2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

BudgetingBelinda

Approaching 1 hour of project freezer defrost. Frost free my %*]$

retiredinfrance

Sorry, @Siebre, I meant to include you in my quote above. There were so many posts it has taken me some time to find your post. 

I’m collecting up a big bag for the CS and will post when full.
Great idea about making small amounts of jam - I’m a convert now. In Ireland we have “ Apple butter which is basically stewed apple  with as much of the fluid evaporated and the thickened paste is used as butter. 

Again, NNTR 

short_bird

Morning, all: got back from London late yesterday afternoon, had something to eat and went to bed at 6. 
Didn't go shopping despite walking from Green Park via Mayfair and Saville Row to Regent Street: I suppose the lesson is go to expensive areas or places busy due to sales and always have your small backpack...
A bag of rubbish out before I went to London and a few items this morning and 100 emails for a new total of 69.
off to get a patch test done for Wednesday's cut and colour.

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

Forgot to mention that I took down the Christmas cards. I dismantled most of them - shredding done, have a small stock of scrap card paper & half a dozen to go through/respond to 😊 Now sat at the table with my 1st cuppa & timer & light on as it is still dark & overcast though no rain as yet 😮‍💨 

Happy_Kitties, excellent work decluttering neutral items 👏 & the ordinary decluttering is going very well also 😊

oystercatcher, sorry to hear about the vertigo 😔I hope you are enjoying the facilities in the TLC Carriage & are finding your way around 😉

Very impressive decluttering daisy_1571 👏 As to the counting, perhaps 1 for every 5 or 10 DVDs, CDs 🤔 Remember you need to account for your time taken as well as the actual plastic cases decluttered 😊

dND, both sorry & annoyed to hear that the sellers solicitor is still dragging his feet 😔 😠 but at least it gives you a little more to plan your move & make extra preparations 😉 Also thanks for the timely reminder that whilst decluttering can be a good thing, we do need to pay heed to understanding ourselves 👏 - you have expressed it so well that I am going to quote you “………….. While this EDT hurtles along at speed, decluttering is something that takes time.  It's not just about throwing everything out, in my opinion, but about understanding ourselves; what we want long term and training ourselves to think about that.  Throwing out things you then regret getting rid of only leads to resentment about getting rid of things - you have to do it for the deep down right reasons.  Well at least in my case I do”

BudgetingBelinda, interesting question 🧐 I see that QueenJess has already offered up some ideas & that you have used one already 😊 Great work 👏

Steady decluttering Muddy_Walker 👏

Welcome back diminua, lovely to see you 👋 What a great start to your 2024 decluttering campaign 👏

flamingo747, hopefully MrF will continue to like the new job 🤞 Yippee to car passing its MOT 🥳 Now, now - you have decluttered housework 👏 (more than I have 😉)

SuffolkSue, I am very, very impressed with your gardener come decorator getting started already 🤩 Even more exciting is that she is helping you with the decluttering 👏

Excellent decluttering Soontobeoap 👏 

Deni_debt-free_dreamer, sounds like you had a lovely time with the family 😊 I am very pleased to hear that you decluttered both the horrible headache & submitting your self assessment (what does HMRC actually do 🤔) 👏 Fingers crossed that it isn’t too large a tax bill 🤞

thriftwizard, I think you should be more than moderately pleased with all the decluttering you did on the 3rd of January 🤩 An excellent start 👏 & I love that analogy (“It all feels like those first few stones falling just before a massive cliff fall; anyone who's familiar with the fragile sandstone cliffs of West Dorset will know what I mean. A trickle of little stones, a couple of puffs of dust, then suddenly whump! a huge slab of cliff hits the beach. I'm really looking forward to shifting more of the clutter that's been strangling my life...”) 😊 Hope DD1 is enjoying herself in South America & is sending you lots of pictures 🤞

oceandreamer, of course you can join the thread 😊 Welcome aboard 👋 An excellent start to your “Once & for all” Decluttering Campaign 👏 What a great idea for a birthday present to yourself 😊 Good luck with both the decluttering & the selling 🍀

Alarm has gone off (set for 3 x 24 minute sessions), so time to post this & make a 2nd cuppa 😉

MrsSD: I AM A ⭐️ - 🥇 🎖️ 

DH Awards:

Decluttering Target 2023: 18/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £

vulpix

My lurgy is going out like a lion. Resurgence of earache and sore throat today.

 LiverpoolAnne, I have heard people talking of a 100 day cough doing the rounds. I hope you haven't got that one.

 Mr V has come home with a second hand fit bit for me. He has bought it from a bloke at work who had a newer one for Christmas. Nice. It will be interesting to see how much I am walking and also perhaps track my dizzy spells.

 New numbers.

 In 5
 out 56

 Vx

TheDoolallyDilly

Hello! I used to be a thread like this (or maybe this one??) many moons ago. I hope I can leap aboard? Since I was last here, I got divorced and my two adult DCs are not living at home anymore. Major decluttering! My divorce was very acrimonious, and apart from my personal possessions, I got very little from the marital home 

 I bought my own small (and perfectly formed!) house a few years ago. I'm quite good at decluttering, but a spell of ill-health, and then being diagnosed with an auto immune condition in 2022, combined with long working days, has meant stuff is silting up a bit around the edges, if you know what I mean?! And my self care has been non-existent.

So ... my goals to get me back in the swing of things, and taking better care of myself, are:-

1. Declutter 100 things in January. These will probably be small things, as I am pretty decluttered, but I need a bit of extra maintenance and this will be a good kick start.

2. Make some time for self-care - including hopefully some exercise.

3. Digital decluttering - not just emails, but emails stored in email folders; unsubscribing from things; photos (finding the various places they have been stored, keeping them together, and backing up); sorting out YouTube subscriptions (love a bit of YouTube) and playlists.

4. The big frog. More like a monster, really. PAPERWORK. It makes me want to cry to think about it. I had a nice chat with my financial advisor who is very kind and sensible and he helped me see that I actually don't need a lot of the paper I have been storing. I do have DWP stuff for one adult DC (30+ years worth) and I don't trust the DWP as far as I could throw them, so that is all staying. I need to sort through it. But I have divorce paperwork (not just the Absolute, loads of other stuff), and I have utility bills, bank statements .... I have a portable hard drive, so older stuff is being scanned and stored on that and Google Drive, and going forward I plan to scan and store regularly so it's not such a massive Frog/Monster. Then I can shred. I will free up space too, which will be nice. I've started this already, scanning some things on the whizzy quick scanner at work. I will chip away at this a bit at a time.

5. Projects - I have several things that need doing in the house, so I need to do something towards these every week. 

So far I have decluttered 30 items out of the 100 :-) Self-care has fallen by the wayside, as I'm having a little operation next week, but when I'm resting afterwards, I might get a bit of the digital decluttering done.

This morning, I took the decorations down, and tidied and cleaned the living room, including washing the window 😁 And shredded a pile of documents to do with a place I lived temporarily a few years ago. Tackling the Paper Monster, bit by bit!

wishus

Yarn stash collected. Signature updated!

Chazza drop off imminent!

London_1

Mrs SD I love the thought of being one of the declutterati

 I took some of my cookery books to the CS I have more to go but I didn't want to overload them in one go, I shall do some more next week ,

Also I donated some ornaments and vases that I never used and were basically dust collectors

JackieO xx

Brie

flamingo747 said:

@Brie forgive me if you've already said, but would a charity not take your fridge and freezer for free?

+1 paperwork for recycling 

No need to forgive you - even if someone else has mentioned it (don't think they have....) 

The fridge is not great - the door doesn't always close and the seal is going so the temp isn't great and things like milk quickly go off.  The freezer is fine but needs to be defrosted frequently so may be having a similar seal fail.  Most charities won't take things like this unless they are in good condition and in fairness I'd say neither of these are.  Complicated by the fact that they are integrated ones so it's not like it's just a fridge or freezer that needs to be dealt with.  That said I'm going to ask on Freegle if anyone wants the freezer and mention the fridge in passing.  If there's no takers I'll call the council - assuming we can't get them in OH's monster vehicle (SUV) and take them to the tip ourselves.  Will need to check on the price for this as I know they will charge - if it's no cheaper then I'll get the council to do the heavy lifting!!

Also have a dishwasher which I was thinking of selling but might just freegle instead - just to make it quick and easy.  Fortunately we have a substantial drive so all 3 can sit out for a week or 2 waiting collection if that's what it comes down to.

And today is set for more decluttering.  I've gone through the freezer and got rid of a chinese ready meal that shouldn't have been frozen and a couple of other odd leftovers I couldn't quite identify.  Need to do the same with the fridge freezer in the garage where anything we are keeping will need to be put.  Though given the extra cold weather expected this week I'm not sure if things can't just go into the garage itself!!

AND because I might have been barking marching orders for OH to do this, that, the other, he stopped and gave me a big hug and told me to stop stressing and that things would get done and be lovely.  of course this did mean I couldn't complain about him going off to play on his computer for a while rather than doing all the things we had been discussing.....

florianatwobob

Two bags off to CS yesterday and having had a whizz around today we’ve found some presents that whilst lovely aren’t quite to our taste so those are going in a bag too. 

Decluttered another Christmas present yesterday with a trip to see the Diva exhibition at the V&A - it was very good! Also decluttered pennies in the V&A shop and cafe. I do love their cafe, exceptionally tasty carrot cake!