2026 DECLUTTERING CAMPAIGN Mrs SD - our Year of Redistribution

TC77

Abit of tidying before work in office day - can see dining table, and put away games played with DDs, more plastic folders for bank of things, and started a new CS bag with a book. Baby steps. Cannot find my debobbler 
138

pixtotts

4 - another sale on Vint.
5 - I'm including the box used for sending it, I wouldn't usually but it's pretty and I was so tempted to keep it...

I've accepted a couple of offers too so hopefully they turn into sales, and have a few more things to list this morning then I'm off for the weekend x 

London_1

Good Morning all, gosh I have been remembering the power cuts of the 1970s, and the three day weeks. I converted my eldest DDs big wooden toy box with a duvet and pillows into a cooker for casseroles If we had our three hour electricity slot I would prep and part cook the casserole than it would go into the heavily lined wooden toy box surrounded by spare duvet and pillows and left all day to cook in its own heat.
 I remembered my late Mum doing a makeshift 'haybox' when I was a little girl in the 1940s and the gas or electric was prone to cutoffs and blackouts

Our house in 1971 was electric only so it was often a problem cooking Manys the time I would be scooting down the road with a half cooked meal, trailed by my two little girls of 3 & 5 to my friends house as she had a gas cooker  

She was a great friend, and when the mortgage rage shot up to 16.5% she looked after my two children  along with her two as I had to return to work.

She worked part time in the evening when her husband was home, and I worked full time during the day Life was a bit of a struggle back then, but somehow we survived and got through it 
Its sad as next month it will be a year since she sadly passed away with dementia, a great friend and we shared a lot of good times together including a three week touring holiday in the USA in 2007.
R.I.P June we did have some laughs.

I was looking at the 2026 title of the forum and though what a really good title it was.

' Our Year of Redistribution'  sums it up very well I think, even better than decluttering, although the principle is the same. Repurposing and redistribution of our goods and chattles means that if possible the last place is the landfill tip. I remember my late Mum, who would be like many of her generation, brilliant at redistribution of stuff .

In our house the bin man never got a lot, and of course in those days going to the tip was unheard of, as few had the cars or the petrol to run them. almost everything was recycled ,reused or redistributed.

 Even the ashes from our kitchen range were dug into the garden for fertiliser.
We had a fairly large garden, and at the bottom near to the compost heap  my Mother had a galvanised bucket that held nettles and dandelion leaves in water.It smelt absolutely foul, and was like a thick sludgy like consistancy but she used it as a fertiliser on her roses and chrysanthemums and grew some beauties. Also on the veg garden as a great deal of fruit and veg was grown.

I don't think she was recycling to save the planet ,more to extend the stuff she had as WW2 had left the country with very few spare supplies and nothing was binned if it could be reused.

Fathers learned to repair shoes with stick on soles and 'blakeys steel tips' on my brothers shoes.
My late Father was a chemist, but when he came home he was a Dad who repaired things. My middle brother was very good at mending mechanical things .

From a little boy he would take things to bits to see how they worked, some time drove my Mother crazy as she would said 'David keep all the nuts and bits together  he eventually got a large cupboard to himself for all his bits and pieces, and even fixed a small lamp in there and a stool.

It was christened Davy's glory hole and he spent hours in there .No wonder he grew up to be mechanically minded and could mend anything.

He completely rebuilt an old property in France in 1997 . He bought this tumbled down house, that had a tree growing through the roof, complete with barn and took three years restoring it to a three bedroomed house complete with swimming pool. He lived there for the last 14 years of his life and loved every minute of it. 

Today, not so many people mend or repair things which is sad I think. When you drive down the road today you see three or four wheely bins crammed with stuff where once there were only perhaps one half empty dustbin.So much is wasted not just food but materials so the Year of Redistribution is an excellent  idea

I intend to redistribute as much as I can this year as I am sure I still have lots of stuff to get rehomed  

Onward and upwards chums 

Heavy rain againhere on the IoW but getting lighter in the evenings now


JackieO xxx

oceandreamer

Am away tonight and leaving soon but determined to declutter something before I go.  Found three items in the wardrobe that I have never worn and am very unlikely ever to put on, so they have gone in the CS box.
It's a bit addictive decluttering isn't it? I deliberately haven't counted up because, for me, it would be an extra job (I hate admin of any sort).  Oh and my phone updated itself last night and I got a storage message (full - did I want to buy more - no I don't).  However, it also told me how many duplicate photos I had and it was really easy to select them all and merge them so there is only one of each.  So that was an easy declutter of over 1000 photos. Still no storage apparently though! 

TC77

@London_1 agree totally about the lack of repair although  some repair cafes being set up.
Walked past a house which  was lovely restored with owner moving say 4 years ago and its being not quite gutted but beautiful wooden cupboard doors in the street ( only saw one of what would be a pair) good carpet etc.

Green_hopeful

Still struggling to declutter the dri buddi airer. I offered it to a second person and she hasn’t come back to me either. I looked and found another person where I have their mobile number from a previous freecycle. If he doesn’t come back to me I will text him. Its a good item that the kids just didn’t need. Quite frustrating not to be able to get rid of it. I am going to get people to provide their mobile number going forward because its a bit frustrating. 

We have people coming for a Burns Night dinner tomorrow. Always helps encourage me to clear up!

GrannyKate

Morning all.  @London_1 - nice to read the memories of the 'old days' - we all sound like our own grandma now.  The power cuts of the 1970s - late DH was a hospital engineer and keeping the hospital running was more of an issue for him than our house so I was often alone in the dark with new baby.  It was especially good when power went off as you were changing a dirty nappy (no disposables then).  I remember one winter night he came home to a pitch black house and said bring baby out to the car - he had noticed little chef was open on the other side of town and said we can go and get a hot meal.  As we were driving he mentioned he had banged his head on a generator that was resisting his efforts to get it to work and he had a bit of a headache.  It was only when we got in the well lit cafe that I, and the slightly horrified staff, realised he had a gash on his head and dried blood running down his face and clothes. He cleaned up in cloakroom and we had a nice all day breakfast.  I do miss the Little Chef - always reliable when we were out and about with children.  When I was a child in the 50s we had a meter which took shillings and we often ran out so we sat in the dark and what money there was was saved so we could cook dinner the next day.  There were still some gas lamps downstairs in the house which were occasionally used but I was scared of them.  

Spent an hour of my life that I won't get back booking Portugal flights for April.  First attempt failed because seats no longer available, second attempt the last stage (payment) never went through - you had to keep re-inputting details for all 5 of us.  Flights may be advertising cheap offers but luggage add ons make them not so cheap.  I had to pay more than expected but its done now.  DS2 will organise the car which we will need as my brother's house is up in the hills. 

I am off to the hairdressers soon and will drop some bags of wallpaper off at the nearby tip - hope it is open this week.  

122 April holiday flights booked

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 out

Friday is a dreary overcast day with a forecast high of 9°C (feeling 7° colder due to a gusting SE wind) & a low of 6°C. DH & I are both ready & just having a cuppa whilst DSis is having a bath. The family have requested donations to the Sue Ryder charity rather than flowers, so that is done.

Florenceem, I see you have another busy day planned 😊Hopefully it is your SA jacket in the parcel & it is the correct one this time 🤞

TC77 well done clearing the table, especially before work 👏

pixtotts, great news about the sale & potential sales 😊 Btw, I would always count the packaging as unless it is used it does count as clutter 😉 Enjoy your weekend ☺️

London_1, thank you so much for sharing tales of your family & your friend June 🥹 Although I am bit of a technophobe, I really appreciate the people who take the time to post repair videos & helpful hints about prolonging the life of objects 👏 Of course one of the most useful online resources is the MSE website with such a wealth of knowledge & experience that is happily shared 🥹 

Well done decluttering so many photos oceandreamer 👏Hope you have a lovely weekend 😊

Green_hopeful, I will keep my fingers crossed that the next person takes the dri-buddy 🤞 Happy Burns Night.

We are off, see you later 👋 

MrsSD Awards: 💐🙏💐💐🌟⭐️❤️💐

DH Awards:

DSis Awards: 

Decluttering Target 2026: 145/2026

1p Savings Challenge Running Total: £5.00

Willowtree222

Hope the uniform fits Florence.

I wasn't born until the 80s but do remember we used to try and reuse as much as we could. I hate throwing things that have life in them out and would rather give them away for free. I think that is why I have so much clutter.

I am having a relax day today after building the bed. My back and arm don't like it when I do things, but when you're on your own, you don't have much choice. 

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend. 

florianatwobob

I’m a late 70s baby but my parents were born 1929 and 1939 so there was a lot of ‘make do and mend’ ingrained in them. Sometimes frustrating but I also learnt some valuable lessons from them too and I felt stood us in good stead during the early days of Covid! 

Mum would be chuckling over my jam/glass jar collection though.