Fix it, mend it, use it up.

[yukonsally]

After a week or so of little to no movement, I finally got dealt with some things!

I mended 3 pairs of kid pants, putting them back in wearing rotation rather than having them on my bedroom chair.  None of the mending jobs are great but they will hold while the kids wear more holes in the pants.

I took in 2 electronic things for recycling, both of which worked-ish, but not great and it's just better to recycle them, not add them to the donation pile.  No one wants an alarm clock that has a loud electric buzz when it's plugged in.  No one.

In making Valentines, we used up LOTS of stickers.  I tried to get the kids to use more before interest waned.  Oh well.  Valentine mailboxes were repurposed gift bags from a grandparent that can be recycled at the end of the day.  No sense in making fancy-ish mailboxes when the kids were barely interested in marking some additional designs on the bags.

I'm also happy to report that my zipper mending job seems to be holding!  I've had a wool coat for over a decade and I love it, only to have the zipper teeth work themselves open from time to time.  I squeezed the glider together with some pliers, which will make the teeth close better and the whole coat stays fastened.  Fix what you can!  (Did the same with a kid's coat, haven't tested it yet)

Week 0

[rmc28]

I was inspired earlier in the week by others' posts to start thinking seriously again about what needs sorting out at home. The big problem is that currently I seem to be the person on the critical path for everything and I can't do everything, and I'm having some serious decision fatigue about what to prioritise, which results in nothing getting done.

So, solution part 1 is blocking out some time to talk it through with Spouse: what are his feelings about priorities for the house, what capacity does he have to replace me on the critical path for anything, what are the tasks that might unblock one or both of us a bit more, etc. That's going to happen this weekend.

Solution part 2 is committing myself to blocking out time each week doing something towards those priorities. I'm thinking of doing a goal-setting/reporting-back post each week here as part of keeping me focused.

In the meantime this week, I tried the "pick SOMEthing, anything and spend 15 minutes on it" approach. In this case, I logged into the local Freecycle group, reactivated the expired posts for things that didn't go last time I tried offering them (in December), and posted the text I had drafted on my laptop for another item. That bit of effort, and dealing with the email responses, resulted in the following things leaving the house this week:

• a mildly dusty but fully functional pushchair
• 2x child's toilet seat & step-stool
• a potty

and an agreed collection next week of a bag of outgrown child's school uniform. More space under the stairs and in the back room as a result, hurrah!