2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

bit_by_bit

Mmmmmm Pie Loving the thought. i will be at yours for tea one day soon @Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Day 3 of childcare and snoozed (snored) on the couch for an hour when I got home. Tonight I spent some time clearing over 3000 emails from my.

200 are left but some need checking as I swapped several insurance companies over he last few years. Hope to clear it over the weekend.

Florafauna

More random decluttering here - two tins of chicken soup to a friend, an old soup bowl and a serving dish in the bin. Cookery book to charity shop.
More bank account decluttering to the dentist - £525. Sob
Plus random odd socks into a charity bag, local shop accepts them for ragging 

Brambling

One of my sisters had her kitchen done last year and has the base units the same colour as Brie's and the wall ones are a mustard colour at the suggestion of the kitchen company and it looks really good in her gallery kitchen as she worried all blue would be too dark.

No physical decluttering done but I had a conversation with my manager this afternoon which off loaded some work clutter in my head! 

CoffeeSonata

Hello @Mrs_Salad_Dodger and everyone. I'd love to join for the motivation kickupthearse   I need.  
Entirely overwhelmed here, after a lot of disorganisation since we moved here 8 years ago, illness and multiple surgeries (me) and a partner that really does not like throwing things out or living in a small space. 

Not entirely sure how I'm tracking or where to start. 
Starting is a mountain as I've lost the lounge after christmas and being away for over two weeks (everything is dumped in it - it's bad.) I've entirely lost my home office due to sorting out and not finishing and disasters post surgery, and then Christmas.  Bedrooms are overwhelming bad and not entirely under my control (not all my stuff).  
Stuff piles everywhere else.

 My motivation is also very low. Partly overwhelm. Partly still due to unpredictable pain spikes. 
Also little time to do it in. 
But if I don't we are actually about to drown in disorganisation and stuff. 

Thinking about tracking maybe weekly tasks and maybe bags of things out (decluttering rubbish and charity/selling). 

Hoping you all can give me the company and motivation I need to tackle stuff mountain! 
First plan: clear some of the kitchen before bed. 
Tomorrow: tackle the lounge of doom,take things back upstairs or find a home (ha)  find floor. Take tree down.  
Sunday: make a sustainable plan of attack. 

I WILL be clear and calm and organised by the end of 2024. 

TC77

Rounding my nos up as including digital declutter so 70 and will keep a note.
@CoffeeSonata welcome, sorry to hear you've had so much going on. Do remember as Mrs SD reminds us that he taken time to get into overwhelm so be kind to yourself and it's a lovely friendly and supportive crowd here.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks + a weekly Jettison Junk in January

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 

I spent 90 minutes this afternoon transcribing notes, writing a couple of birthday cards & dealing with paperwork. DH & I shared the Cocky Leekie pie with peas & carrots. We were both a bit disappointed as not much chicken & couldn’t taste the leeks 😔 DSis did have chicken soup but didn’t have any bread. Wudupa

67 - 69 Kitchen recycling, 2 booklets - recycled 

70 Kitchen detritus binned

vulpix, I am so looking forward to the decade when I reach maintenance decluttering 😉 So encouraging that you can invite people in & that it only takes a few minutes to tidy up before you go to bed 😊 I love the story about your Mother vacuuming whilst you were all waiting in the car 😂 Currently I think DSis is upset & angry in equal measure 😿 My nephew could talk to his mum but either he thinks he has done nothing wrong so has nothing to apologise for OR he is too ashamed to call 😔 Not sure how it will be resolved - it’s a waiting game now - 4 months & counting 😔 Very pleased to hear that your nephew is helping declutter your mum’s house & is doing the heavy lifting 👏😊 Excellent work on the decluttering 👏 Almost 6 times as much Out than In 🥳

nannywindow, Sorry to hear that you had a rubbish sleep last night 😔 It would be so wonderful if we could just flick a switch & stop the thinking 🙏 “… and we will not be re-joining one of the clubs. Now one mag per month will not be dropping through the letter box for DH not to read” this had me in stitches 🤣

flamingo747, if somebody turned up unexpectedly at my house I think I might just have to turn them away 😔 or maybe just blindfold them 😂 Is the book now in a cs bag? If yes, then it is classed as partial decluttering 😉

Brie, a great idea to use the sm self service checkout for the disposal of pennies 👏 How lucky are you to have an OH with excellent taste 🍀 Shame that the new kitchen won’t be usable until Tuesday at the very earliest but now that the barbecue is in use you can vary the menu a little 😊 Hopefully the leftover pieces of oak will sell quickly & for a good price  😊 

BudgetingBelinda, I now have this vision of you in the sm having picked up a few grocery items, scanned them & standing there feeding in pennies 😂 Not to put a dampener on the idea, it might be wise to check if there is some sort of limit 😱 

Excellent decluttering Mrs_Money_Penny 👏 

Just noticed the time so will head off to bed & resume the cheerleading tomorrow 🙂

MrsSD: I AM A ⭐️ - 🥇 🎖️ 💐 🌟 

DH Awards:

Decluttering Target 2023: 70/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

Siebrie

@CoffeeSonata welcome! Your plans sound ambitious, maybe divide them in smaller tasks? For instance, instead of 'find floor', 'find coffee table surface'?
If you need some motivation when you can't physically do the clearing, I recommend the Youtubers Minimal Mom and A Slob Comes Clean.
For me, clearing/starting to clear is a taking a surprising amount of brianspace: do I use this, do I want to keep it, does it make me happy, where and when do I use it, where does it make sense to store it, do I have something else that could do the job and if so do I keep this one or that one. Where do I store stuff that can go, and what is the fastest way to get it out of the house, remember to take stuff with me whenever I go out and come past a recycling centre (old glass/paper/empty batteries/...), it needs to keep moving; stagnant is bad!

Dfw38

Thanks @charlies_tribe, glad your dd has had her diagnosis. I am mentally preparing myself for the long process ahead.
We must be kindred spirits Mrs SD! Will this year be the year you go for it with the decorations?! 🤭
Well last night dh met up with friends so I had the house to myself so I sat down with these blasted decorations. 4 hrs later was extremely annoyed with myself... I very rarely get a night to myself and I spent it trying to sort through the baubles etc. What a waste of a night I said to myself and was so annoyed I had trouble sleeping. Woke up at the crack of dawn by dcs and had an epiphany, I am spending hour upon hour uhmming and aaahing about a load of stuff (not just decorations but pretty much everything) that my dcs wouldn't even argue over when I am pushing up daisies and that I don't even care for. What is the point?! (Enter existential crisis...I blame turning 40 a few weeks ago) and for the past few hours all I can see is stuff that I can willingly chuck or donate. So I am going to have another cup of tea and start 'operation get life back from junk' I may be a while....😬 and it turns out it wasn't a wasted night - it was just what I needed!

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, the last couple of days have been a bit strange in that I have felt strange. We went out for tea on Thursday to a very nice pizza place but the pizza was a bit salty for my taste and I drank 2 lt of water in an hour and a half when I got home which is quite unusual for me and I then had a very disturbed night and sluggish day yesterday when I felt a bit spaced out. So in the last couple of days the engagement present, wrapping, gift bag and card have left the house. They loved the rose plant so that was a winner and when we explained it was just something small until we knew what they wanted and asked if there was anything they needed they eventually said another garden plant so I have told OH to set a budget and I will todle off to the garden centre and spend it . They don't have a large garden, just a largish yard with some raised beds but space for some pots etc so I will enjoy that shop . Some small sorting has been done, bedside draw is out of control again so that has been emptied and 2 ood medical things have been binned/ recycled. It is still a bit overfull but everything in there is in date and needed. 2 pairs of clean sunday socks have gone into the rag bag for the cs now I know they take bags of rags but they haven't left the house yet as I am sure more will join them .
The last half a bar of christmas chocolate has been eaten 2 LDFPA and the kitchen recycling has been emptied. 2 more loads of washing are on the maiden along with the load of tea towels that were soaking. I have a few things in my sights for today depending if I can gather the energy

@CoffeeSonata welcome aboard, I know that feeling of overwhelm very well, you are not alone my advice would be to just make a start somewhere, a draw, a corner, a table top, anywhere really and work out from that. . As @Siebrie says it is surprising how much head space it takes to declutter . 

Right off for my 2nd cuppa, hugs to anybody who would like one

46 engagement present etc
47 + 48 ood medical stuff
49 + 50 LDFPA
51 kitchen recycling bin
Take care everyone
51/2024

London_1

 Decluttered four bags for life to the CS full of books so I'm pretty pleased with that I will have to go upstairs later and fill another four bags to go, as four bags only cleared two shelves in my two 6ft high bookshelves I really do have a lot of books, I'm only keeping the ones I'm really keen on and most of the cookery ones have gone. I'm thinking less to pack.

DDs house is getting her photos and video done today and it goes 'live' end of next week. As she has a four bedroomed town house it will take a little longer than mine to sell our agent said. (DDs an agent herself so she knows its correct) Mine being a smaller three bedroomed one is an ideal first time buyers house, near to a station and shopping centre and 10 minutes from Motorway. he said it should go fairly quickly as he has a waiting list for them. So I am still getting rid of as much as I can .DD decluttered before Christmas  

NSD today I resisted the urge to look around the little Tesco metro across by the CS, I just wanted to get back home asap as the wind is bitter this morning.

feet up and a cuppa at the moment then more book decluttering once I've warmed up a bit 

   JackieO xx