2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

wishus

Another keyboard joined the great recycling box in the sky (pavement). 
966 items now.

Shattered after yet another evening stripping wallpaper and making a mess to tidy. We still have far too much stuff - it's just in the way.

Progress though. It'll be worth it in the end.

vulpix

How come I only just found out about the centre of Britain? 🤣

Moorviews, you are not morbid. You are sensible. As for clothes, well, it seems like a good idea to actually wear them! I wear the same old joggers and hoody when I am at home. How long is too long to keep clothes? I have a shawl that I bought in 1977. I have never worn it, probably never will!

Well nobody spotted my typo about the tote hag. Hahaha

 I am so sorry .I have just found that I somehow have managed to skip pages of posts. Thank you for the bit by bit mosaic idea. I will store that for the future. bit by bit had a bag of broken pottery that she dug out of her allotment that she was going to make a mosaic with. She would approve.

 Mrs SD, I would love to do the round Britain tours that Mr SD does. There are so many places I have never been, Kent for a start, the exception being the Channel tunnel.

 Liverpool Anne, we are going near Melrose for a few days. Not an area I know at all. Doubt we will do very much. It will be weather dependant I expect, but just a little break is something to look forward to. When is your Hawk Walk? We should definitely have a meet up.

 London 1, I watched The Abbey. I enjoyed it. I thunk Alan Bennet was 90 the other day.

 I have found 3 pairs of earrings to go today. I am too old looking to carry them off these days.

 Vx

 

TC77

been reading along but forgotten all the things I was going to comment on except Haltwhistle - had a teenage holiday.

Very perturbed tonight when back from working in town, strong smell of cat wee all through the hall, stairs and landing but couldn't identify, my little cat sometimes wees on a plastic bag if left out, but this is different. 
Realise I left the front door open first thing, taking rubbish out and waiting for cats and noticed someone else's cat by the front door running away looking guilty! So I think I've been victim of a cat marking!
Going to buy a cat wee detector tomorrow as it's all pervading and not sure if on walls or carpet but seems to be everywhere. All solutions, the easier the better welcome !!! :

London_1

vulpix  The Abbey really is good isn't it.  

Up until the first lockdown in 2020 my oldest friend and I used to have a week away every spring.
Her OH worked in the airline business so was often away for weeks at a time with his job.

We started back in 2007 when we toured the north east of the USA for several weeks by car exploring lots of small towns along with the big ones New York,Washington etc, drove down through Pennsylvania and South Carolina and also worked our way through Virginia and had a fantastic trip.
 
The week after we came home, a mammogram found something nasty on my right breast, so off it came, and followed by five further ops and chemo which decluttered my hair for several months,  and r/therapy we decided life was too short so we would make the most of what time  we had.

From then on we were on a mission ,every year around Easter, she would get out the map and we would both close our eyes and she would wave a finger over it and where the finger landed was where we would go for a weeks break.
We would get a cottage ,drive there and explore the minimum of a 50 mile radius .The following years we visited Stratford-upon- Avon, Bath , Bristol, Dorset, Gloucestershire  Staffordshire ,Norfolk,The Cotswolds, Manchester, Derbyshire ,Essex, and even though I knew it well ,the IoW.

We stayed in a variety of places usually cottages. It was great because we would read about the local area and find out all the spots of interest and work out the night before where we would visit next day and what we could see of interest.If we spotted something on the way we would stop and have a wander.

I had a very interesting conversation with a chap halfway up the Derby Dales who was repairing and restoring a very long stone wall without the aid of cement.

The walls that run all over the dales are put together like a jigsaw from basically just rocks, and he told us he was carrying on the family tradition as his ancestors going back generations were all wall builders, and he said it was likely that the one he was repairing and restoring was one perhaps of his gt gt gt grandfathers walls.
He was only in his 20s, but he was such a nice chap and made the time to show us how it was done .He said he had more than enough work to last him his life time, and he hoped one of his sons might carry one when he got old enough There are miles of these walls running all over the hills and dales and it was great just to stop and ask how it was all done. 

On another break we chatted to a guy who was repairing a thatch on  a cottage in Gloucestershire .

 I loved our Manchester trip, and loved the market at Bury and Salford Quays and the gallery to Lowry. 

In Staffordshire we went round the potteries and brought some stuff there, and watched how it was made.
The museum in Stafford had a large aeroplane suspended from the ceiling in it  We stayed in a cottage next door to a pub in Leek which had a sing song every other night, so lots of free entertainment on tap if we wanted it.

Our National Trust membership was very useful, and we saw so much of the UK countryside, and because we had inquiring minds ( a.k.a. nosy old biddies )  we learned such a lot from just chatting to people.this was our yearly treat right up until the pandemic struck, and our trips were curtailed. then just as life was starting to resume again my friend sadly contracted  Alzheimers  and has slowly been retreating into her self.

I still see her, and visit when I can, and I take our scrapbooks and remind her of what we used to do. She has good days and bad days, but she sees the photos we took and I talk about the people we had met on our travels and some she remembers, and her face lights up and she will natter about different things we did on our travels.

Her lovely OH is retired now and looks after her so well. Its a dreadful disease that's taken someone who was so lively and outgoing and to see her slowly slipping away always makes me so sad, but to see her brighten up when something jogs her memory is great, and she is the lass I've known for well over 50 plus years from when her children and mine were tiny and would play together.

Our country has so many great places to visit and I found the further north we travelled the friendlier people were. If anyone gets the chance to travel around the UK I would say go for it, there are so many great things to see and chat to the people you meet that usually are very proud, and rightly so of their locale.

Well back to more decluttering today, looks like maybe we may see a tiny glimpse of the sun so I may stick a wash on as I am trying to do one every couple of days so there won't be too much when the move happens fingers crossed 

Have a good decluttering day chums

Cheers 

JackieO xx

~FlowerPot~

Good morning, 
London 1 that's us such a lovely post about your travels, sounds like you had such fun with your friend exploring and made wonderful memories we can still share, even though she is not as she was.
I would love to do something like that when the kids actually leave home!! 
DD did another exam yesterday and came out smiling, thank goodness! Day off exams today and 2 more tomorrow.
Im in this morning invigilating, helping out as a volunteer, there are so many home ed students and so many exams and a crazy amount of access arrangements and complications I really do not know how they manage to sort it all out. From the outside it looks like a smoothly, tight run organisation, but from the inside it's crazy chaotic and v stressful.! 
Home at lobbying and then back again fur DD last lesson of her fav subject, so we have bought flowers and wine for this teacher. 
I am inspired to go through my clothes hopefully by the weekend. I have far to many that don't fit. I managed to lose some weight and I thought I would get back into them, but it's gone back on and I think I just need to except in changing shape as the menopause is hitting hard!! 

GrannyKate

@London_1 Great to hear about your trips. Late DH and I couldn't afford overseas when children were young and we had dogs so holidays were the UK or Norfolk where my parents lived.  Later we had trailer tent then a caravan and have pretty much taken children to all corners of UK.  We also did similar with grandchildren whilst DH was alive.  Some 24 years ago following a holiday with husbands DD and I decided to go on our own for a December trip and have done it pretty much every year since with variations due to family illnesses, Covid etc.  I think we have visited about 20 European Cities and some UK ones all in December.  Plans already in place for this year. Took grandchildren when they were preschool but otherwise just the two of us. Looking forward to Greece with DD and family in 6 weeks time. 

Second walk to the week today to see Rhododendrons in local woods.  Also viewing 2 properties.  Good feedback from our one viewer - they liked bungalow but at very top of their budget.  need to sort out greenhouse as I didn't do it yesterday but fell asleep instead. 

566 History homework done and sent to course leader as I will miss next week's meeting

vulpix

  You can't beat travel.home and away. I have done a lot of it , alone and with the children,and now with Mr V. My camping days are over. My achy bones like home comforts. One time I was asleep in a bivi bag in the Lake District and was awoken by a badger sniffing my face, I don't know who was more scared me or the badger. I have had hairy moments in New York and Morocco but a great deal of hospitality home and abroad. I don't know where I get itchy feet from. My Mum has only ever moved from one village to another when she got married and my Dad stayed in the same village apart from the army all his life. 

 We are going to the hospital for a pre op scan for Mr V. Still no date, just a month.

 Vx

EnergyShifter

Hello All

I've been away for a month & missed over 500 posts apparently! 😮 -  realistically there's no hope of me ever catching up - but I will try to read Mrs SD's updates as a kind of summary.

Firstly -  good news  - I can see!!  From both eyes!!!  I had my procedure yesterday. Completely painless!.  My sight had got very bad in one eye and I was struggling to read ( & it was getting a little hairy crossing roads !) - it's amazing to be able to see properly this morning.

I've given up noting INs & OUTs.  It feels like I'm naturally being fairly balanced with what is coming in & going out which is fine as I am maintaining - so unless I feel myself slipping I'll stick with not counting.  In the last month I haven't done a lot due to low energy and my sight problems.   Bathroom still needs finishing.  

Did the Winter / Summer swap over of clothes etc.  Cleared up the decking area - it's looking nice & ready for summer - complete with my lovely berry solar lights from last year.  One of my old garden chairs virtually fell apart when I was sprucing up the table & chair set.  This will definitely be its last Summer as bits fell off the table too when I moved it!   Oh & I decluttered a kilo of my Winter weight.  A couple more would not go amiss.

I've bought a couple of light tops for Summer and a few more books for my Discipleship course.  It's coming to an end in a couple of weeks.  Only one more assignment due and I've got all the books for that so my book buying will slow down. Oh and I treated myself to some lovely new sunglasses as a reward for having my eyes poked about!

I completed the third module of my Supervision course.  Next one isn't until January thank goodness as it really took a lot out of me - particularly when I was struggling with my eyes. 

Renewed my Senior Railcard using Tesco Clubcard points today - I'm hoping to go to Cambridge on Friday to see the Blake exhibition which ends shortly.  

I hope all is well x

QueenJess

@EnergyShifter I wouldn't worry about catching up and I would declutter that thought altogether   Glad you got back on the train at the station and you'll soon get back into the swing of things.

Off work today and I seem to be on a major mission.  There's something about being out of control at work with the workload that makes you ruthlessly know what gives value to your life and what doesn't.  We have more stuff still than I can deal with and so there is a huge amount that just needs to go.  I am trying to challenge myself further with asking whether we will ever use something (if it is stored) and also if we have actually used it in the last year or not.  I even gave DS a bag last night and told him that if he filled it to the top with Lego, I would give him £3 (the value of it roughly secondhand). Not counted that bit yet as I have to deal with that in a bit (will go on Buy Nothing).  I knew he would find some as he really needs certain types of bricks (he keeps running out), but I know there are certain other types he never uses.

Got the next size up clothes for DD down from the loft (DS hand me downs) and frankly she isn't ever going to wear a lot of it as she now has a little (but very strong) personality and very strong feelings about clothes.  I expected this at some point given they are so different, but actually it's a bit of a relief.  This age is the last of my mum's huge overbuying of clothes age group and so things should all look up from here.  I've actually gone through the whole pile and now have a big pile to wash.  I also need to go through her current wardobe and also mine.  I think I've underplayed my mini declutter target and so I am going to raise it to 200 items now. Whilst I was in there, I felt surrounded by stuff I didn't need and had to restrain myself from launching into a full scale loft declutter since I actually got the boxes down in the work day yesterday as a break.  I did bring loads of storage boxes down that I will never use and are now on Buy Nothing.

It is only 1:30 now and I've already done a full food shop (and had a lovely hm lunch), so who knows how much more I can get done before I need to pick up DD and DS and take DS to his swimming lesson...  I'm in the kind of mood that scares my husband.. nothing is safe!

1 - broken pencil sharpener (binned)
2 - old medical supplies (recycled)
2 - spare plastic box bits (binned)
8 - storage boxes I don’t need (Buy Nothing)
1 - notebook used up (recycled)
75 - DD next size up clothes not needed (charity box)
9 - DD current clothes she doesn’t wear (charity box)
2 - DS tat recycled
1 - plastic bag reused
3 - fabric bags I never use as I don’t like them (Buy Nothing)
New total = 7,928

May mini kitchen declutter challenge = 18/25

May/June mini clothes declutter challenge = 87/75200

Edit: Oh gosh... I went into the loft just to get out some books that DS requested (he is reading us out of house and home at the moment ) and I had to stop myself decluttering before the house became a bomb site.  Currently trying to package up everything... I think photos will be posted later!

vulpix

Mr V listed 3 big plastic containers on thrift. Gone in minutes.