Decluttering... A.k.a.: Holding Myself Accountable

It's been an awfully long time since I've felt like blogging, and life, the Universe [and particularly Covid-19] seem to have got in the way - we've all been there, and having come 'up' from 'down', I suspect anyone who has been there sincerely hopes never to return.

Today, I'm fired up with enthusiasm, and hoping to make a start on decluttering...

Detour before I start: we did (what felt like) very well with sorting things out to donate/chuck during the first Lockdown, and then did a favour for a friend, and emptied his two-bedroom flat for him (so he could terminate his lease and remain in Germany), and it all ended up at our place, and suddenly we went from "this pile will go to the dump (once we are allowed again)", and "these boxes are for the charity shop (once we are allowed again)" and "those things are to take to my mum/aunt/cousin's (once we are allowed again)" with a whole shedload of "once we get rid of all the other things, we can arrange these things more satisfactorily" to "Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!", and our neatly curated piles/bags/boxes were swamped with a whole 'nother home's worth of stuff.

People who need to declutter, and are at the start of that 'journey', know this too well: stuff is overwhelming, and too much stuff is deeply-depressing and massively-overwhelming.  And people who can be prone to feeling depressed and/or overwhelmed may notice that sinking feeling more?  I don't know, but I do know that I hit a point of "I can't cope with this" and once that kicked off, it just became so much easier to just dump more stuff onto the 'pile' than start to reduce the pile.

I have cleared a space in the main dumping room bedroom, so I can now move up there without edging sideways, and am (physically) at a point I can do some work (as long as I don't overdo it).

I have been down a rabbit-hole of plantar fasciitis, hip arthritis, trapped nerve [same hip], reactivated torn rotator cuff [opposite shoulder], and bone-crushing exhaustion [from insomnia - can't sleep on my: back, front, left side, right side when the pain is bad!].

So please keep your fingers crossed for me that stuff will make it out of the house, and my body will withstand my efforts [I need my lovely husband to drive stuff to the tip/charity shops as my shoulder is painfree, but massively weak from all the not-doing I've been doing (on physio advice) to heal the tendinitis].

Oh, and the point of this post was to say: "I miss blogging" and "if I post about it, it will make me (much) more accountable", so even though I have started, I haven't got so far you'd notice, so this seems a good place at which to resume my online diary.

Catch-up number 5

I'm hoping to make this the last of the catch-ups, and then you can safely assume that all we are doing is "normal" living type activities.  I may still blog when we've made a visible difference outside, or when I've finally found homes for all our possessions, but I'm not planning to do a daily post...

Unless I spot a new/interesting bird - that might get me to the computer.

Here goes:

• Wednesday, 25 February: I got a second coat of paint on the wall that will be behind the stove - that's enough already!

Catch-up number 4

In the excitement of moving, blogging has really taken a back seat.  I finally got the photos all uploaded to Flickr, so my mind is now empty enough that I can face wading through my notes, so I'm [finally] pushing on with updating this blog.

Here goes:

• Saturday, 7 February: The plasterer has done a good job of the wall where the woodburning stove will go, and it's already dry/nearly dry everywhere apart from where Glyn blocked up the old opening/around the flue.  Both Richards have finished - the utility room now only needs the lights reinstating, and a washing machine to be complete.  David sanded the remaining unsanded coving in the kitchen, and all of the hall - phew!  That's all we are going to do sanding-wise, as we are fast running out of time.  I painted a second coat on the second quarter of the sitting room ceiling, and started the first coat on the third quarter.  I'm still being "hamstrung" by the shoulder problems, so am doing as much as I can without making my shoulders so bad I need to take time off; we figure a little bit of work every time we come is better than doing eight hours and then being unable to do anything for months.  Later, I finished the first coat on the third quarter, but keeping track is fun!

We've moved!

I'm crazy-busy trying to get at least one room habitable [hamstringing myself by flitting between rooms], and haven't got the mental space to do the 'update so far'...

So, today, I'll just say: we have the hearth, I'm waiting for the stove [next Thursday is the installation date], I'm cleaning the sitting room floor & windows (trying to get one area vaguely clean before the herd of cats* female relatives descend next week)...

Right, I'm off to use more Flash!



*It's like herding cats, interacting with that side of the family, so I think of them as a 'herd of cats'!

Still playing catch-up...

I'm wading my way through my notes from the last month, so here is another instalment of progress that's happened at the house:

• Saturday, 17 January: Richard 2 has been.  We've now got a shower tray, base cabinets, and worktops in the utility, and about three-quarters of the tiling has been done.  For the first time, I can "see" myself liking living in this house [as opposed to living in the house until I can make enough changes that it feels bearable (the downside of buying a place for the exterior when the house is a sh!thole, I suppose)].  That felt like an immense breakthrough, and I've felt so much more positive since.  Thank you so much!  He has also connected the loo to the mains, but until Richard 1 has finished his ministrations we are still reliant on our bucket.  Jason fitted the sliding kitchen door into the final position; that's him done for now.  David continued removing wallpaper paste from the sitting room walls, and I started sanding the cornice, and painted behind where the radiators will be in there.

Catching up, again

We had a wonderful respite in France over Christmas and New Year, and came back invigorated and raring to go...

If you believe that, you'll believe anything!

Seriously, the break was much needed, and much appreciated, and staying in a warm house was a huge relief after travelling from a cold house to an even colder one.  Still, we're back to that [for now].  Our hand-over date is getting ever closer, and we have decided to prioritise the sitting room and utility, so that we have a room in which to live, and another that will function as kitchen/bathroom.

In the intervening month, that plan has been scaled back, as (unfortunately) three of the walls in the sitting room need skimming.  The fireplace wall should be done on Tuesday, but I'm holding off engaging a plasterer for the other two until we know whether TV reception means that we need to chase out for a replacement aerial, and that will only happen once we've moved in.

Catch up

I've got to the point where I am struggling with it all: winter, recurrence of old shoulder injuries [both sides, of course; how could it be otherwise?], and a general feeling of being totally overwhelmed/running-to-stand-still.

We've actually decided to take Christmas and New Year as holiday, as there is no hope of us managing to decorate in time for us to move in to the house, and we are both really tired (and I'm pretty fed up).

So, I'm catching up with blogging, in the hope that in the new year I will go back to updating more regularly whenever any progress happens.  Here goes:

• Saturday, 22 November: We visited Benchmarx as it was the last day of their sale.  Jason had recommended their kitchens, and said it would be a good reduction.  We met with Dan, the kitchen planner, and he had priced up a kitchen from the CAD drawing/list of what we wanted we'd gone through with Howden's [not sure how Jason achieved that; not sure I want to know].  We went to the house to be met by an absence of (some) trees, and the presence of radiators in every room.  Three conifers nearest the front door had fallen victim to Adam's chainsaw - yay!