2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Slinky

Large amount of cardboard boxes, packing paper and bubble wrap were dropped off with the husband of a lady who wanted them for packing up recycling for Terracycle yesterday. Also went were biscuit/chocolate/other odd bits that we'd collected for Terracycle. I dropped them off at his work place, I think he was slightly taken aback as he's got to get them home on the bus, but I had warned her there was quite a lot of it. Our furniture was mostly in storage last year while we had work done on the house.

Today we've had stuff coming in, new bedding in readiness for our new larger bed coming week after next.  We moved the Christmas decs back to the loft and fished out some binliners with bedding in. Have been through and identified some items to leave the house, although they haven't left yet. Some will make decorating cloths. Our decorating cloths have taken a hammering with all the work we've had done on the house in the past year, they'll have one more turn shielding plants in the garden when we repaint the fence this year, then they will go. Also rummaged around in our new airing cupboard and dragged out some old towels  that had found there way in somehow. These will go to the RSPCA next week when I'm passing.

The mystery is where our table cloths are. I was expecting them to be in a binliner in the hall which was a final thing needing opening after our stuff came back from storage, but they weren't there. Most odd. I have the one we use for Christmas which isn't too Christmassy, but I'd like to be able to wash it and replace with one of the other two.

DundeeDoll

Mrs_Salad_Dodger said:

Did you manage to get new curtains as well?🤞Your 23 minutes each day is definitely coming up trumps 👏

When xoh moved out I had the decorator come and repaint the whole of indoors then the 2 large bedrooms (mine included) a feature wallpapered wall with matching curtains, courtesy of laura ashley closing down locally, so no need for new curtains. May though treat myself to new bedlinen before long.

Love the ‘Operation Frog Tickling’ I have an acronym - I.R.I.S. being Identify, Research, Implement, Sign Off am currently reading Ali Smith's Winter which stars an Iris. 

Oh Brie "sadly the zillion "collectible" china thimbles all survived." that made me laugh!

Today had girlie day with DD2 in Glasgow. Bought myself a new handbag - Radley sale in Glasgow, checked it would indeed fit my 2 pairs glasses, 1 Radley purse bought by my 3 children for my 50th nearly 10 years ago, my university pass, keys and phone but still fit in my rucksack with my computer, charger, book and gloves, yay so now 2 barely used into the charity box (bought having done the above test with my eyes only rather than actually testing) and my fave but now sadly very worn out into the bin.

Today's 23 minutes was spent sorting the large amount of recycling I have generated from my declutters (using the 3 boxes throw away put away give away system of sorting) - 2 boxes to take to the charity shop tomorrow after church, the rest in the relevant recycle bins, very satisfying. Christmas Terry's Chocolate Orange decluttered by myself, DM and DD2 as 'pudding'. yum.

Keiths_Mum

Evening All

Was up at the crack of dawn an at the post office, sent an insurance claim for late Uncle by recorded delivery, definitely a frog, it has taken me nearly 4 months. Then to the bank, now I haven't needed to go inside the bank since before covid. There are now no cashiers desks apart from one and the cashier does not work on a Saturday! That's fine I thought, I can use the machines, deposited 2 cheques fine, then I was going to deposit/declutter some coins about £10 of coppers and about £5 of 20p's. Realised there was no way of doing it, called the advisor over, who confirmed you cannot deposit coins. Asked how else can I deposit them, you can't the cashier doesn't work Saturday, you will have to come back Monday, I can't because I'm working, told him the bank was not catering for their customers very well and I was going to make a complaint. Whilst I was complaining to him there was a man getting quite angry and shouty with staff and saying how ridiculous it was not to have at least one cashier. There were at least 5 other staff there on the service desks, so it wasn't due to lack of staff. Anyway I will get off my soapbox now.

Binned 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of underwear and a pair of trousers, all unredeemable.

Sorted out some kitchen baskets, recycled 8 glass jars and a biscuit tin, that I was keeping for, well I don't really know what I was keeping them for. Binned some very old cake tin liners. Decided to throw 2 of the baskets out, they are wicker and falling apart.

Sorted some more paperwork, 20 pieces recycled, 14 shredded.

Found some interesting stuff, around 2007 I was called for jury service at the Royal Courts of Justice, was really looking forward to It hoping I'd get some juicy celebrity case and then on the Friday before I was due to start they phoned me and said I wouldn't be needed as the case had been settled out of court and there were no other cases, I was most disappointed. 

Anyway, hoping to tackle the coat cupboard tomorrow.

CMD79

plumduff55 said:

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 ......................

And @taff - I am joining in with the food declutter wholeheartedly! Having taking lots of surplus to work for lunches, I am now going to work through all the meat in my freezer.

I have lost count, but think I'm on 65kg!

Today, I have emptied out DD bedroom. She has a playroom, so not much in the way of toys other than one quite sizeable piece and a whole load of clothes:

10kgs - 1 play kitchen and assorted play food gone
4kgs - outgrown clothes to charity shop including all the Christmas ones she will have outgrown by next Christmas
3 kgs - clothes too worn/wrecked for the tip
2 kgs of general rubbish!

84kgs gone! 

plumduff55

I've been sat at the kitchen table for half the day going through folders and paperwork. I have a small A5 Xmas folder with recipes and lists I've made for years. I went through this and binned the old recipes that I know I'll never make again. I started re-typing some of them. Hoping to finish this tomorrow.

In the afternoon I tackled my 3 sock drawers - I suffer from cold feet and have socks for every type of weather. Long socks, short socks, thin socks, thick socks, thermal socks and even socks with a thermal rating 🤣🤣🤣. Anyway I went through these and have decluttered 10 pairs - three of which had large holes in the heels. I couldn't believe I'd actually worn socks till they were in that condition. I thought I'd get them down to 2 drawers but no, still 2 and a half drawers. In all good conscience I cannot get rid of any more 😳.

I also decluttered my make up drawer and binned several things that were years old and no longer suited me. Gone are the days of me wearing bright red lipstick. 

On the food front I have finished the last of the bread and have been having crackers and cheese for lunch. Luckily I have all these special cheeses I bought for Christmas and they are delicious on crackers. I'm glad now that none of my visitors wanted crackers and cheese  after their meal. 

daisy_1571

QueenJess said:

Florenceem said:

Suffolksue - make sure you take it easy.

Question - if something comes in and then goes out fairly quickly - do we count it as a decluttered item?

You can make your own rules for what does and doesn’t count. I count lots of individual little things as it spurs me on to keep going.

If it helps, my rule is that if it’s something that’s come in and would always be straight back out (e.g. envelopes from the post/junk mail) then it doesn’t count. If I’ve decided to keep something/would normally keep something/intended to keep it, but then changed my mind it would count even if I haven’t even put it away yet. I do count things like magazines though as even though I don’t keep them, they do hang around for quite a while waiting for me to read them first. 

Hopefully that makes sense.. I think it was clearer in my own head!

That makes sense to me and is how I look at things too

Daisy xx

TC77

@plumduff55 I remember making the decision about red lipstick! 
Love the cards , so many ideas on this thread. 
New height of chaos....spent 15 mins looking for one of the 3 rolls of sellotape bought a few weeks ago. Looked in about 15 places several times  and gave up and found parcel tape only to find 2 sellotape in bedroom , on dressing table and bedside table! To be fair my office is now in my bedroom so files here. Really don't want to be like this next year . Decluttered chocolates to neighbour. 36

EnergyShifter

Thanks to the miserable weather / train strike combo I had one of those days where I didn't quite know what to do with myself but I  eventually started the grunt work of the accounts - organising digital receipts and had an hour of decluttering as a reward!  Unfortunately drain appears to still be blocked so will need to get the plumber back in next week. 

Tasks Completed:

• Helped friend with interview prep
• Deleted emails and ordered them in folders ahead of starting my accounts

Stuff - IN (running total 5): 

0

Stuff - OUT: (running total 25)

26. Sketch book 

27. star ornament

28. Lumie Clock

29. Jumper

@Brie:  I laughed so much at the Santa / Nativity cross-stitch  - hilarious!!!!     

LadyWithAPlan

I am joining late on here, hope that’s ok 
I am doing the Minimalist game - so get rid of one thing on day 1, 2 things on Day 2 etc all the way to the end of the month then start again 
so 1,2,3,4,5,6 days means I have decluttered 21 things so far 

I have a new to me bedside cabinet so that now has my makeup in as it has narrow drawers that are perfect 
so actually I have got rid of a few more than 21 things this month but am only pulling out small areas to sort at a time.
if I manage to do whole month that’s 465 items . 

DrCarrie

Nothing spectacular happening here....lots of slow and steady. Fostering concsitencey rather than Boom and Bust!