2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

stymied

@TC77 If you add a photo of the back of the monitor the hive mind may be able to help!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks

2. Deal with Old Frogs & potential frogs ASAP but at least one on FROG Fridays.

3. Reduce/Restrict time watching TV during daylight hours 😉 AB2 playing zero - 20/9/2022

4. Declutter/Relocate one item every time I stand up.

5. Don’t put it down, put it away

6. Continue to keep kitchen clean & tidy - before going to bed

Back again. Wrote shopping list for DH & sent him shopping. DSis went out to sm for a few personal bits. I took the opportunity to vacuum the whole of downstairs - only had to empty vacuum cleaner twice 😉. Also phoned bank - paid cc bill & updated accounts & dealt with my post. Dinner was breadcrumbed veal escalopes with boiled hg potatoes & peas 😋

1581 - 1585 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, cardboard box, cardboard packaging, booklet - recycled 
1586 - 1587 Kitchen detritus, plastic packaging - binned

Back to cheerleading 🙂

teachergirl, must be really stressful coping with 3 houses 😔 I agree with TC77, sometimes a good cry is exactly what is needed - relieves the tension. Everything crossed that you have a good night’s sleep & a far better day on Friday 🤞🙂

Nothing wrong with chocolate & wine, Fizz2015 🙂 Sorry to hear about the eye problems (I also looked it up), hopefully it will right itself. Meanwhile I look forward to seeing you in The TLC Carriage 🙂

TC77, apologies - no ideas for what to store in the plastic boxes 🙁

Well said short_bird 👏

vulpix, what a perfect way to avoid housework 😉 My go to is starting to read a long book 🤣 now that I can no longer play Angry Birds 2 🤣 Excellent work sorting & using contents of wrapping drawer 👏 

Great decluttering EnergyShifter 👏

Keep up the good work in your office, TC77 👏

Great idea stymied 🙂

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

I AM A STAR 🌟 

Decluttering Target: 1587/2022

2022 - 1p Savings Challenge: Running Total £379.22

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, had a lovely meal last night and I am up, showered and dressed and will be out of the door as soon as I have finished my cup of tea.  Weather is looking promising so I have gathered all the tools I might need for the gardening along with my knitting in case it rains ready to put in the car.
Have a good day everyone

grandmanerd

I put most of the wardrobe bits in next door's yard (the two long sides are evenly balanced across sets of drawers in my room to make a long narrow L-shaped work surface).  I would not normally dump something anywhere but the house has been empty for a year now (I thought the neighbour had died but apparently he's in a local nursing home) and nothing's been done. The yard has some furniture and rubbish bags in it (I've put what I can in the bin when there's been space) and the house is full of furnishings, opened dog food tins, assorted tat and nicotine stained throughout. 

'Weed' trees brambles, nettles and ivy had colonised the yard. Bit by bit I've cut back 3' high nettles and brambles, inched my into the yard (the gate was off, the back wall has fallen down), chopped branches and side shoots from the weed trees and taken down the ivy along his side of the garden wall and from up the back wall of the house (it's climbing in through the upstairs windows) in order to protect my house and to prevent further damage to his. The man nominally 'in charge' has twice promised that house clearance would be happening 'in the next couple of weeks' and months later nothing has been done. So it might still be like this in a year's time. I'll move the wardrobe bits to stop the nettles and brambles re-growing and to allow me access to the bits that still need tackling (I can't go up a ladder and the trees are too long to cut at the base but there are still a few things I can do).

I'm counting dealing with the wardrobe as one thing so 501/ 2022 (second target of the year). I phoned the PIP people to dispute their decision not to award me money for mobility (copious note writing beforehand) and clarify lots of the points in the report (the mobility is the big one but felt the need to correct assumptions and mis-interpretations of things I'd said. Things like I can easily communicate with people. I'm an introvert and the pandemic made this worse (I had to excuse myself on several occasions when mum had a visitor as I just couldn't cope - went into my room or even outside, away from the noise). 

I know from experience that if I continue to 'retreat' I'll withdraw so far it's really hard to take steps forward so I'm making a conscious effort to 'socialise'. I like film club and my art class because I'm with people and conversation is going on around me but I don't need to say anything (I can chip in, if I want to or have something to say but I don't 'have to'). I reply to other people but don't often start anything. The one time I did initiate a conversation at film club was after my ex OH had died. I had been stopped by someone I used to know through voluntary work (we exchange festive cards but it's never been the right time to go for a meal) but had not seen at film club before. Someone else joined our cluster. I knew her as someone who had worked at the library (I had several friends who worked there). My ex used to go out with a girl who worked there and the library staff used to socialise as a group, so I told her about the death. Even then I could not remember the girl's name at first - just 'the girl who sang' (she was a leading light of the local G & S society. 

I never have problems talking to strangers who start conversations at bus stops. I'm never going to be the life and soul of the party but I do try to pass for 'normal' - more because I worry about making other people feel awkward. So, one more frog done. The rest of the day was bits of domestic stuff (still trying to get clean clothes dry) and lots of relaxing activities. Did check the fridge and freezer contents and made up a small food delivery order (I've got quite a lot in but I'm struggling when I've run out of some things but not enough to make up a delivery as even getting to the nearest shops is difficult now).

More domestic stuff today unless I feel up to getting a bus, in which case I have a list a some of that will be done (no way I will manage all of them but I do like to get value out a day saver - roll on getting a bus pass). Remember doing something, even the tiniest bit, is better than nothing at all.

bit_by_bit

Back in to report very little. I am adapting to more committment on my time with childcare which tires me out but also takes whole days out of my week.

I have been clearing the dining room where my computer sits but it is back in a mess as I have just photographed loads of stuff for online sales so I can put it away now. The place is a lot clearer.

Enjoying more seed sorting as I extract the seeds from folwer heads. Also been putting together a blanket I made for my DD ages ago but it wasn't quite right so I took it to bits then came to a full stop. Winter is coming and I want her noce and warm.

Right off to the plot. Have a good day everyone 

weenancyinAmerica

Hope everyone had a Hoppy Frog Friday. Got several of my frogs out of the way including dealing with Social Services and an insurance company. Yesterday cleared out a large bag of yarn to the Senior Center. But added a bag of plastic bags for our book sale from someone at the Family History Center. Word is getting around so people are bringing us bags for the sale  -  and books. A friend also dropped off a box of books yesterday for the sale. So will be taking things over to the Library today. Trying to keep a little bit ahead of things. Our tree in front knows it is Fall - has it's new red seed pods on. But the weather person doesn't  - expecting temperatures back up over 37 C on Monday and Tuesday. Hope to have a quiet weekend just packing boxes to mail out on Monday. We will see what happens. 

TC77

@stymied I'm sure the remote will be among the dozens, I do need to take a photo and take with me to match. Hadn't heard the phrase hive mind before... live in the dark ages.
Just walked back from neighbours having said yes to some of her 60 gold plates left from her wedding. Thought a few might be nice for xmas etc after seeing other say yes (fomo), went to pick them up and noticed not food safe - the chance of me , DD2 or DD1 who I was going to give some to remembering this is 0 so took them back and thanked neighbour and will leave for another neighbour. I have many other plates I don't use....
Damaged plastic wallet out (again sable all in better condition), some paper, pen, mug I dropped full of coffee (sometimes this happens to me) so bits thrown away, and glass broken by DD2. 
Trying with paperwork but very time consuming, trying to put in the right file, which may then need sorting later but will be slow progress.

basketcase

Hi All!

Dropping by to say well done on the decluttering.  I've been clapping along with those of you having good times and hugs and commiserations to those having not so good ones.

I've been plugging away, but was feeling a bit overwhelmed, tbh.  I can't be the only one who does some work, looks at all the stuff left and can't see any difference, and then feels obliged to carry on until I do see one.  Then I run out of steam altogether... Once I do start, I find it very difficult to give my self permission to stop so decided I needed a plan. 

Somewhere (maybe even on this thread) someone posted that they'd read a book called 30 Days to a Clean and Organized House.  I had a quick potter and decided it looked doable.  Basically, there's a Daily Cleaning Routine (which I already have) plus 1 extra Cleaning Task, 1 Organising Task and 1 Maintenance Task.  The tasks can look a bit random, but they build into a fairly logical whole.

Pros:

• You don't have to think what to do, you can just follow The Plan
• There's a finite number of tasks to complete each day, then you stop
• You haven't worn yourself out, so if you're on a roll and want to get rid of another box/bag etc, you can
• Although it says 30 days, there's recognition that some days may need a repeat!
• Not only do you not need any organising tools, it actually says don't get any, so there's no expense, delay or excuse

Cons:

• Obviously, it's not tailored to my personal needs - but I can get round that
• There's no allowance for a Room of Doom!
• It's American, so based more around houses with cellars, attics, laundry rooms etc - none of which I have (living in a flat) and sometimes mentions things not applicable to GB (eg tax relief on donations to CSs) 
  
• As with most of these books, it seems to assume possession of a tumble dryer and a dishwasher, which I neither have nor want.  So things take longer and I can't just 'pop it in the dishwasher' or put washing away at the end of the cycle, and there's no allowance for ironing.  Oh dear, what a pity...
  

Anyway, the Cons aren't insurmountable and I've completed Days 1-3.  So far I've decluttered, cleaned and organised: the fridge; a badly iced-up freezer; the cupboard shelves containing all my herbs, spices, seasonings, stock cubes etc;  a junk drawer and a utensils drawer in the kitchen units.  Oh - and done all the laundry.  And mopped up the flood on the kitchen floor (I did say the freezer was badly iced up! )

Day 4 is the Pantry and storage containers - so I may be gone some time... (where's the Eek! emoji when you need it?!)   In fact, I should probably call it Item or Activity 4, rather than Day rofl

When I get to Day 30, I think I'll probably need to repeat the cycle, but we''ll see how it goes.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, yesterday was full on gardening and the weather was lovely, not too hot but warm enough to work in just a t shirt. The decorator worked on the front while I tackled the back garden which is unbelievably overgrown, you can't actually see the green houses though the shed is accessible. The main problem is the brambles and nettles. Grandmanerd lovely to see you back, are you next door to OHs house .  About 1/3 of the way down is a very old apple tree that does fruit but is mainly used as a climbing frame for a wisteria which is quite beautiful when in flower and a huge mistletoe. OHs Dad liked to try to grow all sorts of things. This part of the garden is the easiest as it does have a grass area, not even in your wildest imagination could you currently call it a lawn though it was once OHs Dad's pride and joy. I just did the clearing on the " flower beds" but filled the green waste bin and 3 very large canvas bags which are like the ones builders have sand delivered in but bigger. These were taken to the tip and emptied on my way home, the bags will be needed again .  There are still some lovely flowers in there that have survived. Apart from stops to make the decorator cups of coffee and a couple of bacon butties and a short break for lunch, which was bought from Greggs at the end of the road, I had a veg sausage roll and I got the decorator 2 meat and potato pasties, I didn't stop. I got home about 7pm exhausted but really feeling like I had done a good days work. I made it to within touching distance of the apple tree. I estimate there will be another 10 days work to clear the worst of the rest of the garden but I need a few days off now to let my aches heal. I think I will try to get back there one day next week if the weather holds. It is over 3 years since I last cleared it so it is well overdue. OH might be able to manage to strim the grass area which will make a difference but I will concentrate on clearing the brambles and nettles and chopping back the various shrubs that have turned into trees
Today I have an appointment for my 4th jab so I am not planning to do anything in case I feel a bit off. I have been fine with the others but as they say prepare for the worst and anything less is a bonus
Better get into the shower and get sorted
Take care everyone

grandmanerd

TC77 said:

Trying with paperwork but very time consuming, trying to put in the right file, which may then need sorting later but will be slow progress.

Don't know if it will help (not sure what state your paperwork is in to start with) but clutter fairy says start with the easy stuff. If it's all in one big pile go through and take out any obvious 'throw aways' - flyers, old magazines etc. I try to do this at least once a year with my receipts, guarantees and instructions file - electrical items come with a receipt that lasts for 3/ 6/ 12 months if it needs replacing/ repairing. I also find it useful and therapeutic to throw out instructions for things that have 'died' during the year (an alarm clock?). Then perhaps older bills - if you still get paper bills then each one is proof that the previous one has been paid so only keep the latest (unless you want reminders for big items like a replacement boiler for your 'house maintenance file). Every April I can discard the oldest batch of tax paperwork for my business (have to keep for 7 years).

She suggests that harder to deal with items be left for a later date eg all the little notes you have. Any ood shopping or 'to do' lists can go but I often have bits that need to be transcribed (I usually have one or more notebooks on the go and when I finish them, I go through and take out any lists I need to keep (periodically do a 'wardrobe' list noting which items are recent purchases and which are on their last legs - use ups or 'painting and mucky jobs' clothes). 

Any jottings - websites, passwords and other bits of information (usually been scribbled down when on the phone or making a first purchase) plus things like meter readings need to go in their in the proper notebooks or places - I have a large square account book (with lots of columns) used  first for my small business but now I try to keep the meter readings and when DS3 has paid me his 'rent' (contribution to household bills). He's doing okay with his business now (has been earning more than me for several years) and has paid me a chunk in advance whenever he's had a single payment over £1000 (he's currently benefiting from our rotten exchange rate as some of the sites that sell his games pay him in US dollars). 

I now date any passwords - when I find the correct notebook I sometimes have 2 or more for the same website and this helps work out which is the most recent. This comes from writing mum's festive cards (Father 'C' has to shoot an elf, every time anyone mentions the 'C' word before November - people have mocked me for this in the past but recently some people shared my indignation at the disappearance of the gardening section in favour of Halloween and 'festive' stuff). Anyway, back to the point I was making, I was told off several times for having put the 'wrong address' for someone but in mum's address book there were several entries for the the same people, sometimes spread over 2 or 3 different non-sequence pages. One daughter of a cousin moved with her husband's job - every 3 years he'd be promoted or given charge of a larger/ more important site and he had to live near/ on the premises and mum just added the new address without crossing out the old one.

I love coming to the end of notebooks (recently did a batch of 3 - I use whichever notebook is close to hand) and throwing away all the old lists - what I ordered from the SM, the workings for my puzzles (I like 16 x 16 sudokus) etc. I rip out as I go along but if there's something I want to keep on the back I leave it until the notebook is full - the alternative is to transcribe whole lists as I go along. Clutter fairy says that as this is a long job, put those to one side (the aim is to go through taking out anything that quickly reduces the size of the pile you have to deal with).

Earlier this week I prepared all the information the solicitor wanted for the sale of mum's bungalow. I also needed things like ID and paperwork that linked mum and also me and my brother to the property. I went through all the half sorted stuff, making 3 piles. 

1  'Hobby' stuff (patterns, stencils and tracings, fancy papers and felt), places to visit, holiday and gardening brochures (had already weeded out the old ones), family history, timetables - I also put a lot of health information in this category - recipes and tips for weight loss and the course work and notes for various CBT and Mindfulness sessions (some are old and tatty and again I need to work my way through discarding and transcribing but need to keep it separate from health information like diagnoses and names and addresses, contact info for parts of the NHS I use regularly.

 2   Stuff that needs sorting and is important but was not to do with the sale

3   Anything I might need to fill in all the forms or hand over to the EA and solicitor for copying. Very pleased that about 3 weeks ago I separated deeds etc for my house, grandma's house (rented to the same tenant for 29 years) and mum's bungalow. Grandma's file has all the grave papers in because I know they need to be kept but have no idea what I might need them for. I think my parents divorce papers can go because they're both dead so won't be wanting to marry anyone else (threw the tatty one, kept one)

When I first bought this house (in 1980) all my information fit into 5 files - Banks and Building Societies, Wages and Tax, Receipts, guarantees and instructions, Certificates (birth and exams), Legal - house purchase, will. I made the wallet files and decorated a file box myself using one 50p roll of wallpaper. I had various filing cabinets over the years (a 2nd hand metal one painted blue to match my kitchen - later very useful outside the back door to hold all the booze for my 40th January birthday and eventually given to a neighbour to hold car parts for repairs.

Most recently (about 22 years ago until 5-6 years ago) we had 2 that were part of DS1's corner desk. The top half was a pull-out printer shelf, the bottom half a deep file drawer. When I couldn't give them away to a charity, I painted them purple and they became DS3's bedside cabinets - he has lots of art books and old sketch pads. Most recently I bought a metal file box for mum's stuff (easy to grab in case of fire) and then one for mine. Recently these have become too heavy for me to carry around with stuff in them (they lived happily on the top of mum's wardrobe) so I'm setting up a new system. I recently bought 2 box files for the house deeds (mum's went to the solicitor's in a past it's best foolscap box) and I think that's the size I can handle now. Each category will be reduced to that size of package or less.

Once the bungalow is sold (the buyer backed out but more people have viewed it since - high demand for bungalows and it's more affordable than most) and a few more loose ends tied up, I should be able to put the paperwork I have to keep (mum's estate) to roughly one box file, my brother's (nearly 16 years ago) has gone from an A4 file to a fat wallet file and my dad's can be discarded once I reach his 20 year anniversary (one small bit to deal with, tied to mum's estate).

Sorry I didn't mean to go on for so long. Start with the easy wins, the no brainers, whittle down the pile and reduce it, then start sub-dividing (whatever way makes sense to you). Sort whatever needs to be close to hand, set things that can be sorted at a later date to one side. Remember there are two tasks which need to run side by side - dealing with the older stuff and having a system of maintenance for current stuff (opening and dealing with the post each day - if you get rid of all the junk and the envelopes and divide the rest into action (need to respond in some way) and important (needs to be filed away) you are slowing the flow of things coming in. If you only deal with the historic stuff and not new items you will always have a huge pile (Clutter fairy again)