Today I faced the mess in the dining room with half excitement and half dread, so…. I decided to just pick each item up one at a time and say to myself ‘Everything belongs somewhere. I’m in no rush today so I’ll just hold the item on my hand until I can decide what to do with it’. It actually worked quite well, although at first I noticed that I was only picking up things that I knew what to do with. I got better at it as the morning went on. It was a slow process though.
Apart from the Christmas decorations that can’t be put up yet, the stuff that’s congregated in the dining room is from the utility room and lounge (due to decorating) and most of it won’t be going back. I’ve cleared about half of it and the plan is to do the rest over the next couple of days so that we can sit and have dinner at the table again. My Really Useful Boxes are being delivered tomorrow and I’m using them to replace the cardboard boxes that the decorations are currently being stored in.
Decorating continues
Lounge decorating complete
Vanessa the decorator continued decorating the lounge today and was finished by mid-afternoon because she didn’t have to do the walls (the girls painted those back in May) . We can only access the lounge from the conservatory at the moment because the gloss paint is still wet on the pocket door. We didn’t really need to go in there for anything this evening though, and I’ll get the room back to normal in a day or so.
We have to choose a paint colour for the hallway, stairs and landing by tomorrow as Vanessa needs to make a start with the decorating on Tuesday, but at the time of writing this my husband and I haven’t agreed on a colour as we are completely different ends of the spectrum. Not quite sure where we go from here. We can’t even get something that will go with the carpet either, because we also can’t agree on that.
Can’t believe the weekend is over already. Where did that go? I still have loads that I want to get done!
We had quite a bit of work done around the house today. First to arrive was the carpenter and his son to fit the loft hatch. We ended up with a new ladder as well quite by chance. All we were expecting was for him to make a hatch door as he’d already reattached our existing ladder to the hatch when he made the opening bigger back at the beginning of October. Then there was a delay with him coming back because of the second lockdown, and we had to make do with the temporary hatch until today.
To help us make the decision, he showed us the pack that he’d bought which was an energy efficient timber ladder and door combined, with insulation built in. He said that it was more sturdy than the metal one we have and it was a completely sealed unit that would stop any heat escaping, and it had a lock. We agreed to it and he had it fitted in no time and added a bit of architrave around the outside as well.
Whilst they were here finishing off that, the decorator arrived to start on our lounge. I helped her move some of our furniture and she covered everything up including our tree.
I then started moving everything off my husband’s desk in our bedroom because I thought that the carpenter would need to move it in order to fit the bits of skirting that were missing around the areas where he had removed the wardrobes a couple of months ago. Whilst clearing, it gave me the opportunity to clean the desk as it had got a bit dusty around there, particularly where we’d had the spotlights put in and the holes filled by the plasterer earlier in the week.
Knocked on the head by a pieced of skirting board!
As I was dragging a few items out from down the side of the desk to get to the spare bits of skirting board, I didn’t realise that a cable was wrapped round the propped up skirting board and it came flying towards me whacking me on the head in the process. I felt a bit silly because if I had just slowed down a bit and thought about what I was doing it wouldn’t have happened. It did give me a small bump on the head, but I was ok. I just carried on!
It turned out later on that he didn’t need to move the desk in order to fit the missing pieces of skirting. I really must stop doing unnecessary jobs!
Thankfully, I had a hair appointment at 10am and was looking forward to this hour to myself. Gina is so lovely and such a good listener which is a good job really as I had a lot on my mind that I needed to get out 😀!
I arrived back to a newly fitted loft hatch and they demonstrated to me how it works.
Timber insulated loft hatch
I’m pleased that I can now get in and out of the loft easily and it’s so much quieter than the noisy metal contraption. I can now sneak in and out of the loft to my hearts content 😂. I should have it clear and organised in no time… next year though!!
The only thing is that the old ladder (clutter to us now, but still in good condition) is sitting in our loft and I’ll probably try and sell it. I’ll add that to my list, but there’s no rush.
Just before I went out to the town with my daughter to pick up her contact lenses, the window cleaner turned up. This always triggers me thinking about the inside of the windows to get the full benefit of what he does. I’ll add that to my list for the week and use my Minky cloth to do it.
I was so exhausted after making dinner this evening having had another full-on day, that I ended up having a 3 hour sleep on the study sofa quite by accident. My daughter woke me up asking if there was anything she could help me with as she knew that I had a lot to do. As it was 11.30pm and I said that she should go to sleep. I quickly amended the shopping order and ran a bath.
Although that long sleep has taken the edge off falling asleep tonight, I don’t think I’ll struggle too much to get a few more hours. A sleep meditation will help me drift off.
I was transferring some clothes from the washing machine to the tumble dryer this evening and thought I’d give the pull-out filter a quick clean. That’s all I usually do every couple of washes, just take the fluff out and put the filter back. I always glance at the other little door flap at the bottom of the machine and say to myself that I must take it out and clean it ‘one day’. I’m always in a rush though and don’t do it. Today felt different.
With the filter out, I opened the flap at the bottom of the machine and pulled out the draw. This allowed me to see the bit where the filter sits and wipe out all the fluff. I then spotted another drawer further back – I suppose you could call it a cartridge.
I really must find the instructions and work out what all these parts are, but in the absence of putting my hands on those instructions quickly, I thought that I would just give everything a wipe which would remove the visible fluff, and then rinse the parts under the tap. It looked so much cleaner afterwards and it really didn’t take long.
What influenced me to get the job done?
The room being clean and clear: The newly decorated utility room helped because I would normally be put off doing this job because of the state of the room. My mind would normally have been elsewhere; however, being able to think straight in there, encouraged me to add more improvements.
Getting to something before it breaks: I tend to get to things after they’ve started to make a noise, almost broken or just stopped working completely. This has happened a lot over the last few months. I need to start a maintenance program so that I get to things before they break. I’m starting to realise the importance of maintenance.
Routines such as The Organised Mum Method (TOMM): I listened to this book again this week and realised that simple jobs like cleaning out filters could quite easily be added to my weekly list of tasks.
Thinking that it might be dangerous: I heard or read something recently (might even have been when listening to TOMM on audible) about build up of lint in a dryer and how it can overheat. That’s reason enough for me to clean it out regularly.
Being good at self care
I can sort of relate all of this maintenance stuff to self-care. Isn’t it better to do the maintenance on ourselves before we get worn out? I know that I’m sort of comparing myself to an appliance or the house, but I think it’s symbolic don’t you?
I’m taking more care of myself as well as taking more care of everything else around the house. I now see them as going hand in hand.
Time to run a relaxing bath with candles and relaxing music (self-care).
Busy weekend coming up… decorator doing the lounge, and I received a message from the builder earlier to say that he’ll be able to fit our loft hatch tomorrow which is such great news.
I have no idea where these little elastic hairbands go; the girls and I have spent so much time over the years looking for one. This is usually if they need to wear their hair up for school or one of us is about to have a shower or bath.
I got so fed up the other day searching for one, so I ordered a pack of 100 hair bands and put them in a glass pot in the main bathroom (the glass pot wasn’t being used either so it helped to make use of it). I now have a hairband to hand when I’m about to have a bath rather than search around the house.
Also, since placing this full pot of hair bands in the bathroom, I haven’t been asked the question ‘Has anyone got a hair band?’ Let’s see how long that lasts.
It’s the simple things that have the most impact. It makes me smile when I open the pot and the pack only cost £2.99.
Clearing a little at a time
The part of the kitchen that I tidied the other day and the utility room have stayed tidy due to my efforts to keep it that way. I didn’t have much time for decluttering today as work and home life were as manic as always, but I did decide to clear just a small section around the breakfast bar area of the kitchen… just for 5 minutes until I got interrupted. A lot of the stuff didn’t actually belong in the kitchen so it was easy to put the things away in their places.
I also spent 5 minutes clearing one small area of floor in the study. Things got thrown about in there yesterday when I was looking for the dressing up outfit that someone had messaged me about and wanted to collect. The funny thing is that they never actually turned up to buy it.
I am so tired having not had much sleep last night. I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep and I just know that I’ll feel much more refreshed in the morning.
Today I had to take my eldest to the orthodontist and the whole afternoon was taken up by this one event. I left the house at 1.30pm having had a busy morning of work calls and a quick bite to eat. I didn’t arrive home until around 5.30pm.
It’s only around an hour each way but the rest of the time was taken up with waiting at the school, sitting in traffic, waiting around at the hospital for the appointment and then she had to have photos taken of her mouth because of a couple of concerns that they have. Driving back home in the dark made the journey seem longer for some reason.
I then had to run a few errands including picking up a prescription and doing a bit of shopping. By this time I was feeling exhausted and did a couple of silly things like walking away from the cash machine only to hear the beeps and realising that I hadn’t taken the cash out. I then walked into Asda without a shopping basket and as it was only a one way door, I had to go out and come back in again!
I just wasn’t feeling myself and knew that my body needed a rest. It knows better than I do! I also needed a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate as I usually have that treat around mid-afternoon.
My mind can sometimes be a reflection of some of the rooms in the house
Whilst I was drinking my tea I remembered that someone wanted to buy a dressing up outfit that I had advertised but as I have so much stuff lying around due to the renovation work, I couldn’t remember where I’d put it. By the time I’d turned things upside down in the garage, dining room and study, I was feeling a little irritated that things are still so unorganised. I think I made more mess than actually clearing up today. It made me want to clear it all there and then but I didn’t have time.
I sat for few moments and thought that it must be in the garage, so I went back in and found it almost instantly. Things are usually where I first think they are – I just wasn’t looking properly.
Luckily for me, I had a massage booked this evening and it couldn’t have been more perfect timing. I had the most wonderful hour being pampered at SAKS. My little treat to myself 😀.
The plasterer turned up this morning armed with some new dust-sheets, just as my husband was rolling up the rug and I was still trying to convince him that we should take the Christmas tree out of the room before the work started. I didn’t win, but the plasterer said that he’d be careful with it and would move it around the room as he worked.
A morning of clearing
I wanted to make a dent on the dining room clutter this morning as I didn’t have to work until the afternoon. As mentioned yesterday, we have half the lounge and utility room in there including boxes of Christmas decorations that we can’t put up yet and can’t put back in the loft. Every inch is cluttered and I wanted to take the opportunity to clear some of it that doesn’t need to go back in the finished rooms.
I picked up a few things and put them away, but my heart wasn’t in it. I then got distracted researching the best Really Useful Boxes to get for the decorations and ordered eight medium sized ones with different dimensions (it was a good deal). I was convinced then that there was no point making a start on the dining room area until the boxes arrived.
Utility room
I put the cabinet back in the utility room and moved a couple of things from the kitchen out there too, which will be better than the clutter that had accumulated before.
Here’s where I got to with putting minimal stuff in there. I added some lights as well to make it a bit more festive. The girls really liked it when they got home. They advised me not to put anything else back.
Utility room complete
This got me motivated to start cleaning the kitchen as well. This is the section I deep cleaned including the casing round the blinds.
You know what it’s like sometimes… when you get a cloth in your hand and it starts a cleaning spree. That’s basically what got me started… but it’s important to note that I just focused on one area of the kitchen and left the rest. I wouldn’t have had time to do the whole thing.
Plastering complete
The lounge ceiling looks great. We spent a bit of time after he’d gone giving everything a good vacuum and once the floor was mopped, it was all clean again. It’s not a pleasant room to sit in at the moment due to the smell of plaster, but it won’t be for long. It’s been decorated at the weekend. Then we’ll have a paint smell instead 😀.
Another very productive day that feels like two in one!
I now have three rooms finished: two bedrooms and the utility room. In these rooms, all visible clutter has gone and the decorating is complete. It’s funny… now that these rooms are done, I can’t imagine the clutter being in there anymore. It’s much more suited to the unfinished rooms, ha ha… it tends to match the decor better. This does mean that the clutter is more concentrated in other rooms now, and these are crying out and competing for my attention.
One such room that was calling me the loudest this evening was the lounge. Tomorrow the ceiling is being skimmed and plastered; a job we’ve wanted to happen for a couple of months but couldn’t because we were waiting for the second lockdown to finish and for the spotlights to be installed.
I had to wait until my husband had gone to bed, as he was relaxing in the lounge and felt too tired to help clear it. When he’d gone up, I had just run myself a bath but didn’t want to get in it until I had removed stuff from the lounge that I could easily carry by myself. I would find it difficult to relax knowing that I still had that to do.
Once I’d moved what I could into the hallway and dining room (yes, I know that I’m adding to the already messy room but I’m past caring!) I walked back into the lounge and it felt so much clearer without the clutter.
There are things in there that I really ought to cover up before the work begins i.e. the piano, sofa, mirror, TV, cabinet and Christmas tree; however, I’m not quite sure how I can cover up a 7ft lit tree completely decorated so that’ll have to be moved about the room as the plasterer does each bit. No one apart from me seems to be worried that it might get sprayed with plaster! Oh well, I did warn them.
The rest of the furniture might need to be moved to the middle and covered but the plasterer may have to help me with that in the morning after I’ve done the school run. He’s been here before and he’s very helpful. We’ve been very lucky with our contractors.
Time to relax
I’m so tired having had an extremely busy working day and then I had to take my daughter to a contact lens appointment late afternoon. When I got back I sorted out dinner and finished some work. I think that what I am trying to say is that I need some rest. So, I think it’s time to get into that bath I ran earlier before the water goes cold.
When my alarm went off this morning, I couldn’t even work out what day it was for a few seconds. Then I remembered that Vanessa the decorator was coming round at 9am and Tescos were also delivering my shopping around that time. Having pressed the snooze button a few times, I was 30 mins behind schedule.
That didn’t stop me doing my morning stretches – the short version only takes around 3 mins 😊. I quickly got ready and cleared out the rest of the utility room. It looked so much better and bigger with nothing in it.
Fixing the broken utility room door
We never seem to be able to do anything, without something needing fixing; however, my husband and I are getting better at working together on tackling these sorts of tasks. As we always leave the pocket door open in the utility room, we’d forgotten that it needed fixing, which is one of the reasons why we stopped closing it a year or so ago. It was only brought to our attention today because Vanessa needed to paint one side of it and it kept scraping on the bottom part as she moved the door.
I called my husband in and he said that he’d have to take off the architrave around the door. I must admit, when he asked me to get him a hammer and chisel, I did get a bit worried that we’d end up with a broken door frame (but that’s just me not really understanding how it all fits together). I really must have more faith in him 😊.
Fast forward an hour and the door was fixed. Once he’d taken off the top and right architraves (yes, they came off in whole pieces luckily!), it was really obvious what the problem was.
The workings of a pocket door
This pocket door and a few others downstairs were fitted around three years ago, and at the time I never really took the time to think about how they worked. Not being my area of expertise, it was just like magic to me that it just opened and closed into the wall 😀. There are basically just two screws and some brackets attached to the top of the door which slide along the rail of the metal frame. Quite simple when you think about it.
It took my husband a few goes to adjust it just right, but he did it. The architrave now needs to be put back but there’s no rush as Vanessa won’t be painting the kitchen side of the door until a few weeks’ time.
We realised half way through the day that once she’d painted the other side of the door, she’d have to exit the utility room out the side door. Luckily she can just walk round and come in through the back door.
It made me smile later on when she’d gone when I remembered that I needed peas and Yorkshire puddings for the roast dinner I was cooking, and then I remembered that I had to do one more lot of washing. I basically had to go out of the house three times to get the utility room. I didn’t realise how many things I use it for in just one evening.
It gave me the opportunity to take a few photos of her brilliant work (before and after photos below). It was so cold today and she was working in such a small space, that the back door kept getting condensation. As it was wet she was only able to do an undercoat on the door. It still looks better than before though. She’ll do the gloss paint next weekend when she’s back to decorate the lounge.
Utility room decorating complete
Before and after photos of the utility room
I do like the utility room being clear. I’m hoping that I can keep it like that. Judging by the state of my dining room which currently displays the utility room’s contents, I think I will have a lot of sorting and decluttering to do if I don’t want to put it all back!
Other progress & family time
I spent some of the day pottering about in the dining room sorting out the tons of recycling by the back door, putting washing away, and helping my youngest get her room back to normal after yesterday’s decorating. She still has to be careful not to touch the gloss paint and the room needs to be kept aired, but she was fine with that and was happy to get her room back. It looks so clear and tidy now with nothing on the windowsill or desk… yet!
After a Skype with my lovely mum and dad and then a roast chicken dinner, we spent the evening as a family cuddled up on the sofa watching a film. I fell asleep and missed most of it!
I had to get up early this morning as Ben the electrician was returning at 8am to remove the chandelier and my husband and I were going to try and help.
A plan to take down the chandelier
Also, the decorator was arriving at 9am and I had to get my daughter up and out of her room and remove her bedding, mattress and other items left in there.
It all went well, although it did take longer than we thought to remove the dusty chandelier. I tried to clean it with a long-poled duster before he arrived, but the dust was flying everywhere, so I just put on a facemask instead. It was a tricky exercise but Ben and my husband worked on a plan. First the bulbs and delicate shades were removed.
Straps were then wrapped around the chanderlier just in case! At one point I heard a loud noise and thought it had fallen but it had just slipped down after he had released the bolt. Ben was then able to disconnect the light and my husband and I took some of the weight of the chandelier and moved it across onto some wooden beams resting on the bannister.
I videoed the last bit on ‘time lapse’ on my phone, so if you want to see the 22 second video on Instagram, please click here.
The landing looks so much bigger and brighter now that we just have spotlights (installed yesterday)
The decorator’s first challenge is complete
The decorator worked on my youngest daughter’s room today. She did an excellent job and it kind of put our painting efforts to shame. We’re not professionals like her though 😀.
No more brown plaster on the ceiling
The door to the room is actually white now, not an off white/yellow colour like the other unpainted doors coming off the landing. The radiator and windowsill in her room is so glossy and perfectly shiny – the whole room looks amazing.
Three areas of the house now look fresher and brighter all because of a hard day’s work from the electrician to install some spotlights. It took him over half a day to do the lounge because he wasn’t able to cut the holes for the lights from above (due to the chipboard flooring in our bedroom).
New spotlights to replace very old ceiling lights
He did a fantastic job though and we have now got rid of our two very outdated ceiling lights that we’ve hated for years but done nothing about. One of them hasn’t even worked for almost two years. The room will be plastered on Tuesday.
Next on the list was the upstairs landing. These spotlights were replacing the outdated six bulb chandelier that’s always been a dust trap, and because I could never reach it to change the bulbs, there was only one left lit.
He also installed a new mains powered smoke alarm. The old one fell off a while ago so I’ve just had battery ones dotted about the house.
The last room he did for us today was our bedroom. The landing and bedroom took him much less time than the lounge because he was able to clearly see where to make the holes because he could access from the loft above.
My unpleasant but productive hour in the loft
Once the plasterboard was unscrewed from the temporary loft opening this morning, I was able to get up there to clear the area above the upstairs landing. After a busy morning working, I put on my old clothes, rubber gloves and facemask and prepared myself for the mess.
Although the area up there was difficult to get to, very dirty and ‘dead-mice-smelly’, it was easy to throw things away because they weren’t mine and I wasn’t attached to them in any way. The previous owner had left some boxes and bags of stuff there when they moved out and we’ve never got round to seeing what was there. Over the years the boxes and bags have got moved about and started to rip and break. It was very satisfying bagging them up.
I found games, toys, paperwork, basketball nets, newborn cards, framed pictures, a blanket, a mattress and other bits and pieces. There were also about 20-30 empty plastic water bottles and one empty plastic milk carton all over the place. I’m thinking that maybe a bag of recycling had been thrown up there one day by mistake instead of recycling it all. Who knows? There was also a stuffed owl with its feet chewed off (possibly by mice?) and a really cute stuffed dog – never seen either of them before.
All of it went into a couple of large rubbish bags and I also bagged up the plastic bottles for recycling. I threw one bag down from the top of the ladder and it accidently got caught on a nail causing the bag to tip upside down emptying its contents including the cute dog all over the landing (bottom left picture below). Bagging it up once was enough, I then had to do it all again.
An hour in the loft produces results
It was very difficult moving about in the loft today due to there being only joists in that area and no fixed floorboards. I was holding on and balancing the whole time and had to be careful where I put my feet. It was an interesting hour though and quite an eye opener as to what is actually up there. There’s not really that much to get rid of and I think that if I spent a few more hours up there next year before we get the loft boarded properly, I could tidy up what I want to keep and throw the rest in a skip.
The electrician needs to pop back in the morning to remove our chandelier – it was too big a job to fit in at the end of the day as it’s heavy and awkward. Our decorator starts tomorrow as well, so she’ll make a start on the ceiling in my youngest’s room. There’s no way I’m ever doing ceilings again after doing my other daughter’s room. It’s such an awkward job and gave me a neck-ache.
We have had a massive programme of work this year and so many jobs are getting ticked off. I am starting to feel like we are getting somewhere.
Sandra Madeira 