2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

ruby_eskimo

That's so nice of you giving gifts to the bin men and milk man.  The first year we lived here, I tried the same thing and both were just left on the doorstep so didn't bother again 😆

Have been trying to keep on top of things rather than decluttering before the new year.  Have managed to wash the sheets in the spare bedroom and remake after our guests from the weekend.  Presents have been redeposited on said spare bed ready for the weekend (I don't like putting things under the tree until Christmas day) so that's cleared a little space in our bedroom.  Heading out this evening to try and get the last foodie bits for the weekend like cream and the cheap vegetables.  All this fuss for just one day 😆

bit_by_bit

Nothing out but time today. We had ordered parts and the recommended wood for GS3s outdoor swing. DiL is paying from her own Mothers donation. We were donating time.

Well the websites measurments were wrong and DH has had to do a lot of work to make the wood fit the holes. Also the bolts not long enough so more ordered by DS1. The job will be finished next week sometime we hope.

GS3 is now under the weather but his temperature finally setteld. DiL was at the hospital for 6 hours to be told to not worry unless his temp remained high for 5 days. 

I did child care while DS1 and DS2 assisted DH. 

I still have a bag for the CS to go and and aiming for a second by tomorrow.

As the big day comes closer my jobslist is slowly reducing bit by bit . The downstairs will get sorted fully in the morning the Friday its the upstairs.

Hugs and best wishes to all humans and animals. I hope all will be as well as can be very soon.

EnergyShifter

EnergyShifter said:

1092. Cards written & posted ?  Why did I put it off so long - there was only a handful !! 

I've decluttered the worst of my cold & decluttered work today for almost two weeks !!!  🥳.  I use my living room as an office so I stored my PC away - mostly as a symbolic gesture - but it feels really nice in the living room without having it there as a reminder of work. 

My good mood was slightly marred by one of my corporate clients serving notice.  It's work I do as an Associate so I can see for the Corporate client  it's literally just them cutting back on a service - but I've worked with that company for more than 4 years and I have been coaching some of the people there for almost that long and  I might only have one more session with them!   I  shed a tear at that thought! - I will miss them! 

And then later on this afternoon I had the inevitable panic about money!  But that was just a knee jerk thing and has now passed- Truth is,  I'm fine for the time being as a. it's not that much money  b. In the short term I  can just increase the amount of work I do for the other company I am an Associate with.  But in the New Year - I really do need to think about my business model.  I have been coasting for a while and this has been a wake up call!! 

All of that is "so next year"... !!  Right now - "School's out for Christmas!!" 🎄🥳🎄

1093.  Made post op appointment for eyes
1094.  Delivered cards to neighbours

Thanks for my Teddy Medal Mrs SD - I've made him my profile pic to celebrate!

weenancyinAmerica

Happy Solstice everyone. I believe in celebrating every holiday I can - even some I make up. Used to claim I had to have the Jewish holidays off as well as the Christian ones as it it should be the Judeo-Christian religion since we use the Old and the New Testaments. Couldn't get my teachers to go along with it though. When I was growing up my best friends were Catholic and Jewish. We would go to services at four different places - the Synagogue, the Catholic Church, the Baptist Church and the First Christian Church. Lot more interesting with more variety in life. And kept us out of mischief on week-ends. 

Tring to tie up loose ends for the New Year. Have several frogs belonging to other people they need to help with, but something keeps coming up. Took one roommate to the bank, the pawn shop to get his guitar back (claims he is never doing that again), and then he insisted we had to go to Walmart to get some things. We both went in and when I came out he was sitting in the car - had just gone in and used the restroom and had forgotten why we were there! His short term memory is so bad. So his big frog is taking some time to get done. 

Next year I am going to try and count what goes out and what gets done. This year there was just too much happening. I don't think next year will be a quieter year -  it will probably be worse - but I'm just going to try harder to write things down. 

Happy holidays  - off to make potato pancakes for Hanakkuh (still trying to get the extra holidays in there). Haven't decided what to do for Kwanzaa yet. 

short_bird

5191: another 50 emails out
5192-5199: items to recycling
5200-5214: stuff to bin
5215-5216: binbag and mixed recycling to the outside bins - our binmen are visiting Friday as usual.
I have my shopping list ready for tomorrow as I have a massage booked so need to leave the house. 2 things have helped me get through December: cutting back at work and not running myself ragged and massages to get rid of some of the tension that lingers even despite working less. 
Hope all is coming together with the seasonal plans, whatever they may be.

grandmanerd

I was on 1900. Yesterday I'd done 5 more things before the hunt for their pork joint, which turned out to be rather productive. Found 2 bags of wonky frozen berries, one was transferred into my freezer, one was put in a jug to defrost (fresh fruit nearly all gone). Their pork joint went in their fridge to defrost (I don't know why because it's a cook from frozen one unless she's planning to do something 'Austrian' with it). I also found 3 hm ready meals of mine so put them in my fridge (one eaten yesterday, one today - it's pearl barley risotto with loads of veg and a few chickpeas).

My other meal was reduced fat coleslaw mixed with paprika, tomato puree, a slosh of Worcester sauce and a large spoonful of tartare sauce and then the defrosted and thoroughly rinsed prawns added at the end. Ate it with a large garden salad and the remaining chestnut mushrooms and tenderstem broccoli I'd had the day before with ys dip (on a mission to empty the fridge of any perishables before Saturday). Will make a note to put ingredients on the decluttering list - at a time when it's quieter, I think I could usefully go through all the spices and sauces and the like, topping up, condensing into smaller containers and making sure all the tiny bits are in a prominent location so they get used up first (Beloved is always grabbing things off the shelf when cooking and either leaves them on the work surface or just anywhere on the shelf - she has been known to have 3 opened bottles of the same thing on the go).

Whilst I was downstairs I threw 3 can recycling bags and one rubbish out into the yard (just to make space in the kitchen) - the rubbish was from their room so probably a whole mixture of things that shouldn't be in there but no time to sort it. The green bed cover came out of the wash and was hung over an old table top (currently standing on it's end next to the living room door (label was faded but I think the TD was a no no). Two more towels into the TD and another load of washing into the WM.

In the afternoon I watched a couple of episodes of a new to me detective series (I think I've read a couple of the books but not these plots). Two minor mishaps - I knocked a can of drink off my bedside chest of drawers (might have been the CPAP hose, it happened behind my back). Of course it was the bit of floor I'd just cleaned but I grabbed the rag and wiped it over again and used it to do the next section and pick all the bits that were too small to sweep up. Later on I went to reach for the bin bag and everything fell out on the floor but I'm still moving forward. That's 16 so 1916.

Today I took the brown bin but the men had already been (DS3 didn't put it out last night) so during the day, in stages, I've taken out 3 carrier bags full  of cans and left them with DS3 for him to squash, then they can go to the town centre recycling. All the plastic bottles went back in but we've half a bin of space to last until the next collection. I had to be downstairs by 10 am as my pills were being delivered but once DS3 came down I left him on pill and parcel watch and got on with other things.

I picked out washing, sitting on the next to bottom stair, prioritising clothing including the dressing gown I've been looking for (must have thrown it down and everything else has been piled on top and I never got to the bottom of the pile). Mum's gel washing tabs are still deliquescing so poured the bottom of the jar liquid into the drawer again. The duvet cover and pillowcases went in the TD (I've found 3 balls of old washing line this afternoon but by that time I hadn't the energy to climb up (will pass this on to DS3). Green waste including horrible bananas and the stems of the roses I was given went to the bins along with the other bags I threw out yesterday.

Collected a garden chair and 3 large buckets and sat by the bin sorting cans and bottles. Moved the chair and 4 buckets of soil next to one of the tree planters and emptied the soil in, then moved the chair and empty buckets next to the pile of good soil in the backs and refilled them, goat willow tree planted. Pulled out any roots and weeds as I went along. Moved one raspberry cane and planted it along the ground so next year it will sprout a whole row of new canes (it fit in the hole the ivy root came out of). I used three part bricks to block the hole where the old fence post was. One side is a cobble wall so needed pieces that would fit in but not fall out again. Then moved a 40 l bucket and one of my holly bushes into that space.

After lunch (about 2 pm) I went back outside and stayed at the house end of the yard. The remaining planters on the side bed have been moved up from the end of the yard to the house end, weeded, soil added to the planter bins (a couple were under filled). The remaining planter pots (incinerator bins) have been set up near the others and have the membrane placed in the bottom but not started filling them yet (too tired). I moved the bay tree next to them and moved a couple of piles of empty buckets out of the way (also moved some raised bed planks and assorted seed trays). 

I will now be able to turn the last 3 x 50 l containers onto their sides and 'roll' them along the side bed. When they reach the point where the bay tree was, I'll put small buckets on the ground and move the soil into them (a drop of about 2') to make moving that soil around easier.

There are a number of easy jobs I can do if I ache tomorrow. The kitchen floor area is now nearly clear - some empty rubble sacks that held washing, 2 or 3 loads still to do. The little trolley is clear (having removed clean crockery and cutlery, uncollected clean bedding and paint cans. I'm hoping I can trundle heavier things back and forth across the kitchen (and hide many of the pesky records under the stairs), also tools, shopping especially drinks. Ideally I'd like to do the same from the front door to the middle door (two trolleys with a transfer in the middle, could also use my walker but not sure there's enough room to get it through atm because of ex-m-i-l's cod.

I have some new bags for life and I think I'll use them to set aside things that are going to DS1's with me. Books, any clean clothes I definitely want to take, other things as they occur to me. Then on Saturday I can take them downstairs and pack my suitcase. I think that's another 22 so 1938 in total. I will get there (before Saturday?, we'll see).

Siebrie I have 2 if not 3 of those grabbers (mine and mum's) but not sure of their current location - I suspect some are in their room, one may be on the end of the sink worktop behind the kitchen door.

TC77

Had phone call from bank about a complaint that month and still haven't got credit card. Got told that someone had tried to spend £5000 on it, and thought end of it, then notification to log on to approve a transaction, Rang bank to tell them they asked what notification said and explained hadn't read it, so they told me to, and took me to my app, then said they weren't credit card, so put on hold for over an hour. Now worried, and new person 45 min later said they don't send notifications and that no record of any one calling me. Now worried as bank app also has my dad's account and worried that maybe could access my phone, other calls and still no clearer, but just checked emails and looks like the call was legit but hours of worry so behind with everything. All that stress unloaded here... sorry! Old soap dispenser, and some paper declutter, more items identified for repair. Took DD1 to ikea and she did talk again about me being 'buried under clutter' not in those words but that's the feeling I have. Priorities tidying and wrapping present and will think about getting things out for 2023. Sorry haven't caught up on messages, but hope those that need it are in the TLC carriage where I think I will head too !

EnergyShifter

Oh TC77 - I can see why you were so worried about that!  Have a good rest in the TLC Carriage! 💐

florianatwobob

Sending some hugs @TC77

Fizz2015

@TC77 put your feet up and have a rest after that worry. 

I braved the supermarket to do the Xmas food and a top up shop - £120 later!! Note to self stick to the list not what looks nice. We will be eating very well come January as most can be frozen.  

I did declutter yet another bag of soft plastics. 

Plans for my day off batch cook some curries and cottage pie to use up leftover veg. Declutter ironing pile from sofa and meal plan until 30th. Off on holiday on 31st, can't wait! Randomly found out a colleague and her family are on the same flight. 

Have a good day all. Fizz x