2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, back on my kindle now . Not a bad day, weather warm enough to have a coffee over the fence with ln . OH did the wu without me saying owt . I rearranged the veg rack and fruit bowl to check all ok , bathroom whizzed over and a room mist emptied and bottle recycled. I got it in lockdown, lavender, and it was lovely and did last ages so worth the money but I have others to uu now . The kitchen recycling bin emptied, bedroom and bathroom bins emptied and a session of self care done . Several text conversations about footie tickets.

@charlies_tribe I have a conservatory very similar to yours, it's on the to do list

@Mrs SD sounds like Mr SD is doing really well, hugs

Hugs to anyone who would like one, off to bed now
541 bedroom bin emptied
542 bathroom bin emptied
543 kitchen recycling emptied
Take care everyone
543/2023

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks to include MMiM - do this before I go to bed

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 ‘Urgent’ daily mail immediately & the rest at the weekend

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 23:39 DH & I finished our curries but DSis just had her spare ribs rest of her Chines put in freezer. DH did the wu whilst I dupa. We then sorted out our HF box which had been delivered earlier.  Back to cheerleading 🙂

Firstly, a big thank you to all who welcomed lindos90 aboard the EDT 👏

What an uplifting memory, grandmanerd 😊 Sorry to hear that DS2 was ill on Sunday & your day out was cancelled 😞 However a pampering day sounds like a a lovely way to spend an Sunday 😊 At least you had a couple of choices of meal 🙂 I see you continued working on Saturday & got the washing sorted 👏 I think your platypus sounds cuter 🙂

Apologies, lack of sleep is catching up with me so I am off to bed. Not much cheerleading done but hopefully I will do better after a good night’s sleep 🤞

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

DH Awards: 🥇🏅⭐️

Decluttering Target 2023: 847/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £74.70

GrannyKate

Glad all is going well Mrs SD and hugs to all others who need one.  Didn't do my photo cull so that will be first today.  

433 Dining room emptied as far as possible and thoroughly cleaned.  Put back slightly differently as DGS4 has half the room as his toy area (extended some years ago and about 20 x 12 feet). 
434 Some toys which are not used in bag to garage - will CS them if he doesn't notice!
435 Lots of tat and rubbish binned.
436 Remaining toys put like with like in their storage boxes 
437 Destroyed a balloon while no small people watching (I hate them)
438 Ten items put away in ten minutes
439 Various emails answered and filed/deleted

EnergyShifter

Yesterday was super - busy with work - I still feel shattered this morning - almost like a hangover but without having any fun the night before .  Thankfully today looks much quieter so hopefully I'll have a chance to catch up with myself... 

Oh and I found out the "animals on the line" that stopped the trains on Sunday was a small dog! Disappointing! I'd had much more fanciful ideas than that.... escapees from a pet shop, urban fox convention  

Tasks:
Ordered my interim reading glasses - quote for reglazing was reasonable.  

IN (running total 58)
0

OUT (running total 293)
0

Florenceem: Yes Greenwich was particularly busy on Sunday!  

Dfw8: I'm so sorry you are having to deal with your sister's behaviour on top of everything else.  Sending love  

charliestribe: What a great idea to take a "before" picture - I wished I'd have done that earlier on in my decluttering journey....  Looking forward to seeing the "after" pic  

Moorviews

Three financial frogs dealt with, including paying for my gaps in National Insurance Contributions. More actions need to be tackled but I always feel outside my comfort zone with financial decisions and consequently tend to avoid them. No debt thankfully but some shifting about of savings and thinking about the drawdown of pensions. I do wish this was all taught at school as a practical element of maths lessons!

@charlies_tribe - it will be great to see how those levels drop in the conservatory and you reclaim your space. I think many of us can end up with things piling up somewhere out of the way until it gets overwhelming. I hope you feel better soon. 

@Dfw38 - there’s all too often one with their eyes on the prize unfortunately. It makes things so much harder for everyone. Thinking of you and I am glad that you have your brother for support. I hope your dad can be made comfortable. 

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger - great to hear how well Mr SD is doing. I’m not surprised you are hugging him all the time after such an emotional shock. Yes, I must remember to type in notes in future!
@DundeeDoll - love hearing how all those 23 mins are transforming your space!
@Florenceem - regarding my fabric and yarn purge. I worked out that what I really want to be doing at the moment is dressmaking, knitting/crocheting jumpers and socks and making home furnishings. So all the more crafty yarns and fabrics etc. are going off where they can be useful and enjoyed which will also give me more space to do the things that I want. Instead of having a bit of everything I shall hopefully be more focused! 

grandmanerd

Hugs, congratulations and commiserations as appropriate (I'm still having problems concentrating, so I'm just plodding along). That conservatory is what mum's (very small) back bedroom looked like when her partner's relations took charge of the 'removal' (nothing was sorted, just piled into cars and heaped up or put away in random cupboards with no consultation as to where mum actually wanted it). I'd argued and got an agreement that the move should not happen until after various safety measures and a new bathroom had been installed (neither of them could use a bath and were used to a walk-in shower). They went ahead and did the 'move' anyway and it was 8 weeks before the bathroom got done (despite having said that mum and her partner could be taken back to the hovel when they wanted a shower, it never happened).

Anyway on a more positive note (I am making progress, just not sure if that's what it looks like) at 1/4 to 3  pm on Saturday I'd added 31 points giving me a total of 957/ 2023. I promised myself that if I did more later on I'd award myself another 5 points. Getting the WM, TD and DW going, cooking 3 trays of roast veg and filling a 1 l box with raw veg for snacking (all eaten now) achieved that.

On Sunday I started slowly, used Badger Balm on my knees, feet, head and cheekbones, wore my good dress and my new boots and took the time to cut an unused pair of arch support insoles to size and put them inside the boots. I feasted on leftovers - a mushroom pate on crackers which has done at least 3 meals, the raw veg and some grapes (only allowed 15 per day). I read and played and then made a start.

I picked up as many things from the far side of the bed as I could reach from the end of the bed. I picked up a washing up bowl, placed it on top of the step'n'fetch and filled that (I was looking at curvey lookalike baskets in HB and then realised washing up bowls would be a lot cheaper for holding packs of rice, pasta etc) under the stairs. This was spare and had been used to corral papers. 

Then I did move the bed. Firstly towards the foot, swept out the stuff behind the headboard (anything small enough to slip or work it's way  between the headboard and the mattress) onto the little landing. I'd done a mini shuffle in the bathroom, the stool and bucket went beside the bath, the chair moved to in front of the sink, which left enough room to manoeuvre.the little trolley into the bathroom and get the chair out. I sat on the chair with the 'rubbish' pile between me and the bin bag with a small basket to hold any 'treasures'. I went back to the bed frequently to rest. I  moved the bed towards the drawers so I had access to the space in front of the window and anything that was lodged under the middle part of the bad. I tied the bin bag loosely and threw it downstairs. There was a  bit of room in it but every time I turned my back on it, it shed some of the collected contents.

 I took a small thin carrier bag to the far side of the bed and a paper bag for the paper recycling (more of that than anything else) and continued to sift and sort, stopping to sit and read whenever I got breathless or bits of me hurt. I started 2 new books because it was easier to get one out of the library bag than hunt for my current one - I've recently finished several and not really got into the next ones. One was much more fun than expected and the murder mystery I was undecided about (lots of hidebound characters who were both insular and isolated from RL - set in the eighties but only on page 120 was a mention of recession and most of them had obviously never had to think about money). However I persevered and it improved (it was well written which helps - I once gave up on a book after 10 pages because the characters were so awful that not only did I not care about who was going to get murdered, I was hoping the murderer would dispatch the lot of them as quickly as possible). Lesson learned - not every book is worthy of my time and attention.

By mid afternoon my body screamed 'enough' and I went downstairs to eat. Heated and ate the Chinese meal without extra veg and I am so grateful for the restorative powers of hot food. I settled on the couch surrounded by books and watched a few episodes of Jeeves and Wooster. Our day out has been rescheduled and we're going to the Museum of Science and industry on the 2nd April. My present will arrive in the post.

Later on I received a photo of the baby and a short video of her being pushed on a swing by her mother. They'd decided on a short trip to the park and bought baby a new ball, but DS2 wasn't allowed to handle her until they got home (no-one else was sick and he'd stopped.  He asked was I doing anything and we had a short video call. Baby peers straight at the screen - she's not allowed near their phones at other times.

DS3 and I ate and then I went to bed. He wouldn't carry my bags so I brought one bag up and left most of my things downstairs.including the laptop charger. 

Yesterday was more of the same. I'd slept in the bed where it was although it did move in the night (which is why it's normally up against the drawers). I still have one tiny pile by the window. I perched on the end of the bed, sifted through random bits of paper (I'm using a 10 section wallet file to gather like with like - medical, instructions, travel etc, especially when I know there's a bigger file elsewhere which they can be decanted into.

I did take 4 BNWT items of clothing out of the 3rd set of drawers to complete another cs bag, 2 more books for the charity bookshop (that can go too). 5 bags went to rubbish and recycling yesterday and more are started in both the bedroom and the front room.  I feel there's another bag's worth on the living room floor (and some bits stuck under a small table) but they're so scattered - might sit on my walker and wheel myself around.


Treasures The missing library book was found, I estimated another 2 dozen pens and 3 rulers but when I put them away I stopped counting after 40 and a small stapler (I have found about 6 packs of staples and was hoping I didn't need to buy a new one - they're only a £ but it's my pound). More sellotape and a ball of string, thank you cards, notecards (photos of a squirrel, fox etc which I'm planning to put on the front of the baby's cubes to delineate them) and a letter I started on December 30th - think I'll add a note and carry on, easy than restarting. Money a £10 note, a £5 note, a couple of pound coins and a handful of silver. There's more on my tray and the far drawers. 

I was worried that my phone was blank (it was a year old in February so threw out the receipt/ guarantee) but later tried checking that I'd turned it back on after charging it - it worked so that's another £60 saved. I tidied and moved around the things on top of both nearer sets of drawers. i think I need to put things from the 3rd set into a container of some kind so I can work out what I want on there and at some point I need to take the tall spotlight downstairs and bring the desk lamp back up (and maybe buy a second one.  Some filing of random scraps of paper has been done (lost count of my items because the final scruffy note book is absolutely full (all but 4 pages ripped out and recycled). Sunday's list was written in green pen in 3 different places.  Box of photos and other items put in safe places where they can't get knocked off or damaged.

A while ago I decided I'd claim 50 points for a full day's worth. Yesterday and Sunday were only part days so I feel a little guilty but I worked to my limit, so will claim them. Many many food use ups, toiletries and other things (made a space on a long section of shelf allocated to Beloved and put the contents of 2 boxes of dehydrated cauli/ broccoli rice into one and in the space I'd made).

So 5 more points for Saturday, 50 each for Sunday and Monday 105, current total 1062/ 2023. I still have the to do list I compiled at weekend as a guide so will see what I can do (but first breakfast - I've used everything vaguely edible up here, except the grapes and I've had my ration). I  need a clean dress as there was a ketchup incident (rinsed it off straight away and it will go in the wash today. 

wort

Make today a hug our loved ones day ! You won’t ever regret it. A hug makes everyone feel better and it’s what I miss most now I am on my own xxx

iris

Yes, @wort I totally agree with you - it's what I miss.

2Scratters

@charlies_tribe You get a medal from me for your bravery and accountability. Your journey will bring you a lot of satisfaction and focus when you retake photo's at different stages. Approaching from both sides as you plan to and meeting in the middle will be joyous. 
Well some more stuff in from parents. Bits staying have already been put to use. Towels in the wash, 6 terry nappies, vintage cotton underwear that my dad reckons were great grandmas, 2 white napkins (well needed here ) More wool blankets (definite visitors) Some bits have gone out to DS and DG house.
The visitors(items) are slowly going via the bay and the funds paying towards the jelly drops. DB gave mother 3 boxes of them within a week and they have all gone   Going faster than I can get them paid for!! DSis2 going mad as they should be a weekly treat she thinks - I do agree with her.

2 items out yesterday and 4 to go today. Will wait till the next offer is on and it will give me time to load them up in readiness. 
Some flooring sneaked into the rubbish bin for collection today. 

Hugs to anyone in need. Mrs SD carry on hugging that man.

2 Scratters xx

GrannyKate

Quick post to say:

440 Photos downloaded from phone - only a few but trying to keep up to date.  Culled before downloading.
441 Photos already saved - culled all dates up to the end of March for 20 years or so. (mostly last 10 years as lost lots of late DHs although best ones all printed out)
442 Booked one swimming session for our post Easter short break - the other dates not available yet. 

Off to find things to do.  Car not back from garage as new tyre needed before it could pass MOT.  They are doing that this morning.