2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

plumduff55

Hi, I'm starting my decluttering seriously today. In between Christmas and New Year I sorted and decluttered my sewing room. It looked great until I took down my Christmas decorations and dumped them all in there. Today I will go through the decorations, declutter and store them away.

I have deleted hundreds of emails. I went through my outlook inbox folders and found emails from 2014. Absolutely hundreds from my eBay purchases as these included 2 or 3 emails for each purchase. I felt great getting rid of all this junk.

Another area I'm going to declutter this month is my food storage. My food cupboards, fridge/freezer and small freezer are all filled to the gunnels so I've decided to buy no edibles except milk till the the end of January. It will take a bit of thought and versatility as I have not shopped since before Christmas and had no plans to do this. I am running low in bread but have plenty crackers and about 1 kilo of bread flour. I don't have many potatoes left either but have 2 tins of potatoes and a couple of portions of mashed potatoes in the freezer. This will be a challenge for me 🤨 but I am very stubborn when I get an idea into my head. So here goes ......................

-taff

@plumduff55 I'm going to join you on your food declutter. I saved some shelves from certain death in a skip so am about to change my Billy bookcases [bookcases to be given away, glass doors to be sold] for some industrial shelving so a good sort out is about to happen with a pledge to only buy fresh veg for the next month at least. the fridge freezer and chest freezer are also stuffed full so I shoud be able to come up with something there. My cookery books are at the ready!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks

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 daily mail immediately 

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

It is already Thursday - what happened to to Monday to Wednesday 😥 I was up at 7:45 a.m. having gone to bed at 2:30 a.m. Wearing my cuddly dressing gown & just about to make my 2nd cuppa 😉Whilst waiting for the kettle to boil I did last nights wudupa 😉 there wasn’t a lot which is why I didn’t do it before I went to bed. The recycling wheelie bin has been emptied - on the correct day 🥳

28 Chocolate box recycled 

vulpix what a good use of funeral service brochures 🙂 Have you kept up the family tree started by your Mum or has it been passed down to the next generation? I understand that searching internet records is quicker but somehow checking old church records seems more personal 😊 Your poor DD1 🙁, I hope the airline can resolve this expeditiously 🤞 Excellent decluttering & tidying 👏 even if the office was an unexpected bonus 😉 Good luck with your washing marathon & 🤞that you can dry outside 🍀

Excellent decluttering short_bird 👏

Great use of your 23 minutes mfwin2019 👏 Love the picture of clothes patiently waiting to be put away 😁

Great decluttering stellata 👏

Great work TC77 👏 Baby steps soon turn into a toddler walk 😉 I am putting your DD2 on the naughty step 🙁

Karamac, that is the beauty of decluttering - you can pick & choose how to do it 🙂 Just like exercise it needs to be fun so that we can maintain our enthusiasm & momentum 😊 Great decluttering 👏 Don’t forget to share the apple & mincemeat turnovers - the buffet car always welcomes new treats for your fellow declutterers to sample 😉 Fingers crossed that your poorly DH is entitled to some benefits as every little helps especially if it means your savings can stay untouched for a while 🤞Good luck with your lists 🍀 We currently have Mending Mondays & Frog Fridays 😉

Welcome back StickyTheStickInsect 👋 it is so lovely to see you 😊 So sorry to hear that Long Covid wiped out your 2022 & I hope that you are now on the path to a full recovery 🤞I have noted your target & look forward to reading your Good Intentions list 🙂 - mine is still waiting to be written as just notes & jottings at the moment 😔

Liverpool_Anne you NEVER have to apologise for a long post 😊 especially such a great cheerleading post for which I am awarding you a Gold Star ⭐️ Excellent decluttering 👏 Re the nice smelling tea with the average taste, I bought my DSis a fancy box of chocolates which smelt divine but were rather disappointing taste wise 😔

nannywindow you might have decluttered your sleep but at least you made full use of your wakefulness 👏 I usually just watch rubbish TV 😔 I fully empathise with your flour dilemma - I have a large amount of flour bought when Covid first arrived in our lives together with a sack of rice 😔 & so far have have been unable to summon up the enthusiasm to make any bread or rice dishes - another item to jot down on my Good Intentions pad 😔 As to the lo turkey & fancy cheeses maybe a mini buffet ……… with some home made bread 😉

MrsSD

Decluttering Target 2023: 28/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

vulpix

 Just a quickie,

 Daisy 1571.  Your post says everything that I wanted to say to Weenancy but was too British to do. Good luck weenancy, my friend who does "mushing" is always on FB rehoming donated Huskies. The Husky community always comes up trumps.

 Mrs SD when my Dad retired in the 80's my parents spent 5 years researching the family tree. They travelled far and wide ,visiting old churches,records offices and libraries. They met relatives and made friends through the hobby. My Mum's side of the family were from Essex but came from France after the French revolution for work,making lace. My Dad's family were local wealthy farmers. the fly in the ointment was one was a bigamist. He had one farm and original family here in the Peak District and had another farm in Cheadle,manchester where he kept another wife and family. All the children had the same names. eg,first son Adam,first daughter Elisabeth etc. He spent months at a time at each farm,the wives knowing about the other farm but not the family. He died here and after a few months the other wife turned up to see where he was and that is how they found out about each other. Both farms were sold. The farm here is still named after my Ancestor.

 Vx

 PS. All the Family tree stuff has been passed on to my youngest nephew along with my Grandads war medals. He is very interested.

Liverpool_Anne

@daisy_1571, excellent post 're huskys. Visually they are one of my favourite dogs but a quick browse on their needs made me realise I would never have one. I used to work in a vets and the vet used to spend ages with some people explaining the needs of their pets of various kinds. They would get exasperated with some owners.

@weenancyinAmerica, good luck with the rehoming, hugs

Liverpool_Anne

@Vulpix, that must have been a shock for the wives and a legal nightmare for the families I have thought about doing a bit of family history stuff as I know very little about even my grandparents but I don't have the head space for it yet

joanie

Well I don’t know what’s going on but my decluttering muscles 💪 are developing really well! 

I think reading all your efforts while whizzing along at such a fast pace on this thread means I can chuck stuff out no bother. 

The biggest item today is a Vax vacuum. Inherited from my mum a few years ago but it seems to only pick up dust rather than fluff and stuff so out it goes. I think vacuums are my ‘thing’. Still got 6 others 😬

Thanks to whoever mentioned the medicine cabinet - I removed 28 items from ours this morning. Oldest item expired in 2009 ! Yes that isn’t a typo of 2019 😬 mind we still have more ibuprofen and paracetamol that the local chemist! I need to stop buying a packet each week. 

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger for the gold star ⭐️ I am definitely motivated by rewards 😁

I will update signature later - I’m struggling with the nice formats some of you have managed to do 😍

Hall cupboard to be decluttered is on my list this afternoon and may finish off the photos. 

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Hi all
I've managed to change my MSE notifications which has helped my email inbox
I have put away my decorations but put some in a labelled bag to give to the CS later this year - won't count that as decluttering !
Donated a scented candle to DD1, DD2 took some of her stuff with her when she went back to boyfriend's house. 
Small steps...
love deni

popthekettleon

Yesterday was a full day of work so only decluttering that went on was tidying kitchen stuff away after dinner. As @Mrs_Salad_Dodger has said, great to get up to a tidy kitchen. Also, thanks for the advice that a top to toe clean counts  .
Today I have tackled a box of DH families photos that we inheritated and Saturday we are meeting his family so will be taking them along so everyone can pick what they want from the pile. Just getting them into an order has helped.
Also picked up a blood test form from the docs, another ✅. 
Still need to work out how I will count things but reading everyone's ideas has really helped to concentrate the mind.

Good vibes to all xx

Florenceem

Still feeling good about decluttering but no sign of Mr F's lost wallet - I haven't thrown it out!
I sorted through and tidied Mr F's drawers of clothes today - not as easy to throw out stuff - he doesn't like getting rid. I persevered and out went - 
Jumper + 4 Pairs of Socks + Scarf + 2 Pairs of gloves + Old Meds x 3 + Tie Pin + Odd Glove + Glasses Case  
I am making a casserole so 3 bags of veg from freezer are going.
On day 5 - I am up to 55 items of my 31 day effort. Well ahead as the total aimed at would be 15.