2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

GrannyKate

Loved the picture Mrs SD - I also looked it up and very interesting story.  Not been to that area in donkey's years but some close ancestors lived there so it is on my family history list.  Hoping dehumidifier is finally going today.Off to tickle a froglet.

107 DS2 recycled various empty bottles from shower

Siebrie

In the paper recycling: 1 membership magazine

In the donation box: dd2's too small pyjamas

Eaten from the freezer: last fries, last chicken kebabs, last chicken fingers, last halfloaf of bread, 2 small boxes of cooked rice, 1 small meal of rice and meat, 1 bag of homegrown gooseberries cooked up for adding to breakfasts, bag of frozen okra we received from a friend that was returning to his home country (the idiot never applied for a longterm residence permit or even a Belgian nationality, and now that he has retired so many years, there is no valid reason for him to stay and the Belgian government has asked him to leave. His ex-wife, children and grandchildren all have either longterm permits or Belgian nationality.... He was working for the African embassy, so should have been smart enough to foresee this situation).

GrannyKate

108 Email boxes empty except three reminders which need dealing with at end of month
109 History emails responded to and work sent off
110 Reviewing task done and suggestions shared - a little more work if others agree - 23 minute froglet of the day
111 Another response sent re committee membership going forward

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks

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 daily mail immediately 

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

Good morning on a slightly brighter than yesterday, Friday the 13th. I was up at 9:01 & now snuggled in dressing gown drinking my first cuppa. Straight into cheerleading 🙂 DSis is up & dressed & as it is bright & breezy outside she has pegged out her Oodie (which she received as a Christmas gift) as said Oodie still had the lingering plastic smell that came with being vacuum packed for who knows how long 🙁 DH is also up & drinking his first cuppa. I did manage to have 45 minutes of me time 😉👏

Nice to see you Deb4 👋 A great start to your decluttering journey 👏 Yes, you can count anything in your total - it is your choice as seeing your numbers go up will keep you motivated 🙂 What a lovely idea to learn a new skill each month - chess is a good start as it can be such an interesting game - good luck 🍀

Ooh, I am a teensy bit jealous Madbat60. I love hedgehogs but all brick walls, busy roads & small gardens round here so no chance of any hedgehogs 🙁 - although we do get foxes 😊 I am hoping we can persuade you to post a picture of your new family member 🙏 and I would like to thank you & DP for rescuing & adopting Miss Hedgehog 👏

Brie, I love it ‘Hog Envy’ 🙂

D123456789, spot on - floors cleaned with a steam cleaner should definitely be damp for at least half an hour 😉

Dfw38, thank you for sharing such personal experiences. As you say such a difficult decision 😞 

Excellent decluttering mfwin2019 👏 Well done on getting the items out of your home so quickly 🙂Continuing the good work & well done on your 23 minutes of freezer sorting 👏

Hello bit_by_bit 👋 Sounds like you had a lovely time with your friends & well done on getting the bags out of your home 👏

Millie2008_2, thank you for sharing your lovely day 😊 Time spent with family (human & equine) & friends is a salve to your emotional & physical well-being 😊 Keep up the good work on your decluttering 👏 The new personalised t-shirt is a lovely gift to your DD. Hope your recovery continues 🤞 I have seconded  you in your request for a picture of Madbat60’s hedgehog 🙏

Sounds like a lovely day out of London, EnergyShifter 🙂 Being a bit behind on the cheerleading means I can wish you a Happy Birthday 🥳 🎂 on the correct day 😉 Hope you have a lovely day & are spoiled rotten 😊

You are very welcome Blue_Doggy 🙂 Excellent decluttering 👏 and I absolutely adore your new mantra 🥰 - “Tomorrow is another day for decluttering” 

Florenceem, Excellent decluttering 👏 - sitting down I hope as  it should give your ankle a chance to heal 🤞 If the tooth has to be extracted, I hope it is painless Florenceem 🤞

Nice idea vulpix 😊 although I think we would all settle for a picture of Mrs Tiggy Winkle 🙏

Excellent work nannywindow 👏 no wonder you are exhausted 😩 Hopefully your early night has recharged your internal batteries & reinvigorated your get up & go🤞🙂

Excellent decluttering Wednesday2000 👏 Sorry to hear that you haven’t seen a hedgehog since you were a kid 🙁 They are so reclusive - the Howard Hughes of the animal world 😉

Excellent paperwork decluttering Keiths_Mum 👏 Good luck with your weekend consolidation plan 🍀

Great work TC77- both decluttering physical items and frogs 👏

Excellent decluttering Slinky 👏 and all going to where it is needed most 😊

Excellent decluttering skint_chick both physical & electronic 👏 I see the countdown to your holiday had begun 😊

Now, now charlies_tribe ‘wagging finger emoji’ you should never feel guilty about not decluttering 😉Just pop into the TLC carriage & have a cup of tea & a chat & then have a mini declutter 🙂 Excellent work on the medicine box sort out & very brave of you to tackle the cobweb & spider section of your kitchen 👏 Definitely let DH do the cleaning you have done your ‘aversion therapy’ for the month 😉

weenancy, everything crossed that the weather forecasters are correct about a 2nd dry day 🤞 & also that they are incorrect about the rain returning on Saturday 🙏 Your lack of internet & phone is now beyond a joke - 6 days 😖 about time they re-routed 😔 Excellent decluttering 👏& very pleased to hear that your shoulder is getting better with physio 😊 I am especially impressed with the electronic decluttering so one medal 🏅 on its way 🙂

Oh boo Liverpool_Anne 😒 That will teach you to mention light bulbs 🙃 What an inordinate pain 😓Hopefully OH can sort it out Safely 🤞 Excellent decluttering 👏 I must confess I fell asleep watching the most recent episode of the Nick Knowles series, so will try again today 🙂 As you say quite often the solution is fairly obvious But once you have a cluttered home the old adage comes into play - “cannot see the wood for the trees” Sometimes it is just so difficult to know where to start 😔

Fizz2015, there are so many generous people aboard the EDT sharing their thoughts & experiences about such a sensitive subject as visiting a loved one near their end. I hope the situation at work is tackled quickly by the management as it is not fair that they are driving you to the brink of collapse 😔Identifying areas for decluttering is the only thing you should be doing for the foreseeable future - you need a lot of TLC & a chance to build up your reserves of energy until the work situation has eased 😞

Excellent decluttering villagelife 👏 As you say, a little decluttering each day keeps up the momentum 🙂

DH does take a good photo Moorviews 🙂 I also looked it up - I think there are 4 buses - 2 each side 🧐 but I will read a bit more - apparently there are definitely 3 on one half & at least 3 on the other half. An amazing art work 🙂 Excellent paperwork decluttering 👏 & good luck with the stock take of your grocery cupboard 🍀 hopefully you will find a few hidden treasures & can reduce your next shopping list 🤞

GrannyKate, it is very unusual - DH is definitely discovering some not so hidden treasures 😊 Good luck with the frog tickling 🍀 Excellent decluttering 👏

Great decluttering Siebrie, especially of the freezer 👏 You must have loads of space now 😉 To use a recognised description of someone being idiotic - “what a plonker” 😅 Hopefully he has family in his home country although it must be a wrench to be leaving the bulk of his family 😔 

I have caught up (11:50 a.m.), so will get dressed & tackle a few items off my To Do list before they grow from froglets to frogs 🙂 as I have enough frogs already 😬 

MrsSD (a superwoman) 😇 🎖 💐 🤩 🏅🦸

Decluttering Target 2023: 83/2023

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

vulpix

 Fizz,I am glad that you recognise that you are not invincible. You have got a lot on.Decluttering can wait a while,unless you are like me and it is a displacement activity.

 Weenancy I am pleased to hear that your shoulder has improved.Hopefully you will be able to dodge an operation.

 Charliestribe,hope you are ok now. Your injuries will mean the tribe will have to do your bidding obv!

 I love the little brick busses pic Mrs SD. I like the fact that they are a bit freestyle. Someone I know has a red London bus parked in their garden. The local school were doing a car treasure hunt and unbeknown to him the bus was a clue. That was the night he took it for a spin. Hahaha.

 Electrician has been,plasterer coming this afternoon. We also have a white pendant main light instead of a trendy ombre glass one which was more style than substance.

 I think we will go out later, It gets a bit uncomfortable sitting on the bed to avoid the workers.

 Love to all Vx

bit_by_bit

Blue_Doggy said:

 

My new mantra: “Tomorrow is another day for decluttering.”

Loving the new mantra @Blue_Doggy. I might just nick it if that is ok? 

OW @charlies_tribe

@Moorviews: I paid a company to take all the out of date documentation and paperwork when doing my sister's estate. I think it was £8.00 per bag of confidential waste to be shredded and disposed of by then. There were eight bags in all but you could just buy one. On a time/energy and money balance it was well worth it. Just something to consider when you have a lot of documents   

So more drama. DS1s wife kicked him out overnight so he stayed with us. He is just beinning to realise that she does want to split up and really doesn't want him in her life (at this point). Can't easily move out due to money etc.  

SW went to NiL and SiL. BiL days we said we wanted them to move down to be near us. This is totally opposite to what we ahve said. I think he may be extrapolating his own truth again.

Had a great lie in after a poor night sleep and feel better for it. I have had a cought and cold for twow weeks now, tested negative. I just needed to rest to recover.

Off to hit the inlaws house again. This time tidying doing some organising in box bedroom and tidying FiL room, removing dust collectors and maybe a shelf of books. He has asked us to move a unit upstairs to put amini cd player on but doesn't need to as hsi shelves are deep enough hold it and a row of CDs.

Have a great day all and apecial hugs to all who need them.

QueenJess

Things are starting to get a bit messy over here, which usually means I would rather not put things away because cupboards/drawers are getting messy.  Since I redid the living room a couple of years ago, I've noticed that it always stays tidy and is very decluttered already.  So just means I need to restart the decluttering until I have all drawers, cupboards etc nice and part empty in all the other rooms.  I've done it in one room, so the rest must be possible right?!

Feeling a bit overwhelmed and not just because I'm a one woman band (DH slows me down anyway ), but because I am aware my income is going to significantly be cut in a few months and I think I've been overdoing keeping things just in case I need them.  I decided to just start anywhere and so opened the drawer closest to me with pens/pencils etc in.  I tried hard, but just nothing to go in there.  I've spent years and years using things up and I now have 2 biros I am using up and 8 pencils.  I then just have a refillable biro, cartridge pen (which to be fair I would love to start using again and need to) and a refillable rollerball pen.  No need for anything else as I make all my notes in pencil, so it's just things like cards or official forms when I use a pen.  Very happy with that progress.

I then opened the craft bits and bobs drawer and realised I have way too much in there which I know I am very unlikely to use.  Listed it all as a bundle on buy nothing and already have lots of interest.  It looks so much better now.  I do have a box of buttons in there which I am not sure about, but I don't feel up to that decision making, so will leave it for another round.  For some reason decluttering is much easier to do in rounds.  When I started about 7 years ago, I went through the whole house.  When I finished I started at the beginning again and found just as much as the previous round!  Hopefully if I do enough rounds I will eventually just have the things I actually use.  I definitely have some quite empty drawers, but it is definitely a never ending process (and not least because lives, circumstances and your tastes change).

I don't feel up to doing the two cupboards of doom, DD's never ending clothing size changes or DH's garage (this is mainly his stuff, but it'll be me making him deal with it).  Maybe I'll get there this year sometime.  No immediate rush.

Re: the person who mentioned minimal mom, thanks for that.  I've watched a few and they are pretty good.  I used one today to keep me motivated, although I now have a random hankering for chalkboard labels! 

On nail varnish, I randomly came across the information that 2 coats of nail varnish on 10 nails uses approx. 0.25ml of nail varnish in case anyone is wondering how long it would take to use up their stash!  With the 12 I have it will take me about 9 years at the rate I use it I've banned myself from having more than 3 colours and so I don't think I'll be buying any for a long time!

May be back later as I feel up to decluttering some more bits and bobs and the weekend is always good for posting things to buy nothing.  I will also get a big bag of clothes sorted as some of them are able to be donated to DS's school, which then they get funds for.

Decluttering progress:

174 - bathroom supplies (used up)

175 - scrap paper (reused, then recycled)

176 - 243 - craft stuff (buy nothing)

Ooh just noticed that for my gold medal of 5,000 items in the year, I should be on 178 items by today, so I am already ahead!

TC77

@QueenJess very impressed with your minimal pen collection. Handy I have about 40 pens and pencils excluding felt pens and coloured pencils and somewhere 4 fountain pens and 2 non matching halves of other pens. DD2 has an even larger collection and I was buying boxes of 20/ 40 by colour for her at gcse a couple of years ago. Revising she makes lots of notes and gets through a couple of pens a week at times. Did finish one pen today but SABLE is very relevant! 
Still haven't found the pencil extender at my dads

QueenJess

Back again!  I finished packing clothes into bags for the school and decluttered them into DH's space for him to take in, so they aren't in my way anymore.  I then carried on going through the desk drawers and did a top drawer which now only contains brown tape, sellotape, 1 pack of colouring pencils and name stickers for the kids clothes.  I then did the craft cardboard and paper drawers that were rammed and got rid of loads of tiny bits of card/paper I know I'll never use.  The cardboard drawer looks nice now, but the paper drawer is still a bit too full.  It will soon be sorted though as I need to make up another load of little origami bags with it to use to carry packs of duck food out for the kids.

Loads of stuff out and I feel a bit better now as I won't have time for anything next week (busy work week).  Although I would like to keep going, I think my decision making has reached saturation point and I'm procrastinating now, so time to stop for today.

244-46 - kids clothes too small (school charity bag)

247-53 - kids clothes they refuse to wear (school charity bag)

254-56 - plastic bags (used up)

257-371 - cardboard recycled

372 - 373 - craft stuff (binned)

374-445 - paper (recycled)

446 - broken lanyard (binned)

447 - cleaning stuff (used up)

I'd like to tackle DD's clothes next, but I just tried to put away the next size up clothes I've washed ready for her and it is just overwhelming.  I think I'm going to have to tackle that one in tiny pieces.

Florenceem

I kept my tooth - he filled it and found 2 more teeth that needed to be filled - at least I got it all done in one go for my money.
 I am limping more than yesterday - didn't walk home from the dentist as usual - we got a bus.
I have done some decluttering this afternoon - I feel motivated this time of sorting out.
I am up to 275 on day 13 - aim - 91.

I have decluttered -
 
Egg Box
112 Emails
Sunglasses
Hairband
Pack of Postcards
Cloth Shopping Bag x 2
Glasses Case
Piece of Fabric
Bag of Safety Pins 
Sticker Pack
Sewing Pattern x 3
Crayons + Paint Set
Craft Magazine
Pack of Paper Flower
Gardening Book x 2
Jumper
Leaflet
Man’s Tie x 3
Sticker + Dress
Trousers
Paper
Belt