2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

QueenJess

Dfw38 said:

Very tempting to just go on holiday by ourselves
... but I couldn't bring myself to do it....must be going.soft 🤣. I must admit that when dh is in.a strop and dc are being argumentative and their behaviour is less than ideal I do stand and daydream of a tiny cottage by the sea, just me and an animal of my choice (Ziggy obviously!) And imagining a sea view and just.the sound of waves....keeps me going.on the tough days.

Ooh - can I come too?! Sounds lovely. I can bake cakes and just sit quietly reading a book and cuddling ziggy. You will hardly know I’m there…

Brie

MIght manage to get the piggy to the bank tomorrow before work so I can dump the contents into their coin counter.  Much easier than counting it myself and bagging it up.  Trying to do this every quarter rather than a couple of weeks before Christmas.  (sorry to mention the C word when it's still July....)

Florenceem

Really tired after the museum trip today - did a bit of cutting out fabrics but plan an early night.
Not happy - waiting for my fabric to arrive - tracking said - shipped now I get an email saying one fabric is sold out - do I want to cancel or go ahead with the order.

Muddy_Walker

Hubby got to Boston ok although customs took over 2 hours to get through-fingerprinted and photod every single person 😳
I have deleted almost 900 emails…..🤩🤩
Checked mortgage yep still there!
I use Kindle Unlimited and have some good authors and plenty of bad ones! I very rarely buy books especially those in charity shops. Since Covid I am “leery” about touching or handling second hand books. Probably absolutely nothing wrong with them but you can’t clean pages!
Dogs are well and truly playing up - missing DH, hating the rain and next door have been doing a lot of hammering lately.
I have ice cream in the freezer and will get a Chinese Sat and totally relax!!! 

oceanspirit

Stellata I agree, your situation is not fun.  Sending you hugs and best wishes.

OH took the plant pots and scrap metal etc from the garden to the recycling centre today.  I am so pleased it has finally gone - he was stalling when I asked him to take it but now I feel I have more head space to make decisions on the next round of things.

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

Left the house just before 14:00 but got to the end of the road & realised I had ‘forgotten’ the CS bag 🙄 Back to the house, pick up the bag & start again 😉 Weather was quite bright & reasonably warm so didn’t bother with a coat or jumper. Uneventful journey to Lewisham 🙂 First stop CS - dropped off a bag of cuddly toys, a bag of packaging & a bag of rags - lovely young lady was delighted 😊 I posted my competitions entry form then wandered across to the market & bought 2 bowls of mushrooms for £3 (weighed when I got home - 1.2kg 🤩) Then I went for a little wander - I had a road name but not being that familiar with Lewisham thought I might be out of luck 😔 However a great signpost pointed me in the right direction & I found the shop I was looking for 🙂  An haberdashery shop - an aladdins cave run by a charming young lady 😊 I really, really wish I could sew - so many bits & pieces to choose from 🤩 However I was on a mission - needed a stretchy fabric to replace the cuffs on my Isle of Man TT fleece. Now I just need to watch a few videos + learn how to use my manual sewing machine 😉So as you can probably tell, I was in a really good mood + the sun was shining 😊 So I decided to do a bit of food shopping, bypassed M&S to go to MrS. Filled a basket & queued up at the only manned checkout - which was OK as I hate self service checkouts 😉 The poor young man on the checkout was struggling, called a supervisor & then the till crashed. A 2nd supervisor turned up, the lad moved to another till which also crashed 😔 

Then the shambles started - system was switched off, I asked when it was likely to come back on & was advised 2-5 minutes, so decided to wait. That was when the rudeness started - Supervisor: “I didn’t say it would be working when it came back on” me: “well I would still like to wait, as I really dislike using the self service tills, the bagging area is so small” S: “there is a staff member there to help & large bagging areas for people with trolleys” me: “I don’t mind waiting” S: “you should really go to the self service” in both a very rude & rather aggressive voice”  I was starting to get a bit annoyed but admitted defeat & went to the self service tills 😔 A large bagging area - completely useless because you cannot bag as you scan 😖 Everything has to be scanned, you have to pay & then you can start packing 👿 Selected my payment option & that is when I almost lost the plot - card rejected 🤔 so I called over the member of staff. He was even ruder than the supervisor. Me: “I need some help as the machine has rejected my card” him: “I can’t do anything, you probably don’t have enough money on the card” me: “it is a credit card” him: “I don’t know what limit you have, you have might have exceeded your limit” Of course by this time, I am ashamed to say, I was almost ready to commit violence. Me: “what do you suggest?” Him: “try again” then he disappeared as yet another person was having issues 🤨 I tried again & have no idea what happened, called the chap over again & said “I still want my shopping so I will need to pay in cash” him: “no you have paid already” me: “that’s not what the machine said” him: “I will print you a receipt” which he did. Then of course I had to pack up my groceries, with the machine beeping at me because I wasn’t quick enough 😡 👿 Obviously by this time my good mood had completely dissipated 😉 Made my way to the station which was full of police & LT staff 🤔 No idea why, but the overhead info boards were out of action - some sort of computer failure I assume - showing 11:37 when the time was 15:55. Fortunately the trains were still running 🙂Finally got home 16:30. Vented to DH, whilst he made coffee for me, put everything away & settled down to watch a bit of TV. Dinner was chicken & mushroom risotto. Wudupa. Then DSis & I settled down to watch the Sewing Bee Final. What a final it was & a very worthy winner 👏😊 My pick from episode 1 😉 

1688 - 1689 Kitchen recycling, empty wine bottle - recycled 

1690 Kitchen detritus binned

Dfw38, sounds idyllic 😊 & Ziggy would love it 😉 IH Tax sounds extremely complicated 😥 Fingers crossed that you can get straight through to HMRC & that you will get the correct advice 🤞Then the cane toad can be banished to whence it came 👏 Hope you have a lovely lunch with your friend & that the travelling is problem free 😊

QueenJess, you beat me to it 😂

Brie, hope you can get to the bank before work tomorrow 🤞

Florenceem, sorry to hear about the delay to your fabric order 😔 I know you itching to start your next project 😉

Muddy_Walker, poor DH - 2 hours standing around & then being fingerprinted & photographed 😔America seems to have lost the plot at airports 🤨 - photos & fingerprints for everyone 😔 Excellent decluttering of emails 👏 I hope you have some doggy ice cream 😉

oceanspirit, pleased to hear that OH decided to earn a few brownie points by clearing the garden 😉Good luck with planning your next round of decluttering 🍀

Hugs to everyone who needs or wants one 🤗 See everyone later. P.S. it has been raining on & off since 19:30 😔

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

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

Decluttering Target 2023: 1690/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £228.00

Floss

Oh Mrs SD, that sounded very frustrating - I hope you get one of those "how did we do" surveys! 

Yes, my pick won last night 😁

dND

Woo hoo!  I finally have my e-mail notifications back.    I’m a person where out-of-sight, out-of-mind rules; time then slips by without me realising it.  I really like having the prompt that there are unread notifications in my MSE folder on Outlook.

If anyone else is having the same problem, I finally got it to work again by unticking all the preference boxes and logging out.  I logged back in but didn’t update the preferences for a couple of days as I’d already tried on the same day before to no avail.  After the couple of days I updated the preferences, logged out and then back in and a day later the notifications, (which I haven’t had since the 15th), started again. 😁

As everything is in storage I don’t have much to report except for a few sachets of cat food that I dropped off at the cattery so they didn’t run out.  Since then it’s just been money going fast out the door; mainly a large order of cat food which should be delivered today and payment for the osteopath I saw this week. 

The osteopath was great and determined that the pain in my hip was muscular rather than skeletal and worked on various muscle groups resulting in most of the pain dissipating into the surrounding muscles and my limp disappearing.  It’s the outcome I was hoping for but obviously being human I was worried that I was going into hip replacement territory. 

So, there will be further outgoings for a few follow-up treatments until the muscle groups are stable in their new positions.  I’ve also splashed out, excuse the unintended pun, on a swimming costume which should be delivered to the store this weekend and further money will depart on a pass to the local leisure centre where I hope to gain more fitness with some lane swimming. 🏊‍♂️

Still nothing on the housing front – I know my parameters are a bit narrow but as I’m hoping that this is my last move I want any compromise to be as close as possible to what I want.  I’m trying to think what I will be able to access when I can’t drive or walk very far.

Thanks to all posting photographs, I’m loving the cats, crafts and scenery/locations, they really brighten my day.

Hugs and commiserations to those who need them and are working through stressful times.

Dxxx

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

Thursday is a rather dull day and although the forecast is for some rain at noon, it looks like it will rain all day 😔 Up & dressed about 10:30 & am in a better mood 😉 Still buzzing from watching Sewing Bee & the fact that for once I picked the winner in episode 1 🙂 Today’s plans involve menu planning, visit to bank + small top up shop in M+S (I can hardly wait until DH is fit enough to resume shopping duties 😂), dealing with my mail from the last couple of days & maybe dealing with an 18 month old frog 😉 DH has just got up, made a coffee & taken his mail upstairs to look at & then file 🙂 

Floss, not sure I would want to waste any more of my time 😉 From the very first episode there was something about last night’s winner that I really liked 😊 Her made to measure was particularly stunning - DSis & I watched that part of the programme half a dozen times 😉 

dND, in my case ‘out of sight, out of mind’ only seems to apply to clutter 🤣 The only decluttering you have to do, dND, is declutter the stress of moving 😉 I am very pleased to hear that the hip problem is muscular rather than skeletal 😊 Also very impressed that you are taking your time looking for your new home 👏  The trouble with too many compromises with any big decisions, is that they usually lead to more work & more stress 😔 Good luck 🍀

Just having a 2nd cuppa & dealing with my mail then shoes on & off to Canary Wharf 😉

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

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

Decluttering Target 2023: 1690/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £299.00

GrannyKate

Just a quick post before DGCs arrive for a week with me.

1059 Plastics to recycling at SM
1060 Plastic blow up crocodile to tip as not reparable
1061 Small bedroom cleaned and tat binned - beds changed
1062 Hall cleaned
1063 Bag dropped off at CS