2022 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

roundtuit

I think I've caught the declutterbug!!! While I was waiting for the kettle to boil I started to look through a pile of rammel on the third worktop. (Two cleared, just this one to do.) I retrieved a pile of cs bags, bags and large envelopes.....all of which can be repurposed as bin bags / bags for cs shop. I put them all tidily away into one cloth bag - then did a quick tour of the rest of the kitchen gathering up all the random bags - cloth and plastic, folded them and put them into the bag  which is now hung with my shopping bags and peg bag. They will eventually live in the cupboard under the stairs.....aka the cupboard of doom! Nuf said. For now they are hung on the cupboard door handle. 

I unearthed a small wicker tray, so I've pulled everything out of DS's cubby hole on the TV stand, put it in the tray, and I'm going to sort through it from the comfort of my armchair 😁

The rest of the TV stand will follow....3 more cubby holes, a drawer and a shelf. The top of the stand only has the TV and hub on it....and a century's worth of dust. Not sure how that happened- I'm not old enough for a start! Prone to exaggeration perhaps? 🤣

There's not much going out the door  - just a very small tatty plastic bag (binned),  a flyer from the Eye Clinic and two scraps of paper being used as bookmarks (recycled). But there's a lot of like with like sorting out, and a lot of organising going on, and it all MAD. 

Rxx

Siebrie

We have a shoebox-y thing by the tv where we keep ALL remote controls from the house, even the ones from the beamer husband uses to watch tv/films on the wall in the backroom.

We have another schoebox-y thing by the tv where we keep ALL charger plugs and wires. DDs are being trained to check if a phone is not charging, by using the wire in a different socket, to make sure it's the wire that's faulty. If it is, it needs to go in the small recycling bag in the garage. We need to keep things flowing through our house!

TheCraftyForager

Hi Everyone,

I’m back from the TLC and buffet carriages after my holiday in beautiful Northumberland.  I’ve left lots of yummy treats in the TLC carriage so feel free to pop along and enjoy them!

I have been keeping up with posts – almost a full-time job (I don’t know how you do it Mrs SD!!) – but haven’t posted since I’ve been home as I have been too busy actually decluttering.  There have been so many brilliant ideas on here that I have managed to put into place and I’m genuinely shocked at how much I’ve been able to release, so thank-you to everyone who has shared their ideas.

One of the biggest was listening to ‘Decluttering at the Speed of Life’.  I know a couple of you mentioned this, but I can’t recall who!  I listened to it over a couple of days, sometimes whilst decluttering, other times whilst just sitting having a coffee so I could think about what she was saying.  The steps given in the book made a lot of sense to me, but the key thing I took from it was to keep stuff that you need for the life you’re living now – not the one you used to have or the one you might someday have.  This has changed the way I look at things – for example soooo many craft supplies that I know I will never use, but haven’t been able to release before, will be going to my local scrapstore (2 mins away by car – who knew?!!).  I’ll list all the stuff I’ve managed to go through/ get rid of in a later post as most of it is still in the waiting room right now – I have made appointments with myself for various drop offs this weeks, so it won’t creep back in!

I signed up to a free 30 day trial to listen to the audiobook – have already listened to another book I needed to read for my bookgroup, whilst decluttering.  I suspect I may keep this subscription going, as it’s freed me up from sitting reading and allows me the pleasure of a good book whilst getting other things, such as craft projects, done.

A few years ago I managed to declutter about 300 books – it still amazes me!  Most of them went to the charity shop, but I had some sets of books that were in really good condition (I’m not a spine cracker or page folder) so I contacted my local library to see if they’d like them.  They were very happy to take my full set of Game of Thrones books as well as a couple of other sets I no longer recall.  It’s worth checking with them if you have some books which may be popular.

In other news, I’ve been managing to keep the kitchen tidy every night – it really makes such a difference to the start of the following day.

Keep up the amazing work everyone!

stellata

I've lost it this week, work is all over the place with people getting covid. New lodger turned up, seems nice. I keep reading in posts about "like with like" , can someone elaborate please as I think I've missed something? Just trying to do essentials today.

TC77

@stellata...like with like is when similar things together, I can never find measure tapes now putting them in one home and I have 5. It goes with one home for things, then you put all the tools together, scarves together, wrapping stuff together.
I'm not good at it, have some wrapping paper under 2 different beds, in a drawer and gift bags in a wardrobe - I am a great example of how not to do like with like. Also use the excuse that have 3 floors so need things more readily available 

donna73

Thanks for all your kind words of encouragement re our under the stairs transformation, @GrannyKate @Floss @roundtuit @wort @bit_by_bit @Mrs_Salad_Dodger 😀much appreciated!

fancy us sharing a name @roundtuit! I remember my mum buying my grandad a roundtuit years ago - is that why you chose your name? 

Thanks so much for the gold star @Mrs_Salad_Dodger that’s very kind of you. 

Today I’ve had a bit of a tidy up in my son’s room , made a little sale on eBay and generally tried to keep warm!!! 🥶

306-331 things recycled from son’s room 
332 clock 
333 gathered & washed dirty dishes from son’s room 
334-340 items into bin from his room 
341 eBay sale to post office 
342 reused Amazon packaging 
343-345 receipts from handbag
346 cushion - CS

more items ending on eBay tonight / tomorrow so keeping fingers crossed for more sales. 

Hope everyone has had a good day and wrapped up warm. 

mothernerd

You're all writing too much for me to catch up on reading. Probably not everything but here are some edited highlights. Phoned the Food Bank Manager on Thursday and asked if he could collect donations, Answer was yes so much packing, unpacking, repacking and finally pulling stuff out of boxes, checking the dates and leaving things behind on the floor to be sorted over the weekend. He came on Friday morning and took away at least 12 dozen cans, 50 dried food items (soup, stock cubes, microwave rice and pasta, 45 toiletry/ minor medical items including a large unopened tub of E45 and sudocrem plus 2 large sacks of toilet rolls. Much more efficient than me taking 2 or 3 bags/ boxes in a taxi home then loading them either onto the walker or trolley to take them to the food bank location.

Rubbish and recycling at least one bag each of rubbish, paper and brown bin recycling every day = an extra 5 for days when it was 3 or 5. Also ripped up 4 large cardboard boxes at home, 10 bin bags from the pile in the yard squashed down and binned (bin had just come back so do a few each week). Keep rounding up 20s of old plastic bottles used for various purposes in the yard. OOd jars of food (mainly beetroot and branston - mum choices), opened, drained and binned /recycled appropriately.

4 bin bags worth of bedding, 3 boxes of bric a brac, 3 storage jars, 8 mugs, plates, white plates and a red teapot (mainly poppy design) taken to cs last week and now proudly on display in the window (called in to say I'd found a few more stray items). Weekend round up (just pottering, looking for stuff no-one will miss) netted 6 matching placemats + 5 coasters, 3 glass placemats, Australian birds coasters, a metal fruit bowl, 5 bathroom scrubby things (can't remember what they're called)an apron, 4 sets of curtain rings (I lent them to mum to get curtains up when she first moved in, but then she got eyelet curtains and my bits have been in the drawer ever since), 7 toffee hammers (think there may be more), 2 more or less complete sets of cutlery + oddments (I brought 2 knives, forks, spoons and one bowl from home so I could despatch these to the cs).

Another 2 cs deliveries made last week, one set taken home and another set packed up on the couch (including the snowman cookie jar and two reindeer items (one large mug/ jug and a small container). Five pairs of spectacles for vision aid taken today (+ a letter telling them about mum).

Also have a pile of momentos for her friends at church, small but growing pile of things that would make suitable prizes for tombola/ raffles to raise money for church and lots of photo piles for distributing. Was awake in the middle of the night so finished stripping mum's bed (had covered it with a valance whilst using it to sort clothing and other items. Made my niece jewellery monitor - not much of value - some junk, some pretty pieces and a few rings (mostly 'dress' rings but one is my grandma's engagement ring - apparently when my brother asked the girls' mother to marry him, my mum offered him a choice of her own and her mother's engagement rings, he chose grandma's, she preferred mum's so the one in the box is grandma's). I have dermatitis and eczema so don't wear rings (or any jewellery really) so next in line is my nieces. So gave them to the eldest to look through, pass on to younger niece (she will probably get grandma's engagement ring as it's more her style) and leftovers to cs. 

Niece had come the previous Friday with her boyfriend and they took 2 large rucksacks away with them (some big items, an oversized fleece, a lap rug, an old towel for the dog) and all the mint choc chip items from the freezer (bought for mum) I can't stand either mints or dark choc. Asked mum's lodger (I've ended up adopting him, as mum wanted) if he  wanted the 2 paintings he gave her back. Told him They would be going to the cs if not and he was happy with that (he was under no illusions about his 'talent' it was just something he did for a while). Have been lifting down items I can manage - must ask tall people to go round for the rest.

A rough count gives me a total of 703 (sure there are lots of things I just bundled up and got out of the house. Incidently the above mentioned items were my attempt at a Swedish Death Cleaning marathon. Decluttered some anxiety last Tuesday - had submitted forms for Universal Credit last Friday and was asked to an interview on Tuesday. Had to fill in a questionnaire before I went stating any medical issues and saying what work I could do (in the end I settled for 1 Counsellor - no formal qualifications and 2 Advice worker - knowledge rather dated).

Anyway the woman I saw was absolutely lovely. My carer's Allowance will continue for some weeks (niece thought it might be 3 months), next interview will be an assessment but given my obvious health issues and bereavement, that is likely to be much shorter than the standard 30 minutes, they will probably not be expecting me to look for work straight away and may have telephone interviews rather than going into the jobcentre (I had allowed myself half an hour to complete a walk which used to take 5 minutes, was limping slowly hunched over the walker - 3 people came with offers of help when I struggled out of the chair and back to the walker). She advised me to put in a claim for PIP (that takes a while to come through, but it's not means tested - the UC will disappear as soon as I get any money from mum's estate, they might even want me to pay back any amounts I receive) but that's okay, I have money to scrape by on for the next 3 months. She also offered me an advance and they paid that into my account on Thursday (at least I know I have enough in there to pay next month's standing orders - it was getting a little hairy).

That makes a total of 1317/ 2022. Today I went in a cs and asked what they wanted most. They have a lot of food on sale (they support homeless people so I think they get given things to provide meals and sell the surplus food to raise funds - they have lots of large sacks of dried pet foods as well). So I asked if they could use some tinned soup - yes. The food bank has enough soup, beans and pasta and I'd just stocked up on soup for the winter (Tessimo cc offer had H soups coming out at roughly 50p) but I don't like some of the varieties so will pack those up. I'm intending tomorrow to be a quiet day (funeral is Wednesday afternoon). I've tried on my old jacket and brought 3 bras (not used recently). The one I've worn today is comfortable but did have some movement earlier so will give the other two a whirl tomorrow and work out the best option.

Hugs for those that need or want them. Look after yourselves, treat yourself gently and always use your best stuff for everyday, don't it gather dust in a cupboard or cabinet.

EnergyShifter

EnergyShifter said:  

368 & 9 - good luck card and gift to cousin who is starting radiotherapy tomorrow
370-379 - 10 x items of clothing 
380 & 1 - 2 x curtains
382 & 3 - 2 x cards to CS
384 -396 - 13 x books
399. Modified morning routine - 22/100

Feeling out of sorts today - Just an old fashioned (non-Covid) cold but really lacking in energy.  Managed to drop a large CS bag off but other than that didn't leave the house.  An early night for me and fingers crossed I have more energy tomorrow.  

400. Jigsaw puzzle
401. inflatable globe
402. Loyalty cards that I don't use
403. Bundle of old training notes
404. Modified morning routine 23/100

Foofoopuppy

Further decluttering today, inspired by many people on here I have had a clear out of my bookshelves and have pulled off 10 books to go to charity. Plus side is it's created enough space to store all my books now, we don't need another bookshelf like I was thinking. 

Also a pair of gloves - I got another pair for Christmas and prefer the new ones, I don't need two of the same colour when I already have several pairs! 

TC77

apologies I know there are probably other threads I should go to but know how creative you all are, and wonder if any of you have ever used dulux brave ground or dark stone paint?
Utilities damaged my hall and can't find original colour - they are paying for painting  (may only be part of the hall but may make me do the rest) coming Thursday and I have been spending hours looking at shades, I take view that want a colour which can be made up again and not a colour match to F/B etc. Have dado rail so lighter colour above - piano white , jasmine white or similar above and gloss for paintwork ( had satinwood which looks so grubby in my house !)
Will have to clear the hall as well so will involve decluttering! Thanks,