2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

weenancyinAmerica

Almost finished the book sorting at the library today. Made signs to label the shelves when I got home. By asking a couple of neighbors if we could add to their trash bins, we got all the bags of trash for this week into the bins. Almost finished getting the trash out of the room of doom. Plan to sort the good stuff into small boxes the cat food came in - pencils, pens in one box; sewing floss in another, may make it yet. She is staying an extra week because they will be having severe storms this week and it really isn't safe to fly. Hope this storm doesn't plan on making its way to all of you. It is supposed to be really bad  with hail and tornadoes.

weenancyinAmerica

Spell check changed sleeping to slipping. Sorry. Probably didn't think anyone could be sleeping on top of a trash heap - over two feet high. She was slipping a lot actually and not sleeping well. She was up at all hours usually on TikTok. 

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 5 tasks
2. Deal with Old Frogs & potential frogs ASAP but at least one on FROG Fridays.
3. Reduce/Restrict time watching TV and playing AB2 during daylight hours 😉
4. Continue to keep kitchen clean & tidy - before going to bed

Monday was another sunny day but only warm in direct sunshine & away from the chilly breeze. Went to Post Office & posted 3 parcels & 1 packet - all overseas. Cost of contents £24, cost of postage £38 but still a bargain in my eyes 👏 Popped into corner shop & bought some vegetables, quite pricey but also far better quality than sm vegetables. DH sourced a box to send chocolate Easter eggs to nephew so note written, box wrapped & addressed & another trip to P.O. planned for Tuesday. Dinner was sausages, mash, baked beans & chopped tomatoes 😋 Wudupa.
Forgot to mention that window cleaner came today highlighting the need for me to clean the insides of the windows 😔

595 - 599 Kitchen recycling, glass bottle, cardboard packaging, newspaper, drinks cans - recycled 
600 - 601 Cardboard box & wrapping paper
602 Kitchen detritus binned

Nice to see you retiredinfrance 👋 Excellent decluttering 👏 Sad state of affairs when typing abused brings up the word woman 😔 Lovely sentiment 😊

Very interesting post anaspiringhobbit. Plenty of food for thought 😉 So here goes - my clutter is just having too much ‘stuff’ from notebooks to photo albums & photos, kitchen paraphernalia to ornaments & even food. I often struggle to lay my hands on something I need as quickly as I would like. The clutter together with my innate laziness means it is difficult to decorate & time consuming to clean. I know I need to get back to a basic method of dealing with my clutter - I.e. picking a room & decluttering brutally, cleaning, redecorating & then only putting back useful & loved items. I am in the very fortunate position of being able to replace items but that is in direct opposition to my desire not to be wasteful 😔 

Thanks for sharing Floss 👏 Your thought process is clearer than mine 🙂

weenancyinAmerica - I think I prefer slipping to sleeping 😉😉 i hope you didn’t forget to take a nice top for the photo shoot 🤭

Well done vulpix 👏 maintenance level decluttering is something to aspire to 🙂 Don’t forget to pop into The TLC Carriage 😊

weenancyinAmerica, excellent work sorting the books 👏 Everything crossed that this book sale is the most successful one yet. As to the Room of Doom, brilliant work 🥳 Hope everyone stays safe & that the severe storms don’t cause too much damage 🤞

MrsSD  🏅🏅🏅🏅 🌟 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 

I AM A STAR 🌟 

Decluttering Target: 602/2022

2022 - 1p Savings Challenge: Running Total £74.93 

merrysmiles

Hi everyone been awhile since my last post, been trying to catch up on how everyone is doing...well done
I have moved some things from my R of D,   Sunshade Umbrella given via freecycle; Ironing Board Cover new to B; 3 Items to CS;  also sold 5 pairs of shoes & 7 items from my packed clothes rail £87.   In between do daily recycle & keeping surfaces tidy so will claim 19 + 20 from last post total is 39 also £104 in pot  Easter cards written & posted to GC today   Overall happy with my progress
Hugs to all 
Mx

bit_by_bit

Thanks MrsSD   
vulpix. I had one wher the English teacher wrote 'woe is me' after a poor term. Up until then I was a star pupil. 
I hope things settle with MiL soon.

Thanks @TC77 . I hope things settle down but I was upset again Saturday with good books being binned. I can't take them all home either. They used to be recycled by a book dealer. Don't know what has happened to that.

Welcome @anaspiringhobbit . I am in agreement with you that it is so much more than just tha act of decluttering. Reversing the trend is much more difficult. As an aside. If you notice inn the Lord of the Rings. in the beginning Frodo lives in a clutterd house and is happy but at the end it is cleared up and he is leaving. An indication of hos moving on.

Not much going out. I think I have hit my annual month of misery. I seem to get SAD after everyone else. I have been working through DS2s bags of washing. We have done 6 loads with another 6 to go. Sortiing into rags and good for CS.

I also managed a  few hours at the allotment Sunday, sowing seeds at home yesterday (lots of) and repotting some plants, and washing. I am taking a bag of my wons tuff to the CS today and 3 bags of DS2s.

After the CS this afternoon I am off to Porstmouth as one of my Sisters is 50 tomorrow. We are having reduced celebartions due to other family having covid or not wanting to do anything.

Keep well all and see you in a few days.

EnergyShifter

Great question @anaspiringhobbit.  I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s responses.  Decluttering has been a project for me on and off for over 10 years now and has meant different things at different stages. 

I started decluttering after getting divorced.   I moved with my DS to my little terraced house from my much larger marital home.  The first phase – which took years and was most painful was focussed on accepting that my life had changed and I was in a smaller space.  It involved letting go of furniture that was too big and stuff I’d kept in storage.  The next stage was getting rid of things that I wasn’t using and finding a place for everything that remained.  This current phase is maintenance plus discarding “extra” stuff I no longer use or love and letting go of things that were bought for various redundant fantasy lives rather than the one I lead.    

Although my home is hardly a show home, I can tidy it very quickly now as pretty much everything has its place – not bad considering I run my business from home and my DS has deferred Uni for a year and brought all his stuff back.  It’s not been a linear process - I’ve had setbacks but writing this I can see that I’ve made a lot of progress.

TC77

Gosh, so many stories of decluttering and lots going on esp across the pond @weenancyinAmerica

I can only dream of maintenance... still waiting for motivation to do anything much - room still not decorated, and decorators wil be in early May to do hall and dining room so have to clear these.
Large bag of glass pebbles in CS bag 551
ood food 552
clothes returned (all too small) 553
Cleared up the kitchen
A few baby frogs have grown so trying to stifle their growth
remembered I declutted emails and photos on phone 554

weenancyinAmerica

bit_by_bit - I get really upset about binning good books also. That is why we started our monthly book sales at the library. The two people running the book store were binning everything over five years old. Even threw away some first editions. They now put everything in a box to go to a company that pays only a penny a pound for the books. We dig them out to sell. Our best sales come from these books. Some of them I have found for my World War II home front collection and my home economics collections. When I was traveling, some of my best finds came out of boxes of free books the charity stores were throwing away. When I was in Alabama doing research for a famous author, we found a history book written by a member of the very family we were researching in a free box of books - it was the best resource we ever found for life on the plantation where they lived. She had written the book for children in Alabama, but had spent the first twelve chapters describing life on the plantation and describing every room in the house! 

weenancyinAmerica

Cat got me up at 6 this morning. Feeding time. Let the dog out, but had to bring her back in for the pool person. She has learned to come back in if I toss a treat into the kitchen. Worked on the Room of Doom, then on my homework (2 computer classes on-line), then off to the library. One more set up day, and then the easy part when everyone else shows up to help. Just taking the money. Friday night we will need to clear the room, but we will have help for that. They were giving Covid shots at the library today, so my roommate and I got our 2nd boosters. Didn't even have to travel to get them. Just as we were packing up to leave the fire alarm went off. Thank goodness the library wasn't on fire. False alarm but we had to stay an extra half hour before we could get our car out of the parking lot. 

EnergyShifter

@TC77 (and anyone else who is yet to get to maintenance stage).  Just keep plugging away item by item.  I can remember decluttering things for a long while but it not seeming to have an impact then reaching some kind of critical mass of decluttered items where suddenly there was space to move something or put something away and then lots of other things seemed to fall into place and suddenly it all looked very different. 

Weenancy:  I'm always blown away by how much you do for others.  Your roommates and your community are very lucky to have you.