Simplifying Life

LameWolf

mary43 wrote: »

Lamewolf - brilliant idea ! I dont have problems walking but it is a chore when I'm card making to take everything from my craft drawer in the computer room to the kitchen table..........only place big enough to work at........plus family history stuff thats on shelves in comp. room and needs a lot of space to sort through.
Be interest to know where you got it and, more importantly.....how much ?
(trying very hard to watch every penny in case I lose it............lol)

This is the beastie
http://www.lakeland.co.uk/quick-fold-trolley/F/C/organising/C/organising-organise-your-home/product/21686
I have also ordered some other (needed)bits, so not only do Iqualify for free p&p, but also for a free gift, and I've chosen 40 clothes pegs, as our ancient pegs have started breaking.

mary43

lamewolf - very smart as well as useful. Bit out of my price bracket at the minute so I'll have to put it on my 'wish list' for when I've got a few bob put by........can't quite justify it at the moment as I'm trying to work on 'needs' rather than 'wants'.
I can see how it would be useful for you and nice one getting a free gift :j

ceridwen

LameWolf wrote: »

Well, I think I've found something to make my life simpler and save me a lot of energy (as well as wear and tear on the carpets).

I've just ordered a wheeled trolley that can fold up flat when not in use.

Ok, I'll explain.... because I can't walk at all without the aid of sticks, getting 2 plates of food + 2 drinks to the table for us to have dinner = 4 trips to and from the kitchen, PLUS the danger of me dropping something because my wrists are so weak. The trolley will mean ONLY 1 TRIP!:j

And it'll have loads of other similar uses around the house....
Washing from airing cupboard to bedroom, files from junk room (where they live) to computer desk for me to do household paperwork, "Dungeons & Dragons" figures, paints and other bits from their allotted place in junk room to living room for us to work on painting them (yeah, we're D&D nerds).... the list is endless.
Can't wait for it to arrive!:T

Hope it works out well for you....sounds like a good idea.

Sometimes one teensy little thing - appliance, gadget, can make a lot of difference and we wonder why we didnt think of it before. So - yes - that one sounds a good idea for you.

My little personal thing that I have got recently I think will possibly be multifunction useful is one of those plastic (oh...whoops!) flexible containers with handles that are sold now in the gardening section of shops. For gardening purposes first and foremost obviously - personally I did a bit of my lateral thinking and find it useful for collecting the water when I have a shower and then being able to re-use that water for other purposes (so far - looflushing comes to mind) and I also got stopped en route back to my home by a guy who demanded to know where I had got it and walked off quite happily muttering to himself after I had told him (as he wants one for his allotment). I reckon it will also do duty for rinsing off handwashed clothing with water from my waterbutt (saving on my metered water) and who knows what else - not bad for £5.

looby-loo_2

I've not seen this thread before but I think I'll be here a while.

The trolley is a great idea and the indooe use of the plastic scoop for water catching.

I keep a folding create, the kind you can use for laundry, at the bottom of the stairs. Anything that needs to go up stairs is placed in the create until someone has to go upstairs. They are trained to empty the creat into the correct room and bring the creat downstairs again.

This save loads of trips upstairs and keeps all the bits tidy and safe.

mary43

Sounds like a bargain to me ceridwen -make an ideal wash basket (if its the black one I'm thinking of).Could do with a couple of them for each of the boys rooms for them to fling their dirty washing in and then bring down to the machine. I've given them wash baskets but they don't use them...........floor seems to be the ideal place for clothes (clean or dirty !!)
I've tried the mesh wash baskets before and they just get ripped as they cram so much in them, more weight than the poor mesh can stand !

ceridwen

mary43 wrote: »

Sounds like a bargain to me ceridwen -make an ideal wash basket (if its the black one I'm thinking of).Could do with a couple of them for each of the boys rooms for them to fling their dirty washing in and then bring down to the machine. I've given them wash baskets but they don't use them...........floor seems to be the ideal place for clothes (clean or dirty !!)
I've tried the mesh wash baskets before and they just get ripped as they cram so much in them, more weight than the poor mesh can stand !

Yep...it is indeed the black one Mary... it does come in another colour or two...but like Henry Ford ..I tend to work on the precept "You can have it any colour...as long as its black" about things I buy....I do buy some colours sometimes honest!

EDIT: Just goes to show those midlife hormones addling my brain - 'tis green indeed....ohmygod ..must give up the aluminium! LOL

Charis

ceridwen wrote: »

Sometimes one teensy little thing - appliance, gadget, can make a lot of difference and we wonder why we didnt think of it before. So - yes - that one sounds a good idea for you.

My little personal thing that I have got recently I think will possibly be multifunction useful is one of those plastic (oh...whoops!) flexible containers with handles that are sold now in the gardening section of shops.

I have three (tub trugs) One pink, one purple, one pale blue. I thought it ironic that on Rhonda Jean's blog this week her DH was pictured washing his kale in a pale blue trug , identical to mine, on the other side of the planet. They are everywhere, and they multiply. They are so useful. Thinking about it I have five, cos I have a small purple one under the sink for rubbish and I have had two in the garden for some years. It's their flexibility and the fact you can carry them with one hand by the handles (unless full of water) that makes them unique. I have one of the garden ones inverted over my mop bucket, no space in house, keeps sun from fading the red plastic bucket and stops insects drowning in rainwater in the bucket. The blue one is where my ironing can repose gracefully until it is full.

Charis

ceridwen wrote: »

...and your starter for 5 Charis.....howzabout enumerating these yur radical changes and help give us all a bit of a kickstart purlease?;)

Well, back in December when you opened this thread I started decluttering. Everything that was not earning its keep, or kept for nostalgic reasons was gradually given away or binned. Even things I thought 'might come in useful' found new owners on Freecycle or got given to friends and rellies.
Then I took a long look at the way I spent my time. I was neglecting my own house and garden whilst doing a difficult voluntary job I was no longer enjoying. I gave three months notice and left in March. Since then I have been working on the garden, with paid help for the things I couldn't do and it is looking so much better. I've also been studying a creative writing course I had started last September.

I still didn't feel I had cracked the simple life, I was too set on having a weekly routine and cramming too much in. I was not allowing time to simply be. Also I was overestimating the amount of physical work I could do in a day. I now plan to do one really physical thing a day and no more. If I mow the lawns I don't do a grocery shop the same day.

I have decluttered and restocked the kitchen cupboards, following your principle of having several of each item in stock and using the oldest first. I'm still stocking up, although I have more in the cupboards and freezer than before - and I haven't noticed that great a difference in the amount I am spending. I do have a lot of beans and need to learn how to cook them when they don't come out of a tin. Not too difficult, as I have a pressure cooker gathering dust in one of the cupboards. It can now justify the cupboard space.

I have begun to do things because I want to or because the time is now right, rather than because I 'ought' to do things. Having put other people's demands first all my life I now stop and think 'why am I agreeing to this? Do I really want to do it?' before I carry on. I have distanced myself from a few people whose problems I was expected to carry because they were not prepared to carry them. I don't think I have lost any friends and I may have gained some respect.

I plan ahead as much as possible, keep a list of what I need to accomplish in the week ahead and what I need to buy and do. I am sleeping better. I'm finding that sometimes I get a real feeling of contentment from doing nothing much at all, just listening to the noises I can hear in the garden, or the birds singing or doing some little job I would previously thought of as a chore. I remember that peaceful feeling from when I was a child.

Of course I still have days that are not so productive or when something worries me but overall I find life easier to cope with because I am lessed stressed than when I was trying to be and do everything at once.

ceridwen

Good one Charis.....sounds like a good bit of life reconstruction there - and useful thoughts for the rest of us:T

EDIT; Right - I'll head off in the direction of mini teensy bit of simplifying that I am doing this weekend - to catch up with every last scrap of washing now (before my fuel prices go up again) - even if it means a teensy bit of tumbledryer use (something I basically no longer do normally). Then alternate weeks it will be:

Week 1 - sheets done in the machine and all clothes (even knickers and socks) handwashed (and I will be experimenting with rinsing them out afterwards in waterbutt water - courtesy of my trug).

Week 2 - towels, pillowcases, teatowels done in the machine and that weeks handwashing (ditto).

So - just one machine wash per week and also minimising use of my metered water.

Get myself "in training" for the Grand Switch Off (ie 1 September 2009). This being because I have just fixed my fuel prices until 31 August 2008. At 1 Sept 2009 I am expecting them to skyrocket the way things stand at present - so the Grand Switch Off is when I turn the "tap" on my gas meter and then dont turn it on again unless/until gas prices become more reasonable again. (Nothing like having an exact timetabled date for when one goes into Fuel Poverty! LOL!)

There is a major bit of "simplifying" thinking behind this - that I find it worrying watching the Price Rises in fuel and food that are going on at present - as I have a gap between my retirement age and when I will be picking up my full pension - but I have no intention of working on during that gap. 60 means GO GO GO and I am determined it will stay that way (even though my State Pension Age has been pushed on till later during the equalisation of pension ages and then I have a gap after that till I get my O.A.P. level of personal tax allowance at 65).

mary43

Charis - excellent post and there's a lot we can all learn from what you've done. I'm getting there, slow but sure. Given stuff away to friends and been given other stuff that's been much needed in return - the old 'what goes around comes around' saying springs to mind.
Since my bout of stress etc. earlier this year I've managed to put my brain in some sort order so I can cope with the things/people who stress me out and prioritised what I do with my time.I've never been any kind of 'domestic' person really -always preferred to do something I want to do rather than something I 'ought' to and that was where I felt pressure from a few people. I now realise those people aren't really important to me and those that are, and who I've sadly neglected for a while, I now make a point of spending quality time with,in particular a disabled friend of mine who over the years has always been very supportive, non-judgmental etc.
There are pressures I have to deal with as part of caring for the kids I have but I now cope with that much better too. No matter how many times the 'men in suits' move the goal posts I carry on caring for the kids in the way I always have..........it works for them and for me.
I still have to de-clutter various parts of the house in particular the garage but I've passed that responsibility over to OH ! Kitchen cupboards also need a bit of re-organising and the room leading of the kitchen -the 'building site' will soon be turned into a 'room' of sorts..............builder who has been a bit lax in when he's turning up to 'finish off' has now said he'll pop up tomorrow to sort out when he's coming again -soon I hope !!!! Then I'll have more storage space and can get another corner of my life in order.

ceridwen - you're very brave going for the big 'switch off' ! Don't think I could cope without my gas heating. Somehow we'll manage but I've yet to go on to a 'fixed rate'...............sorting that out on Monday. But what we will do is not use it as often as we have done.........keep the temperature down and put and extra jumper on, light a few candles for a focal point (plus I'm sure they do give off some heat )