2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

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

As oceanspirit reminded me about emails, I have reduced mine from 94 to 31 🥳 Sorted out some paperwork & wrote a mini To Do list for the week. Also sorted out October’s monies for the 1p Savings Challenge. Risotto cakes & lettuce for dinner. Wudupa

2048 - 2049 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans - recycled 

2050 Kitchen detritus binned 

Another session of cheerleading coming up 🙂

TC77, you are a card 🤣

Brie, good luck with your continuing project to declutter your mum’s house 🍀 I see that various people have suggested ideas that might help to get ‘various brothers’ actually helping with the decluttering 😊

GrannyKate, so sorry to hear that DGS4 is ill 😔 Hopefully with your tender ministrations, he will recover quickly 🤞 Fingers crossed that none of the other children you had staying over the weekend get ill 🤞

vulpix, not quite sure I would categorise condensing the contents of 2 houses into one as slow decluttering 😉  It sounds like all the building work & decorating/refurbishing will be be completed well before Christmas 😊 especially now that you have made a written record of the timetable of events 👏Your brain dump should prove extremely useful as long as you remember it is on P694 😉

Excellent work in the pantry Siebrie 👏 Sounds very well organised & really great that hardly anything had to be binned 👏

short_bird, I like the idea of different coloured dot stickers 😊 that could be a great solution for Brie 👏

kiss_me_now9, I was just wondering if you can sew? Perhaps you could make rag dolls & use the tights as stuffing 🧐 Excellent work in the living room 👏 Lovely to hear of a plan coming together 😊 Your comment “We've realised that for two people who barely ever drink we've got a huge amount of spirits open so we're trying to work through them in a safe and healthy manner!………..” had me rolling about on the floor 🤣 

Lovely to see you back DundeeDoll 👋 Excellent decluttering & I am especially impressed about the very quick turnaround from a bedroom & office to two guest rooms 👏 such hard work is worthy of a Gold Star ⭐️ which is on its way to you 😊 Remember how curious aka nosey I am …. is your trip to Pakistan a work trip or a holiday? Excellent work clearing down so many emails 👏

Muddy_Walker, what a lovely idea for vulpix’s disco ball - hanging it indoors - it really would be pretty with the sunlight glinting off it 😊 Not too sure about hanging it outside - it would have to be fixed firmly & it might scare away any birds 😔

flamingo747, sorry to hear that DS is unwell 🤒 Hopefully he will recover quickly 🤞Excellent work decluttering & cleaning the living room 👏Fingers crossed you managed to finish with no further interruptions 🤞

Brie, that sounds like a very interesting book 🧐 Although as you say only useful for certain types of items 😔 Having said that, it might be a fun exercise to price up the items for “a basement full of old preserving jars, cider jugs, skiis, canoe paddles.  Basically the sort of stuff you see decorating hipster avocado serving coffee bistros. “ 😂

Floss that sounds like a fun process especially the bartering 😊 So very sad that your middle brother’s possessions had to be destroyed 😢 

vulpix, great work bringing in all the boxes from the uninsulated shed 👏 Hopefully you will have a very successful declutter of the contents of the boxes 🤞Very generous to give the oak work top to the buyer of the original supply 😇 Sounds like MrV’s studio would be the perfect place to hang the glitter ball 😉 It will give you the perfect excuse to join MrV in his studio 😊

Florenceem, the advantage of not owning a mobile is that I never get any messages 🤣 Now that you have accepted the quotes for paving the back garden & side alley, do you have a date for the work? How marvellous that MrF has said he will pay for the work 🥳

Happy_Kitties, you are very welcome 😊 Nothing wrong with ‘plodding’ remember that the tortoise beats the hare 😉 What a lovely find & a novel way to use up the slightly stale Lindt chocolates 👏

weenancy, sorry to hear that you are still testing positive for Covid 😔 Hopefully another couple of days & you will be clear 🤞Your head librarian sounds like a lovely person & I hope her wall chart fills up with lots of overseas members 😉 Good news that the City will pick up the ruined sofa 👏 Always the way weenancy 😉 I hope you find your  Scottish & Irish sweaters which will remind you of lovely times spent travelling 😊

Soontobeoap, yippee to DH finding his mojo 🥳 Hehas worked hard enough to earn a medal 🏅 which is on its way 👏 Excellent work sorting out the craft shed 👏 & good luck tidying everything away before the family arrive at the weekend 🍀

All caught up again 😉 Night-night 💤 

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

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

Decluttering Target 2023: 2050/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £469.00

DundeeDoll

Mrs_Salad_Dodger said:

Lovely to see you back DundeeDoll 👋 Excellent decluttering & I am especially impressed about the very quick turnaround from a bedroom & office to two guest rooms 👏 such hard work is worthy of a Gold Star ⭐️ which is on its way to you 😊 Remember how curious aka nosey I am …. is your trip to Pakistan a work trip or a holiday? Excellent work clearing down so many emails 👏

and lovely to be back MSD - you truly are a superwoman and extremely generous with your time encouraging us all. Thank you for my gold star Trip to Pakistan (27th Oct to 6th Nov) is work - will be going with colleague and hosted by our PhD student who is almost finished and now back at work. Then the following weekend off for a footie weekend with DrM (grin) and two of our other footie mates. I too am very impressed at the speedy turnaround from full and cluttered rooms (Sunday) to empty (Monday) to guest rooms (Tuesday) and also locating the blank cards, pens, scissors and folder in record speeded that I needed for a talk in Glasgow on Wednesday - mum and I still aiming at Christmas for having whole house decluttered and I do believe we'll make it! 

vulpix

Hi, I am with you Dundee Doll, I want the house finished by Christmas. 

 It is 15 years since MrV and I joined forces. A blip in between where I acquired a lot of stuff to make a 5 bed house feel homely. We have been slimming down our belongings for about 10 years. 

 I am dreading going down stairs. A lot of things need to be put away in the kitchen. I still haven’t found the cutlery or mugs! They must be in the other shed. I am shedding ornamental stuff into another box for the chazzer. I don’t have enough surfaces for them at this house. So far I have emptied 11 banana boxes. 6 smaller boxes of Christmas decorations are in the small cupboard under the stairs. I will sort them nearer Christmas. I am struggling with the stuff that lives under the sink. You know, stuff you use every blue moon for random cleaning jobs. It seems to have been breeding whilst unattended. Mr V says chuck it, I can’t. It is too wasteful. Groan, I just remembered there is a big box of cleaning materials that came from mil in the other shed. Half used stuff so not able to donate. I am sure I will find a solution. Possibly list some on a local freebie site. I will wait and put like with like first to see how much there is. 

 I have decluttered some more weight. 26lbs this year. 

 I am off to get stuck in. I am going to craft club this afternoon so need to get on with it. 

 Pic of the sitting room yesterday. 

flamingo747

Yesterday I decluttered a huge house spider from my under-the-sofa clean (which was gross, at least 100 bits of crumbs, wrappers, broken toys that DS long stopped using, a broken incline gym bench, plus reclaimed 10 of my favourite cutlery items). I also decluttered the exercise books DS brought Home from Y6, a tough declutter for me as sentimental with him growing up and being the only child. Saved the one with lots of his writing pieces in, took photos from some of the others, the rest in recycling. Upstairs is a tray from y4 and y5, will tackle this week! 

Poorly boy off again but Mr Flamingo doesn't work Tues so I can still go to coffee and craft morning. I have several things to declutter to them. Total count from yesterday and today so far to add, 120

Today I need to hang up lots of the cross stitches I've made for Mr Flamingo, as well as my birthday present Otter canvas

Siebrie

Husband and dds fixed our 3 commuter bicycles on Sunday. He was hesitant, but I told him to grab a bicycle and the corresponding daughter, and get to work. They fixed lights, bells, brakes, saddle/steering heights, and pumped air in the tires. We now have a small shopping list for items, but they will be bought tomorrow, and then it's all set for our winter commutes (16km for dd1, 7 km for dd2, 9km for me).

Electric blankets were retrieved from the attic, before husband stowed stuff from the garage there. It was items that were stored in the garage pending the renovation, but as that's taking about 3 years longer than planned, we have to reshuffle items to make space in the garage to have it optimally useable.

I'm looking for a way to store the items that are currently in the room divider-with-attached-desk. It's no longer serving its purpose, as both dds have proper desks in their new bedrooms. It's just attracting cluuter and dust. We have already cleared out the pens-and-pencils drawer, so that there is only a small stash of office items there. Now I need a good place for a drawer full of craft paper, and 2 drawers full of craft decorations. The plastic lidded boxes I wanted to use are not quite A4, unfortunately.

The plastic toddler wheelbarrow I put on our drive was gone within a day, to a couple with a toddler and a baby.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, up and at em this morning as I have a union thing to sort in an hour so need to be awake and hydrated . Since my last post I have done 3 LDFPA, bedroom recycling emptied, bathroom bin emptied, 100 emails permanently deleted and I have hoovered the porch up to and including the ceiling and included 3 spiders. OH has been told to empty the hoover . I was out for my tea last night with ex colleagues and a good time was had by all. Friend's daughter who I had helped with her discrimination claim sent me a lovely bunch of flowers, a nice smelly candle and a nice smelly soap. The soap has gone straight into the bathroom, candle in place to use and the packaging dealt with . The claim was rejected so we are now going to ACAS which is a new experience for me so keeping everything crossed .
It is going to be a bit of a busy week for me as it is my birthday week and so far I have 3 meals out and a footy match. I will be exhausted . OHs dsis and bil have bought me an experience, I am going to abseil down the side of anfield which I had looked at doing but was building myself up to it will be fine I have another load in the washing machine and keeping my fingers crossed I can get it on the line.
This post was interupted firstly by a union phone call them OH called. Had a pupil on test and the examiner had abandoned the test as the pupil was too stressed so I had to drive to the test centre pick up OH and drive to where the learner car was as it was too far for OH to walk. Feel sorry for the pupil but I could have done without it, lucky this is the first time in 17 years this has happened.
Rushing now to be ready for the union thing so will catch up later, hugs to anybody who would like one
1308 - 1310 LDFPA
1311 bedroom recycling emptied
1312 bathroom bin emptied
1213 100 emails permanently deleted
Take care everyone
1313/2023

Florenceem

I wasn't needed to lock up at SA last night.
Today I finished more beaded pens and delivered them to friends at SA. I came home loaded up - got some yarn for my sister and 3 pairs of shorts for Mr F. One of the Church members is giving up card making - I brought home christian dies and stamps.
DGs J made a great job of the garden - he trimmed the holly tree and tackled a weedy bit in the front garden that I can't do much with as it contains a manhole. DGd A popped to see us.
We walked into town via calling in at SA. I wanted polystyrene wreaths but £lan didn't have any. Mr F got the float for Saturday's sale. Mr F left me on the bus so I could visit The Rang - came home with some good priced wreath forms but had to wait ages for a bus.
No idea when the back garden work will happen - boss is coming to see me on Thursday as I have asked for the back wall to be repointed while they are here.
I have offered to take in a delivery at SA tonight but not heard about it yet.

oceanspirit

More emails dealt with, filed and deleted. Several hundred more to do but feel good about how it is going so far.

Phone calls made and various projects being edged along.

Continuing uu of food items and OH has made a start on freezer uu at home.

TC77

evening, I have lost the plot today. think is the stress of my major frog sent off the courts, with the matter being heard in 2 weeks, managed to mislay my bank card which is contactless so I use for the train, and many things such as oven and pc not mended. using DD2's old laptop and is good enough, mobile phone gave up, so put sim in work phone as can take 2 cards, and worked until today when get disconnected all the time! arrgh
I don't understand how everything gets in such a muddle when I work so hard....
Was debating whether to go to book club - although didn't get to read it and then realised I am a week too late!

Anyhow, I have ordered new phone and new sim card, popped out to drop off the stationery for hub, ordered PAC code, emailed about item shrunk in first wash, some paper out (but so many things buried under things). Going to my dad's house with DB and hopefully being in a muddle will stop me bringing any more back. 
Also submitted meter readings.

Going for a swim soon, and trying to keep to my lists and just do a couple of things a day after work  to try and get the house under control (and garden/car/ wider life).

Thank you Mrs SD and fellow passengers for keeping us all going.

flamingo747

Having a bit of a day here with trying to manage glum moods and sour tempers in the home. Feel like I've gotten nothing done. Stressing a bit over future finances, I'm so fed up of being poor and so financially insecure. Hopefully I can declutter my own mood by morning