2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

charlies_tribe

Just a quick update before bed. Mrs SD thank you for the stars. The garden has definitely been all DH, he's done fantastic over the last 4-6 weeks.
I spotted a bag of coat hangers while doing the washing so they went in. The bath step I thought about putting on the free site but didn't want to put any one else through that torture.
The rug stunk of dog and has been rolled up under the table since DGD could roll as didn't like her on it when I couldn't get rid of the dog smell. The incontinence pads have been sat on the side weeks waiting for DH to ask someone at work if the wanted them. He said he kept forgetting so listed them on free site and they were gone in 30 minutes. Car mats were from DD1 old car that she left outside last year when cleaning it out, she's had a new car since.
The buckets were riddled with glass as well as bricks, jam jars, sauce bottles, the top of a toilet cistern, down pipe, corrugated sheeting.....
Counted every bucket using the cctv as DH definitely deserved each one x

1470- 1476 600 emails deleted
1477-1522 46 coat hangers
1523 Large rug
1524-1527 4 packs incontinence pads
1528-1531 4 car mats
1532 Bath step
1533-1594 62 buckets glass contaminated soil
1595-1596 2 concrete bricks

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

Sunday could have been a bit of a rush but fortunately I woke up at 09:20 😅 We got dressed, packed the bike & had a large mug of coffee or tea & were on the road by 10:23 🥳 a dry day, not too warm - low 20’sC - perfect motorbiking weather 🥳 The day was going well then as we started to get further north we started to lose time - first a reroute due to a section of the M11 being closed; the the OK Diner (all day breakfast for me, burger & chips for DH) was really busy so a 45 minute stop turned int a 75 minute stop etc, etc, etc We got to Brough Castle & TeaRoom at 16:45 - DH took his photos & I ordered cappuccinos & ice creams for both of use + we used the facilities. By this time the temperature had climbed to mid/high 20’sC. Scotland greeted us with 2 minutes of rain as we passed the ‘Welcome To Scotland’ sign 😂 but it then baca me a very pleasant dry evening 🙂 We arrived at our Mercure Hotel at 18:45 only 1.25 hours later than we expected. Showered & changed for dinner (which was at 20:00) DH had the specials - king prawns + chicken tikka masala. I had garlic mushrooms on toasted brioche 🤤 followed by Balmoral chicken with mash & roasted carrots - DH won the overall best dinner as there was something not quite right about my main course (possibly too much sage 🤢) Lots of chat & discussion about various topics including drugs in sport (Wimbledon was on TV with very weird sub titles 🙄) A leisurely dinner with quite a few drinks so back in our room by 23:00 😉 I was going to cheerlead but instead will say I hope everyone had a good day & wish you all a good night 😊

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

DH Awards: 🥇🏅⭐️💐,  perseverance medal 🎖️, 🥇 🏅🏅 😇

Decluttering Target 2023: 1628/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £228.00

weenancyinAmerica

Been spending a lot of time at the public library. Donations went up too fast - so the library is temporarily putting a hold on donations. We we able to put twenty more boxes of books onto to our carts just this morning - not including the 40 boxes sorted this week. We were able to get 13 boxes plus of books ready to go to the Jail tomorrow. Yes we were at our library on a Sunday - first time ever. The library just opened on Sundays last week for the first time. We may have to have little flash sales - a couple of carts at a time during the week to get rid of some of the books. We are literally receiving thousands every week. One person donated 20 boxes just in the last few days (the reason why to library says to wait for more donations)! Still fitting in genealogy around it, but did manage to get the boxes of books for my relatives to the right people on Friday, so seven boxes of books left the house since Thursday. Only bought one book - Stuff Brits Like by Fraser McAlpine. Thought it might help a little understanding some of the terminology on here. 

TC77

So much h going on again! I keep waking up early and staying up watching n*fl. 
Mrs SD amazing getting to Scotland so quickly. Took me nearly 4 hours for the usual  2.5 hrs trip back from the new forest.
I did bring some thing back from  my dad's but most are to pass on. 
Dd1 stayed last night as babysat locally so it picking up.anynleft over things and I'll drive over tonight.to hers.
Dd1 offered to help me for a day in August sort things as she said she doesn't want to. Spend weekends like I am ( at my dads) sorting my stuff when someone happens to me. I've taken her up on it and will think what area to focus on with her as she will be quite harsh / critical of stuff but nice that she's offered. Prob things I'm keeping in case she may want.still a student in rented flat but going to be 26 so a better idea than her sister.2 items ( mine) sold and cs back dropped odd. Do want to create space for new things..  in office more and new person stating today and lovely colleague leaving Friday. ! 
Hope everyone's week goes as well as it can .

Moorviews

Thank you for the tips Florenceem. 

TC77 - your daughter is wise to help you now. I have seen relatives that have downsized and had a good clear out and others that couldn’t let go of the family home, or their possessions. I know which I have found easier to cope with, although I respect people’s choices. We are still in the family home with an adult offspring, however, we want to at least try and get a lot of our stuff moved on while we can tackle the work ourselves. Our DD has left a lot of stuff here which she would like to go through but with her own home, a young family and a job, she doesn’t unfortunately have the time. 

My efforts yesterday:
Fridge grot was cleared and wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. 

Large bag for life of books was prepared for the charity shop and another box is now ready to be collected by the book buying company. My bookshelves are still overflowing though 🤷‍♀️ 

A bulky item we were selling was bought and collected.
It doesn’t matter how much goes we still look overfull.

QueenJess

Morning everyone. I’ve been having a bit of a think about photos this morning. I have 5 albums of physical photos and more than 15,000 digital ones.

Although I don’t mind keeping them all, I have been thinking about the fact that I don’t ever look at them. Why don’t I and will I ever look at them? If not, then why keep them all? Partly it’s because finding the ones I would like to look at is impossible and overwhelming.

It’s so difficult as once they are gone you’re not getting them back. I think this may take years, but i have a vague plan in my head.

1. Look at the physical photos and try to consider if I have an attachment to the physical photos themselves or would like to see them like that. For example, some of them contain random other things (think like scrapbooking) where I used to write about our holidays when I was a child. Or I have an album my mum made me with curated pictures of me as a child. If not, then check I already have a digital version (years ago I got all my negatives converted to digital and threw out the negatives) and scan in as necessary (I downloaded the Photo Scan app for iPhone which is really good).

2. Organise all the photos on my phone into albums and as I go get rid of duplicates, stuff I obviously won’t want etc.

3. Once organised, I can see all the digital photos in sections and consider if I actually want them. Might be a case of choosing favourites and the best rather than what to get rid of (different mindset).

4. Get a digital photo frame so I can actually enjoy my photos. May also do that on my phone Home Screen as well.

It probably will take years, but not looking at photos seems silly. I should be enjoying them.

Siebrie

@QueenJess That's a well-though-out plan of attack. I especially like number 3; maybe you can limit yourself to, say, 20 photos you like per vacation, and delete the rest? As you rightly say: how often do you actually look at those pictures?

My Mum (87) started going through her photobooks and is actively removing all pictures that our nuclear family and direct relatives are not in. So, pictures of her Aunts and Uncles and former neighbours are removed from the albums and then sent to descendants of the people in the pictures, with a note saying who, why and when. She gets so many lovely replies!

Floss

Siebrie, that's a fab idea to send excess photos to the subjects, so they have them for their own family history.

Wednesday2000

I had such a nice weekend seeing The Weeknd live in Stratford.:) He was amazing. I did so many steps, almost 23,000 on Friday!

I was going to wear a charity shop skirt I bought to the gig, but it felt far too loose so that went into a donation bag. My husband made a comment about a jumper I bought him that he hates so that can join the skirt. I may as well go through all our clothes again today!

My bathroom is finally finished from yesterday and my husband's friend said he will pick up the rubbish in our garden soon as he still has access to a skip.

nannywindow

Morning all. Some great decluttering going on !
Yesterday I decided to clean the top of the fridge freezer, then silly me went on to the bottom 2 shelves of my pantry. All nice, shiny and tidy now with the large plastic containers washed too ( they were the see through drawers from a plastic tower unit). This morning I have sat with DH and gone through the contents of the drawers which adorned my dining table all night. In the recycling has gone 28 plastic tuppaware/takeaway lids  and some of the larger boxes no longer fit for purpose have been utilised in the OTT meds draw as I was fed up sorting through the jumble. 2 creams, an ear dropper bottle and 3 lots of tablets have been decluttered, as they were all ood. 
I now have a plastic hand mincer, a mandolin and a ice cube container in the bowl soaking. Once washed 2 can go in the cs bag and when the mandolin has had it's slicer removed it can be binned, as can't remember when I last used them. I need to get DH to pass down my baking tins from the top 2 shelves as I can't reach them and my balance is awful on a ladder. Hopefully after washing I can send some of it to the cs/ scrappy/ recycling as sadly not much of it gets used nowadays 😟 Trouble is I have a few items in the bottom of a wardrobe ready to replace them as I had no shelf room 🙄 I'm sure the bottom of the wardrobe will then get the items relevant to clothes, eg DH's shoes which are threatening to take over the house!
QueenJess I went through all my photo albums and took out all the ones that DD or DGC wouldn't be interested in. All family ones then had names and dates put on the back as no-one but me will have a clue who my great aunt Ethel or my great grandparents were, let alone recognise them ! 
MrsSD hope you and MrSD have a great time on your travels. Safe journey.