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 oil 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 outq

Friday is a bright, crisp, sunny day with a forecast high of 10°C (feeling 2° colder due to SSW wind) & a low of 6°C. DH was up early as he has an appointment with the dental hygienist. He set off at 12:20 as he wants to resume his ‘buses project’ 😊 I am completing Sudoku puzzles to get my brain going before starting the cheerleading with posts dated the 13th

grandmanerd, sorry to hear that the ‘lurgy’ is still making it’s presence felt & making you feel so ill 🤒  However well done on getting so much done & persevering with your decluttering 👏 Sounds like Mrs Builder is being very helpful & useful 😊 Good news that you found the missing addresses & they are now locked into your fully charged phones 🙂 The chicken stew sounds delicious 😋 

Excellent decluttering TC77 👏 Very pleased to see that both DD1 & DD2 have been helping 😊 I agree with you that 16 seems a little on the low side for the amount of work 🤔  Please remember to keep a running total 😉

dND, I am really enjoying the conversation about how people catalogue their CDs & DVDs 😊 There seem to be as many ways to catalogue as their are ways to declutter 😊 I am more like you dND - I need the cases 😊

Sorry to hear that you have succumbed to a cold Pennypincin 😞 Fingers crossed it doesn’t last long 🤞 Excellent decluttering & cleaning 👏 Good luck with the dusting 🍀 I should really join you but ………… fill in as appropriate 🤭 

Excellent decluttering GrannyKate 👏 & hopefully DD will take a lot more items 🤞 Sounds like you are making headway with the decorating 😊

_Dolly_Rocker_ I loved This “I've scheduled a few bits of work to be done tomorrow so after B&L's morning walk I am going to clean the house!” 🤩 I wish you every success ☺️

Lovely post purplevamp 😊 Shame about the lack of success with the puffed spelt experiment 😞 I must confess that I would probably just bin them - wasteful I know but possibly better than forcing yourself to eat them even as cereal 🤔 There will be NO slapping of wrists ‘wagging finger emoji’ “Tomorrow is another day” to quote Miss O’Hara 😊 

TC77, handy having both your DDs home as you are definitely making headway with your decluttering 👏😊

Brambling, I just went through the list Brie provided, properly this time & sad to admit I ticked about 2/3rds of them 😞 although I have made some progress on No.23 (old greetings cards) 🙂 Excellent work collating & sorting the ‘small crafting bits’ 👏 The labelling can wait until you start the decluttering process as you might find that you won’t need so many labels 🤞 As to This “I would like to move the Christmas tree and decs into the loft but the loft ladder and I have a hate hate relationship so it will have to wait for my sister or nephew, I've had too many mishaps on the ladder to risk the hip 😬” a wise decision 👏☺️ Now you just have to invite either your sister or nephew round for a cuppa 😉

That was the last of the posts dated the 13th 🥳 so a perfect place to stop whilst I make myself a cuppa 😊 I hope everyone is having as good a day as possible & that the weather is being kind 🤞 See you later 👋 

MrsSD Awards: 💐🙏💐💐🌟

DH Awards:

DSis Awards: 

Decluttering Target 2026: 89/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

BlueJ94

What a blooming day! Work was hectic, not even time for a dinner break! Came home and I started the underwear drawers matching socks as i went and without any encouragement OH decided he wanted to throw away some socks of his too! 

I plan on chilling and having a bath for the rest of the evening as I am sooo tired.

QueenJess

Very behind on life after travelling into the office so much this week.  Need to catch up on a few things this weekend.  A few bits did manage to leave though:

3 - packaging reused
5 - DD small packs of crayons (Buy Nothing)
1 - DS tat recycled
1 - DS clothes too small (Buy Nothing)
1 - tiny box not needed (recycled) 

New total 83
Use it up total 33

Florenceem

I popped to SA with food donations and spare carrier bags but forgot to take home the cards that were there. Spoke to the officer and set a date for the celebration of life - February 6.
I set out for the nearby town. First stop was to collect the dry cleaning - it was down to be picked up Friday - it hadn't been done! This was at 11am  - he said it will be ready at 1.30. I have to get a bus to the town so didn't want to make another trip.
I had called the solicitors where we made the wills - the branch had closed - can you see - my day was not going well?
I called in at the branch in town - I had tried to phone and got an answerphone. I went in and yes they have the wills but the woman who deals with that dept is on annual leave - back on Monday. Then this woman has to tell the probate dept - I said - I don't need probate but I have to wait for a phone call then travel to the town with ID to collect the wills.
I got to the library where I had an appointment with the registrar - 50 minutes early - I have to allow extra time as the local buses don't adhere to the timetable.
I went unaccompanied but not alone. I sat in the library afterwards as I still had to wait for the dry cleaning.
Dry cleaning was collected and I stood in the cold waiting for a bus.
I called at SA on the way home to collect the cards I had forgotten on my previous visit and to give in Mr F's uniform. 
One of the ladies who wasn't at Church or lunch club this week - came in and asked about Mr F - she was very fond of him and was in tears.

Green_hopeful

Not decluttering but our dehumidifier died while still in warranty so we need to parcel it up and send it back to Meaco. Sadly I only chucked the box out a couple of months ago. I had to find a dehumidifier size box and packing. I think it needs a new PCB and a couple of new sensors. I didn’t know they had so many faults until i started on Google. Anyway I hope they can fix it. 

We have an automatic door opener on our duck house. It didn’t work last night. It’s nearly 10 years old so i thought it might have reached the end of its life. Turns out the company that sells them will repair it for £35 but also has a pretty comprehensive problem solving fact sheet. So I dismantled it and remantled it and tonight it worked. Let’s hope it lasts. 

Florenceem

London_1 - Mr F has no family except me.
I do have my very sad times when I sob.
Everyone is being very kind.
Not much decluttering done today - plastic file inserts, plastic bags, paperwork and 2 files.
Off to bed soon with a hot water bottle.
I have been chatting with my SA bestie about what we want included in the celebration of Mr F.

TC77

Forgot I included a game in the cs bag from the other day..been in the office all day so nothing done but an instruction leaflet and a frog done so . 97 as didn't add nos last time .
Someone looking to  pick up some glassware on Sunday so will report back hopefully positively. Dd2 goes back to oz on Sunday so will focus next week on the things dds  sorted and how best to redistribute. 

Dizzycap

Florenceem said:

I feel overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork in the office for me to sort through.
How many years of council tax, water rates, energy bills etc do I need to keep? My friend says she keeps none as hers is all electronic.
Then I don't understand what I have or need to do about the will - obviously don't want to involve solicitors if not needed.
It is a simple will - I am executrix and inherit everything - I am so confused by the sound of probate - do I need that? 
I think I will get 4 copies of the death certificate tomorrow as I will use the Just Once system - not sure I understand about that either.
I just can't concentrate.
I have money to pay the undertaker - going there on Monday.

@ Florenceem- Bless you    xx It is indeed such an overwhelming time & it is no surprise that you are having difficulty concentrating with so much to sort out and organise. I was very much in the same boat as you and decided to gather all the important documents along with 2 copies of the death certificate ( I also got 4 copies & kept 2) and for simplicity sakes and because I couldn't focus and was concerned that I might miss something with probate, I decided to pass the whole lot onto the family solicitor who then simply phoned when and if they needed to clarify something required a document etc. Probate can take up to 6 months. As for paperwork, I simply collected everything up on hubbys desk and put it in 2 large plastic containers with lids which worked out well because I'd managed to organise the paperwork without actually going through it in detail, so knew approximate where things were when the solicitor phoned for a document etc. To this date, some 13 years on, I still haven't decluttered those 2 plastic boxes of  paperwork - It's not a failure, it's too painful and traumatic; even now, for me to revisit the past and that's just the way it is 

What's been happening on decluttering Friday?

I've managed the usual HH chores, slowly but surely. Postie came to collect 2 decluttering parcels this morning & I've just come back from a very slow walk with babyface; off lead, and I managed to get to & post a light item decluttering sold item at the RM quad locker about 20 meters away, so well chuffed as this is the furthest I've managed to walk, even with constant stops, in nearly 3 months. Babyface was so excited when I kept asking "Shall we keep going?" She even had a crazy fruit loop session - Bless her xxxxx I've managed to very slowly and carefully put my own recycling and garden waste wheelie bins out when we got back tonight ready to be decluttered tomorrow, so another positive win. Now, it's coffee time for half an hour before I go and feed the fox; which I've now done and returned  I know I'm going to pay with increased full spinal pain later, but for sanity's sake, I just needed to get out and feel like a human being rather than a beeping robot    I've not done any more creative work on the Christmas angel and dove pigeon today as the weather was nice and I enjoyed decluttering some time in the lounge soaking up a little sun with babyface on the front row on my lap & purring like a cat

Well done to all those declutteries who are making wonderful progress  Time to toodle-pip off and get another lovely fresh brew coffee before bed. Good night all and sleep tight xxxx

StickyTheStickInsect

Having discovered that nearly all of the charity shops locally will only take a bag at a time, I have had to be a bit flexible with my Dad’s wish that all my Mum’s things went to the hospice shop for the hospice that cared for her. I just have too much stuff to get rid of to do one bag at a time in one shop. I went into another branch in another town but they’ll only take two bags at a time which isn’t much better given that it’s a 20 minute drive to get there.

So, 3.5 bags went to the RSPCA shop, 1.5 to the hospice shop my Dad wants and 4.5 bags to the other local hospice shop.

We had a recycling collection today and I’d put out 8 bags of fabric recycling, 1 of ours and 7 of my Mum’s stuff.

I’ve also managed to sort our some of the children’s books, so took a bag to the local hospital bookshop.

I’ve been at my Dad’s all day today, sorting out paperwork and looking for missing documents, finally found what was missing very late this afternoon. I walked to get DD from school, which is a very rare occurrence since we’ve moved and whist it is only a mile there and back from my Dad’s, it was my first walk this year and I’ve finally taken a small amount off the Conqueror walking challenge I’m doing, I’m still 25.9 miles behind where I should be but hopefully as the weather improves, my M.E. will get a bit better and I can do a little bit more.

My cousin meet me after the school run at my Dad’s again today, I really don’t know how I would be getting through the sorting without her. She brought her youngest DD and her and my DD watched TV and had McDonalds whilst we did stuff. We focused on things in the kitchen and cleared the under sink cupboard and the pantry cupboard, both had tardis type qualities! We binned anything broken or out of date and manged to get 6 bags in the bin. 3 bags of cleaning stuff will be picked up by a friend on Monday.

My cousin took 3 bags of stuff and I’ve brought a car full home but won’t account for it until it leaves the house, I’ve listed some of it on the freebies group tonight, so hopefully some of it will go over the weekend.

My new total is 39.5/208

My Dad’s new total is 28.5/52, Mrs SD I think I’d like to amend my Dad’s total to 104 as there is so much more stuff than I’d anticipated.

We’ve had notification this week that instead of the anticipated end of March deadline, we have two weeks to clear our 40ft container of stuff in storage from the house move before the container needs to be moved. The universe has obviously decided that I didn’t have enough to do !!! So Sunday and Tuesday will be container clearing days and we’ll see how much is left after that. We’ve lost a bedroom upstairs and two rooms downstairs in the move, so we just don’t have space for a large chunk of it, I had hoped for time to sort it out logically and after we’d had our extension built, so we had a bit more space at home but not to be.

Love to everyone xxx

Dizzycap

Having said I was getting ready to go to bed, here I am again with a hot coffee chocolate 

@ StickyTheStickInsect - Bless you  & sending huge (((HUGS)))   What a heavy time it is for you and it seems as though 2026 is really pushing you to declutter tons in a limited time. In a very strange way and without sounding brash and unsympathetic in any way, you won't have time to be sentimental with what you need to get decluttered and removed. It'l be a little like the MSE stopping yourself spending mantra: Do I need it  / Do I really want it? If the answer is no, out it goes and don't look back. Far easier said than done  Try to give yourself at least one day a week where you can try and forget the mamoth tasks in front of you and get refreshed ready for the 6 days ahead. Again, easier said than done but you don't want to make yourself ill getting run down with it all 

I really do need to get up from sitting and have a stretch complete with bone cracking for a while to relieve some pain. Toodle-pip once again xxxxx