2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

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 started cloudy but by 14:00 the sun came out. Today’s high is 23°C, low 14°C & feeling 2° cooler due to a WNW wind. The recycling wheelie bin has been emptied on the correct day 😊 I have written a 4 day menu plan + a shopping list for DH. He & DSis left just before 14:00 They got back about 15:50 & I put away all the shopping. Dinner tonight is fried chicken, boiled potatoes, sweetcorn & roasted tomatoes. Wudupa

1320 - 1321 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans - recycled 

1322 Kitchen detritus binned 

QueenJess, It might have taken a while, but it sounds like your DS is finally realising that he has too much stuff 😮‍💨 Hopefully once he realises that an emptier & tidier room is easier to play in & keep clean, he will find it easier to let go of items & also thin out his collections 🥹 More excellent decluttering 👏 & I love the way that, even when you are “not feeling it today at all and not inspired”, you come up with another idea to declutter at least something 🤩

Brie, a pity about the broken glass on the frame ☹️ but well done on binning the frame & not keeping it for Justin 👏

Excellent work Willowtree222 👏 I am awarding you a medal 🏅for not only doing kitchen decluttering but also garage decluttering and hopefully saving some money by stripping wallpaper before the decorator turns up 🥳

GrannyKate, yah boo sucks to the speeding penalty notice ☹️ Excellent work especially changing the swimming pool filter 👏 Belated happy 18th birthday to DGD2 🎂🥳

Yorkie1, definitely lovely looking cards ☺️

surprisinglynice, good luck with the wallpaper samples 🍀 hopefully you will find one you like 🤞 Excellent work emptying the storage unit 👏 a Gold Star ⭐️ is on its way ☺️

Excellent decluttering TC77 👏 & well done on finding the ‘missing’ sold item 🥳

Lovely post dND ☺️ Sounds like your hard work earlier in the year is paying dividends now 👏 The balsamic tomatoes sound particularly delicious 😋 A belated happy birthday to Jewel - 17 is a good age - she looks very stately 🥹 & Gino looks very contented 😉 Sorry to hear that the work on your house still hasn’t been started ☹️ Please don’t feel embarrassed about chasing them 🙏 after all they have had plenty of time to at least give you a start date. Ouch to your fall 😣 although pleased to hear that your knee is healing 😊 Also very pleased to hear that you realise how much work you have done in your house 👏

Lovely post GrannyKate ☺️

Florenceem, a busy day of sewing 🤩 

Excellent decluttering Spendywendywoo 👏 Please accept a medal 🏅 Hopefully AI will help you formulate a plan for your decluttering 🤞

oceanspirit, sorry to hear that you were fatigued today 😔 but well done on still managing to declutter a couple of items 👏

Nice to see you BlueJ94 👋 What a great start to your healthy living - exercise & healthy eating ☺️

I have caught up a little 😉 I will try harder tomorrow. Sleep tight 😴 

MrsSD Awards: 💐 🙏💐💐🌟⭐️❤️💐💐⭐️💐❤️⭐️🎖️🥇⭐️⭐️⭐️😇🏅💐🌻💐💐🌻🥇 

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅⭐️ 🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅

Decluttering Target 2026: 1322/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £297.61

GrannyKate

Morning all. Not much to report in - I have cluttered DGCs - for some reason they decided to come back here to sleep. DGD4 probably because she likes my shower and is not paying the water or electricity bill. DGS4 got off to sleep late - woke up to go to loo then had his room invaded by Mr Sox (he hates shut doors and had been doing zoomies for at least an hour) - this involved climbing down back of headboard and swiping at anyone who tried to get him out. I shooed him out but DGS4 had meanwhile made himself a bed on my floor with all his stuff- pillows, stuffies, fan, drink etc. Sox settled down for the night on DGS4's bed. DGS4 says his sheet is a bit rough and I think I agree with him so will wash and put in CS bag - I have other older ones which will be softer. Not sure what they will want to do today. DGD3 also came round lunch time and came to her dads for tea with us.

790-793 Four bags of stuff to CS

794 New school uniform stuff to DS2's house

Siebrie

I have decluttered half of a huge box of miscellaneous admin (ranging from house papers, warranties, bank receipts, drawings from dds, …).

I went to the recycling centre with a car full of old stuff, and, because I had sorted everything properly, it was free!

A lamp that was in the 'browse' container at the recycling centre was brought home and is now illuminating a formerly dark gap in my living room.

I've lost the key to the tiny money box where I am saving cash notes where husband can't see, to recoup some of the money he spent without prior agreement, and that I feel entitled to because it was the loan my parents forgave us, and the golden handshake I received on leaving my former job, and half of the money spent on 4 pieces of land he bought in his mother country, and the money he spent on building homes on two of those. I'm not there yet, but I will need this money later on.

DDs have new beds, which were fun to assemble together with them. The old beds were bunkbeds that could separate; we've carefully dissembled them and cleaned the parts; as soon as I've found the screws to the ladder part I will put it all out on our drive/front yard with a 'free' sign.

Miss_BaLu

Morning all,

Recycling and rubbish out for the bin men this morning, washing folded and put away and another washing hung up.

I'll be out the house now until around 2pm so I will catch up when I get back.

@weenancyinAmerica - Hope you have alovely time celebrating your birthday ! I really need to gut my whole house. I'm going to just focus on a room at a time because otherwise it just gets too overwhelming and I give in.

@TC77 - Ah how annoying . This happened to me years ago with a pair of shoes and I'm still 99% sure that my little sister nabbed them when I wasn't paying attention!

@EnergyShifter - Well done you . I bought a flat just over 5 years ago and it has a small-ish private front and back garden. I have never had a garden in my life so no idea what to do and they are both a MESS. My nephew is going to help me sort them both out - he is a star!

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger - You are such a lifeline to so many people btw . I didn't log in here for a while and this thread was the thing I missed so much. The way you keep up with us all blows my mind and I massively appreciate you.

@suprisinglynice - I need to have a clear out of my book shelves but I hate the thought of getting rid of any . I think if I start giving them to friends I won't feel so bad.

@florianatwobob - SAME , why do we have so much stuff. I will be a minimalist one day.

@QueenJess - Well done on having the small declutter , it all adds up. You've inspired me to tackle a little bit later after I finish work.

@Brie - Well that wasn't ideal ! Hopefully you manage to find a suitable frame.

@Willowtree222 - Wow what a lot you got done!

@GrannyKate - In with one hand out with the other , that is the sort of thing that happens to me. Last time it was a parking ticket - my first one in 13 years of driving!

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, yesterday was a bit stressful as I discovered at the sm I have lost my debit card. Luckily I had my credit card with me to pay for my shopping. I was completely flummoxed though as I only keep it in one place. I did go home, put the shopping away and had a think and thorough search of my handbag and the area around the laptop etc but came to the conclusion I had not used it for anything since last Saturday when I had gone to the bank for cash and then gone to the sm. So back to the sm in case I had left it there on Saturday, no, on to the bank in case it had been handed in there, no, but the nice man helped me cancel it and order a new one. I had already checked my account and nothing has been spent that I can't account for so that is a relief at least 😁.

Back home and had some lunch and back into the conservatory but the sun was out by then and it was quite warm but a piece of random rubber pipe was binned, no idea where it came from or what it was kept for, a rucksack that had a tear by the zip was binned. I think I was going to try to repair this but was at the point of cba so it was binned. Lots of dust was removed and the dust rag binned. t

3 butterflies were decluttered from around the house, must have sought shelter from the rain but couldn't find their way out, from the toilet and the back room red admirals and from my bedroom a green veined white. All flew off happily 😁. The bedroom bin was emptied and by then it was too hot to carry on in the conservatory so I went out to the garden where I got the benefit of the breeze and got rid of another bstd bramble I had spotted growing behind the holly tree and a load of other weeds.

I have got to the camping corner in the conservatory and am trying to decide what to do with the tent. It is massive and although I am not convinced we will use it again due to OH's reduced mobility I am not ready to declutter it yet as I do enjoy camping 🤔. It is too big to go in the loft so I will continue to ponder 🤔.

I have also found some tiles and will make a decision about which I will use in thndecorated undecorated understairs toilet and put the rest on the free site to see if anybody wants them.

I also need to tackle the tree stump in the garden that has sprouted branches again today while there is room in the garden waste bin 😁. I have a sort of plan for the day so time to get weaving or the day will be gone 😁.

@Siebre lovely to see you, hope you find the key, big hugs.

Hugs to everyone who would like one.

1141/2026

Take care everyone

QueenJess

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093705#Comment_82093705

That's my mantra! Anything is progress, even if it's just 1 item.

Things have slowed down a bit this end as I have much more tricky things to consider decluttering and I am very slowly working through too much kitchen stock. Everything in the kitchen I find impossible to declutter, so it's going to be a slow journey through that. Nevertheless, I am trying to find at least 1 thing per day to go in the house, with a loose aim of around 10. I'm on 4 today, so will see if I can get another 6 later, but if not, 4 is still great!

DS just offloaded 2kg of Lego, but I am not allowed to include his totals until he has decided he's finished. He has been giving it a lot of thought though, so I am hopeful!

At the same time as decluttering, I am simplifying as well. After discussion with DH, we decided to purchase a glass roasting dish as I often put different things in the oven (think roasting vegetables for soups etc, baking my own granola… etc etc) and frankly life is too short to keep washing up. A glass one can go into the dishwasher. To be fair DH does all the washing up because (a) my hands get really dry and washing up isn't great even with those special cotton lined gloves and (b) it really hurts my back as the sink height is made for an average height which I am not. Will see how it goes and then maybe it'll mean something else will be ejected. I definitely don't have the right mix of kitchen bakeware/cookware, but it's going to take me ages to figure out what that mix should be.

Enough waffling as I am starving. Here are the totals for the last few couple of days:

Digital:
2 - notes deleted

Physical:
Bags and packaging
2 - packaging used up
3 - plastic bags reused

Kitchen stuff
2 - recipe book I don’t use (charity bag)
1 - whisk I never use (charity bag)

Books and Paperwork
6 - paper reused then recycled

Bathroom stuff
1 - bathroom overstock used up

Random stuff
1 - extra old towel (recycled)
5 - battery candles kept just in case (still have too many)(charity bag)
1 - craft supplies I don’t want (charity bag)
1 - old gift tag I don’t need (recycled)
1 - pencil used up

New total 5,087
Use it up total 711

I have left jam biscuits (mix of strawberry and apricot ones) and a hm apple and blackberry crumble with double cream in the tlc carriage.

Edit: Oh, and the state of affairs in this house can be summarised with this… I ordered a new coat for DS as his old one was too small and they didn't have the right size in the shop. It came in a bag, which I immediately filled with charity stuff and left the house again. It wasn't even here for 24 hours 😂

Miss_BaLu

Thank you @oceanspirit - Glad to be back with the gang.

florianatwobob

This morning has been a gardening day.

• Weeds have been decluttered
• Strawberry runners have been pegged into pots (using hairpins I longer use - an ingenious repurpose I think)
• 4 lilac branches cut down. They’re too thick for the garden waste so have to go in the landfill bin but they’ll break down eventually. DBro 1 was going to saw those up ooooooooooh 4 weeks ago. It often takes a woman to do these things round here.
• Most of one bag of bark chippings tipped into one of the flower beds. The rest of that bag is earmarked for a skinny bed the otherside of the garden but all the plant pots are sheltering from the heat on that side at the moment.
• Nail polish decluttered yesterday is going to my friend J. J’s little nephew loves nail polish but his dad (not related to J) does not approve of boys wearing it. The dad isn’t particularly engaged with his son and J is happily wearing nail polish in solidarity with his nephew. They can often be found doing kitchen science experiments and bike repairs to demonstrate that nail polish isn’t gendered. I should probably say that my red glittery nail polish and black eyeliner wasn’t safe from one of my ex’s - he used to wear it on stage when he played in his heavy metal band.
  
  
  

suzeesu2000

only decluttering I’ve done today is money. It’s my monthly pay all the bills day and it don’t half hurt😩😩 still, all done for another four weeks.
Dinner all from pantry shelves - I’ve got to reduce my stocks drastically. On the plus side, clearing a lot will give me a chance to have a think and restock properly.
Weedkiller finally arrived today, so DH said he will tackle that job in the morning.
Its getting warmer again, we did have a lovely breeze earlier but that’s gone now. Always seems to increase in temperature from about 16:30. Never mind, another day closer to winter.

Have a great night all, sweet dreams xx

oceanspirit

1 pair shoes into CS bag. Several plastic lids into recycling. Parts for a kitchen gadget I no longer have into box for recycling centre plus some scrap metal. More food uu plus the next lot of tins going ood later this year on worktop ready to be used.