2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Florenceem

Being brave here - posting photos of my messy kitchen - before - wip & after.

vulpix

Cheeky boy Elmo. 

 Good news about your niece Mrs SD. Good news all round for recovering poorlies   

 I had a down day yesterday. Most unlike me, I am an eternal optimist, it’s just a problem to be solved, roll your sleeves up,glass half full kinda girl. I have woken up feeling back to normal. I was down about the house. Bathroom not finished and the kitchen is horrible. I also weighed myself. 

 It’s my son’s birthday today. People said why didn’t you call him George? It could have been Christmas Day for all I was aware at the time!🤣 Oh he has decided that his rugby injury is not as serious as it could be and played yesterday!

 So to work my way through my gloom I am going to Spring Clean the house. Starting next week with our bedroom. My Achilles heel is clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery. I love them all. ❤️ my wardrobe cannot fit anymore in and I confess to buying a top half price from Sainsbury’s yesterday. 

 Another bag of trinkets taken to the church shop Friday. I am taking donations there as they will send the total made from our donations to Alzheimer’s research. I don’t know if they have their own charity shops, I haven’t ever noticed one. 

 Take care everyone. 

 Vx

 

stellata

Morning everybody. My lodger's just told me she's moving out. I'll miss the money but I've decided to have a break and get my house back.
Out: baileys bottle from Xmas, finished last night. Collection of plastic bottles I was saving for something. A chair (in the car for the chaz). 

Brie

OH has declared again that he's going to start decluttering.  And has now gone to listen to jazz records and read.  Well he did say "but not today".  I'm going to make an effort to clear the carport though a good portion of it is OH's or his parents'.  Outlaws are no longer with us so I'm sure I can dispose of a fair bit of tat that has been left out in the elements for much too long.  Like photo albums.  I can't imagine anyone will ever want to look at pictures of holiday snaps from 1972 or whenever so will slip as much of it into the bin as I can.  Also will try to sneak the 2 photo montages used at their memorial parties upstairs to be stored away.  That's more than enough memories for both of us I think.  No one to pass them to but I don't think he'll want to 1)think about that or b) get rid just yet.

My deadline for this is next Friday as that's bin day.  And the gardeners come the Tuesday after so we'll need bin space for whatever they declutter from the garden - grass and weeds being in mass abundance.  But if the car port is clear of some of the tat then they can also clear out the accumulated dead leaves.  Minor problem that I am busy from today until Thursday so it will be a challenge.

Also hoping the foxes in the garden declutter themselves some time very soon.  4 little kits who are incredibly cute play fighting on the lawn but I dislike them excavating under our larger shed.

GrannyKate

Flowerpot. re lego DS2 says go on Bricklink UK and that will give you an idea of what is selling and for what price.  Elmo is very cute.
@TC77 I was going to say the same as Mrs SD - are you emptying trash bin after you have deleted emails. 

549 Finished up one of 2 deodorants on the go together so pot recycled
550 Load of stuff from DS2 work van recycled

Been out in the rain visiting car boot and antique centre.  Children bought a few bits but not much came in and I didn't have a cake 😇. 

florianatwobob

Have had a proactive start to the day - recalculated the household budget after whimpering about the Brit Gas DD increase. 

Am now half in the bedroom and half in the cupboard over the stairs sorting suitcases away and bits that were mentally earmarked for charity but hadn’t been fished out. Tea break over and time to crack on 

Rootle

16/52 - 3rd and final section of bathroom cleared. Few items to the bin. Ready for bathroom fitters tomorrow. 

TC77

Mrs SD and @GrannyKate yes I'm emptying Graham every 100 or so emails. Just have some.enormous files linked to o going frogs or things that could come.haxk and haunt me or too daunting too go through! 
Hoping to do some tidying and paper declutter and drop a few things at the donation hub today.

EnergyShifter

Managed to get to Church for the 8am service in spite of transport issues due the Marathon.  Blackheath, which is usually fairly empty at that time on a Sunday morning was getting so busy - there was a lovely buzz & a few Marathon supporters came in for the service which was lovely.  

DS' Dad has been in the UK on and off for the past couple of weeks and left to travel round Europe to find somewhere to live and apparently he will be travelling to Asia again later in the Year and I got the impression that they are considering that as a place to live also.    I've tried to avoid him - because I really don't want to argue with him like last time but we ended up having a brief chat today.  Felt pretty low after - I guess every time he is here I stupidly think maybe he'll start to help more - if only to spend more time with DS - but I end up getting disappointed as it becomes obvious he won't.  Hopefully I will learn at some point!   In fairness he was there for DS until he was 18.   

Anyway I turned my frustration into another impromptu decluttering blitz.

Tasks:
completed application for a course to start in Autumn

IN (running total 82)
83 & 4 - 2 x sets of fridge / cupboard organisers

OUT (running total 359)

360. Charging cable
361. Book
362. Decorative Bowl
363. Coaster
364. Ski socks
365. Money belt
366 & 7 - 2 x candle holder
368. Cushion
369-372 - 4 x sets cutlery
373-5 - 3 bowls
376 & 7 - 2 x ariels - left outside for scrap 🤞

Flowerpot - Elmo is so gorgeous - his pic really made me smile
Mrs SD - good luck with the door handle marathon  

QueenJess

@~FlowerPot~that would be heaven for my DS who is Lego obsessed!  @Florenceem well all those photos looked clean to me because my computer screen is so dirty I do like the clear sides

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger allocating lists of things to do to DH doesn't always go well from experience.  He needs a bit of micromanaging.  I think I will limit his list to 3 things at a time for the week and see how that goes.  If he gets it all done I can add more later in the week.  After tidying quite a bit in the last 3 days, I do feel a lot better about the house.  Still got some tricky areas to target and so much food to use up in the cupboards...  At the weekend my mum gave me desiccated coconut she won't ever use (sadly I already have about 5 packs I'm incredibly slowly getting through).  I thought quick though and gave her a bag of dark sugar as I never use it and it'll take me forever to get through it.  So net effect nil.

Back to some decluttering this weekend.  DD has stopped breastfeeding, so all that stuff is being ejected.  I also got DS to go through his "random" drawer of goodies in his room and he got rid of loads of that.  I also put some stuff on eBay which I haven't used for ages to sell anything as usually I don't have anything worth it.  Top things on my list to sort out soon are:

• DS needs more Lego storage.  I have been thinking a lot about it and think I have come up with something that will work.  Just need to buy it, which sadly means braving IKEA.  Will try and do it during the week first thing when it's quiet.
• Need to sort out the box of future presents for DS and DD... it's currently in a box in my wardrobe, on top of the box, scattered around my library and some in the attic.  As I have a whole big drawer free in the wardrobe I will consolidate it all into a single place so I can actually see what I have.  The books were bought secondhand, but everything else was free (Buy Nothing, handed down from friends/family).
  
• Still trying to get through my packaging box by using it up through Buy Nothing packaging.  It's slowly going down as I don't often buy things online anymore.

I probably also need to refold DS's clothes.  He actually has too much space for them now if I fold them like a filing cabinet so DS can actually see what he has.  I need to reorganise it that way to stop him pulling everything out to find the t-shirt he wants.  As a result I will move some of his toys around to fill the hole, but need to think about what makes sense and not do it in a way that means more junk will be able to find a home!

Digital:

12,602-12,605 - bookmarks deleted
12,606-12,625 - photos deleted

Physical:
12,626 - food we won’t use (buy nothing)
12,627-12,636 - plants pots (box for garden centre recycling)
12,637-12,642 - batteries used up (recycling)
12,643-12,674 - kids stuff (recycled)
12,675-12,709 - breast feeding stuff not needed (eBay)
12,710 - stamps (eBay)