Decluttering

😁 🦊

Nothing politically incorrect here, we hope!

Lots of family photos, though.

MissAdventure

That's the food cupboard cleaned and tidied, containing a few less out of date foods.

Honestly, it's ridiculous!
I could replace the out of date stuff, but I wouldn't, given a chance, because it's not stuff I'd particularly eat. 🙄

I hear you.

I have been quietly munching through back of cupboard stuff. Partly to not bother me having to sort through it.

I made a decision a few months ago, not to buy ingredients "to make whatever at a later date".
If I really want to make something, buy and then use immediately. None of this, "store cupboard hanging around stuff".
It is working.
Space is appearing, and now left empty.

I plan to do similar after my new larder is in place.

There will be a massive clearout, and I will get rid of a lot of things in the first instance, and properly sort out the ones I'm keeping, then use up as much as possible before buying more. As I'll be able to see and reach the back of the new drawers, I'll be better able to rotate things by date.

I have a bit of a siege mentality where food is concerned, and we do fairly regular Costco shops and get things in bulk. This world well when I was cooking for more people, and when there were teenagers coming on and making food, but now it just results in a surplus. The plan is to, well, plan , as opposed to getting things because I know we'll use them at some point.

I've never been the sort of shopper who only buys what we need, and I'm not aiming for that - I feel more secure when I know we can manage for a while without shopping, and was glad of that in lockdown. There is a happy medium though.

Nothing done today.
Been under the weather yet again.

I eat a very limited amount of food ( as my FIL once said I’m someone who eats to live not lives to eat). Quite happy to eat the same meal day after day. So I’m organising my food stockpile around that. I do eat stuff in tins and jars that’s way out of date and am working my way through my pandemic stockpile. My upright freezer has a layer of ice at the bottom. I sent away for something that removed it in 60 seconds but it says I have to remove all the food and switch it off. I don’t want to do that as it’s never been turned off. I’m wondering if I can safely use it by just smearing it on the ice and removing it straight away? It won’t come into contact with any food.

Books.
About 100 knitting patterns. I know I could sell some of them but just can't be bothered.
A friend has just said she'd like some and the rest can go to the craft group.

Don't do it Maybe, you must remove the food first. Mine is frost free and never needs defrosting but at times there is ice, then it goes. If yours isn't, empty it after switching off, I used to put food-in plastic bags, cover them all with a blanket, put bowls of hot water for 20 minutes, then you just get a wooden spatular and slide the ice off, wipe inside with big bath towels, switch back on. Alternatively eat all the food as soon as you can and order a frost free, which is what i did.

It is frost free. Which is why I don’t understand the ice at the bottom. The sides and the back are ok.

I started a thread about my iced up freezer last weekend.

I got some tips, but still ended up bashing the ice off with knives, spatulas and all sorts!

This ice is thin but absolutely solid. I’ve no idea what caused it. I suppose I could just ignore it but wondering if it makes the freezer inefficient. I daren’t risk breaking the freezer. It’s in a very cold room and modern freezers only work above a certain temperature. I can’t have a larder freezer in my kitchen as there’s nowhere to put it. Yet another thing in the house that is a problem.

I found a hot tea towel with salt on it helped.

I know exactly what you mean: every declutter involves filling holes, bodging up gaps, lumps, bumps, and so on. I think the drawers to my freezer have cracked, and the front part is now slightly protruding, which means the door closes, but doesnt create a strong seal, and then ice forms..

Have you got lots of stuff stuck together with gaffer tape? When my husband left my cousin gave me a roll saying ‘you’ll be needing this’. He was right…

No more nails is my go to fix.

But yes, I use tape, and when that lifts, I stick it down with no more more nails, then filler, grouting - anything that might hold for a few months, basically.

Lakeland sells spray that dissolves ice. The instructions say to empty the freezer, but the label says it's food safe. I wouldn't spray it onto food, but happily use it on an empty shelf/drawer even if the rest of the freezer were full.

My 'system' for defrosting is to take the drawers out, fill a washing up bowl with hot water and put it on a shelf so the steam rises and defrosts the one above at the same time as the bottom of the bowl melts the ice beneath it. When the water cools I refill and put it on a different shelf.

Whilst that's going on I use a hairdryer with a long nose and extra nozzle to get at the corners, interspersed with scraping everywhere with a fish slice. I can get it done in 20 minutes or so, even when it's pretty iced up.

Before anyone shouts at me, obviously I don't put the dryer near water. Anything that drips on it is no worse than water dripping from wet hair

The de icer I bought is from Easylife. It says wear gloves and glasses, only use in a ventilated room and keep away from food. I did buy another one ages ago that didn’t seem to have so many warnings on it.

I think there are so many warnings to cover the manufacturer, these days.
So they don't get sued by people who don't know that coffee is hot, or a bag of nuts may contain
.... nuts!

Just had to share this. I do washing for the charity shop where I sort donations.
With other clothes ( and shoes) there was this little kiddies coat.
The label says ^Wear me… Care for me…Share me^😍

Cute! And a very good message 🙂

I think the washing machine pipes are going in the bin tonight.

What's the world coming to when you can't give them away??

Just gone through the larder. I think I’ve only got two tins that aren’t at least a year out of date. And bags of lentils that are the same. Lentils will go in the brown bin but I’ll risk eating the tinned stuff. I’ve got a jar of pickled onions dated 2013!

I’m always de cluttering get rid of 20 items of clothes but buy in 15 🙄

I’m always sending away for things that I think will make my life more organised. But most of the time they don’t.

I'm awake, at least.
I really, really need to get this show on the road.

Uncluttered one area seems to lead to another twenty that need doing.

Brian has been tidied, if not decluttered.

I can see, and get to the Christmas tree, at least, for now.

The idea is that I can now take things out bit by bit, sort out, discard stuff, and put back in.

I can also fit my much hated walker in there, now (I think) that means i now need to wash the living room curtains as the walker was near them and has made the hemline dirty.

Well done you! I’ve just put loads of ancient lentils in the brown bin and am just about to go through the freezer to find old meat to add to it. I’m giving the dog the old mince as beef keeps for ages and she seems ok on it. When it’s done I’ll start freezing more food eg slice up red peppers and freeze them for smoothies ( I’ve just thrown out a red pepper that didn’t get used). I’ve already made some banana bread with some of the many bags of frozen bananas and I now have room to freeze a couple of loaves so I can just take out a few slices a day to use and I take a slice of tea or banana bread out of the freezer each day for late breakfast/lunch. Hopefully I won’t be wasting food in the future.