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 brighter sunnier day than of late with a high of 22°C, a low of 12°C with a light N wind. I had left a couple of items off Thursday’s shopping list so DH went to As*a on the motorbike. I missed seeing the birds on the fat cake but DH saw blue tits, long-tailed tits & sparrows. Spent the afternoon watching series 1 of  The Prodigal Son & completing the puzzles in my weekly magazine. Dinner was pork steaks, mash, carrots & green beans. Wudupa

1406 - 1411 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans, newspaper, 0.5 Sudoku book, glass bottle, 0.5” paperwork - recycled

1412 - 1413 Kitchen & office detritus

GrannyKate, what a lovely way to spend a Friday - with DGS4 ☺️ Good luck cleaning the garage & also sorting out behind the potting shed 🍀 Relieved to hear that DGD1 is OK after the shock of a burst tyre 😮‍💨 Congratulations to DGD2 & DGS3 on their results 🥳 Good luck dealing with your frogs 🍀 I imagine you are looking forward to your trip to Paris ☺️

EnergyShifter, excellent work in the garden by both you & DS 👏 Lovely to hear that your DS is enjoying the gardening work ☺️ Oh dear, fancy not doing your admin work 🤦‍♀️ Hopefully you will find some time to do this & hopefully it won’t take too long 🤞What a great view 🤩

Florenceem, hope you get better soon 🙏

QueenJess, excellent decluttering by your DS 👏 he has definitely earned a Gold Star ⭐️ which is on its way 😊 Hopefully once his room is tidy it will be noticeable how much he has decluttered 🤞

Brie, I absolutely love your solution to self serve checkouts - brilliant 🥳 Great work in the ROD 👏 I will keep my fingers crossed that your OH will finally get around to sorting his “office” 🤞

Excellent decluttering Moorviews 👏 especially sorting the wrappings & packaging cupboard 👏 A medal 🏅 is on its way. A pity about the amount of ood food you had to dispose of 😔 but I imagine you won’t overstock again as you don’t like the feeling you get when food is wasted 🤔 Lovely & empathetic cheerleading 🥹

Deb4, pleased to hear that you enjoyed your much needed break in Skegness ☺️ We weren’t too far away from you on Tuesday 😉 Hopefully it won’t take too long to sort out DS’s toys 🤞 Sorry to hear that your workplace is so toxic that you have had to resort to handing in your notice 😔 Good luck finding a new job in a better working environment 🍀

More excellent decluttering QueenJess 👏 & very pleased to hear that DS is still letting things go ☺️ Also nice to hear that your DH is finally realising that decluttering is a good thing 😉

More excellent decluttering in the kitchen suzeesu2000 👏 A very successful day notwithstanding spilling split peas on the floor 😉

dND, great news that the scrap-man turned up on Friday 🥳 saved you having to go to the Tip ☺️ Pleased to hear that the electrician sorted out the fault & that it was nowhere near as expensive as you feared 😮‍💨 Great work sorting out the preserves etc 👏 Hopefully you will have enough to see you through to next year 🤞 A taste of summer all through the winter 🥹 A busy morning & then a relaxing afternoon ☺️

Excellent work in the garden Yorkie1 👏 but sorry to hear that your workplace is have aggravated your back again 😞 

florianatwobob, sounds like a wonderfully cultural Saturday 🥹

Florenceem, sorry to hear that you are still suffering with the croaking & coughing 😔 Well done on continuing with the ROD decluttering 👏

All caught up again 😊 Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅⭐️ 🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅

Decluttering Target 2026: 1413/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £297.61

oceanspirit

Have started catching up with reading the thread. @Liverpool_Anne, a few years ago I had a wild plum tree that was constantly putting up shoots all over my garden. I used the stump killer in the autumn so the tree took it down to the roots and it worked - because it had been so prolific I had expected it to take a few goes but the following year and ever since there has not been a shoot anywhere.

Things are coming along slowly - nothing happens fast in my life 😂. More papers gone, emails holding steady at 218 unread, more items earmarked for ragbag, more toiletries and food stocks uu. Tried to have a go at the second half of the shed now that the weather is cooler however overwhelm struck and I had to shut the door again. Will try again over the next few days.

vulpix

Hi,

Well done deb4. Everyone deserves to feel comfortable at their work. I hope you find something much better. xx I haven't been to Skeg for years. We went many times in caravans when I was little.

Moorviews, lovely words for Florenceem. You don't waffle at all, you manage to say just the right things to people. I have the sentiment but not your gift.x

Energy shifter, what a lovely photo.

Queen Jess, indeed you are the Queen of recycling. I am dedicated but you are hands down the best.

dND, I am in the same school of gardening as you. Minimal intervention is the name of my gardening game. I have been eyeing my house plants. I have nursed 2 back to health from certain death form DDIL. It could be time to give them away. I love to see a house plant but quickly get fed up of them. I usually give them to DD1 who has hundreds and have them back for a bit like a house plant library.

floriana, you have had what I would consider my perfect day.

Floreceem, the people on those hoarder programmes are extreme arn't they ,but brave to admit they need help AND be on TV. I couldn't let where I live get to that level of filth. I think if the place is tidy it looks much cleaner than you think! Ideally I would like the house to be clinically clean but am too lazy to follow through.

We had a perfect family day yesterday. We had lunch at DS's then onto a pub where there was a fundraiser memorial fun day for a friend of DS and DDIL. Lovely atmosphere and great bands, activities and so good to have all the immediate family together.

There was an electric power cut when we got home. It came back on at 3:30 am apparently. Nothing to do but go to sleep. I haven't had such an early night since I was a kid! (10:30)

Whilst we were out yesterday our lovely cleaning lady phoned. Shockingly bad signal where DS lives, this phone call took about 10 attempts of her phoning me,me phoning her, her phoning Mr V etc etc. Like a comedy sketch. Anyhoo, she wanted to know where our plastic outside sentry box shed thingy came from. It came with the house and was on my endangered list. She came and emptied it and took it away. The tall stuff like spades can go in another shed and the small stuff can live in the rabbit hutch which I have still not transformed for my project. That's a job for a rainy day.

I will go and do some cooking and then I feel a gardening day coming on.

Oh, DIL won 3 raffle prizes. A brewery tour, a massage and flowers.

Vx

Yorkie1

Well done everyone and I hope you feel better soon @Florenceem

Soontobeoap

Omg. I have been locked out of site for a while and have returned to 254 Forumite messages! Havmt managed to read through them all.

G children here for last 2 weeks so we have only had time to maintain. Feeling quite pleased with that. I think house will feel a lot bigger when they are gone. I have managed to create a new list of things that need doing and I am carrying on with the gardening jobs so that indoor jobs can be done in the winter. I am loving this beautiful ongoing weather and am determined to make the most of it whilst I still can

QueenJess

@vulpix ☺️ I do my best to alleviate my huge environmental guilt!

Some items to declare today, mainly by sorting out the remainder of the charity pile and packing into the last free box I could find.

Bags and packaging
4 - bags reused
2 - broken bag recycled
2 - packaging reused

Kids stuff
2 - DD tat binned
1 - DD tat recycled
1 - DD craft supplies used up
72 - DS coins (charity bag)
3 - DS tat binned
30 - DS tat (charity bag)
1 - DS clothes grown out of (charity bag)
13 - DS tat recycled

Random stuff
1 - plant pot (charity bag)

New total 8,261
Use it up total 777

The house is really quite tidy at this point (bar kids toys), so I think it's back to using up stationary, food, bathroom and cleaning supplies until I find the next thing to get rid of! I am also doing puzzles and reading all the books on my shelves so I can weed out the things I don't want to do/read again.

Florenceem

Thanks all for the get well messages and encouragement for the family situation.

I had a bad night - LS pain and then spells of coughing. I went back to sleep after the alarm so got up late. I went to Church as Laryngitis is not infectious.

My bestie emptied the porch. I gave bestie 2 portions of Egg & Bacon pie.

This afternoon I have been sorting out boxes from the ROD. There is already 2 boxes of donations in the porch. Granddaughter A came to collect some pie for her dinner and card I had for school. I roped her into carrying heavy boxes downstairs for me.

I am being ruthless about how much I am keeping. What I keep has to fit neatly in my sewing room and my craft storage room - no more stuff on the floors. I am so over too much stuff.

vulpix - I too would like my house clinically clean.

Something will be coming into the house - I ordered a floor steamer for my kitchen, cloakroom and bathroom floors.

Grandson J in Nottingham was treated to an experience - riding in cars near to Rutland - - he loved it.

Grandson J in Tokyo sheltered under a table in his hotel room - there was a 5.9 earthquake.

There has been a stabbing in my town - 2 men stabbed - one has died.

Deb4

Thank you @Mrs_Salad_Dodger and @vulpix regarding the job I feel so much better now, I'm having the rest of the summer holidays off to spend it with DS, and then I have my two college courses in September and see what happens then.

I have loads to list to sell, I have took some photos I have more to take, I have listed some tins on freegle.

I have done some diamond art this afternoon which I have enjoyed, I really to do some more and to finish my book I have started to read during my lunch at work.

suzeesu2000

Had a lovely Sunday. DFriend popped in this morning with things for me to sell for her on Vinted. Had a nice chat too.

Dinner, apart from 1 carrot was totally freezer and I am really seeing spaces now. It’s strange, I’ve not been going at all quicker pace but all of a sudden the space has appeared.

Decluttered a small ceramic bowl. I used it to reheat some frozen mashed swede while I was cooking the other veg in the steamer. Dished swede up and then - for no reason at all - just let go….stood watching it fall and smash on the kitchen floor. Also Decluttered 3 tins of fruit that were rusted and dented and OOD, not chancing damaged tins. Emptied, food into food waste and tins into recycling.

Back on the pantry shelves tomorrow. Hope everyone has had a good day.

Have a good night all, sweet dreams xx

Willowtree222

As I am currently on a sun lounger, I have decluttered over 100 emails.

When I get home, I have the living room to return to order. That should declutter some items.

Currently planning what to leave behind here to ensure no additional things will be returned to my house.