Decluttering and home maintenance

Went through a bit of one of Younger Daughter's "Aah, I don't know what to do with all this" baskets today. The ones where she's given up on "proper" room cleaning, dumped everything in the nearest box/basket and put it in the other bedroom... the one Hubby and I want to move into, grr.

Found a few things that should go in the wash, a few kitchen items, a lot of defunct papers, some outright rubbish, enough coloured pencils to last for quite a while, and a bunch of craft goods and toys that I'll need to make "keep or pass on" decisions about.

Am thinking I'll commandeer the pencils. I bought myself one of those "grown ups" colouing books recently, but haven't started it yet. 🙂

Finally tackled the personal study desk stationery storage issue and got some lovely white metal drawers for my desk - all my favourite stationery and papers inside them and my favourite magnets on the outside 🙂 ... now my desk is super tidy and my pens and note paper are accessible and enjoyable ...

@Smc @Sophie1 🙌🙌

Tiny steps for me last week, bought some more suspension files and rejigged some paperwork. Got rid of a few more papers and gave away a gift I had brought for mum that she did not want.

@Former-Member Paperwork is the least fun and most arduous to sort - well done !! We have currently misplaced the keys to our locked filing cabinet eeeek ... I’m sure they r in a very safe place sigh ... not sure if I can break into or need a locksmith or just you tube lol ... will google it like everything else yay

Safe places = yikes @Sophie1

Have been doing a couple of "big laundry days", multiple loads. Rodents got into a heap of stuff, so am washing it and trying to sort it at the same time. It seems we're well supplied with flat QS sheets, but a bit light on for fitted ones. Good to know, anyway.

I've also been rummaging through trying to find some outgrown swimming togs for a lady in town who's collecting them for a charity, and I came across some other mislaid clothes and linen at the same time. Younger Daughter has been given a few things she's been looking for, and there's a few more towels and facewashers where they should be; in the bathroom.

One of our hassles at this house is that there's almost no built in storage. As much as I like old houses (preferably in better nick than ours but hey, it's ours 🙂 ) I do miss the big built in cupboards and wardrobes we had in a previous rental house. I did a sort out there by putting all the boxfuls I needed to deal with in the hallway cupboard, and pulling them out one at a time. By the time donations and rubbish/recycling had been removed there was less going back in, and it could all be kept out of the way while the sorting happened. But that was long ago and far away.

So here, I've got the household equivalent of the Roadblock game. To move suitable storage furnishings into their rightful place, I need to move the poorly stored (boxes and baskets) items out of that place, but then those things need somewhere to go... yeep.

Yikes @Smc hope that tiger snake up the back does not get a whiff of the rodents closer to home. Trust you can find source and block entry points.

Finding missing items = 😀

Towels + face washers in situ in bathroom = 😀

Lack of adequate storage = 😬

Having to move things to get to things = 😬

Ongoing progress = 😀😀😀

'Onya @Smc

@Former-Member, there's been no further sightings of the snake. It appeared after a weekend away, and has probably decided that it doesn't like being around active humans, and retreated to its former hidey hole. Since we live near a creek, snake sightings are always possible, but happen rarely enough that they catch us out. Entry points for rodents are numerous, and some are not blockable without partial rebuilding. We have managed to block some of them... Hence the real need to get rodent proof storage furniture into place. The pantry's good (first priority!), so's the small everyday crockery cupboard and the cutlery drawers, but the linen cabinet has louvered doors, and the "old" pantry isn't rodent proof either.

We'll get there. I'd done the rodent proofing of the cutlery drawers and crockery cupboard in the process of "flood recovery" back about eight years ago, then Older Daughter started going downhill, and it all went into that crisis "holding pattern"... Am not giving up though, even if it's one baby step at a time.

This is what we got as a new pantry when rats chewed their way into the old timber one- I challenge any rodent to chew through stainless steel! And we can put fridge magnets on it too. 😄

Swimming togs have been collected. Bonus is that I found a few boy's board shorts to add to them this morning. 🙂

And I've been cleaning up some of the accumulata around the back door. Tossed out a watering can and a large sprayer bottle that were both beyond useful, plus some other bits of junk.

Still baby steps, but they're steps!