2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, a bit of a lazy day spent on the sofa with hot drinks but I did tackle my emails, well some of them. I reversed the date and started with the oldest again and I have permanently deleted 3,400 and must have filed about 500 in my folders. I will have to go through them as I am sure some of those can be deleted but my aim is to clear the inbox. I am up to May 2020 sigh.
I also folded and put away the dry washing and got another load onto the maiden. I have decluttered 2 boxes of tissues and emptied the bedroom bin I also dealt with my post. My stamp swap form has finally arrived so I have filled out the form and put the stamps in the envelope to post tomorrow.
I am out for coffee and a catch up with friends tomorrow and footy in the evening so I don't think there will be much done.

@Mrs SD sorry I didn't get around to taking the photo of teddy yet.

@Dfw38 I think it is definitely worth asking at the shop again as the person who took your bag might have just picked it up with their shopping and not realised until they got home. Maybe ask if the shop could phone you if it turns up, hugs

@grandmanerd I have heard of probate taking over 6 months when property is concerned so fingers crossed for you.  I think you need to ask ds and beloved for a bit more help. I know they are not well but they do need to realise that fun things sometimes have to wait until after the work is done. Could you ask for a couple of hours a day, or even an hour, broken down into smaller chunks if necessary, helping sort some of the stuff, especially the heavy stuff.  You really do need to take care of yourself.
So 
425 - 459 34 x 100 emails. It took hours
460 washing sorted
461 bedroom bin emptied
Take care everyone
461/2023

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

DH got back from his walk at 15:15 having done 8,200 steps - although he said today that it was like walking through treacle ☹️ He was lucky enough to hear & then see a woodpecker going at it hammer & tongs when he was in Millwall Park 😊 16:20 - I am starting up again in Notes. The first task I tackled was the 2 shelves in the lower larder - emptied, cleaned & returned contents neatly. Sadly nothing decluttered apart from decanting some olive oil from a 5L tin to a 1L glass bottle 🙂 I moved onto the dining room wall unit & had 3 x 23 minute sessions - properly tackling 6 of the 8 drawers 🙂 They were emptied one at time & the contents dealt with - either returned more neatly, like with like condensed into one container or moved to a more suitable location. I managed to declutter a handful of toot; a handful of packaging to recycling; two mini torches that were tested & gave no more than a glow, into Tip bag; an expanding hair bun holder & a stopwatch into CS bag; 2 pin badges to DSis. However, the decluttering that I am most proud of & that has only taken me 42.5 years (yes you are reading that correctly 🤣) is a 3 minute cine film of my first wedding 🥳🥳 Not quite sure why I kept it as I have nothing to play it on 😅 Anyway I had a great time unraveling it & binning it - go me 👏 

One other item has been decluttered - a bird feeder made of recycled plastic bags 😔 which was delivered on Saturday, filled with fat cakes & hung up by DH. It lasted less than 4 days as it has been thoroughly destroyed by the squirrels 😒 DH reached his 1,000 steps with a short walk of 2,000 steps. Dinner was risotto cakes for DSis, whilst DH & I had bacon, mushroom & cheese omelettes. DH & I finished the apple & rhubarb crumble with custard & DSis had a bowl of custard. Wudupa.

689 - 693 Kitchen recycling, Handful of packaging, 3 magazines - recycled

694 - 697 Kitchen detritus, Handful of toot, cine film, bird feeder - binned

698/- 699 Two pin badges to DSis

700 - 702 Stopwatch, 2023 Diary, expanding hair bun holder into CS bag

703 - 704 Two mini torches to Tip bag

Now back to cheerleading 🙂

Liverpool_Anne at least you got treated to a breakfast as a reward for getting up early 😊 

Lovely post vulpix 😊 Well done MrV for convincing you that you are worth it 👏😊 I hope you manage to take most of your Mum’s bedroom contents round to your brother’s house. At a bit of a loss to understand why he is not picking it up if his house is the same side of the bridge as your Mum’s house or am I missing something 🤨 I was not at all surprised to read that you would rather stay at home & swear at curtain material 😂 Please, please ease up on yourself vulpix 🙏 You can only get done what you can get done - hope that makes sense. By the way, I beg to differ on your assessment - making & hanging new curtains, tidying the garden & cleaning the house sounds like a lot of work to me 😉 Then on top of that you are emptying the loft at your Mum’s house, sorting out the contents of the loft + renovating the rocking chair & tallboy 🤩 Please take care not to exhaust yourself before your visitors arrive 🙏

 Brie, at least you will know the reason if he does complain about buzzing in his ears 😂 Excellent decluttering 👏 Good luck finding the the item you were looking for 🍀

Apologies for not doing much cheerleading - for some reason I have been unable to concentrate 😔 but I will try again later 🤞

MrsSD (a superwoman) 😇 🎖💐🤩🏅🦸🏅💐🏆 💐🍰🍾🌟⭐️🌟

DH Awards: 🥇 🏅

Decluttering Target 2023: 704/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £43.00

Dfw38

Thank you for your sympathies. I am so annoyed at myself. I am going to call the shop again after lunch, hopefully whoever has taken it  will be feeling not so great about it and return the stuff. Not holding my breath though....
Told dh when he got home last night, I was sobbing so much he thought something more serious had happened and was relieved to hear it hadn't. We had a talk last night and he told me that if I need stuff I need to get it, but like many others on here I have a real issue with buying myself nice things (or anything really). I always feel like the money should go to repaying debt or stuff the dc needs. So I save what I can and then use that for what I need rather than 'real' money iyswim. So I was super excited earlier in the week to have nearly £70 (taken me the best part of 10 months to get this amount)in what I had saved, paid that in the bank and could spend it guilt free. But dh is right, need to change my mindset and start taking care of what I need a bit more.
Anyway, let's get on with March, a new month, a new challenge a whole month of opportunity. My mini mission today is to sort out the 3 drawers in kitchen. Currently used for dcs packed lunch extras, dcs daily snacks and cutlery but it gets messy and unorganised and the cutlery drawer is becoming a dreaded junk drawer too..... I can just imagine Dilly's reaction 🤣.  Had my food delivery last night, so the drawers are bare so it is an ideal time to organise. Hope you all have a lovely day and good luck with your mini missions too 👍😊

Dfw38

@Fayolle 15 would be great!
@tc77 that's so annoying about the jacket. I have heard stories from a friend who worked at a sports shop that people would come in and take the old shoes that people were coming in wearing when the people were putting the new shoes on to try 😳. Apparently another common trick would be to come to the shop, put new trainers on and walk out in the new trainers. (This is the sports shop where there are boxes and boxes of trainers piled high and you sort yourself out unless you want something fancier which is held out back.) The shop was losing thousands each month. 🤯

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, 
@Mrs SD I am not surprised you can't concentrate, this train moves so fast it must be supersonic and you must be getting dizzy whizzing through all the carriages keeping track of everyone . You are a victim of your own success as you are so kind to reply to everyone it must be like having a job . I for one wouldn't mind if you didn't comment on all my posts but I do love to read your posts, your comments are always so lovely. Maybe you are coming down with something, if so take care of yourself, hugs. 
Take care everyone
Still 461/2023

dND

Inspired by being back on here I decided to tackle the double cupboard under the sink, the glory-hole under the stairs and the "just in-case" box of medication and bathroom type stuff. OMG!

First task is to clean everything - I live in an old farmhouse where you can drastically reduce the number of mice wanting somewhere to hang out but you never completely stop them.

 

Next up I need to collate it all. I have too many hidey-holes so when I buy stuff on offer I tuck it away all over the place and forget what I've got.  That said I've reduced it dramatically over the last year.

 

I did pass on 5 bottles of cough medicine that I brought over years ago and I've found a new mop head for a mop I no longer have which will go to the charity shop and a full bottle of Persil washing liquid which I'm allergic to, so will be passing that on to a friend.

When it goes back I hope it will only be in 1 cupboard and that I can divide it into things I might take to the UK and things that I definitely won't such as the treatment for the septic tank and for the woodburning cooker. 

All little steps but in the end all the little steps join up and make a big difference

Happy decluttering and home-making everyone.

Wednesday2000

Dfw38 said:

Anyway, let's get on with March, a new month, a new challenge a whole month of opportunity. My mini mission today is to sort out the 3 drawers in kitchen. Currently used for dcs packed lunch extras, dcs daily snacks and cutlery but it gets messy and unorganised and the cutlery drawer is becoming a dreaded junk drawer too..... I can just imagine Dilly's reaction 🤣. 

Sorry that happened to you losing your stuff like that, I would have been gutted too.xxx You are right to just draw a line under it and look forward to a new month.:) Dilly is great isn't she?! I would love her to come to my house and organise everything.

vulpix

 Dfw, ouch, that hurts, and I am sure you are sick of talking about it by now,but it shows what a good partner and Mum you are by putting others first all the time. It does feel strange to spend money on yourself but as they say you are worth it.What a nice husband you have.x

 Mr V's very old friends wife died last night after a 15 year battle with every cancer going. It's always a shock, even though you know someone is ill. She had lived well with cancer for so long. A positive woman, she will be missed. That is a great epitaph when someone has made people's lives better just by knowing them.

 Well, one curtain is up. I decided to undertake hand sewing of the hems,so that takes ages because it makes my hand hurt to grip the needle. I am a little disgruntled as they will be too long!!!!!!! Someone who lives with me measured and they are 1" too long. I will see if they would hang ok by moving the curtain hooks down.Not today. Today I need to finish the hand sewing and sew the tape on the top. There are pieces of material left over. This is my internal dialogue. Such a shame to bin it but it is only big enough for cushion covers/ but I don't want cushion covers/then bin it/ok. Previously I would have kept it.
 
 I didn't know that it was March today,I thought there was another week of February left. I do put myself under pressure to finish jobs/projects/frogs otherwise everything would become a giant toad. The older I get the less inclined I am to do stuff. I need to do the online thing before Thursday for my volunteering. I have put it off and put it off. I work better under pressure. When we were given assignments at uni everyone would rush off to the library straight away. I would think about it for weeks then start about a week before it needed to be handed in.

 Today the kitchen designer is coming.Won't take long, our kitchen is tiny. I should have been going to the dentist but they phoned yesterday and cancelled. I am going to change dentist,I have not been impressed with this one for a while.

 Today the chazzer of choice to receive 2 boxes of stuff is the cat sanctuary in Sheffield. This is why I get nowt done,I go out all the time. Going out is a feat in itself,with road closures and temporary lights everywhere. 

 My lurgy keeps resurrecting itself. Just when you think it's gone,nope. Today,blocked nose and earache.

 I am not thinking in any depth at all about my brother. I am not analysing anything. If I did I would get upset and resentful. I don't want to make waves. if I did it would be very difficult to visit my Mum.

 Vx

 

grandmanerd

Vulpix I hung my mother's long curtains on the rail, pinned them up to the right depth (used a birthday card as it was about 7 inches to turn up and then sewed them a bit at a time, sitting on a stool. It meant I wasn't struggling against the weight of the curtains (fully lined) and spent as little time as possible up a ladder. Mum berated me for buying curtains that were 'too long' (90") but they were on the patio doors so the next size down would have been at half mast. I think she hadn't enough to do, so was always looking for things to complain about or that I had 'done wrong'.

GrannyKate

Slow start today - bad start as I opened car doors for GCs to get in to go to school.  Lost keys whilst retrieving my coat and shoes.  After 10 minutes fruitless searching I moved children to DS2's car which was here thankfully.  He put me on insurance only last week.  Children thought it was really funny and kept telling me not to crash daddy's car.  Found keys on back of settee when I got home.  I then tried to make sure my laptop was charged which was fine but its needs updates and wouldn't connect to internet.  Leaving that for DS2 tonight and will manage without for my meeting this afternoon.  I hope the rest of the day goes better.

309 Lots of emails deleted.

February extra income was good at £435 as I counted the £370 refund for electricity from insurance company.  So about £65 from interest and surveys.