2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

suzeesu2000

Hello everyone.

Yesterday was super busy but satisfying.

Decluttered my pantry shelves. Very pleased with result as I can now see what I have and everything has a home.

Just have the herbs and spices to go through now. I keep them in a cupboard - I read somewhere that you should keep them in the dark, don't know if thats right or not.

Found a box of mugs we will never use so they are ready to go to charity collection on  Thursday. Decided to get rid of some baking things too as I dont bake anymore. There are also a couple of vases that can go.

There was a big box of Felix cat food on the top of the shelves - Frankie doesnt like Felix so no idea why we were keeping them. 

Cats Protection lady came yesterday and collected all the towels and mattress covers and she came back this morning for the food. 

Disposed of lots of dried foods in jars as they were going manky. jars in recycling.

Not doing anything today as I need a rest before tackling the washing tomorrow - please can it not rain tomorrow, just this once?

have a great Sunday all xx

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: up very late - so much for Number 2 on my list “2. Concerted effort to sort out sleep patterns - Realistic targets: bed by 2:00 a.m. & up by 10:00 a.m.” I really must try harder 😓 & as it is the 1st of the month tomorrow, tonight will be a good starting point leaving me 4 months to get into good habits 🤞It is a bright sunny day with a forecast high of 21°C, low 14°C, humidity 61% & no indications of rain 😊 I am still responding to posts dated the 29th, so will make a start:

Thank you for sharing your decluttering experiences YBR 😊 I was quite amused at This “My mother……. (Having said that she also reclutters into my home).” 🙊 So I am now imagining your mother’s home as fairly minimalist with all her knickknacks etc being stored in your home 😞 Some very interesting observations about the ‘nature of clutter’ 🤔 & This “I also seem to have a vicious circle if it gets too bad: when home is too untidy and cluttered it makes me feel down and overwhelmed, which both drains my energy and means that I can't see where to start, so it doesn't improve. It's also difficult to see the progress made so there's little positive reinforcement.” sounds horribly familiar 😞 I love the tip about putting a small slip of paper in every book to aid in decision making 😊 Excellent work inside & outside your home 👏 worthy of a Gold Star ⭐️ which is on its way 🙂

Brie, I shouldn’t really laugh at This “Had a bit of a revelation this morning.....we got talking about the game monopoly at breakfast this morning (as you do....) and I mentioned that we have it in the carport with a lot of other stuff.  OH was completely surprised by this.  I mean it's not like he never goes in the carport - it's his standard route when he's been shopping and needs to put stuff in the garage fridge.  So he's been walking past this for 6.5 years without noticing. I don't know if this is just another example of male patterned blindness but I wonder if that means he hasn't noticed anything else that is there.  And if he hasn't then I could simply bin a lot of it.  This might include the selection of photos of his dad that were put together on a A1 clip frame for his memorial service.  It would also include a lot of his paperwork from his phd thesis including a huge piles of floppy discs and a defunct laptop that needed them to run.  These things are hard to shift both mentally and physically.” as if truth be told I can be guilty of exactly the same thing 😔 Maybe now that your OH ‘knows’ about the Monopoly, you can ‘gently persuade’ him to spend an afternoon with you working on decluttering at least some of the contents of the carport 🙏 Good luck 🍀 What a brilliant idea from your Art Class teacher 🤩 I would definitely class it as decluttering as excess supplies will be used by their new owners & as you said anyone can try out a new medium at a much cheaper cost 👏 Wins all round 😊

Excellent decluttering suzeesu2000 👏 Sounds like the hard work sorting your bedroom has paid off ☺️ Good luck with your listings 🍀 Hope you enjoy decluttering & reorganising your pantry shelves as you have already made such a good start by identifying the glass jars 👏

BlueJ94, a very impressive start 🤩 Great decluttering & you also managed to upload items to Vinted & all in just 45 minutes 👏 Having noticed the EG bottles & glass, I am wondering if you will be celebrating once you have completed your decluttering/reorganising/tidying of your room of doom 🤔 seems like a suitable reward to me ☺️

Lovely post retiredinfrance ☺️ I love your very succinct mantra “Do not bring it into the house!” 😊 Excellent decluttering & a great start to achieving your next target 👏 Like you I have been enjoying the photos ☺️ my favourite being the Shetland sunset 🥹

Green_hopeful, congratulations to your stepdaughter 🥳 What a good idea to swap the desks 👏 This “I really admire everyone’s efforts in decluttering. We seem to have been doing it forever………… We have also had to clear houses for various relatives as well. That always impacts our house even if its just to sort where to send stuff. We have a couple of reliable outlets. A local charity which furnishes houses for newly housed homeless people and a local upcycler. The homeless charity are great, I email with what I have and they only take it if they have someone who actually needs it but they nearly always do.” is very organised & always wonderful when you can help others 🥹 This “It’s always ongoing but I realise no one wants our stuff so we need to clear what we can now.” is a timely reminder to all of us that not only is decluttering a marathon not a sprint but also that Maintenance Decluttering is a useful tool in our ongoing challenge towards a clutter free, tidy & clean home 🥹 

Excellent decluttering TC77 👏 Very impressed that you have made such a good start to your kitchen decluttering 🤩 You never know as you continue with the kitchen decluttering you might find the lid to the steamer. 🤞

One page caught up & I have completed the cheerleading for posts dated 29/8 🥳 DH has just been to down to cook his very late breakfast & lunch 😉 Hope everyone is having as good a day as possible 🙂 See you later 👋 

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

DH Awards: 🏅 ‘Squirrel Whisperer’ ⭐️ 🏅 

DSis Awards: ⭐️ ⭐️ 🏅

Decluttering Target 2025: 1577/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £379.00

BlueJ94

Afternoon all!

It's been a super rainy day here but I've been out with my mam, we went for a coffee and some food and then had a nosey around some shops. I actually didnt buy anything that I didnt need besides some curtain pole ends and that's it! Nothing came into my home that I bought just for the sake of it.

Im going to pour a glass of wine ( love my wine if you can't tell!) Carry on with making work lunches and then do some decluttering!

wishus

My last total was 228.

Since then, drum roll.... we did a tip run! 2 sacks of rubble, a freezer, an old stereo system, and various clunky bits totalling around 20 items. So that's 248.

Since then I've binned 2 pairs of shoes, 250!

Some things have been added to eebygum, and a big pile of clothes has been sorted for the chazzas from OH's wardrobe. I have to sort mine out now. So the total is 250 for now.

TC77

Had to go back to read @YBR post which was interesting. My kids are resisting me trying to declutter to them! 
Another cd out. 
Washing done as looked like only fine day.

BlueJ94

Me again, quick update. Total so far 44/1000

florianatwobob

The bathroom has been scrubbed from top to bottom…..I thought the bottle of limescale remover was going to be decluttered but there’s enough for another round of squirting. 

Both kitchen freezer and the shed freezer have been audited and contents listed. I’ve booked a food delivery to top up the frozen veggie supplies. 

One chicken has also been decluttered in the form of a roast dinner! 

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 continued: finally noticed that the days are getting shorter ☹️ I watched an episode of The Walking Dead currently watching the last season. DH zizzed up some worm food & filled the bird feeders. Whilst DH went out for a walk I started dinner. We are having the last of the beef from last week’s roast with roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots & sweet potato & cabbage + gravy made from granules 😉 We won’t manage to eat before 19:00 so will settle for before 19:30. Just about to start Saturday’s cheerleading whilst dinner cooks. Dinner was delicious 😋 Wudupa

1578 - 1584 Kitchen, DSis bedroom & office recycling, cardboard box, plastic bottle, drinks cans, glass bottle - recycled 

1585 - 1588 Kitchen, lr, office & DSis bedroom detritus - binned

CRANKY40, what an excellent start to your Saturday 👏 & Good luck with the ironing pile 🍀 I am rather enamoured of This “I've had a think about what clutter problem we're going to tackle today and I'm thinking that the freezer would be a good start. Meal planning has ground to a halt because neither of us knows what is in there. Today we (me & ds) are going to go through it shelf by shelf and identify things that will never be eaten so that they can go out and make a list of what is left. I'm using the "get rid of it and don't do this again" mindset. Freezing bits of things that didn't get eaten because we weren't that keen on is a false economy because there's no room in the freezer now for batch cooking or for bringing the last of the rhubarb in. I'm currently sticking to the food budget (previous overbuyer) by giving myself a weekly amount to spend on me. if I have used the food budget and still think that I want to buy more it has to come out of my personal spends. It's really making me concentrate because I don't want to part with MY money.  I've never thought of taking before and after snaps but I will try to remember from today.” especially the underlined part ☺️ So nice that you have been rewarded for making the hexi cardigans & what a wonderful event to save the money for 🥹 Like Moorviews I found your “reflections on why previous generations kept a lot of things.” very interesting 🤔 As she said “Everything had worth in a way that is perhaps not the case now that inferior materials or even biodegradable materials are used.”

Lovely post Moorviews 😊 I hope your ‘tidy up mission’ went well 🤞This “………For that reason I do have a 15-30 minute pick up and put away/throw away/ recycle session before getting the vacuum cleaner out.” is a great Tip 👏 I really had to smile at This “Mr MV is still of the mind that there is no point in putting something away if you are going to use it later/ at some unspecified point in the distant future! I do ask him to take part now though!” 😁 

Lovely post vulpix 😊Hopefully DD1 brought you back a supply of real Shetland wool yarn 🙏 You definitely deserve to knit something for yourself after all the knitting you have done for other people 🥹 Thank you for such lovely reminiscences about bit_by_bit 🥹 Such a wonderful lady, sorely missed 🥺 Hope you have a lovely time with DD2 ☺️

Well said Dizzycap 👏 & so politely 😉

Welcome Roussie7 👋 Lovely to see a new face ☺️ Very impressed that you appear to have trained your DH to help out with the decluttering 😉👏 Hopefully we will see a bit more of you over the coming weeks 🤞

BlueJ94, after all your hard work you have earned a little rest 😊 Well done on decluttering the parcels 👏 & your brother 🙊

I am flagging a bit now so will post this but may be back later 😉 Just in case I don’t come back I will wish you all a good night. Sleep tight 😴

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

DH Awards: 🏅 ‘Squirrel Whisperer’ ⭐️ 🏅 

DSis Awards: ⭐️ ⭐️ 🏅

Decluttering Target 2025: 1588/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £379.00

daisy_1571

Go to sleep Mrs sd !

 😻 dxxx

StickyTheStickInsect

We’ve spent the week away on holiday, the kids had a lovely time, I need a dark, quiet room to recover!

We got home on Friday evening, so collected the cat from the cattery yesterday, she is very cross about her enforced holiday which is made worse by the new cattery having dogs too! I have tried to sort out all the school uniform bits today that I’ve brought over the holidays, in case I’ve missed anything but having found DD’s missing school skirts and DS2’s missing school trousers, I think we are okay for next week, Wednesday for DD and Thursday for DS2, a new school for him. DS1 doesn’t go back until the following week. DH did some DIY jobs at home today whilst I went to see my Mum and Dad. My Mum continues to get more poorly, we have a hospice visit next week.

Decluttering wise, another bag to shoe recycling, 1.5 bags to the charity shop and 18 bags to the local freebies site for August.

This makes my new total 228/104 (312)

Love to everyone xxx