AAarrrgh! Clothes Mountain Alert!

 Month 1 - Bite 12

Still recording my spending (even if it is a bit high on the craft side - but it was for a tool to put fasteners into fabric AND was paid from a Christmas present voucher so maybe it doesn't count!), and remembering to file the receipts along with a written slip for any small amounts that don't come with a receipt ready for when the credit card bill arrives and I have to recall what all the little payments were).

Okay - deep breath - clothes....

Now if you can Marie Kondo your life (I wish I was that sort of person) then great - otherwise here's another route.

All the clothes are coming out of their various nooks and crannies - wardrobe...

drawers...

it's too frightening to show you all of it...

and then being organised into piles. The storage - wardrobe, etc. will need hoovering out and generally cleaning before hanging, folding and replacing stuff. This is the point to weed out any obvious contenders for donating, recycling, swapping or otherwise disposing of. Those items put to one side for swapping can only be there for a limited amount of time - if a swap party/opportunity doesn't come up (more about that to follow) within a decent timescale they will have to go.

Hopefully seeing everything that's there will help making good decisions easier about what might be needed without wasting money by buying something similar to what's already there because it hadn't been noticed before.

There will, I know, be some things that need trying on for size as well as others that have running repairs to be made. These need storing (again for a short time) where they can be easily got at as time allows.. (something else to return to - don't worry I've made a list...)

Right, action stations - oh and in case it seems I'm only ever tidying or buying craft stuff.. here's something actually finished! 

Mind you I might have got it done more quickly if I hadn't twisted the collar round in a moment of inattention and had to undo three seams and resew them in the right place! Ah well, butterfly brain moment....

One step at a time..

 Month 1 Bite 11

This series of tasks will cover the next few days as uncovering what's lurking in the wardrobe, drawers and cupboards is long overdue.

As I'm taking this in small steps where better to start than with the shoes? (sorry)

How many pairs do I have? Well, sadly this isn't all of them, just the ones most regularly worn. It's necessary now to face the issue and gather all shoes together from around the house and consider them and where they are kept.. is it logical? convenient?

I'm expecting some surprises as I open one or two boxes.

As they get removed/replaced/repacked decisions will need about repairs (putting them ready to go); cleaning (surely they wouldn't have been put away without that); use-ability (trying them on for fit, comfort, look and deciding if they are keepers or on their way off to a new home - passing on/recycling/binning before putting them in bags to go).

Once I know exactly what I've got perhaps the temptation to shop with the heart rather than the head will be dimmed - you never know.

Scrub, polish and clean..

 Month 1 - Bite 10

Recording the spending and filing the receipts followed the supermarket trip which led to a decision after trying to put everything away.

Today's bite means digging out all the cleaning materials - bathroom, kitchen, garage - wherever they are stored -under the sink, behind the basin - everything.

Time to put all of them on one work surface and take a good look. What's there? Spares? Doubles? Half finished items?

I need to ask myself - Do I need all of these?

The next task is to clean up where they are stored in whichever location they belong. As they are replaced it's high time they were grouped together so that any part finished and doubles are used up before any new items are bought and any questionable or no longer items are dumped. (There were some cleaners that definitely needed disposing of as they didn't smell so clever and had obviously been hiding for far too long.)

It may be an opportunity to slimline the stocks, especially if there's more than one product doing the same job. There's definitely the chance to reappraise the cleaning solutions being used, especially if there are more economic refills or choices or eco-friendly alternatives that would be an improvement.....

Short task today as the next few days could uncover a whole heap of work!

Following Instructions and maybe then again not...

 

Very happy to have only had to record £1 spending for the day and putting the receipt away, but I think today's task may well challenge the size of box I've chosen for finances...

Laying hands on all the manuals and instructions for the gadgets and machinery around the house is long overdue. Now's the time to track down as much of it as possible.

Some appliances and equipment have paper details whilst some is only listed online.  In gathering it all up it's surprising how much information there is for 'stuff' we no longer have - guess you know what I'll be doing with that!

The up-to-date information will be needed later on in this elephant eating process so there needs to be a good place to store it all together along with a note of the web addresses for other non-paper based details. It could go into the box of financial paperwork, but I'm thinking that the box I chose is too small for all that so maybe a file with clear pockets or a separate box. Now when I come across anything else I'll know where to keep it.

As for not following instructions .. it never fails to astonish me how much I hang on to old ways of doing things even when (if I were to think about it) there's often a better way.

I was at my spinning group last week grumbling away while I took time away from my wheel to sew up a finished jumper... I hate sewing up! After a while of listening to me drone on Bob, one of the other members asked why I was sewing the sleeves when I could have knitted them in the round, using double pointed needles like I do with socks. It honestly had never occurred to me. Not only does it remove the need for sewing up the seams, but it a) looks much neater and b) feels more comfortable as there isn't even the tiniest ridge to rub on the skin.

Why haven't I done it before? Partly because I never thought of it and partly because I'm far too used to following the instructions far too closely. Yes, I had to adapt a bit with increasing (Bob put me right on that too), but really it was sooooo simple and made much more sense. Much of it though is about the confidence to try something different in case I mess it up - all it would have meant if I'd got it wrong was a bit of undoing and re-knitting.

I wonder what else I can change instructions for to make life easier?

A mouthful of bites

 

Good Morning!

Today's mouthful of bites comes as I somehow didn't make it to the keyboard for a couple of days so here's three more progress updates in one (and a small sort of backslide on the financial front, but one I'm sure you'll forgive..)

Month 1 Bite 6

So as we approach the end of my first week I've actually remembered to record my spending and file the financial bits and pieces which are practically all receipts so far.

Following my foray into the inner depths of our food stores it's time for the bathroom. What's the state of the bathroom supplies? Well there's only one way to check out the toiletries.

The easiest way to see everything is to get it all out of its hidey holes - bathroom cabinats, under the sink, drawers, bottom of the wardrobe - wherever it is.  

This is only the tip of the iceberg from one windowsill!

At this time of year the stocks are pretty high - especially as I love getting bath and shower stuff for Christmas.

Now just like the food this needs listing and sorting weeding out any useless mascara, out of date sunscreen whatever. As you can see from the small selection above there's some doubles and spares - all started in this case - they need using first. There's also a stash of freebies and samples in a drawer - time to use those up too once the opened items are gone... that'll release some space and put off the day of having to pay out for more. (The only reason for saving them was to take on holiday - but will I remember them once I finally get to go away? and will my destination merely provide even more? Perhaps the easiest thing will be to same a small container or two and decant fresh items at the time!)

Month 1 Bite 7

While searching my purse to track down a receipt I struggled to close it, mainly because of the bits of plastic inside. On closer inspection many of these weren't in current use and simply getting in the way.

How many cards were there? Not just credit cards, but loyalty cards, discount cards, coffee shop stamp cards.. then there's all the apps and so on loaded onto my phone.  Some serious pruning is needed.

Do I use them all? Are there duplicates (especially where an app has taken over from a physical card)? Do the stores still exist? Some even had duplicates with two or three stamps on each!

Time to collect them all together, including those hiding in the 'in'll be in here somewhere' drawer, coat pockets, the car, bags, gym stuff - wherever they may have nested. They can all go in the financial paperwork box so they all share the same homebase and no longer have to be hunted down.

Now all that's needed in my purse will be those I use regularly - the idea is to use them and, if appropriate, fill them up as I go along to reap the full benefits.

Month 1 Bite 8

Today is the day to consult the diary/phone/calendar/app for information. I think I have a complete list of everyone's birthdays, anniversaries and celebrations that happen on an annual basis, but now's the time to check it out and update it.

Next task will be adding in anything extra that might require a card or present or message - I can come back to planning for these later, but the list needs to be up to date and in month order so I can add any other events as the year progresses.

Finally to find a safe (and memorable) place to keep this information so that it a) doesn't get lost and b) doesn't go unnoticed.

I'll double check anything coming up soon too that needs something bought, made or sent - preparing it now will make life easier than waiting till I'm too close and busy!

Finally that bit of backsliding...

Well, having just typed the above, perhaps it isn't so much backsliding as planning for later in the year, much later.

While I was doing some essential shopping I found these at half price...

Too good to miss out on I thought - fabric ready for next Christmas' presents and decorations... How to use them, well that might have to wait until I've caught up with a few tasks or two - there's a jumper waiting to be sewn up......

Food, Glorious Food

I thought we had a lot of electrical stuff, but doing yesterday’s task has really shown me how much stuff! When I think of the house I grew up in and how little we plugged in then.. in fact we had an electric fire on the landing and if the washing machine went on while that was on in it blew all the fuses so controlling what was live was pretty crucial. 

I was convinced that I would just look around and then feel that it was fine with everything switched off; but I found a laptop, a tablet and two radios still plugged in and on standby along with a phone charger switched on with no phone being charged... oh yes, and some underfloor heating on too!  Suffice to say they were switches were speedily flicked!

So, Month 1 - Bite 5

Having done the shopping yesterday (and recorded the spend and filed the paperwork) I did stop and look at the state of the fridge, freezer and food cupboards.

While shopping lists are duly made and (largely) stuck to here some items seem to have slipped the net and catapulted themselves into the food stores!

I do remember reading once of someone wanting to shop and spend less when they discovered eleven  types of rice in their cupboards (I’m not sure I could name that many). Anyhow, before I had the chance to get smug I found sugar - lots of it.. this is just some...

In my defence (sort of) it was built up during the lockdown when my husband was baking lots and we stocked up, only to store it in places I forgot to look later - if you get what I mean…

Today, though it would seem timely to ask myself the questions:

  Do you I know what’s in your kitchen cupboards?

   Your fridge?

   Your freezer?

(The obvious answer being no, I guess.)

A good day then to take the time to go through all the food stores and note what’s available. Depending on the time of year it could be quite a bit.

I think you can guess the time of year even without the date on the page by this lot!

As each area is checked what’s hiding there? Anything lurking forgotten (apart from the sugar)? Doublers or spares of foodstuffs? Out of date food that needs to go? Near to expiry ingredients that need using up? High shelves with hard to get at supplies? (No I don’t know what’s on the top shelf.)

Doing this checking and listing exercise might avoid some shopping or limit what goes on the next shopping list. There might be the wherewithal of tonight’s meal or tomorrow’s, well who knows?

As items area replaced it’s time the storage was properly organised with the older, need-to-use-first nearest to the front so they can be easily seen and used rather than forgotten and wasted…..

I’m off to get the steps out to check what’s behind that tin for corned beef!

A Bright Idea for Bite 4

 

Okay so spending is recorded - a princely sum of 20p for tennis to cover balls and coffee. I know there'll be some more in a while - we need vegetables at least - but not bad for a morning's entertainment. No paperwork to file either so a quick and easy start.

Now to take a walk around the house to check out exactly where power is used. It's time to go into each room and register how many electrical devices there are, where they are plugged in, how many are on and which are charging. A check on what's on standby and whether it needs to be is called for.

It's difficult with a wall-mounted TV with the plug hidden behind it to remember to switch it off between uses, there will also be other devices that are left switched on by habit. These may well still be using electricity and costing money so it's time to find out which need to actually be permanently connected and which should be off.

Each room needs a double check - even the bathroom. Does the shower only operate when the switch is on or is it using energy all day? There may be something I can turn off right now to save money - excuse me while I rush off and check it out!!