2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, nice day here again. Met friend and her ds, dil and dgs at the cafe in the park on the river bank. Had coffee and breakfast and a walk. The river looked brilliant in the sunshine. Handed over the Easter present for the baby in the bag from my stash 😁 and the stair gate that has been lurking in the hall for a few weeks. Got 1 LDFPA and another 2 loads on the line. I had been encouraging OH to sort out the piles of clothes which resulted in an extra load as well as the normal load of jeans. I still have most the towel mountain from the loft to deal with plus a load of mine, good job it's good weather forecast this week 😂. The lr bin was emptied and I forgot to add the rag used to remove dust was binned. Watched the footy on tv and we were dreadful 🙄. I did a bit of crochet and then came over very tired so had a nap. It was dark when I woke up  so the washing is still on the line 😂.

@Florenceem so glad Mr F is home with you again and being sensible with using his walker, big hugs.

@YBR welcome aboard and I look forward to following your journey 😁. There are some really lovely people on here and Mrs SD is an absolute star with her cheerleading 😁

@Yoshimi2025 re the compost, I think you just need to cover the green stuff with a layer of paper, newspaper would do, to get a better mix of stuff in the compost bin and make a bit of a barrier so the flies can't get to the green stuff. I have read that you could wrap the veg peelings etc in newspaper before you put them in but the flies don't actually do any harm but they are annoying. As for the difference between the two bins is one further composted than the other or in a colder/ warmer place? 

@Vulpix looks fab, I have never been to Madeira but it looks great. Hope you are having a brilliant time 😁. Thanks for the idea re the suitcase, I will possibly offer it on the free site if nothing else occurs to me 😁.

Right having a cuppa and heading back to bed. Despite the nap I am tired again 😂

Tomorrow I will do a bit more loft sorting and hopefully the tidy up of the hazards in the garden 😁
Hugs to everyone who would like one

462 wash rag to the bin
463 baby gate
464 Easter gift and bag from stash
465 LDFPA
466 lr bin
Take care everyone
466/2025

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

Dinner was delicious 🤤 Wudupa.

630 - 633 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, magazine, plastic bottle - recycled

634 Kitchen detritus - binned

GrannyKate, well done on the weight loss 👏 That sounds like a great App 🙂 I am really enjoying all the animals tales (whether they be about pets or wildlife) & I especially liked the underlined part of This “Sox is missing DS2 and GCs who play with him a lot.  I did not get up until 7.30 this morning which caused him a lot of stress - strutting up and down on the bed and flopping down - you could almost hear him sighing. He is going round the house finding things - fallen flower petals, a stray bracelet, wallpaper scraps etc - he carries things between rooms and bats them with his paws” ☺️ Hope you enjoyed your time out of the house & that the sun shone brightly for you 😊 Good luck with your final preparations getting ready for the new kitchen 🍀

Lovely cheerleading Liverpool_Anne 😊 Don’t quite understand why you feel ‘a bit of a fraud’ 🤔 Any new skill is easier to learn when someone demonstrates how to do it 😊 Your roses are particularly well crafted 👏 Good luck tidying decluttering the loft 🍀 I will keep my fingers crossed that you get a decision on the insulation soon 🤞

_Dolly_Rocker_, Bailey & Luna are gorgeous 😍

Excellent digital decluttering Yoshimi2025 👏 That is a lot of passwords 😥 

CRANKY40, great decluttering of the bags of gardening stuff 👏 & great work by DS building the solar fountain 😊

Florenceem, a very busy Saturday morning 😊 So pleased that MrF is now home & that 4 days in rehab has done such a good job in getting him ready 🥹 

Sleep tight 😴 

MrsSD Awards: 💐 🌟 ❤️ ❤️ 🏅 💐 💐 💐 🏅🥉🏅 🎂 🌟⭐️⭐️❤️ 🍫🐾 😍

DH Awards: 🏅 

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2025: 634/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £41.00

charlies_tribe

A very early good morning.  No idea why but I can't sleep. Sat with a hot chocolate instead. I have been reading along but i have lost track of what I wanted to reply to so a huge welcome/hug/get well soon from me to everyone that needs one.
I seem to have been busy all week but not much to declare decluttered.
Yesterday DH was looking for something in the shed and decided to pull things out to see what was actually in there! It's a large shed (garage size) absolutely packed to the roof. I thought DH was exaggerating every time I told him to put something in there and he said it wouldn't fit. There's bikes, scooters, skateboards, masses of happy land toys and duplo from the kids being little. But there's definitely water getting in somewhere and everything was wet. The main thing in there though.... cardboard! Piles of it! DH has decided a skip is definitely needed and things have had to go back in but at least look a bit neater and he's cut up a lot of the cardboard and stacked it together. 
DH pulled out a pile of his wage slips from the TA from 1997!

DGD was here while we were doing it and absolutely loved it. She was on the scooters and skateboards. Had a bucket of warm bubbles to wash the happyland toys. Her dad came to collect her at half 2 and she cried whole leaving as she was having so much fun and DD1 said she still wasn't talking to them 2 hours later as they had taken her home when she was enjoying Nanas treasure trove.

So DH is going to ring and see if he can get a skip this morning and hopefully we can make a dent in some of it.

Right hot chocolate has gone so going to try sleep again.

326-330  Games missing pieces
331  Holey socks

This wasn't even half of the cardboard mountain (there is other bits in there

foxandflowers

Morning. Just stopping in to report a terribly productive weekend. 

Did a tip run including old desk, ill fitting ply from van, triple wardrobe and stacks of cardboard (20 points), listed things on Vinted and sold (3), decluttered a tin of exterior paint on the patio wall and broke a masonry brush in the process which is now in the bin (2), dropped a bag of clothes off in the donation bin (5), finally hung the mirror up in the bedroom (1) and put the curtain tiebacks into the wall (1), plus did four loads of laundry, which I am not counting in my totals but am pleased with!



Got some lovely solar lights from B&M and Mr Fox painted our garden wall, and it's looking absolutely lovely out on our patio now. I really need to get on and declutter the weeds from the garden and mow the lawn, but honestly I am not too sure what is wed and what isn't! The more I leave it to it's own devices, the more things bloom. 

Yoshimi2025

@Liverpool_Anne wrapping food in newspaper is a top tip! Thank you! Remember the old days when you got a free local newspaper? I remember twisting the pages fire lighting sticks for the wood basket at my Nanas. 

YBR

sqwiffy said:

Hi YBR, I'm fairly new and everyone has been very welcoming although lots of people seem to know one another very well. Sounds scary to downsize but I guess it's true that we fit what we have as they more space you have, the more you fill I think. You could always approximately see how much smaller your place will be to see how much you'll need to reduce. If you're really reluctant to get rid of, you could pay for storage for some, then if it's not missed get rid of it and the fees you'll be paying!

We definitely have let our stuff accumulate to overwhelm the space available! Over the last few years, since Dad died, Mum's been trying to reclutter his accumulations (recluttering = her decluttering into my house) since she can't bear to dump "perfectly good" stuff. Sometimes it's hard emotional work for us.

We've seen and measured the Manse, and have a scale drawing, with scale furniture pieces to move around, so have a very good idea we won't fit in as we are. Doesn't seem MSE to be putting stuff in storage so am trying to plan ahead, but thanks reminding me of the option.

Just taken a cot and dolls house to a charity shop, so on to the next step shortly.

QueenJess

I'm sneaking in at the back to declare I may have picked up 4 packs of seeds, but in my defence they were free local seeds from my local zero waste shop and I have already used seeds out of 2 of them and 1 has even germinated!  Plus the packs are very small and much more manageable than the commercial ones and they are all free!  I now have peas, sweet peppers, tomatoes and chillis hopefully growing that are all completely free and mse worthy

A few more bits used up, but some clothes etc in for the kids for needed stuff (although more bits coming this week because everything we wanted they didn't have in the size and so we had to order online) and a tube of fabric glue to fix DS's Beaver badges to his jumper.

A slow week of catching up with tidying and hopefully the odd use up/declutter along the way.

1 - candle used up
10 - paper reused then recycled
1 - pack of seeds used up
1 - jumper I don’t wear anymore (charity box)

New total 1,099
Use it up total 77
Net physical things in/(out) +81

CRANKY40

TC77 said:

@CRANKY40 downsized in 3 months .... please come and help!!  

The problem with my decluttering before we moved is that we still filled this place to the brim when we moved in. Various things have been added by shoving them into drawers and cupboards but I still have 2 cupboards downstairs that I know I put things into but I've never really looked to see what they are and we've been here 11 years next month!

I did another drawer in my bedroom yesterday. 20 things removed - a couple to my sister's pile (to take home when she comes in June), some to the charity shop bag, some to the recycling bin and a couple to general rubbish. I did go outside in the afternoon to do some weeding and I planted up some violas and also some saxifrage which (shamefully) was still in it's garden centre tray from last year 😶. 

@Brambling our cat can be a bit fussy with actual catfood but her favourite things are bacon, cooked chicken,  doner kebab and ham. She is also very loud when telling people that they should share with the cat. 

You're right @Mrs_Salad_Dodger, the cat's real name isn't Greedyguts but she ignores me even if I use her proper name unless I have food that she wants. She comes if my son calls her but then she's his cat or he's her kitten (grew a bit bigger than she was expecting though).  

Take care all of you 😊

QueenJess

YBR said:

sqwiffy said:

Hi YBR, I'm fairly new and everyone has been very welcoming although lots of people seem to know one another very well. Sounds scary to downsize but I guess it's true that we fit what we have as they more space you have, the more you fill I think. You could always approximately see how much smaller your place will be to see how much you'll need to reduce. If you're really reluctant to get rid of, you could pay for storage for some, then if it's not missed get rid of it and the fees you'll be paying!

We definitely have let our stuff accumulate to overwhelm the space available! Over the last few years, since Dad died, Mum's been trying to reclutter his accumulations (recluttering = her decluttering into my house) since she can't bear to dump "perfectly good" stuff. Sometimes it's hard emotional work for us.

We've seen and measured the Manse, and have a scale drawing, with scale furniture pieces to move around, so have a very good idea we won't fit in as we are. Doesn't seem MSE to be putting stuff in storage so am trying to plan ahead, but thanks reminding me of the option.

Just taken a cot and dolls house to a charity shop, so on to the next step shortly.

I second this... your stuff expands to fit the space you have.  I upsized from a tiny starter home to one that's more than twice the size and it felt so huge when we moved in.  At the time I thought that if we ever fill this house then we have too much stuff and that thought has never left me!  I did have 2 kids post that time, but still... there is never any need for a house bigger than the one I have.  I now aim for every drawer and cupboard to be half empty so I can get everything away easily, but it did take me a few years to downsize my stuff to this level. It gets easier the more you do it... just focus on the end goal

ionafan

YBR said:.

We've seen and measured the Manse, and have a scale drawing, with scale furniture pieces to move around, so have a very good idea we won't fit in as we are. Doesn't seem MSE to be putting stuff in storage so am trying to plan ahead, but thanks reminding me of the option.

That's a good start, @YBR  - I have always used scale drawings when I've moved (or even just done a big furniture shift within one room): it saves lots of frustration later!

Dana K White on YouTube (if you're googling, don't forget the K in her name) suggests asking a removals company how many packing cases they would expect to be filled, on average, if you were moving **from** the smaller house.  Then you buy/beg/borrow just that number of boxes, and anything that doesn't fit into them will have to be decluttered before you move.  Start packing only the absolute essentials and things that you deem most important.

The robins are very busy this morning, Mrs SD