KonMari 2016 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Slinky

Oh dear, have just Kondo'd a large bar of chocolate. Didn't fancy the chicken I got out of the freezer to cook for tonight, so that's gone in the fridge, hope I can face it tomorrow. I'm on a busy physical work week with my job, had to get a lot done today as it's dry, tomorrow the forecast is rain again so won't get much done if anything at all. Thursday to Saturday look better. OH will normally help me finish off on Saturday, but we'll have a shorter time window as the hire car he's been driving all week will have to go back on Saturday morning, then he's got an appt at the garage to replace our blown out tyre early afternoon. So I need to try and get more done than I normally do to reduce the amount left for us to do together. Could have done without the rain this week.

Bin day tomorrow, so I'll wave goodbye to the shredding I did last week.

I will retrieve a backless bra from the bin where the plastic straps have perished as my friend said she was able to buy replacements so I'll have a look and see if I can find something suitable.

House feels very messy but it always does at this part of my work cycle, will be better after Saturday when the stock has been delivered to customers.

kboss2010

Just kondoed a jar of salsa that's been in the cupboard for AGES! Been looking for an excuse to get rid of it so I made burritos. Also slowly getting through my huge stash of spices, rock salt & black peppercorns.

I buy spices in bulk from Asian supermarkets to save £££ but then I end up with 500g of peppercorns or garam masala in my large Tupperware store tub that takes me years to get through. I don't mind storing them as I spend hardly anything on herbs & spices every few years rather than buying small pots from the supermarket but it does mean that I need a spice rack the size of a cupboard door!

GreyQueen

Morning all.

PWD, I have a design degree but I'm never sure how much of this kind of stuff is innate and how much can be taught. My mother, who has never been given any arty training whatsoever, can identify minute lapses of proportion and uncomely combinations of colour instintively whereas my brother, my father and his sister have a tin ear for visuals. My maternal grandmother was supposed to be arty, too, as are several people on that side of the family.

If a lack of confidence about aesthetic choices is a niggling concern, you could choose to try educating your eye by referring to books on interiors, art etc, and selecting what floats your boat, but it's not one of the important things in this life by a long shot and is a bit 'first world problem', I always think, and only worth the bother if it bothers you, so to speak.

Have been out and about for two nights running (book group and then archery) which is quite taxing for someone with CFS/ME and I was in bed by 9.30 pm last night, but highly enjoyable.

I am working on a WIP project with an Easter deadline and will - waitforit - be at the family home for the weekend. I have a yen to get back into the parental loft where I have permission-in-principle to evict the large boxes which contained the new TV and peripherals purchased this time last year. This could be revoked before ejection happens, as such things have happened before, but I am in hopes.:)

This loft, like many, is crawling space only, with the highest point under the apex of the roof just about high enough for a child of 8 to stand upright, and is mostly un-floored, so working up there is physically taxing. I would like to investigate the deepest reaches of the eaves for the sunlounger, which was a mistaken purchase decades ago and which is suspect may have had its seating element died in storage. This can probably go to the boot sale in April if it hasn't died, but I fear it will have died.

If it has, best it comes out of there now than at some future point when we'll all be older and less bendy.;)

PollyWollyDoodle

Yippee - another instalment from GQHQ - can't wait!

I think I'm just not that bothered about my surroundings, I mean I know what I like and a lot of its to do with texture and light. I lived for about four years with bare plaster on the walls at my last house because I couldn't be bothered to paint until I'd had some other work done. That's why I've found it so easy not to notice piles of clutter!

Kboss this is what stops me buying those big bags of spices, they always look good value but I know I'd struggle to store them and it would take me forever to get through them. Don't they go off in storage? I keep my herb and spice jars lying flat in a drawer - I keep meaning to do something clever to stop them all rolling around, but I've found it the best way to store them. Spice racks never have enough room.

Slinky

Oh drat, it's just started raining, just when I thought the forecast was going to be wrong and I'd be able to get out and do some outside work today. Have to hope it clears up, I can do some stuff in short bursts between the showers if needs be.

GQ we have some sun loungers in our loft. I inherited them with OH when we met, but they've never seen the sun in 16 years. They are the plastic ones which have a mattress on top so the bases should be in OK condition, goodness knows about the mattresses. I doubt they will see the sun seeing that we never remove them from the loft, but whether OH will ever let me get rid is another matter...... That may be a decision for after we retire to see if we ever get around to lazing in the sun on those rare days it appears in this country!

GreyQueen

I think whole peppercorns are virtually immortal but that a lot of spices have a useful life of months, rather than years. I guess it depends on how often you cook with them, in terms of a sensible amount to have by you.

I'm giving serious thought to my extensive collection of chazzer-sourced Le P@rfait/ kilner jars, most of which are empty atm and are taking up quite a bit of cupboard space.

I've changed my diet towards more fresh stuff and don't need a lot of these for pulses and the major use was for a beetroot preserve I made using jelly. I'm trying to avoid additonal sugars in all foods and most preserves/ chutneys etc seem to have sugar as their primary ingredient. I don't have a dehydrator and no plans to get one (and nowhere to put one if I did get one ) so can't see these items coming into use for food storage.

I think I will give myself a 12 month spell to go through a growing season and see if I feel the urge to take up some form of food preservation which would require quantities of these and, if the mood hasn't struck, release them for someone else to enjoy. At the moment, they're on high cupboard shelves and not in the way of everyday but knowing that I'm not using them niggles at me.

Righty, better get off this pooter and out to work. Have a great day, everyone, GQ xx

greent

I am attacking paperwork (yet again) - have been in the mood for it the past couple of days - it's going well. Sadly we need to keep quite a lot so I will never get it right down like some KMers. I do find that with some KM tasks I really do have to be in the mood - some I can just plough through but others are a total non-starter unless I'm fired up about them. Bin/ recycling day tomorrow, so am hoping to get as much out as possible today

Quick Zumba workout, followed by a shower and breakfast and then I shall be back on it (Have been up for 3 hours but did lunchboxes, sort washing, 2 school runs, some paperwork etc so couldn't fit workout in around that)
x

luxor4t

GreyQueen wrote: »

.......I am working on a WIP project with an Easter deadline and will - waitforit - be at the family home for the weekend. I have a yen to get back into the parental loft where I have permission-in-principle to evict the large boxes which contained the new TV and peripherals purchased this time last year. This could be revoked before ejection happens, as such things have happened before, but I am in hopes.:)

...........

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

Yippee - another instalment from GQHQ - can't wait!



Add me to the "can't wait" list :j

I shall think of GQ's HQ posts as a birthday gift of the MK variety :rotfl:

Slinky

Yes we're planning on decorating over Easter, so GQ's updates will be a welcome break from wallpapering.

Karmacat

elona wrote: »

Upstairs bedroom has cluster flies so possible treatment has arrived today and I will use it later to hopefully get rid of them.

kittie wrote: »

elona we used to get cluster flies, nothing got rid of them, I drew lines with the correct insecticide etc, even tried meths to change their programming. We also got wasps, 12 in the bedroom when we moved in, orchard around us so wasps will always be close. We ended up getting fly screens on the windows. You can still see the occasional dead cluster fly because they will always come looking for a cosy home for winter. They come off the fields, after they have been ploughed. It was a heck of a shock when we first saw them, opened the window inwards and wham, hundreds of bluebottle- like flies, all at once. Good luck with them

I've got cluster flies too there was a week of them, coming down from the loft where they must have been hibernating, and now I've had a few days of a few more. Not as many as the first time, but still enough to keep my bedroom door shut so I don't get them in my bedroom too Horrible. I have a UV kill-thing underneath the loft hatch (but haven't investigated the trap yet ) though since most of them lurch down to the porch and the windows there, I did spray the porch floor a few weeks ago, just once.

Elona - I'm considering getting a fogger for late autumn, when they start hibernating, can you "report back" here please, on what you've just bought, I'd be *very* interested in anything that will kondo cluster flies

PollyWollyDoodle wrote: »

Yippee - another instalment from GQHQ - can't wait!

Thirded :j