2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

vulpix

Floss,hahaha,Thank you for the offer. I would have to get a green evening dress then!

An amazing thing happened when I took some teddies of my kids that lived at my Mum's to the chazzer. I gave the nice lady £7 donation and she gave me completely free, a cardigan, a jumper, a pair of navy trousers and a handbag. Trousers are in the next size down. I will go through my clothes again and try to do 1 in 1 out.

 Took the china to the "good chazzer". They had some hand knits which she said were selling like hot cakes. I have a bag of lovely knitted things I will take. Both me and Mum more or less constantly knit or crochet. There are only so many jumpers my little Grandson can wear.

Managed to find a charity shop which takes electricals and gave them a nice lamp of Mum's.

 I will try to find another jeweller, I want to incorporate some diamonds from an old engagement ring and eternity ring. This jeweller wasn't keen. Plus I didn't like that he kept saying bees spoke.

Weenancy and Liverpool Anne, I have given things to a heritage centre in the next town. It is a small place which explains the towns history, built on mills. I gave them some very old rag rugs and some hand made night dresses which belonged to my step Grandma who was from the town. They have a mocked up weavers cottage. I must admit I only went to the place on a school trip, otherwise I would never have known it was there. I always had a hunch that mid century things would come back into vogue so I have saved/acquired several things over the last 40 years. I would let them go if I found somewhere they were needed. Oh, I donated a big 70's table lighter and a glass ashtray to the local theatre when they were doing a production of fur coat no knickers.

nannyw it sounds like you are doing really well and are listening to your body and resting when you need to. You will soon be back to running marathons!

 It's my sons Birthday soon. We are visiting/ going to the seaside next week. Can I find his Birthday card? no! I bought it ages ago as it was just right for him. I will turf out some places I might have put it. I keep cards in my bedside drawer but obviously I have gone rouge this time.

 I will try my new clothes on and see if I can find something that they can replace. I always knew clothes were my achilles heel but wow, recording what I bring in has opened my eyes.

I will tackle the garden bench today. Weather forecast is good this weekend so the aim is to get in the garden, unless I get a better offer of course.

 Vx

Floss

vulpix said:

Floss,hahaha,Thank you for the offer. I would have to get a green evening dress then!

Funnily enough I have 2, different sizes! 😂

QueenJess

Just randomly had a rifle through the craft drawers and managed to weed some things out.  Then went through DD's big box of stickers, sticker/colouring books, colouring pages and papers.  She came in whilst I was looking through and so I got her to make all the decisions on what to keep and get rid of and she got rid of loads.  She is now formally indoctrinated into the declutterati at the tender age of 3   She's now running around the house saying "keep or get rid of, keep or get rid of".

So lots gone and lots still to use up, but at least it reminded me as to what we still have so I can direct the kids to them next time they claim they don't have anything to do.

Physical:
1 - bathroom oversupply used up
1 - food cupboard oversupply used up
3 - craft stuff (charity bag)
92 - used craft stuff recycled/binned

New total = 6,117

weenancyinAmerica

One of our evening shows did a test to see if young people could figure out "old-fashioned" kitchen items. They started out with a hand-held can opener. Most of the young people had no idea what it was. Several actually took it apart in order to get it to work. Maybe you can use the discarded kitchen items for a game at a children's party - lay out things like an eggbeater, can opener, and potato masher and see who can explain what it is the best. I enjoyed going to the York Castle Museum in Yorkshire because it had displays of common items from recent time periods and had displays of washing machines and vacuum cleaners through the ages (when I was there - I've been many times, but it was about 20 years ago). 

QueenJess

weenancyinAmerica said:

One of our evening shows did a test to see if young people could figure out "old-fashioned" kitchen items. They started out with a hand-held can opener. Most of the young people had no idea what it was. Several actually took it apart in order to get it to work. Maybe you can use the discarded kitchen items for a game at a children's party - lay out things like an eggbeater, can opener, and potato masher and see who can explain what it is the best. I enjoyed going to the York Castle Museum in Yorkshire because it had displays of common items from recent time periods and had displays of washing machines and vacuum cleaners through the ages (when I was there - I've been many times, but it was about 20 years ago). 

I have so many questions... how are people opening tins without a tin opener, or do they all have ring pulls?  I had to buy a new one this week as my 20 year old one died and I get the odd tin without ring pulls.

What is an eggbeater? Don't you just use a fork or a whisk?

I use a potato masher to make mashed potato all the time.  What are people using to mash potato without one?

oceanspirit

More papers gone, more filing and tidying up done and even a little cleaning took place today!  Only a couple of exposed areas on surfaces mind, nothing too exciting.

weenancyinAmerica

Here the young people are not buying food from the store - ordering out most of the time. But other people around us -yes most of the cans come with pull tabs or they use an electric can opener. My in-house people (I have 4 roommates and 1 part-time) use powdered mashed potatoes from boxes (awful in my opinion). Only two of us cook with real potatoes. I use the egg beater for whipping cream as well as frothing up eggs (wrist has problems so using the fork doesn't work). Youngest roommate and friend who lives here part-time didn't know how to use the electric mixer either (weren't even sure what it was). But other than making popcorn in the microwave and heating water for ramen, I have yet to see them use the kitchen in 4 years. They couldn't have popcorn the other day because they would need to use the stove or use the microwave popcorn popper ex-roommate bought and didn't take with her even though there is a container of popcorn kernels here. They couldn't figure out how to do either so waited until more microwave popcorn in bags were purchased! I despair sometimes.

QueenJess

weenancyinAmerica said:

Here the young people are not buying food from the store - ordering out most of the time. But other people around us -yes most of the cans come with pull tabs or they use an electric can opener. My in-house people (I have 4 roommates and 1 part-time) use powdered mashed potatoes from boxes (awful in my opinion). Only two of us cook with real potatoes. I use the egg beater for whipping cream as well as frothing up eggs (wrist has problems so using the fork doesn't work). Youngest roommate and friend who lives here part-time didn't know how to use the electric mixer either (weren't even sure what it was). But other than making popcorn in the microwave and heating water for ramen, I have yet to see them use the kitchen in 4 years. They couldn't have popcorn the other day because they would need to use the stove or use the microwave popcorn popper ex-roommate bought and didn't take with her even though there is a container of popcorn kernels here. They couldn't figure out how to do either so waited until more microwave popcorn in bags were purchased! I despair sometimes.

Oh gosh.. I would be so sad not to eat homemade food.  DH often says it would be easier if I didn't make so much from scratch, but I would rather spend the time as I want to eat nice things and I have a borderline obsession with vegetables   I think I spend too much time on here as I think it is absolutely normal to cook from scratch all the time, but DS has already worked out that it isn't what is normal for his friends at school.  I forget quickly what we used to do and so I looked very confused when DH said I could buy ice cream at the supermarket rather than making it... he may as well have asked me why I needed to eat food!  Actually I've only been making it myself about a year, but it's so fast and no ice cream maker needed.  I usually whip the cream whilst waiting for something else to finish cooking or whilst I make my lunch.  Mint choc chip is on the menu for tonight's dessert

Electric openers you can get over here too, but I think most people still use the manual ones unless you have a need for one (I think my parents have one actually because my mum has arthritis and so can't easily use a manual one).  The cheaper tins from budget brands don't tend to have ring pulls.

Powdered mash potatoes sounds like something the 1970's dreamt up to me!  I have a feeling potatoes are getting less popular over here in terms of people cooking with them themselves from scratch.  I think they are no longer in the cool crowd and have been ousted by rice or other more fancy grains.

I'm guessing eating out is way cheaper in the US (I dimly recall this is the case, but haven't been for 10 years).  If I ate out for every meal in the UK I would have a very restricted diet (round me take away choices are almost non-existent) and I would be bankrupt very quickly as it costs an absolute fortune.  People don't tend to do this, but convenience foods from the supermarket you can reheat, oven bake or boil are very popular instead.

D123456789

I treated myself to 2 new pairs of shoes. My 2 pairs that I currently wear most of the time have gone out. They were way past their best and no Longer looked smart. Also the shoe cupboard could not take 2 more pairs of shoes and still look tidy 😂 

hopefully tomorrow someone will collect some furniture that LO has grown out of. We took her slide to a neighbour as she has outgrown that too.she won’t accept that her micro scooter is too small, so for now, we keep it. She is busy hosting a food festival on the coffee table having discovered the plastic food I had put away. 

My MIL has given LO some elaborate fake tree with birds pegged on the branches, and knitted chicks that have Easter eggs inside. LO absolutely delighted. I am horrified, it’s on a big gold plate and I really think it’s awful 😂 never mind ! 

Florenceem

We went to a Churches together service locally this morning then processed to the town centre. There was an open air service - I read a poem. After the service we gave out hot cross buns.
As we were packing up - a call went out for a first aider - C's wife and I went - a chap was on the ground bleeding. He had either hit his head on a wall or a litter bin as he went down. When we turned him over - we saw that he had a nasty gash on the back of his head as well as the facial injuries. An ambulance didn't take long to arrive - the same crew had been to town and picked up another chap earlier. This one too had been drinking, was on prescribed medication and had taken a dodgy drug.
I had a lift back to SA - I had sent Mr F home while I was busy with the chap so he didn't get cold.
Did some sewing this afternoon - repaired a bag for one of our rough sleepers.