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

Saturday is a cooler day with a high of 27°C, low of 20°C & a light NE wind. DSis saw a woodpecker this morning but only briefly as we still haven’t put any bird seed out. I have missed the little birds but not the pigeons 😉 Now I just need to find a way to stop the cats coming into my garden 🧐 DH popped out to get some cold drinks & posted my letters. Dinner was fish finger sandwiches for DH whilst DSis & I had baked beans on toast. Wudupa

1382 - 1383 Kitchen recycling, plastic bottle - recycled 

1384 Kitchen detritus binned 

vulpix, we are also on the downward trend for temperatures with rain forecast for Tuesday to Saturday 🤞 Although DH has investigated & says that it will barely be 3mm in total 😞 Well done on completing the painting & fingers crossed that you can get the glossing done 🤞Good luck to you & your friend clearing the undergrowth 🍀 Hope the plumber gives you an early date so you can start getting excited about having the bathroom renovated 😊

TC77, “falling asleep or getting distracted” sounds like me at the moment 🙊 Some great decluttering 👏 Hopefully the unsubscribing will start to show results soon & your daily email count will reduce 🙏 Good luck telling DD2 This “…. the tidy fairies have gone to look after some young children along with the cat caring fairy and pixie who fills the fridge and cupboard with food!” 🍀 Although I have to confess that I was tickled pink reading about fairies & pixies 🙊 Hope the builder sitting at DD1’s goes well 🤞

GrannyKate, hope you have a lovely time at your DD’s ☺️ Hopefully the fire brigades preventative measures will prove successful 🙏 although it might be quite entertaining to see a horse in DD’s garden 😉

A lovely cheerleading post Moorviews 🥹 Sounds like you enjoyed safely watching  the eclipse ☺️

dND, I will keep everything crossed that the cooler temperatures will lead to some proper rain 🤞 I do know that when it rains properly here, my DSis will be standing out in it 😂

QueenJess, you describing your reaction to kitchen decluttering videos with “ginormous kitchens” reminded me about my reaction to TV adverts for new kitchens & bathrooms - who on earth has a kitchen or bathroom that large 🤔 - unhelpful to say the least 😞 I am so impressed at how you are constantly challenging yourself to declutter 👏 & how you always find a successful method 🥳 Excellent & eclectic decluttering 👏

Excellent work in the garden florianatwobob 👏 I am awarding you & your DSis a medal each 🏅🏅& well done to DBro2 for helping put up the awning 👏

QueenJess, excellent work with the tidying especially as you found even more to declutter 👏 Another one here who finds the kitchen hard to declutter, especially of gifts from my DH/DSis as I feel disloyal donating items despite not having asked for them 😞 I also have quite a few cookbooks & have to confess to only ever using 1 or 2 recipes from most of them 😞 

Excellent decluttering Happy_Kitties 👏 

Well done with the digital decluttering TC77 👏 Good luck dealing with your list of frogs over the weekend 🍀

More great work in the garden EnergyShifter 👏 

vulpix, I was quite surprised to read This “I take too much on and over extend myself.” but also sort of relieved that you have acknowledged it so might just say “NO” once in a while 🙏😉 Shame about the poor coverage from the paint 😞  Hopefully your stepson will be able to get the bunk beds built without too much trouble 🤞

Excellent work in the garden SpikyHedgehog 👏 Fingers crossed that it didn’t rain & all your washing dried outside 🤞

Florenceem, such an extraordinarily difficult time for you & your family 🥺 You are in my thoughts.

Great photos of the eclipse Liverpool_Anne 👏 Just trying to imagine what the bird is thinking 🤔 Excellent work doing laundry, declu & getting more work done in the garden 👏 Hope you have a lovely time at your friends singing group ☺️ Sounds like you are getting some proper rain 😊 just hope it eventually works it way south & east 🤞

dND, sorry to hear that you had a rubbish Friday night 😔 Hopefully your knee is on the mend & not causing you too much pain 🙏  Pleased to hear that you are taking yourself back to bed & hopefully your knee is will have a better night tonight 🤞

I need to head off to bed as DH & I are off to Yorkshire for a couple of days doing the RBR. I have had a bath & we have packed our bags. Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅⭐️ 🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅

Decluttering Target 2026: 1384/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £297.61

QueenJess

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104333#Comment_82104333

I also only usually want 1or 2 recipes from a book, but have so many I can't find anything anyway. I also have an old style of cooking really and so all my books are similar or have significant overlap and in reality I tend to make the same things all the time.

I got an empty recipe file for xmas and so my plan was to copy out the things I make again and again into there so it's all in one place (otherwise I have some in recipe books and some saved into an app). It would be lovely just to reach for one book where I have an index that I can find things in. Obviously I've not put a single one into there yet…😂

Baby step 1 is to purge the recipe books down to the ones I actually use. Step 2 will be to add the recipes to the folder. It's going to be a very long job as I'm struggling significantly with step 1!

I have a similar problem to you (difficulty decluttering), but with ingredients. My mum keeps giving me things she doesn't want anymore with useful loaded comments like "I'm glad you can use it because it was really expensive". I now have both my own overstock and hers to use up and I really hate waste. Can't give it away as everything is generally part used.

Wednesday2000

My husband is taking two full donation bags to the charity shop tomorrow. It is mostly clothes as usual!

It feels so much nicer now it is cooler. The house felt stuffy after we got back from the hotel in London yesterday so I kept the windows open until I went to bed. I had such a good sleep last night too. When we were watching TV last night I had to get a cardigan out to put on to warm up!

We watched the new series of Reacher last night on Prime if anyone is interested! 🤩There are three episodes out so far.

Blue_Doggy

@Florenceem so sorry for your loss and the sorrow it’s brought you. Would this helpline be of use to you? https://www.papyrus-uk.org/help-me/lost-someone-to-suicide

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger
@QueenJess I also have lots of cookery books: I just like reading them, especially historical ones which throw light on the way our ancestors used to eat. Occasionally I use a recipe, and one day, when I’ve nothing better to do (😂) I hope to build an index to all of them.

@vulpix very sorry to hear about handsome Fomo

Thoughts and prayers with all who have lost loved ones or are struggling with i’ll-health whether their own or family members’.

In decluttering news: (no idea what’s happened with the spacing, and less idea how to fix it)

Out:

A pair of well-past it plimsolls (found among my decorating clothes)

A wicker dog basket, bought 50 years ago for my heart-dog, and used by three subsequent dogs and lightly chewed by two of them, also a good quality but heavy and hard to wash fleece cover for it. Heavy now for me to move (but usen’t to be 😕) . I’m still half wishing I’d kept at least the basket, but it was the cover which kept it useable these last several years. (Puppy-wuppy still has plenty of comfy beds 😀 )

Brambles, lots of, - my garden is specialising in mile-a-minute brambles, despite the drought. Impossible to dig out the roots from among pyracantha. I did get some blackberries from them though.

A saucepan destroyed when fruit cooking in it was forgotten (beyond multiple soakings); the lid is being wrestled from Justin …

Two houseplants which died in the heat despite lots of water.

various bits of packaging out with various birthday presents

Big pile of magazines I know I shan’t read however much I kid myself I shall

Sorry, it’s a bit long. Looking forward to a cooler week ahead, perhaps even some 🌧️

vulpix

Mrs SD, I am so rubbish at pacing myself and even being kind to myself. I feel guilty if I don't keep working till a job is done. Plus all these jobs are of my own making! I have friends who are ladies of leisure and swan about in genteel clothes doing lunch. I am likely to be found wearing just better than rags clothes up to my eyes in some scheme or other. I will predict that when this house renno is finished and the garden knocked into shape I will be bored and want to do it all again. I am a lost cause.

The weather is a lovely 19 degrees and over cast with a slight bit of spitting in the air. Mr V is out filling another builders bag with the stuff cut back yesterday. Probably another 3 bags worth to cut down then we can see the space.

I need to finish the painting then get out and make a stack of a pile of bricks which are right in the way atm. I hope to get time to put some of the bricks in the garden as stepping stones and dig the 2 wrong colour plants out before they set seed, make some dinner and then start a new knitting project.

Vx

dND

@Liverpool_Anne Lovely photos, thank you for sharing. I couldn't get an eclipse photo with my camera phone, all I got was a very bright blob even though I tried using the eclipse glasses in front of it.

@TC77 Well done at all your chipping away, I feel you are definitely a kindred spirit when it comes to decluttering. As I've said before I occasionally surprise myself with how quickly I can generate small areas of space now that I have got rid of what feels like insignificant bits and found homes for a few other bits along with trying to keep on top of the basics such as deleting emails and forcing myself to deal with at least one or two of the frogs to keep the number of them down.

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger I got nearly 2 hrs of siesta and then over 8 hours last night. 😁😁 Exhaustion and cooler temperatures are all it took. 🤣

@Blue_Doggy You must also be a kindred spirit, I can hear myself doing the same discussion with myself about stuff and fighting Justin and May. 🤣 I wish you luck with the brambles, 3 years on and I'm still fighting mine but they are a little more under control. I have had to give in and use some weedkiller on some of them once they've been cut back as like yours, their roots are not accessible to dig out.

I've sat down for a quiet coffee before an hour of madness occurs.

When I went out to watch the solstice I made sure I turned off everything electrical that didn't require resetting . I saved enough electricity to qualify for an hour of free electricity. That free hour is 2 - 3pm today.

Back left, blackcurrants for syrup, back right, redcurrants for jelly, front right alpine strawberries for conserve and front left, raspberries for jam. All fruit from the garden. 😁
Both ovens are fully loaded with the required jars and bottles.

On top of that, the mobile aircon unit is in place to refrigerate the lounge and hopefully some of the cooler air will find it's way upstairs through a bit of heat exchange. 🤞 The lounge is the only room where I can vent the aircon unit but it's also the lowest room in the house and cold air doesn't rise. I think it's going to be a bit chaotic but isn't that normal life! 🤣

Hugs to all those who would like and love to you all. Dxx

florianatwobob

One parcel sent off to Ziffit (mostly DSis books) and more bluster packs to Boots. DBro1 likes to surprise us with his huge stash despite being asked to put it in the designated recycling jar for such things…….hey ho we were off into town anyway. Came back with a new pot cover as one of the houseplants is in need of repotting and a large ceramic dish to turn into a bird bath. The local air ambulance were benefiting today.

Yorkie1

Thinking of you and your family @Florenceem

Good luck with your son's move @SpikyHedgehog

Glad to hear about the scaffolding @regnbue

I do agree it's easier to think if things are tidy around you @Miss_BaLu

What a lovely end to the day with the meteor @dND

Good success with the Irish records @suzeesu2000 . I used to sit with a lady on the train to work who had family history interest in Ireland. I remember her saying that the records were fairly incomplete in places.

Hope your DD's stables are Ok with the fire, @GrannyKate

Good luck with your computer woes @weenancyinAmerica I discovered that not all the data from my broken phone has transferred across to the new phone. Not sure how to get that done - I may have to go to a computer shop. Which means I need to try to locate a paper ca;endar with my cousin's birthday written on it … I know it's at the end of a summer month but can't remember whether I sent cards for the end of July, or it's this month!

Well done @QueenJess - that's quite a list when you look at it all in one place! Cookery books are difficult to declutter, aren't they? Some may have been presents (with the sentiment and memory attached), or aspirational. Of course, many of mine were gathered pre-internet. I still have the little book I took to Uni over 35 years ago. It's great for how long to cook veg for haha. My mum also has had a habit of decluttering items to me. I have a slow cooker and a food processor that I can think of …

@florianatwobob re. the bark chippings, although it may be frustrating to wait, it may be best to leave spreading the bark chippings until the ground is wet. They will then seal in the moisture, rather than be a barrier to the rain subsequently getting into the ground?

Good luck with the bunk beds @vulpix The patchiness HAS to go at some point, surely!!

@dND I turned off my fridge and TV during the eclipse; my free hour was 12 - 1pm today! Did a wash, lovely. That stash of fruit is amazing.

Decluttered a lot of money at the SM yesterday. I was aiming to spend £60 in order to get 5% off a litre of petrol, given I needed to fill up. Suffice it to say that I achieved that target … !

I've got lots of soft plastics but the SM cage was overflowing already, so I couldn't leave them. They do take up space.

SpikyHedgehog

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094704#Comment_82094704

I'mstill not caught up, so you might have don't the gaps between the patio slabs by now... but if not, try sand. Builders sand if you're buying it, mum used the sand from the grandchildren's sand pit. You just sweep it into the gaps. Seeds will still get blown or dropped onto it, so it's not a maintenance free option, but easier than cement.

florianatwobob

That is a good point @Yorkie1. 😉

The bed the part bag was tossed over is drier than the Sahara even in the soggiest of winters as next door’s ‘extension’ roof overhangs. The top bed, which will get bark chippings too, needs weeding and has plants waiting to move in. Unfortunately it gets full sun and it is impossible to get a fork in as it’s clay over chalk and is currently baked solid!!