2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

Dizzycap

Evening all 

Some lovely different types of decluttering going on in MSE and beyond, & it's always a reminding inspiration to exactly how much you actually do, even if it feels like an uphill struggle at times or most of the time xxxx I certainly feel that way tonight, but then when I sit with a coffee; naturally  and recall everything, I've actually done today the list seems to be endless  As a plan of positive decluttering both mentally & physically, I've decided that i'm going to write down everything I do every day and enjoy reading through my achievements no matter how small they may seem to me 

It's be a lovely day of decluttering all the part dead pine trees which ended up being all 6 of them & major hedge clipping inbetween a couple of rain showers. The garden looks so much better & I'm feeling better with much easier breathing this evening whilst babyface has been so excited at playing helper and very happy now that she can explore even more of the large garden! Babyface has been pritzying about as if she's on show at Crufts all morning! I wished I'd made a vid!

Aside from the above, it's been the usual HH basics, putting out the HH wheelie ready to be decluttered in the morning, having a lovely shower in preparation for an afternoon appointment which was cancelled    , filling up the car with petrol & collecting 6 parcels for my neighbour & deluttering them off immediately  , along with cluttering up the washing machine this evening ready for a good wash and a delutter out on the line in the lovely open air tomorrow morning - I adore the smell of outside fresh washing, especially bedding 

I must say, I'm not enjoying the darker mornings & pulling in of the nights, especially as it's now dark by 8pm  However, it does mean that I can now pop to the RM quad locker to post decluttered sold items in my PJ's, if needed and Missy does love a dark night walk - typical hound / hunter  Not many people use the outside automat anymore which is rather strange as it was in constant use -  Maybe the prices have gone up? We'll have to go and investigate later on our late night walk I've got a shopping trolly full of decluttered items which I hope to drop off to the CS early tomorrow morning with Missy in tow along with posting mailagent letters and probably a couple of decluttered sale parcels  Time for a well deserved mug of fresh coffee while babyface snores the house down - She's had a very busy day  Night, night all, and sleep well xxx Ta-ta for now xxxxxx

dND

Hello again everyone, long time, no see. 👋 My brain went on a complete walkabout and unfortunately ended up with me abandoning all forms of social media for a while.  A case of RL – finally realising the enormity of the project I have here and the frailty of my own body these days.  However, I’ve had some long discussions with myself and here I am.😁

I have missed large chunks of posts, and I lot I did read didn’t actually register which was a red flag to me about my mental health, so most importantly, Hugs, Condolences, and Congratulations to those who’s posts I’ve missed.

Thank you @Mrs_Salad_Dodger for your lovely PM which was waiting for me when I logged back onto the forum.💕

@Vulpix, I feel for you, the stresses around moving are immense.

So what’s been happening I my bit of south Wales

Most importantly, DS2, who is now an American came over for a short visit.  He’s one of the lucky Americans and gets 3 weeks holiday – actually the standard 2 weeks plus a 1 week building shutdown.  I’ve not seen him since the beginning of 2016. To say I was over the moon to have him to stay for a couple of days would be a massive understatement.  Unfortunately, his wife only has the 2 weeks of holiday and couldn’t come and because my senior cat, Jewel, needs medicating twice a day, I don’t feel I can leave her to anyone else to look after and travel to the USA.

Because my son was coming, I had to get a wiggle on and renovate the spare bedroom.  I’d built up a fear of painting the new ceiling in the room. It was only once I’d researched it repeatedly and convinced myself that there was no problem if I splattered paint everywhere as the carpet was being replaced, that I could get on with it.  5!! 😱 different sorts of filler were required in the room.  Each one needing sanding back and refilling so it took for ages just getting to the point where I could paint the walls and the gloss work.

It was great getting the new carpet in even though the carpet fitters declined to refit the carpet on the landing that the electricians pulled up. I’d ordered enough underlay to replace the disintegrated landing underlay and the carpet fitter explained what he was doing when he put the bedroom carpet down.  I then refitted the landing carpet myself.

Lots of money decluttered – new carpet, bed, mattress, pillows and bedding.  DS1 came round to help rehang the bedroom door.  The carpet fitter though that we needed to trim the door and they don’t do that but when DS1 and I measured we realised that the most we would be trimming was about 1-2mm so we didn’t bother and just rehung the door.

All was done in time and I had a few wonderful days with DS2. 😁😁

I’ve also been doing bits in the garden and have had quite a lot of tomatoes so while there is still so much to be done out there, I feel that progress has been made.

In the house generally, a lot of sorting has been done and I’m getting closer to deciding what to keep and what to dispose of.  Mainly what’s gone out has been lots of little things but one big item has left; I sold the single bed that I brought from France.  I’ve kept the trundle that went under it as it’s easy to move around and I might end up using it in the lounge.

Sorry for such a long post, I really do hope I can post more often. D💕💕

TC77

@dND lovely to see you and sound a lovely time with your DS.
@vulpix hope the move happens soon.

Feel like the equivalent of a small removal van of things have left my house but still there's enough for a fleet of large removal lorries! 

Took bag to cs, skateboard to community project and electrical and pillows etc to donation hub . 
Found a new cs which neighbours raved about , beautifully displaying things..cam away with a wire egg basket - far too big for the no eggs I eat on my own so put onions in it. I did hesitate but £3..

Decorators hoping to start in the morning so fingers crossed that will go ok.
@suzeesu2000 hope you got the wheelchair sorted and sound like you've made real progress.

StickyTheStickInsect

Two children decluttered back to school, DD went back yesterday and DS2 started his new school today and seemed to have a good day.

I’ve also decluttered a significant amount of money at the Opticians as DD, DS1 and I all have a prescription change and need new glasses. DS2 is upset because he doesn’t need them!

I dropped 3 bags of books off at the local hospital scanappeal bookshop and am hoping that once all the children are back at school I can get some time in the container to sort some more stuff out for decluttering and selling. I need to divide DD and DS2’s bedroom but can’t do anything until a new floor is laid, hopefully this will happen next week and once the room is sorted, I can start bringing their stuff home from the container and sort through it at the same time. DD is happy to sort through her things, DS1 and DS2 less so!

Love to everyone xxx

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, just lost a long post grrr. Will quickly say I am adding 34 to my numbers. Frogs done but took ages and my eyes were tired from too much screen time but they are gone from my to do list 😁. 

I have resisted bringing in a mahogany fire surround and a set of solid wood kitchen cabinets that the builders over the road can't bring themselves to put in the skip and offered me 😂

Apologies only caught up with a few pages but I will get to it now but wanted to say

@Vulpix stunning photo of Shetland

@Muddy_Walker brilliant news about your PIP, so pleased for you 😁

Right off to try to catch up before I fall asleep 😂
Hugs to everyone who would like one

Take care everyone
1247/2025

TC77

Got into cleaning , deep cleaning kitchens sink,hoovering and mopping and just realised I forgot to  join a call with friends. 
So nice floors being clean but dust gers bad within a feeling days.
Hairband, pen and few other small things, and textile recycling 
1575

BlueJ94

Morning all, Happy Friday!

I actually went to bed early last night, i woke up early too but stayed in bed where I still am now wrapped up because its chilly! 

I managed to declutter a set of plastic draws onto a family member, so I don't have to sort a way to get rid of those now!

Im very proud of my decluttering so far, I do have a few things to go through, two black bags to put into the rubbish bins but currently bins are full and not collected until 12th!

Ive been on Vinted looking for jumpers as its getting colder and darker in the evenings now. Im only allowing myself to buy two. As I cant do the one in one out rule on these as I have no jumpers!

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

Thursday continued: Forgot to mention that the household waste wheelie bin was emptied this morning - only a day late 😃 However the recycling wheelie bin was Not emptied 😞 Finally bit the bullet & binned my old Sketchers which were not only very scruffy but also no longer comfortable to wear - 1606

Spurred on by so many of my fellow declutterati dropping off bags at their CS + the news that there is a strike on the tubes & DLR next week, I finally dragged myself out of the house & went into Lewisham. First stop CS & dropped off a large bag of bubblewrap, packaging, bags for life & carrier bags counting as 8; and a large bag containing - pair of trousers, pair of new sandals (bought on eBay - arrived after the wedding & not comfortable), one fitted double bottom sheet - all from DSis = 3; knitted items - 3 long scarves, 2 baby bottle cosies, 5 plaited bookmarks; 4 handmade pin cushions; a fabric hanging shoe organiser; 9 items of jewellery - 3 pairs of earrings - 1 gold & 2 costume; a costume ring; a pendant; a long beaded (pearl type) necklace; a dark metal bracelet & lastly a matching gold necklace & bracelet. Grand Total of 35 items. 

1607 - 1641 Items to CS

Second stop was a card shop to purchase the rest of 2025’s birthday cards & last stop MrS to buy some cigarettes 😔 Back to Isle of Dogs & walked to the P.O. to post a small package. Bus home - all in all I was out of the house from 13:40 to 15:55 with a huge bonus that it was lovely & sunny so the waterproof jacket that I was wearing was surplus to requirements 😅 DH arrived home 16:10 with the good news that he can wait 15 months before booking another appointment 👏 Updated my accounts & then watched TV. DSis did all her washing but used the td to dry everything 😞 Dinner was a recipe from Jaimie Oliver’s new show - salmon, spinach, rye bread & cottage cheese omelette. Tasted fine but my presentation was rather lacking despite following his method 😬 Next time I will follow my own methodology 😉 Washed up & left to dry. 

1642 - 1644 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, glass bottle - recycled 

1645 Kitchen detritus - binned 

Fell asleep on the sofa, so off to bed. Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅 ‘Squirrel Whisperer’ ⭐️ 🏅 

DSis Awards: ⭐️ ⭐️ 🏅

Decluttering Target 2025: 1645/2025

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £379.00

CRANKY40

Good morning 😊

@dND before I forget - our senior cat hated being in a cattery so our next door neighbour minded her when we went away. When the cat needed to be medicated twice a day our neighbour took that on too. Old cat is no longer with us but our neighbour has already volunteered to mind the rascal of a kitten that we have now.

@Dizzycap I feel as though decluttering pine trees is a monumental decluttering moment for sheer volume of the things. I'm glad that babyface enjoyed the process so much.

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger I've never tried any of Jamie's recipes but his poached egg method works well. I had to learn to make poached eggs once as I was widowed as previously the late MrC was in charge of those. I'll bear your omelette verdict in mind....

We have recently made the acquaintance of a young lady who does cross stitch so yesterday I packed up 36 cross stitch related items including some unused kits and offered them to her. I did say that anything she didn't want she could give back and I would find other places to dispose of them but she was very excited and took the lot. I find cross stitch takes too long these days - crochet projects are finished more quickly so are much better suited to my impatient self. I made the number of items up to 40 with things lying around that could just go in the bin so I'm pleased with the number. Total decluttered for September so far is 70.

I just need to work on the yarn mountain now 😊 I'm making an old style chain shopping bag at the moment. My nana had similar when I was small except hers had some sort of rubber/plastic handles and mine is all cotton including the straps. I also need to take photos of some items and get them on Etsy as they won't sell just sitting on my bed 🙄 That may be a job for tomorrow as ds has an appointment at the pain clinic this morning and that sort of thing tends to make both of us tired. 

Off to make a "to do" list for the next few days - I try not to make them daily as some jobs like deadheading roses are weather dependant. The kitten has a raincoat so that she can go for a trundle round the garden in the rain. She wears it without a fuss so I have high hopes of her wearing a spay suit when she is spayed. 

Take care all of you 😊

TC77

Mrs SD , @CRANKY40 and others wow so much going on.
In shock about hidden chaos- in looking for box of bandages etc I have discovered dozens of shoeboxes  and other boxes with papers/ books / vintage/ random things tucked under furniture.  Easy to ignore but now registered. Will be for winter as too many frogs and general tidying before I face those unless I can chip away at odd times.
Sun is out and decorators here so tackling the new parking system!