2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

Florenceem

Liverpool_Anne - thank you for your words. As a mother we try to protect our children from harm. When they have a problem we try to help them solve it. This situation after losing J is unknown territory and I feel helpless.

My bestie who lost her son to suicide 11 years ago has offered to speak to my son - 24/7. I will forward her message to my son and hope that he doesn't refuse support from my bestie. My bestie has had extensive trauma training and is a very wise person.

Floss

@Florenceem I agree with your daughter that your son may well benefit from seeing you sooner. I cannot imagine how you are all feeling xx

SpikyHedgehog

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82099360#Comment_82099360

Thank you! I've got space in the freezer now to be able to have prepped veg etc in there, so that's going to save food from waste as well as making easy meals more accessible.

Garden waste bin is full, ready to go out next week. Next door neighbour asked me to take out the buddleia that's near her house, as it gets in her way as she comes in and out. We don't have front gardens, but each have a border under our living room windows, then there's another border between the pavement and the parking spaces, that the Housing Association is meant to maintain. It hasn't been maintained by them since 2020, so I've taken it over, but prefer not to spend lots of money on it, since the gardeners could come and cut it all back, and the neighbours' cats dig lots of things up.

So I hadn't taken out the volunteer buddleias, and as they were giving some shade, hadn't trimmed them. I'm in no hurry to trim the one at the other end of the border, as there's hardly anything flowering for the insects and there's no room in the garden waste bin. Won't be for a while as I've other stuff I do want to cut back to put in there. Hey ho. She's happy. And we had a good chat.

Craft stuff taken to church for youth group yesterday - I'm not sure why I'd brought the bag home as it was given to me at church.

I got a new rotary washing line as the old one was broken. Line removed and stored in the shed for tying up plants in the garden. Broken frame next to recycling bins to go out in 4 weeks. Packaging put in appropriate recycling bins.

Finished turning up sheer curtains for Elder Son's bedroom. Made a cushion pad for a cushion cover he'd got last year in Bruges, that's long and thin like a bolster. So that used up a piece of old sheet from the cupboard (which hardly makes a difference), and 2 bags of soft toy filling. I'm now procrastinating making a sheer curtain for his front door from the offcut from the bedroom curtain... the thick material frays a lot and is only just wide enough for the window, so the side hem is going to be a pain to do. And I'm not sure if I've got thread to match it.

Oh, on the subject of thread, I'm using up the threads in my sewing box that was my grandma's, by using random colours for visible mending or seams for cushion pads that won't show. We're on khaki green at the moment.

We had rain last night! I know this because the garden chairs and wheely bins had water on them. The ground is still parched. The water butt doesn't have much water in it.

Willowtree222

We sadly lost both of our rabbits within a few days of each other last week. I have decluttered a lot of their items although don't see it as an achievement. We had the eldest for 8 years.

Skip is going tomorrow and I have done all I can from the garage and house.

weenancyinAmerica

@Willowtree222 - Sorry to hear about your rabbits. Sending you many hugs.

I have over 800 cookbooks. Most of them are from World War II or earlier. I like to read them - I don't cook. I did at one time, but now it just is impossible. When I was just out of college, a friend and I thought we should start a Cookbooks Anonymous group. When you got the urge to buy cookbooks, you called a friend - and instead of talking you out of it, they went with you. She ended up with over 4000 cookbooks. It is possible to get carried away just dreaming about the food.

Still using a laptop. Need to get another desktop computer. I want to see if the computer shop can save two programs that are on there. I have the information saved to a flash drive, but one of the programs is out of date. I have a disk somewhere for it (in a certain drawer), but I am not sure computers come with the ability to install a program from a disk anymore.

Still hot. Seems like you are too. Don't understand the weather. Stay dry and cool.

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82102433#Comment_82102433

sometimes if you have a separate monitor you can use that with the laptop open to get the dual screens. you should be able to set it up in the monitor settings.

with my old "reasonable adjustments for IT" hat on I would like to remind you to elevate the laptop so the monitor is high enough that you don't need to stoop to look at it - basically they same height your normal monitor is at. This also means you need to use a normal keyboard and mouse rather than the built in ones on the laptop. Again - it's much better for you. I'm reminding you of this as I'm sure you have likely been told before and were probably thinking of doing something like this anyways…..😃

@Mrs_Salad_Dodger - yes! Nelly's Hot in Herre…. but the version I remember had a lot less flesh showing than the one currently on youtube….so I won't post a link.

Florenceem

Willowtree222 - sad about the bunnies loss - 8 years is a good life span so they were obviously very well looked after.

I got a bus to Lid. - got my free pastries. Then I went to Matala . to complain about my trousers. I asked for the manager who apologised but that didn't alter the fact that I packed the trousers to wear to the funeral and had to resort to wearing leggings. I have the address of head office so will be writing a letter.

My granddaughter A called here on her way back from setting up her classroom for next month. I gave her a croissant - not keen on them but it was the choice as a freebie. A then helped me to spend money on a laptop, mouse and headphones. A text her brother in Tokyo - after 11 at night there to ask him what headphones he has.

A then used my computer as I have publisher. A will come round to help me set up my new goodies which should arrive by Thursday.

Florenceem

Brie - after reading your post - I am wondering if I should have bought a keyboard. Advice please.

Brie

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105901#Comment_82105901

definitely!! frankly the ones sold at times at Lidl/Aldi for about £15 are fine. OH has had one for about 20 years!

Of course this assumes you don't need anything particularly special - I do because of injuries done to both my wrists over the years. The type I use is much more expensive but I've still got the one bought by my second but last employer so not my expense. I think new it was about £120 at the time and having had one each for home and office use I ended up with 2 when I was being made redundant as if I didn't take them they would have been binned.

Standard laptop "keyboards" are too cramped for good ergonomics which is one reason why proper keyboards should be used whenever possible. I do use just what's on my laptop when travelling with it but I do always take a mouse because I hate the tiddly ones built in to the laptop itself.

Floss

@Florenceem also try to find either a laptop riser to put your screen at the right height, or (as I do!) find a combination of boxes to sit your laptop on.