Scuba's Saving the Ha'Pennies

scubaangel

Fun and games sorting a van but I think I'm organised - will be headed back to the flat in the morning when the male heads to work.


I'll spend some time usefully clearing the utility room so they can get my washing machine out, and then I'll dismantle the sofa and bag up all the assorted cushions - if it's not too heavy I'll drag the structure down stairs for easy loading - if the weathers good I'll be fine leaving it all out next to the front door since its all covered.



When I went in briefly today I couldn't find my dust pan and brush so I plan to grab the one from here on my way out. On the way I'll go to the tip with my old pillows, and to the storage place to find out where my unit is, and where they keep the trolleys/sack trucks.

scubaangel

Furniture is all stored, the males brother and Dad helped, so with their two small vans everything big went in the one trip. I've bought them some wine and beers as a thank you, as it saved me the hire cost for a van - £80.



I still need to go back and separate out the things I want to keep and store, keep and bring here and the stuff I want to get rid of. As well as moving my fish - sadly one fewer to move as the Electric Blue seems to have died, he didn't look overly happy for a few days but I wasn't sure if that was just down to my being in the flat and waking them up over night or he was unwell, I'd medicated but clearly the stubborn little thing just didn't want to move house!


Annoyingly I've not managed to find any friends with a lightweight camping table I can borrow so I might have to go and buy one - I've done a search of the local fb market place listings and there are a couple available so I've messaged the sellers.



I'll decide which car boot I'll try to get to once I've sorted a table as there is the local one on Thursdays and Sundays or a couple of Saturday ones in multistory carparks so if the weathers likely to be poor I'll book a spot there to avoid the rain.


The male has left his shed key handy for me too so I can bring the bike over and rehome that along with any other bits I think can go in there - at the moment likely the bike rack, turbo trainer I've never got around to using and the small BBQ.

scubaangel

The male and I went over to the old place tonight after I finished work. He'd been to the aquatics shop during the day for some more plants for his mob to shred so asked for some bags to move my fish in. So the fish are now residing temporarily in my tiny hospital tank on a shelf at the flat. I need to decide now if I want to bring the bigger tank over and find it a home here - it won't sit anywhere particularly sensible though or I can set up the small tank my Betta used to live in, that gives me a choice of places to keep it - on the shelf above his aquarium or in the IKEA unit which I'd specifically bought that one for originally.


At the moment I'm leaning towards the small tank option, it's just more practical in so many ways, but the male has been at pains to let me know while we're talking about it he doesn't want me to think I can't bring the bigger tank here.


I'll clean out and drain the bigger tank tomorrow and think about it some more.


Tomorrow's plan is a trip to the dump, the back of my car currently contains 8 assorted old pillows, an old airer, and my old ironing tidy. Then on to the old flat, where I'll sort through the boxes remaining and repack and generally tidy up. I need to pack the kitchen stuff, some I'll bag up and bring here, other bits we discussed this evening and I'll sling out. The bulk of what I want to bring here tomorrow is what's going in the shed, so my road bike, bike rack, turbo trainer, and assorted bike related carp. I'll probably put all my coats and jackets in too, at the moment his hall way is rather full of his but as with my wine in the kitchen it'll find a home when we need it to.


In the mean time he's called the friend who cut the scaf boards for the living room shelves and ordered some the same to create a shelf over the front door - its a very high ceiling, so theres plenty of space for a reasonable height deep shelf he can keep things that currently live in the under stair cubby which will make space for some of my shoes (and stop them getting buried by his bike luggage like they did this morning).


And on that note I'm off to top up my wine.

scubaangel

I didn't achieve quite as much as I'd hoped at the old flat today. I did manage to empty all of the storage in the living room, and sorted out the boxes so have managed to condense them in to fewer.


Plenty of things to take to the tip tomorrow, lots of electronics, two routers, microwave, contact grill, and two old toasters from the male place. Along with my old ironing boards, chopping boards, and all my pans - I'm keeping the frying pan and wok but the rest are going.



After the tip I'll go to my storage and get the small fish tank out, I've decided to set that one up rather than the bigger one. After collecting that I'm off to Ikea for the planned shopping only (feel free to laugh at me tomorrow). I've got an appointment at 2.30, so hopefully I'll get to the old place for an hour or so after that - I expect I'll concentrate on getting the boxes of books, cd's and DVD's out of the wardrobe so I can take them to storage on Wednesday and if the car isn't full I'll try to pack up the kitchen stuff.


As far as the kitchen goes the main problem is that I'm fighting against nostalgia for the plates and bowls I had at uni, most of the glasses and mugs are going to be car booted/charity shopped though since the majority were "borrowed" from bars or are nothing special.



The weather is looking good for Thursday so I'm hoping to source a table Wednesday and do the carboot - anything that doesn't go will be taken straight to a charity shop which will result in the bedroom being nearly empty.

scubaangel

Today didn't go entirely to plan. The ridiculous rain meant I decided to put the stuff in the shed then go to Ikea skipping the tip plan since it was meant to be open until 6pm.


After putting the two items in the shed, in one run of roughly 5 paces from car to shed I got so soaked that I came back in to the flat to get changed.


Ikea went well..... I spent £65 but everything I bought I needed, and although I spent more than planned I got an assortment of storage options to see what would fit best and have found that all of them work for different things - the big Skubb for seasonal stuff, the shoe box skubb for odd small things as it fits down the side of the big one, and the compartmented Stuk for stuff I'll use more often.


Just need to finish unpacking the clothes so I can store the suitcases!


After Ikea I needed fuel so used the Sainsbug station near the Ikea, free coffe and £30 of petrol later I headed out to find some lunch. I treated myself to a McD's.



After that I was going to work to be a training dummy. It's a terrible thing working somewhere there are spa treatments on offer for a mere £10 (the treatment I had was one of the £85 to guests ones).



Rather frustratingly I got back to the tip at 4.30, October 1st was the day they moved to winter hours, and closed at 4pm. So I still have all the junk in the back of the car.


I went to the storage place anyway and picked up the small aquarium, I need to go to P@H tomorrow to see if they have filter cartidges for it as I need some so I can start cycling the tank, if they do I'll see what small plants they have too so I can get the nano planted and on its way ready to move my little idiots next week.


Back to the old flat and I got somewhat to grips with the piles of stuff, I feel like I've now made enough progress I can start to actually clean.



So tomorrows task list is tip, stuff from old flat to storage, back to home to grab the thank yous for OH's bro and Dad, and in to their home town to drop off with OH's mum as theres a P@H there.



If the weather still looks good for Thursday I've found someone who lives on my old estate who is selling a camp table who I messaged and is willing to hire it to me for the day (they're selling it for £30, is more than buying new if I went for the cheapest same sized option I could pick up locally). Their main request was that I put a price tag on it for their asking price - if it sells just give them the difference between my hire cost and the selling price.



If the weather isnt looking so great I'll have another look at the Saturday events, at least I can try to drag the male along to keep me sane/from killing people.

scubaangel

Picked up the camp table this evening, the guy said if I wanted to keep it he'd take £15, so considering I'd offered him £10 to borrow it I took it and will try to sell it on at the carboot.


I went to the tip and emptied out the back of the car, got the majority of stuff out of my place and in to storage, the unit is looking very full now, but there's still space for the stuff I need to store but I'd say that other than the things I want to get rid of theres about a car load left to take (including the TV which I'll probably take separately for safety anyway).


The weather is looking uncertain tomorrow so I'll be thinking about a Saturday carboot. So tomorrow I'll be back at the flat and starting to clean in earnest - today I give a quick sweep and mop of the ground floor areas, I'll move the carboot stuff down to the utility cupboard which will give me back the living space to start to clean up.

scubaangel

Carboot stuff is in the utility cupboard, I've swept the bedroom and living room but it'll need doing again before I can mop.


I still need to move the bigger aquarium, stand and the blue metal cabinet of fish stuff to the storage unit - the aquarium wasn't quite dry today but I was able to get most of the gravel out and in to the bin so fingers crossed tomorrow I'll be able to give it a clean out and store it.


I spent 30 mins rearranging the storage unit today which has created a decent amount of extra space, when I go back I need to take my little folding stool so I can load the trays in to the drawer unit as its too high for me to reach where it is (it'll be mainly kitchen stuff ).


I had a couple of people say they're interested in the shelving I'm trying to sell but noone who has been able to come and view it, so tomorrow I'll be dismantling it and taking it to the storage unit as well. So that along with the rug from the living room will mean the flat is empty of furnishings (beanbag chair aside).


All being well I'll be doing the undercover carboot on Saturday, I'm just hoping I have enough change - I'll check what I have but I feel like I won't have enough £1 coins so might have to open one of my tins which will be annoying but I'm sure I can replace it (and take the contents to the bank in the mean time).


Today I planned to start changing my address on various accounts, I got as far as my car insurance and had a minor heart attack £180 for the amendment, or £50 cancellation and comparison sites were giving quotes of about £100 more than my place was so overall I'd only have saved £40 changing. I've paid it for ease of maintaining my renewal date and will take the money from my planned savings (this month I've not yet moved my mortgage equivalent money in to savings). Before my next payday this month I'll work out my moving expenses over and above my normal costs and move the difference then set up an auto payment. Next month I'll work out what extra to pay to which debt.


One of my 0% bt's expired this month, over the life of it I paid off slightly more than I transferred, but as it was a card carrying a balance it's not showing that any of it has been paid off. Once I get the two cards paid down slightly more and my address is changed with all the relevant finacial providers I'll see what bt card options are out there.

Dottles1

Phew !! I'm exhausted just reading your diary. Well done for getting so much done, you sound so organised. Won't it be great when your old flat has gone and you can concentrate on settling in to your new place with your OH.

Good luck I hope you will be very happy

scubaangel

Thanks Dottles, it really doesn't feel like I'm getting much done at all as there's still so much left to do!


Car boot was yesterday morning, so my alarm went off at 6am which was just plan rude, I made myself a nice big flask of coffee (Lidl flask from a couple of years ago fits about 8 cups of my small traveller cup in it - the smaller version is in the middle aisle at the moment, highly recommended if you need a flask with a pouring lid), and a smaller bottle of water.


Sold about £30 of stuff so just about covered the cost of the camp table, and pitch (£8) with a little left over. The rest of the stuff is still in the back of my car, I'm going to unload the boxes of books and what will fit in to the couple of boxes here so I can start taking stuff to the charity shop this week - I tried dropping off after the car boot but they were too busy and I really need to transfer it out of the stacking crates so I can use them to tidy up my storage unit and control the stuff that is earmarked for the top of my wardrobe here.


I'm waiting to hear from someone who wanted to come look at the remote controlled cars this afternoon to see when she wants to see them so I can head over to my place to meet her.


While I'm there my to do list includes swopping the shower hose and possibly the plastic wall clip as I just can't be bothered to clean the limescale off it and the wall clip was a minging mess when I moved in and even with liberal applications of bleach I have never got it clean, but when the male changed his bath it came with a shower hose and clip which didn't get used. I'll give the bathroom ceiling another spray of bleach solution too, and if I'm there long enough will start to tackle the oven cleaning (possibly just the wire shelf but y'know it's a start.....)


Tomorrow I need to dismantle the shelves that are left, so I can take them to the storage unit since they've had no interest on fb, shpock or gumtree, and take them and the aquarium and stand over there, I'll likely take theTV and rug at the same time. That ought to leave alot of carrier bags, boxes and suit cases at the flat ready to sort out while I clean my way out of the flat. If I can get the bedroom done I'll be glad to close the door and ignore that room. After that I'll really need to tackle the kitchen, so fridge/freezer, clean out the cupboards - box up the stuff I'm leaving like the light bulbs (we have LED's at the males), and the dreaded oven clean.

scubaangel

Todays successes.

• Brought the boxes of books in to the flat (laughed at the horror on the face of the pool male!)
• Scanned all of them in to ziffit and wbb. Not quite enough on either to make a sale.
• Scanned the to read shelf, found two books that ziffit would take.
• Sat down and read one of them while the male was building a shelf in the hall - I didn't want to go out and leave him until he was finished due to the amount of swearing he was doing about things not working how they should (including the rewiring of two plugs).

Went to the old flat where my small successes include

• Changed the shower hose.
• Took out five bags of recycling,
• Put out a box of coat hangers, and a bag of pegs after posting on the estate fb group that they're there for anyone to help themselves - if not hopefully the bin man will take them as they're all recyclable, if not I'll take them to the tip at some point.
• Rummaged through the pile of boxes and found one the right size for the stack of books ziffit will take.
• Packed my plates, bowls and mugs to keep in to a box with my glass ornaments. Will take that to the storage place tomorrow.
• Wiped down the aquarium stand and put it in the car.
• Took another wall hanging down, cleaned it and put it in the car.

All the stuff in the car from the flat I'll take to the storage unit tomorrow. I've got a bag of stuff I want to take to the tip too but its all general waste so won't take long to drop off. I've also still got a couple of boxes from the carboot to be dropped off at a charity shop, theres one for my preferred local charity a couple of miles from the old flat which has parking directly outside - I'll visit all three places on my way back tomorrow.



I started cleaning the oven shelf this afternoon, got bored, annoyed by the fumes and have decided that I'm just going to buy a new one, need to check the size when I'm there tomorrow. :rotfl:


I need some rubber gloves so I can deep clean the oven, so while it's not really on my way I'll have to go to either Mr T or Mr M tomorrow morning too.


In the mean time my evening plans are to try to read the second book so I can complete the ziffit order. I worked out the males printer the other day so I can print the postage label and drop the box off at one of the two places close to home as soon as it's ready.