I can understand you feeling like that! We have a list on the freezer door of what should be in there, both in terms of cooked portions and ingredients, but do find that we go through cycles of filling and emptying.
A propos of nothing we currently have a couple of free suppers care of the Duke of Marlborough. On Monday I took a day off doomscrolling on LinkedIn for Mental Elf reasons and as I cycled past Blenheim, a car in front clobbered one of Jamie M's expensively reared pheasants. He is hanging on the back of the bike shed door, waiting to be turned into dinner!
As it is sunny and warm, I may well clear out the outside bog. It isn't really outside any more, as the passage it was on the other side of has been blocked in to form a walled space, but it obviously was so that's what we call it, and the passage is at the back of the house so of course it has become the back passage.
Anyway, said bog has become a dumping ground* for DIY gear and photographic developing kit (one day I want to make it into a darkroom) and, as such places do, it rapidly becomes full of ill-stowed shite.
Our 1950s house also has an outside toilet used as storage. I want Mr Heavenly to clear it out so we have a second loo and perhaps my new outside office will be an opportunity to suggest this again.
Yoga this morning and I am about to have a fried egg sandwich before checking in with my students and doing my marking.
He's a very good cook, but tends to do a special meal at the weekend, rather than the day-in, day-out, and he doesn't do batch cooking for the freezer.
All that should change when he retires! Also, he used to leave the kitchen looking like a disaster zone, and I've told him that once he retires he's cleaning up after himself in the kitchen. He's actually taken that on board already, and started. So that's good.
It's mostly been an issue of him being "time-poor" up till now.
Having a group meet in my house is the best way to get it clean and tidy! Almost ready for tomorrow. Maybe after that I can concentrate on my study between now and Christmas, leaving the garage and Mr Puzzler’s study (=dumping grounds) to meet my Easter target.
We had our RSV jabs this morning.
There was a slight hiccup when the nurse told us about possible side-effects. Mr RoS balked when she warned about a rare one, but having been reminded that all medication has side-effects, and that he never reads the information sheets that come in the packs he decided that if I was having it he might as well.
An enema has been administered to the back passage!
I'm not sure that having the same shite in a more seemly order is quite what I was after, but it's an improvement. I've also decided that I am going to put in a shelf above the cistern - we use the thing so rarely (a few times this spring when the bathroom was being re-done, otherwise just the weekend in 2018 the local archaeology group did a test pit in the lawn) that, as long as it's not fixed down so it can be removed in the event that we do need it, that makes a load more storage. And one day might hold an enlarger...
Heck, why ask him? Wait a couple weeks and defrost something of your choice without mentioning you did so.
Exactly!
I’m not the cook in our house and I gratefully get what I’m given. (Genuinely grateful!).
Mr Boogs is a messy cook and I don’t complain as I love his food. But, interestingly, after seeing his friend fastidiously clear up during cooking he’s become tidier. Hallelujah! 😂
I see I thought this was the British thread earlier 🙄 at least I did discuss the tidying of the outside loo before discussing lunch.
Mr Heavenly cooks at weekends and is a good cook but the kitchen looks like a bomb has hit it afterwards (I am a tidy cook). Luckily the washing up is his job so he ends up cleaning it up later.
Yesterday was a slow day so not a lot done, but I finally got around to looking at our drawer of teas and coffee. Daughter has an interest in teas and as well as the regular tea I try to keep some herbal bags on hand for visitors. Well, a much cleaner drawer has been revealed having been wiped out and the stuff that's within date has now been returned. Quite a quantity of things to disposed of and if necessary replaced (I hope not).
Husband has bought a rack for the storage shed. The idea being to clear some (a lot?) of the stuff that is in our garage/utility room. The only trouble is he’s been very busy this week and the days are short so the box with the rack in it is cluttering up the hall. Hopefully things will be sorted over the weekend.
Well, you should see my house! The Loon arrived on Monday to start the Big Clear Out. My main concern was that the process would come to a grinding and frustrating halt with little achieved.
Not so. The Loon did a power of work on Tuesday and yesterday, Wednesday having been a day off to visit his Gran.
He has moved everything which he regards as Our Problem into the living room. I have subdivided the living room into four quarters, each of which is full of one category - old electronics / the NE Man's stuff / family stuff / my stuff. My stuff is mostly old jigsaws, so I should be able to clear my pile quite quickly. The NE Man is exclaiming in delight over the unearthed treasures in his quarter and saying he's looking forward to the New Year when he will have time to go through his pile.....
I have stacked stuff to go to the tip in the porch. Although the NE Man wants to move some of it back into the living room.
The Loon has put all photos etc into my study, plus a pile of my Chalet School books (no idea why they were in his room!) so I have to find a place for them. This has tipped my study from "untidy" to "bombsite"
The Quinie's bedroom / our guest bedroom is literally waist deep in piles of stuff.
The top landing is full of stuff, I have to turn sideways to get past it. The Loon's room is emptier, but not, crucially, empty.
We have visitors staying in the guest bedroom on 28 November, and again on 12 / 13 Dec.
We don't have a date for the flooring of the eaves storage, other than that we'll be "fitted in" before Christmas.
The Loon is meeting up with my Beloved Goddaughter for coffee this morning, and we're visiting my cousin this afternoon, so progress will be limited today.
I have Had a Clear Out of Captain Pyjamas' clothes and a few of mine. A whole massive bag full has gone to the clothing bin, all stuff that's too damaged or worn out to be of any use (still worth putting it in there because it can be recycled). Another whole bag full has gone up on Vinted. I even ironed the stuff before I took the photos to make it look more presentable. Fingers crossed some of it sells.
I still have flipping loads of mine that I should sort through.
Mr Nen is currently working in our loft, insulating the water tank (a job that's been waiting to be done for at least 20 years) and bringing stuff down to be sorted. On my return from a shopping trip just now I climbed the ladder to offer support and encouragement and definitely spied some old electronics equipment which came from Mr Nen's childhood home and which I thought had exited Casa Nen years ago . I'm starting to think he and the North East Man are long-lost twins.
We visited Nenlet1 on Wednesday and have come back with a boxful of books and another of DVDs that need to be gone through and moved on to the recycling centre or a charity shop.
Since this afternoon I have already offloaded a Christmas shirt, a Christmas jumper and two pairs of pyjamas. I am all of €6.50 richer. (I'd rather offer extremely bargainous prices and actually sell the stuff.)
We have moved a decrepit desk to the back porch in preparation for recycling. This allows us to as one bookshelf and move all computers to a single huge dining room table, which will hopefully free up some floor space.
Me? well in my house it's all my mess so I have no one else to blame.
Now, on top of the tidy house I am having to rearrange the planting in my garden. The 2011 quake series damaged my drains. They are not leaking at the moment but I thought it prudent to have them checked before insurance for the damage runs out and the upshot is that in early December a group of drainage workers will turn up and create havoc in the name of sorting it out. From what the lovely clerk of works said they can burrow through some areas, but I will need to move a couple of my favourite roses. Of course it's the height of summer here so not the best time. I am so fortunate to have a neighbour and her 18 year oldson to help. (This is the same young man who interrupted his gaming to help sort out my computer).
Slow but steady progress here. I woke up at 2.30 with an anxiety dream, so the general chaos is getting to me, but it will be sooooo worth it once it's done. We've been to the tip so the porch is clear.
Slow but steady progress here. I woke up at 2.30 with an anxiety dream, so the general chaos is getting to me, but it will be sooooo worth it once it's done. We've been to the tip so the porch is clear.
Think of it as "This is the worst it will be now!", and celebrate every load exiting. Possibly not with uisgeba*, though, or you will only get so far!
In other news, I've just put the much-trumpeted shelf up in the outside bog. Used the leftover worksurface from the new kitchen, resting on three battens, so if we ever need it as a khazi (two occasions in nine years thus far) it can just be lifted out.
Hopefully it will make life much tidier as the extra space gives the opportunity to see where stuff is, avoid rummaging and be able to put it back. Should things fall off, I will be like Sean Connery, and only have my shelf to blame.
The shelf is also large enough to hold a photographic enlarger... quite by coincidence!
Well this is frustrating. No less than 11 people have favourited that one jumper on Vinted, but no one's finally decided to buy the thing. (I'm fairly sure it will sell eventually.)
The conservatory is progressing well. I cleared the dumping ground in front of the shelves last week and have now started the scary bit under my huge glass crafting desk. I have tidied away the wine making supplies and bottles, piled up electronic junk belonging to Mr Heavenly in the kitchen, and pulled out the die cutting machine and large box of dies. Having cleared almost a metre square all the way to the wall, I decided to have a go at an easier area so cleared some glass moulds onto a shelf.
My next goal is to completely clear under the desk so there are just easily moved boxes when the electrician comes. There’s some glass moulds, a large box of old fymo and Lord know what else still under there. And it will need a good clean.
The treat of the day was finding a long lost sterling silver hair ornament, a handmade double pronged pin, 10cm long, with a bee on the end.
I woke this morning with a huge feeling of satisfaction. I hosted a group meeting here yesterday knowing that the whole of the downstairs is sorted, clean, tidy and redecorated.
Yes, there is more to do upstairs and in the garage, but my achievements are now greater than what is still to be done, though in many ways the hardest part remains.
Glad the downstairs is sorted @puzzler.
Our tidy house problems are much less than most peoples as my husband is Mr Minimalist (I'm still not sure I've forgiven him for chucking out a whole load of books without asking including my grandmother's knitting pattern book years ago). Even so progress has been made to making the garage look tidier due to some shelving being put up in the storage shed which meant various thing have now been moved in there.
The old desk space now holds a new bookshelf filled with books that used to be in random spots, like the floor. We moved the long, long surge suppressor full of various chargers out of the bedroom and into the space next to it, on a bench-like setup that will eventually house office supplies. At the far end is the new fancy printer. We have managed to make enough room on the dining room table for TWO of the four computers that will eventually live there. I'm taking a nap.
Our tidy house problems are much less than most peoples as my husband is Mr Minimalist (I'm still not sure I've forgiven him for chucking out a whole load of books without asking including my grandmother's knitting pattern book years ago).
I think a really tidy house is only achievable if everyone in it is naturally tidy (not true of either Mr Nen or myself) but I do see from things like this that being minimalist has its disadvantages. An artist I know lost all her college artwork due to her husband throwing it away without asking (and they're still together, which I'm not sure would be the case if Mr Nen did that to my books...).
I've still got the box of books from Nenlet1's house to sort through - I'm not sure there's anything there I will want to keep but there may be a couple of books I want to read before passing them on. Mr Nen has also unearthed from the loft some school books of his and mine, which is quite nice as I didn't think I'd kept any of my own school work, There are three of my English exercise books and as that was my best subject I'm kind of looking forward to going through them.
Spurred on by having downstairs sorted
( though still some cupboards to sort but they are hidden) this morning I have given my bedroom the best clean it has had in months. It was the first room to be redecorated, over a year ago, but had got a bit untidy.
With the prospect of snow overnight, I might start on my study tomorrow. I need to capitalise on my energy and enthusiasm while it lasts.
The Loon is on his way home. He has done a huge amount. Currently there are piles of stuff for us to deal with in the living room, my study / bedroom is a mess for me to deal with, and both the Loon's room and the guest bedroom (aka the Quinie's room) are out of commission. This wouldn't be an issue if we didn't have guests staying overnight on the 28th and again on the 12th and 13th December.
As soon as the eaves area is floored, most of it will disappear into storage. But we don't have a date (other than "before Christmas") for that.
I am so impressed with everyone's recent efforts and am feeling rather lazy having hit a bit of a lull. Husband and I have been totally taken up with the garden, but we are nearly there with the preChristmas plans, and hope to finish that up this weekend.
Most spots in the house looking pretty OK, but the laundry cupboard is a tip, so I'll try to do one shelf a day, more if I get inspired!! Will report back when done. The biggest issue is what to do with old cleaning stuff, I'll have to find out if there is a special spot at the tip for those.
That's really good news @Nenya, out of the house is always a bonus! So impressed with the work of the Loon @North East Quine that sounds really impressive.
Well after an afternoon followed by a morning's work, the laundry cupboard is tidy, wiped out, re-arranged and all old chemicals have been dropped off at the tip and we are home having lunch. I'm very pleased with the result.
I love the feeling of satisfaction that comes with having tidied a space that was messy before.
I am holding off tidying at the moment and concentrating on preparing to clear areas where the people fixing my drains will be working. I know that ultimately things will be better when they have done the work, but at the moment I'm too tired, and it's too messy to feel anything much that is positive at all.
Right now, my house is a temporary mess. There are wrapped gifts on one bed in the guest bedroom, and the other bed is tossed with paper, ribbon, and stuff. My dining room table is covered in cardstock brushes, pots of water and watercolor paints, and finished cards. I am too lazy to put it all away every evening. I usually love it when people just drop by. Not this week.
Lots of happy updates, even if challenges persist. Progeny2 is coming home this afternoon for his Thanksgiving Break (all of next week), which would normally be a very productive time around our house. Unfortunately (re: home productivity) we'll be traveling north, so anything we get done will have to happen this Saturday and Sunday, and next Sunday. I am hoping that this evening he will assist me in bringing down from the attic our score of Christmas bins and boxes. Maybe then I can go up there and do some pre-arranging of the remainder of our stored stuff over the weekend.
Cheery husband was ribbing me at the swedish shop last weekend when I bought another of their ex-display boxes. I have been puzzling over what to do with it, but in my massive laundry clean up, I have washed a ton of footsies and knee high tights, that I don't wear often, but will need somewhere to live, now they are clean. I think my box will be perfect and will go nicely inside a larger box where I store all hosiery. It will keep the packaged new tights separate from these older already worn ones, so should be a perfect solution.
I will make sure I show him, when I have it all organised!!
A few weeks ago I decided that I needed to do something about approximately a year's worth of unfiled statements and invoices piled up on my desk.
I know I could do it all on the internet, but I have a reluctance to have all my banking data there where anyone who is internet savvy can get at it, probably more easily than I can. So I have these piles of paper - which have increased in volume since lockdown, when I developed a 'contactless' habit,
All has now been sorted, and the important stuff is now duly filed, but the disposal of the discard pile of A4 pages is a problem.
Anything that is blank on one side and has no vital personal information on the other I have aways kept to use for photocopying recipes and knitting patterns etc, so that isn't a problem. However, a lot of printed pages from the banks do not need to be kept, but have my name, address and a/c details on them, also random QR codes, which as far as I now may also lead to info about my a/c. These pages I am reluctant to dump in the recycling, and my shredder will shred just 3 pages at a time, and after 5 uses needs a lie down in a darkened room for several hours to recover - so is just not up to the task.
Anyone got an easy method for safely disposing of them (burning is not an option here)? I did try dumping similar pages in a tub of rainwater a couple of years ago, but the banks use good quality paper and it does not rot down as readily as newsprint
Also, in the absence of internet banking, for how many years is /was one supposed to keep paper copies of bank transactions?
@Roseofsharon I wonder if the need to keep bank statements varies from country to country - is there an FAQ on your Tax Office website, or could your bank advise you?
Not a lot happening here over the last week, however this morning I've gone through the basket of dread in the laundry. It's the basket where I toss clean stuff that I don't really want to deal with.
So I dredged up a plastic container, folded all the face washers that were waiting to be tidied and put those away into the linen press. Over the Christmas break I might cull the more worn ones, but not today.
An added bonus was finding a pair of knickers that I'd not seen for over a year. I found a couple of soft fabric hats that are really keepsakes, so I'll squash those down and put them into a self-seal bag and add them to my sentimental box. For whatever reason, there was a tea towel just needing folding, so that's been put away as well.
I now have an empty washing basket that fresh for dumping into in 2025, or perhaps I'll try to be better about putting things away next year.
Sorry to double post, I forgot to mention that Cheery son's girlfriend is visiting today, so an added bonus has been him madly tidying his bedroom! Bonus for me!
I managed to replace a plant saucer that has been leaking everywhere (and turned out to have a strategic hole in it, boo). All the office supplies that got removed from the old crappy desk have found new homes in a rack formerly dedicated to children's toys. Since they are no longer on the floor, I was able (with LL) to move the large dining room table to the middle of the room--and now we should be able to set up three/four computer stations all around it, keeping the electronic crap in one location (yay!) Working from home in a place with no office kinda sucks, but this is the best we can do.
Comments
A propos of nothing we currently have a couple of free suppers care of the Duke of Marlborough. On Monday I took a day off doomscrolling on LinkedIn for Mental Elf reasons and as I cycled past Blenheim, a car in front clobbered one of Jamie M's expensively reared pheasants. He is hanging on the back of the bike shed door, waiting to be turned into dinner!
As it is sunny and warm, I may well clear out the outside bog. It isn't really outside any more, as the passage it was on the other side of has been blocked in to form a walled space, but it obviously was so that's what we call it, and the passage is at the back of the house so of course it has become the back passage.
Anyway, said bog has become a dumping ground* for DIY gear and photographic developing kit (one day I want to make it into a darkroom) and, as such places do, it rapidly becomes full of ill-stowed shite.
*pun intended
Yoga this morning and I am about to have a fried egg sandwich before checking in with my students and doing my marking.
He's a very good cook, but tends to do a special meal at the weekend, rather than the day-in, day-out, and he doesn't do batch cooking for the freezer.
All that should change when he retires! Also, he used to leave the kitchen looking like a disaster zone, and I've told him that once he retires he's cleaning up after himself in the kitchen. He's actually taken that on board already, and started. So that's good.
It's mostly been an issue of him being "time-poor" up till now.
There was a slight hiccup when the nurse told us about possible side-effects. Mr RoS balked when she warned about a rare one, but having been reminded that all medication has side-effects, and that he never reads the information sheets that come in the packs he decided that if I was having it he might as well.
I'm not sure that having the same shite in a more seemly order is quite what I was after, but it's an improvement. I've also decided that I am going to put in a shelf above the cistern - we use the thing so rarely (a few times this spring when the bathroom was being re-done, otherwise just the weekend in 2018 the local archaeology group did a test pit in the lawn) that, as long as it's not fixed down so it can be removed in the event that we do need it, that makes a load more storage. And one day might hold an enlarger...
Exactly!
I’m not the cook in our house and I gratefully get what I’m given. (Genuinely grateful!).
Mr Boogs is a messy cook and I don’t complain as I love his food. But, interestingly, after seeing his friend fastidiously clear up during cooking he’s become tidier. Hallelujah! 😂
Mr Heavenly cooks at weekends and is a good cook but the kitchen looks like a bomb has hit it afterwards (I am a tidy cook). Luckily the washing up is his job so he ends up cleaning it up later.
Not so. The Loon did a power of work on Tuesday and yesterday, Wednesday having been a day off to visit his Gran.
He has moved everything which he regards as Our Problem into the living room. I have subdivided the living room into four quarters, each of which is full of one category - old electronics / the NE Man's stuff / family stuff / my stuff. My stuff is mostly old jigsaws, so I should be able to clear my pile quite quickly. The NE Man is exclaiming in delight over the unearthed treasures in his quarter and saying he's looking forward to the New Year when he will have time to go through his pile.....
I have stacked stuff to go to the tip in the porch. Although the NE Man wants to move some of it back into the living room.
The Loon has put all photos etc into my study, plus a pile of my Chalet School books (no idea why they were in his room!) so I have to find a place for them. This has tipped my study from "untidy" to "bombsite"
The Quinie's bedroom / our guest bedroom is literally waist deep in piles of stuff.
The top landing is full of stuff, I have to turn sideways to get past it. The Loon's room is emptier, but not, crucially, empty.
We have visitors staying in the guest bedroom on 28 November, and again on 12 / 13 Dec.
We don't have a date for the flooring of the eaves storage, other than that we'll be "fitted in" before Christmas.
The Loon is meeting up with my Beloved Goddaughter for coffee this morning, and we're visiting my cousin this afternoon, so progress will be limited today.
I still have flipping loads of mine that I should sort through.
We visited Nenlet1 on Wednesday and have come back with a boxful of books and another of DVDs that need to be gone through and moved on to the recycling centre or a charity shop.
Me? well in my house it's all my mess so I have no one else to blame.
Now, on top of the tidy house I am having to rearrange the planting in my garden. The 2011 quake series damaged my drains. They are not leaking at the moment but I thought it prudent to have them checked before insurance for the damage runs out and the upshot is that in early December a group of drainage workers will turn up and create havoc in the name of sorting it out. From what the lovely clerk of works said they can burrow through some areas, but I will need to move a couple of my favourite roses. Of course it's the height of summer here so not the best time. I am so fortunate to have a neighbour and her 18 year oldson to help. (This is the same young man who interrupted his gaming to help sort out my computer).
Think of it as "This is the worst it will be now!", and celebrate every load exiting. Possibly not with uisgeba*, though, or you will only get so far!
In other news, I've just put the much-trumpeted shelf up in the outside bog. Used the leftover worksurface from the new kitchen, resting on three battens, so if we ever need it as a khazi (two occasions in nine years thus far) it can just be lifted out.
Hopefully it will make life much tidier as the extra space gives the opportunity to see where stuff is, avoid rummaging and be able to put it back. Should things fall off, I will be like Sean Connery, and only have my shelf to blame.
The shelf is also large enough to hold a photographic enlarger... quite by coincidence!
*whisky
My next goal is to completely clear under the desk so there are just easily moved boxes when the electrician comes. There’s some glass moulds, a large box of old fymo and Lord know what else still under there. And it will need a good clean.
The treat of the day was finding a long lost sterling silver hair ornament, a handmade double pronged pin, 10cm long, with a bee on the end.
Yes, there is more to do upstairs and in the garage, but my achievements are now greater than what is still to be done, though in many ways the hardest part remains.
Our tidy house problems are much less than most peoples as my husband is Mr Minimalist (I'm still not sure I've forgiven him for chucking out a whole load of books without asking including my grandmother's knitting pattern book years ago). Even so progress has been made to making the garage look tidier due to some shelving being put up in the storage shed which meant various thing have now been moved in there.
I've still got the box of books from Nenlet1's house to sort through - I'm not sure there's anything there I will want to keep but there may be a couple of books I want to read before passing them on. Mr Nen has also unearthed from the loft some school books of his and mine, which is quite nice as I didn't think I'd kept any of my own school work, There are three of my English exercise books and as that was my best subject I'm kind of looking forward to going through them.
Considering a week of decluttering, he has just put us back where we started, plus an extra chair.
Dear God.
😳
😇
OHnevermindIgedditnow.
( though still some cupboards to sort but they are hidden) this morning I have given my bedroom the best clean it has had in months. It was the first room to be redecorated, over a year ago, but had got a bit untidy.
With the prospect of snow overnight, I might start on my study tomorrow. I need to capitalise on my energy and enthusiasm while it lasts.
As soon as the eaves area is floored, most of it will disappear into storage. But we don't have a date (other than "before Christmas") for that.
Most spots in the house looking pretty OK, but the laundry cupboard is a tip, so I'll try to do one shelf a day, more if I get inspired!! Will report back when done. The biggest issue is what to do with old cleaning stuff, I'll have to find out if there is a special spot at the tip for those.
Well after an afternoon followed by a morning's work, the laundry cupboard is tidy, wiped out, re-arranged and all old chemicals have been dropped off at the tip and we are home having lunch. I'm very pleased with the result.
I am holding off tidying at the moment and concentrating on preparing to clear areas where the people fixing my drains will be working. I know that ultimately things will be better when they have done the work, but at the moment I'm too tired, and it's too messy to feel anything much that is positive at all.
I will make sure I show him, when I have it all organised!!
I know I could do it all on the internet, but I have a reluctance to have all my banking data there where anyone who is internet savvy can get at it, probably more easily than I can. So I have these piles of paper - which have increased in volume since lockdown, when I developed a 'contactless' habit,
All has now been sorted, and the important stuff is now duly filed, but the disposal of the discard pile of A4 pages is a problem.
Anything that is blank on one side and has no vital personal information on the other I have aways kept to use for photocopying recipes and knitting patterns etc, so that isn't a problem. However, a lot of printed pages from the banks do not need to be kept, but have my name, address and a/c details on them, also random QR codes, which as far as I now may also lead to info about my a/c. These pages I am reluctant to dump in the recycling, and my shredder will shred just 3 pages at a time, and after 5 uses needs a lie down in a darkened room for several hours to recover - so is just not up to the task.
Anyone got an easy method for safely disposing of them (burning is not an option here)? I did try dumping similar pages in a tub of rainwater a couple of years ago, but the banks use good quality paper and it does not rot down as readily as newsprint
Also, in the absence of internet banking, for how many years is /was one supposed to keep paper copies of bank transactions?
Not a lot happening here over the last week, however this morning I've gone through the basket of dread in the laundry. It's the basket where I toss clean stuff that I don't really want to deal with.
So I dredged up a plastic container, folded all the face washers that were waiting to be tidied and put those away into the linen press. Over the Christmas break I might cull the more worn ones, but not today.
An added bonus was finding a pair of knickers that I'd not seen for over a year. I found a couple of soft fabric hats that are really keepsakes, so I'll squash those down and put them into a self-seal bag and add them to my sentimental box. For whatever reason, there was a tea towel just needing folding, so that's been put away as well.
I now have an empty washing basket that fresh for dumping into in 2025, or perhaps I'll try to be better about putting things away next year.