2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

TC77

Been reading along.  Glad.Mr F is being well.lookd after and di lok after yourself @Florenceem.
So much going on and lovely stories.
Last week managed to post for sale items and then within 24 hours thought best to go to cs. Bag to cs Friday and also bag of craft things to community space. 
Something posted my e*** has gone missing so need to follow up and realised someone has bid on one of the items given to cs so need to sort these out. 
Furniture from my dad's mainly looks good and works well ( some need attention but that will wait til spring.
Left gloves on the train so decluttered yesterday. 
Today is tidy and clean for guests arriving tomorrow night, some work a hoping to take a day or few afternoons off with friends staying. 
Frogs are worrying and weighing on my mind so hoping to make a list and prioritise.
CS drop included crockery and glassware and a large punchbowl and glasses. 
I think it wS @short_bird whi mentioned getting things that could be useful for people at Xmas in rhe cs before Xmas which has motivated me..
New total with 1710 rounded ( not sure if up or down) but I often forget to add things. 
Cleaning is not my favourite but seeing it as therapeutic, and need to reduce my worrying as recluttering weight with some comfort eating.
Target for many things seems some way away but will keep going. Both dds  going to be with me at Xmas and dd1 is stressed by my mess ( for me as well as her) so hopefully another motivator.
Hope everyone us staying in as much as possible.

vulpix

 You sound like you are settling in well Granny Kate.

 Very good to hear that Mr F is improving.

TC77, can I just come round and we can have a hug and a cup of tea? I think you try to just do too much at the same time. It will all be ok. My new mantra , progress not perfection. xx

 Mrs SD, I haven't given the chair a second coat of paint, yet. It's sort of ok in an American shabby country style. I will do a photo, and I haven't forgotten that I still haven't posted a pic of the shed village.

 The new car is great, it doesn't feel like a downgrade even though it is smaller and has a smaller engine. The insurance is much less which is a bonus. Mr V couldn't lock it last night. He even went as far as reading the manual. Haha. The spare key was in the boot so it wouldn't lock itself as it could sense the key! The dealership gave us 2 big umbrellas. We already have loads that we don't use. I think they might be going to the charity shop soon.

 The Christmas fair was very busy considering it was so very wet out. I went expecting to be on the cake stall and when I got there they were already over staffed. I just sat with a coffee at a table and enjoyed seeing a lot of people that I never see anymore now that I live elsewhere. I have arrangements to meet up with a couple of people soon. I am dreadful at keeping in touch with people, good at making friends but I don't have the confidence to take a friendship further. Bit by bit was the first friend I made as an adult where I was confident to ask if she wanted to meet up. All I bought at the fair was a Christmas ornament from our craft stall for DGS and a kit for a Santa wall hanging. Also bought Mr V a big Bruce Bogtrotter cake and some scones for my Mum. £7.50 well spent.

 Sent DD1 home yesterday with some spray paint and a bird box.  She also took a Birthday gift for her partner which has been hanging around for a few weeks.Every little helps. We have vaguely sorted a menu for our Vulpixmas meet up weekend.

 At last today I don't feel under pressure to do anything. I am just going to potter. It is possible that I may get some Christmas decorations out. The girls still enjoy putting them up with me. Perhaps I should see if they both have a free day soon.

 DGS has started to walk today. Now the fun begins.

 Laters Vx

dND

@vulpix Thank you.

@Muddy_Walker JackieO got there first. 😁 There never was a loadbearing wall in the first place and the brick wall upstairs was supported by the flooring joists only.  So putting it in is a bit of belt and braces.

It’s been a busy second half to the week.  Apart from replacing the faulty extractor fan the builders have no more inside work.  Also, on Thursday they removed their rubbish from the garage/carport so I can now reclaim that and have somewhere dry to store stuff that’s bound for the tip – it’s going to be my recycling centre as it’s too narrow to put my car in there and open the door fully.

I have emptied the summerhouse of most of my boxes in there and moved in my tender plants.  I’ve made a start on going through the items in there that were left behind by the previous occupants.  There’s a couple of black bags of crafting items – and I’m already SABLE in that!!!  New bits include celebration cake decorations.  I’ve sorted out what’s still useable and once I’ve dealt with all the bags, I’ll decide if I want to keep any of it. I might think about selling some of it or more likely donate it to a charity shop.

There was also a, (probably vintage), Silver Cross dolls pram.  Decision now is do I spend money on replacing it's tyres or do I sell it as something to be repaired.  I don't think the charity shops would want something that needs to be repaired. 🤔

Most of the boxes we moved into there last April contained Le Parfait jars – I did an awful lot of food preservation in France.  I’m definitely SABLE in this department too. 🤣  The jars are going through a quick dishwasher cycle and then being returned to boxes, but this time sorted by size and shape.  Again, once done I will go through all of them and bin any that are not up to scratch as I should have all the correct sizes of lids and attachments together.

I don’t know if it’s an ADHD sort of thing but I need to see everything together to ‘see’ what’s there, I can’t just visualise it.

More money decluttered today; my car insurance is due next month so I followed the MSE advice to look for new quotes around 26 days before the renewal date.  Almost halved the premium, partially because I now have UK no-claims record not the French one, plus I now park off-road not on the street.

My current to-do list is so long it’s frightening so I’m not looking at it as a whole but looking at what do I need to do next and what is important to do next – like seal the cracks to the outside. 😱

I’m still hanging on until Wednesday before hitting the Black Friday Sales as per Martin’s recommendation.  If the offers at the moment have gone, well they’ve gone.  Looking at the price histories, they often come back at those prices later in the year so I’m not going to stress about it.  I’ve done a bit of homework on the earlier selling prices and if they reduce to what I’m prepared to pay, then I’ll buy.  Otherwise I’ll sit it out; well for just about everything apart from a freezer and a cooker.

I hope everyone has stayed safe from storm Bert, I’ve still to go around and look at the back garden but my front garden is full of other people’s rubbish.  I need to see if anything of mine has departed to other people’s gardens! Dxx

Muddy_Walker

Helloooooooo
I braved the store of S for a loaf of bread and some soups for hubby and ignored the chocolate shouting at me. Also avoided the self check out tills as they are rubbish and keep breaking and only had to wait a min or 2 for a manned till.
Phoned mum - she is doing well, my uncle who passed away Monday had 3 lots of cancer apparently. My aunt had to chase their medical centre as the funeral director needed something - not sure what exactly. 

One of my work mates who has just got over a chest infection - her husband was rushed into hospital with a stroke. This year has been dreadful for a lot of people 😢

Anyway - decluttering:
360-361 some birthday cards
362-365 emails
366 fake crocs that have fallen apart
367-368 solar lights
369-370 more emails
371 a box
372 pair of socks
373-378 rubbish and daily recycling 
379 old receipts

Christmas cake will be eaten later - I get the small rectangle ones from a supermarket as it’s only me who eats it. Anyone else noticed they don’t have cherries anymore?

daisy_1571

Try selling pram as is, if it doesn't go you can think about repairing and sprucing up?  Maybe a local auction house would be a good place to start?

TC77

Argh, just lost my post but as I long queue to collect my cordless vacuum as still can't find the  charger for the one I have at home and given up it's reappearance after 3 months i have time. I do have Henry but he's not ideal for quick cleaning.
@vulpix thank you. If you are ever in London let me know, I'm quite close to greenwich and always have the kettle on

Florenceem

Went to Church this morning - left Mr F in bed.
Still very windy here.
Apart from C's wife - I was last to leave Church as I sorted the donations in the foyer. I brought some items home for V. I left a bag of shoes in the office - I will collect them tomorrow.
Took photos for V and ironed some clothes. Sales of £91 in the last 2 days.
Had a restful rest of the day apart from running up and down stairs looking after Mr F. His leg is very painful.
Cooked a roast dinner then relaxed.
I do need to find sold items - wrap and label them but it was Sunday so meant to rest.

basketcase

Hello, fellow passengers!

Lots of great decluttering going on, so bouquets to everyone.  TLC to all who need it for themselves and/or their loved ones.  I’ve done a bit of general tidying in the carriage, washed up, plumped the cushions and made sure there are fresh hot drinks and fluffy throws around for anyone who needs them.

It’s been a funny few days.  I’ve really felt the cold – probably because it was minus temperatures again!  My weather App said it was 10°C today.  I thought “Aye.  Right.” till I read the small print, where it said, “feels like minus 1”.  I’ve completed the switching process for one bank account and am now in a position (more or less!) to switch the second one.  I’ll do that tomorrow.  Anyway, the story so far.

FRIDAY

Not that much done – mostly pottering.  Although, looking at it, more than I thought!  I did soft file the documents, as planned.  (Yay.  Go me!🙃 )  The 5 minute tidies continue, and I sorted one box of ‘bits’.  Slightly spendy day because I wanted to get some accessories for my airfryer – liners, racks etc – and I bought a set of magnetic cooking time/temperature/conversion charts to use instead of my mobile. 

Worked on my fridge n freezer diving skills for lunch and tea.  Oh, I nearly forgot!  My hands are always cold but they were colder than usual.  I do have a pair of fingerless mitts but they have thumbs.  So I improvised.  I remembered that I’d rag-bagged a pair of bamboo socks because they had holes in the heels (and I find darned socks uncomfortable).  Got them out, enlarged the holes to fit my thumbs, cut off the toes, folded the loose ends.  Voila!

SATURDAY

Still cold but at least I had a bit more energy.  Got up, washed up and set a load of washing on with a view to ironing it afterwards.  Logging on to my Email, I saw that I had 2 hours free electricity on Sunday (hooray!🥳) from 0700-0900 (not quite so hooray…😴)  So I just hung the washing to iron today.

There wasn't much more active decluttering, really.  I did a rough plan of how I wanted to use the free electric, tidied the kitchen and got out all the stuff I wanted to use – equipment, frozen items etc.  I also poked around in a small bag of tuits where I binned some, put some away and had a “that’s where you went!” moment.  Ages ago I managed to mislay my pill box, following a holiday.  (Don’t ask how – it’s a gift!)  Eventually I bought another one with days on it.  BUT not only is it bigger and clumsier but I never got on with it because – laugh if you like – the week started on Sunday (to Saturday) instead of Monday.  Old box re-instated, other box washed and in the CS bag.

Went to bed early because the alarm was set for 0630.  Couldn’t sleep anyway, guessed the culprit in the Golden Age mystery I was reading about 2/3 of the way through but read to make sure I was right.

SUNDAY

Woke up at 0545, so no point in going back to sleep.  Started veg prep for 2 lots of soup; made fillings for 2 pies and 2 pasties etc; set up ironing plus a few other non-electric tasks.  My total achievements were:

• 2 hours free heating from electric radiators, which saved on gas CH
• Extra hot wash to detox washing machine (1 ½ hours)
• Stack of ironing
• Watched QIXL episode on my computer while ironing
• Large pot of lentil soup (now frozen)
• Leek & tattie soup prepped for slow cooker (in fridge)
• 1 x chicken & leek pie; 1 x pork, potato & vegetable pie; 2 x cheese & ham pasties
• Batch of sausages cooked (in airfryer)
• Lemon dehydrated (after seeing the price of them at Edinburgh Christmas Market, and having just discovered my airfryer has a dehydrating programme – plus having lemons lurking! – it seemed a good time to experiment.
• Used ends of lemon to clean and freshen microwave
• Parboiled large pan of potatoes for use during the week
• Kettle of water for tea and to fill flask for hot drinks later

I don’t think that’s too bad for a first attempt.  Hopefully I’ll be less tired and more organised next time.  I went back to bed for an hour or so, made lunch and then did a Costco run in the afternoon.

General decluttering:

• Documents soft-filed
• Another bag of recycling
• One bag kitchen rubbish
• Bit n pieces to CS bag
• 5-minute tidies continue
• Lunch was the pasties with beans.  Tea was a couple of the sausages each, lurking mushrooms and strangled eggs.  So all from fridge/stocks.

NSDs

Saturday was spend free.  Today was spend free except for shopping, which was budgetted, but I won’t count it.  So now 13/15 NSDs

TC77

Toiletries and hair dye I wanted to give  away thrown as realised  old and could  cause irritation to someone. Some packaging and cardboard boxes as def sable! Did alot of cleaning but not as much as hoped. New vacuum  is good.and gets more up than Henry  although charge doesn't hold that long. 

vulpix

dND, I think you should sell the dolls pram as is too. Father Christmas brought me one along with Susan my life size baby doll. Fond memories.

Muddy, I am sorry to hear about your Uncle.x

 TC77, I may just take you up on the offer of a cup of tea one day, same goes if you find yourself passing the High Peak!

 Pleased to hear you had a bit of rest today Florenceem.

 basketcase you have got the bit between your teeth with this decluttering malarkey, you have been busy.

 I sorted 2 bags of carp emptied from the old car centre console and the glove box. A lot into the bins and some for the charity shop. A wallet and 2 phone cases.

 I made a pompom for the knitted hat, it is for my bin monitor neighbour. It is Santa hat colours. She loves Christmas ,she has had decorations up for weeks. I listed some stuff on thrift and some for sale. I also did more prep on some sewing I need to get on with but then started to knit a Christmas cat blanket, as you do. Craft supplies repacked into the bag they now live in. I sorted the freezer and made a shopping list.

Errands and shoppin tomorrow. How rock and roll.

 Vx