2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

nannywindow

Hello all another pile of pages have passed by since I last posted so congratulations to everyone for doing so well. I think this EDT is in perpetual motion and only slows down to let people on or off, it never stops moving !
On Thursday I went with DD to a hotel in Cardiff for girly night out plus tickets for a show. We had afternoon tea which was scrumptious and then saw Les Miserable on it's London tour. It was absolutely superb and probably the best show I've see yet, I would highly recommend it if you get chance to see it. The theatre was packed and the show was over 3 hours long with only a 20min break, so everyone was squirming in their seats with numb bum syndrome towards the end but no one wanted to take their eyes off the stage. Then it was back to the hotel for the night and meanwhile DGS stayed with DH to keep him company. DGS was definitely on a mission to eat everything he could set his eyes on 🙄 so if anyone wants to borrow my human hoover give me a call 🤣 I think that maybe he was helping me declutter my food stores !
I took all my decorations down yesterday and some are now ready for the cs, mainly tinsel and a few baubles but the cards have gone straight into the recycling 👼 I don't need more gift tags made from them, I already have a bag full that I haven't used yet. So the decluttering bug is obviously very infectious. Today I will put the decoration boxes back in their cupboard and check my food stores. Tea tonight will be lo turkey pasta bake, using up some of the bits of fancy cheeses from the fridge, many thanks to taff and Keith's_Mum for that idea 👍 Out too goes the xmas mag that I never got round to reading, although DH read it from cover to cover but wasn't very impressed with the programmes on offer !
Take care all, happy decluttering !
nan 

vulpix

 It's dark here,I am struggling to come round.

 23 minutes spent writing everything down that is in the loft in the back of my notebook. The only thing to declutter in the future is a bag of wallpaper that I bought a couple of years ago to decorate our bedroom at the old house. Then I rashly put the house up for sale and it sold before we had even okayed the Estate agent's details. Possibility DIL will want a large Persian floor cushion/ carpet/saddle bag. The other things will stay. 2 suitcases,cat carrier and holdall with Mr V's dressing up clothes. For work honest! Plus size  Ginger Spice Union Jack outfit anyone? When we moved here I did say ,nothing in the loft. Things like suitcases are difficult to store though so I relented. What I mean now is,no junk shoved in the loft to be forgotten about.

 Well, I said I would look for a secondhand lightshade for the top of the stairs. Not found one yet but have found one for the sitting room plus some new to me curtains for our bedroom. Present light fitting looks nice but is too dark when switched on. Current bedroom curtains were an emergency second hand purchase and are nice but summer weight. Bedroom curtains have been tricky to get as the chimney breast brick has been exposed (not by me) and it's a hard colour to work with. I do like it though. Anyhow, £20 about to be squandered. I have seen some curtains for when the sitting room is finished. I am undecided at the moment. They would have to be altered by me as they are massive but a complete bargain. At the moment we have curtains from the last house that I made but they are not really the right size for this window. When I made them I did say I would never make curtains ever again !!!!! Whatever happens the incomers will eject the current residents.

 We are going out this afternoon, some tlc needed. Stressful time with MIL and my Mum. MIL now in hospital but medically ok,safest place for her. My Mum is quite poorly but I am desperate to keep her out of hospital as the best place for her is at home. As many of you know, a lot of calls and running around involved in spinning plates. Thank you all for being my place to regurgitate my jumbled thoughts. It helps. I also vicariously really enjoy your decluttering journeys.

 Vx

 

donna73

Happy Saturday everyone 😀
plan today is to organise the sheds further! After the big clear out last weekend my partner and I both feel much better. So today we need to organise the 3rd and last one ! Going to put all the gardening stuff in there , so each shed has a purpose, rather than all 3 just being a mixed up mess.Hope everyone has a happy and productive but relaxed weekend.

1.  broken coat hanger - bin 
2. Plastic tubs x 2 -recycling 
3. Tat in handbag x 7 -bin
4. Cards x 2 - recycling
5. Coffee tin and sticky back plastic scraps upcycled in to pen pot. 
6. Unsubscribed from email list x 2 counting as 1 item as not physical.
7. Decluttering total so far 191/2023

roundtuit

Batteries  - kitchen drawer 
Pen in motivational holder - cupboard.

Very satisfying to drop all the rubbish and recycling into the various receptacles. And added bonus is that my draining board is clear again. 

Rxx

QueenJess

Florenceem said:

I cut Christmas cards up yesterday and made tags. I kept some of the fronts as I recycle them into new cards - Mr F used to buy Christmas business cards but since we married - saves money.
I had a lovely wreath given to me - planned to take off the greenery and keep the wreath for next year - Mr F demolished it - thought that I meant - I was keeping the decoration bits only - so now instead of a wreath to store - I have separate  - lights/bow/baubles/robin/hanger!

I was thinking of making new cards with the old ones as I don’t really use gift tags. Do you just cut off the front and glue it onto a card the same shape? Do you have a problem with not having the right sized envelopes?

nannywindow

Just popping back to send copious hug to Vulpix for coping with Mum and Mil, it must be very stressful 🤗

GrannyKate

@nannywindow - I also have a 'hoover' otherwise DGS4 aged 7 - I was staggered by the amount he ate for tea yesterday.  This was also the first year (probably in 50) when I didn't buy a Christmas TV magazine even though I was here all over the holiday - didn't miss it one bit either.  

First post delivery since Christmas that didn't contain Christmas cards - three banking letters - all read and filed without hitting a work surface and envelopes in recycling.

EnergyShifter

Chipping in on the conversation about sunk costs - financial & emotional. 

Emotional: Last year I read the book "Decluttering at the speed of Life"  (thanks for whoever here recommended it).  It had a chapter on letting go of dreams of how we thought life would be.    From what I remember the Author separates them into Big and Small Dreams.  The Big ones involve grief when we letting go of them but the Small Dreams although sometimes hard to let go of are less painful and allow us to make space for new things.   When I read it I did an inventory of the various imagined lives I'd bought for - based on the categories of stuff I don't use but find it hard to get rid of - and it really helped.  I realised that many of them I no longer want.  For example when I became freelance I assumed I'd be doing a fair amount of corporate work  in-person- - I quite liked the idea of this - so I bought clothes and accessories for that.  It turns out that I do most of my work virtually and with charities and tech companies and I'm quite happy with that.  That realisation helped me let go of the things I've been holding onto (aside from a beautiful leather folio which I allowed myself to keep and a couple of nice dresses - which are wearable for other purposes also).  It dawns on me it would be a good exercise for me to do again!  

Financial: I buy most of my clothes from Charity Shops so don't spend a lot of money and I get a lot of pride from finding a good bargain.  But as the saying goes "it's only a bargain if you use it" and I notice that I find it hard to admit to myself it wasn't the bargain I thought !  for example - only last week did I finally let go of a LK Bennett dress I bought for £5 in 2017.  I've only worn it a couple of times - its just not me!  But it was so hard to let it go because of what its worth and that I thought I was clever when I found it! !  If I let go of my pride & thought - I only spent a fiver - I'd have let go of it years ago!! 

Ginmonster

10 more items out to the charity shop yesterday - shoes and unopened toiletries, so continuing well with the little and often method.

32/2023

Brie

Well done for everyone working hard at their declutter.  I've only skimmed the posts but I'm worn out by all the effort!!!

For given that it's 12(ish) night I'm dealing with Christmas decorations.  I've binned the broken ones, boxed up the nice ones we used, set aside the linen stuff (tablecloths, napkins, tree skirts, stockings etc) to decide how to store them. 

Most importantly, and most difficult, is the box of stuff that we didn't use this year and that I'd be quite happy to never see again.  The problem is that a lot of this is OH's parents' stuff which they likely bought when holidaying in Germany/Austria.  Some of it is very nice and other stuff is just meh.  The fact that it wasn't required this year is important to me as a drawing a line point as OH's mom died a couple of months back and so now it's just the two of us.  So if/when I ask him about things he may get emotional.  I think a lot will be pushed aside with little thought but there's also some very nicely done cross stitch things his mom made.  I won't get rid of one of the tree skirts - we don't need 2 but frankly they are both too nice.  There's also a Christmas themed framed picture of a bear and robin - cute but not my style, nor the OH's either I think - but someone is bound to like it. 

And then there's the really dreadful, very detailed cross stitch nativity scene that features Santa Claus (as in Coca-cola rather than Father Christmas) praying to the infant Jesus.  I think I could just about bare it if it was a proper Saint Nikolaus rather than a Santa Claus.  I'm hoping we can get rid of it but I doubt anyone else would ever want it so wonder about giving it to a charity shop at all to become their burden.  

FYI - my plan is for anything to go to the charity shop will be boxed up, clearly marked and then stored until I'm sure someone will be happy to take it.