2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

Brambling

Just sneaking back in 🫣 I have been pottering but not as much as I should! Although my sister was able to stay for a night a week ago as the spare room was fit for purpose and just a little 'stuff' moved to the smallest bedroom out of sight.

I dropped two large bags to the CS last week a mix of stuff, and gave away three large puzzles gifted to me but I not that keen and soon lost interest, the cat doesn't help as he sits on them.  I shouldn't have been talked into taking them as I know I haven't done adult size puzzles in about 40 years.

i managed to fill the garden wheelie bin, the dodgy hip means it's a slow process. 

Today I decided against going out as I have to go into town tomorrow and tackled one of my wardrobes (I have far too much clothes especially as I'm no longer working!) I filled two large bags for the CS and need to think about two thick long cardigans which I know should go as I don't think I've worn them since I stopped going into the office five years ago 🤨 I persuaded myself this morning that they were too good to go! Maybe a third bag should be started? I have a wide range of sizes demonstrating how well the dieting is going, at the moment I have two sizes which are too small and two sizes too big and let's be honest if I managed to fit into the smaller sizes would I still want to wear them? 

This afternoon I tackled some of my books, volunteering at a second hand book if probably not a good idea as it feeds my book addiction, my neighbour also dropped off a box of about 20 last week half of which I kept.  Two bags for life have been filled ready to go to the bookshop after my sister has a rummage first. 

Whilst my dinner was cooking I started on the baking cupboard, just the one shelf but a work in progress. 

Dizzycap

Florenceem said:

I got my pattern weights out ready to make the tie backs. I love these little weights that I made - just scraps but used up some of my stash.
I can remember buying the fabrics that I used to make the weights - 40 years ago - also what it was for!
Photo of the huge roll of lining plus a sneak look at the curtains.

Love your handmade pattern weights and the curtain fabric looks fabulous

Also love the organised art stash in the background. I used to store arty things like that but the stacks eventually towered, so I declutter sold a lot and then picked up a free unwanted wide chest of drawers with 4 easy sliding glider draws which is an absolute godsend to keep the remaining stash I know I will use in.

Finished my RM Quad Locker run with babyface and now decluttering a last cup of coffee before I go back to bed. Just as I've gone to put my phone on silent, the sounds of the eBay decluttering sales cash register started chiming on the eBay App - Will deal with those later when I've hopefully had some more sleep / rest - Phone is now on silent, as I've gone fishing !

Wishing everyone a peacful night & sleep - Ta-ta for now xxxxxxx

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

For dinner we finished the pork joint (it was very fatty so the fox will eat well tonight) with mash & baked beans. Wudupa

470 - 473 Kitchen & office recycling, drinks cans, 0.5” paperwork - recycled

474 Kitchen detritus - binned

Lovely to see you dND 😊 I figured you must be busy with RL especially as your renovations are ongoing, so not surprised that you haven’t really had time to post ☺️ Crikey, has it been a year already 😧 Is it just me, or does time seem to be moving as fast as the EDT 🤨 Hopefully once the old boiler has been removed that will be the last of the major renovations & you will be able to start the decorating 🙏 I see that you have been exceedingly busy especially in the garden 👏 Excellent decluttering (despite not remembering what you have decluttered 😉) 👏 & a great idea to hire a skip once you have gathered together all items for the Tip 🥳 Good luck closing down your French bank account 🍀 hopefully they won’t want or need any more paperwork 🤞

Pennypincin, well done on keeping up with the daily decluttering 👏 Good luck with your new lavender 🍀 

Dizzycap, I see that Floss & QueenJess have both steered you in the right direction 😊 Excellent work with the sales 👏  & good luck with your new listings 🍀 I see babyface is keeping your on your toes 😊 You have a busy week ahead so I hope you have factored in some rest time 🙏

vulpix, sorry to hear about all your sleepless nights 😔 Hope Sunday’s viewing went well 🤞 

CRANKY40, what a great idea re getting to sleep 😊 Excellent decluttering by both you & DS 👏 One medal for you 🏅 & one for your DS🏅 Hope you managed to get your ironing done & that the weather stayed fine enough for you to have another session of ivy decluttering 🤞

Great decluttering Happy_Kitties 👏

Excellent decluttering QueenJess 👏 I see you are already making a dent in  your net inflow figure 😊

I have caught up a little but really do need to try harder 😉 Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅 

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2025: 474/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £41.00

Dizzycap

Good morning declutteri

Another coolish morning with more rain due mid-morning here - the Spring bulbs need it! 

Decluttering a love large mug of coffee after a rocky night of chronic pain, and haven't done a thing yet except switch off the hallway light, boil the kettle, and make coffee. Babyface is still snorning away 

Decluttering Plans for Today:

Spray Kitchen Surfaces, empty dishrack, spray draining board, dishrack, sink & taps and wipe over fridge freezer door

Declutter HH Bins

Declutter off 2 parcels to the RM Quad Locker while taking babyface for an early morning walk.

Declutter 2 Dr Surgery morning appointments

Take babyface 2 for a walk / run

Take pics & list decluttered items

Afternoon bed rest / sleep with babyface

Defrost homemade dinners (morning), ding heat & eat (evening)

Empty & clean kitchen bin

Pack and send any decluttering sold items tonight while taking babyface for her evening / night walk Babyface loves going for a walk to the inpost & quad lockers to send off parcels as she's doing her 'Helper' bit

NO potter gardening, washing or HH cleaning.

Time for another mug of coffee before we go out for babyface's breakfast & walk. She's just come tundering down the hallway and is presentluy doing fruit-loops around the lounge before she bangs on the office door

It's a crazy house 🫣🐶

Wishing everyone a Terrific Decluttering Tuesday xxxxxx

Decluttering Edit:

The first 3 tasks on today's decluttering plan have been completed and I've remembered to put my night strip lights on USB charge while I declutter another wonderful mug of fresh coffee and potter around on MSE on the laptop while I drink it before I wanderback off to bed for another hour as my body is screaming rest

2Scratters

Morning Peeps,
Popping in to comment on here as have been busy reading with what everyone else has been up to. Great work happening. Welcome to the newbies. 
I did a strange unplanned wardrobe tidy, it should have been a change around as I wanted to put a set of drawers inside but it turned out DH had fixed the lower shelf and I could not remove it. I didn't let him know or he would have removed it for me. I will continue to think IF I need to do that. Some items have left there and been placed into circulation to get used up. My work of decluttering is now showing space in drawers and boxes of stuff have been reduced so they too fit in easily in a tidy fashion. 
I saw a notice of a car boot near me that is open 3 days a week weather pending. I have larger items to move on so will be giving that a go as soon as I get stuff together ready. I have mentioned to DH I will be starting to put stuff into his van in readiness 
Removed an empty storage box from the loft which was stacked under another box. Cleaned out and repurposed into the top of the kitchen cupboard for items to be placed into it and the dust collector wicker basket has left the property. Some balls of wool from loft too, given to DS's GF. Items are still coming down each time I go up there, it's moving and that is a win for me. 

2 Scratters xx

Yoshimi2025

Good morning all, hope it’s sunny where you are, it always make shopping out of bed a bit easier. 

I’m going to make a start today on the garage, it seems to be full of everyone else’s stuff so I’m going to try and get it all back to its rightful owners. 

I’ve decided to take the garage door off, it has disintegrated anyway, it’s a roller and it came away in the last storm so we just threaded it back on but it’s not safe. 

I had a quote for entrance doors to go on there and then it can be boarded out to become a craft room/entrance hallway as my hallway is so tight that everyone putting their shoes on is like sardines. 

Exciting times! The first part of the house that I’m refurbishing. 

It’s taken me years to buy a house again, I rented for a while and the stability and calm it’s bought to my mental health is wonderful, it’s a joy actually. 

Anyway, best get my spider catcher out in preparation 🤣 🕷️ xxx

Moorviews

@Yoshimi2025 - that sounds like a lovely plan for the garage. Good luck with getting it cleared out and everything back where it belongs. 

@LittleMissDetermined - It is very fast moving here but the main thing is that you are decluttering 😊
@vulpix - I am glad you finally got some sleep and wish you all good things for your forthcoming birthday 🎁 🎂 🥂
@Dizzycap - babyface is so cute 🥰 I am sorry that you are in pain today and hope that you manage to get some relief and rest. 

@Florenceem - the weights look lovely! What do you have inside them? Mine are just those big metal washers so not very pleasing to look at. I’m very impressed with all the curtain making as it is a heavy and arduous process. Your new sewing machine looks ideal with a good working space across the machine. I have an air threading overlocker and find it is a joy to use. 

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger - I love the way that you are producing such tasty meals everyday although reading about them makes me hungry 😋 I hope Mr SD can have some help with treating his hand condition and that it doesn’t affect his comfort when motorcycling. 
@Liverpool_Anne - good luck with the understairs project. I hope the builder can work out a good plan. 

Welcome to new folk joining in 😊
As always I love reading along about everyone’s progress and seeing how the Declutterati are getting on 👏🌟

Life has been busy and I have decluttered a cold since last writing. We have been making the most of the weather with woodcutting, weeding, pruning and trimming. There is still so much to do though that I have to try not to think about it too much! Our log piles will be stored away for next winter. Our current stock is nearly gone with it having been such a cold winter. General household bins and recycling have been kept on top of but I need to start spring cleaning really. Lots of washing has been done to make the most of the dry weather. Shopping has been pretty under control as I don’t like it much although I did enjoy some browsing in the city last week. It was quite fun looking at things I will never buy, like thousand pounds coffee machines. This time of the year seems to mean lots of financial frogs and tidying up of affairs before the tax year ends. Not stuff I like!
We have decluttered the sunshine here and are back to grey again. It’s amazing what a difference the sun makes to energy levels. Wishing you all a good week xx

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, busy day yesterday. Packed OH off to visit dniece and baby R who was being looked after by OH's Dsis and bil as dniece was working. OH took 6 items as well as the batch cooked food done on Sunday and some from the freezer cooked previously, 2 big bags altogether 😁. Baby R loved his gifts and a good time was had by all 😁. OH also told Dsis and bil about the medical diagnosis which I was very pleased about as Dsis is legally next of kin. We have had a previous conversation about this when OH was hospitalised for over a week with a massive blood clot and I was again under instructions not to tell anybody. I had insisted that OH phone Dsis and tell her, the legal argument was the only thing that got OH to comply. Dsis was astounded that I hadn't phoned her immediately so I had to explain why. Dsis and bil are however under similar instructions not to tell the rest of the family unless we get to a point where treatment is required. At least it's not just my secret now 😁.
So I sorted out the kitchen yesterday, all the worktops and cooker were cleared and thoroughly cleaned, lots of things put away where they live including various spices OH had used and bizzarly a boxed Christmas tree decoration OH had received from the German relatives that was lurking in the corner of doom on the worktop 🙄, lots of things binned or recycled. Various things washed and it is all gleamy. 3 rags from the rag bag used to clean into the bin, served their purpose but were so minty when I finished I wasn't going to bother washing them 😂. When OH got home it was commented on and I said I wanted it keeping that way, we shall see. I sorted through the fridge and found some fruit that was passed it's best so that was chopped up and put out for the birds, disappeared within half an hour. I found half a lemon left over from pancake day so used that in a jug of water to help with cleaning the microwave 😁. I still need to run the mop over the floor but I was running out of energy so I will get to that today 😁. kitchen bin, kitchen recycling and lr bin were emptied again 😁. So much carp 😂.
I also got 2 LDFPA on the line and carried upstairs 9 pairs of trousers and 17 jumpers / fleeces of OH's that were lurking in the conservatory. I then filled an ikea bag with OH's  t shirts and shirts. No point taking them upstairs as they will need to be ironed and I know OH will only bring them down again, but at least they are coralled in a bag so don't look quite so messy. OH has so many clothes I could stock a shop 😂. I nearly lost a shirt from the line, it was blowing so hard and it was on a hanger which blew off the line and I completely forgot about it until well after I had got the washing in and had to scour the garden with a torch to find it 😂. Needless to say it is back in the wash basket 😂.
I also tackled a bit of the back room which had become a bit of a dumping ground for empty shoppig bags. They were tidied up and returned to the car boot and I checked over the rucksack I use for swimming. Money found in a pocket and a half read book in another pocket 😁. Debating if this rucksack needs to be binned as the lining is torn next to the zip so I can't fix it easily but it is a very useful size and I will have to check if I have something else I can use instead. It is about 20 years old though and has had lots of use so I suppose it doesn't owe me anything 😁.
About 4pm I was in need of a break so I had a coffee over the fence with ln but even though the sun was out there was a chilly wind so we weren't too long 😁
Builder was supposed to come at 6.15 but didn't appear. At 7 I phoned him. He forgot and apologised and suggested coming today but I have football tonight and luckily so does he 😂 so he is allegedly coming tomorrow 😁. We shall see. In also asked if I could ask for a quote for him to put a toilet in her under stairs cupboard so I was going to take him in to see her after he had looked at mine. The thought behind this, apart from ln wanting it done is that as we have a shared drain it might be easier to get it done at the same time but hers will be easier and cheaper as she will not need the building work I do as she has already had a kitchen extension and the larder bit was incorporated into the under stairs cupboard then. Everything crossed that he turns up on Wednesday 😁. 

@LittleMissDetermined yes this train moves at the speed of light 😂. Well done on what you have done, every thing helps 😁.

@Jellybaby yes it's great to get rid of old paperwork though you are quicker than I was to sort it. A few years ago I went through my study and filled the recycling wheelie bin 3 times with paperwork from my degree and my pgce only 3 years before retiring 😂 and then once I had retired a load more though I still have some union stuff to weed through but I am still active in the union 😁.

@Vulpix, happy birthday week, I hope you have the best day 💐

@Yoshimi2025 I will check it out but it's a long time since I used sanitary products, don't wear make up and have no kids to help 😂. I do have an idea of some other things though. I will update when I have checked it out 😁. I need a spider catcher 😂 they are everwhere 😂, hoping now it is getting a bit warmer they will migrate to the garden 😂

@Florenceem good find with those threads, so useful to have a range of colours and such a good brand 😁. Cute pattern weights and nice curtains 😁.

@Moorviews thank you, I hope so too 😂

Well sorry for the massive post 😂. I have to go and get some breakfast, for some reason I am starving this morning 😂
Hugs to everyone who would like one

300 - 305 items to dniece
306 kitchen bin
307 kitchen recycling
308 lr bin
309 & 310 LDFPA
311 - 313 rags binned
Take care everyone
313/2025

_Dolly_Rocker_

Morning all,

Managed to declutter 2 cardboard boxes this morning, straight to the recycling bin.

Washing just about to be hung on the line and another will be put in the machine.

I'm off work today and was planning a nice chilled day but I ended up taking on 2 paid dog walks so will pick them up at about 11:30am and walk them for their hour then home to grab Bailey and Luna for their afternoon walk. 

Mum is going to join me so we'll drive over to Loch Lomond for a wee change, its such a lovely day so a shame to waste it! 

I'll get more done later this afternoon when I get home and report back. 

Hope you all have a lovely day

@Florenceem - That is lovely material. Also love the little weights.

@Brambling - I've got 2 bookcases crammed and also a cupboard FULL of puzzles. Most I got really cheap or free. I actually picked up a big bag before I went away last week there must be 15-20 puzzles in there. I'm going to have a rummage through them and get a CS bag ready for the ones I won't keep and I can drop that off tomorrow. 

@MrsSD - That will be one happy fox!

@Dizzycap - Sorry to hear you had a bad night. These dogs are just living their best lives aren't they - must post a pic of my 2. 

@2Scratters - Happy to hear you're seeing space - means the decluttering is working. Love a car boot sale. Me and Mum will be heading to a wee church table sale in a couple of weeks. Great use of the box.

@Yoshimi2025 - It is lovely here in Glasgow this morning - really makes the dog walks a lot easier. Yup get it all back to the owners and let it clutter up their own homes. 

@Moorviews - Well done on the gardening. I bought my flat nearly 4 years ago and have a small front and back garden but I am clueless! The front garden is all those stones which I am clearing bag by bag and also digging out the conifer trees. Ideally I'd like to get it all paved because Luna loves nothing more than to just tear chunks out of the earth - could rent her out as an excavator. The sun is just lovely. 

@Liverpool_Anne - I also have a corner of doom on the worktops, it's right next to the boiler! You got a lot done. I'm just about to hang a washing on the line and put another in the machine. 

vulpix

Thank you for Birthday wishes. It is on Wednesday. Went shopping and forgot to buy cake or something for craft club. Doh!

You have all been so busy, I am sure the sunshine helps. My plans for today is to change the bed and touch up the black paint on the front door handle. I painted it last year when I did the door but it's chipped now with people wearing rings I think. I spent ages last night getting everything out of the awkward corner cupboard in the kitchen to get at the paint.Easter is now on display in the sitting room. It is stored in the cupboard and seemed daft to put it all back again. I know I am massively early with Easter decorations but it's more Spring really. Some wooden Polish eggs in a glass dish and some sprigs of buds, and a ceramic lamb, oh and some chicks in a little basket.
 I am going to have a little try on of trousers from the wardrobe. There must be at least 5 pairs of black ones in there. I have lost a bit of weight so I may be lucky. 

Liverpool Anne, nothing doing on my Mum's house. The woman interested gave up after a very lengthy think. If the house we like doesn't work out, the plan is for us to move to Mum's and be in a good position to move if another house we like comes up. The thing about Mum's house is it needs renovating. There have been a couple of very cheeky offers but we are in no rush. Not that I am being greedy with the asking price.
 The guy who viewed ours is in a flat and says flats where he lives sell very quickly. We shall see. A house I like very much has come on the market today, 10 miles away. I think it will sell very quickly. I would go for it if we get a sale.
 We had a toilet installed under the stairs in our last house. Loved it. Hope you get one sorted soon.

Brambling, I am with you in having clothes that are in different sizes. I am a yo-yo dieter and like you, if the smaller size clothes ever fit would I wear them? I try to only keep things that I love. or will never date, like the approximate 8 pairs of white linen trousers in various sizes! Anything too big I get rid of because you know, I will never gain weight again. Ha.

Found a necklace that can go to the charity shop, I don't think I have ever worn it. Slim pickings for me on the decluttering front but if I counted I am sure it would be at least 5 things a week. Definitely more than comes in. I am like Queen Jess, more about using stuff up which oddly is very pleasing.
 We still have the nice weather, DD1 is in the Shetland isles this week, she is disappointed not to have sunshine up there too.

 Take care all Vx