2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

dND

@Liverpool_Anne

Just going to add numbers as I can't stop the post double spacing when I hit return so can't do a list. Apparently there is a way but it doesn't work on my phone or tablet annoyingly.

Apparently you press and hold caps button(up arrow) then hit enter. Not tried it myself though. On a laptop it's Shift+Enter.

I've not posted much, partly because I've been quite tired and not felt up to thinking about writing and partly because I felt as though I was just treading water and not getting anywhere.
But, what I had been doing was the day-to-day bits and bits of bigger things. Finally some of it has all come together and the difference is noticeable. 😁

About 2 weeks ago I spent 4+hours attacking part of the bramble cap on my hedge as I mentioned in a previous post. For 4 or 5 days I spent around 4 hours a day chopping the lump or bramble I had pulled down and on Friday, 7 garden waste bags were picked up on the first of my kerbside collections for the year. 😁😁

I'd also collected up a lot of the wet wood lying around the garden and moved it into the garage to at least stop the water dripping off it. That was loaded into the car on Friday. Saturday morning I woke to a frost both outside and inside the car. 😱 however thanks to the modern miracle of both car heater and aircon I think I've finally demisted and dried out the car interior now. So one estate car load of wood-wormed rattan furniture , an old rotten wooden ladder and various other lengths of wood were decluttered to the tip with the aid of DS1.

We were going to come back and load up a second time but I had kicked off a frog during the week that required a restack and sort of all the boxes blocking my 2 large rooms of doom. DS1 worked miracles,👼 meaning I am able to progress that frog a bit further. He also smashed up a very heavy wooden cabinet that was also at the bottom of the garden and I was able today to move the pieces to the garage to drip dry before another tip run in the future.

In the house I got myself to declutter some of the wallpaper in the dining room. I don't want to do too much in there until I find out the outcome of the aforementioned frog.

Whilst there is still so much more to do, that light at the end of the tunnel is glowing a bit brighter this week. 😁

@Liverpool_Anne Your camellia is beautiful. Mine started blooming in November - it's the warming influence of the gulf stream down here in south Wales I believe. I have always wanted to grow camellias but up until this house I've always had gardens on limestone.

Well done everyone and hugs to those who want them. Dxx

-taff

@ Florence "I have been moaning at Mr F about the mess he has left for me to sort."

I had to laugh at this. I was doing the same to my parents Iwo weeks ago, saying things like, "Well what did you expect us to do with all this stuff?" I brought back about 15 black bags, full of clothes with tags on, new bedding in packets, just loads and loads of stuff..which I deposited at the local sally Army…

"I did find yesterday to be a hard day without my Mr F.."

Hugs.

Yorkie1

Enjoy Wales, @Willowtree222

What a lovely camellia @Liverpool_Anne . I don't think mine is out yet.

I have just decluttered a tin of pear quarters into some pear and ginger muffins … mmmmm!

Will need to do some serious sorting out at home in the next 6 weeks; I will be down at Mum's for Easter and have offered my house to a friend who is visiting from Europe with his young daughter at much the same time. Oh well, deadlines do tend to focus the mind … haha.

Am struggling with my Mum, who is 83 and getting a bit more easily confused and forgetful. She is 200 miles away. I try to encourage her to take steps to avoid becoming (even more) unconfident and hermit-like, but with very mixed results.

She tripped up a step in the kitchen a few weeks ago (since Christmas), which anyone could do. She then tripped while turning in the kitchen last week. Luckily no harm done, except for some muzziness in her head - she won't contact 111 to check for concussion. When I expressed concern at this being her second trip this year, she didn't remember the first one.

She won't think about getting a walking stick. She just says she won't go to chuch this week because there are steps there. I realise it's her life and decision, but it's me who gets the moaning calls daily at her life being boring. My brother lives in Europe with his own family, so I get the brunt of it and I just spent some of this morning in tears, until the work focus kicked in. Sorry for the offloading - nobody else around to listen right now.

Florenceem

Liverpool_Anne - hair like a burst couch made me laugh.

I have had a busy day - J arrived at 8. He got straight on with prepping the kitchen for painting after helping me shift the last bits out of the room. J rubbed down the ceiling and filled holes. J said - I have to wait for the filler to set so I said - you can start on the cloakroom. So J prepped that ceiling then went back to the kitchen and put a coat of brilliant white emulsion on the ceiling after rubbing down the filler. Next he rubbed down the filler in the cloakroom and painted the ceiling. He is very tidy - gets the broom and the portable hoover to clear up any mess.

We had a bit of lunch - egg and chips. I offered J 2 sorts of ice cream or a chocolate wafer but he declined. There is not much of him - tall and slim. I had been supplying coffee and choc bars during the morning.

J then put a coat of paint on the kitchen walls - it will need a second coat. It is a much more vivid shade than what was there - F & B Cinder Rose. My bestie's husband and daughter came to collect stuff for the SA charity shop and liked the new shade - Rangwali.

J went up to the office and took apart the remaining desk as no one had asked for it on Freecycle - he carried all the bits downstairs and out to the front garden. J put the metal bits ready for the scrap men.

So J was here 6 1/2 hours today. He will be back tomorrow at 8.

I phoned R but had no answer - I wondered if he could help J carry the filing cabinet downstairs. R phoned later - he is full of cold.

C my computer chap arrived and sorted out all the electrical stuff that I had found in the office - he took it all away for me. C also went upstairs and sorted out spaghetti corner - so many wires - it is tidy now.

A chap came to collect shelves, freezer basket and incontinence pants.

A woman came to collect a bag of keys.

Carpet store chap came to measure up carpet for my bedroom - the old office and the stairs. I decided to have silver grey in both rooms but said I will have to choose what colour for the stairs. I phoned the shop later to check that he had got it right - he hadn't - he had put down silver grey for the stairs which I don't want. I will have to get to the shop to choose what colour I want - I am thinking lemon walls and a chocolate brown stair carpet.

Next arrival was two young scrap men - they carried the filing cabinet downstairs - took their shoes off without being asked. I offered them the huge photocopier - very heavy beast - they took that as well.

Florenceem

Decluttered yesterday and today - envelopes, paperwork, files, ledgers, wiring, paper pamphlets, book x 8, photocopier, desk, filing cabinet, loads of CDs, old modems, plugs, boxes, old instructions, freezer basket, incontinence pants, candles, soaps, deodorant, body butter, leads, bag of keys, shelves and cardboard boxes.

Brie

@Yorkie1

Am struggling with my Mum, who is 83 and getting a bit more easily confused and forgetful. She is 200 miles away. I try to encourage her to take steps to avoid becoming (even more) unconfident and hermit-like, but with very mixed results.

She tripped up a step in the kitchen a few weeks ago (since Christmas), which anyone could do. She then tripped while turning in the kitchen last week. Luckily no harm done, except for some muzziness in her head - she won't contact 111 to check for concussion. When I expressed concern at this being her second trip this year, she didn't remember the first one.

She won't think about getting a walking stick. She just says she won't go to chuch this week because there are steps there. I realise it's her life and decision, but it's me who gets the moaning calls daily at her life being boring. My brother lives in Europe with his own family, so I get the brunt of it and I just spent some of this morning in tears, until the work focus kicked in. Sorry for the offloading - nobody else around to listen right now.

Complete sympathy on handling mom from a distance. Me here and mom was in Canada and I can't remember the number of times me (& my bros all over the place) kept telling her to always have her phone on the cable around her neck even if she was just getting up at 3 am to visit the loo. Which she wouldn't do on odd occasions like when she went out in her dressing gown to chase a squirrel away from the bird feeder in sub zero temperatures in January and slipped and broke her arm. With no phone of course. She was lucky to get up and in to the house before becoming coyote chow frankly.

Not helped in the evenings when she'd had a G&T. So conversations were "Mum we don't care if you have a drink, but have your phone on the cord around your neck, just in case". "Oh I'm fine!" And thankfully she was 99% of the time. One call in her last 10 years where she did fall and had to call an ambulance. Her biggest complaint was the amount of time it took for the ambulance to get to her (20 minutes, to the middle of no where) and the fact they made her pay for the privilege ($25, about £11).

Then again she did ring me up to take her to an appointment when her knees were particularly bad. I had to remind her that as I lived in the UK even the flight to Canada would be about 7.5 hours so I couldn't get there on short notice.

TC77

@Yorkie1 sending hugs. It is so difficult especially when there is distance. Does your mum have a pendant alarm?

My dad fell.omce when I was there hitting his head on a stone fireplace and refused to go to hospital despite bleeding. Would have been 45 minute ambulance drive to either of of hospitals and then a 4 hour wait. When I explained to 111 eventually they sent a first responder and then an advanced paramedic who glued his forehead. Saying this as if your mum has another fall they may be able to send aomeone to see her at home and assess her and treat wounds.

Still waking up at silly o'clock but went to bed late. Early night tonight hopefully.

QueenJess

Feeling a lot better now, but trying not to overdo it with screens. I've been vigorously decluttering the TV box though - if something is just ok to watch then it is not worth my time to view and I've been deleting it. I've got better things to do with my time. Also, I seemed to be on a bit of a mission yesterday as loads of digital and non-digital decluttering happening:

Digital:
19 - online accounts/email aliases deleted
3 - apps deleted
67 - photos deleted
1 - bookmarks deleted
4 - files deleted

Physical:
1 - dress I don’t like (charity bag)
5 - paper, reused then recycled
1 - recipe book I don’t use (charity bag)
2 - speaker I don’t use & accessories (Buy Nothing)
1 - shoes I never wear (Buy Nothing)
2 - puzzles I don’t want to do again (Buy Nothing)
1 - wrapping paper used up

New total 611
Use it up total 172

Off to make some bread so it can prove whilst I am working this morning.

GrannyKate

Morning all - nothing much to report but thought I'd check in and catch up on posts. DS2 safely back from his trip with slightly less stressful travel home. I got a few bits yesterday including a double curtain rail, some cleaning bits etc. Meeting this afternoon. Will post more later.

213 Bathroom sink and shower drain cleaned - hopefully before they get blocked like last time with long hair

214 Emails dealt with although more to do

Wednesday2000

I'm getting the upstairs of my house deep cleaned this week and the downstairs done next week.

I have a class this morning and then I'm meeting my friend for lunch. When I get home I am going to take everything out of the wardrobes and clean and vacuum and see what to get rid of before the cleaners arrive tomorrow and we can take the bags when we go out tomorrow.😀 It looks like a nice sunny day today.