My home is a mess

Emm-in-a-pickle

Morning Messies.
Bearcub, enjoy your evening out - you deserve it! I think you`re wonderful visiting and befriending folks in the care home. So many elderly folk whose options for leisure activity become limited still love a good chat, and to unload, or reminisce one-to-one... to have a friend who will listen and give their time is such a Blessing. Well done you! xx

Gilly - good to hear from you again! That`s no ordinary `clutter` in your spare room though. You sound pretty well organised there with 3 weeks to go - hope the weather is beautiful for the 18th for you! (I`m counting days now too, I`ll be allowed to drive again on the 16th)

Buffy, enjoy your house-sitting, but don`t get all overwhelmed by your tidy minimalist surroundings. Be inspired, maybe, but not overwhelmed! The garden plan for the piggies sounds great, but I`m puzzled about the rest - if YOU are doing all the digging and hacking, what is the chap you`re hiring going to do? Or is he just doing the piggy fence?

Messy Status Report:
We had a lovely evening at the pub yesterday, I made a quick green Thai when we got home, and have planned with OH the weekend meals, using up veg. Have a delivery from farmshop man on Monday, so clearing the decks for that.
I have Time on my hands now.
Want to use it well, without overdoing it.
`Tick-over` stuff isn`t too bad, and the Menfolk are still mucking in though to a lesser degree now. So I wanted to do something that I will be able to really see a difference after, and have a little gloat about, like that kitchen drawer that`s STILL empty!
For ages I`ve been thinking about my pans - I love them, but I have too many all hanging on hooks in the kitchen, and so getting a bit manky even when not in use. And the outsides are more black & brown than silver.
Today I`ve made a start - filled the sink with hot water, liquid soda chrystals and Stardrops, and put a couple of pans in for a soak. Then take a break...Rubber gloves, scouring sponge, bit of scrubbing then another break. So far I have got 2 looking like new, and another 2 well on the way, but still lots more stuff in the queue. I`m going to put a few away in caravan of Doom, and just re-hang the stuff I use really regularly.
Drags self off to have another scrub....

Emm-in-a-pickle

Morning Messies!
This morning my hands are stiff after the pan-scrubbing yesterday, but - 7 bright shiny pans hanging up in the kitchen just made me grin with delight when I got up!
And I`ve put another 2 away in caravan of Doom, plus 2 dead frying pans in the recycling.
(WHY hadn`t they been slung before??)
I still have one red cast-iron griddle/frying pan to deal with, but it`s gone in the caravan for now as it`s too heavy for me to handle just yet.
I won`t be doing much today, apart from gloating over my shiny `new` pans. And I promise myself I won`t be buying any more pans for a LONG time!
Hope you`re all having a great weekend. x

jpscloud

Hi Messies! I tried to read back, so many lovely posts to read and so little time!

I had some clutter to deal with in the garden when I moved here... the previous owner liked his sheds, so he did. He liked them so much he built a massive one in the garden which basically took up all the room outside the kitchen and dining room window! I had to have a demolishing party to get rid of it and the adjoining shack, just after I moved here... and it was full of carp as well - boxes and boxes of nuts and bolts, rusty nails, rolls of mouldy old carpet (really naff 70s stuff!) and other assorted odds and sods.

Re. drawers... I have a "new" Ikea freestanding unit thingy in the kitchen which I bought from eb*y local bargains. It has three drawers which I am really determined will NEVER randomly spawn odd keys, old cutlery and bits of plastic in a multitude of forms, none of which I know what to do with! So far so good on that count.

Buffy I bet your guinea pigs will think they're in piggy heaven! I am with you on the messy house front, I've lost the battle with mine too.

Now I have a bit of confessing to do. Last week (PMT time) I had an OS falling-off-the-wagon experience and did it in monumental style by having a McDs every night :eek: I also shoved stuff in corners, ignored the dust tumbleweeds and lazed around watching telly every evening and all day Saturday.

So today I have made up for it - I put chicken in the slow cooker to cook off ready to make chicken and rice for the week's lunches. Then I did a bit more fencing (always something to do there, the reed screening is a bit of a fourth bridge affair) and cleared up more brushwood in the morning.

Cooked chicken out of the slow cooker, and pork steaks, potatoes, red lentils, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions in with a pint of stock, ready for the week's dinners.

Then Mum came over for her regular Sunday visit, and we nattered over coffee while she paid her weekly tributes to the cat (the real owner of Cloudy Acres) and had a totter around the garden to poke at stuff and discuss plans for the summer.

After Mum left, I cooked the rice and mixed up the chicken and rice with onions, peas and mushrooms and some tiny bits of salami for flavour, packed up the week's lunches and froze them.

I'm absolutely shattered now but had to do it all, because I swear there's something addictive in those chicken nuggets and I want to make sure I don't get tempted to repeat last week's madness. I am suitably ashamed that I actually like them, by the way. It's my horrid little secret. Well, that and the dust under the bed. I wish I had something a bit more salacious to be ashamed of but there you go :rotfl:

I must now trim my soft, messy fingernails that get really battered doing fencing, and try to make them look a little bit presentable for work tomorrow.

Love to all messies, hoping for a great week for us all.

bearcub

Evening Messies.

Emms, I love the idea of shiny pans - just hope they weren't non-stick ones! I've never thought of using Stardrops to soak pans in; might give it a go, although our most frequently used ones are glass. I'm not surprised that your hands feel bruised with all that hard work. Thank you for the praise re the care home . The meal at the pub was great, but we were so glad we booked a table the day before, as the place was full when we walked in. As soon as Easter comes, the holidaymakers flood in and, of course, it has its regulars, too.

Jps, wonderful forethought about the lunches, and sounds delicious, too. I don't know how anyone can eat a lot of McD anything, so I have a certain respect for you eating so much of it! As most takeaways are 12 miles from here, we don't get tempted very often. We have a fish and chip shop, an Indian takeaway (recently much improved), and a Chinese restaurant, but neither of us like Chinese food.

Had a busy-ish day yesterday, did a wash, vacuumed throughout,and washed the kitchen and bathroom floors.

YORKSHIRELASS

gilly1964 wrote: »

Hi All

I have missed keeping up with you, but with our wedding now only 3 weeks away, 18 May, there is so much to do and so little time.

Oh Gilly, how lovely to hear from you - blimey that wedding has come around quickly. I bet you are really busy but dont forget we all want to know how the big day goes!

Went to the garden centre today. We have a plan to do some work on the house this year but the front garden really needs sorting first. Amazing what a few new plants can do, it looks better already! We are going to get rid of some things at a car boot sale next weekend so I want to make the most of it and have a really big clear out.

Going to be a busy week but I had a big clean up on Saturday so I need to keep on top of it.

Emms, another month off work, mmm, I can understand your mixed feelings on that but its better to get properly over the op before you go back. Right, need to be thinking about bed soon , work tomorrow.

Emm-in-a-pickle

Hi Messies!
JPS, sometimes a bit of what you fancy does you good - even a week`s worth! Your reed fencing sounds great but why is it a Forth bridge?
Bearcub - glad you enjoyed your meal the other night. I don`t mind, but OH hates busy full eateries and pubs. He`s very quiet spoken and says he can`t hear himself think! Even if it`s not noisy, just lots of quieter noises fusing together, totally puts him off!
YL - well done on the clean-up and garden improvements.

Messy Status Report
I`m still faffing in the kitchen. I found a squeegee thing with a fair bit of handle, so I`ve been wiping down walls - just can`t quite reach very top but who looks up there?! I`ve had to move (and thus find) all sorts of gubbins, so now have a WM load of `spare` oven gloves/cloths various other cloths and a pvc pinny. Also cleaned up and scoured a nest of roasting tins that were hanging up.
Sofa is covered with shiny pans and roasters, which can be hung up when I`ve finished wall-wiping/run out of steam.
LR looks a mess now, but only because it`s temporarily cluttered with kitchen stuff.
At some point I`m going to bake a chicken & use up 2 tired leeks and remains of celery & spuds (more veg being delivered later this evening) but I will have to get DS to manhandle the `pseudo le creusot` for me.
Drags self back to chaotic but 3 shades lighter kitchen ...

bearcub

Evening Messies.

Gilly, I totally forgot to say hello, and say how good it is to see you here again. Not very long until the wedding then. :):)

YL, lovely to put plants in. We've yet to do much of that, as OH grows his own. The veg plants are coming on well, but its a bit early for bedding plants. Mind you, our garden is pretty full with the cottage garden look; no, not weeds, but an awful lot of perennials.

Emms, your poor kitchen must be wondering what's happening! Our local is often pretty dead in the winter, except at sunday lunchtime, so we can cope with the extra visitors. Apart from anything else, the bar manager is hilariously amusing (very dry humour), and our old flagstone floored pub needs to make its money in the holiday season, because this is the quieter end of the Island. Whilst the resorts in the east get coach parties nearly all year round, the west doesn't. Isn't that lucky!? :rotfl:

Two lots of bedding washed today but, sadly, the WM has now died. As the second wash came to an end, I went into the kitchen to take it out, to find the kitchen very smokey. Still, we've had the WM for at least 12 years, so it's not done too badly. Not much else done except a bit of dead-heading in the garden, and returning next door's little terrier to her home.

alec_eiffel

Smoky kitchen is rarely a good thing, at least you got good service from your machine.

Bit of a Hawthorne effect going on here. I've decided to do a life audit type thing so of course that has made me leap into action as I don't want to write down that I spent all day doing nothing! I seem to have washed everything made of fabric over the last two days, but it's sunny and breezy so it's ideal time for it.

I've made room in a cupboard for all my quilting stuff so it doesn't have to lie all around the house. It will lie all around the house, but it doesn't have to now

We did a little bit of work in the garden at the weekend. I might finally be getting my compost bin this week as I think Father is coming to stay. Did some batch cooking yesterday. Today I've cleaned the kitchen, dusted and am about to do the floors and swish a bit of stuff down the sink holes and that type of thing.

Hope everyone's well, off to have a catch up now.

Emm-in-a-pickle

Condolences on the smoking WM, Bearcub.
Alec E, with time at home on my hands now I`m very conscious of not wanting to waste it, so I`ve been a bit `driven` too!

Still concentrating on my poor kitchen!
After my wall-wiping efforts yesterday it`s like Fifty Shades of Yellow in there! I have found a sturdy little plastic stool, which extends my reach without over-stretching. Armed with a washing-up brush, with old knickers wrapped around it (kept some after the last big sort-out for cleaning purposes) and held in place with 2 storm clothes-pegs, and a bottle of liquid sugar soap, the world is my Lobster!!
OH noticed it looked lighter in there and asked accusingly `have you been cleaning the windows?`
DS (more the rocket scientist) remarked `it needs re-painting really` (don`t hold your breath!) Actually, he`s right, but I`m sure there`s no paint that would stick on the stuff I`ve wiped off and even though the kitchen is small there still seems acres of wiping still to do.
Still, I`m stopping for frequent breaks, and quite enjoying myself. Off to do a bit more now. x

Emm-in-a-pickle

:j:j:j:T
My Bee-hotel has worked! I`m SO delighted about this there`s no cleaning or sense here today! I worried about the bee-grublings all winter, and now they`ve emerged as bees and are hovering back & forth round their `birthplace` ready to start the whole process all over again. These are Mason or Orchard bees, the other `hotel` was used by leaf-cutter bees later last year so they aren`t around yet. I`ve put another `hotel` up on the fence post, that was last year`s birthday pressie - kept in caravan of Doom till now, so I suppose that counts as a bit of de-cluttering as well?
I`ve also hand-washed a few bits & pieces (excuse to go out & watch the bees!):T:T