SPRING-Clean Declutter - Need Help

Attagirl @Awpgirl ..... steady does it ...

I diligently avoided doing any decluttering today.

Looking for @Former-Member - how are you doing today?

Hope everyone else is doing okay or better than okay.

I have eaten leftovers thus clearing out the fridge. Just noticed the dust on the ceiling fan in my bedroom. It's thankfully gotten a bit cooler and I haven't needed to switch it on today. Must get up there and clean the blades.

That has been my take on housework on my low-energy days for many years now @Awpgirl ..... believe me, it works. I call it “grazing” .....

@Former-Member, my parents weren't big drinkers, but would always have a few bottles for occasional drinks. Surprise find, though, was a couple of bottles of homebrewed fruit wines at the back of the top shelf of the pantry. They were dated sometime in the 1990s, and the corks had deteriorated, so I strained out the corky fragments and carefully sampled. There was a white that was slightly vinegar but not too bad, so I used that up as cooking wine; and a red that had boysenberries in it, and was actually really nice. So that one got decanted into two smaller bottles, and my sister and I took one each.

We found some expired groceries too. I'm a bit of a "no waste" cook, so old bikkies, packet mix cakes, dried fruit and suchlike got used up one way or another. Fruitcakes are a wonderful way of using up odds and ends of slightly crystaline or dried hard fruits. Nyummy. (Don't worry, I did toss anything that was sus... but slightly stale is OK once cooked up.)

More bothersome was the amount of prescription and other medication we found in all sorts of odd spots around the house. I think she was stocking up big once the yearly PBS limit kicked in and scripts became free, and also losing track of where she'd put things. All the half used packets and "out of date" ones went to the chemist for disposal (a shopping bag full); the "in date" ones that were still on their medications list went to the aged care home for them; the "in date" ones not on their current list I took to our local medical centre, so that the doctors there could pass them on to other patients who needed them.

I know what you mean about feeling guilty. It's taken me 2+ years to get to the point of being able to tell myself that, despite still being alive, Mum can't "own" the things in the house anymore, because she can't take them into the aged care home. I'm putting aside a suitcase full of craft materials that I think she'll actually use, and will take them in as she uses up what she has there. There's a few special ornaments she'd like to have, but she hasn't got a safe place to put them, so we're not taking them in. It's not as if her room is bare. We took in some special bits and pieces when they first moved there, including pictures for their walls. Looks quite homey, really.

@Faith-and-Hope Will think about that, but am not sure whether its more the items themselves she wants- plus the main ones have already come back here to my place. I've got a feeling that having photos may feel more like they're memories of things she's "lost".

I took in a smaller and less fragile item on my last visit, and she was pleased to get that. Hassle is that the other ones she's asking for are large, heavy and definitely breakable.