2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

TC77

Difficult evening, DD1 phoned and MH very poor, so using alot of energy staying strong for her, had hoped things on a more even keel   decided it means need to get on with other things so have capacity when she wants help.
Tidied bedside stand, putting things away, some paper declutter - mislaid important item. Found frozen cherry tomatoes prob over a year old so decluttered (apparently best in 6 months and up to 12) can't afford anyone to be ill, also found expensive face cream I have been 'saving' has been saved beyond useful time so had to go, along with some cheese. lessons much be learnt.
A few unsubscribed and some digital declutter but all v slow at the moment.

oceanspirit

Two boxes pencils gone to OH as he uses them and I don’t.

A smart watch also gone to OH.  A physio persuaded me to buy it but I don’t want it or need it - I can tell how far I’ve walked by the landscape and would much rather look at that than my wrist!

vulpix

TC 77. Xxxxx

 Hi folks. You have been busy, you put me to shame. I have a cold and bad chest. I am hoping it is on its way out now. I must be feeling a bit better cos I cleaned the bathroom.  That and make dinner is all I have done today. We went to Llandudno yesterday but tbh I wasn’t well enough to do much. The drive was lovely though. I always prefer country roads rather than motorways. 

 Out 
        A book of raffle tickets   
        2 pens
        A pair of boxer shorts 

 Vx 

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

A long journey to The High Rocks Hotel, Tunbridge Wells left at 11:05 in two cars, arrived 12:30. Time for a half pint in the bar before proceeding to marriage room (which became reception room later). Civil ceremony with a celebrant & a registrar. The bride (DH’s great niece H) looked stunning + the groom (C) & their 14 month old son (already walking) looked rather dapper dressed in matching outfits. Mother of the bride & aunt of the bride looked ‘stunning minus a little bit’ after all no one should upstage the bride. After the ceremony we headed out of the hotel, across the road & headed up to The Rocks for photos (rather steep climb with steep steps - so quite a few guests with walking sticks didn’t go right to the top 🙁). Gorgeous location (you can see photos if you Google High Rocks National Monument outside photos ) & we were very lucky with the weather - overcast but dry apart from a few drops of rain. We were served Bucks Fizz or orange juice whilst the photographer was busy & the hotel staff were setting up the tables. Outside for about 40 minutes. DH & I plus his DSis & DBiL + their daughter, her husband, granddaughter & great grandson (aged 4). Choice of rose or red wine & champagne for the toasts.

Food was excellent - adult menu: pate & toast with a bit of salad, followed by turkey & stuffing & cranberry jelly, roasties, green beans, sausage wrapped in bacon, carrots then Vanilla cheesecake with orange segments & dollop of cream. Children’s menu: fruit salad, pasta in a tomato sauce, vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Rounded off with coffee. The speeches from father of the bride, groom & best man were all very emotional. We then had a couple of hours before the cutting of the cake & the first dance. The bride & groom did the rounds chatting to all their guests (the wedding party was a total of 58 people) I had a 10 minute chat with the Master of Ceremonies - very interesting man. 

Cake was cut at 7:00 p.m. First dance was the bride & her dad (I got very emotional watching them 😉), followed by the bride & groom. Sandwiches  & cake were brought out whilst several people got up on the dance floor. I even managed to persuade the husband of DH’s niece to dance (perhaps the first time since their wedding 🤣) sadly none of the people at our table witnessed it 😔 DH had a bit too much to drink & got rather emotional 🥹 A nice bonus - we saw several steam trains 🚂 

Absolutely brilliant Wedding 🤩 & everyone enjoyed themselves. Children running around, older guests holding court & not a cross word 😉 We left about 8:15 p.m. as needed to get 4 year old home (one car) & DH’s niece does not like night driving when tired (other car) Sadly we didn’t manage to say goodbye to the bride & groom as they had been whisked away by the photographer back up to the High Rocks for nighttime photos. Arrived back about 9:45 p.m. 

DH & niece’s husband went to bed about 10:30 whilst niece & I stayed up chatting until midnight. 

I managed to sleep a bit better. Got up about 10:00 a.m., DH spent an extra half hour in bed. Packed our bags but as it was poring with rain we put off our ride home. We had brunch with niece, her husband & parents - bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, baked beans & toast 😋 Then sorted out the finances from our holiday in St Lucia - DH & I had paid for a couple of things as we were the only ones who had credit cards. Also started looking into a holiday in November 2023 - possibly Goa. The rain showers finally stopped about 1:30 p.m. & we left at 2:00 p.m. It stayed dry for the whole journey home (15 minutes delay due to traffic) so got home 3:15 p.m. DSis had found a new hairdressers, so hair was a lot shorter than when we left on Friday 😉 

DSis was a bit upset at her lack of success in buying a shirt in MnS 😞She had spotted a perfect colour & a style she loved but even the supposedly large sizes were very small - either tight on the body or tight on the arms or both.

Sunday stayed dry until about 5:00 p.m. when the heavens opened. DSis cooked dinner - a whole chicken, oven chips & breadcrumbed mushrooms. She also washed up & left to dry. 

Watched SCD & the results show. The judges were hilarious. Must admit that DSis & I both thought the wrong people were in the dance off 😔 but were thrilled to bits at how well Hamza danced - he is our favourite 😍 

1792 - 1796 Kitchen recycling, booklet, cardboard packaging, glass wine bottle, plastic bottle - recycled 

1797 Kitchen detritus binned

Will catch up with the cheerleading later today.

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

I AM A STAR 🌟 

Decluttering Target: 1797/2022

2022 - 1p Savings Challenge: Running Total £469.22

roundtuit

Morning all xx 

I think you'll find that I monopolised the thread over the weekend Mrs SD - and there's still a long way to go. So I'll apologise now. 😬

I've not brought down a bag this morning but.. I'm having my first brew and I went through my stash of bookmarks. I think they breed in captivity 🤣
1 - cs
5 - S (calling for coffee this morning and said she would like a bookmark. Not sure she wanted 5 but ...)
3 - recycling 

Every little helps 😊

This week's lesson is How to carry on decluttering whilst maintaining a life! (As opposed to decluttering being my life. That's fine, but you run out of cutlery and clean underwear eventually!) I have a lifetime's hoard to go through. A marathon, not a sprint...although my little sprint has given me the taste for it.... and revealed some of the carpet in RoD 😊. 

I can see that the next bin bag is full of videos. And it's pulled me up a bit. It seems such a waste to bin them all. 🙄  I've not actually delved into the bag...just saw Jemimah Puddleduck peeping at me. I'm trying to be realistic. I have a video player but have yet to see if (a) it can be attached to my TV and (b) if it still works....assuming this is the case am I really going to watch Jemimah Puddleduck?!!! No. But somewhere along the line, and maybe in that very binbag, there's Disney's Tarzan, Hercules,  Jungle Book, Robin Hood. Aristocats, etc etc etc ...oh my, they'll be like old friends reappearing. There's a bit of an internal paddy going on - which I expected when I get to books, but videos has caught me off guard. Any ideas? Please?

Another brew methinks.

Wishing you all a good week
Rxx

Siebrie

@roundtuit you're inspiring!

Maybe the local children's whatever still has a VCR? Both our kindergarten and primary school still use VCR to show (parts of) films to the children when it's raining really badly during break or the last 15 minutes of after-school care.

out:

a nice sweater that I was given 'for Africa' and had worn a few times myself. It suits me, but it takes forever to dry after laundry, so it's better off in Africa where the sun is always shining

2McD toys also in box 'for Africa'.

DD2 is still finding clothes that don't fit anymore, or that are uncomfortable or scratchy (to her; when I feel them, they feel fine). They all go into the box 'for Africa' straight away.

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

hi all
TC77 - hugs
Mrs S_D - that does sound a lovely wedding
roundtoit - wow!

I haven't decluttered anything except another year of my life and a piece of birthday cake  I weighed myself this morning - need to declutter some lbs

Love Deni 

roundtuit

Thank you @Siebrie and @Deni_debt-free_dreamer - your encouragement gave me the push I needed 😘

I've brought down the bag!!! And it's very heavy so now it's down taking it back up is not an option. 

In my LR there's a wall unit behind the sofa. This morning I 'investigated' the contents of the two drawers and then the two shelves behind the droppy down flap bit. Just to get an idea what's in there. Priming myself ready to go in and declutter. Like I said - I have a long way to go. A mountain of clutter to climb. 

Let's have a look in this bag....now I've recovered from lugging it down the stairs 😬

PlayStation hand set - DS
Toy car - cs
Union Jack badge - cs
Broken wresting ring - bin


4 Tots TV videos 
3 Beatrix Potter videos
2 Disney videos
1 Never-ending Story video
To be decided. 

I now know why the bag was soooo heavy. Not full of videos at all - just a few on top. Books! 

And breathe...

Dennis & Gnasher Biggest Joke Book Ever - cs
Shoot magazine - recycle
WWF magazine x 2 - DS
Superstars of the World Cup 2002 - DS
Search for Sam book - DS
Simpsons comic - recycle
WCW Annual - DS
Official Grand Prix Guide 2000 - DS
Sonic the Comic - recycle
Thomas the Tank comic - recycle
Birds & Reptiles sticker book - recycle / bin
WWF sticker book 2002 - DS
Star Wars Annual - cs
F1 magazine - recycle
Wrestling programme- DS
FBX magazine  - recycle
F1 Grand Prix Guide2002 - DS
Match Annual 2003 - DS
Man Utd Annual 2003 - DS
Panto programme- recycle
A Christmas Carol- cs

Bin bag - binned

Sorry to itemise like that - but it's the only way I can do it.

DS can decide what he wants to keep and what he wants to give to cs.

So many memories in a binbag. 

Rxx

Floss

@roundtuit are these bags ones that your DS has left with you, or bags that have been filled while he was helping? Just thinking that you might be deferring decisions on toys, old books etc to him that he thought he'd already made?

roundtuit

@Floss no, no, and er no. In a nutshell. 

Looking at the contents that bag will have been packed in May 2003 when we moved from the flat to this house. And it remained packed until today.

When I recently started to work through the hoard I had a chat with DS about toys and he's happy for me to make those decisions. 

As for the magazines and books I know some of them he will read and recycle. Some he will keep. Some he may pass on to cs. I'm basically a wide mesh filter keeping the detritus out and passing on the rest.

It's never straightforward when mental health issues are involved.

Do I feel bad that DS effectively lost sight of many of his belongings when we moved in 2003? Of course I do. Far worse than I feel about my own stuff. It would maybe have been different if I hadn't had to pack everything again in 2011 so they could modernise the house. Most of that stuff is still packed too. That's what's filling the cupboard under the stairs. Boxes and boxes of stuff. 

Let's face it. I'm not decluttering. I'm dehoarding. But it's not what I would call a 'normal' hoard if there is such a thing. I packed up my life and moved in 2003. I packed up my life to stay in the same place in 2011. I haven't deliberately gone out and bought lots of everything. It's just there was too much life to cope with to get on top of everything. So unpacking never happened. I went to work and my son was fed, clothed, and loved beyond measure. He's intelligent,  funny,  kind, and a thoroughly nice guy. So I must have done something right. I just did it surrounded by stuff.

But you know what. There is now floor in every room. 

Just had a thought. I started to declutter in 2010. That's when I joined Flylady. And they suggested this thread might help me. No wonder having to repack everything in 2011 sent me over the edge. I can see 'what's the point?' written all over that now.

Here endeth today's therapy session. Bet you wish you'd never asked 😉

Rxx