The art of pottering about

[Indecisivelurcher]

Feel like I've had an epiphany, hear me out! I've got loads of jobs to do at home, it's making me feel a bit stressed to be honest. Decorating bits, clearing the loft, tidying the shed, gardening. I have been wondering how to get through it all, putting things into a mental list. Then I thought, why am I rushing to get through all these jobs? What am I rushing to do? Sit on my bum? Maybe for some people, the jobs are the point! So wise mumsnet, is pottering through jobs the point rather than the end?!

Oh how I would love to potter. My dad is a master potterer, his life seems very blissful. It’s all or nothing with me though, either I charge through all the tasks quickly or nothing will get done at all.

I feel like I’m better at pottering in the sunshine though so perhaps it’s just the UK holding me back

I really don't understand what pottering is? I need to go from one job to the next and do as much as possible or I feel horrifically guilty.

I live in hope that one day I will Potter about a lot more than I can now. My life is busy and I am either at 0% or 100%, like other posters have said.
But I am very concerned that a few of the earlier posters on this thread seem to think that pottering is a day crammed full of jobs, errands, chores and to do's. Including two trips out to town/shops in one post! Surely this is not pottering?!

Can we please have an agreed definition of pottering?!

@ElliotGoss

I really don't understand what pottering is? I need to go from one job to the next and do as much as possible or I feel horrifically guilty.

If I'm pottering about in the garden, there's no set agenda. I might deadhead some flowers, then move on to trimming a bush then doing a spot of weeding. All useful, but it's not done in a directed way, it's seeing what strikes you as needing doing next.

I'm awful for tidying but recently I've done better when I've set a sports timer for about 4:30 mins then 30s rest. I just need to make the room look better and I either deal with the room in bursts, or go from room to room dealing with the worst of it. Much less overwhelming than "tidying the room" and it's just reacting to what is most pressing at that moment. Not actually pottering, but it does use some of that impulsive, spontaneous characteristic.

I think the point of pottering is that it doesn't really matter if you do stuff or not.
Yes I posted a whole list of things I did on my day pottering, but if you look at it properly it wasn' really that much, and there was a fair bit of stopping for tea.
If I was in action mode I'd have got out of bed two hours earlier and not stopped all day.
dropping stuff at the charity shop, nipping into the grocers and posting a card isnt that arduous when the two shops are next to each other and the post box is in front of one. Ambling round Wilkos looking at seeds and bird feeders, followed by a sit down in a coffee shop, isnt the same as running round Sainsburys doing a big food shop after work, unpacking it whilst trying to cook dinner so the kids can get in time to their club

As a pp said, I think pottering needs to have an element of the unplanned and undirected. Perhaps just unhurriedly going from one little thing to the next, a bit of tinkering, a bit of tidying, maybe a light chore or two. Plenty of tea breaks. Maybe a bit of time on a hobby. That's my definition!

I think of pottering as, a bit of this, a bit of that. Not too time pressured, not going at it hell for leather. Pottering doesn't raise the heart rate or make you stressed. You're not trying to get it all done. You're just doing a bit of this and that here and there.

When I think of 'pottering', I think about when there really isn't much or anything urgent or immediate to do; Going about little jobs, mending things, assembling stuff, sewing pockets, tinkering with some DIY, pottering about in the garden...that kind of stuff.

I see house chores as chores and errands as errands, not pottering but from this thread, it seems to potter is also to take things slowly and do chores one at a time. I'm fine with that too as it's helped me see that I can try and do the things I hate at a leisurely pace.

It’s definitely ‘this and that’ rather than anything specific and there needs to be no time limit or deadline. Pottering is one of my favourite ways to spend a free afternoon but if I was asked what I’d accomplished I either couldn’t say or it wouldn’t be much!

Is pottering work, though? I feel like anything is work unless you're sitting on the couch staring out the window?

I feel like you can potter your way thru jobs for sure. Think gardening, sewing, a bit of light DIY even... I'm deciding that pottering is a mindset?!

Oooh I could very happily potter seven days a week!! Unfortunately work gets in the way so pottering is restricted to two/three hours over a weekend. My retirement will consist of mostly pottering about and I can't wait.

I don't understand what pottering is

I have found my people. I LOVE pottering. It’s the unplanned nature of it, the perusing, the stopping for little breaks, enjoying a snack or even an impromptu treat out if the feeling takes you.
But I think we need to agree that pottering occurs almost entirely, although not exclusively, in the home. Can you really be pottering if you’re out of the house all day? I think not. Fair enough if you pop out for a browse round a bookshop or the garden centre but if you do too many of those things it’s a day out, not a day of pottering. Thems the rules I reckon.

By the way I obviously include being in the garden as being at home. The garden is a prime time for pottering.

@Indecisivelurcher

Pottering fans, do you enjoy the actual pottering???

Fuck yes. Pottering is literally my favourite thing to do and I’m about 100 million times more productive than when I set out to do specific tasks.

You can't beat a good pottering. I'm a champion potterer.
I just willywally around doing odd jobs like dusting cobwebs away, refilling the loo roll baskets, replacing a blown lightbulb, that sort of thing.
Then you sit down with a cuppa thinking that you've not done much today, but you actually have.

My MIL potters, I don’t. Her house isn’t immaculate, but it’s always generally clean and tidy. My house is always spotless or a mess.

I will decide to do the kitchen. I will clean all cupboards, inside and out, clear the drawers and do the floor. I will also Hoover round everywhere else and tidy, but not really 'do' anywhere else. Then I will put my feet up, satisfied but tired. Any major job is tackled in one go, then completed.

MIL potters. She will put clothes up, wipe the sinks, turn the clothes over to help them dry, tidy here and there, make some food. She does bits here and there, never quite finishing anything, but never letting anything get too bad.

I can’t manage to clean a clean sink (other than for food hygiene - I’m more thinking of the bathroom), but when I do it, I go to town. She will wipe it over every day, so that it never gets dirty.

What she does never seems to tire her, but never really gets to an end point.

I have closure on jobs, but probably leave them until they’re harder to do. I get closure, then out my feet up.

I sort of feel she’s happier, though, because I am more stressed by the 'size' of jobs.

For me pottering is a state of mind so I won’t set out with a clear list of tasks - which would put me under pressure and make me procrastinate - instead I just move around the house getting through the jobs at my own pace. Tasks completed include DIY, cleaning, food prep, baking and random admin.

I love pottering. It’s very helpful for my mental health. I prefer to potter in the summer, the doors open, hanging out washing, doing odd jobs that are not always strictly necessary.

May I draw your attention to the 'pottering gown'? I have two, to potter about in at the weekend
seasalt pottering gown

I feel like I made myself sound far to efficient - that’s a selection of the tasks I may do when I potter rather than a goal!

I think the world is divided into potterers and 'Im so busy' people. It's a state of mind more than an action . I am a potterer

@Norgie

You can't beat a good pottering. I'm a champion potterer. I just willywally around doing odd jobs like dusting cobwebs away, refilling the loo roll baskets, replacing a blown lightbulb, that sort of thing. Then you sit down with a cuppa thinking that you've not done much today, but you actually have.

Yep! I love it I spend most weekends pottering about the house doing housework jobs, bits of food prep etc Second only to a good mooch around TK maxx