2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

vulpix

 Weenancy,  I had a crushed spinal cord due to arthritic vertebrae. The recovery after the initial few days was rapid. PM me if you like, I don't want to be seen to be giving medical advice. Everything you do is for other people, there must be some help out there that could pick up the slack with your housemates for a month. Unfortunately I know it would be down to you to find the help but short term pain, long term gain. xxxx

 The Christie hospital in Manchester have just phoned Mr V. His operation will be 18th June. That's a relief. He now needs to find cover for all his various jobs. ... and breathe.

 Vx

Floss

@vulpix that's good news, you can both plan accordingly now x

Wednesday2000

I had a nice surprise in the post today. A cheque for £850! Unfortunately it wasn't for us so I had to track down the right address. My husband has an optician appointment today so he can post it off then. He can buy some ibuprofen for me too although the pain isn't as bad today at all.

I think I am just going to stay in and watch TV today. I did order some fridge organising boxes from Amazon that are arriving today. I will take everything out and check if anything needs throwing away and give my fridge a deep clean at the same time.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks + a weekly Mini Mission in May

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 continued: DH has been out in the garage - one of the very fancy arms from the broken bird feeding station has now been affixed to a painted block of wood. Now we just have to decide where to put it 🤔 

Drum roll please - I have finished all the actual embroidery on my embroidery project 🥳 Although now I have to work out how to erase pen & pencil marks used to draw straight lines - not magic pens at all 😔 Also need to give it a quick iron 😉 Sorry no picture being posted as there are identifiable names 😔 Dinner was a cottage pie made using the rest of the Bolognaise sauce accompanied by honey glazed carrots & green beans. Wudupa. P.S. once we had our first drop of rain it continued to rain on & off all evening.

884 - 889 Kitchen & office recycling, cardboard box, cardboard packaging, paper packaging, drinks cans - recycled 

890 - 895 Kitchen, office, lr & DSis bedroom detritus + small bag of rubbish from shed, a pair of my Sunday knickers - binned

Wednesday: Up & dressed before 11:00. I have almost finished my first cuppa but have completed a couple of tasks - new black bag in wheelie bin + have cancelled milk deliveries whilst we are on holiday in Scotland. Now settling down to the cheerleading 🍀

vulpix, not a big baby at all - 5 operations in 4 years would put anyone off having another operation 😔 Although please don’t leave it too long as you will need to factor in waiting time etc 🙏 I couldn’t agree more with your comments about exams “Here's to the end of GCSE's. The pressure seems to be enormous. I don't remember the pressure when I took mine. I didn't revise and just rocked up on the day…………” - although I did revise but not as much as I should have done 😉 Hope the weather stayed fine enough yesterday for you to empty the bike shed 🤞

Florenceem, fingers crossed you find more vintage tins of buttons 🤞😉 You are doing a ‘stupendous’ job of decluttering & tidying your Craft Room 👏

Excellent decluttering crazybunnylady4 👏 & what a lovely way to reward yourself 😊 Good luck for ‘Project Eat Better’ 🍀 Very pleased to hear that bunny is back to his old self 😊

Excellent decluttering Rootle 👏 still on track 🥳

Excellent work decluttering puzzles QueenJess 👏 Fingers crossed that work does improve & that you can regain your enthusiasm 🤞 It does drag one down if work is a struggle 😔

Lovely picture crazybunnylady4 😊

Beautiful post EnergyShifter 😊

Florenceem, 😠 to the idiot who left out of date food 😡 What a great idea for the CS to go on FB 👏 Good job I can’t get to the CS - I would be snapping up the yarn even though I am working my way through my own stash 😅

Wednesday2000, a good doctor - giving you no time to worry about the minor surgery 😉 I would use your enforced rest from decluttering to spend some time in the TLC Carriage 😉

GrannyKate, sorry to hear that you have been frustrated in your attempts to cross items off your To Do List 😔 Well done though on your perseverance & getting quite a few tasks done or at least started 👏

Florenceem, thanks for the photos 👏 I spotted 2 buttons I would loved to have had - the black/blue ones with the gold rims 😉 Re the second set of photos, I love the tin 😊

Muddy_Walker, oops a daisy 🙊 that could have been both messy & expensive 😱 Relieved to hear that the cancer is stable but so sorry that it has taken its toll 😞 Cwtches 🤗 & 💐 coming your way.

Lovely supportive post vulpix 😊  Yes, I was sitting down but still managed to fall off the sofa 😂 Absolutely stunned that MrV not only managed to see the GP same day but within 2 hours of requested time 🤩 Thank you for the picture - I hadn’t realised how tiny the birds are - impressive craftsmanship 👏

machasraven, lovely supportive post ☺️ Decluttering sleep definitely counts as hopefully you will start to rebuild your strength 🙏 Now that you have ‘accepted’ why you have been signed off please take it very, very easy 🙏 

Excellent decluttering QueenJess 👏 So satisfying to set a challenging target & breeze past it 🤩 Also great work on your May/June mini challenge 🥳

Well I have made a good start at catching up with the cheerleading despite a couple of distractions 😉 including DH being scammed 😣 DH had ordered some plastic stepping stones for the garden…………….. delivery was today & THIS is what turned up

The silver lining is that DH will be more careful in future 😉 as he has been reminded that if it looks to good to be true etc. Fortunately not a huge amount of money but….. 

Hope everyone is having as good a day as possible & that like here you have dry weather with some sunshine 🤞Cwtches all round 🤗 & remember to spend time in the TLC Carriage 😊 P.S. I haven’t forgotten the Orient Express trip - just finalising the finer details 😉 

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

DH Awards: IS A 💎🏅 🌟 🥰 🏅 

DSis Awards: 🏅 💐 💐 🤗 ⭐️ 

Decluttering Target 2023: 895/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £228.85

QueenJess

Just a quick pop in as I have to go and pick up DS in a minute.  Got a backlog of things as long as my arm to do in the house, but decided to take things slow and only tick off some of them rather than running around.  I don't want to rush around all the time.  Instead I made a bit of time earlier to look at some of the photos, but that definitely needs to be done in bits and pieces.

More than 50 items decluttered today and 20 items tidied including sending back a few things which have been cluttering up the side in the bedroom.  There is still a long way to go and I feel a bit like a rabbit caught in headlights as I can see excess stuff on every side and in every drawer, cupboard etc.  However, none of it is a quick win and there are various decisions to be made for everything, which is slow and exhausting.  May do a bit more after I pick up DS.  All Buy Nothing stuff gone again, so must be time to list more things.  Just have to find some first!

Digital:
15 - photos deleted

Physical:
1 - puzzle (Buy Nothing)
1 - bathroom supplies used up
1 - t-shirt I don’t wear (charity bag)
8 - paper recycled
4 - photo pages (charity bag)
22 - photos binned
1 - photo frame (charity bag)

New total = 11,304

May/June mini clothes decluttering challenge = 191/200

nannywindow

Hello all, well that's another birthday done and dusted and thank you for my birthday wishes. Although DH was a bit poorly we had a good time with DD and the DGC plus I had lots of cards, some money and lovely presents. Dad spoilt the day as we had words, again. Afterwards he sulked and didn't speak until it was time to go home 😠 He's 94 and I've seen much better behaviour from a toddler !
Today I have sorted out some paperwork from a cupboard, well I had to as it all fell out when I opened the door ! Several letters now in their rightful place, others, plus some leaflets which we were keeping for Justin, are in the recycling or ready for shredding.
A full sack of clothes and a couple of pairs of shoes have gone to the cs. An empty diffuser bottle and the sticks have been recycled as I had a new one for my birthday, the empty box has gone in the cardboard bag too. More takeaway boxes and lids are in the recycling box, I really had too many. The fridge has been emptied and cleaned.
I have cleaned my backdoor and the inner step, I don't know where all the dust comes from, then I emptied the hoover and washed the filters. I also made an appointment for  bone density scan for after my radiotherapy treatment which starts next week.
Vulpix thank goodness Mr V's appointment has come through at last. I hope everything goes well for him 🤞
Muddy Sometimes you just keep everything bottled up until you almost burst and then flood gates open. I hope you are ok. More cwtches winging your way 🧡
Wednesday shame the cheque wasn't yours 🤨
MrsSD glad you have finally finished the embroidery 🎉 but 😡 on your behalf to MrSD being scammed. I don't understand how people can do that to others who work hard for their money. Sorry I'll get off my soapbox now.
Hugs to anyone in pain/need.
nan

Muddy_Walker

Thank you everyone xxxxx

QueenJess

Posting and running again to get DS to swimming.  After I picked him up, I popped outside for a tiny bit of planting (chard, edible marigolds, courgette seeds are in and some of the free pepper plants I was gifted have been planted out).  At the same time I got rid of some stuff from the garage/shed (although lots more to think about there and I need DH's help with some of his tat in my shed).  Then I cleared up the library a bit by packing up 2 boxes for charity and finding a massive stack of books we just don't need in there.  There's so much more to go...

Physical:
2 - garage stuff recycled
1 - bird food tin (Buy Nothing)
3 - bubbles (charity bag)
1 - seed packet used up
11 - shed stuff binned
37 - DD books not for her (charity bag)
3 - packaging reused

New total = 11,362

May/June mini decluttering challenge = 191/200

That's over 100 things decluttered today and I even decided to get rid of the bird food tin from the garage that avid readers of this thread may have read about before when I couldn't decide what to do with it.  Yes I like it, but no I don't have a use for it right now.  I might use it in the future, but equally I may never use it again and I refuse to have all this stuff cluttering up the place for "just in case".  Worse case scenario is that I need it in the future and I just buy one.

Floss

@QueenJess you make my head spin with your constant shifting out of things, do you think you will ever get to a point of being content? I do worry that sometimes you seem to be clearing out almost everything!

QueenJess

Floss said:

@QueenJess you make my head spin with your constant shifting out of things, do you think you will ever get to a point of being content? I do worry that sometimes you seem to be clearing out almost everything!

I really hope so at some point! I think I’m still suffering from overbuying in the past and mostly from my parents keeping every single thing from when I was a child and sending them my way (plus they keep buying things every time they come). They had a whole loft stuffed full and it’s exhausting still finding it everywhere.

I do still have loads left to go and too early to say if I’m winning, but I do have some completely empty drawers around the house and have got rid of loads of storage boxes as I have nothing to store in them anymore. So I must be making progress. Am trying to accelerate it all at the moment as I just can’t cope with all the stuff, plus everything else and want to get there or at least a lot closer much quicker.

My loft is more than half empty now and most of it is DH’s stuff. In fact I think I have about 9 boxes up there plus some empty storage boxes. Kids clothes still need to be tamed as do mine and I’ve put off my library for a long time..

I did buy a plant earlier, so that’ll be one thing back in. It’s a trailing one for a weird very high window above the stairs that you can’t really reach. I thought it would look lovely trailing down there and I can just about reach the corner to water it on tiptoes. I have some fake flowers on there which I dislike, so they will be next to go once DH helps me get to them.