2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

vulpix

Good morning. 

 Very sorry to hear about your friend weenancy. What a shock for you. X

 Granny Kate, you will soon be all done. X

 The joiner turned up yesterday evening to see about putting the skirting board and mantle on. Got a call at 9am to say J was on the way to point the bricks at the back of the fireplace. Plumber is on the way to see about moving the radiator. Woohoo 🥳 I had intended to paint the chimney breast today just as a temporary fix to cover the new plaster area. No problem,tomorrow is another day. 

 I decided that I didn’t like the finish on the new drawers last night so I have started to strip them again! I will finish them today. 

 When the work is finished I can at last have a clean up in the hope that the house will be grit free. Then I can spread the curtain fabric on the floor and make a start on the new curtains. 

 I am having visitors in the next few weeks. That always spurs me on to get tidied up. 

 Vx

Dfw38

So sorry to hear of your news about your colleague @weenancyinAmerica. 

Glad that the recent decluttering and reorganisation of your dds room has paid off @QueenJess. Depending on my energy levels I am going to start the decorating of dds 'new' bedroom (we are swapping bedrooms- us back in the master), let bedroom chess begin. I anticipate pure chaos when ds temporarily moves in with his sisters while we use his room for furniture storage so we can decorate 2 bedrooms and then onto decorating his one. It is going to be a challenging February 🤣.

Completed my 🐸 of the day: emailing Andy who runs after school art classes to see if she has any space.... been meaning to do this since September...oops! Freezer is all organised. I have allocated a shelf to "be a future friend to your self shelf" and have organised chopped peppers, mushrooms, grated cheese and also peas and sweetcorn in clear resealable bags. Should hopefully make some dinners a little less frantic! More in there  since I took photo but all sorted out.

QueenJess

Liverpool_Anne said:

@mehefin it's so annoying when councils start mucking about with bin collections. We have wheelie bins here and a few years ago they switched to fortnightly from weekly, alternating between normal rubbish and recycling and it caused no end of problems for a while and then last year they decided to charge for the green waste bin. It was optional but they stop collecting mid november and don't start again until march so there will be lots of very full bins by the time they start again.

They are looking at swapping to fortnightly collections from weekly (alternative rubbish and recycling, but food waste will be weekly). I don’t create much real rubbish, but am worried what chaos it might cause. I assume most people will recycle loads on that week and then bin everything on the bin week. Bit concerned about the rates of rubbish/recycling.

We have just bin bags for rubbish issued by the council and you have to use theirs. I keep giving mine away as they issue you with two rolls a year which works out at 2 bags a week. It’s not possible for me to fill one and I think most of that is tissues from colds etc and whatever DH puts in there and hides that he isn’t recycling everything (he knows I will shout at him!). I keep looking at hankies, but can’t quite bring myself to do it. I need to give it a go as I use too many even without a cold.

QueenJess

Just did my tidy of 23 things.  The house is slowly getting tidier.  I think I want to just concentrate on getting things tidy for the moment before I make another mess decluttering another area.

Tons of stuff found in my tidying around (the stuff we don't use often doesn't have a home and is lying around):

1,445 - Credit card OOD (cut up and binned)

1,446 - toy (Buy Nothing)

1,447-1,455 - DS's general tat (recycled)

1,456 - calendar laminated (binned)

1,457-61 - paper (reused, then recycled)

1,462-63 - Covid tests (too many stockpiled - Buy Nothing)

mhagster

Morning!  

Two medium sized things dropped off at charity shop this morning and finally took old internet router etc to post office to return. It’s only been sitting there for 11 days😆 the chap has bagged it all up for me and stuck the return sticker on it all I had to do was post it! 

And a big thing getting picked up tomorrow. A unit I’d got free last year that I’d upcycled , however getting some work done where it sits so don’t need it. Tried it out in my hallway but think we’d all end up with bruised thighs every time we walked past as just too sticky outy. Anyway popped it on the local fb page and a lady who’s got stuff from me before is picking it up tomorrow. Which feels like a massive tick ✅ off my de-cluttering list ( which is just in my head😆) 

And whilst in town I did NOT go round the charity shops as I really don’t need anything. And no doubt would have been swayed! So I resisted temptation by not going in any ( other than to quickly drop off my two things) 

Have a lovely day and keep on at keeping on 😊

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

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

2. Commence ‘Operation Frog Tickling’ I have an acronym - I.R.I.S. being Identify, Re search, Implement, Sign Off

3. Implement a new sleep/wake up regime - start going to bed earlier (target before 2:00 a.m.) get up earlier (target by 9:00 a.m.)

4. Deal with daily mail immediately 

5. Don’t put it down, put it away

6. If I spot a mini task deal with it immediately e.g. refill olive oil pourer or salt cellar, stitch up a hole in a garment etc

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

Oops forgot to post last night 😬 

Wednesday continued:- Hour long bath ✅ My skin is currently quite dry so will try to get into a routine of moisturising every day. Did weigh myself 😱 😬 Deep kitchen drawer restocked ✅ - lots of paperwork recycled & various bits relocated to their proper or more appropriate places. I did discover I have 25 tea towels 😂

Now the big news drum roll 🥁 please…….. DH has signed up for The Prostate Cancer March Challenge - 11,000 steps per day for the whole of March. He already has several sponsors 🙂 He is using February to practice as he is not fit & has a dodgy knee 😣 - Today he did a loop which was 1,145 steps & intends to increase by 400 steps each day. Apparently my job will be to send him out every day in March 😉

Dinner was Risotto cakes accompanied by fried chicken pieces - 4 risotto cakes bagged & frozen. The hm soup is very tasty - so lunch for 2.5 days for DH & me 🙂 Wudupa.

401 - 428 Kitchen recycling, glass bottle, plastic bottle, cardboard packaging, 2 dozen product leaflets, manuals & instructions - recycled

429 - 433 Kitchen detritus, bedroom detritus, 3 Finger protector sleeves - binned

short_bird, I have every faith that you will succeed in decluttering the contents of the furniture 🙂

joanie, thanks for the heads up on Erica Lucas - I have bookmarked her & will find some time to watch a couple of her videos 🙂 Excellent decluttering 👏 Perhaps you can use one of the boxes to take the next lot of donations to the CS 😉

You are welcome vulpix 🙂 DH & I did discuss going on a cruise a few years ago  but on balance decided against it 😉 We might revisit the idea again at some point 🤔 

Excellent decluttering nu1isit? 👏 If you can keep up that pace you will hit your target early 🙂

A successful day Brie - you got the desired food stuffs and resisted the temptation of buying a ‘that will do item’ when the item you wanted was out of stock 👏

Florenceem, sounds like the chocolate pudding with the yummy chocolate custard went down a treat 👏 A whole one in the SA freezer so at least those who missed out will get the chance to taste your bake at a later date 😉 Sorry to hear that MrF is exhausted ☹️ He is welcome to pop into the TLC Carriage - we will look after him 😊

Well said 2Scratters - decluttering is always housework’ 🙂 Good work dealing with the tadpole before it became a frog 👏 Well done on shopping from stores 👏

Excellent decluttering EnergyShifter 👏 Sounds like you really enjoyed smashing up the garden furniture 😂 

Dfw38, I imagine you were nearer on the box count per room than DH 😉 Just thinking about our house makes me shudder - only the cloakroom downstairs would be easy & that would probably be at least 2 medium sized boxes 😔 A six mile walk 😥 Hope you managed to complete your frog 🤞

Electronic decluttering still counts Florenceem 👏 

Keiths_Mum, surely the scarf should have been counted as crocheting 😉 One belated ‘Sewing Badge’ 🪡 coming your way 🙂 Great paperwork decluttering 👏

Great decluttering skogar 👏

Will post this & start again for Thursday 😉

MrsSD (a superwoman) 😇 🎖💐🤩🏅🦸🏅💐🏆 💐🍰🍾

DH Awards: 🥇 

Decluttering Target 2023: 433/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

Florenceem

Two exhausted bods in the TLC Carriage.
The chocolate pudding in the SA freezer will make enough for 20 afters so I may volunteer to make a second one when the menu rotates round again - the officer has a 12 week menu plan. This plan does alter when we get donations of something that can be used for lunch club meals - eg a box of apples from the gleaners to use in a crumble.
Mr F has not had such a bad January in all the years he has been in business - from 1979 but he chose to support a dear friend in need so work suffered. We will survive this - income will be used to pay client's fines so it will be tough but we are frugal.

Soontobeoap

£555 decluttered to the dentist for root canal work yesterday and hubby decluttered £469 for my new prescription glasses the day before 😭😢. This is something we would rather not have decluttered obviously. The optician was very young and kept talking about my "age related deterioration" he went on to tell me it was all within normal realms for my age. The last time I went to dentist they told me that my gums were getting older! I know all this why do I have to keep being reminded! I was quite relieved when the bus driver got annoyed with me when my bus pass wouldnt work on her machine. She showed me how I should do it! It didnt work for her either! 😅. Made my day. Its the little things. Just pottering around today. No real decluttering done. Using up and sorting craft stash but none of it has left house yet. 

2Scratters

Surprised myself today about some unexpected finds for decluttering - there is still loads. It's just this was an already tidy area! The wardrobe space - found a single duvet set including fitted sheet surplus to requirement as DGD doesn't stay that often but we have a quilt that doesn't need a cover for her anyway. Identified we have too many sheets for our bed. They will be making into rags for DH very soon.
Removed a too big jumper from DH's side and will aim to stick on Eboy as is a Tod Baker one. There was also some other tat that went into the bin. Checked my side of said wardrobe and I obviously have too much stuff. Bit of a penchant for J Malone.... tis WIP  definitely won't be any bought for the next 18 months.

Emptied children's shampoo into our dispenser bottle which has its rubber band on for reduction of product (Dh's  idea) bottle then into recycle. The top of the cabinet is showing signs of space being visible to the naked eye 
 Ear marked a sponge soon to be heading into general bin and the loofah that will take its place.
Time for a quick hoover

2 Scratters xx

Brie

@weenancyinAmerica sorry to hear about your friend.  OH had a similar shock when a friend messaged about a former colleague of theirs who was found dead in his flat just after Christmas.  No details as yet and possibly we'll never hear more unless it makes the local news which is unlikely.  Sad to say we and our friends are getting to the age where such things seem more likely and one begins to dread anyone coming out with "oh did you hear about X?"