2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Brie

Major frog swallowed.  A bit like one of those mutant post apocalyptic ones the size of a volkswagon bug.  Well it's seemed that big to me.....  Sorted through all the DC pension paperwork, got rid of the duplicate versions received over the last 18 months, found the bit that is used for requesting annuity quotes and filled all that in.  Of course it doesn't quite fit my scenario so there are extra notes scribbled on it which given my handwriting may trigger some calls or emails.  But it's in the business reply envelope ready to drop off somewhere tomorrow.  Maybe at the same time I drop off the overdue library books.  

@weenancyinAmerica
The jail book programme sounds great.  And if it tidies the library shelves even better.  Your talk of book sales reminded me of one I helped out with when I was at uni - nearer to you than now but not as far west and south as California.   Our local library had collected up all the books it no longer needed and arranged a day long sale one Saturday with a large group of us English majors helping out.  Someone got the local newspaper to do a story on it and they had a picture of one of the books for sale - a first edition hand tinted illustrations Audubon Birds of America.  And the mention that they hoped to get some silly price for it.  Like $20 or something.  We convinced the library to change their mind on this and ask for sealed bids instead which annoyed the queue of used book sellers and collectors that were ready to rush in when the sale opened.  

NornIronRose

Hi all. 
I admit to not having read all 669 pages!

Just jumping in to give myself a pat on the back. Been going through divorce and am moving from a large, extended 3 bed house to a 2 bed maisonette with no outside space (not sure how I am going to manage with that bit it's what I can afford so I'm grateful to have places to go and walk). 

Ex husband was a bit of a magpie. 2 very large sheds full of miscellaneous bits picked up at car boot sales and out of skips/work over the years. I have managed to clear probably 2/3 of both sheds. Lots given away just by putting outside with a 'free to take' sign. I have also used local freebies groups. 

One of the most useful things was to set aside the things that I knew ex wanted. Then I got a plumber friend in to take whatever he wanted and he spent time telling me what to give away and what to chuck. It got me started properly. 

I'm blessed to have a local tidy tip only 5 mins drive away so I have been able to recycle lots there. 

I've got perhaps 5 or 6 weeks ahead before the move so will keep plugging away. 
The sheds were on my mind so I'm so glad to have got that much done. 

EnergyShifter

Wow its almost a week since I posted.  I have absolutely loved the heat this week and have prioritised enjoying it.  We have been eating outside every eve and currently I am catching up on admin at the garden table with the help of my lovely rechargeable lamp! 

I'm still enjoying "The Artist's Way" course and have been keeping up with the Morning Pages and Artist's Date - although this week's Artist's Date was not as successful as last week's- I went to a talk which turned out to be quite dull.  But I am still glad I did it as it was something that I used to enjoy doing before Covid.

Major achievement this week - I found a local hairdresser!  My hairdresser of 20 years  (now friend) moved to the Coast and was only able to do my hair when she came to visit family so it was a bit hit and miss and probably a bit of a pain for her.  New hairdresser was very nice and did a good job.  I have committed to going grey so I don't have to worry about getting it coloured so that makes things more simple.

I also may have found someone to replace my bathroom & kitchen!  When I say "I" I actually mean my friend has  asked her brother who is really good and I know him & his family which makes me feel comfortable on the "strange men in the house" front.   

Tasks:

Birthday card to cousin
Got haircut (see above - big achievement for me!) 
Front & Back lawn mowed courtesy of DS

IN (running total 163) 

164. Wooden hob cover / chopping board (Lidl)

OUT (running total 523) 

524. Vivo barefoot shoes - can't get on with them... (thankfully I got these through "Buy Nothing")

Love to all x

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all the ironing has been done so clothes packed with just things like toothbrush etc to go in the bag .
The bedroom recycling has been emptied and the car snack bag has been sorted so I am just about ready . I sat down to find the confirmation email and went through them deleted 300 and deleted a load of stuff from the download file. There is still a lot in there to sort but I have made a small dent in it. Some I have transfered to an external hard drive as I fear the lap top is going to die fairly soon, just doesn't like me being on the internet for long and shuts down. I put OHs trainers through the wash, as requested, but I am not sure they will be dry by tomorrow so they might have to sit on the back seat and dry as we go. 

@NornIronRose, welcome aboard and good luck with your move, definitely a big pat on the back but I am curious why you are sorting the sheds when most of the stuff is the ex's. When I got divorced I told him to come and get what he wanted and anything left was getting binned. He organised removal men but I didn't pack anything so his clothes etc went in the draws etc they were in. The removal men were not happy but I told them to take it up with him. Luckily though I didn't have to move as I was able to buy him out of the house. That was in the days when property was a reasonable price

Right early night for me now as I have to be up early for the doctors. Hugs to everyone who would like one.
1272 ironing, ( finally),
1273 bedroom recycling
1274 car snack bag sorted
1275 - 1277 3x 100 emails permanently deleted
Take care everyone
1277/2023

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

Saturday & Sunday have both been hot, hot, hot 🥵 32C & 31C respectively. DH did go to Tip with the bag of metals & electronics & also got rid of a broken hosepipe. Sunday DH went shopping for more salad stuff as we had salads both Saturday & Sunday. DH watched the MotoGP races & I continued watching Spooks - now on Series 8. DH & I are packing for a couple of nights away collecting the last of the RBR landmarks. We will be in Grassington on Monday night & Barton upon Humber on Tuesday night. Hopefully the weather will be cooler but still dry 🤞

1967 Hosepipe to Tip

1968 - 1972 Kitchen recycling x 2, drinks cans x 2, glass jar - recycled

1973 - 1975 Kitchen detritus x 2, lr detritus - binned

Brie loved it “… books arrested for excessive fines” 🤣

Excellent work oceanspirit 👏 sounds like you are almost at the stage of ‘maintenance decluttering’ 🤞

Sorry to hear about your roommate weenancy 😔 Hopefully he has a treatment plan in place 🤞 The jail book programme sounds brilliant & so pleasing that you can donate so many books 👏 The monthly book sale is such a massive undertaking that I am surprised you have time to do anything else at all 🤩Hope you had a lovely delayed Easter celebration & that the air conditioning was up to the job 🤞

Floss, at least Corfu was safer 😮‍💨 

Great decluttering TC77 - you are on a roll 👏 Hopefully DD2 will take quite a lot with her 😉

Excellent decluttering (prepping) of fruit & vegetables Liverpool_Anne 👏 Your freezer must be getting very full 😉

Florenceem, no wonder you didn’t post on Saturday - you were so busy 👏 I am surprised you found time to sleep 😥 Fingers crossed that the water situation gets sorted soon 🤞

TC77, remember out of chaos comes calm 😊 Fingers crossed that you over the next month you will gradually find a happy balance between RL, decluttering & dealing with frogs 🤞I know you can do it 😊

oceanspirit, it has been twot to sleep over the last few days but hopefully it will cool down enough to sleep tonight 🤞Excellent decluttering of paperwork 👏

Excellent work dealing with such a major frog Brie 👏 Worthy of a medal 🏅 which is on its way 😊What a wonderful story re the first edition Audubon Book of Birds 😊 & well done for persuading the charity to ask for sealed bids 👏 I love the idea of all those disappointed dealers queuing up 🤣 It would have been carnage in the shop 😱 

Welcome aboard the EDT NornIronRose 👋 Lovely to see a new face 😊 & I will let you off reading 669 pages 😉 You wouldn’t have time to declutter 😂 Excellent work sorting out the 2 sheds 👏 That merits a medal 🏅 especially as you appear to have tackled one of the more difficult areas to declutter 🥳Looking forward to accompanying you on your decluttering journey 😊

EnergyShifter, Well done on taking every opportunity to enjoy the Indian Summer - topping up your vitamin D levels 👏 Very pleased to hear that you are keeping up with the Artist’s Way course 😊Hopefully the next talk will be more interesting 🤞Well done on your 2 major achievements - finding a hairdresser & finding someone to replace your bathroom & kitchen 🥳 As to embracing the grey hair - surely it should be ‘embracing the silver hair’ 😉

Excellent work doing all the ironing Liverpool_Anne 👏 Congratulations on getting all your packing done ✅ & hopefully you will set off on time - I am keeping everything crossed that the the doctor’s appointment will be over & done in a timely fashion 🤞 Lovely welcome to NornIronRose 😊 & thank you for sharing your story 👏 Enjoy your holiday 😊

Have a good night & I will see you all tomorrow evening 🙂

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

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

Decluttering Target 2023: 1975/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £379.00

EnergyShifter

Mrs_Salad_Dodger said:

EnergyShifter, Well done on taking every opportunity to enjoy the Indian Summer - topping up your vitamin D levels 👏 Very pleased to hear that you are keeping up with the Artist’s Way course 😊Hopefully the next talk will be more interesting 🤞Well done on your 2 major achievements - finding a hairdresser & finding someone to replace your bathroom & kitchen 🥳 As to embracing the grey hair - surely it should be ‘embracing the silver hair’ 😉

Thanks as always for the support & encouragement Mrs SD. 💐 I love "embracing the silver hair" (and turns out my hair is quite silvery which is a surprise!)   It also got me thinking about the phrase "silver fox" and what the female equivalent might be.  "Silver Vixen" has got a completely different vibe to it.  Now that song "Silver Lady" by David Soul is playing on a loop in my head 😂

Welcome NornIronRose - you're off to a great start. I think that the act of sorting and discarding can help us process transitions.  Best Wishes for the coming weeks  

Forgot to add a couple of items yesterday:

Tasks:

0

IN (running total 164) 

165. Wooden hob cover / chopping board (Lidl)

OUT (running total 524) 

525 & 6 - 2 x dead pants

Have a good week all 🌞

GrannyKate

Morning all.  I have been busy and awol again but have caught up on posts.  I should have 2 quiet days before children return tomorrow after school. Need to do my email cull and some tidying up.  Kitchen seems to be full of tat.  DD and family came for a brief overnight visit as DGS1 was doing skydive near here.  He loved it.  Took DGS4 to beach for the day yesterday.  A very rural beach on Lincs coast with no facilities but a small car park.  The big resorts down the coast looked to be packed but as usual almost no-one where we went.  Made good use of our small swimming pool in the last week and every towel in the house has been used.  Strange weather today with blue sky, muggy feel and threat of more rain.  I decided to put washing out as I am in all day to grab it back in.  

1227-1228 Bags x 2 to CS
1229 Kitchen pyrex bowl to DGS1 for university 
1230 DGS4 - new tablet case and screen saver - old ones binned
1231 DD has booked our regular December trip - Bucharest (she also invited me to go to Greece with them next summer)
1232 DS2 tidied some stuff up in garden and packed it away.

Talk of Corsica reminded me that late DH went there with Venture Scouts the year before we started dating.  He always remembered it as a fabulous trip. Paperwork, bills, gardening, housework etc staring at me so need to crack on now school holidays are over although I am going away for a long weekend on Friday.  

Siebrie

I loved Corsica; it has everything: white sandy beaches with palm trees, small fjord-like bays, chestnut forests, 1 mountain with eternal snow, sleepy villages, colourful towns, good campsites, well-indicated hiking routes, desert-like (rock and dried-out bushes) hills, small shallow rivers you can paddle in.

QueenJess

I am slowly peeling my way out of the TLC carriage, although work will all kick off this week so I'll be really busy for the next month (slightly dependent on how well I planned my work and what unexpected fun pops up along the way!).

Currently I am starting to concentrate on food overstock.  I don't mind a bit of a stock up on some staples, but I have a freezer that's rammed and considering it isn't full of hm meals and I cook almost everything from scratch, there must be a lot of stuff in there which we don't usually eat.  I want to get all the cupboards and freezer limited down to the few ingredients I do actually use and cook with / batch cooked meals & hm goodies etc so I can keep on top of it.  It will probably take some time to work through, but hoping I can get the freezer sorted by the end of the year at least.  It's a kind of simplification/decluttering of food stock if you like since I only tend to use a smaller number of pantry/base ingredients.  So for now I will be counting everything I declutter from there which I don't usually use so won't be restocking or have vastly overstocked on.

I did watch Sort Your Life Out with DS last week.  I thought their house wasn't nearly as bad as some others on there and it was as much about organisation/storage as decluttering.  It did seem to inspire DS though as he asked me if I could help him with "a major decluttering session" in his room.  Since it never seems quite tidy, I was happy to oblige!  We did start at the weekend, but will probably take a while longer to go through all of it.  We started with Lego as it seems to be the main issue in there.  Not counted anything out yet as I sometimes keep bits and pieces to put aside from DD.  Once we finish and I bag it up to go I will count it in my numbers.

Other than these, I need to try and keep on top of the tidying and slowly figure out why I always have some bits and pieces out.  I suspect it's because either things need a decision or because the storage isn't working.  Either way, it usually leads to more decluttering.  I may concentrate on a single room at a time and work slowly as I don't have much time at the moment.

My decluttering to declare:

Digital:
32,184 - notes deleted
32,185 - photos deleted

Physical:
32,186 - cleaning supplies used up
32,187-32,188 - paper (reused, then recycled)
32,189-32,190 - bathroom supplies used up
32,191-32,192 - food overstock used up
32,193 - book (charity bag)
32,194 - booklet (recycled)
32,195 - fridge container (bin)
32,196 - shoe box (recycled)
32,197-32,198 - kids shoes outgrown (charity bag)
32,199 - rusty tin (binned)
32,200-32,202 - DS tat (recycled)

sjglist

Mornin', can I join you?

Could benefit from a bit of accountability while I try to sort my house out. Full of bits from my parents and my own shopping over the last few years to cheer myself up.

I might go for bigger room by room blitzes later but for now I plan to deal with do 30 minutes each day.

Wish me luck!