2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

GrannyKate

Early morning all. Went to bed early so up at silly o'clock. My blood tests were not good and sugar is far to high. To repeat again in a month but meanwhile I need to make drastic changes. Walking more, eating better, not going food shopping. The last thing would help me I think as I am terrible at impluse buys plus I spend far too much on food. I think I may try going back to grocery deliveries and small locals for extra bread milk and fruit if needed. There are a lot of small shops this side of town whereas before I was restricted to one small coop. Will arrange an order for after I come back from Paris. I tend to buy sweet things for the children which I don't like Jaffa cakes, doughnuts etc but when I am shopping I have started buying chocolate again which I had stopped before.

Plumber came and fixed loo. It was definitely running most of the time - large worn washer replaced, flush mechanism adjusted and cistern screwed back on wall as it was coming away apparently. He thought it would last okay until I can replace after Christmas hopefully.

I used to have literally thousands of books but only a few hundred now. As a child we had a large dictionary, some bibles, a set of encyclopaedias and some religious books from a rather creepy chap who used to come round selling them. No space or money really but from about 10 I always had the maximum allowed number of library books out. I have given quite a few to my classics student grandson and don't really keep fiction other than a set of Georgette Heyer paperbacks which I have reread countless times.

I have done quite a bit of family history stuff this week but I need to try and progress garden before the weather turns frosty. Todays jobs are school run, banking, sort stuff out for France, a walk even if only round the block, vacuum, put stuff away, garden.

Have a good day everyone.

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

Wednesday is a dark, damp & chilly day with a high of 12°C, low of 8°C & a W wind making it feel 8° colder 🥶 HH waste wheelie bin emptied this morning & new bin bag put in. It rained on & off all day. It was also so cold today that we succumbed to putting the heating on. Dinner was sausages, mash, baked beans & plum tomatoes. Wudupa

1808 - 1809 Kitchen recycling, drinks cans - recycled 

1810 - 1811 Kitchen & lr detritus - binned 

I found a new to me stitch for knitting, so had a practice & although easy enough I wasn’t overly fond of it. However I have been prompted to start knitting again  a scarf in feather & fan stitch using a ball of yarn (sparkly grey) from the stash that I brought home from M’s place.

GrannyKate, sorry to hear that you are feeling frustrated by the lack of progress in the hall ☹️ However great work in the garden & also decluttering bags to the CS 👏 I will keep my fingers crossed that when your DiL helps you move the sofa there will be no dead creatures 🤞 Ouch to the trapped finger & the loss of blood 😣 Please, please try to be more careful 🙏

Fingers crossed you can find some white voile Florenceem 🤞 Talk about a fast knitter - 10 scarves already 🤩

daisy_1571, oh my goodness the tornado twins aka the mayhem mob are absolutely gorgeous - so cute 🥰 

vulpix, at least someone else got the tins of tomatoes 🙊 I am sure Fluffy appreciated the warm sewing chair 😉

Florenceem, so pleased to hear that you have gained a little more weight & are improving your bmi 🥹 Hope you can get used to your new glasses 🤞 Great decluttering 👏

Yorkie1, hope you enjoyed your yoga class 🤞

surprisinglynice, fingers crossed that the washing machine can be repaired 🤞 Excellent decluttering of books 👏 a medal 🏅 is on its way.

Apologies for falling behind again but am nodding off so heading to bed 😞 Sleep tight 😴 

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

DH Awards: 🏅🏅🏅🏅⭐️ 🏅

DSis Awards: 🏅

Decluttering Target 2026: 1811/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £463.61

suprisinglynice

Loving all of the stories of your book journeys, thank you for sharing.

I have finished all of the craft kits for the local school so they will be going next week, over 3000 items, reduced to 200 kits that fit into 2 boxes! So many woman hours put in too! I think that it shows for every item that we manage to remove from our homes, there are many hours that go in beforehand. I'm not sure that that sentence makes sense anywhere other than my head 🤣

Thank you for my medal @Mrs_Salad_Dodger 🙂

Blue_Doggy

@weenancyinAmerica so sorry to hear of your problems with your back, I know how horrible back pain is (my Dmum’s and my own experience). I hope something can be found to relieve it for you.

Books are my addiction, I shouldn’t be let into a bookshop unsupervised! Unfortunately our local library service is very run down, they work to a pattern that if a book hasn’t been borrowed recently it is withdrawn, even if it’s a classic or a standard work, and they have very little reserve stock. So if a book I want to read isn’t in their stock (and they charge a lot to borrow from another library system) I have to buy it. The book then becomes “family” and difficult to throw away. There are very few books I’ve sent away that I haven’t regretted doing so.

TC77

Gosh, just looked at bookshelves and must have around 2000 books but maybe more. Haven't bought more than a couple of dozen in lastly few years, bargains in cs including travel and one philosophy book. I'm lucky and belong to several london libraries and one doesn't charge for getting books from other libraries and also have Libby and Brrowbox which are library apps to listen to audio books. They have ebooks too but I don't use those so worth checking the apps and only need your library membership nos.

I will slowly get rid off books that won't fit on the bookcases I want to keep ( quite large).

My new bookclub is in the library and they lend us the books!

EnergyShifter

Good Morning! I've almost entirely caught up with my work admin 🤩 I hadn't realised quite how bad it had got. It really does help me to have TV on in the background when I do admin - I'd forgotten that over the summer. I watched Great Pottery Throwdown final - I agree @Yorkie1 & @vulpix - it was actually better than the regular one because of their journey. I loved Fatiah's work in particular but they were all good.

I have discovered that (predictably) I am a fair-weather gardener so I've hardly been out. I did manage to move the rubble from the middle of the lawn and I have been slowly filling the the hole with heavy soil.

GP visit was helpful - she thinks the cognitive stuff is almost certainly my anti-anxiety meds - its been exacerbated by my ADHD. She will chase my ADHD meds consult - I've been waiting over a year since diagnosis. I've also been sent for blood tests. In the meantime I am going to do what I can to help myself - I've found some practices online that I can try.

On a sad note - my church friend who had been discharged from hospital has been readmitted - apparently social worker is saying he might not be able to live at home. He and his wife have been married 60+ years - I can't imagine quite how they must both be feeling at that news 😭

Today work until 2pm then family therapy which always wipes me out after so not expecting too much more of the day.

Love to all, hugs & prayers to those who need them, applause for all you clever crafters and those who are losing weight. And a big awwwwwwwww to @daisy_1571 for the adorable kitten pictures! 🥰

vulpix

Hi, very grey day here today. Fluffy had us up at 5am. Thanks Fluffy. Love the twins daisy. They must be giving you hours of entertainment.

I used to have a huge amount of books. Always been a bookworm. I just decided one day about 20 years ago that I wouldn't read the majority of them again so off they went. I probably have about 100 books now. That includes children's classics I have been saving for the grand children. When I had my big purge I saved about 10 books that I thought were worth reading again. Never done it.

Wee Nancy, I really feel for you about your back. One thing that helped me at work was a triangular seat stool on wheels. It came with a special needs child and was for people working with her. It saved me keep standing up and sitting down. Unfortunately it went with her when she went into the next class! Would an office chair on wheels or something like that be any help to you?

Vx

GrannyKate

I bought myself a new office chair on wheels with a supporting back and seat. Both my back and knees have been so much better since. I have started off well today after the early start. Shower and hair wash, simple cereal breakfast, two cups of black tea, school run, banking updated and walk round the block (3100 steps) and just drunk a second cup of cold water. All before 9am!

I am going to do some tidying and putting away then go and see if I can get a few bags of stones for the garden. I have started collecting France stuff together in one place. Outside lights did not come on - looked for timer booklet but couldnt find it although I found three other manuals to go (things I haven't got any more)

1012-4 Instruction manuals out to recycling

1015 Magazine out

Green_hopeful

i have been decluttering a lot of time. Since its got colder the cats wake me up for breakfast and then like a little snuggle back in bed. Currently pinned in bed by two of them. Not much getting done

With books we had absolutely loads. I got rid of all the paperbacks except ones that I loved and might lend out. I have one bookshelf of remaining books but could do with another go.

My friend who works in the charity shop where i donated a batch said it was super sweet seeing my name in the children’s books from my childhood.

2Scratters

@Happy_Kitties not sure if your boots collects the tablet packets with aluminium on them but ours does, might save a trip if they do.

2 Scratters xx