KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

maryb

Ours checks white vans and if it looks like mixed domestic rubbish that's OK, otherwise there's a weighbridge that they have to go over. They used to be fairly relaxed at the weekend when most builders aren't working, until the White Van Men got wise to that. A bit subjective, but it seems to work

Fen1

Kitty, could you recommend racking for my garage? I currently have everything jumbled on top of each other, so am in desperate need of decent shelving. My garage also has a tendency to flood. Keeping the electricals off the floor is absolutely necessary. I'm in a rented house so cannot screw anything into the walls ( wouldn't want to either, given their condition!)
I've looked at the racking in the out-of-town diy stores, but am not convinced.

tibawo

Siebrie wrote: »

Last night and tonight I brought out a box full of electrical and computer equipment for dh to sort. The boxes had been put in front of him before, but he pleaded tiredness, three weeks in a row. So, yesterday I decided to make it easier for him: I held up every single tangled piece of wire, every weird plug, every bit I could not name, 3 dead iphones, seven remote controls, and he had three options: throw, keep, mother country. I am so happy about the space in the office!

I am currently wondering if the disappearing teaspoons actually morph into wires as they just seem to multiple over night. Every time i have done a job lot on eBay I have included a bag and every time i go back to the drawer there's more!


I took the broken tv to the tip today and i am very proud of myself. I was supposed to take it before but chickened out thinking i wold see if i could mend it instead and it has just been sat there. I had an unexpected afternoon as my student didn't show so thought i would split the time between doing 'random md and jobs' and relaxing with a tv show with no children to interrupt.

GreyQueen

Fen1 wrote: »

Kitty, could you recommend racking for my garage? I currently have everything jumbled on top of each other, so am in desperate need of decent shelving. My garage also has a tendency to flood. Keeping the electricals off the floor is absolutely necessary. I'm in a rented house so cannot screw anything into the walls ( wouldn't want to either, given their condition!)
I've looked at the racking in the out-of-town diy stores, but am not convinced.

Might this be any help? https://www.bigdug.co.uk

I've no connection with this business, nor am I a customer, but they send their catalogue to the pal's junk shop and I've spent some happy time eyeing up shelving. They also do 'really useful' boxes, not sure if this is a brand name exclusive to them or something done by several manufacturers. HTH.

D3xion is the brand-name for that freestanding shelving which you bolt together like meccano. It's good stuff (a pal explained that it grows in skips, you may be able to harvest some). If I don't see it first, mwah ha ha!

Chieveley

Floss wrote: »

Does your tip allow vans in? Ours doesn't anymore as white van men were dumping their business waste for free.

I was wondering the same, we have a permit & woe betide you if your personal vehicle is a van. I freecycled a shed just bonfire night.

Slinky

Slinky wrote: »

I've retrieved a large cardboard carton from a pile to go to recycling and am going to attempt to cut it up to cover in tinfoil and stick down the back of a radiator to reflect the heat back into the room. I remember seeing a programme once where they put a thermal imaging camera outside a house and you could see where all the radiators were with the heat going into the walls. I have already got one radiator where I've done this, but ran out of card/inclination, must try and get the others done.

Finally got around this afternoon to making the reflector up to go behind the radiator. It was quite straightforward and the wide kitchen foil was the perfect width for the job. Had a feel of the walls and it's noticeably colder behind the reflector than on the walls either side of the brackets where there's no reflector.


Need to locate more large pieces of cardboard and do the other radiators.


Had to call out the AA as the car wouldn't start this morning. Turned out to be the switch for the glovebox light isn't working properly and the light isn't turning off when you shut the box, sometimes, and you can't tell when. It's flattening the battery. Solution was to remove the bulb. The AA man handed it to me and asked me what I was going to do with it, I said I'd make it my OH's problem. Then thought what is the point of keeping it, can't put it back in, can't use it for anything else, so in the bin it's gone.

[Deleted User]

Yes that is the one, bigdug, we got all our racking and really useful boxes from them, over the last years. They deliver very quickly and don`t forget to add vat. We bought two types of racks, the cheapest were blue or red, they hold a lot of weight and are narrow enough to sit snuggly against a wall. Ours (I need to learn to say mine) are great at holding stacks of lock n lock boxes but the RU 18litre boxes have to sit sideways, so could only get a couple on a shelf. That type really need two patient people to put them together as the side pieces slot into place and they are a bit fiddley. When up then they need to be screwed to the wall. Absolutely great for garage storage. The best ones in a different way are the chrome ones, I did set one up this afternoon, they do protrude more but hold the RU boxes more efficiently. I did measure all spaces before I ordered

I have finished and I have empty boxes sitting on shelving :D. Everything is fully labelled with the contents and I found stuff I didn`t know I had, all that abranet (wonderful for sanding). I have kept like things together in boxes, like sharpening and honing equipment. I feel absolutely on top of the world and have just had that dinky bottle of prosecco

Karmacat, you said nibbling and that is exactly what I did. You don`t realise how effective nibbling is until you sleep on it and see the result with new eyes in the morning. All I have left to kondo are clothes and maybe the stuff in the utility room but tbh I am happy with things at the moment. I need to rest my bones for a few days and may get back to carving, finishing my crouching tiger cub, only this time in my shed, with the door open to the sun. Reminds me, I need to get a chair in there and I had better put up a hook for my draymans leather apron Ahhhhh

springdreams

Slinky wrote: »

Finally got around this afternoon to making the reflector up to go behind the radiator. It was quite straightforward and the wide kitchen foil was the perfect width for the job. Had a feel of the walls and it's noticeably colder behind the reflector than on the walls either side of the brackets where there's no reflector.


Need to locate more large pieces of cardboard and do the other radiators.


Had to call out the AA as the car wouldn't start this morning. Turned out to be the switch for the glovebox light isn't working properly and the light isn't turning off when you shut the box, sometimes, and you can't tell when. It's flattening the battery. Solution was to remove the bulb. The AA man handed it to me and asked me what I was going to do with it, I said I'd make it my OH's problem. Then thought what is the point of keeping it, can't put it back in, can't use it for anything else, so in the bin it's gone.

Or you could just buy some of those silver reflective windscreen sun screens from the pound shop. You simply slip them behind the radiator without having to attach them to cardboard first.

General_Grant

Slinky wrote: »

Finally got around this afternoon to making the reflector up to go behind the radiator. It was quite straightforward and the wide kitchen foil was the perfect width for the job. Had a feel of the walls and it's noticeably colder behind the reflector than on the walls either side of the brackets where there's no reflector.


Need to locate more large pieces of cardboard and do the other radiators.

I wondered about doing this. Those who want to sell radiator reflectors suggest that oxidation over time reduces the effectiveness of using kitchen foil. It would be interesting to know whether you think it is as effective at the end of this winter as it is now - and how much the foil that you used cost.

GreyQueen

I'm thinking that the sun windscreen thingies probably aren't in store until the warmer weather? I have two which I cut up and shaped and machine stitched to be a 'carpet' for my tiny back-packing tent. Really adds to the comfort without much weight.

Re oxidisation of aluminium foil, I simply have no idea, but I'd be suspicious of the motivations of a company making proper reflectors if it's them putting this about. Many people have foil around the house anyway, and I've seen huge rolls of it in the £land store recently, enough to do covers for behind several rads, I reckon, for a measly £1 + cardboard.

If anyone needs cardboard and is in a retail area from late afternoon to early evening, shops put theirs out for their commercial waste contractors to pick up. I imagine you'd not be challenged if you lifted a flattened out box or two, so long as you didn't make a mess.