2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, it's been about a week since I last posted and I have almost caught up . Although not much has left the house I have been cleaning, tidying and putting things away so not a complete wash out. On Saturday I was at the footy and on Monday we went for lunch with a friend, C, and her son who has some mh issues but OH has a knack of chatting to him that seems to help. After lunch I spent some time teaching C to crochet which we have been trying to fit in for ages. Where we went for lunch was a really lovely restaurant that is attached to and overlooks a fishing lake. Apparently it started as a shed serving hot drinks and bacon butties for the fishermen and as the business grew they built the restaurant building and the business has never looked back. The building was stone built and looks like it is a converted barn type of building. I was very impressed with it and I can see what a lovely place it would be in the summer when you can sit outside overlooking the lake with a coffee. If it weren't an hour's drive away I would probably be there every week   I have been cleaning in the back room following on from cleaning the wood burner and it is almost ready for the furniture from the front room to be moved into. I have a bit of paint to touch up still and the windows need a clean but progress has been made. I have been very tired though and I have been falling asleep over my kindle every night which is why I haven't posted .
I am still trying to sort out the issue with by as I am waiting for the post bag to arrive so I can send the stuff back. I was supposed to have a phone call on Tuesday but I missed it when I had to pop into the toilet and couldn't get to the phone quickly enough. I had a text message yesterday saying they would call between 10 am and 12 pm so spent the day walking around with the handset, no call but the battery is flat on the handset and it is now back in the docking station charging. I have had the same text today so I am hovering near the phone so I don't miss the call again . I have also spent a long time on a phone call to the tax office. They were very helpful as I had a list of things to ask them about but it was a very long wait to be connected to a real person. I know there is a lot of information online but I have had a change in tax code and I had a bit of a panic that I had not paid enough tax last year and was going to be hit with a big tax bill, but apparently it's because we have had a rise in the state pension but I am relieved I asked the question . I can rest easy knowing I won't get an unexpected bill .

I will catch up but I want to say @Florenceem you are an absolute marvel. I remember when my Mum was in hospital and how hard it was to keep visiting and keep everything ticking over at home. It is really exhausting both physically and mentally and as others have said please take care of yourself first. You will need to be fighting fit when Mr F comes home, hugs

Not too sure who is dealing with the Lego but I wanted to say I have a friend who now she is retired supplements her income by buying up bits of Lego from car boots and cs, making up the kits and then selling them. She does quite well, who knew
So as far as numbers go
618 bedroom bin emptied
619 lr bin emptied
620 kitchen bin emptied
621 bathroom bin emptied
622 meds ordered
623 email to docs 're blood tests, frog
624 conversation with tax office, potential frog dealt with as a tadpole
625 - 627 3 loads of washing done, line dried, folded and put away
628 a pair of sunday knickers to the rag bag, a few rags used while cleaning and put into the bin.
That's all I can remember
Hugs to everyone who would like one, and I had better get back to listening for the phone 
Take care everyone
628/2023

Florenceem

I ordered a new cordless cleaner last night - being delivered on Saturday. My old one was working when I put in the order but today it has stopped - it may be rebelling against all the work I am making it do. I got a new one as now I am decluttering and have more floor to hoover - I am vacuuming every day.

vulpix

Good morning declutterati,

 I would love to help with your decluttering. Distance no object. It’s the cleaning I don’t like. Well done on your kitchen Mrs SD. 

 I think I am older than some of you and that as younger people you are absolutely doing the right thing by being aware and in control of what comes into your home. 

 Several things have prompted me to declutter. My house was never untidy, just very full storage!

 Having breast cancer. Not necessarily dire but it concentrates the mind a bit and makes you think about your mortality. 

 Down sizing from a 5 bed house to 2 up 2 down dolls house. I think this is connected to contemplating my mortality and possible ill health. ie no lawn to mow, no hedge to cut. 

 Recently emptying my mil’s house.

 This is a journey of several years. 

 Also my children are adults and don’t live with me so I am not the custodian of their belongings anymore. Well with the exception of the crate of Lego in the loft!

  I don’t want to inconvenience my family when they have to empty my house. My Mum has given me a lot of things that are old. I realise old isn’t necessarily valuable and other people’s treasure may not be mine. I am happy to let someone who really likes whatever to have it. 

 Mr V found my enthusiasm for rehoming difficult but is on board now. He has his electricals in his shed and I have 20 excess pairs of shoes!! For now. I think decluttering isn’t a do once and it’s finished activity, little and often is my motto and something is better than nothing. 

 Vx

regnbue

Florenceem   reading through the posts today and can I just say that your one little sentence "Not regretting a thing that has left the house." has struck me as very powerful.

You are an inspiration, thank you.

regnbue

QueenJess

Work has gone completely mental and so I am completely out of control at the moment.  Means all decluttering will probably grind to a halt or a slow crawl for today/tomorrow.

Saying that, I have lots of Buy Nothing people wanting my tat, so I will get on and select people so it can be picked up before the long weekend.  I also already sold 2 out of 3 Lego kits online and I only put them up yesterday!  I packaged them up with boxes I hoard from parcels and posted them already.

I ended up down an internet rabbit hole this morning and discovered some things I want.  I resisted purchasing anything now and have put them on my long term gift list.  All my family just ask each other for lists at xmas/birthdays etc and I really struggle for things I want.  This way I have stuff on a list ready to go and it also hangs around on there so long, there is no immediate gratification and I can really consider if I need/want it enough by then.  Most things stay on, but there's usually a few things that come off the list.

I did have a mini moment of enlightenment this morning when I realised I have a silly amount of plastic plant pots.  I have decided to look out for (if I see any on my second hand shop travels, else it's on the gift list) a few small terracotta used pots for seedlings; I will also hoard some toilet rolls and then will ask for a wooden seed tray or two as a gift for my seedlings next year.  I don't need many of these at all as I tend to grow the same few things from seed indoors every year and I don't get on with the plastic ones that well.  Even if I don't do any of this and continue to use the plastic ones, I have the ones out that I need, so every single pot currently in my shed is definitely not needed.  I shall be digging these ones out and taking them back to the garden centre (people help themselves to them and the ones not taken are recycled by the centre, although I've never seen many in there as people tend to use them all!).

DH has been allocated his to do list for his day off tomorrow, including an item that's been on my list since early Jan!  I have hope now that I'll find the end of the list this year.

Decluttering
Digital:
12,893-12,934 - photos/videos deleted
12,935-12,936 - text conversations deleted

Physical:
12,937-12,942 - baby bowls (Buy Nothing)
12,943-12,946 - paper (reused, then recycled)
12,947-12,951 - packaging (reused)

QueenJess

regnbue said:

Florenceem   reading through the posts today and can I just say that your one little sentence "Not regretting a thing that has left the house." has struck me as very powerful.

You are an inspiration, thank you.

regnbue

So true.  Weirdly I was also thinking this morning that I know I get rid of loads of stuff (and have been doing it for years), but I can't think of a single thing I regret getting rid of.  The simplification is so worth it... I really pared back in DD's room (I even got rid of furniture!) and if she takes everything out, I can put it all back in under 15 mins.  That's the kind of house I need!

Craving_space

~FlowerPot~ said:

And because the lego picture is so boring 💤 heres one of Elmo, our italian greyhound pup, just over a year old and scared of everything especially the window men 😂

Elmo is officially gorgeous, @FlowerPot!! 

Siebrie

@Florenceem I'm currently noting down ideas for our new kitchen, and I, too, don't want any overhead cabinets, and all bottom cabinets should have deep drawers.

 Husband has agreed on a small container to send some stuff ahead to his home country. It won't all fit in his suitcases (2 x 23 kg) anyway, and we don't have the space to store enough stuff to fill a proper sea container. He will get an empty, clean 220l plastic drum (it's around 140cm high) and I will fill it. It costs €150 to buy and send all the way to his family. We will include simple food for him to heat up when he is there again this summer (tins of thick soup, mainly). I can fit a lot in one container, and just pray they won't open it at customs, because they will never manage to get it all back in!

 His sister gave us 2 binbags with clothes for their relatives, which husband just chucked in our home office (completely inaccessible at this point). The bags gave off an unpleasant smell (due to some kind of essential oil SIL likes to melt which makes the whole house smell (it's not unpleasant as such, just permeates everything), and washing clothes with a cheap powder and then storing them in a binbag for a long time) so I have aired out the clothes yesterday. It helped a bit, and I'm just glad the clothes will be gone soon.

Frogs to be tackled:

- I have to renew dds' Dutch passports before 23 June; if I don't, they lose their Dutch nationality (they have a Belgian nationality, too, due to husband naturalising). I'm stuck on 1 question, and can't find the answer, because the relevant paperwork is at a friend's place for storage.

- buy dd2's birthday present (birthday is day after tomorrow....)

- organise dd1's birthday party (end of June, taking 3 friends to a theme park). I have to look for discounts (I swear I've seen a good one, but where?) and organise how to get them there and back. That's not the problem. The problem is I can't fit 4 teenagers and dd2 in the car. (Maybe one of the other parents is willing to drive, too.)

- in the meantime, my father is doing worse and worse, so I'm trying to organise my life and work as much as possible, to be ready for the funeral and time off, and whatever admin comes with it all afterwards.

- our dishwasher stops working after 5 minutes, which suggests a clog in the drain to me. Husband claims he has completely dismantled and rebuilt the machine and has found nothing. I think he is fibbing, and just took out the shelves. Friends gave us their old dishwasher, but the wheels on the shelves are almost gone, so it’s a hassle to put anything in and get anything out. When running, it’s fine, though. I need to dissemble our old dishwasher, at least remove all the plastic bits inside and see what I can find. When do I have the time? And are my hands strong enough?

I'm stressing so much about all the things I need to do, that I don't do anything! Also, dd1 and I are running on different priority lists, so whenever I'm doing something, she's nagging that I don't do whatever is on her list. I then stop what I'm doing, and reluctantly do what she's nagging about just to get her off my back, but that means I'm not concentrating properly, and the end result is not as nice as it could be. It also means that whatever I was looking forward to doing from my own list, does not get done! DD1 is adopting a 'learned helplessness' attitude; for instance, when I asked her to measure the distance between 2 points she claimed she doesn't know how to, until I do it quickly, annoyedly, and probably slightly off.

The thing is, if I’m left to my own devices, even the difficult or nasty tasks have their place, and I will actually look forward to finishing them. If I get interrupted and do not start and finish on my own time schedule / energy flow, it becomes a chore.

gettingthrifty

Hi All 
I would be grateful for peoples thoughts, ideas , words of wisdom.
I realise that with this decluttering i really have just been tinkering around the edges. I 'm fine at getting rid of obviously broken or 'past it' items. Or giving to people that are looking for something and i can hand mine on..but  only if they want it. I have drastically reduced what comes into the house and there by have made a difference . But now i need to get serious and im faced with fear!! Im in absoloute awe of you Mrs F doing this when your circumstances are so difficult.
We have had several medical emergencies in this house when i have felt an intense need to " jettison"- i think thats the word, to make life easier. Just get rid.. but when the episode is passed i dont. My health has deteriorated recently but im working on that. I think thats whats brought me to this point.
I am currently witnessing my in laws anxiety of not having tackled their stuff and downsized earlier..they wont accept help and will debate everything that leaves the house. I am constantly thinking about my progress ( slow) and know i need to bite the bullet. For me i have to be honest with myself trying to sell stuff will just delay the progress. So donating will be the way to go. I  have a local hospice that has local shops and a warehouse that i will send it to, so how do i get over the intense fear? Am i a hoarder? I feel like im standing on a cliff edge ready to jump. Sorry to sound dramatic .I see mentioned by OPs that no one has regrets about the loss of anything they have let go. I have just turned a huge chapter in my life and will be dealing with a lot of things that will create raw emotion. But i know the one bonus is ,once i start filling bags, my DH will too without being asked !
If i ask for help he will immediatly because hes always hated me hanging onto things but has been incredibly tolerant and supportive as he knows why i needed to . But a new chapter now.
Would be interested to hear if others have this fear/ worry and how you manage it please.
Many thanks x

Soontobeoap

@gettingthrifty. I have started slow and steady. I dont count things that I would normally throw out as that wouldnt work for me. I started by tackling the big things that I knew needed doing and had been putting off. My craft shed for instance. Most things are in plastic containers but some were damp so it was obvious that they had to go. Now I am going through a box at a time and whilst tidying it have found quite a lot of bits that I know I wont use. I am a bit haphazard and stopped this area when the weather was against me and then got caught up in gardening. But I actually enjoyed my first task and very much love the tidy look and easier access to things. Seeing the difference it has made has motivated me. Also my sister and I took on the job of clearing our parents house when they passed away 4 years ago. We went through every precious thing and wondered why they had kept some things! It took a year. We were exhausted. With 2 other siblings we had get togethers to look at anything we thought might be valuable to someone. My brother kept everything that noone else wanted and put it into storage to sort through! He got half price storage for 3 months by which time it would be done!!! 3 years on he is still paying over £100.00 a month and has not had time to look at it again! My sister and I, both determined not to leave our children with the emotional rollercoaster that we went through are desperately trying to declutter!! I have just kept photos and kids art work that will hopefully give them joy and comfort to look at and remind them of how much they are loved, things that give me pleasure, clothes that fit and practical items mainly in the kitchen. Hope this helps.

Any way today was time to sort back bedroom. For some unknown reason we have taken to sleeping in the front in the Winter and back in Summer so I am getting room ready to move back into. When I moved the cupboards and bed  out to hoover behind I couldnt believe the dust. I have washed down all of the skirting and tbe walls around the window as they are prone to condensation damp! Didnt come off easily this time. I have bleached a little so hoping it will fade! Have taken curtains down and decided they are not going back. A blind is enough and the room looks much bigger without curtains. They are in the wash and as they are only about 4 years old I will use the fabric for crafts. I decluttered the wardrobes and drawers a couple of months ago so only a few things building up in the bin bag but I think that by the time I have spring cleaned upstairs I will have filled another bag. 😇