2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

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, Research, 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

Monday is turning out to be a good day - clear blue skies & sunshine although still chilly & enthused by my fellow declutterers to tackle a frog 👏

So I did deal with the frog of bathroom shelves. Quite fruitful as I decluttered 5 bottles of ood lotions & potions (emptied, washed & recycled) & a small bag of detritus. The shelves are now sparkling clean & everything is arranged neatly ✅  Whilst I was there I also took the opportunity to scrub the toilet inside & out - I thought it was DH’s responsibility 😉 as he is upstairs 🤣 Whilst I was dealing with this bathroom frog DH did his 1st walk & then set off to visit M. She is now working from home part time whilst she continues to recover 🙂 I have brought down the biscuit tin & basket containing various toiletries & will try to condense into one container - wish me luck 🍀

459 - 464 Five plastic bottles, large cardboard box - recycled

465 Bag of bathroom detritus

I remember that expression vulpix & just had a quick Google 😉 Apparently ‘holy moly’ dates back to 1892 😱 Good luck with your task of decluttering & tidying your Mother’s house 🍀 Hopefully your brother will be a whizz with the paperwork for the potential tenant 🤞 More inspiring decluttering 👏 - are you sure don’t have a gremlin coming in & refilling your bedside drawers 😉 Excellent work on the hearth stone & chimney breast & great decluttering 👏

Lovely to see you Crazycatlady2 👋 thank you for coming out of lurkdom 😊 A very salutary tale - both amusing & annoying 🤔 How come you had to hoover out the footwell? 😉

The HF box has arrived so I need to sort that out & update my menu plan 🙂

MrsSD (a superwoman) 😇 🎖💐🤩🏅🦸🏅💐🏆 💐🍰🍾🌟

DH Awards: 🥇 🏅

Decluttering Target 2023: 465/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

Crazycatlady2

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger it was full of bits of shoe 😂

Wednesday2000

Our roof is finally fixed, thank God. It is meant to get cold here tonight so I am going to see if it feels warmer in the bathroom with the new roofing when I have a bath later.

I had no idea what to do with those sofa cushions so I have just kept them!

My husband took a bag to the charity shop be donated today. I forget what was even in there now.

I have 7 grey boxes on top of my wardrobes and I am going to go through them all tomorrow. The decorator is coming back here and will hopefully get most of the work done tomorrow and the next few days.

Siebrie

We currently have 9 moving boxes in our living room. I checked them, and 2 had just a thin layer of books and notebooks, so I consolidated them into a part-filled 3rd box, and folded the 2 empty ones. Not really decluttering, but visually very pleasing.

EnergyShifter

Back to work today & it's been a busy one  up until now  - I'm very pleased with myself that I've kept up with the notes as i've gone along which should make for a more pleasant evening! 

Pleased to say that old lawn-mower was taken from outside the house as was a metal floor lamp I put out there this morning.  Decided not to keep the dress that was too big so returned it to CS.  My sewing skills are not great @MrsSD and I could imagine I would ruin it if I tried to make adjustments.

Tasks:
Returned dress to CS

IN (running total 37)
0

OUT (running total 183)
184. Ikea floor lamp - nowhere suitable to put it

short_bird

552-553: 100 emails deleted
554-590: items to recycling - good week for finishing off jars
591-606: rubbish to binbag
607-610: life maintenance tasks
Delayed decisions:
62-66: Sorting like with like... this will be going on all week but at least there's the odd item going out and it's all taking up less space.

Everybody's doing so well!! I mean, you may not think that but you've come a long way 

weenancyinAmerica

Mrs. S_D - My brother-in-law now has two treadle machines! He just bought himself another one. He is the one that sews - not my sister. I don't think she has sewn anything since school 60 years ago. My other sister's late husband was the quilt maker in her family. My sister went along to the quilt club meetings to help with ironing the squares. I used to make quilts. My father made me a small frame to take in my suitcase when I was traveling (for three years I was on the road for three weeks of the month).

Finally got my female roommate to start working on the problems in the living room - 23 minutes a day Yeah! Today is our regular trash out day as the bins are picked up tomorrow and she has trash to throw away. It's a start. I set an example by sorting papers while she was doing it and got a lot done. 

Managed to sort one of the four bins I keep my clothes in. Small bag for the charity shop, bag of clothes to cut up for the rag bag, and room to put more in if I need to. Due to all the travel I used to do, my wardrobe is really small. Can fit everything into a small suitcase and tote bag if I need to. But things are starting to fall apart - after thirty years of wearing some of them. Maybe more - I have pictures of me in some of the tops from the 1980's. The store I bought most of them from changed their supplier. I loved the old one and can't learn to like the new one, so I have been holding on to the old t-shirts forever. But they are starting to get holes faster than I can fix them. 

After the gas heating bill I got, I just turned off the heater. And I slept through most of the night without a problem. Wonder if it going on and off was actually waking me up before. It is the first time I've slept through the night all year so far. Temperature around 10C outside so not so bad yet. It is supposed to get warm in the middle of the week and then go back down to below normal and rain next weekend. No daffodils or tulips here though - I think they are lovely, but we mainly just have geraniums everywhere. Here we just break off a piece and plant it wherever and it grows - very frugal. 

QueenJess

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger I love a good bathroom declutter.

Tidied up a bit (still need to do a little more later) and found the odd thing to declutter.  I also tackled both scary cupboards; the upstairs one I reviewed the blanket box (probably still too many, but the kids love playing with them!) and the sun cream from the downstairs cupboard.  Thanks to whoever decluttered their suncream recently (can't remember who it was) as it reminded me I had some really old ones in there!

1,597 - stationery (donated to school)

1,598 - clothes I don't wear (charity bag)

1,599 - bathroom supplies (used up)

1,600-1,601 - v. old sun cream almost used up (binned)

1,602 - random plastic bag in cupboard hiding behind the suncream! (recycled)

1,603 - random cardboard box not being used hiding behind the blankets (recycled)

1,604-1,607 - blankets not needed (charity bag)

I like this tiny decluttering as it doesn't make any mess, I can do individual bits at a time and it doesn't take very long (plus it isn't overwhelming that way)!  Only works though if you have everything in a similar place already as a certain amount of decluttering or organising has been done.  Sometimes you just have to pull everything out to re-organise (aka the kids rooms) and that takes forever!

Brie

weenancyinAmerica said:

Mrs. S_D - My brother-in-law now has two treadle machines! He just bought himself another one. He is the one that sews - not my sister. I don't think she has sewn anything since school 60 years ago. My other sister's late husband was the quilt maker in her family. My sister went along to the quilt club meetings to help with ironing the squares. I used to make quilts. My father made me a small frame to take in my suitcase when I was traveling (for three years I was on the road for three weeks of the month).

Went to a preview of a Mennonite quilt auction decades back with my mom (champion quilter!!).  I was amazed to find how many men were there closely examining how well the hand quilting had been done (no machine quilted were allowed).  Turned out that while many of the quilts were design and constructed by the women it was the men in the community who did the actual quilting.  

Just had a google and can see that there's still auctions happening in that area - whether this was the one we went to years back I don't recall but I know it was at least near New Hamburg.  There's certainly some beauties in the recent auction catalogues.

2021 Quilt Catalogue | New Hamburg Mennonite Relief Sale (nhmrs.com)

vulpix

Thanks Brie, I will look at that. 

My Grandad was a fabulous needle person. I have embroidery and tapestry he did. He also knitted. 

 Years ago I bought a treadle sewing machine from a jumble sale. The best machine I have ever had. A cross between hand and machine sewing. I can use a sewing machine but much prefer hand sewing. Goodness knows why I got rid of it. 

 A few years ago Mr V took me to a quilt exhibition in Penrith. Aaaaamazing. I hand sew all my quilts but these were on a different level. Mr V’s friends wife exhibited. Check out Kate E Crossley. Every tiny detail of her work is made by her. We are going to Powys Castle next month to a kaffe Fassett exhibition. ( my hero) The exhibition is on for some time if anyone is interested. 

 I got into quilting when I was a nanny in Canada. Every time I make one I say never again! The last one I made was for DIL. Simple but effective. I will post a pic.