2025 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN MrsSD - The Joy of Decluttering

TC77

Mrs SD , we moved offices and wed/fri only days they could offer us.
Too early for me so coffee in bed, but need to sort out how I store things in my bedroom, as existing piles are not relaxing to wake up to.
1714 from yesterday.
Checked yesterday's to do list and realise while I did lots nothing was on the list so alot of frogs to try and get through today or ideally this morning as going out in the afternoon.

TC77

I have a number of french and handmade etc soaps that people have given me, some this year but some probably 10 years old? Will they be ok, some are very pretty and still in fancy packaging so thinking of giving to CS - look ok but don't want to if it good be harmful etc. Could try using myself over time . Ideas?

Taking things off listing and in CS where they can sell them.
Boxed game
New washbag (unwanted gift)
small broken bits - pegs/curtain hooks
necklace and earrings in CS bag  (have a bag for posh CS as they'll get more or some items and one for my usual)
Offered fleece to friend but if she doesn't come back to me will give to CS.
I want more time to live RL and not move things around

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, a couple of lazy days but I had my B12jab yesterday so hoping for more energy today 😁. 

@Vulpix congratulations on the arrival of baby J and hope he is soon out of scbu and well enough to come home and your dil is also recovering well, big hugs

Update on Dsis, she can now get to the bathroom 😁. 

So in the past couple of days I have been trying to sort and empty some of the kitchen units as they will have to be taken out to make room for the new toilet but it has been slow going due to lack of energy and doing other things. On Friday I met up with an ex colleague and his wife who are visiting from Australia. They only had time for a coffee as they are only here for 3 weeks and have lots of relatives to see but it was really nice to see them both again after 20 years 😁. In the afternoon I went shopping for a toilet and a small basin for the understairs. We visited 4 shops. I never realised there was so much choice in toilets 😂. I think we have made a decision but I think I will have to do some careful measuring to check if the basin I like will fit in the space but the shop seems to have deliveries the next day so I will be able to check with the builder once he's knocked down a wall and rebuilt it in a different place 😂. Yesterday I had my B12 jab and had a look at some tiles and other bathroom fittings. So far all that has left is a bag of loose tea that was past it's ub date and a soap dispenser that had gone rusty but I am getting there slowly and every time I go into the kitchen something comes out with me 😂. I also got 4 loads of washing on the line. I should have got them in last night but I had fallen asleep on the couch late afternoon, making decisions is hard brain work for me 😂, and forgot about it until it was dark but no rain so they can be sorted today, although it is foggy atm so they will have to wait until after the sun comes out 😂. The only other thing I have done is empty the bathroom bin 😂.

On the subject of recorders, I still have mine that I played in junior school, I moved onto the clarinet at secondary school which I loved but I always struggled with reading music and the music teacher was very unforgiving so I dropped music completely when I was 14 though I do enjoy listening to music. Recently I have been very attracted to a drumming group that I see occasionally performing in public places and am always enthralled by the bag pipes in a pipe and drum band but I fear the lack of reading music would stop me being able to play the bag pipes, not to mention the neighbours would probably complain 😂. Ukelalies are also very popular around here and there are 2 groups I have seen performing in places like shopping centres recently 😁.

Right time for another cuppa and to find something else to put somewhere else 😂

Hugs to everyone who would like one

1381 bathroom bin
1382 soap dispenser
1383 loose tea
Take care everyone
1383/2025, so far behind target I am really going to have to work hard to meet the numbers this year 🙄

Willowtree222

TC77 soaps are usually good for a maximum of around 3 years dependent on their ingredients. Fresh ingredients are a lot less. They do have oils in them that can go off. It really depends what they were made with but not sure you would know that. They could irritate skin if ingredients have gone off. 

Hope this helps. 

moginstein

TC77 said:

I have a number of french and handmade etc soaps that people have given me, some this year but some probably 10 years old? Will they be ok, some are very pretty and still in fancy packaging so thinking of giving to CS - look ok but don't want to if it good be harmful etc. Could try using myself over time . Ideas?

@TC77. I'd use it myself. I inherited someone's old soap collection, and it was fine. Kept us in soap over 2 years, just a few mini soaps left now. Soap in someways gets better with age, it hardens up so doesn't  disintegrate to mush as quickly. I stacked mine up in the airing cupboard and in a drawer, with instructions to other half where to find it to replace the general use hand soap.
If there are some that smell / look particularly nice, you can put them in with clothes to make them smell nice / they look pretty when you see them?
I can't see that it would be harmful to give away,  if you go that route maybe you could ask at the CS or shelter as an alternative?
** eta. One of the soaps we found had the price on in old money, which meant it was older than me! I wanted it for curiosity,  but I think my mum kept that one herself. Don't know if she's used it though.

Liverpool_Anne

@TC77 I have used some very old soap that I had in various drawers to make things smell nice 😂 but eventually the smell was gone so they got used. As @moginstein said they were quite hard so lasted longer when in use but I had no problems with them. I would definitely use them rather than buy new to use yourself 😁

TC77

@moginstein and @Liverpool_Anne and @Willowtree222
Thank you, I tried one and seems fine and quite nice but as I have so many giving the french ones to CS as v pretty.
Still leaves me a number but some are unpackaged - probably came in tissue paper etc.
Not done much on my list but cleaned most windows but keeping one for when decorator comes tomorrow - he said he had cleaned inside and out!! I will show him how I clean the inside so he knows my expectations of the outside
I then noticed the skirting and did that side of the spare room, polishing and hoovering so looks respectable. Small bits out, also part of an old hairdryer,  put some new but old suspension folders on site in hope some one can use. 
part finished item from my textile course out
Found more remote controls, think I have 2 or more for each tv -of which I have too many the one I want to get rid on the wall and need help with that.
Brought chair down from spare room to where sofa was.
Generally feeling abit more space and happier.
@Liverpool_Anne I don't think I've made my nos each year but it helps to have a target for me and I wouldn't have done so much without. Maybe count each item - e.g, pair of socks is 2! etc.

vulpix

Thank you Liverpool Anne, Deni and Mrs SD for your best wishes with DIL and baby J. He has had a big improvement overnight which is a relief. He was such a big lazy boy 9lb 9oz, he didn't want to put any effort in. Still in SCBU for the time being.I have been toddler sitting for the last couple of days. Loving it but putting a shift in before the time I usually even wake up at home!

 TC , I would use the soaps. I love a fancy soap. DD1 always buys them for my Birthday. I keep them in my drawers until I use them.  

 Now I have some brainspace and am feeling much less anxious I am going back to read the posts properly. I have only read the most recent just now.

 Vx

Brie

Mrs_Salad_Dodger said

Brie, now wondering if ukuleles are easier to learn to play than recorders? Although I would have thought that they were a more expensive instrument to purchase 🤨

Brie, so many instruments 🤩 Can I ask which of the modern wind instruments you preferred? Your owl is brilliant - you are very talented 🥹

I think you may be right about the expense of a uke.  And more easily breakable than a plastic recorder too.  But I think they would be easier for a inexperienced person to learn as there's less fingers to worry about. I mean there's one hand that just strums and probably 1 or 2 fingers to form chords with the other hand every few bars rather than having to know which of the nine holes one needs to un/cover to get a particular note for a few bars in a row.  

Truthfully I really enjoyed piano but tenor recorder was the nicest for the sound and the fact that it normally is the harmony rather than the tune and that's me for so many things.  Flute was nice too, I really came to hate the piccolo.  

Hope this makes sense to others rather than just me!!

TC77

@ brie , remember 3 blind mice on the recorder and my kids also did this too
@vulpix hope baby J and mum are doing well. Dd1 had a long placement in NICU and SCBU.
One frog is helping dd1 look for non nursing jobs as not been one newly qualified child nursing job she could apply for since she started looking early summer... yet to see guaranteed nursing  jobs appear.. sorry for the moan ..