It was cold and raining this morning. Not ideal when the plan was for me to transport ten charity bags to Sue Ryder (five trips to and from the car). I took the girls to school and when I was driving back, the skies miraculously cleared and the sun came out.
I started work and then rang the charity shop when they opened at 10am to see what would be the best time to bring them in. She said the earlier the better. I said that I would be making five trips from the car and she came up with a very good idea to put them in a shopping trolley. We have a big Asda right near there and that was the car park I was going to be using. It sounded ideal.
A confession
I want to confess about something – I sneaked three items: a dress, jumper and fleece/hoody, out of one of the bags that I was about to donate. I’m hoping that I’m not the only one that does things like that, ha ha. I’m sure they will end up back in there at some point. I’ll give myself until the next charity bag run to decide.
The drop off
After my madness of taking stuff out of the bags, I started to feel guilty so I tied up the few remaining ones and packed them in my car before I could change my mind about anything. I went straight to the shop.
Armed with my shopping trolley, I only had to do two trips back and forth. They seemed very grateful for the donations and I felt good that I’d got rid of my unwanted items.
You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve booked in another appointment. I have committed myself to filling ten more bags by 13 October which is in two weeks’ time. So, I’d better get sorting!
I haven’t been back in the garage to appreciate the space that it’s left as I was busy with work, school runs, dinner, chores etc., but I plan to spend a bit of time in there at the weekend, filling bags and creating more space.
Lunch date
My husband cooked us both a lovely lunch today. I almost said no as I just fancied egg on toast but changed my mind at the last minute.
Steak and bacon caesar salad with home made croutons and dressing
It was really nice. There was a lot there to eat but I got through it!
I’m so tired, as I missed my nap and my me-time slot. So, I’m going to wind down now with a bit of calming music and a warm bath with candles. I might even get to bed before midnight!
Filling in my tooth all done! Apart from the initial numbing injections in my gum and roof of my mouth (which I was dreading as I sat in the waiting room area) the treatment all went well. I have a whole tooth again! It’s a bit sore round the gums but I can live with that for now. I should be confident enough to eat on that side again soon for the first time in almost six months.
I had the rest of the morning off so after a bit of me time (so important) I did the daily tasks and then got on with the Wednesday routine of bathrooms, dusting and vacuuming.
I then looked at my kitchen for a few minutes visualising a clear space. What did I want to put away? What should be left out? I didn’t want to just shove things in the already full cupboards otherwise there would be no incentive to put things away every day.
I identified a few cupboards that needed sorting out.
Drawer with plastic containers
Cupboard under the breakfast bar
A few shelves in the tall food/other items cupboard
I knew that I didn’t have time to do this today as I had to work, so I just set myself a small goal by the end of today to clear half of the counter tops.
Before and after decluttering kitchen
My husband walked into the kitchen just as I finished wiping down the surfaces this evening. I got a ‘wow’ so it must have looked and felt very different as he wouldn’t usually notice 😀.
I’ll tackle the other half of the kitchen tomorrow. If I can then keep the kitchen and dining room clear for the next week I will be very proud of myself. I’m keeping up with the small number of daily and weekly routines that I’ve recently set myself, so there’s no reason why I can’t add this to my list.
Spare room update
A plumber came round today to see if he could help with updating the en-suite in the spare room. He gave us a few ideas and we’re just waiting for the quote before we make a decision.
Dinnertime
Just had to heat up leftover meat pie from yesterday which was easy. With the small remaining bit of pastry, I made an apple pie turnover (that’s what I called it anyway).
I shared it with the girls and it was lovely with ice cream.
So, busy day today! Hope you’ve all had a wonderful Wednesday.
With 100 days to go before the end date of my challenge, I want to feel confident that I’ll achieve my goal by New Year’s Eve without putting pressure on myself. My goal is still worded as follows:
I have a clear and organised space in my home, my garden and my mind
My 2020 challenge and daily affirmation
After taking the girls to school this morning, I sat quietly in the lounge for a change rather than the conservatory. I liked the way that the sun was shining through and it felt warm and cosy. I set my timer for 24 minutes, sat back and allowed the random thoughts to pop in and out of my head. I sometimes find it difficult to do this when I’m not relaxed and today was one of those days.
I’ve learnt recently that it’s really important to have me time when feeling even a little bit anxious, stressed or overwhelmed. I decided not to start any clutter clearing until I had thought about which direction I was going in and what was a good use of my time today.
I had my notebook to hand so I wrote down all the cluttered areas that were still bothering me around the house. I closed my eyes and mentally walked around the house imagining how I felt as I saw each cluttered space.
I then went through the list and ranked them 1 to 3, with 1 being the images that made me feel the most anxious. I felt better doing this because I knew that focusing on the ones ranked as 1 would make me feel happy. We all know that there’s no fun in achieving stuff that doesn’t make us feel happy.
The two on my list that I wanted to move forward today were and ‘clearing space in the garage’ and ‘clutter in the kitchen’. I knew that I wouldn’t get much done in the garage, so I planned to spend only 45 minutes in there clearing space and then move on.
As I opened the garage, I spotted the mound of charity bags and instantly knew what would make me feel good. This Thursday I am booked in to take ten bags to my local charity shop. So, I decided to get the ones ready that I wanted to take and rebag the ones that were ripped. This particular charity shop also doesn’t take certain items e.g. anything electrical, so I wanted to take those out of the bags.
I quickly went through each bag and as I tied them up for good, I put them near the garage door ready for them to exit the garage on Thursday. I made some labels – 1 to 10 – and attached them to each bag. All organised! It felt really good and I can’t wait to free up the space.
How symbolic was the hygienist appointment?
As I sat in the chair, I thought about what was about to happen and was hoping that it wouldn’t hurt my gums. As she scraped each tooth I could only feel mild discomfort (she was very gentle but thorough). I couldn’t help relating the plaque to the clutter in my home and my mind. As the plaque left my mouth, I felt lighter. It was being taken away from me and all I had to do was sit there and go with the flow, much like I’ve been experiencing as a result of having the me time sessions.
I imagined going with the flow over the next 100 days and just letting all the clutter melt away. I always get clearing done so much quicker when I detach myself from it and just get out of the way.
When the hygienist got to my sensitive tooth – the one that broke in half last April – I braced myself. I didn’t need to though. It felt like the strongest tooth. This also felt symbolic. I related it to how I feel when trying to part with the clutter. I stand strong and try and be brave as I donate items or put them in the rubbish bags.
The hygienist did a really good job of ‘decluttering’ my teeth 😁 and then spent ages afterwards giving me tips and advice about how to clean my teeth properly, what I was doing wrong, and when to use floss vs. mouthwash.
Teeth have been decluttered
I took in all of the information and will be spending more time in the evening now looking after my teeth. I’m pretty good at following instructions so let’s see how long I keep it up.
I have to have a filling tomorrow
It was important that I had the hygienist appointment today to clean the area next to the broken tooth, as I have to go back to see my dentist tomorrow for a filling. I’m feeling grateful that I was able to get booked in at a time when appointments are rare. They can only see a few patients a day now because of the amount of sanitising they have to do in between patients.
All going well, I will be able to eat on that side of my mouth again soon.
Dinner and the kitchen
I didn’t get much space cleared in the kitchen today as I decided to use the mince up in the fridge and make a meat pie. It turned out well and the girls liked it.
Kitchen clutter will move to the top of my list tomorrow along with the usual housework that I now do as part of my Wednesday routine.
I spotted the bag of dressing up clothes by the washing machine this morning (where I’d dumped them yesterday after sorting out the spare room) and being a sunny day I thought that it would be a good idea to wash them. I checked the labels and all but one said sponge dry only. Now, when the girls were growing up, I probably just wiped them down whilst they were wearing them so that I didn’t ruin them for parties etc.
Today, I thought that I had nothing to lose by putting them on a hand wash cycle and seeing how they looked afterwards. If they got ruined, I would just have to put them out with the rubbish in a bag marked ‘textiles’. There was no need for that thought as they looked absolutely fine – here they are hanging on the washing line.
Old dressing up clothes cleaned
I can now put them on Facebook Marketpage for a few weeks. If they don’t sell, then I will donate them. I might be lucky with the Halloween party dress with that event coming up soon.
I still have two better quality dresses to wash tomorrow, which are the ones that I was attached to and didn’t really want to give away. They are beautifully made and they looked lovely on the girls when they were younger; however, there’s no point holding onto them.
Disney princess dresses
Unless I can think of a really good reason to keep them, I’ll have to let them go.
Getting rid of the rubbish
It’s bin day tomorrow which means I get to fill more black sacks and I can also add a small bag of electicial items and a small bag of textiles on top of my bin.
As I’ve been emptying the bins around the house every day now, these smaller bags had already filled the bottom of the bin. This evening, I went around the garage, garden and house looking for things to throw away. It’s amazing what you can find when you are determined! I topped the bin up with polystyrene from the collection I have near the shed (last bit gone today, hooray).
I then added two small bags on top of the bins. In one bag I put a small electric mixer that’s seen better days (I think I’ve had it for more than 30 years) and in the second bag, I put some old ripped or paint covered clothes. It felt good to be wheeling all of this out of the side gate.
I had to do the school run morning and afternoon today. So, with a full day’s work and cooking as well, I did feel quite tired this evening. I missed out on my me time this morning as well. I did grab five mins this afternoon, but it wasn’t enough. I really noticed not having that focused time for me.
So, I am now going to have a nice bubble bath with spa music and see if I can clear my mind ready for sleep.
I felt very positive when I woke up this morning – I’d had a good night’s sleep, the sun was shining and I knew it was going to be a good day. After some breakfast and my usual me-time, I started working on the spare room.
Most of the room is already packed up in large plastic boxes, but today I wanted to move them around into categories so that I could get a feel for what’s in there and what’s left to do. I also wanted to move anything out that didn’t belong in there.
Categorising the spare room boxes
‘Paperwork’ category
I need to spend some focused time this year organising my paperwork, but at the moment it’s all contained within boxes so at least it’s in one place. More recent paperwork is downstairs in the utility room in folders.
‘To be sorted’ category
These boxes need sorting out. They are a combination of mine and my daughter’s stuff. That’s a job for another day. We’ll probably watch a film or two whilst we’re doing it.
‘Photos’ category
These boxes contain many years of memories that need to be organised and stored somewhere. I’m sure there are also more photos around the house and in the garage. The last 10-15 years worth of photos are mostly online which will also need organising (but maybe not this year).
The rest of the room
Merging stuff with other half empty bags and boxes and putting them into the above three categories has reduced the number of boxes over in the other corner of the room.
I was still left with boxes and bags that don’t belong in this room. Some went into the garage as they are to be donated or sold and some things just needed to be put away in other rooms. I have a small section left to sort out during the week. It’s looking and feeling a lot better though. I wonder if my husband will notice that I’ve done anything when he’s working in there tomorrow.
Box of dressing up clothes
I don’t know why I’ve held onto this box of dressing up clothes for so long, as the girls grew out of them many years ago. I suppose that I thought they were worth keeping or selling. The funny thing is that when I went through them, I didn’t feel as attached to them as I thought I would (well done me!). Also, some of them didn’t look as good a quality as I remembered.
I’ve put them all in the utility room for washing and I’ll make a decision on them later in the week once they are clean and dry.
The rest of the day
I cooked a roast chicken dinner at lunchtime. Sitting in the ‘clear’ dining room felt so good. Even the girls said that it felt different, in a good way. I’ve kept it clear again today.
A funny thing happened this evening. I was pottering about and couldn’t find the basket of clean washing which had the girls’ uniforms in it and other items. I searched every room but actually couldn’t remember bringing it in.
It was dark outside being 11.30pm, but I went out into the garden to check if by chance it was out there, and there it was in the middle of the garden with the washing all folded up neatly in the basket. I really don’t know how that happened! I’ve probably just done too much multitasking today.
So, it’s been a long day but I’m really pleased with my progress (apart from losing the washing 😀). Hope you’ve all had a good weekend.
I’m sure that I’ve written about carrier bags before in an earlier post, but the grocery shopping ones have got out of control again.
I can’t really blame anyone but myself for not having a place for carrier bags. For the first few months of lockdown we added about ten to the pile with every order as they were giving them away free.
Adding these to what we already had has given us a lot…
So many carrier bags getting in the way
I keep moving them to my car and then back into the house. It’s madness! So, today I sorted them all out into sizes and put them into one large bag.
Shopping bags
I’ve put the whole thing in the cupboard under the stairs out of the way.
My plan is to use the small white ones on a daily basis to collect rubbish from around the house as part of my morning routine. This should use them up quicker. I already have a few in the car, so the rest can be used when shopping gets delivered.
Random basket of stuff
I was determined to go through this basket today. It’s been sitting in the corner of the dining room next to the easel (that also needs moving) for weeks.
It took me about forty five minutes to sort through it before dinner. It was a mix of receipts (which I have a place for), papers, stationery, leaflets, recycling, text books that the girls don’t need anymore, and other random bits and bobs. I even found this little bunny in there, don’t know where he came from.
Now the basket is empty I can put it in the garage as it’s not something I have room for round the house. All of the contents have been put away apart from some papers which will go in a pile upstairs ready for the day when I sort out paperwork (which is so needed).
The corner of the dining room is looking better and I should be able to sort out the last bit tomorrow and make room in the garage for the easel.
The dining room actually looked brighter this evening.
It’s been a good day work-wise, with all my calls flowing from one to the other. I even managed to catch up with two friends on the phone/zoom during my breaks.
The sun has shone all day and everyone at home seemed in a good mood.
Since the girls have gone back to school I seem to have developed a new routine for daily chores and it feels good. I’m getting quick jobs done first thing and then dealing with other things as they happen not just because I’m working from home, but more importantly because I can see the benefits of starting to live with less stuff and having the floors and pathways clear wherever I can.
I’ve been living and breathing this clutter for years and the backlog is still going to take a while to go through and shift, but I believe that I’m getting there.
This week I’ve been trying to build the following into my morning before I start work:
Make the beds and general tidy up
Empty the washing baskets
Empty the bins, separating out the recycling
Take stray items upstairs and bring stray items downstairs, and put them away
Quick tidy up of the breakfast/packed lunch stuff
The space that I’m creating in my life (my home and my mind) is actually helping to speed things up, at a time when I’ve personally started to slow myself down. This is all down to my lifestyle changes that I’ve made and sense of calm that I feel.
I am placing a lot of these positive feelings on the fact that I’m having pockets of me time before I need it. I’m adding some deep breathing usually before (or sometimes after) I get that knot in my stomach or neck. It’s become quite a natural thing for me to do now… and it’s free.
It feels like I’ve turned a corner ready for the final quarter of the year that’s coming up. My 2020 challenge is going well and I feel happy with my progress and positive about the future.
Here’s what else I’ve been up to today…
Creating space in the main bathroom
I used to hang clothes to dry on this chrome towel rail in the bathroom and then just leave them there instead of putting them in the girls’ wardrobes. Although it was a useful place to hang clothes, I wasn’t really making good use of the shelf. I decided today to actually use it for what’s it’s designed to be used for. I know it sounds like a simple change but it’s made the whole bathroom look clearer and less cluttered. It feels more like a bathroom again.
Now it’s time for a bubble bath and some reflection time.
This morning after taking the girls to school, I settled down for some me time. I lit a candle, got myself a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon, and set my alarm for 24 minutes. During my me time I allowed my thoughts to come and go, listened to the crackling of the candle and focused on my breathing and the present moment. Even when focusing like this, I don’t mind random thoughts popping into my head, as I feel like they are there for a reason (as I didn’t plan to think about them). I either let the thoughts go, write them down or sketch out my interpretation of them.
Housework & maintenance
I seem to have developed a routine where I get most of the housework done on a Wednesday morning as I usually only work half a day on that day. I really got into the swing of it today but decided not to touch the spare room that my husband was working in so that I didn’t disturb him. I got the following done in some of the rooms:
Dishwasher
Some dusting
Vacuuming (had to do a general tidy and pick up upstairs before I could even start this)
Bathrooms
Emptying bins and separating out recycling (can’t believe how much there was since yesterday, I think I must have missed some)
I found something my husband can help with
Part way through vacuuming the stairs with one of the power brush attachment tools, my husband wanted to get past me, and I mentioned that it wasn’t suctioning properly. He offered to have a look at it. After taking it apart and removing hair and other bits (just like I did with the brush roll on the main part of the cleaner the other week) the power brush appeared to be turning but the overall suction still wasn’t good. I gave him the main part of the vacuum cleaner and left him to it whilst I used an old handheld cleaner (that also doesn’t work properly) and carried on with the stairs.
It turned out that there were some filters that I should have been cleaning out. I’d forgotten about those… oh well! He gave them a wash and allowed them to air dry and now the whole thing is working perfectly. You can definitely notice the difference on the carpet.
He then asked to look at the old handheld machine and fixed that too. I forgot to take a photo of the filter, but here’s how the attachments look now.
So, whilst he was on a roll I got out the car vacuum cleaner that I noticed didn’t work last weekend.
He opened the plug and the fuse was missing. Very strange!
I bought a pack of fuses in Asda later in the afternoon and after he added it to the plug, it worked!
So, I’d say that today was a pretty successful day. We do work well together when we put our minds to it.
Completely off topic… someone told me today that there are only 100 days until Christmas! Where has this year gone?
I had a lovely lunch out with my husband today. We went to one of our favourite restaurants called Frederic Bistro and I had fillet steak with a peppercorn sauce, fries and salad, followed by warm pear tart and ice-cream. It was absolutely delicious and we were able to socially distance ourselves away from everyone else whilst in there. It’s a lovely spacious restaurant.
It’s been a beautiful sunny day today, although it was a little too hot for working in the conservatory this afternoon. I had to move to the shady part of the garden for one of my calls.
What did I clear today?
I was determined to get some clearing done after work so popped into the garage for a short while and managed to fill one black sack.
I also found a few more items to put on Facebook Marketplace, for example, two pairs of Heelys (which are basically trainers with wheels) and some toy dolls from the film Frozen.
Hopefully they’ll sell as they look practically new. From memory I think that the Heelys were only worn once.
I’ve just done some general tidying up in the kitchen, so now it’s time for some me-time. I’m going to start with a bubble bath and then listen to my relaxation program before I go to sleep.
Sandra Madeira 