I am an insane idiot. Or so my body says. On the other hand, we actually have a functional pantry for the first time in 26 years. (I used a Chinese screen to "curtain off" a corner of the living room by the kitchen, and put shelving in it. This is an old summer cottage and had no pantries, closets, or storage to speak of.)
Sounds a good idea.
I have just punished my body by doing a bit of gardening. I must now get back to the sorting.
I am so reluctant to get rid of memorabilia. I’m filling plastic tubs, duly labelled, wondering if I will ever look inside again.
I found the farewell comments my Head made when I retired. What happened to that organised, efficient person? Life was so busy then, I had to be. Now things just go on the back burner.
The date of my holiday is looming fast - so it's time to organise my suitcase (already sort of half packed) - and I'm going to take it into work to weigh it, since I'm only allowed 15kg on the plane. (Half of it is books for my mum, so I'll be a lot lighter coming back!)
Then I can do a bit of pottering - weeds have sprung up in the garden now it's started raining, so I'll go out with the trowel when the rain stops.
This evening I'm going to a party at the Cabinet of Curiosities, for all the people who have helped them with their idea for a local museum of botanic art and the natural world. They're about to have some major renovations done in the old house which is housing the collection.
One way around that emotional bind is to take pictures of whatever-it-is, before you send it off to a new home. You need not LOOK at the pictures in the future unless you want to--but for some of us, just knowing they exist is enough.
Another thing I do (when I remember it) is to take the thing I want to dispose of that is emotionally charged and pray about it--saying something like, "Thank you, Lord, for this object and for X who used it to cook every Thanksgiving." Then I can put it in the donation box much more comfortably. It's a way of noting the thing's importance. I suppose if you had a whole houseful of such objects to deal with, you could organize a proper house thanksgiving service? And then get on with it, without fussing about individual objects. This would probably be helpful mostly to kids clearing out parents' stuff.
I'm having to look at a lot of tidying and sorting as we're considering moving house and as this one has been the family home for 25 years we do have a fair bit of Stuff, including some of our children's (both now in their 30s with homes of their own).
I don't have a huge number of clothes, my emotional ties are nearly all with sentimental paperwork (letters, cards, the children's school work) and books - my main hobby is reading, which is fairly containable. Mr Nen grew up with an ethos of "box it up and pop it in the loft" and his hobby is classic cars. There are various hoards of cars and car parts around the place, including the loft...
In conversation once with our daughter and son in law he said he would leave instructions about how all these valuable assets are to be distributed were anything to happen to him. Our son in law, who can get away with saying things to Mr Nen that neither I nor the Nenlets would dream of, said, "Nope, I'm not dealing with that sh*t. You sort it out while you're still here."
Today, I did a tidy-up of the hall closet. I have been putting stuff in there since we moved here 4 years ago. I found a square tablecloth. My table is round. Oh, look, unopened rubbing alcohol and three tubes of toothpaste. Is this stuff still good? It seems to be. Looks like my son moving in is good in yet another way. Does he need any toothpaste? : )
You have my sympathy, Puzzler; one of the things that (quite ridiculously) sent me into floods of tears was throwing away David's toothbrush. Admittedly it was only a few days after he'd died, and my head was saying, "you absolutely don't need it", but for some reason it set me off - maybe because it was something so personally his, that was totally no use to me? I don't know - there's very little logic to these things!
It's spring here and for some reason - possibi]ly the vitamin D prescribed by my GP - I have more energy than usual, so I am making a concerted effort to clean and tidy my house. Some of the motivation is that I'm getting a new heat pump so I need to clear my computer and sitting rooms so the people installing it can get rid of the old ones that no longer work.
I have a reasonable lead time as the insulation has to be checked as a condition of the subsidy, so I'm not panicking, I just need to do it.
I have finally cleared Mr P’s study ready for the decorator. I now have five boxes of stuff in my bedroom, sorted into five categories.
I want to keep everything!
My son told me to keep my memorabilia and the family will deal with it when the time comes. But will I look at it? I can’t bear to throw out so many memories- from scrapbooks my mum helped me to make as a child to folders of photos, pamphlets etc of school trips I went on or led as a teacher, or took part in with one of my choirs etc etc.
Then there’s drawings my children and grandchildren did, souvenir programmes of their school nativities, my retirement cards, condolences cards……
At least they are all sorted and boxed up, so are tidy, and will be dispersed around the house in due course into various cupboards.
Keep what makes you happy, just find a storage arrangement that works for you. You might want to display those things that spark memories. You can get hinged picture frames so you can swap out from time to time. And of course hanging things on the walls makes good use of vertical space.
Maybe scrap books could go in something like this, depending on the size, or some of pamphlets. Or your could collage some of it. You can also get what they call 3D shadow boxes.
Had six radiators replaced this week, which meant the loss of five useful shelves. Have found places for most things, and there's a few Do I really want to keep this?
Next week MrF promises he will look at firms that clear junk. Besides the redundant shelves, there's a brass standard lamp, obsolete printer, old coffee machine, various kitchen items and an entire suitcase of magazines. He, being a hoarder, wants to get rid of as little as possible. I think, if we're paying to have stuff taken away, there's plenty of stored stuff could be added to the pile.
...Mr Nen grew up with an ethos of "box it up and pop it in the loft" and his hobby is classic cars. There are various hoards of cars and car parts around the place, including the loft...
In conversation once with our daughter and son in law he said he would leave instructions about how all these valuable assets are to be distributed were anything to happen to him. Our son in law, who can get away with saying things to Mr Nen that neither I nor the Nenlets would dream of, said, "Nope, I'm not dealing with that sh*t. You sort it out while you're still here."
That made me smile; I have a fair stash of motorbike parts under the floor (I could do with losing about (OK, 'at least') a stone to make getting in and out to pull things out a little more comfortable!). When my kids made a similar comment to me as your son-in-law's above, I suggested I might find someone else to leave the house and contents to who might find the whole thing a bit less taxing
Today, I did a tidy-up of the hall closet. I have been putting stuff in there since we moved here 4 years ago. I found a square tablecloth. My table is round. Oh, look, unopened rubbing alcohol and three tubes of toothpaste. Is this stuff still good? It seems to be. Looks like my son moving in is good in yet another way. Does he need any toothpaste? : )
My Mum used to use a square cloth on our round table - it hung down in nice kind of even-spaced peaks if you did it right. I thought that was a thing, but perhaps she just didn't have a round cloth! And rubbing alcohol (I think we call that IPA in UK) - does that get motor grease off clothes and hands? I ought to give that a go, I have some somewhere, and a big bottle of acetone too but it really pongs. My Dad used to bring home Carbon Tet from work but (like a lot of things) it has vanished due to cancer worries.
Before we rearranged the downstairs we had a 'horrible cupboard' (former coal-hole) and a 'nice cupboard' (under the stairs). The horrible cupboard is long gone but we still call the other one the nice cupboard.
Today we completely cleared it out as we've decided Mr Boogs drums will live there.
It took all day!
Satisfied that it's all done now. And it will stay tidy as Mr Boogs is very precious about his drums and clutter will be strictly forbidden. 🙂
The decorator has finished, the new carpet has been laid and four tubs have left my bedroom and are temporarily in the new spare bedroom, prior to being decanted elsewhere.
I am going away next week but when I get back I’ll be continuing the sort out. I’ll give myself six weeks, though it could get done more quickly. But it means tidying ( and maybe decluttering) other areas, and getting shelves put into the former airing cupboard.
It is two and a half years since Mr Puzzler died, so I think I have not done too badly, as I left his study till last ( apart from the garage).
@Puzzler
I have followed your posts and I think you have done, and are doing an awesome job.
Yes; I agree with that too.
We are thinking of moving house (not downsizing, though) and have got a number of things that we've lived with comfortably for years that need addressing. I've never been very diligent about cleaning the oven, for example, and probably need to get a professional in as my last attempt was not particularly successful.
I've never been very diligent about cleaning the oven, for example, and probably need to get a professional in as my last attempt was not particularly successful.
If you want a cheap, effective, and dangerous (well, not too dangerous, but you need to take care) method, then buy yourself some caustic soda crystals, and being careful NOT to get it on your skin, make up a paste in water (crystals into water, not the opposite) and brush it on with a paintbrush you are happy to say goodbye to. Leave for 15 mins, wash off with a lot of water. It'll fume a bit, and it's better not to breath it.
Mine really needs doing too. It's bad enough I might pull it out and do it in the yard, and the nasty slurry can get the moss off the flags at the same time
I've never been very diligent about cleaning the oven, for example, and probably need to get a professional in as my last attempt was not particularly successful.
If you want a cheap, effective, and dangerous (well, not too dangerous, but you need to take care) method, then buy yourself some caustic soda crystals, and being careful NOT to get it on your skin, make up a paste in water (crystals into water, not the opposite) and brush it on with a paintbrush you are happy to say goodbye to. Leave for 15 mins, wash off with a lot of water. It'll fume a bit, and it's better not to breath it.
Mine really needs doing too. It's bad enough I might pull it out and do it in the yard, and the nasty slurry can get the moss off the flags at the same time
That sounds scary ... are the baking soda and white vinegar options I've seen on YouTube effective?
Unless of course you fancy coming over and doing mine after you've done yours?
I had my oven professionally cleaned a couple of years ago, @Nenya, and it was worth every penny!
I'm sure I've posted this before but I can tell you how not to clean an oven. Do not smear it liberally with baby shampoo and leave overnight. The shampoo will form into a sort of tenacious gel, which won't just rinse off but has to be properly and laboriously cleaned off, and your meals will taste soapy for some time.
How do I know this? Many years ago, severely sleep deprived with a toddler and baby, I went to the hairdresser. She told me my hair was in dreadful condition and said it looked as though I'd been using the kids' shampoo to wash it. She said that kids' shampoo is very bad for adult hair as the "no tears" formula meant that it was caustic enough to use as oven cleaner.
In my addled, sleep-deprived brain, instead of realising this was a sales pitch for the expensive shampoo sold by her salon I thought "Baby shampoo is a child-safe oven cleaner! Brilliant!"
Comments
I have just punished my body by doing a bit of gardening. I must now get back to the sorting.
I am so reluctant to get rid of memorabilia. I’m filling plastic tubs, duly labelled, wondering if I will ever look inside again.
I found the farewell comments my Head made when I retired. What happened to that organised, efficient person? Life was so busy then, I had to be. Now things just go on the back burner.
Then I can do a bit of pottering - weeds have sprung up in the garden now it's started raining, so I'll go out with the trowel when the rain stops.
This evening I'm going to a party at the Cabinet of Curiosities, for all the people who have helped them with their idea for a local museum of botanic art and the natural world. They're about to have some major renovations done in the old house which is housing the collection.
“You get rid of my stuff, you get rid of me.” That’s how it is feeling.
One way around that emotional bind is to take pictures of whatever-it-is, before you send it off to a new home. You need not LOOK at the pictures in the future unless you want to--but for some of us, just knowing they exist is enough.
Another thing I do (when I remember it) is to take the thing I want to dispose of that is emotionally charged and pray about it--saying something like, "Thank you, Lord, for this object and for X who used it to cook every Thanksgiving." Then I can put it in the donation box much more comfortably. It's a way of noting the thing's importance. I suppose if you had a whole houseful of such objects to deal with, you could organize a proper house thanksgiving service? And then get on with it, without fussing about individual objects. This would probably be helpful mostly to kids clearing out parents' stuff.
I'm having to look at a lot of tidying and sorting as we're considering moving house and as this one has been the family home for 25 years we do have a fair bit of Stuff, including some of our children's (both now in their 30s with homes of their own).
I don't have a huge number of clothes, my emotional ties are nearly all with sentimental paperwork (letters, cards, the children's school work) and books - my main hobby is reading, which is fairly containable. Mr Nen grew up with an ethos of "box it up and pop it in the loft" and his hobby is classic cars. There are various hoards of cars and car parts around the place, including the loft...
In conversation once with our daughter and son in law he said he would leave instructions about how all these valuable assets are to be distributed were anything to happen to him. Our son in law, who can get away with saying things to Mr Nen that neither I nor the Nenlets would dream of, said, "Nope, I'm not dealing with that sh*t. You sort it out while you're still here."
I have a reasonable lead time as the insulation has to be checked as a condition of the subsidy, so I'm not panicking, I just need to do it.
Indeed it will! 😆
It has been found in a Very Safe Place after Much Sorting.
It had shacked up with my library card - shocking!
Glad you found your licence, @Boogie!!
I want to keep everything!
My son told me to keep my memorabilia and the family will deal with it when the time comes. But will I look at it? I can’t bear to throw out so many memories- from scrapbooks my mum helped me to make as a child to folders of photos, pamphlets etc of school trips I went on or led as a teacher, or took part in with one of my choirs etc etc.
Then there’s drawings my children and grandchildren did, souvenir programmes of their school nativities, my retirement cards, condolences cards……
At least they are all sorted and boxed up, so are tidy, and will be dispersed around the house in due course into various cupboards.
How much “stuff” do you keep?
Next week MrF promises he will look at firms that clear junk. Besides the redundant shelves, there's a brass standard lamp, obsolete printer, old coffee machine, various kitchen items and an entire suitcase of magazines. He, being a hoarder, wants to get rid of as little as possible. I think, if we're paying to have stuff taken away, there's plenty of stored stuff could be added to the pile.
That made me smile; I have a fair stash of motorbike parts under the floor (I could do with losing about (OK, 'at least') a stone to make getting in and out to pull things out a little more comfortable!). When my kids made a similar comment to me as your son-in-law's above, I suggested I might find someone else to leave the house and contents to who might find the whole thing a bit less taxing
My Mum used to use a square cloth on our round table - it hung down in nice kind of even-spaced peaks if you did it right. I thought that was a thing, but perhaps she just didn't have a round cloth! And rubbing alcohol (I think we call that IPA in UK) - does that get motor grease off clothes and hands? I ought to give that a go, I have some somewhere, and a big bottle of acetone too but it really pongs. My Dad used to bring home Carbon Tet from work but (like a lot of things) it has vanished due to cancer worries.
Today we completely cleared it out as we've decided Mr Boogs drums will live there.
It took all day!
Satisfied that it's all done now. And it will stay tidy as Mr Boogs is very precious about his drums and clutter will be strictly forbidden. 🙂
I am going away next week but when I get back I’ll be continuing the sort out. I’ll give myself six weeks, though it could get done more quickly. But it means tidying ( and maybe decluttering) other areas, and getting shelves put into the former airing cupboard.
It is two and a half years since Mr Puzzler died, so I think I have not done too badly, as I left his study till last ( apart from the garage).
I have followed your posts and I think you have done, and are doing an awesome job.
We are thinking of moving house (not downsizing, though) and have got a number of things that we've lived with comfortably for years that need addressing. I've never been very diligent about cleaning the oven, for example, and probably need to get a professional in as my last attempt was not particularly successful.
If you want a cheap, effective, and dangerous (well, not too dangerous, but you need to take care) method, then buy yourself some caustic soda crystals, and being careful NOT to get it on your skin, make up a paste in water (crystals into water, not the opposite) and brush it on with a paintbrush you are happy to say goodbye to. Leave for 15 mins, wash off with a lot of water. It'll fume a bit, and it's better not to breath it.
Mine really needs doing too. It's bad enough I might pull it out and do it in the yard, and the nasty slurry can get the moss off the flags at the same time
That sounds scary
Unless of course you fancy coming over and doing mine after you've done yours?
I had my oven professionally cleaned a couple of years ago, @Nenya, and it was worth every penny!
I'm sure I've posted this before but I can tell you how not to clean an oven. Do not smear it liberally with baby shampoo and leave overnight. The shampoo will form into a sort of tenacious gel, which won't just rinse off but has to be properly and laboriously cleaned off, and your meals will taste soapy for some time.
How do I know this? Many years ago, severely sleep deprived with a toddler and baby, I went to the hairdresser. She told me my hair was in dreadful condition and said it looked as though I'd been using the kids' shampoo to wash it. She said that kids' shampoo is very bad for adult hair as the "no tears" formula meant that it was caustic enough to use as oven cleaner.
In my addled, sleep-deprived brain, instead of realising this was a sales pitch for the expensive shampoo sold by her salon I thought "Baby shampoo is a child-safe oven cleaner! Brilliant!"