KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

greent wrote: »

I refuse to work in our office - it's south facing and way too hot and sunny for me. I don't like the blinds down, bit the sun makes screen work hard I tend to work off the dining table (NNW facing room) - cooler and shadier.

I think M&S are quite awful nowadays. Myself and bestie were discussing where is actually suitable for clothes for a mid-40s woman both with b00bs and hips and were struggling. Thankfully she is able to wear jeans and a top to work most days and I live in a couple of pairs of trousers and a handful of tops for my (very part time) work.

I agree that M&S clothing is not fit for purpose anymore. Every time I buy a pair of work trousers from there I have to take them back, as they do not look good on.

I've found work trousers from F&F (Tesco) and Matalan are better fitting.

The garden is finished and I am jiggered, doing all the heavy stuff while I can, rocking and pushing great heavy pots and a cantilever umbrella. Its amazing how the feng shui changes just by a bit of re-positioning. I decided to bring the umbrella forward, away from a wall, so I can get behind it with steps as the safety catch is a bit too high. Silly me only thought of moving it once the four big heavy re-filled pots were finished. I did it, even moving the 4 granite slabs, not massively thick thank goodness. Each pot is half full of a brick over the hole and mixed gravel, then a circle of punctured membrane, then a good mix of sand, grit, JI2 and a bit of compost. All done and levelled and wire mesh on top as it is now cat poo heaven. 36 semperviviums are ordered. All pots are now in sun for part of the day, much better position and I am likely to use that umbrella often, so will not be sending it to kondo

Water feature number 2, a stone coloured thing with a flat back and a lions head with a pouring spout, three more spouts below and a water trough at the bottom. It always looked a bit `bare`, now re-positioned behind an acer in a pot, flanked with two dwarf lilacs in full bloom and again in pots. Water feature now peeps through and looks so much better

That has to be it for the day, the incentive really comes from my neighbour, who has lost a lot of strength from when he was 70, it seems to be par for the course. Trouble is that they have not made their garden easier at all, Wife is 62 and he is 82, she isn`t nearly as strong as me but keeps adding plants and ornaments and the garden is already difficult, although very pretty but it is a jumble

I gave up on LTS in disgust several years ago. My beefs included the entire hem of the lining on a £210 cashmere coat which came down on the first wearing, and a pair of metallic fabric jeans which lost their metallic look on the first wash, then lost their stretchiness on the second wash.

I did take it up with them and got some compensation but it left me with a poor impression of the brand. If they don't give a monkey's about quality, they've no business charging more than Primarche.

Well, am just breaking for luncheon as sorting out the work folder is taking more time than I thought it would (just recalled why I only do this every few years, lol) but it'll make my workdays so much easier and more joyous.

Fair bit of stuff has been ejected from said folder, with a nice pile of non-confidentials for the recycling and a pile of scratch paper to use up at the office.

I have to know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff for my job, and not all of it can be memories, particularly things which change from time to time, so it's helpful to have some stuff in hardcopy in my folder which I can access quickly. Especially when a computer program is monitoring one's performance by the second for quality checking purposes.

iamsalt wrote: »

Morning.
Up and awake early today, not sure why, but i will probably fit in a nap later.

Looking like the house moves are all getting dates now so I need to crack on. I have been numbering the boxes and keeping a log of what's in them and where they are as so much will be stored at at number of locations while work is completed, if I want something I will have a chance of finding it again.

On a mission to eat down the 2 freezers into one, while maintaining a number of home made ready meals for busy days, so slow cooked pork today with coriander and fennel seeds collected from the garden last year.

Still trying to decide whether it's worth having a garage sale at Mum's for some of the furniture, garden stuff and bits. I want to get rid of things but some is too big to boot fair, and I am not inclined to do one on my own, and it's where I wobble on the kondo front as she could do with some extra pennies.
Anyone had any experience of this?
S x

I think Facebook as well, its worth a go, especially if you live in a populated area (its a bit quiet here but we are a bit rural)

GreyQueen wrote: »

I wasn't sure if I'd be a taxpayer after the start of this present financial year (I am, just about) but pay 7 x the amount of council tax that I do income tax, it's my second biggest bill after the rent.

I agree that a quiet word in volunteer's shell-likes might be in order; some of us are donating goods because we can't donate money as we can't spare it.

Unfortunately the volunteers in certain charity shops, including the most prominent, are made to ask every person, every time. In the shop my daughter volunteered for, they were picked up on for not collecting more card holders, the stupid charity demand a couple of thousand sign ups a year - in a town of 10,000 including outlying villages. The volunteers often hate having to ask, so that may account for the funny look they seem to give you. The manager was taken to task over missing his sign-up target, but HQ don't see the logic. You don't have to confess your income, just say thank you, but you don't want your personal details on their computer. They won't be able to guarantee the safety of their database, given the current NHS debacle.

Management expect paid shop staff to do extra, unpaid hours too. They are paid a pittance, even to be a manager. Some shops are getting very fussy and binning quite a lot of donations. They have a corporate image to keep up, apparently. Never mind, they won't have much in the way of clothing before long, if they are fussy about quality. It barely serves the original customer.