With the weather so good, and so much of my life being spent outside, the inside of my house is at a standstill and threatening a reversal. Is yours? Do you need a space to commit to cleaning up/clearing out your car, your desk drawer, under your kitchen sink, or a whole house revamp? This is the space for you then. Post your goals for a two week household cleanse. Every step we take moves us forward.
Today I begin a summer-long quest to rid myself of box mountain v.3. Boxes. Bins. Bags. I have them all, some piled, some stashed, some seemingly free floating as I run in to them every day. Gone! Be Gone with you!
Even if it's one small thing I am doing one small thing a day for the next two weeks. I'll post my progress here. By the end of Labour Day weekend in September I want this space transformed = sorted, put away, decluttered.
Priorities are kitchen, dining room, living room then bedroom, bathroom, closets. Within these spaces the priorities are the surfaces everyone can see, then the interior spaces (cupboards, drawers, shelves). From the big picture to the small and not the other way around. When I am stuck I will read The Magical Art of Tidying Up and Flylady. I start today and will check in tonight.
I'd like to weed all the grass out of the front bed, the one by the wall. I've been looking after the back garden and this front bed has got away from me. I'll have to get a move on because the grass is starting to flower. But it rains heavily almost every day. I'll have to nip out during the lulls.
I did 15 minutes or so on the couch grass. (That's 'kooch', in case you don't know it.) It was on hands and knees with the tiny fork but I've cleared perhaps a square foot. I'll do some more tomorrow.
Hi silverbirch!
I was wondering if your couch grass=our crab grass? I could look it up but I am avoiding the use of google as my instant go-to method for learning something. Instead I am trying to make myself think and figure out what I know about this topic before I head off and simply have a look at it.
Whatever the outcome of my quest, kudos to you for weeding. That's an ongoing battle. Doesn't it send roots laterally under the ground so if you pull it apart it sprouts up at the break in the root? Great design for a weed. A challenge for the gardener weeding it. Are you having warm weather silverbirch? Did you complete the cleanup of the garden room or was that a mud room?
For me, I have not followed through on a thing. I didn't make a master list and I have still been working long and hard in the guild. Today is a blessed day off from that and a day to complete tasks put off. Today I will make my detailed list so I can follow it everyday to complete and cross something off of it.
Quick reply before I go out there to do battle again for 15 mins.
It does send roots laterally and each stalk also has a swollen part above the root proper which breaks off very readily. It's hard work.
Warm weather? Not at all. I am in a fleece jumper and it's gloomy. We have occasional bursts of sunshine but nothing consistent. About 15C, I think.
And the garden room! Thank you for asking! I did clear it up a bit and it was transformed into a place for sowing seeds, taking cuttings and potting on. It's still that but it's also a greenhouse for about six enormous tomato plants I grew from a free packet of seed. Also two chili plants. I have to do something about the toms which are cordon type and I hadn't realised that. I have a plan but it will involve moving a lot more stuff. (Tiny house, you see.) Basil on the sitting room and bedroom window sills, lemongrass (having a go with that) in the sitting room + ginger.
Must go. Good luck with those bleepetty bleep boxes. Have you ever thought of not allowing any into the house? You could do a poster for your front door. !No pasaran! - that kind of thing.
I am so happy to see this thread, I have some time off from work and really want to get my house into shape! Here are my goals for the next two weeks:
1. Closet cleanse and reorganization
2. Go through one cabinet every two days and give away/donate or trash any unused items...anyone need an LCD projector? LOL.
Thanks for starting this and I plan on doing my first cabinet tonight, will post daily progress and happy to have this thread for accountability!
Almost an hour on grass. Also put in two rosemary cuttings from last year (trying to make a hedge where the front gate opens so it smells nice, have two plants already plus two new ones which came from layering in spring - so six in all). More tomorrow.
And I may mow the lawn if the rain holds off.
ETA to LisaLaLa!
Last edited by silverbirch; 07-06-2016 at 01:01 PM.
I started decluttering yesterday. As I was unloading my work into my art studio I got fed up with the cluttered pathway just to get into the studio space. So I spent about 40 minutes clearing the way. I broke down one huge box that I thought would be useful for storing my paintings, but it wasn't. It just took up a lot of space while continuing to make promises to me. I removed my paintings, went back to stacking them and got rid of the box. Then I got rid of a bag of bags. Then I moved a stack of books. Then I repositioned where my drawings were. I can now walk to my desk and could work there anytime. My printmaking table is still occupied though. That will be next. This is a big deal for me as I was depressed about not being able to just go to my studio to work when I felt the urge. The thought I had to declutter/move stuff would stop me. This obstacle is removed.
Today I will do all the dishes in the kitchen and put them away. I will clear off the top and all around and under the kitchen table. I need this space for food prep.
Lisalala Glad you found us. Decluttering/messy spaces/not a space you'd want to live,cook,be in, that kind of thing will derail me foodwise cause I feel so darn bad about it all the time. Like a failure. Success breeds success and confidence so I do find that making my spaces happy places directly affects my state of mind and my ability to stay on track foodwise and to generally want to treat myself better/eat better/ etc. WELCOME. Keep us up to date.
Silverbirch Nice job with the garden room. I am glad I asked! Way to go with the couch grass weeding. They are very sneaky! Happy to read you are rewarding yourself as you go along with your garden. The rosemary bushes for their scent is a nice touch. Bravo!
Hurray, onebyone, for ditching 'bag of bags'. They weigh us down. A friend helped his mother to move: she had plastic bags stretching back to the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977. And the same goes for huge boxes. I have ditched one which a bike came in by sandwiching it between grass cuttings in the compost bin.
How's it going, LisaLaLa?
No gardening here today as it was very misty/claggy most of the day and I was out for most of the afternoon. And have collapsed this evening, partly from a rather full day. I met my neighbours on the (country) road with a cat basket and took them to the vet rather than let them wait for the bus. Poppy was in and out in no time, and had her booster injection. Apparently the vet said she was a bit stressed - I thought my driving was OK!
Silver Burch Loved your comment about your driving and the stressed cat. Your grass sounds like USA Crab grass that definitely makes me crabby. I also did bunch of weeding today between rain storms. We usually have good sunny July, but something happened to the son this summer. Between flooding ( not us, thank goodness) and cable and internet refusing to let us get on TV or Goggle, my garden is really the most lush I've ever seen. Cucumbers have climbed the 4 foot fence and we have trouble getting near the cucumbers to harvest.
Love the image of Rosemary by the gate. It smells so very good. Cucumbers are also smothering mine, I'll need to go rescue it. Tomatoes still getting bigger for you and for us. We have mild sweet peppers,but no chili's.
Oneby One Our artist daughter has been trying to corral all her paintings and supplies, too. She thought she found a building that would make a marvelous study so she can go back to painting large canvases, but the neighbors around the building and the road to get to that wonderful space made her wisely turn down the good offer.
My grandmother used to carefully keep even a 3 inch piece of string on a large ball, she reused everything. I've also celebrated being able to put 'junk I have' into different uses but now days am beginning to donate or pitch more things to make room for DD's paintings and supplies. Thank goodiness the 3 of us get along so very well. She is a jewel.
My Office is a disaster. When our oldest DD comes to visit this month, she will put the fold up bed in here to enjoy some sleep. I MUST get this space cleared out NOW!!! That is my work for next week or so.
Have cleaned out 4 cabinets so far and reorganized, with tons of stuff for donation. This week will be laundry room (a catch all for kid's toys, luggage, etc) and the guest room closets that hold who knows what. The purge process feels great and I really think it helps me stay on program with my Ideal protein diet. Have enlisted the help of a friend for tomorrow's work, she will keep me ruthless about getting rid of things i don't use and won't use (like up-cycling projects that are just gathering dust, let someone else take them!!).
I am determined!!
Good luck to all and I will return with tales of more de-cluttering (mostly so I can make room for my sewing stash, lol, but fabric is not clutter, as any quilter knows...)
The Declutter Thread: July 4 to July 18, 2016
bull by the horns day
Be Gone with you!
grass
silverbirch!
to LisaLaLa!
