Mortgage free in Forever Home :-)

KajiKita

It’s cold here but going to be bright, so have already done a few chores so I can get out in the garden for a few hours this morning before the forecast wet weather comes in this afternoon. My main task today will be to prune the big purple Maple that is taking over the view from one of our sit spots - something that should always be pruned when dormant. 

After that, seed sowing sequencing (sounds posh! 😂), embroidery, tapestry, reading 😊 along with prep for The Return tomorrow….

Oh, as an aside, I have had a brainwave …. There is a table in our kitchen that needs deep decluttering but also needs reimagining as every time I clear it, it fills up again. One of the issues is that there is nowhere else to store the stuff that ends up living on it (jars of nut butter, pickles, other dry ingredient type things ….) I set my mind on this issue this morning and have a possible solution. There is a strange little cupboard, by the entrance to the kitchen which is basically the depth of a door recess (it’s the old external door into the kitchen from when it was a tacked on shed) which therefore have odd, shallow shelves. This cupboard needs a good clear out and clean. I suspect when I do this, a lot of stuff will be other ood or should be stored more logically elsewhere. This, I hope will in turn make space for the ‘homeless’items on the table …. 😊 Quite chuffed at having thought this through 🤩 (Is it just me, or is this the hardest part about decluttering?).

KK

KajiKita

I’ve had a productive two or three hours in the garden 😊

- Pruned the purple Maple

- weeded, re-edged and bark mulched my mini border that the bay tree is in

- weeded and cleared the bed with the relocated rose and a loganberry by the greenhouse - will need mulching when the sterile mulch turns up 

- cleared quite a bit of rubbish, dead grass etc from the slabs in front of the greenhouse 

- pruned purple berberis and two other shrubs I don’t know the names of to let more light into that border

- massively pruned the horribly prickly rose on the pergola (discovered two hazel saplings that will need to be hoicked out at a later date!)

- tried to rescue a very soggy bumblebee - to some degree a pointless exercise (it wasn’t a queen, just a worker) but I couldn’t leave her cold, wet and miserable 

Hoping to sow some onions this afternoon 😊

KK

KajiKita

Gave up on sowing onions … it really is too early! 😉 But the garlic I put in pots a few days ago, are starting to push themselves out and sprout 😊
Cleared down the fridge - very little went in the bin compared to previous years, so I take that as a win 😊
Updated all £cial trackers - nothing exciting to report here, either good or bad 😊
Took meter readings for gas and electric and submitted - looks like we might have reduced our electric consumption a bit. I think I should be trying for monthly readings of electric this year - just to see when our use is. 

Bit tired now. 

KK

redofromstart

Sounds like a really productive day. We had to go out visiting and by the time we got back it was raining so I read about gardening instead of doing it. I suspect I should be retrieving the brown cardboard from the recycling bin for my no dig bed plans but it really is tipping down. 

KajiKita

redofromstart said:

Sounds like a really productive day. We had to go out visiting and by the time we got back it was raining so I read about gardening instead of doing it. I suspect I should be retrieving the brown cardboard from the recycling bin for my no dig bed plans but it really is tipping down. 

I was lucky - we had zero plans for today so I was able to just play and make the most of the dry weather before heading back to W-word tomorrow…. 

KK

KajiKita

Talked through my decluttering / cleaning plans with Mr KK and showed him my list - tbh I was surprised that he was interested 😉
We both have dry and wet weather tasks that we can use as a spur to get stuff done over the next few months. I was aiming for 12 decluttering tasks so it would run at a rate of one per week / weekend, but I am up to 15! And I suspect that there should be more  😳😂
I think, where I can, I will try and nibble one or two partial steps of each tasks during the weekday evenings as well. I am giving myself the summer off though - once the clocks change I will need to focus on the garden. Expecting myself to do any more than the bare minimum housework each weekend then would be unrealistic…..

KK

LadyWithAPlan

KajiKita said:

Talked through my decluttering / cleaning plans with Mr KK and showed him my list - tbh I was surprised that he was interested 😉
We both have dry and wet weather tasks that we can use as a spur to get stuff done over the next few months. I was aiming for 12 decluttering tasks so it would run at a rate of one per week / weekend, but I am up to 15! And I suspect that there should be more  😳😂
I think, where I can, I will try and nibble one or two partial steps of each tasks during the weekday evenings as well. I am giving myself the summer off though - once the clocks change I will need to focus on the garden. Expecting myself to do any more than the bare minimum housework each weekend then would be unrealistic…..

KK

Sounds like a positive doable plan.
The weird hall cupboard could be great for your herbs etc.
Glad you had a fun YOU day

KajiKita

“ Sounds like a positive doable plan.
The weird hall cupboard could be great for your herbs etc.”

@LadyWithAPlan, unfortunately that cupboard is a touch damp, certainly very cold. I think that because it is recessed into the external wall it is actually single skin and so not effectively insulated. Probably picking up condensation from being open(ish) to the it hen with boiling kettles, pans etc. It’s okay for dry / sealed things but I have to be careful of overfilling it and not put damp sensitive things in there. 

KK

savingholmes

Well done on the gardening. The decluttering / clearing plans sound good too. At least once it's gone you have more hope of keeping on top of things. Trying to tell myself that at least. 

KajiKita

savingholmes said:

Well done on the gardening. The decluttering / clearing plans sound good too. At least once it's gone you have more hope of keeping on top of things. Trying to tell myself that at least. 

I think there is still an element here of us having moved in here, 4 years ago, not having the time or mental energy to think about where things should go logically and shoving them wherever we could at the time, and haven't unpicked it since. If I'm right, once we rearrange and organise so things are in more logical places, i hope they will stay there! 😉

KK