the missing ones and for mum (appointment put back until December but special pills can only be issued by Salford Royal and mum will run out before December - one of the pills she needs to stay alive). I've done an email query to my GP and since organised a face to face appointment, flu jabs for both mum and myself, blood tests for us both (+ paperwork ordered from GP), mum's COVID booster (can book mine in 2 weeks time - the appointment slots hadn't yet been entered on the system. In addition to the complete lack of motivation/ mojo / ability to put one foot in front of the other I'm going to ask for an x-ray on my left leg in case the hip/ knee/ ankle problems are down to arthritis (and how far it's advanced) or other causes, as i suspect the recommended course of action/ physio will be different. Added multivitamin, made a stir fry and a pasta dish with at least 7 vegetables in (bought chopped onions and some prepared veg). Continuing to rest and read and have a potter round when I feel up to it.

So only 22 items to go to reach my target. Will continue to go slowly but when It's complete I may do the  reverse advent calendar (give away 1 item on the first, all the way up to 24 on the 24th) but will start as soon as possible (call it a pre festive clean up).