2023 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD

Radish72

BF took care of some frogs over the weekend, switched out our central heating controller to a newer version that is supported, so we can now access our heating remotely and changed two window locks, so we know have a lockable  downstairs window and one we can now open as it was the bathroom window and it had rusted shut

I have worked from home today so have sorted out the extremely large electricity bill we got after a human took a meter reading, they put everything on the day rate, so over £200 removed from the bill. Also phoned sofa company as we haven't received the promised care kit, this should be posted out within the next week

And a little tadpole, birthday presents for dear godson, bought, wrapped and card written all ready for mid Feb

23 mins - sorted out work bag/purse so lots of unneeded receipts, completed job lists binned

Love, hugs and tickles to all

Wednesday2000

Aw, cute hedgehogs!

vulpix

 IT'S SNOWING, yipee,I love it.

 We have hedgehogs that pass through,I saw one the other night,it has been so mild,I hope it has found somewhere snug to sleep during the snow. My neighbour thinks he feeds the hedgehogs, I think he is actually feeding Fomo,my cat.

 I did find the remote for the new fire but couldn't face moving everything to look for wool. The pantry of dooms time will come soon enough. I have got a cross stitch on the go but I have to concentrate on it,knitting or crochet I can watch TV at the same time.

 mumf I think you are doing a very considerate thing. Best wishes for you both.x

 Went to see my Mum yesterday and she is a lot better. Nothing of house emptying discussed. She knows her own mind so will wait until she brings it up again. When she is discharged she will be going to live with my brother initially.

 It will be difficult to get to my Mum's house until the summer. The town is cut in half now as the only main road is closed while a listed railway bridge is having a 5m facelift and repairs. Who knew we had a listed railway bridge? Nobody till we all got letters. The proposed detour is about 40 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! round trip.

 I will have a look at the Nick Knowles programme,Thank you. 

 No trades have turned up today,which is a good thing when you don't want your front door open all day in the snow.

 We bought a frame from a chazzer yesterday for a poster advertising a gig Mr V did. It is for his studio.It had been annoying me on top of the wardrobe for months so will count sorting it out as a frog.

 Vx

Dfw38

@daisy_1571 that was my initial reaction too 🤣 he has a cute little face! 
Maybe we should make him the decluttering 2023 mascot! 

MadamMim2013

Morning all.. 
Only thing decluttered so far this morning is time at a staff meeting.. on my day off!! 😬
Have to grab some groceries and then be home before my CBT session.. so I guess more mixed up and muddled emotions will be decluttered.. does that count? 🫣🤣
It’s good to read everyone’s posts tho, keeps me going..
I adore hedgepigs.. 🦔 Was a member of the “hedgehog preservation society” as a child, we have three visit us in our garden as we opened up a previously blocked gap for them, they come in regularly between spring & autumn for supper ☺️ (we did see one in moseying about in late Nov!!!😮) 
Going to have a cuppa then head out.. 👋🏼

thriftyscotslass

Dfw38 said:

@daisy_1571 that was my initial reaction too 🤣 he has a cute little face! 
Maybe we should make him the decluttering 2023 mascot! 

He has my vote

Next batch of tasks - energy readings uploaded to Pilio; meds ordered; weekly tasks / appts added to calendar; financial records checked / updated; emails decluttered; online creative writing course lessons filed until that mythical free-time when I will be able to sit down and concentrate on them. 

Just about to squeeze in ironing 2 shirts before getting lunch organised.

Tasks aplenty being decluttered but only normal house waste being binned or recycled.

I think this afternoon is going to be 2 large admin frogs. 

Keep going folks

Siebrie

daisy_1571 said:

QueenJess said:

Ooh - thanks very much for my medal @Mrs_Salad_Dodger.

I have been online, measured up and made some preliminary decisions re: how to make DD's room work properly.  It will repurpose most of what we have and we just have to buy 2 frames.  I've then moved one piece of furniture in DD's room to see roughly how it would look and am liking it already.  Just need to think about how to move the rest round so I can get the best feel of how it will look before I buy anything.  I will be excited to get that room and the dreaded clothes finally sorted.

In the meantime, I went through the overflowing box of clothes for DD's next size up.  I managed to declutter a bit, but I still have too much there.  I was finding it difficult to do more, so I suspect I will need to do multiple rounds.  I really want to get it into 1 box ideally!  A little bit everyday is definitely the easiest way to do this for me.

459-67 - kids clothes (too many! - gone to school charity bag)

Siebre is the queen of keeping on top of kids clothes and corralled next sizes up, I'm sure she will have some ideas for you

Dxx

Thank you! That's very kind!

1) When my children were small (until about 8) I had a box in their room where I could immediately put any clothes that were too small. As soon as it was full, I would close it, and either send it to husband's relatives in Africa (dd2's too small clothes), or label it with the size range (dd1's too small clothes) and put it in the attic for dd2 to grow into. Every so often: see point 3.

2) My sister and several other people (especially 1 colleague who had 3 daughters and bought all posh stuff, Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger and the like) gave me children's clothes. I would do a quick check on suitability, and anything I could never see my dds wearing went into a box for donation; the rest went in sturdy plastic boxes in the attic.

3) I split the clothes into boxes for dd1 and for dd2, separated into 'tops', 'bottoms', 'underwear', 'summer coats', of any size they have to grow into (the categories sometimes share a box: left side underwear, right side tops, etc). The sizes are all mixed, because I have found that they are such a muddle, that they have to try the items on to see whether they fit. It's much easier to pick up a pile of trouwers and try them on, than it is to look through boxes in up-sizes of miscellaneous clothes for one pair of trousers that will hopefully fit.

4) All our winter gear is in a box of its own.

5) At the moment I have 2 80l boxes for dd1 and 4 80l boxes for dd2; I hope to go through them again in March, when the weather turns warmer, and get rid of 1 box of dd1's and at least 1 of dd2's. We now have 1 box 'donations' on the go all the time, which catches everything we no longer want.

Brie

lateral declutter done....I inherited/stole/was given 3 teacups from my mom's house (I was decluttering it and these were potentially going to a charity shop as she doesn't need teacups in her new flat).  2 are Royal Doulton and I've always loved them.  The 3rd is a striking design of white flowers on a black background - no maker's label but on the bottom of the saucer is says "China.  Occupied Japan."  Any ways I brought these back from over there when I visited in October and did consider giving them to the OH who likes a fine cuppa in a nice cup (as opposed to me having a thick slice of builder's in a mug).  I decided it wasn't really a needed present so kept the cups boxed up but have now put them on a shelf in the sideboard nicely arranged to show them off.  

And I made the decision in the middle of the night to add the bag of baby clothes found in my MiLs bottom drawer to the charity shop.  It's a bit of an emotional one as there were things from when OH was a tiddler and other things MiL had made for expected grandkids.  I'm wondering about adding things like the OH's school cap and tie although I know no one can properly use them.  Even if the school still exists it would be about 100 miles away.  Might be ok for someone doing dress up for a party.

diminua

Sadly no garden MrsSD - I'd offer the lounger to my cousin who has, but she's had a couple of dodgy moles removed so tends to stay out of the 🌞 as much as possible. 
One broken cutlery drainer out and I'm filling a bag for the bookswap but will count those when they go. 

QueenJess

Thanks @Siebrie, it’s really helpful to see what others do. I do at least get rid of things that are too small pretty immediately, I just have lots of clothes pending for DD when she grows into them and they need to be contained!

I am moving DD’s room around so she will have a wardrobe with three drawers underneath, a bedside table and an Ikea shelf unit thing with cubby holes for all her books and toys. So all her clothes have to fit in the wardrobe and drawers and I’ll have room for two boxes on top of the wardrobe for two different clothing sizes to grow into. I did have some bigger clothes in the attic, but I found it too annoying to get things up and down the ladder.

I have a big gap between DD and DS (4 years), but obviously I have a son and a daughter, so not everything will be reused. However, DD is a magnet for “messy play” and is forever trashing her clothes at nursery. She also likes things like tractors and buses, so she does actually wear all DS’s cast offs for now.

Saying all this, I still have far too many clothes for age 2-3 and age 3-4. In my head, I’ve worked out that 12 tops and 12 bottoms should be more than enough (obviously will be 12 short sleeved and 12 long sleeved for both seasons). I’m trying to go through and cut down, but DD is only starting to have the odd preference in clothes and it’s hard to know what she might like. I got rid of the ones I didn’t like as a start, but I really do need to cut down as I know there is no way she will wear everything. I think I will enlist DH and ask him if there are any he doesn’t like and get rid of those.

It’ll get easier, but ages 2-4 are hard when they destroy clothes and need so many changes! DS by comparison hardly needs any clothes. I have been watching some MinimalMom videos to inspire myself on what can be done (although I am only washing 1-2x a week.. she washes daily which I think is complete insanity!). It’s good to see more extreme people than you as although you may not want to go that far, it’s good too see the whole spectrum and be able to see what can be done and choose where you want to be on it (if that makes any sense!). I am determined to get this stuff to the level where I feel it’s under control.

I am itching to do more, but sadly am physically in the office today and tomorrow. In the meantime I ran around last night and decluttered a few more bits:

491 - 3 packs of duck food (used and recycled)
492 - magazine (recycled)
493 - plastic bag (used)