2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

nannywindow

Liverpool Anne and Floriana thanks for the ideas for a new vinegar bottle, I thought it was me just being dull ! I checked online and have seen a glass one in Wilco so I'll have a look when I go to town. Again, many thanks both xx
Liverpool Anne I would be furious with Oc*do too. I had a similar experience with a catalogue that I had used for many years. I had a sizeable money off voucher so ordered a new hedge cutters which arrived broken. (I still believe they had already been returned by someone else previously) I phoned to explain but they refused let me use the voucher again off a replacement cutter. I was spitting feathers by the end of the phone call and I have never used the company since.
Today I have changed our bed, washed the bedding and cleaned the upstairs, I even hoovered the ROD office floor which is now clear 😁 I put the sugar soap bottle from there back in the shed and I also found a book that I had been searching for. On looking for some conditioner in the under sink bathroom cabinet, I found 3 new bottles of shampoo so took that item off my shopping list. I did find the conditioner but it was almost empty so I've used it up and thrown it into the recycling. I filled the green waste bin and put it out for collection tomorrow and did half of my ironing, I hate ironing so half is good enough for me 😊
I'm now going to have a glass of wine while watching another episode of The Blacklist, I'm hooked on that !
Take care all
nan  
 

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 

I never did go out 😔 In fact I did nothing apart from read & file my monthly magazine, clear down a few more programmes from the TV planner, make dinner & wudupa. Dinner was the last of yesterdays roast pork with oven chips, lo baked beans & fried up lo cabbage & roast potatoes + new tin of refried beans. 

946 - 949 Kitchen recycling, plastic container, 2 large glass jars - recycled 
950 Kitchen detritus binned

Sorry to hear that the garden repair shop has closed Liverpool_Anne 😔 We would have the reverse in our house - DH would be a bit miffed but I would be furious 😉 Very poor customer service & I wonder how many other people had the same problem 😖 

nannywindow hope the visit to W*lco proves successful 🤞 Another company with poor customer service 😖 It is all very well losing one loyal customer but they forget that people have friends & family who might have been potential customers & now will probably not bother 😉 Excellent decluttering & cleaning/ironing - you have been busy 👏

MrsSD  🏅🏅🏅🏅 🌟 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

I AM A STAR 🌟 

Decluttering Target: 950/2022

2022 - 1p Savings Challenge: Running Total £167.12

Wildrose

Again, thanks for all the encouragement, I feel buoyed up by it!

@florianatwobob, the emotional exhaustion of sorting out family stuff can't be underestimated. It came as a huge surprise to me. The first sorting took ages as I would be overwhelmed with memories and emotion over each object. I persevered and decluttered hundreds of things but I'm still occasionally ambushed by intense emotion over some insignificant looking object. Yesterday I retrieved a cardboard tube full of bird prints by Cecil Williams. No idea who he is, one of my parents must have bought them at some time but never framed them. I've hung onto them for all this time, but askedmyself "Would i have ever bought them?" -no. "Will I ever frame them?" no. So off to the charity shop with them this morning.

@weenancyinAmerica thanks for the idea about the canes. The allotments are a stones throw away - depending on your stone throwing ability - so that might be a market for them.

@TC77 thanks for the welcome, all the kindness & ideas have made such a difference to my feelings of despair and overwhelm.

@mhagster I'll take a look at the old style pleasures, it sounds a lovely way to start the day. Bit more affirming than the Today programme.

@Liverpool_Anne I'm planning on going in with the weedkiller this week, the weather looks right for it. I won't be saving as much as a tiny shoot of it, I'm never risking a bamboo plantation again. If I reach the point of final bamboo annihilation which seems unlikely.

Wildrose

Thanks pt 2:

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger, a medal! Already! A virtual medal that I don't need to find a place for, thank you so much. 

You are right, my outside space is a haven and thats why I created it. I'm struggling to enjoy the journey of sorting organising and creating because there is so much to do. Having been married for nearly 20 years to a v critical man I find it hard to relax and just enjoy the process. This is so unlike my basic personality that it is doubly jarring. I must try harder not to try harder.

I so rarely bring one in that it is well outnumbered by the amount going out. Sometimes I imagine a big pile of the items I've got out of the place and it is huge, it just doesn't seem like that in reality.

Yesterday I retrieved from the bin something DD5 decided she needed after all, but she did pick it up later so it is still an out. Potted up the second tray of discounted busy lizzies, worked on the old wooden tool chest I found in the shed, removing another layer of grime and grease, made the decision about the bird prints (took a bit of time, as did finding them), binned 3 empty compost bags, cleaned the kitchen including super-cleaning the kitchen sink so it gleams now. 

I also spent an hour or so in relaxed chat with DD5 who was the victim of a serious crime last year and is really struggling to cope with it. She rarely opens up so if she suddenly can, all else is forgotten. 

I'm sure my family sounds like a basket case. We do have more than our share of trauma.

Today: bread baking, laundry out.
I'm walking into town to return a library book, drop into cs & sm.
Hoping to plant up last of the cosmos, work on the tool box, empty last of items from Big Shed, clean something or other, make a greek salad. This year I have decluttered 17lbs of body fat, accumulated over lockdown. Biscuits and inactivity mostly. My bp had shot up as had my cholesterol so I needed to do something about it.

I have already sorted a frog this morning, didn't take long, but what a relief.


xxx to all fellow declutterers

Siebrie

@Wildrose Maybe it's worthwhile for you to check out the Marie Kondo method (there used to be a very active thread on this board, calling it KonMarie). She suggests dividing the work into categories, starting with the least emotional one (for instance: towels) and working your way up to the most emotional one (usually photos). As mentioned earlier in the thread, she suggests collecting all similar items in one place, and then deciding which ones you like best ('make you happy'), the rest can go; any similar items found after that can just go, no decision necessary. You didn't know or remember they were there, you already made your decision earlier, don't waste energy on re-taking your decision.

So, for the towels example: you collect all the towels on the kitchen table. You decide how large the space is where you can keep them (1 shelf in the bathroom cupboard?) and how many towels it can hold. Then you narrow the number of towels down to that and get rid of the others with reckless abandon for instance, a refugee centre / charity shop / friends and family / animal shelter will take them off your hands. Any other towels you find after that, go straight into the donation or recycling box.

Siebrie

In other news: on Saturday we cleared out the 3 bedrooms and the attic! DDs bunkbeds were moved to the in-house office where they will sleep while the builders are making their new bedrooms. Husband and I will sleep on the sofabed that we moved from the guestroom /office to the living room; the living room now holds 3 sofas! 1 adult rocking chair, 1 child's rocking chair and a maxicosi car seat were put out with a 'free' sign and were gone in 20 minutes. All other items were packed up and moved to a friend's garage. Husband asked many times 'why do you want to keep this? It's always been in the attic, we don't need it' with me replying 'it is lovely, but was too vulnerable to put out with dds in their destructive phase; besides, after the building works we won't have any funds left, we'll use this and see if we like it, if not, we will save up for a replacement'.

Then on Sunday, We quarter-filled the tip the builder brought us, with 1 wardrobe (was already falling apart, we gave it a little push ), 2 bedside cabinets (about 20 years old, Ikea, moved 3 times, doors on 1 opened to the wrong side), 4 really ugly false ceilings, 2 large pieces of really cheap carpet that covered the attic floor. We found empty wasps' nests in both dds' bedrooms, a very large empty one (2 meters long...) in our bedroom, and an active one in our bedroom! We called the fire brigade, and they removed it quickly, and then also removed a wasps' nest I found (heard) in our kitchen roof. They charged €75, but they will come back free of charge if we find another wasps' nest before 31 December.

We removed the 3 bedroom doors and will rehang them ourselves after the building works have finished (the builder said he would charge €400 per door (including new door) to rehang the doors; we need 3....

I'm already informing dds that we will think very carefully about what will go back into their rooms. They have started their own moodboards

florianatwobob

@Wildrose I was once emotionally ambushed replacing my mum’s cooker! It’s the strangest things at the most unexpected times. 

In explanation of the emotional 
ambush we were remodelling the kitchen, the cooker was moving location and a new one being fitted but I had such strong memories of my mum cooking and teaching me to cook in that location that I ended up in floods of tears which then set my DSis off too. 

However it just made me realise how lucky we to have people in our lives and memories that mean so much. 

GrannyKate

I don't think you can underestimate how hard and emotional some decluttering can be - you need to take it slowly and be in the right mood.  A few months ago I addressed a box of hundreds of my personal letters from friends and family going back 60 plus years.  I glanced at a few but decided I didn't want to read them again.  The good memories I still have and I don't want to revisit the bad ones.  More to the point I knew I didn't really want anyone else to read them so to the recycling they all went.  I was ready to do this now although I wasn't when I looked at them last year.

I have saved a few things for each of my children.  I am limiting this to a box each which is labelled with their name.  I have returned a few things to other family members as I found them mostly in my mum's stuff.  Things like ornaments (a multigenerational collection) have been reduced considerably - I like glass and wooden boxes which I already had a few of myself so I added to those from Mum and MIL's stuff but got rid of most china as I'm not keen.  Added some of my own to the CS bag as well.  

Treated myself to a new short sleeved top at MrM - will find something to leave the house later.  Went to stock up on flavoured water at MrI - Tuesday so I got my 10% discount. 

911-912 Two bags of mixed plastic to SM
913 Several cards posted
914 Banking updated
915 All emails dealt with and boxes cleared
916 Decided I didn't need three bath mats as I have nowhere convenient to keep them anyway.  One went in CS bag. 

Resisted buying salad cream as it was just so expensive - will look out for an offer.  I also bought some cheaper toilet rolls - will see how I get on with them.  Had my hair done and I'm off to a history group in a bit.  Children back here tonight until Friday.  

vulpix

6 hours in the garden yesterday. Am as stiff as a board today. Back garden is mostly planted up. Poor plants are looking a bit battle weary after being in pots for over a year. 

 Major work needed by me this week to clear the front garden of plants in pots and to dig plants out of the ground. In an attempt to save a few pennies I am going to bag up some of the gravel to reuse. 

 Siebrie what mettle you are made of. I am fed up just living with the contents of a shed in the house. 

 I got carried away with the shed delivery,it’s next week not today. 

 2 huge stone planters sold. Many plastic pots earmarked to give away. 

 Gotta go. Going to craft club for a rest. 

 Vx

mhagster

Went round to mums first thing. Oh what lovely roses in the garden she’d have loved them .

Had three bags of rubbish already filled ( had walked round the last time) and leading from last weeks rookie mistake made a tip appointment in plenty time. Filled another bag of rubbish. Sorted out some paper for recycling. 

Brought bird seed round for friend. 

Four bags, some hard plastic and a cork bath mat to tip. The chaps are so friendly and helpful. 

Then ( trying to be economical with petrol ) realised I’d forgotten books as I reached the supermarket enroute to a work meeting! Grr! Anyway I’ll remember tomorrow! 

Friend came over for tea tonight and we’d such a laugh looking through old photos …who cut your fringe? Why is there a chunk missing out it? Look at the length of school skirts ( long) and the collar points and colours of school shirts! Look at the carpet. Look at the wallpaper. All were blamed on the seventies 😆😆