2024 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, time has just flown today but not much decluttering done. The dentist was fine, broken tooth repaired and money decluttered. I had a conversation with my dentist about him retiring. He's thinking of going in April and plans to sell his practice but carry on working. Not sure how that will all work out but I am just hoping it will stay as an NHS dentist, fingers and everything else crossed . Then I went to OH's house to check it was all ok and it was . Just as I got home ln caught me and told me her son in law was in hospital as he has had a stroke. So I made a jug of coffee and went in for a chat. She is a bit shaken as he is only 60 and is recovering from an emergency op and I think she is concerned for her dd who is feeling the strain. Sil is recovering well but it is still a bit of a shock. When I came back I sorted 2 LDFPA and phoned my dsis. Nice long conversation but no mention of her suspected TI so no further forward with that. By then I was just tired so after tea nothing done except watching tv, didn't even pick up my sewing or crochet

@Vulpix, lovely pic and glad to hear the community centre is going to be rebuilt . Yes the tea/coffee cupboard was a result but honestly green tea with a bb date of 2007 really should not have been there and there were several weird and wonderful loose teas that were nearly as old that I had no memory of getting and were probably gifts. The chocolate was OH's but was bb 2012 , that's how long it is since OH last drank chocolate but as it's not a drink I particularly like I had completely ignored it . I expect at some point in the next 6 months OH will notice it has gone and ask for more to be bought

@Dfw38, Vulpix is absolutely correct school trips connected to the curriculum are legally a voluntary contribution and it should state that on every letter sent home asking for trip money. I know because I used to organise them . Things like skiing trips are different iirc, never did those but I did organise duke of Edinburgh trips and every child was subsidised by my organising fundraising and if parents were struggling they didn't have to pay. As for changing the pe kit, well that is just ridiculous and I would expected our parents to be up in arms about that. In fact even having a school badge on a pe kit is ridiculous. I would send an email to the chair of governors to complain about that. Email address should be on the school website. And £5 for cookery is an outrage, what were they making caviar and chips. Again I used to do cookery with my class and we could produce a 3 course meal for maximum £1 a head and they could have seconds if they wanted it, hugs.

@London_1, banana angel delight, yum yum, now your talking

Right off to bed now, hugs to anybody who would like one

117 dentist appointment
118 + 119 LDFPA
Take care everyone
119/2024

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 

Having risen to the heady heights of 3C, the temperature is now on its way back down 😔 I have had a fairly productive afternoon. After putting away all the shopping, I carried on sorting out the cubby holes (8 of them behind glass doors) in the wall unit. Three didn’t need to be touched so only had 5 to empty, clean & sort 🙂 Started with the glass jars & managed to persuade myself to let go of 10 of various sizes 🥳 which went into the recycling wheelie bin which hasn’t been emptied yet - maybe tomorrow 😉  I can now see what I have + I have stacked so neatly that I a third of the cubbyhole is empty 🙂 The other four had bottles of alcohol & glasses. Completely rearranged so I have another half empty cubbyhole but I must have made a good job last time I did it because just a bottle of tequila to either gift or pour away two opened cocktail cherry jars decanted into one 😔  

96 - 108 Eleven glass jars recycled, kitchen recycling, drinks cans - recycled 

109 Kitchen detritus binned

Dinner was the last of the brisket with mash & cauliflower. DH washed up all the pots & pans which I have dried & put away + I have done the rest of the wudupa. 

Dfw38, whatever happened to taking in the ingredients for a cookery lesson rather than forking out cash 🤔 Re the new P.E. kit, I think if the parents had all refused the school might have had to relent & phase in the new kit 🤨 

~FlowerPot~, sorry to hear that the rock cakes weren’t very nice 😔 

Excellent digital decluttering TheDoolallyDilly 👏

Brambling, I think we might go the ‘add all dry ingredients & then add the wet ingredients’ method in future 😉 A lovely looking bit of kit but I think I would probably forget to use it 😅 

Siebrie, I agree with daisy_1571 - your suggestion would seem the sensible way forward 😉

London_1, sorry to hear that your electric throw gave up the ghost 😔 but relieved that you had alternative heating sources available 😊 More excellent decluttering 👏 especially as it was combined with getting cash for your hairdresser’s visit 😊 Yippee to your new car finally being available 🥳 Five months seems a long time to wait 😔 (is that what is called a benefit of Brexit I wonder 🤣) Now I am hankering for some Angel Delight 😅 I wonder if I have any 🤔 Only another month & half of winter 🥶 

Muddy_Walker, sounds like you have sensible dogs 😊 cwtches in bed would beat walking in the cold every day of the week & twice on Sunday 😉

Dfw38, how ridiculous 😠 I agree with Floss that the parents should complain to the Governors 🙂 Is there a PTA at the school?

Excellent decluttering short_bird 👏

Excellent decluttering Florafauna 👏 & I am loving that you are so enthusiastic 🤩 

florianatwobob, what a great idea to keep the pot to store the extra contents from the ‘empty’ tubes 😉

That’s one way to declutter a pan bamboo_socks 😉 Did you manage to rescue any of the sausage-meat?

Excellent decluttering ilovetea 👏

Excellent work Dizzycap 👏 You have been working hard 😓 Any chance of popping round to my house & taking my husband in hand to get his office sorted once you have finished yours 😂 Joking aside, I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is warm enough over the weekend so that you can open the windows whilst you are painting 🤞 Also some very impressive digital decluttering 👏 Another medal🏅 is on its way 😊

I am nodding off so will finish off tomorrow 😉

MrsSD: I AM A ⭐️ - 🥇 🎖️ 💐 🌟 🏅 

DH Awards:

DSis Awards: 🏅 

Decluttering Target 2023: 109/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

London_1

Banana Angel Delight was ...delightful, I can highly recommend it as a nice inexpensive treat in the middle of January when everything seems dreary and grey a bit of summer brightness.

DD text me last night to say when I loan her my car tonight to pick up a dinner she portioned me up from her stuff last night. Its a portion of Moroccan chicken casserole she makes, its delicious and she always make extra as she know I like it.
She is loaning my car to use for work tomorrow, so her OH can take the three dogs out in her car as the EA is bringing some people to view their house .Not everyone likes dogs, although hers are lovely, a little Westie a Jack Russell, and a big daft ex-racing greyhound called Stan who is just so soppy. They love visitors but as the visitors are viewing the house they may not appreciate being greeted so effusively by three dogs So son-in-law will take them down to the country park for half an hour.
 
I have some more decluttering to do today so I'm slowly getting through it. I have a stair lift in my house and every time I go upstairs I come down with some more stuff that has to go I'm still decluttering some books but also moving on to ornaments and pictures as well. Its another very frosty day so I'm glad I don't have to go out today but I have room in my conservatory to put bags to go to the CS as most of the stuff to be tipped has gone.Its now a case of deciding which books I really want to keep and which I can part with I found a large pack of plain white paper that I know my DGD will happily take for DGGD as her youngest is drawing mad and will sit and draw for hours.
Trying to find homes for things now if I can. DGS Jack is going to take both my cheese toastie machine and a George Forman Grill that barely been used.

 I will have to go through my cooking and baking stuff at some point as I know I have far too much of it. I sorted the saucepans out already and several went to the tip as they really were past their best.

I kept the last one of the first set I bought when I saved up to buy it back in the 1960s its a small stainless steel one with a copper bottom, and I had a set of three that cost me £7.10.00  (£7.50) in 1963 which was a lot of money but its cooked me thousands of meals, and although the lid has long gone its still in  good condition, and I use it for boiling and mashing potatoes
I hate to think how many hundred weights of spuds it cooked over the years  and I'm quite attached to it  daft I know but I can remember how I scrimped and saved every shilling to buy the set, and felt so proud of them

The bigger one up in size went with one of my grandsons to his house in north London a couple of years ago, and the biggest one of all sadly ended up being binned as it really had come to the end of its lifespan but probably the best £7.50 I've ever spent
Has anyone else got a sentimental attachment to something in the kitchen that you just can't bring yourself to declutter. ? I've kept mine plus the first cookery book I bought to cook for my then shiny brand new husband in 1962. Its a bit battered now, but again a jolly good buy form Woolworths at 2/6d called Cooking for Two I think I have cooked every recipe in it as I used my late OH as a guinea pig for my cooking I was only in my teens when I got married, so had only ever cooked for myself basic easy stuff and what I remembered cooking with my late Mum. Things have improved somewhat over the following 62 years thank goodness  

Right enough of the waffle,  its onwards and upwards I have around two weeks to sort all of the stufff out before the EA comes to do the floor plan and the video of my house so its got to be as clear as possible 

  JackieO xxx

vulpix

Queen Jess, a mess breeds more mess... but tidy also breeds more tidy. You are slaying it.

GrannyKate

@London_1 I have mentioned the few kitchen things I have before from late Mum and Grandma.  The flour sieve and whisk bring back memories of all those cakes my mother made - Christmas weddings etc.  On the wall as a bit fragile to use now. As Mum was a professional cook we were not allowed in the kitchen much - I married straight from home at 21 like many of my generation so my husband was the guinea pig as I learnt to cook.  Late DH took over most of the cooking once he was working from home.  After he died I had to start cooking again but now DS2 is living here he loves to cook so my skills, such as they are. are redundant.  All the talk of rock cakes reminds me of grandma making rock cakes on a Sunday morning and getting my wrist slapped for pinching one whilst still hot.  I also still use the cookbooks grandma bought me when I first got engaged.  I also have half of the kitchen tool set which DB1 gave me as a wedding present - Wooden handled Prestige - and they have stood the test of time.  Potato masher in regular use. 

@vulpix - glad you enjoyed the Old Tile Works Cafe yesterday - it is a lovely area in the shadow of the magnificent bridge with Yorkshire across the water.  We often walk along the bank there. Nature reserve further down and then on the other side of the road and the small water inlet near Mr T there is The Ropewalk with Galleries and cafe and WatersEdge Country Park with visitor centre, cafe, shop, toilets etc - late DH and I took preschool GCs there midweek for play, duck feeding and very good value lunch.  In the summer we go in Mr T and get picnic stuff and sit on the river bank for lunch.  If you venture just across the bridge  (toll £1.50 each way and card payments only) Hessle Foreshore on the Hull side has a lovely country park.  Free parking at all of these.  

Nothing much to report yet but I have decluttered GCs until next Thursday so no excuses

107 Meeting attended and papers recycled
108 E mails answered/filed/deleted
109 Large chunk of unwanted stuff decluttered from family history folders
110 Positive result for latest form done for DS2 - we eventually managed to retrieve 90% of money he was owed when we expected to get nothing.  It has been a long and tortuous process. 
111-112 DS2 released another repair of holey socks and underpants to bin

Siebrie

Hessle... that takes me back! I had a friend (in The Netherlands - I'm Dutch) whose Mum married an Englishman and they moved to Hessle. I visited three times, I think, a week or two at a time. I remember Hull, the Humber Bridge, Prince's Quay, Robin Hood's Bay, Whitby, Little Switzerland, ....

I also spent a week with a family in Gillingham, to improve my English I was 14 and had arranged this all by myself through my church; I'm still proud of that. I wanted to go on a language vacation, but all the courses on offer were way above our family's budget. So you see: looking for frugal alternatives from the start!

London_1

Siebrie I live in Rainham which is about two miles from Gillingham, unless it was Gilliingham Dorset you stayed at small world eh

JackieO xx 

wishus

@Dfw38 -  I totally agree with everyone. Your school has been ridiculous regarding its change of uniform policy and how they have told you about the change and asked you to make the change. 

Also, regarding school trips. I was a teacher in the 90s at a school that had a mix of families with different incomes, and what we did was we had school fetes, a snacks tuck shop (pakoras and samosas supplied by a local business), ticketed shows put on by the kids, barn dances and supper nights in the hall, and I personally ran a dance class at lunch time for 50p. All this helped to run subsidised trips so that everyone got a chance to go. It wasn't even what I would call a great school. Certainly wasn't for me. I often thank my lucky stars I no longer teach in schools as the increased number of academies and free schools run by mad boards with silly ideas would just make me permanently loopy. I'm only temporarily loopy. 

Added to the total today, 1 pair of holy knickers, 1 pair of really uncomfortable Japanese toe socks. They may look quite cute, a little bunny waving with my big toe, but no.

Siebrie

London_1 said:

Siebrie I live in Rainham which is about two miles from Gillingham, unless it was Gilliingham Dorset you stayed at small world eh

JackieO xx 

I went to Gillingham next to Sittingbourne

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 

Good morning from a bright & sunny London 👋 Temperature is -2C up from a low of -4C. I was up & dressed (for indoors) by 09:35 & am just finishing my 1st cuppa. No sign of movement from DH but DSis has just put in an appearance 10:25. I am hoping she notices that the 32 y.o. china cup she uses, (a wedding present from our friends), looks like new - a denture cleaning tablet fizzing away overnight every few days really does work 😮  

QueenJess, you are so hard on yourself especially as it has only been a couple of days since you were awake practically 24/7 taking care of your DS 😔 I cannot imagine that you have caught up on your missed sleep yet, so I am hoping that you will spend at least some time in the TLC Carriage 🙏 You must be so proud of your DS - spontaneous decluttering 🥹 - he is definitely a chip off the old block 😊 I am awarding him his 1st medal🏅 of 2024. Fingers crossed that your continued effort on ‘unsubscribing’ will reap rewards very soon 🤞

vulpix, “little patches of hope” is such a positive expression - it makes me smile every time I read it 😁 (thanks again Mamaofmanybudgets 😊)  Love the idea of ‘veganism as an infiltrator’ 😂 but the chips do sound delicious 🤤 

Liverpool_Anne, pleased to hear that the dentist visit went well 🙂 & fingers crossed that the practice remains NHS 🤞So sorry to hear about ln’s son in law 😔 Hope you managed a good night’s sleep.

London_1, a lovely description of Angel Delight, “a bit of summer brightness” 🙂 Fingers crossed for the EA visit to your DD’s house tomorrow 🤞 & Good luck with the ongoing book decluttering 🍀 I really enjoyed your reminiscences about the pans & not daft to be so fond of that last pan 😊 + you reminded me that I still have some of the Le Creuset pans that my late uncle bought as a wedding gift (the first time around) which are now 44 years old. Btw, it is called interesting conversation not waffle 😉

vulpix “a mess breeds more mess... but tidy also breeds more tidy.” - thanks for that - I had not heard that expression before 😅

Lovely post GrannyKate 😊 Excellent decluttering 👏 especially number 110 - 90% is a brilliant result 🥳

Siebrie, frugal indeed & also very resourceful arranging your own trip to the U.K. 🤩😊 

wishus, the more I hear about the working life of teachers the more I think the world has gone mad 😉 DH’s niece S has been a teacher for years & some of the horror stories - especially those pertaining to Ofsted inspections - are enough to make it unfathomable to me why anyone would ever consider being a teacher 😱 Guess what, S’s daughter (Sh) has just become a teacher 😂

DH is now up & about probably because the outside temperature is now +3C 🙂 Stay warm & safe everyone 😊

MrsSD: I AM A ⭐️ - 🥇 🎖️ 💐 🌟 🏅 

DH Awards:

DSis Awards: 🏅 

Decluttering Target 2023: 109/2024

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00