KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

More things in than out here today - but it is DS1's 18th birthday

Cake and chocolate things are all temporary and PS4 games don't take up much room. Other presents are also small in presence but all joy-sparking

I have burned a heap of finance-related paperwork in the chiminea (it's spitty with rain here, so no washing out in any gardens) - the last is still smouldering away. That's by far my preferred method of disposal over shredding (far less effort on my part)

DD is off back to her uni city tonight, so some of the contents of the fridge/ freezer/ pantry will be making their way back with her.....

:T Brilliant news on the bed, Wee Midgie, well done. It's great when things just slot into place, isn't it? All the best for the move but I'm sure it'll be smooth now you're kondo'd.

One thing I notice is that just about everyone does a mahoosive declutter after they've moved, after they've busted their backs and sometimes the budget shifting those things in the first place.

Plots 1 & 2

Spent 2 hrs on Plot1, mainly hoe-ing and some grass cutting on the path, had a light luncheon (banana and a chocolate muffin) then grabbed the mattock and skipped over onto Plot2 to show it Cold Steel.

Apart from a pleasant interuption whereupon I was forced to drink rose and eat another muffin (allotment pal plying me with alcohol ) I was grafting for 6.5 hours. I have done a lot more digging and hauled out a lot of nasty plastic bits and rotten wood, glass and old nails. Oh, and two more bricks, that's now five of them.

Spent a bit of time sitting and sorting out the recyclable from the non-recyclables and making sure anything going to recyc is clean and dry and have brought two carrier bagfuls of plastic down to add into the communal landfill bins. I need to make the effort to get something (re-usable, recyclable, rubbishable) off the plot each and every time I go there, as only have a pushbike and it takes time to deal with Stuff.

I also have bits of rotten wood hung up in those knitted plastic onion sacks, to dry out. They were underground and very soggy but, I know from experience, once bone dry and added to the burn-bags, they will be an asset in autumn's pryomaniacal activities.

OK, fielding hairwashing duties, cooking supper, sorting laundry and then putting grubby self into bath tub. I have to be Office Barbie for a few hours tomorrow, before I can get back to real life which is playing in the dirt.

If I'm offline this week I will be grubbling around among the rubbish on the plot/ doing archery/ lying in a darkened room with a cold compress.

Onwards! Upwards! Outwards and Underneath! Let no clutter escape the cold steel no matter how far it's underground.:cool:

GQ - when you run out of challenges, I've got a mattock here, and a hole that needs making to stick a tree in... I could use some expert tuition

30+ years ago, I had an allotment and a friend of ours also got an allotment on the same site. He declared that he was going to garden organically, without weed killer or pesticides. Cue shocked and horrified mutterings from the established and set-in-their ways allotment holders and dire predictions of rampant weeds defiling the whole site. And what was the first thing he did, recommended at the time? Cover it with old carpet to suppress the weeds.

Times change, advice changes - be forgiving to your predecessor because they may have been following what they thought was a sound principle. Not the washing machine, though ...

Floss wrote: »

Carpet as a weed suppression method is banned on our site...DH still found some though, which is currenly awaiting removal to the tip.

It's verboten on ours, too, but still people bring it on site. Oh, and double-glazed windows and doors, and bath tubs, and all sorts of heavy carp which then become the problem of the incoming tenant as the council doesn't have a budget to deal with them. I'm very firm about not accepting anything of that nature (i.e not proper wood and not burnable at the end of its useful life) as I have spent a lot of time and energy getting rid of it and don't want to make a future rod for my own back. Pre-cluttering not de-cluttering.

If anyone lives in Stoke and has lost a brown-coloured garden waste wheelie bin, someone on my site has one, complete with the City of Stoke logo. Doubt you'll want it back, the bottom has been cut out of it.:rotfl:

PWD, no one needs to carpet 300 sq meters of soil in two thicknesses of waffle rubber. It's a garden plot not a sitting-room and I shall never ever forgive the blighter *flashes on memories of working on a viciously cold windy rainy spring day on the first year, trying to separate a subterranean wadge of waffle rubber, chicken wire and couch grass - was close to tears of exhaustion and frustration for a while, it was so horrible*

I'm baking a potato, having a rest then heading out to the allotment for a couple of hours. Hit a sweet spot yesterday where the area I was working on suddenly went from being a series of unrelated grubbly bits to being joined-up-and-end-in-sight.

You know, the same way as when you're decluttering at home, how it gets worse before it gets better? It's thusly for allotments, too. Getting pretty excited about seeing that section looking tidy for once.

A pair of socks has come through the laundry all religious, one of the pairs on heavy rotation, so they're going to the rag-bag. It's building up a bit so will soon go off to the chazzer, along with some saleable bits and bobs.

Onwards!