Hoarding - Springing Ahead

roundtuit

roundtuit wrote: »

PS. Anyone seen my mojo? It appears to have left the building - not that I'm really sure what a 'mojo' is!

Actually it's probably here somewhere - just buried!

Christmas cards all written. Coffee and two mince pies devoured. Budgie still terribly busy doing something to his foodpot - don't know what he's doing but it involves hanging upside down in the pot!

Going to start present wrapping now - assuming the delayed parcel eventually arrives I only have one present left to buy and I'll get that in my lunch-break tomorrow. Despite set-back I am doing okay. I am, no really I am.

Rxx

GreyQueen

roundtuit wrote: »

Actually it's probably here somewhere - just buried!

Christmas cards all written. Coffee and two mince pies devoured. Budgie still terribly busy doing something to his foodpot - don't know what he's doing but it involves hanging upside down in the pot!

Going to start present wrapping now - assuming the delayed parcel eventually arrives I only have one present left to buy and I'll get that in my lunch-break tomorrow. Despite set-back I am doing okay. I am, no really I am.

Rxx

Glad to hear it, roundtuit.

Never mind mojos being lost, I misplaced my keys last night at bedtime. This is something which just doesn't happen normally because I put them in my handbag when I come home. But I wasn't using a handbag yesterday, I had my wallet, purse, mobile and keys in my jacket pockets as I was wheelbarrowing manure around.

Logically, the keys should've been in the jacket, but there weren't and I had some stressy moments until I found them (had put them down on a pile of Stuff and added another bit of Stuff to it so the keys were now invisible). Grrr!

A convo with Mum last night featured the idea of having a few of a certain grocery item, whose supply is a tad erratic at the best prices in her town, by her. She said she lacked the space, otherwise a good idea. I reminded her of the cupboard shelf full of never used bone china mugs which were too small but couldn't be paseed on because they were bone china..........the upshot it she agreed this was nonsensical and that they can go. Yippee!

I shall remind her of this when we talk tonight, and that they need to be fetched down, wrapped against breakages and toted to the chazzer, preferably on Monday. Decluttering is only theoretical until the Stuff is out the door for good.

Finished the thriller I bought 2 days ago last night, really enjoyed that, so that's on the way out. I read over 100 books per year and if I kept even a fraction of what I've read over the years, I'd be sleeping in a tiny corner of my flat curled up in a dog basket. That way lies madness.

Keep up the good work, troops, there is nothing to fear but......turning into the kind of person who has documentaries made about them. :eek:

thriftwizard

I've already been that person, GQ, thanks to being daft enough to give up a "good" career to have 5 kids in short order... well, newspaper articles, anyway, and I was invited to appear on "How Clean Is Your House" personally. Luckily I had the sense to turn them down; one of my friends did it and got blasted. I well remember playground chatter the day after it was broadcast - "that woman deserves a good slapping!" - not knowing that the film crew had told her not to lift a finger for weeks, claiming that they would do it all...

Today we really get to grips with DS1's room; two small IKEA chests of drawers, a desk & a bedside table are offski with our favourite freecyclers, as well as another rug, a lampshade & a bundle of board games. His rug is going to need a wash - a huge great long-tufted recycled cotton thing - thanks to our incontinent cat getting in there unsupervised, but luckily the big washing machine seems to be able to cope with these with ease, although they weigh a ton, even dry.

Then there's a bit of switching round to do; my mother's (awful) sofa-bed is going in there from DS3's room, and a trunkful of spare bedding's going into DS3's in its place, and the 4' folding table (from my stall) will be placed over it. We use that for cutting-out & glueing, but he'll use it as a laptop table. The sideboard is exiting our tiny living room, in order to make way for a storage bench, so that in theory, we can all actually SIT in the sitting room at the same time! And that is replacing two Expedit units in the conservatory, which are wandering off into DS2 & TDiL's room - more sensible storage for them too.

Then all I have to do is paint the walls & we'll be ready to decorate for Christmas...!

GreyQueen

Told not to lift a finger for weeks, that explains a LOT about these programmes, doesn't it? That poor woman...........you wouldn't catch me on the gogglebox for all the tea in China.

Am brewing a pot of tea for the flask and an extra mug, just to help me on my way, then will head out to the allotment. Was awake 2-3 am (bliddy neighbours) so slept in a touch and am running a bit late. Thank gawd it's Sunday, must remember to switch the alarm back on for tomorrow morning.

Am readying a few more bits for the recycling. I reckon my recycling/ rubbish ratio is 4:1 which is about the same aa the parental house. They have alternate weekly collections, as do we, from 240 l wheelie bins. Each fortnight sees the recycling wheelie 3/4 full, one black sack in the rubbish wheelie and a fair few additions to the compost bin at the back.

Plus the strange things which are saved for me; brown paper bags from the market, square Aldee jamjars, the wooden sticks from ice lollies (washed) and then there's the stuff which goes out the the chazzers.

I use the jamjars for storage, the paper bags to line compost bins/ store saved seeds in, and the wooden lolly sticks as part of the burnables for my bonfires. Depending on the dryness of the runner bean haulms and the direction of any wind, I may indulge in pyromania today, mwah ha ha.

ginnyknit

Theres something very satisfying about a fire isnt there GQ. I have to beat Oh to it s timing is important ie when my line is full of washing :mad:

Now have 2 'bags for life' full of blankets for the chidlrens cancer ward but not had a call back giving me a day to deliver - very frustrating but will wait. Another blanket about to be wrapped to send to a friend.

Started on one bookshelf and am hoping to fill the paper collection bin before Tuesday. Nearly used 5 more balls of wool mking Dgs a rainbow blanket.

Picklepot

catshark88 wrote: »

GQ, I'm sorry that you are worrying about presents, but I'm also a little relieved as I'm doing something similar and I thought I must be the only one....

Having done so much decluttering, I'm dreading the amount of stuff, that Christmas brings, especially with kids. Then I feel horribly guilty for being a grumpy, hypocritical old moo, especially given that it's me that's buying most of it.....

!

Thank you for voicing this I feel like this too. Most of the time I feel overwhelmed by the stuff I find it so hard to get rid of and the thought of more just stifles me..i feels so guilty and ungrateful.
This year DH and I are trying something new we have a little notebook that hangs round the living room containing our wish lists. He has found it difficult but I have explained that whats on my list is what I really want. Such as:


Tea light candles (already have) and a glass of wine waiting and a bubble bath when I have had a hard day at work
For my favourite songs to be transferred off my ipod onto a usb cus my new car doesn't talk to my ipod
A cheap slimline calendar from local market (1.99) to list my monthly direct debits for next to my computer when I do my banking
vegetable seeds (have specified which)
Picture to be hung


We' re budgeting like mad too so I wont feel he has broken bank.

thriftwizard

Oooh, I am finally getting somewhere! There's a blank space along one wall in there; tomorrow I shall acquire enough filler, sugar soap & paint to finish a quick & dirty revamp, which wasn't what I wanted to do at all, but is all I'm realistically going to be able to fit into the time left. I've bitten the bullet & Freecycled some excess stock, too. I can move stuff round in there & paint, then sort & dispose of things whilst the paint is drying.

5 days left... Plenty of other things to do in those 5 days, but given a couple of hours here & there I WILL get this sorted, never to build up again.

parsniphead

I feel like I'm stuck in reverse sometimes Roundtuit, with no steps forward.

I have done a little tidying of the dreaded sewing room this afternoon but there is still so much to do. I have already finished for Christmas so have a week without DH being under my feet and also 2 1/2 days when DS is at nursery so I'm hoping to fill lots of bin bags. I'm going to use Tuesday and Wednesday to hit this house hard so that a difference can be seen.

A bit of paint may be splashed around too.

GreyQueen

Ooof, tired little bunny and slightly kippered from bonfire smoke, but that's never a problem. Have had a wee fire, against the odds, and got rid of the runner bean haulms and the sunflower stems which have been drying out for months. Or as dry as things get at this time of the year, anyway.

I also retrieved the metal window frame from the long grass in the allotment's 9th square. Knew approx where it was but had to go kicking around in my steel-toed DMs to find it. Was thinking of the adventures it has had, spending the first 50-odd years of its life as a working window in a bungalow one county away, then being rejected in favour of double-glazing, it and one or two of its fellows being salvaged for cold frame tops.

Then a careless GQ left it propped up and the prop gave way, the window fell and the glass smashed to smithereens. Then the glass was carefully picked up, removed and disposed of, but the metal frame has been lurking because it might come in useful...................

Mark those words, gentle readers, my family shorten them to MBUs. Almost anything can be classified as an MBU and that way lies chaos and a lot of hoarding.

Anyroad, after much swithering, because I knew the glass-less window was in the 9th square, and I'm advancing on the 9th square and soon there will be nowhere for Stuff to hide in the long grass up that corner - I walked it around to the tip and put it in the metal recycling bay.

I still have its twin, except glazed, as the replacement lid for my cold frame, which was itself built out of scavenged materials from a fly-tipped pile. It's a brilliant cold frame, or it will be when I drag it out of the brambles in the 9th square and situate it on the slabs which I dug up in the rubbish piles when I first cleared the allotment.

My flat is still a bombsite, but I'll play on the webulator and peck away at bits of it, too tired to do it in one fell swoop.

roundtuit, I imagine a mojo as something a bit like a Tribble, but shy and prone to hiding, if that helps.

silvasava

My cold has now turned into the beginnings of Bronchitis. Rang Dr & DH collected some antibiotics for me so hopefully will be feeling a bit better tomorrow as I've still got LOADS to do & visitors arriving for the week on Saturday. i've decluttered 2 lots of Paracetamol & a pack of Lemsip haha & spent today cuddled up in bed with the cat - a purr does help