2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

YBR

Awake early this morning owing to the heat, so I got on with stuff in the garden and 2 loads of laundry on the line before breakfast. By the time DH was back from the school run it was too hot and the pace slowed down!

DH and I gathered a whole load more boxes so the book packing is proceeding.

Also decluttered/packed:

Waterbutts are nested and put aside, 

Bike trailer collapsed, 

greenhouse empt-ish and swept

12 boxes of books packed and labelled

1 bag of books out to CS including 2 out of 3 copies of the same book (why?)

frog: DD2's summer camp booked

frog: guide badge earned last night sewn on DD1's uniform before Rainbows tonight [while taking a break]

Wheelie bin jumped in to make space, inside bins emptied.

More pints drunk than I could count (water)

15,600 steps, mainly through tidying and packing!

Edit: And I'm still far too hot - the promised thunder storms have not arrived so it's still muggy :-(

QueenJess

It's just too hot to do anything at the moment, so lots of time spent sitting around today.  I need the cooler day tomorrow as I really need to do baking and sort out garden stuff!

Some using up progress today though.  I've started ensuring the kids are using things up and DH will be up soon as well!  To be fair, they have all managed to give me things to use up for them and I am looking forward to being finally able to buy the toothpaste I want again rather than using up all of DH's rejects.  I think there's another year of that to go though.

More out than came in today (I did a Buy Nothing pick up, although most of the things I picked up were consumables that will leave the house again).  I just counted all the bags of floss picks my parents gave me and I believe I have enough for the next 16 years....!

1 - packaging reused
1 - crayon used up
1 - colouring book used up (recycled)
1 - freezer stock used up
3 - paper bags I haven’t found a use for (recycled)

New total 2,404
Use it up total 222
Mini kitchen challenge 43/50

Kitchen cupboard/freezer overstock 1/5
Bathroom supplies -/5
Stationery/craft stuff 2/5
Packaging 1/5

wishus

2 magazines recycled - total now 173.

oceanspirit

Everything now back in kitchen cupboard.  Haven’t found the attachments for the gizmo yet.  Finished reading a book - offered it to OH as he may like it.

Doors and windows open trying to declutter warm air.

Floss

QueenJess said:

...  I just counted all the bags of floss picks my parents gave me and I believe I have enough for the next 16 years....!

Those could be donated to a foodbank or homeless shelter....

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

Tuesday late up & missed the coolest part of the 22°C high 33°C & will still be 24°C at midnight gradually reducing to 18° by 05:00 The heat is oppressive as there is not a breath of air. DH had an early cool bath & was tempted to stay there for the rest of the day 😉 I am continuing on my quest to reduce programmes on my TV planner 😅 whilst keeping hydrated. DH had a burst of activity but in slow-mo - trimmed the hedge in the back garden mainly so he could access the wormeries; filled the bird feeders & water bowls; watered the potatoes & lastly emptied the garden box which contains all the bird food & used the builders vacuum to hoover up all the compost that the mice had moved from the compost bin to the garden box 😅 Our mice do like to stay cool 😂 DSis did the evening watering. Dinner was fried pork steaks, boiled potatoes & we used up the last of the salad bits. Wudupa

1131 - 1134 Kitchen recycling, plastic bottle, glass bottle, drinks cans - recycled 

1135 - 1138 Kitchen, lr, office & bedroom detritus - binned 

The heat today turned my brain to mush, so only a bit of cheerleading:

London_1, pleased to hear that you relaxed & put your feet up on Saturday ☺️ The cubed ice cold melon sounds like a perfect treat to keep cool 👏 & as you say a lot healthier than ice cream 😉 The bbq sounds tasty as well 🤤 Ouch to the water bill 😣 Hope you managed to see the Red Arrows on Sunday 🤞Nothing quite like hg tomatoes & potatoes 👏 

Excellent decluttering Florenceem 👏 This “Yesterday I offered to help at SA food bank. I had people asking for steak as I had some to give away 2 weeks ago. Some of our visitors are quite cheeky with what they want and ask for. The food bank is meant to be for an emergency situation.” sounds like certain people are using the food bank for their weekly shopping 😞 Lovely to hear that the Dr was pleased with MrF 😊 Hopefully he isn’t having any more falls 🙏

BridgetTheCat, very pleased to hear that your knee is “much improved” 😊 Fingers crossed that you don’t have to wait too long for your op 🙏

daisy_1571, it was so lovely to spend time with you & Mr daisy ☺️ Fingers crossed that you find something to wear for the wedding 🤞Good luck “restoring order to a few rooms of the house” 🍀

Florenceem, I was exhausted just reading about how much you did on Saturday including the 11,000 steps 🤩 Excellent decluttering 👏 

TC77, Excellent decluttering by both you & DD2 👏 Hopefully once the weather cools, you will be able to plough through your frogs 🙏

Good luck with the bag of papers oceanspirit 🍀

florianatwobob,loved This “DSis and I completed a surprise attack on the cupboard under the stairs. It was a surprise to both the cupboard and us as we didn’t realise it was happening until there was ‘stuff’ all over the front room floor! 😂” Great work 👏

TC77, nothing wrong with having a few ‘INs’ especially as you are still decluttering & have decided that if the new to you items are not used then they will be donated 👏 Pleased to hear that you are still planning to travel in the next couple of years which will help to concentrate the mind on the decluttering & hopefully raising funds by selling 🤞

Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅 ‘Squirrel Whisperer’

DSis Awards: ⭐️ ⭐️

Decluttering Target 2025: 1138/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £228.00

pink_fluffy_sparkles

Morning! I very late to the party, hopefully not too late to join! 

I haven't decided a target yet but I need to do something this house is crazy. 

It's me my DH and my DD (18 months) and stuff is just taking over. Oh and the pet rabbit but can't really blame him 🤣 

I've plodded on with selling stuff on V!nted but sales are so so slow, and im super fed up of seeing the pile so I might just donate.

Hope everyone has a fab day, im off to drink tea and think about my target 

Xx 

Soontobeoap

Welcome @puffy_pink_sparkles .The more the merrier. Baby's bring a lot of extra stuff with them so I am not surprised that you are feeling a bit overwhelmed with it all. Good luck.

One more bag of wood chip wallpaper out for us. The living room is looking bigger already. DH has managed to get it all off of the ceiling and we only have the 2 chimney breast alcoves to go. Problem is that we have to get behind the television ( a small hole was made in the built in cupboards for the lead so we will have to take the plug off to move it) and we also need to remove 2 chunky shelves with 3 inch screws covered in wood filler. Impossible  I think. DH has 2 out so far! 

Of course whilst doing this a lot of stuff has been moved to the dining room so my clutter looks worse than it really is. I Hope!!!!

London_1

Brie I hope your Birkenstocks are still behaving,  and haven't been cast out to the CS  

Golly it's been a real scorcher the past couple of days ,but this morning, Yay a shower of rain that more than watered the tomatoes and potatoes and flowers .

Our lovely patio lads Jim and his young assistant Owen are doing a fantastic job, and despite the heat have been working away really hard.

 I had some tins of water cooling stuff that I got from Home Bargains and gave them some to spray themselves with as it really was too hot to even stand for any length of time in the garden let alone be wielding a pick axe
 (he was removing a stubborn tree stump he found whilst digging the base for the patio out)

DD took one of the dogs (Stan the greyhound) for a very quick walk around the block, she's got him a cooling collar that goes in the freezer for half an hour and that seems to help him.
She returned absolutely exhausted after 10 minutes and the young lad Owen bless him said he's walk the other dog around the block for her.He's such a nice young lad and a real dog lover (he wants to adopt Stan )
This morning because of the wet weather they won't be here until the afternoon as its due to dry up a bit by then but they both said they would come in on Saturday to catch up.Such amazing young chaps and such hard grafters

I'm steering clear of the heat if I can, but this morning it was so nice I actually stood out in the drizzle in the garden just to cool down a bit

Luckily the heat is going to calm down a bit and I'm hoping tomorrow I can go to the Library and declutter some of my books I've read

I hope everyone is keeping as cool as they can, yesterday afternoon I was sitting with one of those blocks that you put into a freezer bag to keep stuff cool.I fished it out of the second freezer and wrapped a tea towel round it and kept it with my all day until it started to melt. I even put it on my feet to cool them down I also had a packet of wet wipes I had in my little fridge that were lovely and cool, so a couple of ice cold ones on my forehead helped as well. Anything that can cool you down without having to use the fan all the time helps my DD has a lovely Spanish fan one of the boys brought her home from a holiday, she sat watching Wimbledon fanning both herself and the dogs with it

Keep cool chums if you can

JackieO xx 

GrannyKate

Morning all - places to be everyday this week and I haven't packed yet for Portugal Sunday.  Children dropped off  very early and I then had to go back to their dad's house to collect missing stuff and something for torrential rain. DGD4 has conceded that it would be a good idea to have a Pac a Mac but it has to be black!  I now have to deliver her missing PE shoe to her school before lunch.  Paid a few bills and going to get some Euros before my next meeting.  I need to change beds etc as DD and DGD1 and DGS1 are staying here Friday night.  Sox keeps going out and coming in wet and cross.  He sits staring gloomily through the cat flap and miaowing as though I can do anything.  I resorted to putting towels in tumble dryer. Grass is pleased to see the rain. 

Both my printers are in 'computer says no mode' although one decided to print something half an hour after I had given up hope.  Tiler should be coming tomorrow but I also have hair appointment, quiz group and school concert to attend.  Today I have a 1pm meeting in town but before that I need to go to school and three other places so I'd better get going.

605 Lots of committee papers sent out
606 Complicated frog completed (this involved reading 10 years worth of old minutes and AGM Notes)
607 Swimming costume binned

I bought new clothes yesterday - a light jacket, swimming stuff, t-shirt and cargo pants.