There are still plenty of jobs that need doing in the garden, all beyond my capacity, but overall it looks attractive now. The part furthest from the house is semi-screened and left to run wild.
Not a lot of tidying going on this week. However, we did make a trip to the Swedish shop where I found some more of the collapsible low containers for keeping things tidy. I have revisited the sideboard of doom and have used those containers to make things in the top drawer a bit more orderly. There appears to be no evidence of moths there at present, so the bagging of items appears to have worked there.
Echoing Piglet's sentiments @NicoleMR, sending you warm thoughts.
This morning has not been one of decluttering just one of wiping. Why do my kitchen benches get grotty so fast??? All now wiped and clean except for one spot where I dropped a frozen blueberry, tiny stain, so will pop a spot of toothpaste onto that in a minute.
Bathroom basin mirror and floor have also been given a once over and the loo will get attention a bit later.
I should be going through the drawers in the wardrobe, but am working hard to avoid that at present!!
The new blind in my husband's bedroom was fitted yesterday and the new door is going in today.
That just leaves three things: curtain pole, curtains and rug.
Theoretically he could move back in tonight, but there isa thin strip of light coming in from either side of the blind, so I suspect he'll want to wait until we have the curtains up.
That sounds really great @North East Quine ! Nothing like moving into a newly redecorated room.
We had quite a cold cloudy morning yesterday and Wednesday, so I could avoid the wardrobe no longer. I've been through all the wide drawers which meant ditching some old paperwork, putting stuff aside for recycling and ditching a pair of sandals which I bought as part of a job lot, but were not flat so not suitable. I then started on the hanging stuff, which is divided into long and short, and the short hanging divided into summer/winter as separate sections. A few tops never worn and more than 5 years old into the charity bags, then a couple of skirts not worn since giving up work, and another couple of pairs of shoes moved on too.
At end of season I try to buy some things on sale to put aside for the next year. I had stuffed those purchases under the short hanging things, not even unpacked. So I unpacked the bags, added the items to their appropriate sections. A shop I quite like has just closed down and having notice of this I went to the website and bought some t-shirts. These are now hanging up ready to be worn. I now have some spare hangers, so those have gone to the laundry ready to use on washing day, which is always a good thing.
Onto the long hanging and I pulled out a couple of things that I'd hung onto that were Mum's. I think she'd hung onto them hoping that one day they might fit again and I thought it was time to stop that silliness. So a couple of vintage items off to the charity shop.
I already had a bag of items that were the daughter's culled stuff in the car, so I added my three bags and off to the charity bin I went. I know now that if I don't get rid of things immediately, then I'm likely to go through them and claim stuff back., so they must be gotten out of the house and now they are gone!! I was lucky to find the charity bin at church still had room to take my things, for that I'm grateful and I hope some of the things will be helpful for others.
Progress! My husband has moved back into his own room, and we have a guest bedroom once more! Which is just as well, as we are expecting visitors at the end of the month.
We still have stuff waiting to be sorted in the dining room, but we can walk all the way round the table now! We just can't use it as a dining table yet.
Cheery son is beginning to get the message re keeping on top of things and he will have a binge on his room in anticipation of his girlfriend visiting for the day next week. Yes!!
That's a real find @Graven Image ! Do you know, are they special coins? I'm just wondering if they might have any special significance, or be worth more than their face value?
I too have coins to count and bank, but they won’t amount to much.
Four boxes of books packed and loaded into the car today ready to take to the NT bookshop tomorrow. I have been waiting for the school holidays to be over so the place will be less busy this week.
Oh gosh, when you talked about counting coins it took me back to the early days of work when I had to count and wrap the coins from the photocopier every day and make sure everything balanced, the daily float, the numbers in the book that recorded departmental copies and the amount taken in the coin box. Urk it was a horrible job . It was a process! I used to feel envious of people who worked in the local building society who had a coin counting machine!!
I hope you've managed to offload your books @Puzzler. I've not been doing much tidying this week, it's been more of a garden week here.
However, I'm pretty happy to be on top of the regular jobs like the washing and vacuuming, the fridge and the worm farm are up to date with being fairly clean.
It probably sounds weird to so many people, but we spent so much time away from home with Cheery son being sick and then coming home to our deteriorating house and garden, that I take so much joy in just having a pleasant home and looking after it. Joy and gratitude
National Trust are so helpful. I rang ahead and at the kiosk they called up the buggy driver who unloaded my boxes and drove them to the bookshop. So little effort on my part, as I got my grandson to carry them downstairs and load straight into my car. Still a few more to go.
I must now work on the rest of the debris in the room, much of which is actually memorabilia of various sorts.
I also ( first) need to have a good sort out of my own little study to make room for things I need to keep, as I want to minimise clutter in what will be the spare room. I also bear in mind that my children will probably just get rid of everything when I die. It helps to focus the mind.
I'm moving into the smaller bedroom for winter. The main bedroom doesn't get much sun, and the bed is directly beneath a large window. The small bedroom gets more sun, and as the family next door demolished the back of their house it (temporarily )gets even more than usual. In addition the bed is against an internal wall, so it's warmer.
So I started tidying in the small bedroom. I found 3 envelopes on the bookshelf than forms the bedhead of the bed I'll be sleeping in. In them were 3 book tokens worth a total of $45. They are all from the best local independent bookshop which doesn't date its tokens, so they are still valid.
The High School I attended had the motto "Effort Brings Reward" - maybe they were right after all.
We have a functioning dining room. There's a small pile in one corner, but I can ignore that for the time being (mostly pictures to be re-hung).
Our guest bedroom (the Quinie's room) is functional.
I am going to spend today redding out my study / bedroom and once that's done, every room will be sorted except for my husband's new study (the Loon's bedroom) which is piled high with boxes of books. He can sort that in his own time, though, as he has a functional desk area in there.
Yay for functioning dining rooms, good news! Echoing @Huia's cheer here also.
@Huia, I think the move to a different bedroom sounds very sensible. When we were first married we had friends who had a summer and winter bedroom. The winter one was closer to the bathroom and smaller than the summer one. I think also they used to preheat it before going to bed. They did have a Victorian home that was not at all insulated and lived in a cold part of the state, so had sorted themselves pretty well within the parameters they were presented with. Having a similar home when we were young and foolish we used to heat baby daughter's bedroom, but sadly not our own!
We have had a couple of unseasonably warm days. I came into the house a couple of day ago and panicked because I thought I must have left a stove element on, but it was just the sun. My 1950s house has plastic sheets on the ground under the house and some kind of wool insulation stuck to the underside of the floorboards as well as more insulation in the ceiling.
Despite the higher-than-usual temperatures for May, I am wearing a fleece in my sitting room which is north facing, whilst the back of the house is light, sunny and warm. When we have a heatwave I enjoy being in the front of the house.
When I eventually get Mr Puzzler’s study cleared out and redecorated, I think I might pick up the idea of using it for my winter bedroom. Thank you.
My study / bedroom is not yet sorted. BUT we had bedding in each of the bedrooms, and although we knew each room had some random bits, we assumed that the matching items were in another room. Over the past few weeks we have built up a large pile of sheets / duvet covers / pillowcases which didn't seem to match anything. Or at least anything we have currently. One set matched the pretty wallpaper we had in our previous flat which we removed when it became the toddler Loon's bedroom and was replaced with Thomas the Tank Engine. The Loon is now 31, so quite why we still had that set, I don't know.
Today we sorted the pile and took most of it to the charity shop. It felt great!
The good thing about kid's stuff is there is always a new batch of kids coming on behind for classics like Thomas!
Big effort a couple of days ago doing a thorough cleaning of the tiles, 2 hallways and main living area. I felt like I'd been to aerobics after finishing, but it did look good! It's now back to looking a bit crumby, but I hope I can salvage it with a quick vacuum later on!
I am now getting to grips with sorting my study, a) because it needs doing and b) to make room for paperwork etc from Mr Puzzler’s study, some of which is mine anyway. I have really neglected my own admin/ filing over the last two years. I’ve now got plenty of papers to put in the recycling bin and lots to shred. My shredder is not liking it.
I have nothing much on over the coming Bank Holiday weekend, and the forecast is for rain, so I have no excuse. I really need to crack on with this. Even on busier days I ought to commit 30 minutes a day, rather than think of it as a big job.
I have tidied out our hall cupboard. I took everything out, strewed it over the living room floor, sorted it and put almost all of it back in. It looks much better, but I think would benefit from a repeat tidying out in a couple of months.
Like Puzzler I found some money! Unlike Puzzler, it was 20p. If I find another 20p I can treat myself to a Freddo.
We have a large number of the sort of cotton tote bag that gets given away at conferences, or at exhibitions. What to do with them? We've also got a large number of plastic and paper carrier bags, but our Food Bank finds those helpful, so I can offload those. But the cotton ones? Any suggestions?
We found that some charity shops would take fabric tote bags; not to sell necessarily but to give to people for their purchases rather than give them a plastic bag. Possibly the food bank may do the same?
We have a large number of the sort of cotton tote bag that gets given away at conferences, or at exhibitions.
If you find out, let me know. We not only have cotton ones, but heavy-duty plastic and fabric ones. The only useful one was from a meeting in Bergen - it's a rucksack designed for all-day hiking.
We found that some charity shops would take fabric tote bags; not to sell necessarily but to give to people for their purchases rather than give them a plastic bag. Possibly the food bank may do the same?
We take them at our Foodbank where I volunteer. Some of our clients really enjoy being given a sturdy, reusable bag.
Originally posted by Firenze: The only useful one was from a meeting in Bergen
Are Norwegian conference gifts generally better? The NE Man got a cheese slice with the name and date of the conference on its handle from one Norwegian conference, and it's one of the most useful gifts he has ever received. Probably pipped at the post by the 2lb bag of cashews which he brought back from India once. Much, much, much better than the framed dead butterfly.
Today I took everything out of both the shower room and the bathroom, cleaned both rooms, sorted the contents of the cupboards and redistributed them between the two rooms.
It was a faff, but I am pleased with the end result. Like the hall cupboard yesterday, I think it would benefit from being re-done in a couple of months when the task would be much quicker and the results better.
Also, I found another 20p so will treat myself to a Freddo next week.
All that effort has really earned a Freddo frog!! My place will be getting a lick and a promise later today. It's not very dirty, but a bit of a tweak for visitors won't go astray!
I'm kicking myself because I was at the Swedish shop yesterday and saw a large storage thingy and couldn't think of a use for it in the moment. Later in the day I was cross with myself because it would have made the perfect stowing place for folded paper shopping bags., just to keep them tidy before they go into the recycling bin or for adding to the worm farm. I did have a nice cardboard box I was putting them into, but Cheery husband took the bags away and the box too!
I thought a completely different box might say "bring me home to be re-used", but I doubt it will still be there next week, when we might be there again!
Originally posted by Firenze: The only useful one was from a meeting in Bergen
Are Norwegian conference gifts generally better? The NE Man got a cheese slice with the name and date of the conference on its handle from one Norwegian conference, and it's one of the most useful gifts he has ever received. Probably pipped at the post by the 2lb bag of cashews which he brought back from India once. Much, much, much better than the framed dead butterfly.
Useful items are quite rare. I can only think of a trivet in the style of indigenous carving of the Pacific north-west, so likely Canadian. It sits beside the cooker with the oil bottles on it. China tends to give out small ceramics wrapped in embroidered silk, in pretty boxes. Most inconvenient was a fossilised mammoth tooth, mounted on a stand, as MrF was on his way to another meeting in Europe, so had to hoick this lump of rock through Customs.
I love those Norwegian cheese knives; I brought one back to my mum the first time I was in Norway, and we brought one back when we went with the Belfast choir, and I have it yet.
When David went to Norway for his godson's christening, he brought me back a set of six little wooden boards for using like side plates, which we used all the time. Apart from two that split in transit from Canada back here, I have the rest and use them occasionally.
Originally posted by Firenze: China tends to give out small ceramics wrapped in embroidered silk, in pretty boxes.
Tell me about it. The NE Man got figurines of a small boy and his cat. The small boy was doing a crab bend and the cat fitted in underneath. We assumed that the boy and his cat were figures from a story, or a nursery rhyme.
The snag was that the small boy was wearing those split trousers that Chinese toddlers used to wear, and so his genitals were not only visible, but, with the crab bend pose, prominent. It's still in the house somewhere, in its silk bag and pretty box.
Grateful to have just got away with just a teapot or two then.
The house is at its optimal tidiness since the cleaner came on Friday. The first job is to change the bed (the mattress weighs a ton) which we normally do together, but I had to rush out. Came home to find he had indeed made the bed, but with the blankets on top of the tucked-in coverlet. But otoh he'd replaced the sealant round the sink and worktops.
Originally posted by Firenze: China tends to give out small ceramics wrapped in embroidered silk, in pretty boxes.
Tell me about it. The NE Man got figurines of a small boy and his cat. The small boy was doing a crab bend and the cat fitted in underneath. We assumed that the boy and his cat were figures from a story, or a nursery rhyme.
The snag was that the small boy was wearing those split trousers that Chinese toddlers used to wear, and so his genitals were not only visible, but, with the crab bend pose, prominent. It's still in the house somewhere, in its silk bag and pretty box.
Wow!
A Chinese student once gave me a quite remarkable piece of embroidery, on a piece of net curtain so you can see that front, and back, are perfect. I don't know how it was done. It is held in a fairly fancy free-standing fretwork frame (hey, alliteration!). The only downside is that the subject is two quite scary-looking insect/prawn things, but I like it anyway.
Most useful was winning a 'guess how many broken transducers in the jar' competition from a manufacturer of instrumentation at a conference, and winning a calibrator for said transducers, which was probably the most expensive thing I ever won in any competition anywhere. That was from a Danish company at a conference in Liverpool, so not exactly a far-away destination.
He's a wee treasure. He repainted the summerhouse last year. He'll tackle any minor repair or problem. Not always successfully, but good-hearted as they come.
My favourite Chinese gift is a cheerful looking gold plastic pig, which the NE Man got on a trip to China in 2007 - the Year of the Golden Pig.
Not a conference gift, but something the NE Man bought himself - a bright red silk padded tablecloth, embroidered with multi-coloured dragons. The red runs every time it's washed, although, astonishingly, the tablecloth hasn't faded. But it has to be handwashed, and it takes up the whole of the washing line to dry. It takes forever to dry, because of the inexplicable padding.
My husband loves it - he thinks it looks magnificent (it does!) but he isn't the one handwashing a ******* tablecloth.
Comments
Not a lot of tidying going on this week. However, we did make a trip to the Swedish shop where I found some more of the collapsible low containers for keeping things tidy. I have revisited the sideboard of doom and have used those containers to make things in the top drawer a bit more orderly. There appears to be no evidence of moths there at present, so the bagging of items appears to have worked there.
Having seen your other posts, Nicole, I think you're doing brilliantly!
This morning has not been one of decluttering just one of wiping. Why do my kitchen benches get grotty so fast??? All now wiped and clean except for one spot where I dropped a frozen blueberry, tiny stain, so will pop a spot of toothpaste onto that in a minute.
Bathroom basin mirror and floor have also been given a once over and the loo will get attention a bit later.
I should be going through the drawers in the wardrobe, but am working hard to avoid that at present!!
The new blind in my husband's bedroom was fitted yesterday and the new door is going in today.
That just leaves three things: curtain pole, curtains and rug.
Theoretically he could move back in tonight, but there isa thin strip of light coming in from either side of the blind, so I suspect he'll want to wait until we have the curtains up.
We had quite a cold cloudy morning yesterday and Wednesday, so I could avoid the wardrobe no longer. I've been through all the wide drawers which meant ditching some old paperwork, putting stuff aside for recycling and ditching a pair of sandals which I bought as part of a job lot, but were not flat so not suitable. I then started on the hanging stuff, which is divided into long and short, and the short hanging divided into summer/winter as separate sections. A few tops never worn and more than 5 years old into the charity bags, then a couple of skirts not worn since giving up work, and another couple of pairs of shoes moved on too.
At end of season I try to buy some things on sale to put aside for the next year. I had stuffed those purchases under the short hanging things, not even unpacked. So I unpacked the bags, added the items to their appropriate sections. A shop I quite like has just closed down and having notice of this I went to the website and bought some t-shirts. These are now hanging up ready to be worn. I now have some spare hangers, so those have gone to the laundry ready to use on washing day, which is always a good thing.
Onto the long hanging and I pulled out a couple of things that I'd hung onto that were Mum's. I think she'd hung onto them hoping that one day they might fit again and I thought it was time to stop that silliness. So a couple of vintage items off to the charity shop.
I already had a bag of items that were the daughter's culled stuff in the car, so I added my three bags and off to the charity bin I went. I know now that if I don't get rid of things immediately, then I'm likely to go through them and claim stuff back., so they must be gotten out of the house and now they are gone!! I was lucky to find the charity bin at church still had room to take my things, for that I'm grateful and I hope some of the things will be helpful for others.
We still have stuff waiting to be sorted in the dining room, but we can walk all the way round the table now! We just can't use it as a dining table yet.
Cheery son is beginning to get the message re keeping on top of things and he will have a binge on his room in anticipation of his girlfriend visiting for the day next week. Yes!!
Four boxes of books packed and loaded into the car today ready to take to the NT bookshop tomorrow. I have been waiting for the school holidays to be over so the place will be less busy this week.
I hope you've managed to offload your books @Puzzler. I've not been doing much tidying this week, it's been more of a garden week here.
However, I'm pretty happy to be on top of the regular jobs like the washing and vacuuming, the fridge and the worm farm are up to date with being fairly clean.
It probably sounds weird to so many people, but we spent so much time away from home with Cheery son being sick and then coming home to our deteriorating house and garden, that I take so much joy in just having a pleasant home and looking after it. Joy and gratitude
I must now work on the rest of the debris in the room, much of which is actually memorabilia of various sorts.
I also ( first) need to have a good sort out of my own little study to make room for things I need to keep, as I want to minimise clutter in what will be the spare room. I also bear in mind that my children will probably just get rid of everything when I die. It helps to focus the mind.
I'm moving into the smaller bedroom for winter. The main bedroom doesn't get much sun, and the bed is directly beneath a large window. The small bedroom gets more sun, and as the family next door demolished the back of their house it (temporarily )gets even more than usual. In addition the bed is against an internal wall, so it's warmer.
So I started tidying in the small bedroom. I found 3 envelopes on the bookshelf than forms the bedhead of the bed I'll be sleeping in. In them were 3 book tokens worth a total of $45. They are all from the best local independent bookshop which doesn't date its tokens, so they are still valid.
The High School I attended had the motto "Effort Brings Reward" - maybe they were right after all.
Our guest bedroom (the Quinie's room) is functional.
I am going to spend today redding out my study / bedroom and once that's done, every room will be sorted except for my husband's new study (the Loon's bedroom) which is piled high with boxes of books. He can sort that in his own time, though, as he has a functional desk area in there.
@Huia, I think the move to a different bedroom sounds very sensible. When we were first married we had friends who had a summer and winter bedroom. The winter one was closer to the bathroom and smaller than the summer one. I think also they used to preheat it before going to bed. They did have a Victorian home that was not at all insulated and lived in a cold part of the state, so had sorted themselves pretty well within the parameters they were presented with. Having a similar home when we were young and foolish we used to heat baby daughter's bedroom, but sadly not our own!
When I eventually get Mr Puzzler’s study cleared out and redecorated, I think I might pick up the idea of using it for my winter bedroom. Thank you.
Today we sorted the pile and took most of it to the charity shop. It felt great!
Big effort a couple of days ago doing a thorough cleaning of the tiles, 2 hallways and main living area. I felt like I'd been to aerobics after finishing, but it did look good! It's now back to looking a bit crumby, but I hope I can salvage it with a quick vacuum later on!
I have nothing much on over the coming Bank Holiday weekend, and the forecast is for rain, so I have no excuse. I really need to crack on with this. Even on busier days I ought to commit 30 minutes a day, rather than think of it as a big job.
Blimey! Can you come round and clear our shelves? We are short of Allen keys...
Oh yes, it's Allen keys we really need. 😉
Like Puzzler I found some money! Unlike Puzzler, it was 20p. If I find another 20p I can treat myself to a Freddo.
We have a large number of the sort of cotton tote bag that gets given away at conferences, or at exhibitions. What to do with them? We've also got a large number of plastic and paper carrier bags, but our Food Bank finds those helpful, so I can offload those. But the cotton ones? Any suggestions?
If you find out, let me know. We not only have cotton ones, but heavy-duty plastic and fabric ones. The only useful one was from a meeting in Bergen - it's a rucksack designed for all-day hiking.
We take them at our Foodbank where I volunteer. Some of our clients really enjoy being given a sturdy, reusable bag.
The only useful one was from a meeting in Bergen
Are Norwegian conference gifts generally better? The NE Man got a cheese slice with the name and date of the conference on its handle from one Norwegian conference, and it's one of the most useful gifts he has ever received. Probably pipped at the post by the 2lb bag of cashews which he brought back from India once. Much, much, much better than the framed dead butterfly.
Today I took everything out of both the shower room and the bathroom, cleaned both rooms, sorted the contents of the cupboards and redistributed them between the two rooms.
It was a faff, but I am pleased with the end result. Like the hall cupboard yesterday, I think it would benefit from being re-done in a couple of months when the task would be much quicker and the results better.
Also, I found another 20p so will treat myself to a Freddo next week.
I'm kicking myself because I was at the Swedish shop yesterday and saw a large storage thingy and couldn't think of a use for it in the moment. Later in the day I was cross with myself because it would have made the perfect stowing place for folded paper shopping bags., just to keep them tidy before they go into the recycling bin or for adding to the worm farm. I did have a nice cardboard box I was putting them into, but Cheery husband took the bags away and the box too!
I thought a completely different box might say "bring me home to be re-used", but I doubt it will still be there next week, when we might be there again!
Useful items are quite rare. I can only think of a trivet in the style of indigenous carving of the Pacific north-west, so likely Canadian. It sits beside the cooker with the oil bottles on it. China tends to give out small ceramics wrapped in embroidered silk, in pretty boxes. Most inconvenient was a fossilised mammoth tooth, mounted on a stand, as MrF was on his way to another meeting in Europe, so had to hoick this lump of rock through Customs.
When David went to Norway for his godson's christening, he brought me back a set of six little wooden boards for using like side plates, which we used all the time. Apart from two that split in transit from Canada back here, I have the rest and use them occasionally.
China tends to give out small ceramics wrapped in embroidered silk, in pretty boxes.
Tell me about it. The NE Man got figurines of a small boy and his cat. The small boy was doing a crab bend and the cat fitted in underneath. We assumed that the boy and his cat were figures from a story, or a nursery rhyme.
The snag was that the small boy was wearing those split trousers that Chinese toddlers used to wear, and so his genitals were not only visible, but, with the crab bend pose, prominent. It's still in the house somewhere, in its silk bag and pretty box.
The house is at its optimal tidiness since the cleaner came on Friday. The first job is to change the bed (the mattress weighs a ton) which we normally do together, but I had to rush out. Came home to find he had indeed made the bed, but with the blankets on top of the tucked-in coverlet. But otoh he'd replaced the sealant round the sink and worktops.
I’m slowly tackling plastic tubs of memorabilia, but not making much progress as I keep reading them.
Wow!
A Chinese student once gave me a quite remarkable piece of embroidery, on a piece of net curtain so you can see that front, and back, are perfect. I don't know how it was done. It is held in a fairly fancy free-standing fretwork frame (hey, alliteration!). The only downside is that the subject is two quite scary-looking insect/prawn things, but I like it anyway.
Most useful was winning a 'guess how many broken transducers in the jar' competition from a manufacturer of instrumentation at a conference, and winning a calibrator for said transducers, which was probably the most expensive thing I ever won in any competition anywhere. That was from a Danish company at a conference in Liverpool, so not exactly a far-away destination.
He's a wee treasure. He repainted the summerhouse last year. He'll tackle any minor repair or problem. Not always successfully, but good-hearted as they come.
Not a conference gift, but something the NE Man bought himself - a bright red silk padded tablecloth, embroidered with multi-coloured dragons. The red runs every time it's washed, although, astonishingly, the tablecloth hasn't faded. But it has to be handwashed, and it takes up the whole of the washing line to dry. It takes forever to dry, because of the inexplicable padding.
My husband loves it - he thinks it looks magnificent (it does!) but he isn't the one handwashing a ******* tablecloth.
ETA - I forgot to mention that it has tassels.
I still have clothes I bought in Hong Kong in 1999. They tend to have interesting labels such as 'Sample Not For Resale'.