2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

TC77

Adding nos 918 as some.unsubscribing along with  cs and paper declutter. Today took another set of cup and saucers, mug and book to cs, car and the other day my oyster card 930. 
Need to read back a couple of pages but saw some good clothes dyeing . 

butterfly2507

2 more declutters:

- one eyeshadow: it's pressed glitter and i despise pressed glitter but the rest of the quad is nice so i keep that 
- one oil diffuser: can't even tell you the last time i used this. used it a couple of times to use up the rest of the essential oil that i had and now it was collecting dust .... off to the charity shop!

edit:
- i sold a couple of things on vinted (they were "decluttered" a while ago) so ... i guess the recycled box and filling material, bubble wrap etc counts as a decluttered item haha i'm happy those things are leaving the house!

QueenJess

butterfly2507 said:

edit:
- i sold a couple of things on vinted (they were "decluttered" a while ago) so ... i guess the recycled box and filling material, bubble wrap etc counts as a decluttered item haha i'm happy those things are leaving the house!

It absolutely does count!  I've been counting mine in my totals and have been challenging myself to never throw away/recycle any such materials, but instead use them all up in my decluttering; whether that's through Buy Nothing, charity postal donations or sales.

charlies_tribe

Good morning. I've been reading along but it's been very busy here. DD3s friend is still living with us and we have swapped bedrooms with the girls. I can't believe how much was crammed in each room.
DS1&2 and DD1 have all had birthdays in the last 2 weeks and it's DHs tomorrow. 
Dh has still been busy on the garden and has filled a skip just from there already. And then we've had a horrible virus/cold too.

Sending love, hugs and get well soon to all who need them xx

I think it might have been TC77 said yesterday about just giving the clothes to the charity shop. I'm having the same debate with myself at the minute. I've had to rehash (possibly the 3rd time!) 5 bin liners of clothes that I've had ready to list and never got round to it. I'm now wondering if it's worth it just for a few ££ or if to just take the bags to the charity shop later when the last of it comes off the line.

Still soooo much to go through.

I've condensed my list as it'd fill the page.

2 mesh bags, Coat hangers, Postage box, Office chair, Ripped jeans, 5x teddies, Blanket, Headband, Peppa pig toy, Thomas toy, 2x Makeup sets, Bracelet, 2x left over wrapping paper, 2x sheets cardboard, Poster, 2x cards, Stack of party hats, Barbie pool, Packing bag, Belt, Coat hangers, Bin liner of rubbish, 2x sleeping bags, 3x pairs slippers, 4x tshirts, Jumper, 13 nail polishes, Makeup bag, Map, 2x teddies, Make up set, 2 balls, Plastic lid, 26 Barbie dolls- free page, 142 Barbie accessories- free page, Broken Barbie horse, Broken Barbie car, 58 Barbie bits binned broken/odd shoes etc, 4x shopkins, 17 shopkin accessories, 99 books recycled, Large cardboard box, Dog food bucket, 5 builders bags, Wooden decking steps, Broken storage box, Phone case, Sleep gummies- didn't work, 4 boxes fudge, 2 elastic bungees-elastic deteriorated, Dog bed, Skip full of garden rubbish, 25 items to clothes bank, 13 items clothing to charity shop
Physical 2050/2024

vulpix

Charlies tribe, you've done a lot and been poorly too. I used to sell loads on line but not clothes. I used to sell the kids stuff and clothes at car boot sales cheap as chips. We did 2 a year. Being as though the majority were second hand when we got them anything we made took us out somewhere for the day.
 Several years ago there was a lady who posted here who turned her life around. She was a hoarder with medical conditions and debts who hid post in the wardrobe in bin bags. She sold masses, opened the post, paid off her debts, moved house,went on a walking holiday in Iceland and we never heard from her again. Way to go. Something she said resonated with me. It's not worth the hassle of selling something for less than £5. I ran with that. That's why I give everything to charity, not because it's all not worth much, because I am paying it forward. I was a single parent who got no child support from their Dad, all our clothes and most of the kids toys and Christmas presents were from the charity shop. They were happy and grateful and it's only as adults they realise how little they had.

 Mr V is very sore but fine, as we are staying at home and it's another beautiful day I am washing the quilts off both beds. I have already ironed some linen things that I washed yesterday. I think I will go through my wardrobe again. It worked well just trying a few things on at a time.

Vx

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all,

@GrannyKate hope the viewing went well

@Vulpix so glad the op went well and hopefully Mr V is recovering well. Big hugs. I think the lions clubs take old glasses to be sent out to foreign parts for a charity if you have one near you, or I think there is a postal address you can send them to. Speksavers also take them to recycle the plastic etc.  I love a good garden burn, I have a big chimenea just for that, anything I can't get in the garden waste or burn in the log burner goes in the garden burn though being in the suburbs I have to check for nearby washing and generally it's an evening job

@Florenceem I have to agree with others re the fence, there has to be a better way to keep residents safe. I hope the alarm is sorted out, being woken in the middle of the night is not fun.

@weenancyinAmerica I don't think I would be talking to the housemates either, I 'd probably be shouting at them, you have so much patience, it's one thing to have housemates but quite another to be a care worker/ social worker/ proxy parent, big hugs.

@Mrs SD some lovely views there, glad you are getting good weather . You do get to some interesting places on the RBR, almost makes me want a motorbike so I can join in

@Wednesday2000 great results with the dyes

@QueenJess everything crossed nothing comes from the parents . You might be able to sell my little pony stuff and get something DD would play with.

@TC77 sorry to hear about the car, such a pain when things like that happen, hugs

@butterfly2507 welcome aboard

@charlies_tribe wow such a lot decluttered

On Tuesday I spent some time at my friend's house with her and her DH. Although he is improving it is going to be a long job recovering from the stroke. He has lost his words as well as the use of his right side which makes communication very hard. He has finished his 6 weeks physio and speech and language therapy and they are now faced with paying for more treatment, another post code lottery situation. She has been refused a blue badge as there is hope he will improve though she can't actually get him in and out of the car without using a standing frame and wheelchair which she can't actually fit in the car so basically they are stuck in the house and limited to visiting places she can push him to. Another friend and I have offered help, come and sit with DH to give her some time out, even if it's just to have a wander around the sm or grab a coffee with some other friends and she is thinking about it. It is very hard for her as she is usually the one giving help. When I got home I intended to do some more batch cooking but I was exhausted and just slumped on the couch. I think it was the emotional exhaustion rather than physical activity.
Yesterday I looked at the kitchen and got a bit annoyed so started clearing up again. 3 bottles and 7 plastic containers OH had been keeping for justin were recycled without reference to OH who hasn't noticed along with a load of other carp. The kitchen recycling was also emptied and some surface is beginning to be visible. 1 LDFPA. I have beans soaking in the fridge and will set to with the batch cooking today and clear a bit more surface again.
I have 2 loads of washing on the line and am just having a cuppa before I crack on

Hugs to everyone who would like one

893 - 895 bottles
896 - 902 plastic containers
903 LDFPA
904 kitchen recycling
Take care everyone
904/2024

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all,
Forgot to say happy summer solstice, hope you all have a great day x

London_1

Hi Chums well thanks for the vote of confidence but I had a very ordinary 1940s/50s upbringing, I learned to read and write by my late Mum who also taught me how to cook and streetch things (well it was rationing and post-war austerity ) also to knit and sew.

 Mainly winters were cold, damp and pretty foggy in London, and summers seemed endless, but as a child you remember summers being like that .
The freedom from school and long summers days playing with your friends or in the garden, 
or just doing chores as all children were expected to 'help Mum'.

The chore I wasn't keen on was turning the blooming handtle for the washing, as Mum never had a spin dryer they weren't available that long ago. My two older brother had an inbuilt instinct to vanish when needed  

I do remember going with her to the first launderette that opened up, Bendix it was called, with large machines and they were top loading ones, and women flocked to them as before it was hard work with just a tub as a boiler and a 'wooden dolly stick' to prod the washing with, then the chore of wringing out as much as possible and turning the big handle, so the rubber rollers would squeeze out as much as possible.

Mondays was always wash days ,hence why the main meal was usually cold left over meat from the Sunday dinner along with mashed potato and pickle (if you could find it ).

 Most Mums spent the day getting very hot and worn out doing the wash, and my late Mum also had my late Fathers white coats to wash and starch as well (Robin starch in a gloopy big bowl)

 He was a chemist so always wore his white coats whilst working, along with gleaming white shirts . A natty chap was my late Dad:)  
They were a devil to get dry in the winter, and would be hung on hangers in the scullery like a row of white ghosts to a little girl I had a vivid imagination as a three year old  

But children did the chores as expected of them, and it never occurred to ask for any money (not that we would have got any) Everyone had to pul their weight.

The two boys were expected to chop firewood for the kitchen range, and break the bigger lumps of coal up in the cellar where my late Mum would watch as the coalman shoved the coal down onto the pile in there .
God help them if there were too much 'slack' in amongst it.my late Mum had a very sharp eye and tongue if she thought she was being short changed ,even the large coalmen, who seemed enormous to me, quaked under her gaze.
 But if she was happy she would always give them some fruit cake wrapped up in greaseproof paper (normally an empty cornflake bag ) and tell them to wash their hands under the tap in the garden if they didn't want to eat the coal dust as well.  

No one every argued with my feisty little Scots Mum who stood 5 foot wet through, but was solid steel bless her, and did actually have a soft spot for chaps like the coal men or the dustmen as she said they did a very hard job for not a great deal of reward so a bit of cake wouldn't hurt them .

The two  boys also had to  dig over our large garden (one reason my Father got the place was for the garden) .We grew a lot of fruit and veg, and ate seasonally (no fridges or freezers in our house) we also kept some chicken for the eggs and eventually we ate them as well. They cleaned the windows as well and also polished the shoes for next day for school and work for my Father .
He was ex-army, so expected us all to look clean and tidy for school, and hated shoes that didn't have a decent shine on them.

Mum had a weekly list of different things for different days ,but because of rationing which went on from 1940-54 she shopped almost daily. A case of finding what there was available in the shops or the local market stalls.

Tuesday was cleaning and especially her doorstep which had to be 'donkey stoned ' to spotless white and woe betide any child who left mud on it

Wednesday was visiting days for to see her friends or for them to come to our house.She baked most day anyway as the kitchen range was rarely out. So there were always biscuit or cake available (must be where I got my love of cooking from.)

Thursdays she usually had more cleaning to do as the house was a big draughty old Edwardian pile, that my Dad loved and my Mum didn't as it was so much work to keep looking nice . Lino most of the rooms plus rugs but the front room had parquet flooring which was lovely and she kept singing beautifully plus a large Axminster carpet square which had to be gone over with the carpet sweeper, a very big wooden Ewbank that as a little girl she let me stand on while she whizzed it about. I loved riding on that as a toddler well over 78 plus years ago gripping on to the handle, and her laughing and saying 'Hang on Lassie, or I'll sweep you away' 

Friday was market day and we would traipse around the market locally to see what was available plus she would go to our local fishmonger and the conversation would godlike this

F/monger 'Good morning Mrs B... how are you today and how's the family

Mum 'I'm fine Mr D,,,, and yourself and the family all good ?'

F/monger Yes all well thank you ,what can I tempt you with today ?

Mum 'Well what's good do you think,?

 She would never buy cod, (she was a true Scot and preferred Haddock, or mackerel ) which for some reason she said at the dead in the sea. Which as a child I had visions of fish nibbling away on drowned sailors ! ! !

They would have a discussion about various merits, and which was the absolute freshest one he had on sale .he too I think was a wee bit terrified of this tiny lady  

She would choose and he would wrap it up in a neat parcel, double wrapped in case it made the rest of her shopping get a bit niffy and he would say
' Goodbye see you next week Mrs B ...'
and she would reply just as politely 
'Aye, see you next week have a good week Mr D...'

She was always very polite to people bless hereto her a duke or a dustmen merited politeness and she hated any rudeness, but also had a very sharp eye when it came to shopping. She would have loved this site I think.

So really a very ordinary childhood but brought up by a very extraordinary lady.

Bless her
 RIP Mum 24/12/1900-14/12/1963.

Mums leave a great legacy at times to their children which has nothing to do with money .mine left me with the ability to get through bad times and even sad times and with just the attitude of 'getting on with things.'

JackieO xxx

regnbue

@Vulpix said "It's not worth the hassle of selling something for less than £5. I ran with that. That's why I give everything to charity, not because it's all not worth much, because I am paying it forward. "

Just popping out of the tlc carriage to say within 10 minutes of reading this I had put my shoes on and was standing in the charity shop round the corner donating 3 very heavy never used identical glass jugs.  Around 2 months ago I had taken photos of them planning to list them for sale on meerkatplace - there are a lot of guesthouses here.

Also donated a book and pastry cutter at the same time.  Will add numbers in due course.

Sometimes you just got to let it go.

@Vulpix you are an inspiration

thank you  

Florenceem

I popped to SA this morning as there was a job's club being held and I was letting them in the building.
A couple of weeks ago SA had bought a table tennis table which was found to be faulty. The replacement was to be delivered and assembled and the faulty one taken away on Monday - it didn't happen. 
Chaps turned up today - when I got to the side door it was blocked by a huge box - halfway in the building. The two delivery drivers didn't speak English well so I had to speak to their depot - again - language issue. Eventually I got them to unblock the door - the security alarm men had arrived and couldn't get in. The delivery company only had C's phone number so I gave them mine - do not want them to disturb his holiday.
Alarm men fitted a new sound box - the old one was only 16 months old but water had got into it - hence the strangled seagull noise. I warned the job's fair organisers that the alarm would be going off - it did - 5 times!
I signed off the alarm job and went home - told the job's fair people how to lock the front door and exit from the side entrance.
I will be back at SA to secure two of the internal doors while another group uses the building - we have had issues with freezers - food going missing and the freezer door being left open - resulting in the large amount of stuff that was defrosting last Friday.
Then I will go back to the SA at 7.30 to lock up for the night.
Mr F got 3 letters from the hospital this morning - one of them had mistakes in it.