2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

Brambling

Sorry I've been missing I ran out of steam and put everything on hold including working on friends flat at least until our local authority can sort a permanent placement. I understand why she isn't a priority, she is safe and looked after she just isn't happy with the location however I'm the one who is constantly complained to and running around for her.

I have dealt with some financial frogs, moving money about for home improvements, some of the money was declutterred this morning when I paid the deposit for replacing all my back windows, back door and putting in French doors to replace the dining room window all at least are 35 years old. I have dithered for quite a while on the French doors and have had a 'just do it moment', I know I'll regret it if I don't. The guy coming around lunchtime to complete a survey was the incentive to tidy the rooms he was going to need to go into 🫣 and the bathroom got a good spring clean.

Plasterer and decorator are booked for September so I'll need to sort and clear the lounge / dining rooms for them. So a swift kick up the bum is needed however even with the new hip I'm not that flexible!

I've started getting together stuff for a tip run and this one is for me

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

Monday continued: DH went from deciding to clear a space for the new BB to be set up to deciding to decorate the entire area shown in these pictures 😉 

We now have furniture scattered around & DH spent several hours sugar soaping & rinsing the walls & ceiling. However it has been so long since we last decorated that another session of sugar soaping & rinsing is needed. One good thing that came about was that we found a couple of large tins, 2 small tins & 3 glass jars of exceedingly out of date cassoulet which we had completely forgotten about 😬 & have now been binned (921 - 927) Dinner for DH & me was trout & boiled new potatoes whilst DSis had pork ribs in a BBQ sauce. Wudupa

928 - 929 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans - recycled 

930 - 931 Kitchen & lr detritus - binned

We finally had some rain at 21:00 for about 30 minutes + then another couple of short showers before midnight.

dND, great work 👏 after all, 2026 is “Our Year of Redistribution” 😊 Loved This “If the item isn’t where you first look, once you find it, out it there, as that’s where you’ll look for it in the future. 🤣” brilliant 🤩 Excellent work in the garden 👏 Although how annoying that there is so much ‘junk’ hidden in the hedge/brambles 😖  Fingers crossed that there isn’t too much of a delay on the building work/solar panel installation 🤞

Great decluttering Florenceem 👏 Pleased to hear that you have replenished your sweeties 😊 Hopefully you can sort out a tv & dvd player at a reasonable price 🤞

Lovely cheerleading Yorkie1 ☺️ Excellent work on the allotment 👏 please take care not to injure yourself 🙏

vulpix, Yippee to the work on the front garden being completed 🥳 Sounds like J has done a great job 👏 Any chance of a photo 🙏 Good luck with your continuing clearance of the back garden 🍀

Dizzycap, thank you so much for popping in & putting our minds at ease ☺️

Lovely to see you Brambling 👋 Sounds like you needed a rest from working so hard on decluttering/working on your friend’s flat 🥹 Excellent work dealing with financial frogs 👏 How exciting that you are waiting the start of a major building project 🥹 Good luck with your preparatory decluttering & reorganising ready for the plasterer & decorator 🍀

There have been a few more short light showers since midnight. Just seen the time so I am off to bed. Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅

DSis Awards:

Decluttering Target 2026: 931/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £226.61

QueenJess

There's something lovely about listening to the sound of the rain on the trees. Plus no watering the garden for me for a while!

I've been encouraging DD to use her stash of colouring books as it's a struggle to fit them in the drawer. As a result, lots of pens have been used up and she can fit them properly in her pen pot now.

6 - pens used up
4 - DS tat binned

New total 1,306
Use it up total 390

Willowtree222

Tackled the cupboard of doom (again)

Two bin bags left. One sent to the charity shop and one that wasn't savable. A box of paperwork also recycled or shredded.

vulpix

Brambling, is this your friend who was in hospital? Well done on biting the bullet with the windows.

Ace work willowtree.

Floss, I have been buying perennials at great expense for a month or so in pinks and purples. I also have plants I brought from the last house in pots, not many as the other garden was a shade garden and this one is full sun. I also need to collect some plants that a lady has potted up for me. She kindly offered her excess on fb. They will be a drop in the ocean. There was quite a big garden hidden under all the jungle. The plan is to buy a few more plants every month so I have lasting interest through out the year. The gravel circle which was for a sun dial and pots of water lilies is under review. The stone that arrived is very nice but much bigger than the sample at the builders yard. Cobbles more than gravel. I might go through it at my leisure and pick the biggest stones out so pots will sit flat. There are a few stepping stones of left over reclaimed stone dotted about which will in time I hope will have plants growing around them. I think the hard landscaping will weather quite quickly. You must come and see when you are over my way, the road is open again at long last.

Mrs SD, I will take some photos. I am full of great intentions in the photo department!

There is a lull in the drizzle so i am off to make a start in planting up. Heavy rain forecast tomorrow so all the better for newly planted plants.

Vx

dND

@vulpix Nature is a great helper.

This was the front garden in June 2024.

The first half of 2025 was lost to mobility issues and the second half was mainly the back garden and completely overhauling the spare room so DS2, my American son, had somewhere to sleep. I did manage to put in a narrow border with some cavolo nero once they'd backfilled behind the new wall, in July 2024.

This morning it looked like this.

Nature has been kind and gifted me lots of foxgloves and aquilegia. I'd bought a few small memory plants to grow on, for departed cats, and then some rescued plants, (cheap) from garden centres and shops plus some plants that I found around the garden. Gardens evolve and are never finished in my world but I'm so glad I remembered to take the before photos. 😁 I'm really looking forward to seeing your garden - and other people's too.

L1dl was kind to me today and actually had the compost back in stock. As it goes out as fast as it comes in, I grabbed 7 bags and they will be unloaded this afternoon or more probably tomorrow depending on the weather. Then I'll be able to continue with the raised beds and the repotting that I still need to do. It will keep me out of mischief for a while at least. 🤣

It's so good to see people checking in, it made me realise just how much of a community it is here. So many thanks again @Mrs_Salad_Dodger. ⭐⭐

Amazing work on tidying and decluttering is being done by so many so well done to everyone, especially as for all of us, RL keeps interrupting and we have to find ways to deal with everything thrown at us.

I'm going to see if I can make it down to the greenhouse before the next squall hits; I have tomatoes and chilli/pepper plants that need tickling as it's cool and windy so not many pollinating insects about today.

Hugs to those who want and love to you all. Dxx

Deb4

Hi everyone been missing again 😔 I have been reading but just haven't posted.

I have done some decluttering in that time, last week it was mainly money with it being half-time, back to school yesterday and the 1st thing i did was just sit in the living room with no TV or any of my devices and it was very nice with the quiet.

Some DS's school trousers had some holes in them so I made 3 pairs in to shorts, pretty pleased with myself.

I had some old books on freegle and someone messaged yesterday around 230 saying see you soon but no one turned up then at 730 the door bell rang and it was this person coming for the books.

Tesco have a recycling bin for old printer cartridges so I need to sort them out.

I have sold some bits on ebay and vinted last month, more of it was over the weekend with it being payday.

Trying to sort the dining room table it's got some of craft stuff on, my OH's is doing a jigsaw and it is a dumping ground for everything else 🙃

Hope everyone has a good day

GrannyKate

@dND - garden looks great. Things not going according to plan but think I have Friday to myself to catch up. Just totting up what has been done. DS2 spent Sunday digging out the pathway beside the front drive. After 30 minutes we went and bought a jackhammer. Loads of concrete and the soil was rock hard. About 10 box loads pebbles laid on weed membrane. A few more bits to finish off and some more pebbles to come. I'll post picture when finished. I have lots of rubble to find a home for.

539 Path laid

540 Large pile of earth to dispose of but neighbour knocked and asked if her sister could take some so she took a large bag full

541 Large piece of tree branch sawed up and taken to tip

542 Two bags of garden rubbish to recycling

543 General tat from garden and shed to rubbish

544 Money decluttered to buy jackhammer

545 Money decluttered for two fillings

546 May banking done

547 Bedroom 3 door adjusted to fit over new carpet. More money decluttered.

548 More shrubs trimmed and things cut back to fill recycling bin

Like others on here I inherited a garden completely out of control and with random things and chunks of concrete everywhere. It is a slow process but I will get there. Meeting this morning and I just got inside before the monsoon came. Hopefully the garden will still be wet when I get time to dig at the weekend.

dND

Ooh, looking forward to your before and after photos @GrannyKate . I does leave you with so much difficult stuff to declutter though, doesn't it. Difficult because it's either cumbersome or local tips won't accept it. Dxx

Florenceem

I had my J here this morning - he thought he was only going to be fitting back the door furniture. I showed him where the paint needed a second coat - bit that builder J fitted. When I went back in the room - J was giving a door a second coat as he thought it needed it. He was only here just over an hour. I will ask him to come here on Friday to help move furniture.

I put the shoe rack and my shopping trolley & bag in the kitchen so the hall was empty for the sofa men.

I was tracking them and it did say about phoning when they were an hour away. I got a call - we can't find you so I said if you are following the sat nav - I am not surprised - they were in the right road but not at my house. I had put 2 cones out to stop people parking but their lorry was too big to fit there. If I had put the cones further apart - it was likely that someone would have parked in the gap. My cones are back in the alley for another time.

Before the men arrived - I had a measure up in my craft room and decided that the sofa would be too big for the space. So I decided to have it put upstairs in the lounge. I had planned on buying a 2 seater sofa for the lounge as the furniture that I have is not enough.

The sofa is not the magenta colour that I thought it would be - it is more on the pink tone. I don't know if it was the flurescent lighting in the showroom when I chose the colour. I will pop into the store and have another look at the fabric swatch.

The men put the sofa in the space I had but it can't stay there as viewing tv on the wall would lead to neck strain. The chaise longue will have to go on the opposite side of the room to what I had planned because it is left facing when I uncovered it. The sofa and foot stool are covered up now and will stay so until the blind is fitted next week.

So I have had a day at home.

Lots of rain here overnight and some during the day.