2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

Dfw38

Thank you shortbird. 
I have repaid the amount owed from dad's state pension (they chased for this) but I am waiting for them to let me know if we owe them anything for the pension credit that dad received. I received a letter and a form requesting evidence of how i reached the figure from probate and of dads incomings and outgoings which they agreed with the total. I have been back and forth with filled out forms and evidence but they were waiting on paperwork from the relevant dept in November and estimated at least 3 months as they were working on stuff from August. It is frustrating. Especially as my brother and sister keep calling me for money from the estate (they had some - and blew the lot 😮‍💨) and I cannot risk giving them anymore of their share in case they blow it and money is owed because I am the executor and it would fall solely on me to repay.

dND

wishus said:

Am I crazy, but I'm eating 4 year old jam... is this a declutter too far?

Only 4 years! 🤣🤣🤣

Wednesday2000

Vulpix - I think they were crocuses. In London I thought they were always purple. I didn't realise they could be yellow.

I've woken up with a cold, it must have been from the weekend in London. It doesn't feel like Covid and I don't feel that bad after a lie-in and taking some cold medication. I have decluttered some leftover pasta I made yesterday. I'm going to read some more of my book, but I'm not going anywhere today.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks + a weekly Jettison Junk in January

2. Sort out sleep patterns - target bed by 2:00 a.m. & up by 9:00 a.m 

3. Deal with mail & email on a daily basis

4. Don’t put it down, put it away + deal with mini tasks as soon as they are noticed e.g. refill olive oil pourer or salt cellar, stitch up a hole in a garment etc

5. Commence ‘Operation Frog Tickling’ using the acronym - I.R.I.S. (Identify, Research, Implement, Sign Off) - One per quarter

6. Continue to keep kitchen clean & tidy - before going to bed 

Tuesday is a brighter day with less cloud but it is rather windy. DS got up early for an appointment with a nurse practitioner - blood test. She & DH are going out in the car in a little while - heading off to B+Q & MrS for petrol + they have a very small shopping list - 4 items.

vulpix, beautiful snowdrops 😻 Excellent decluttering at your mum’s house 👏 & not much brought home 😊 A Gold Star ⭐️ is on its way for completing the top half of your Mum’s house 👏 Good luck with the downstairs decluttering 🍀

Excellent decluttering Florafauna 👏 Pleased to hear that the estate agent visit went well 🙂

Floss, Whisky looks so contented 😌 

Lovely cheerleading post daisy_1571 😊

dND, don’t forget all the goodies aboard the EDT are calorie free 😂 Great news   🥳 & also typical that after months of waiting everything will happen in less than a week 😉 I am sure your cats will forgive you…………… eventually 😅 as long as they have lots of extra treats & their own room 😂 

Excellent decluttering ilovetea 👏 The lovely chatty posts remind me of a thread  called “The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support & chat” 😊 I find that it makes the decluttering easier knowing that we have such a lovely supportive & caring Declutterati Family sharing each others journeys 🥹

wishus, sorry to hear about the emergency decluttering 😔 We seem to be exceedingly lucky with our council - the recycling bags & our wheelie bins have been the same colour for years 🍀 & hopefully will continue for many years to come 🤞 One idea for using up a few of the recycling/bin bags is to use them for donations to CS. Fingers crossed that the electrician comes good 🤞

QueenJess, what a great idea about how to use up excess bags 👏 Although I share your ‘surprise’ that the council were too short sighted to accept the offer of the return of excess bags 😔

vulpix, fingers crossed that tortie kitten finds a new home soon 🤞 

Great decluttering TC77 👏 Hopefully you can find a little time to spend with your cats although I have no doubt that they will soon make their feelings known if you are neglecting them 😂 

Liverpool_Anne, so pleased that you have managed to find frames that you like 😊 More excellent physical & task decluttering 👏 Long may your OH’s tidier habits last 🤞 I can almost ‘hear’ your pleasure that years of teaching are finally paying off 😊

I broke off to make coffee & tidied 2 kitchen drawers whilst I was waiting (sadly nothing decluttered 😞) + I sharpened several knives (I do have way too many so do need to cull them 😉 Although for some reason I find it very hard to let go of knives - make of that what you will 🤣) I did look at the other 2 drawers but they are such a mess that I quickly closed them 😱 Back to the cheerleading 

charlies_tribe, congratulations on sorting the transport frog for DS2 🥳 Ouch to the broken tooth 😣 hopefully you can get a dentist appointment quickly 🤞an expense you really don’t want or need 😢 Excellent decluttering 👏

QueenJess, I am so impressed that playing with your DS & then tidying up immediately leads to a decluttering session 🤩 Sounds like the coat cupboard downstairs is a major task especially as the sizing sounds so haphazard 😥 More excellent decluttering 👏 I imagine you are getting quite excited now that you are into single digits of work days left to declutter 😊

Siebrie, €2 a bag 😥 If it was like that here, the fly tipping would be worse than it already is 😱 😡 

wishus, sounds like your council have taken a pragmatic approach 🙂 wonders will never cease 👏 I take it the jar of jam was unopened 😉

Lovely post bit_by_bit 😊 Wishing you & your DD continued success with your V*nted listings 😊 I am also sending positive energy & vibes that any & all frogs associated with BiL & SiL can be sorted quickly & positively 🙏 Fingers crossed that DD gets the job 🤞With all te stress that you are under at the moment with BiL & SiL + worrying about DS1, I hope you can find time to visit the TLC Carriage 🙏

DH & DSis have just got back & what I was afraid of, now that we have a car, has come to pass 😭 More shopping coming in & yes I am sobbing - with just one trip DH & DSis have undone 2 months of using up food & creating space in my kitchen cupboards & the lr wall unit aaargh 😖 I might have to spend some time hiding 🫣 in the TLC Carriage 😂 & treat myself to a massage - just hope there is a masseur/masseuse free 😉 If not I will sit in one of the massage chairs & get quietly drunk 🥴 

Dfw38, all I can say is what a nightmare 😱 & all I can offer is lots of cwtches 🤗🤗🤗

Wednesday2000, I love crocuses - so beautiful 😍 & a welcome splash of colour 😊 Fingers crossed that a couple of days of taking it easy will send the cold on its way 🤞

All caught up so I will watch Countdown & try to drum up some mojo to tackle at least one of the messy kitchen drawers 😉 Nothing decluttered so far apart from my sanity 🤪

MrsSD: I AM A ⭐️ - 🥇 🎖️ 💐 🌟 🏅 💐 🎖️ 💐 ⭐️ 💐 

DH Awards: 🏅 

DSis Awards: 🏅 

Decluttering Target 2023: 211/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00 

wishus

I have to say my 4-year old breakfast jam is not as nice as the Fortnum and Mason hamper jam that OH got in a raffle last Christmas. Can any jam be that nice? It was called Summer Glory! As I mostly ate it in the 'morning', I misread that one a few times, I must say.

So, I would say it is "edible" but I may well be adding a nice jam to the shopping list. I have an open marmalade from a fair we bought last summer, but it is not very nice. What it is though is expensive.

Sometimes it's just not worth keeping such stuff, is it? I need to broach the subject with OH too, but we have quite the collection of Christmas puddings going on. I know they last... but I think just last year's may suffice. I'm not sure a nuclear winter would tempt me into bothering with the others.

Bin bags have gone outside with a help yourself label. I have kept enough back for 18 months. If no one wants them, it's bin day tomorrow.

Mamaofmanybudgets

355 leaving the house today!

1132 total! 🤩🥳

Im just so chuffed with myself , the living room looks amazing , and is definitely helping with the mental clutter too 😉

One thing left to do in here is paperwork and knitting patterns, but im just waiting for my box files to arrive from amazon then ill tackle that.

Also need to be arranging council for larger items leaving the house. 

A huge desk
Fish tank
Lighting unit
Christmas tree

It sounds Like we are all absolutely smashing it! 😃
Please tell me I get some sort of medal soon? 🙏🤞🥰

Brie

Decluttered to the food bank a bottle of organic apple cider vinegar bbd Dec 2022.  Now when I say to the food bank I mean to the volunteers there as I know a number of them have allotments and make lots of chutney etc so hopefully one of them will find it useful.  It's a unopened bottle - not sure why we had it as we have a newer bottle that is open and about 1/4 gone.

tibawo

Tickled off a job from the list today… booked youngest in for her driving theory test. Can’t believe how much driving lessons going to cost but bless her, She had it on her birthday list as ‘money towards some lessons’ and told me she didn’t want them yet. It turns out she thought i’d only pay for a couple so was saving up for others - and hadn’t realised i’d paid for all her sisters. She is now eyeing up a festival ticket with what she has saved!

Nearly back in top of the washing so feeling motivated to get other bits done.

Another week closer to the end of my contract with my client. The manager has no idea how self employment contracts work and that I am not an employee. It’s also not financially viable any more for me so will be glad when i’m thru.

Happy decluttering… baby steps or large strides … let’s keep it up!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks + a weekly Jettison Junk in January

2. Sort out sleep patterns - target bed by 2:00 a.m. & up by 9:00 a.m 

3. Deal with mail & email on a daily basis

4. Don’t put it down, put it away + deal with mini tasks as soon as they are noticed e.g. refill olive oil pourer or salt cellar, stitch up a hole in a garment etc

5. Commence ‘Operation Frog Tickling’ using the acronym - I.R.I.S. (Identify, Research, Implement, Sign Off) - One per quarter

6. Continue to keep kitchen clean & tidy - before going to bed 

I am back & happy 😃 In order to enjoy tackling the 2 kitchen drawers, I decided to listen to a recording of a music channel on the TV “That’s 60s”  - my favourite decade for music 🥰 Of course it was a double edged sword as my number one favourite song of all time was playing & distracted me from the task at hand 🤣  I listened to it a couple of times & thought how prescient the song has turned out to be (from way back in 1969)  …………. Any guesses ………. there was no chorus & every verse was different………. 😉 I will leave you to ponder whilst I continue with my post 😂 I did tackle both kitchen drawers - emptying them one at a time & rearranging the contents. I moved a few items to more suitable locations, unpacked a couple of items & recycled the packaging but only managed to declutter 2 items - a masher into the CS bag & binned a small pack of unusable sticky-back magnets - they are so old that the backing paper doesn’t come off 😔 I can now see everything so a few more things might go in the not too distant future 🤞 I have one more deep drawer to tackle which I will leave until tomorrow 😉 

212 - 214 items from kitchen 

wishus, that Fortnum & Mason jam sounds sumptuous 🤤 As to the expensive marmalade, I am in total agreement with your comment/question “Sometimes it's just not worth keeping such stuff, is it?” My vote is bin the contents & recycle the jar 😊 & put it down to experience 😉 As to the XMas puddings, unless you have a microwave they take way too long to heat up 😔 & I wish you luck in persuading your OH to thin out your supply 🍀 You could suggest that it might be rather kind to use at least a couple to feed the birds 🤞Also fingers crossed that the bin bags are picked up 🤞

Brilliant decluttering Mamaofmanybudgets 👏 I am awarding you your 2nd Gold Star ⭐️ for reaching 1132/2024 + a medal 🏅 for successfully decluttering your living room & turning it into a haven  😊 Don’t forget to take a photo 😉 You are definitely “smashing it” Fingers crossed you can get a quick pick up by the council 🤞

Brie, if the vinegar turns out not to be suitable for pickling it could maybe be used for cleaning 🤔 

tibawo, how lovely that you could surprise your youngest DD 😊 Although I am very impressed with her for saving up for lessons 👏 As long as it isn’t too far into the future I hope time flies so that your contract is done & dusted 🤞 Excellent cheerleading “ Happy decluttering… baby steps or large strides … let’s keep it up!” 👏

I will end on 2 bits of good news for me - DH is cooking dinner tonight 🥳 & he bought me a lovely little flowering plant which I can look at whilst doing the washing up 😘 

MrsSD: I AM A ⭐️ - 🥇 🎖️ 💐 🌟 🏅 💐 🎖️ 💐 ⭐️ 💐 

DH Awards: 🏅 

DSis Awards: 🏅 

Decluttering Target 2023: 214/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00 

flamingo747

So much I've missed, so sorry!

New car is doing okay, so fingers crossed. +21 bits thrown whilst sorting the car, and another +50 for various unneeded meds and expired items from medicine drawer. +1 for gluing the skirting board back in, +1 for an hour on the phone tackling h-mrc frog