2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

suprisinglynice

Oh, I've decluttered money by booking a guided ghost walk in October and a day trip to a Christmas market with friends and family in December.

vulpix

surprisinglynice, how lovely to imagine cold days and nights in October and December. I used to enjoy Summer but this heat is Hell for me.

TC, I hope it's all going smoothly with the work on the house.

Drive to the hospital was good. Very long walk to the clinic so I have had my steps in today. Very efficient clinic, seen before time, sent to x ray again as the ones I had done were lost. Back to the consultant and out on the tarmac 10 minutes after my appointment time. I am on the knee replacement list. No clue how long it is.

You will find this hard to believe, we have just chopped everything out of the fridge and chucked it in the slow cooker to make a stew. We are off out again to look at mattresses for the bunkbeds.

Whilst I was at the hospital Mr V went to pick up a garden table I had bought from FB. The previous house owners left us 4 nice garden chairs. Table and chairs are on my renovate list. I just can't help myself Mrs SD. I could get on with it as well if I wasn't wilting about like a wet lettuce.😂

Broken sunglasses binned.

Vx

dND

And I've caught up!!! 😁

It seems that RL wants to keep taking over. But, it's not all bad; DS2 and DDiL2 had a flying visit so we were able to have a day and a half together. 😁😁 I've not seen DDiL2 for 10 years since their wedding. It's rather a long way to California but at least S Wales is more convenient for them than Lot et Garonne; they have so many people to visit when they come over and they want a holiday as well to relax.

They arrived Sunday afternoon and we went for a walk out to The Vile and to view Worm's Head. The causeway while crossable tide-wise was far, far to rough for the footwear we had.
The Monday we went to Carmarthen and then to Aberglasney gardens. So lots of chatting and they departed Tuesday morning for their next port of call.

I was really chuffed to be able to give them a salad from the garden though: I picked lettuce, mizuna, beetroot leaf, chard leaf, cucumber and tomato.

I'm not enjoying the return of the heat as I find it so difficult to get anything done; it definitely effects my thought processes negatively once the temperature goes above 25C. But, the Tour de France is on so I have an excuse to sit and vegetate 🤣 Actually, I will look at the fruit I've picked and prepare it for the freezer as I only have a handful or so of bits each day, but it mounts up over the cropping period.

Like others, I realised that my freezer was choc-a-bloc and there was no place for anything I'm growing this year and have started to eat my way through the freezer. DS2 went vegetarian a year or so ago so I was making food for him as his wife, DDiL2 is very allergic to carrots and parsnips and butternut squash and they turn up in commercial veggie food often under the disguise of natural flavours/natural colour. So I have spare of all that to eat as well.

I still have no news about any works being done here despite 2 emails to the co-ordinator which is leaving me in limbo and the heat means I really don't feel like doing major work in the garden. I seem to have been in this state in some way or other since before Covid when I wanted to move back to the UK. I guess it's my new normal. 🤣🤣

A couple of pictures.

Greenhouse. I was hoping that the luffa would have grown a bit more and given some shading. So far no viable luffas but the toms, peppers, chillies and the cucumber are doing well. The aubergines are also finding it difficult to set fruit but I think one or two might have. 🤞 The sweet potato is beginning to grow out of the door but I'm thankful to say it is far less vigorous than the ones I grew in France which took over a 30ft polytunnel.

And a couple of the raised beds.

The front bed has a second sowing of mizuna and lettuce and a row of beetroot which I'm currently harvesting as baby leaves. It also has a couple of the fiberglass hoops I made from the unclaimed popup thing that arrived on my drive.
The farther bed has my dwarf green beans which are flowering but yet to crop and are underplanted with the mizuna and lettuce I'm harvesting at the moment. On the poles at the back are some climbing green beans, (yes I love green beans), and some borlotti beans, both yet to flower and my sweet peas which are in full bloom.

Still a lot of groundwork to be done in the garden but getting it productive has really cheered me this year.

Stirling work is being done by everyone. Everything going out, no matter how small, is a win, as is understanding why it can seem so hard.

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

dND

@vulpix I do hope your wait won't be too long as I feel you are raring to go on the garden and life in general. Dxx

Florenceem

There was a breeze when I walked into town with donations for the charity shop.

Bestie said to take a gnome to Church so people can put their names on a list for gnomes so I know how many to make. I will check with the corps sargeant major that it is okay to do that. Bestie won't be in Church - it is her daughter's 25th birthday so she is spending time with family. I will get a lift from P who will also take M to Church.

Finished another gnome - Seth.

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

Thursday is so hot already (28°C) with not a breath of air - it feels like a furnace 🥵 The forecast is for a high of 33°C, low of 21°C & a light WSW breeze making it feel 2° warmer 🥵🥵 DSis is really suffering so might not be attending her class today 😞 still TBD….. she decided to cancel & it is a good job she phoned as the course had been cancelled 😮‍💨 but they had forgotten to let her know 😖 that it had already been cancelled  😖 The good news for the day is that the recycling wheelie bin has finally been emptied after 3 weeks 🥳 Usual Thursday - I have written a shopping list - salad back on the menu 😉 so DSis & DH set off for MrS at 13:50.  I will descale the kettle whilst they are out.

1103 - 1104 Office recycling, large plastic bottle - recycled 

BlueJ94, yikes to working in a big metal tin especially when it is this hot 🥵 I see today was more of a spice day 😉

Green_hopeful, I should hope so too - getting you to do his work 😉

GrannyKate, just surviving the heat is a major achievement at the moment 🥵 Well done on not dithering about the office chair 👏 My thought, for what it is worth, is to keep the dining room chair for a couple of weeks whilst you are getting used to the new office chair & then declutter it 🤔 Sounds like a good deal re getting your side paving done 🥳 Good luck with the paperwork 🍀

Nice to see you Pennypincin 👋 Nothing wrong with getting a few books especially as you have already planned an exit strategy ☺️

Florenceem, I hope your bestie is feeling better after your chat 🙏  sending her gentle cwtches 🤗  Good luck sewing up another gnome & finally finishing the airing cupboard 🍀 

Excellent work with the frogs GrannyKate 👏 a medal 🏅 is on its way.

Nice to see you greent 👋 Excellent decluttering all round 👏 but especially the weight loss 🤩 18/26lbs has earned you another Gold Star ⭐️ 

TC77, thanks for the information about the Donation Hub 😊 Everything crossed that the new decorator is successful in rectifying the shoddy work done by the previous decorator 🤞 Good luck with decluttering 🍀

Great decluttering surprisinglynice 👏 Lovely events to declutter money on 🥹

vulpix, very pleased to hear that your appointment went so well & that the clinic were so efficient 🥹 I am keeping everything crossed that you get an early date for your knee replacement surgery 🤞Not hard to believe at all - using up vegetables before they have a chance to go off ☺️ I call it forward planning as I am making a possibly erroneous assumption that the stew will be going in the freezer 🤨 either that or you & MrV are sick of salads 🙊 I had to laugh at This “Table and chairs are on my renovate list. I just can’t help myself MrsSD.” 🤣

I finished descaling  & thoroughly rinsing the kettle just before DH & DSis got back about 15:15. DH put all the drinks & ice creams in the garage fridge-freezer & I put everything else away immediately. Noticed that there was no lettuce, no potato salad & no coleslaw (even though they were on my list 😅) DH has popped out to pick up the missing items from A*da. DH was out about 40 minutes & we have managed to squeeze everything into either the garage or kitchen fridge 👏

I do hope everyone is hydrating fully & managing to find either a cool spot in their house or at least finding some shade if you have to be out & about 🥹 Stay safe 🙏

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

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅⭐️ 🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅

Decluttering Target 2026: 1104/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £226.61

Brie

I'm supposed to be decluttering a 24 hour blood pressure monitor loaned to me by a local pharmacy. But it's so hot I really don't want to go out. And I'm weary from this cough/cold/covid that I also wish I could declutter.

I do think I will need to go out as the BPM has just gone off again. Problem was it was so annoying yesterday when I got it that I was only able to wear it for about 3 hours total. And realised that as we both have this c/c/c that it would keep us both awake if I wore it all night long as it is activated every half hour.

GrannyKate

Evening all - flagging now. Children are in the pool. I fed them and will take them to DS2's to sleep later on. Car service tomorrow. Thank you for my medal Mrs SD. Those frogs only took an hour and I had been putiing them off for ages. I'll be stuck in tomorrow once car dropped off but think it will be too hot to do much. I went to my old village for hair and very disappointed to find co-op had moved to self service tills. They did put mine through but it was chaos as only one person serving which is usual in a village shop but they had to break off for alcohol and cigarettes all the time as they can't be self serve. I made it to the tip on edge of village as well.

684 Large cardboard box to recycling

685 Large old water butt to tip

686 Wood to recycling

687 Printer cartridge to recycling

688 Bag of plastics to SM.

BlueJ94

Its currently 26 degrees in the bedroom.. im going to try and sleep now as the OH will bring the other dog up to sleep about 12pm, so here's to hoping I dont get woken up at 2am because its too warm in here for both of the dogs!

EnergyShifter

Successfully completed day 9 of Minimalist Game - 45 items decluttered this month.

Top of the garden table was looking ropey. After an unsuccessful attempt at repainting it - colour looked awful - I used up some leftover vinyl tablecloth material and it's looking much brighter. Pretty sure table is on it's last year of service so hopefully this is a good enough fix. Also spruced up a folding table that I have plans for and thankfully the paint looked nice on that!

We had family therapy this afternoon - it went well but it always takes a lot out of me remembering difficult stuff - I've felt out of sorts ever since. I almost bought 3 really pretty garden seat cushions in Tesco on the way home to cheer myself up - on the basis that they matched the pom-poms I have decorating the fence 🤦‍♀️ - but then remembered I'm meant to be decluttering and I didn't actually need them so I put them back. 😇

Wishing everyone gets a decent night's sleep tonight 💤💤💤