2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

grandmanerd

I'm reporting this now and will try to catch up later. Last Saturday, Mrs Builder came (she now does my cleaning). In her first hour she restored the kitchen and shower room to order and for the second I told her that we were to empty a 4 x 2 Kallax cube unit and get it under the sofa bed (they keep making the slats thinner and I was worried about it not being strong enough). I said if we didn't manage to finish DS3 would help me finish the job (his Beloved went to her friends' for the weekend, he stayed home because he was unwell.

All the boxes were taken down and moved to the other side of the room, Loose items were gathered into boxes/ trays and are piled up everywhere. We levered the unit out of the corner, turned it on its side and then onto it's back. Mrs Builder held up a corner of the bed and I slid it in with my foot. I thought we might need to put cardboard on top but it fits perfectly. There was room at the foot for a couple of boxes of seasonal decorations.

She made up the bed with proper sheets, my wedge pillows were added and a couple of side sleeper pillows which I'd put into pillowcases earlier.

After she'd gone I had a shower, washed my hair and ate. I sat on the couch and did a lot of extra care to any dry/ sore patches. On Sunday I could barely move, Monday and Tuesday I managed to walk like a penguin but I've slept for most of the week.

I'm loving having a firm cosy bed and my sleep has improved but still very tired (think I still haven't got my supplements right - I feel a bit out of balance). However 'whispering with my fingers crossed' I may finally have left the lurgy behind. I still haven't been outside.

I'm awarding myself 10 points for the bed (there are bin bags etc to be noted but I really want the bed points). Now to tackle the enormous pile of presents to be handed over to those family member who are newly returned from a month in Australia (with stopovers in Singapore and Bali).

GrannyKate

Back home with a few jobs done - car cleaned, hair done, tip visit, SM visit etc.  I got a step ladder from The R shop yesterday - it is taller and has a bar to hold on to and a paint hook - much safer than the old one which can go I think.  I had three sizes at old place but never considered when decluttering two that my new bungalow has much higher ceilings and the one I selected to keep is not much use here. 

123-4 Two black bags of wallpaper to tip
125-6 Two bags of plastic to SM
127 Car cleaned
128 Stuff printed off for DS2
129 Birthday gifts and cards given to DS2 who's birthday is while he is away
130 Boot stretchers have gone into bag to collect next time for DD - DGD1 uses them for riding boots

I realised I have started on 2026 Project 3 as I am stripping hall at the same time as bedroom 3 (Project 2).  Neither the electrician nor the plumber have got back to me.  Will chase them next week. 

vulpix

Yesterday I varnished the radiator shelf in the hall that Mr V made a few weeks ago. Pleasing to actually use up the varnish rather than keep it for years to find when I need it, it has dried up! Also touched up our bedroom furniture that got a few chips in the paint in the move. We are slowly going through room by room, putting pictures up and snagging.

 The plumber has been back to measure up to move and have a new radiator. I changed my mind on the position. Originally I was trying to be economical and just have a replacement but I have decided I am worth it and I can have a radiator where I think is the best place for it.

Well the landscaper came. I was sat in the sitting room when he dug the trees up which were up to the window. It was like someone switching a light on in there. He took all the trees away and we are left with a massive pile of earth, think close encounters of the third kind. He will be back with a lorry with a grab so he can reach over the wall to load it. The garden looks dreadful at the moment,  no worse than it looked before, just a different dreadful.

 I have just wrangled the under bed,bed out. Made it up and made sure everything is ready for our visitors. First time at this house all the beds will be full. I am moving onto cooking next. DS enjoys my cooking and I want it mostly done so I have time to play with the Grandchildren over the weekend. First off cheese and onion pie and chocolate cookies.

 My Mum was / is very make do and mend, consequently so am I. Emptying her house was difficult though as she kept EVERYTHING. Bits of ribbon,plastic bags etc etc etc. A 2 door kitchen cupboard for plastic bags! She wasn't a hoarder but a crafter with enough supplies for projects for the next 50 years. MIL who was a week younger than my Mum was the opposite. Everything had to be constantly replaced and she threw everything in the bin, things that were usually only a couple of months old. She was so wasteful. I hope I  am in the middle,not wasteful and realistically only keeping things for projects which I know will actually happen.

Grandmanerd, Mrs Builder sounds like an absolute gem.

Best wishes to all of you. Vx

QueenJess

London_1 said:

I was looking at the 2026 title of the forum and though what a really good title it was.

' Our Year of Redistribution'  sums it up very well I think, even better than decluttering, although the principle is the same. Repurposing and redistribution of our goods and chattles means that if possible the last place is the landfill tip. I remember my late Mum, who would be like many of her generation, brilliant at redistribution of stuff .

In our house the bin man never got a lot, and of course in those days going to the tip was unheard of, as few had the cars or the petrol to run them. almost everything was recycled ,reused or redistributed.

 Even the ashes from our kitchen range were dug into the garden for fertiliser.
We had a fairly large garden, and at the bottom near to the compost heap  my Mother had a galvanised bucket that held nettles and dandelion leaves in water.It smelt absolutely foul, and was like a thick sludgy like consistancy but she used it as a fertiliser on her roses and chrysanthemums and grew some beauties. Also on the veg garden as a great deal of fruit and veg was grown.

I don't think she was recycling to save the planet ,more to extend the stuff she had as WW2 had left the country with very few spare supplies and nothing was binned if it could be reused.

Fathers learned to repair shoes with stick on soles and 'blakeys steel tips' on my brothers shoes.
My late Father was a chemist, but when he came home he was a Dad who repaired things. My middle brother was very good at mending mechanical things .

This is exactly how I am trying to live my life, although for both environmental and monetary reasons.  I love reusing things and keeping them out of landfill.  Our bin has always been less than half of anyone else in our street despite either having very young kids or more people than anyone else.  But there's always more that can be done and I want it to feel normal for my kids to use things wisely.

I still reuse wrapping paper as my mum also did.  Usually it just needs a quick trim and it's fine.  If anyone wants to look down on me for giving them reused wrapping paper then they are not a friend I care on keeping!  I love hearing about 1940's/1950's eras as I find them fascinating and I think we've forgotten a lot of the practical day to day skills everyone used to have.  I'm saying this though as someone born far after that time, so I have no idea what I'm talking about    I also would not want to return to those times as that would be awful, but I want to pick up the good tips.  I also love all the vintage cooking/baking recipes and have made lots of things from old cookbooks.

I finally went through my salvaged work notebook (made from two bits of cardboard from old packaging, covered in brown paper from old packaging, paper my kids have only used one side of that is torn in half (so it's now A5) and hole punched, then tied together with string).  I had written up and dealt with loads of stuff in there so I didn't need it anymore and recycled.  No need to keep carrying around tons of paper that isn't needed.  I also put some fresh sheets into it, replaced the string that had frayed and broken and tied it back together.  I love I can replace all the bits on it.  Even the string wasn't binned as it is still long enough for other uses (like gift tags).

Digital:
3 - text conversations deleted

Physical:
1 - broken bag (recycled)
1 - DD paperwork recycled
73 - paper reused then recycled

New total 174
Use it up total 108

Wow - just blasted through two use up targets and a decluttering target already!  It was 6 months of work notes I sorted through though!

regnbue

As regards recycling I re-use the plain side of a large cereal box for recording freezer updates.  I list the food item and then alongside I mark off portions using tally marks.

As the foodstuffs get used up or replaced I amend the tally marks.

I like using the cardboard as it's sturdy to write on and long lasting.  Once it's all filled up it goes in the paper recycling.

A list usually lasts 2 years.

QueenJess

regnbue said:

As regards recycling I re-use the plain side of a large cereal box for recording freezer updates.  I list the food item and then alongside I mark off portions using tally marks.

As the foodstuffs get used up or replaced I amend the tally marks.

I like using the cardboard as it's sturdy to write on and long lasting.  Once it's all filled up it goes in the paper recycling.

A list usually lasts 2 years.

Gosh - that's far too organised.  I know that I would never be able to keep up such a list, but admire those that can

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi Everyone Hope your all keeping dry and warm.
@Florenceem sending you a big hug. Sorry you are hurting so much. Take care x
 Decluttering I’ve managed 
2 clothing shoes and cardigan
10 paperwork
1232 emails have new phone but still working through mail never ending
438 photos and videos
I have a new puppy so she is taking a lot of my time.
Take care everyone x

Wednesday2000

I had to declutter some trainers to the bin as I tried to clean them, but it didn't work. I have no idea what I walked in while I was out today, but it looked like thick mud. I realised another bag was frayed so that was binned too. It keeps happening that the bag straps become frayed and the fabric comes off.

I have a bag for the charity shop tomorrow. It has a decorative box, a jumper, a top and some plimsolls. I am going to go and do one more sweep of the wardrobes before bed tonight.

I had my Qigong class today and I feel a bit achy. It is strange as it doesn't really feel like you are doing much in the class, but I must be using muscles I didn't know I have!

London_1

So nice to hear that the reuse and use-it-up brigade are alive and flourishing. I think although I much prefer today for living in, as its a darn sight more comfortable than 70 odd years ago I'm also glad I learned so much from my late Mum and her neighours and friends that has helped me through some pretty lean times.

Streeetching food out mince with extra carrots or oats or lentils if I could find them in the 1960s helped a very broke young Mum of two save towards getting a place of our own I was married 13 years before I had my first new-to-buy piece of furniture, as before then it was second and often third hand stuff that kept us going.

 In our first house of our own, bought in 1971 after 8 years of marriage and various rented places just having our own front door was exciting. I can remember our first night there and the two children being so thrilled that they had a bedroom of their own ,even though it was only lino on the floors and a few rugs, it was a bit echoing but so exciting .

We had two gas mantles in the dining room on the walls as it was an old Victorian bay fronted end of terrace. Sash windows that rattled in the wind, and only a coal fire in the sitting room, no heating anywhere else.

Today I live in a warn centrally heated house with plenty of insulation and double glazing yet back then it was only a dream

 I said to my late husband I hope we have done the right thing getting this place as we were so broke I think even the mice moved out but its surprising what a bit of woodchip paper (anyone remember that ?) and some cheap emulsion slapped on top can do to brighten a place up a bit.

 We were there for three years and in that time only ever had underlay on the stairs as there were two staircases and we just couldn't afford to carpet them  Then life started to improve a bit and my OH got head hunted for another job, and our finances improved so we sold up and bought a newer place with double glazing and central heating where we stayed for the next 25 years. But all my late Mums frugal ways came in handy to get us through the lean times . I wish I had a fiver for every bit of second hand furniture I have stripped and repainted  over the years.We painted murals on the walls in the childrens rooms, and I hand sewed curtains as I didn't own a machine but my late Mum had taught me how to make them. Most of the women in our road were in a similar position in the early 1970s and several sadly had to hand their keys back when the mortgage rate shot up. We squeeked through somehow, and I certainly wouldn't want to be that broke again . 

Today the things folk take for granted seemed impossible back then, owning your own tv (we rented one ) I think it was about 1981 before I could afford an automatic washing machine and as for a freezer well that to wasn't an option I had a fridge but that was all, no microwave or labour saving device, I even still had a ewbanks carpet sweeper for ages before I got a second hand hoover from my ex sis-in-law.

 I bought and peeled spuds and virtually all our veg was bought fresh not frozen.Take-aways were not heard of as I cooked from scratch all the time. But we didn't starve, we survived and both my daughters learned to cook from scratch as well. Learning to live on less wasn't a choice it was a neccessity. Old habits die hard and I still am careful and hate waste of any kind.  If I can't use it I will find someone who can if possible

I don't have to but I still try to use up soap scraps, and put them in a jar until I have enough to make another small bar to use for washing my hands. I still put water into the empty washing up bottle to make sure I've used every scrap. I like to donate what I can to either freegle or a CS as hopefully it can be used to help someone else.
So redistributing things is brilliant and reading on here how folk do it and pass things on is so much better than just binning things

JackieO xxx

littlemoney

I cut off the end of the toothpaste tubes when I can't squeeze anymore out. The result is 3 more days of toothpaste.