KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

Floss · 3 July 2018 at 6:55AM

Kittie is there an accurate floor plan? Could you do as my mum used to, and get the squared paper out for furniture location - planning?

Also, you say no wooden floors for maintenance reasons...we have 1930s original boards in most of our home (2000 boards following a living room fire) and they don't take much maintenance.

Finally, is there a back door / french windows to let your gas cooker out of? If not, then get it out early & new one in before floors are refinished.

Floss · 3 July 2018 at 6:56AM

Oh also, I use a 1950s bedroom suite in the spare room for linens

[Deleted User] · 3 July 2018 at 7:22AM

already very useful posts, thank you. I will order squared paper, come to think of it that is what hubbie used to use, structs engineer. I never had to do any scaling down or drawings

I think I have decided to get a cupboard built on the landing but floors first

GreyQueen · 3 July 2018 at 7:29AM

Kittie, I read that book about Swedish Death Cleaning earlier this year and the author. a lady older than yourself, wrote about how she planned her downsize from her home of many decades into her forever home.

As she was reliant on others to move furniture for her, and didn't want to waste time and money moving things cross-country, she carefully measured and graphed the available space, measured the furniture she intended to move and made little cutouts of it, also in graph paper. These she used to try out potential furniture layouts so she could get the feel of what would work and what wouldn't and instruct her movers to put her things down in exactly what would be their permanant position.

To that, I'd add the caveat of measuring any doors and staircases which furniture has to pass through, including watching out for dropped ceilings over stairs. *winces at the memory of being on one end of someone's once-flatpack wardrobe as we tried to get it down her staircase*:rotfl:

[Deleted User] · 3 July 2018 at 7:45AM

yay, exactly what I will do, I think the doors are all wide enough. Graph paper, steel ruler and steel pocket tape are ordered. I know I have them, somewhere but can`t be looking after all that pre-packing.

I have floor plans from RM and will estimate doors at 3`. That will have to do because I don`t want any more contact with the vendor

I saw nice rads online, milano make and I think the vertical rads would be best in the hall, kitchen and landing, they will give me more space. It won`t make much difference anywhere else so horizontal will do. Another question, the conservatory is not that big but has 3 long rads, which seems excessive. What would you do? I will eventually be getting a special roof in there to allow some light but will turn it into a summer room. I need to get this ch system wrt rads sorted in my head. I don`t want to be relying on the friend of a friend plumber to make my decisions, he is qualified

Floss · 3 July 2018 at 8:01AM

Kittie personally I think 3 rads in a conservatory is excessive, what direction does it face? And is it DG & does it have blinds?

GreyQueen · 3 July 2018 at 8:03AM

There's an awful lot to think about and to do, isn't there, especially when things aren't ready for a purchaser just to put her Stuff down and get on with her life. Thank goodness you're a kondo-ite, hey?

I moved into this teeny-tiny flat (its online soubriquet Shoebox Towers is well-earned) with three days' notice. A few days' shy of a decade on the waiting list, there's the offer, take it or leave it and you have to move in asap.

I had pre-divested myself of some bulky things such as outdoor planters, as had a tiny yard at the old flat, but there was a bit of furniture which didn't fit here and the need for another as a taller, wider, skinnier replacement (thank you, Sally Ann). I couldn't start getting myself straight until I had that in.

Moving the old desktop, the one I've just replaced, was a grade A PITA. I've lost count of the number of times I cursed that 21 kg CRT monitor and wished I'd stumped up the extra £150 at the time to have a flat-screen instead, but it wasn't in the budget.

Sixteen years on, the new set up is 50% of the price and a fraction of the size of the old rig. I've no plans to move but it'll be a lot easier to move this than the old one.

Speaking of the old one, I have decided to remove the HDD and take the old tower up to the tip, I think I can get it on the back of the pushbike, but I may walk the cycle up there (about a mile away) if I consider the load unsafe to bike with in traffic. I've been riding a bike for 50 years now, about 45+ of those in traffic, and have taken all sorts of straaange things for a spin.

Thank goodness for bungee cords!

Feeling pretty chipper as have been to the allotment for an hour and picked some berries and done some weeding. Already hot out there, today will be a scorcher. Move easily, drink plenty, lovely peeps.

greent · 3 July 2018 at 8:17AM

Kittie - I wouldn't make any decisions on the radiators until you've seen what Winter is like in the conservatory, if you want to use it all year round. I know several people with scorchingly-hot conservatories in the Summer and then they are ice houses in Winter months - even those with radiators in, sometimes. The BTUs on the radiators may be tiny, or perhaps they are single rads. Once you know how you'll use it in the Winter and how warm it is, you'll be better informed. Modifying radiators that are there is easier than retro-fitting to start with, in my experience.

Debsnewbudget · 3 July 2018 at 8:25AM

In your deliberations about radiators you need to make sure you do the calculations about the output of each radiator against the size of the room. Thats where the c/h installer might come in useful.
You choose the style of radiator and they choose the size.
We had a conservatory that was too cold to use in winter so we put thick curtains across from lounge until we had a proper roof put on, now its just a normal room with a radiator which heats it and we have taken curtains away

silvasava · 3 July 2018 at 8:38AM

Kittie - my son has done a number of house renovations. His order is always central heating system, rewiring or updating any power points as this can mean walls and floors needing repair after running pipes and cables. The flooring is one of the last things he does.
The graph paper is an excellent idea - doorways are usually 2'6'' though!

GQ - when I got my new desktop (win 7) I couldn't believe the difference! Just one power plug and ethernet plug - all peripheries on Bluetooth so no wires - much neater. I'm on Open Office and Thunderbird & have been for about 7 years. I'm also using Avast as my security - that's a free programme too.

Just a few odds & sods kondoing to the CS & some of my hair today lol.

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KonMari 2018 - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

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