2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Moorviews

I’ve been managing to read along but not post. Every time I read though I am inspired to do more decluttering so thank you all for helping to keep up my motivation. 

@Dfw38 - Those loft photos are my vision of how I would love mine to look in the future!
@Mrs_Salad_Dodger - Such a beautiful olive tree 😍 It must love your garden and your green fingers. I really must give my poor almost leafless twig some TLC!

Every day I am getting rid of things, tidying something and maintaining the cleared spaces. It is really starting to make an impact now and improving the appearance of the rooms. Still further to go though and quite a bit of difficult stuff to push through to get where I really want to be. 

Since last posting:
Another drawer of the desk is empty. New homes found for some things. Unused cards and craft items to CS and lots of paper and card recycled. I am developing a pile of sentimental items which I shall go through again and work out how I would like to store them. Just the one drawer with dvds and vhs tapes left (most of those will go) and then the real horror of what is packed behind the writing slope and in all those little drawers and cubbyholes. 

My under bed drawers gone through and tatty old stuff ragged, otherwise charity clothes bin. 

Both dressing table drawers emptied out, old makeup and hair brushes binned, along with OOD meds. Decent but unwanted hair accessories to charity shop. Unused makeup bags to CS. Spectacles recycled at the optician’s. Now everything fits in the drawers so I don’t have any extra things sitting on top. 

Bedside drawers - I have taken out almost all the costume jewellery as I no longer wear any and that has gone to CS. I am pretty happy with the bedroom now and gave it a good clean to celebrate 🎉 

Large sideboard- emptied out and only put back the things that I really like plus a few that I will pack up for CS. Random bits of tat binned. Unused candles to CS. Now I just have to find the remaining pieces of an unwanted dinner service and find somewhere to recycle that to. 

A kitchen drawer emptied and given a new use. 

This process results in reflection while I am engaged with clutter busting. My home is untidier than I would like because I haven’t been ruthless enough about getting rid of things and they have filled up the available storage space, which means I can’t put everything away. I then find cleaning a chore because I have to move and dust so many things. I have real difficulty deciding something isn’t useful or wanted anymore. There is something of the puritan in me that causes me to think that I should be using everything until it falls to bits and that getting new, nicer things is frivolous or extravagant and something to feel guilty about. Possibly it is as a result of financially very tight times but I would like to loosen up a little bit and feel that I haven’t got to hang onto everything in case there isn’t any money to buy new when, or if, I need something in the future. 

Floss

Just a reminder for anyone with OOD medication - PLEASE take it to a chemist / pharmacy for safe disposal, and don't just chuck it into the bin. They won't judge you for having meds that have expired before use and the medication will be safely destroyed.

GrannyKate

@moorviews - I think one of the best things about decluttering is being able to put everything away and still see what is in the cupboard or drawer.  I think many of us have had hard times which have made us thrifty and resulted in 'Justin' habits.  I am still using lots of old things but will say goodbye to them when they eventually wear out.  I still have 4 of the 6 item kitchen utensil set which I received as a wedding present 53 years ago.  My prestige wooden handled set was made to last and it did.  The potato masher is ace and in regular use.  I have grandad's flour sieve and hand whisk on display - probably useable but kept as a memento on kitchen wall.  Probably nearing 100 years old now - remind me of my mum and all the wedding cakes she made.  I do use my grandma's wooden rolling pin as well. 

There seems to be a lot of clutter about after a weekend with small people so will do some general tidying and cleaning when I have been for a short trip out.  Post office and MrT to visit. 23 minute frog needs to be sorting and filing papers for DS legal stuff. No numbers to add yet.  DS2 was able to take children to school so I can have a shower and wake up slowly.  Need to keep myself busy to stop myself looking in the fridge for something to eat.  It is now 12 days since I last ate a biscuit, cake or sweet of any kind.  Love the olive tree Mrs SD.  Made me think of Greek tavernas and wine. 

roundtuit

Morning xx 

@Dfw38 now everywhere I  look there is 23 minutes aka a mini mission waiting for my tender ministrations. They are all clamouring for attention Me first. Me first. I'm actually quite excited. I have a question 🤔 Did you list your 28 frogs and then work through them? I  spose you can do that with frogs but I  also spose my mini missions are frogs in disguise 🐸 🥸. So I could make a list. ( I do love a list 😊 ) and add to it if I can't initially think of 31 mini missions rofl 🤣  Who am I kidding? Tbh finding 310 mms wouldn't be difficult so 31 should be a doddle. 

I'm going to have a practice mini mission. Mini Mission Practice 1 - spend 23 minutes writing my list for March. 🙂

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger I've read all the Alistair Maclean and Famous Five books that I unearthed last year - and I've made a start on the read and release pile. 1 book ready to go to the cs. 
Plus one sliver of soap binned. Every little helps 😉 

I  don't want to retreat back into TLC carriage though. @Dfw38 has relighted/ relit? my decluttering pilot light.

I will try to not let work blow it out again.


Love to all
Rxx

Moorviews

Floss said:

Just a reminder for anyone with OOD medication - PLEASE take it to a chemist / pharmacy for safe disposal, and don't just chuck it into the bin. They won't judge you for having meds that have expired before use and the medication will be safely destroyed.

Sorry, I was being brief and can see how that looked to you and possibly others so I should clarify. I do always take them to a chemist for disposal and wouldn’t dream of putting them with the refuse. They were actually added to a bag of others in the medicine cabinet which will be correctly disposed of. It was just in my head that they are “binned” so I shall be more careful about my terminology in the future in case I would influence anyone into unsafe practices. Thank you for pointing that out. 

Wednesday2000

I did some decluttering in my kitchen last night and put some pasta, rice, noodles etc... into containers. I am making a curry today and I'm going to use up the last of the red lentils.

My wardrobe was annoying me again so I rearranged it. I took the tip from Sort Your Life Out and folded the clothes over the hangers differently and it does make a lot more space. I folded up my bulkier jumpers too to put on the shelf. I looked on YT for the best way to fold jumpers. I know I have looked at this many times, but I forget! 

I had some fairy lights in that seagrass box so I found another place for them. The lights normally go round the fireplace downstairs but that room hasn't been completely decorated yet. I put my lighter scarves in the seagrass box and the warmer ones in the grey box which went on top of the wardrobe.

I took out a top that is too tight to donate and I put two three quarter length leggings in the second drawer. I only removed a few things really, but it looks like I have much more space now.

This is before:

Wednesday2000

This is after. It took a good hour to do but I much prefer it. Now I'm going to finish cleaning the stains off the bedroom carpet. I think the woman who lived here before me kept dropping makeup on the floor. I did the other day, but I missed a few bits and it is bugging me!

Floss

@Moorviews sorry, I get a bit bossy about it as I work in a hospital & we're reminded all the time!

QueenJess

@Dfw38 - those loft photos are amazing... I can only dream mine will ever look like that    I did stare at the photos jealously for a while!  Now that DH is working part time seasonally, it means he only works 2 days a week over the summer, so I have already threatened to provide him with a big list of things to do whilst I work (jncluding a loft sort out since it is at least 40% purely his stuff).  As I work from home I can supervise!

Still feeling a bit headachy after my migraine yesterday so trying not to overdo anything.  I did get DS to sort out his books in the library in piles so I should be able to box them up when I get time.  I've also made a start looking through my bedroom drawers and trying to make some decisions on some rearrangements.  I think I need some organisers in there for underwear, but no need to purchase any, I've discovered that our cereal boxes fit nicely (cut to size widthways).  As we get through loads, I should be able to make slow progress there once I've actually decided what makes most sense where.  I do also need to replace a few things as well, but I was waiting for DD to stop feeding as my bras are falling apart and I don't want to buy breastfeeding ones as they'll barely be used once she stops.  I mean she's 2 in a few weeks, so it'll be soon right?!

I'm still going through online accounts.  Some people make it so hard to close them which is just plain annoying.  I had a bit of an epiphany re: my online bookmarks.  Most of them are recipes, but I have an app I save favourites into and I never, ever look back at them and search on my app or online anyway.  I am going through getting rid of almost all the recipes bar a few I'd forgotten about and want to revisit (then if I want to make them again they go in the app anyway).

Very behind in the tidying stakes at the moment after being ill, but actually the house is tidier than it's been for a while!  I'll slowly catch up with it and then maybe I'll get a room perfectly tidy.. you never know!

Edit: totally forgot to add my decluttering numbers!

2,457-2,462 - online accounts deleted

2,463 - paper (reused, then recycled)

2,464-2,685 - bookmarks deleted

I am weirdly excited that I have exactly 1 biro left, then I only have newspaper pencils, a refillable pen and a cartridge pen.  I told DH and he offered up his drawer of biros for me to use... no thanks!

More to do so may be back later!

Slinky

Haven't been here for a while but have read the last few pages and people seem to be doing really well. I haven't been counting but have had some major wins on clearing clutter to report.

We had some leftover cladding from our building work so I was pleased when that sold on ebay and finally got collected. Much clearer in that part of the garage now. We also managed to sell on some 20 year old conservatory furniture which whilst in good condition, we wanted a change of style in our new room. One particular piece of this was very popular and I managed to get more for it than I'd hoped.  We have BHF coming to collect some sofas on Thursday. As yet the replacements have been ordered, but not arrived, so our seating options will be a little limited for a while, but I thought it was better that way round than having both new and old cluttering the place up as we've had to wait for a while for BHF to get a slot available for us.

I managed to have a clearout of some old business paperwork and gave away some folders that were too good to throw but no use to me now. I got tempted into keeping one to put my random recipes in, as a friend took one with this purpose. Now I need to have the discipline to do this task!

At the weekend we hung up 8 pictures, a couple of external house signs and a keysafe, so they're no longer clutter.

We have a new mirror for the bathroom but as yet no fixings for it, so that's clutter in, and the old mirror which no longer fits the colour scheme is waiting to find a buyer on FM marketplace. If it doesn't go this week I'll probably take it to the charity shop. I had somebody wanting me to post it to them, but way too much trouble for that.

We had two trips to the tip in the past couple of weeks, mainly random clutter from the garage and bits of leftover rubbish from the builders.