back to de-cluttering

Opened the kids room to put something away and noticed some magazine boxes. Stuff in there that I havent looked at, though of or needed in over three years since I changed my sewing room back. Four boxes quickly became one and eveb that could be too much but it can stay for awhile. we have decided to have a garage sale at the end of the month so the excess furniture will stay until then. I know i have a bread baker that has hardly been used. Dont know if we have enough stuff for a garage sale but I guess there is some stuff. well, coffee has been drunk so time to get back to it.

Shopping, what a nightmare!

As we are having Christmas in July and it was toy sale time I went shopping this morning. OMG, it was like the week before Christmas, so so busy. I also went to the bank and sorted out my own sign in thing for net banking. The guy told me that he was the same as me and didnt realise until he started work at the bank. it was a very long walk to Big W and again very very crowded, lits of kids and overflowing trolleys. i got in and made my purchases and got out but it still took two hours of my morning. Edited the last of my book now waiting for Warren to finish. GOT to vacumn after lunch!

De-cluttering day 26 or so!

Decided that we needed to do some housework this morning and instead of leaving our bedroom til last, started there first. While tidying things away, suddenly we found that we were throwing things out and then we went thru clothes. I have another three boxes of clothes to go our, they are in the car but the weather is wet so dont want to put them anywhere as they will be ruined. At least they are in the car ready to go. I also packed away summer clothes and have put some stuff in the top room ready to take to China.
Settled on outr house sitters last night so that is crossed off the list. We ended up went with the couple who are from Tassie and have been house sitting for nine or ten years. They want to settle in Qld as they say that Tassie is too cold for them as they are getting older, they are 65 and 64. Cooking a chicken in the crock pot, have only ever used it for soups and stews but I sprayed the chook and put it in after lunch and have just added some vegetables. went to Bunnings to buy hooks, we are going to hang a curtain in the passageway should keep the warmth in the living areas, I have read about window quilts and I am going to make one of those to hang inside the little window in our bedroom. we can feel the cold air coming off the window and straight down on us, its hasnt been too babd so far this year YET! Didnt get the vacummning done, maybe tomorrow or Friday. I have 20 Red Hat ladies coming on Tuesday so I'd better do it before then.

Meat, meat and more meat!

Monday and Tuesday is pension day at the wholesale butchers. Warren went there weeks ago and the meat so good. We went today and bought up big, keeping in mind that we only have eight weeks before we leave. Spent $120 and got pork chops a ham, 3 chickens for $10, mince, lamb chops. The freezer is abs full and I have some in fridge which we will need to cook in the next couple of days. I was looking for corned beef but they didnt seem to have any, couldnt fit it in anyway. Sat down for afternoon tea, an apple as scales are not being kind to me atm, the phone rings, I pick it up and a voice says "nihao" my first thought which student is this and do I really want to talk to them as their english if its not too good is made worse on the phone, anyway it was John from Canada, wanting to check when we get into Hangzhou. He is looking at a flight at gets in at 9pm an hour after us. They are also flying into Guangzhou so we may catch with them then. Sherrill says she is taking their silk doona, worthwhile thinking about it.

Baby sitting

First day of hols and we are babysitting! lol. Sunday we drove to Jason's place to mind the kids for Monday. We also had Jack and Katie, the four of them amused themselves, all we did really was feed them and wash the dishes after. Traffic was bad on the way home, we had left at 3.45 to avoid the traffic but no we didnt! There was a woman stuck in the middle lane which held up traffic but we were still home by 5pm. It had been a lousey day weather wise, cold, overcast and miserable so i made corn chowder for dinner. Watched Masterchef, I was hoping that Andrew would go out, at 7.30, Amaxing race was on so had to channel flick, it was Sam who left and AR was non elimation leg. Then we watched Sam Stouer win her first round at Wimbleton. Got six replies in all from house sitters, have now closed it and selected three to check references. Two single women and a couple. I havent moved off the computer this morning except to do the w3ashing and thats gone in the dryer, today is also a yucky day. Must get back to de-cluttering this afternoon.

House sitters

Grrr! on the rounds of looking for house sitters again. Simon finally got back to me saying that thery had been away from communication and that they couldnt help us with house sitting at this time. I put up an ad with house carers, who I have used before and also contacted two sitters who's profile say thet are available for that time. This morning I have had one reply from a single women in her sixties, had to check if it/she was some-one we knew but it seems not. i have sent a reply and said that we would make a definate choice with the week. i would like to have a few to choose from and try to pick like minded people, have never had a single person before. This time we are not going to worry about getting them to pay for electricity and phone. With solar panels on and a set rate for phone its not the big deal that it used to be. i didnt get as much done yesterday as I wanted to but I did a bit of this and a bit of that, all in all, a good restful day. About to go shopping now (food) Icould clean a pair of boots! so my darling hubby suggested, my reply cannot be put into print. (i think he got the idea that I wasn't going to clean HIS boots)

day to myself

and so far all I have done is had breakfast and computer work. Its also the start of school holidays and I have a bit of stuff that I want to do. Warren is bike riding today I just hope that he doesnt break something like Chris as it is so easy to do. de cluttering is still on the agenda, today I will be tackling the linen cupboard. Oh i have edited two more chapters of my book, if Warren hurries up, I want to send it for printing by the end of the holidays, only forty pages to go.

Bank

Some of the mail that came in while we were away at Mum's funeral was a letter from the bank talking about sms or netbanking. warren rang them and said that he didnt want it as that meant I wouldnt have access to the account. Whoa! wrong thing to say as then they told him that what we were doing was illegal. we both pride ourselves on being pretty squeaky clean so that floored us as the account is in both names and we considered that we both have the rights to it, not so according to the bank. Now that is has been explained in full, I can see why so i will have to get a seperate sign in to access it. Out at Brookside on Monday, I needed to go to the PO and then straight across from there was a National bank, I have been thinking for a while to open an account with them for my pension when I get it, so I went over to ask a few questions. twenty minutes later I walked out with two accounts and net banking and NO money changed hands. the beauty of it is that our homeloan is linked and now we can see what the state of play is with that, we have always had to wait for a six monthly statement before. cannot fault the staff at the bank, they were very friendly and helpful, even got a lollypop for Aidan after asking me if he could have one. Plus plus to them. Oh, with the other one we are getting a token thingy rather than an SMS.

De-C seven to fourteen.

Wow, its been a week since i have posted here, so much for putting something every day. Last wednesday ( the first day that i didnt post) I did something to my back, I found that it was quite painful when i backed the car out of sheri's drive, it got a bit worse so wednesday evening I lay on the couch with a hot water bottle on it. Warren cooked dinner and also massaged my back a couple of times. Thursday morning went in a flash,phone calls and visits, finally did the shopping and then remembered that I was working that afternoon. Asked warren to get fish and chips as i would be home late. Friday morning got the news about mum, so many calls thru the rest of the day. saturday was a shitty day, wet, cold no footy til late. I had unearthed some wooden coathangers from years ago plus excess material so I put the two together, finished off yesterday. Not de-cluttering as such but at least now they are usable. Have two more boxes of clothes to go to Vinnies, some I have kept but looking at them, I wouldnt wear so out they go. Chucked a few more things from the bathroom, starting to get quite ruthless, it seems wasteful but then is there is much pointhaving things that I have not used and cant see myself using in the near future. looking at the sewing room, I have heaps of craft stuff, am I going to use it? some I think I will hang on to awhile longer maybe when I am no longer working, I may make some stuff but I have it all in one place now. I know that lots of stuff have gone out but except for the pantry, I cant really notice the difference. I have some furniture to get rid of as well but cant do it yet, maybe at the weekend. Packed up some wool for warren to take to a lady at tennis but tennis was cancelled on Monday due to rain so thats still in the car. She knits socks so this is wool that had come from Mum that I couldnt/wouldnt use. Will be away for four days so maybe I will try for a big day tomorrow of de-cluttering, the linen cupboard is full and I rarely open it as bedclothes and towels are washed and used again so no rotation at all.

De-cluter day six

Buggar buggar buggar, I wrote a whole page of stuff that I had thrown out today and then pressed the wrong button and lost it so eis a list.
More jars and empty, clean yoghurt containers, egg cartons, large red bag from sewing room full of bits and pieces, a makeup tray complete with makeup that I had been using on occassion, owned for over 15 years. Street directories that had been updated but still kept the old ones just in case! Bought blocks for the grandkids yesterday so out goes the old foam ones. Bin is full so will have a bit of a back log but at least things are waiting to go out the door.

De-cluttering day five.

About to go to bed and realised that I havent done my D-C today, Warren was in the cupboards looking for something to eat and I saw clean glass jars. We tend to wash any nice looking jars and put them in the pantry, why? just in case! I have never made jam or anything that needs jars so out they went, straight to the bin outside, two armfulls. Rock on bin day as it is almost full and that is a rare thing (maybe because things stay in the cupboards).

De-cluttering day four

Not much time this morning as we are going to the footy but I did go thru my "make-up" such as it is. For some-one who rarely uses make-up, I do seem to have quite a bit. I know that I have not bought any make-up since we have been home from China so what I have is quite old. Five mascaras!!!! WTF but they all seem to work and have a lot in them, two went out, the older looking two. Didnt make much room but a couple of handfuls of crap all adds up. I havent got a plan, like this week I'll concentrate on the bedroom, but I just want to go thru something each day and chuck out

Yummy dinner

Wednesday I cooked a chicken but it wasnt cooked all the way thru so I cut some pieces off for dinner and finished it off in the mircowave. The carcass went into the crock pot for soup today and tonight we had the theighs, it must have been a big chicken as we also had some for lunch in wraps. Anyway, I was looking for inspiration for chicken. In the cupboard was ginger marlamade, apricot jam, peanut butter and herbs, I put a spoon full on each in a jug with the juice of a lemon and "melted' it, threw it over the chicken and then warmed it in MW, we had it on rice with carrots and brussels sprouts. It was yummy, I must remember to do that again at some time. We still have the wings and some slices of chicken, humm, might cut the meat off and throw it in some flour and make patties. Lunch will be meat pies tomorrow at the footy! Yay!

De-cluttering day three

Doing some sewing in the sewing room this morning and I was looking for a small piece or lace or ribbon, which meant going thru drawers and drawers, didnt find any but found lots of bits and pieces to throw out. I also added some fashion sewing books that I have had for years, from Yass, never will I want or be able to make anything from those books so another six/eight books gone. Didnt even open them to have that last look and therefore waste time. I can see plenty of other nooks and cranies that need some culling. Warren even threw out some things this morning off his own bat, I hadnt even mentioned what I was doing. One was a diary that he had with Campbell park phone numbers in it, prob dating back to 1995! Finished my sewing project (without the ribbon) and sewed up the moccasins that I made last week now back to scraves, footy on tonight.

De-cluttering Day two

Putting away some clean clothes tonight, I culled some old T-shirts that I dont really like but still wear as they are there. i have plenty of nicer stuff to wear so out they went. Also my old curtains (I have thought of keeping them as they are in quite good condition, but what the hell do I want/need them for-nothing so Goneski) well almost they are and old clothes are in the garage ready for a trip to Salvos.