weekend check-in

[rmc28]

Hello hello, how are we doing?

Last weekend I did the first-pass of the last remaining boxes of my mother's things, allowing me to return six empty storage boxes to my stepfather on the Monday. Lots of the contents went straight to the bin/paper recycling, but now I have to deal with what's left. And I'm still trying to get things to leave the house. This weekend is more challenging for getting anything done: spouse is away for a week at a conference, so I'm doing all the childcare and housework on top of my job, plus I have an aunt visiting town for a course. So I'm going to scrabble together a to-do list here and hope to get through it.

• Bag of books to the Little Free Library (can hopefully do this on my way to meet aunt this morning)
• Bag of things to the charity shop (this afternoon when I get back from town, unless they're already full by then)
• Parcel up the baby things to my sister-out-law for her niece, and send (this afternoon when I get back, because then I can get it collected hopefully tomorrow)
• Parcel up the box of papers for my youngest brother, and send (as above)
• Photograph the things for probable-giveaway, and circulate to brothers to see if they want anything before listing it (today, and ask them to tell me by next weekend at latest)
• If the box of things to giveaway at the end of the road has still not gone at the end of today, give up and put in the bin tonight (it's had 3 days, in very good weather, with a lot of passing foot traffic, if it's not gone now it won't)

Stretch goal: we've had a Christmas tree up for nearly 18 months, it was kind of a joke all last year that I was too busy to take it down but the joke isn't funny any more. I'm actually embarrassed about it. Maybe if I'm on a productive roll this afternoon I'll finally take it down. (And I will not be the one putting it back up in December this year - if the others in the house want it, they can do it.)

Comments

[wychwood]

I! went! to the! tip!!! And disposed of a dead dehumifier, shower, selection of electrical cables and parts, batteries, lightbulb, and a bag of coat hangers (which I think was a tip I got on here, that they can recycle "hard plastic", so thank you to whoever that was). Every time I walk into my spare room, I go "oh!" and feel happy, it's great.

I'm contemplating sorting some more books; will update here as and when...

[wychwood]

I went back to the first fiction shelves I weeded a month or two back, and reshelved them properly to fill in the gaps, but also to try and give them a little more breathing room in case of later additions, and to leave space for the eventual arrival of books I know are already on my to-read shelf. I've gone through the whole first bookcase now, and pruned an extra half-shelf's worth of books that can go (because I have the public domain ebooks now, mostly)... but now they're less tightly-packed I've also ended up at the same last book! So there's no net change for the case, but I have more books for the donate pile, and the case is neater than it was.

[fred_mouse]

Oh, fabulous progress!

[wychwood]

One step at a time will get everything looked at eventually!

[rmc28]

Huzzah huzzah even more progress.

[wychwood]

Yes! Forward motion!

[illariy]

Excellent progress and kudos to you for tackling books! I tried to declutter my own bookshelves earlier this spring but did not manage to remove many books. Oops. >.>

[wychwood]

Well, I'm all in favour of keeping lots of books! I'm just trying to prune out the ones I don't actually want to keep and/or re-read :) Anything you don't want gone out of the house is a win.

[tanaqui]

Oh, great work on the books! I tackled mine recently and it's so nice when all the books fit on the shelves and you can take one out without bringing down a cascade of them, isn't it?

[wychwood]

Yes! Being able to consider shelving something new without wincing! I was hoping to free up a little more space than I've managed so far, but on the other hand I don't want to give up any of the remaining volumes, so it's a trade-off :D

[rmc28]

WOOOO go you! That sounds so satisfying.

[fred_mouse]

I have done the opposite of uncluttering, buying two new pieces of furniture. Both are in their new locations, I'm not convinced that one is doing what we need, and probably means more furniture acquisition in my future. Fortunately, that is for the (adult) offspring looking to move out with their fiance, so I have hopes. The other means that I can now get through the doorway into the sewing space. This has caused me to at least move things around, but not actually deal with much.

[rmc28]

Sometimes getting new things is a step towards getting rid of other things, honest :-)

[wychwood]

Organisation isn't a solution for decluttering, but it can definitely be part of the answer! I hope the furniture works out for your long-term plans.

[tanaqui]

Acquiring things so you can store other things more effectively, allowing you to access further things (like a whole sewing space...) is definitely progress. Good work!

[rmc28]

• books to Little Free Library: done!
• charity shop: full sign up, have to wait for another day
• giveaway box: still sadly full, will leave it to sundown to retrieve and bin

Now I need to spend at least half an hour sitting down after a very energetic day with my aunt, but then I should probably tackle photographs and parcels.

[wychwood]

Progress!

[illariy]

Ooooh, some great progress especially given all your other tasks and obligations plus visitor. Keeping my fingers crossed for the photos and parcels. :-)

[illariy]

Oh, it sounds as if you have a busy weekend ahead of you! How is it going?

For this weekend, it was my goal to finally unpack 4 boxes from 3 online orders that have been sitting here unopened for at least a week. I finally did it just minutes ago: unpacked each, tried on the clothes (most of the orders were clothes, one was stationery), put it into their new homes and updated my Incoming Stuff list. I was kinda hoping to do a second order from the stationery place but in unpacking I discovered that my storage space for letter pads is full! I am happy I discovered that before making that second order and then having no space to put things. Phew.

[rmc28]

I have inherited so much stationery from my mother that I probably never need to buy another notebook or postcard or pen ever again (but I probably will).

[illariy]

Your mother sounds like she had a wonderful stash!

Inheriting 5 fountain pens from my mother kind of busted my fountain pen minimalism. I had lived with just 2 fountain pens for years but then finding myself suddenly with 7 at once, I lost all restraint and went on to order many more, currently sitting at about 16 total with tons still on my wish list. I am also still using up her extensive card stash and still have some notebooks of hers to fill though I already used up some.

It would be funny if your children (if you have any) were to inherit parts of your mother's stash, too! Although that if even possible is hopefully a long way off in the future.

[rmc28]

I have to admit, sorting through my mother's things has been and remains a massive inspiration for decluttering my own things, so my children don't face the same work one day.

(Although, there's stuff from my paternal grandmother, that seems to have ended up with my mother even though my parents divorced 20+ years ago, that I am putting aside for my father, and fully expect to find again when it's time to sort through his things. It will be "oh, hello again, fancy meeting you here, this time I can justify throwing you out".)

But yes: she loved to collect nice notebooks, notecards, postcards, souvenir pens, and also for some reason matchbooks from literally dozens of hotels. We'll probably never need to buy matches again either.

[tanaqui]

Ha, yes, I under a strict personal embargo to not buy any more stationery until I've used up what I have! Good work on getting things to their proper homes and resisting the temptation to place another order for more than you have room to store.

[illariy]

I under a strict personal embargo to not buy any more stationery until I've used up what I have!

OMG, you, too? Same here! My shopping for penpal paper has always come in waves: I make a huge order, then live off that for a few years till the next huge order. Ordering new pens, mostly fountain pens with some gel pens and of course fountain pen inks is a whole separate problem.

Ordering a second time from that stationery shop is still tempting me a lot so I have to repeatedly inspect my full storage and convince myself that no, that another shelf has some empty space does not mean I get to fill that with letter pads, too! The troubles of a stationery magpie, hehe.

[adafrog]

You can do it!

[tanaqui]

Well done for making some uncluttering progress on a busy weekend!

I had an AWESOME week.

In the garage:
* I FINALLY made it to the tip with a load of stuff I'd put ready a few months ago. That made up about half of what was in there, so I hope I can get rid of the rest of it with another trip in a few weeks.
* I broke down the tattiest of the cardboard boxes I'd used to take things to the tip. As they're too dirty to put in the cardboard recycling, half of them are now in my rubbish bin and half are waiting to go in to the collection after that.
* I tidied the garage, including cleaning up pots, troughs, plant saucers and other miscellaneous garden items, so they're all ready for when I start planting.

I don't think I've been able to see this much garage floor since just after I moved in!

In the house:
* I got rid of another bag of books (as well as some household recycling) — I have two bags/trips left
* I moved some electrical/electronics stuff out to the garage to go out on the next tip visit.
* I gave back half of the pots of plants I was overwintering for my sister (and using to take cuttings) and put the rest outside. I could then re-organise and tidy inside. It's all now much less "plants everywhere" and there's some room to breathe.

In the garden:
* I finished removing the trunk of small hawthorn tree that had seeded itself and the got a bit out of hand before I realised it was there. The stump has been drilled and dosed with heavy-duty weedkiller, so I hope it won't shoot again (and the other shrubs around it can fill in the space).
* I got rid of a bag of garden rubbish and am working on weeding and pruning to make more.

Plans for this week are mostly more weeding/pruning and doing yet more digital decluttering.

[rmc28]

That is some AMAZING progress. Hurrah for being able to see the garage floor! And more space in the house! And tackling the garden!