2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

vulpix

Hi,
Mrs SD, the only good thing about the online Estate Agent is the buyer and seller can message each other through the Estate Agent app. Our seller has already messaged to ask if she can leave the garden furniture. She can leave whatever she likes for me if it will help her be ready to move.
I will message you with the details of the new house for you to peruse.

 YBR, you sound incredibly busy but also incredibly organised. When do you move?

Nice to see you Dizycap.

It is 4 years since we moved to this house today. I only know because we moved the day after my son's wedding and it was their anniversary yesterday. Goodness there has been a lot of water under the bridge in 4 years. Here's hoping for smoother waters in the future.

As the wind has dropped, a little potter in the garden is on the cards. Taking my empty ceramic plant pot stash round the front on the start of their journey to a new home. As the next house has to be looked at as a permanent house, when I have made the next garden I will probably rationalise the plant pot situation.

 Packing and moving the house contents are going to be easy. What will not be easy is packing up and moving the garden stuff and the contents of the sheds. We are taking the 2 half sheds ( like a bike store but half a shed) but the giant shed is staying and needs emptying. Mr V has got rid of a lot of stuff whilst we have lived here but the prospect of moving it all is daunting. When we moved here, we already owned this house so could gradually bring the garden stuff at our leisure. This time everything will have to move all at once.

 Anyway, this won't knit the baby a new bonnet. Vx

regnbue

I read the posts every day but don't really post much.  Here are some pix of last month's trip to Cornwall.

Bucket list stuff ticked off - walking the Causeway over to St Michael's Mount and attending a performance at the cliff face Minack Theatre - difficult to concentrate on the actors when the background is so stunning and ever moving, kayakers, helicopters, seacraft.




I whizzed around on the extensive public transport and on my first day took the bus to Land's End.

As I was leaving I could have sworn I saw the back of someone's head who looked just like a customer who comes into the shop where I work.  But surely not.

As I got to the bus stop who should cross the road in front of me but her sister!  A bit too far away to speak to her but next time they are in the shop I am going to ask them if they were at Land's End in May.

436 miles away from home but you just can't escape some people...is probably what they would think.

regnbue

Also a blast from the past for anyone who remembers Morph, there is Mega Morph at Land's End, not what I was expecting to see.



And a witty sign. 

daisy_1571

Love the pics especially morph  

Vulpix you are an absolute inspiration re moving !

Dxx

Rootle

25/52 - a candle holder, a jumper and a pair of DH's pants to the bin.

QueenJess

Mrs_Salad_Dodger said:

QueenJess, I don’t believe This “…..I was just lazy and did nothing!” for one second 😂 The words “doing nothing” are not in your vocabulary 😉

No, I really did.  No gardening was done, no baking.  I did do one load of washing and then I sat around all day.  Don't feel the slightest bit guilty about that!

There are certain areas/categories in my house where I have more than others and therefore stress me out a bit.  One such category is kids clothes and specifically DD's.  We have hand me downs, free stuff, over zealous grandparents and worst of all is that she currently has two different sizes of clothes out as she fits into both of them.  DD will not allow any of the clothes to exit unless they are so small she can't wear them...  I was putting away clothes, but the jumpers and long sleeved tops don't even fit in the drawer properly, so I decluttered some that DD has never actually worn and I doubt she will ever notice has gone.  A tiny dent in a bit of a headache, but I think the way to win this one is tiny amounts to go regularly.

Quite a few things in recently (I really should stop looking on Buy Nothing so often!), but I have decluttered twice as much, so it is all ok.  Decluttering is much harder when there is a tiny bit lying around as it's much harder to spot.  The only way is little and often... when I am tidying up I always ask if myself if I need everything if it is lying around and also everything in the drawer/cupboard I am putting it into.  It means the easiest way to declutter is actually to tidy up!  I absolutely hate tidying though, so again that is little and often.  I am at the stage where I would not be embarrassed to have anyone round with no notice,. but I inspire for all the sides to actually be clear.  The spot in the bedroom is the worst for sticky clutter and usually is due to a "to do" list of things on there.  It's a work in progress for sure.

Physical:
3 - colouring pencils used up
1 - packaging recycled
1 - medication used up
1 - floss pick used up
5 - DD clothes - just too many tops/jumpers given to us for free (charity bag/Buy Nothing)
6 - toys in gift drawer not needed (charity bag)
1 - packaging reused

New total 2,387
Use it up total 214
Mini kitchen challenge 43/50

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
31. Stationery
32. Stationery
33. Stationery
34. Alternative flour
35. Stationery
36. Stationery
37. Stationery
38. Packaging
39. Stationery
40. Seed packet
41. Seed packet
42. Whole almonds
43. Frozen blackberries
44. Moisturiser
45. Stationery
46. Stationery
47. Packaging
48. Packaging
49. Packaging
50. Seed packet
51. Stationery
52. Stationery
53. Stationery
54. Stationery
55. Stationery
56. Stationery
57. Seed packet
58. Packaging
59. Packaging
60. Sun cream

I'm not sure if I'll be able to use anything else up before the end of June now, but even so, I managed to use up 52 items in June, which is mad!  I think I'll be definitely be keeping a short list of things to use up in future.  Not yet decided what my July challenge might be, although I'm thinking of a simpler use up list of X items from a number of categories.  I still have the freezer, kitchen cupboards, seed packets, stationery/craft stuff, packaging and bathroom supplies which need using up.

ionafan

Thanks to everyone for photos, anecdotes, cheerleading and encouragement.  I always enjoy reading this thread, even though I don't post very often.  It's lovely to have babyface back with us - always up to something!

To my great surprise, and totally unexpectedly, I actually decluttered several things today.  I've had half a dozen brand new flat-packed cardboard boxes in the loft ever since we came here 12 years ago.  They were bought for a project which shut down some 7 years ago (I've got the last bits of the relevant paperwork to shred in December of this year).  Also stuffed into one corner of the loft was a large, empty, zipped tartan bag, suitable for storing bedding (except that it was too big to fit on any of my linen cupboard shelves), which was last used when we moved here. 

None of the cardboard boxes and the bag were in my way; I'd only kept them to use if we ever moved house again, but this year I have decluttered so much paperwork from large plastic storage boxes that I now also have a pile of those in the loft which would be of far more use to us.

Today I met up with a young friend who is currently living in a hostel and hoping to move soon into a place of her own.  Before I left home I rang her to ask if she needed anything, to which she replied: "If you've got any empty boxes or bags, I could start packing my few possessions."  Bingo!  One happy recipient + more space in my loft = very happy me!   Even better, the boxes fitted perfectly into the bag, so she could easily carry them on the bus

Florenceem

I am having problems with this site.

TC77

Woke up far too early and super stressed.  Trying to remember not to eat or have any coffee with milk for 6 hours before my scan later today and dd2 not moved anything she promised. 
Dishwasher and washing machine on- good day to wash my super heavy winter jacket. 
Out broken plant trough, toiletry I can't get lid off, paper x 3 , ood food.
Found a large button box after having sorted hundreds , the box was in my study but I did find the right button for a dress - which wasn't found in other boxes of buttons.
@vulpix sounds like you're good at the packing and moving..I've been in my house over 30 years! 
Seen a house online I like but in anogjet part of london but  if still there when dd2 has gone to aus I may look at it. 
Tidied dining room table and making an effort to sort my own things out. 

YBR

Soontobeoap said:

@YBR you sound very busy. Be careful doing all that work in the garden on the really hot days. 

Thanks, I appreciate your compassion,  I generally do garden stuff in the mornings, so yesterday by 10am I'd done the last little bit of pressure washing and rinsed out the water butts. At that point it was still cool and cloudy.

I wandered round the house and figured out where all the GUn lamps belong. The previous occupants clearly liked surface mount type lamps, but didn't stick to one type. All now labelled up, and some on "Trash Nothing" to get rid of.

I've gone through about 2/3rd of the kitchen cupboards (removals people will pack them so I just need to sort through). Just the remainder of the Kitchen and the Bathroom cabinet to go through and I'll have finished the declutter and will be managing the last decluttered stuff out the door...

@vulpix We move in 6 weeks, I'm still employed (part-time) for the next 5 weeks and we have 8 days away on holiday in that time. I'm not naturally organised but give that impression by having a never-ending list of doom which has everything I need to do against how long before leaving it needs to be completed! (actually more than one list). As an Engineer, I'm good at problem solving and recognising which tasks depend on others being complete, so the moving house "problem" becomes a list of achievable tasks to order, schedule and track.