2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

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

Sunday is a bright sunny day with a forecast high of 24°C & low 14°C in London. Sadly I am not feeling as bright as I barely slept last night - about 10 minutes every hour with about 45 minutes just before I got up at 09:20 ☹️ Guess who will be sleeping on the back of the bike 😉 I have already done a bit of decluttering - 1046 kitchen recycling & 1047 pair of uncomfortable knickers binned. I have my first cuppa & will post this before my iPad is packed away. We will be leaving in about an hour.

Lovely to see you Fizz2015 👋 Good luck with the laundry pile 🍀 Sorry to hear that work is busy 😞 but hopefully it will slow down after next week 🤞 Well done on the large number of steps & uphill at that 🤩  

The next time I post we will be in a room in a pub near Appleby. Hoping everyone has as good a day as possible 😊 Cwtches to all who would like, want or need one 🤗 

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

DH Awards: 🏅 ‘Squirrel Whisperer’

DSis Awards: ⭐️ 

Decluttering Target 2025: 1047/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £228.00

QueenJess

Still in the tlc carriage, which I hate as I am rubbish at sitting around and doing nothing.  Still getting things used up though.  Lots of things in: +16 hair bands, +3 packaging, +1 DD swimming costume, +1 DD dressing up dress, +7 DS party bag tat received

Digital:
47 - documents deleted
43 - photos deleted

Physical:
1 - used up hairband (bin)
1 - cotton pads used up
4 - gift wrap etc used up
1 - sellotape roll used up
1 - Packaging reused
2 - colouring pencils used up
1 - light bulb used up
1 - seed packet used up
1 - pencil that doesn’t work (binned)

Emails: 8
/10 Sunday 6 July

New total 2,245
Use it up total 177
Net physical things in/(out) -581
Mini kitchen challenge 40/50

June - Use Up Challenge:
1. Screen cleaner
2. Packaging
3. Whole almonds
4. Frozen candied orange juice
5. Frozen mango
6. Almond milk
7. Floss pick
8. Cotton pads
9. Seed packet
10. Floss pick
11. Packaging
12. Packaging
13. Packaging
14. Stationery
15. Kitchen cleaner
16. Packaging
17. Packaging
18. Packaging
19. Chia seeds
20. Seed packet
21. Seed packet
22. Seed packet
23. Seed packet
24. Stationery
25. Moisturiser
26. Packaging
27. Stationery
28. Stationery
29. Stationery
30. Seed packet

oceanspirit

Drawer no 1 of filing cabinet has now been fully gone through.  There are some ‘matters arising’ that I will deal with this week - I wasn’t expecting to add to the workload so it’s frustrating but better to know about and deal with.

Lots of papers shredded, in recycling or on scrap paper pile.

florianatwobob

Looks like I’m now ‘auntie’ to at least one wood pigeon chick they either hatched yesterday afternoon or today. They’re the light grey blob to the front of Mum’s right wing.  

vulpix

An hour in my own garden today. A massive fern dug up and already rehomed to DD1. It was completely overcrowding a bed and squashing it's neighbours. 2 pots of lavender cuttings taken by DD1 and 2 pots of Philadelphus cuttings taken too. I have potted up a bit of mollis to take with me and earmarked some other stuff I want to take a bit of.
 I have undone and half re knitted a hat. I like it much better the second attempt.
I think I will turn my attention to the under sink cupboard next.
I know you are joking about falling to sleep on the bike Mrs SD but I certainly hope you don't!

 Vx

Brie

interesting conversation with the OH regarding vases.  (vAses?  vAHses? whatever)

Anyhoo.....I was given a present at work when retiring recently which included 2 very nice, small blue vases.  Got them home and OH moaned and said "not more!".  

So today I was determined to tidy the vase stash which lives on the lower shelf of the table by the door.  Everything washed, and shelf mopped of accumulated dust.  Summoned OH to the kitchen where the array was and asked about one vase "do you like it?"   Response: Well I don't do the flower arranging.  So I asked again "But do you like it?" Finally he agreed it wasn't the nicest of the bunch so I said "ok - front room" which means it will go to the charity shop.  

All the others arranged back on their shelf and he enquired about the 2 new blue ones.  Where did I want to put those?  "Take them to the CS!" I declared.  "But I like them!!" he said.  Finally he agreed that whilst they are reallllly lovely we don't actually need them.  

I shall consider it all again in the morning and decide whether there's others to get rid of instead.  BUT I'M NOT GOING TO KEEP THEM ALL!!!!

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

Sunday cont’d: We packed the last bits in the bike, got kitted up & set off at 10:45. Pleasant riding conditions - temperatures just right, dry & not much traffic to speak of 👏 Rode for almost 2 hours (M11, A14, A1) & arrived at the OK Diner on the A1 at 12:40. Very popular & we had to queue for about 15 minutes before we were seated. DH had a burger & chips whilst I had 2 fried eggs, 2 rashers of bacon & about a ton of sautéed potatoes (about 60% of which I left). We had a couple more stops just for me to walk around in the vain hope that I would still be able to move when we arrived at the hotel 🤞 Continued our journey on the A66 with a pleasant temperature of about 25°C which plummeted to 14°over the last 40 miles & was also very windy. We arrived at the hotel at exactly 17:00 with me barely able to move & rather cold 😥 DH made coffee & then texted my DSis. He then had a shower whilst I warmed up & then washed & changed. We are booked in for dinner at 19:30 so are just heading down. Room is lovely & leads outside to a private garden. The following is a photo of the artwork in our room - doesn’t do it justice though:

We each had a bowl of butternut squash & sweet potato soup with fresh warm ciabatta delicious. DH then had haddock in a Thai green curry sauce with crushed potatoes & peas. I ordered scampi, chips & salad which was accompanied by prawn cocktail. I managed to eat the prawn cocktail, a single chip & two scampi (DH had half the chips + 3 scampi) & the rest of the scampi I wrapped up & took back to our room to eat later. One pint of John Smiths for me & 3 pints of lager for DH. Back in our room by 21:15.  DH is listening to  a podcast, whilst I do the cheerleading. However before that I will do my annual animal report 😂 - just cows, sheep, a pony & a couple of seagulls. Small amount of drizzle & just turning dark at 22:06

QueenJess, I just knew that you would find it difficult to spend time in the TLC Carriage doing nothing 😉 However, very well done on trying even if you are still decluttering & especially well done on the June Use It Up challenge & the Mini Kitchen Challenge 👏

Excellent work going through the filing cabinet oceanspirit 👏

Congratulations ‘auntie’ florianatwobob 🥳

Excellent work in your garden vulpix 👏 I am struggling to remember what you planted in memory of bit_by_bit but am sure you have already taken a cutting 🥹 Shame about having to re-knit the hat but it does sound like the correct decision 😊 No joke vulpix, I regularly nod off on the back of the bike - even did it one year when we were travelling through the Alps 🙊 The pillion seat is almost like an armchair so exceedingly difficult to fall off 😉

What a great post Brie 🥳 I wish I had been a fly on the wall 😅 Hopefully tomorrow it will be easier to decide which three vases are going 🤞

All caught up 😊 I do hope everyone has had as good a day as possible. Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅 ‘Squirrel Whisperer’

DSis Awards: ⭐️ 

Decluttering Target 2025: 1047/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £228.00

Happy_Kitties

I’ve still got to catch up reading posts but thought I would do a quick up to date post on totals before I forget.

Neutral items- a lot went out on Saturday. Some things  were like a pack of 6 items but I just counted them as one. Still more stuff to go but happy that a few boxes of things went.

334+ 106 items or units of items = 440 so far (very happy with this)

General items
*246 fridge magnet that no longer sticks and is battered-recycling
*247 BN hot water bottle given to a friend
*248-250 wrapping paper x 3 to a friend
*251 completed shoebox dropped off aswell
*252 lots of cardboard out of the house with the neutral items
*253-254 items x 2 sold on V

I am sure there is more with the general items, I should be better at keeping a list!

TC77

Mrs SD, hope the room is nice and look forward to hearing more about the trip.
So 10 items yesterday, not sure going to get to 50 but counting all I can
10 plants it to pots.
5 bankers files (to CS and bank of things
bracelet,necklace and earrings CS bag,
10 lots of paper (from all sorts of topics) and tidying of papers.
Mum's oldest address book
garden stuff x 2
Item sold and packaged with different packaging (3) 
Receipts
button decluttered to a blouse
46
remembered item returned, 
digital declutter - emails, and audio books returned, other packaging out, 
Rounding to 50 as did a few frogs which I don't generally count.
So giving myself 50 new total 1075
I am noticing small areas of calm, and easier to find things when I open drawers.

@Florenceem hoping not doing vinted gives you more time and that you manage to do more for yourself.
Hoping everyone's week starts as well as it can. and people stay cool as possible.

Dizzycap

Liverpool_Anne said:

Hi again, thought I'd post a picture of what we made at cake decorating. It's supposed to be for father's day even though we all said we didn't want to do anything as E and I  have no father's around anywhere in the family and the other lady J said her daughter would just eat it.it is made with a chocolate orange in the middle so OH and I  will no doubt get to that soon 🤣

Take care everyone 

Liverpool_Anne - LOVE it!    A Santa Footballer which made me smile!