2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

vulpix

 We were at the plant fair 2 minutes before it opened and there were people coming back to the car park laden with plants.
I didn't buy anything, most of it was for dry gardens. I wanted to go as there was a hosta specialist nursery there. I have all the varieties in my back yard that they had,  We did go to b n q where I bought 3 half price foxgloves and some plant pot feet. Rock and roll baby.

 Liverpool_Anne, I hope you have caught up with your sleep. Sadly it sounds very reminiscent of my MIL's final 4 years. A very complex problem. You are right the bed isn't making him fall, though that made me laugh My MIL lived in a bungalow and still fell every other day, every day, several times a day for years, even with carers going in 4 times a day. Mind, she did sack them regularly and we had the whole reinstating process every time!There were social workers but they were only connected to the hospital to move her on because of bed blocking. She went in several care homes but hated them all. I don't know what the answer is. There was an older adults social work team but they were a little like unicorns. You have heard of them but never met one.

 I agree Queen Jess, it does get harder to de clutter the less you have. I surprised myself that I could find a carrier bag of kitchen utensils for the Ukranian lady. The utensils drawer is a breeze now, nothing getting stuck and stopping the drawer from opening !

 Now I don't have visitors and my Mother's house is so close to being empty and I am getting over the shock of bit by bit I can turn my attention to de cluttering again. I am more determined than ever to not leave a huge job for my children when I shuffle off.

 Mr V off to work very shortly and I will have something nice to eat and possibly do a spot of sewing.

 Several pairs of holey socks have been ejected.

 Vx

mhagster

Hello. 

Clocks ticking and it all needs packed or chucked!

Bag for charity shop put in boot but another bag almost filled.

Pile for tip run in the morning added to.

DD2 collected stuff.

Box of stuff ( photos /journals) from the garage looked through and packed in to a new box. Stuff in donate or chuck pile also.

Bubble wrapped some framed pictures. 

Washed and dried a blanket and cushion covers and packed them away. 

My aim by the end of this week is to be down to basics only! Clothes/ cooking/toiletries etc the rest is to be packed! 

QueenJess

Still in the TLC carriage and finally getting better in time for work tomorrow   Dreading work as it's so annoying at the moment and just relentless. Fed up of doing everything myself.

Anyway, I did go ahead and delete the hundreds of photos of the carpet and under the sofa that DD took Now the weather is turning, I am going to add a May/June mini declutter challenge for clothes as I seriously need to purge mine as well as checking the kids items for the summer.  DD is on the cusp of changing size, so there are probably quite a lot of things to go there.  I opened my wardrobe and found it hard to find anything I wanted to wear for the summer, so I probably have the wrong things in there and need a purge.  Been looking online at the 10 item wardrobe (which is a bit misleading as it is 10 key items, but you can add accessories which seems to include t-shirts and things) and considering doing something like that for the summer so I just have my absolute favourite things out for me to wear.  I don't care if I wear things multiple times.  Set the challenge very high at 75... absolutely no idea if that is realistic or not, but I need something challenging to aim at to make sure I am only keeping what we will actually wear.  I like these mini challenges as it breaks up the year and focuses on the things I know I need to look at.

Just did the recording of stuff for the week on the TV (gosh there is nothing on at the moment!).  I do need to watch what is on there (at 70% free on the box), but I also realised that if it all broke tomorrow and I lost everything on there, I actually wouldn't care.  So in that case, why don't I delete it all?  Something to ponder on, although it isn't all my stuff of course so I can't delete it all.

Enough waffling for now.  Good luck with the decluttering for those moving house.

Digital:
274 - photos deleted
1 - notes deleted

Physical:
1 - t-shirt DD refused to wear (charity box)

New total = 7,726

May mini kitchen declutter challenge 18/25

May & June clothes declutter challenge 1/75

Florenceem

Got to SA at 10 and home at 5.45.
Good morning service then a quick turn around after a cup of tea - get the tables & chairs ready for 120 to eat lunch.
I have a blister on my finger from yesterday - burnt it on a hot pan.
We ran out of chilli, salad leaves and chopped cucumber/tomato. My friend and I who were serving - last to eat - we rustled up a lunch - jacket potato/tuna and cheese with a dollop of coleslaw. Dessert was trifle - we have someone who can't eat cream so I opened a tin of peach slices.
Afternoon concert was well attended - of course we had to put away tables and do seating area first.
After the concert we did tea/coffee and cakes.
Then we had to bring in a van load of stuff that was moved out to make room for the band to be on the raised section at front of hall.
I had arranged with C to count money tomorrow morning but he has cancelled.
I will still pop to SA tomorrow to sort out any donations that have arrived.

dND

Hi all, 👋

First up, love to you all and hugs to all that need/want one.

Life’s been a bit strange here – nothing was happening re builders and to be honest I was in a very subdued place.  I did however attack the garden to cut back everything I could before the birds started nesting.  The result is that my garden is now full with piles of branches and the chopped down remains of an extremely large pampas grass - my son has been brilliant at helping.  I was looking at all the detritus and coming to the conclusion that hiring a skip might be more cost effective than driving back and forth to the tip, especially as I could add the ‘black bag’ stuff which I can’t take to my local tip but have to book a slot and drive to one 8 miles away!

Then lo and behold, my preferred builder returned from Lanzarote and quotes appeared.  They were acceptable so I’ve OK’d them and work should start this week!!! 😱😁

It’s going to be even more chaos here.  The house is having (1) a complete rewire from where the power enters the house to the outside sheds; (2) an RSJ is being fitted across what is now the middle of the house to hopefully tie the house together again; (3) the retaining wall that holds back the front garden, but is falling forward, is being dug back a meter and being rebuilt there; (4) the fence between me and my attached neighbour is being removed and redone on it’s correct line which will gain me another 2ft of garden and allow me to get to the edge of my house; (5) cracked and falling ceilings – movement due to the missing wall – are being replastered and (6) a parking bay constructed at the top of the front garden.

The reason that the retaining wall is being dug back is because a porch was built on the front of the house and obviously built from the inside.  There’s only a couple of inches gap between the 2 walls and in fact the retaining wall is supported at that end by a rather large pebble wedged between it and the porch wall.

In order to get a mini digger in to do the excavation, part of the front boundary wall has to come down and that led to the idea of creating a parking bay.  Parking is tight on the road; my car fills the little bit of drive I have and if people park opposite I can’t get in or out of my drive.  This should give me a bit more wriggle room.

I’m probably going AWOL again or more likely I will be the gibbering wreck in the corner of the TLC carriage as I will be frantically moving heaps of stuff around ahead of the workmen and also trying to keep one room free for the cats 🐈🐈each day.

The above means I will be decluttering a rather large sum of money. 😱💷💷💷 I did have a bit of success with general decluttering though and got a couple of boxes to the charity shop along with 2 boxes of packing material. And I've been making full use of the kerbside collections with so much paper, cardboard, green waste and the maximum numberof black bags I'm allowed. 😁 Lots of other stuff is being sorted but is still on the property.

Take care everyone and I’ll try to keep up with the thread – I think it will be my sanity over the next month or so. 💕

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, I can't claim any decluttering was done today. I got about an hour's sleep when I went back to bed before I got up showered and had some breakfast. The brother and sil arrived and OH and I went over to have a chat. OH went to the coffee shop and got us all a treat. We were there for over an hour as they told us what they were planning, furniture has to be moved around to make way for the hospital bed so I suggested they either donate it to a cs that takes furniture or send it to auction. The sil seemed pleased with these suggestions and will try to sort something. I said they might not get much money from the auction but at least the furniture wouldn't end up at the tip. It is a good quality but brown table and six chairs and some other bits. I have the key box code now so at least if/when it happens again I won't have to wake another neighbour to get into the house. We also found out that there will be new carers starting tomorrow as the ones set up by the hospital when he was discharged will finish today and this is when the fun will probably begin as he can be tricky to handle and will probably sack them as he did with the cleaner, which he could probably do with re employing. When we left him his carers had just arrived to give him lunch at 4pm.  As soon as we got home we saw ln was in her garden and was waiting for an update as she had seen the ambulance and me prowling the street when she had got up but she had gone out with her son for a drive and eventual lunch. So more coffee and by the time we came in it was tea time and the thunderstorm was arriving so I still have to sort her hanging baskets but at least with the rain her plants and pots didn't need watering. After tea I had a dose for half an hour and then sorted what I will need for tomorrow as I will probably be out of the house for most of the day with a union thing.
I have been trying to get to sleep but can't seem to catch it, typical !
 Sorry I have read all the posts but little has stayed in my head so hugs to anybody who would like one

Take care everyone
Still 719/2024

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

Saturday stayed warm & bright all day. Sadly absolutely no chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Another very lazy day for me - i did some knitting but also made a real start on my embroidery project. DH spent the afternoon watching the MotoGP Qualifying. He also ordered burgers & fries for our dinner.

DH went to bed about 02:00 & DSis finally went to bed 03:30 at which point 

I watched the Eurovision Song Contest. My favourite was Lithuania who only finished 14th but my second favourite Croatia did finish 2nd 😉 This year I thought that most of the backing dancers were particularly good especially those with the Georgian singer 😅

760 - 764 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, newspaper, cardboard box, plastic bottle - recycled 

765 Kitchen detritus binned 

Sunday was a bright, sunny & hot day - 25C 🥵 although I completely missed the morning and didn’t wake up until 13:45. DSis did last night’s washing up. DH has been up for a while watching & enjoying the MotoGP races. Two down, one to go 🙂 I had a cuppa to wake up properly & then wrote a shopping list & DH went to sm after watching the last MotoGP race. DH filled the bird feeders. I finished knitting a beanie & practiced some embroidery stitches. DH & I made dinner - linguine in a creamy bacon & pea sauce. Wudupa

766 - 768 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, magazine - recycled 

769 - 770 Kitchen & lr detritus binned

Just noticed the time so I’m off to bed 😉

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

DH Awards: IS A 💎🏅 🌟 🥰 🏅 

DSis Awards: 🏅 💐 💐 🤗 ⭐️ 

Decluttering Target 2023: 770/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £116.85

London_1

Good Morning chums and condolences on losing your friend vulpix.

Yesterday I took a nest of tables round to DDs and she put them on the free facebook page and they went within half an hour. She said anything to go on there bring to my house Mum as I don't want strangers going into your house, fair enough my son-in-law works from home anyway, so when the person comes today he will give them to her.

I also took my spade and claw fork which will go into the small gardening van that's coming with the main moving van.
Great idea they sent a small van for all your gardening pots and tools etc.
DD donating quite a bit of gardening stuff to a local school on the Isle of Sheppey for the children are starting a garden in their playground ,plus a bay tree in a big pot

Apparently her buyers are not gardeners so weren't bothered about keeping it She said it would be a shame to let it die  and she decided to take what she would like from her garden and donate the rest to the children.
They have all her daft gnomes as well thank goodness:), she's kept har favourite one, but the rest plus some planters have gone to a better home and the children will appreciate them .

Eldest DD who has been a bit sniffy about the move seems to have come around a  bit, at least she came to my house on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours and bleached and cleaned all my empty cupboards in the kitchen for me .I don't bend very well in the middle so getting up and down to clean cupboards is a bit of a trial 

I have 4 floor double cupboards plus three top cupboards, plus the one over the cooker, and now only have one small cupboard left with food stuff in.

I decluttered all the fridge magnets and boxed them up and my fridge freezer is looking pristine and gleaming now, I'm leaving it for the new buyers .today I have to wrestle the detergent drawer from the washing machine to wash out.

Almost all the upstairs pictures and paintings are packed My sis -in-law gave me a huge case on wheels she said she won't use anymore which was great for I did have a lot of pictures .

I went to see her on Friday to say cheerio in case I don't see her before my move Sadly she's really not at all well but we had a great afternoon reminiscing about the past 52 years I've know her.Bless her she had half her left lung removed last year because of tumours and she has to have part of her right lunch operated on in the next four weeks as her tumours have returned in the healthy one she is such a lovely person and knows she may not have too long depending if she survives the operation or not. But we laughed a lot as I've always made her giggle and I know it cheered her up immensely I also went into Hither Green Cemetery as my late brother and my late Mum are both buried there together so had to put some flowers down and say good bye to them as well. At some point I have to get up to Colchester this week to see my other old friend before I move and may get to see my youngest grandson Mikey as he is at Uni there all depends on the weather and I'm just awaiting the contracts to arrive this week .

Time seems to be galloping by at the moment. right I'm off for a shower and another cuppa 

Take care chums happy decluttering 

JackieO xx

charlies_tribe

Just popping in to send hugs and condolences to Vulpix. I think a plant or flower just for bit by bit in your garden is a lovely idea. Something you can chat away and feel close too xx


Not much decluttering done here, I've been poorly since Wednesday. 2 of the DC have had it too and we're fine after a day or 2. Not me, the virus doesn't want to leave.
DH has been busy on the garden though, he spent most of yesterday digging in the 25° heat while I sat in the sun lounger and watched. I did feel bad Not helping but even walking up stairs is leaving me breathless.

Hopefully I'll have more to declutter in the week.

wishus

I knew I was going to have to make a decision between my 25 year old food processor and one I was recently gifted by my SIL as she was decluttering, but trying to make a vinaigrette yesterday, my old machine died and made that decision easier. Now 965!