2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

Florenceem

London_1 - congrats to your DGS, one of my DGS's graduates next Wednesday from Nottingham Uni.

Mrs SD - tree looks a lot better. I am on day 15 of my use it up before buying challenge - still got plenty of food left.

I did half an hour of ironing.

Did a bit of knitting and sewing up gnome pieces.

Teacher daughter is back from the school trip to Ghana.

Grandson S is in Belgium with his school orchestra and band.

My 3 daughters are meeting up to visit Regent Park for the outdoor Shakespeare production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Decluttered - bra, tablecloth, visiting cards, 2 CDs, 6 books and OOD food.

Yorkie1

Well done everyone on their decluttering and congratulations to those graduating from uni or school.

I decluttered the Sewing Bee, and two 24 Hours in Police Custody, recordings instead of the footy last night!

QueenJess

Just popping in again. I've been having some fun by challenging what I actually need to do in my life. I ditched the food budget and am instead concentrating on using everything up and only buying when I have to (will see how that works out at the end of the month!). I've not been reading this forum, although I will definitely come back and do that as I miss many of the diaries and like to see what people are up to. Yesterday I deleted the internet browser on my phone as it is just a time waster for me - and now I'm on it less and reading more :)

I'm also trying to keep up the decluttering by asking where I feel I have excess or what is stressing me out because it's more full than I would like. My list is below.

Digital:
35 - photos deleted
1 - app deleted
1 - account closed
1 - bookmark deleted

Physical:
Books and Paperwork
6 - books I don’t want to read/don’t use (charity bag)
30 - paper recycled
8 - DD paperwork recycled
37 - paper, reused then recycled
1 - colouring book completed (recycled)
3 - DD books (charity bag)

Bags and packaging
3 - packaging reused

Bathroom stuff
1 - old diffuser reeds binned
4 - bathroom supplies used up

Kitchen stuff
2 - baking tins I don’t use anymore (charity shop)
1 - broken bottle top (binned)
3 - storage trays (recycled)

Random stuff
1 - gift wrap too damaged/small to reuse (recycled)
1 - colouring pencil used up (binned)
1 - food supplies I won’t use (Buy Nothing)
7 - DD tat binned/charity bag/recycled
1 - gift wrap too torn to use (recycled)
1 - computer case I don’t use (charity bag)
6 - tech accessories just in case / spares I’ll probably never need (charity bag)*
4 - sheets/pillow cases that are worn out (recycling)
1 - medicine box I don’t need (recycled)

New total 3,026
Use it up total 598

*This one was silly. I had a few things I was given for free from my parents and felt obligated to keep. The tablet cover I flip flopped for ages on. It is a spare one from DS's old tablet (that was mine really) that died. It does fit DD's one, but she got a new cover with it recently (courtesy of my parents who also gave her their old tablet). She broke the last cover, but it lasted so long that neither I nor DH could remember exactly how long it took her to break it through pure use. So I could keep this cover for the next 4+ years and then either find a) her tablet doesn't work anymore and a new one won't fit, b) she won't want the colour of the cover DS had anyway or c) none of those and we do actually use it. But how much is a cover? £20? So, it has to sit in my drawer taking up space for another 4 years just to see if we might need it and DD actually wants it? I consulted DH and we agreed to donate it. I love my new drawer space, but still feel guilty for getting rid of it. How stupid is that? If we did need one in 4 years I bet I'd have forgotten we ever had a spare anyway that I got rid of.

I also got rid of some very similar items I had in there just in case. The thing is, when people tell you about their just in case items, you think, it's so obvious you should get rid of them. For some reason when it's your own, you just can't see it. Even when you know, you still feel bad about it!

Next up is to tackle my hoard of reused wrapping paper (yes, I keep it and reuse it). We get way more than we give (due to the kids) and so I can't see this hoard ever declining, but what if I just might need it all?! And then I feel guilty for not using it up. Silly I know… but it will be recycled into nice new paper in my recycling bin, so it's not all lost and it's definitely not my fault for other people giving it to me because 0% of it is from my purchases. That means I am feeling guilty for other people's decisions that I have no control over? I haven't bought wrapping paper and just reused it (and bags I was gifted - I've never bought a gift bag in my life!) for about 10 years now. I do have to admit to adopting someone else's very small stash to avoid it going to recycling and now feel bad about recycling that. I'm my own worst enemy 😂

Maybe we should have a rotation system and we should all go round and declutter each others houses? It'd be so much easier than doing your own!

Yorkie1

@QueenJess I think you've summarised really well some of the dilemmas many of us (certainly me!) ponder on.

The thing is, when people tell you about their just in case items, you think, it's so obvious you should get rid of them. For some reason when it's your own, you just can't see it. Even when you know, you still feel bad about it!

Absolutely!!

I really must tackle the increasing number of cardboard boxes I have just in case I need to post a parcel to someone. I really don't have that many people in my life who I send multiple parcels too. Particularly now that sending to Europe has the 39 euro (I think) limit before taxes are charged.

greent

Not much decluttering done today, but I've been doing other stuff instead


Declutter 2026 ⭐️

972 - 973 - 2 x Cleaning products Uu and replaced from stash

974 - 1005 - 32 items dropped off at CS (I may have bought 2 items whilst in there… in my defence they are casual clothes, so needed)

Am almost at halfway - yay!

Digital declutter 20026 (achieved 2/4/26) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

29826-

(includes 31/26 unsubscribing target)

Declutter 26lb ⭐️⭐️

20/26 -

Busy day out and about tomorrow until mid afternoon (hospital appt, shopping for new iron (boring but necessary) and then DS3's end-of-year presentation award thing at college - which is not overly local, so need to allow time to get there). After that I may do some more of the cleaning/ clearing in the living room - or maybe read my book! :D

Back is still hurting - have just taken 2 hefty prescription painkillers, so will head to bed soon, as they zonk me out.

Hope everyone is surviving the ongoing heat!

suzeesu2000

Decluttered 2 tins of gone off emulsion.
Sorted and decluttered the medicine drawers, few OOD items disposed of.
Now the gloss painting is done, leftover gloss out to yard store, jar for touch ups and other bits put away.
Washing done & out on lines, forgot to bring in so it can stay there til the morning.
Dinner for both totally freezer and I found a hole!
All our prescriptions came this week - we do have an awful lot - all now put in their correct boxes and packaging Decluttered.
I am hoping to have finished the decorating by the end of the weekend; I’m itching to get the carpets cleaned and the house back in some sort of order.

Congrats to @London_1 and @Florenceem on graduating grandchildren, you must be so proud of them and rightly so.
@Mrs SD the tree looks lovely.

Sorry to anyone hoping for rain, yesterday was St. Swithins….if it rains on St Swithins day, it will rain for the next 40 days. Also means if it doesn’t rain, it will be dry for next 40 days😢😢 but, Germany and France have had violent storms with strong wind, torrential rain, flooding and hailstones the size of golf balls. Weird or what!

Have a great night all, sweet dreams xx

EnergyShifter

Good Evening,

The good news - Day 16 of the Minimalist Challenge completed (136 items this month) - I've got a feeling it'll start to get a lot harder any day now! Dropped donations off at the Charity Shop. Did some more clearing of the back of the garden - I've come across 5 bones and 5 chewed up gardening gloves over the past couple of weeks - courtesy of the urban foxes who visit our garden.

The bad news - Work admin did not go well. I attended the online training about the new systems - half way through I had to leave as it was so overwhelming it was making more confused. After that I couldn't face thinking about work. I really need to get on with it tomorrow though.

Green_hopeful

i have sold two ikea poles from a wardrobe. They are designed to fix to the ceiling so they are quite long. A buyer asked if i would post them. I said yes if he could find someone. We are going to send them by UPS. I parcelled them up a couple of days ago. Will get collected tomorrow I hope. They are 2 m 20 cm long. Will send all the spare parts with Royal Mail.

Happy_Kitties

13 x items sold on Vinted

1 x cat toy-binned, well played with and well run over by the wheelchair several times!

1 x bag of soft plastics-recycled at supermarket recycling point.

124 + 15 =139 items recycled.

slowly putting together a bag of items for CS. Will wait for DD when she visits to drop them off for me.

Big pile of neutral items in the living room waiting to go, it’s just mission impossible at the minute

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all weary day today. We have a wedding next week and I realised that I no longer have any comfortable shoes to wear so on a whim I decided to go into town to get some sandals that I had seen on the shop's website. Went on the train rather than take the car as I can use my travel pass. Meant a bit of a walk to the shop so I was hot by the time I got there. Typically the shop had a sale on and most of the sandals had been sold so I tried on and bought a pair of canvas shoes that will be presentable but I am still wavering about the sandals that are available on the website. Took myself off for an iced coffee and found somewhere to sit in the shade to cool down then went to the bank to sort out an issue on the app which had become a frog, then back to the train station. The stop before mine they announced the train was not stopping at my station so I had to get off and wait for the next train. No shade and nowhere to sit and the train was 6 minutes late so I was not a happy bunny. All the trains were disrupted today because of the golf 🙄. Like a wet dish rag when I got home and just sat in front of the fan until after tea when I went out to water the pots.

I did declutter something though. At my local station they have a bookcase where you can leave books for people to pick up so I took 4 with me and then when I was having my sit in town a lady came out of a shop with her purchases and came over to the man who was sitting next to me. She had refused to buy a bag in the shop and was standing there with her clothes in her hand. I offered her the carrier bag I had taken the books in and she was very happy to take it 😁. Counting that as a win as I have loads of them 😁.

Got a message from friend's son B to tell me he will be home by 10.30 on Saturday so I guess that's a clue to what time he expects me to be there 😂😂😂. I have also arranged to meet a couple of friends who are in the area for brunch on Sunday. They live in Swanage and don't get up here very often so it will be good to see them

@London_1 congratulations to Mikey, what is he going to do now he has finished uni?

@Mrs SD thank you for my medal 😁. Yes the spellchecker issues does make for some interesting reading at times 😂

Right time for bed, hugs to anybody who would like one

Adding 6 so now 1049/2026

Take care everyone