2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

basketcase

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger
"I don’t imagine for one second that your DD realised the irony of of her two statements 😉"

Oh, but she did - though I note the 😉😁  (And also the irony of mine!)

We're a very ironic (that's IRonic, not MOronic 🙃) family.  Not to mention warped... 🤣

Florenceem

I had arranged to meet someone at SA this morning so I went off leaving Mr F at home. He seemed very not with it when he first got up.
There was a lot of stuff in the foyer so I phoned Mr F - did he want to come round and meet me. He eventually turned up and I popped into the office to ask C his opinion of Mr F. C thought Mr F was withdrawn, quiet and distant.
I had wrapped and labelled parcels and was going to take them to the shop but Mr F insisted that he would go. I popped into town to get V cash for C and took it to SA - the gleaners had brought in potatoes so I got some for dinner - made hm garlic wedges.
I raised £10.10 on V on Wednesday and £21 on Thursday. 
Today has been a bumper day - £139! - the most I have made in a day.
I am going to see how Mr F is over the weekend - he is asleep in the chair at the moment - said he had a bad night.
I fear that he is going Catatonic again.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks 

2. Sort out sleep patterns - target bed by 2:00 a.m. & up by 10:00 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

I did go out - left at 11:50 🥳 First stop bank - banked October’s PB Win & withdrew some cash; Boots & booked opticians appointment; bus to P.O. to check letter size & buy a supply of 2nd class stamps for Christmas cards. Bus home & was indoors by 13:05. DH got back 10 minutes later. I have written a shopping list as DH & DSis are going to sm shortly. I have also updated my accounts & added cash to Terramundi pot for December’s 1p Savings Challenge. Put away the shopping when DH & DSis got back. Then spent the rest of the afternoon reading magazines & newspapers. Dinner was fried pork steaks with mash & the last of the green beans from the freezer. Wudupa.

76 - 81 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, magazine, 3 newspapers - recycled 

82 Kitchen detritus binned 

Duchess2, well done on dropping the bags at the CS 👏 A lovely supportive post 😊

TC77, a steady tick over of items out 👏 Hope you enjoyed your friend’s visit 😊

Well done Siebrie 👏 

Florenceem, sorry to hear that MrF is giving you cause for concern 😔 Hopefully you can get an early appointment with the doctor 🙏 

London_1, belated Happy Birthday to Danny 🥳 🎂 How lovely that you made use of your sleeplessness to have a long online chat with the birthday boy 😊 Nothing wrong with a pottering day 😊 Do you mind if I ask what size you knit your small squares & what stitch you use, as I think it would be rather nice to knit something different 🤔 

Good luck with the ironing Duchess2 🍀 It does sound like you might need a cull of the family clothing 😉

suzeesu2000, that is so funny 🤣 

GrannyKate, kept everything crossed 🤞 I do hope everything went well & you are now in your new home 🙏

Liverpool_Anne, hopefully you are finally on the road to recovery & will be able to thoroughly enjoy your mini break 🙏 Great cheerleading 👏

Duchess2, good luck with both the ironing & the bay of E listings 🍀 Fingers crossed that your friend’s son didn’t need picking up 🤞

basketcase, looking at it another way, the garage bill works out at only £4.66 per day 😉 Definitely sounds less scary that way 😅 I really enjoyed reading about the way you used to do the washing & ironing all in one day 😊 Excellent work & you managed to get a lot done despite no Alligator Wrangling 👏 Excellent job with the NSDs 🥳

vulpix, that is so scary 😟 It really is a good job that you & MrV were home & could help out 😰 Wow, very impressed that you can do the splits 🤩 something I was never able to do 😔 Although it does bring back happy memories of a school friend trying to teach me a bit of ballet in order to make me a bit more flexible 😂 Sadly I was less graceful than either the hippos or elephants in Fantasia 🤣 Great work with the continuing clothes decluttering 👏

Lovely post Moorviews 😊 I do hope you were successful in avoiding the urge to nap & that you will have a better night’s sleep 🤞This “I have decluttered money on new spectacles. Somehow I never come away with the cheap option.” sounds exactly like me 😔

basketcase, helps to make life feel less troublesome if you can combine being ‘Ironic’ with being ‘warped’ 😂

Another very busy day Florenceem 👏 Excellent sales on V 🤩 Sorry to hear about MrF 😔 I am keeping everything crossed that he improves over the weekend 🤞🙏

All caught up, so will post & then head to bed. Sleep tight everyone 😴 

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

DH Awards: IS A 💎🏅 🌟 🥰 🏅🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅 💐 💐 🤗 ⭐️ ⭐️

Decluttering Target 2024: 2029/2024: New Target 366: 82/366

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £681.70

Duchess2

Thanks for the support Mrs SD. Not much achieved yesterday. I did have to go up to school & pick up poorly boy at 10:45. Poor lamb just lay on sofa with a blanket and watched tv. No trouble at all, but couldn’t get on with much other than washing. Hung out but nearly as wet at the end. Oh well at least the TD warms the room too. Thought I might catch up in the evening. No the fates were conspiring 😂. Had to dog sit as DS and GF were both out. Never mind Aldi this morning and a quick whizz round and hopefully get a few extra jobs done. Have a good day everyone

basketcase

Greetings all

Thanks for the kind words @Mrs_Salad_Dodger I enjoy your lovely supportive posts to our fellow travellers.  Glad you enjoyed reading about my ironing - I certainly enjoy writing about it far more than doing it! 🤣

Yesterday was fairly quiet.
Did a few admin things and general pootling:

• registered for online banking, now that my switch is complete
• called Octopus to change my billing date back to the end of the month.  (I got a smart meter recently and they timed it to that.)  A great relief - I've only just finished the !!!!!! spreadsheets!
• one lot of recycling out
• Leftovers lunch and tea.

That was all until the evening, which I thought would be fairly quiet too.  BUT I'm giving DS a lift to Glasgow and going across to Edinburgh to see DD.  So I'm taking the opportunity to take A Few Things down   To wit:

• Contact lenses - delivered here because there's almost always someone in to receive them
• Package (Christmas shopping) - ditto
• Christmas decorations - some of which will come back, though not her tree decs, most of the tinsel, the lights and her creepy nutcracker soldier (shudder)
• Wrapping paper - to be pruned
• Tree support
• 30 cans of Coke Zero (a regular order from Costco!)

Not a NSD, because I had to nip out for some milk.  So, as I'd spent anyway, I ordered 2 Advent Calendars from Hotel Chocolat - Milk for DD and 70% for DS.

I suspect today and tomorrow won't be NSDs either.  DD's asked for a lift to a retail park get a floor lamp she saw it TK Maxx and I'll do a non-perishable grocery shop while I've got Asda and M&S's GF range in the same place.  Also the Edinburgh Christmas Market opened last night!

That's about it.
Have as good a weekend as possible, everybody.

vulpix

 Fleece, hoody and top in the chazzer bag.

No frogs eaten this Friday, I still feel slightly delicate and that is not a word anyone would use to describe me! Perhaps it's the aftermath of the recent lurgy. The trouble with the frogs is they are complex and need x doing before y can be done and then z. No mojo atm. I am very behind with leaf collecting. I need to do it before it snows on top of them.

 I hope Mr F is ok today Florenceem. I would be getting a GP appointment urgently and nipping in the bud anything brewing. 

 Lots of wrapping paper and gift bags used in the grotto yesterday. Still enough left for the next decade at least, same with Christmas cards. I am still using gift bags given with gifts from school. I retired 10 years ago. I have also given at least 50 away previously.

Laters Vx

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, awake at 4.30 as OH had come to bed and left the heating on and I was roasting. I had to go downstairs to turn it off. This is the second time this week this has happened and we will be having a discussion about this
Reasoable day yesterday, still feel a bit washed out but much better than Thursday . Post sorted, we only seem to get post about once a week now and it all lands at once. Sorted some bank stuff, plastic containers sorted again, 1 to recycling, kitchen recycling emptied, wrapped a birthday present for my dsis, used paper and padding from stash and then annoyingly did not have a box the right size so wrapped up in a big piece of bubble wrap and fitted in to a post bag from stash. Card included in the parcel but I had 2 more cards to post so they were written and stamped. Took everything to the post office. Sent a text to my dsis to let her know it was on the way and gave her the tracking number so she will know when to be in . It's her birthday on Wednesday but as we will be away best to get it in the post . Did a small sm shop on the way home. 3 LDFPA and 2 loads through the machine, got a few bits dry but the rest finishing off on the maiden. Small bit of ironing done but when I found myself ironing shorts which I will not need next week, or for a while in fact, I realised my concentration was gone and stopped I will try to get it sorted today but I have remembered there is a craft fare on at the local garden centre so I plan to pop there to see if I can get something for someone for Christmas. I am a bit disorganised this year, I normally have a lot more sorted by now

@basketcase yay empty ironing basket well done . 24/7 asda closed a bit annoying but a nsd . I think you have done loads. Your DD's comment made me laugh . Have a nice visit and enjoy the Christmas market

@Vulpix yes you do need some processing time, as we have said pets are part of the family and as for the fire well that could have been a real tragedy. The damage is bad enough but could have been so much worse. My ln had a fire, they were on holiday and their son had gone out but left the gas fire on for the dog and the armchair was too close. The neighbour on the other side spotted the flames through the window and called the fire brigade. There was a lot of smoke damage but the fire was confined to the one room as the fire brigade were very quick arriving. Unfortunately despite their best efforts the dog died from the smoke, they were more upset about the dog than the damage to the house which was covered by insurance.
Wow to doing the splits, I don't think I have ever been able to quite manage that
We are going to Ullswater and have booked a lodge with a hot tub, as requested by OH, and we should be arriving in time for the forecast snow ❄ . I remember going to a spa place with a group of friends that had an outdoor heated swimming pool when it snowed. It was quite amazing swimming while it was snowing, 2 of us were the only ones out in it, the rest stayed inside but I really enjoyed it, I know I am weird like that . Thanks for the tip about the chocolate oranges, I might have to pop along to Mr T and pick up a few

@Florenceem if there is no improvement with Mr F by Monday definitely get him to the doctors if you are seeing the same things as last time, hugs

I fell asleep at this point and have only just got back to it so I am going to post it before it gets lost in the ether
Hugs to everyone who would like one

1725 post sorted
1726 bank stuff
1727 present wrapped and posted
1728 & 1729 cards
1730 - 1732 LDFPA
1731 kitchen recycling
Take care everyone
1731/2024

short_bird

basketcase said:

 Also the Edinburgh Christmas Market opened last night!

Once upon a time, not so long ago, our Xmas market was constructed in November and opened in November. These days? They're building in mid October and opening 1st November... Luckily, it's smaller and closes on Xmas Eve, but there are still 3 times the people in half the physical space.
Will gather together my figures for the last couple of months, I know I haven't reported for aaaaages.

London_1

Hi Chums ,lovely day today DD treated me to a nice washout and blow-dry this morning as I was looking like the wild woman of Borneo, look and feel so much better.
Then this afternoon we went into Newport, and first went to the big Sainsburys, and I bought  couple of warm jumpers and a couple of pairs of fleecy lined jogger that actually fit me (I had lost a lot of weight so a lot of my clothes especially winter ones were far too big)

 I also  got a pair of jeans jeggings, but they will have to be returned tomorrow as being a vertically challenged lady Barely 5'3 I find that normally only jeans from M&S are short enough for me so I will return them, and trundle round to there after I have returned these to Sainsburys for a refund.

We then went to Dunelm and decluttered a fair amount of cash on a 2.4 metre curtain pole and a pair of thermal lined curtains for my new sitting room We also ordered a set of blinds to match the kitchen ones as the kitchen window is at the front of the house and my sitting room is next to it.

So it's getting closer to moving in, the electrics are all done, Light fitting done, and the heating is working fine in there. The shower/loo is up and running, he's just got to fix the mirror over the sink everything else is working ok. 

Starting to get real now and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel later a month of building work.:)  

Re the knitting of single blankets

Mrs SD I cast on 32 stitches on a size 3.5 mm needles and knit four rows of plain then 18 rows of one row plain on row purl .

At the beginning of the purl row the first two stitches are knit and at the end of it as well so as you knitting up the square it becomes like a small knitted frame around the stocking stitch, after you have done this for 18 rows you then knit 4 rows of plain to knit along the top edge.

 I then  change colour and do the next square in a different colour.

I do this for 8 squares changing the colours as I go along so you get a sort of patchwork effect. Once i have knitted four long pieces of eight squares. I sew them side by side so you have a larger square of 32 squares.

Then with ordinary white I pick up on the facing front  side all down one edge, and  knit one purl one for the rib effect.
the next row is knit one,  purl one making sure you do an extra stitch the end to make a small mitred effect then the   then cast off in knit one park one so in effect the big knitted square of 32 squares have a frame around them as well.

Then once you have12 large knitted squares sewn together
 four for the top line
 four for the middle
 and four for the bottom you have virtually a knitted single blanket
So 32 smaller squares get a white border around them to become a larger square, and 12 larger squares sewn together becomes  a warm cosy blanket.

Which uses up oddments of wool of as many colours as you like, I have made them with stripes, if I have perhaps lots of a certain shade, or just a contrasting stripe in the middle of white wool.

 I have been making these blankets for around 18-20 years for The Linus Trust, or any local homeless charity.

I have had all sorts of donated wool given to me by some lovely people Often if folk have half a ball of DK wool left from a jumper they would give it to me as I use every scrap I have donated .When I lived in Kent, the local knitting shop had a bucket for odd ends of wool that folk didn't need anymore for the "knitting lady's blankets

That was me folks  and my blankets have gone to all four corners of the world as the Linus Trust send them to children who literally have very little to keep them warm as even tropical countries get cold at night.

I am lucky I have seven healthy grandchildren who have never know what it is to be cold at night, so I like to think somewhere in the world there is a child who is just a bit warmer for this old lady sitting knitting up her odds and ends of wool :)The Linus trust ship them all over the world and when the horrific Tsunami struck a few years ago they sent 68 tonnes of blankets out there to children who only had the clothes they stood up in

 It's great once you start as its something you can do while watching tv or listening to the wireless. It costs me very little, only my time and I have plenty of that.

The local homeless charities also are happy to have them, as there are rough sleepers who like to be warm as well in the UK. I can't imagine how many I've knitted over the years.

Four years ago when in Kent I posted on FB to see if there were anyone with oddments no matter how small of double knitting wool no matter what the colour that they didn't need anymore and I had one lady get in touch and said she had if I wanted to pick them up some bags I said Ok and went to her house and had five big black plastic sack of wool of so many different colours it was amazing and she said it had been her late ma-in-laws and had been in the loft for about a year and she was going to tip it as she didn't knit ! ! !
 ! have recently just used the last bit of her wool ,and I'm so pleased as its all gone to a good cause rather than the tip. So nearly decluttered but thankfully its been used up and not in landfill.

The brighter the colour the better
 I have also scoured boot sales and will buy babies cardigans knitted in white double knitting wool for very little and take it home deconstruct it (unravel and unpick it )wash it dry it wind it up and reknit most of the white  borders with it 

Even my grandchildren call me Frau Frugal when it comes to knitting wool I just hate to see something useful going to landfill

If I knew how to put a photo on here I would than you could see what it looks like  


JackieO xxx

TC77

Argh , lost my post.
@ vulpix amazing to be able to do the splits at any age! Never been anywhere near.
@Mrs SD , I think a daily cost is a good way to look at things. I'd do a cost per way estimate of some things.
I'd bought diaries on line bit decided I'd get a more expensive one , less than £1 more a month and will use everyday.
Large office type drawers collected,  trousers sold and packaged and posted. Got diy person to finish  paining room ( high up bits) , and put some things back . Many small bits out from room before hoovering, old credit card, did some gardening yesterday and old lid from big storage box, litter tray used by dd2 for paint tray, some di bits. 
Will add more as been having a rest and need to shift myself. Getting ready for furniture to arrive Monday and going to see my aunt tomorrow ( only older relative on my mum's side so going to look out photos with unidentified people to take