2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

SpikyHedgehog

Sorry for having been away for a while! I browse MSE on my phone while doing other things, like making sure the food doesn't burn or body doubling people. And I'd got in a habit of browsing less useful stuff instead... Resolved to stop that! Either useful and feel good browsing, or go and do something more interesting instead.

I wasn't going to put out the blue (recycling) bin this week, as there wasn't much in it. But luckily I got up in time to put it out on Tuesday, as it's the last time the blue bin was emptied on the old recycling system.

Leaflet from the council which says what goes in what bin is stuck to the back door, as the bins live just outside. Tetra packs can be recycled again, hurray! And glass can go in the blue bin now as well, so I've emptied the glass recycling bag from the car. And realised the bag was falling apart, so that's gone as well.

I bought some plants from the supermarket earlier, and have just done some work in the front garden. The compost in my oldest compost dalek is nice and usable now. I put a top dressing of home made compost on the big flower pot by the front door, and added some sweet pea seedlings from supermarket so they can ramble up the trellis I put in for the ivy.

Then planted a cosmos, osteospermum and a Veronica into the bed. They got more home made compost as well. Then I sprinkled 2 packets of seeds around - 1 wildflower mix, 1 cornflowers. Both from the pile of seed packets that I don't know when I bought... The asters I planted the other day are starting to come up nicely.

My neighbours have many cats who believe my garden spaces are litter trays. Elder Son recently (bought himself some new tools that he wanted to try out) cut back the well overgrown buddleia and I've been using dried out sticks to poke into the ground as cat deterrents. I bought some children's windmills from a different supermarket which do the trick very well! But I'm not going off in search of more windmills (in case I buy many other things I don't need...) so the sticks will do.

Green_hopeful

We are about to declutter two bbqs. We opened them up to cook and they had rusted through. We think one is 26 years old and the other is 20 years old. They don’t owe us anything. One could be used on half because the rust is on one side but it’s generally pretty grotty. We are going to take the bbq bits out use them for plant staging. Our scrap man will take them. We are looking for a folding bbq so we can store it in the garage in the winter.

We have an Eufy vacuum cleaner that hasn’t worked properly for ages. Eufy told us to take it back to Argos for a refund. Argos say to take it back to Eufy. So just trying to get Eufy to take responsibility for it. All feels very circular. We have replaced the Eufy with a dumb second hand one because I can’t face a smart appliance.

Yorkie1

Ran out of steam on the allotment after putting up the bean frame (but not also the beans!) and watering. Perhaps I'll manage to get up earlier tomorrow.

I agree with the outdoors drying. My drain is currently blocked, so the discharge from the w/m and d/w is going onto the concrete behind the house. At least it's clean!!! Plumber booked for next week, but it's only a year since I had them out before, for the same reason. After being in the house for 15 years and no problems. All very odd.

My friend got an air con unit in their living room and bedroom, @suzeesu2000 - as the heat makes her asthma worse. It's definitely been a god send the last couple of summers.

Florenceem

Weighed myself - put on a pound.

Excited - first time since January that I have been 9 stone 1 lb. I have done less steps this week and keep nibbling - apparently nuts are high in calories.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Daily To Do List - written the night before
2. Sort out sleep patterns - initial targets: bed by 03:00, up by 10:30
3. Don’t put it down, put it away + deal with mini tasks as soon as they are noticed e.g. refill olive pourer or salt cellar, stitch up a hole in a garment etc.
4. Commence ‘Operation Financial Frog Tickling’ using the acronym - I.R.I.S. (Identify, Research, Implement, Sign Off) - One per quarter
5. Continue to keep kitchen clean & tidy - before going to bed
6. Plan & Execute ONE Major Project - 2026 New Bathroom
7. Target 2026 items out

Saturday continued: very lazy day (what’s new🙊) - knitting & watching TV. Although I had a long bath late afternoon. Dinner was chicken fried in a little oil, boiled new potatoes & green beans. Wudupa.

880 - 882 Kitchen & office recycling, drinks cans - recycled 

883 Kitchen detritus binned 

Excellent work Soontobeoap 👏 Sounds like you have made a good start to your garden bench restoration 😊

Excellent work in the large RoD Florenceem 👏 & what a bonus finding your dear dad’s war medals 🥹

Excellent work TC77 👏 You have been busy on the hottest day of the year, so far 🥳

suzeesu2000, I used to love the heat…. the hotter the better. Now I am happy with low to mid 20s because I can actually move about & get things done 😉

I will catch up with the rest of the cheerleading tomorrow 🤞 Sleep tight 😴 

MrsSD Awards: 💐 🙏💐💐🌟⭐️❤️💐💐⭐️💐❤️ ⭐️🎖️🥇 

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2026: 883/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £165.11

GrannyKate

It was quite overcast here yesterday at times but still very hot. Neighbour assisted with cutting back the first ten feet of the hedge between front gardens. It was bent over and damaged largely as a result of van drivers jumping on it to get out of van over many years by the look of things. Original boundary posts are there with some tension wires. We considered a fence but neighbour suggested a simple laurel hedge would put back the greenery but would be easier to look after - current hedge is a tangled mess of different plants and mostly dead in the middle (ps I did check and there are no nests in the current hedge). The shrubs in garden have much the same problem and have never been pruned so middles are all dead wood. Neighbour also had a go at the stubborn stump but got stuck with 5 inch thick root going under lawn. Need the chain saw which I did not have (at DS2's but no idea where) - neighbour messaged to say his friend has one and he will bring it tomorrow.

I went to diy store and got new secateurs, watering can, plants, ant killer, compost, some gold metallic paint (to repaint number on house number sign), heavy duty bin bags etc. Used £10 off voucher. Starting a collection of empty pots on the lawn to sort and cull.

500 Recycling bin filled up with weeds etc

501 Trip to tip with neighbour with two large bags of hedge

502 Random items from around the garden binned

503 The rest of the potatoes planted out

504 Cucumbers and strawberries planted out with new Hosta plant in empty tub.

505 Both lawns mowed

506 Old watering can binned - I realised it had tiny holes in the bottom - new cheap one bought

507 Secateurs binned and replaced

I do have some paperwork to do - perhaps this afternoon. I sent birthday money to DGD1 who is 19 tomorrow - they had gone shopping for horsey stuff. Keep cool everyone. Sorry about your loss Mr and Mrs SD.

QueenJess

So sorry to hear of your loss MrsSD.

Given it's soooo hot, I've finally caved and switched my winter and summer wardrobes around. Took the winter coats out of the downstairs cupboard and put them in the wash, washed my duvet (need to do the kids ones still) and arranged my wardrobe so I can see which items I use/don't use for the summer.

Not much decluttered, but slightly more organised at least.

1 - pencil used up (binned)
1 - DS tat (charity box)

New total 1,265
Use it up total 379

oceanspirit

Been unwell with a lurgy for the past couple of weeks so behind with reading the thread. Managed to read and delete some emails yesterday as there are over 400 unread again - it doesn’t take long for them to build up.

A bit more shredding done. Have had to pull out of house purchase for a couple of reasons, one of which is totally bonkers but there is nothing I can do about it - it’s just the times we live in when there appears to be no place for common sense.

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

1. Daily To Do List - written the night before
2. Sort out sleep patterns - initial targets: bed by 03:00, up by 10:30
3. Don’t put it down, put it away + deal with mini tasks as soon as they are noticed e.g. refill olive pourer or salt cellar, stitch up a hole in a garment etc.
4. Commence ‘Operation Financial Frog Tickling’ using the acronym - I.R.I.S. (Identify, Research, Implement, Sign Off) - One per quarter
5. Continue to keep kitchen clean & tidy - before going to bed
6. Plan & Execute ONE Major Project - 2026 New Bathroom
7. Target 2026 items out

Sunday is set to be another scorcher with a high of 30°C (feeling 2° warmer because of an ENE wind) & a low of 15°C We are attending a birthday barbecue at my cousin R’s new place in Hertfordshire which is forecast to have similar temperatures. DH had a bath when he got up & all 3 of us are in the lightest clothes we have. We are setting off about 12:10.

Lovely to see you SpikyHedgehog 👋 Well done getting your plants in the ground & saving money by using home made compost 👏 Thanks for the tip re keeping cats away 👏 I need to try something to keep several neighbourhood cats from using my garden 🤞

Green_hopeful, good luck finding a folding barbecue to replace the 2 grotty barbecues 🍀 + I hope you can sort out a replacement for the broken vacuum cleaner 🤞

Yorkie1, fingers crossed you can get the beans planted before it gets too hot 🤞

Florenceem, congratulations on the slight weight gain 👏

Hope everyone has a great day & manages to find ways to stay cool.

MrsSD Awards: 💐 🙏💐💐🌟⭐️❤️💐💐⭐️💐❤️ ⭐️🎖️🥇 

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2026: 883/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £165.11

Yorkie1

Blimey @GrannyKate I'm tired just reading your list!

Sorry to hear about your house sale @oceanspirit and I hope you feel better soon.

Was at the allotment before 9am this morning (will catch up on my church service on Y0*T*be later on instead.

The beans are planted 😎 (well, those for whom there was room on the frame!), as are the dwarf beans. My bean frame is essentially the shape of the ladies' gymnastics asymmetric bars, where there is a waist-high horizontal bar and then one at ground level a few feet away. Uprights for the horizontal bars to be attached to, and a final horizontal bar at ground level underneath the waist-high one. You then run strings from the ground-level one, up and round the waist-high one, and tie it off on the high-level one. The beans are planted in the ground next to the ground-level pole, and grow up the string. it takes far longer to put up, but means you can harvest the beans far more easily, and grow stuff in the ground underneath the sloping strings (the dwarf beans this year).

Potted up my tomatoes, peppers and cucumber in the greenhouse.

Was going to plant out my purple sprouting broccoli, but the compost was too wet so it wasn't holding together. Will try again in a couple of days when it's slightly less hot.

Now home and eating a sandwich. The garden is in a shocking state (I think the flymo may resign …!) but it's in shade later in the day so I shall see whether I'm able to make a start then.