Lightening Online

Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement after my last post.  Things are going better now that they’re not quite so busy.  And I’m making some decisions about what I am and am not going out to.  Not always easy but obviously necessary.

I’ve had a horribly sore throat on and off for about 6 weeks now and I imagine that’s not helping (my body trying to fight something).  I feel kind of silly that I haven’t gone to the doctor but it’s one of those that seems to get better and then all of a sudden flares up again.

In my energetic moments, I am finding the decluttering bug has stayed with me (yah!).  Normally I’m a bit of a “hoarder” but when we got back after living in the caravan for 3 months, I found myself a little overwhelmed with how much “stuff” we have.  I will admit that I’m getting used to it but I’m relieved to find that the desire to get rid of stuff hasn’t waned completely.

Farmboy has gotten the “bug” too and finally decluttered a heap of clothes he is NEVER going to use.  Stuff he has kept for “farm clothes” that sits in his drawers while his other clothes get worn until they fall to pieces.

It’s scary how much stuff has left our house in the past 2 weeks and yet you cannot see where it has come from.

I think I’ve done a lot of the “easier” stuff now.  Hopefully I can continue with the “bug” and do some of the “hard” stuff.  The stuff we “might” actually use but could we do without it.  I still think we have too much stuff and would like to cut back a little.

My particular focus between now and Christmas will be toys.  Something I LOVE and so find incredibly hard to give away.  But the amount of toys we have is a little ridiculous and there are only so many that the kids can really play with.  I’m hoping there’ll be a charity toy drive in the lead up to Christmas.  I think it would help to think they might be going someplace where they might still get played with.

What about you?  Are you a declutterer or a hoarder?  Anyone else trying to “pare back” at the moment?

Time seems to be flying by.  I have no doubt that before we know it, it’ll be time to leave.

Of course, for the kids, it’s dragging on.  Trailer Boy keeps asking how many more sleeps.  When I tried to explain to him 30 more sleeps, he thought I meant 3 and got all excited.  LOL.  The poor kid must feel like it’s taking forever to get here.

I’m now up to week 6 of my week “get the house sorted before we go” rotation.

Last Week

I didn’t really achieve much at all.  We did finish getting the seed in the ground so that’s one thing to tick off the list.

By the time I drove the tractor Monday and Tuesday and went out almost every day this past week for one reason or another, it was hard enough to keep up with the basics, let alone any extra stuff.

Plus, sickness has entered our home again.  I came down with a cold on Thursday.  Farmboy came down with it Friday.  Saturday the 2 boys came down with their own varieties (one with croup and the other with tonsilitis).

I did, however, manage to get rid of a large bag of books and toys early in the week.  The toy cupboard hasn’t been completely sorted but it’s better than it was.  I have done the book cupboard but whether or not it remains “done” until we go is another matter entirely.

This Week

The focus this week is the office.

Our most feral room in the house.

For a couple of reasons:

1.  There’s no need for visitors to go in there.  I can shut the door and not have to worry too much about it.

2.  The amount of paperwork that comes through this house is phenomenal.  The post office has indicated that farmers get more mail than most of the businesses in town.

Plus, the fact that I HATE sorting paperwork and sometimes use it as a dumping ground for stuff I don’t know where to put certainly doesn’t help either!!!!

I’m not too worried if I don’t get it looking wonderful but I would like to get it somewhat “presentable”.

So, my goal this week is to spend 2×15 minute sessions a day in there Mon-Thurs.

We have a big family weekend coming up over the long weekend so I suspect that Friday I’ll be busy with everything I need to get done for that.

Surely, though, 2 hours (which is 30 mins times 4 days) should put a reasonable dent into it.

Keep an eye out for my post next Monday which goes on about how busy my week was, how I had sick kids and a party to plan for and didn’t get anything done! 

Last week turned out to be a rather busy week.  You may have guessed that by my  not posting as often as I usually do.  I had sick kids home from school 4 days out of the 5.  I was busy doing shifts on the tractor on top of trying to deal with sick kids, general housework, preparing for a busy weekend and so on.  Oh, and trying to get the washing done at MIL’s (that’s Mother-In-Law for those not familiar with net-speak) and deciding what to do about repairing or replacing our broken washing machine.

Suffice to say, I didn’t get anywhere near the amount of “extra” housework stuff done I was planning to.  I did try to do a couple of smaller jobs, so that I could at least feel like I was making some progress toward my goals.

Family Room

DONE:

• Cleaned out kids drawing drawers.  I swear our textas are breeding.  Must get the kids to go through and chuck out whatever doesn’t work.

TO BE DONE:

• Toy Cupboard sorted and decluttered
• Kids books (which are currently in the cupboard) sorted and decluttered

Kitchen

DONE:

• Re-sorted and cleaned the cutlery drawer.  I don’t understand how something holding CLEAN dishes gets so dirty!!!!
• Cleaned the dishwasher.  Farmboy wanted to know how I got it so clean (he’d run a cleaning cycle through recently).  “”With a cloth” I told him with a roll of my eyes.  LOL.  He’s of the opinion that dishwashers should be totally self cleaning.
• Cleaned and resorted medicine cupboard.   Oh my!!!!  That was well overdue!!!!  No wonder I couldn’t find anything!
• Cleaned the top of the fridge and freezer.  Not too much clutter up there but boy were there dust bunnies breeding happily!!!!

TO BE DONE:

• Plastics drawers
• Corner cupboard

Other

While the washing machine was out of the laundry, I cleaned under and behind where it goes.  Also cleared and cleaned the window sill while it was easier to get to (the washing machine sits under the window).

One less job to do now that I have a new washing machine - don’t need to clean the old one! 

This Week’s Plan

This week is the final on my 3 week rotation.  The focus is laundry and office, both of which are the more neglected (hidden away) rooms.  I’m going to focus completely on the laundry this time around and see if I can get it completely decluttered, tidied and cleaned.  It’s a job that really only needs doing about once a year so once it’s done, I should be able to maintain until we go away and can focus on the office on the next 2 rotations.

TO DO:

• Empty freezer, defrost and clean
• Deal with stuff stashed on top of freezer
• Deal with stuff that’s been accumulating in the corner (mostly stuff that needs some decisions made about whether it’s being decluttered or not)
• Deal with stuff that was on top of the washing machine
• Clean tumble dryer
• Sort through linen cupboard
• Sort through cleaning cupboard
• Sort through cupboard underneath sink
• Clean sink

Will see if I can get through that list this week.  No sport on Saturday so I can put some time into it then if I don’t get it all done before then.

I’ve finally gotten around to going through the boys clothing and seeing what they need for winter. We’ll do some shopping during the school holidays (start at the end of this week here).

I now have 1 very full garbage bag and 3 grocery size bags ready to leave the house (clothing that is too small). Plus another bag of clothing with rips etc that really is past it’s use by date, some of which Farmboy will be able to use for rags.

What an AMAZING feeling. It’s almost like I’ve decluttered some body weight it feels so light and freeing.

I don’t know why, when it feels this good, I don’t do a better job of decluttering more often.

I guess clothing is easy. Once it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.

Paperwork on the other hand…..

And the good news is, I don’t think I’ll need to buy ANYTHING for Trailer Boy. His drawers are now packed full with the next size up (brought down from the top shelf of his cupboard). Leighton on the other hand…. Seems I’m always buying clothing for him. Of course, that has something to do with him being the first baby on either sides of our families I guess.

Hopefully later in the week I’ll have time and energy to go through Singstar Princesses wardrobe and see what she needs.

My biggest downfall with decluttering is actually getting the stuff out of the house once it’s bagged up.  Farmboy has just taken a load of stuff (including a couple of bags of stuff that have been sitting in the laundry for months) into town with him.  So it really is GONE for a change.  Yah!!!!