2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

weenancyinAmerica

Mrs. S_D - If I only had to wait 5 minutes for a bus I would feel a miracle had happened. Usual wait between buses here is 30 to 40 minutes - minimum. Which is why so many of us drive cars even if it is a straight trip. 

Re-old photos. If there is a writer's club near you, some writers like to get old photographs to use to help them imagine their characters as real people. Easier to write about them when you have a photograph.

This has been a horrendous week -  I have been sick and so have two of my roommates, another roommate has been in the hospital all week and just came home today - which is going to be a lot more work for a few days. His room was upstairs and he can't do stairs any more. So we are switching him with another roommate - but they were both hoarders, and the downstairs room had never been totally cleaned after our autistic roommate left. It took over a week just to get it completely swept as had to wait until things were moved. We have beds in place (new mattress for one room was delivered at 7:00 pm tonight) but the rest of the rooms are a mess - and we still have stuff to move upstairs or down. Stuff to go in the rooms is spread all over. One item is a 20 gal fish tank which is giving us problems as it is on the chest of drawers which also has to be moved downstairs - and it is heavy, belonged to my grandparents. We have really been decluttering - over 400 items so far and many more to go, including the bed and mattress from one of the rooms which we will have the city pick up. 

This lurgy just keeps hanging on making everyone miserable but going up and down the stairs (20 plus trips up (and then down)) yesterday alone is wearing me out. Think my ulcer has come back, but the approval to start the process for the cataract surgery came through as did approval for 8 more therapy sessions. Now if I can get well enough to go. 

Am really looking forward to my weekend away (2 miles to my sister's house overnight). Don't know how they are going to cope though at home. 

Moorviews

Oh my, that all sounds like an absolute nightmare @weenancyinAmerica! Hopefully by the end of the week things will have settled enough for you to enjoy the weekend away 🤞

vulpix

 Good morning.

 Wee Nancy, I so wish your lot would improve. Is there  a volunteer agency,church or something that could give you a hand with all the heavy stuff.  Make the most of your weekend. We are the same with buses,It is difficult to live where I live without a car too. (We haven't even got a functioning road at the moment! last I heard they  are a little behind schedule with the bridge repairs).

 We have a severe weather warning for heavy snow starting this afternoon for several days. I am staying home for cat sitting duties and Mr V will stay in Nottingham. He has a weeks work this week near Nottingham. He has been setting off at 5am for a 7am start then going to his Mum's to make phone calls and stuff. Even if Nottingham has snow it won't be as much as us so he will still be able to get to work. No surprise at all that we are having snow. It is my Birthday on Sunday and it always snows around the 12th every year. My Daughter in the Shetlands has loads of snow, I hope it doesn't disrupt her travel plans for her visit next week.

 The tallboy has had a wash, very good sanding,and 2 coats of paint. I was going to leave the top and knobs pine but the knobs might have to be painted,they look grubby. Another few hours and it will be finished.It gives me satisfaction to have used up lots of old sandpaper and masking tape. Next is the rocking chair which has been painted and half sanded by someone. It is a bit of a mess and will be time consuming to bring it back to life. A bit of pressure before Ds comes with a hire van at Easter for all his stuff. It won't fit in our car.

 We have a lot on. We had already booked a few days away in Wales next week. 2 Funerals and emptying Mil's house. SS is on holiday this week so Mr V and SS will empty the garage over the next few days.

 Bit by bit is coming on a flying visit today. Yay! I have "stuff" to give her for her chazzer and MIL's church fundraising. I am sneaking out a candelabra,a gift from Mr V years ago that is a bit ostentatious for me. 

 Fizz, I am pleased that your Nan's funeral was a celebration. xxx

 Granny kate well done with your healthy lifestyle. I was doing the same but it's all gone to pot this week!

 Vx

wort

Hope your feeling better soon wee Nancy,
Mrs SD I know that feeling when a book or tv  series you are enjoying ends.

Re photos I had several black bin bags full to the bin. Fuzzy ones ,duplicate ones, red,over exposed ones. Hard with people you love on them but I have others that represent them much better.

Yesterday I finally finished painting, I was putting it off until warmer weather, but was starting to annoy me. A full 7 till 3 day of full on painting and it’s done. Frog eaten 👏🏻👏🏻

Keep warm everyone , and keep decluttering!

GrannyKate

Morning  all - hugs to all who need them.  Not done much this week as DGCs unexpectedly here.  Not sure if I have them tonight but they are back here Thursday anyway.  They have actually been quite good and do tidy up their stuff with a few reminders.  Very cold but no snow yet although SIL has it in Berkshire.  Maybe tomorrow.  Nearly finished that jigsaw puzzle.  Re photos - most of mine and the inherited ones are in the deferred decisions boxes.  I have come to terms with disposing of lots of MIL's trips out, friends, etc and have just kept a few where it is a nice photo of her.  These pictures will mostly mean nothing to my children.  I vaguely know who some people are.  Better for me to do it than leave the guilt trip to my children.  Very old photos may have a market or historical I interest.  Old pictures of places I may put on the local Facebook page or ask an archivist if they have any interest in the pictures.  

I treated myself to ordering a death certificate the other day for a great great aunt - other family history buffs will understand why this is exciting.  

360 Frog 1 done - rang hospital and it looks like biopsies were good and not manky.  I have to go and see GP next week when she should have letter.  They are going to do something in 6 months but I couldn't understand on the phone so hopefully GP will explain
361 '1 minute round up' - 10 items put away and I cleaned the study window and wiped the windowsill whilst I was at it.
362 Notes and some emails done for this mornings meeting

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, here as promised is a photo of Ted. He's a bit grubby and needs a clean but he's not doing too badly considering he's about 65 years old . He will get a wash when it's a bit warmer so he can dry.
Also I thought you might like a photo of my hyacinths that are cheering me up every day

grandmanerd

I'm on slow decluttering.atm. Still sleepy from the hip injection and dizzy spells (lying on my right side is good for the injection site but makes me go dizzy. I even went dizzy in the ultrasound room because they had me lying that way whilst working on me - sat up slowly, waited until I felt okay to stand up.  It was only 2 steps to my walker but I fell a bit sideways as I reached it (I did have hold of the handle and only lurched to one side, no falling to the ground. 

Yesterday morning I did a bit of embroidery (it's been months). Just adding the baby's name and date of birth to a finished piece. If I'd known I had the piece finished, it could have been done months ago. 18 letters and numbers and my shoulder gave me hell. i continued with the edging stitch (it stops any fraying) as it was a much smaller movement and I didn't need to follow a pattern.

Went downstairs when the sun in my eyes got too much and came back up later when the pain in my back was too much (sun had gone over the roof to the front of the house by then). Did 3 sides of the edging then decided it was better with a one stitch space all round so redoing the other 3 sides. Checked on a couple  of household (non-food) items I want to order this month and I can have them delivered next day, so I can hang on for a bit. 

The birth sampler (it's only card size but I love the design) can go to the Trafford Centre with me when I meet the baby and her parents on the 19th. I now have a list of 7 things to ask DS2 about, so other things can be handed over (+ some already in a bag), including the remaining orders of service from my ex's funeral. DS2 asked me to put them in my bag (sometimes being prepared/ organised is a pain - the number of times I've been asked to take minutes in a meeting because I already had my pen and notebook out). When they dropped me off at my house after the funeral, I asked him about them and he asked if I could hold onto them for the time being. Over the intervening months I've binned a few (kept some in case anyone who hadn't been at the funeral or who only heard about his death later could have one). Then when we were doing the big box of records I found another 15 or so. Might ask daughter out law if it's okay to bin them quietly. DS2 is very sentimental but their house is very small.

Photos
General - label all your photos, the ones of your children (I know your grandchildren ones might be digital) with the dates, place and ages of the children at the time (+ friend's or relatives children), label your aunts and uncles and cousins, especially if they might remember them. Label historic ones in case they're of interest after you're gone - knowing it's great-aunt Mabel might be more worthy of keeping than random photos of old people you don't have a clue about. If you have 'stories' about them, write them down (I have lots of bits  my grandma told me) - mum's Uncle D had very curly hair, uncle A did not. One day when they were quite small, between them they cut off all D's curls and attempted to paste them onto A's head. Bits of living family history,  passed down in the oral tradition.

Mum's photos
I did this in several stages. Before the pandemic, when I started looking after her, as part of the general decluttering, I used my boxes, made coloured cardboard dividers and took many many holiday photos and put them in order. These were holidays taken with friends after we had grown up (I know our family photos off by heart - in fact I think I labelled those for her in my youth, as well as sorting her button box and threading and wiring them in sets) eg holiday with E in B and the year, She let me throw away a few landscape or fuzzy ones.

In another box from the same set, I separated out photos of my cousins and their children and 'nearly family' - photos of my dead brother's girlfriend's grandchildren who called him granddad, mum's lodger's child (mum was also her godmother.

There were several albums in the bottom of a spare room cupboard (there were photos filling most of the space in 2 front room cupboards, several of the back room cupboards and various other places (a suitcase full  in the shed) but even discarding the envelopes, negatives and complete duds and putting the rest in order made a big difference. Our family photos (from when I was a child) lived in the old box brownie box, although it had lost it's lid (I don't remember there ever being a camera). 

Stage 2
A while after mum's partner went into a home (maybe 18 months after, not a couple  of weeks), I sorted all  'their' family photos in batches. I asked one of the partner's grandchildren if it would offend anyone if they were handed back (the alternatives being either when he died or when mum died, either of which would have been more upsetting). We kept all the ones of his and mum's life together (20+ years) but I really didn't think we should have their family photos (we still had his wedding album but mum's had been thrown out at some stage). This was agreed and I sorted them into packages for each of his 5 children and handed them over.

This was all done pre-pandemic and when mum was in fairly good health (still interested and engaged enough to talk about the photos and remember dates and the names of people I couldn't place - dead brother's 'grand-daughter' and my cousin's  daughter look similar.

Stage 3
Photos were one of the first things I tackled (nice memories, needed some for the order of service and handing over family photos would save an awful lot of time and money). I discarded most of the 'views' - they didn't mean anything to anyone else and one hill or gorse bush looks much like another and any where the person in them was a tiny dot very far away. I sorted piles for mum's partner's  family (he died about 2 years before her) and any for my cousins that were more appropriate for them to keep (one of the cousin's who  lives down south had forgotten about the blessing they'd held here for all the relatives who still  lived here and didn't have copies of them with the priest, in the church or in her sister's garden afterwards).

There are a couple of people whose  families have been intertwined with ours for generations - my grandma and her 2 closest friends - one as young women at Blackpool Pleasure Beach (sitting on a metal lion), their daughters as young children, all of them in various walking day parades, the two friends at my wedding (my grandma had died before then so I asked her two friends in her stead), mum and grandma's friend at Southport flower show and at church celebrations. 

In the last year of her life mum was given copies of family histories for both her mother's and father's families - there are mistakes in both, so at some future date I'm going to attempt to sort them out a bit and pass on any relevant information. Passing on photos has brought me back in contact with members of the wider family, whom I haven't seen for years. I've kept one photo of mum's cousin's daughter because she's kneeling on the floor next to our great-grandma, as I remember her (she only died when I was 15, many years after my granddad).

I'm going to stop now. So slow decluttering - sorting stuff that will lead to more things out soon. Starting now to make things as simple as possible for my sons and writing down the things I remember (selectively) before It gets too arduous.

TC77

Love the hyacinths @Liverpool_Anne
@grandmanerd in awe of your organisation and care . Found photos at my dad's too late to ask who they are are. 
Starting to sort hall, piles of face masks so put cloth and others ones I  separate bags and in a drawer, and moved a few more things. Out for the day but do want to get a way from the steptoe look

D123456789

Hello all,

so I bought the book 30 days to a clean and organised home in September last year. I  was expecting it to work( ( of course) but I was totally overwhelmed with all the tasks and realised it was actually a full time job for 30 days to get it done. I put the book away before I had finished reading 🙄

 Since then  I have tried to integrate a few more daily tasks into my routine and focused on the tasks I don’t mind e.g cleaning the fridge and the cupboard under  the sink  more often  ( because they are really much easier  if done frequently) 

now I am going back to the book to see if I can adopt a couple more habits and I will update on here to keep myself accountable. 

LO is in a good habit of dusting her shelves, cleaning her mirror , organising her soft toys, hanging up her clothes and selecting  reading books we haven't read for a while. The ones she no longer wants we put in a pile for CS.  She is also making her bed every day 😊. I think she’s doing better than I am 🤣

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, back on my kindle now . Apart from taking a couple of photos so far today all I have done is try to speak to someone at the appointment dept at the hospital. OH has a face to face appointment sometime in March but can't remember when, has no note on the calendar and can't find the letter. I have tried several times but I think they have a problem with their phones as the recorded message just keeps reverting to the choice bit rather than going to the right bit. I have eventually spoken to the receptionist who gave me a number for the right department but that just rings for ages then says this number is out of order. I will keep trying . When I got Ted out of the top of the wardrobe for his photo I found a plastic storage container with other soft toys that I had completely forgotten about, they could all do with a clean so that is now on my to do list,  and a bag of long items of clothing I wore when I used to live in Kuwait. Some of them are quite nice but I am not sure if I would wear them now or even if they would still fit me but I have thrown them in the washing machine and will defer a decision until they are dry, they might be on their way to the cs I have caught up

@Fizz2015 hugs

@GrannyKate brilliant news about the biopsies

@Vulpix this lurgy is a pain isn't it, just when you think it's gone it comes at you from another angle. Hope you feel better soon. The treasures from your MIL sound amazing . The eggs might be worth sending to auction. I hope the snow comes and goes quickly. Sleet forecast for here today, snow tomorrow but currently very sunny

@Mrs SD I wonder who the man who turns children into frogs is? A 5 min wait for a bus is quite good, it would be at least 15 mins here . The meds are just painkillers but as I rarely take them they do make me sleepy

@TC77 low iron and vit D will definitely make you feel tired, hugs. I hope you have a lovely birthday

@Florenceem I love reading more than most things

@Muddy_Walker "finished the ironing" I wish I could say that

@weenancyinAmerica hope you feel better in time for your cataract ops and therapy. Look after yourself and enjoy your stay at your sister's. The housemates will be fine for a couple of days, don't stress about them or you won't get the benefit of your little trip, hugs.

Right off to try the hospital again,
Take care everyone
Still 508/2023