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KonMari 2017 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

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  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 9,912
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    Sorry to hear about your father also Charly
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  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 9,912
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    I thought I was winning the battle with paper when I finished a folder earlier, 2 more large boxes filled with shreddings for recycling next week. Then found a stack of bank statements going back to 2006. Have got rid of up to 2009 which has half filled the large shredder bin again. Fortunately will get some more boxes this coming week with my business stock.

    Two drawers of the CoD have been emptied, some has gone into the cupboard, other bits are floating creating clutter whilst I make a decision where they go. The third drawer of the CoD has a lot of cables in. Will go through these with OH and work out if there's any that can go.

    Both the drawers I've cleared the bases had popped out of the groove at the back. I've managed to get them back in but think they need fixing better with some sort of batton if I'm going to keep this CoD longer term.

    There must be progress of some sort but it's difficult to see at the moment!
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  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :( Sorry to hear about your respective Dads, Callisto and Charly, and sending you all good wishes.

    I've been MIA due to about 48 hours with a sick headache, feeling a bit pitiful out of working hours and living very quietly. Seems to be something atmospheric as several other people, not ones known to me personally but friends-of-friends, reporting similar. Passing over now.

    Have been busy in the early part of the week with allotment harvesting. My mini freezer is wall-to-wall runner beans right now, and there are several other harvests going on, inc the rampageous courgettes, squash, marrows and pumpkins. Running amok doesn't even begin to encompass it........... :rotfl:

    The parental units have been off on a wee UK holiday and, when packing, had to gut some drawers to get Dad a matching pair of jammies as he doesn't always wear the jacket part, and the two halves had got separated. Upshot was, a large pile of fit-only-for-decorating clothes have been hiffed out and will head up to textile recycling at the tip on their next journey. Nobody needs as many painting clothes as he had stashed, apparently, and the drawers will now shut properly.

    ;) Kondo-mania is spreading..........
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • Icey77
    Icey77 Posts: 1,247
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    GreyQueen wrote: »
    Have been busy in the early part of the week with allotment harvesting. My mini freezer is wall-to-wall runner beans right now, and there are several other harvests going on, inc the rampageous courgettes, squash, marrows and pumpkins. Running amok doesn't even begin to encompass it.........

    Last year you and several other posters gave me some advice on growing runner beans - this year I have pile and piles of them! :j:j

    They are a bit late as I didn't even plant the seeds until beginning of June as we were away on holiday, so they are just getting to the point of being able to pick them.

    How do you prep your beans for the freezer? We are big fans of the long skinny sliced style beans that you get in the supermarket. I have the slicer but was wondering if you blanch or just slice and freeze?

    Thanks xx
    Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right ~ Henry Ford
  • Slinky
    Slinky Posts: 9,912
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    When I grew runner beans I just sliced and froze on a chopping board. When frozen I transferred to a plastic bag, that way it's easy just to grab what you need as they aren't all stuck together.
    Make £2024 in 2024
    Prolific to 29/2/24 £184.97, Chase Interest £11.88, Chase roundup interest £0.18, Chase CB £16.96, Roadkill £1.10, Octopus referral reward £50, Octopoints £6.30 to 31/1/24, Topcashback £4.64, Shopmium £3
    Total £279.03/£2024  13.8%

    Make £2023 in 2023
    Water sewerage refund: £170.62,Topcashback: £243.47, Prolific: to 31/12/23 £975, Haggling: £45, Wombling(Roadkill): £6.04,  Chase CB £149.34, Chase roundup interest £1.35, WeBuyBooks:£8.37, Misc sales: £406.59, Delay repay £22, Amazon refund £3.41, EDF Smart Meter incentive £100, Santander Edge Cashback-Fees: £25.14, Octopus Reward £50, Bank transfer incentives £400
    Total: £2606.33/£2023  128.8%

  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :) Sorry about the delay, just in from the lottie with more runner beans, lol.

    After a great tip from MSE stalwart kittie, I don't bother blanching veg. I slice runner beans on the diagonal (after stringing them) and put them in plastic bags. When I want some, I give the bag a hefty smack or two with a steel straining spoon and the separate beans de-clump nicely.

    With soft fruit like my blackcurrants, I freeze them on trays and then bag them but they usually need a smacking to de-clump, too. HTH.

    PS, really glad the beans went well for you, they're incredibly productive for very little effort and on a small amount of ground. I have got loads from one bean-wam which on holds six plants. No one who has seen the heaving jungly growth believes me when I tell them it is only six plants.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • Icey77
    Icey77 Posts: 1,247
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    Ive only got 4 plants, I had 3 varieties but one of them didn't germinate at all. The two that I've got are clearly an earlier and later when compared side by side but that works brilliantly to expand my growing season (get me - I almost sound like I know what I'm talking about :rotfl:)

    I was truly surprised at how much I've had to water them, perhaps that's where I went wrong before. I've been giving them a good soaking each morning and/or evening if it hasn't rained in the day. I've also had lots of flower pots going so there's been lots of bees buzzing about.

    I've also got a rampant feral potato (I nicked your term there!) and I shall dig that up when we're back from holiday :)

    All in all, I've felt much braver this year trying to grow stuff and I'm looking forward to trying them on my plate! Thank you everyone xx
    Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re probably right ~ Henry Ford
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :D I like your attitude. My best potatoes were actually the feral ones, a monster which grew alongisde the beanwam was the biggest individual spud plant I ever saw in my life, its tops sprawled 5 ft across. Dug it up two weeks ago and got three-quarters of a bucket of spuds from just that plant. There was another feral in this year's onion patch which was almost as mahoosive.

    I did wonder why the first one was so successful and the penny dropped when I was awake in the small hours - the 2016 bonfire was on that very spot. Taters really really like potash, in my experience.

    I harvested 7 kg of beans last night (Friday) and had harvested another 7 kg on Tuesday night. This is from the beanwam (6 plants) and from two lines of plants, probably about another 25-30 plants. I haven't had to water as we've had an awful lot of rain this year, but they are thirsty beggars. The flowering is tailing off now, so there won't be that many more.

    At the family home, in droughts, we've even watered them morn and eve with cooled down bath and washing-up water.

    It's good to have a playful attitude to gardening, like a kid, rather than think of it as some kind of archane skill which only initiates have the knowing-of. My attitude is that seeds are programmed to grow, and will grow, if you remove the grossest impediments.

    We live in a society which, imo anyway, seeks to complicate things unnecessarily, and make the simple things seem hard. Oftentimes, this is a way to sell something (a book, viewership of a TV program, attendance at a garden show, whatever) but sometimes it just seems a way of excluding people.

    At heart, I'm still the toddler in her blue anorak and red wellies, somewhere back in the 1960s, in Nan & Grandad's back garden, poking about happily with a little weeding fork.:rotfl:

    ;) I chopped up ten of those big orange slugs last night - that's 42 this week.
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 12,492
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    Ahhh beans, so many of them. Growing, I put the young plants in through weed fabric and hardly had to water this year. Last autumn I just put compost down on top of the soil, weed fabric on top of that and that was it, no more prep as they now grow up the same rickety old obelisks that are held together with canes and string. They do get a wind break ie builders mesh on canes. I don`t freeze plain beans any more, had so many last year that I can`t look at another one, so I make a ratatouille with beans and whatever courgettes I have, herbs, shallots/onion, olive oil/butter and garlic. Cook it long and slow and box in small portions, ready then for a quick base for any meal, including soups, casseroles and quiches. Beans are still going strong and thankfully fewer flowers now, moonlight, fantastic bean

    Done my scarves ie KM`d, easier to do a small bit at a time, 5 out and 2 bags out and 3 new scarves to go in, special quality scarves to co-ordinate all my new mix n match home sewn stuff. Silk from amazon, because I could not find any anywhere and there are hundreds to choose from, I put a scarf hanger on the inside of a wardrobe door, has scarf holes in it, so I see at a glance. Also did similar with bag holders, they are all hanging inside the wardrobe doors. Was worth the screwing effort and cost

    Blackcurrants and berries, GQ I never open freeze as I always pick dry. I just pick and pour into poly bags. Only raspberries just now and the last blueberries but am getting 200+g every day, so they are building up. They remain loose in the bags and I lay them flat until frozen

    The allotment, to me, has to be kept kondoed too. It is medium size by allotment standards and I have 6 raised beds dedicated to only rotated veggies, not counting the beans in open ground. By KM I mean that I clear and process and rotate as soon as I can ie three beds are already prepared with green manure, I don`t dig, one has been chopped, turned over and is now covered to feed worms all over winter and they do the digging. If I didn`t KM the allotment, then it would be overwhelming as I have much fruit and beautiful flowers

    GQ, I have 6 plants too, no wigwam any more, picking was too hard, just 3 decrepit cheap obelisks and horizontal canes. Much easier to pick
  • GreyQueen
    GreyQueen Posts: 13,008
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    :) I'm not doing bamboo wigwams any more, too many of the beans get hung up and hidden in the congestion. I'm phasing out of bamboo, they're slowly getting aged and broken. Once they've all gone, I shall look for some native wood sticks.

    One thing I remember from Slovenia is that they put up a single large pole, like a sapling about 4 cm in diameter and about 10 ft tall , and plant 4 beans around it and it goes well. Even when I'm on walking holiday in the mountains, I'm keeping my eye out for new gardening tricks, you see.

    One area of the plot was heavily grained but I didn't have time to fork them under before planting and it's worked out just as well, so that's one task kondo'd. I do, unfortunately, have to dig as my plot is infested with horsetails and their roots need hauling up and getting rid.

    Today's plans involve some grocery shopping and a visit to the juntique shop where I need to sort some paperwork out (pal has begged for help, cannot manage the paperwork. I fill out the cheques and he signs the).
    Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness.
    John Ruskin
    Veni, vidi, eradici
    (I came, I saw, I kondo'd)
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