Simplifying Life

System

Yesterday i went through my sons wardrobe to see if he needed anything. I went through umpteen pairs of trousers/tracksuit bottems and t shirts. However, he has only got 5 jumpers that fit him (not including his school jumpers obviously). Two of the jumpers he wont wear as they are not fleeces. He always goes for his fleeces when he goes into his wardrobe for a jumper. Also they are getting a little on the small side for him so i knew i could do with getting an extra one of two which will come in useful for when we go away in the caravan. My first thought was to go to town the weekend but i didnt relish that idea at all. Not only am i a terrible impuse buyer i just didnt fancy the traffic and queues because of the sales.

I did a bit of a search on google and i found a fleece perfect for my son that costs £5. Of course i would have to pay the £3.50 post and packaging but i would have to pay either bus fare or diesel in the motor to get there anyway. A boys fleece for £8.50 post all in. A bargain i thought.

I am looking for a second one now.:D I dont want to pay more than £10 all in, if you see one, give me a shout lol.

A friend of mine runs a catalogue, i was flicking through the pages looking at the over inflated prices of most of the items. I was mainly looking for bootleg black trousers for myself and i found a pack of 2 for £17. Bargain i thought - even better, no post and packaging! Wore them for the first time a couple of days ago and they are well worth the money.

tooties

well i cleared out a major hot spot today,
the cupboard in the hallway where we keep
linen,
junk
junk
junk
junk
junk
craft supplies
junk
and supposedly the hoover and ironing board.



can anyone tell me why i felt the need to have over 40 bed sets when there are only 5 of us in the house?
video catalogues from 2005?
also found two boxes or christmas crackers from a few years ago 2004 to be exact as i remember winning the hamper they were in when i was a student nurse?
so its all been recycled, the craft supplies are neatly arranged and the hoover and ironing board are back in their places.
its a great feeling
tooties

liloandstitch

Have just found this thread, and read it through over the last couple of days. I wanted to thank you all for sharing your thoughts with us, as I found it inspirational. Like most of you, I am drowning in STUFF, which I need to deal with to simplify my life - I have been looking for an Ikea receipt since before Christmas, I have finally found it. Says a lot for my filing systems.!!!!!!!!!!! On the subject of deaths, and inheriting contents of houses, both my parents died in 2006, and although they had husbands/wives, for various reasons we were still given all their personal stuff. I too am finding it hard to sort, until I started to think about all this STUFF and its effect on me. I am now determined that I will not leave this problem for my children when I die. I KNOW that a lot of the stuff I have was not loved or valued by my parents, and yet I still have problems dealing with it. So I have decided that over the next year, I am going to radically declutter, and only keep the things I love and use - william morris style so that when I go, at least they will have a lot less to deal with (but hopefully not yet I am only 38!!!!!!)

JoJoB

Organising myself means i have an extra £200 coming in the next week or so!

Been meaning to ring the Inland Revenue to check they received my tax return (sent it off 2 months ago and not heard a thing, and I need the paperwork). They said yes it's been received and I have a £100 rebate, which they will send out today. :j

Then sorted my BT phone account online and saw I am £100 in credit with them cos I have cut my phone bill but been paying the same DD for a few months. So rang them up and have organised for a £100 refund to my account.

Chuffed!

teacup_2

Hi judi ,
Lots of fleece type tops in ASDA if you have one near you starting from £2.00 some were actually £2.00. My son needed some tracksuit bottoms for pe at school and I bought the thick cotton variety and they were smartprice ones for £2.00 !!!!, great quality as well and fit him perfectly too.
Fourty sets of bedlinen that is a lot! well done .Liloandstitch I can imagine it is hard to part with belongings from your mum and dad and will take a lot of pondering on things, for you to do this task.
Jojob that sounds like some good sorting to me esp with some pennies attached.
I managed a drawer today not much, am going to do another one in a minute!

Wardrobe soon that is the scariest !

Greenshieldstamp_2

Hi there,

Well done Teacup with not buying your pretty top. A great MS Oldstyle start to the year. :j

I have sold another book on Amazon today yippee ,and had my "new" (for new- read recycled old file which was freed up from a decluttering session)household organiser file ready to file the paperwork for it until I know it has arrived safely. I am using a different recycled plastic pocket for each section and then everything is at least in one place. Normally paperwork goes all over the place.

I love the idea of writing all the jobs on paper and choosing one at random. makes it much more exciting. I will try this.

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the Oldstylers who have been on MSE for a while joining this thread. I have enjoyed reading Ceridwen's entries and Hypno's diary before and it's great that we are all joining together.

Feel much now decluttered generally now that it is New Year and determined to press ahead.

By the way is there any info on the best way to store cheese in the fridge? I want to avoid the cheese I buy drying out, and don't know if there is an Old Style way or do I need to get a cheese storer? Thanks very much

ceridwen

Well - my thoughts for the day: old-fashioned little haberdashery shops - good places to go on the hunt. Out of the "reduce/reuse/recycle" mantra I think we all know by heart by now - I have been focusing on the reuse part today. Hence the haberdashery shop. Been in one buying a reel of thread for altering a pair of trousers (that should equal another year or two wear from them) and for a packet of dye. The dye being because my mother passed me on a sort of fleecy type thing (the same material as electric underblankets). I tried draping this round myself and thought - "hmmmm.....covers a large part of me and lovely and snuggly and warm...shame its white". So the dye is to change it to a nice warm red. I suspect this material used to be the major part of an electric blanket - but, with all the electrics safely ripped out, it will do me nicely for a snuggly throw - and maybe save me putting a fire on to supplement the central heating.

Of course - I could have possibly gone one further and looked up on the Internet how to make my own dye from natural materials! (so far have only found info on how to dye stuff naturally prior to it getting to finished material stage). Oh well - still a work in progress time.

But certainly think its a shame that haberdashery outlets are closing down one by one - as they are valuable resources for us OS'ers.

Only downside to my visit was finding they had details of all sorts of interesting-looking craft type courses (including ragrug-making classes) - so now feeling bit frustrated that I cant see me finding time for creative-type hobbies until retirement :mad: - but telling myself that I must bear in mind Rhonda Jean's comment about not trying to do too much at once - guess, for now, I will have to try and settle for the breadmaking experiments, homecooking generally, making own cleaning materials and cosmetics and generally bearing in mind whether I can re-use things before I chuck them.

lightisfading

Greenshieldstamp wrote: »

By the way is there any info on the best way to store cheese in the fridge? I want to avoid the cheese I buy drying out, and don't know if there is an Old Style way or do I need to get a cheese storer? Thanks very much

We just seal ours in a plastic /tupperwear box, and never have problems with it drying out.

lilac_lady

Going back to simplifying meals, if one day a week was a no-cook one (such as cereals, HM soup from the freezer, toasted sandwiches, fruit, biscuits and cheese etc) Mums would like it although the rest of the family may not. If they complain tell them that it's your "no-cook" day but if they want to cook instead, you're fine with that. Make sure they clear up though..

JenniO

RE: cheese keeping.

I saw on TV that the best way to store cheese blocks is in greaseproof paper wrapped up like posh sainsbury's cheese is. Apparently chemicals in plastic can leach into the cheese. I started doing this and my cheese hasn't dried out but then again I go through it fairly quickly (a block a week).