Clearing Out - What You Want To Read
A few days ago, I asked my friends on Facebook if they were to read a blog post written by me, what would they like it to be about? This is one of the posts, based on those suggestions.
Despite what you might think, this isn't a post about evacuating your bowels. It's actually about how Daddy and I clear out the junk in our house. Which, is actually less often than we probably should, but is more often than plenty of people actually do if some popular TV shows are anything to go by.
Anyhoo.
I'm quite good about clearing out, when I get going. I normally adopt a three pile system of Keep, Rubbish and Donate. I learnt this years ago from Flylady and if you are stuck with keeping the house clean and tidy then the system she teaches you is brilliant. At least I think so.
When Daddy and I decided to clear out the loft the other day, the plan was to bring everything out of the loft (apart from the few things we knew we were keeping like Christmas decorations, CD collection etc).
Things we wanted to keep would be put back in the loft, or into what ever room they should be in and the all the junk and stuff we no longer needed would be put into the car (or a hired van depending on how much) to take to the Tip and various Charity Shops.
See? The three pile method.
What actually happened was Daddy went up into the loft and started clearing out the loft, sending things down the hatch to me to put into piles of things we were keeping, donating and throwing away. Pretty soon the landing was full and we decided to fill the car with the rubbish. Daddy then drove this to the tip, leaving me with a bag that needed sorting out.
We carried this on, but eventually after a second trip to the tip I got bored. And a bit annoyed because Daddy wasn't doing what we had said we would do. I'm not sure if when we had been talking about the plan over the last few weeks that he had just not listened and had made noises as if he were listening or if he'd misunderstood or if I'd just made up the plan and assumed I'd told Daddy!
So. What do you do when you're supposed to be clearing out the loft but you're being annoyed at your husband?
You sulk in your bedroom.
Look, see how honest I'm being? I admit to being a sulking bad tempered cow-bag and mainly because I was bored.
Anyway. Eventually Daddy took the rubbish he'd thrown out of the loft to the tip and I took a quick peek up into the loft.
It was almost finished.
I started clearing up the last few bits that I could see that were things I could sort out and then Daddy arrived back home and together we finished off, with one last car trip the loft was cleared out apart from a few boxes of things that we need to sort out, some paperwork that needs to be shredded and of course toys that we want to donate to either someone or somewhere that will make good use of them.
And now the loft is sorted and Daddy has sorted out other "piles" of my junk that were about the house and I'm left with the feeling of guilt you get when someone else has done the work and you're just reaping the benefits.
So.
1) Have supplies ready. Bin bags, boxes, labels etc.
2) Have a friend or family member to work with, and one that is not going to care if you sulk.
3) Leave longer than you expect to do the work.
4) Be ruthless. Do you really need two of something, will you ever fix that something?
5) Don't leave it, get it done in one session.
6) Treat yourself when it's all over.
Let me know how you get on!
Clearing Out
Despite what you might think, this isn't a post about evacuating your bowels. It's actually about how Daddy and I clear out the junk in our house. Which, is actually less often than we probably should, but is more often than plenty of people actually do if some popular TV shows are anything to go by.
Anyhoo.
I'm quite good about clearing out, when I get going. I normally adopt a three pile system of Keep, Rubbish and Donate. I learnt this years ago from Flylady and if you are stuck with keeping the house clean and tidy then the system she teaches you is brilliant. At least I think so.
When Daddy and I decided to clear out the loft the other day, the plan was to bring everything out of the loft (apart from the few things we knew we were keeping like Christmas decorations, CD collection etc).
Things we wanted to keep would be put back in the loft, or into what ever room they should be in and the all the junk and stuff we no longer needed would be put into the car (or a hired van depending on how much) to take to the Tip and various Charity Shops.
See? The three pile method.
What actually happened was Daddy went up into the loft and started clearing out the loft, sending things down the hatch to me to put into piles of things we were keeping, donating and throwing away. Pretty soon the landing was full and we decided to fill the car with the rubbish. Daddy then drove this to the tip, leaving me with a bag that needed sorting out.
We carried this on, but eventually after a second trip to the tip I got bored. And a bit annoyed because Daddy wasn't doing what we had said we would do. I'm not sure if when we had been talking about the plan over the last few weeks that he had just not listened and had made noises as if he were listening or if he'd misunderstood or if I'd just made up the plan and assumed I'd told Daddy!
So. What do you do when you're supposed to be clearing out the loft but you're being annoyed at your husband?
You sulk in your bedroom.
Look, see how honest I'm being? I admit to being a sulking bad tempered cow-bag and mainly because I was bored.
Anyway. Eventually Daddy took the rubbish he'd thrown out of the loft to the tip and I took a quick peek up into the loft.
It was almost finished.
I started clearing up the last few bits that I could see that were things I could sort out and then Daddy arrived back home and together we finished off, with one last car trip the loft was cleared out apart from a few boxes of things that we need to sort out, some paperwork that needs to be shredded and of course toys that we want to donate to either someone or somewhere that will make good use of them.
And now the loft is sorted and Daddy has sorted out other "piles" of my junk that were about the house and I'm left with the feeling of guilt you get when someone else has done the work and you're just reaping the benefits.
So.
Top Tips from me for clearing out the junk in the house
1) Have supplies ready. Bin bags, boxes, labels etc.
2) Have a friend or family member to work with, and one that is not going to care if you sulk.
3) Leave longer than you expect to do the work.
4) Be ruthless. Do you really need two of something, will you ever fix that something?
5) Don't leave it, get it done in one session.
6) Treat yourself when it's all over.
Let me know how you get on!