2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

Brie

@Wednesday2000
Sorry about your cat.  Dreadful when they have a seizure (well dreadful no matter who has one) as it's so shocking and hard to know what to do to help.  The sooner someone invents a human/cat translation device the better.  Lots of hugs.

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

Sunday: by the time I got up at 11:15 the sun had disappeared & it is now overcast & cloudy with a high of 8°C & a low of 4°C (which will feel like -2°C apparently) 

Lovely post 2Scratters 😊 Good luck in your continuing efforts to persuade your DH that you should get someone in to do the decorating 🍀 

Florenceem sorry to hear that you are feeling so unwell 😔 Please, please try to find some time to rest & build up your strength as we all know you will be very busy at SA 🙏 Hopefully you & your older daughter can restore peace between your other 2 daughters 🤞

Lovely to see you Soontobeoap 👋 Some excellent decluttering 👏 although I am of the opinion that you have been a bit mean to yourself when counting 🤔 so I believe you are further towards your target & am awarding you a Gold Star ⭐️ to round out the year 😊

Florenceem, so pleased to hear that you had a day indoors & lots of family visited 🥹 Keeping everything crossed that today is a quiet day 🤞

weenancy, sorry to hear about Di 😔 I do hope that they kept her in overnight so you got a chance to rest 🙏 as no doubt all nursing duties will fall to you when she is back home. Good luck reaching a decision about having a car 🍀 although the public transportation does sound less than useful & very time consuming 😞 This “Just ignore our politics in America - we are.” I am trying very hard to ignore him but it is increasingly difficult the closer the inauguration gets 😞

TC77, sounds like you are on a roll with the decluttering 👏 Re the full fridge, I would just look at it as a bonus & hopefully you won’t have to do any food shopping until next weekend 😉

All caught up 🥳 Hope everyone has as good a day as possible & that all our poorlies are on the road to recovery 🙏  Cwtches to all 🤗 The sun has put in another appearance 🙂

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

DH Awards: IS A 💎🏅 🌟 🥰 🏅🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅 💐 💐 🤗 ⭐️ ⭐️

Decluttering Target 2024: 2029/2024: New Target 366:  338/366

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £681.70

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, bit of a mixed day yesterday. I spent the morning contacting mutual friends to let them know about friend's husband, she asked me to do that, everyone was shocked.
After lunch I did some ironing and got organised for the Carol singing thing. I had a bit of a tidy around the bedroom as various paper heaps have accumulated so bedroom recycling emptied.  Lovely evening with friends and OH sorted some cocktails to take, harvey wallbangers, tiramisu cocktail and some pink fizz so 3 bottles of booze gone and the end of a bottle of vodka used for the cocktails given to a friend who likes vodka so 4 bottles gone. The coctails went down very well OH generally gets a few bottles every year from various people but we rarely drink at home apart from occasionally over the fence with ln . Also 6 presents and 2 gift bags .

I have caught up with all the posts but my brain is like a sieve this morning and I can't even blame the cocktails as I was the driver so only had coffee . Thank you for your hugs and thoughts, I think I am getting my head around it today   Lots of hard work going on in the declutteri family, well done everyone as this is such a busy time of year. I don't know how I coped when I was working . I have a load swishing now the massive blanket is dry, just got to find a place to store it now as OH doesn't want it back on the bed .
Hugs to everyone who would like one

1925 ironing
1926 bedroom recycling
1927 - 1930 bottles of booze
1931 - 1936 presents
1937 & 1938 gift bags
Take care everyone
1938/2024

Muddy_Walker

Very sleepy and tired this weekend. Didn’t get out so a bit grumpy and still flagging in energy. Hubby did some online grocery shopping - yay - didn’t even consider we would need actual bread and sandwich stuff 🙄 so I will have to brave it tomorrow. Also get some flowers for MIL as it will be a year ago that her sister passed away and she’s bound to be feeling it.

Signature updated and scores on the doors as follows:
380 a big box
381 a pen 
382 - 383 magazine and 5 mins oaperwork
385 - 395 10 A-zon boxes
396 fleecy inside of fake crocs my feet were too hot.

be safe all xxx

diminua

Just three more things to declutter... and three more days to Christmas. I've decided I won't be counting gifts received in my totals for this year, but may carry them over to next and aim for one thing one out plus that (if this makes sense).  

I've got all the presents I need to buy bar one - the 15 year old. I think this will have to be cash, frankly, or a voucher he can use to buy games for his games machine (which is cash in another form, lets face it). 

Hope everyone's OK over the break - I have read along and know a lot of people have received bad news, are unwell, or are going to be looking after others. Fingers crossed for a peaceful break or merry Christmas (whichever you prefer) and happy 2025 for all. 

Diminua

Florenceem

I took some photos for V before going to Church.
There were new donations in the foyer.
Came home after doing a bit of sorting. Had a cup of tea then went back to get the minibus to the panto. It was Aladdin and very good.
There was carols in the park at 6 but it was bitterly cold and we were hungry so I went home to cook dinner.
No meeting next Sunday at SA - it is online. A lot of activities are suspended until the new year.  
I will be at SA tomorrow to work on the donations in the foyer and put a table of bits outside as the forecast is for a dry day.

StickyTheStickInsect

Despite my best efforts, I’ve been absent again for months, I had over 1000 comments to catch up on and haven’t managed to, so I hope that everyone is doing okay and I’ve missed hearing about what everyone is getting up to.

Everything has been very hectic, DS1 started secondary school in September and so far, apart from a couple of little bumps in the road, it seems the fight was worth it and he’s in the most supportive school for him. He’s made a small group of friends and they all seem like lovely lads, it’s the first time since he started school at age 4 that he hasn’t been on the periphery and finally seems to have found his people! DD is currently in year 5 and we know that she won’t get into the same secondary school as her brother if we stay living where we are. She has had a provisional diagnosis of ADHD this month and for all the reasons DS1 couldn’t go to our catchment secondary school, neither can she. So we’ve put our house on the market, I’ve lived in the village that I do for 40 years, my parents are 2 minutes away, I know lots of people locally and it’s a very supportive community. I cry every time I think about moving but it’s the best decision for the children, so I’ll have to deal with it. But it means a new primary school for DS2 which brings it’s own challenges as he is also neurodivergent.

My health hasn’t got any better. I’m still working as despite challenging the decision, there is no flexibility in the minimum income earned for receiving ESA, I just need to try and manage for two years, so I can apply again in 2026 and hope I have earned enough to be able to claim. The last couple of weeks have been more ridiculous than usual as DH dislocated his knee and is out of action for the school run which is now a 50 mile journey as I’m there and back twice a day.

But overall we are okay!

I have managed to declutter in the meantime, I’m trying to get rid of as much as possible, as I don’t want to have to pack stuff we actually don’t need. Although I haven’t got rid of anything since October (when the house went on the market), I’m hoping to get a bit more done before the new year, I’ll summarise as there is quite a bit.

Fabric recycling – 13.5 bags

Shoe recycling – 1 bag

Local freebies site – 25.5 bags

Oxfam online – 10.5 bags

Charity shop – 13 bags

That’s 63.5 bags in total, that’s the first time I’ve added it up, I just note it on my phone bit by bit, as it goes out, there is much more than I realized!!

My overall total is 113.5/52, I’m amazed to be honest, it hasn’t felt like this much but I suppose the little bits all add up.

Lots of love to all the declutterarti and I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas xxx

weenancyinAmerica

@StickyTheStickInsect - Good luck on finding just the perfect place to live. Glad to hear DS1 found a good group at school. I hope your DD finds the right school. It seems so hard to match them up doesn't it. It would be even better if the schools were closer to home so you didn't have such a long trip each way. Sending hugs your way.

Moorviews

@Muddy_Walker - You have my sympathy as I have to go out to the shops for some final bits today too. Hope it isn’t too hellish for both our sakes!
@TC77 - I have well over a thousand emails too even though I have been unsubscribing like mad. 

@Liverpool_Anne and @Wednesday2000 I am very sorry to hear that you both are having such sad losses right now. Please look after yourselves 💐
@StickyTheStickInsect - I am sorry that you are having to leave your home village, it must be very difficult. It’s lovely that your son finally has a group of friends and is enjoying school. I hope that you will find the right new home and that everything works out for the best. I have done the long school round trips and it is very hard going. 

I am just in the general prep for Christmas madness now as we will have a houseful - lovely but so much food to be cooked and last minute cleaning to be done. Mr MV never gets how much needs to be done so only acts on my instruction, which I shall need to be patient with to keep some harmony about the place! Just in case I don’t make it back in here I shall wish you all a Christmas which you can enjoy in the way that you like best 🎄 You have all been the most lovely companions on this decluttering journey xx

Muddy_Walker

I managed the shop! Went at 9:30 to Mr S and it was surprisingly well managed. They had all their common Christmas veg in great big boxes dotted around so there wasn’t loads of people blocking aisles, and the bits I wanted were free of people and well stocked. 

2 huge queues of people one for self service one for manned with staff directing who needed to go where.
very impressed! Although it did take me a while to find my car 🤣