In Crepey Remembrance Of CremCat Past

[GiddyGiddyGoat]

Hope that's an OK unilateral decision!

BTM
Stropps
Monty
MI

BTM - yes - trainers and shoes all over the place here. Also dirty doors as DS still seems to have grubby Nutella fingers even at age 14 .
Also very curtains which seem to come off their rings (very difficult to find secure ones here). Fewer hair products in the shower now the DD's have gone.

Yes to MU on 26th.
Did I miss the memo? Where are we going in Covent Garden?

BTM
Stropps
Monty
MI
GGG

Boo was checking flight prices, but silly money for that Xmas shopping weekend.

I think you are right CV , about having your parents to stay. Mine will barely come and drink coffee chez moi ( well ddad is no quite so grand) due to draughts perceived and uncomfortable you gave me them seats. I am proud of the fact that I decorated the entire house , sanded all the floors and grew all the plants moi même. So there, ner!

Nice to see you pop up BD.

Yes Dachshunds do have probs with backs and snappishness. Laughed out loud at your description of having the cake snatched from hand. I did have a big cat once, who could hook an entire chop off your plate with one claw while your back was turned.
A lot to think about, getting a pet.....

Re clutter. Well dh is King Of Crap, but does get it that I cannot abide it. So his stuff is 95% banned from the house. Therefore his car is piled to the roof with his crap and he has two sheds completely full with stuff as well. I do keep saying we need a bigger house, but what puts him off is having to move said stuff ever again. ( once was enough , when we moved in here) so, he is building another shed. Meanwhile I take a big bin bag of stuff to the chazza at least once a week.

Lalsy, am fascinated by a dump that allows 'rubbish' I wish we had one here. All must be sorted before arrival.

Woohoo getting my advent calendar in T minus 29 minutes.

Maybe we should get Mr Crem and Mr Schedenfreude to set up home together?

In other news, we have a new sofa. And the old one is still prppped up in the hall...

You have a hall big enough to prop a sofa in, MrsS?
And are you coming a week on Sat?
So sorry the flights are expensive Cremo

Crem, I know re dump. It has all the recycling skips, but then a place for real actual rubbish that doesn;t fit any category (which we specialise in producing). I told a friend about it, and she stopped talking, coffee cup half way to mouth, blissful expression, brain wandering dreamily over new decluttering possibilities....have also seen dinner parties brought to standstill by latest news on WonderDump reopening......small pleasures .

Colly - books. Yes. Kondo is good on these. And when I told dh her views he got rid of some too. I used to feel I had to save them, as a sort of record of my literary development but that is a nonsense as lots were randomly bought from Smiths on Paddington station when I was a student. And they attract dust and get rather manky. So we got rid of loads and now have books we may reread, in some sort of order, much more pleasurable really. I tend to use Kindle for stuff that I don't feel the urge to cherish nowadays, and feel liberated - they are after all just one stage in technological development, I don't scour Amazon for papyrus.

MrsS I also recommend getting those rubbish collecting people round - it isn't cheap but is so quick and painless and they can then grapple with dump regulations. We did it a couple of years ago and it kick started a load of other stuff as I had room to think, IYKWIM.

I appear to have a new friend in my office

(Aimed to give impression of the rest of the office too. I do in fact love my messy office.)

I sympathise with those of you fighting the war against clutter - it's ongoing in my house too.

Things that work for me:

1. Books - periodically (usually early December in the run up to Christmas) the contents of each bookcase are pulled out onto the floor and everyone puts back on the shelves the books they want to keep. At the end of the process I take all books left on the floor to the charity shop. Might not work so well if you are the dithered though.

2.clothes - I decided some years ago that I had enough clothes so now operate on a 'one in, one out' basis. Works well for replacing worn out items but also allows for 'just because' changes. It probably helps that I don't really like shopping that much (is that an admission that should be made on this thread?). It also means I have a death row section in my wardrobe of things that will be chucked out when I need to make room for new items.

1. Completely ignoring the dds rooms. As long as the door can be shut it needn't worry me.

4.having storage in the garage where dh stores his sailing stuff which tends to be bulky, wet and smelly. And finally - the aforementioned 3x week cleaner. I know we are spoilt - it is so lovely to not have to either hoover etc or even think about it. She is also a laundry fairy. I live in fear that she will leave - unfortunately Brexit has made that more likely.

Hope everyone's weeks have started well.

BTM
Stropps
Monty
MI
GGG
Molly

Maybe I should get the Kondo book if she has stuff to say about books. Am enjoying all your thoughts/ideas on this. BTM, I am choosing a "type" of stuff - currently books. But I can see how focussing on a room would be good.

Aha, I love the steely ruthlessness around books, MrsW. And death row for clothes.

The Kondo book is good - I ignored all the woo (obviously) but she does have some soothing practical tips about how not to feel bad about Stuff - its acquisition or disposal.

I would focus on Type first time round so you assemble all your coats/jackets in one place and identify duplicates and gaps, then once done you can do by room.

Like your tips MrsW!

MrsW, I like that books idea. DH is always reluctant to throw books out, but he NEVER reads I think it comes from being brought up in a house where there weren't really any books?
And the completely ignoring DD's room. Which I usually do, but she had me go in there just now and help her sort. There are now a couple of bin bags full of stuff to chuck/that she wants to try to sell But she still can't shut her drawers
CV/those in the know, is teen stuff sellable? On ebay? It's not your Hollister/Jack Wills, etc which she abhors !

Marie Kondo tells you to declutter in categories... she suggests you start with clothes.

So - you get ALL your clothes into one space - your coats from the hall, your hat from the car - the whole caboodle onto the bed. Maybe treat handbags and shoes and jewellery as a separate category if you have loads.

(Woo Alert)
Then you go through everything carefully, asking yourself if it sparks joy. Hold each piece and make your decision. If it is something you used to love or use a lot, but have no use for it now, you must 'thank' the item before putting into the Ebay/ chazza/ dump bag. She says we rarely get it wrong!

She has a folding method which has transformed my knicker, bra and sock drawer - that has actually remained organised for 18 months! Ditto my tops and t shirts. I can find everything at a glance. Makes packing a doddle, too. DH even a convert.

Anyway, repeat through various other categories (books, paperwork...etc) until you reach the 'end' of your house.

I belong to a FB Kondo group, and when people finish doing it, they chuck out their partners (very occasionally!), they lose weight, they find new jobs - all sorts!

I did my house 14 months ago, and gave some stuff a reprieve. That stuff will now go. I plan to go through all the categories again in the new year.

I so, SO need to get back out to work again, but with DF hanging on, I figure I may as well get my house in order while we wait for "it all" to be over.

Its a very cleansing process in more ways than one.

(I am available for further consultation, and do wonder if I should not become a professional de-clutterer?)

Wow! Long post. Can you tell I'm procrastinating?

I agree, Cocoa. I haven't finished yet but found it strangely soothing and liked the way I could pick a small category - scarves say - and feel I had achieved something. I interpreted sparking joy broadly, including anything that helps avoid panic, rows or grumping.

I am a thrower outer. DH is a hoarder. Such will be the content of our divorce petition. I realised with decluttering, the only way forward is Just Do It. And don't look at anything for too long otherwise you'll just put it back... I don't think we're really winning though. I just have lots of cupboard in which to stuff piles when people come round.

Sorry to be scatty but what is going on, on 26th?

I have spent 4 hours with ConS, with our final rewrite well under way. It's quite satisfying putting back things we liked from our original script and cherry picking the best of the new stuff and rejecting what we hated from it, also with the results of the feedback survey in mind. My head is wooly from such a long weekend of celebrations, eating and family. I got one of my terrible, terrible headaches yesterday but I am finding that if I take strong pain killers and they only partially work, (this is usually the case...) a foot rub seems to get rid of the pain in minutes. Weird or what. One useful job for DH, I guess.

MrsS I have sent you a PM.

Right, back to copying and pasting.

Re 26th - I might be able to come. I am having what will no doubt be a very boozy lunch with old pals, so may well be good for nothing by the evening. Can I say a maybe? What with it being my birthday and all...

Many shouts of BUGGER from me this morning, as I realised that the USB stick with this morning's lesson on was in DP's laptop bag. In Geneva. But then as only one (1, I) of my learners turned up, I didn't need it anyway.

Had my eyebrows threaded by one of the el-cheapo walk-in places in Wood Green. £4.50. Bargain. Love the post-threading tingle...

I have the same tingle, herbs (snigger). And have come back to Briefs (snigger) that I have been waiting for.

I probably hoard more than I should, especially books. DP lets stuff build up and then chucks. This was particularly amusing when he chazzad a suit he then realised he'd been meaning to take to the dry-cleaner.

I am afraid I'm not going to be able to come. This wretched labyrinthitis has not 100% gone & I am feeling totally done in from what is now nearly 8 weeks of virus (had dire cold first). I am sleeping every afternoon & in bed by 10pm - I just don't think I could do it or be very good company. I am very pissed off as am dying to meet you all.

14 moves in 20 years has stopped too much hoarding & as we have lived in this house without DC it is fairly grown up! DH is more of a hoarder than me - my motto is: "If in doubt, chuck it out".

I also had to clear my parents' house that they had lived in for some 35 years & help PILs to move after 35 years & both lots were hoarders & it was a great wake up call.

DP is ruthless in his chucking out. I try to sell stuff rather than throw, as so desperate for money. On this note, I think he's thrown out my old iPhone that I was going to sell. Tit.