January Cure 2018

[PenelopeFlintstone]

Morning All
I'm going to try the 'January Cure' from the Apartment Therapy website.
There are other Mumsnet threads for previous years.
Anyone with me?

Almost half the floors are done (cleared and vacuumed). I'll do more today and tomorrow. It's easier said than done when there's too much junk (especially my daughters room !) but it is pushing me onwards and also highlighting how rarely I do some of the floors!

I’ve only just read what today’s task is - good grief! I’m off to bed

I’ve only just read what today’s task is - good grief! I’m off to bed.
Ha ha! I thought that too. I'm not doing it. I don't need to sit in different chairs to see the state of some of my rooms!
I'm giving myself a new task which is to straighten my 'back room', sort of like a mudroom, and an absolute pigsty since a bookshelf was unceremoniously dumped by DH in the middle of the room. Why not put it against the empty wall?! It was supposed to go to a shed but has been in the middle of the room for over two months.
More specifically, I'll stay in there for one timed hour and see what I can achieve.

I've done nothing. In fact I haven't even properly taken the Christmas decorations down yet! The tree is bare but still up in the living room. Kitchen sitting tree also bare and up. Hall still full on Xmas. I'm doing a bit every day. Whilst doing it I am having a proper sort through and trying to condense it all. We have boxes and boxes and boxes. I have stuff I really like but haven't used in this house and we have been here for six Christmases. Going to be ruthless. Allowing myself one box of stuff I love to keep and if that does get used next year it's going.

I do want to do the list with DH. We have quite a few things that need doing to the house so a list will be good.

I def need to do the boiler room tomorrow as our underfloor heating is not working and a plumber is coming tomorrow afternoon to fix. He won't be able to get at anything currently as it has a pile of wellies and old shoes and is pretty grubby.

Is today paperwork? There's no way I'm doing that, it would take the whole of January to sort it out. As I'm behind I might swap for the sitting down one today!

Yes, paperwork is a biggie for me - not a Tuesday evening job!

I'm going to just gather all paperwork from its various spots in my house, and put it all on my desk. That's a good start in my book.

This thread is great! I'd never heard of Apartment Therapy, but raced over there toot sweet and am now signed up for JC18 emails. You can get the previous emails on one page by typing January Cure 18 into the search function, so I've been able to look at the ones already sent. The floor-cleaning sounds exhausting, but I can see it will make a big difference. We're getting our hallway carpet replaced with hardwood flooring next week, and the kitchen flooring fixed so perhaps I'll wait until that point, at least for downstairs. No harm in tackling bathroom and lav though. Decluttering has begun - I did my wardrobe yesterday and everything is now nicely hung up in order and ancient/unworn/unloved items in the charity/recycling bags. Paperwork/old magazines similarly out. I've also found Music Magpie quite a good way of getting rid of old games, CDs, DVDs as well - you scan in the item and they send you a label for postage. I think the last time I did it, we got about £30 and freed up space.

Decluttering has popped up on a couple of financial well-being sites (bit.ly/JasonButler is one) I've been looking at as well. Clearing out unwanted possessions is said to help reduce your desire to spend and feel more in control of your finances.

Hi Peartree, welcome.
Have you seen the other decluttering threads too?

Thanks Penelope. No, haven't seen those threads. Am in danger of spending all my time reading about decluttering and cleaning as it is - not very compatible with the JC18's injunction to detach from media!..but any recommendations in particular? (just while we're here, of course...)

Well, I'd recommend the one I do along with this one. Hang on, I'll get the link. It's a very friendly, nice one :)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/3039784-Join-me-in-getting-rid-of-at-least-one-thing-a-day-decluttering-challenge

Lovely, will follow that up tonight! Just off to deliver charity shop bag and, I hope, find a load of daffodils at a good price to perk up the house now the Christmas decs are down. Sun is out and it feels - for the moment - like spring is on the way!

Have a good day, one and all!

Hello everyone! So I haven't really managed much of the cure since getting back home on Friday. But I have got rid of the washing mountain. And in line with previous cures I have cleaned out the fridge and my rubbish and recycling bins. The Xmas decorations are now all down and tidily put away in the cellar whereas the rest of that room is a tip. In readiness for my return to work next week I've also got all my workwear back from the cellar and tried it all on to make sure it still fits.

I also rolled my eyes at the communing with your house task. Think I'll give that a miss. Though I can kind of see some sense in it - now that I've removed the Xmas decorations it's like seeing the space with new eyes again!

I did start tackling paperwork a week or so ago and am going to try a new system. I have a folder with plastic inserts and will use it to sort paper. So far I have separated bills to pay, stuff for filing, vouchers / coupons, receipts I need to hang on to, post office proofs of return for all my online shopping, and anything else that needs actioning. Hopefully it will help with the incoming stuff. I'm not looking forward to clearing out the stuff that is already in the house.

How is everyone else getting on. Who is more or less on track?

Well Christmas decorations are finally down. Except for the actual tree! Need DH to help me with that so maybe this afternoon. Dining room is a mess as full of decorations that I want to sort through.

DH and I did the house list yesterday. Be good to get some of that ticked off over the year.

Paperwork would be a huge task here. I do sort mine fairly regularly but DH is another matter. His office upstairs is a nightmare. However one of our plans for this year is to convert our dining room into an office so I'm planning a huge sort out of paperwork then. Not just moving it all downstairs!

This afternoon I need to sort our boiler room. Have a heating engineer coming and it's messy and filthy.

Not on JC18 task list but will be a good job to do!

Penelope - I might check out that decluttering thread too. Def need help in that direction!

M&S are doing bunches of daff buds at £1 a go. Have stuck vases of them around (dusting surface before I place the vase on it!) and I'm hoping as they open up they will fill the house with a nice scent and the yellow will look warm and cheerful, even if it's grey outside.

Of course, I do actually now have to do the floor-cleaning task for which the flowers are supposed to be the reward. Hmmm...

Those daffodils sound lovely. I've got a huge iceberg rose outside so I'm going to cut a bit off that and stick it in a vase on a table. Thanks for the inspiration :)
I'm not working today so I'm going to a) quickly finish vacuuming, b) look for papers around the place, c) take some photos of the place as per today's task, d) find that list of house jobs I wrote the other day and choose one to do this month, and e) work in my office on the paperwork piles that will soon be increased in size!

By the way, I saw a great and simple filing method which I think is worth sharing. It's basically filing by year, rather than by subject. I'm sure it'll fix the problem of piles of filing waiting to be filed.
It's based on the idea that 99% of what goes into an office filing cabinet never comes out again. So, it doesn't need to be filed by subject.
Just start a box or drawer for the financial year. Everything you need to keep goes into that box. I would possibly keep tax receipts in a separate shoebox. Everything for the year will automatically be in that box/drawer should you need to refer to it - but chances are you won't.
At the end of the financial year, archive the contents. Throw away the other archive form over 7 years ago (if that's the UK limit).
I think that all of mine for 7 years would probably fit in one photocopy paper box.
Easy peasy. What do you think?

That works for my tax return and associated paperwork, but my return is a fairly straightforward affair. We have lots of box hanging files (Muji do them) which all fit neatly on a shelf. So although we undoubtedly have clutter in the sense that there is paperwork that is surplus to requirements (I doubt I need pension statements from schemes that I no longer have because they were transferred into the scheme I now have, for example) it doesn't look cluttered, and I know how to find stuff. Mostly we file by product - mortgage, pensions, life insurance, shares, etc. There's a box with house receipts. You're right that the vast majority never sees the light of day though!

I don't think it's meant for organised people like you, Peartree. It's meant for filing slobs like me :D
My old stuff is filed by subject, like you say, but my newer stuff is in messy piles.
I did get my floors done though.
I did gather up the papers.
I did a bit of paper sorting and throwing.
I did not take photos.
I did find the list but didn't choose a job for the month.

I've done the floor of the lav! It is a small, but significant start on the floor cleaning. I will tackle the bathroom floors tomorrow. I am also doing skirting boards while I'm down there and giving any limescale build-up a once over with soda crystals/vinegar so I'm multi-tasking a bit on this one. I attacked the shower (limescale AND grubby grout, yeuch) last weekend so at least one grotty time-consuming bathroom job is done. Not on the JC18 list, but maybe I can claim it as a 'job for the month'. Oh, and I sewed the buttons on a duvet - a job very long overdue.

Anyway, I'm going to have a cup of tea, a shortbread and maybe watch an episode of Game of Thrones now!.

I am on my third evening of paperwork. Most is sorted now. Loads went in the recycling. The next job is shredding. I didn't do the sitting in different places thing, DP would think I was being a bit weird.

Hi all, I've been lurking and following the steps when I can - every year I try and fail after 2-3 days. So far I've done floors (although it took me two days and there's still too much clutter in my bedroom to do it properly). I've gathered all the paperwork in the spare room, and will try to work through it over the weekend. And I've written up my list of jobs, which is very very long!

Well, it's a big job this weekend with the task being the kitchen. I can see how easy it is to fall behind, NamedyChangedy I've got stuff on this weekend and won't be able to finish it, but I think I'll break it down into jobs, put them in a list on the kitchen wall and work through it along with the other email tasks.

Both pantries are done :)