2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

TC77

slowed down to a standstill....:(  did buy 2 dresses but took back late this pm... very overoptimistic about size, and realise lockdown habits have continued with me growing at age I shouldn't be!

Few things posted on free site and couple for sale , hopefully some more out!!

Fizz2015

Evening, no decluttering as away on a long weekend near Bournemouth. Lots of pennies decluttered
Had though a very hot drive here yesterday but its beautiful and a 4 min walk from Alum Chines beach. Tomorrow we are surprising DD with a trip to P*ppa Pig world, this will likely be the last year she will enjoy it before being too old. Monday we will spend in Poole before a 3hr drive home. 

So nice to have a break from RL, will hit the decluttering with a venegence once back. I also find if I'm stressed the clutter seems worse and overwhelming, but the clutter stresses me out. Its a vicious circle. 🤣

QueenJess

More tidying in the bedroom and I even put the new lampshade up that arrived this morning. I should just finish it now as I’ve only got three pieces of clothing to put away!  I also dug out a few more things to declutter and listed them on the buy nothing site. I’ve decided as my emails are out of control again, I need to unsubscribe from even more things and have been going through doing that - hopefully it’ll help me get them under control.

I also need to get back to kids clothes again soon as I have more that are too small and they need a good sort through and rearrangement.

So progress today:
2404 lampshade no longer needed
2405 packaging
2406-2407 kids clothes
2408-2412 photos deleted
2413-2417 indoor plant pots
2418-2487 permanently deleted emails

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 

What a difference a day makes - Saturday was overcast, chilly, no sun with occasional rain showers & finally thunder & lightning ⚡️ DH spent the early afternoon watching MotoGP qualifying 

then continued working on the Harley. I dealt with my one piece of mail; put away the last of the items from our holiday & cleared 2% of recorded programmes from the TV planner including the last 4 episodes of The Rising - very weird but enjoyable 🙂 Dinner was fried chicken, boiled potatoes & frozen mixed vegetables. Wudupa.

935 - 936 Kitchen recycling & detritus 

Excellent decluttering mhagster 👏

Great work sorting clothing florianatwobob 👏

Excellent work EnergyShifter 👏 Hope you benefitted from your 3rd EMDR session as much as the previous 2. Enjoy your time in Salisbury 🙂

TC77 - I class returning the dresses as decluttering 👏 Sizing in clothing is not to be trusted 😉

Hope you enjoy your break Fizz2015 🙂 & I hope the weather is kind. 

Well done on completing the bedroom QueenJess 👏 Medal 🏅 on its way 🙂

MrsSD  🏅🏅🏅🏅 🌟 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I AM A STAR 🌟 

Decluttering Target: 936/2022

2022 - 1p Savings Challenge: Running Total £167.12

Wildrose

May I join in, half way through the year? I have been lurking for some time, encouraged by everyone's endeavours and I'm now ready to take the plunge and post.

My situation is that I moved into my home just short of 4 years ago. Divorce (thus decluttering a nasty piece of work) meant drastic downsizing from a large house to this 1920s bungalow. I had been decluttering for a good year before the move and yet there is so much more to do. 

The last 4 years have been challenging, to say the least, not only because of the pandemic. I was injured in an RTC over 2 years ago which has left me with a dodgy back, so I put some of the blame for this clutter on that. I inherited half this house, so bought out my sibling and moved in. Ths meant that not only did I have all my clutter but also my parent's. As far as possible I have worked and worked at this but I am far from achieving a "home" here. In fact I wake every morning feeling overwhelmed with what still needs to be done, trying not to despair. 

The hotspots are: Conservatory, good size, now basically a glass shed filled with 3 bicycles, 2 tables, chairs, tumble dryer (never used) and assorted stuff that, largely, I do want to keep.

Shed 1, built at the same time as the house. I've done lots of work in here, it was originally chock a block with 5 (5!!) generations of, well, stuff. Defies categorising. I now merely need to rehouse an assortment of woodworking tools, take some scrap to the dump, thoroughly clean walls and floor, treat roof timbers, paint, add decent lock to door and I'm done. This will be my first completed project since I moved in. It might seem an odd place to start, but once that is done I can move things from the conservatory and garage and use the conservatory as a conservatory.

Shed 2, smaller, thank goodness. Just need to repeat what I've done in shed 1, although it only contains things to be kept. Theoretically could be done in days once Shed 1 is done so I can temporarily house garden tools in Shed 1.

Large garage, so packed with stuff you could barely fit a Corgi car in there. Once sheds 1&2 and conservatory are done, I can make progress in here.

Large loft. Also with 5 generations of belongings shoved up here out of the way. I really want to have the roof timbers sprayed and insulation added so the 5 gen. stuff is preventing progress here too. There is even a single bed in the loft, put there by my parents 20 years ago. Why or how are questions which will never be answered now, though since it went up there it must be possible to get it down again, especially as gravity will be on my side.

Overgrown garden which has been colonised by every displaced bird from local development, so some good has come out of that.

I need to work out a numbering scheme which will encourage me. I have done a lot of work but its easy to lose sight of my progress when so much needs to be done. My house needs some maintenance which is also stalled by this accumulation of clutter. I apologise for the length of this post, it reflects the size of the task before me. I MUST get this done, it's preventing me from living the life I want to live - which is a simple, frugal one.

Thank you to anyone who managed to wade through my cluttered post. All suggestions appreciated.

GrannyKate

Welcome to our friendly group @wildrose - there are no rules - slow and steady with frequent breaks.  You have a task before you but always remember that if it took 5 generations to accumulate the stuff that's over 100 years so your progress in 4 years is good.  

I found it useful to do a three month (actually 15 weeks) grid on a piece of paper - 15 empty boxes and I wrote a task in each - some big, some small.  ie clean small bathroom, empty garage - very satisfying to cross them off.  Another way which works for lots of us with random stuff all over the place is 'like with like'.  It makes it easier to get rid of stuff when similar things are together so you know for certain what you have in each category.  I collected suitcases together and found I had 11 (just for me) - I kept 4 and advertised the rest on a free site and they were gone in a couple of hours.  

I know you said the garage is full but perhaps you could clear a small space by identifying things you definitely know can go to tip then start to put things together in areas of garage eg tools, paint, plumbing bits, electrical bits - you don't need to decide whether to keep it at this stage although you will encounter definite rubbish along the way.  You could then see if there are things in house and loft that fall in same category and bring them out to garage.  When your conservatory is clearer you could put a table on one side with some empty boxes and start sorting things like mementoes, photos, papers etc into the boxes ready for sorting properly at a later date.  Like with like again.  I found this worked well.  I still have papers and photos to sort and decide about but 6 small boxes from a starting point of about 20 large ones (multi generational like yours). 

Any small thing counts - take a drawer of doom to sort through whilst you are watching TV or sitting in the garden.  Don't let the 'stuff' rule your life - take a week off and do nothing or go out.  What I like best about my bungalow is everything has a home now and it is easy to put things away.  

Another good rule is - one thing in one thing out.  If you buy a new dress is there one you haven't worn that can go in Charity bag ready to go.  

Others will be along with their ideas I am sure. 

A few frogs done.
889 Deleted saved emails for group that no longer runs
890 Contacted survey site about problem and immediate response received
891 Contacted group for some help re committee emails
892 Did some feedback surveys on line
893-4 Various email folders culled and in. some cases completely deleted
895 All photos downloaded from phone and tablet

Baxtersmum

2 more items to the CS, I also found 2 shiny pennies on the dog walk, is that 2 days good luck? 

Going to attempt to make a skirt this afternoon, now the weather is cooler I feel like doing more.
Have a super Sunday xx

Wildrose

Thank you Granny Kate. You've obviously been in my garage "tools, paint, plumbing bits, electrical bits". I did make a start on doing that but then decided to work elsewhere. It's a good idea though as I am finding items elsewhere that could go into those categories. 

I'm hoping it doesn't take another 100 years to sort this mess, but that perspective helps. I'm probably expecting a lot of myself.

Currently have bread baking (in a bread maker), laundry about to go out and I'm taking a quick break from potting up the last of my plants. There is a paved area at the side of the house which I have filled with planted up containers and have put a couple of seats in so I can sit and enjoy the bees and hoverflies and relax with a coffee.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all,
@Wildrose welcome aboard, there are lots of lovely people here who will help you along your journey. I completely understand your feelings of being overwhelmed. I am in a similar situation with stuff everywhere and I also have a conservatory that looks like a glass shed. In my case I only have myself to blame as I decided to get my house rewired and had to empty every room and large parts of the loft but despite decluttering as I went I still have too much stuff. Various other work had to be done along the way and financial pressures delayed some things and it did at one point completely overwhelm me but for what it is worth I sorted out my bedroom so I have one calm room where I can retreat from the chaos. I think you have done so much already you shouldn't beat yourself up, you have had other things to deal with as well. A divorce is emotionally draining even when you know it is the right thing to do, I know , then a rta which again is emotionally draining as well as the physical recovery. These things all take their toll plus the whole moving thing and coping with parents possesions, again emotionally draining, I know. 5 generations of accumulated stuff is a lot to sort through. I would imagine some of it will have a financial value so I would consider ways to sell some of it. Various people here have sold stuff on the bay of e etc, if you find that too much faff you could always try an auction house. I don't know where you live but there are lots around the country and not all fine art and Georgian silver, though you might have some of that in the 5 generations of stuff in the loft . A job lot of woodworking tools would sell and even though you want to live a frugal lifestyle it still costs money to live, have you seen the price of paint recently that you want to use in the shed? You seem to have worked out your action plan which is a big step on your journey and I would suggest you work out some system of rewarding yourself when various jobs have been done, even something as simple as a couple of my favourite biscuits with a cup of coffee works for me . Lots of people set themselves targets and count everything, I don't do that as I spent years at work setting targets and I know how I feel if I fail but it does work for lots of people. If you want to use a system like that I would suggest that you make sure it is a realistic target, you can always up the target if you find you are over, and how good would that feel. I also have a list of everything that needs doing split into each area or room so depending on how much time or energy I have I can cross something off every day, but then I like lists . I like putting like with like, amazing how many pens and other bits of stationary I discovered when I started doing that. I also like frog Friday which has helped me deal with a lot of frogs. The list helps to identify the frogs . I am sure lots of other people will be along with other ideas for you soon and Mrs SD is a wonder
Meanwhile I am back into the garden now as it is not raining, those brambles are laughing at me
Take care everyone

Wildrose

@Liverpool_Anne, thanks for your ideas. TBH having replies from people who understand has brought tears to my eyes. 

I've had a hierarchy of destinations for my clutter, which I feel happy about as it's in line with my beliefs but is a lot slower than a skip would have been. It goes:
 1) Keep (usually obvious things.
 2) Give to family or friends - but only if they really want it. Don't want to create clutter in my children's homes. These sometimes boomerang back which is why my parent's oak table & chairs are in the conservatory.
 3) Sell, as I do need money, frugal or not. Lots on the Bay, now use Marketplace more often as simpler. Sold one of my 3 vacuums (long story) on there this week and actually got more than I asked for.
4) Donate, usually CS or local FB giving sites
5) Recycle 
6) Land fill ie. bin or local dump. Very little filters down here.

I've realised I do do like with like inside too. My ex often came home with a pen behind his ear so we accumulated a lot of pens. His business, no filching. When I moved here I gathered them all, there were dozens and dozens, and sorted them into 3 pen p
pots for each room that needed one. Only one pen is actively used in each room so the numbers have been decreasing steadily. If i used them randomly I'd have ended up with dozens of pens with 1cm of ink in each.

Best of luck with the brambles. My scourge in the garden is bamboo. Ive managed to steadily push it back to the site of origin, next to the large shed, but I think I'm going to have to use weedkiller on the mother lode as it's beyond digging out. I also have a lot of weedkiller as my ex and Dad were fans. I've never used it but the bamboo may be the exception. I keep missing the once a year Dispose of your Noxious Chemicals Day at the local dump so a corner of the garage is a toxic dump.