KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Siebrie

I am wearing out my gold velours (velvet?) trousers; the bum and inner thigh areas are already velours-less, they are just plain cotton. Dh and dds see me in these trousers after work every day, and it has been like that since November. I wash them every other week and wear them again; I just wear them at home, so they don't get very dirty. It's taking forever to wear them out!

maryb

We've only just started thinking about our allotment for this year, it has been so consistently wet it was impossible to walk on the ground without compacting it. However on Friday we got one of the four big beds dug over in lovely sunshine, coats off, then sitting on our deckchairs with a flask of coffee enjoying the mild air. What a change!!

GQ I'm sure there are lots of us who would love to know more about your allotmenteering - those lists you see on websites about what to sow and harvest each month don't really mean much to me, but I would be interested in hearing what a real life OSer is doing week by week

GreyQueen

:j Decided I wanted my dead microwave gone out of the micro-kitchen and didn't want to wait for help from a car owner, although Dad could have taken it away on Good Friday. When I'm decluttering, I want something gone yesterday.

Soooo, as it's an iron frost and I won't be allotmenteering today, and a planned visit from a rellie has been postponed until next month, I found myself in the unusual position of having time on my hands.

As I get stir-crazy in the micro-flat, I decided I would combine exercise with microwave removal services, got the newspaper delivery trolley out and loaded the appliance. Took me 37 minutes to toddle up to the tip, then I walked another couple of hundred yards to a supermarket and bought a few bits, including a v.large pkt of loo rolls, as I had the carrying capacity. Round trip took 1.5 hrs and I've walked about 3 miles, half of them towing weight.

Gyms - who needs 'em!? :rotfl:

When making up the bed last night with the freshly-laundered heavy-rotation cotton sheet, I was pleased to notice definate signs of wear and tear; a split has opened up where the fabric has given way and there are some more holes. This is a very old but good quality sheet, wasn't new when I had it about 20 years ago, and has been much-mended and sides-to-middled, so I expect it will be a goner in the next few washes. Pillowslip also on its way out.

I'm childishly pleased to see the current over-supply of linens dwindling. After lunch, I shall sort out the other sheets and look for the next-most worn out one to use up next.

maryb, not much is happening planting wise even on Plot1, which I've had for 10 years this month. I have autumn-sown broad beans in two areas, and spring-sown bbs (not yet germinated) in another, alongside onion sets (not yet sprouted). Plus some overwintered leeks, in process of being turned into soups etc. Oh, and some bedraggled Feral Chard, looking rather tatty and sorry for itself.

Plot2 Diary.

12/03/18 - come home from work to plot offer via email. Pay online. Rush up there and garden for 80 minutes til full dark. Rounded up rubbishy stuff from all over the plot. Create a rack-type pile for burnables from old trellis, fencing etc. Cut down dead bramble canes, rake up dead grass etc. Pile is about 5ft tall x 6 ft wide.

14/03/18 - have missed an evening due to archery. Go up and continue with the tidying. Fell a small and unproductive plum tree by sawing it down in sections. Decide as weather for next few days is promising wet and cold, that I will burn the burn pile. Do so. Leave at 7 pm, slightly kippered.

16/03/18 - rain stopped play yesterday (can only get to the plot about 5-ish due to work). Had a bit of a moment about all the work to do, why oh why could the previous tenant not given it up in September?! Decide to gird my loins, get the mattock out, and s0d-busted about 4 m sq of rough couch grass. Everything is wringing wet, very hard going, am getting perished. Clean toys and go home, feeling satisfied that any passing lottie officer can see I've Made a Start. And I'm bliddy frozen.

So, there you have it, straight from an old-stylers mouth. There's no poncing around in Birkenstock sandals and floral frocks when I do allotmenteering, it's blood (I got a scratch!) and Cold Steel.

Karmacat

GQ, I agree with Maryb - the real world experiences of someone I internet-know, and completely trust in these things, are wonderful to read, in detail like that.

For instance, I've asked you before about bonfires, and I *have* had a few in my little incinerator, but they're still a mystery to me - the last one failed, and I'm desperate to kondo some pretty big branches in my pretty little suburban garden. How did you get it to light, at such a wet time of year?

WeeMidgie

"When I'm decluttering, I want something gone yesterday."
- Grey Queen

Oh my, I so identify with that, Grey Queen!

And thank you for the allotment diary, please if you can, make this a regular feature, it's manna to those of us who don't have access to an allotment but enjoy garden news.

The big declutter continues here. Six years ago I downsized to a 2 bedroom house. My next move, which I hope will happen in the next few weeks, is to a one bedroom flat with very little storage space. But it's all I need, in a great location with nice neighbours and in walk in condition. So this is all happening from choice and with a glad heart - I'll be closer to friends and walking distance to most places I regularly go to, whereas at present I'm using my car a lot.

The biggest space saver I've come across is storage for my CDs and DVDs. I only keep the ones which will be listened to / watched again, but in their cases they are bulky.

. Now, minus their cases and stored in two 120 capacity CD wallets, they take up almost no space, the cases have gone out, and I've cleared two shelves of a bookcase and a tall CD tower. This is definitely sparking joy! :j :j

Most of the time I agree with not spending money on storage, but in this instance I'm really pleased and amazed how much space I've freed up.

GreyQueen

Karmacat wrote: »

GQ, I agree with Maryb - the real world experiences of someone I internet-know, and completely trust in these things, are wonderful to read, in detail like that.

For instance, I've asked you before about bonfires, and I *have* had a few in my little incinerator, but they're still a mystery to me - the last one failed, and I'm desperate to kondo some pretty big branches in my pretty little suburban garden. How did you get it to light, at such a wet time of year?

You can have an allotment diary if you'd like (and, I guess, those not interested will just skip over). There will be no new installments until Tuesday at the earliest as I have an appt after w*rk on Monday, and Tues will be subject to weather permitting.....

Karmakat, I've precisely nil experience of bonfiring in an incineratior although, delightfully enough, I have inherited one with Plot2. As a pal, who was poking around seeing my inheritance (mostly carp) crowed, on seeing that; LOOT!

Fires require oxygen, fuel and a source of ignition. My normal bonfiring technique involves having what I call my 'burn bag' which is an old paper spud or paper feed sack, into which I add non-toxic burnables over the course of several months. Examples would be the dried out pods from broad beans which were allowed to dry out on the stem (I mostly save broad beans as dried beans and soak & cook to eat over the winter), plus anything else that is organic and dry. I even dry out horsetail and dock roots and add them.

I build the bonfire over the burn bag, and reach inside it with a match/ lighter to start things off. The bag shelters the flame from blowing out and gives it a good start. One needs quite a bit of tinder to get a good bit of heat going before twigs will catch flame, and they fire has to build heat before bigger bits of wood will catch.

My bestest bonfires are always in early October when the site's burn-ban comes off for 6 months (the astute will calculate that this means it's back on again on 1st April, putting me under a slight time pressure, lol). I will have been saving things for the previous 6 months, they'll be pretty much as dry as possible, and the atmosphere will be pretty dry as well. Oftentimes, the bonfire goes up with a whoosh and 8 ft tall shooting flames with almost no smoke. That makes me a very happy pyromaniac.

Burning stuff at this time of year is a PITA. Everything is wetter, for a start. You can still bonfire but it never goes up as well, I had a bit of a time getting mine going on Weds, but got there in the end (no burn bag for tinder, you see ).

No bonfire burns everythng 100%. I have enough left for another small bonfire and will likely try that again if I've time before the end of the month. I light repeated bonfires on the same bed of ash, it helps them get started.

There were some metal bolts, nails etc in the stuff I burned. When I finally get the ashes raked out, I shall remove these. You need to let a bonfire cool for about 48 hours before removing metal things safely (ask me how I know this, owww!).

With big branches, you might be best off sawing them up and offering them to those who have woodburners/ open fires. HTH.

catshark88

We had stuff for a bonfire, drying beautifully and then we missed our moment and it's got snowed on.

Karmacat

Ooh, it does help, thank you GQ! I'd missed previous reference to your burn bag, frinstance - sheltering the flame, thats brill.

When I say the branches are big, hmmm.... five feet long, sort of big. By now, I can stand on them to break them. But they're still soggy ... how do you shelter stuff to dry it out? I'm hiding it under trees and big shrubs as best I can, but the weeds are creeping up from underneath, its not really a good solution ....

Getting a bit tired now (I'm sitting upright, with no back support, and scanning things at a high dot matrix rate, while typing bits and bobs, I've reached my limit today for that. Cuppa tea calls.

Hope everyone has a good day today, still a lot left of it!

GreyQueen

If they were mine, I'd snap them until they were no longer than about 4 ft and stand them up in tipi stylee to let the air and the wind dry them out. They will lose a surprising amount of moisture like that. I wouldn't bother to cover them up unless they are already pretty dry and you're planning to burn any day now.

One time on a shared plot, part of the carp I cleared was a stack of wombled fenceposts, about 6-8 ft long. They'd been left lying on the soil behind a shed in a pile for donkey's years and were saturated with water, very heavy, and the lower ones very rotten.

I dragged them out into an open bit of the lottie and stood them up in a wigwam on their own and left them in the sun and wind in wintertime. When I went to burn them two weeks later, they were almost bone dry and went up with a roar and almost no smoke. Astonished me how they could go from sopping to burnable relatively quickly.

Righty, must get on with the planned sort out of the part of the airing cupboard I missed yesterday, the shelf with the bedsheets. Need to ID the next-most-worn-out example and have that ready to hand.

I am also creating a household inventory, something I started yesterday, pencilled in a hardcover A3 A-z book (50p, chazzer) as I think it will be a good way of keeping track of my c*rp.

Siebrie

A colleague gave me a kashmir winter coat, 3 work shirts, a jacket and a pair of shoes last week, and today I tried them on. The coatsleeves are too short, same for the green silk shirtsleeves and the white sleeves. One white shirt and the jacket are fine and in my wardrobe. The coat will be offered to my Mum, the shirts go to the WI pop up shop.

I am slowly filling a bag for this pop-up shop, some items I bought there last year are going back there Last year, I bought some retro 70s skirts and dresses, thinking it may be a fashion trend I could follow, but I realised I am much more of a 50s/60s/10s girl