Hoarder's Anonymous, Part 6

[Solo]

Well, here we are embarking upon part 6 of our epic journey of sorting out our homes.

We are a varied group of likeminded householders that are leading somewhat challenging lives; be that living with too much 'stuff' that we find difficult to deal with, houses that are falling apart (mine included), health issues within the family unit, wider family, or ourselves that makes sorting out our households challenging, to say the least. So...

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us for support, adding their own ideas to help others out, storage ideas, even tips on actually getting those items out of the house which sounds so simple when you say it. Encouragement abounds here, and we do not criticise. EVER! We even try not to criticise ourselves as it's not helpful to anyone.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, don't know where to start, can't be bothered but really do want to be bothered...think you are lazy, just need to see it in print here...we'll help. We'll virtually fist bump your achievements - small or large, and virtually hug you when the need arises, and if you want a hug, just ask because we are here for you. Here for one another because we get it - the highs and the lows, the art of washing up is sometimes our great achievement of the day, but it's still an achievement.

Welcome to thread #6 of Hoarders Anonymous - Carrying On Sorting It Out

HERE

I started reading another book and found this quote. “Even the good stuff” is a lesson I need to learn.

Washed up and dried up today, including the slow cooker crockpot. Wiped a quarter of the hob (I know how that sounds, but I generally use one burner and that was the part that needed cleaning). I don't seem to have sat down today, but not done very much - which is annoying.

I forgot to tell you all that last week I threw away the dome lid of a butter dish that broke about 3 weeks after I bought it which was about 6 months before lockdown 2020! I always had the intention of gluing it all together but never did, so I ACTUALLY THREW IT OUT!! That's 3 broken items that I've binned over the last 6 ish weeks :)

Horay for thrown out broken things. We've all kept things, thinking they can be mended and then realized it's just another faffy job that needs doing and just thinking about the job of mending can be draining.

I've remembered that we've got our council clean-up booked on Wednesday, so we'll start putting things out tomorrow. Big boxes will go. Any bag's of trash that can be gotten rid of will be good. The old washing line from out the back. Anyway junk from the garage wouldn't be good. Of course the kids all said not to get rid of all the boxes, but I'll try my best to get rid of as many as we're allowed to.

I'm not making good progress anywhere at the moment, but the curbside council clean-up will be great.

I have been shopping in Aldi before the mask mandate ends. I have lost the kitchen floor now. I have squeezed a few more things into the communal bins. They are not getting emptied for a long while now. I also filled ex's recycling bin before someone else does. Bit dodgy round his way. Makes it safer for the children when they go there too. I dropped his shopping off too so I didn't have to hoik it up the stairs for him to collect.

Well I sorted quite a bit of the shopping and put three loads of washing on and hung.

I caught up on some admin tasks and batch cooked for the freezer. The recycling is building up again.

I washed a couple of towels and hung them to dry.

I've put out my curbside clean-up. Garage looks like a different place! So much better.

Well done both.

I have taken some stuff upstairs and dumped in the bath. I have squeezed a few more things into the cupboard after extracting a jar of coffee. Enjoying the fruits of my labours and warming my hands up on the coffee.

I need a sleep before getting on with stuff.

Lots of progress, well done all.

Life is getting in the way of me making progress. Ds has Covid and has been stuck to my side like superglue for five days. The cardboard/paper recycling is due for collection tomorrow so I need to get that organised. I have a massive tower of boxes and paper so it will be good to get it out, but actually doing it is quite a task. Better out for collection than in the house though.

That is such an impressive pile of stuff DownUdderer must feel wonderful to get it out of your life.

I brought a couple of big boxes upstairs with a plan to gather like with like, but the boxes are still empty so I will collapse and put them out for recycling next week if they are still unused.

trying to potter along doing a little bit here and a little bit there...
so: removed the bottles of water from the stairs, wiped them (cos, you know, autism and they were loose in the boot with shoes and muddy stuff) started putting them away.
unpacked a bag of shopping. those fiddly bits. (cous cous packets)
taken ds's washing upstairs.
emailed sendco, twice.
sorted getting ds to his dad's after school. (setting an alarm to cotact him in the sweetspot of leaving school and passing his dad's house on the way home. ) he is now at his dad's for haggis tea. Dad is celebrating his Scottish roots.

The cardboard and paper recycling is out for collection. Food waste has been uncollected two weeks running (despite showing as being collected on the council website, so they won’t come back for it, and the local tip doesn’t take food waste) so I really hope it is collected this week

Slightly off piste but we have eaten a drawer full of food from the freezer. I know we will fill it up again, but a cleared and drawer is an empty drawer regardless of where it is in the house!

The to do list remains pretty long and my free time is being spent juggling looking after DS and watching the Australian Open so this week has been a rather slow one

managed to wash up quite a bittoo. didn't get a wash on but there was not quite enough..

Using up freezer food feels so satisfying. Well done @wellTiDy.

Gathering boxes and detritus and trash from our garage, then putting it out to be collected felt wonderful. There was enough still lurking around at the back of the garage to do another curbside collection though! I'll think about booking another one. Of course we'd been wanting to book that clean-up for months, it's something you think of every few weeks. So, I'm chuffed those darn boxes are gone. I had filled up three bags of trash from my bedroom! Lots of the boxes had been inside as well, in a chaotic pile! So of course it's much better all around.

My kids will be back at school next week as summer holidays draw to a close. I'll be nervous with regards to coronavirus. But I'll be relieved too. I'm promising myself to get some cleaning and tidying done and start getting on top of things again.

Well done down.

Today I have been to get dd's glasses fixed plus the usual getting children to school and fed etc. Shopping day so managed to put dd's pe kit back in the cupboard. I will move shoes from behind the door soon so i can open the he bloody door.

We’re drowning in bloody recycling here.

Just the bare basics today - dishes, laundry and food. Maybe tomorrow will be more productive.

In case it is of any use we have these tubs from ikea for recycling. I have four, as we have fortnightly alternating paper/card and plastics/glass/metals collections. I keep them in the pantry and I stack them.

I also have another very slim Joseph Joseph bin for soft plastics which I keep next to the kitchen bin to encourage everyone to actually put their soft plastics in there and not in the kitchen bin.

My youngest is out of isolation today, so I need to have a burst of energy. Loads of returns to either post or take back to shops so that I can have refunds, be some organising in the kitchen to do. Hoping that by posting it here I will be more accountable as I’ve done very little for a few weeks. Watching the tennis now but will start later.

I would love a proper recycling system! We don’t have enough floor space sadly. If I dejunked enough I could probably dedicate our single tall cupboard to a recycling system - food for thought... The kitchen isn’t small but is badly designed so the space we have is not used efficiently, very annoying.

Returns are stressful. Hope you get them off your to do list soon. Enjoy the tennis!

Returns all done. Food shop done. Meal plan for the week done.

I’ve chosen the jobs from my to do list that are easiest to do though. Some jobs have been on there for months . I must plough on tomorrow.

I can’t tell you how much better I fell not looking at all that recycling, and ours is thankfully out of the way in the pantry. I see it all the time as we keep all our food in the pantry, but at least it isn’t in the kitchen itself. We seem to get through so much plastic (I buy loads of soft fruit as DS2 has ARFID and soft fruit is one of the few things he does eat) and I also have a die coke habit, so lots of cans. And we seem to have lots of deliveries from Amazon and the like, so masses of cardboard.

Our recycling goes out to the communal bins, when they are empty. (Not often)

Cleaned bath and unblocked plughole. Pulled out hair the size of a dead mouse...it's in the bin... If half the planet is woken by blood curdling screams tomorrow morning... That'll be me having opened the bin and seen a "mouse"

Cleaned basin
Unpacked some shopping
Put pots away
Hung two loads of laundry
Put a load in machine
Got kid fed snacks and packed up football stuff
Cooked tea using up oldest veg and tins.
Put some more shopping in the fridge.
Collected kids pots from upstairs
Took dry washing upstairs.

Just going to try to fit tea in the fridge...

Many loads of laundry dealt with but it’s been an unproductive weekend in all other respects.

Were you caught out by the “mouse” BlackeyedSusan? That is exactly the sort of thing that would happen to me.

Clutching at straws here, but I’ve given two family members their birthday presents so they’re not in my house anymore

Also donated a small pile of childrens clothes again to one of my SILs

And eaten quite a lot more out of the freezer.

On the bright side, the Australian Open has now finished, and DH and DS2 are now Covid-free, so I have no excuse next week not to get back on it.

The birthday presents definitely count! I have unsent Christmas presents cluttering up my kitchen and an enormous box in the lounge filled with hand me downs (it’s been there so long the contents will no longer fit the intended recipient but will soon do for the younger siblings ).

I can’t believe it's already the last day of January, and the Year of the Tiger is upon us! 🐅 Rawr! 😄

Here’s what I’ve managed to accomplish during the first month of 2022:

1. I’ve made a list of my hoard-related goals for 2022, and have managed to achieve one of them (please see below).

2. I’ve stayed on top of my laundry and previously decluttered, deep cleaned and organised/sorted areas (i.e. my kitchen, my desk and my digital data).

3. I have eaten up all the Christmas/New Year food/biscuit/chocolate leftovers, and updated my meal plan with accordance to my weight loss goals. Last Friday I went grocery shopping with a brand-new shopping list, and today is the first day of my new diet. Wish me luck!

4. I’ve completed the first of my 2022 hoard-related goals! ✅ I’ve finished decluttering my bathroom a.k.a. FLY Zone 3, and I've deep cleaned it! Prior to that I had only one zone in my flat being brought to the FLyLady’s standard – my kitchen.

My detailed cleaning list for this zone consisted of 19 steps (please see below), and it took me 9.5 hours in total (over the course of four days) to complete all of them. Fortunately or not, I have only one bathroom in my flat.

🌸 Dust the ceiling
🌸 Clean the extractor fan inside and outside (it had to be dismantled with a screwdriver)
🌸 Hover the fan heater
🌸 Clean the glass screw-on globe shade inside and outside
🍒 Clean the mirror
🍒 Clean the open shelves, the towel bar and towel ring
🍒 Clean and re-arrange the items placed on the open shelves
🍒 Clean the tiles
🍒 Clean and descale the bath (Viakal Limescale Remover Spray is my hero! 🦸‍♂️ 🙌)
🍒 Clean and re-arrange the items placed on the bath rim
🍒 Clean and descale the toilet
🍒 Put a new block into the cistern
🍒 Clean and descale the sink and its pedestal
🍒 Clean and re-arrange the items placed on the sink
🌸 Clean the chest of plastic drawers inside and outside; clean and re-arrange the items that sit inside it
🍒 Wash all the towels and face cloths
🍒 Clean the doorframe, the door and the door handles
🍒 Clean the skirting boards and the floor
🍒 Clean and re-arrange the items stored underneath the sink

The steps which are marked with a cherry blossom emoji will be repeated once a year (probably during the pre-Easter spring clean commencing in 2023). The steps with a cherry emoji will be repeated as often as needed (hello Swish & Swipe daily routine! 👋) + every 5th week as part of the FlyLady zone routine. At least that’s the plan. Time will tell!