2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

Florenceem

Wednesday2000 - I haven't heard of that cream. Mr F is using the one prescribed by the hospital and GP.
Dizzycap - I didn't know V had been hacked.
sqwiffy - I just never took to that machine - I think I was spoiled by having machines that did more - this one - I have to manually lift the presser foot etc. I am not giving up sewing - just cutting down the number of machines that I have - 6 - so I plan to get rid of at least 2.
Liverpool_Anne - my boys are loving being back in the Premier league - long wait for them. They are football mad!
Grey and dull day here.
I had a phone call from C this morning - could I go and unlock at SA? I went and while there - rescued 2 dinners from the fridge so no cooking today or tomorrow for me.
Had a call from physio - booked an appointment for 24 February for Mr F - hopefully by then he is more mobile.
Didn't get up early today - I didn't go to singing group last night as I was tired.
Going to make a mid morning cup of tea then look for items to sell/declutter.
I have a bid on an item so that is one that will leave the house.
I am going to put any money that I get from sales towards an air threader overlocker. I said to Mr F - I can't see me waiting until I have made enough money! I will sell my old manual threading overlocker.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks
2. Concerted effort to sort out sleep patterns - Realistic targets: bed by 2:00 a.m. & up by 10:00 a.m 
3. Continue dealing 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

Thursday: yet another dull day with a forecast high of 5°C Up & dressed by 10:15 & now settled with my first cuppa of the day. The EDT is still speeding along & shows no sign of slowing down - so I am still replying to posts dated Tuesday the 11th 😉

Florenceem, pleased to hear that you enjoyed your day at home 😊 you definitely deserved it 👏 My favourite version of Goodbye Mr Chips is the original version with Robert Donat & Greer Garson & it doesn’t matter how often I watch it I always cry 😢 Good luck with your listings 🍀

Muddy_Walker, sorry to hear that you are having trouble sleeping & then as a consequence struggling to get up 😔 Hopefully once the tummy injections are finished & your doctors have sorted out your meds, you will be able to sort out your sleep patterns 🙏 Excellent decluttering & pleased to see that your DH is helping out 👏 Is there any chance that he could walk the dogs whilst the weather is cold & you are struggling 🤔 Fingers crossed one or two of our Declutterati family family will be able to help with your crochet issue 🤞

Lovely to see you BudgetingBelinda 👋 Very impressed that your pottering day turned into a full blown decluttering day 👏🤩  which merits a Gold Star ⭐️ which is on its way 🙂 This “Also does anyone else like getting up in the morning after and seeing the room/s again and a fresh all decluttered! I love it!” the answer is Yes although currently I have still only managed this in my kitchen 😉 This “…….I’ll be cracking on with the decluttering and things being relocated. Makes such a difference to how I’m feeling about life in general.” is so inspiring & reminds me of why I added “The Joy of Decluttering” as a subtitle to the name of our Thread 😉

Muddy_Walker, I see that members of our Declutterati family are already offering up ideas re the crocheting 🥳

Excellent work on Tuesday Dizzycap 👏 managing to do everything you planned & also giving babyface an extra walk 🥳 Sorry to hear about the cancellation of your blood tests 😔 I will keep everything crossed that once you see the doctor on Thursday (i.e. today) that he/she will be able to get the appointment brought forward & start getting your treatment plan going 🙏

One page caught up & time for a 2nd cuppa. I hope everyone is managing to stay warm as today seems rather chilly 🤞

MrsSD Awards: 💐 🌟 ❤️ ❤️ 🏅 💐 💐 💐 🏅🥉🏅 🎂 🌟

DH Awards: 🏅 

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2025: 330/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £41.00

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks
2. Concerted effort to sort out sleep patterns - Realistic targets: bed by 2:00 a.m. & up by 10:00 a.m 
3. Continue dealing 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

A quick post before I turn my attention to menu planning & writing a shopping list 😉

dND, lovely post 😊 although I must confess that, to me, it is like reading a foreign language 😂

Excellent work QueenJess 👏 & congratulations on reaching your 2nd ‘Use Up’ target 🥳 medal 🏅 is on its way 🙂

Nice to see you Duchess2 👋 Great decluttering 👏 Good luck with the lounge clearance & then the decorating 🍀 This “……. Be nice to have one room freshly decorated. Trouble is it shows up the other rooms and then we are on the merry go round to start decorating them. Oh well here goes” especially the underlined part, gave me a bit of a start as I suddenly admitted to myself why DH & I never quite get around to decorating 😬

sqwiffy, well done on tackling the 2nd half of the “giant amphibian” 👏 Fingers crossed that your DM didn’t keep you awake all Tuesday night 🤞

Lovely post vulpix 😊 Whatever decision you reach about the bag will be the correct one for you 🙂 What a lovely friend 🥹 Thanks for the wonderful reminder of marbles - had almost forgotten about Dobbers 😂 Hope your friend has a lovely time on her cruise 🤞 Although a month does sound like rather a long time 😉

Nice to see you weenancy 👋 Sending lots of cwtches 🤗 

MrsSD Awards: 💐 🌟 ❤️ ❤️ 🏅 💐 💐 💐 🏅🥉🏅 🎂 🌟

DH Awards: 🏅 

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2025: 330/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £41.00

vulpix

 Wee nancy, Hoorah for the missionaries! I will be coming over with LiverpoolAnne to give some people some home truths.

I am tinkering round the edges now. I miss the days of plentiful trips to the charity shop. Household frogs are more my focus now.

I think I will have a go at selling the used half a dozen times bag. It will turn into a frog i'm sure. I have just fallen out of love with selling stuff.

10 days into my cold, still sqeaking away. Glad there is no yoga today, my instructor has gone to India for a month

Mrs SD my cruising friend did a 5 month round the world cruise lat year. 2 weeks is just right for me.

 I need to go and find some information about my Mothers boiler for the Estate Agent. We have had a second viewing but don't hold your breath. I think it's time to have a change of Estate Agent. I just can't get on board with this guy. He always sounds sarcastic and abrupt.

My mojo has gone. I have stuff to do, time to give myself a talking to.

Laters Vx

 

Wednesday2000

I have made up another donation bag to take tomorrow. Two vases, a dish, a book and two pairs of gloves. I might add some clothes as I will look through my wardrobe again.

My husband has a list of admin tasks (that I wrote for him) to do. He just closed down a old bank account he had decades ago! We were going to change energy supplier, but we are locked in until June.

I had my blood test today and went to buy a gift bag fro my friend at the weekend as it is her 50th. I did some laundry and vacuumed again when I got home. My cats throws the cat litter out of the box and I find it easier to vacuum rather than get on my hands and knees and use the dustpan and brush.

MadamMim2013

ARRG.. lost a post.. second in 2 days.. 😵‍💫
Good to see everyone continuing to plod along with decluttering and day to day life, even if slower than we’d like.
Spoons and get well wished for anyone in need 🤗 

Major declutter of old bed, dismantled and sold.. flllliiiiing…
New (to us) bed in, put up, made and slept in.. yeehaaaa.. no hip/shoulder pain on waking today..
Also, due to selling old bed, this one only cost us…..
£25!  So that’s a triple win in my eyes 🥳

General HH recycling and rubbish out as it’s collected tomorrow.. food waste too..

Made raspberry and blackberry jelly, rainbow slaw and mint chocolate crispy cake this morning.

Cleared out under sink, gave everything a good sort through, tidy (recycling packaging, etc) and washed cupboard, this was instigated due to the tap malfunctioning and a plumber will be visiting in the morning to replace as it’s on last legs (rather it didn’t implode 😬)

DS1 needs to re-book blood appointment as they had a haemolysed sample. They did report low thyroid.. 😬 He’s in his early 20’s so I’m hoping he’s not about about to follow the family footstepsand end up with Pernicious Anaemia.. 🫣 Will have to wait till they do the B12.. 🤞🏼 it’s a simple fix..

Anyhoo I have waffled enough.. brain is getting slow and I'm in need of a cuppa.. 
Will leave a surplus mandarin jelly in the TLC.. 🥣

daisy_1571

Winning at weight loss by The Speakmans - I got this book from library more because of the authors than the subject matter but its hugely interesting i think and anyone could read it substituting their particular foible for food.  (I remembered them from TV in the 80s?  The 90s?)

They talk about how we tell ourselves things and set up 'schemas' for our selves.   A schema is just a repeatable sequence of actions, anything from brush you teeth to drive a car.  They use the example you go into a restaurant you will have a schema for that situation,  you go in, get seated, take your coat off, peruse the menu etc.   They point out that we have very few schemas programmed in as a new born, suckling and gripping hands etc but most things are then learned.   We learn by example, we follow our parents, siblings, then friends, school etc.  We talk like our parent's accents, our world is informed from their worlds.  We see how they interact with us, with others, with the world, with situations. 

So with a situation we now find doesn't work for us we need to look back and find the things we learned that has given us the schemas we now rely on.  Obviously in a lot of their examples its about over eating or food phobias etc as that's the overall subject of the book.  Its fascinating that when they unpick a person who can't lose weight over years and find themselves stuffing themselves on whole packets of biscuits for example, when they get the person to look back and pinpoint maybe they used to live with a family where they all descend on all the tasty snacks so if you don't get in quickly you got nothing.  They then ask if they still live with all those people?  Who buys the snacks now, who will eat them before they get a chance etc.  Its amazing how often the people are amazed with the realisation that of course they are now in charge, they live alone, no one else is going to eat it all etc.  That simple thought twist can be enough to completely change their whole outlook.   

They remind us we can change our minds about something.   One woman could not eat fruit/veg.  To the extreme.  Even the possibility of the gravy having been made with water veg had been in.  They worked back to an incident when she felt unwell at school but was forced by shouty headmistress to clear her plate.  Inevitably she was sick at the table and looked at the bits of veg and it made it really difficult to eat them in future.  Head of course handled it even more badly and she had to sit beside head every lunch and clear plate.  Over time it got worse and very life limiting as an adult.  Her reasoning was veg made her sick.  She blamed the veg.  Speakmans made her see she was already feeling sick and hadn't wanted to eat her lunch that day.  The veg had nothing to do with it and weren't to blame.  She went on to have a more normal relationship with all types of food. 

Theres lots of different case studies.  And they go through the methods they use.  Very interesting to follow it through.  They had a quote 'seeing something new can be as easy as turning your head in a different direction'.  I find that quite profound.   They also said a quote by Martin Luther king 'you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step'.   Thats quite comforting I think?

I thought it might be helpful for some people who are stuck and finding it very difficult to sort out what they really want to keep from things that are overwhelming them or houses that are making them miserable.  They no doubt have other books if you really don't fancy the weight loss one.  I'll look them up.  But even if they don't, i think some of the examples are very transferable.   As I say, I found it very interesting. 

Daisy xx

Florenceem

I found quite a few things to list so photos were taken. As I looked I saw more stuff that can go.
I decided to go out this afternoon. I needed to drop a repeat prescription at the surgery.
On the way I called in at Pave.. to see if I could find slippers for Mr F  I bought some - he is yet to try them on as he has ventured into his office for the first time in weeks - now I need to get him out of there!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Write a daily To Do list - only 3 tasks
2. Concerted effort to sort out sleep patterns - Realistic targets: bed by 2:00 a.m. & up by 10:00 a.m 
3. Continue dealing 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

Forgot to mention that the recycling wheelie bin was emptied this morning - 2 consecutive weeks of being emptied on the correct day 🥳 I did write both a menu plan & a shopping list + dealt with 3 quarters of today’s mail. As DSis was feeling unwell, DH went shopping on the motorbike. Fortunately not a huge list 😉 DH just got home 14:45 & most of the shopping has been put away.

Dizzycap, are you positive you went to bed 😉 Aside from that, great work especially getting so much done before babyface woke up 👏 Hopefully your plans came to fruition & you managed to get to bed for a couple more hours of sleep 🤞Lovely ideas for weenancy but unfortunately she is hampered in her efforts to declutter by her ‘useless & inconsiderate’ roommates 😢 

Liverpool_Anne, sorry to hear about ln 😔 appalling that she couldn’t even speak to a GP & then had to drag herself out when she was so ill 😡 Hopefully she has been given antibiotics & is on the mend 🙏 Re the dressing gown, is it better/fluffier than your current one? Hope you were successful registering for the ballot to get a ticket for Wembley 🤞

Lovely post Florenceem 😊 Mr Skeffington is not a film I have ever seen, was it any good? Hope you enjoyed SA friendship/lunch club yesterday 😊

oceanspirit, steady decluttering 👏 Hopefully your plans for today are working out well 🤞

foxandflowers, yippee to finally having a moving date 🥳 Perhaps you could wait until after you have settled into your new home before deciding on an any purchases 🤔 After all you might find you already have some of the items packed in the storage container 🤞

Wednesday2000, This “I'm just watching Sort Your Life Out now. …..I'm not finding it as interesting as usual for some reason.” was kind of how I felt although I was very impressed with Rob’s build 👏 Hope you managed to join the art class 🤞

Florenceem, so pleased to hear that MrF is getting stronger everyday 😊 Good luck in the large ROD 🍀 I haven’t had toad in the hole for years 😋

Willowtree222, every item decluttered is a win 👏

sqwiffy, thinking about it, I suppose I actually have an HOD but do have a couple of tidy rooms with hidden clutter 🙊 Your DM is amazing 😻 

CRANKY40, sorry to hear about the migraines 😞 I do hope you are fully recovered now 🙏 Excellent decluttering especially in your son’s room 👏 I do love This “On Sunday I infiltrated my son's bedroom” 😂

Another page caught up so will have a little rest & come back shortly 🙂

MrsSD Awards: 💐 🌟 ❤️ ❤️ 🏅 💐 💐 💐 🏅🥉🏅 🎂 🌟

DH Awards: 🏅 

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2025: 330/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £41.00

Rootle

5/52 - cleared out a carousel shelf in the kitchen. Lots of bits binned or recycled and shelf nicely cleaned. 

6/52 - 10 books to selling site.

7/52 - DH shirt bought on fleabay and posted. I found this really stressful, only covered costs so no idea why I did it?! At least it's one more thing out.