Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Well, today's decluttered items were very easy. Seven items for 7th July. My best friend came round so I offloaded 5 magazines onto her plus 1 newsletter from a local place I think she'll love. That made six, & a defunct pen which had been kicking around the kitchen dresser was the seventh.
Eight more will be going tomorrow.
F x

foxgloves

Morning Diary readers,
Back to routines today, as Mr F's week off is now over & he's back to work. I'm catching up with all the stuff I didn't do last week when we were enjoying outings, etc. Have emailed final meter readings on my parents' house to solicitor......I mustn't catastrophise on last minute things going wrong with the sale.....we are so nearly there with Completion. I am defo keeping myself (& therefore my over-active brain!) busy all week!
Have baked cheese oatcakes while listening to the 'Slow Home Podcast' - I think OBL suggested this a while back? I found the first couple of episodes a bit slow & rambly, but after that, I've really taken to it. I will be giving more thought to separating my daily lists into the routine stuff that barely needs a separate list each day & having three things a day I really want to achieve. This would help address the fact that I am often hugely productive on the 'daily routines'/domestic front, but much, much less so on those big projects like getting the first draft of my novel finished. To be fair, I was cracking on quite well with that last year, it was mostly all the difficulties with Mum, then losing her, which meant that resurrection of my creative writing came to a resounding halt. So, I think ideas from the podcast will maybe encourage me to look at a few things a bit differently, we'll see.
I've had a think about this week's meal plans first thing & have swapped a meal & moved it to next week. My friend brought me some courgettes from her allotment yesterday & I decided I'd put some of them with some garlic, cheese & a nice bunch of fresh basil from my greenhouse & make a spaghetti thing we both really like to eat during summer instead of the kedgeree I was planning to make. The smoked haddock is frozen as it was part of our most recent Grimsby fish box delivery, so the kedgeree will just be eaten next week instead. Tonight's meal will feel like a free one.
I've been sitting at my desk doing my regular Monday morning budget updates & when I found myself opening a drawer to get my hole punch out & having to move EXACTLY THE SAME small pile of items in order to reach it as I've done the last goodness knows how many times, that dealt with today's declutter challenge!! Eight items for 8th July......1 old address book from which I'd already transferred all the addresses I require, 5 birthday cards (one of which I did just quickly recycle into 2 pretty gift tags), 1 pile of 2017 diary inserts (why??) & 1 bookmark.
I should add that I have already performed this same challenge a few years ago, I declutter regularly & am not a hoarder. It just goes to show that there's always something & that cluttery stuff breeds if two or more items are lodged in the same drawer or cupboard, doesn't it? And that even in a non-cluttery post-LBM person, stuff still accumulates.
I am waiting in for a parcel today - something mr f has ordered. I never mind, as we do always help each other out when we can, but isn't it typical that as soon as you say 'Oh yes, that's fine, I'll be in the house all day anyway', you suddenly find that what you most want to do is go out on your bike, or go & weed the veggie bed right at the furthest reaches of your long garden from where it's impossible to hear the door! Never mind, there's always tomorrow & I really do have plenty of stuff to be getting on with, some of which can be done in the conservatory with both doors flung wide open.
Best wishes to all for a good start to a peaceful & productive week.
F x

foxgloves

Oh isn't it just typical that as soon as I'm finally ready to go out & do a few garden bits, the rain starts?! Bah to that.... but at least I shall only need to water the greenhouse & shan't need to wash the salad.
Useful kitchen day today. A nice bit of Danish crime on audio book - I like to try & crack a murder case while I'm having a batch cooking day. I've made Cranks' watercress soup for the freezer, having given the now bolted watercress a severe haircut (it will grow back for more cuttings in a few weeks). Then I cooked & zizzed up the chickpeas I soaked yesterday & made a batch of Delia's spicy chickpea burgers. I make these fairly regularly as they're cheap, tasty, healthy & can be cooked from frozen, so useful to have in. The recipe also leaves enough yoghurt to knock up a batch of garlic flatbread, so I made some of those. Finally, the bread dough I mixed up this morning was used to make mini-pizzas. I've just got to go & put the toppings on, then into the oven with them, then freezer. I foil them individually so they are really handy to whip out for a speedy packed lunch or for a picnic. I've used some courgettes my friend gave me on Sun, basil, oregano & cherry tomatoes from our garden & some green pepper left from the chickpea burgers, so a good use-it-up, too.
Oh.. & 9 items have been decluttered for 9th July: 1 packet saved lunaria seed (I have plenty much newer), an old seed organiser box which I've loved using, but which has a broken lid & is no longer airtight, 1 leaflet for an event I've already been to, 1 tube of face primer (this has not been chucked, but has gone in my make-up bag to be used, instead of cluttering up a drawer for another year. I turned out not to need this product at all, despite thinking I might!), 1 postcard, 1 very holey dishcloth, 1 unplayed with cat toy & 2 nasty herbal tea bags (composted).
OK, must crack on. Mr F just back from his training course & starting to gannet around my culinary efforts.....
Cheers all,
F xx

HairyHandofDartmoor

I managed to accidentally unsubscribe from you thread Foxgloves (why is it so easy to do that?) but I've subscribed again now .

Well done on your de-cluttering, it sounds like a good system but may not work for me as once I start de-cluttering I carry on until I drop normally .

I hope your parents' house completes and it all goes smoothly.

foxgloves

Thanks, HHoD, I don't know about unsubscribing....I've never managed to successfully even SUBSCRIBE to a diary! I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's probably glaringly obvious. I'm usually quite tech savvy, so maybe it's some other problem.
Re my parents' house - I had a phone call yesterday afternoon from both the solicitor & the estate agent to tell me that the contracts have now been exchanged, & completion date is still next week. Our buyer asked for an extra day just to make doubly sure his funds are in place, & that was fine with my sis & I. We'd rather it goes smoothly for all concerned. So, I'm really thinking that surely nothing can go wrong now we've exchanged, but I'll be happier once I know the funds are safely with the solicitor (we currently have two) who is dealing with all the probate stuff on the estate. It's been such a very long stressful year.......two years, when you factor in that I also lost my Dad & one of my two best friends the previous year. You just don't know how strong you are until the u-know-wot hits the fan, so you? Anyway, I'm still keeping mega-busy this week, so I'm not sitting around thinking of last minute things which could throw a spanner in the works.
F x

foxgloves

Another busy day (see above!) which I've enjoyed a lot, actually. In fact, I've only just come indoors for a cup of tea. I've had a garden day, mostly veggie garden maintenance & once the workman next door had turned off his chainsaw, I've really enjoyed all the birdsong & being among all the greenery. What an old hippy!
For anyone interested in these things - I know Kantankrus will be doing similar jobs on her allotment atm - I've tied in all the tomato plants, both the greenhouse ones & outdoor ones and salvaged a chilli plant which was broken by a very fat panicky baby blackbird, which got into the greenhouse THROUGH THE OPEN DOOR, but then simply couldn't find it again when it had finished having a nosy & wanted to go out. I've gone over some badly nibbled pepper plants in forensic levels of detail looking for caterpillars, but not a single one......maybe the baby blackbird snarfed them while he was trapped in there. Then I got some tidsy little scissors & made a really good start on thinning the grapes. I'd already thinned the bunches, leaving only decent ones on the vine, but now it's time to thin individual grapes off the bunches so that the best ones grow plumper & juicier. I enjoyed doing that. Very zen! I've also hand weeded the climbing beans, hoed two courgette beds, hoiked out a squash with a rotten stem (that will have been that incredibly rainy week we all had recently), raked the bed over & re-sowed it with radishes. Then another tray of lettuce seed sown, & a packet each of hollyhocks & pansies. Then as Sun & Weds are veg-feeding days, I fed everything, before harvesting another pot of mr F's first earlies & the first punnet of home grown beans.
I'm ready for something to eat now, followed by a serious sit-down & maybe a bit of knitting. I'm knitting mr f a pair of socks (he loves the funky hand-knitted ones) using up a variety of self-patterning colourways from my neverending stash, so it's nice to relax & be productive at the same time!
Anyway, must crack on. Take care all,
F xx

foxgloves

Oh.....forgot to say......I have done my 10 items declutter for 10th July: 1 packet of beansprout seeds found in shed, old & I can never grow them properly, despite having tried TWO beansprout growing gizmos which I bought back when I was spendy. Sick of seeing this packet sitting there doing nothing. Decluttered it into a bowl where the beans are now soaking & I am going to have a final try at growing them using a completely different (& spend-free) method.
Also decluttered: A really ancient packet of poppy seed which I put in the bin, as I do grow out of date seeds, but 'Sow by 2008' did seem a bit of a stretch. Anyway, then I fished them back out again & sprinkled them over the back of a border. Fancy poppies - might get a poppy or two, might not. Either way, it's an item decluttered.
1 x defunct membership card. Kept it cos it was cute. But cute useless clutter is still useless clutter. It's gone. Chopped it up so I couldn't retrieve it!
Then 6 x bottle cloches. Old ones from when I first started making them. They are too short. I now cut them a lot taller so they can be used for sweetcorn & stuff too. Now in recycling bin.
And finally......the glamour item......1 x empty chicken poo pellet bucket. I've been using it for weeding, but now that I've rescued 4 proper garden trugs from Mum's greenhouse, I no longer need to 'make do' on this, so out it went, as it is a bulky item to store (we have half the shed each!)
OK, I really am going this time.......
F x

wishingthemortgaheaway

Love your updates, July is not a good month for an everyday declutter challenge for me, so, I'm parking the idea, September may be better.
I will declutter, but not count the items that go.

Thanks for the idea though.

Wish

foxgloves

Well, it's no good trying to do a proper declutter if the time isn't right, Wish.
I declutter on an ongoing basis, but thought this challenge where you aim to shift a set amount of items a day would focus me on making decisions on stuff I tend to find annoying, but then ignore & walk past several times a day. For instance, I have a kitchen cupboard which is so rammed, it has effectively ceased to function, & I'm ready for a strict chuck-out in the shed, as my gardening stuff needs reducing & reorganising so I can get to things more easily.
Anyway, before I give any thought to sending today's 11 items on their way, I must get some bread dough started.
Enjoy your day,
F x

foxgloves

Oh my days....how muggy is it today? Really wakeful night, not helped that Mr f was the same & heaving around the bed like a water buffalo. Headachey & hot all day. Still achieved a few things though......chores this morning & bread baking, enjoyed a nice cup of tea in my Mum's favourite cup & saucer sitting out on the grass by the pond, watching a lovely thrush devour yet another snail, He really is doing stirling work of saving my beans from being munched to ribbons this year.
11 items decluttered for 11th July:
-1 x empty box which Mr f thought he had a use for.....but then didn't.
-1 plastic thingy which broke off the iron about 3 years ago & can't be mended. The iron doesn't appear to need it at all, so I don't really know why I kept it this long.
-1 x nice vintage single candy stripe sheet added to charity shop bag. I love these, but have no single beds.
-1 x perfumed card for fragrancing lingerie drawer. No perfume left in it whatsoever.
- 6 x old hand towels which are just ready for going - you know when you use a towel & you might as well have dried your hands on sandpaper? Cut up for rag bag & some into squares for cleaning cloths.....the main thing being that they are out of the linen cupboard which means there is more space in there.
And this one was initially a bit of a mystery.......
- 1 x plastic jewel-type thing which suddenly appeared in my half of the bathroom cupboard. Eh? I didn't recognise it, had to ask the Beloved if he'd had a hand in its manifestation. Yes, he did.......it is apparently a decorative fitment from the handle of the new loo brush, which broke off when he moved it. Hmmmm. Two things - 1) If it's come off a bog brush, I can't say I'm overjoyed that it's chosen new home was among my toiletries!!!! 2) It looks tacky & the brush looks much better without it. So it went in the bin, & made my 11th decluttered item today.
Well, I shall crack on now - I just need to finish off my home made pizza with some cheese & oregano, then while it's in the oven, I shall nip down the garden to pick some fresh salad.
Cheers all, enjoy your evenings.
F x