Decluttering and home maintenance

Donated a few more moving boxes today.

Woo, Decluttering - I need to do some....

Adge

Gentle encouragement on offer @Adge . Is there a particular problem area you would like to tackle?

Just general paperwork decluttering @Former-Member

I tend to keep too many printouts of documents, & receipts (or they build up).

It's tedious & time-consuming, to go through piles & throw out.

I need to do it more frequently.

Adge

@Adge Investing in some document folders was the start of my document tidy up.

I have dedicated folders for things like:

- current car

- bank a/c

- insurances

- General bills are combined

I do have a lever arch folder where I put receipts/instruction books for electrical appliances and other items.

That sounds like a good system, that works well @Former-Member

I do have some files & folders, but too many things are stuffed into them.

So could definitely be simplified, & cleared up.

Adge

I do have 2 x folder holders with suspension files to keep things contained - one holds current stuff and important papers, the other historical paperwork. (I use one suspender per folder - so as not to overload) @Adge

The historical paperwork container includes annual general bill folders, tax return folders, other (ie old car info if we traded our vehicle) for last 7 years.

I found getting new folders and starting afresh took the pressure off dealing with the old paperwork. We started filing bills/bank statements in new system as soon as they had been attended to.

Every now and then I would retrieve one or two pages from the old folders and deal with them although I did have a burst of energy one day and sorted a fair bit, putting them in piles on the kitchen table and putting in new folders or destroying as appropriate.

Hi @Former-Member

Things are moving slowly and sometimes very frustratingly, as you would expect in a home where mental health is an issue. Still learning self-control, letting go of things I can not control and taking one day at a time. It is so draining living with someone who struggles but doesn't we all sometimes?

Work in progress! 🙂

@Radleritis

Learning to let go of what I could not control (as well as what was not mine to fix) was a big one for me and focusing on the things I could do has been a huge part of my ability to cope.

I think this is why getting things sorted and tidied up has been so powerful for me - it is something that I have been able to control and it has made my life better, in many ways paralleling my own healing.

Have been pleased with our unpacking efforts but the absence of a garden shed and the need to renovate a very odd bedroom area (to create an office and bedroom) has meant that there are some things that remain in boxes. The majority of these contain books, office items and tools.

We decided today that we could fill one of our bookcases and clear a number of boxes BUT ... the shelf holders and other fixtures have gone AWOL ... yikes. Thought they were the last item in a dedicated moving essentials container which is no longer in situ where it had been put for easy access.

The hunt begins ...