Giving every £ a job

PennysIntoPounds

Great work on the eBay sale! How did you list/how will you deal with it being a piece of furniture? I'm not au fait with the whole eBay palaver (largely because they randomly banned my account before I'd even listed anything!) so I'm reluctant to list anything large on there (by which I mean ask Mr PIP to do it!)

EssexHebridean

Loving the library tales! Honestly - having more space for books is without question probably the thing I love the most about our house - for years we have had to have a "1 in, 1 out" policy on books which MrEH has mostly ignored, which means of course that I have had to adopt "1 in, 2 out" and I have HATED it! For a while I even shied against asking for books as presents because I was then going to dread the weeding out process needed to make room for the new one.   now we have bookshelves all over - including two big ones in the third bedroom (dressing room) and a mass of small ones in the spare bedroom which will in due course (probably once we have got around to decorating in there) be swapped out for bigger ones...it's just an absolute joy! 

The family duck feeding tradition is just glorious too - how fab that you have a place with so many memories, and that now a new generation of memories is being made!

Blackcats

@PennysIntoPounds - with larger items on eBay you can list them as collection only and in the narrative we say that it's a heavy item and will require 2 people/van etc.  the buyer gets a code so you can confirm that the right person is collecting the item.  So far it's worked ok for us.

have ordered some new furniture from IKEA for HQ which I'm looking forward to getting.  I've paid for delivery as the thought of man handling bulky packages into the back of my car in an ikea car park when no doubt it will be raining and windy.  Delivery is supposed to include taking the items to the room too so no precarious pushing and shoving of boxes up the stairs.  I added a few other items to the delivery too (rude not to 🤷‍♀️) including some storage boxes for under the bed.  

In my mind I envisage a beautifully tidy and organised house but in reality neither myself or DH are naturally tidy.  I'm trying to make a deliberate effort to put things away when I've used them.  Putting the washing away took a few minutes rather than leaving it in the basket for a couple of days, dealing with today's junk mail took seconds instead of putting it down on the shelf in the hall to pile up with yesterday's and await tomorrow's.

MrBC made a lovely chicken and veg soup using leftover chicken from Monday for stock and meaty bits in the soup.  Used up 2 bendy carrots, a chunk of leek and onions.  Nice and warming for lunch today because it is still so chilly.  Surely it will be warm soon?

Sun_Addict

We briefly had warm weather at the weekend and I nearly went mad and got out my hanging chair 😆 Unfortunately it’s now very cold again. We seem to be getting a lot of wind and hail, Monday was horrendous 🙁

PennysIntoPounds

I try to begrudgingly instigate the 'do minor things now' rule too, my main regular culprit seems to be transferring contents of rucksack back to handbag when I've done a small shop. Dialogue in my head is "But I've done the main thing, surely the add-on tasks can wait a bit... Okay but don't come crying to me when you go out and get all the way to the tube/pub/shop and don't have your wallet/sunglasses/umbrella... Fine, I'll do the thing that takes a whole ten seconds, but I'm not happy about it!"
Can you tell the weather has been changeable here, brolly and sunnies indeed 

EssexHebridean

I oddly enough actually took 15 minutes last night to just go round tidying things a bit - even silly things like the junk mail off the chest of drawers in the hallway, and a few other bits that had gathered there being dispatched off to their proper homes, makes such a difference! 

I am up against it with MrEH who would cheerfully live in a pit without even giving it a second thought, but I'm also gradually finding ways to deal with that - I bought a basket for use on the kitchen island for example, where all his oddments of clutter can get put, so if he leaves stuff lying about, I just shovel it in to there. His collection of newspapers which allegedly he "hasn't finished reading yet" drives me crazy - but every now and then I go through them and just get shot of any that are past a certain timescale - yes, I shouldn't have to do it, but sometimes the path of least resistance is the more comfortable one! 

savingholmes

I relate to the not naturally tidy thing BC. The furniture order plus other things sounds like it will bring you joy.

EH - if it fits in a single basket - you don't have a problem 

[Deleted User]

We are def on the messy side too!  Though to be fair at present we are living in half a house so boxes everywhere.  But I do need to impose a "no dumping stuff on the island" rule.

Blackcats

@PennysIntoPounds - I'm guilty of swopping handbags frequently and am always surprised by how many bits of paper, sweet wrappers etc are in the bag I'm swopping to.  I just take out the essentials, put them into the bag of the moment and dump the discarded bag back in the cupboard.
@EssexHebridean - oh my word - old newspapers!  MrBC has an ongoing pile of newspapers that he "needs" to read.  There are some in the lounge where the paper is open at a page entitled "the expert guide to spending a penny" 🥴.  He also has a big stack of puzzle pages which are "to be done"
@savingholmes and @[Deleted User] - it's reassuring that MSE friends are also "on the messy side".

a nice day today - started with a swim.  Jim the cat was at the leisure centre and after he'd swirled around reception he flounced off into the door marked Manager 😸

I baked a cake today for our snacks for the week.  I used @Greying_Pilgrim's recommended recipe for no fail fruit cake.  Baked it in the air fryer and it turned out very well.  We haven't used the oven for months now and as I cleaned the oven on Monday it is not getting used again until Christmas if I have any say in the matter.  

MrBC cut the grass at my dad's and did a general tidy up of gangly shrubs so that the garden waste bin got filled ready for collection on Tuesday.  I made my dad omelette and chips for his tea which he enjoyed very much.  Bless him he has ready meals most days after 70 years of my mum's home cooking so I try to cook something for him a couple of times a week.  We had a slice of the fruit cake with a cup of tea.  He's now happily watching snooker.

I've had notification of my 24/25 pension payment.  It's increased so I'm happy with that.  Still getting used to receiving money every month without going out to work for it.

plan for the week ahead is to tidy up as I go along.  Lots of other plans too but perhaps I can start a new tidying habit - better late than never!

Sun_Addict

Oh to have money come in without having to work for it - I can only dream.