2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

DundeeDoll

indeed @Mrs_Salad_Dodger MrPiano going was end of an era - I miss the free concerts! but he is very happily settled in Alabama (though panic stations as out of tea!)
loving the bunnies @Florenceem
Great excitement today - the ops manager gave me some bookends for my new bookshelves in the office at work so today's 23 minutes was unpacking some of my stuff - aiming to get office straight this week then weekend it'll be back to the house

2Scratters

Well finally bringing my sorry butt from the TLC carriage - just helped myself to the last chocolate brownies - some how were going out of date!!! I am a specialist in OOD so all are saved. It is I think more than 2 weeks since posting. 
I have had an awful experience on the day of the 2 funerals - all did not end well!! men huh!  :
Yet we live to fight (literally)another day as the saying goes 🤔🤔🤔

Hugs to all those having tough times I have been there with you and am here for you now too. You have also dragged me through some tough days - thankyou 
Whilst going through some of our stuff to get listed I have previously taken many pictures and reviewing the items a couple have ended up not going but actually being put to use as they are replacing items that have already left the house. That's saved some money too not buying new. 
Collected some more visiting declutter items from my parents house - I have been still very selective with the objects I intend to keep too. 
I have well and truly smashed putting some items onto the bay show and made 3 sales tonight, even all packed up ready to go out tomorrow. I'm never that ready. I am determined not to work any longer than I really need to. Hoping to raise money - I will and can if I get the damn stuff listed
DH is up and down as he has a colonoscopy in the morning and still not taken all the liquid he needs to. I'm not staying up waiting any longer as I will be driving him. 
Must get the bins out for in the morning. 

Stay safe and warm indoors
2 Scratters xx

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, OHs hospital appointment went ok, it's part of the trial so just questions and bloods taken but I have to chauffeur as it is nigh impossible to find a parking space anywhere near enough for OH to walk. I did find one reasonable close, parked up and went to find a coffee. The coffee shop was inside one of the academic bookshops near the university so I had a good browse and had to give myself a good talking to to avoid buying anything except coffee. I have enough books atm but this is a special sort of bookshop that previously I would have walked out with a bag full . Took my coffee back to the car to avoid temptation and got moved on by a traffic warden, apparently need a special pass to park there . So I drove around for a while passing 3 junior doctors picket lines, which I gave a beep to until OH phoned to say all done. I had been on a tour of the university and hospital area, up and down and around and I had completely disorientated myself so it took ages to get back to OH. We then had to go and get some breakfast as OH had not eaten in case they wanted a fasting blood test. Went to a much better cafe than yesterday where the food is reasonably priced and the service is quick and I had some very yummy poached eggs on toast . Home by about 1. Tidied up a bit in the kitchen, emptied the recycling bin and spent the afternoon reading and writing some notes for a union thing. I have uu my blue cartridges for my pen and am now working on the red ones, as I won't need them again, before I buy more . Also uu 4 mini soaps in the bathroom, will count as 1 as they were guest soaps but stash reducing .
Up and out early again tomorrow so off to sleep now.
Amazing work being done by everyone . Hugs to all who would like one
529 kitchen recycling emptied
530 uu soap
Take care everyone
530/2023

GrannyKate

@weenancyinAmerica. I think my sister probably has same as you as coughing and headache has gone on weeks.  Difficult as bil in early stages of stroke recovery and can't drive or walk far.  Dog is totally confused by lack of walkies. 

Eye test today - hope I don't need new glasses.

403 Today's date photos checked for 1-14 March and about half deleted
404 Banking updated
405 Committee frogs eaten up
406 Email boxes read, saved, deleted etc - 0 in inbox when I went out yesterday - a dozen when I came back!
407 Form handed in at GP so I can now see test results on NHS app

grandmanerd

Last week was very slow, due to sleeping a lot following my hip injection. I completed the edging on the baby sampler (need to get on with mounting it, so I can take it on Sunday) an did a few domestic catch ups on Thursday and Friday. The snow finally cleared so I could get up and down the yard and I took many bags of rubbish and recycling out to the bin (and brought the bins back and took books back to the library)  but had to sit down after each trip (was very pleasant sitting in a garden chair in the sunshine) and I did some on both days. Moved the builder's plank out of the yard but had 2 failed attempts at getting it where I wanted. It more than twice my height so if it goes more than a few inches off vertical i have to let go, other wise it would pull me to the ground with it. DS3 moved it when he went took the bins for collection.

A couple of sacks hadn't made it into the bin for collection (DS3 had squeezed another one in) and the rest had been accumulated and/ or hunted down -  spent time in my room clearing the area between the bed, the wall and the doorway. It's mostly where all the bags wait and laundry gathering before throwing it downstairs so it's rarely completely clear. Seeing areas of clear floor space makes me feel like I am getting somewhere. Well it's better than it's been since the room was moved round in June to accommodate an extra set of drawers.

Over the weekend I started to move information from the 2 old diaries, prior to disposal. Last month I trawled through my online diaries to find missing details for mum's accounts and there were brief jottings transferred from diaries and notes after mum died (originally there were pages of stuff done each day). I've now transcribed from January until September into an A4 hardback notebook with 4 sections and I'll add things like the calculations I used for valuing stuff for probate (anything I need to keep for 20 years, even though no one will ever ask to see it and I'll only glance at it now and then.

It started as a very tedious task (the first few months took 2 pages each) but I ended up feeling satisfied with it and myself. I've printed it (much neater than my handwriting), took frequent breaks and only had one spell of hand tremors when I the writing went a bit off. I'm having laptop problems (cursor freezing or disappearing, pad unresponsive and the laptop only charging intermittently) so there were times I couldn't use it at all or it stopped after a few seconds. It probably needs a good clean and an internal clear out but I'm liable to fade into the ether atm.

I needed to  be downstairs yesterday between 8 am and 10 am for a delivery and (as my body has decided my day should start at 5 am) I went down early as I was afraid of falling asleep again. DS3 wasn't up (I could have left him to deal with the delivery) so I occupied the couch (definitely wanted more sleep but rested instead). Later I tackled a huge bin bag (another midnight pixie offering) decanting it into 3 small blue carrier bags of rubbish and one stuffed paper carrier with a small whioote carrier to carry on filling. I'd already taken the bin bag I'd brought downstairs (loosely tied and then added a few extra bits) and taken it out to the bin (so 5 more bags). The 3 small bags fit into the space left at the top of the bin and I added 3 house bricks to squash it down.

After the delivery arrived and I felt a bit more energetic, I moved my couch forward (still in front of the furniture after my marathon stint the week before last). This involved moving quite a lot of things that would otherwise have fallen off. DS3 came down. He let me keep most of the couch but then I moved across the room to sit in front of the bureau. I used a candle to wax all 5 drawers and the runners for each. I added 5 scented tealights to each drawer (I suggested them for mum a couple of festive seasons ago - requesting berry scents or things like vanilla or cinnamon - and 2 out of 3 asked bought hundreds). Well these can keep the drawers and contents smelling nice (and it's a bit less in my room). 

I brought a roll of wrap from my drawer (light gold craft paper) and cut 5 lengths slightly wider than the drawers, folded in the cut ends and then folded it nearly in half to fit the width of the drawer. It was a 5m roll so I knew there would be enough for all five drawers and in case of a future wrapping paper emergency I have 5 pieces each longer than the length of the drawers x the width of the roll (19" - 20").

I wrapped the baby's Easter gift in recycled tissue paper. When I unwrapped my presents at DS1's, I folded the tissue paper neatly. DS1 said he'd  deliberately put each present in a gift bag and put tissue paper on top to cover it (not scrumpled up) as he knew I'd save it. By the way each trip up and downstairs was very carefully considered and a range of things I might need were packed - my days of running up and down to fetch a forgotten item are long gone. I then cut a luggage tag into the shape of a rabbit. to go on the present.

Over the course of the afternoon I emptied 3 large bags for life into the drawers. I don't have a complete list (next job) but from things I remember - a box of embroidery threads, 3 large (baby blanket) sized pieces of embroidery fabric, 3 nearly completed WIPs, 9 items/ packs that fall roughly under the heading of paper crafting, 9 wooden craft blanks/ packs/ shapes, 6 full or mostly full packs of felt (mostly 9 per pack but the 'skin tones' pack is 2 each of 4 different shades). There is still a very full bag to go through, I've barely started on the bureau (slanting top which folds out into a desktop, hiding multiple cubby holes when shut, 2 cupboards underneath with deep shelves (1 x 12" and the base about 16").

I also made progress with the washing and cooked a veg lasagne RM (their freezer had not been closed properly and I took out my lasagne and a bag of small mixed veg which will be included in my meal plan - I left one ice cream cone and 1 or 2 packs of their stuff and warned DS3 that they might not be ok).

It's made me almost giggly happy. having a proper place to store office and craft stuff, establishing a base downstairs (since the pandemic I've mostly been living in one room with other people's stuff in my space but grumbling and muttering if any of my stray items were in mum's space. My seed tin has been retrieved (under 5 gadgets) and I'll go through it later and decide if I need anything (marigolds and nasturtiums maybe). I have one 20 l bag of seed compost, many mushroom boxes and will see how far that takes me.

DS3 went out to collect his prescription, went upstairs when I had lunch (I asked), they both came down to go to Beloved's 3 pm ultrasound appointment (slightly more successful than the last - they found her uterus but her ovaries are still awol) and they both went back upstairs when they returned. When DS3 came back down I was ready to go upstairs (despite being very careful and resting, my ankle was throbbing) so he carried my bags up and from 5 pm until 9 pm I read, did a 16 x 16 sudoku and watched several episodes of Jeeves and Wooster.

I've counted 63 items for yesterday, making my current total 799.

~FlowerPot~

morning, stilll struggling here with RL. Not managing any kind of decluttering and only just coping with essential jobs. 

beginning to wonder if I need to book an app with the gp. Feeling rough for so long and just exhausted, never seem to have any energy at all. But gp apps are so ridicoulsy hard to get that it seems like to much hassle!

Anyway, I have 3 clients this morning plus some work on my other business before i go out and I need to make a phone call. But all finished by lunch time when I suspect DD will get up and ask to go out somewhere. Still no sign of any school suitable for her, so shes still at home and like me to take her somewhere just to get out of the house!

Oh but I will have to go to the SM at some point to buy tea, havent shopped for 2 weeks and the cuboards are bare!!! ~ so decluttering done there

have a good day all

Flowers

x

gettingthrifty

Morning all:
Paperwork is a huge issue for me so i count it in my declutter tally.
98- weeded 25 items of paperwork from filing system
99- 30 mins checking , actioning and deleting emails

Wednesday2000

The hanging shelves arrived late yesterday afternoon so I rearranged the airing cupboard then. I managed to fit in the sleeping bags and my foot spa, but not anything else. It does look a lot better in there. I moved some of my winter jumpers into the other wardrobe ready for Spring. Ha, it is pouring with rain today!

I did try to help my husband with the garden, but he finished most of it. Don't worry MrsSD as the bit of the garden we were in was quite sheltered from the strong winds.:)

I want to clear the kitchen surfaces as they feel quite cluttered. I am going to move my second air fryer into a cupboard as we hardly use that one. It was actually the first one we bought, but we prefer the other one as it is like a mini oven and we use it a lot more.

I need to do some batch cooking today. I want to cook pasta to use up the last of the jar of sauce. My husband used the rest of the jar to do pizzas last night. I saw a recipe for a creamy cauliflower and carrot soup on my phone this morning and I'm going to make that too. It is hopefully going to be easier with less clutter.

Wednesday2000

Oh yes, I didn't say what I have decluttered! I have a bag for the charity shop with a coat, a jumper, two cups, a chopping board and a pair of slipper boots. I bought some snow boots the other day and they are so warm and cosy compared to my slipper boots that I am donating a pair. After I don't have my pets anymore and if I still live here I am going to get carpet (or at least rugs) downstairs as the floors in this house are so cold in the winter.

oceanspirit

Had a bad week of fatigue.  Feeling slightly better today. Frustrated at having lost valuable decluttering time as next few weeks busy with medical appointments.  

OH did the tip run with just a couple of larger items from me - not as much as planned but better than nothing.  A few smaller things also made their way out and have continued to use up food items heading ood.