2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

TC77

Morning, sorry to hear many people tired and under the weather. I've been using the flu jab as a reason to do less, now swim or gym etc but been watching TV and sorting out paperwork.  This is quite slow as going through individual documents but slimmed down 3 lever arch files. 
@basketcase I like the admin alligator description. 
Many emails written to move alligators along but have a long list of more which I hope to do at lunchtime and either end of working at home although too much at work.
Many emails deleted so adding 4.

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all awake at silly o'clock as I woke up with a nightnare which entailed me having my bag stolen but didn't realise because I was carrying about a million other bags. I thought I'd left it somewhere so went back to check, bag was there minus phone and keys, went to an office to tell OH and had just sat down when OH got a call from ln to say our house had been burgled. Got home to find my car had been stolen and as I stood outside the house my thought was "I hope they brought a big removal van" . Take from that what you will, I think it's my not so sub conscious telling me I have too much stuff . Anyway I went downstairs to check but all the stuff is still there including a washing mountain so I put a load on to swish and made a cuppa .
I have had a couple of days not feeling too great and a couple of very busy days, not brilliant sleeps as the wind kept me awake so a quick report in. Thursday very lazy day not feeling brilliant and did nothing except crochet. Friday went shopping, more presents bought, the kitchen recycling and lr bin emptied, more crochet. Saturday union meeting, visit to a local church Christmas fare where I felt so sorry for the stall holders as the weather was dreadful that I bought a jar of jam, a small tub of silver baubles and was given a free gift of a ceramic pot that I had made the mistake of picking up to look at. It went straight into the cs bag when I got home . I also had a cup of coffee and a mince pie . Everyone I spoke to thanked me for coming . Was supposed to be watching the footy on tv but the game was postponed due to the wind and risk of falling trees and flying roof tiles hurting the fans on the way to the ground so I spent the time wrapping presents. I have so much paper although I used about a mile of it you wouldn't really notice . Crochet finally finished and put in a gift bag. Did 'something ' to my back and had to resort to painkillers but a tube of ibuprofen cream uu and it currently feels much better. Sunday out delivering presents and the baby blanket. We decided to deliver early this year as we usually spend the week before Christmas running around like headless chickens trying to see everyone and drop off presents so some have gone out. It was also easier for the people we were visiting as they are also usually busy in the week before Christmas and we actually had time to sit and have a bit of a catch up without being frazzled . The bedroom recycling and lr bin emptied. A birthday present wrapped to go to the post office today. The blasted kitchen still hasn't been sorted but I will try to get to it today I also have to get some more presents but I really do think this is the last fingers crossed. 

I have only skim read the posts so I will say hugs to everyone who would like one, I hope poorlies are feeling better and I will have a proper read with my next cuppa

1794 kitchen recycling
1795 presents bought
1796 lr bin
1797 presents wrapped
1798 bedroom recycling
1799 lr bin, again
1800 - 1804 500g yarn used in blanket and blanket delivered to parents to be
1805 - 1821 presents delivered
1822 -& 1823 wrapping paper and gift bags
1824 tube of cream uu
Take care everyone
1824/2024, 23 days left to get to my target, I think I have some work to do

GrannyKate

Morning all.  Quick post then its frog munching time although some are more like admin alligators.  I found an overseas card I had missed so need to get that posted along with more of the regular ones.  Plan to post them all this week so I just have a few left to hand deliver.  Drive cleaners coming mid morning.  Not much going out.  A handful of things waiting for DS2 to pick up.  Otherwise it's tidying and cleaning.  I need to review the pictures in frames and decide seriously which I am keeping.  At the moment they are in the fitted wardrobe in room of doom - DS2 is going to take the wardrobes out after Christmas ready for electrician although they are falling apart already.  DD got her electric supply back late yesterday pm.  I will not make the 2024 target despite trying so hard although I know there is more to go.  

I plan for everything I want to keep to be accessible and not hidden in cupboards, the garage or the loft.  (Roofer will board and insulate loft and hopefully move hatch to somewhere sensible after electrician has finished) Plan for loft is Christmas boxes, suitcases, spare folding chairs and empty boxes I need to keep.  Small room behind garage has tumble dryer, bikes and garden cushions and I will add a small chest freezer.  Workshop/potting shed to have garden tools, pots etc and greenhouse hopefully just plants.  There are random pots spread round the garden containing unidentified plants/bulbs so I need to leave those for spring and see what appears.  The garage can have garage type things - although I may move children's bikes in there

1704 More changes of address done on line - I keep coming across ones I have missed.  Personal ones going in Christmas cards
1705 Bundle of stuff for DS2's house
1706 A few Christmas decorations in bag to drop off at CS

I rearranged and tidied porch which is slightly smaller than my old one and awkward layout.  Trying to work out a place for seat for putting shoes on.  My hall is nice and wider than previous one.  I am trying to get used to carpets everywhere but they always seem to need vacuuming.  I only had carpets in two larger bedrooms before with everything else wood or laminate.  They have a mottled design which makes me think there are bits which aren't there.  Bathroom is carpeted and shower makes it wet.  This needs to go sooner rather than later.  I am hoping roofer is going to arrive before Christmas.  I need to go into town but parking is much more difficult now as they are building on large chunks of my favourite car parks.  We do get two hours free but you need to find a space.  

To anyone thinking of moving, I do recommend the numbering and listing system. It was a faff at the time but great when I came to unpack as you could find things needed and also put like with like when you were ready to do a room.  Not perfect as a few things appeared randomly in unexpected places.  

Hugs to all.  Cup of tea time and then those frogs which are croaking at me. 

Duchess2

It’s such a busy time of year for everyone, but you’re all doing so well. Fabulous festive chair @vulpix. What a talent!  Good to see you Mrs SD, beginning to think there was something wrong.  @Florenceem you really need some self-preservation. Maybe saying “no” occasionally and allowing you some “me-time” will help your recovery. I’ve had a lovely weekend, listening to festive music and putting up the tree and deccies. Last night I managed to get a slow cooker on eBay that has only been used once. DH and I are using them filled with water to take the chill off the rooms we are in. Only costs less than £1 to run for 24 hours and means we can ration the heating a little bit more. Off to pick it up now. Have a lovely day.

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

Good morning from a bright, breezy, chilly but dry East London 😊 DSis has been up already as the wm is chugging away. I had a 5 hour sleep 🥳 Having been exceedingly lazy over the weekend, I have written, addressed & stamped the overseas cards & will be heading off to the P.O. later as I have a couple of parcels to post. Straight into cheerleading: 

London_1, sorry to hear that you were feeling so poorly on Friday night 😔 Hopefully you were recovered enough to enjoy DGS Jack’s visit & managed to get the rest of the presents wrapped & cards written in time for his return to the mainland 🙏 Love the idea of Jack turning up on the family’s doorstep wearing his Santa hat 😊

2Scratters, sounds like you had a lovely winter break in Tenerife 😊 Great work with the ‘using up’ even when you were on holiday 👏 Keeping everything crossed that your plans to turn the back bedroom into the kitchen come to fruition 🤞

oceanspirit, it is never too early for a round up of your successes through the year 😊 Excellent decluttering & brilliant work on using up food & avoiding waste as well as managing the healthy eating 👏 It also sounds like you have broken the back of the paperwork mountain (I am sure it breeds when we are not looking 😉) I am awarding you a Gold Star ⭐️ re food management & healthy eating + a medal 🏅 re tackling & almost completing the paperwork declutter 😊 I can confirm that there will be a 2025 Decluttering Thread & I look forward to seeing you 😊

Florenceem, excellent work with the V sales 👏 Sorry to hear that you are still feeling poorly 🤒 I do hope that you managed to have a quieter Sunday 🙏

Lovely to see you tiddles 👋 You & your hubby have been busy 👏 Excellent numbers & as such I am awarding you Three Gold Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️ with a fourth in the offing when you reach 2024 😊 Don’t worry too much about the recluttering - as you are aware of it, you can take steps to rectify this 😊 Your plan for 2025 of “1 in, 2 out” will soon reap rewards 😀 Looking forward to seeing you next year 👋 

I have caught up a little, so will post then get dressed & head off to the P.O. Hope everyone is staying safe & is enjoying their day 🤞 

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

DH Awards: IS A 💎🏅 🌟 🥰 🏅🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅 💐 💐 🤗 ⭐️ ⭐️

Decluttering Target 2024: 2029/2024: New Target 366:  245/366

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £681.70

vulpix

 Hi, This cold certainly is a gud un. I am still bunged up at night. Hopefully we will all be better by Christmas.

 You are so well organised GrannyKate. I know what you mean with pictures. I had to let a lot go. I think it's a very good idea to not use the loft for much, even if there is a loft ladder. The older we get the more difficult retrieving things will be. I actually fell out of my Mother's loft years ago, getting her Christmas decorations down, broke my leg, all she did was stand and laugh at me in a heap clutching a Christmas tree.   The staff in A & E thought it was hilarious too! Me not so much, being in a plaster cast as a single Mum, not being able to drive over Christmas.

 Aww, Mr V has just come in with a pumpkin spice, oat milk latte for me from the bakery up the road.

 Today is laundry day. Muddy paw prints on the bed sheets and sofa cushions and throws. We are venturing out to drop some things off at the charity shop, the Christmas chair which looks nicer in RL and a couple of insulated hot water bottle covers I have made. Took me ages to make but they have been used once. 

Duchess2, what an interesting idea with the slow cookers.When we worked in a cave Mr V made the plant pot tea light heaters. They took the chill off but I always thought they were a faff. Just told Mr V what you were doing and he said if your doing that you might as well have a stew in it!  

 Christmas cards. I have decided not to post any this year. Harsh. All older relatives have passed  now so I don't think we need to send cards to people we never see or even know. eg, someone MIL knew whose B&B she used to stay at! I'm not tight but... Can't really see the need to give to the neighbours either but don't want to be churlish. I have however bought my bin monitor a gift for her bin monitoring and neighbourhood watch services.

Take care people, that includes you Florenceem.  Vx

Wednesday2000

Liverpool_Anne said:

Hi all awake at silly o'clock as I woke up with a nightnare which entailed me having my bag stolen but didn't realise because I was carrying about a million other bags. 

When I read your post this morning I missed the word nightmare and thought you were saying your stuff was really stolen! Lucky it was just a bad dream.

Siebrie

St Nicholas was fun, and has taken a load off of my shoulders. Sunday school was just my 13yr old, who did her own crafting I did tell her the story for that day and discuss it with her, but otherwise let her do her thing as I cut out the parts of the goody (a handmade fridge magnet) we will hand out at the christmas service.

I had an unexpected Sunday afternoon without obligations, so I went to an amateur theatre performance. The story was 13-a-dozen, but it was well-performed. DDs are studying for their exams, stuck in their bedrooms.

I was fed up about not knowing where our money was going and not feeling safe to spend any on 'fun', so I wrote down how much came in and how much fixed went out. We should have €2,000 per month left; where does it go?!?! Funnily enough (/s) that overview has gone missing....

We had a work team building event. Our company is just the 4 of us, but we join the other 2 main companies in the building. We were taugth how to fly a drone, and we did paintball, and flunked a musical quiz

Out: I was looking for something in the dress-up box, and found 3 items to throw away, and 3 pieces of clothing to wash and donate.

Next item on my personal calendar: finish the christmas service sheet and send it to the person making the booklet.

Wednesday2000

I was in a tizz this morning as I wanted to send off something to HMRC and I couldn't log-in to my government gateway account as I didn't save the details to my new laptop. I tried to reset it and couldn't so I checked my old laptop and luckily found it. I went out to post the cheques and xmas cards and managed to get caught in the rain without an umbrella. I also took the second hand coat I bought on Vinted to be dropped off and dry cleaned. I did see online that some people said you can wash wool on a cold wash in the machine, but I didn't want to risk it. I came home and washed all my trainers in the washing machine as it is too chilly to clean them outside in the garden.

I felt quite tired and quite chilled to the bone so I put the heating on and had some breakfast and a hot drink. I bought some new plastic folders to tidy up my finance paperwork box so I will do that this afternoon. I feel quite tired and it is only Monday.

Brie

Roll me into the TLC carriage please.  Wrapped in a big duvet please?  With throat soothing tea please.

OH has gifted me his cold which doesn't make life easier when I'm supposed to be working as well as doing a load of things to tidy up after mom dying.  Obit's been written and emailed off to my bros - whether they like it or not won't be known till they wake up in their time zone and get round to reading it.  And I volunteered to ring a load of government agencies - no doubt they will be pleased that I'm hacking down the phone line rather than standing in front of them.  As easy for me to ring as them as I have free calls up to an hour long so the only problem will be if I'm put on hold for a verrrry long time.

The one thing that does make me happy about all this is that we are well organised and my oldest bro is assigning tasks like a general so we each get to do our part.  Bro 2 is a ditherer so I got to a portion of our to do list and simply volunteered before he started asking why we needed to inform the government pension of anything.  House is mostly decluttered already - although as we well know there's always more.....(mostly Bro2's).  2 problems - can't get a death certificate for the foreseeable future as the Canadian postal service is on strike and therefore nothing is being posted.  And I've been told that whatever I do to NOT talk to Revenue Canada in case it triggers an IHT audit or similar.