Decluttering

MissAdventure

I think my elephant has packed her trunk, and said goodbye to the circus...
Nothing done at all here.

Nor here, except that I finished my DIL's sweater, and have washed a load of hand-washed jumpers of my own. This will make sorting out my son's room easier, as they were in there (overspill wardrobe, as I have a million jumpers). It's slow progress, but progress all the same. I'll get the washing instructions sewn in and the sweater wrapped tomorrow.

That'll be a big tick off the to-do list.

Yes, and I've used up a bag of yarn that was cluttering the place, too .

Even better!
I've got a lot going on at the minute, heslthwise, so expect I may be taking a back seat for a while.
Never say never, though, I might have a burst of energy and do a bit.

I’ve just bought some new gloss paint for the bedroom window sill. I’ve got some old gloss in the garage. I’m horrified at the amount of unusable paint that I have. I wish you could buy paint in much smaller tins so there is less wastage. I’ve realised why I tend to save glass jars. It’s because I used to do so much painting and decorating and needed to decant paint into them. But it just resulted in me not throwing glass jars out at all. I now buy chalk paint in tester pots because one of them is usually enough for one project but it took me a long time to realise that.I don’t think the rubbish tip accepts paint any more. And we no longer have the good old village panto to donate it to.

I'm sure there is some sort of scheme that takes unwanted paint from people.
I soppos3 freecycle might too, but people can be a nuisance, I've found, consi2dering they're getting something free.

MissAdventure

Even better!
I've got a lot going on at the minute, heslthwise, so expect I may be taking a back seat for a while.
Never say never, though, I might have a burst of energy and do a bit.

For a long time now I’ve been scared of getting ill because I don’t even have a bedroom to be ill in. It’s one reason why I’m still terrified of catching covid and shut myself away from the world. Won’t go to the gym even though I’m still paying for membership. You look after yourself MissAdventure. I’m so grateful to you and others on this thread for spurring me on x

Oh we'll carry on the thread, no doubt.
Its been a great help to me, and I'll be doing what I can.

If not, I'll be "coaching" from the sidelines.

Coach away, MissA, and I'm sorry your health might not allow you to join in as much. My own health is one of the reasons I am keen to get the house 'done up' and more streamlined. I can't do as much as I used to, and I'm in the house more often than I used to be, so it matters more.

For now, I'm more interested in getting ready for Christmas, which I always find stressful, but I plan to book another charity collection for January, and to have a really good clearout of the new pantry cupboard then too. I got rid of a lot when I emptied the old one, but I need to work out a system to keep the new one running efficiently.

I am dreading having the kitchen done but DH think drawers will be easier and we've put it off for too long. A chance to declutter too.
The price seems to keep rising 🤔

My new cupboard is 60% drawers. I've lost a lot of space, but I can get to the back of the drawers, which means a lot more of it is accessible. I can also put things away and out of sight, which is helping to keep the kitchen tidy. When the counters are clear I feel less inclined to clutter them up.

Next project is the final frontier - the boot room, which is where things go when there is nowhere for them to call home. It's a tip, but as I've posted before it is a tricky layout, as it has lots of doors and windows. My plan is to get bespoke cupboards (and possibly drawers!) to cover as much wall space as possible. The carpenter who did the cupboard is going to get back to me after Christmas and we'll take it from there.

Yes, prices are insane. I'm trying not to think about that side of things. I'll be eating gruel cooked in my shiny new kitchen before long.

I've just started the process of vleanimg up the cutting in that my grandsons did.

Once done, I can put away all the painting bits and bobs that have collected in the kitchen.

I'm determined to finally be able to get the new kitchen mat out of my bedroom, and in the blooming kitchen!

We have a small painting job to do, too. The carpenter waxed the frame of the cupboard in situ (obviously) and masked it off with tape, which has pulled off some paint. It's not too obvious as the paint is fairly neutral (Oxford Stone), but it's another thing on the list.

Putting 'stuff' away after a job is done is so satisfying, isn't it? Miss A? Not having the mess adds to the good feelings created by the completed job and it has a cumulative effect.

Oh yes, it's a lovely feeling.
For weeks and weeks I've been working around a container full of painting paraphernalia.

Doodledog

We have a small painting job to do, too. The carpenter waxed the frame of the cupboard in situ (obviously) and masked it off with tape, which has pulled off some paint. It's not too obvious as the paint is fairly neutral (Oxford Stone), but it's another thing on the list.

Putting 'stuff' away after a job is done is so satisfying, isn't it? Miss A? Not having the mess adds to the good feelings created by the completed job and it has a cumulative effect.

My beloved frog tape has pulled away some paint and plaster so I’ve just bought some delicate surface frog tape. I’ve just flushed a sock down the toilet. I was wearing them in the garden and they got really muddy so I was soaking them before I put them in the washing machine. Poured the water down the loo to save wasting it and I’d missed one of them. Have flushed lots of water down and seems ok but we’re very prone to blockages in our cul de sac.

Sockages...
I live in fear of blocking my toilet, because it's a complicated, outdated pipe system, and it Is extremely long winded for plumbers to sort out what's what, and which pipes lead to which flats.

I hope that socks gone, MayBee.

For a moment I thought you were soaking your socks in the toilet .

Fingers crossed it's got clear.

MayBee70

MissAdventure

Even better!
I've got a lot going on at the minute, heslthwise, so expect I may be taking a back seat for a while.
Never say never, though, I might have a burst of energy and do a bit.

For a long time now I’ve been scared of getting ill because I don’t even have a bedroom to be ill in. It’s one reason why I’m still terrified of catching covid and shut myself away from the world. Won’t go to the gym even though I’m still paying for membership. You look after yourself MissAdventure. I’m so grateful to you and others on this thread for spurring me on x

I will keep spurring you on too.

I reckon my paperword and the loft will keep me going much of next year.

I do hope to have finished the declutter of the house after that.

Well now I think about it, there are still the photographs!

Paperwork.

On another note, I think you will find, at least I hope so, that people are not as judgemental of your situation as you think they would be?

I was going through paperwork last night. I don’t understand how it mounts up. I’m scared of throwing anything away eg all the paperwork from when I bought my car ( it’s the first time I’ve ever bought a car from new even though it’s pretty ancient now).And I try to organise everything so that if anything happened to me it would be in some sort of order. I do get fed up of having to get the best deals for everything; insurance etc. It’s so time consuming.

Can you take photos of the paperwork and store it on the cloud? I do that with receipts, health things (although the NHS App covers most of that now) and insurances/guarantees.

I have folders labeled things like 'Health' 'House' etc and just file them in there with a backup to the cloud. It saves space and time.

But how do my children access that if I became ill or died? I do have a folder that holds all of my financial interactions throughout the year.

My children know the password for my computer, so could find anything if I die, and they have POA, so could access anything they needed to beforehand.

They can't access anything remotely, but if anything happened to me they could find the files easily enough.

I didn’t realise that POA ceases when someone dies. This is what I was told at the building society last week.

Yes, it dies with you. I suppose the point is that a named person can act for you when you are unable to do so yourself; but after your death nobody can act for you.