Out of Sight, But On the Mind

 Month 2 - Bite 16

The voyage of discovery into the loft actually turned out to be quite enjoyable! It was really easy to dispose of plenty of 'stuff' lurking up there. I hadn't realised that, even though I couldn't see it, I had been wasting brain space wondering what was up there and beating myself up about not dealing with it.

I was about to flatten the boxes ready for the recycling collection when I had a new idea. There were plenty of craft supplies, odds and ends of knitting, some drawing books - in fact all the kinds of things that are expensive to source when you want some odds and ends for children's projects. I've organised these into one big plastic box along with some unopened kits and other useful bits and pieces as they are just the things to pass on. I could have bundled them all up and deposited them onto my niece ready for the holidays, but why should I gum up her house when I could send them on a slow release in a nice little box, school break by school break? I'll photograph and get to this as time goes on so you can see how it all works out.

One of the boxes contained all the paperwork I've been keeping from when I was self employed. Some of it I still need as it's not the requisite six years from the date of the relevant tax submission, but some of the receipts and records are now well past their 'save until' date so I spent a happy hour shredding, tearing and recycling until all the excess was trimmed.

Month 2 - Bite 17

Having brought a pile of the old pictures and frames down from the loft there's been a bit of a sort out round the house. We took a good look at one or two pictures that have been up for a while and decided that it was time to refresh the displays we've got up. One great picture that acts as a reminder of some wonderful holidays was looking a little tired in its frame. As luck would have it one of the frames we brought down had a worn out and faded print in it, but was exactly the right size for the beach picture that needed a freshening up...

We also had a couple of pictures with rather dark frames that were okay for our last place, but didn't do the paintings justice now. One in particular was painted by a relative and we didn't want to lose it. They'll both be reframed to give them a new life - better than trying to buy something new and yet they look like new works of art.

I'm also going to reuse some of the free standing frames for a creative sewing project or two.

                                               

Finally we uncovered one or two that deserved wall space which we've got as after we moved and put them in the loft we've had building work done which allows for them to be displayed. We'd sort of forgotten about them so the search through the frames was a real bonus in uncovering these hidden gems!

Month 2 - Bite 18

Spending time in the loft rather reinforced where all the heat in the house escapes to! Having already improved the insulation recently it has definitely helped with the efficiency of the heating system. The research into when we have the boiler on and how high the thermostat is set along with using the radiator thermostatic valves better have certainly reduced our energy use. However, we were both sure there were other savings to be had so.... from today there are two new regimes.

Although the heating is still on a (revised) schedule the hot water is not. From now on it goes on for an hour when the first of us is up and about. That gives plenty of hot water for showers and so on in the morning. Then, if needed at any other time, it can be triggered for half an hour as and when necessary. In addition we've decided that as soon as one of us feels that it's well warm enough and voices it, then the heating goes off until it no longer feels comfortable! Let's see if that cuts down our useage even further.

Month 2 - Bite 19

The little piggy bank by the front door is doing pretty well from pocket emptying when coming home, but is also benefitting from a further search around the house. The sports bags we keep by the entrance needed a prune as they often have change floating around in them. Firstly there were the coins for lockers that used to be necessary, but since changing sports' clubs they are no longer needed. Then a dip into the bags uncovered other coins - for court lighting machines for example. Then there were the parking coins kept in the cars - very largely any parking now gets paid by card - you get the idea. Time to complete the hunt throughout the house for any odd pence lying around to add to the stash!